"K.C. Babb" <kcb4286@hps13.iasl.ca.boeing.com> wrote:
> The reason for publication of this item is probably to elicit calm,
> fact-based, reasonable member input. It's not a done deal just because
> it is published. The SEB would no doubt appreciate some well thought
> out letters on the subject.
As a turbo guy, it sure doesn't feel that way. Instead, it feels like once again
those "evil turbo people" have been singled out for "special" treatment.
Here's a question I have for the SEB and anyone else who cares to comment:
where's the evidence of a problem with turbo cars? Who can produce hard,
statistical numbers that show that turbo cars are dominating Street Prepared?
In order to fix a problem, one must first show that there is a problem to fix.
*sigh* However, in the spirit of calm, fact-based member input....
> One consideration which comes to mind is that a rule which cannot
> realistically be enforced is in essence no rule at all, and perhaps
> this change is an attempt to address that problem with regard to
> turbo cars, since no matter what you do up front the gains you can
> achieve are limited by how restrictive your exhaust is.
This is true of _all_ vehicles, not just turbo cars. However, it's a false
security: what do you do with the car that has an electronic wastegate and a
really good factory exhaust system? What do you do with a series of cars that
fit this profile?
> If boost is controlled by the chip, and a competitor may change
> the functionality of that chip as far as fuel delivery is concerned
> but not as far as boost limitation is concerned, can the implementation
> be realistically policed?
Probably not. This puts us, incidently, in the same territory as the "chip
changes in Stock" that the good Mr. Sipe discussed a while back.
The (dare I say it?) obvious option is to allow modifications to boost control
devices, either totally at will, or anything that is not part of the
turbocharger proper - and then reclass any overdogs that turn up.
I know the concept of open boost controls is a very scary and frightening
concept, but it's really a paper tiger. The amount of power a given turbo car
can produce is limited by the amount of air that can flow through either one of
the two ends of the turbocharger. No matter what you do to the rest of the car,
at some point you either run out of intake flow through the compressor housing,
or you run out of exhaust flow through the turbine housing, and that's all she
wrote. You will make no more power until the actual turbocharger guts are
modified.
A set of entirely reasonable rules for turbo cars in SP might be:
1) Thou shalt not modify the actual turbocharger unit, consisting of the
compressor housing, the bearing unit, the turbine housing, the turbine wheel,
the compressor wheel, the wastegate, wastegate actuators (rods, cams, or other
linkages), the wastegate spring, or the wastegate diaphram (when so equipped)
except to replace damaged or broken parts with identical replacements.
(DG's note: This is the case today)
2) Turbochargers must be updated/backdated (when allowed by the appropriate
Appendix) as a complete, unmodified unit. Component parts of turbocharger units
may not be updated/backdated separately. No modification of the turbocharger
unit as defined above is allowed to permit an update/backdate.
(DG's note: This is the case today as well)
3) Any device, mechanical or electronic, that aims to control boost levels by
either controlling the wastegate control signal (on electronic wastegates) or by
increasing/reducing the amount of pressure/vacuum seen by the wastegate control
diaphram (on mechanical wastegates) is allowed, as long as no modification to
the turbocharger unit as defined above is required to fit the device.
The immediate effects of adopting rules such as these would be:
1) A whole slew of existing, readily available, and common devices would become
SP legal, making a whole lot of people, mostly new members, very happy, as they
get to come out of the Mod class purgatory. (Note that boost controllers are
rampent in the Import Drag Race world)
2) Turbo cars so equippped will pick up a few HP, anywhere from about 5 to 50
depending on the car. Note that most turbo cars are classed so conservatively
that all this will do will be to make a few non-or-marginally competitive cars
competitive - and that's good, right? Competition is good.
3) There will be no more bitching about secret and evil turbo cheats, as most of
the urban-legend secret&evil stuff becomes legal. The only way for a turbo car
to cheat on boost levels will be to physically modify the turbocharger - which
is EASILY checked. We go from suspicion and non-policability to openess and
easily verified limits. This is also good.
4) There exists the possibility that a given car will respond so well to the new
rule that it becomes a class overdog overnight. Fine, reclass it into a faster
class and be done with it.
The only fly in the ointment that I can see is that twin-sequential turbo cars
kinda do an end run around the engineering tradeoff that this rule relies on. A
twin-sequential car in theory should respond to a boost controller very much
better than a single-turbo or twin-non-sequential turbo car. On the other hand,
the mechanisim that makes twin-sequential turbos work sequentially is normally
very complex, and probably cannot be fitted with a bc without modifying the
turbochargers in an illegal way. More research is needed here.
DG
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