I want a "bitsa" Ferrari with a FIA HTP...

I would love to see a race series that allowed extremely accurate 250 TR, TDF, SWB, GTO replicas. Also allow D-Type, C-Type, Aston DBR2, Maserati, Devin.....

It would be fantastic is there were full grids of these front engine sports racers from the late 1950s / early 1960s. Having cars conform to these type of FIA regulations would ensure that only really high quality replicas are allowed.

If such a race class were created, and I could purchase a turn key ready to race replica for $150K or so.... that would definitely be on my top priority list!

Only question would be whether to buy a 250 TR60 replica or an Aston DBR2 replica. Then again a long nose D-Type replica would be a hoot to race as well!



Terry

 

Terry: An old Jag guy like you deserves a D-Type.

There's a side of this that irritates me, but the reality is that in the future all race cars from the fifties and sixties--except garage queens and museum pieces--will be replicas. As they get torn up in vintage racing and parts get replaced they become less and less authentic. So, I guess this kind of thing is inevitable. The important thing is that we get to see how it was in the day and old farts like me can pretend we're back at the Glen and there is a greyhound bus from Brazil burning in The Bog...

 

Another thing about this is with replicas, you can design in and build them with FAR better safty equipment than when they were new.

Currently, except for a very few high profile places like Monaco, Goodwood and some other European venues, you just dont get to see these cars race. Almost none of the big vintage race events in the states other than Monterey has any of these types of cars. For example in SVRA or HSR racing you will never see a D-Type or 250TR. There really isnt a good class for them.

The other thing of coarse is that the real items are just so valuable that few owners are really going to race them. However, I as a driver would much prefer to race a D-Type than a modern tin top or sports racer. I just think the old cars are "cooler" and the driving style associated with lots of power, no aero aids and skinny tires is FUN. Its also lots more fun to watch.

The snobby concours crowd may sneer at the replicas but I guaranty you that 95% of spectators could care less if the cars look correct and the racing is good. They want to see a good show.


Terry

 

The only problem with getting a popular replica race class is that it would encourage the breaking up of lesser - yet original - cars to create them.

Art S.

 

This is my granddaddy's axe. My daddy changed the blade and I changed the handle.

 

Naaaaaaaaa with a race series like I envision, only replicas would be allowed.

Such a replica race series would PRESERVE the original cars! Anyone who saw the video of the 2004 Goodwood Revival meeting knows that these "vintage" races are in fact REAL RACING. Those guys were flogging the piss out of the cars, swapping paint and pushing to win just as hard as they could push. Stirling Moss said it himself. The guys in the last Sportsracer race who crashed the GT40, I thought someone had been killed. A VERY hard crash. Im sure today they will be fixed, but if that damage had occured back in the day those cars would have been written off, it was that bad.

The other point is..... those races from the Goodwood Revival were the absolute BEST , most entertaining and most competitive races I saw anywhere in all of 2004. Not a single F1 race came anywhere near to the drama and excitement of the revival. Face it, those old cars with lots of power on skinny little tires with fantastic drivers at the wheel demand more talent and put on a better show than ANY of the modern racing series.

I want to watch these old cars being really raced. I want to PARTICIPATE in it. I think lots of other drivers and specators feel the same. So... preserve the original history priceless cars and bring on a really high quality FIA sactioned racing series that allows replicas!


Terry

 

A couple of comments: First, the FIA is going to have a real problem with their idea of approving replicas and counterfeits. Both Porsche and Ferrari are dead set against this. As someone very, very high in the Ferrari company told me, "It is not the FIA's role to tell us what is a Ferrari." One reaction to the FIA's idea was the Certificate of Authenticity for historic Ferraris. (Porsche is working on a similar concept.)

Second, you can see some excellent historic racing, with real cars, in the U.S. The Monterey Historics, Lime Rock Fall Festival, the BRIC all have a broad range of historic cars, but with the red mist of Europe backed down a few notches. The Shell Historic Ferrari/Maserati Challenge races at the Cavalllino Classic every year, usually with 30 or so historic Ferraris and Maseratis. (2005 entries so far range from pre-war Alfas through 250 TRs, a couple of GTOs, to the 712 CanAm.) This series runs in five or six places around North America, and again, competition is controlled from the wide-open European model.

There are plenty of places today where replica/counterfeit Ferraris (and D-Jags) are accepted. SVRA and HSR accepted these cars for years, and as far as I know, they still do. I have a problem with these in that I too rarely hear them described to the audience as what they really are; some people's egos are fed by telling fans they own something they don't, and spectators go away thinking they've seen something they haven't. Harmless, I suppose, but really not to my taste.

It's a shame that we can't all afford real GTOs and TRs; both are now selling at over $10M. I just don't think the answer is to chop up more real Ferraris so we can all play "let's pretend."

 

I do not support this FIA initiative ... as Art states we will loose many, many cars do to the new replica market.

I fully support this and while Goodwood is undoubtably fun to participate in they are WRONG with their attitude and sorry, but the cars come before driver ego's. Once we have destroyed all the old cars ... well guess what, the grids will be very light at Goodwood.

There should be no championship and winners for these historic racers, just good old fashioned reasonably hard racing. Bending an historic irreplaceble car (that has long finished it's worthy real race career) just to satisfy some small penised driver is pathetic.

No need to solve the boredom of F1 by the FIA supporting another ... just make F1 exciting again.

Agree ... but you all know my views, but please remember guys that the cars are what it is all about. Even Stirling Moss has to play second fiddle to the historic cars nowadays ... has to.

There is no place for driver egos in historic racing ... go and race a modern car and fill those grids up! (BTW: Not all modern race series allow wings ... so you can slide around and have a ball and actually win something worth talking about, instead of killing an old car).

Pete

 

Forget the FIA... couldn't be that hard to start a sanctioning body... could it?

 

I still get goosepimples when I think of the sprint (and lockups!) for the first corner,tinged with sadness when I heard the clap of metal on metal.

The D-type threw a piston and note the ding on the Aston Martin.
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