joemoia

I was checking out the VTS's and bulletins published at the SWC website and have tried to summerize changes for the upcoming 2007 season. Hopefully I didn't miss any significant changes. If anyone identifies corrections or additions to the info provided below please post.

The C6 corvette is allowed to run a sequential transmission. If equipped wth one, however, the car must run a 5% greater restrictor than C6's equipped with a traditional H pattern transmission. The option of installing a sequential transmission is not available to the C5 corvette, Caddy, GTO or Viper, per their respective VTS's. The 997 GT3 VTS calls for it to be equipped with a sequential transmission, while the 996 GT3 must run an H pattern transmission. C6 and C5 corvettes equipped with an OEM/aftermarket MAF get a 25 lb. reduction from their base weight.

Vipers equipped with ABS must add 100 lbs. to their base weight. There is an exception to this rule for part time, non-winning series entrants.

At events where time and pit space allow, a "knockout" qualifying system will be instituted. After the first qualifying session the 10 fastest qualifiers will be put in "parc ferme", and then run a second session to determine grid positions P1 thru P10.

There is an increase in drivers points awarded for finishing P1 thru P5 (the winner now recives 35 pts. vs. the 30 pts. awarded last year). The SCCA reasons that this will provide greater encouragement for drivers to go for wins.

All cars must be equipped to have a Traqmate GPS based data aquisition installed. The SCCA will instal the system in selected cars prior to race start to aid in obtaining and analyzing car performance data. Previously mandated in-car data systems are still required


2007 Season starting base weights, restrictors and max RPMs vs 2006 starting values for most of the competing cars

C6 corvette
base weight - increase from 2900 to 3025 lbs. (3000 if equipped with MAF)
restrictor - 40%, no change (45% if car is equipped with a sequential transmission)
Max RPM - 7400, no change

C5 corvette
base weight - 2900 lbs., no change (2875 if equipped with MAF)
restrictor - none, no change
Max RPM - 7400, no change

Caddy
base weight - decrease from 3200 to 3150 lbs.
restrictor - 40%, no change
Max RPM - 7400, no change

Viper
base weight - increase from 3100 to 3200 lbs. (3300 if equipped with ABS)
restrictor - increase from 20% to 30%
max RPM - 6200, no change

996 and 997 GT3
base weight - 2850 lbs., no change
restrictor - increase from 20% to 30%
max RPM - increase from 8600 to 8900

AM DB9
base weight - decrease from 3100 to 3000 lbs.
restrictor - decrease from 40% to 20%
Max RPM - 7000, no change

GTO
base weight - decrease from 2950 to 2925 lbs.
restrictor - decrease from 30% to 20%
max RPM - 7400, no change


Current Car count for Sebring race (30 total)

C6 corvette - 7

C5 corvette - 1

Caddy - 2

Viper - 11

911 GT3 - 5

911 TT - 1

GTO - 2

Camaro Z28 - 1

John Shiels

Thanks for all that work Joe

John Shiels

Thanks for all that work Joe

Lancer033

how much more power does the C6 have than the C5 with the extra 125# to push around?

B-ras

Great summary, thanks!

I would imagine any Vette teams that can afford it will gladly trade the extra 5% restictor for a sequential.

davidfarmer

remember, decreasing the restrictor % actually makes it a larger hole.

Also, the restricted C6 TB is still almost as large as the 75mm C5 TB. SCCA Pro's insistence on basing restrictor size on a % of STOCK TB is pretty stupid, imho. They should be basing is on displacement, rpm potential, and number of cylinders (10cyl makes lots of little gulps compared to a 6 cyl making bigger gulps). Of course, a Viper still takes big gulps compared to the Porsche. Anyway, it should be based on choking the intake air speed, not just arbitrally assuming the stock TB is sized correctly. As people have already found out, the LS6 setup flows better than the larger LS2 setup in testing

joemoia

Hopefully without instigating a "favored marque" thread (although that is probably inevitable) I'm curious as to the SCCA's decisions/rationales concerning the sequential transmission. SCCA imposes a 5% restrictor increase on C6's that run the seq. box. This implies that they believe that a seq. box results in a performance advantage over a C6 equipped with an H box, so the SCCA "balances" the performance between the 2 configurations by imposing the greater restrictor on the seq. box equipped C6.

For the 997 and 996 GT3's, however, SCCA VTS's mandate a seq. box for the 997, and mandate an H box for the 996. Based on their actions associated with the C6, you would expect that the SCCA would impose some type of performance balance on the 997 to equalize the performance between the 2 models. However the weights, restrictors and max RPMs are the same for both the 996 and 997. Maybe I'm missing something with respect to the relative performance between the 997 and 996, but it seems inconsistent when compared to the performance balancing on the C6.

