Class change proposals, effective 1/1/2006, are being recommended to the BOD:
- Acura RSX (Non-'S') from GS to HS
- Acura TSX from GS to HS
- Honda Civic Si ('02+) from GS to HS
- Hyundai Tiburon 6-cyl ('02+) from GS to HS
- Pontiac Vibe from GS to HS
- Saturn DOHC models from GS to HS
- Toyota Matrix (all) from GS to HS
- Civic Si ('99-'00) from GS to HS
- Mazda 3 (all) from GS to HS
- Nissan 200SX SE-R ('95+) from GS to HS
I am not that fast and autocross for fun, so this will have little effect on me. Is it me or are our cars in for a rough time next year? I think the MINI handles side to side transitions better that most of the listed cars, but may be hurt in the sweepers and on more open courses. What about power to weight ratio for the MINI vs the cars coming from GS?

I consider myself a rookie still with only a year and a half of autocross under my belt. I would like to hear the comments from those with more knowledge.

 

i have certainly been wrong about things like this before, but ya, I think some of these cars will be very competitive... Particularly the Civic Si's.

 

Yeah, the Civic Si was pretty good in the old "ES" and could be competitive. But the one that worries me most is the Tiburon. Its an unknown factor nationally so the SEB had to make its decison completely on specifications. On paper it looks heavy, poorly balanced, and not all that quick. But I've seen one in action locally and it has performend better than I would have thought. The guy who drives it is good but not all that experienced. He can usually run within a second (on a ~50 second course) of me and my co-driver who are not National Trophy winners but not National DFL'ers either. And he's on stock shocks, stock alignment, stock swaybar, even stock tires while we're running a low option 04 Base Cooper with Sport Plus suspension, base Cooper front bar, maxed alignment, and old-but-servicable A3S03 Hoosiers.