In a message dated 11/07/01 8:09:54 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
grant62@starpower.net writes:
> So: replica purpose built race cars should be recognized as ok, since no one
> can, or tries to, tell the difference between a built-from-scratch replica
> and a "restoration" that is a replica built around an authentic number
> plate. Newly prepared production cars should be ok for the same reason.
> Requiring authentic racing history only runs up the cost and encourages
> number plate swaps.
>
I have to disagree with the first statement - I'm sorry, but I do not want to
see (the possibility, at least, of) grids of kit-car Cobras racing with
originals.
I do agree that production cars should not need to have a race history
(thought this raises the issue of what year of preparation should apply), and
that people should be free to convert street cars into vintage race cars. But
they have to be real factory produced cars, not modern replicas built from
scratch. If that makes a real serial number plate valuable, so be it.
And as for the preparation issue, let me give you an example.
My TVR Grantura is a lovely little all independent suspension space frame,
with a fibreglass body on it, basically a front/mid-engined sports racer. Now
if someone had taken the body off a car 'back then' (I understand that at
least one was prepared this way, similar to the earlier Jomar) and installed
a minimalist Lotus 7 sort of 'body' (though without those airbrakes they call
front fenders), and run it, I would hold that the history of THAT car would
certainly allow it to continue to race in that form. I do NOT believe that
anyone with a Grantura should be able to turn their car into a replica of
that specific car, any more than a Corvette owner can make his car into one
of the special versions built by the factory, like the Grand Sport, or a
Ferrari street car owner can manufacture a GTO using his car as a basis, and
expect to race.
Now if you disagree with that statement, (and can get Sovren, for instance to
agree with you instead of with me), let me know - I'll then be free to
install a Cobra engine and Lotus 7 style body on my TVR (or at least I could,
if I wasn't trying to find time to finish sorting the old Lamborghini, get my
MGA coupe out of the garage so I can stick the engine back in the Twincam,
get my old Jensen's brakes working again, and pull the heads to put hardened
seats in............)!
Bill
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