Thanks Tom, I got a great chuckle out of that! I'm 55 and I remember the
waving thing. My Dad had a MGTD and TR-2 back in the early '50's and I
remember him even stopping and talking to other English sports car owners
then. In the mid '60's, when normal people could afford a 356 Porsche (would
you believe $500 for a '56 Speedster and $1,000 for a "58 Coupe!) we used to
flash our head lights with a quick double blip at any on coming Porsche. I
can remember flashing other sports cars with no response, or they might
point and stair...(drool?)
Bill Oker
-----Original Message-----
From: Tombread@aol.com [mailto:Tombread@aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2001 7:02 AM
To: greenman62@hotmail.com;
jrosevear@thinkinginvestments.com; vintage-race@autox.team.net
Subject: Re: Vintage Racing?
In a message dated 3/29/01 9:43:13 AM US Eastern Standard
Time,
greenman62@hotmail.com writes:
>
Yes, but.
There was always a pecking order. In the 50s and 60s, we
still waved at
other sports cars...but a Mercedes would not wave at a
Triumph, though it
might acknowledge a Jaguar. It was complicated and
sometimes you didn't know
if an oncoming car was wave-worthy until the last moment-
one had to stay
alert. (When I drove a 300SL roadster one afternoon I
didn't even
acknowledge any other cars, much less wave. And in my
Hillman I was too
embarrassed to look up.) In racing the Porsche guys always
went off by
themselves to talk about their latest speed secrets. The
British car guys
went off to see what parts were interchangeable. The
Italian car owners were
usually looking for the track welder and the French car
owners, if any, went
to the woods to smoke Gauloises and sulk.
tom
The Easley Vintage Grand Prix
IRP, October 6-7, 2001
Proceeds to the American Red Cross of Greater Indianapolis
Tom Butters
The Greens Fork Group
Creative communications
765.886.5098
No City in the history of racing has ever hosted the four
greatest events of
their kind,
as we do here with the Indianapolis 500, the US Grand Prix,
the Brickyard 400
and the NHRA US Nationals.
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