I'm a big guy ~ 250 LBs and I run the heaviest chassis, an 89. My car is at minimum weight dry without any extraordinary efforts.

All of the usual stuff is out (heater system, interior, headlights, wipers, etc) but I do still run a glass windshield, heavier cage than most, and a 3 qt accusump which all add weight. The only unusual thing I've done compared to some is rewire the car which took about about 50 LBs.

I would NOT want to raise min weight as it will just degrade performance for no good reason I can see.

Guys,

We're doing some testing, and hashing a few things out behind the scenes. We'll open up for rules changes in a couple of weeks.

As fas as minimum weight, this comes up every few years. Some would like more weight, some less. My car sometimes runs runs nearly 100 lbs of ballast to make weight, and it is a late chassis car, with a 175 lb driver. With some research, and effort, I've found all cars in our region be able to make weight, no matter how bad it seemed in the beginning. There are street legal cars that are highly competitive (the best example being Norm Hamden's car). It certainly takes some effort to get a car to minimum weight, and keep it street legal, but it's doable. Weight increases do add to wear and tear, and parts failures to a small but real degree. The added grip of the RR tire will already put some additional stress on the cars already.

This is not to say that a weight increase would never be considered, but like all new rules, it must be a clear need that benefits the class as a whole.

I think that adding weight needs to be looked at with a higher altitude view. Current cars will have to add weight which means they are less likely to approve this on an individual basis. However when looked at from a group perspective it should grow the class which should be the goal of everyone.

How many AX and TT cars are out there that are street drivers that are not willing to buy a trailer and a tow vehicle and worry about storage for all of that? How many are using their cars on the street but want to run? The further we go toward dedicated track cars the less people will be able to run. That is bad for the class.

I was running in an FIA Touring car series a few years back that went through a similar situation. The class was initially made up of cars that came from a class dominated by compact Jap cars. These Hondas, Toyotas, Hyundai's etc. were very light and as such the rules dictated a light spec weight to match these cars. However the goal of the series was to represent all makes so as Euro cars and USA cars were encouraged to join issues developed. The problem was that BMW/Audi/VW cars could not make the min weight. The Euro cars that did attempt to run in the class each ended up petitioning the tech committee for waivers to cut this, remove that, change to this material etc... to reduce weight, before that season was up there were over a hundred waivers for a half a dozen cars (me included in my BMW).

It all became completely unworkable for a few reasons. One, the spirit of the class was low cost (sound familiar) but in order to get the Euro cars down to weight they needed carbon fiber and fiberglass bodies, extensive cutting of body structure, acid dipping, exotic racing parts (titanium, aluminum, magnesium parts). Two, the rules were no longer simple, with all the waivers there was complete loss of control of equality, cars that made min weight were now wanting to also have some of the exotic parts and cut internal metal etc... that they deemed to be an advantage that they wanted as well. Three, new cars that wanted to run looked at all the cost, time and modifications required and simply stayed away. The class stalled and was in jeopardy of failing.

The next season they changed the rules and added 200# to the base weight and returned to the simple rules with no waivers. Every single competitor who ran the previous year complained (including me). But the class grew 50% that off season and absorbed two slower classes that were now able to compete with little investment and be competitive. That year we had over 50 cars on the grid! The next year it was 75!

Adding weight is simple, carry more fuel, carry a bigger cooler for driver comfort, Add a few more bars to your cage, add a few more gauges, dont spend two weeks stripping the insulation out, dont remove the dash/heat/AC/Lights... It is for the better of the class.

Joe, I understand your points, and in the context of the experience you had, a weight adjustment certainly makes sense. Carbon fiber is expensive, and there was a large contingent of ready to go cars that were available for incorporation with that single change.

Our situation is a bit different.
In order to make the pain of a rules change worth it, you'd need to prove that:

1) There are lots of 944's and drivers that would make the leap from AX & TT to W2W racing, but are not solely because of the minimum weight issue.
2) It is impossible for those cars to approach the current minimum weight with a reasonable effort at doing so.

I don't think either of those things have been established.

Have you made a serious effort at making minimum weight, and failed?

Doc,

My situation I think is a little different but perhaps is is worth bringing up.

My intention is to run in 2013 and as such I have made the commitment to do what I need to do to my car in order to compete. My goal (not sure I can get there yet) is to have a car which is competitive so that it will be driver vs driver and not budget vs budget.

Unfortunately, like most, I have some budgetary constraints I have to work within. Mine perhaps are more restrictive than others. I have made a deal with the wife, who has stuck with me through a few careers and a dozen race cars and race teams. The deal is that this car needs to replace my current 'airport' car, and must not detract from our home budget in a significant way.

