Before this "What is Vintage" thread dies a merciful (if temporary)
death, let me throw just one more oar in the water . . .
Back in 1963 I bought a new TR4 and put all of my available funds
(meager) and my own sweat (prodigious) into making a race car out of
it. It was no threat to Charlie Gates' Kastner-prepared TR4, but I
drove it in a number of CalClub SCCA races and generally had a
wonderful time with it. As a result of my efforts, that car has a
true racing history.
I've no idea where that car is today. Odds are it's long since worn
out, wrecked, retired or scrapped. But perhaps it's being vintage
raced, in part on the strength of the racing history I gave it. If
so, I'd expect to find very little of the original car as it existed
when I raced it. For all I know, all of its various parts from the
VIN plate out have been repaired, improved or replaced.
If I were to start with a never-raced TR4 today (similar, in fact, to
what I'm actually doing) and duplicate exactly the same efforts I
made 30-some years ago to make a race car out of it, I'd end up with
essentially the same car I had in 1963, but a car that by some folks'
standards shouldn't appear in a vintage race due to lack of a "period
race history".
Meanwhile, the owner of my old TR4 would be happily accepted into
this exclusive fraternity of "period race car" owners and drivers,
although he neither owned, built nor drove the car during the
"period" in question.
What's overlooked is the fact that, as a result of my experience back
in 1963 I also have a "personal" racing history. That history belongs
to me - not the current owner of the remnants of my old car.
Perhaps vintage racing ought to be limited to DRIVERS with a period
race history . . .
Jim Hill
Madison WI
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