Mark,
I never said that there wasn't a way to do things cheaply, I know people who
have bought a 4.00 roll of shelf paper to cut their #s out of. I also know
people who have painted their car with a brush. Maybe you're one of those
people and if that works for you, go for it! I happen to be a masters
degreed professional designer who cares about making a visual statement in
all my work, whether it is my custom designed jewelry I do for a living, or
our race car markings. Since my wife and I both drive our car, and not all
events we run in allow us to choose any number we'd like to use, I had
printed 2 each of the #'s 1,2,3,4,6,8 at 10" tall and the class designations
G,S,L,1 at 8" tall in multicolored weatherproof ink on vinyl from my digital
files. That's 20 numbers all together. The print shop charged me what I
thought was a very reasonable 10.00 per #, other shops quoted as much as 3X
that amount. That's a total of 200.00 for a set of #s I am planning on using
for several seasons. On top of the printing charges, I also purchased a
35.00 roll of magnetic sheet, for a total of 235.00 in materials cost. That
does not even consider the days I spent at the computer designing various
#s, printing them on paper in a number of test color combinations and taping
them to the car to check their legibility and contrast, and the additional
full day I spent applying them to the magnetic and cutting them out. I felt
the finished professional visual appearance was worth the time money and
effort, and I take pride in it.
Now you have the gall to tell me that I should sacrifice all that work and
money I've invested, without question or complaint, and make a new plain
set to meet the exact wording of a rule instituted because a small minority
of individuals are too lazy, cheap, thick headed, or simply don't care
enough about themselves or the sport to assist the people trying to assure
them of receiving their correct scoring, IS FOR THE GOOD OF THE SPORT!!???!!
I'm sorry, but to me that's like telling me I need go out and buy a new
bottle of cologne, stronger smelling than what I use now, to cover the smell
of the guy sitting next to me who never bothers to shower or wipe his butt
"for the good of the others" at the table! I take personal offense to that,
and I will fight that reverse direction solution as hard as I can!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Sirota" <mark@sirota.org>
To: "Andy Hollis" <awhollis@swbell.net>; "Chuck" <golden1@britsys.net>;
"autox" <autox@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2003 10:18 PM
Subject: RE: Numbers
> --On Monday, April 28, 2003 9:20 PM -0500 Andy Hollis
<awhollis@swbell.net>
> wrote:
> > See the esteemed Mr. Sirota's earlier comments. Very eloquently put.
> > Wish I had that much tact on this subject. :-)
>
> I've been trying the brute force approach for years without much success.
> Figured I'd try something else for a change. :-)
>
> I'd love to see a culture shift in the sport where people viewed number
> readability as a competition. I envision a world where people take pride
> in having the most readable numbers in their class, where old timers take
> the newcomers aside and have a discussion about contrast and hue. Think
> there's any chance?
>
> The mission statement in the rulebook says something to the effect that
> sometimes some people are going to have to spend money for the good of the
> sport. Chuck, you may be one of them in this case.
>
> But seriously, you spent "a couple hundred dollars" on your numbers? And
> you'd have to throw them all away? I'm having a little trouble digesting
> that. I think my numbers are about as readable as they come, and that's
on
> a two-driver fiberglass-bodied Formula Ford -- and I highly doubt I've
> spent a couple hundred on them over the eight seasons I've had the car.
>
> Mark (frustrated T&S worker for too many years)
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