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I’m sorry if this sounds a bit like a soppy rant, but I do take some of the comments about the Honda Cadet personally. I’ve got to clear up a couple of points here, firstly, the idea that “brown envelopes might fly around”. Yes, I write the regulations for the Honda classes, as a motorsport volunteer. I am not paid by Honda, the ABkC or the MSA. So I refute absolutely any allegation that my decision in writing the regulations could be influenced by any of the above, or the engine preparers. For better or worse, and nobody’s perfect, my decisions when writing or amending the rules have always been governed by trying to keep the costs at a reasonable level. I believe I can justify each modification made to the rules as being right and prudent at that time. I do not have any influence on the pricing of engines, and indeed the stock engine is priced at a level now not dissimilar to when I first encountered it first, in the early ‘90’s. Commercially, if engine preparers make claims which folk then believe, and are prepared to pay that asking price for, then I can have no influence at all over that! The Honda cadet is the most popular class in the country, which suggests that a large number of people have looked into this, and come up with the same conclusion. For those of you only recently into the Honda class, let me tell you that we did have central control, with engines prepared and sealed by an outside company with no vested interest in racing. They still got it wrong, and we still had non-compliant engines. As for the idea of pooled engines, (and this was pointed out in a thread above), Rotax tried it, and it didn’t have many takers. Another series promoter tried pooled engines a few years ago in Honda and was slaughtered mercilessly on this site for his efforts. And finally, let’s be clear. The first set of regulations went to four pages. The current set has 14. Continual clarification and elemental changes has been required as the level of engine preparation increases and the perceived value of these engines has risen accordingly. At each turn, with each new twist by the preparers, I have then had to add something to those regs to counter that. With racing, that is the nature of the beast.
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