In a message dated 1/20/2005 2:10:09 PM Eastern Standard Time, "jrhill"
<jrhill@chorus.net> writes:
>That's "progress", I suppose, but some of us still remember the days when
>sports car racing was so accessible to us "little guys" that the newspaper
>ads in the LA Times for 'foreign cars' frequently assured potential buyers
>that they'd "Never been raced".
========
This, in turn, brings to mind the early days (ok, maybe the first week or so)
of Showroom Stock in the 1970s, when one bolted in the required safety
equipment, had a couple sets of tires shaved, and drove to the track and then
raced. Funny just how quickly some cars became, uh, "STOCK" (oh, and maybe just
a wee bit more) thanks to some dealer or manufacturer backing.
Meanwhile, by the latter part of the 1970s, apparently a '64 Spitfire GP race
car -- once prepared very well to most of the spec's outlined in the Comp.
Prep. Manual -- was so uncompetitive that its owner simply left it in a barn
when he sold the property and moved away. Fortunately for me a couple years
later, that same car became a pretty decent autocrosser with little more than
fresh paint and fluids. ;-)
In 2005, that car would barely qualify as a hot "street" Spitfire!
--Andy Mace
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