LOL! Charlie, I'd bet most fairly popular marques that have been raced can
find someone, maybe more than one, who has "their" spec that may be at
variance with true.
Thing is, we'd have to go on best information available. The increasing
difficulty of availability would seem to mandate a broader range of sources
to alleviate the problem. Just as an example, my 40-year-old Spitfire
(ignore that I have the shop manual for it). If I needed a critical spec I'd
have no compunction about asking Kas Kastner, who used to be Triumph's west
coast race team builder/owner/etc. I'd trust him. But if you were a Honda
driver protesting me and basically unfamiliar with Kas, no reason you have
to trust him. Any source is disputable, and perhaps can be trumped by a
better source. Ultimately the PC would have to decide who they believed, and
what credence to give to varying sources.
OTOH, if I trotted out Smokey Yunick as a source, you would not dispute that
he'd make the car fast but might dispute whether his spec was stock-correct
(or even legal!). Not that Smokey ever pushed the envelope of a rulebook!
:-D
If my source is a road test clipping from Road & Track, why should that not
be acceptable? But if yours turns out to be an FSM and it disagrees, I'd
think it would prevail.
--Rocky
PS -- A few years back I did an interview with Vic Edelbrock, whose vintage
car collection includes a very illegal 1969 Trans-Am Camaro Yunick built. As
the story goes, it was really built for Bonneville record runs, but on the
way to Utah he brought it to a Trans-Am, put racing tires on and got out on
the track with Lloyd Ruby aboard just long enough to smash a bunch of track
records, then loaded up and skedaddled. Edelbrock now runs it in vintage
races "just as illegal as he had it" and it is acceptable because it is
faithful to the car's history.
----- Original Message -----
From: <Smokerbros@aol.com>
To: <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Friday, March 12, 2004 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: shop manuals
> I remember a time about 17 years ago when a "reputable Honda engine
builder" was telling everyone that some Civic/CRX Si blocks came with the
pistons popped up 0.010" above the deck at TDC, and others came with the
pistons 0.010" below the deck at TDC. That has never been verified. Seems
the only ones that had ever been seen with the .020" shorter blocks had been
through his shop... He could easily have been one of those experts that we
would rely upon for verifying Honda information. NOT!!!
>
> Charlie
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