Originally Posted by
Kiwiboss
Richie, Murray Brown's 70 Camaro is an excellent example of a person that built or put his car back to HMC specs and with just a wheel change they can race with the other "Race Series" type muscle car groups. This allows him to race at "Historic" events like the Festival of Motor Racing and then race with any other non rule controlled modernized race groups such as NZGT or GT1, its the best of both worlds.
You see, when one understands the build cost and all the other related parameters involved in going fast you can soon surmise that sometimes no matter what you build or how much you spend(using you Camaro based vehicle) you just ain't gonna win anyway!! short of building a tube frame GT1 Camaro you will never beat a late model twin turbo Porsche, it just ain't going to happen!!Dale never mentioned trying to compete against the turbo porsches, not sure where this came from?? so when you realise that there's no chance of been competitive when the cards are stacked against you, you may as well just build your Camaro to HMC specs and continue to race it where-ever, have FUN and be happy with the results, and then one day when you do come north and slot in HMC for that one event, you'll know you're with like mined people with vehicles all built to a standardised set of rules!! isn't this the "Technical Parity" you're talking about?Nope not at all, was talking of technical parity with other classes running in as stated above, TMC ect because technical parity is what HMC is about.
Another excellent example is Invercargill based Rodger Cunninghame's 65 Mustang, he originally built his Mustang as a classic to MSNZ T&C rules except for the aluminium cylinder heads, he changed to cast iron heads to be HMC legal and to race at this years festival, his mustang went no worst but is now 100% HMC and T&C correct. He still continues to race it in all manner of "muscle" groups and events down south without having to feel the need to modify his car beyond these rules!! im sure others will do the same and this will also stop the constant "Money Bleed"!!
Again, was not talking of extremely modified cars, more so small differences such as cylinder heads materials, brakes, tire sizes, light weight panels.
As a matter if interest, if non competitive Historic racing is the goal, and presenting the cars with a period correct look, what does it matter to the modifications that are not visable ( ie painted alloy cylinder heads? just a thought
Steve's posting really says it all, its individual and personally based, some think HMC is the last place for them and on the other hand we have historic racers coming at us that can't think of a better place to be!! we removed the points, trophy, championship status in HMC to help eliminate those with the competitive need to win at all cost, some people just wanta "bring a gun to a knife fight" and i can tell you its currently working but im sure in the future we'll be tested!! anyway, i don't believe we have too many Muscle car class's, just lots of class's with the word "Muscle" in it, but only one is built around a "Historic" set of rules.
As per you statements concerning the definition of "muscle" with respect to HMC, the original question I proposed it not applicable to HMC anyhow?
[COLOR="#0000FF"]I feel you have really missed my original question and perhaps taken this as an attack on HMC rules of which it never was intended to be!
Dale M
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