>In a message dated 7/10/01 9:40:40 AM, mcobine@earthlink.net writes:
>And I doubt that buying an old MGB production car from the '60s
>or '70s would break the bank any more than the one you built.
>
>http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=593202841
>
>Go look at this one and tell me you built yours for less than a $1000. >>
Mike et al,
I have advised a whole lot of would-be vintage participants over the past
few years. This sort of thing comes up all the time: "I just found this
great ex-SCCA MG, the guy quit racing 10 years ago and says it would make a
great vintage car, and it already has all the stuff on it".
Frankly, it almost never works out. Production cars that were raced with
SCCA in, say, the '70's - '80's - '90's are usually far too modified for
vintage. It costs more to undo the mod's, than it does to start with a
street car & bring it up to vintage standards. If the recent discovery is a
car raced with SCCA in the '60's, it may not be terribly modified but it's
usually too far gone by now to be financially sensible.
I know of several guys with ex-SCCA MG's, Sprites, etc who don't want to
spend the money to remove the flares, spoilers, coil-overs, wide wheels, etc
and they end up having very few opportunities to use the car.
Not saying what's ethically right or wrong, just pointing out that
financially it often makes more sense to start with a car that DOESN'T have
period race history. Maybe that's ironic.
Regards,
Mark Palmer
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