Would You Vintage Race A Rad Era Classic?

The vintage group I race with has brought up the topic of newer cars. Note I am all for this.

So it begs the question; would being able to vintage race a Rad era car motivate you to go vintage racing.

My thought is there are a lot of older improved touring cars out there that don't get run much.

Additionally I think vintage has the advantage of contact being highly frowned upon. For me there is great value in knowing somebody isn't going to full send it into my door or think rubbing is racing.

Like a Spec Miata?

Rad era cars are already eligible for vintage racing, are they not?  Which means, for the most part, the answer is no- assuming that races are not being filled up.

If I were, I would be in a 75/Milano.  Easier to find cheap ones vs. a GTV6.

As to Keith's suggestion- IMHO, Rad Era is too old to be worried about.  It's time for early 90's cars to be let in and accepted without any issues.  That was 30 years ago, and vintage racing was allowing 20 year old cars when I first found out about it in that era.  

In reply to alfadriver :

Spec Miata covers 1990-2005 :) 

In reply to Keith Tanner :

We've got a couple of Spec Miata cars running now.

I would to to see some Improved Touring CRXs and MR2s running.

Those cars are out there; I see them on Racingjunk and the like but I don't see them running locally.

Anything from the 20th century should be eligible, since it's at least 25 years old.

Heck, if the 20 year rule was applied as mentioned above, we could have C6 Corvettes out there. 

I 100% support allowing newer cars in.  Otherwise you'll keep losing participants since the pool of people who care about Spitfires and 2002s is getting smaller by the day.  

In reply to Puddy46 :

Also race prepped 2002s and 510s are becoming pricey.

I've talked with a lot of my vintage racing peers (I'll be 34 this year) about this. My feeling is that the old guard that is against it needs to accept the fact that 80s and early 90s cars are vintage now and should be allowed at events. I also think that the people who are against the rad era cars are in the minority but are just very forceful about it. Even if they take baby steps and run an 1980+ run group, my feeling is that most people my age are much more into the rad era than the earlier stuff.

Even my E21 that seems to be a crowd favorite at every event I go to gets grumblings and mumblings about it being too new and it's a '79. If it were an '80-'83, I'd bet I couldn't run it many places. 

I also totally agree it would bring some old IT cars out of retirement. 

Yes - all e36s, 300zx, rx-7s, miata, supra (mk 3&4), integra type r, viper, NSX,  C5 corvettes, SN95 mustangs, are all vintage at minimum now.

In reply to AxeHealey :

The club is trying to come up with a structure that would be most appealing to folks who want to race newer cars.......so they are looking to the future.

I through the idea out that they go with Improved Touring cars since IT cars would be of similar pace to current cars.

Tom1200 said:

My thought is there are a lot of older improved touring cars out there that don't get run much.

Do  vintage orgs have Imptoved Touring classes now

I haven't done a lot of vintage racing, but enough to know that there are a few factors at play here. One is that the old guard is resistant to SM's and the like because they've had some incidents with SM drivers coming in with a "Spec Pinata" mindset and messing up other people's cars. The other is old-fashioned elitism. I have a generally positive view of vintage racing but I never got the impression that they were really eager to bring new drivers in newer cars. 

In reply to L5wolvesf :

Yes one of the groups run them.

In reply to ShinnyGroove (Forum Supporter) :

Some clubs do have that elitism.

The club I run with now was very sniffy about Japanese cars 30 years ago. Now Japanese cars are probably 30-40% of the entries.

I think vintage clubs are becoming more mindful of the need to be flexible.

There's definitely a lack of 80s cars in vintage racing, but 90s cars are still being campaigned in series like Gridlife or World Racing League.

Usually when SVRA comes to town a later car is lumped into the touring class. Never together in the same year, but I've seen an IS300, S2000, and E30 BMW. Most of the 80-90's entries are sports prototypes or big power GT cars.

Puddy46 said:

Heck, if the 20 year rule was applied as mentioned above, we could have C6 Corvettes out there. 

My impression is that the intent of vintage racing is to give a place to race things that aren't competitive in the "modern" classes.  20 years seems a bit short for that at present -- if it was then my E46 M3 would qualify and they're pretty competitive in various NASA and SCCA classes.

I think the club racing cars of today are much closer to those of 20-30 years ago than those cars were to the ones 20-30 years before that.

I also see the speed differential between what I usually see at a pre-80's track day vs what I see from late 90's car as being detrimental. There ARE fast cars in some of those vintage groups but they seem a lot slower than more modern cars. Could possibly play with run groups but I was overtaken in the rabbit once fast enough that it shook me.

I've been vintage racing my 1987 190E 2.3-16 for well over a decade now

Only stopped racing the Mercedes because it's been replaced by a 1988 E30 M3

In reply to LanEvo :

I thought of you when I posted this.

Some Radwood era vintage race cars I'd love to run if I had the time and money for such a thing:

I have a 2nd Gen RX-7(87 I believe) that was being built to E-Production/GT-3 that I would sell. It has a Pettit built 13-B, Turbo II transmission, KONI coilovers, Turbo II brakes, ATL fuel cell, aluminum radiator, SDJ built 48IDA Weber and cut manifold, OMP seat, Cool Shirt set-up and more. 
 

Both of our Benzes are Rad era and are well raced. So yes

For me, the Radwood era (which I take to mean late-'80s to early-'90s) is the sweet spot for vintage racing.

Cars from this era are still relatively light and compact, but they're generally better built and less corrosion-prone than cars from the '60s and '70s. To me, they have "just enough" technology: basic EFI and ABS systems ... and not much else. You can still find parts. They generally work with 15" wheels and tires. And at 30-40 years old, they can legitimately be thought of as "vintage" IMNSHO. 

Maybe a little new for some, but from HSR at Sebring this weekend.

VARAC (vintage auto racing assoc of Canada) has a class Group 90 to allow 1990 to 97 cars to run...

https://varac.ca/carinfo/race-classes/

ggarrard