Yeah, SSM doesn't solve that problem. I'd consider doing a direct trade with someone for a black OEM top but you tell me, would you remove that top from that car? They belong together no? LOL.

 

Car looks awesome makes me miss my spa 01 and my Rio 04! Funny thing is my FTD this weekend was with a passenger as well!

Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 4 Beta

 

As someone who did the CR tonneau conversion for my own personal preference, this is ridiculous. Simply put, there are two options for trim that fits in this location ... the CR tonneau and the base trim. The softop delete was part of the a weight savings for the CR just as the A/C. So are they going to make all the non A/C cars change over to the CR stuff? The bracing is actually more in question with the rules than the tonneau, but is already determined to be reinforcement. As the images show, there is nothing connected to the softop. Its pretty clear to me that you can choose one or the other. Doug Gill and Brian Harmer even confirmed this at Spring Nationals when I asked them about this exact subject. Obviously politics is involved here. All we can do is gripe and provide information. Even if I got my car running, there is absolutely no way I would run BSP after this and Lee's threat of protest at Nationals. The CR tonneau and parts and base cover and parts are very close in weight anyways. This simply raises the cost to play just like the diff and hardtop. There is a pattern developing here...

Edit ... The S2000 has been available in many other trims besides what we have in the States. Converting to any one of those is SM legal in my understanding. IE RX7, EVO, STI ... S2000 Type S, S2000 GT, S2000 Ultimate Edition, etc...

-Marc

 

That's what I'm saying. I don't think weight is that much of an issue (yet?). I'll prob pull the AC and radio out over the winter since I don't drive the car anymore but won't go nuts with weight reduction. I actually like the look of the tonneau cover so I may do that too. If it rains I guess you'll see me with an umbrella in grid...or I could just borrow one of many black OEM hard tops from the BS or STR S2000s with hardtops

 

When did Lee threaten to protest you at Nats? Yes, he is the chair of the SPAC, and we wanted clarification from the rest of the SPAC members. I don't know for certain, but I understand it was unanimous that it was needed from the other members (not 100% on that though!).

 

...should also mention that the interpretation will likely be taken as gospel by the SMAC as well, so unless you bump to FP it will be the same.

 

If it was unanimous, what is it based on? They have the part #s, categories from Honda and images. In STR, the CR aero and body parts is optional and the tonneau can be considered part of the aero. It can be considered trim as the catalog shows. How can this relate to the softop removal? Pretty weak argument if you ask me. Jason won BSP last year without the tonneau and Jonathan won STR last year with the CR aero. Both are fine IMO. Both are similar in weight, but only one incurs a great expense and hassle to find parts. When Doug and Brian also agree, it seems the burden of proof now goes to the SEB to explain their reasoning behind this.

I have the parts anyways, so Im not worried about a protest. I simply don't agree and fail to see any logic here.

-Marc

 

I say move up the food chain for clarification to SEB, etc. It can only help us understand who is thinking what.

 

Oh interesting. Hmm, under the letter of the rule of update/backdate I don't see having the base trim (plastic tray?) for the removal of the soft top as an update to the CR trim as being legal. You remove the soft top since the CR doesn't have it but the tray isn't a CR part since that belongs as part of the soft top so I'd interpret that as being you either update to CR trim or you keep it to a standard AP1/AP2 trim. Now I did put on an early AP1 soft top on my car (plastic window) to save some weight but still it seems very gray. I do agree though that all these rules are a bit contrived and really won't hurt the competitiveness of any BSP S2000 except our wallets...so maybe the idea is to drain us of cash so we can't compete?

 

I have (#11917 and 11918), but we already know what the answer will be despite the clear evidence otherwise ... "outside the intent of the rules." This is why many of us gave up writing letters long ago and believe there is politics involved.

-Marc