H Stock Ran against a Ralliart Lancer

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  #1  
Old 06-05-2004 | 10:51 AM
ggp's Avatar
ggp
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I ran against a Ralliart Lancer at the CENDIV event in Rantoul a couple weeks ago. Don't know what struts or sway bar he was running, but he had "sticker" Hoosiers on aftermarket wheels. The course had 3 pretty tight sweepers, almost "hairpins," He was obviously killing the Coopers coming out of the corners with all the torque. After day 1 he was up on all 3 Coopers in the class by about a second. But something wasn't looking right to me about the car. It just looked a lot "fatter" than the Ralliarts I'd seen at the dealerships. The wheels appeared to have a lot less offset than stock before the 1/4" spacers that were visible. They were stamped "16x7" on one of the spokes. Having previously worked at a Mitusbishi store, I knew it wasn't common for Mitsubishi to specify such a wide wheel for a 205-section-width tire.

That evening I tried to catch my buddy in the parts department at the Mitsu store where I used to work to get the o.e. wheel specs but he was already gone. So I hit the internet. Couldn't find any "official" info on the stock wheel size but one press article I found said 16x6 and another said 16x6.5. Not definative, but not 16x7 either. I filed a protest the next day. The car owner did not have the FSM nor a set of stock wheels to measure so he was DQ'd.

I felt kinda' bad; it was the first protest I'd filed in 10 years of autocrossing. But jeez, everybody knows the Ralliart is eventually gonna get moved to GS. If you're gonna come pick on HS in the meantime you better have your stuff together. I think he woulda' probably beat us even with stock wheels. Heck, I think he was quick enough to win GS on stock wheels.
 

Last edited by ggp; 06-07-2004 at 09:10 AM.
  #2  
Old 06-05-2004 | 11:16 AM
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minihune
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Joined: Feb 2003
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From: Mililani, Hawaii
The SCCA rules are clear and made to keep the playing field as even as is possible.
Your protest was a valid one and each participant needs to read the rules and ensure that they are legal, if not they put themselves up for scrutiny and protest which will be enforced.
That's why having the Solo 2 rule book handy is a good reference.

I think there are some drivers that participate that just don't know the rules or don't know the stock specs and expect to run in stock classes as is. They need to get legal and play by the rules or move up to other modded classes.

Rims and tires do make a huge difference in autocross. Good detective work.
 
  #3  
Old 10-20-2004 | 08:53 AM
IamRascal's Avatar
IamRascal
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From: Frederick, MD
since tires are such a large part of autox you shouldn't feel bad. If I could put 15x7 tires on my sunfire (till I get my MCS next year) I would fit 225 size tires. They provide a drastic advantage.

it's a competitive sport. cheating can't be tolerated, even if unintentional
 
  #4  
Old 10-20-2004 | 04:39 PM
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ggp
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I never ran against that guy again but he did get legal wheels and run some more CENDIV events. Relative to other people that ran those events and the event where I ran against him he was a couple seconds slower. I guess those extra-wide wheels and extra-legal spacers made a big difference!
 
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