As the Pony Car Wars seen and experienced during the mid to late 1960’s-early 1970’s Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Trans-Am race series began to fade with declining factory support and waning fan interest, the SCCA began to shift to race series using “showroom stock” small sedans (like the Opel Ascona 1900 and the Vega 2300) and to an additional “showroom stock” series using the multiple affordable sports cars available in the early 1970’s.
To make the sports car racing series affordable $4000 (inflation adjusted to $22,742 in 2018) was the allowable price ceiling. This R&T test comparison included most of the sports cars available in the US in 1973 qualifying within the financial limits of the SCCA. The results in many ways were surprising, not the results expected by “common sense”. Sophistication didn’t always translate to racetrack success. Who would have suspected that the relatively ancient Triumph GT6 and the MGB roadsters would be as good as they actual were on the race track. Who would have suspected that the Opel GT would set the second fastest lap times, or that the mid engine 914 would come in third place.
The horsepower figures for all the participating cars were all lower than the same cars in 1970/1971 due to the industry wide shift from S.A.E gross horsepower to the newer S.A.E. net horsepower values.
Some of these cars were soon to disappear (Opel GT and Karmann Ghia) from the market or would soon have large, heavy even ugly bumpers (like the MG’s, Triumph, and Fiat) due to the pending soon to be required Federal mandated bumper standards.
The Datsun 240Z didn’t qualify for the Showroom Stock Sports Car due to price and power. When the 240Z was initially placed in a class with the MGB GT, Porsche 914, and Opel GT, in 1970-1971 , it blew the doors off its competitors, by having a higher top speed than the Porsche 911T. Ineligible for the Showroom Stock Sports Car Series, Datsun 240Z was placed into the SCCA C-Production class where it dominated with drivers like Peter Brock, Bob Sharp, and later Paul Newman (who ultimately won the C-production national championship in his 240Z).
This comparison test was published by R&T in April 1973.
Interesting, would have been fun to try a lap at Riverside in one of these. I guess now that RIR has been redeveloped into a shopping mall and subdivision that would increase the value of low speed swerving and braking 🙂
Spitfire is still on my short list, so nice to see that it was more fun than fast
Awesome idea. I would _love_ to see an MG Midget rally held in a shopping mall.
“The new Oldsmobiles are in early this year!”
This approach to classifying Showroom Stock racers didn’t last long. A few years later, the SCCA consolidated the sports cars and sedans into three classes Showroom Stock A, B, and C. By 1978 when I started, the hot cars in SSA were the Porsche 924, 280Z, Mazda RX7, and Mustang Turbo. In SSB, the Saab 99 (non Turbo, the Turbo was in SSA), Mazda RX3 and Alfetta 2 liter were fast. In SSC, a motley crew including Rabbits, Colts, Fiestas, Pintos and even Gremlins, and later the Fiat X1/9. The rules allowed cars from the previous 3 model years and no modifications.
At some point this became difficult to manage, with cars quickly becoming obsolete, (or uncompetitive if reclassified) and the Showrooms Stock classes only lasted a few years before being replaced by classes like Spec Miata and Improved Touring, which allowed typical tuner mods like wider tires and aftermarket suspension.
For what it’s worth, I never saw a Showroom Stock Ghia, MG, or Spitfire on the track.
This selection is odd to me because my memories of the early days of Showroom Stock as promoted by Car & Driver involved mostly economy cars like Opel Kadetts Ford Pintos and Datsun 510s. This would have been around 1973-74 when we went to the C&D sponsored race at Lime Rock. I don’t remember seeing much in the way of sports cars at that race, although I do remember rain and meeting Patrick Bedard.
To add to dman’s comments, part of what killed Showroom Stock in the later years was how expensive it became. Because “blueprinting” an engine was prohibited, top teams would disassemble three or four engines and then use selective assembly to turn the resulting pile of parts into one optimum spec engine. In contrast, Improved Touring allowed blueprinting engines so you only needed a god machine shop and one set of parts to build a competitive engine.
Showroom Stock started in 1972 with the sedans … Opel, Pinto, etc … and then the sports cars were added as a second class in 1973. This is implied early in the R&T article shown in this post, but the description is a little misleading.
Although the two classes ran together typically in the same race, they were classified separately. In fact, execpt in National Runoff events, the SS cars often ran with H Production cars, highly modified sports cars with racing slicks (Fiat 850, bugeye Sprite) that were often slower in a straight line, but could easily outcorner and outbrake the SS cars.
Anyway, as I wrote, within a few years the SCCA went from two to three Shworoom Stock classes and created far more equitable racing. Until the blueprinting, and shaved tires, and trailering of cars to events took over …
Reading this just makes it even clearer that the Datsun 240 through 280z models were vastly superior to comparable sports models. While I appreciate the older designs of the European makers, especially from an aesthetic viewpoint, it’s no wonder they faded from the market.
On a related note it would be interesting to see how the cheaper ones – Spitfire, Midget, Ghia – would’ve stacked up against sedans available for similar money. For that matter, did the VWKG offer any advantages on the track over a much cheaper Beetle?
That is what I was thinking. The Ghia is heavier, but more aerodynamic and maybe a slightly lower CG. US spec Beetles had drum brakes all-around, but so did the Rabbit. Maybe the Super Beetle with modern front suspension would have been the best VW.
Still, 46hp is 46hp.
It would be interesting to take an early Miata back through a time machine to run with this crowd.