For the $2019 Challenge I'm going to be organizing a group that has been named the Gastropods. This is the thread where we're going to talk about the group and invite people in.
1. The point of this class is to create a place where cars and their builders that have to deal with some externalities outside the current Challenge rule set can play. The idea is to have real road cars that have a real $2000 budget. All cars must meet Challenge rules because this is happening at the Challenge.
2. Anyone can play. Anyone. I'm going to make shirts and stickers and try and get the whole group to paddock close and see how many of us we can get to sit at one table at the banquet. This is about building community.
3. Although everyone can be a Gastropod, if you want to win the snail, you need to fit into the rules. Which haven't been formalized. (We'll talk about that below)
4. Why Gastropod? It's not about slow, it's about coming out of our shells to interact and build the community that we want to see at the non pointy end of the Challenge field. We might also be slow.
Rough rules are as follows and will certainly change at least a bit:
Regular cars. Interiors, lights, wipers, that sort of stuff. I want you to be able to drive me to Taco Bell if the drags rain out.
True $2000 budget. We're not going to hit the recoup game hard. You spend money on it, you put it in the budget. This includes tires. Edit: normal challenge rules for tire costs. Four tires free in the budget. This was done to de-emphasize tire choice as much as possible and let us focus on the cars themselves.
250TW and above for tires (EDIT: this was 300TW. Iy was changed to 250 to be more inclusive while still excluding the current crop of 200tw tires which was is it's intent). I want you to be able to sell the car to you niece at the end and have her be able to put 25k miles on them as she finishes high school. Only four tires for the event.
Edit: We've added a tiny limited recoup capped at $200. To remain eligible for the Gastropod trophy, recoup $ can only be spent on:
Hoses
Belts including timing
Electrical wear items, points cap/rotor plugs and wires.
Gaskets necessary for the retention of fluids.
The idea behind this recoup rule is twofold. 1. It let's everyone focus a bit of money on making the cars more reliable. Broken cars suck. 2. It gives some practice with the act and accounting of recoup which is a vitally important part of eventually getting to the pointy end of the field. I know it's controversial, but let's roll with it and see how it works.
That's pretty much it. I'll make some stickers, I'll make some shirts, I'll make some snail trophies for those that make it into the rules above. If you don't, that's ok, you can still hang, you'll just be fast. Use this thread to encourage and teach and help everyone make it to the event. I look forward to seeing everyone in Gainesville in 2019.
