Time Attack - 2014

[pablo]

Club class 4WD could see double the number of competitors if some new builds get finished. The biggest issue seems to be around the regs and what changes if any are going to be made to club class.
There was talk about restricting areo on club class cars but this now seems to have been binned.

[jap.slapper]

I understand entirely why regulation amendments are made however these can (and do) have a detrimental effect on potential entrants. I can remember the debates raised on Driftworks when regulation changes were made for BDC.

I believe they gave a full 12 months notice but in the end simple things like the banning of side exit exhausts and no modifications to fire wall location etc meant that people who had spent a lot of time and money preparing their cars for the season realised that their cars wouldn't be eligible to enter the following year and it really caused heated debates for no real purpose.

I don't think the powers that be should make too many changes to the TA regs for 2014 (unless competitors are only permitted to use fooked' engines for each round in which case I'll be there!!)

[pablo]

For me the only rule that needs changing is the 5% rule. It should be applied to the qualifing session and not just the final. As it stands you can go out and blitz everyone in qualifing pick up 50 points and then back off a bit in the final come third and pick up another 80 points but no strike penalty.

[Stuart]

While we're chewing the cud, I propose a total re-shuffle

Scrap the ambiguous and largely meaningless class structure that gives entrants the choice of being an enormous fish in a small pond and introduce something that can't be frigged

No more club class. I propose Street Legal and by that I mean driven to the track in question. By all means bring a trailer so if you stuff it or blow it up you can get home

Drop Club Pro as no-one I know can succinctly tell me what the differences are between the cars in this class or Club. Maybe some middle ground between Street Legal and Tuner class would make sense but there really needs to be clarity between classes and rules in my opinion.

Pro class? Pro what? Driver or team? Or both????

The whole thing is a muddle and seems to have got more muddled as years have gone by. Cue someone from TA/San Treo telling me I am wrong

[jap.slapper]

Yeah ^^^^ so it's not just me then

I'll be honest I always assumed that the term 'Pro' was reserved for those individuals who actually got paid for their efforts, though I could be wrong

Club Pro does seem to be a bit of a grey area and I don't quite understand its purpose?


and off on a tangent I know but I was pondering over something the other evening whilst the wife was engrossed in the latest series of 'Homeland'.....now appreciating that it's not in the true spirit of TA but what's actually stopping an organisation such as Radical or Noble fielding a fully supported team and running one of their 'track prepped' road legal variants with a paid driver at the helm? I suspect that kind of setup would take quite a few podiums off the un-paid part time 'Pros'?

at the end of the day a 1000bhp Evo driven by a decent driver is freakin' quick but not even that pairing could compare to the lap times of a track prepped 'road version' Radical driven by a full time professional surely?

[pablo]

Oh what a mine field. When we first started down this road we use to drive the car to the events. Now you've got club class cars being delivered to the circuits by their sponsors. I wouldn't want to be the one having to make these rules but come on 700+bhp cars in club class is ripping the piss to say the least.
Thats like Gary (APT) entering his beast in club class.
I know that it's impossible to verify every cars power figures at every event but there are easier ways, look at the MLR. Restrictions on what turbos could be run in club class.
To be honest I like the fact that their aren't too many restrictions.

[Stuart]

In other disciplines, Street Eliminator in drag racing for example, the guys have to drive to and from the track and have to use fuel from a local Shell garage. This would surely go some way to ensuring that cars in this class can stand shoulder to shoulder in many respects? (Having said that I know of some pretty amazing cars that run in SE in terms of spec, investment, support etc etc ) If it's 'racing' people will try and gain an advantage I guess.........nightmare!

The traditional sprint stuff used to have a great handle on modifications, classes and keeping things far more comparable. In recent years the MLR and TSS (amongst others I'm sure) have done a brilliant job of forging a truly competitive series where drivers can feel that they are able to compare themselves against one another more evenly. Maybe Time Attack doesn't need or intend to be so closely compared to traditional sprinting...........I know it's proud of the fact that it isn't racing.

Power figures alone won't help. Power to weight may be more useful as long as there is a factor for drivetrain (4WD will yield an advantage in some circumstances much as RWD will do in others).

Maybe rather than me criticising the UK version of TA for what I perceive as a lack of clarity, I need to make myself more aware of rules in other countries (Japan and the States maybe?). If the Japanese don't have a better grasp of rules and clarity for this event, and they have been running Super Lap Battle for eons, then what hope do anyone else have?

There is also the question of attraction; maybe if the rules prohibited certain types of David and Goliath entrants (SVM's The Hulk in club class with massive power and no cage as an example) then the number of entrants would fall and this would be less attractive to entrants, spectators and the organisers too?

I'll say it again; Nightmare!

[pablo]

It's great to see the diversity of machinery in TA and to be honest i've looked at the regs. in other countries. There does seem to be a growing interest in TA at the moment with more tuners getting behind drivers.
Whatever they decide will be and as much as I like discussing it I certainly won't be loosing any sleep over it.
As Alan says to me often, 'it is what it is'.

[Stuart]

And Alan is 100% correct

[jap.slapper]

Quick question regarding dash boards

now if I remember correctly Club Class entrants had to have a full OEM dash fitted, any idea if this will still be the case for 2014 and how much (if any) flexibility is there likely to be on the term 'full'?

I'll be pulling the dash out of the car shortly so that the cage can be welded in and so that I can sort through the rats nest of wiring loom and excess piping under there. In all honesty I'm not too keen on putting the bloody thing back in as it doesn't really serve much of a purpose anymore