PCA SDR

Jad wrote: If I put a plastic body on my kart, covering the wheels, could I then run it? Should you be able to run a Cayenne? An truck? A hummer? I feel I know a lot about cars, but I certainly don't know enough about 'rare' cars like we are discussing here to know if it is safe to autocross.

SCCA allows 125 shifter karts and jr. karts with pre-teen drivers to autox on the national and local level, so I would say yes, it is a safe and accepted practice. I have also been in two PCA autox events with Cayennes now. I have been in grid at Solo2 events with Chevy S-10 and Dodge Dakota trucks, and I have run a DE at Laguna Seca with a Ford F-150 SVT Lightning pickup truck! It's not the cars that are unsafe....

TT

Tom, how about the silver car then? Or are you so fast in that thing they have banned that also!!

gulf911 wrote:Tom, how about the silver car then?

It's not ready. I spent all my spare time getting the yellow car fixed.

TT

Though I didnt stick around for the whole day, I did notice a lot of cars and a lot of X-cars at the autocross this weekend. I hope everyone got their laps in.

You know, Tom, when I was there on Saturday, the PCASDR Tech Advisor (who shall remain nameless for his/her protection) went out of his way to tell me that he was familiar with and did not have an issue with your or Brad's car.

So, since it is not a tech issue and certainly with Tom he is not an unknow car or driver, where are we going to be on this issue going forward? How can MY AFFILIATE and his car become known? And are we going to re-examine the Zone 8 DE rules and possible modification thereof for local QDE's?

I think it will only benifit the club and its members.

It sounds like the main deal with the x cars is just that the driver and car need to be established in the club. Obviously, running a couple autocrosses would give everyone a chance to get to know the person and his equipment in a setting where there is no traffic and very little danger to car or person.

The other issue I see here is that PCA is a Porsche club. TT has a Porsche that he runs at events, so he is given more leeway with other cars. Having an affiliate member without a p-car that wants to come to events with something else exclusively just sounds like someone that is trying to get around the spirit of what the club is doing: organizing events for Porsches.

Both of these "issues" aren't codified in the rules anywhere, but seem to sum up various peoples opinions on allowing/not allowing non Porsches running with us.

I'd like to make a few points here.

First, I think what Tom did was very honorable, and I admire him for that. He most likely spent long hours getting his car ready for the event but did not let that stop him from standing up for his principles.

Second, I think Dan makes some good points about the why's and wherefore's of the denial. However, I do not see how his points can be directed to the car and driver in question exclusively. All 4 of his points could also be directed at a PCA member who happened to be down from Oregon with their 904 (or 718, or ...). Would we also reject a Porsche because the driver and car are unknown?

• Both drivers would be PCA members with the requisite (and verifiable) qualifications but have not been to a PCASDR event previously.
• Both cars are distinct and only known to the chairs by reputation.
• Both cars would have a termendous advantage over the other cars on track.

If you were to be equal you would have to turn down a PCA member (with a p-car) for a PCA event. I suspect PCA National would not be happy about that.

And finally, in regards to this being a Porsche club. I do like belonging to an exclusive club. Keeping out the riff-raff is important to me. However, I would also like to be able to invite friends to participate in an event or two. I don't really see a problem allowing guests of a member as long as preference was given to members.

As a good example of this in action, the TT team allows "Guest" participants frequently. And, to the best of my knowledge there have been no problems or issues due to this fact.

As a side note: It is in interesting point of fact that a QDE is more strict than a Big Track DE/TT, when the opposite should be true. But that appears to be the case.

I don't know how successful the club has been at keeping out the riff raff? Have you been in our area of the pits lately?

Would the Tech guys suggest that ALL the cars there on Sat and Sun were safe, decent handling cars?

Mike makes some excellent points. I would say that the club should be as open as possible with letting guests join in as long as it doesn't become a problem and preference is given to club memebers/porsches. Of course that is just my opinion.