Any interest in a new class - ST-M?

[WillM]

For what it is worth, the 1.6 -> 1.8 engine swap rule that is allowed for Miatas was written to allow similar swaps for other cars. The Miata-specific rule was drafted as a compromise.

I like the idea of an 'unofficial' Miata-specific class.

Our stock classes were completely overhauled a few seasons ago. The prevailing wisdom at the time was that newer cars were more and more powerful from the factory, and that the top stock classes (SSU & SSGT) tried to cover too wide of a performance (power to weight) range. While there were many ways to look at the problem, two distinct possibilities were considered:
1. Add more stock class(es) (and subsequently more ST class(es))
2. Shuffle the deck, move cars from one stock class to another and slot-in new cars too

Option #2 was the only viable solution as the club was dead-set on not adding any new classes. The reason being that there were already too many classes and not enough competition. While the intentions were good, I think there was too much emphasis on car-counts within classes. Just because a specific class has a a lot of cars in it does not mean that there is a lot of competition in that class, if you know what I mean.

The final proposal, which was approved after at least a season and a half of debate, pushed most cars down a class. SSC, the lowest class, had nowhere to go, so those cars that were already classes as SSC are now competing against many cars that were previously classed as SSB. The new rules made room for new & fast cars at the top levels but ended up crowding cars in the lower levels. Some of us hated the idea and thus began the 4-cylinder engine swap proposals.

I could be persuaded that the system could still use some improvement. I think we try to accomplish too much with only 5 stock classes. I would look into adding another class, perhaps SSD:
SSD: Bottom 1/2 of the current SSC cars
SSC: Top 1/2 of the current SSC cars + bottom 10-25% of SSB)
SSB: Remaining SSB Cars that didn't drop drop down to SSC (top 90-75% of SSB)
SSA, SSGT, SSU, no changes.

Since this thread is about Miatas:
SSD: 1.6 Miata
SSC: 1.8 Miata
SSB: 2.0L Miata