"Spelling it out" - saying specificaly that short shifters are "not allowed" - would just be another chink in the IIDSYCYC armor. That is a bad tactic that has created more problems than it solves.
Write a rule excluding "short shift kits" and the door is open for me to make a case for complete, aftermarket shifter assemblies as legal, since they are not explicitly prohibited. My sequential gearbox? Not a short shifter so it's okay, right?
(That was BB hyperbole, used to illuminate the extreme for the sake of argument, just so nobody misses it.)
Now in the real world, we have to work these things out. I will start the 2005 season with an illegally modified hood, since I put Dzus fasteners in it for the enduro lights. To be scrupulously correct, I need to replace it and remove the auxillary light harnesses.
I have made the decision to take my chances with protests and if someone "writes paper" on me, I won't go kicking and screaming to the CoA or try to make some disingenuous argument that they fall under the heading of "driver comfort" or "gauges."
When I said that we should enforce the rules, I guess that really does mean "we" - the drivers - since that's how the system is designed to work. WE just have to figure out what we are OK with and what we aren't, and do it.
Changing the rules because people won't is a bad idea.
K
[This message has been edited by Knestis (edited December 06, 2004).]