Regarding the proposed requirement for factory shop manuals for Prepared
category:
I'll grant that there are a number of older cars where the factory shop manuals
are either no longer available unless you're willing to wander specialty swap
meets (I can see some enterprising PA autocrosser snapping up anything that
looks profitable at the Carlyle swap meets and offering them up for a tidy
profit), or patiently search eBay daily waiting for someone to list the manuals
for your car. But, for many of the older American iron (Corvettes,
Camarobirds, Mustangs) that see regular autocross duty, reprints of the factory
manuals are available from a number of the specialty resto parts houses for
reasonable prices. I've got two 1965 Fairlane/Falcon/Comet/Mustang manuals,
for instance, to go with my '65 Mustang. One is pristine, the other was used
during the resto and bears its marks.
Now, for my '99 Mustang, there's the shop manual, the wiring manual, the
emissions/vacuum manual, the body/chassis manual, and then you also need to
have all the applicable TSBs and quarterly manual updates issued since original
publication date. Figure on very close to a four-digit price tag for the lot,
plus you'll need an enclosed trailer to carry it all (the service manual alone
comes in around 6" thick, and most of the pages are full of WARNING, CAUTION,
and DANGER boxes not present in my '65 manual). And figure on waiting a few
months between placing your order with Helm, Inc. and receiving the manuals as
they wait until they have enough orders to justify a print run. The manuals
are now provided to the dealers solely as CD-ROMs. You *can* find the CD-ROMs
from various sources online, but most of the ones available are "ripped" copies
and would be considered suspect by a protestor or protest committee. And even
if you get an older original CD-ROM, you need to have the latest quarterly
update for that model year to be truly up-to-date.
And then there are the increasing number of OEMs who are very unwilling to let
end-users at the factory service documentation. Some of this is
liability-driven: by keeping the documentation out of end-users' hands, it
should discourage the "hacking" of various systems. Think of it as the warning
on the back of your television that says "No user-serviceable parts inside".
They don't WANT you to tinker with it. This is because people who have
tinkered have broken and then sued the OEM. The Germans in particular are
fiercely protective of their trademarks and also very interested in limiting
their liability, which is why even recognized high-quality tuners such as Ruf
and Alpina are not allowed to leave Porsche and BMW badges, respectively, on
the vehicles they modify, or sell them as Porsche or BMW vehicles.
Some of the reason the OEMs keep the documentation close is because of the
regular (monthly, quarterly) updates that they now have to release in order to
keep up with any re-calibrations, etc. required for emissions reasons. An
end-user is unlikely to come back 4 times a year and pony up for the updates.
Which means they're going to be out of date and working to an incorrect spec
before too long. This also has legality/liability issues -- this time to the
EPA and/or CARB for emissions performance.
All that said, perhaps the rule requiring manuals needs, as Rocky Entriken
suggested, some updating to reflect the changing climate. Maybe something as
simple as modifying it to read "factory service manual(s), CD-ROMs and/or
microfiche, or equivalent recognized aftermarket documentation (Haynes,
Chilton's, Mitchell's, Alldata) if factory manuals are not available." There
are a lot of independent shops out there using one or more of those 4
documentation systems, and in my experience they are generally reliable and
accurate enough to be admissible to a PC or appeals board.
I don't have a dog in the Prepared fight, but I see this as more of a universal
'cross-category' issue anyway.
Jim Crider
ESP #65 '99 Mustang Cobra
autojim@despammed.com
SCCA SPAC member (but not speaking for the SPAC in any capacity whatsoever on
this issue)
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