Neat and clean appearance?

[dickita15]

I can also assure you that the rule is written to keep a professional image for our sport, not to ensure that we all have show cars. As long as your car doesn't look like a demo-derby car from 50 feet away, you should be fine.

I really don’t believe that is the whole reason. There is a school of thought that drivers who have body damage already are likely to try less to avoid future contact. I know in one SCCA division the stewards were trying to crack down on SM metal to metals and one tool they used was to write up all damage after every race. I am told it worked.