Unofficial Errata and FAQ List

[Magesmiley]

Due to a number of questions about compatibility, how various parts of the rules work (or don’t work), and some recent personal experiences with “issues” in various places in the rules, I’d like to propose a project for the members of the forums. Let’s use or combined knowledge of Car Wars to make an unofficial Errata and FAQ thread. The intent is to generate a list of errata and FAQs that would bring all of the 1st-4th edition Car Wars products into agreement under the 4th edition rules. This list would be entirely unofficial (unless Scott or someone of authority at SJG deems it otherwise), but would provide a coherent reference for how the rules of Car Wars should work.

How to use the Thread
The first reply to the thread will contain the items deemed by consensus to be Errata. The second reply will be an FAQ section. The third section will be a list of design corrections. I will maintain these and update them when a consensus is reached on a particular item.
When you want to propose a new item, please first check the existing errata and FAQ items on this thread AND the ones on the official list. If the item isn’t there, reply to the thread in the following manner:

For errata
Product (and edition if there are differences)
Page number, Section or chart, sufficient information to find the specific passage that the errata applies to.
Errata details
Rationale behind why this is errata (in italics)

For FAQ items
Rule question
Answer(s)
Source and or rationale (in italics)

For Design Corrections
Design Name (Books it appears in): Corrections needed.

Feel free to add whatever exposition you wish when submitting items for discussion and/or reference other threads. Replies to the thread agreeing/disagreeing that a particular item should be in the list are on topic too. If a lengthy discussion on a particular item needs to happen, please start up another thread on it.

Errata examples

Car Wars Compendium, 2nd Edition
Black Cover page 18 or Blue Cover page 14-15, Fixed Objects. Add the following to the end of the paragraph discussing collisions with fixed objects:
For fixed objects, when determining the temporary speed of the vehicle involved in the collision, treat those with 1-4 DP as DM 1/3, 5-8 DP as DM 2/3, 9-16 DP as DM 1, 17-24 DP as DM 2, and for every additional 8 DP (or fraction), increase the DM by 1. This damage modifier value is used only for determining the temporary speed (and not for determining the actual damage received).
The section on fixed objects indicates that the temporary speed should be figured when a collision occurs but does not discuss what damage modifier to use for fixed object when determining the temporary speed of the colliding vehicle. The information for the DM values appeared in the Deluxe Edition Reference Screen.

Dueltrack
Pages 4-5, Top Speed Section, replace the entire section with the following:
Every vehicle using a gas engine will have a top speed based on the following formula: 240 x power factors / (power factors + weight), rounded down to a multiple of 2.5 mph. For example, a 5,500 lb. luxury with a 250 ci engine would have a top speed of 240 x 3,200/ (3,200 + 5,500) = 88.275, which rounds down to 87.5.
The top speed rules were updated in ADQ 6/2 and the Car Wars Compendium.

FAQ example
When do you roll to check if your vehicle catches on fire?

There are three possible conditions which can cause a fire to start and if any of them currently apply you need to roll at the end of the turn (and for each of the conditions that apply).
1. If you got a Crash Table result that indicated that you might be burning.
2. If a power plant/engine/ or incendiary item was damaged. If you have a fire retardant insulator on the damaged item, or only the component armor protecting the item was damaged treat that specific item as not hit for the purposes of this check to determine whether or not you catch on fire (but note that in the case of component armor, the fire modifiers for check 3 will still apply if the armor isn’t fireproof).
3. If your vehicle was hit by an incendiary weapon whose fire modifier is still in effect and the damage was applied to an item that was not fireproof and did not have a fire retardant insulator. If the affected item was a tire and the armor on that side is fireproof, only the tire catches on fire.
Car Wars Compendium 2nd edition, black cover page 42-43, blue cover 31-32.

Design Corrections example
Joseph Special (Classic, Compendium, Deluxe Car Wars, Pocket Box): The car has PR tires instead of HD tires.