Cars with motor swaps, what class do they fall into?

S

Simon Tuman

Well-known member
Im considering purchasing a car that has a motor swapped in from a different company, but not sure what class that ends up in? Is it possible to compete in ST? or would it be in an unlimited class? I remember the RX7 with the LSX motor in it, but cant remember what class that car is in. I'd be scary to have to compete with that car, but Im pretty sure thats who the competition would be (amongst the other LSX swapped cars)
 
The various SPx classes are available to anything you could call a "car." You choose SPO/SPM/SPU based purely on engine displacement. Cars with engine swaps (as is mine) are eligible for ST if the engine is from the same manufacturer as the chassis, so the one you describe would NOT be legal there. I think a car with a swap is legal for ITE, but I'm less sure of the details.
 
Not unless the DFV/DFX is considered a production engine (it isn't) and was available to the general public (it wasn't). A proposed rule change would make that restriction even clearer.
 
That, and of course even if it was legal your car would have to weigh somewhere between 4,000 and 11,000 pounds depending on which variant of that engine you decided to use ..... porky!
 
so what about drivetrain mods? (sorry if im going WAY off topic) I have a A1 chassis VW that is getting a 16v, but a different trans, as well as a syncro rear beam with Haldex AWD. firewall wont be touched, but tunnel and custom rear subframe support will be added
 
Engine block must be from manufacturer matching body, but tranmission and rear axke are free I believe - perhaps better than relying on the various posters memory and opinions regarding ST rules, you could just ...

READ THE DAMN RULEBOOK!

It is no harder than reading the forum since it is posted right here on the ICSCC site under the REFERENCE tab in the COMPETITION RULES AND OTHER REFERENCES section. ST rules are on page 86, section 1324.

In SP, the rule is that there are no rules apart from safety requirements and classing via displacement.

Always a really good idea to be completely familiar with the rulebook whether buying or building a car. Don't want to invest a lot of money and/or time in something that then surprises you by not actually being legal. wThis starts the ages old sequence of pretending your car is legal, then denying that you knew it was illegal, then torturing some interpretations trying to convince everyone that in an alternate universe your car could actually be considered legal, followed by the tedious business of trying to convince all of your competitors to change the rules (and all of their cars) because you don't want to have to flush all the money and time you spent making your car illegal to rebuild it back to the rules everyone else has been racing under the whole time.
 
Sorry, but readiing the rulebook is not very useful advice for a new guy. I understand many of them now, but as a new guy they are a maze. I was trying to find a fit for an older car only to finally find out a small section of an obscure chart didn't list my year.
I think we need to update the website to include a better, human readable section explaining each class in enough detail that the HPDE guy can read it and know where his car fits.
Maybe ask that a driver from each class write a brief synopsis? I'll do one.
 
I tried several months ago to get drivers to write a thumbnail sketch of their class. I didn't ask for much but I still had very few takers. You can see the thread here.
 
Thanks for be bringing it up again. One suggestion to do this collaboratively is to start a Google Doc and invite those who want to work on each area. I'll help out with Production classes.
 
Seems like we could contribute to that thread without forcing interested parties to sign up for another site/service.
 
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