More on What's "Right" for a given car....

Here's the deal-no matter how pristine it is, no matter how anal the owner. no 40 or 50 year old car is completely original!!  Even if someone bought say a GTO brand new in 1968 and kept it until now, it's not original. Here's why. In say 1970-when it had maybe 25,000 miles on it-those bias-ply Firestone Wide Ovals were probably worn out. So the tires aren't original. Chances are if he drove it hard-around the 30k mark it probably needed new front brake pads. After a couple of years of summer and winter weather-it probably needed wiper blades. He wanted to keep it well tuned, so doubtless he replaced the spark plugs and the points and condenser and maybe the wires. Pre-1969 GM Quadrajets had problems with the floats sinking and the baseplates leaking. If the dealer replaced it under warranty with the updated replacement carb-guess what Mr. Conours Judge? The car doesn't have a numbers-matching carburator!! Pre-1970 Pontiacs were notorious for throwing their timing chains because of the plastic gears. Dealers would replace them with steel gears under warranty or customer pay. If it was a 4-speed, eventually he's going to need a new clutch. See where I'm going with this? Even if the original owner didn't add headers or Cragar mags, etc-before the car was five years old, it had all kinds of "non-original" parts on it. So today this car may have a numbers-matching engine and trans in it-but if  they've been rebuilt-after 48 years they most surely have-the internal parts like pistons,rings, bearings, etc aren't original. Pontiac is no more, and the last 400 rolled off the assembly line in November 1977. ( A bunch were stockpiled for '78 and '79 T/A's ). GM quit making replacement parts for '70's Pontiacs in 1997.  ( 20 years ) So that RAIII cam that you bought-is a replica from Melling, TRW, Crane, Lunati etc-not a "Genuine" GM replacement.  So some snooty bastard at a Ford meet with a Mustang with Coker Tire Repro Polyglas GT's, and an Exide battery with a phony repro Autolite case, etc-who looks down his nose at someone who has BFG Radial T/A's on their car and a Die Hard under the hood is a double asshole-because his car is just as "unoriginal" as the other guys!!!  This is why the Pure Stock Drags and some Concours show organizations have amended their rules to allow "Original Type" parts. No one expects a 50 year old carburator or distributor to work flawlessly. So if your 1970 Z/28 has a #3310 780 Holley on it that you bought at Summitt last week-that's ok. No one's going to disqualify you because it doesn't have 1970 date codes on it. If your '67 GTO has a Muncie 4-speed that came out of a '71 Chevelle or a TH400 that came out of a '73 Firebird-they don't care-it's the original type. When you rebuilt your front end with new ball joints, tie rod ends, control arm bushings, drag link and idler arm from Just Suspension-guess what? Your car now has an "unoriginal" front end!!!  Good thing, because you probably couldn't hold it in the road otherwise!!   So don't be one of these idiots-it's okay to use Wagner brake pads, Moog suspension parts, and Dayco belts and hoses, but KYB or Gabriel or Monroe shocks are taboo because their not shipped in a Delco, Autolite or Mopar box??  Like Ditka says-"Come on, Man!!"  Mastermind