<VV> "Improved" vs stock in Concours

[Bill Sowerby]

I agree with your point on leaving the "custom/modified" class name in place
vs. "improved".

As a new member to this forum, I would like to share my beliefs/ values and
thought process on why I support this position having owned and judges many
different makes of vehicles over the years.  

At one end of the collector car hobby are the classic car clubs such as AACA
and VCCA which value original "classic" vehicles and judge them accordingly.
These vehicles are generally older well established makes that the hobby
accepts as having made significant styling and engineering contributions to
the hobby.   Interestingly, these include marques such as Duesenberg which
had coach builder bodies installed on a factory chassis and were basically
the custom cars of their day.   These cars are largely judged at concourse
shows such Meadowbrook and Pebble Beach with an emphasis on their styling;
however,  they are often restored to a condition which is far beyond
anything that came out of the factory.   Also, it is not uncommon for these
vehicles to be assembled with parts from several vehicles (most notably race
cars) or custom made parts where original parts are no longer available, the
extreme version being cars that were never produced.   In general, these
vehicles are highly documented and well known to their judging communities,
but not necessarily numbers matching.   Factory show cars also fall into
this group.   Many classic clubs and concourse shows have in recent years
created a class for "Survivor" vehicles which are in original or unrestored
condition  i.e, " a vehicle is only original once".  Interestingly in the
last few years,  Pebble Beach has gone one step further by recognizing and
having early hot rods in their shows, blurring the traditional lines of
concourse acceptability.

Next along in hobby judging standards are marque or make specific clubs
(including the Corvair) which often have well documented judging manuals
that define judging classes,  describe factory correct details and deduct
points for originality and condition.  "Survivor" and "Modified" classes
have often been added at the opposite ends of judging classes for these
clubs, in addition to the middle ground or historic  "Stock" class.   I have
personally found it very interesting that there is very little common
structure or documentation if I compare the business practices of the
various make specific clubs I belonged to over the years.   Perhaps this is
an opportunity for the future - to commonize the business elements of the
hobby.

Finally, at the other end of the hobby are pure street rods or hot rods
which are anything but stock or restored in condition.   Judging standards
for these vehicles run the gamut from "Peoples choice" to quasi classic,
depending on whether the vehicles are competing at a local car show or for a
top Hot Rod show trophy such as the Riddler at the annual Detroit Autorama.
Judging tends to be very subjective for these shows, compared to the
objective standards of the make specific clubs above.    

A current trend are resto-mod vehicles that are largely restored but also
have modified features as well.   The premise here is that these vehicles
are "on occasion" driven on the street and as such have non-stock parts on
them that are superior from technology standpoint vs. factory so they can
keep up with today's traffic speeds an patterns.  Owners of these vehicles
enjoy modifying these vehicles to their personal tastes, often stating that
these modifications can be easily removed and the vehicles to stock
condition.   While this may be true for something like aftermarket wheels
and radial (vs. bias belted) tires, it is obviously more difficult for
example to remove stainless components such as brake lines or exhaust
systems and replace them with raw steel components or to remove base coat /
clear coat paint in favor of a lacquer respray.   Indeed, current emission
laws even make it illegal to use VOC based paints or R12 airconditioning
refrigerant.   

In my opinion, make clubs move towards AACA or VCCA judging standards over
time.   However, as owners of these vehicles move on to the big car club in
the sky, they are replaced by a newer generation of owners who did not drive
these cars "back in the day".   In pure marketing terms, the size of their
traditional target market is decreasing.   For example, current purchasers
of Model T and Model A Fords or 1960 muscle cars who want to rebuild, drive
and enjoy their vehicles have different needs than the original buyers and
are not shy about modifying their vehicles.    From a purely economic
standpoint, there are likely more buyers for modified versions of collector
vehicles today than their stock cousins; however, this may or may not
translate into higher prices.   For similar reasons,  I believe that
membership in classic and make specific clubs declines over time, increasing
the costs of running these clubs including holding club shows.   It is also
possible that younger generations (many of whom do not even seem to like
cars) prefer "hanging out" at local car shows over the structure of
traditional car clubs.

In summary, please let me clearly state that these are my opinions and
observations on the current state of the collector car hobby.   Corvair
owners and our (national and local) clubs will go through the same growth
and change patterns as other make specific clubs over time.    The challenge
for all of us "car guys" will be to keep our cars and  supporting clubs
relevant to both current and future members.   Change will be painful as it
this means having the appropriate discussions, making difficult decisions,
enacting needed changes and generally adapting over time to grow our hobby. 

-----Original Message-----
From: virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org
[mailto:virtualvairs-bounces at corvair.org] On Behalf Of Mark Corbin
Sent: Friday, September 17, 2010 12:14 PM
To: Sethracer at aol.com; virtualvairs at corvair.org; corsabod at corvair.org
Subject: Re: <VV> "Improved" vs stock in Concours

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
>


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