[jjvincent]

It would be noce if someone would write an article that actually did some basic research.

Camaro:

I guess GM wasn't going to tell you this about the Camaro, that was not allowed for any other car in the series:
1. Lexan Windows - In 2014 the car showed up with these at Daytona. That got taken away but not without a fight and GM claiming a safety issue because they couldn't defog a glass windscreen properly. So, they asked for a $3800 glass winshield. It was rejected.
2. 6 piston front calipers - Only 4 piston allowed.
3. 4 piston race specific rear calipers - Only production calipers allowed.
4. P&M cut 2" off the top and fabricated a new top so they could get the "proper " suspension geometry. - Strut towers to remain unmodified but limited additional slotting for camber adjustment.
5. Pedal box with two master cylinders and a balance bar - Only production pedal assemblies and single master cylinder allowed. Alternate OEM brake booster is allowed if submitted first.
6. 5.5" twin disk Tilton clutch assembly - Steel flywheel of OEM diameter within 20% of stock. Stock diameter clutch and flywheel.
7. Driver set back 5" - Driver must remain in OEM position.
8. Grill work allowed to be removed from the hood - All bodywork is to remain OEM. So, all other cars had to run this.
9. Rear shocks mounted to the roll cage (this was a carryover from the old Camaro) - Shocks to retain OEM mounting and position.
10. Steering column extended to accommodate driver setback. - Steering column is to remain unmodified except for removal of steering lock.

A few other Camaro things:

-If you wanted to buy or build a Camaro, forget it. GM was not going to sell you a car or the parts. They had exclusivity on everything. The car might as well be $1 because it didn't matter.
-The Camaro is not an advanced street car. It's just that P&M advanced the rules as to how they wanted to build the car. Build it to only run at 85% initially and when things are taken away, the car still goes the same speed.
-GM would have won the 2014 MFG championship if they didn't get nailed 26 MFG points after VIR for falsifying homologation papers.

Cost of racing:

-Fuel for travel, it has actually got cheaper. If you have noticed, fuel is about 50% of what it was five years ago. So, diesel for the rig is 50% less.
-Airline, food and rental cars, it's running at 2% increase per year (along with inflation).
-Price gouging for motels does not happen like it used to. Here's why. Not as many people go to sportscar races, thus less rooms are full. All of these towns where the tracks are at, have actually got more motel rooms as opposed to 15-20 years ago. Some tracks (i.e. Daytona, COTA, Road Atlanta) are in big metro areas and the only ones that will increase their rates are the ones that are up to 3 miles from the track. As for the rest, they have no idea a race is even going on. Plus, there's the internet and is easy to find homes you can rent and house the whole crew for places like VIR, Watkins Glen, Lime Rock and Road America. In the end, they are close and about a 30% savings over regular non race motel rates.
-Travel becomes expensive when you need to be at the track for a longer period of time (which is what happened when IMSA took over).
-The spec race fuel that you have to run in IMSA. The cost went up 25% in 2014 and you had to buy it by the drum. In GA, you bought as much as you needed at the pump and you didn't need two crew guys at the track all of the time, suited up handling fuel drums and filling cars. Plus, with Sunoco, when the price of fuel for the street went up or down, so did the race fuel. As for VP, it keeps going up (supposedly because the increase in the price of cellulose ethanol).
-Tires, go run PWC, then you'll never complain about the price and service that Continental gives you.
-Prize money has gone up 0% since 2008. Yet the cost of a rental seat runs at an inflation rate of around 20% while CPI is around 2%.

GS cars:

As for it being an off year for cars. Look at this:
1. Ford sold one of their Mustangs from 2015 (no new cars sold).
2. Two Caymans showed up, even though at least six were sold, plus at least one privateer built Cayman was at the test days.
3. 997 is still competitive (as demonstrated by RumBum)
4. Nobody built a 991.
5. The typical BMW tuner shops that ran in the series, did not build an M4.
6. The four existing Z/28's are for sale. Why haven't they been bought and running in the series?
7. What happened to all of the AM's?
8. There are at least twenty existing M3's, Boss 302R's, AM's and 997's just sitting. Is IMSA telling us that those cars are no longer competitive and you need to buy a $240K Mustang or a $165K Cayman?
9. About four or five GS cars will do the whole season.
10. I'm considering a start and park program for GS. A single car, one crew guy, used tires from another team, no practice or qualifying and a single driver. Run for 45 minutes and park the car. Get points and collect $2K in prize money. By the end of the year, easily be in the top 5 in the driver championship. Now that's a quality entry! A car carrier can haul around 7-9 cars, so I could just rent that out and at least double the GS entry numbers.

It's just become expensive for renters. With that amount they are spending, there are other options for them to go racing and get treated like they are appreciated. ST just hasn't got to that price point as of yet. GS is well past it. In ST, all of those Caymans are around 2009 vintage, Hondas are 2013, MX-5 just went out of production, e90 328s are 2012. For some reason, those cars are OK even though they are not "supported". A 2014 Boss 302R, 2013 M3, 2012 997 is not OK. I'm failing to see the logic in that.

The GS Cayman only weighs 630lbs less than the GT350R and 305lbs less than the 997. So when you seen that Cayman double stint the tires at Daytona and not fall off on lap times, just imagine what's going to happen when they get to a track that is really hard on tires. You'd think that with that advantage, there'd be a dozen of them on the track right now.
So far, the GS field is down 73% from 2014. ST is only running at around 8%.