In that case:
Yes, as long as you roll a 10 with your 1 die:

This seemed to be the most reasonable conclusion; Since EleManips already suffers from the standard rules for shooting at vehicles, they don't need the "OR force treshold" IMO, though I can't find this stated explicitly.

What about other Manips then, or Detection spells?
Im tempted to say, in my narrow little world, that the "force treshold" applies to Combat spells only, since I can't come up with a reason for this limitation to be applied on the other "spell classes".

Not necessarily. If you fire off a deadly Wreck spell, you'll only need one success against the OR to nail it. Vehicles don't roll body unless it's a manipulation. This was all discussed in a previous topic, but I can't remember for the life of me which one it was.

You've got the divide-by-two on the wrong side of the equation. The rule is (F) >= (OR/2). Instead of needing a Force 16 to affect something with OR of 8, you only need Force 4. SR3 p. 182. Vehicles and Barriers, of course, have harder requirements.

There are Detection, Illusion, and Manipulation spells designed for use on objects. These all have a TN of OR. The wording of the rules would require these spells to meet the OR/2 minimum Force, and I see nothing wrong with a GM following the rules and requiring Force 5 to use one of the spells on a Computer (OR 10), or Force 4 to affect a Trid Unit (OR 8 ).

I allow Levitate to work on Vehicles and Computes, in my campaign, without making the TN equal to the OR. The high TN requirements due to vehicle weight is already tough, and allowing a low TN to levitate the small weight of a computer chip or pocket secretary seems OK to me. Insisting on a minimum Force of 4 to Levitate a vehicle (one-half the OR of 8 ), or a minimum Force of 5 to Levitate a Computer Chip also seems fine.

Does this help, Dogsoup?

Here's a link to the previous thread on Wreck (Object).

Errrr, I read the page, and all the pages around it, and I find nothing like that.
But, on page 125, it says "Against combat spells, barriers have twice their normal rating".
Which means, to be able to do any damage at all to a barrier rating 8, you've got to have a force 8 spell. And that's only going to do exactly one point. But again, if it were a Ford Americar, you'd need one success against a TN of 10 to destroy it.

So, it will take you a week or two to bust through a wooden door, or about 2 seconds to destroy a large car.

I'm not sure whether you're saying you can't find the tougher requirements for Vehicles or Barriers, or the Force having to be at least half of the OR.

For the Force having to be at least half the OR:

In addition, vehicles and barriers have additional force requirements that also must be met:

Vehicle (same paragraph): Spell Force >= (OR + Body + Armor/2)/2
Barrier (p. 124-125): just to affect it at all, Combat Spell Force >= Barrier Rating
Barrier: to affect it, Elem. Manipulation Spell Force >= (Barrier Rating/2)

For inanimate things that have a Condition Monitor, such as Cyberdecks and Vehicles, Combat Spells can give them Deadly Damage which means that they are no longer functional. When attempting to make them stop functioning, the damage level chosen by the caster does make a difference.

As I read the Barrier rules, there is no condition monitor being tracked, and the damage level of the attack seems to make no difference in how quickly the barrier is breached, only the Force of the attack. Successful attacks against a barrier can lower the barrier rating, and possibly open up a hole in it.

If a Ford Americar has crashed into a doorway and is a barrier to you getting through the doorway, you are not trying to give it Deadly Damage (it may already have Deady Damage from the crash). Instead you are trying to blow your way through it as a barrier. The GM would need to decide what Barrier Rating applies to a Ford Americar stuck in a doorway. Making the car non-functional might be a lot easier than blowing a 1 meter wide passageway through it.

I didn't realize from your first post that you were interested in barriers. You may want to see also the thread on Wreck Object

Doh! I knew that a couple of days ago... Brain must've turned 180 degrees in the cranial bowl while I was sleeping. Thanks!

Hmmm, I rationalized this away yesterday, but it was late... Analyze Device should prolly be harder the more complex the device is.
My conundrum was when to not apply, such as with Levitate or other Manips (that deasn't have a TN-description that clearly states OR).

If I understand this right:
Whenever a spell states it's TN as being a variable, derived from the target (an attribute in most cases), this variable is substituted by OR and therefore also suffers from the [F>=OR/2]-limitation.

What about spells which affect objects, but have a TN depending on something wholly different, such as Detect Object, or Clairvoyance?

I try to go as simple as make sense to me. If the rules already describe a variable TN based on the situation (and not the object) I'll just play it that way.