Does "any" necessarily mean "all" when speaking of a requirement?

Solution 1:

[Cambridge] any:

one of or each of a particular type of person or thing when it is not important which

some, or even the smallest amount or number of

Both definitions allow for “any” being applied to only some of the following rather than to all.

However, in the circumstances of a race, which is presumed to be an equitable (=treating everyone fairly) interaction between participants, the officials’ interpretation of “any” as applying to a selected sub group rather than all members of the group introduces inequity that is inconsistent with fairness and hence should be rejected. The only equitable interpretation here is that any means all.

Solution 2:

In this context, I think it's clear that the word "any" means "all." This is consistent with definition 1b from Merriam-Webster's entry on "ANY":

: EVERY —used to indicate one selected without restriction

Any child would know that.

In your sample text, the phrase used is "any cars," although it would have the same meaning if it said "any car," in which case "any car" would mean "every car" in line with Merriam-Webster above. ("Every" is restricted to singular usage, even when the meaning is similar to "all.")

Cambridge Dictionary's grammar guide calls this the "strong form" of the word "any," which carries the meaning of "it does not matter which." They give as examples:

We could choose any colours we wanted.

(Meaning: "All" colors were available for choosing.)

When you make a late booking, you don’t know where you’re going to go, do you? It could be any destination.

(Meaning: "All" destinations are applicable to this discussion. There are no destinations that are exceptions to this statement.)

In other words, "any cars" means that no matter which cars are selected for consideration, they must follow the requirements listed. In my mind, the meaning of "any" in this type of case is similar to saying that if you hypothetically did a spot check and selected a car at random that fit that description, then that car would need to follow the requirements listed -- and you have to imagine that the spot check could be repeated an infinite number of times, such that all of the cars that match the description would eventually be checked in the spot check.