Re: My 2 cents.
As one who has loved Corvettes from afar my entire life, been an NCRS member for nearly ten years, but only last year finally got my first "classic" Corvette of my dreams (65), let me just add a thought:
First, as I mentioned, I just bought a 65 last year - did not set out to, or have to, get an original engine car, but when you are looking at a range of cars that include some that do claim to have the orignal engine, such "numbers matching cars" do inlcude a premium in the sales price (I would guess around 25% +/-) directly attributable to this fact, so given the state of affairs in the used Corvette marketplace these days (i.e. restampings, etc) I had to become like Sherlock Holmes (o.k., I admit to it being fun, in a twisted way) and learn all about engine casting dates, casting numbers, "birthdays", body build codes, etc. etc. etc. in order to know if the car was as represented, because the sales price included a charge for this. And, in the case of the car I bought, the seller was truly innocent, he had bought the car himself as a "numbers" car, paid a premium for it, and was in turn selling it on that basis too, but blithely assumed such was the case; he had no idea where the engine stamp pad was until I schooled him on it. Call him an innocent reseller.
OK, so on to the NCRS, which, in the case of flight judging, is an immensely fun pastime for folks, who like to see how close they can get their car to a "benchmark", in this case "as delivered" to shorthand it. I have no quarrel with how folks choose to enjoy their time and money in this fashion; personally I have never entered a car for judging and no one has a gun to my head to do so. And I have no problem with NCRS flight judging folks doing whatever it takes to achieve their benchmark, but this INCLUDES the VIN-derivative stamp on the engine. So the hobby ends up, unintentionally, creating cars with not-original engines that look (of course, that is the intent) as if they were original, including the stamp pad. No intention to decive the public at large yet, I agree the word "Fake" includes an element of intent. It only becomes "fake" when the owner of a re-stamped "not - original" engine car then sells the car and "charges" a premium for the car having an original (dare I use the phrase "numbers-matching") engine. THAT is not the intention of the NCRS hobby, of course, and most NCRS folks do not themselves sell their cars in this deceiptful fashion.
But these cars get sold again, and again, and the honest NCRS guy who would readily admit to a "restoration" engine is not there to tell the truth, and perhaps an "innocent reseller" is now sellig the car as a numbers matching orignal engine car, and seeking to collect a 25% premium for that. NCRS is, in effect, not unlike a group of artists who compete to see who can copy a Picasso perfectly, but then these Picassos make their way out into the general market place. It might be the artists' fault, but it is not their intention, they are just enjoying their "game".
Solution? IMHO, One of these two - (1) NCRS stops judging stamp pads on engines, period, even asks that owners put a piece of tape over the pad so it cannot come into play unintentionally - this would end the impetous in the NCRS arena to create realistic, but problematic, matching number stamp pads; or (2) require any "restored" stamp pad NCRS-judged car to be registered as such in a published, easily-searchable by VIN database, so subsequent prospective purchasers can easily check up on a car's status (hey if the NCRS "game" is as I described, folks should have no problem with this one, as they are not creating fake matching engines with a view towards enhancing resale value, right?)
Then and only then can this fine hobby and organization (I mean that) distance itself from the uninteded "fake matching number cars" problem it is feeding. It is really a serious source of negativity, imho. Myself I would vote for a "stamp pad ignored / taped over" solution.
As one who has loved Corvettes from afar my entire life, been an NCRS member for nearly ten years, but only last year finally got my first "classic" Corvette of my dreams (65), let me just add a thought:
First, as I mentioned, I just bought a 65 last year - did not set out to, or have to, get an original engine car, but when you are looking at a range of cars that include some that do claim to have the orignal engine, such "numbers matching cars" do inlcude a premium in the sales price (I would guess around 25% +/-) directly attributable to this fact, so given the state of affairs in the used Corvette marketplace these days (i.e. restampings, etc) I had to become like Sherlock Holmes (o.k., I admit to it being fun, in a twisted way) and learn all about engine casting dates, casting numbers, "birthdays", body build codes, etc. etc. etc. in order to know if the car was as represented, because the sales price included a charge for this. And, in the case of the car I bought, the seller was truly innocent, he had bought the car himself as a "numbers" car, paid a premium for it, and was in turn selling it on that basis too, but blithely assumed such was the case; he had no idea where the engine stamp pad was until I schooled him on it. Call him an innocent reseller.
OK, so on to the NCRS, which, in the case of flight judging, is an immensely fun pastime for folks, who like to see how close they can get their car to a "benchmark", in this case "as delivered" to shorthand it. I have no quarrel with how folks choose to enjoy their time and money in this fashion; personally I have never entered a car for judging and no one has a gun to my head to do so. And I have no problem with NCRS flight judging folks doing whatever it takes to achieve their benchmark, but this INCLUDES the VIN-derivative stamp on the engine. So the hobby ends up, unintentionally, creating cars with not-original engines that look (of course, that is the intent) as if they were original, including the stamp pad. No intention to decive the public at large yet, I agree the word "Fake" includes an element of intent. It only becomes "fake" when the owner of a re-stamped "not - original" engine car then sells the car and "charges" a premium for the car having an original (dare I use the phrase "numbers-matching") engine. THAT is not the intention of the NCRS hobby, of course, and most NCRS folks do not themselves sell their cars in this deceiptful fashion.
But these cars get sold again, and again, and the honest NCRS guy who would readily admit to a "restoration" engine is not there to tell the truth, and perhaps an "innocent reseller" is now sellig the car as a numbers matching orignal engine car, and seeking to collect a 25% premium for that. NCRS is, in effect, not unlike a group of artists who compete to see who can copy a Picasso perfectly, but then these Picassos make their way out into the general market place. It might be the artists' fault, but it is not their intention, they are just enjoying their "game".
Solution? IMHO, One of these two - (1) NCRS stops judging stamp pads on engines, period, even asks that owners put a piece of tape over the pad so it cannot come into play unintentionally - this would end the impetous in the NCRS arena to create realistic, but problematic, matching number stamp pads; or (2) require any "restored" stamp pad NCRS-judged car to be registered as such in a published, easily-searchable by VIN database, so subsequent prospective purchasers can easily check up on a car's status (hey if the NCRS "game" is as I described, folks should have no problem with this one, as they are not creating fake matching engines with a view towards enhancing resale value, right?)
Then and only then can this fine hobby and organization (I mean that) distance itself from the uninteded "fake matching number cars" problem it is feeding. It is really a serious source of negativity, imho. Myself I would vote for a "stamp pad ignored / taped over" solution.
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