Hi, I registered for 5C ('95 M3, E36) and I have been put in 5B according to the website. (Eric W from illini region). I see some other E36's have been put up with 5B - anyone know what's up?
There are E36 M3's in all the '5' classes (5C, 5B & 5A), it all depends on the modifications and/or tires you are going to run at the autocross. If you have a bone stock car (5C) but are running R-comp tires, it automatically raises you one level to 5B. I don't know if that's the case for you or not but it's possible. What mods and/or tires are you running?
Correct. In addition, a large number of cars (over half the 5A class was bumped up from 5B or 5C) were reclassified yesterday, based on listed modifications. Most were bumped one class up (Stage Two) for non-stock springs; some for engine modifications - and a number were bumped two classes (Stage Three; if available - a 'B' car can only go to 'A') for such things as stripped interiors, coilover suspensions, or superchargers. The reclassifications were finished and sent in late last night. Even so, please regard them as provisional until the final grid printout is posted at Registration Tuesday. We continue to stumble across modifications we overlooked initially and there are a small handful of cars we need to see in person to verify exactly what their configuration is before finalizing their classification.
So aftermarket springs that use original attachment points, and don't change the right height move you from 5C to 5B? That seems harsh given the other modifications allowed in the level 2 modification: R-Compound tires are allowed. Ride height may be altered by change or modification of springs using original attachment points. Bodywork may be modified for tire clearance. Tire contact patch may extend beyond bodywork. Roll cages are permitted. Exhaust headers are allowed.
Apparently so. Of course, I've never seen any that do that. All either lower or raise ride height, at least a little bit. Even if they didn't, they would likely have a different rate. Since I am not prepared to start looking up and measuring ride heights and spring rates for all the various BMWs that are entered in the competition, we will simply go with the rule as written plus honesty of disclosure. I do not necessarily disagree with you, but I did not write the rules. I am only using (and enforcing, with over 15 years' background as an SCCA scrutineer) them. If you read through all of them, you can see that many things are permitted without a bump in class, but any modification that is listed for either Stage Two or Stage Three requires that car to be moved to the designated class, one or two classes above the base class. That would include a hypothetical coilover suspension system that used the same ride height and spring rate as stock springs, thus not affecting the performance of the car at all. But that is not how the rule is written.
C.R. - It was a great autox event!! Wasn't as competitive as those on R comps, but still got a trophy I know you are just enforcing the rules as given to you. Again, I had a great time.
Thanks! You cannot imagine how delighted (not to mention relieved) I was that it all worked as well as it did. My goal was to provide the best competition with the least bother possible - and I think we managed that. Maybe we'll do it again some day soon.
I will second the thanks for the course CR. It was a lot of fun!!! It would have been nice to have a few fun runs as we were done with timed runs so quickly, but not that big of a deal.
Had I known, we probably would have done five timed runs; maybe six. This course was such an unknown, I couldn't accurately predict how fast we'd go. Assuming they invite us back, I would suggest a longer course (my original one, modified after I thought it would take too long) and four runs. We would probably not limit entries as we did on Thursday. We tried to limit each day to 100 and added the 2-3 cars we had on the waiting list when we closed registration for that day. Ninety-five cars actually ran on Thursday (about 8 no-show DNSs). Two of the best things, though, were my synergistic goals: 1.) Almost no cones were placed where they would get hit easily. We reset only about a dozen cones for the entire two-day event; and four of those were in one incident after the finish. The last slalom had about four hits and the first two turns had about four. This meant we required very few workers. 2.) No drivers who didn't want to work were required to do so. This was a result of #1. As good as this O'Fest was, if the party comes back in less than 5 years, we'd do even better.
C.R. - it was great to meet you and thanks for putting on an awesome autox!!! i felt like we were VIPs when i found out we didn't have to work the course and what a cool course it was! there were actual elevation changes- something we're not used to in houston. i'm totally spoiled now. u've ruined me for the houston chapter!
Keep me posted on the repairs to the inflatable monkey. We can still provide a decent burial for him at RA ...
LOL thanks! i love your idea of the final resting place being RA for Vinnie. i heard talk of a wake for the monkey on the radios on the way home from cheese country. we will keep you posted!!!
