Hi Guys
Just picking up on this thread of 'what is what' reminded me of a little
history. Around 1975/5 I purchased an ex-work Grp 1 rally Ford Escort. I
bought it from a very well known race driver, who still races in the big
time endurance stuff. It turned out to be an actual ex Mexico World Cup
rally car, so far so good, it was not worth much at that time anyway and
was pretty beat up. The racer had been using it as a circuit car. During
which time he had reshelled (new body) the car 3 times, it came with a
choice of twin cam engines, so from the several I was given I built up one
good one. I had to rewire the car and fit lights etc so a new harness went
into it. The axle was changed to one with a different ratio to suit the
daily driver application I had in mind. The gearbox was going to cost me a
fortune to fix so I used a stock one from a road car. With me so far folks?
Anyway after i got it roadworthy I went street racing against teh local Mini
Cooper guys and stuffed it into a wall in a big way! One new front end
later! Enough was enough and the car was sold for 300 pounds ($480) and I
had the idea that I had done well!!!
In the mid 90,s the car was for sale as "A genuine Ex Works Mexico car!"
Now wait a minute here.... At least 3 bodies that i know of, plus one front
end, no original engine, gearbox or axle, no original electrical harness. So
what did the guy actually buy for $113000 dollars????
So that homologation problem is still with us in historic racing, plus one
or two other things that the owners of these car may or may not know about.
I actually enjoy all this kind of thing, I think it is what makes it all
worthwhile.
BTW after the Escort I went Mini racing but that is another story.
Regards
John J Black
Waterloo Drivetrain Systems
http://www.waterloo-dtr.com
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-vintage-race@autox.team.net
[mailto:owner-vintage-race@autox.team.net]On Behalf Of Grossac@aol.com
Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 6:28 PM
To: lrichard@ticon.net; vintage-race@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: recognition forms
Lyle,
The FIA recognition (homologation) forms were the "spec sheets" used by the
SCCA to regulate sedan preparation rules in this country until about 1971.
The factories produced these official sheets for cars prepped to Group 1
(essentially dead stock with full road gear) and Group 2 (with numerous
factory authorized mods). To homologate the cars in either of these two
groups, the factory had to produce and certify something like 5000 and 1000
identical copies of each. This led to some devious manufacturers (Fiat
Abarth comes immediately to mind) certifying the same batch of cars numerous
times, after taking the FIA inspectors to long lunches during which the
first
cars' identification plates would be changed for different ones.
All of us who raced sedans back then had to carry the official papers with
us
and the tech inspectors could check dimensions and optional parts against
the
forms. The SCCA went to their own recognition form system in 1971, I think.
This ended the "homologation specials" that the factories would throw
together and then certify with ink-blotsmudgedunreadable Italian forms that
no one could decipher. At least my forms were in English!
Chris Gross, Ex-Mini Cooper (970S) racer, now vintage Bugeye driver.
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