Norm Eric and I ran Spec and Cup last year at Nationals. I certainly hope to do both again this year. The issue is that some Spec guys want to run Spec and GTS.

At Hyperfest there were thirty-three Cup cars, plus Super Cup. I used Hoosier's on Fuchs(you know them well) and added a header and DME with a chip. I was not dyno'd there but at home I was 7-8 Hp below the Cup allowed 146 for a 2.5. On Saturday I qualified and finished fourth. On Sunday I qualified fifth, six tenth off of pole. I think that changing tires and DME with a chip is doable between race groups, although headers are not.

So a Spec car can be competitive and maybe a winner with a better driver than me. Case Crowell, who is seventeen, ran on Toyo's at 2530lbs and was ahead of me both days.

Bill

I have emailed NASA National that I am agreeable to separating Cup & Spec into separate run groups, and I know Dave Derecola has as well. If the option of runing with GTS-1 also exists, I would choose that, as I prefer NASA passing rules to Cup passing rules, among a few other minor issues. I received an email back from JWL that he would do his best to make this all happen for us, and he had forwarded our wishes to Ryan Flaherty, who is doing the run groupings. I do not have anything definitive on this yet, though.

Spec Cars have been competitive in Cup, though this is partially because only Jersey Joe has brought a Cup car built to the limit of the rules so far. Last year, my Lap times were 2nd fastest in Cup at Nationals, doing nothing but bolting on a set of 16" wheels with Hankooks, adding 50lbs of ballast, and adjusting my rear antisway bar. My lack of experience/racecraft, landed me in 4th place, after having caught the second place car with two laps to go. With an LSD, real antiway bars, and no weight penalty (due to changes in Cup rules) my car should be more competitive, and hopefully the driver, too.

Spec ran with GTS-1 last year, and to my knowledge, I finished ahead of those guys, so we can be competitive there as well, at least until someone maximizes the GTS-1 ruleset.

With trackside support, moving between Spec & Cup/GTS setups is very doable. VFC made that happen for me last year, and I'm sure Mantissport could as well. You could either take out ballast to get to 2530 (if the car is light enough) or add on Hoosiers/Hankooks/Khumos +/- DME to make the car faster in Cup/ GTS-1. I think tires are worth more than 70lbs, but more expensive than weight.

so running a spec car in cup, you would have a choice of staying spec with toyos and 2530lbs, or running more weight and better tires/dme/headers?

whose spec car could get to 2530 with driver anyway. i weigh 205 and 2630 in my 83 with 2 gallons in tank. i don't think i could find another 100 lbs to take out.

Eric I agree with you.

rolfgren, a 17 year old, Case Crowell is able to run at 2530. I'm not and it's not the car's fault.

rlofgren wrote:

QUOTE:
so running a spec car in cup, you would have a choice of staying spec with toyos and 2530lbs, or running more weight and better tires/dme/headers?

whose spec car could get to 2530 with driver anyway. i weigh 205 and 2630 in my 83 with 2 gallons in tank. i don't think i could find another 100 lbs to take out.

Yes.

With a lot of effort in little things (scraping undercoating, removing wiring, lock mechanisims, 924S hatch, etc,etc,etc.), the car can get there with a light driver, but it's tough. I do not think 2530 is a reasonable minimum weight, but we didn't have input in those rules. Bolting on tires & swapping a DME is much easier, and likely faster.

Has anyone run a 205/50 R15 RA1?

205/25.4 = 8.07"
225/25.4 = 8.86"

Rims are 7" wide. I've yet to put a track mile on the 944 so I really don't know, but the math says the tire is too big for the rim.

The Hoosier is cantilevered. The Toyo is not.

We went from 15 x 6 rims to 15 x 7s in the early days of SM while still maintaining the 205s. The tires wore better and the laptimes dropped.