As Jamo has indicated above, Brent has asked each of us to square this thing up off line and iron out our thoughts. I have been in touch with Jamo and Turk offline and I believe that we have resolved our differences to my satisfaction. I am in the process of contacting Bony to finalize this also.
In essence, to bring others up to speed, my original comments about Smith's speed record was in no way an attempt to slander him nor his record. It was an attempt to seek more proof other than just someone else's word. I had credible evidence from not only Remington, but a couple of others I personally know who have been extremely involved in sports car racing back in the 60's, who also did not feel that 198mph was possible...unfortunately (or, forthunately) I never got the chance to bring them into the debate. The discussion turned the wrong direction before it could be debated sensibly. Name calling and hostility ensued before logic could prevail.
I was given advice from a couple of well-known members of CC that I should just delete the posts to try to bring the topic to a close, but it went the wrong way again. I received several emails stating that they saw nothing wrong with my comments, yet it would probably help smooth things over if they were gone, especially in light of the fact that I did not want Remington's name demeaned too. I have since re-posted my comments in their entirety, WITHOUT MODIFICATIONS, WORD FOR WORD for all to read, since that was the bone of contention.
I contacted Brent about 10 days ago right after things got heated, and emailed him the so-called offending posts that I had deleted and requested that he review them. I asked him as a friend to advise me whether the posts were offensive or not, and if so in his mind, I would make online appologies and correct my thoughts about why I believed that it was technically impossible to acheive 198mph in a stock bodied Cobra. Because Brent is very busy, I did not receive an opinion from him during the time that all this was turning sour in this thread, so I just disappeared. Not until after I re-contacted Brent did we come to the conclusion that there was a great deal of miscommunication between us and that we should resolve this between us offline.
I have made my appologies offline, and I have received appologies from others also, so I believe that this is now a dead issue so let's drop the subject. I know that we each have our own positions on this subject, but let's just agree that all of our thoughts are credible. I respect Dick Smith and his abilities very much. I respect Phil Remington and his abilities very much also. So somewhere in the middle, lets debate this sometime face to face with some logic rather than emotion, and we might be able to put everyone on top of the pedistal that they deserve.
Again, my appologies go out to those who were offended.
Now, about this Big block/small block thing......
