No offense intended, but that sounds a bit like political spin that I would hear from a Democrat on Fox News. The LSA rules state "at sea level". Speed at altitude is always a bit higher. I think the aircraft didn't quite achieve the speed "as designed". They were originally quite resistant to wheel pants, as an example. Now it is an option.
There is still nothing wrong with the design. The wing removal and reinstall is just at 4 min. in the video on van's website. That is a great feature. I am hoping that some more speed can be wrung out of the aircraft though.
No offence taken (other than the Democrat part maybe, since I am a republican)
I am sure the airplane can get a bit faster since the current quoted speeds are with totally bare gear legs and wheels
I believe that sometimes info comes out of Van's that is not correct (such as we will never offer wheel pants), from well intending employees that are trying to feed the RV communitys thirst for information, but because they are out side of the developement part of the project the info they pass along may not be accurate.
As for speed always being a bit higher at altitiude...that depends on the prop being used (since it has to be fixed pitch). There are three ways to control performance.
-Use a prop pitch that will prevent a pilot ever being able to overspeed the engine in level flight(such as a C-172, etc).
-Expect the pilot to adhear to an RPM limit which will limit max cruise speed (meaning pull back on the throttle if it is able to over speed at the altitude you are flying).
-Use a combination of the two.
The RV-12 in it's current configuration is able to true out at 117 kts up through 12,500 ft. This would likely change slightly with the addition of wheel pants / leg fairings.