Question? Is the primary point of TAC to prevent dilution of the Tiger? To
keep the price of the car up?
Well, there are only (about) 7,000 numbers around, these are the max number of
tags. Anything that doesn't have a tag cannot be a tiger, everything that does
could be a Tiger.
Any car can be repaired.
Whatever that repair means. Pick up a copy of Classic car or any other
specialized antique auto magazine. Read any random story about 1/2-1 million
dollar restorations. You bet they took the numbers off. Often everything is
made new from scratch, except that tag. Those cars are worth millions because
there is only one of them, and some probable historic significance. Yet there
is nothing original to the car in terms of material, the car is effectively a
copy. However, with the Tiger we are much luckier, we have Alpine parts
(whole bodies) to choose from.
With the above logic, and the cops not coming to arrest these guys for
transfering vin's. In speciality cases, clasic cars, the VIN law is not quiet
as clear cut.
We with Tigers are much luckier, we don't have to create whole new bodies from
scratch (wouldn't be worth it considering the car's value). We can take from
the Alpine. And I say as long as all the right Tiger parts are there it is
still a Tiger. After all they did run down the same assembly line as the
Alpine for what, 50-75% of the process? Then they were modified. If someone
else can do the mod's correctly then so be it a TIGER with Tiger VIN.
I hate to see one of these die, because the body is so shot you cann't do
anything with it because of finance. Or if you tried, it would still be
sub-par. Or do we want to elevate the value of our own cars, by
reducing the number of "real" tigers out there?
Now the question is, what is the right conversion work? I would also say
document any thing you do to a car and be up front, complete restoration
incuding a rebody. I'll let someone else decided if the rebody is close enough
to the original to let it wear the tiger name, but it can be done! I know of a
few Southern Cal cases where rebodies have passed TAC. And anyone who puts that
much time, energy, and money into a rebody is NOT out to make a quick buck, they
cann't, think about how much time and energy it would take to do it right.
Anyone who does this just wants to keep them on the road.
So dig a little deeper and think about this. I hope the TAC doesn't dismiss
these arguments. And if you find you've been hypocritical, it's not to late to
change. Or are you only allowed to do this if your car is worth more than say,
$500,000?
dan.
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