I've made the same argument many times, that most of the people who
really care about a 1959 Testarossa are dead or at least not racing,
but I've discovered its not really true. There really was a golden age
and nineteen year olds still appreciate it. Cars are immortal even if
drivers aren't. Drive a Jaguar XK120 or even a TR3 downtown and the 20
year old girls all give it a doubletake, even if the driver has white
hair. Do the same thing in a Datsun 240Z and you're just an old guy in
an old car.
On Jun 1, 2008, at 5:58 PM, Rocky Entriken wrote:
> If "Vintage means vintage" translates to "nothing later than 1972
> (or whenever) can run, ever," then there's a basic problem with
> that, as hinted below by the phrase "The grand old cars don't show
> up as often any more."
>
> I am in charge of the voting for the hall of fame of an organization
> of professional motorsports journalists. We discovered some time ago
> that our original division of pre-war and post-war (meaning WW II)
> had a problem. No problem when we started doing this in the '70s
> when pre-war was basically 1890-1940, a 50-year span, while post-war
> was 1945-1970, a 25-year span. So far, so good.
>
> But by the time we got to the '90s, we discovered the potential pre-
> war candidates were a finite group, and we'd elected most of the
> really good ones. While the post-war candidates were an ever-growing
> group now comprising nearly 50-years worth of drivers.
>
> The solution? We abandoned pre-war and post-war and defined the
> categories as "historic" and "modern" with the cutoff being 30 years
> ago. This meant that the cutoff moved forward every year, so today a
> star from 1978 is "historic era." and the historic era becomes
> infused with new candidates each year just as the modern era is.
> (The idea for this pattern actually comes from how the Baseball Hall
> does it, when a player transitions to being an "old timer").
>
> So what I'm saying is, if in 1988 a 25-year-old car (1963) was
> vintage, then why in 2008 isn't a 1983 car -- or a car built. to
> 1983 specs -- vintage?
>
> Especially since the idea behind vintage -- purportedly -- isn't
> about winning but just about putting the grand old cars on the track
> again?
>
> --Rocky Entriken
>
> --
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