Jarl;
You've made yourself very clear on your feelings regarding what many racers
do today relative to utilizing modern technology vs. the way in was done back
then. But, I don't understand how you can say using better rod materials
result in an unfair performance advantage other than extended reliability.
We all know the costs of repairing and rebuilding vintage engines keep going
up. Building them to last for maximum longevity makes sense for anyone with
a limited racing budget.
And even back then, each race team was constantly searching for a way to bend
the rules to give them that bit of extra edge, whether it was performance or
reliability (could be both). I've had extensive conversations with
Winkelmann about the Cortinas they campaigned, for example, and they did
everything they could get away with. So the quest for more power within
whatever rules set is being imposed is and always has been part of racing.
Substituting larger engines, going from carburetors to fuel injection, or
other clearly non-compliant changes should be dissallowed. I see no reason
though, that using modern metal variations of old parts, today's better
machining capabilities, and advanced lubricants do anything but improve the
sport by adding some level of extra performance, but more importantly, a
higher level of reliability, and making it more cost effective and sensible
for maintaining a vintage race motor.
Myles
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