I know this. Vintage can be budget racing (last year's car still good, tyres
last, minimial testing, low chance of damage, parts off the shelf, no need for
proffessional crew and preparation). It can also be relatively affordable to
those who want what vintage is about - whatever that is (and I'll wait for
Christmas for that to come round!!).
However there was another line of thought here that I'd not come across.
I was just wondering if it made it a better spectacle and improved the safety
if the spend (be it 25K saved over several years from an income of 25K or 1.5m
from an inheritance of 1.5m) was really significant to those out there. A
gambler can be defined as someone who bets what they can't afford to lose.
The other gent said how watching an expensive Cobra was quite different to
watching something that looked and behaved just the same but just was a cheap
recreation. Is it the same if the expensive Cobra is to the driver just a
trinket he can easily afford to lose or repair? What if the replica was the
only item of value that driver had in the entire world and that any repair
would put them out of racing for good?
In truth what we usually see is cars the driver can afford to waste but the
spectators cringe at. Especially the ones with history. I hated seeing the
Alex Issigonis special smashed at Prescot. The guy had built that thing with
hand tools from nothing and there it was broken against a tree. Same with
retired race drivers (still with the race instinct and attitude) making a mess
of a slice of history. They complain about people with money but no sense
risking killing them from being unpredicatable and over cautious getting in the
way at the back. Anyway - I'm off into familiar territory now so enough...
David
Anderci@aol.com wrote:
> Not so. You can enjoy authentic vintage racing on a very modest budget with
> cars costing $25,000 or less. On the other hand we have to be grateful to
> people who own some of the more exotic (read expensive) AUTHENTIC vintage
> machinery who bring them out and run them as they were meant to.
>
> JR
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