[Zeke]

In response to the thread about tire rubbing on an early S track car, someone said, as others before, to not cut on the car so as to preserve it's value. I had some thoughts on that.

While I am subscribing to that theory about keeping the numbers matching and not cutting on the body, you think an S will be all that valuable when it is discoverd that it was a track car with the roll bar or cage, heavy suspension and other mods? I would tend to hold a nice T up to a high value that is not molested or tracked and has no rust. An E in the same condition would surpass a tracked S in value, IMHO.

Why, I ask, are we saving the S's and not all early cars? If this is really the case, then the S's should not be raced at all. I say do what you have to do and worry about whether you preseerved a couple thousand in value after the fact.

Let me give you a teaser of a hypothetical circumstance to support my contention. Three cars for sale, one is my S which is a definite project. The only interior that remains stock is the dash and the door panels/pockets. Nos. matching drive train. Rust repair including some new and some used body panels and respray/color change to an acceptable standard. Lots of bolt in suspension and safety mods. Missing are the sport seats, deep sixes and steel bumpers in favor of race seats, wider wheels and fiberglass.

The other car, a perfect E. The third, a very nice T done to an RS clone complete with a 2.7/ 7R case and MFI.

Don't add in a perfect S, because if there was one, I would agree to not molest the car or track it. But, that's not what we find commonly for sale.

Which would you pay the most for?

I could be missing the point as I often do, but what I'm saying is that unless one has a near perfect S or is restoring an S to near perfect condition that will not be driven, there is not that much to be lost in modifying one if it is going to the track on a regular basis.

I believe once a car has a lot of track time (not the kind of history that involves racing in the 70's), it will lose value for such use. Are we really going to bring these cars back to show/street condition someday or continue to use them for sport and entertainment until they just die from hard use and come back as even a more dedicated racer?