The Drip Tray for the Rans looks to be the Rotax drip tray as seen in the parts manual and
here at CPS. Given the way Vans has you construct the drip tray it seems to me to be a little less susceptible to cracking (the carb / intake manifold plates are doubled).
It raises a couple questions for me though:
1) Both CPS and the illustrated parts manual say this should be used when the air box drip pan isn't used. (CPS diagram states not suitable for direct installation of the air filter on the carburetor. Foreseen for air boxes without drip tray - this may be dated - it doesn't say this in the current parts catalog - r.e. - g).
2) The gasket arrangement shows a paper gasket between the intake and the carb flange and the O-Ring between the flange and the drip pan.
The surfaces of the intake and the carb flange are grooved for the O ring. Vans has you put the O ring against the intake and the drip pan. I assume they felt that since the carb flange was rubber it would seal good enough. I'm just curious about why the illustration would not have been followed from Rotax when designing the drip trays for the 12.
I haven't found any hard requirement from Rotax to have a drip tray - only the contrary statement from the CPS parts breakdown. I think it's just common sense to do so since it's sitting directly above the exhaust and helps to shield heat - not sure the Vans would stop a fire since any significant amount of fuel would just run off the back.
The Rotax drip trays are $102 each from CPS - I'm sure Vans would sell you their parts for much less - one of the things I love about Vans Aircraft.
Anyway - just thinking about this since Scott mentioned that the only engine meltdown they knew of happened as a result of the O ring not being properly installed during assembly of the drip pan.