Griff, I always put additives in my drinks...sugar and milk if it's tea or coffee, water if it's a cordial, and a splash of lime with lager
This whole subject of identity is a very sensitive one. I can, actually, understand why someone would be a bit economical with the truth - they've built or bought a "replica" because they always wanted a real one, and can't have one for whatever reason (financial, usually!), so this is as good as it gets. And to extend the fantasy or whatever you want to call it, it becomes almost a Lancia Stratos in their head, and then that gets extended when explanations need to be forthcoming after the usual questions from the public - sometimes it's just a lot easier to say it's a Lancia Stratos than have to go into that whole explanation of it being a replica and it's got this or that motor and how close it is to a real one (or not) and how it's actually better (or worse, but who's gonna say that!) and, and, .... and you need to be in work the next day and not still standing at the roadside/in a car park answering the same old questions from a horde of enthusiastic interested onlookers.
If you're entering an event then it's fine to put "Lancia Stratos" but you need to be a bit more forthcoming as well - Craig's suggestion to put it down as what it is is a good one, but most people out there in Car World don't know what a Lister Bell or a Hawk is so I think you NEED to put "Stratos replica" or something so organisers know what they're getting. And if you did enter a replica as a Lancia Stratos, would you not be in danger of being excluded when it's discovered the car's not what you said it is? Cars have been disqualified from events before for just being a few cc's over the capacity limit, so a whole car not being what it purposed to be...
So yeah. A very emotive subject that gets lots of people worked up. But really, the only time this becomes an issue is when there's an intention to deceive. An example would be that YouTube video that someone posted a link to recently, where the titles specifically said "Lancia Stratos" and it was a V8-engined Hawk. But other times? Sometimes it's just easier to say "yeah, I've done *whatever* to the Strat" and nobody thinks you're talkng about modding your Fender electric guitar...
Let's not bash each other up here. I can't believe anyone on this forum would be daft enough to try and pass their car off as "real" cos all the forum members would know immediately. And even if someone DID do it and was "discovered", I don't see how that brings the forum/club into disrepute - it's the action of one person. After all, how many of us have points on our licences...doesn't mean everyone in the club's all speed-crazed lunatics on a Death Race 2000-style mission, does it?
Erm, OK, scrub that last bit...bad example
I now await the incoming hail of comments, barbed, mild or otherwise...but it's just my opinion and doesn't reflect on the club as a whole, haha!
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