I'm also curious as to why, if the C6 is allowed to run a sequential transmission, that the same option is not allowed for the Caddys, Vipers, etc.

AU N EGL

Isn't SCCA and decisions/rationales an oxymoron?

The GM Motorsports transmission is no longer made. SO all the C6s must use the stock trans configuation.

The GM Motorsports trans was a close ratio gear box. The Holonger sequential will have the same close ratio gearing as the GM motosports transmission did.

B-ras

I think I was unclear in my phrasing. If figure at most tracks the sequential would be worth going from 40% to 45%. I've heard those sequentials aren't cheap though, which could be a consideration for privateers.

RX7 KLR

The "stock" box in a 997 GT3 Cup car is seq with no lift shifting. The 996 has a regular trans.
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....rticle_id=3671

Sure looks like they stuck it to the Viper guys.

Looks like a good year to be a 997 driver.

xsiveone

They'll most likely change everything after Sebring anyway, so I don't know how much this matters.

AU N EGL

The Hollinger Sequentials are 19-20 large from LG.

BrianCunningham

Thanks for the work Joe.

Best of luck to all the drivers.

John Shiels

then again and again and again and so on

AU N EGL

SO for a new guy to SWC Sebring is the race to win, everyone else might be dogg'n it

LG Motorsports

Thanks joe for the summary.

I promised the series that I would not post any of my thoughts about the rules regarding wether they are right or wrong. But I can fill you in on the details that won't go against my pledge. (remember we have a new "chief" in the series so the old guard is gone)

Your assumptions are correct. IF a Corvette can win, it will be Sebring because the "Sand" will be flying.

You missed the viper getting a tire size upgrade to 305 front tires from the 275s that we all run. And they got Mahle Pistons and Carillo rods too.

And the Porsche 997s got some "driver upgrades" with Randy pobst and Mike Galati driving them.

We (a group of WC Corvette teams) made a one time purchase of 10 Holinger dog ring gear boxes, that they will not have ready for another 12 weeks. By buying 10 boxes we got a little bit of a discount from the normal $19,500.

We will be running the GM motorsports box for the next 3-4 races until the new ones come in. Sonny whelen, Tony Gaples and My team all bought the new gear boxes.

The problem with the old transmissions was that they would be real clumsy shifting after only slight use, and they would hold you in Neutral instead of hitting 5th gear. So we had to rebuild them every race to keep them shifting as fast as we wanted. That made the cost of even the stock GM Motorsport box expensive throughout the season with 3 cars and 6 transmissions. And the GM boxes cost over $5000 for $30k just for the transmissions alone.

Now the new Holinger will run us around $50k for 3 cars but the cost to maintain them will run less than half for a total savings through out the season.

The POrsche 997s run a Holinger sequential trans also. That is why we are having to wait 12 weeks

The Viper has enough torque that they were never allowed to run the better gearing like the Corvettes have in the Motorsports box. So they had no shortage of parts, and they don't shift as much with 9 million ft pounds of torque.

The LS2 restricted vs the LS1 unrestricted are near the same in power to weight. The LS6 manifold is better than the LS2 so that equals the numbers out for the series specs. Plus they skewed the rules in favor of the C6 just because SCCA did n't want a C5 beating a C6 and they wanted to encourage more C6 cars to come out.

As always the Caddy has so many concessions given to them with the chassis that they brought to the series, that it takes about 100+/- pounds to overcome that with a C6. Farmer knows all about that car.


I feel that the officials should have a better handle on the series than last season. They will be using a new GPS data system for the first time, and they have a new mission to equalize the cars to the point that rewards weight will actually hurt when added.

I have a good feeling about the new management in the series. I am expect them to come through to impliment whatever is necessary to bring the cars in line with each other.

Of course the Corvettes are not happy that we had to keep the 75 pounds on our cars that was added for the last 2 races of 06 but it is a 10 race series. while at the same time the other brands got positive changes for 07 so it is a double hit.


I am glad that there is so much interest in the series. It is really a great series, and I feel that 07 will be a great season.

See you at the races.

Lou Gigliotti

PS, The new maximum brake size has been up sized to 15 inch rotors. Last season only the Porsche could run the 15" stock brakes (stock )
We have put a new Stoptech 15 " brake package up front for this season.

AU N EGL

Go get them Lou


Joe aka Tom