In areas of the country with high (above 100) air temps, getting oil temps below 250/270 can be a challenge. The small turbo oil coolers, that we started with, simply do not work to keep the oil temps down to a reasonable level in such conditions. If one installs a larger oil cooler, a fair bit of the right side headlight bucket needs to be cut out to accommodate it.
Even with a 7"X14" Septrab cooler the oil temps can get to 240 degrees at times and those border on dangerous for our engines. It is just a fact of life when racing and pushing our cars far beyond what Porsche expected for a street car.
It seems to me that there is no way around us cutting out significant portions of the headlight bucket to accommodate large oil coolers in places with high ambient air temps and there is no reason to even worry about it as it is not a performance issue.
As for the air intake system, it has been allowed for quite some time for whatever reason. As Tim C. says, there are too many cars with headlight buckets modified now to change it.
I agree that cutting the headlight buckets for oil cooling and for air intakes should be specifically included in the rules and do not think that we should be too restrictive about it because we are not trying to create a DQ issue for those that may "overcut" to accommodate their set up or for a larger oil cooler than someone else has. I believe the "floor" of the bucket should be open to cutting as, like Eric said, some cars may not even have it to begin with. The front wall portion of the bucket that comes down and curves back and down, behind the bumper area, also needs to be open to cutting to allow for air to be ducted into the oil cooler or to allow for air intake from the bumper opening.
I do not see any valid reason to be overly restrictive on this modification because different people will have different solutions to the problem and there is no purpose in creating a tech nightmare for our racers. Keep the outside appearance stock but recognize the need to modify the headlight bucket area and remove any tech question.
Jim Foxx