Mark Sirota [mailto:mark@sirota.org] wrote:
> There are two separate issues at hand.
>
> (1) The Prepared category used to have no defined required
> documentation
> rule, as the rule was oddly located in the opening to Section 13, and
> Prepared explicitly did not build on Stock. So the question
> is, now that
> we're addressing this, what should the required documentation
> for Prepared
> Category be?
Agreed.
> (2) What to do about documentation that was never available to the
> consumer, or that is only available in non-book form. The
> current thinking
> is that you need to provide only the media (fiche, CD,
> whatever), not the
> means to read it; that can be covered by the bond if need be.
Agreed -- if the protestee has the CD-ROM or fiche, the protestor's bond should
cover a fiche reader or laptop rental (the latter of which I doubt will ever
really be necessary as there are usually plenty of computers available at a
National-level event these days).
> Note that
> the proposal uses the word "documentation", not "manual". If
> there is no
> media of any sort available to the consumer, then access to the
> documentation might have to be covered by the protestor's
> bond. [I freely
> acknowledge that none of this is clear in the proposal, and a future
> version of the proposal will do better.]
This is why I'm suggesting the allowance for "recognized" aftermarket sources
that could be alternatives for those instances where no factory documentation
is available. Which could apply to both the older car where no manual is
available or it's in such limited supply that pricing is unreasonable, and to
the newer car where the OEM restricts access to the factory manuals. Chilton's
commercial series, Mitchell, and Alldata are the ones in wide use in the
independent garages (and a lot of dealership garages as well -- to allow them
to be able to service brands other than what they sell). Many of the
procedures and spec tables used in those are authorized copies from the factory
manuals.
Jim Crider
autojim@despammed.com
still not speaking for the SPAC
|