2006 Rule Book Posted!!

[HerbD]

http://www.comscc.com/rules/index.htm

Right now, just the PDF is up.
I'm working on the plain text version.

[enjoythemusic]

Herb,

Looks good! If you'd like, i would like to help. As a photojournalist and editor of a few magazines... Also have Adobe Acrobat 7 here

i have the ducument already corrected in TXT (the PDF had crossouts) and will also send you a cleaner, corrected PDF that is printable but password protected so others can not change the wording.

ALWAYS glad to help.

Will e-mail you the pdf and .txt files in a few minuts.

[BrakeL8r]

Thanks Herb et. al. for making this happen.

--Michael
ST4 Miata #176

[Stynger]

X Street Touring

5. A. Any air cleaner may be used. Original carburetor or fuel injection throttle body (or OEM equivalents with same flow
rate) must be used. In all cases, intake manifold and airflow sensors must remain stock as delivered.
I was at the meeting that discussed this rule. Wasn't there a clarification on what an air cleaner was?
Something like free up to the throttle body on NA cars and up to the turbo/SC intake on FI cars but using stock airflow meters and sensors (cold air induction, aftermarket intake tubes etc). Clarifying some of the issues we had last year.

"intake manifold and airflow sensors must remain stock as delivered."
By default does this mean the same thing?

Les

[HerbD]

X Street Touring

5. A. Any air cleaner may be used. Original carburetor or fuel injection throttle body (or OEM equivalents with same flow
rate) must be used. In all cases, intake manifold and airflow sensors must remain stock as delivered.
I was at the meeting that discussed this rule. Wasn't there a clarification on what an air cleaner was?
Something like free up to the throttle body on NA cars and up to the turbo/SC intake on FI cars but using stock airflow meters and sensors (cold air induction, aftermarket intake tubes etc). Clarifying some of the issues we had last year.

"intake manifold and airflow sensors must remain stock as delivered."
By default does this mean the same thing?

Les

Not necessarily. It's impossible to say where the restriction in
any particular setup is. By requiring stock airflow sensor, throttle
body, and intake manifold, it is hoped that no particular car will
get an overly large advantage from being able to replace any
one of those items.

[Grippy]

There were a few proposals on the table regarding the air cleaner clarification. I know one was accepted (Will's version I believe). For some reason it did not carry over to the rule book. This should be corrected immediately as it was a huge issue all last year and the rule as written currently does not clarify anything.

It was voted on and accepted, it should be changed.

[HerbD]

There were a few proposals on the table regarding the air cleaner clarification. I know one was accepted (Will's version I believe). For some reason it did not carry over to the rule book. This should be corrected immediately as it was a huge issue all last year and the rule as written currently does not clarify anything.

It was voted on and accepted, it should be changed.

From my notes, all rules that were voted on and accepted are in the
rule book as their final wording was proposed. If you have more
details on what you are describing I will go back and look at my notes,
but I need more than this to go on.

[boltonite]

I recall the discussion re the "air cleaner is free" wording and thought the issue (and consensus) was to allow cone air intakes or other "air cleaners" that require substituting the stock airbox but not other parts of the intake system (AFM, intake manifold, throttle body, etc) for ST.

Fred

[Stynger]

Maybe the minutes of the meeting would verify this?

[HerbD]

I recall the discussion re the "air cleaner is free" wording and thought the issue (and consensus) was to allow cone air intakes or other "air cleaners" that require substituting the stock airbox but not other parts of the intake system (AFM, intake manifold, throttle body, etc) for ST.

Fred

Yes, exactly, and that's what this rule allows. You can basically
run any pipes you like from any air cleaner, through any tubing using
any routing, as long as the MAF (if any), throttle body, and intake
manifold are stock.

So, now I'm confused - what's the question??

[boltonite]

Who's on first?

