Originally Posted by
jimdigris
At the start of the 88 season FISA announced they would be clamping down on what they called "irregularities" (they didnt call it cheating). First up was turbo cars must run the intercooler homologated on the road car, previously this was in the grey area of the rules. Next was fuel inlet system must be what was homologated on the road car, but with Electronic control systems still free, ie the manifold, injectors or carby, and air inlet ducts must be exactly what was fitted to the road cars. Previously the BMWs ran a very modified air inlet cold air inlet box and a slightly different modified manifold. Previously the only time in Europe in the 87 season any top Group A team was picked up for running non standard fuel systems was at round 1 at Monza when the Texaco team (surprise surprise!) was not allowed to race after scrutineering showed the fuel system was radically different, the BMWs at this point were running the road base system but six were disqualified for illegal body work, mainly carbon fibre boot lids. Later in the season (just before the SPA 24 hour race) a BMW factory approved modified air and fuel inlet system was supplied to most teams, which gave them a jump of 20-30 HP, depending on who you believe. FISA did nothing and the BMW runners ran with it for the rest of the year thinking that it was legal. As it turned out, it wasnt. The Mobil team turned up for the first round of the ATCC with the modified system not knowing it was now deemed illegal. Larry Perkins knew and brought it to the officials attention and PB was eventually allowed to run that one round under a special dispension that all teams had to sign off for. LP was the last to sign but just before he signed he said to Peter "why dont you just go down to the local BMW dealer and buy the correct parts, I know I can go to my local Holden dealer and do that", which brought quite a few chuckles and elbowing in the room. The allowance of Peter and Jim to race was that they would be awarded no points no matter where they finished. The following round the Mobil cars fronted with the correct system and were slower than the previous year. The ruling made the cars nearly 2 seconds a lap slow at big tracks like Bathurst
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