Ahhh, a quiet Sunday morning. Got up late, drinking my fourth cup of coffee, four pieces of delicious hand delivered toast, and only one Cobra to paint at the shop today. It is going to be a good day. I'm going to slow down and clear the air, clear the mind and write pages of thoughts. May I suggest if you really plan on reading this, you might like a large cup of coffee too?
Let''s get the day started!
Questions abound and all good ones!
I was hoping the obvious wouldn't come up, but it has. And I do not know how to handle the egg and the chicken question.
Is a '34 Ford with a fiberglass body, custom post '34 frame, 500 HP motor, AC, Pwr. Windows, Tilt, Cruise, Pwr. Brakes, Automatic, electric lift trunk and hood, a "Kit Car?"
OF COURSE IT IS! Now go to any NSRA meet, stand in the middle of Thirty plus thousand of these cars on display and yell, "I like all your KIT cars!" Fella you had better have a small army behind you or at least your Cobra fired up and ready for the big getaway!
It's the name, the stigma, and personally I think it sucks. A side note that I find quite interesting, almost no one, has called these cars, "HOT RODS," but only Streetrods. Twenty-five years ago, OK, maybe a little longer, no one knew what the hell a "Streetrod" was. HOTRODS were it! Bad to the bone, scary fast and one of the most unsafe vehicles on the road!
NSRA: Changed that, took some time but they changed it! Now the entire HOTROD group has been forgotten, and only remembered as "Streetrods." A nice, quaint name that conjectures up images of custom build classic cars. Mostly guys and family's in their early 40's and up. They absolutely never drive them, except from one show to another. Rarely if ever putting on a display of speed. (Ooops!)
With this new name and attitude change they went from the "Uninsurable" to the Highly insurable."
When a magazine was devoted to "homebuilds" what ever they were, the Publishers couldn't use Streetrods or a similar name, didn't fit anyway, they came up with "KIT CAR". At one time the stigma attached to this name did fit and said it all. Take your basic beetle chop the heck out of it and make a dunebuggy! Most of these weren't street legal and were actually used to run and race the sand dunes.
I have hated the name "KIT CAR" from the onset. I refuse to call any of our cars as "kits"! For the lack of a better name I have always called them, "Reproductions."
If you want a "KIT" car simply go to your local hobby store or drugstore and by a "Revell" kit to build. Now, THAT is a KIT CAR!
Another goal that I have
is to get the magazine(s) to drop the Kit Car name and come up with something more appropriate. Now talk about ruffling feathers! Organizing our group to stand behind and support some very basic safety rules is going to be much easier!
Tabestar, you can't wrinkle any feathers around here with a questions like that! That Sir is a legitimate question. Of course once this gets started there will be a fee of some sort. Just paying the attorney and filing fees is going to cost money, administrative costs are going to be huge. There are going to be costs associated with this that I haven't even thought of yet.
However, for the moment, I am asking no one to spend any money! My attorney has already agreed to look into this for a minimal fee or less. Steve, Klayfish is donating hundreds of hours of his time with the insurance company's, and as for me, well I can survive on chocolate Chip cookies for another couple of years.
My goal is to get our safety agenda up and running, show everyone how simple it really is and prove to them the old adage, "United we stand-Divided we fall" truly applies to our family!
If this works and I know it will, then our family can decide just how big and "official" they want to go. We will eventually have to have dues if you will. How much, and what they will be used for will have to come at a later date. My immediate thoughts are we will need a professional book keeper to come in, set up the account(s) and keep immaculate "open" records. The Mrs. and I are not well off by any stretch of the imagination, but we both agree that we will do what ever we can to get this past the initial phase. I don't think anyone will have an objection of eventually paying a small fee to keep this going once they are able to easily obtain insurance and at a reasonable cost.
I see to the future of our group, renting real race tracks all over the country, with real instructors where you could take your car and learn how to truly be a trained driver. ("CRANKY" are you listening?") An example, Mid-Ohio one of the greatest tracks in the country being rented an entire day with all the amenities just for our Cobras. Or, Sears Point, or Putnam. Pick a track where a large number of our Cobras can get to it and have a ball.
It's a dream I have. A dream that will come true with the help of Steve and everyone here getting involved. Safer cars, tons of fun, and saving money in the mix.
It just can't get better than that! We simply have to do this.
Out of coffee and the toast is gone. Ya' all have a great day!
DV...
Threaded Mode
