De-grading my car.

[MazdaMatt]

My car sits at the very bottom of the T2 class. Can I put weight INTO the car and drop a class? The CCC is still locked up so I can't find out how much weight I would need to get into T3, but right now i think my car is rated as 50.5...

Hypothetically, if i were to cage my car, would that land me in T3?

[Pete@Marcor]

Re: De-grading my car.

My car sits at the very bottom of the T2 class. Can I put weight INTO the car and drop a class? The CCC is still locked up so I can't find out how much weight I would need to get into T3, but right now i think my car is rated as 50.5...

Hypothetically, if i were to cage my car, would that land me in T3?

Been here, done this. You need to accumulate enough weight "reduction" PIPS to warrant your car being weighed. Eventually, I just gave up trying, and figured I would prepare the car further for T2.

[MazdaMatt]

Re: De-grading my car.

I can't just duct tape a bunch of bricks to my engine block and hit the scales?

Caging automatically reduces pips, though, right? So that would knock me down right away? Even a 'roll bar' instead of a 'roll cage' could do this, no?

[ADAM]

Re: De-grading my car.

put a roll bar into it, and then add " braces and backing plates" to get to the weight you want...plus you can stiffen up the car..

steel is heavy, and you can add it where you want..

[joedoe]

Re: De-grading my car.

Hey Matt,

If youre looking to be more competive then I don't think that will help much as the T3 group had better times than T2.

It is the street tires that is killing our times.

Joe

[CobraStang]

Re: De-grading my car.

Adding ballast wherever you want it is not permitted.
But roll bars, bigass stereos and speakers, etc, are OK.

[ADAM]

Re: De-grading my car.

"ballest" is not permitted

but you can add a roll bar with as much "bars" to stiffen and add "safety" as you like

[MazdaMatt]

Re: De-grading my car.

Well sure, but then at least I'm losing only in MY class, not losing to the class below me AND in my class.

Its basically like this: I can't afford tires = I can't win. (no big deal, i'm out there to learn, not win)

Also: I can't afford 4 pips worth of upgrades = I'm outclassed in my own class.

Maybe i should start thinking: I cant afford solo1 = go race solo2 instead.

Just thinking about next season when I have money, I suppose.

[MazdaMatt]

Re: De-grading my car.

"ballest" is not permitted

but you can add a roll bar with as much "bars" to stiffen and add "safety" as you like

Okay, so taping bricks to my engine is out, but heavy safety gear is a relatively cheap and even helpful alternative. I need to go shopping for a bender that can handle 4 inch steel bars. Is there a T5 class?

[thgear]

Re: De-grading my car.

no, and no T4 either

T3 is the lowest you can go, so if your gonna drop that low, you better be packing some heat

[joedoe]

Re: De-grading my car.

Well adding more weight may bring you down a class but it should slow you down even more.

For stock cars like ours the #1 thing to improve times dramatically is tires.

I wish they had groupings for street and R tires but we didn't even have enough people in our group and same goes for many other groups.

If you really just want to learn as I do then I wouldn't worry how you fall into place and just get the seat time in on the tracks.

I was prolly the only one with an automatic at the track which hurts me in many ways.

Joe

[ADAM]

Re: De-grading my car.

we need to PIP tires

[MazdaMatt]

Re: De-grading my car.

The reason for not PIPing tires listed in the other post was a VERY good one. The safety issues with street tires are important. I am a beginner, if i tried to really push the limits on street tires, i may careen off the track and hit a post or something... hypothetically speaking, of course.

So next year, slicks and a 200 pound roll bar. That'll look about as intimidating as a golf with an offroad lift kit on the front.

[Erik Z]

Re: De-grading my car.

Yeah, I'm in a similar position. I'm something like 0.3 points into GT1 with what is really a mid-level GT2 car on street tires. Granted, even if I did bring my car back down to GT2 and throw on some r-comps I doubt that my times would be competative yet anyways... I'm just out there for the fun and experience right now and to learn the tracks... and for the thrill and excitement of those oh-so-fun battles at the bottom of the timesheets! There's no replacement for seat time...

I was prolly the only one with an automatic at the track which hurts me in many ways.

I took an automatic to the SoloSprint school. The lack of torque coming out of some of those corners in the CCW direction was quite frustrating... as was fighting with the kickdown which would happen at the most inopportune times. Running the course in the CW direction actually worked much better for my auto tranny, but I hear that's not the way SoloSprint runs it (I wasn't around this weekend to find out)...

[thgear]

Re: De-grading my car.

my 4X4 3wheelin monster pwnz joo