2007 Exige S Competitive in TTA?

[AZELISE]

Thanks Greg for all the time and effort spent on looking into this. Now I can order parts for other mods!

[loudes13]

you lotus guys should thank Greg for the time he put into this and for this concession.

 

Not to pick on Rick, but "I really hope it is not. I think that would alienate most Lotus Exige owners from competing in Time Trials."

 

NASA is THE ONLY national sanctioning body that will let the Exige or Exige S race W2W or in TT, period. If any lotus guy wants to use his car beyond hpde, NASA (and Greg's TT or PT classes) is the group. SCCA does classify the Elise in T2, but that factory toe link is illegal for SCCA T2 competition. The Exige or Exige S is not even classified (that could change if SCCA wanted).

 

Personally I think concessions like this open 'cans of worms'. If Greg gave the Honda S2000 a similar concession for a different toe link, and a certain guy decided to run one, it would give people a legitmate reason to complain

 

Total OT rant - I'd love to see base car's classed on their best, possible FACTORY combination (best of the breed in SCCA Solo speak). Then FACTORY options wouldn't get mod pts - ex early Miata's with optional limited slip diffs or Exige's with XYZ factory option. If you had the correct, factory XYZ parts for your model no additional pts. That just me, and it's too late for '07 anyway.

 

Greg, thanks for ALL the hard work! I'm trying as hard as I can to find some loop hole's, and you have most covered pretty well.

[kbrew8991]

the only problem with that Allen is it forces everyone to go out and buy Special Model XYZ so they're competitive

 

I'm a fan of the current system, maybe theres somewhere in the middle where they could meet... like give some of them half a (*) or something...

[Rick Apichairuk]

You're right Allen and I'm very thankful for Greg's efforts and ruling on these issues. I just wanted to see the Exige S (as it comes from the factory) classified fairly and have a chance. I hope that this attracts more Exige S owners to compete in NASA! Thanks again Greg!

[Greg G.]

Allen, the major problem with your idea is that it would mean that every year, when a manufacturer comes up with some new trim package, or some new option, that the base class of "X" many years of the model then gets bumped up. Not only would this be a nightmare for NASA to track (it's hard enough tracking the base trim model of hundreds/thousands of vehicles), but it would be my number one complaint from competitors when their 2001 car gets bumped up in base class because of some 2008 available option.

 

As far as the ruling I made for the Elise/Exige, it is only for those two specific models. While it is not my place to determine if an OEM part is "safe" or not, and whether it should be mandatory for an OEM part to be replaced or not for track use, the fact that the manufacturer makes reference to this for this part did weigh in my decision. As well, after personally inspecting the cars with the upgraded brace, I found that there is no evidence that the Lotus brace provides ANY performance advantage over the OEM setup (other than a little piece of mind that the rear wheel won't suddenly become a wobbling cause of a crash). And, I did not want a TT/PT assessment point to be the reason that an owner doesn't go out and get the brace.

 

There are many items that someone can claim are "safety items", and often better performing parts are safer than OEM parts. However, there are those times when the scales tilt significantly over to the safety side. That is why brake pads and rotors are now no-points mods, and aftermarket calipers are very "cheap" at only +2 points. Some people say that I don't sleep. Well, when I do finally sleep, I want to make sure that I sleep well.