Classic American Muscle

http://www.solomatters.com/introducing-classic-american-muscle-cam

Finally, somewhere my hoopties can fit in.

3000lbs

aussiesmg wrote: 3000lbs

It's American muscle, not cheap overseas tin. Lol, I keed.

Holy berking crap!!! The SCCA finally picked up on something less than 10 years after it started?!? I may actually drag my butt out to an event now! And unrestricted everything?!? Oh man, this is going to be FUN!

In reply to Ranger50: Both Ed's and my Fox bodies weighed under 2700lbs at the challenge

Add 300lbs of ballast at strategic locations. Or start eating a lot of McDonald's.

In reply to aussiesmg:

A mustang is a pony car, not a muscle car, to be technical. Muscle cars are based on mid and full size cars.

In reply to Kenny_McCormic: Are you saying there will be no Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers there, cause I will bet you are wrong.

1st paragraph of the blurb

"Muscle cars have always been a passion of mine. Why did I join SCCA? It was because of the TransAm Series and especially the year 1970. In 1970, all of the manufacturers had entries in the TransAm circuit. Ford with their Mustangs, GM with its Camaros and Firebirds, Chrysler with its Barracudas and Challengers and even American Motors with the Javelin. If you were a car enthusiast in the late 60’s and early 70’s, you were aware of Muscle cars. Today you cannot pick up any car magazine that does not talk about autocrossing and how to enhance the suspension on the car of your choice. It makes perfect sense that SCCA find a spot for these cars to compete and have fun."

Engines and drive train are unrestricted?

If I had money, I'd be all over this

No, but the 3000lb rule is probably there to keep people from showing up in race weight pony cars and winning consistently. A stock, no options 8 cylinder 1st gen Camaro is conveniently just over 3000lbs.

1966 Impala = 3700lbs shipping weight.

I've got room to grow! (er... or... shrink?...?)

aussiesmg wrote: In reply to Ranger50: Both Ed's and my Fox bodies weighed under 2700lbs at the challenge

With or without driver? Interior?

Pickups are allowed too? Might add a bit of fun to a few Auto-X events...

3000 lbs with full interior, HVAC and stereo as typical for restomod cars shouldn't be hard for any pony or muscle car to hit - even a Fox Mustang. Since most Challenge cars have stripped interiors for weight savings, they won't be elligible, nor should they.

Hopefully, they won't make this a National Championship class (or maybe provisional, "non-jacket" at most). Keeping it at the regional level should keep the "must win at all costs" crowd away... at least for a little while...

edit: A quick bit of Google-ing found this regarding Fox weights:

LX notchback: 3035 LX hatchback: 3100 LX convertible: 3240 GT hatchback: 3190 GT convertible: 3330 Those are the shipping weights for the V8 models.

Give some background. ESP, my '06 weighs 3200. Madarash's TA weighs in at over 3000. So, if you built for this class, you can cut weight to get down easily CF fenders, etc.. Then ballast up for the class.

Think of CP. Yes, they are gutted huge tires and all. But the class allows for that car, with interior to be built. So you can ballast it up. Plus, it says interior. So, no AC, cheap seats, door panels, and dash.

This is a Money class if anyone wanted to go at it.

Honestly, I don't really mind if its a "money class". We had a couple of restomods out for our last autox (65 Chevelle and a 70something Nova) and they were an absolute hoot to watch. I have little doubt that each car was probably somewhere in the 70-100K range to build. The only tweek I'd like to see for this is some sort of a "pre 19XX" limitation. There's plenty of classes available already for Fox Mustangs and Camaros.

I'd have to ballast the Barracuda to run this class. I'm already under 3000 without the latest round of aluminum engine parts.

Good Idea though and as a regional class I think it will do great. It does give older car guys a place to play. I don't think it will go national though.

This makes me REALLY wish my dad's '55 wasn't setup as a drag car. Actually, I come to that conclusion most of the time when I think about the car.

Says it all:

Wish it was limited to pre 19xx like kazoospec said. Would have given my dad a reason to pull his 69 vette out of the garage. That thing hasn't seen an auto-x since the early 80s.

Least I can get him to hpde his 07 vette a couple times a year.

anyone who has run in the Detroit Council for a long time- this will remind you of the Muscle Car class we had a decade ago. Pre- Street Mod, the class was made to allow typical engine swaps in American Muscle/Pony cars.

That was later absorbed into the local version of street mod.

At least the 200 treadwear tires rule should equalize things a bit. I'd be tempted to run the C10 in it for giggles (and because that thing would be stuck in Street Mod otherwise!).

This is a long overdue idea, its too bad that I no longer own anything that would be in this class.

I've got mixed feelings about the weight limit, my '70 mustang coupe was @2800 lbs with a full interior. I know it wasn't the lightest car of the era. I think that there should be some specific year cut off to, or at least it must be a stick rear axle. Mustang Cobras and new Camaros don't belong in this category IMO.

HappyAndy wrote: I think that there should be some specific year cut off to, or at least it must be a stick rear axle. Mustang Cobras and new Camaros don't belong in this category IMO.

This exactly

yamaha wrote:

HappyAndy wrote: I think that there should be some specific year cut off to, or at least it must be a stick rear axle. Mustang Cobras and new Camaros don't belong in this category IMO.

This exactly

What year though? If you include all the proto-foxes (2004), you get the start of the GTO. SN95 (1998) lets in LS1 F-Bodies. If you back up to the last of the real foxes (1993) you let in LT1 F-Bodies. Last of the carburetored Mustangs (1985) gets you IROC-Z's and TPI. Last of the 2nd Gen F-Body (1981) let's in fox chassis Mustangs (and since the rules are wide open...). Not to mention all the other classic American Muscle Cars you'd cut out that don't have a good class to run in (Monte Carlo SS, Olds 442, Buick GN, etc). You could totally arbitrary like GoodGuys and make the cut off 1972 (and cut out identical 73 & 74 Javelin, AMX, Challenger, Cuda, Firebird - including Super Duty, Camaro, and the 73 Mustang) or 1974 (probably the "best" compromise since it's pre-fox, but you'd kill off the Bandit T/A...).

I like it how it is, let them all run. (Says the owner of a vastly out-classed 1973)