Tech Inspections at National Events, educate me.

First of all, I a am NOT looking to cheat.  I firmly believe 85% or more of making a car faster is the squishy pink thing between the steering wheel and the seat.  Second, I'm doing some mental bench building until my finances are in better shape to actually do something, so this is more of a thought exercise.

I have a 2004 MINI Cooper in my garage with a bad Midlands transmission.  My plan is to replace it with the 5-speed Getrag that was available in the 2005-2006 models as it seems like a direct fit and much more reliable.  I specifically don't want to go for a Cooper S 6-speed because I'd like to start autocrossing it one day in HS.  That thought process made me wonder, first, if it would take me out of the stock class because it's not the original transmission to the year, but since 2002-2006 MINI's are classified the same, maybe it doesn't make a difference.  However, the bigger question was, "How would anyone know?"  It really opened a Pandora's box for me, so I thought I'd ask y'all.

I know national karting events.  The events are based around a specific motor.  If you're in the top 5 of a national race, they tell you to bring a box because you'll be taking the motor back in pieces because they tear it down and tech/measure everything.  I can't imagine that at a national SCCA event (for example) that tech would get that detailed.  Let's use Solo Nats for example.  The sheer variety of makes/models/trims would most likely put a limit on what can be teched.  Beyond that, is it more of an honor system?  I'm not talking about things that are easily checked visually like sway bars, rim diameter or width, stripped interiors in stock classes, but more of the things harder to see.

In my MINI example above, if replacing the transmission with the next year model would make it illegal, would anyone pick up on it?  That started me down the road of how DO they check things that can't be see visually or heard.  For example, an ultralight flywheel could be easily heard as the car would sound a lot different than others in the class.  But, a flywheel that's lightened 5-10% would be difficult to be discovered without removing it and weighing it.  Lower gears would be heard or an LSD on a car that doesn't have one would be seen.  What if someone rebuilt a motor, and shaved the head a smidge bumping compression a half a point or less?  The only way you'd know is to do a compression ratio test.  That seems beyond the capabilities of a post tech inspection.  Granted, these are small gains, but at Solo Nats, where tenths and hundredths make a difference....

I can't stress enough that I'm not asking, "How can I cheat?"  It's just my potentially doing a transmission swap took my down the rabbit hole of questions.  There's probably 20 other questions that I could ask, but won't overload this post. (For example, my MINI has a sunroof.  I don't like sunroofs and would like to weld in a regular roof.  Do they do a VIN check to see what came on the car originally?)

-Rob

Legality tech at national events is honor system, but occasionally there will be large-scale checks in impound for known, easily policed issues. Like "we're going to check timing on all Saturns in impound" sort of stuff. Anything beyond tat is up to the competitors to police through the protest system.

Unfortunately, if you want to run in Street, any swap needs to be same year/same model. No mixing and matching of parts, even if the car is on the same line. Same line mixing only comes into play in Street Prepared. 

As for sunroof, since it was an available configuration for that model, you'd be allowed to swap to a non-sunroof setup, but you'd have to replace every piece with an OEM or OEM equivalent piece for the non-sunroof version. That means roof, headliner, interior trim, etc. Per actually converted his old SW20 MR2 from a t-top to a hardtop this way. Cost him a few bucks, but it was cheaper than all the legwork that would have been required to find a real hardtop car.

I know a guy who was protested because the radio was out of the car at the repair shop, and that was against the rules because it wasn't stock, and that is lightening the car.  Obviously a douche move, but hey, whatcha gonna do when you are hanging with dudes who stand around in parking lots wearing floppy hats?

To complete the story, my friend was pissed enough that he sawed the faceplate off the radio and glued it into the hole so he could cheat and get away with it...

JG Pasterjak said:

Unfortunately, if you want to run in Street, any swap needs to be same year/same model. No mixing and matching of parts, even if the car is on the same line. Same line mixing only comes into play in Street Prepared.

Darn it.  The Midlands sucks soo bad.

As for sunroof, since it was an available configuration for that model, you'd be allowed to swap to a non-sunroof setup, but you'd have to replace every piece with an OEM or OEM equivalent piece for the non-sunroof version. That means roof, headliner, interior trim, etc. Per actually converted his old SW20 MR2 from a t-top to a hardtop this way. Cost him a few bucks, but it was cheaper than all the legwork that would have been required to find a real hardtop car.

Good to know.  Although, if the transmission swap bumps me out of class, I guess I could look at Street Prepared at some point (after a year or two of autocrossing under my belt)

Thanks!!

-Rob

Tech inspection is a safety check. Class legality is self policed/honor system. At national events there's an impound session where competitors are able to look over each others' cars. As stated the trans swap is illegal. At the local level I doubt anyone would notice or care as long as there isn't a distinct advantage to the 5 speed and you aren't crushing everyone. But still the polite thing to do is approach your class competition and inform them of the issue. Chances are they won't care but if somebody does care your only real option is to bump up to SP. Nationally...anywhere other than solo nats likely nobody will care as long as you're not winning, but it's a bigger risk you're taking. It's rare (but definitely does happen occasionally) that anyone is knowingly and purposefully cheating. Usually protests are over either a misinterpretation of a rule or pushing the gray area of a vague rule.