Howdy,
On Tue, 9 Mar 2004, Rick Cone wrote:
> At least if the book is there they can look at something.... if they
> don't have the book they get bounced.... they probably wouldn't appeal,
> just come back next time with the book if they know they are right...
Your starting assumption is flawed. You're assuming getting the book is a
reasonable thing. It isn't in many cases.
In those cases, yes your local protest committee should go to the closest
dealer.
Heck, seems like most protests aren't over what's in the shop manual
anyway, so you've gotta go get further docs in any case. This all started
due to changing doc requirements for Prepared, but you really have to
wonder why its a good thing to _require_ all competitors to have shop
manuals even if they're the "cheap" ones at ~$100 per. That's $10k+ in
books floating around your typical national tour even if everything were
"reasonable" which it clearly isn't.
Even in the abscence of the all holy shop manual, the PC is still gonna
look at what they have, make a decision, and if the competitors care
enough, get it appealed.
As to "you need a shop manual to make sure your car is prepared to the
rules" Horse pukey. First, you might not do your own work. Second, even
if you do, its not like you need a shop manual to know that 2.5" coilovers
aren't stock on a neon.
Yeah, if you end up rebuilding your motor and the docs are reasonable,
you'll probably get a set. But if you're not rebuilding your motor, you
don't need them (and you probably don't _need_ them even then with the
other information sources available).
Let's address these problems with the rule now since we're rewriting it
anyway. I can't believe I'm saying it, but I almost completely agree with
Rocky (see? I still didn't quite say it... :-) The time for requiring
factory shop manuals has passed. They should be encouraged, not required,
and the PC should have the responsibilty of reconsiling documentation with
the stipulation that factory documentation is the most reputable source.
Mark
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