93 FireHawk 968

Any RL's have experience racing a 07 997 Cup with NASA? I'm trying to get a race in before my car goes south and there's one at my local track, NJMP. Would like to know if the classification is accurate and if the car is competitive, assuming it has a decent driver. Big assumption.......

Thundermoose

I believe it's classed in GTS5. I don't think there are many other cars in the class. You may be able to class it in ST1...SU for sure.

Surfbum

Ive raced mine several times out west, GTS5 or ST1.

93 FireHawk 968

Thanks..... What other cars normally run in those classes? I'm assuming comparable weight to hp?

joeykid

I raced a 09 cup in NASA in GTS5. There was very little competition in the class but I raced for overall wins. That was fun. Racing the SU cars and the corvettes. My only concern was 1st overall. Did it two years and enjoyed it but once I went to PCA I never went back. Drawbacks vs PCA. Track time is extremely minimal compared to PCA due to fact NASA caters to DE drivers. Not even close. Second Nasa only grids cars for races and the race groups have huge desrepancies in speed and are large! This means if you are a faster car you need to get to the grid really early for practice and qualifying.otherwise you may never see clean track. Getting to the grid for qualifying becomes half the battle. I would be more stressed about how to get a good position in the parking lot than putting in a good lap. Positive side: NASA is not as uptight as PCA, no ridiculous randomly enforced 13/13 rule and it is hard for your competitors to cheat.

z06801

My 01 Z06 is a ST1 car for example it weighs 3200 and makes 510rwhp, you take a penalty
.75 for full slicks, and I think you would also take a ding for the gearbox. Maybe Dez will chime in he knows TT1 / ST1 rules for the 911s for sure.

mark kibort

ST1 is the upper end and there usually is not much competition here out west. ST2 seems to be the sweet spot as is in the GT2 class for SCCA. (but i understand the cup car can run in GT2 class SCCA , so that might be an option for you )
If you just want to run the car, sign up for those classes and have fun.
as far as the NASA ST1-2 class....... yes, mostly its Hp-weight ration restricted.
as far as what cars run.. in ST1, its the vets that have more power than allowed in ST2, and you see some pumped up Porsches, mustangs and the other usual suspects with weight/hp in the 5-6:1 range.

911racer

If you are thinking of doing it with NASA more than once, I would suggest doing what I had done.

3 of us signed up for GTS5 at the east coast nationals at Watkins. That is all that singed up. Not enough for a class for that race, so we made restrictor plates and choked the Hp down and ran in GTS4. GTS4 was the 3rd largest class at the championship with 19 cars signed up. A lot of fun.

I ended up running about 340Hp to the rear wheels to make the class. To give you an idea, I started the big race gridded 17th and ended up finishing 3rd with a best lap time of 1:59.2.

Thanks

Ed

93 FireHawk 968

Thanks to all for the insights.

JarheadGT3

Much to the rest of the class' chagrin! Great race Ed, definitely would've been better without the dyno drama.

911racer

Thanks. It was a good time. Watkins is great to race at because the track is so wide. That compared to a track like Mid Ohio or VIR. Watkins is easier to pass at.

As far as the dyno goes, you are right, but I think I would have been right at about the same spot anyway because of my shredded tire on Friday.

NASA makes the championships interesting because it is both a test of speed and long term strategy to win. The two qualifying races turn sprints into a test of endurance. Mess one up and you start in the back. More challenging.

Not like SCCA where there are just two days of qualifying and best qualifying lap is what positions you for the actual race.

wanna911

Racing a cup car on slicks you will take a non production car penalty of .4 and a slicks penalty of .70. So for ST1 you would be at 6.6 and for ST2 9.1. If your car weighs below 2900 then you also take a 911 penalty (yes, that does actually exist) but they are proposing doing away with that one for 2017. ST is more fun except in a couple of regions where there is a good GTS 4 and 5 Turnout. Mostly just the great lakes region.

Edit: I don't think you have to take the 911 penalty if you take the non-production car penalty.


ST1/TT1 is proposed to move up to 6.0:1 in 2017 (my initial math was bad)

Ritter v4.0

Or just go out and run against the next fastest car(s) irrespective of class and have fun. Technically it's not supposed to happen but given certain class sizes, I assure you that it does and racers in thin classes enjoy the additional competition.

But if there are 2 guys battling in class, make like Switzerland and stay out of the conflict.

911racer

Cause Great Lakes rocks for fast German cars.

Ritter v4.0

Ed makes a good point. NASA is very region specific. Take a look at the region(s) that you are going to run with and use that as guide.

NASA SE effectively has no GTS field anymore. Last w/e the biggest GTS class was GTS3 with 3 cars. But ST was not much better- 5 in STU and 3 in ST1. FWIW tire contingency with Yokohama is min 7 starters.