[WillM]

According to my notes, there were 3 rule change proposals submitted. Alex and Gordon created proposals, and I created another, which took pieces of Alex's and Gordon's. I believe this is the proposal that was chosen for debate:

CHANGE:
X. STREET TOURING

5. A. Any air cleaner or intake assembly (up to the throttle body for naturally aspirated vehicles and up to the turbo/supercharger compressor inlet for forced-induction vehicles) may be used. All hardware related to the air cleaner assembly (ie: “cold air intake” or “air intake”) is open. Original carburetor or fuel injection throttle body (or OEM equivalents with same flow rate) must be used. In all cases, intake manifold must remain stock as delivered.


Herb is correct that there was discussion about the addition of "and airflow sensors". I believe that the final rule proposal was voted on and accepted as:

CHANGE:
X. STREET TOURING

5. A. Any air cleaner or intake assembly (up to the throttle body for naturally aspirated vehicles and up to the turbo/supercharger compressor inlet for forced-induction vehicles) may be used. All hardware related to the air cleaner assembly (ie: “cold air intake” or “air intake”) is open. Original carburetor or fuel injection throttle body (or OEM equivalents with same flow rate) must be used. In all cases, intake manifold and mass airflow sensor (MAF)must remain stock as delivered.

I don't agree with the inclusion of the MAF wording, but I believe that is what was voted on and accepted.

I think a little background info is important here. There is sensitivity around the wording of this rule because several ST competitors were denied track records in 2005 due to 'illegal' intakes. The stewards have traditionally interpreted 'air cleaner' as 'air filter element', which means that any variance in the plastic intake box or tubing prior to the air filter would be deemed illegal. Not to put anyone on the spot, but I believe Chris Alyward has been vocal about this point more than once. I believe he mentioned something about the intent of the original rule was to allow air cleaners (ie: filters) on carborated engines.

The goal of the three intake proposals was to add wording to the rule which would define 'air cleaner' as what is commonly referred to as 'air intake', 'cold air intake', etc. Basically, as everyone said above, the gist is that any intake configuration is allowed as long as the stock intake manifold and throttle body (and now air flow sensor) are retained.

The intake rule in the 2006 rulebook does not address this issue and leaves the definition of 'air cleaner' to a steward's interpretation. In fact, the rule is exactly the same in 2006 as it was in 2005, but adds wording about the air flow sensor, which actually makes the rule seem more restrictive.

I would be interested to know how Chris and Nate feel about the rule as it stands. In any event, I would think that it would be in the best interest of the club to state the rule exactly as it was voted on.

Thanks Herb, for putting together the rulebook yet again. I understand that you were probably unaware of the contention over this rule, but by my count, there were 4-5 people denied track records in 2005 because of the wording or interpretation of the current rule. I think it is important that we get this 100% right for the membership.

In Herb's defense, he posted all officers and directors on the rulebook a couple of weeks before posting it live. I myself only caught the intake rule issue just recently. Sorry about that!

[Grippy]

That's what I thought.

On another note, the Air flow meter is replaced with some aftermarket ECU's which are allowed in ST now. So if you have an AFM does that mean you cannot use an aftermarket ECU? I always thought the throttle body was the restrictive element on purpose and the AFM or MAF was sized so that it would not be the restriction.

On spec cars that have to run a restrictor plate, where does it go in the system?

[christine]

Don't know exactly what these parts are called, but the restrictor goes here:


where the black intake hose goes into the engine, you take out the 4 hard-to-get-at bolts holding that silver metal part on, and it goes in there.

Christine

[boltonite]

I empathize w/ those denied track records last year due to how the rule was interpreted (or misinterpreted, whatever). In Spec Miata they refer to the air filter ELEMENT as being free and this may have been the intent of the original rule/wording and how it was interpreted.

And yes, a $5000 Motec has to work w/ a stock MAF/AFM. However, you can upgrade your ignition system and incorporate a small self-powered turbine into your cold air intake and make it all work with your motec and stock AFM.

-FF