Stealth#31

What's the latest on the campaign to get SPB added to T4 w SCCA? It would open up additional dates for races in NJ... Spoke to a few people and it seems like a perfect fit. Timing? Fingers crossed!!!

Lainey

Circuit Motorsports

Never gonna happen. T3 is where it will end up. For the car to be equivalent to other t4 cars you would be looking at 3500+ pounds in weight. And it also is more heavily modified than any other t4 car.

Full disclosure I have a t4 Miata

EDIT: T4 Miata 160hp. 2700lbs.

The allowed modification list is pretty short. Mazdaspeed intake, catback exhaust (remove cat), mazdaspeed springs, non-adj shocks, mazdaspeed sways, ECU flash. Thats pretty standard for a T4 car. Last I checked Boxster gets that (minus ECU) plus a number of other things that are not allowed on most/any T4 car. Flywheel, clutch, adj a-arms, etc.


Spec Boxster had 201hp at factory. Cat and exhaust open that up a bit so lets call it 210hp. 50 more hp than Miata. That works out to about 850 more pounds of ballast to make up for the power. Hence the 3500+ to be in T4.

ProCoach

Whoa!

Gary R.

I'm curious, what would the SPB be up against in "T3"? I would like another option for racing my favorite tracks but not against a far superior car. It's bad enough with all the cheaters in PCA SPB!

Circuit Motorsports

From what I've heard it will be allowed at 2600 (50lbs less than PCA right?) and bigger tires in any DOT compound (R7 and the like).

T3 is a pretty dead class right now. People are running either T4 or T2. IIRC there are 350/370z that run Ford Mustang, BMW Z3, etc.

fatbillybob

While I don't think T3 class participation numbers were than bad for 2015 they failed to garner enough racers for a national title determination 2015 Runoffs. Rumor is there will be some consolidation of faster T3 into T2 and slower T3 into T3 and modification of the receiving classes. That is always a good thing to boost participation numbers in any class. We have 27 national classes. There should gradually be far fewer to build healthy competition in the club for the future.

Circuit Motorsports

T3 was the lowest participation class in majors last year. It's a bummer as there are a lot of cool cars that fit into it.

Coloradoheel

Out here in CO we are running our own SPB class with SCCA this season. Logbooks, licenses, physicals, etc all carried over from PCA.
Only 3 races but maybe more next season.

So now with SCCA, NASA, PCA and WRL I've got 10 races in-state (there are 2 more I cannot attend as they conflict with my summer family vacation).

Gary R.

Wonder if they would be receptive to doing that in the Northeast/mid-Atlantic?

Coloradoheel

Start with your regional rep. That's how one of our local PCA SPB guys got it going out here.

Circuit Motorsports

I'd go with the T3 route. Adding another class to an already large pile of classes will likely get a knee jerk negative reaction from east coast scca people.

Gary R.

I hear ya Joe but I doubt many people are going to bother with this to compete against better cars running Hoosiers and other parameters that will cost $$ to match. Be better spent traveling to more far away races at that point...

Circuit Motorsports

The Toyo tire rule will not be part of SCCA classing I bet. As for T3 they are going to slow the class down from what I've heard. That being said a SPB with Hoosiers would have been right in the sweet spot between T4 and T2 times at Sebring this year. SCCA T3 record is 2:27. Pretty sure a SPB with bigger hoosiers and 50 pounds less would get at least into the 229s. T4 cars run mid-high 236-7s IIRC.

The other part that I implied is that with T3 being dead in many places it would be the 'spec boxster' class.

If for some crazy reason SPB ends up in T4 you will see a run on them as anyone in SCCA running for a national title will buy them.

And looking at Midohio SPB times I saw were just 1 second behind the T3 track record. Sticky tires and and SPB will have that record.

fatbillybob

I'm not convinced those track record statements really mean anything. Once the top tier runoffs racers get to a track all records fall. Laguna 2014 and Daytona 2014 you might think if you get close to the SCCA track records you were pretty safe. Then you get to Runoffs and you have to find seconds not tenths! It is pretty amazing how everyone's game steps ups and records fall. So thinking spb is in striking range for 2016 Mid-O runoffs T3 times might be way way off. The only think that might save the closeness is the fact runoffs at Mid-O is nothing new.

toddlamb

I've been spearheading the effort to get the car classified in SCCA Majors. We were shooting for T4 with weight + plate. For T3 the car would need to weigh significantly less that currently possible. It's really in between the two classes and the word is that T3 is going to be slowed down as a class. Not sure how much. I'm working as hard as I can to make sure the car is competitive in whatever class it is assigned. Open to any suggestions for easy cross over between PCA/SCCA.