Professor Helmüt Tester

utkinpol -

"SMT", in SCCA club racing, has nothing to do with turbos or superchargers. It's a regional-racing-only class, in certain parts of the country, that further restricts tires.

SM has a spec tire for SCCA national racing, but no spec tire for SCCA regional racing. Some regions require a certain tire for competition in their regional or divisional series. Having a class called "SMT" (SM-Tire) with appropriate rules allows them to do that.

(edit) There is really NO ONE who drives an SM (or any other class, even Showroom Stock) to the track anymore.

utkinpol

i looked at http://www.miataturbo.net briefly and they had 'SMT' as spec-miata-turbo, so, my mistake.

so, generalizing, there is no separate official class for supercharged or turbo miatas at all?

Professor Helmüt Tester

Spec Miata - "SM" - only includes the normally-aspirated cars - the 1.6 liter and 1.8 liter cars. No turbos, no superchargers.

Forced-induction cars are eligible in SCCA Super Touring, Touring and regional "Super Production" classes, but Miatas in those classes will have their asses handed to them.

race911

At least a few in SCCA out here. Wouldn't say the front runners, though. And always a large minority when you're dealing with the beginners and lower end participants at open track days seem to have CA plates with current registration.

(Always love the "don't drive on the street with a roll cage equipped car" comments like I also saw here. Anyone driven a Jeep Wrangler lately?)

Potomac-Greg

Let's drop the SRF talk. Those open wheeled, spindly cars are impossible to find, unreliable and too expensive. Slow, boring racing. Move along. Yeah, spec miata. That's the ticket.

PS: When I've finally purchased my SRF, then you all can go shopping for yours. ;-)

PPS: I've had a bear of a time engaging sellers of SRFs during the season. Even the CRS is too busy to talk.

PPPS: I hear that the winner of the 944Cup Nationals at VIR had a magically fast car. The rest of the field wanted an impound and a tear down, but that's apparently not in the culture of 944Cup. At least not yet.

Gary R.

There's your problem Greg, trying to locate a nice open-wheeled SRF is going to be tough!

utkinpol

Continuing same logic line I can say - why to get SRF then, why not to get a Radical? And that line can get quite long.

IMHO entire point to get SM car is the minimal effort for support and infrastructure around it. anything else will require more effort one way or another. imho. even a spec boxster.

to me it will be a decision for next season - to finally figure it out between miata and a boxster. not sure yet but one of those will definitely appear... so far it looks my budget should survive a boxster. will see.

Charles A. Toupin

The car went through impound and dyno before and after the race, the DME was sealed before all that. Was found within the required specs, thus legal.

3rd place driver was within 3 tenths of winning car. So That looks quite close to me.

c.

gums

Greg, what else do you know about the 944 Nat's? Perhaps we should start a separate thread, but I'm not finding much news other than only 2 944SuperCups showed up, and the talk is of disbanding the class next year.

Potomac-Greg

Apparently I know less than I thought I knew. I know one of the guys who raced and he shared that story with me. But I'm hesitant to speak ill of someone when it appear I may be wrong. Could be that the Canadians are cryo-treating their engine blocks over the winter! My source says #1 came from the back of the field to win by 20 sec. Could be sour grapes of course. The driver is reputed to be a real hot shoe.

I also hear that if someone wanted to podium in 944 SuperCup, they just needed to show up. Heck, if I was a back marker in 944Cup, I would just upgrade to SuperCup and get the Bronze!

Professor Helmüt Tester

Charlie @ Entropy Racing has an SRF for sale, among his fleet of Sports Renaults -

http://www.entropyracing.net/

Circuit Motorsports

Sometimes you need to time when you talk to the CSR. If they're getting slammed getting the cars ready for the track I can see them being aloof.

Entropy is a great group from what I hear and you wouldn't go wrong with them. There's at least one Rennlister who runs his car with Hagerman who is your closest CSR and might know what's in his stable that is for sale.

As for the 944Cup the winner had the field covered pretty easily it appeared. Never saw the race though. The car looked top notch for sure.

Circuit Motorsports

So during the pro season for SRF I changed tires a couple times, filled up gas, replaced one bolt and wiped the car clean. It does not get simpler than that and the infrastructure around SRF is 100 times better than SM IMO. The CSR at the track has everything you need to rebuild the car in his trailer, nose to tail pipe.

paradisenb

Joe, do you guys run with full size cars? What size are the fields? How much does a good car cost?

Circuit Motorsports

Depends on the race. We sometimes run with full size cars, I've been in a field with SM, IT cars, etc. At most nationals we are in our own group. I've never had a problem with it. This coming year with the new Runoffs rules the national fields should be pretty strong here in the SE. Depending on the Pro series I'll probably make it down to Atlanta in the early season for a double national and then stick closer to home. Last VIR race I was at had 24 cars. CMP is really the only track that gets really small SRF fields. RA, and especially the Florida tracks get good numbers. VIR pulls from the mid-atlantic group so numbers are usually really good there.

My car I think was a very good car and was 17K. Once you start going below that you might be getting one that's long in the tooth engine wise or is a little beatup looking. Brand new is 26K with some assembly required. Top cars are going for 20-23K with a few spares and data systems. Most cars don't come with many spares as we don't need to keep them on hand with the CSR.