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Rodney Collins
United Kingdom
424 Posts |
 Posted - 14/11/2009 : 14:37:49
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Can anyone explain to me why this offensive title is given to owners of historic cars? Or come to that any car that the owner has improve to his or her requirments. I have noticed one or two people in the TT M register refer to "BOY RACERS" Having just read the discription of the K2 being sold by Bonhams, Quoting the risistance of the present owner to go down the the boy racer route and fit Cycle wings! The term Boy Racer in my mind should read car enthusiast. The kids today who tune up their Nova's etc. are no different to the boys in the 20's and 30's who tuned their MG,s or Bentleys etc. I had the engine out of my brand new Mini in 1962 3 weeks after I bought it, my dad was furious, Boy Racer well I guess so, but only if you have half a brain and can't see that I and all the kids of today are just "real car enthusiast" with a true love of the automobile and just want to improve it in their own way, and maybe like me one day get a heap of crap and bring back to life allbeit with a supercharger and aero screens and steel crank and rods and pistons etc etc etc.
Rodney |
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peterfenichel
United Kingdom
79 Posts |
Posted - 14/11/2009 : 19:16:20
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I'd agree with your frustration... maybe just that people speak or write without really thinking through before hand. And then we have the press/media who just like to enhance almost any story... and then move on without much care for the implications.
I race fairly often these days in various series and I have to say the label of "boy racer" is almost never used with the Pre-War race crowd; we are only very rarely 'boys' (most of us would easily qualify for the over 60 'freedom pass' on public transport!) plus the cars we drive/race are becoming way too valuable to be sniffed at in this manner.
I do see the 'boy racer' label being applied to some later "historic race" events particularly where the 1970's and early 1980's cars are relatively cheap to buy, 'enhance' and race. Also in those events there are wider differences in the skill level of drivers some of whom do need more 'education' as they are just a small step above the crazies who come to track days, thinking they know how to race and control a car, when actually they would be pretty dangerous even if they were the only guy on the track!
The problem is that those guys and considerably more skilled and experienced drivers are thrown into the same boat... maybe we should try to distinguish "historic" v. "vintage"?
Peter Fenichel |
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Mike Allison
United Kingdom
196 Posts |
Posted - 15/11/2009 : 11:16:12
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May I join in this one?
I agree with you both, and I think Peter is closer to the "truth". I was around at the time the Register started, and when we formed it it was largely to show that we were a cut above the B-R brigade. Indeed, we even called a well known car club the Boy Racers and Striped Car Club!
Certainly most of the owners of Triple-M cars are bus-pass holders (in Newbury, they have dis-invented the car, and ceased to provide adequate parking in town, so use of a free bus is very welcome!) but we should not forget that some of our members are much younger than that. Those of us who have cars not encourage our sons and daughters to continue to use them. I know that they are not as fast as a standard Fiesta, but who needs speed? It is the manner of their performing which makes MG's so enjoyable. The Triple-M cars were excellent cars in their day, and in 1962 my (blown)NA would easily out-perform most cars on the road, as would a blown PB, and this is almost thirty years after they were built.
I certainly agree that a distinction between Vintage, ot pre-war cars, and "historic" or "classic" cars. "Historic", when I joined the VSCC, who invented the term when applied to cars in 1955, I think, meant over fifteen years old. This went wrong when post-war cars started to race against ERA's and Altas, and now we have "Historic Sports Cars".
So the supporters of this class of car not realise that it was these cars which killed the Sports Car as a road car? After the War engines were fitted to lightweight chassis, which were designed only to run on the track, and of course went much faster than the MG's of the period using the same engines. This did not stop the better drivers of MGs winning races, especially long distance ones, something they continued to do until the mid-sixties.
In driving there are those who can, and the rest: I am certainly an advocate of making the roads safer by making the driving test much more difficult to "pass", but that is another story.
Boy racers were those who tuned their (normally saloon) cars to go faster, and try to out-drive those in proper sports cars, but always on the road, never on the track! It was not until the mid-sixties that the standard saloon car handled well, although a lot of them did not... even Ford, Rootes and Vauxhall eventually had to join in and make their cars handle better!
So far as Triple-M cars are cencerned: enjoy them, they are wonderful examples of British engineering when it was the best in the World.
Mike |
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