GRM report...was:Re: Mixture question

[haygood at myway.com (Brian Haygood)]

Wow, all of this over sheetmetal.  



Yeah, Brian did say in his post that he would field it as a "concourse" car if anything.  He also has mentioned selling it for a nice DD S2, or just keeping it the way it is.  You guys missed all that because the white car was so freakish looking that you assumed that's how Brian wanted it to look.  The new car is already set up as a racecar at half of their budget, so plenty of room to make it good.  



The white GRM car looks like a piece of crap because no one tried to make it look otherwise.  Despite Allyn's desperate/heroic attempt to improve the sunroof stuff, the car was just really rough and totally stripped, too.  There are a lot of things that could have been done better, cosmetically and otherwise, but so what.  They guys put together a running, racing car that worked out alright.  The amount of work it would take to make it look respectable is probably small compared to the time already invested, but that time just wasn't spent because that wasn't the goal.  Some of the things that were originally considered for this car included sending me the car for the Winter to do all the cosmetic stuff and a whole lot more (paint, bodywork, fiberglass/carbon front clip, lexan, etc.) - but that turned out to not be the goal of that car (good thing, because I don't have the time for that kind of thing anymore).



Heck, even Mac does have standards.  I told him Moped wheels on the back would drop his quarter mile times, but he wouldn't do it (I prolly couldn't bare that ridicule either).  We even had the idea of four wheels on the front axle, but don't hold your breath - or vommit for that matter.



As for MK1's, I hate scrapping useable stuff as much as the next guy, but I'm faced with having a ton (ok, half-ton) of repairable MK1 parts in my backyard that no one wants.  Anyone lining up for a 1.6l engine out there?  Nope.  I grew up trying to restore 1930 Fords and not flinching at repairing a rusted out door or fender.  Yet, every ad I see wanting sheetmetal for our cars starts with "rust-free, dent-free".  That pretty well tells you they aren't rare and/or valuable cars.  I've seen plenty of guys with 5 rusted out Fiats in their backyards wondering why no one wants them.  We are only about 10 years from that, or less, I figure.  The guys with rusted out Loti (Lotuses?) are much happier.  No one is going to be making catalogs full of entire replica bodies and improved racing chassis for our cars any time soon - believe me, I have strongly considered doing so.



Question the loyalty if you want, but I've got three nice running 16v's to pretty well answer that question, I hope. 



So that turned even further off the topic, but those are my thoughts for the evening.  



BH

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