I'm alway happy when I see a 'philosophical' discussion in this group...it
seems to bring out the realities of contemporary
Vintage Racing (I think that's an oxymoron but...)
Brian's hit's on a couple of the biggest problems around right now.
When does authenticity become onorous and get in the 'way' of having a good
time?
Should tech inspectors who are checking for safety issues (lock wire etc.) be
expected to check eligibility as well?
If they do...every race event is going to turn into a week long affair.
I guess everyone has their own line they don't want to cross over - for
whatever reason, the ribcase/smoothcase BMC
trany issue has never bothered me too much - and now with people around who can
put ribcase internals in a smoothcase it
becomes silly. The letter of the rule (as far as making it "look" right) as
opposed to the spirit which is just as violated
with ribcase internals as with the whole box .
If I had one wish (world peace if I were Miss America), it would be to get
consistant rules and enforcement of rules by
every club. We up here in the frozen North turn into the tail wagging the dog.
We are trying to get our racers to run to
more restricted regs. than just about any club in the East except VSCCA - and
we're not always winning. Last year we
mandated all our pre'61 cars and Juniors who are on 13" rims to only use Dunlop
L section or equivalent. It's tough to get
compliance when we getting the argument that 'I won't be competitive when I
race in the states!" It's been a struggle up
until now since we only allow 948cc in Bugeyes when most groups let 1275s
run...the tires make us seem really
draconian in comparison.
In the 11 years I've been Vintage Racing... the line for authenticity (read
here lack of) has moved a quantum amount
forward. I'm actually getting surprised responses from US racers who don't
understand why we won't accept an entry for
their 911 at Mosport - what's wrong with carbon fibre fenders?
Actually, in some ways, the overall originality issue doesn't bother me as much
as the guys who add modern stuff to gain an
unfair advantage - treating Vintage Racing like easy pickings for a race
win...those are the people I wish would just go
contemporary racing and leave a neat sport to those who don't want a silhouette
vintage race car.
Where has the 'gentleman/gentlewoman' aspect of the sport gone?
Our Eligibilty Committee used to get 12 or so applications a year to build a
car with such and such a specification. Some
were accepted, others not. We don't get the applications anymore...people just
build cars the way they interpret the rules
which from the looks of some recent cars is a VERY liberal use of our
rules...then they want to know what's wrong with us
when we don't like every aspect of their car when they turn up at the first
race.
I don't get it.
I'll crawl back into my hole now
Mike
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