chriswd62

That will likely be my outcome. I just purchased a second set of wheels with A7's to run at a few local events next year in SSR. The main issue for me is getting the wheels and tires transported to the event, but for now I plan to drive on them to and from (<7 miles from my house). If I like them, I'll go SSP for 2024.

Auto_Werks 3.6

Honestly this whole shake up in XS has shown me that there really is no logic or reasoning behind what the folks pulling the strings do. The rule set they posted has obvious glaring issues by use of the phrase "trim level", and no one is going to lift a finger to make it not a mess. At this point I'm so over it that I don't even care that the PAX doesn't make sense. All the XS cars were pulled from XA and XB, so I don't really see any logical explanation for the pax number to fall outside the range bounded by XA and XB. My opinion at this point is that they can't keep their hands off it long enough to not turn it into typical SCCA nonsense. I really wish they weren't the only game in town.

I think Clark commented somewhere else, and I agree; XS may well go faster than SSP and ASP, but that time isn't anytime soon.

We will be getting a set of Hoosiers for sure this year. Between SSP and XA we will choose events with the most competition, and if they look empty we'll bring the DS car.

sgreer78

It's Hoosiers weren't $2k+ per set that's what I'd be doing. I have couple new sets of 200tw tires for this year so I plan on using them up.

Auto_Werks 3.6

that’s the one “benefit” of having 3 drivers splitting the cost of tires. The per person buy in is low, and the number of events a set will support is also somewhat low. We have a little bit more flexibility to try a couple different things throughout the course of a single season.


in other news, I heard back from Brian Copans…. He’s never seen a gearbox with 30k miles have this much wear… so our ring and pinion change just tripled in cost. I suppose that wasn’t unexpected if you read about other people who open their low mileage gear boxes. All the gear sets were still good. Syncros we’re hosed and the bearings were 80% worn. I haven’t been a great steward of the gear box, it’s still running the same oil it was 10k miles ago when I bought the car.

edfishjr

If we take into account the new aero allowances, you'd think all the pax numbers should go up, wouldn't you? But, instead:

-XA stays numerically the same, but since the fastest cars in 2022 XA are going to XS, maybe it did go up.
-XB drops! even though you can make the argument that nothing is going to beat a 500hp once-was-a-Miata (or Lotus, or whatever) with full aero.
-XS, which theoretically inherits the fastest cars from both XA and XB inherits the 2022 XB number.

My guess is that the changes are likely due to how fast cars ran last year vs their PAX, i.e. the normal way PAX works, plus some of the cars moving, but with no bump for aero. With the fast and furious Extreme Street rule changes I don't think I'd be in a hurry to worry about it too much if I were RR.

As for what the numbers should be, I have no idea and no opinion. Your idea of XS being 0.8s faster per 60s could be right on the money for all I know. The thing is, we have never understood how much RR rates classes on how fast they actually run vs. how fast they theoretically should run, especially for a new class.

My real question is, what's going to beat a double-A-arm, in-board shock, 2330lb car (with driver) with full aero, 315-square and 500hp? That car can only be built in XB, and I bet it can be built for $50k, certainly less than $100k. The same car can run in XS, but it has to weigh 2680 and run smaller tires. So, why shouldn't XB have the higher pax? In what universe will XS actually be faster than XB?

Auto_Werks 3.6

I think it’s pretty clear that The potential of XB remains the fastest of the 3 classes. I think XS slots in the middle, but I think in reality there’s a chance that in cars that actually show up that XA is still fastest next year. Unless the evora moves to XS, which I’m still not clear if it did. In the first iteration of changes it seemed like the evora was deliberately left in XA because it has 4 seats. Now it seems like the lotus has a higher class trim, in AS or SS, so it should move out. That’s unless the evora 400 is actually a different model from the other evora and not a trim difference. Without feedback from a protest committee it’s hard to say, which is one of my biggest gripes with the new rules.

edfishjr

If a 1964 911 is the same model as a 2022 Carrera then I think everything called Evora is XS.

MikeKuhnRacing

Come to SSP, I'll be at most national events on the east coast/ ohio region.

Auto_Werks 3.6

Looks like you guys have a healthy class for Red Hills... I wish we we're going to have the car ready by then. We just got the gear box back from copans last weekend, so we still have some work ahead of us. Chances are looking pretty slim

Grantsfo

think that’s what most of us are doing. I signed up for Crows event as XS and waited to see if anyone else would run that class. As of the last day to register no one so I changed entry to SSP and bought a Set of A7s this week.

Auto_Werks 3.6

It's about par for the course with SCCA. When we started building the car last fall we had XA XAL XB and XBL available to us. Seemed like a reasonable place to get away from the bull**** of national classes that are "actively managed"...... Now we only have XS and just found out this week that when they moved it under the cam umberella we lose access to ladies class, which we need for our third driver. So, I guess we're done before we even get started. I have 2 sets of street tires, and I wish I had only bought one, and had hoosiers for the other. I miscalculated that the 315 yokohama would be hard to get, so I didn't want to be out if we were going to nationals. We're really excited about trying autocross week, and have a big interest in trying out non SCCA clubs. A third of our team is not excited about SSP, so im not sure if that's in the cards this year, especially when we have $4k of Yoks sitting in the summer activities room with absolutely no way to use the second half of them.

Auto_Werks 3.6

I have 4 runs of testing in the car so far, and with the best of bench racing it seems like the car is about 1 second per 60 quicker than last year on the same surface. If I actually accumulate some seat time it might be a little quicker yet. We have a couple more test events on Asphalt before we take it on autocross week. Hopefully it doesn't need too much tweaking from the Toledo concrete setup.