About a year ago I was awakened in the middle of the night by a phone
call from a very close friend who had just come home from spending an
evening looking at and almost buying a real live ex-Indy 500 race car.
It was from the late 80's. It was painted up just great. It had also
been fitted with a Chevy V8. It had a few cracks in the carbon kevlar
around some pickup points that my friend just knew we could learn how to
fix. He's an ex - open wheel SCCA racer who could afford the car of his
drewms.
My question to him was, "Where do expect to race it?"
I'm afraid I came close to hurting his feelings when I told him I did
not want anything to do with this car, would not help him repair it, and
would not support his desire to run it even in exhibition sessions at
vintage events. He had been to vintage events with me and seen some of
the cars run in exhibition class and expected to be able to do the same
with this car. Fortunately I did not destroy our friendship, for the
next day he thanked me for making him think through what he was about to
do.
I think that we should recognize the there are SOME cars that are just
plain orphans that really do not have any place to race.
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