Pro-Touring defined?

[TonyL]

Im thinking we need an official "pro-touring" challange. Not so much for the "my car is faster than yours" croud, or match racing. But just from a benchmarking standpoint.

with the NHRA sactioning the first drag races it gave people a benchmark. If so and so ran at the track and had a time slip then people knew his car was legit. We lack this timeslip. A form of certification or validation for our cars. Track days are the first choice. Then auto cross. But both are equal measures of the driver, not the car.

We need to devise a way to test the "pro-touring abilty" of a car. Im thinking slalom, skidpad, 0-100-0 tests.

A pro-touring car shouldnt and can't just be about he parts that make it up. It should be about the performance that it puts down. Testable, repeatable and provable performance. figure this testing method out, make it easy to do, and universal. and we'll have something here. Send us your verified test results and get an offical "pro-touring gold standard" certificate or something.

what do you guys think?

[yody]

Tony the problem with your idea, is it is really going to boil down to who is the better driver, I think it wouldn't work because MOST people don't have enough experience to put down consistent numbers. I know some here do, but personally I have never done anything like that. I think there is nothing to prove, the open track days like the one we had in bakersfield is the best thing. Nothing to prove just everyone bringing out their car and enjoying it, which is what this is really all about. Again like i said in a different thread, what happens here is everyone is "building" their car, and we get caught up in all this bench racing stuff. When you actually meet up with people(from board) and actually go race, everyone is just happy to be driving their car and no one is critisizing anyone because they respect each other for just bringing their car. All of this arguing comes from either people trying to show off "parts" on their car, and are really ignorant to what they really bought, and from so much bench racing.

The way I look at it is that we have 2 type of people and it will be easier to compare it to other parts of the car like the engine than suspension.

You have the guys who buy parts like cylinder heads and cams to make more power, when the car is down they pipe dream about how much more fun the car is going to be to drive, and how much more power they are going to get, and if it is going to be faster or not.

Then we have the guys who buy billet valve covers, "flex" hoses for the radiator, aluminum heads(just because they look cool and are the latest thing), billet pulleys and all that other stuff. They fantasize about how good the engine is going to look, and how fast people will "think" it is when they "pop" the hood. ANd how people are going to be swarming the car at the car show.

I think that pretty much shows the 2 types of people here, the guys who don't care what it looks like, they just want to put their new parts on, and go rip some corners or slam the brakes and feel the difference. They are into "DRIVING" the car, that is the thrill.

Then we have the guys who like the attention, and the look of the car, and want to fit in with the latest protouring trend. They can't wait to show pictures of their latest parts. And hope everyone is going to be looking at them when they drive by.

Me, I am a mix, I am into BOTH. I sit up at night and pipe dream about taking my car out and ripping it up. I can't wait to feel the power of the engine, the grip of the suspension, and the stopping power of the brakes. I can't wait to see if everything I built is going to live up to my expectations! Theres never enough power nad grip!! I ALSO can't wait to give it its first bath, and go to a nice area and take pictures of the car. I can't wait to take it to local car shows and watch people be amazed that my car is what it is and stands out among all the other cars. I love sitting back and admiring the details of my hard work and how nice it looks.

Frank, no offense. I was just confused as I have read various things that you have posted and they all differed from one another. Thanks for setting it straight.

[parsonsj]

All right, let's call this one good.

Lots of ideas and opinions were expressed, with a wee bit of tech. Thanks for all of that.



We're gonna sticky this for awhile in locked state and refer new definition threads to it. Hopefully the loose definitions from Andrew and Ralph will help people struggling with what Pro Touring is.

Let's see how it goes.

jp