[SCG] A Poor Choice of Words?

[airvair at earthlink.net]

I have to agree with Bill on this one. And it's NOT as a result of trying
to be politically correct. If anything, the result is quite the opposite. I
find it absolutely gastly. The choice process was obviously horribly
shortsighted, and Concours rules demand the utmost deliberation before
anything is done.

Back when I wrote the original rules, such a term (along with many others)
were carefully considered, and discarded. Woody Schwartz (one of the first
national concours chairmen) and I (and others) talked about this in great
length. The concensus feeling was as Bill indicates. The simple fact is
that such words MUST be chosen with the utmost care and long premeditation.
It's why after long deliberation and discussion we went with "Street Stock"
instead of such terms as "improved stock" or "modified stock", etc. And YES
there WILL be hurt feelings. You can bank on it!

Best you make some quick backpedaling damage control moves, because you
WILL live to regret this most unfortunate term.

BTW, as I've been saying for some time, with the present "gold, silver,
bronze" points-based awards system, all the class definitions have been
made irrelevant, and should be scrapped. (With the exception of the stock
classes, which are required for the Preservation Award.) Maybe this would
be a good time to do so.

-Mark Corbin
Past National Concours Chairman
Past member of the National Concours Committee
Originator of the present CORSA Concours Rules
Certified Master Concours Judge
Certified Master Specialist Judge
and have been judging yearly since the early '70's

> [Original Message]
> From: Paul Steinberg <noahsarkinc at earthlink.net>
> To: <whubbell at umich.edu>; Mike McGowan \(Corsa\) <communique at corvair.org>
> Cc: Stock Corvair Group <scg-list at tiger.skiblack.com>
> Date: 4/1/2010 11:38:06 PM
> Subject: Re: [SCG] A Poor Choice of Words?
>
> This must be a result of the Committee just trying to keep up with what
is 
> now politically correct speech.  I am waiting for the day that they
decide 
> that there should be no winners or losers in the judging........ like
what 
> they have done to children's soccer games.... Paul
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bill Hubbell" <whubbell at cox.net>
> To: "Mike McGowan (Corsa)" <communique at corvair.org>
> Cc: "Stock Corvair Group" <scg-list at tiger.skiblack.com>
> Sent: Thursday, April 01, 2010 11:11 PM
> Subject: [SCG] A Poor Choice of Words?
>
> It is somewhat ironic that in the same issue of the Communiqué extolling
the
> virtues of "original" Corvairs we have an statement from the CORSA
Concours
> Committee that all Corvairs that have significant changes from Stock are
now
> to be called "Improved".
>
>  Is it surprising that we have so few remaining examples of our original
> cars when our own organization considers any modification to the General's
> Design to be an "improvement"?
>
> Bill Hubbell
>
> President, Stock Corvair Group
>