I think the real solution is a searchable online database where anyone and
everyone can contribute specs from any and all sources. That way even if a
spec on an obscure car isn't "perfect" it still is uniform and referencable
prior to protest for all competitors. It would also encourage, rather than
discourage protests since the protestor would know in advance what standard
the protestee would be held to rather than the current "I think he's too
quick but I don't know anything about the specs on that car, so I'll submit
a laundry list to the PC in hopes something sticks". IMHO the current system
DIScourages protests, since the car may indeed be illegal, but if you guess
the wrong thing to protest the car could be declared legal and you look like
a sour grapes fool with a lighter wallet.
If winning at any cost was my goal, I could come up with a hundred things I
could do to my car that wouldn't be able to be checked in my FSM, which
currently would then leave the burden of proof to someone who possibly
doesn't know diddly about my car or where to find a reference source to
prove my car illegal. Hell I could put a list of a number of mods I may or
may not have done pasted under the hood and they would have a hard time
finding documentation to prove if I did them. How many would be willing to
bet the bond cost and work to find a reference to find out? If I was devious
enough I could even set up "decoys" that were legal but looked illegal or
messed with just to throw off protestors from protesting the real illegal
mods. (Aren't you glad I'm not that quick but still believe in being
completely inside the rules?)
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rocky Entriken" <rocky@tri.net>
To: "Eric Salem" <eric@mail.brown911.com>; "'Mark Andy'"
<mark@sccaprepared.com>; "'autox mailing list'" <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 4:53 AM
Subject: Re: Subject: Re: shop manuals
> If the dealer can't (or won't) supply the spec, maybe someone else would.
> Maybe the independent shop, the guy who works on those cars the dealer
won't
> bother with any more (he likely has a shelf full of references too).
>
> What's the spec on my car? Well, the factory in Britain is not much help
> since it no longer exists. There's no Triumph dealers any more either.
Maybe
> we go ask Kas Kastner if he has the spec (he probably does!). For Eric's
> car -- well, for Eric's car we might not want to ask Dick Salem (his dad),
> but Dick up in Omaha might be a good source for other Porsche questions.
> People in the prep business who actually have some stake in doing things
> right would be IMHO at least as good a source as a Haynes or Chilton book.
>
> Any source can be doubted or contested, but once presented (assuming the
PC
> does not turn it down) it then becomes the protestor's job to provide
> something better.
>
> --Rocky
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