I agree with the intent of this thread. There is something here I would like to address. The concept of using a completely stock frame and suspension is nothing new, it was the idea of making it LIGHTER that was new. Naturally if you make a car a 1000 pounds lighter it only makes sense to allow the single most heaviest item the engine which is 750 pounds to be moved further back in the car. How does this make it a "modified"?? Modifieds are required to locate engines at 72". You can put any body on this chassis, it can take the form of any racing class. Just think of them as mid engine stock cars. These car were never intended for big race "teams" to campaign, instead the single racer with no sponsors to enjoy a inexpensive "hobby" race car. With that being said, I believe there are many racers who want this idea, want this chassis, a light inexpensive race car that uses all "stock" parts, Mid-Engined STOCK CARs. So now you have several racers wanting something to change so they can enjoy this concept.
I think it's a great idea, But Lufkin is just way too far. I like the idea of a parts house shock, Monroe or whatever, just no racing shocks, no Bilsteins. I like the idea of G60's or kk704's, IMCA has a good thing with this tire. I like a crate 602 option, but I think a spec engine that matches it should be the focus. An engine that emulates the 602, like a 450 lift cam, cast pistons and vortec heads with a vacuum rule, no screw in studs or fancy springs. You can let the open chamber heads stay for now but faze them out later. I like the idea of a vacuum carb rule, meaning no double pumpers, and 4412's, quadrajets, 4150's, 3310's all legal (your bound to have one of these on the shelf!), no mechanical secondaries and all stock pumps, no rebuildable fuel pumps. Weight should be 2400 or even more so your homebuilt chassis or a FatCat can be competetive. You could even call them "Vortecs" to match the crate engine and spec heads for the class.
You could even go as far as mandating a single master cyl pedal like they were in the beginning, and for those that want to argue about safety of a dual master, SPeedway sells an adapter so you can bolt on a cast iron OEM stock master cyl so you can feel safe. You could even allow big metric chassis, and let them cut down to 112" or even 108" like the metrics. I even like the idea of having direct drive, simply because it's cheap now, you can have turbo 350's now without converters or glides. Springs all cost pretty much the same so let racers keep tall rear springs if they want, adjuster on the rear make sense to help dial in the car. Oh, I forgot to mention headers, $300 headers for a limited? There needs to be a rule to address this issue, like mandating block hugger headers with 2.5 inch outlets, they cost like $60 bucks, around the same as the original headers for limiteds. Get rid of the high dollar headers.
Busters Econo's had a great look, but when I priced the body I had estimates as high as $4000, that is way too high. I say just run a wedge car nose if you want and keep the front tires uncovered, you can have the look of a convertable with a 20 gauge steel roof that must hug the contour of the cage, you could even mandate all steel roofs be painted flat black.
Anything that won't make them a modified, because I think the "look" of a modified is what's allowing the costs to skyrocket, when they are nothing more than a stock car minus 1000 pound of scrap. Modifieds have Bert tranmission, 4 links, quick change rears, alum heads, run alcohol, with rear mounted pumps, all modified parts.
Good luck with the idea, Just give us time to get the cars out there, don't give up to quick.
just about anything that was changed to make Limiteds faster needs a close look at reversing.
