"I drew a line - and found I was standing inside it."
> I think:
>
> 1. In our USA vintage racing I want to see a fairly close period correct car
> preparation, regardless of whether the car in question has race history or
> not. This means tire width and tread type (wide tires on cars that should be
> skinny is stupid looking, incorrect, and dangerous to suspension components),
> brakes (modern disk brake conversions are NOT correct). I'm not really
> concerned about engine internals in the more 'open' classes- if someone wants
> to build a hand grenade, OK, or if someone wants to use stronger internals
> for durability, great. Skinny tires are a great limiting factor to
> horsepower gains. Formula classes (Ford, Vee, etc.) should follow the strict
> rules - to consciously cheat in vintage racing in order to 'win' is really
> pathetic.
>
> 2. Continued emphasis on safety. Safety should be a big concern. The boys
> in England racing their very fast cars very hard with no roll bars or belts
> are taking BIG chances. I have seen many of our MG T series class cars race
> with no roll bars or fuel cells. I wouldn't choose this myself, and I'm not
> sure this is such a good idea. Luckily, in the USA these classes tend to
> have the most vintage spirited people in them, and I've observed they
> generally leave a safe margin in their driving out of respect for the cars
> and each other.
>
> 3. The boys in England have also allowed the evolution of their 'vintage'
> cars to the point where their XK 120's look like our USA super-modified
> jalopy race cars of the 1950's. Is this because they place too much emphasis
> on competition, or because they haven't set up and enforced rules requiring
> 'period' preparation? I don't know, but I'd speculate emphasis on
> competition is not the real devil, rule-making and enforcement is going to
> decide what our vintage racing, looks and feels like, and how safe it will
> be. Our vintage racing should not descend down their path.
>
> 4. Replica's and new specials - I also think it takes away from the 'show'
> when some made up sillouette car easily beats famous period winners because
> of modern technology. This is like seeing the 82nd Airborne show up at a
> Civil War re-enactment. I don't have a big problem with faithful replica's
> and specials, if period correct. The special I'm restoring will be pretty
> damn period correct, and of course that means it will have slower lap times
> than some of the other cars converted to modern brakes and wide tires. I
> won't bitch about getting beat by those cars, because I won't care what place
> I end up in, but I will care if the over-stress suspension breaks on one of
> these cars, especially if this happens right in front of me.
>
> Terry
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