Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterMorley
I wonder if it might also be connected with F1 etc. becoming televised sports, people are more used to watching circuit racing on tv rather than in real life.
Rallying gets less tv coverage and the fans seem more likely to attend an event (even though they see a lot less of it!).
As usual Rudolf's comments make sense but I'm not sure the age of the cars is a factor, when historic racing really picked up in the 80s many of the cars weren't that old - lots were around 20 years old.
Before that, when the VSCC started some cars (like 250Fs) were only about 10 years past their front line career.
So, many of the cars had been seen in action relatively recently - but only by those who had gone to the circuits.
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Age of cars might be a factor. I believe the growing interest in classic cars for buyers is the late 70's to mid/late 80's - every days cars (goods examples thereof ) are making quite big prices £65K for a 80's Ford Escort RS Turbo at the NEC last year and £36k for an '86 Ford Capri a few months ago - for example. If you think that people between say 40 and 60 who perhaps have fewer financial commitments, have made some money and want to spend it on cars they remember from their youth, or their first car or their fathers cars, etc, etc - this is the moving market.
If this is mirrored in classic racing, this shows why the Super Tourers and Group A cars are so popular, same age group watching and now buying cars - look at the ST car prices now, 12 years ago you could barely give one away.
So perhaps, the 60's cars and earlier just don't resonate with todays spectators so much at club level (i.e. not a major event with all the attractions) as they don't have the emotional attachment to the car or the brand??
And of course, interest in cars in general is going down as they are increasingly seen as functional items to get from a to b.