All,
With all this recent discussion about the TAC program, I figured I should jump
in with my two cents worth.
First, the TAC committee welcomes aboard four new inspectors- Larry Atkisson,
Tom Bennett, and Starke Shelby of the Seattle WA area, and Ramon Spontelli of
Costa Mesa in Southern California. For the first time, the program has
inspectors outside the S.F. Bay area -- all part of our plan to expand the
program to other areas. Since an authentication inspection requires 3
inspectors, this means that the Seattle based Pacific Tiger Club can now
authenticate Tigers on their own. In Southern California, on the other hand,
we still have to send two inspectors to accompany Ramon on TAC inspections. At
this point, TAC is still looking for more candidates to train as inspectors
for Southern California and elsewhere across the U.S.
To date, the committee has authenticated 274 Tigers, with 16 new cars added to
the list at Tigers United 22 in Eureka, CA. Of interest here, out of 89
AUTHENTICATABLE Tigers in attendance, all but 2 now carry a TAC sticker.
Rather impressive, we think.
STOA TAC now has a new fee structure for it's service. TAC inspections are
still free to STOA members and one year memberships are $30. For those persons
NOT wanting a membership, the cost is $10.
And lastly, a few comments about our most recent topic on the net. Seems that
Tiger Technologies and others think that there is an immediate need for a "How
to Identify a True Tiger" manual. Well, of course, TAC does not agree with the
publication of such a manual. Why? Because we feel that although some people
may use it to identify Tigers, others will use such a manual to assist them in
making their Alpine conversions look more like original Tigers. Obviously,
this is not in the best interest of the TAC program, the marque, and most
importantly, to those people for which this program was designed to protect in
the first place--first time buyers. Even if someone produced a manual and a
potential buyer armed with this manual goes to examine a "For Sale" Tiger, how
does he know whether or not the seller has the same manual and used it to
create a better fake. With the enormous amount of time and energy spent by
STOA to compile it's wealth of knowledge on this matter, I seriously doubt if
any one will come along with a publication containing more information than
TAC. Then all those guys trying to build better fakes can all sit around and
wonder if there was something that they missed. It sure would be a shame to go
out and spend all that time and money to try to create the perfect Alpine
conversion and then not have it pass a TAC inspection. What a waste of time.
So, would such a publication hurt the TAC program? Well, it certainly wouldn't
help; we would just have to spend more time inspecting each car. NO PROBLEM.
Another point brought up by some is that the TAC program is only accessable to
Tiger owners on the West Coast, leaving out the Easterners. Well, that's sort
of true --currently. Fact is, STOA would love to expand the program to the
East and even into Southern California, but thus far we haven't recieved much
support outside of the Bay area and the Pacific Northwest. Sure, we've had
numerous requests from Tiger owners all over the U.S. to have their cars
authenticated. But it's hard to justify the time and money needed to send 3
inspectors across country and back just to TAC one or two Tigers here and
there. Now, if we can send 3 inspectors to TAC a large number of Tigers, well,
now that's different. In fact, STOA has sent inspectors to TE/AE Tigers
Uniteds and SUNI II, the East Coast's premier events, and still we have not
been able TAC more than about 10 cars each visit. An OK turnout, but still
nothing to write home about.
At STOA we feel that the reason for this is the rather lukewarm support by the
local clubs. Only the local clubs have the resources to identify local owners,
then motivate and assemble them in order to assure a successful TAC event--an
event which surely should result in a big party supplied with lots of good
cheap beer. Needless to say, it's not likely that STOA will ever be able to
justify traveling to small midwestern towns to authenticate Tigers at owner's
homes. However, there is one thing we feel would definitely help to make this
program much more accessible, and that is having more inspectors all across
the country. Therefore, STOA would only have to send maybe one inspector or
perhaps none as in the case of PTC, which can now authenticate Tigers on their
own. In PTC, their most influential members decided they wanted to support the
program, 3 inspector trainees stepped forward, STOA trained them, they became
inspectors and now PTC is off and running. Imagine that.
As to all this secrecy/conspiracy stuff, well, I don't like any of this
either. Hey, I watch X-Files twice a day, and I want to know what really
happened at Roswell, too, but I figure I'm not going to find out. Besides, who
cares. Believe me, I have a lot of other things I would rather be doing on
Saturday afternoons other than looking at old Tigers and typing up crap like
this while I should be working. And I figure some of you guys couldn't care
less anyway. I wish it was as simple as just sending out a manual for $20 and
walking away, but it isn't.
The bottom line is, this was the best we could up with considering the
situation; it's in place, it's working, and it's NOT going away. We knew when
we started this program that we were going to run into problems with
disgruntled conversion owners, inaccessability, club politics and information
leaks. Whatever comes up, we'll just have to deal with it. All and all, we
still feel that we have the best program out there for helping anyone who
wants to buy a real Tiger. It just seems that creating a list of real Tigers
is the best way to achieve that goal.
Well, I figure this is enough for now.
Comments welcome.
Paul Reisentz
STOA TAC Chairman
408-369-0470
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