[MV] MVs as classic cars
Morgan Blanchard (bmorgan@gbis.com)
Tue, 11 May 1999 10:27:33 -0700 (PDT)
Folks:
I grew up in a little town called Pacific Grove California which is
right next to Pebble Beach and 20 minutes from Laguna Secca Raceway. Every
year the Pebble Beach Golf Club holds the most prestigious Concours De
Eligance (I think) in the world. Litteraly billions of dollars of vintage
vehicles come to these shows and at another time of the year Laguna Secca
holds one of the most prestigious vintage race meets in the US, where
people bring there vintage race cars, also valued in the hundreds of
millions, and actualy race them. Both events get world wide positive
coverage, and hundreds of thousands of people go to them in person. Now
don't get me wrong, there are some problems with these events, they are
pretty elitest, participation is realy expensive, etc, but, we are doing
our selves no service by letting an artificial barrier exist between us and
the fellow who restores and owns a Bugatti. Our vehicles are classic cars
(trucks or whatever). We should make a serious effort to get closer to the
rest of the classic car world rather than let our selves be pushed out on
the fringes. Why you ask? Some one brought up the point that old MVs are
echologicaly unsound, well let me tell you, you will never see a bigger
smokeing pig than a 1920s race car, hell some of them only had a single
compression ring and relied on oil blow by to lubricate the top end. They
go down the track followed by their own smoke screen! So if the Feds start
getting uppity about the harmfull effects of old cars, those guys are going
to lobby hard for an exemption for cassic vehicles, AND THEY HAVE A LOT OF
MONEY TO DO IT! We need to be part of the mainstream of clasic car
collecting to be included in that effort rather than be an easily seperated
fringe group that the government in its feal good politics, can bump off
with no political down side. I urge all of you to start takeing your
vehicles to classic car meets. You will get to meet different vehicle
people than you would meet at an MV meet (in fact you will also meet the
folks who make up the great undecided in America) and you will have a
chance to make a good impression on them and show them that you, and your
green machine, are a valuable part of the effort to preserve the history of
automotive technology. And maybe, just maybe, when the government does try
something stupid, they will remember what a nice guy you were, and that the
old green bomber was kind of neat, and they won't go for it.
Just my two cents
Morgan Blanchard
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