John,
The context of this thread though is to determine which cars are eligible for this "Original GT40s" Sub Forum.
I do not think this Sub Forum should be cluttered up with continuation cars. The only point is, where is the cutoff between original and continuation? Clearly, personally, I feel 21st century built cars don't belong in this section. Earlier ones built in the 70's? Maybe they could be eligible.
Not trying to be exclusive here, just harking back to what I thought was the intention of the Sub Forum. Others may disagree.
Yes, I certainly go along with that, Russ. My references to Continuation cars are there because not only was the subject already raised, but, in deciding just what is "original", we have to
discuss continuations, Mark Vs, left-over tubs, tubs built up from spare panels, "re-tubbed originals" (ouch, I hate those), and anything else which in any way lays claim to being an "original", however spurious and laughable that claim might be.
My own opinion (and that's all it can be, my opinion) is that if a car were completed by, or the tub and parts sold by, Ford, Kar Kraft or JWAE, in the period up to the end of 1970, then the car is clearly "original", regardless of where and when final assembly took place. For me too, cars assembled subsequently from leftover chassis not sold direct by one of those companies fall into a grey area, but I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.
My own view is that anything else doesn't qualify as "original", and Mark Vs are exactly what they say they are - Mark Vs; lovely cars, built with the authority of JWAE, and (opinion again) very respectable (I wish I had one). Peter Thorp did, I believe, play a master stroke when he decided on the Mark V tag; anybody owning one could say, perfectly truthfully, that he owned an original
GT40 Mark V. I could say much the same for the Superformance cars, but I do wish they'd been called Mark VI... However, I think that whoever coined the name "continuation" got it pretty well right.
My vote for what constitutes "original" would go towards including all the numbered cars up to 1085, 1101-1107, the XGT, J and M/1s, plus the handful of pukka Abbey Panels-equipped subsequent-build cars. Anything built on one of those superb Tennant Panels tubs, no matter how wonderful the car might be, would have to go into, at best, the continuation category.
Incidentally, in a forum dedicated to "original" cars, the cars with leftover tubs probably won't feature very much anyway, since they haven't really got much of a history behind them, and, since none of them took part in the epic days of the 1960s, perhaps they won't provide much to talk about?
I like this thread; it's good that GT40 enthusiasts should get together to try to reach concensus of just what constitutes an original GT40 - all opinions welcome!
