Budget-Exempt Replacement Parts at the $2000 Challenge

We talked about this a bit in the town hall, but I wanted a final take on it before committing it to writing. 

What do you all think of this proposed rule?

Maintenance is a reality of vehicle ownership, especially when that vehicle is used for competition. We understand that many $2000 Challenge cars can be unreliable, as a winning entry only needs to run for one autocross run and one drag race. With this in mind, competitors may replace parts that break during other competitions, daily driving, trips to or from the $2000 Challenge and competition during the $2000 Challenge, with identical or as-close-to-identical-as-possible parts without adding to or subtracting from their budgets. Any parts replaced under this exemption must be listed on the budget sheet as exempt, with an explanation of why this failure was not expected and budgeted for in advance. Parts may not be replaced at no budget impact under this rule if they were broken or heavily degraded when the car was purchased, or if the competitor knew failure was likely due to modifications. In the case of a protest that deals with a part or parts replaced under this rule, a group of nine event attendees will be selected by GRM staff, and they will vote to determine whether the part replaced without budget impact was fairly exempted.

fair 'nuff.

I like it... 

Just a case study question: 

If I am tracking a GRM challenge car and I throw a rod and bust the engine block, I can replace the engine with a similar mileage unit at no budget inpact cost providing the engine was in good condition prior to the incident?   

I think it needs to be highlighted as a non-performance altering fix.

Alternator, accessory belt, or CV joint E36 M3s the bed during shakedown but was functioning when you bought the car? I don't have a problem with a functional replacement provided there's no performance benefit. Don't stretch the rule too far and don't be a dick.

I think the rule as stated fits a common sense gut check. Now I need to go through my budget.

Seems reasonable. Though seems it would be hard to prove on something. Say, for instance, a competitor buys a car and the diff is really noisy, and breaks the diff during a local autocross before Challenge, and is able to replace it with a "good" diff. Unless the competitor truthfully tells "yeah, the diff sounded like it was about to go" how can it be proven or even fairly adjucated? I mean, perfectly good-sounding diffs go bad too. 

Or sticking with the diff thing, a car is bought with a functional LSD diff. But during an autocross before the challenge, the LSD diff goes bad, since maybe the owner didn't know it was at the end of its life. Can the owner rebuild with new LSD plates? 

Interesting question: how about failed speed parts? 

The bmw had an AEM wideband gauge when I bought it. We tried to use it with the new turbo setup and despite the o2 sensor replacement it was clearly not working correctly. 

I was able to buy an Innovate wideband setup at a local speed shop. 

I put it in the budget. Should it be exempt?

I buy my Challenge cars more than I build them.  In a perfect world, I could buy the car, set it aside, work on it to make some minor improvements and then take it to the big event.  In this perfect world, I may have only driven the car a very few miles (say under 500) before the event.  

My luck and personal budget does not run that way.  After buying the car, I recommend taking a good hard review of the vehicle to establish a condition baseline.    How is the vehicle if the event were today, the day you bought it?  What would it need?  

I'll take the race Minivan as example.  It was bought with a CEL for misfire in #5.  It ran poor.  It was misfiring.  This was a big contributor to it being bought for $1,200.  I did put the price of the #5 coil into the budget.  I did not put in the price of the #5 spark plug or the other rear spark plugs which I updated while the plenum was off.  All the plugs were good and had the race been held "that day" and the van sold the day after, they would have all been fine.  However, for me the van was intended to be a longer term purchase. Getting to the back bank of the V6 is a big job that I didn't want to do twice so I attended to the maintenance while the opportunity was there.  My intention here was not to make myself a better racer.  

I also fixed the LCD screen for the odometer.  This ended up being a $12 fix.  I did put it in my budget since it was nominal and made for a good story.  Had it been more costly, I would have still done it and kept it out of my budget.  Why, an odometer doesn't make the van a better racer but it does make it a more desirable item to own than something that would have otherwise been stamped as "True Miles Unknown" hurting the van's resale.  Even more than the resale, I put business miles on that van in the 6 months before the event and wanted to be able to track the "tax deducible mileage" accurately.  Heck, I put 10,000 business miles on that van before taking it to The Challenge.  That's about $5,000 in tax deduction and at 30% is about $1,500 real dollars . Ha

I did fix the AC in that vehicle and kept it out of the budget.  Having AC didn't make me a better racer, it made the van a better long term ownership experience. 

However, it is know that the '04 and '05 van had inferior timing chain guides (I had a '05.)  As such, the '06 and newer seem to sell for more.  I looked for a '06 but could not find one in my price range.  At the time of purchase, the guides seemed okay.  Changing them is a big job and generally makes it a better van.  As such, I did not feel that I could reasonably justify making this improvement without a budget hit.  Therefore, I di not make that change and went with the existing chain guides.  

As luck would have it, in the autox portion on about run #4, the van jumped timing and ran like crap the rest of the event. Finished about 6th from the bottom.   

So, after all this writting, what I am saying is I agree with what Tom has wrote and here is how I have managed these "exceptions" in my past Challenge Cars.  

Im good either way, to be honest. I was pissed about the starter solenoid indropped and broke on the amc build having to be in the budget, but understood.

