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Originally Posted by sperry
And finally, there's the whole "so what" element to John's article. If you're racing in Reno with an old non-adaptive ECU'd motor, in a light "momentum" style car... well perhaps it's time for you to join the 21st century where the disadvantages of those cars have been erased by things like turbo-chargers, advanced electronic controls, active differentials, etc. No offence to the Miata owers of the world, but as fun as they are to drive, those cars were the autocross champs of a different era. We're in a horsepower world these days, but unlike the 60's, the modern muscle car has the means to put that power to the ground, thus rendering the Miata a "vintage" racer, with a gloried past.
Anyway, those are just some of my thoughts on the articles. Anyone else have some opinions?
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I think you nailed it here. Autocross is not just about driver skill, it's (un)equal parts skill, choice of car, and choice of mods/preparation. You must be able to do all three of things at a nationally competitive level to win there, not just drive. Or at least, have someone who can do those other things for you.
As for Miatas, again I agree. There's a reason Miatas dominate all of their classes; their classes are setup that way. Well, CS is probably not going to be that way anymore, it looks like a real toss-up between the new MX5 and the Sky/Solstice, plus the occasional MR2. Anyways.
I concur with your assessment of power losses. Comparing my Miata (OBD-II, but I don't think it has much adaptability, it doesn't have a knock sensor) to, say, Dean's STX WRX map, and while we both lose power at 5000', I probably don't have more than maybe a 5% or so relative loss to Dean. I think 5% is reasonable for a turbo car, but 20% is way overblown for NA (an ASP Z06 corvette losing 80 rwhp? Ummm, no.) I think the altitude loss is as difficult to nail down as a ratio as drivetrain loss is, because it probably hugely varies on a car-to-car basis. Gearing and course design have far more to do with whose car is faster than the relative power losses. Dean can keep 100% of his power, and he'd still get stomped by the STS civics on saturday's course because he can't get into boost anyway- not an issue for NA cars.