this is who i'll be accompanying to goodwood next year.
http://www.classicteamlotus.co.uk/Default.asp
they do cars for serious racers. yeah, and museums too. barber has the largest privately help collection of gp and f1 lotus race cars outside of the factory. but they get cars to rebuild from racing crashes all over the world. guys who seriously race the cars. and look at those prices. a 64 vette isnt even close. guys like sterling moss will never lose thier edge and will always push the limits once in the seat. they might not be as fast as they used to be, but for sure theyre seriously out there racing.
as for real or not, all of the cars have to have documention and a history. same with the bikes. but in the "open class" the fast guys run the modern manxs im pretty sure.
tex hit the nail on the head. the molnars and sommerfields arent "real". something putting out 70hp against a real period machine putting out 50 isnt a fair fight, but dont fool yourself, they are serious racebikes built specifically for that reason. put sheene, quail, and mooney on a racebike and see if any of them are holding back. not a chance. and i have the video to prove it. and dont even get started with the modern era guys. or how about tiff needel, moss, and gerry marshall. all those guys are going balls out to win. and it trickles up. being on the "track" at gunstock with roper, courts, and nicols and seeing them slide the rear makes you realize, these guys arent fucking around. and that wasnt supposed to be a real race either. and it goes for the cars too. there are plenty of bookoo hi $$$ vehicles that show up at louden for our vintage fest and those guys do some serious racing. so to think its not really a race isnt right. as john spinney said, "hey, theres a green flag and a checkered flag, sounds like a race to me"
and as far as your point goes, there are alot of races that arent point collecting events. macau is the first big one that comes to mind. thats put on by the tourist dept of macau and is probably the most dangerous road race in the world. the conditions are, in my opinion, way more dangerous than iom. that doesnt mean there arent guys trying to win. yeah, theres no pressure, but that doesnt stop fast guys from trying to beat each other. by your logic, only the first couple of places would want to win, when the fact is you are always trying to catch and beat the guy in front of you, and keep the guy behind you, behind you.
cb350, molnar manx, g50. a race is a race. dick manns bsa cartwheeling into t1 at daytona a few years ago is proof. that bike was completely destroyed. (i wonder if its back together yet) this isnt to say some bikes like the hailwood 250/6 arent special. they are, and to lose one would be a crime. but i think there are only a few bikes with that kind of prestige. the porcupine being one as an example. and you know the reason there arent more factory vintage hondas out there? because honda used to crush them at the end of the season. they would save one or maybe 2 for the museum, and crush the rest.
we race for a piece of plastic. we all do this for a piece of crappy plastic. unike you sitting in your garage, or basement, or shop, we not only build the bikes, we then proceed to drive hundreds, and in alot of cases, thousands of miles in a few days to race for a piece of plastic. yeah, maybe thier piece of plastic is nicer and more expensive, but its all relative. and people still crash, get killed, seriously injured, and fucked up for life. it just pisses me off when i hear people say, "its not a real race" you just dont know until you do it. i hear people say vintage racing isnt really racing and its not that dangerous blah blah blah... and they think we tool around on the track because we ride 40 year old bikes. yeah, i get a little defensive. the first thing that comes to mind is, hey, if its so easy, you do it. trust me, theyre racing out there. for real.
too bad you werent around to hear me talking to roper about what inspired me to start vintage racing a few weekends ago. (yeah mike, you really got me started, but seeing that picture of dave doing the sommersault into the guardrail and off the g50 at daytona really spoke to me for some reason)
jc