I agree whole-heartedly. If my article was construed as a slam against
restorers, I apologize. I simply meant that as much as I would like to
thoroughly restore the Grape, I don't want to take the car off the road
for the extended period of time it would take.
My primary concern is that these cars, be they Triumphs, MGs, Jags, AHs,
or anything else were built to be driven. Not just to be admired.
Because of this, I am glad that VTR and most other sanctioning bodies
require that the vehicles be driven at an event in order to qualify for
hardware. Detroit Triumph Sportscar Club instituted this policy in 1981,
at the North American Triumph Challenge. Unfortunately, because it was
not publicized, we could not enforce it. By the next NATC, in Chicago,
the policy was agreed upon that in order to qualify for a concours
trophy, the car must be driven in one of the driving events. There was
no requirement that the car had to be driven hard, just driven.
Initially, most of the cars were driven to the events, so it was not
felt that this was necessary. As more cars were restored, more people
trailered them. I remember at one meet, an entrant parked his trailer
about two miles away and drove to the concours site. Someone saw him
driving his car on/off the trailer. That was the end of the "driven"
classification.
Doug Mitchell
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