I've been thinking about this myself and I think it comes down to this
(although I wish it were otherwise):
1. Is the option likely to be protested by competitors if you beat them?
2. Is the protest likely to be upheld by the local protest committee?
So far as I've seen (and I'm new at this I admit), the national office (or
SEB) doesn't issue rules interpretations for specific cases like this and
they are unlikely to do so because of the precedent that would set (that
they would have to do this on a regular basis).
Personally, what I would like to see is a change in the rules wording. It
seems to me that the intent of the rule is to prevent folks buying things
from their dealer that the factory never intended to be on the car (or at
least that the factory did not provide). That being the case, any option
(dealer installed or not) that is referred to as an option by the factory
should be allowed.
If that were the case, I certainly wouldn't protest if they classified the
car in A-stock... :-)
--Michael Tracy
1996 Saturn SL-2 (ES)
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