This is a good direction for the class. Thank you Eric.

Any new rule adds complexity and attempts at tuning the car to the maximum of the current rules.

My personal experience with dynos is that they all read differently. Even using the same brand with the same smoothing factors and calibrated for altitude, humidity and air pressure.

At the Nationals in 2010 my car dynoed at 137 RWHP. At my local dyno it was 144 RWHP. That is 7 RWHP difference! So how do you determine which dyno was even close to right?

There will be a few of us who are going to dyno at Nationals prior to racing to make sure we are close to the right Air/Fuel ratio and maximum HP. Especially the guys who race at lower elevations and who also may have different fuel mixtures like California.

This just adds expense to racing.

As was shown by RMR the order of finish will not likely change. Their experiment with weight did not make a difference in finishing order.

There is no way to truly level the playing field because the driver is the biggest variable to the cars performance. You can put the fastest guy in any mid pack car and he will still be at the front. The same goes for the reverse.

I do not believe that any of us are driving these cars error free. If you have ever used data aquisition you will know this to be the facts. Great drivers (professionals) make multiple small mistakes every lap. Good amature drivers like the top drivers in any region make 1-2 bigger mistakes and multiple small mistakes that cost us 1-2 seconds every lap.

Until you have confronted yourself with this information and have accepted that you are the weak link of the racecar system you will not be able to get to the front. You will always feel that you got beat by HP or car prep. I know this because I have been there.

Any car owner who has not prepped their car to the maximum of the rules allowed is only handicapping themselves. I understand that this is an entry level class and some will not have the mechanical or financial ability or desire to make their cars the best possible. This is another problem that each individual will have to deal with independantly. Our group as a whole is very open about sharing setup, mechanical and driver skill information.

Anyways I know this is not something we get to vote on but I am opposed to it. I will say that it was very well thought out and obviously alot of time went into it.

As always "NO NEW RULES" is my mantra.

Charlie,
Thank you for the thoughtful comments. Please allow me to dissect them a little from the counterpoint perspective.

I was also firmly opposed to many of these rules at one point. I felt we had a good rule set, and did not want add complexity or force people to de-tune. I have changed my mind over the last 1-2 years. Here is some insight as to why, using the points you made.

“Any new rule adds complexity and attempts at tuning the car to the maximum of the current rules.”

You are correct. However, tuning to the maximum of 138 will be less expensive than tuning to some unlimited theoretical maximum. It is therefore more in line with the class intent.

You correctly bring up dyno variation. I have never personally seen 7hp, I don’t doubt you, but I contend it is rare to have that large a swing. This will likely not be an issue at regional events. And, as you point out, for Nationals – test the dyno before you race. Yes it will add expense, but a) not much b) not much at all when compared to no HP limit, and c) most people won’t go to this level. If this is truly a continued concern, then just target a lower number on the dyno, say 133. As you correctly point out, driving can overcome this very small disadvantage.

I can speak directly to the RMR finishes. You are correct that the season points order did not change that much. However, what the points tallies do not show is that the races were much closer in general, and while winning the championship, I did not win a race in the last two weekends. It was tighter than last year.

With respect to the driver being the biggest variable – yes, by a mile. Anyone who spends time with Traqmate data will attest to this. But perceptions play a large role. Growth of the class often comes in the form of people without sufficient background to understand the magnitude of the driver variable. It is a big selling point to be able to show the tight hp range, and the cap to limit development and costs. So, what you are saying here is that the little details of a few hp don’t really matter. What I am saying is that you are right, but perceptions do matter.

I think that continued health in our class is best encouraged with the proposed cap. It will have very little effect on all of us today, but it will de-emphasize engine development. It is not perfect, and Charlie, a lot of your points have merit – but I believe it beats the alternative.

In the past, I've felt that limiting the legal mods would naturally limit the HP levels, but it's clear that some engines are currently "more equal" than others, which is exactly what we don't want in our class.
As our class grows and evolves, our rule set MUST evolve with it. We MUST work to contain costs and level the playing field or we've simply lost sight of the basic philosophy of the 944 Spec class.
Cheap, Equal racing.
"Stock is good!"
Why are you here? To out-spend others, or to out-drive others? I answered that question correctly over 9 years ago and I'm still here for the same reason.
Let's keep building it!

I am not apposed to the new rule however I do suggest the following:

At all events intending to dyno cars, an announcement should be made on qualifying day (I can see why an earlier announcement may not be desired).

FREE access should be given to all cars competing who want a pre-pull to check their numbers. If the given car is over the max or more than say 7HP (this could be 10HP or another arbitrary number) under the max they will be given another run any time that day. The full dyno run data will be passed to the competitor to assist in being able to choose a method to adjust the power up or down as the case may be.

This will give either over or under cars a chance to make a change to attempt to fix the issue. After a retest, they are done and can race regardless of the results of the pre-run as it is non-regulating.

The reasons for this suggestion are that indeed there are many many factors that can and will greatly effect the power output of these cars. In another thread I brought up ethanol blended fuels vs non blended, plus there are the obvious temperature, altitude, air density, and yes dyno to dyno variations, etc... Whatever the reason this will truly equalize the field in a fair and equitable way.

You can never reach true parity. It would require all cars to be built by one guy and then dynoed to equal the HP. But some chassis will handle better than others, maybe a 924s is the best chassis or maybe it is the late offset 87-88 944 chassis. Nobody really knows or even cares.

By not specing the suspension bushings, sway bars and shocks we have lots of inequality already.

I am convinced that the Bilstein shocks are far better over a long race. But that is my opinion. Only a few cars even run Bilsteins. They cost less and are not adjustable so they really should be the spec shock if we go to one. Completely fits in with the low cost equal car.

Our cars have had very little developement since the beginning in comparison the Spec Miata. This is a natural progression of racing in a spec class.

Little adjustments to the suspension (finding the right bushing) the absolute perfect setup for each track, nailing the correct tire pressure for any given day are all little things that will make one car look like it is cheating in comparrison to everyone else who did not get it quite right. How do you make everyone happy when a situation Iike this exists? You cant!

There will always be a percieved unfairness between the driver who believes (incorrectly) that he was beat by HP because he has not yet accepted that he is not the driver he fancies himself to be.

3-5 HP can easily be negated with superior driving.

I am not against equality in HP. But there will never be equality between drivers and that is where alot of this problem stems from. IMO