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Re: Why is the protestor named the "bad guy?"

To: autox@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Why is the protestor named the "bad guy?"
From: Paul and Meredith Brown <racers@rt66.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 21:16:16 -0600
>I beleive wholeheartly in the protest process, but when it is a weenie 
>protest,against a great driver  that makes them the bad guy
>
>If someone protests Illegal shock heigth, fine.. katie (from my sources) was 
>like .001 of an inch out of spec..  that my friend is a weenie protest...

I saw your earlier post, and it didn't make sense then either.  You can't
measure this within .001".  Spring perches are rather difficult to measure.
 So your source is full of it.  I've heard other sources say she was out of
spec, but within what might be expected of a higher-mileage car, so she was
given a pass.  Not that I understand how spring perches wear, mind you....
Also, just how is a protestor to know how far out of spec a car is before
it gets torn down?  Miata spring perches have been a problem ever since
Koni started building replacement struts for them.  I believe you can see
which slot they're adjusted to from outside.  Katie's car was set one step
lower than the accepted "legal" position.  BTW, Koni QC on spring perch
heights hasn't been all that good - all of us with '88 CRXs had different
spacers in ours.  I had 4 different thicknesses in mine.   Sounds like a
reasonable protest to me.  Not saying the car was illegal, and this is the
sort of thing that probably should have been done earlier in the year if it
needed to be done, but that's pretty reasonable grounds for a protest.  On
the other hand, this is where you'll get a real protest committee, so you
get a real precedent.   And yes, ride height is a performance-effecting thing!

I'm glad to hear the car was found legal, but that doesn't mean the protest
wasn't a reasonable thing to do.  Unfortunately, this is often the only way
to get a real ruling on something.  I've been on both sides of protests,
and they are never fun.  But they don't have to be a really bad thing, if
they are approached right.  


Paul and Meredith Brown

MR2:  "Not the easiest car in the world to work on"

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