> -----Original Message-----
> From: TeamZ3@aol.com
> A rev limit indicator is not benign; it provides the driver with
> information
> for the SPECIFIC INTENT of avoiding an over-rev time penalty during
> competition, which is clearly a *potential* performance enhancement.
Gauges are specifically mentioned as allowed. Would the addition of a
tachometer to a car without one from the factory have the same intent?
Would this still be legal? Is a gauge limited to visual indication only,
such that a dial or light indication would be allowed, but an audible signal
would not?
> Having served on the PC at Nat's myself (OK, first time this year
> :-), the
> primary consideration is whether or not it meets the wording of
> the rules.
> Sect. 13.2.A very specifically states: "which have no effect on
> performance". Past rulings have clarified that "performance" relates to
> driving just as equally as the vehicle (remember the infamous
> seat cushion with the side bolsters built in?).
I would say that such a seat cushion is very different from a gauge, as it
*mechanically* improves the man/machine interface. It reduces "free play" in
the mechanical linkage between the brain, wheels, and pedals.
The addition of an actual rev limiter is only more direct in that it removes
the driver completely from the task of preventing an over-rev.
As I see it, a gauge only provides more information which still must be
processed by the driver in order to actually prevent that over-rev. This is
indirect, and still depends on the skill of the driver to control things.
- Michael McAvoy
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