Originally posted by Russ Myers:
It(the washer bottle, door glass, etc.) should stay because this is in the phylosophy of the class. This is how it was laid down from the begining. To change this is to change the PHILOSOPHY and it wouldn't be Improved Touring anymore. It would just be Production Lite.

To quote Col. Potter, "Horsehockey!"

If anyone even thinks that allowing the removal of washer bottles, pass. window glass, and heater cores will somehow be changing the "philosophy" of IT, PLEASE, PLEASE PLEASE explain how anyone could justify allowing alternate ECU's, custom FD units, limited slips, port matched heads, and open exhausts?

That, I think, is part of what Catch is trying to say. To imply that common sense allowances, NONE of which enhance performance, NONE of which are mandatory in order to be allowed to compete, and NONE of which COST ANYTHING, yet allow people to buy $1500 MOTEC systems and justify it by saying "well, we can't stop people from cheating in that manner because we can't check everyone, so we better open up the rules" is just silly. It is NOT RULES CREEP. It's not even a matter of allowing the same level of change in some areas of the car that is allowed in other areas, because in some ways the horses are already out of the barn (ecu, blueprinted engines, port matched heads, LSD's, alternate FD's, etc) but it's just a matter of applying the same logic that makes some things OK (removing all interior panels, gutting dash, removing the AC, etc) to other things (washer bottle, rear wiper, heater core, side window glass).

Where do we draw the line?

You can resolve a lot of these issues by making sure that whatever change is made complied with these 2 criteria:

It costs little or nothing (as dumping a washer bottle, heater core, rear wiper, or passenger door glass doesn't cost the person throwing them in the trash a dime, just a little effort - OK, maybe a little square of metal riveted over a hope where the wiper was, but hey - not a perfect world, right?)

Makes no improvement in vehicle performance. I mean seriously people. I really would like someone to show me how losing 10 pounds in the passenger door makes any sort of measureable performance increase, and then convince me that that .001 second improvement in lap time outweighs the safety benefit of not having a bunch of glass 3 feet away from me inside the car. Washer bottle, rear wiper, heater core? Oh yeh, there's an unfair advantage for someone who runs without one of those...

If something cannot be deemed to be in accordance with those two criteria, then it should not be considered. This is just common sense folks.

BTW, you guys on the ITAC are doing one hell'ova good job. Everything you've done so far rules wise I think is great, and highly appreciated.

------------------
Richard Floyd
'86 Acura Integra LS #90
SCCA ITA / NASA ECHC H5