[DeTomaso] Racing Mangusta- Homologaion Doc?

[mikeldrew at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/9/10 15 51 41, detomasoregistry at gmail.com writes:


> As was the promise to build
> 500 of the GTOs for production GT racing;
> 

The FIA's requirement at the time was originally 100 cars, to qualify for 
production GT status.  The inability of Shelby to build 100 427 Cobras in 
time, prevented them from being raced as such, for example, and led to the 
dumping of a bunch of unuseable race cars on the street car market as "S/C" 
models.   Ferrari convinced the FIA that the 250 GTO was really just a 
modification of the existing 250 SWB (which, technically, was quite true, as they 
were identical under the skin), but the FIA raised the BS flag when they tried 
to pass off the mid-engined 250LM as a further evolution of the species!   
Thus the 250/330 LM cars raced as prototypes.

Later on, the FIA moved the required number down to 50, which is how the 
GT40 moved from the prototype class into Group 4 for production race cars.   
The number was reduced further to 25 examples later on, which is how Porsche 
managed to get the 5-liter Porsche 917 homologated when prototypes were 
restricted to 3 liters.   

The FIA later reduced the minimum number down to ONE street-legal car; does 
anybody remember when Dauer homologated a barely modified Porsche 962 as a 
'street car' and won Le Mans?   This was also the era of the Porsche GT1 and 
Mercedes-Benz CLK-GTR.

Good times! :>)

Mike