Oh also, on the "as manufactured" thing.

All of these manufacturers will build based on pennies this way or that way. They don't make decisions based on racing. Not a new concept either. Mabuchi spit out umpteen versions of the old 700 motors that LSH was based on. Right now there are two generations of the PB2000 right now. The newer of them have button head screws holding the end bell on. Smart but a pain in the a$$. Which one is right? With buttons? Without buttons? ......both are right. When you tech them as Terry described.....edge of dark, 40 degrees, in the wind you wont have the manufacturers drawings to verify it has the right wind, can, bearings, rotor, shrink wrap.

Then some of the aftermarket manufacturers today will do a custom wind and just charge accordingly. In same cases even custom cans. So you could have two "as manufactured" motors side by side from same hand building them be totally different.

Even if we were to rely on the protest process we still have to know how the original motor was built.......exactly. "Well.......it looks like a Proboat 2000........which generation?........did those have these bearings?......depends on which lot number." That's just for one manufacturer. Multiply that by every motor on Mikes list then add more as they become available. Ahhhhhhhh.

"As manufactured" would be a tech nightmare. It's part of what was wrong with the original rule set and a large part of why for years I've been saying that we blew it. It worked but only because we were all ignorant.