From my post on Rennlist:

Dave, with regards to supercup:
1. Did you mean to say the Lindsey Racing blue clubgate? The red one is a dual port and is not approved by PCA like the blue one.
2. PCA SP3 specifies a rear single plane wing must be 9 inches below the roofline. Please clarify.
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Yes, blue, not red. Change to Cup rules will be made to reflect. And, PCA is also going to change their rules for SP3 to reflect the change in the use of a wing.

PCA is also going to make a change that willl allow the use of aftermarket cast or forged pistons for all SP2 and SP3 cars per the Cup rules.

We talked about the aftermarket fuel rail option as a safety upgrade for Prep2 earlier this year.
viewtopic.php?f=7&t=749

The consensus then was positive with only discussion of whether to specify a required number of mounting points. The current rules explicitly allow for fuel rail for all other cars... could this allowance be codified for Prep 2 moving forward?

Looking forward to 2012... some nice developments here in the PacNW with our own dedicated class in Conference, a return to 2 run groups (44Cup, ITS) each weekend, some new cars, and another great new track coming online - The Ridge Motorsports Park.

I think its a good idea. Question is whether it would be a legal mod for ITS as the NW Chapter runs many of its events as part of ITS. Another option is to have a separate Cup class established adopting our rules for the SCCA division out in the NW.

For example:

Touché

Official rules can now be found on our website: http://www.44cup.com/rules

I'm late to the party... as perhaps I always am... But I just read the rules and see that shaved door handles are only a Prep 1 change?!?

I bought a car in the fall, that happens to have shaved door handles, but no other Prep 1 changes. I can't believe people really think that the aerodynamic drag savings from door handles is really worth 150 lbs of ballast! And if the rule isn't there for aerodynamic reasons, then please explain why it *is* there.

Seriously though, in Stock, *any* exterior mirrors are free. In fact, they can be legally removed completely! Wouldn't that have a much larger aerodynamic impact than door handles?

So, while I thought I was getting into low budget racing, I now find that I have to either have to: a) carry around the 150# weight penalty of Prep 1, and, perhaps, if I want to be competitive, I need to invest in a light weight flywheel, larger rims, bigger tires, larger brakes, a rear wing and custom transmission ratios! Or, b) buy a new set of doors, strip them, trim away the extra metal, paint them to match and install them so I once again have door handles.

Obviously getting new doors is cheaper than all that's legal in Prep 1, but it's still a lot of work.

So, I'll end this rant with: is there actually empirical evidence that the deletion of door handles gives a competitive advantage?

No. But then again we dont have any emperical data for any of the mods we allow . The rules have evolved over the last 11 years for the purpose of including as many 944 race cars that are out there. We categorize different mods in different prep levels for either performance or perception reasons.

For the "Stock" prep level, we have tried of late to keep the car to as close to the PCA or SCCA stock rules as thought practical. The original PCA rules we patterned our rules after required a bump in class for most of the mods we include in Prep 1. But we didnt want to have more then one class for the 8V NA 944, so we created Prep 1 instead. Hence, Prep 1 becomes a catch all for most additional performance mods to the class. So if a car shows up at the track which does not meet "Stock" rules, they can still race just need to bump to a different Prep level.



Of course the door handles are not worth carrying 150 lbs. , nor do any one of the mods allowed for Prep 1. But the rules allows a car to race with us with the door handle mods vs not racing at all or changing the handles back to stock, an owner choice.



Or (c), return the existing door handles to the stock configuration.



Does it require less effort for you to change your handles back to stock ,if you prefer to compete in "Stock", OR for all other drivers currently racing in "Stock" to delete their door handles and pockets to take full advantage of the rules. Whether deletion of the handles actually has a significant effect on performance is not as critical to the rules change as is the perception that the change does matter.

Think of it this way, if you wanted to race your new car in Cup class any of the last 10 years, you would have been required to change your handles. The rule change for door handles for 2012 now gives you an option if you dont want to change the handles to still race with us. So this year you have a choice, last year you did not. That's a good thing.

From what I'm seeing, as a car model gets older it becomes harder to keep it stock. The rules seem to be geared to let us keep these things on the track, especially as we bang them up and pieces become more scarce. I would think that by this time a showroom stock 944 is nonexistent.

Kudos for keeping us going, DD.