Challenge budget questions.

We'll start with one but I'm sure there will be others.

I asked this in another thread but didn't get an answer.

The vehicle I bought has 3.73:1 3rd members in it. I have a set of 5.30:1 third members on my shelf. Can I swap them even without taking a hit on the budget?

Fair market value of the parts. Why? They weren't part of the original purchase.

Even though one set of 3rds came with the vehicle and I obviously can't use both of them at the same time.

How about trades to other people?

For instance, could I trade another person a set of 15X7 wheels that came with the vehicle for a set of 16X8 wheels they have?

Or do all trades receive a hit on the budget?

Ah, if if came with the car, it's in the price you paid. All clear!

Not sure on trades. but if you sell him your wheels for a dollar and he sells you his for a dollar....

Can I take out the set of gears that came with the vehicle at FMV, take the hit on my recoup amount, and then add in the other set at FMV?

I'm not even sure that makes sense to me, but I don't know a better way to word it.

Gearheadotaku wrote: Ah, if if came with the car, it's in the price you paid. All clear! Not sure on trades. but if you sell him your wheels for a dollar and he sells you his for a dollar....

Only one set of gears came with the vehicle. The other set of gears I have from another project.

Toyman01 wrote: Can I take out the set of gears that came with the vehicle at FMV, take the hit on my recoup amount, and then add in the other set at FMV? I'm not even sure that makes sense to me, but I don't know a better way to word it.

I am not an expert at all, nor do I propose that I am answering this question, but this idea seems logical.

Think of the extreme end. "I bought this heap with a 305 but I have this 400 sitting on a shelf from another project..." It's not even because they have vastly different FMVs.

I'd FMV sell and FMV buy the other set, in this case it may be even.

Basically, we're trying to label when trades are ok, or when they have to be considered a recoup and subsequent purchase?

Pretty much. Wheeling and dealing is part of the Challenge and swaps are part of wheeling and dealing. I'm just wondering what is and isn't allowed and how it affects the budget.

Edit: Particularly when trading with myself.

If FMV is equal and the trade is something you could see someone ELSE doing with yourself, i personally wouldn't have a problem calling it a trade.

Nobody is going to trade a JATO rocket for a MKiii Supra Turbo.

But someone might trade a 4.10 final drive for a 3.85 and vice versa.

Not to throw poo on what has been said so far but the trading out fFMV for FMV could be a slippery slope. Say someone has 40 or 50 non running lotus's in their back yard and buys a Wrecked lotus for $2k then pulls every single part off of the wrecked lotus for the best example of that part in the yard full of lotus's. By the endi they are running a $20k Car in a $2k league. Yes this particular example is far fetched as most of us don't have a hoard of spare Lotus parts, but my point is using self trades could be said to favor those with larger stocks of vehicles and parts. And those stocks of parts in some ways represent currency. Would I personally ding the op for the final drive example? Not a chance. But there is a line somewhere that needs to be realistic.

Documentation should solve that problem.

itsarebuild wrote: Not to throw poo on what has been said so far but the trading out fFMV for FMV could be a slippery slope. Say someone has 40 or 50 non running lotus's in their back yard and buys a Wrecked lotus for $2k then pulls every single part off of the wrecked lotus for the best example of that part in the yard full of lotus's. By the endi they are running a $20k Car in a $2k league. Yes this particular example is far fetched as most of us don't have a hoard of spare Lotus parts, but my point is using self trades could be said to favor those with larger stocks of vehicles and parts. And those stocks of parts in some ways represent currency. Would I personally ding the op for the final drive example? Not a chance. But there is a line somewhere that needs to be realistic.

That's not really the same, though. Nobody would trade unbroken parts for the same parts, but not broken.

The key here is "different but worth the same," not "better and more expensive."