CAMS Bulletins - Protest Time and Subaru Rally Challenge amendments

[fro]

Okay, two CAMS Bulletins from the 31st of May that might be of interest:

This Bulletin is all about changing the Time Limit for lodging protest from one hour to 30 minutes, and is mainly for ARC's...

This Bulletin is all about changes for the Subaru Rally Challenge. It's a bit more interesting...

Most of it appears to have come out of stuff that happened at the Subaru Rally of Canberra (ties needing to be broken, parts being substituted during the event to keep the car going...), but the interesting bit is all about ECU's, and making sure that they remained standard...

Hints pretty strongly towards some people spending serious time and effort to fiddle with the ECU's... And it looks like they've tried to cover any possible thing you could do to the ECU in the Bulletin as well...

Oh, and as an aside, there's this Bulletin about pump fuel (and the definition thereof), but I haven't done any research into what it's implications are... maybe someone knowledgeable in that area could shed some light?

[Spac]

I could be wrong, but it looks to me as though the fuel thing is simply specifiying exactly which standard that it must comply with.
Possibly someone has leant on CAMS and they're just clearing it up.

[smee]

Spac wrote:
I could be wrong, but it looks to me as though the fuel thing is simply specifiying exactly which standard that it must comply with.
Possibly someone has leant on CAMS and they're just clearing it up.



If this is the case literally, then how will those competitors using Elf, Sunoco, and that special Shell blend at the V8’s go. This stuff is not what you would call readily available to the General Transport market.
I myself would classify the general transport market as mum and dad types lining up for fuel on a Thursday pay-night at your local BP, Mobil etc.
But then again if you go to Adelaide they have race fuel available at bowsers in the suburbs.

And another question on this, what is the legality of adding anything to fuel through the filler cap. This includes octane booster and those rotary guys that put oil directly into the tanks……..

[Spac]

1. Additives. Have a read of schedule G (??? - the fuel one!). I had mild stress about that pre-RoC, but the rule is something like "You can add lubricants, lead subsitute, stabiliser (and something else that I was suprised about)".

2. I agree with the idea about Elf etc. Either it is true pump fuel, or it's not... Cams appears to be incapable of wording the rule to reflect this... something to do with being hauled through the courts by Elf already perhaps... But I'm suprised they haven't just hidden behind the Aust Standards, by enforcing them.

[tortfeaser]

The ECU thing is interesting - Matt and I were chatting to the technical guy in charge of the RS series - he has a Subaru diagnostic tool to look at the ECU and see if the ROM has changed and to reprogram it. But it looks like people weren't changing the ROM, but looking to add an interference-type controller (like a Unichip) to vary the original ECU's signals.

[tortfeaser]

The fuel bulletin is just referring to the right type of legislative instrument. Its a determination, not a regulation. And they've still named the act incorrectly - its a Commonwealth act, not a Federal Government act (there's no such thing). The determination is here

Typically clunky writing from CAMS. They are forever putting out bulletins clarifying stuff that would be fine if drafted correctly the first time.

[smee]

Originally posted by tortfeaser
Typically clunky writing from CAMS. They are forever putting out bulletins clarifying stuff that would be fine if drafted correctly the first time.

Pay peanuts, get monkeys.

But hey aren't monkeys cool.

[Mark]

I was wondering how to cheat in the RS Series while sitting around at RoC. I didn't think Unichip is much bigger than a cigarette packet or something...and you've just got to conceal it well away under the dashboard. Plus, once you've spliced into the loom with the interceptor plug I think it was pretty easy to remove the computer and put it in your pocket/navigator's bag.

[Raynman]

Smee,

Personally I prefer to think of that phrase as pay monkeys, you get peanuts...

[Daniel]

I don't know about Subaru ECUs but you can buy a programable ECU that just sits upstream and pugs into the std ECU of most 4WDs. It takes about 10seconds to fit and take off and doesn't change a thing in the original ECU, it just modifies the signals the original ECU sees.

[tortfeaser]

Originally posted by Mark
I was wondering how to cheat in the RS Series while sitting around at RoC. I didn't think Unichip is much bigger than a cigarette packet or something...and you've just got to conceal it well away under the dashboard. Plus, once you've spliced into the loom with the interceptor plug I think it was pretty easy to remove the computer and put it in your pocket/navigator's bag.

The little reader box that plugs in to the ECU is of the ODBII kind, and might be able to report some diagnostic that all wasn't well. Still, I reckon you're right, its one of the the best chances to cheat.

[smee]

Originally posted by Daniel
I don't know about Subaru ECUs but you can buy a programable ECU that just sits upstream and pugs into the std ECU of most 4WDs. It takes about 10seconds to fit and take off and doesn't change a thing in the original ECU, it just modifies the signals the original ECU sees.

Yes you could do this, but It's still cheating.

You would need the double adapter plug to put the programeable ECU in still. And when they go to look at your ECU, or swap it with one out of the box like is done at other one make series, then you get done.
Then if they seal off the ECU ie put a pin/tag through the connector, then you are stuffed again. I think they have thought of just about everyway possible to stop the ECU modifications.

I wonder how many ECUTeks have been returned to MRT.

To take it to the n'th degree, even putting a test light to the wiring loom could produce a protest if you wanted to.