"Wes" wrote in message
...
"Ed Huntress" wrote:
And now you can insert the correct answer below. 
Wes
No, no correction. You got it right. In English it's "homologated," and
accredited is a good synonym. Specifically, it means that the car was made
in sufficient quantities, usually 500 but for GTs at the time of the
original Ferrari GTO, 50, that it qualifies as a production car in that
class.
I had to search around on homologated. I'm usually pretty fair at
decerning what a word
means by looking at it or considering the context it was used in.
It's a very hard one. Unless one was involved in racing of an international
flavor (note that Bill used the word first), it's unlikely that he's ever
heard the term in English, let alone in Italian. That's why it's a good
stumper. d8-)
Never took Latin though
I had a teacher that really wanted me to take it. I probably would have
performed better
learning Latin than I did at learning Spanish.
As for Latin, my son has his final next week in 3rd year Latin, and if you
asked him, he would tell you to run, not walk, away from it. He decided to
take it on his own. I knew he was in for it, but it was close to bloody
murder. This semester he's translating Latin poetry, and I can hear the
agony when he calls. g
I don't know how it will help him in econometrics, but he's a good writer,
and it seems to have helped his vocabulary.
GTs in those days were exotics, made in small quantities, so Ferrari only
had to make 50 and get the production run certified and approved by the
FIA,
which is (or was) the international racing sanctioning body.
For a few years, when road racing was almost a big deal in the US (thanks
to
Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Scarab and Chaparral), Pontiac copped a
legendary
reference to the Ferrari GTO. It was silly but they should have had the
decency to explain what it means. In high school, I could stump all of the
motorheads with that one. d8-)
I'm going to try to remember this bit of trivia to try out on my motor
head nephews and
brother in law.
For a political thread this one sure has morphed into an interesting tour
of racing
history. I've enjoyed it. I looked at the pictures you posted. Was
there another set
when the car rolled over? That looked scary.
'Dunno. I picked them up with a Google Images search on "swing axle
jacking," or something like that.
But those two cars would roll over. In 1971, I helped pick up and roll back
upright a swing-axle Spitfire from a guy who was driving in a gymkhana. (He
wasn't hurt, but he sure was embarrassed.)
There were lots of funky little European cars in Princeton when my family
moved there. My buddy's dad took us for a ride in his "four passenger
Spitfire" (a Herald) one time, after we'd been jawing about sports cars and
he had been regaling us with stories about racing an MG-TD, and was trying
to impress us. The rear end jacked just like the one in the photo and we
damn near rolled.
The thing that kept a lot of them from rolling over was the crappy, skinny
tires they had, which didn't get enough adhesion to worry about. They'd just
spin. My '64 VW jacked up just like that Herald one night, when I drove it
into a circle in the Pine Barrens that was unlighted, and which was *much*
tighter than I expected. ****ty tires saved my ass, and probably saved my
shorts. g No curbs, thankfully. I spun into the median at around 60 mph
with no damage.
What was the problem with diabetes and SCCA and the FAA if I could be as
bold to ask? Kept
in check, it is something you live with. Was this a case of ill informed
judgment on what
disqualified someone from participating in earlier times?
Wes
Good question. I'll try to keep it short.
I'm a Type I (juvenile) diabetic, like Mark, and in those days control
wasn't nearly as good as it is now. The real danger is hypoglycemia, which
leaves you confused and very stupid. Your judgment can go completely to
hell. In an airplane, you could black out and die. It can come on very
quickly and with little warning, especially if you're occupied racing a car
and don't notice it coming.
By the '80s it was evident that good control and a history free of
hypoglycemic episodes should allow you to race or fly. In fact, the FAA
changed their rule in the '90s to allow Type I's to fly under close medical
reporting. But I couldn't afford it now, anyway, so it's moot for me.
The SCCA left it up to the regional medical directors. Mine wouldn't budge.
The SCCA national supported me and wanted me to fight it. They couldn't just
tell him what to do.
But it, too, got expensive. I couldn't have afforded to pursue the case. My
interest then was only as a low-key hobby -- I planned to drive a Fiesta in
ITC class, which could be called "old guys driving old junk and making fools
of themselves." I didn't want to break the bank for a hobby.
--
Ed Huntress