Quote Originally Posted by spawpoet View Post
Kurt, the well founded fear is happening WITH the washer bottles etc. still in the cars! Open ECU's, coilovers, splitters etc. The guy's that are getting their way with their lists are the one's with lists like Greg. The problem arises when allowances are made to the systems that add to the performance of the car. I really ain't going to be upset if the washer bottle rule doesn't change. It's just a little silly that while we are holding this rule as so precious the fox is in the hen-house. That's all I'm saying.
You've got mixed examples here...

Splitters didn't result from a rule change. Coilovers are a completely sensible allowance - for anyone like myself who dealt with custom-wound springs to fit stock struts back in the "good ol' days," and they do not in and of themselves result in a substantial increase in cost or complexity - quite the opposite, in fact. (I've paid as little as $15 shipped for a pair of used 2.25" springs in useful ratings.) We've been around and around with the open ECU allowance and I'm of the opinion that this particular horse was out of the barn the minute we let anyone do ANYTHING to their stock ECUs.

Remember that YOU are the defense against "interpretation creep," whereby racers push the limits on the rules-as-written with their cleverness (a la splitters). If racers don't protest incremental changes that sneak out beyond the wording of the rules, they have only themselves to blame. The ITAC has steadfastly resisted the allowance of additional technology in struts/shocks. We can't get substantially cheaper there unless we mandated stock parts, and even then... Similarly, short of requiring unmodified ECUs, there's no satisfactory solution on that front.

I run no airdam at all, off-the-shelf KONI sports revalved for the big rates we use, and a retail chip poked into the socket in my otherwise stock ECU. We get by, have a good time, and don't feel compelled to spend thousands more on other options. None of those things are killing IT...

...and neither would the allowance to remove washer bottles. But I ask again: Explain to me how we rationally tell one driver he can have his favorite allowance but not another? I'll do a little test if Ron will participate:

Ron - "We've made all the allowance we are going to. You can remove all of the stuff described in the ITCS, but too bad on the washer bottles and heater cores."

Is that rationale enough to convince you that we've done the right thing? You'll happily stop lobbying for those two additional allowance? No - of course not. So WHY would YOUR two things be special but someone else's NOT...? Because - not to put too fine a point on it - you care about what makes sense to you and your interests. The ITAC is charged with looking out for the whole category, rather than any one member's - or even a group of members' - interests. And given conflicting interests and different desires re: new allowances to throw stuff away, it's been standard practice to leave things the way they are.

BTW, for those of you who might have missed it, here's what the ITCS would look like if we'd recommended favorably (and the board had voted to pass) every member requeset for a new allowance during 2008. This is one year of change.

http://it2.evaluand.com/downloads/Bi...TCS%202008.pdf

Some of course thought this looked totally AOK. Do all of us...?

K