Streak

Straight up power to weight does work well. This would be excellent for the vintage class too. The hp disparity in the VO class is huge. But I digress.

To answer your question, and you can tell me if this is true in SCCA, NASA has a dyno they bring to each event. PCA would have to do the same. I don't fault PCA for not wanting to introduce and then shepherd a dyno (owned or rented) to each event. That would be an undertaking.

That being said, other clubs seem to be able to do it.

One day PCA may get there.

Thundermoose

For NASA there is a pretty extensive dyno certification process that they go through outside of events. All of the forms are loaded into a central database so that anyone can review

https://airtable.com/shrtuIZcugofvmC...I0?blocks=hide

Dynos are at most events but typically only front runners are impounded for dyno. It's pretty straightforward.

Streak

Not sure about "extensive." You take your car to an approved dyno shop. The at the track compliance is the hang up. That's where PCA would have to do some extra legwork. We had enough trouble replacing a tire supplier. I'm not sure that is entirely worked out yet. As it is PCA relies on a few shops to shuttle the T&S equipment all over the country.

And for a system that is not in place it is a bit daunting. PCA would have to identify a dyno then approve shops all over the country for us to use. And they would have to go thru each car and equalize power/weight.

I understand the resistance thought it is the most straight forward measurement of compliance.

Astroman

+2

Thundermoose

Maybe extensive is an overstatement but you basically have both the dyno operator and the driver attesting the dyno results. That signed form and dyno graph and table are loaded onto a central database for any competitor to review. Rolling dynos are brought to most regional events and usually a second dyno is brought to nationals. That's a really good start.

NASA accepts any dynojet in the USA. Seems like PCA could follow suit. Certainly anybody can decide to cheat for the large sums of prize money in amateur racing but in my experience at NASA Nationals with wt/hp class that 99.9% of the folks are playing it straight up. Even the dyno non compliances were minor variations and not wholesale cheating.

Now the spec series where hp is intended to be restricted by allowable modifications and not by dyno compliance seems to have a lot more cheating.

mobius911

I counted the number of classes shown in the season points standings at the PCA club racing site. There are 44. That's nuts.

GT3DE

It is ridiculous. But hey, let's add some more for the special people.

Streak

A thought, what if, when a class gets too small, it gets automatically absorbed in to the next closest class with mods up or down depending on the situation?

For example, not many D cars around anymore. Maybe D just becomes E with a weight brake or whatever else it needs to be competitive. G and H are also quite small.

Maintaining 44 classes does seem a little silly as classes shrink to one or two cars per event. Classes shrink as new cars come out and people buy them and race them or a new class like SPB shows up and takes a lot of drivers away from other classes. Some newer cars are never made truly competitive in classes with older cars so as the older cars become fewer there isn't a newer car to replace it. This is true with the E Boxster that has been severely handicapped for years. If you want to race a Boxster there are other classes where they excel. As people retire their old 911's there isn't a new car to replace them.

Just a thought

996SPECticle

QUOTE=Streak;16001779].... As people retire their old 911's there isn't a new car to replace them.

Just a thought[/QUOTE]

...or... Id be curious to hear y'alls opinion on numbers of cars you might see being converted or sold off to be converted back to street cars as their values might have risen over the last 10+ years.

stujelly

So how do we fix this?

Speeds5

I agree. PCA should have a system in place to consolidate, or give the option to racers, to move up or down in the classes with adding or removing weight. They do rank cars according to power/weight and models/years (power to weight is listed in the rule book in the car classificatio part)so why not let drivers choose classes by adding or removing weight. as You noted, D is a perfect example where this could work well.

DH3

Seems the issue may not be ability of driver to choose, more like the existence of multiple choices targeting the same vehicles; with E now divided among E, Vintage and Cup, no wonder E ranks have shrunk.

Streak

There is actually the genesis of a ruleset that allows this: the "prepared" designation. If I understand this correctly D "Prepared" runs in E. This "prepared" change could be scrutinized further as a good starting point to allow up and down moves when class sizes warrant it.

GT3DE

Prepared is a penalty, not an equalizer.

Streak

They way it's structured now yes.