Actually, let me clarify the "spears will be legal" charge - it's not that they "may" be legal, but that they will have to be legal, if someone presents one and an attempt is made to turn them away for having an "unsafe" design.
Gee, Richard - are you nuts?
At least in this case, no.
The Club will have no choice if the lawyers reasoning is adhered to.
Assuming that the legal council is successful in pushing thru the practice of not officially sanctioning "safety" systems or equipment that has not been "quantified or tested", any substantially rigid structure in the nose area (where the crushbox would normally be) cannot be banned, for the simple reason that to do so then necessitates approval of its replacement, exactly against that legal practice.
To ban a structure necessitates that it be replaced by another, "more safe" design.
If that car is re-entered with a "better" design, just the act of allowing it to compete,
never mind any required sign-offs to the log book, means that that structure is officially approved - untested and unquantified.
That "more safe" design is now a defacto "approved" standard by which the legal system can judge liabilities in a lawsuit!
This sort of legal "logic" is exactly what the Club is setting itself up for, not just in this particular case, but for every case of disapproval of safety equipment followed by allowance of its replacement!
It also means that every other piece of untested and unquantified safety gear has to be dropped from the books.
And Stan, since you just don't seem to get it :
NO ONE IS PROPOSING THAT THERE BE A MANDATED PERFORMANCE STANDARD! THE REQUEST IS TO ONLY MAKE SURE THAT AT LEAST AN ATTEMPT IS MADE TO HELP MITIGATE THE EFFECTS OF A FRONTAL CRASH - EXACTLY WHAT THE FF/FC RULES DO NOW.
The FF/FC crushbox rules DO NOT imply any sort of performance standard, they only state that the PHYSICAL MAKEUP be a certain minimum.
And to allow glass/kevalr/honeycomb crushboxes, all that needs to be added to the rules is that they are allowed.
No performance specs, no assurances. Plain, simple English that has been in use for quite a while.
But much better than allowing nothing to be there at all.