I recently picked up a '85 Merkur XR4Ti which I would like to start club racing with. For those that aren't familiar its a 2.3L turbo RWD Ford in a German body. I have looked through the GCR (which wasn't terribly helpful) and I noticed that ITE limits boosted cars to 1.8L. I noticed that you can pretty much run any thing in SPO but that the cars are way faster than my budget would let me compete with.

I saw that 240s with factory turbo kits are legal in GT3.
I think T2 or T1 would also be do-able but have no idea if I could run it and what mods I could make.

FYI: At this point the car is half way gutted (so that would have to be legal in the calss I run). I have a T5 tranny that will swap in and also a kit to swap the brakes to mustang / t-bird disc and calipers F/R. For stock like power the stock T9 may be fine but I would still like to run the T5 as well as do the break swap for what ever class I find.


The motor runs real smooth and I was pretty pleased with the compression results (155, 155, 145, 160 psi). I got a great deal on the car but it still has plenty of work. Hoping to spend less than a few grand more to build a FUN and "some what competative" club racer. Before I do too much though I want to decide on a class.

I am in the SE region and already emailed a regional SCCA guy asking for pretty much the same info. He responded "SPO only costs as much as you spend on the car. It's the place for you. " which is probably true and even though we will get our doors blown off it would still be lots of fun.

I may wonder onto a Merkur site to look for the answer but figured some here may know a better place to look for clear info.

Thanks

Check the other classes specific to your local region. ITE in the Pacific NW allows up to 4L for turbo cars. It's too bad yours doesn't. Touring has a max age limit. A 20 year old car won't fit. SPO is not a fun class to run with you have don't have a monster fast car.

The SCCA (http://www.scca.org/) for years has specifically excluded turbo cars and awd cars. The 2005 rulebook can be downloaded from Club > Cars & Rules.

Check out NASA (http://www.nasaproracing.com/) and see what they offer in your area.

It can be very difficult getting a car and THEN trying to fit it into a class.

Thanks, I'll check the NASA link. I browsed through the SCCA rule book as well as the SEDIV web page. I am pretty certain only 1.8T are allowed in ITE in the SE.