Bill - to get back to your original question (but a slight tilt from the "VW-only" side)(warning - the following was dashed off in about 20 minutes...logic is somewhat questionable):
IT needs to keep one or two classes where older, cheap and reliable 'grocery-getters' can race, and be reasonably competitive. 944's, BMW's and RX-7's are fine for some, but there needs to be room for the 'budget racer'. That's what made IT fields HUGE in the 80's and 90's, and that's what attracted people like me to it - HUGE fields, CHEAP cars. I still have several friends who are functionally semi-unemployed (just invented a new employment status category), who still manage to race in IT. You can't do that in Prod or GT or open-wheel thingys.
There are the 'marque-conscious', who will only drive certain kinds of cars. They are offset by people like me, who would race Roto-Rooter trucks if there was a big field of Roto-Rooter trucks to play with. Think of it as "VW Guys" vs. "Guys who race VW's". Don't know what the percentage is of either, but I'd speculate that it's 50%-50%.
There are a lot of cheap little buckets from the 80's and 90's that were never classified in Showroom Stock, which raises a "chicken-egg conundrum". They won't be classified in IT until somebody asks that they be classified, and nobody will take the effort to do the legwork and research to ask for classification if there is no reasonable assurance that they will eventually get classified, and classified in something where they have even a slight chance.
What to do ? Since there is new thinking going on in the Nat'l Comp Board, why not include in the discussions the easy/speedy addition of cars to the ITCS, in classes where they would have a slight chance. Don't do what was done with the Neons and Nissans from SSB & SSC...dumping them into ITS might have massaged the bruised egos of former Comp Board members who got their asses handed to them on the track, but it sure didn't put them in a class where they had any hope of competition potential. Counter to the current GCR class philosophy, IT needs address competition potential (maybe underway now) and also more rapidly add newer cars. Lengthening of the SS 'life-window' to 10 years shouldn't stop newish cars from entering IT.
New car classification needs to be continuous. Although there are 35 year old cars classified in IT, I'm not advocating that we build a system that keeps them all at the front of the pack. (Kirk - curious about your edited comment "...well after it is reasonable to do so..." - could you expand on that ?) We can't get into the situation that the Prod guys are in now, with a core of people trying to preserve the investment they've made for 30-40 years by barely cracking the door on newer stuff that could beat them silly. IT should be different. Cars get old. Cheap cars are disposable, so nobody really gets gored hard. If there are a few classes for cheap, reliable cars at the bottom of IT, and new cars are continuously added to the ITCS, IT will stay healthy for a good long time.
Back when Gremlins were classified in ITA, me & Mikey scoured the planet for a non-rusty Gremlin X...258 cu in straight six, big freakin discs up front. Could have been a killer car, even if it was all straight line speed. We never got to find out if you could even get one of the freakin things to 'turn', as we never found a solid one. Where are the Gremlin-replacements from the 80's & 90's in IT ? Where are the Opel-replacements ?
I will be able to get longer-term use out of it, before parts get scarce/expensive, and © the car has maximum appeal for promotional use with marketing partners.
