The SHELBY AMERICAN
The short answer is, “Europe.”
Why aren’t more GT40s being vintage
raced here in the U.S.? To answer that
question we need a little context.
Vintage racing really got its start
here in the late 1970s. It’s been a part
of this country’s motorsports scene for
almost forty years and a lot has hap-
pened in those four decades. In the be-
ginning, a car’s race history was vital.
If you had a race car without verifiable
race history it wasn’t even worth your
time to send in a race entry. To be ac-
cepted by most sanctioning bodies,
cars had to have race history and also
be restored to period, as-raced specifi-
cations. Values had not yet soared into
the stratosphere (although they were
clearly headed in that direction) so
cars were prepared and driven moder-
ately, as befit their historical impor-
tance. No owner wanted to be recorded
in history as the one who wadded his
car up or put it into a guard rail.
Vintage racing was becoming in-
creasingly popular each succeeding
year, and quickly moved from drivers-
only to spectator events. Prior to this,
costs for the event were borne by par-
ticipants through their entry fees.
Once there was a spectator “gate,” the
sanctioning bodies were quick to see
the link between spectators and prof-
its. Activities like club corrals and
shows, honored marques, and special
guests (drivers, team members, au-
thors and other well known personal-
ities in the racing world) increased
interest in vintage events and helped
make them more popular. And, with
that, more financially successful.
The competitive urge, never very
far below the surface, began to bubble
up. Vintage racing started to slowly
move from “vintage” to “racing.” Some
owners to begin to modify their cars to
go faster and perform better. At first
these modifications were described as
being made to increase the safety as-
pect of the cars. That rationale made
sense. To offset the additional weight
of a roll cage, more power was needed
to maintain equilibrium. As cars be-
came faster, bigger brakes were neces-
sary to slow them down. Larger
radiators kept them from overheating
and wider wheels and tires were em-
ployed. To retain the original body con-
tours, rear ends were narrowed so
fenders did not need to bulge. It was a
creeping evolution.
At the same time this was happen-
ing, owners of historical race cars,
which were becoming increasingly
valuable due to their low production or
unique history, were no longer being
vintage raced. Their owners were un-
willing to put them at risk on the track
in the middle of a pack of other cars
which no longer accurately repre-
sented their history.
Spring 2016 15
WHERE HAVE ALL THE GT40S GONE?