Looking into purchasing a crx to race in scca events? What model, ie, si etc is best suited for this; and does anyone know what the limitations are to any mods i can do to it?

 

By race do you mean road racing or autocross?

88-91 CRX-Si, is pretty dominant in most regions as an ITA road racer (ideally 88Si). Road racing is heavily regulated to keep a level playing field. Don't expect to do what you see on the street or drag-strip. Expect engine bolts-ons (up to the throttle body and behind the exhaust ports), shock/strut/sway-bars, internally stock engine (except .040" overbore allowed and balance/blueprinted), gutted interior.... there's more, but this is the major stuff. Look at http://www.opmmotorsports.com, see what they sell, and you will get the idea of the major mods.

Auto-X, you could find several classes for any generation/trim level car and have a good chance. Depending on the class, mods can be from "stock" to almost anything goes Street-Mod2.

Really tho, buy the GCR or Solo2 rulebooks. Go to an event and ask some of the competitors (who aren't busy) what they do/recommend. There's too many little details for anything other than a general answer.


[Modified by XrcR6, 3:44 AM 5/1/2002]

 

If find it interesting and just plain stupid that anti-swap rules are made in the name of 'leveling the playing field'. After all, swapping is MUCH more cost effective than a stock engine buildup. Consider the cost of an SOHC VTEC swap into any CRX vs the cost of building up the stock engine to even get the same output as an SOHC VTEC without bolt-ons (especially if that CRX is an HF or DX!) and the unfairness of this rule becomes apparent. Requiring people to work with the stock engine is actually counterproductive in the sense that it favors those people with the most money.

 

If find it interesting and just plain stupid that anti-swap rules are made in the name of 'leveling the playing field'. After all, swapping is MUCH more cost effective than a stock engine buildup. Consider the cost of even a B-swap vs boring, balancing, and blueprinting the stock engine and the unfairness of this rule becomes apparent. Requiring people to work with the stock engine is actually counterproductive in the sense that it favors those people with the most money.

 

Re: Road Racing, I can see some point to it and feel your's too. Basically I feel SCCA rules tend to be dated with the current trends that enthusiasts follow, because they are based on good intentions from the past.

I think the original intent is that as a new driver you should be working on skill not buying $peed. Its club racing and you aren't supposed to be racing wallets, they're trying to make competition available for everyone since this is at a grassroots level. This is where I think there is a flaw in this day and age, for some of the reasons you stated (i.e. basically backfiring, availability of B16's, etc.). But this reasoning is also based in the past (and I mean like 60's), when all your options were pretty much OEM and there were no drastic model differences between US and ROW (rest of world).

A lot of the reasons are also safety based, etc. For example, they are **** about lightened flywheels because they are afraid of tranny explosions. But nowadays you can get billet Al or Cro-Moly, so that isn't a problem. Same with brake upgrades, etc. Can you imagine trying to sell a Hasport-type, 3 mount installation to Tech? I think they believe its simpler to rely on the factory engineering for reliability and safety. So ok, say stock B16 is legal, its hard to police since it was never shipped to the US. How does a tech scrutineer tell whether anything is stock?

I can see how you should start in ShowroomStock, don't touch the car, just show up and drive/learn. Move on to IT, get to make a few mods. now that you are faster. And then onto Production -> GT if you want. Your skill increases and if you want to go faster, spend more $$ and development time move to a higher class.

But as they say, "times have changed" and the same rules don't entirely make as much sense anymore. But since they have been around for so long, there's a big group that has invested in that rules structure. So now you have this problem where if you cater to one group, the other gets pissed, and vice versa. I think the majority should be served in a case like this. However, its kinda Catch-22 to get a majority pulling for swaps, since the existing drivers don't want to since they are going to loose their investments (even if they see the value) and any new ones have to abide by the existing rules. I guess the only quick solution is to open another class alltogether, and then you get into participation level requirements, yet another class, etc. But look at NASA, they've capitalized on this with ECHC. Even west coast had a Honda only class for a while.

But yeah, my friend was in SSB way back when with a true SS 88Si. Basically having to fight againts guys who threw so much money (trailered, rebuilds every year, new tires every 2-3 races, etc.) all for that little "edge". He would beat them, but he was a damn good driver and it wasn't easy considering the advantage they had.
I hated having to (for the rules at the time) buy OEM Honda plugs and airfilters, when I could just get the same NGK's and a K&N stock replacement which would be so much cheaper than the dealer parts dept. So there we were spending a lot more money than necessary...

Very long and probably disjointed. But basically I hear you and agree, but also see their point and how its kinda hard to change something this established. Ah well, I guess its take you business to where you get served best. Maybe NASA will do a "WCHC"...if so, maybe I'll be in line behind you.