Cars of Technology

Is Historic racing about racing vehicles as they existed when they were contemporary or is it just an opportunity to race old cars? Vintage racing has been a great example of technological creep. At one time a 1969 Porsche 2.0 911 was limited by 1969 technology. Today that 1969 Porsche 911 is reaching speeds never imagined by the original designers. It didn’t happen all at once. It evolved over the years. First it was the adjustable shocks, and then came the MSD ignition box followed by wider wheels. Each one of those items was insignificant. But as the technological creep moved on the cars got faster, the costs got higher and the car count got smaller.   The FIA, or Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, has a set of rules for historic racing cars and these rules don’t change every year. Historic racing cars in most of the world must have FIA papers in order to compete at larger events (plus some selected smaller ones too). These rules provide an internationally accepted set ...