josh,
STL is separate from STU. IT cars are split at the 2L mark when they come to play but cars built to the rule sin STU can still be 2.0L and below. they didn't kill that. good luck getting to weight, but it's allowed.
travis - some will go apeshit spending and building hand grenades, others will just enjoy the opportunity to run swaps - see honda challenge for an idea about the popularity there. the "kids" are big on swaps, they know a good motor when they see it. sure, it's an imperfect class structure. what isn't. IT doesn't attract younger people as much as something like STU (L is a nice mid ground). I get where you're coming from, but I think you might be over reacting. the rules certainly could pull entrants from prod and IT, and that is a shame. both are great classes (with some spec line exceptions) and it sucks that there's a limited number of competitors. but this is GOOD for the growth of the club. could it have been done differently? yes. IT swaps to IT prep with similar weighting rules would be one way (honda challenge style). but you will never shake my belief that this is one path to increasing "tuner" participation. look what the bootleggers did for NASCAR, the hot rodders for drag racing, ans the WWII vets did for sportscars. it's time to bring the current automotive movement IN to the club. if you don't want to play with them, stay in ITA.
like I said before, it's nice to have options.