Well from what i've gathered, classic and restored vehicle owners all strive for the showroom stock look. A vehicle maintained in a like new condition with no modifications or other hack jobs. Then there's the people that cut and weld anything to get the most performance out of their vehicles. My problem is, I can't swing one way or the either. I'll look at showroom condition vehicles and drool and then i'll turn around and look at some tweaked out subaru and drool. So what ya guy's think?
Dog
Needed a neutral forum for my vehicle debacle 
It's not impossible to get the best of both worlds, unless you're on the kind of budget that limits you to one or the other. I've seen restoration jobs that would kill a WRX any day.
Me, I want neither. I couldn't not have a truck (though I currently don't have a vehicle at all).
Go with a sleeper. Completely stock on the outside but modded-out underhood.
Yup, I'd agree with that.
Would that ruin the integrity and collectibility of the vehicle though. Say you have a vehicle that only had a production run of 200 - 500. Oh maybe I need to rephrase my question to Collectible vs Performance. Which is almost like saying new vs old, cause you can only get so much performance out of old technology before you'll want somthing with more.
Dog
exaggerated example: Like pushing a PPC to the limit when a simple G5 would do.
It all boils down to the vehicle in question...
The NSU Ro80 was a highly acclaimed car when launched and still is an other-worldly car, to even attempt consider turning it into a sleeper is pure sacrilege - thats why we keep ours in showroom condition (sorry no pictures to hand, but it's a 1976, red, with black interior and quad headlights).
The Citroën DS was one of the classic designs of the 20th century, and like the NSU you'd be asking for a hell of a lot of trouble if you decided to use it as a basis for tweaking. It defined a turning point in motoring history and quantities are scarce.
Yet the Saab 900 was also a design classic, but only a select few would have any qualms over a complete sleeper overhaul of the turbo, intercooler, exhaust, brakes and suspension to extract the cars full potential. The Saab has the advantage of still being relatively new - the oldest ones being only 21 years old, and reasonably easy to get hold of.
If it's a true classic leave it, if it's a modern classic consider it. You're only young once right?
I agree with BS, it kinda depends on what kind of car you are looking at, and what you want to do with it.
I have a '66 Mustang, and when I actually have money to do so, I'm gonna just do my own thing with it. Reason being that while it is semi-collectable, there are still a whole crapload of them around. The only unique thing about mine is that it has a bench front seat instead of buckets. I really don't feel like putting the money into making it "original" (whatever that *really* means) when I could spend a similar amount and make it much more fun to drive.
James M. Baker
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