In a message dated 9/5/2003 5:42:07 AM Pacific Daylight Time,
anngene@bellsouth.net writes:
> If that's the case, how does a car become a "vintage racer"?
>
Gene and all:
You may have mis-interpreted my point. A restored production car (or
purpose-built race car) with a verifiable VIN or serial number that is THE ONE
AND
ONLY actual vehicle representing this car (not always the case!) should be
considered a legimate, and authentic car. Production cars (like your MG) were
often raced by their owners in their day, and should always be welcomed and
encouraged at vintage races by all sanctioning bodies (except maybe by Steve
Earle
who discriminates at will).
The way to make such a car a vintage racer is to join some vintage race
organization, have your car inspected and/or accepted, get a log book assigned,
and
enjoy your first vintage race. From that point forward, its a car with some
vintage race "history".
The point I and others are trying to make about "replicas" are cars
constructed to be something they're NOT. Like a Shelby from Mustang parts
that never
carried a "6S" number, or a Locort from Cortina parts, or bogus Ferrari, Jag,
Lotus 23, or many others where the vehicle was created from a readily
available parts bin, and was not the eventual evolution of a living, breathing
car
that existed in life and on paper in whatever the year of manufacture.
There are also the sometimes questionable "tribute" cars.....cars that are
legitimate cars, with VINs and serial numbers that have been exclusively built
to "resemble" some other famous race car. Examples that come to mind include a
'59 Plymouth built to resemble Richard Petty's '59 NASCAR racer, a '57 T Bird
build to resemble the Bonneville car, etc. etc. As long as the cars are
acurately represented as what they are...NOT the real car they're meant to look
like, but a facsimile thereof, I see no problem. But, as someone
stated...after changing hands several times, their history often gets
embellished (or
misrepresented) to the point that people start believing their own BS and think
they have something special. I suspect the owers of real Trans Am cars (with
history) are not fond of the many "tribute" cars that are emerging...perhaps
NASCAR as well.
That's when the owners of the real things need to speak up and say..."don't
think so". That's my point.
Regards,
Myles
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