We Fiat 850 drivers always do our part to make sure there are plenty of
grin-inducing dices way at the rear of the small-bore pack.
Some of those "big-block" Mini guys ought to pull a plug wire off their
1275s and come on back and join the fun!
--------
Nick England
www.3rdtech.com/nick/racing.html
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Rosen" <mikerosen@home.com>
To: "Charles Christ" <cfchrist@earthlink.net>
Cc: "Jim Hayes" <hayes@mediaone.net>; "Peter van Rossum"
<peterv@tri-county.main.nc.us>; "Mike Cobine" <mcobine@earthlink.net>;
<vintage-race@autox.team.net>
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2001 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: 13/13 and 7/10
> Ahhh, the great conundrum of vintage racing.... you love your 750cc
Tinymobile
> but there's almost nobody around to race with, let alone that you're
worried
> about being pushed off the track by by the 4L Morepower that someone in
your
> club just bought, selling his 948 Sprite to someone across the country.
>
> We've (every racing organization and vintage racer) allowed the desire to
go
> faster and finish first to dominate the sheer fun of racing and driving a
> quirky, fun, unusual and sometimes slow period piece.
> Class racing as it existed in the "old days" is gone...there isn't an
H-Mod
> group or under 1L group or any real designations to fit your car into.
I've
> only known one guy here who raced a Mini Cooper that wasn't 1275cc.
> My car was the Canada Class Champion in '58 & '59 - it won 24 consecutive
class
> races - but there's no class any more so it's rare to run in a really
> competitive field now...if there a lot of Sprites, I might have someone to
race
> with.
>
> How many Abarth double bubbles or Berkleys are permanently parked because
it's
> no fun to be lapped by every car in the field. A 750cc Lotus XI won the
index
> of performance at LeMans...have you ever seen one? It's far faster when
prepped
> as a 1500.
>
> There's a reason so few newly restored "little" cars come out to play
compared
> with bigger, faster ones.
>
> We have allowed an even bigger performance disparity than existed when our
cars
> originally raced. It's worse now than 15 years ago or 10 years ago.
>
> I guess it's just the way it is.
>
> I get in these menancholy moods every now and then.
>
> Mike
|