FCRA Exhibition Class

Anyone interested in this class? Thanks.

 

Yes. It would be a great place for all the other Ferrari racecars to go. No attempt at parity should be made. There are real classes for that. EX would also allow rule makers to be more restrictive to ensure parity in the other classes and say to those who want to develop a 360 frankenstein... we got a place for you. I hope the series expands West too.

 

I am struggling with whether to de-mod my car - the adjustable shocks, the exhaust. Not so much for cost reasons, or even speed, I just really like the car as modified, and am not that in love with the car in stock form.

Two downsides of running in the exhibition class IMO: first, you're on track with people running for points, and you really don't want to do anything to hurt their efforts.

There also may not be anyone to race, hence my post. Pretty dull racing two or three cars. Even if other cars end up in X, of course, they might be much faster or slower than my car. And I'm not interested in building an uber 430C, would make far more sense to buy a 430GT.

Leaning towards demodding, just testing the waters on this one. As I said in another post, I'm not even sure there should be an Exhibition class, as it may diminish the points classes, but it's a nice, inclusive gesture by FCRA.

Note that Exhibition is just for modified Challenge cars. not for anything else. I assume the GT cars would not be eligible.

 

There probalby aren't any uber 430C's in FRCA so I think FRCA would be better off including those in the existing classes and saddle with weight to equalize. EX is cooler for spectators to see neat stuff than drivers. I think EX could be an additional draw for FRCA from a spectator point of view. Who would not want to see glickhaus p3/4 or even a vintage TR, or a prodrive 550 tribute car? I didn't say competitors because EX can hardly be a competitive class because money dominates those kinds of classes. EX imo would be more of a timetrial where owners might be lucky to have a couple of cars to race but mostly the less serous competitor would be there. Any rookie really competitive would be doing low level pro racing like WC or buying their way into a proride or at least trying to make a name for themselves in spec xyz.

 

"but mostly the less serous competitor would be there"


I agree.

 

Will,

Are u considering running in this class? We are all looking forward to u competing in the 430 class for 2012.

 

Honestly, I don't know. I don't want to run in a class with one or two cars, so probably not. The 430 class should be very competitive and fun in 2012.

I support the FCRA rules decision, they have to act in the best interest of the series. But the rules can have a tough effect on some folks. Will cost me, for example, thousands to go to stock shocks and springs, and then more to test.

Hypothetically, if one were down on power, and relied on headers etc to get to stock power, then removing the headers etc will necessitate an engine rebuild. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

So what do you do? FCRA is a well run, fantastic series with great people to race. A month ago I would have told you I was ready to go all out to compete in the 430 class. Looking at the GT3 series, too. Would love to race an Atlantic, but it's far too dangerous - not the car, my wife's reaction to my getting back in an open wheel car.

So, honestly, I don't know.

 

Will, won't you be able to run the after market shocks but with a weight penalty added? I've got to imagine you'd be better off performance wise taking on the ballast and leaving the shocks in. Plus, no expense of making the change. I think this rule actually works in your favor.

Which GT3 series are you looking at? Patron?

 

IMSA GT3 Challenge. But which team? And, of course, big $$. We'll see.

 

Same series I was thinking of, Patron is the title sponsor. I'm pretty close with 3 guys who ran last year with Topp Racing. Topp is located at my home track and they take care of my 996 race car. Not sure if they are running again but I would highly recommend them.

One concern I have about the series is the amount of contact. Besides being expensive, I don't want to learn how to race that way. I like racing where the expectation is that passes are made without contact. The skill of moving someone over to complete a pass or the art of the high risk pass is not something I care to master.

 

Hey Will,
Have they published the 430 weights yet, along with the exhaust penalty?

I really don't think de-modding will be that involved.

On the shocks, you just cannot use aftermarket. So, if you have dialed in curves, Could you potentially re-valve some stock shocks? They would be NON-Adjustable.

Here's a sketchy pic of the two factory curves for the fronts.

Seems pretty hardcore for a club series, but it shouldn't be that big a deal.

Hope you'll be there!

Mark

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Mark, I believe some kind soul sold me the book depicting those curves.

We are dynoing a set of stock shocks to see what they look like.

I'm a plodder, I like to have everything in place before racing. Probably too hardcore for a club series, I agree, but I take this stuff seriously - it's part of the fun for me, really. Once you start looking hard and seriously at everything, shocks, aero, exhaust, etc, it gets pretty interesting, as you know. And yes, expensive.

And a truly fast driver will still beat me, I've been around long enough to know how things work. Maybe I should take everything off the car, including the aero, and let one of my young formula car friends have a shot at a race to see what happens. On second thought, what remains of my ego is still too fragile.

The truth is, I can no longer approach things any other way, wouldn't be fun for me to just go to Sebring with a new tire compound, new shocks, new exhaust, and hope for the best. Without weights and penalties, and engine rules, we can't finish the car or test. And yet this series really isn't designed or intended for a full on approach.

Also have logistical issues that are hard to resolve. I love the shop that works on my car, and won't have anyone else work on it, but they are not set up with the expensive transport infrastructure needed for proper track support.

I'll probably slowly redo the 430C and focus on my SCCA sports racer this year. I'm disappointed, as I was ready to go all out on the FCRA - even my wife loves to see the cars run.

On the other hand, life is probably pretty good when not running your Ferrari factory race car is a problem.