New Zealand Historic Saloon Cars Under HRC

[Howard Wood]

Last month I visited a workshop in the UK run by a couple of ex Broadspeed guys. They had 2 genuine, well known and completely unmolested Mk1 Broadspeed BDA Escorts there being restored. The amount of tubbing in the rear wheel arch area was unbelievable, chassis rails were notched and the inner guard had a spacer inserted. I asked them if that was homologated, their reply that was exactly as done in period. They showed me period photos of the mods and as they were the guys who did it originally who can argue!

I guess that argument applies to a painstaking restoration of a genuine car with history, possibly less compelling with a new build which should follow the homologation sheet however if a "interpretation" of the rules was common in period, does that make it allowable today?

[Kiwiboss]

Last month I visited a workshop in the UK run by a couple of ex Broadspeed guys. They had 2 genuine, well known and completely unmolested Mk1 Broadspeed BDA Escorts there being restored. The amount of tubbing in the rear wheel arch area was unbelievable, chassis rails were notched and the inner guard had a spacer inserted. I asked them if that was homologated, their reply that was exactly as done in period. They showed me period photos of the mods and as they were the guys who did it originally who can argue!

I guess that argument applies to a painstaking restoration of a genuine car with history, possibly less compelling with a new build which should follow the homologation sheet however if a "interpretation" of the rules was common in period, does that make it allowable today?

Great discussion Howard but No I don’t believe it does…………with original race cars one needs to pick the era in which to restore it to, as the same car can have a lot of evolution during its racing career, some Escorts and Capri might not have been tubbed the year prior?. Historic Trans Am in the USA is a good example as many of their cars ended up modified to the next generation Tran Am rules and IMSA from the mid to later 70’s and onwards, HTA have said all cars must be put back to their 66 to 72 specs, the prime years of this class otherwise are not allowed in, their class directors have controlled this and done a great job and all the cars are the originals restored accordingly and they have big fields(I have learnt from them).

What the FIA Homologation papers allow for is you to build a NEW old car today to a conforming set of regulations which allows a lot of people to relive a bygone era. The Historic Trans Am example I give above won’t allow these new builds as they want original cars. But it appears at events like Goodwood(and others) they do allow these new builds but from what I’ve been told(and seen) they have strict enforcement on what one can get away with using the FIA homologation form to set the standard, it seems at other lesser race meetings they will allow some modern technology slippage(Tru-tac diffs in Falcon Sprints been one) so I guess one could build a FIA car to the homologation papers and determine the info as “they” see it but it seems the event organiser and/or class coordinator will have the final say.

Offcourse down here in NZ with less population and kiwi thriftiness we’ve had to find a medium ground. We have allowed new replacement engine components as long as they are a “like part” and the Jerico/Tex101 dog box is another example because making everyone use an old Toploader or Muncie would be too costly with the constant breakages and the supply source drying up, I have used my American racing contacts to base this info on and also what they do in SVRA, VARA and other classic USA groups that race using non-original cars. I believe we have got it pretty rite but in any dispute its up to our 4 HMC/HSC directors, 2 Tech auditors and 1 MSNZ commission member to have the final say because the moment you let the racers decide the rules you will lose the Historic and Classic theme and become just another race series. Dale M

[Howard Wood]

By and large I agree with your arguments Dale but my original point was that here are two genuine and unmolested Broadspeed Escorts being restored by some of the same guys who built them in period. Absolutely not some replica or car which had a 30 year history of continuous and dodgy modifications.

These cars are having mega money thrown at them to EXACTLY restore them to original yet actually don't appear to comply with either the period rules or current Sched K regulations. Which is not to say that the restoration is not stunning nor accurate.