In this case, with the current build, the only thing it could potentially change is my spark plugs and exhaust manifold gaskets. And oil filter. Those were all maintenance that didn't HAVE to be done to the engine before install, but did for my peace of mind and intended use. 

But im also good with leaving them in the budget.

What about timing belts? It would count against budget unless it broke correct?

 no one is going to say 'hey, it's got 80 thou on it check the belts'!!  just do it.

Ya'll,  Ever heard the saying,

       Don't Shoot yourself in the Foot.

   I won't condone Cheating, LOT'S of this is Inconsequential .  fix it move on.

In reply to n8 :

I definitely echo the don't be a dick aspect. The EGT doesn't need struts, but I can get new tokico blues for it for $147 for all 4 corners right now. I could jump it a few times and it would need struts, but the tokicos will be going towards the budget (it's not like their konis or anything decent anyways). 

i like the ruling as written. but i have a theoretical question. what if you make a wrong turn in the process of making modifications to a part that was good when the car was bought. could you purchase a part identical to the one that was good in the purchase as a mulligan to your error? it seems reasonable in the scenarios  but id like to know how others feel.

This just sounds like it's ripe for abuse.

On second thought, can you change the spelling of break to brake?

Many challenge cars come from Craigslist and in Craigslist speak it's the breaks that are bugget neutrel.

I don’t know if we want to open this pandora’s box.  

An alternator, etc fine.  Spitting the crank out the bottom because you didn’t change your plugs and tried to make a 200hp nitrous shot pass testing before the challenge then showing up with more knowledge and a different engine with no budget implications?  Nah.  

In reply to Patrick :

If you saw that happen, or heard whispers about it... I reckon you'd protest?

proposed new rule said:

In the case of a protest that deals with a part or parts replaced under this rule, a group of nine event attendees will be selected by GRM staff, and they will vote to determine whether the part replaced without budget impact was fairly exempted.

not that it's in the best interest of Challenge to become a mob of "we're not gonna protest"... but having a mechanism for it seems useful and a way to adjudicate competitors being shiny happy people about overusing the exemption? 

edit:
Thinking about this a bit more... it should probably be spelled-out/explicit what the repercussions are if they "event attendees board" decides the exempted "maintenance item(s)" are to be added to the budget... especially if that puts the entry over-budget.  Should there be a penalty for bringing forward a failed protest?  Should there be a penalty for exempting maintenance that has a performance benefit, other than possibly being moved to "exhibition"?

Would it be better to have a list of parts that may be replaced for free and anything not on the list must be included in the budget?

I like the list idea when combined with the don't be a dick rule. 

Case study example from me and my current build:

Used clutch and flywheel purchased for $50. Bought new clutch for another $50

If clutch was in the list, swapping the maginal used clutch with a brand new one would be technically legal, but would be a dick move. Hence illegal. 

I cant think of any way to write the rule that makes it explicit in how to implement it without having stuff like that happen. 

Air filter: stock application for the car in paper is budget exempt. Any other material or application must be in budget.

Close as i can get to good wording 

Patrick said:

I don’t know if we want to open this pandora’s box.  

An alternator, etc fine.  Spitting the crank out the bottom because you didn’t change your plugs and tried to make a 200hp nitrous shot pass testing before the challenge then showing up with more knowledge and a different engine with no budget implications?  Nah.  

ONE datsun said he had gone through 8 torque converters/ no telling how many Gear sets, to get in the 9's no mention of burnt parts from nitrous, but they are good at what they do. Had they  blown an engine in testing they would just change it.

TOM ,  SAID ONLY WHAT'S ON OR IN THE CAR AT THE TIME OF TH EVENT COUNTS

The inherent issues with the don’t be a dick clause is that there is one dick every year.  But you don’t want to walk up to them and declare  shenanigans.  

In reply to GTXVette :

The way i see it: theees wallet budget and challenge budget. 

If you have a $75 engine in the car that was essentially a once in a lifetime deal, and you scatter it, you cant buy a $500 engine and claim 75. If you put the 500 engine in for tuning and trsting, and scatter it, and find a replacement for 75, you can claim the 75.

Either way the wallet budget is out 575, but the end result is vastly different. 

 I HAVE THE 2015 PLB

, FROM ONE END TO THE OTHER IT HAS GREAT PARTS, i rebuilt the top end twice because of a bad valve, ended up buying another whole engine for 100  only using the heads  I WILL COUNT THE COST OF 1 GASKET SET AND SOMETHING FOR THE HEADS   EVEN WITH THAT I WON'T COME CLOSE TO $2019  PAINT AND ALL, TIRES WERE GIVING TO ME BY RED STAPLER.

i WILL COUNT ONLY CHANGES I MADE AS IT ARRIVES FOR THE CHALLENGE.

THAT IS HOW I READ IT.

In reply to Patrick :

Too late, it's been open for a while now, but not officially codified until now. Right now it's applied/interpreted inconsistently, which is a problem.

Regarding your 200-shot question, this sentence from the rule prevents that: "Parts may not be replaced at no budget impact under this rule if they were broken or heavily degraded when the car was purchased, or if the competitor knew failure was likely due to modifications."