So I went through the PIA process to remove the old Penske bump stops before I ran at Sonoma Raceway in February. I decided to see how it would be to run without putting in the bump stops. As many may recall, we learned quite early on that the full length original bump stops would bottom out very easily, creating some pretty "interesting" car behavior, especially at high G force tracks like Sonoma (Sears Point), up the hills in T1 and T3, so cutting them in half (or more) was SOP.
The behavior without any bump stops was a non-event. No sudden twitches or sensations of bottoming. I tend to use some of the curbs, though T2 is the only really high curb at the apex. I have a short video of the last 4 laps at Sonoma and, while the car was definitely "edgy", a lot that can be placed on the significant headwinds down the front and tail winds heading down the back section, which made for some fairly unpredictable handling changes (none that I would attest to running without bump stops.)
https://vimeo.com/406898723At this point, I plan to continue (hopefully) to run without the new bump stops. Laguna Seca will be a good test as we have some very high G sections that also can bottom out the suspension travel, especially at the bottom of the corkscrew, and the "hold your breath" middle of T9. Just seems like a lot of money to spend for no particular purpose. I suspect the rule change was primarily driven by "revenue enhancement" and nothing that justifies "outlawing" the current bump stops. That's progress I guess...