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Originally Posted by BAN SUVS
All good points Scott, but there's one thing that makes me disagree with much of it. It's the fact that the TT classes aren't supposed to be the primary classing system for Track Trials- SCCA Road Race classes are. So anyone dumping cubic dollars into a car should be doing it with a Road Race series in mind, not a Time Trials class. It seems to me TT classes exist as a way to get Solo 2 cars and drivers out to the track Trials to get involved in that stuff too. Since everyone's bringing a Solo 2 car out to play in a non-Solo 2 sandbox, I think it makes sense to bring the silly and arcane Solo 2 rules with them.
There's also a glaring omission from the TT classes- minimum weights. It seems that if you wish to win your TT class, you can't have a car that weighs more than 2000 pounds or so, regardless of what it's powered by. So yeah, I suppose I could build a TT-3 competitive Miata, but there's no chance of building a winning TT-3 WRX or TT-4 RS.
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I'm confused as to why it's better to migrate a complicated, long winded, and ultimately non-applicable rule set to Trials, when you can specify adequate rules in about a page of text.
As far as dumping money into a TT car... you're right they're only a regional classes. I wouldn't suggest that anyone specifically build a car to those rules. My point however, was that anyone that's competing in Trials is (or should be) already "into" the sport and would have a car that's well tuned for motorsports competition. Trials is not Solo2, and as such, isn't intended for the casual competitor. Solo2 is where you should start, and once you get the inkling for something faster, the TT classes are there to allow you to move up without having to worry about having to deal with a new set of rediculous rules.
See if you can follow my logic: Solo2 classes are inadequate for Time Trials because they're designed to classify cars based on their performance on slow, tight courses. In addition, there are so many Solo2 classes that using them for Time Trials would usually result in an event with 30 entrants in 25 different classes. Road race classes are fairly specific, and building a car for those specs will almost always result in a car that's either Prepared or Modified if you were to continue to run the car in Solo2.
The TT rules allow people to compete with like-cars without having to give up their Solo2 classes... and that's because they're intentionally vague. You're absolutely right that someone could build a class killer by simply putting a powerful motor in a very light car. Hell, look at the TVR that comes out to play... it's techinically a TT-4 car IIRC and he was gunning for the Bensons' SPO times! But, also as you mentioned, the TT classes aren't designed for long-term competition, they're just there to generate classes so part-timers will have someone else to race against instead of being the only ESP car or something.
I think the TT classes do a very good job at their intended function: class generally similar cars together without becoming so specialized that a competitor has to build to the letter of the rules to remain competative, and allow backwards compatability with Solo2 rules. My only beef with them is the language of the rules that made it confusing to apply the modifiers... something I hope we've cleared up already.