David Andersen notes in his construction article RCM November 1997, that this particular publication speaks about the tail wheel issue. This info may be necessary for anyone entering a TA 152 in competition.
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...ke-wulf-ta-152
As far as the spark plug wire goes, It may bother some, but again from a competition side of things, parts of the engine such as this have to be ignored by the judges.