345 replies to this topic

[Racehatch]

Hey everyone,

I'm going to drag this one up as it has appeared as an off topic in a number of threads some time back, and I think it deserves some more consideration.

Thought I'd spend some time today looking into how we can go about making this happen, so dropped Peter Lawrence (CAMS Technical head honcho) and email asking him what his thoughts were. The general feeling I got back from him was that CAMS didnt want any more new categories, as they have plenty already, many that are already struggling to get full grids etc... But he did say that to get it started it would be much easier to log book the car as a sports sedan and maybe run a sub class.

I also spoke to a reprasentative from the Group C/A Association, he didnt think there was any chance they would ever consider a replica class, but didnt see any problem with one being created and run as long as it was made clear the cars running were replicas and not the real thing.

The next step I guess would be to contact someone from the Sports Sedan Association and see what they think of the idea, I cant see them complaining as it will only bolster their fields. Obviously the big downside would be having to run with cars that are considerabley quicker, but I figure if there is enough cars running the replica formula then it wont matter as much, and if we can get the numbers then it may stand a chance of going out on its own at a later date anyway.

So if we create a set of rules that we can base these "replica" cars on that fits into the sports sedan category but separates them from the main game cars it could work out quite well. My initial thought was to use the Group C (and A) rules as a starting point, but make changes in key areas to allow the replacement of items that are now hard to get to keep the maintenance costs down. The car must be based on a car that has raced in the past, but perhaps is known to be dead - so we're not upsetting any existing group c owners?

Rory, I'm sure this would appeal to you, whats your thoughts? Would like to hear peoples opinions are

cheers,

Sam

[Racehatch]

Ok this is good, plenty of spirited discussion here!

I was talking to one of the chaps that runs an A9X in Group C, and he made me very aware of how expensive running a in the original spec really is, ie they are more fragile and require parts replaced more often etc. So some compromise is needed to make this attractive to potential competitors.

The general feeling seems to be looking to base our new Replica rules on the group c and group a rules, but with certains freedoms in selected areas? I know for the Torana's, allowing the use of a different diff and transmission (but staying with the original config ie 4 sp)would be a good idea, and require say the original block (boreXstroke) but maybe allow the later heads? Run the slicks with the original spec wheels, and use the size as the limiting factor on brakes? Does this sound okay, or do we need to work back from Sports Sedan rules?

Greg, what you mentioned re not worrying about the dead v current cars sounds good, would make it easier for us to manage ourselves. Although we will need some sort of list to try and stop 10 05 79 hatches from showing up at a meeting (or does that matter?)

So, sounds like we need to come to some kind of a consensus re regulations for the C and A cars, and then maybe draft something up? Rory, I reckon you already have a head start on this Then maybe we can come up with a proposal to put forward to the SS guys and see what they reckon.

I might start talking to some guys from the Sports Sedan assoc tomorrow and see what they have to say.

[Racehatch]

Or we could go down the 3J path, with a change to allow us to run the slicks as spec on the car that we are replicating?

Just another thought...