[Chuck Norton]

Good morning, PA,

This issue is a little different than most, I believe. There are a few issues that make it so. In the first place, this is not a question of something being new. It's actually something that's so old that it's laughable. i remember that transmission well. I even had one in a '58 Nomad for a while. It was so bad in terms of performance and durability that a cast iron 'Glide was a step up. I suspect that the reason it's not in the Guide is because it was so bad that it was never considered and would never have been considered had not a combination of other liberalized rules opened the back door to making it an advantage. When the rule allowing the substitution of ANY OEM 3-speed transmission to replace an ORIGINAL 3-speed was slipped into the books (probably on the grounds of expediency and preserving the creases in the clothing of diligent tech inspectors) this is one issue that became a "no-brainer." An unintended "no-brainer" but one nevertheless.

In the second place, I believe that you can count the number of 1960 and '61 Chevies competing in Stock Eliminator today on one finger. That could possibly be an exaggeration but I don't think so. Even if the substitution of a modern 3-speed transmission in those models were to be authorized, I doubt that there will be a mad rush on the part of racers to construct a herd of Brookwood wagons or Impala hardtops. It wouldn't put them into the position of dominating Stock Eliminator. In fact, they wouldn't likely dominate the classes in which they run. For example, U/SA is already populated with cars that have more "legislated advantages" than could ever be dreamed up for the Brookwood.

In the third place, if it did become a huge advantage, what could it possibly harm? What if Jack McCarthy qualified in the Top Ten at Indy? Would the earth stop turning? If he insisted on flaunting his newly found dominance excessively, would he not be subject to the terms of AHFS? Would not the "system" correct itself in the same way that it has corrected combinations like the LS1, the 6-Pack GTX, and the aluminum-headed big blocks?

At the end of the day (and that will come sooner rather than later for a lot of us old donkeys), this is not much more than a fun topic because allowing the lone 1960 Chevrolet Brookwood wagon to benefit from the same rules as a 1967 Camaro that now has a Metric 200 in place of it's power-sucking T400 is simply the right thing to do. It isn't a back-door, politically inspired, 40 year after-the-fact, file cabinet discovery. It's the result of a rule that was changed by the Organization fifteen years ago for whatever reason, that opened a door that no one anticipated, and is being stonewalled, apparently because racers introduced it instead of the Organization.

I think it's cool!

Highest regards,

c