Chaz,
I think you may be walking pretty close to the proverbial ‘slippery slope’.
What one considers to be a nonperformance enhancing component, could be open to interpretation. For example, if a toothed belt for the Leopard water pump is less likely to cause trouble, then I think it could easily be considered a performance issue. If some one isn’t happy with the Leopard pump, maybe they should consider another engine package.
I think it might be easy for someone to conclude that preventing failure, is indeed a performance enhancement.
Same with the Rotax air box. If you don’t like it, buy something else. I think all of the different TAG engine packages have their own oddities, or strong and weak points. The buyer of these packages should take them all into consideration when making the decision of which to race.
My personal opinion is to keep whats legal to what is supplied with the engine package.
Another area this impacts is fragmentation of the rules. I think its important for the TAG class to be as standard as possible, between clubs and around the country. If each club had their own version of TAG tech rules I worry about there ending up 16 different tag classes. Especially between different clubs.
Just my two pennies worth.
Loren