[Healeys] Original? Corrupt? I think not.

Editorgary at aol.com Editorgary at aol.com
Sat Jun 18 18:00:45 MDT 2011


In a message dated 6/18/11 4:41:32 PM, dwflagg at juno.com writes:


> Can I imply from your statement:
> 
> "Our official concours attitude is that cars can NOT be restored exactly
> as
> original and still be operational and capable of being enjoyed. "
> 
> that the Austin Healey should never have been sold, or that all the years
> I drove a factory original Austin Healey, I wasn't really enjoying the
> experience or really operating the car? 
> 
> "Frankly, I have been embarrassed in the last few years to record some
> scores that I knew could not be accurate"
> 
> Does this imply poor judging or corruption in the process? If you were
> embarrassed to record the score, then it should be incumbent on you to
> challenge the score. How else can integrity be maintained. 
> 
> Doug
> 

Good grief! Talk about splitting hairs and picking arguments where 
differences of opinion don't exist. 

The car as originally built was quite safe when driven in the conditions of 
the day AND within the 5-7 years from the time it was built that it was 
assumed the car would continue to be driven. 
Neither of those two (actually three) conditions exist today. 
First, no one ever envisaged in that day the conditions under which I was 
driving a few years ago when the worn connection wire in my distributor 
started to rub the side of the case. I was going 75 miles an hour, in the carpool 
lane, on a Los Angeles freeway, six lanes from the edge of the road. Safe? 
Not really. 
Second and third, as an example of equipment that isn't safe in today's 
conditions or in the condition at manufacture,   the cars came equipped with 
bias-ply tires less than six inches wide. A very good driver can manage to 
handle that set-up at speed, provided the tires are five years old or newer. 
The original tires are, of course, no longer five years old and tires are no 
longer made to the original specifications (even if the reproductions are the 
same size and shape, they have better rubber and nylon than the originals). 
So, prima facie, if the tires are original, the car isn't safe to drive, 
and even if they were original, few drivers have the skills to drive them 
under today's traffic conditions at today's average traffic speeds.

On to your second point. I am not responsible for maintaining judging 
standards. I am the registrar, responsible for recording the level the car was 
judged at. We don't certify the points, we certify the level. I have no 
problem believing that the cars now being awarded Gold certificates are 
legitimately gold level. I simply point out that anyone who brags that they have a car 
that scored over 98 points is both wrong and perverting the Concours 
Registry system, since we try to tell people that while the levels are accurate, 
the points within the levels can have a range of inaccuracy. That's why we 
never publish the points. If you hear what points a car scored, what you're 
hearing is the owner himself either bragging or complaining.

Gary


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