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Re: SP rules on catalytic converters

To: "David Hawkins" <otgrouch@twosrus.com>
Subject: Re: SP rules on catalytic converters
From: dg50@daimlerchrysler.com
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 1999 11:00:36 -0500


>> Protesting:  If the turbo has the stock casing and part number
>>stamp..fine.  Its probably stock.  But after that you would need a teardown
>>to determine if the compressor/turbine wheels are stock (not hard, and lots
>>easier than a motor teardown)

>While this is true, I have yet to see a turbo modded with a bigger wheel
>that did not have the inlet casing milled out to accommodate the greater
>flow characteristics of the new compressor.

The important point to note here is that now we're talking about milling metal
off a part in order to cheat. This means that now, in order to cheat with a
turbo, we're talking about doing something that's of a kind with illegally
ported or milled heads, illegal pistons, etc. - not some hard-to-understand
turbo voodoo.

I'm convinced that 90% of the reason the SCCA's rules are so turbo-unfriendly
are because the non-turbo folks don't understand how they work; more
specifically, they don't understand how the boost control systems work, or why
they work. There seems to be this general perception that a sneaky turbo guy can
make hundreds of extra horsepower by fiddling with a vacuum hose or a wastegate
actuator.

By opening up boost controls, the non-turbo competitor (or for that matter, the
Impound worker) no longer needs to understand all the magic, all (s)he needs to
worry about is that the turbocharger - a nice, big, hunk o'metal - is
unmodified, the same way heads, camshafts, pistons, etc. need to be unmodified.

It strikes me that everybody wins this way.

DG




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