I doubt the EVO guys will have a problem, but you never know about all the other EVO haters in the class. . .

 

[QUOTE=joshesh;6407664
I am wondering about 1 silly mod I have on my car right now and if the guys at Nationals will complain about it, my RalliArt replica FQ400 side mirrors? Anyone have the low down on if the mirrors are legal or not?

[/QUOTE]

Are they legal? No. Does anyone care? I seriously doubt it. There's always one of those in every crowd though, so you always take a minor risk. I sure wouldn't give a rip, and I think most would agree. If it gives you heartburn, just switch them out before Nats.

 

Change them for Nationals. If you manage to trophy, somebody will protest you.

 

I have long lobbied for a "Weeny Protest" trophy. Maybe a hot dog on a string you have to wear around your neck for protesting silly things like mirrors.

 

Get 1200 drivers together and some of them are going to be Weenies. Especially if they're sitting one out of the trophies. Or in second place. I'm not saying I would lodge the protest. I'm just saying that if you end up in the trophies its likely someone would.

I'd like to see the SCCA have a small list of free appearance-only mods, outside of having to argue for the comfort and convenience clause.

 

The one time that I placed second at a national-level, contingency-paying Solo event, I could have protested the winner -- he was admittedly out-of-spec and had even pointed out the discrepancy to most of the participants in the class. (A missing piece of trunk trim weighing less than a pound.)

But in my world, getting your first national level class win by protesting a non-performance-enhancing technicality would feel pretty hollow.

I guess I wish that everyone saw it that way...

 

Agreed!

Thanks for taking the high road! Hopefully others that day saw your actions (or rather, non-action) and it had an impact on their future behavior. . .

 

Yeah, +eleventy billion.

You always hear the ridiculous horror stories of protests at Tours/Pros/Nats/etc... it's not often that you hear that there are people that actually show good sportsmanship.

 

OH I know too well. Any time we've been considered fast the hints of this or that protest comes out. We had someone look at a picture of a strut on our website and say they were going to protest us because they could tell the bracket measurements didn't match stock. From a picture on a website! I have many other stories too. Using a stock steering wheel without the airbag in Street Prepared not being "an alternative steering" wheel since it was still "stock". The list goes on.

Like you said, when you get into the trophies, people start threatening all sorts of stuff. In the end, most just do it to play mind games and end up not going through with it. I'm all for protesting illegal performance enhancing issues. I just get frustrated when the weenies come out.

For instance, our Evo X will probably run STU at Nationals this year. It appears it might be pretty fast so far. We removed the fog lights for better airflow to the transmission cooler (reliability at track days) AND one of the drivers of this car has a tendency to destroy fog lights (cost savings). We'll put the 1.3 pounds back in the car before Nationals to cover out bases if anyone wants to challenge our "alternate front bumper kit".

BTW, I'm protesting Pat's hat because the wing is too big!

Sorry for the tangent.

 

According to the new rules pased about how to measure wing area, it's now legal. You missed your chance to protest last year...too bad.

 

Got another couple of questions for ye experts...

Are ARP head studs legal? I wanted to replace my stock one's just to be safe, I am running a little bit of boost ya know.

How about Ralliart thermostat?

My guess is they are legal.

One that I am really unsure of is the front rotors. I thought I read somewhere that 2 piece rotors will be allowed in BSP next season? I am on the verge of selling mine since they are no longer used, want to find this out so I don't regret that move.

 

Only a little bit of boost.... aren't you up to 28 psi? The rules don't specifically allow replacement of the head studs, as far as I can tell. I don't think thermostat replacement is allowed either.

I know they want to change the rules to allow ST* brakes in SP. I would hang on to those rotors until the 2009 rules come out.

Since I'm running in Pro next year, I may want to co-drive that beast of yours for an event or two. I'd love to see what I could do in it.

 

Hope so - i was reading the rules and i can't find anything in the "engine" section about the head studs or your thermostat. This year you can't use two piece rotors unless it was standard equipment. I hadn't heard that about next year tho - that's interesting.

 

You can co-drive anytime Dave, but under one condition. You are not allowed to beat my best time for the day!

 

Mike,

I'm pretty sure the head studs are not legal. I wanted to do the same mod myself for the same reason, but in reality there IS a potential performance advantage there.

I'm also quite sure they released some rules changes for next year and 2 pc brake rotors are now specifically allowed.

As for the thermostat..I don't know.

I would read through Sept/Oct/Nov Fastrack's on SCCA.com. Just make sure you rear the full edition as some things tend to be omitted in the Solo only one.

John