2021 Rule Change Suggestion - Reduce the A-arm Penalty

[Davidss]

I would like to make a suggestion for the 2021 rules. Please reduce the a arm penalty. In my opinion -.7 is WAY too much. It doesn't make sense to say that a-arms are twice as valuable as a 10 speed DCT. Or to say that a-arms are a bigger performance change than going from RWD to FWD or AWD is a little crazy.

[1jeffcat]

On 9/3/2020 at 4:51 PM, Davidss said:

I would like to make a suggestion for the 2021 rules. Please reduce the a arm penalty. In my opinion -.7 is WAY too much. It doesn't make sense to say that a-arms are twice as valuable as a 10 speed DCT. Or to say that a-arms are a bigger performance change than going from RWD to FWD or AWD is a little crazy.

Hard to say.  We need more strut cars in 6 to definitively say.  With that said, I do think 944s have a decisive advantage without the A-arm modifier.  
 

My gut says it should be reduced slightly but I don’t have any conclusive data to back it as of yet.  A spec 944 was 1.5 seconds faster than everybody else in ST6 at Nats last year, and it wasn’t even optimized for ST6, so that’s something to consider, but then again that car was DQ’ed.  However, I think an elite spec Miata optimized to ST6 rules could run those times, but the 944 still has room to mod further yet.  
 

my PRESUMPTION is that it needs to be more around -0.4-0.5.

[Joshua]

I agree that the penalty is too severe, and reducing it to -0.4 is about right. The S2000 drivers can chime in here too ... if they are running in TT/ST5. I noticed that the A-arm penalty disappears in TT/ST4.

[Greg G.]

Even with the limited racing this year, it doesn't seem that the results are showing at all that the A-arm penalty assessment should be reduced.