Can anyone clarify exactly what "option package conversion" means in the SCCA Solo rulebook? It's discussed in Chapter 13 (Street Class). Some manufacturers sell trim levels of specific models with option packages within those trim levels. Others sell just trim levels.
Example: Car XYZ is offered in three trim levels.....Base, Sport, and Touring. For the Sport trim level, there are two factory-installed options packages available, one being a sunroof, the other being a cosmetic aero body kit (held on with double-sided tape, to simplify this illustration). Say Mr. Joe Racer owns Car XYZ in Sport trim with the aero body kit. TO save some weight, he wants to get rid of the heavy aero body kit. Is this an "option package conversion"? Or does the rulebook really mean conversion to a different trim level? Or does it mean both?
I've been told "if you can buy it that way from the factory, it's legal". Is that really the case?
In reply to dave_ja2e :
Pretty sure it means you have to do it all. So you can't mix and match whatever is best, otherwise everyone would have a mazdaspeed Miata engine in an E street Miata.
example; v6 mustang guy wants a v8. He needs EVERYTHING the v8 trim came with, including the heavier rear axle, and anything else.
Claff
Reader
7/26/21 8:29 p.m.
It really is Complete package conversion, keyword complete. If your car has body kit and sunroof, and you want to take off the body kit, but you couldn't buy a car with a sunroof unless it also came with the body kit, the body kit has to stay on. If you could buy a sunroof car without the body kit, you can 'convert' your car to that configuration assuming what you're left with is something you could have found on a dealer's lot.
dave_ja2e said:
I've been told "if you can buy it that way from the factory, it's legal". Is that really the case?
I believe that's the core idea, yes. More precisely, you can take your stock car and convert it to any legal configuration that you could have achieved by starting with a different stock car. So if one of the changes between the option packages was the stereo, you can leave that out (because it would have been legal to have changed the stereo if you'd started with a car with the other option package).
codrus (Forum Supporter) said:
dave_ja2e said:
I've been told "if you can buy it that way from the factory, it's legal". Is that really the case?
I believe that's the core idea, yes. More precisely, you can take your stock car and convert it to any legal configuration that you could have achieved by starting with a different stock car. So if one of the changes between the option packages was the stereo, you can leave that out (because it would have been legal to have changed the stereo if you'd started with a car with the other option package).
Correct. To clarify and also complicate it a little, note that "order from the factory" and "buy off the showroom floor" aren't necessarily the same. Dealer installed options aren't legal unless specifically stated in the class listing. Things like iirc you can order a bunch of aero stuff for the higher trim Camaros, not legal because it's installed by you or the dealer, not the factory. The frs trd kit is legal because it's specifically classed, but it bumps you from DS to CS.
dps214 said:
Correct. To clarify and also complicate it a little, note that "order from the factory" and "buy off the showroom floor" aren't necessarily the same. Dealer installed options aren't legal unless specifically stated in the class listing. Things like iirc you can order a bunch of aero stuff for the higher trim Camaros, not legal because it's installed by you or the dealer, not the factory. The frs trd kit is legal because it's specifically classed, but it bumps you from DS to CS.
It works the other way too -- sometimes there are cars with option combinations that were unpopular and thus never ordered by dealers, but it's legal to convert a car to that form if it COULD have been ordered that way. I vaguely recall that a couple people converted normal NB2 Miatas to the very-rare Club Sport spec (radio and AC delete, manual steering rack).
This comes up occasionally with the E Street Miata crowd.
The reputedly best power to weight ratio is the NB1, 99-2000 model years. The package to have is a base model (manual windows, mirrors, possible AC and power steering delete), with the "hard S" suspension.
Hard S, or Sport, has a slightly stiffer spring set and sway bars, bilstein shocks, and a specific shock tower brace (different than the brace used on the 2001-2005), and a torsen limited slip.
If you want to convert another Miata to the NB1 sport package for autocross, it has to be a 99 or 2000, and you need all of the parts of the sport, except that street class allows a change of shocks and one sway bar.
There may be considerations if the car you're converting has leather seats, as I don't think that leather was available with a hard S suspension.
The shock tower brace is different than the one used on the NB2 Miata and is not legal when recreating the 99 or 2000 sport.
