2010 - a year of understeer?

MSA Categories
The MSA has decreed that all speed championships will run class structures based on a set of defined categories from 2010. I personally think this is a good idea as it moves towards standardization across the country, meaning that wherever you go, you'll know which class to enter.

However, it is raising a few questions, particularly for road-going cars like mine. The MSA have split road-going cars into two categories - Road-going Series production cars (produced in quantities of over 1,000 per annum) and Road-going specialits production cars (less than 1,000 per annum). Now, I'm pretty sure that my VX220 is a Series production car because the VIN database on VX220.ORG suggests that there were over 7,000 produced in 5 years. My own car has a chassis number greater than 1,000 and it appears to have been built in the first year (2001) but trying to prove this to a scrutineer could be problematic.

Some Lotus variants, like the Exige, appear to have been produced in quantities much less than 1,000 and so will fall into the specialist production category. In many championships (including the Scottish Championships), this will not matter as specialist and series production cars will run together but in some, it means that Exiges will run alongside Caterhams and Westfields.

I guess time will tell how this is going to pan out.

2010 Plans
I've decided to cut down the mumber of events for 2010 and will probably do no more than 15. My plans at this stage include a double-header at Ingliston on 1/2 May, the mighty Doune in April, Kames as often as I can, Forrestburn at least once, Harewood at least once and a foray up north to Fintray or even Golspie.

I've decided, for budget reasons, to keep the car fairly standard with just some wheels/tyres and safety critical mods (harness bar, harness and rear toe-links). This will give me a chance to get to know the car and get my driving up to scratch without spending too much. Hopefully I can still bag a championship award at the end of the year but my real aim for 2010 is an event class win.