What this means is that the car must not only be street legal but be able to take me in my Pilot uniform to work and not arrive frozen or drenched in sweat. I drive to the airport and back 4-5 times a month. I dont mind a stiff suspension, noisy drive-train, or dodging potholes. I can do without much interior, looking through a cage and getting funny looks.

I live in Utah which means it is hot in the summer and cold in the winter so I need both heat and A/C. Utah requires working lights (all of them), horn, wipers, defrost etc...Further I need to be able to lock the car when it sits at the airport and at home so I need windows and locking doors. I also need to keep the undercoating so the salted roads dont eat the car.

Not that I need to mention it but I will not be buying a tow vehicle and/or trailer either as that is not what the Wife considers items within the scope of the 'deal'.

What all this means is that I will not make min-weight. So my goal of being competitive is not really possible. That is not to say it will not be fun, and I do like to try to win from behind but I am also competitive at heart and do not like to lose.

Of course there is a way to make the car get to min-weight within the build plan and that would be to spend money. In fact to spend lots of it. I could buy a digital display unit and install it into a carbon fiber steering wheel and lose the dash. I could ditch the fiberglass helmet for a carbon one. I could go with a kevlar seat. I could go to a fat farm in Malibu and lose 25#. I could even acid dip the chassis (leave it in the bath long enough to cut the steel down to 1/2 the thickness), re-undercoat it, and paint it with a light single stage paint. I could swap out all the harware for titanum fastners. With all this I think I can get my 100# heck I might even get 150#! But I will be spending $30K to do it which kills the primary build item...money.

Lets look at the alternative, adding 100# to the class. Every car currently running that is at min weight would have to do the following to get to the new higher spec weight:

#1 Add 14 Gal of gas.

Yep thats it (1Gal = 7.1#)(7.1 X 14Gal = 99.4#). Since most guys start the race with 5 Gal they could just top the tank and have 16 Gal of ballast to play with (assuming late tanks of course). How many of the guys running could not benefit from a little more weight at the back too?

For those currently running that are overweight they could just add a little less gas. For those looking to run in a new series they might find that having to do less and perhaps not have to invest as much might make for an appealing option vs. Spec Miata or Spec Ford etc... This of course can not be established but I also would find it difficult to see how it would not help.

Either way like I said in the beginning I am running, the question is how many more can we draw in and why not make it MORE of the kind of class Spec944 is being pitched as?

Your situation is a bit different. I applaud your ambition to make this work within the situation you were given. Keeping a race car street legal, versus keeping it a fully functional daily driver, are two different things. It's been established that you can have a competitive street legal car in Spec (at least in areas that emissions laws are fairly lax). The market of truly "dual purpose" candidates is somewhat smaller than "street legal" Changing the rules to the detriment of the large established base of current cars to cater to that market does not seem like a change for the greater good.

A few bits of caution on your current plan:

1. Racing is hard on cars, and even with the best of prep, your car will be out of action as an airport car, either for major service or repair, quite often. It's a stretch to rely on your race car as your daily driver. You at least need a plan B. If you have a plan B, using that regularly seems like a safer plan.

2. Speaking of safety, driving a roll-cage equipped car without a helmet on a regular basis exposes you to a significant degree of risk.

3. A 5 point harness, while safe, is not typically street legal (not red DOT buckle). In a car that is driven regularly, and will attract a lot of attention with its graphics, this will cause headaches.

If you still want to pursue this, you could get fairly close with an early 944 with a manual rack, or at least a 924S, as these car start out lighter, and have a lighter dash, etc. We can help with tips to "lose weight". If you get close, running a bit heavier is not a large performance handicap. Good suspension setup, preparation, and driving skill dwarf the impact of weight. For an example, the Rocky Mountain Region experimented with weight penalties this last season. It did not affect much the results much at all. The fast guys were still fast. At the 20 car High Plains event I attended, the two cars carrying the most ballast (70 lbs) finished 1st and second, and a new track record was set. In a group discussion that followed, the extra weight experiment was not thought to be worth the cost in wear & tear. In your first year of so getting up to speed with the car, running 50-100lbs heavy is not going to be the determining factor.

As a physician, I can also make some suggestions to lose 25 lbs for free

There are a few issues with running extra fuel for ballast.
1) Early Cars
2) For 40" races you need 7 gallons in the tank IF you figure it just right
3) After the fire at Nationals, where a 944 hit hard dumped its gas on the track, causing an inferno, running another 14 gallons poses some degree of risk
4) For those cars who run enduros, they must meet minimum weight out of fuel (at the end of the enduro, the cars are about out of fuel). Carrying 200 lbs of ballast causes some concern, as well.