Cheating - would you do it if you didn't get caught?

[bmwguy]

The kind of cheating I'm thinking of is the technical stuff. eg fitting oversize pistons for a few more bhp when they aren't allowed...or....switchable ECU maps. You run an illegal quicker one on track but the scrutineers find a legal one when they plug in a lap top....or....running rocket fuel when the rules specify pump fuel only....or...any of a thousand things that make a car quicker but the scrutineers will never pick up on.

Would you still want to win, knowing that you have an unfair advantage?

[bmwguy]

As expected no one is admitting cheating.....but obviously plenty do or why would we need eligibility scrutineers?
The wire torsion bars is an extreme example. I would regard it as cheating. It obeys the letter but not the spirit of the regs and I assume he was told to get rid of the set up PDQ?

I think there is a large minority who think cheating without getting caught is a legitimate part of motor racing.

Edited by bmwguy on Saturday 5th July 15:32

[bmwguy]

Weslake-Monza said:

Most cheats get caught and all they've achieved in cheating is upsetting honest competitors. Engines can be sealed and stripped down and measured - followed if necessary by disqualification. Fuel can be sampled and sent away for analysis - followed if necessary by disqualification, same for ECUs, gearboxes, diffs, dampers, springs and a bunch of other stuff - even at club level.

On the contrary, I think most cheats get away with it. Fuel sampling for example is so expensive that it is almost never done because most club series don't have the budget for it. What actually happens is that honest competitors suspect cheating is rife, vote with their feet and the series dies.

[bmwguy]

PhillipM said:

How?
The most fun cars are always the ones that bend the regs without breaking them.

Regulation benders are not welcome in one model racing. The MX5 guys for example come down hard on anyone running anything non-standard.

[bmwguy]

Rude-boy said:

I'm a bigger fan of standard series issued ECUs.

You can run your own for testing and so on but you are handed your ECU for the meeting by the series coordinator at scrutineering and it is taken from your car in Parc Ferme. Results are provisional for 7 days after each event to allow for interrogation of any ECUs if felt necessary.

Hard to do on recent models. From 2004 (ish) onwards the ecu is coded to the key/immobiliser and the instruments. Alll three have to be changed as a set at the same time. So for example the Boxster series couldn't swap ecu's between cars without dismantling the dash.