In my case, finding a car with a period race history would have been great,
BUT, a) at the time I couldn't find one, and b) if I had, I probably couldn't
have afforded it. But fortunately, CSRG allowed production and special
interest GT cars, so the former street Lotus Cortina I bought qualified
(actually, I've race 2 different former street cars).
Just because I didn't receive a logbook with it, doesn't mean it wasn't ever
raced, however. While it certainly wasn't one of the factory prepared,
lightweight cars, it was a good candidate for a race prep as it was a totally
clapped out driver. Many of our former cars may have been taken out for a
race or two, as that was commonplace in the time. Continuing to allow
acceptance of such production sports and GT cars is not only crucial to
having enough income to practically put on many events, it is truly in the
spirit of vintage racing....doing it as it was done then.
If I recount the 20+ Lotus Cortinas that are vintage racing now that I know
about, only 3 of them, and 1 Cortina GT had a documented race history. What
a shame if all these wonderful cars disappeared from our events (including
mine).
And one final point, who's to say that the "race history" the cars are
accummulating now is any less significant than what may have happened in the
50's and 60's??? In some cases, the cars are getting more attention now than
they did back then.
Myles H. Kitchen
1965 Lotus (allegedly illegal former street car posing as famous racer,
subject of great scrutiny, but still a whole lot of damned fun) Cortina Mk1
#128 (also the next sequential serial number from Bob Winkelman's factory
Trans Am racer....famous by proximity???)
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