This has been my opinion on the the status or Pro-touring for a long time.
Guys have been building cars more and more competitive for a long time. The best Modification you can do it start taking the creature comforts out of the car to make the car weigh less and less. We are now starting to see the purpose built cars come over from the Autocross Sanctioning bodies. These cars are really race cars with license plates. They have lots of rod ends and other parts you would see on a race car, Parts that anybody that drives their car long distances will begin to hate after just a few miles 9on normal pot holes. Things like Fiberglass doors, No side windows at all, rod end rear suspension links, very low ground clearance, ETC. As much as these cars have a license plate it does not make them a street car by the standards set out just a few years ago. Everything but a window net and a Hans device.
If you go back say 20 Years when Drag racing was all the rage and Pro-Street cars were every where. People were driving these caged up looking race cars with lame no HP engines. Pretty soon one guy put a fast engine in his car and so the competition progressed on and on. This is where the sanctioning body of say the Pacific Street Car Association started in California. Remember the Name of the Sanctioning body says Street Car. Well now it is it to the point that the fastest class they have, Pro-Street, is nothing more then a Pro-Mod drag car, they run in the 5's. Then the class below that is Outlaw 10.5. My buddy Roger Holder has ruled the True 10.5 class for quite a few years. Up until just last year they ran a street Legal Drag radial tire to the mid to low 7's. That was probably the only thing "STREETABLE" on the car. He ran some 726" 3 stages of Nitrous engine with a 3 or 5 gal fuel tank in the engine compartment. Not very street able. Now he destroked the 726 to a 588 and has twin 104MM turbo's. This car runs on alcohol and should be able to run in the 6.90's and is losing lifters after 14 passes with a redline of 10,500 RPM. It is no where near a street car.
So my point is that I think the Pro-touring segment of the car industry is going to make 2 different kinds of guys in this industry. Some guys will build Full on Race cars to go have fun on the track, Others will decide they would just rather go cruise down the highway in a car that drives really nice and handles well on a twisty road. I'm sure this new car Mark Steilow is building is going to be another step toward race car. He is motivated to win and has the smarts to invent a better mouse trap.
My other rant is that alot of these cars are not legal to run in anything more then these events. Which maybe fine for some and not be enough for others. But to me if I'm going to build a race car I would like to build a car to I can run every weekend in any event I wanted. I have been looking at racing at the local dirt oval here in Bakersfield for this very reason. You can race every weekend, The rules are the same almost anywhere in the country. So in my eyes I don't have the option to only race my car when Goodguys comes to Town or Bill puts on his event. But I'm a guy who if given 5 tri-cycles and 4 buddies and a set of cones we could race for king of the hill all night long. If you ever see the Big Boys from Nascar say what their favorite track is, it usually is a go kart track in Dale Jr back yard. It is just racing, No rules no drama, no cheating. Just get to the front of the pack. I raced Go Karts for years and had more fun on Thursday night practicing with my buddies then I ever did come Saturday when everyone was so serious.
OK pointless RANT over.
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