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I have been following post on Bimmerforums about last weekend at VIR and there are several BMW club racers that seem to be interested in joining us. One in particular, some of you may know him, posted this:
It will be interesting to see how many Spec E30 cars are ready to race for next season.
Hopefully I’ll be joining you guys next year as well depending on how the build goes. I think growth will be pretty good the next couple of years. Which brings me to a question I asked in another thread but didn’t receive any replys. How do we make sure this doesn’t go the way of spec miata, where it costs 30K to build a front running car? How can we keep this grassroots? I’m sure it won’t be too long before you have to run a rebuilt motor with one overbore but I’m not too worried about that I just don’t want it going to the extreme. What are your guys thoughts on this? I look forward to racing with you guys.
I am sure that Carter and others can offer more. The rules are very specific and very strictly enforced so there is only so much you can do to your car to make it competitive. The whole premise of Spec E30 (as I understand it) is to offer an affordable highly competitive racing series.
If you look at the top running cars many of them have 250,000 plus miles and still win races. I don’t think you’ll see people spending 5k on an engine to gain 5 or 10 hp. Winning races seems to be more about driver skill and a little luck and that’s why I decided to get involved. Its a great group of people and close competitive racing without breaking the bank. I hope it doesn’t go the way of some of the other spec series. That would be a shame.
screwynewy wrote:
Exactly thats why its so attractive to me. Remember thats also why spec miata was so popular.
screwynewy wrote:
I think you’ll be surprised, just give it time.
screwynewy wrote:
Absolutely driver skill will make the difference. Still I look forward to racing with you guys. Sounds like the fields are going to start getting quite large.
I hear you Simon. Thats the whole reason i didn’t go Spec Miata, that and the fact that the cheating is ridiculous. I don’t have any answers though. The more popular the series gets the more issues we will have. The only thing I can think of is to make sure the dyno is at every event and set a wheel hp limit. if a car goes over the limit either add weight or make them start at the back. I know this has all kind of flaws but its just an idea.
I think its just the nature of racing unfortunately. Carter does seem to do a nice job of keeping a handle on things though. I guess we’ll just have to see, still gotta be cheaper than IP 
Mike and I actually looked at Spec Miata somewhat when we were forming Spec E30. And yes, the natural progression for so many sports car racing classes has been to ask the drivers every season what they want to change, rules-wise, and then make (sometimes expensive) changes. Since the guys with built cars have some money lying around, and many are "tinkerers," the costs go up.
With Spec E30, the Rules will remain stable and as simple as possible. A car built this year will be just as competitive as a car built two years from now.
This has proven to be frustrating for some new builders/drivers, especially those who come from existing racing series…and we’ve had to defend our philosophy many times. However, we’re sticking to the program because it has worked well over the last three years and there’s no reason it won’t continue to work for our drivers in the future.
Yes, someone will build "the ultimate Spec E30 car" but if we play our cards right, it won’t have any performance advantage over any other well-built Spec E30 car. We’ll keep an eye on the dyno numbers at the track and we’ll continue to check minimum weights regularly.
We appreciate everyone’s support (we’re not professional race series directors) and we will continue to do what we can to provide a stable and fun racing series.
Carter
Post edited by: Carter, at: 2006/08/02 22:36
Thanks for the response Carter, can’t wait to get out there with you guys. Its going to be a long year 
Simon,
Are you bringing Carlos along as well?
Wasn’t he building a spec car or did he abandon that project?
Rob Jackowitz
RJME wrote:
[quote]Simon,
Are you bringing Carlos along as well?
Wasn’t he building a spec car or did he abandon that project?
Rob Jackowitz[/quote]
I’m finishing what he started, I’m buying his car and that is going to be the basis for my car. I’ll probably let Carlos drive it a couple of times to see if it is something he is really interested in. I think he wants to race but is not quite sure if it is the thing for him yet and doesn’t want to commit a lot of money. So maybe I’ll tickle his fancy and he’ll end up building his own. I think me moving to Spec E30 might attract more from the midwest into the series. We’ll just have to wait and see.
After the rollover at Summit last year they decided to take '06 off. I spoke to Steve and he said they are planning to be back in '07. If/when they’re ready to move forward, I’ll be there to help in any way possible. Steve helped with my car one weekend and I want to return the favor.
Carter