I agree with everything you've said - and you said it well. As a long time
VARAC tech inspector, we've taken the approach of divorcing Tech and
Authenticity, and deal only with tech issues at scrutineering. Mind you,
when inspecting cars we often find authenticity issues and we recently made
a blanket statement about tires that I suppose the tech inspectors will
enforce. We take the approach that if you race you are a gentleperson, and
won't cheat in the first place, coupled with the idea that other members wil
"self-police" you into complying. Both ideas are proven to be totally
flawed, as you point out that vintage racers are a pretty big bunch of cheats!
The issue, to me, is flawed rules. The rules, in order to apply generically
to a wide range of cars, are too ambiguous to be applied specifically to any
one car without a degree of interpretation. Many examples come to mind -
ribcase gearboxes in bugeye sprites, lotus sevens and elevens, disc brakes
on the same cars, quaife LSD's in pre '61 cars, LSD's at all in cars that
never came with them, Heim joints making adjustable suspension, etc.
You see, we have a rule that if a period speed part was available then, you
can run it now. So who's to say that since heim joints where available
then, and they were, someone didn't run a little enterprise putting them
into racecar suspensions? As far as I'm concerned, anything that I can
blacksmith up in an afternoon should be allowed too, since if I can do it
today with a torch, hammer and vise, why couldn't the racers of 1960?
It all comes down to how you perceive yourself, and and if winning is more
important to you than honesty. And if you believe that what you do honestly
makes a difference in performance or just in safety. Five speeds and vented
brakes in a Midget are one thing, but perhaps the use of ribcase gear box's
in cars that were built 5 or 10 years before it was introduced just
acknowledges that smoothcase parts just aren't available any more, and the
only way to run a smoothcase is to put ribcase internals in it. We all know
that bugeyes ran with Girling disc brakes at Lemans and Sebring in Works
guise, so are the later production Lockheed brakes that we all run OK or
should only the REAL WORKS cars be allowed to run the original girling disc
setups? How about replicas of Sebring Sprites? In VARAC, only the actual
works cars that ran in the race are allowed to run the sebring bodywork,
and it had better be aluminium per the original, not fiberglass!
On the other hand, I think that a lot of vintage racers are just out to have
fun and the authenticity of the cars is secondary. I put myself in this
category, by the way. I like to race, build cars, go to races, hang out,
and if I need to make a choice between an authentic part that might fail and
put me in a wall regardless of how well it's been maintained, and a part
that will last and be reliable, there's no choice to be made in my mind.
But I do make an effort to build my cars so that the 90's parts don't
enhance performance, just reliability or set-up-ability. And I run a
ribcase in my 1961 Midget, and it has disc prakes and a panhard rod, and I'm
comfortable with those decisions.
The only way to resolve the issue is to create build sheets of acceptable
modifications, or decree showroom stock, and have those sheets for every
single car that races, and do SCCA eligability inspections the way that they
do for GT racing, and get into puffing engines and doing teardowns. Then
vintage racing would be just like modern racing and it wouldn't be fun
anymore. I like HSR - if there aren't any rules then you can't be illegal.
Any that's fine with me!
At 10:48 AM 07/07/97 -0400, you wrote:
>Ah, the ugly spector of non-vintage, illegal parts.
>Dick, I have followed the thread, so I already know that you were talking
>about a current SCCA car.
>
>The thought of these kinds of parts sure did seem to touch a nerve with some
>people. I don't know if these same people know it, but illegal gearboxes are
>already out there. I've seen 5 speed Hewland gearboxes in small production
>cars at events put on by those supposed bastions of period authenticity, SVRA
>and VSCCA. (no, I won't name names of the transgressors)
>
>I have also seen 4 wheel vented discs with Wilwood calipers on a 356. This
>was at an HSR event so it may not have been 'illegal'. At least HSR is up
>front about their policies - bring whatever you want to run & we'll find a
>class and group to put you in. I prefer the honesty of that philosophy over
>the hypocrisy of allowing 'cheater' cars to run when they don't conform to
>the rules. At some point, vintage racing as a whole has to decide if we want
>to race vintage cars that are period authentic or keep modifying and updating
>until we have some form of silhouette series for vintage appearing cars.
>
>I don't know nearly enough about most of the other cars running vintage
>events to know what is and isn't legal and period authentic. The above
>blatant examples are the ones that are hard to miss. How can stuff like that
>get through tech!!? I can only guess that there must be a whole lot of other
>illegal parts out there that I would not recognize. Call me a cynic, but I
>am of the impression that vintage racers are one of the worst bunch of
>cheaters in racing.
>
>The only car that I can truly judge is my own. There are only two Honda
>S800s vintage racing in the US. Mine and Chris Thompson's in Colorado.
> We're both legal and period authentic. If I wanted to cheat, I'd love to
>have better brakes. I could take a lot of weight off with some fiberglass
>body panels. That slick 5-speed Hewland would be nice too. If I based my
>next motor on the 900cc motorcycle engine, I could make some big power. Hey,
>I could make this little baby FAST! I could run "up front"!! I could win
>the small-bore group outright!!! -------- enough red mist? What would be
>the point? It wouldn't be vintage racing.
>
>
>Doug Meis - Team Escargot
>1967 Honda S800
>
>
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