I decided to send in a request to remove/replace wires in IT cars

[lateapex911]

What was the origin of the "anything in a stock box" rule? Not that it matters since it is so much water under the bridge, but I'm interested.

It was written before me but my understanding was it was a failed attempt at a 'chip it' rule that went kablooey when MoTec stareted making units small enough to fit into some stock ECU cases. The units plus the labor to hook them up through the factory wiring harness was HUGE money and created a large 'have' and 'have-not' disparity on the grids.

It's THE poster child for how rules MUST change to adapt to changing technology.

In the beginning, there WERE no ECUs. When they came out, they were ignored. Then the PTB thought that chipping was the equivilent to the "jetting" that carb guys were being allowed. So that became the standard.
(Ignore that SOME cars were classified BEFORE that rule so their weight, which if you assume was set assuming no ECU mods, was now light...a post classification comp adjustment to many people)
Then there were issues/complaints that not all ECUs COULD be chipped and that 'piggy back' boards were needed.
Soooo. ..the next iteration of the rule was "fine, whatever fits in the stock box".
The rest is history, and certain cars benefited hugely form shoving Motecs in there (at, as Andy points out, HUGE money) Other cars could do squat.

Couple this with the fact that the GR was taking place. I always knew the ECu would have to come out of the closet, because how do you class cars when only some can alter their ECUs? All post GR classifications were done based on the assumption that ECUs could be tuned. It's a pretty big 'wart' for some cars if you can't though. And of course limp modes and other invasive modes were becoming the norm. So it really had to be done.

But thankfully the same technology that started the mess gave us a reasonable out: The dropping price of processing power made cheap ECUs much more widespread.

[JeffYoung]

I agree. And any real "problem" with ECUs will be solved as carb'ed cars fade into uncompetitiveness, as the must.

It is a good sign that there are no carb'ed cars (I think) in ITR (maybe the 5.0 Mustang?).

That's how IT needs to go in my view. We won't do anything to cripple the carb'ed cars, but we won't do anything (in my view) to go out of the way to give them an "adjustment."

It's THE poster child for how rules MUST change to adapt to changing technology.

In the beginning, there WERE no ECUs. When they came out, they were ignored. Then the PTB thought that chipping was the equivilent to the "jetting" that carb guys were being allowed. So that became the standard.
(Ignore that SOME cars were classified BEFORE that rule so their weight, which if you assume was set assuming no ECU mods, was now light...a post classification comp adjustment to many people)
Then there were issues/complaints that not all ECUs COULD be chipped and that 'piggy back' boards were needed.
Soooo. ..the next iteration of the rule was "fine, whatever fits in the stock box".
The rest is history, and certain cars benefited hugely form shoving Motecs in there (at, as Andy points out, HUGE money) Other cars could do squat.

Couple this with the fact that the GR was taking place. I always knew the ECu would have to come out of the closet, because how do you class cars when only some can alter their ECUs? All post GR classifications were done based on the assumption that ECUs could be tuned. It's a pretty big 'wart' for some cars if you can't though. And of course limp modes and other invasive modes were becoming the norm. So it really had to be done.

But thankfully the same technology that started the mess gave us a reasonable out: The dropping price of processing power made cheap ECUs much more widespread.