[EricH]

Rewire it. It's been pointed out that you get maybe an hour of drive time over the season with your competition robot; a practice robot can give you that in under a day if it's working. This can translate to a large advantage on the field over a team without a practice robot. Plus, you could use it as a programming testbed, for a while at any rate.

Now, because it's probably not an identical twin, the advantage will be less--but it'll still be there.

Listen to your mentor. Rewire the robot--it shouldn't take that long.

(Anybody wanting to discuss legality, ethicality, or morality of a practice robot... there's another thread for that.)