Ever since the SR2 rules were published at the SCCA Convention earlier this month I have been thinking about them. Specifically, I keep thinking about the age-old question, "What is the cheapest practical competitive car in the class?" AFAIK, there was never a realistic answer to the question under the old paradigm of CSR and DSR, as no really affordable car could be made competitive. Starting about 10 years ago DSR was as expensive as CSR, or more so, to run at the pointy end.
But if the CRB sticks to it's guns SR2 can be different, because the class is set up with spec lines to help assure many different types of cars can be competitive. At long last that gives us a chance to come up with a really cheap -- not just "relatively affordable" -- answer to the question. The benchmark-presumptive car in SR2 is the Euro Sports 2000, a $75,000 (base price) machine that is beautiful and fast...but NOT cheap, or even relatively affordable by most measures. I was chatting on the phone the other day with Wayne Felch up at Stohr when the conversation came around to the cost of cars, and Wayne said something that really struck a chord with me. He said that there are a fairly large number of folks who can afford a fifty thousand dollar car, but that when the price of a car goes over that price point the pool of buyers really drops.
I can well believe Wayne's point. In fact, other constructors have told me much the same thing, only they cited even lower price points where sales dried up. Moreover, if that point is true it has severe implications for pinning the hopes of SR2's future growth on the Euro S2. So I asked myself if one could build a competitive SR2 car for half that price.
The answer I came up with is to revive an old idea that never quite made it to a National class...the Sports Racer Vee. Don't laugh. Instead, think of a Formula First on steroids...and with full bodywork. Like the cars in FV and FST, SRV would rely on mandated low-cost Volkswagen components for cost containment. In the draft for a spec line in SR2, I've borrowed elements of FV, FST and Solo Vee's rules, with additional allowances to assure adequate performance in SR2. The linked pdf document contains a complete draft of the proposed rules, which if approved can be pasted into the GCR as a spec line SR2, just as are the AMACs, Stohrs, Enterprise Sports Racer and others.
Please feel free to download, read and comment on the draft. I've even embedded some questions in the draft I'd like input on, but I plan to submit something very similar to this to the CRB for consideration fairly soon. Also, I tried to list the source of each section, sometimes down to individual lines...it should be self-explanatory.
SRV draft rules - version 1