These are good ideas as a concept, but lack the ability to enforce. First, show me where in the factory documentation the location of the engine is listed (show me the spec in the FSM where it says the location of the engine's centerline), within the tolerances you're specifying, and second, tell me how that's going to be measured at the track. And it does have to be measurable at the track. No SCCA region is going to pay a bond to quarantine a car to take it to some frame shop for measurement of the engine location, assuming it can even be done. I doubt any competitor will pay that bond either; hell, we can't even get people to drop a $25 protest down for incorrect weight stickers!!!
But secondarily, no one has simply answered the question: so what? Who cares? Who cares if alternate engines and transaxles are not in the close-to-stock location? You can't use "cost" as a reason for limiting them, as cost cannot be contained. Convince me the downsides of simply saying the engine has to be maintained in the engine compartment with no mods to the car. Convince me the performance benefit of leaving it open like that.
I'm becoming more convinced that trying to create regs to limit engine location will not only be ineffective, it will result in only keeping the honest people honest while the dishonest person will just spend a lot of money to get around it.
GA
Bookmarks