Maybe someone wishes another aspect to this whole
DP/EP/Miata/Honda/Lotus debate.
Believe it or not I have one to share. 8-)
Long ago the EP class was split from the DP class. The
EP class was for relatively larger cars, generally
sedan based, and was slower than the small sports cars
remaining in DP. DP was for small 1200cc and smaller
stuff not produced since the earth cooled. EP was for
that modern stuff nearing a whopping 2000cc of
displacement created up until oil was discovered.
Newer stuff was for stock and the then new street
prepared classes.
Then John Thomas found the 4seat Honda was the ticket
in EP. Don't really know how much was John and how
much was the Honda. Tom Anker replaced his Datsun with
a similar Honda and generally seemed faster too.
Whatever, EP became faster than DP with the
introduction of modern technology.
DP became a vintage class of mostly old roadsters
while the old sedans of EP simply became old
uncompetitive cars. Time marches on.
Then the CRX was discovered as a modern alternative in
DP. Then the Miata came along. Notice that the very
popular 240Z never was considered an appropriate
sports car in spite of it's popularity. Size not
popularity is the issue. But old vs new is also in
debate. Kinda the same history for DP as previously
for EP.
Throughout all of this there have been a few really
odd duck cars that didn't fit the plan. Generally odd
little Bitish cottage industry products made in hobby
quantities that were so unavailable that they were not
deemed a big problem. Cars that self detructed faster
than they wore out their tires. The idea seemed to be
these things would all go away if just left to their
own devices. It mostly worked that way. King Midgets,
twin cam Escorts, Morgans, TVRs, Griffiths, Berkeleys,
Meyers Manx, and microcars have all largely
disappeared without remorse or pain or autocross
classing debates. Lotus toys remain however.
Lotus made mostly unavailable, unreliable, seriously
eccentric cars for many years. They were wonderful
imponderables to all of us gearheads. [man, I wanted a
black JPS Europa, even sat in one once! and got back
out! I was more flexible then.] Sometimes two in a row
were even significantly alike, but that was not
important. The debate about what constitutes
"production" has never much been resolved. See the
current troubles with Panoz, Shelby, WRXSis, Malletts,
electrics, et al as examples. Many of these cars are
actually built in quantities to the same blueprints
much more than Lotus cars of the early 60s were.
But some serious folks have seized these Lotus things
and turned them into durable goods wrg autocrossing
anyway. This is amazing and wonderful. The problems of
how to "fairly" include them remains all of these
years later.
In the example of the Kelly car, it now is likely one
of a kind. Maybe 100 more or less the same car were
produced about 50 years ago, made of already odd and
antique components. Most were actually kit cars like
the Meyers Manx dunebuggies in fact of the same time
period. Only much better machines [cars?]. There were
about 6 different "series" variations on the 7 car,
variations included wildly different power trains and
fender treatments. They began as a bodied tube framed
formula car chassis and remained true to that premise.
There have been many copies of the car over the years,
most quite true to the premise of the original. It is
not likely a volume production based car in any
measure, but has been classed as such [but ONLY with
the real Lotus ID plate!] for so long that it has
become a real production type car. At least within
SCCA's rules structures. Panoz owners should hope for
as much. It has been moved into various classes, never
fitting anywhere. It has won as much as nay other car
in history, not likely been seriously mistreated. Now
it has finally been returned to the "small sports car"
class and seems to feel it all unfair that the modern
"small sports car", the Miata, is misclassed in that
class.
The issue seems to be coming down to whether the
distiction between EP and DP is age, engine size, or
car style. I wonder how many folks on this forum have
any interest at all in the subject. The reality is,
today folks are much more interested in SM vs SM2 than
in DP vs EP debates. Not that there is much difference
mind you....
At best I think it is too early for the Lotus7 folks
to be leading this debate. You are finally back in the
small bore vintage DP class [which you have wanted
ever since EP got faster than DP, before that the
demand was to be back in EP. I heard it many times.],
so why don't you just sit back and quietly collect
some DP trophies for a few years?
=====
Dennis Hale
Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax
http://taxes.yahoo.com/
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