Lots of modded turbo subbies no longer ST legal

[mohaughn]

This was in the latest issue of SCCA fast track. A friend of mine has a subbie that is regionally competitive but he has a modded ECU that prevents the second O2 from throwing a CEL. Basically this clarification makes it very clear that this is not legal... This should help some of the i6 BMWs that were getting crushed by the turbo subbies.. Of course, I'm sure there are a lot of BMW people that are also in the same situation.

Anybody here in an ST class car that interperted the rules wrong and going to be affected by this?

2) Street Touring: Per the STAC, Street Touring competitors are reminded that ST requires all vehicle modifications to be emissions compliant as stated in 14.10.C, 14.10.D, and 14.10.E. All emissions system hardware and software must be operationally functional as originally intended by the manufacturer. Tampering with emissions system software and/or hardware to create or cloak non-compliance is not permitted. Some examples of emissions system tampering are O2 foolers, disabling or deactivating Check Engine Light (CEL) code indication, backdating ECU internals from OBD2 to OBD1, etc.

I guess the title should say that they are confirmed as never being class legal as they did not really change any rules just clarified as a lot of people were not following the rules.

[Dan I]

this topic is all over my local ax forum as well...too bad this has to happen so close to nationals, as there will be sour attitudes and threats of car protests.
I wish I had two more hands, to give the SCCA 4 thumbs down.

[mohaughn]

Really? I've always thought the rules were pretty clear that the cars in this class have to maintain all federal emissions.

I guess the confusion comes about because the rules say you can change out the cats to high flow cats, but the other rules about emissions should make it clear that the car still has to be federally legal. Turning off a CEL caused by emission equipment not working properly is pretty obviously not legal. But you could also argue that replacing a functional cat with a high flow cat is not legal following the exact wording of federal laws. Add to that some very poorly worded rules and you have the situation that has occured. As SCCA can't get out there and do sniffer tests on each and every car looking for a CEL in a tech inspection is an easy way to spot problems. I would think that most SCCA organizations have an OBDII code reader at the events to see what is causing the CEL if someone did protest.

I thought when they clarified these rules back in January it made it pretty clear. But obviously they needed another clarification specifically about ECU changes and O2 sensor "fakers."