A friend of mine sent me the past month's fast track and it has this bit in it:
Street Modified
19531 JDM fix
Update the “JDM-spec cars” verbiage to read “Cars identical to the US-market counterpart except for comfort and convenience modifications as allowed per Section 13.2.A“ in 16.0.B.1.b
The purpose of this seems to me that it is to ban ALL non-USDM cars (ie. euro E36 M3). However it could be to lighten the banning of cars that are "jdm" (so right hand drive if that is comfort and convenience) but otherwise are identical to USDM cars in the modified classes. So this would mean cars like:
Toyota Supra RZ, Savannah RX7 (non Spirit-R), NSX, etc.
I am assuming that cars with difference that would otherwise be legal in this category would still be banned? For example the 180SX which is a SR20DET 240sx. Or JDM Toyota MR2 which has 230hp instead of 200hp due to a different tune? Both of which could be "modded" to that spec and be legal if you have a USDM car.
This doesn't matter so much for me, as I have a Skyline, BUT this could affect my future JDM buying depending on how i'm supposed to take this change.
For those wondering why I would bother importing a car that is sold in the US already (aside the 180SX example) a Toyota Supra in Japan is not only cheaper but you can actually find clean unmodded cars without any rust what so ever with low miles. Such a car would be a good starting point and super rare in the US.
I would think that RHD would by definition fall foul of the rule (changing drivers side would not be something done for comfort and convenience). I could see a protest argument being made that RHD provides a competitive advantage in certain situations.
szeis4cookie wrote:
I would think that RHD would by definition fall foul of the rule (changing drivers side would not be something done for comfort and convenience). I could see a protest argument being made that RHD provides a competitive advantage in certain situations.
And this is exactly why I gave up on SCCA and never looked back. I saw things like this going on and it sucked the fun out of it.
I have specifically talked to the National office about this.
Yes, this rule specifically allows cars that are the same as USDM cars into Street Mod. The side that the driver's seat is on doesn't matter.
Prior to that those cars went straight to DM or EM.
JDM cars that don't have a USDM counterpart technically go to AM.
Remember that of course that this is just at the national level and that local events can class a non-USDM car however they see appropriate (personally I feel SM for 4 seaters and SSM for 2 seaters is appropriate).
drdisque wrote:
I have specifically talked to the National office about this.
Yes, this rule specifically allows cars that are the same as USDM cars into Street Mod. The side that the driver's seat is on doesn't matter.
Prior to that those cars went straight to DM or EM.
JDM cars that don't have a USDM counterpart technically go to AM.
Remember that of course that this is just at the national level and that local events can class a non-USDM car however they see appropriate (personally I feel SM for 4 seaters and SSM for 2 seaters is appropriate).
Glad to hear it, that's what it sounded like.
This is Street Modified we're talking about, the run-what-you-brung class. The few rules that are in place don't stop much in the way of creativity, as evidenced by the 350hp turbocharged Civics and CRX's that dominate the FWD class. I was always pretty amazed that my 2700 lb Sentra did as well as it did locally; it certainly wouldn't have had a chance at the national level unless it suddenly lost 800 lbs of weight.
