<VV> "Improved" vs stock in Concours

[Mark Corbin]

There are more people that appreciate stock Corvairs than you give credit
to existing. You just haven't opened your eyes, because you're too focused
on racing/customizing. Which only proves my statement that such people
cannot understand the value of stock Corvairs. Show me the people who
changed the name of the "custom/modified" class to "improved" and I'll show
you a customizer. Nobody who truely appreciates stock Corvairs would do
such a thing. At least you and I can agree that the change was totally
unnecessary.

What offends stock people is that the NAME of the class ("Improved") is
degrading of the stock Corvair. It inplies that the Corvair is inferior as
manufactured, and needs to be "improved" to make it right. That is not the
case. The stock Corvair is just fine as it is. Of course, I don't expect
customizers to ever understand this. It also DOESN'T mean that a car can't
be tailored to individual tastes and physical needs. You can say that about
any and every thing that ever was. 

Example: My own '67 convertible is FOR ME a very comfortable car to drive
and ride in, and it's as pure stock as they come. The Astro buckets fit my
bucket just fine, and I wouldn't hesitate in driving it any distance you'd
want to go. And contrary to your thoughts, it (and my 4door) is NOT a
trailer queen. In fact, both cars are stock original cars, and they are
DRIVEN. I drove the 4door to the Buffalo convention a few years back, and
drove the convert to the Cedar Rapids convention this year. They are both
comfortable for me to drive, and in no need of "improvements" to suit my
physical needs OR my personal tastes (other than the 4door being one of
those lousy manual trans cars).

And Hank is right. The '66-earlier bench bucket seats are uncomfortable -
for me, anyway. The Astro buckets are much better - for me anyway. But I've
heard people say just the opposite. Obviously, their bucket fits the
earlier bucket better. Mine doesn't. So it's all a matter of the individual.

Stock cars, and particularly original ones, are worth more due to historic
value, something that is intangible and cannot be priced. When someone
wants to restore a car to factory stock, they don't look at another
restored car, and the certainly don't look at a custom one. They look at
original cars. Also, just as my past illustration of Washington's hatchet
shows, once you start replacing original parts, you lose historic value.
With cars, though, it's acceptable to perform maintainence on a car, in
order to keep it running and fully functional, as long as it's done
correctly. 

Example: My 4door was always a car that would beat you to death, even on
short club trips. That's because the original suspension rubber was baked
hard as a brick by the Texas climate it came from. I carefully disassembled
the suspension and replaced all (with one exception) the rubber with new
parts. In the process, I compared all the new parts with the originals, and
determined that they were identical. After cleaning off the dirt (I did NOT
refinish anything) and installing the new rubber, I reassembled the
suspension exactly like it had been. To look at it, you could never tell
anything had been done. But the change in ride is incredible. It now rides
just like a new Corvair should. THAT is an example of doing proper
maintainence on an original car.

Anyway, the many Corvair people out here who love the car in stock form
view the class name change to be an insult. And as such, it certainly goes
against the porported mission of CORSA, to promote the preservation of the
Corvair marque and its history. I just want the BoD to wake up to that
fact, and undo the damage by eliminating the name "improved".

-Mark

> [Original Message]
> From: <Sethracer at aol.com>
> Subject: <VV> "Improved" vs stock in Concours
>  
> Mark writes:
> Is it  any wonder why there's a significant faction of CORSA that's
offended
> by  the change in the name of the Concours classes, to call the
> custom/modified  classes the "Improved" class. 
>  
> So Seth writes:
> Yep - All ten of them are really pissed off. Once they were  "incited".
>  
> But I agree. There is no real reason to call the class "Improved Stock".
Of 
>  course, although those ten will never accept it or believe it, it was
not  
> done to specifically piss them off. (It was just a side benefit!) Of
course, many of the cars appearing  in the 
> original, completely stock, classes have already been "improved" for 
their 
> designated role as "Trailer Queens".   
>  
> Mark  continues:
> But then,  pure customizers won't understand. They cannot possibly 
> understand. Which is why  they (who are in control of CORSA) refused to
do anything 
> about it. The powers  that be are all customizers, and incapable of 
> understanding.
>  
> So Seth  continues:
> So the people in charge of the Concours are all "pure  customizers"? Care 
> to name names? 
>
> Seth  Emerson
>