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Metropolitan Taxi Award pulled


Guest Susanhatmaker

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Guest Susanhatmaker

I had just gotten back from the Metropolitan meet in Lincoln and had heard the Trophy was pulled for the Metropolitan Taxi that won last year at Hershey. I was curious as to why. What is the thinking in this as it was a professional class vehicle. Many professional cars were after market conversions by outside companies. And as was stated on the previous thread about this car at least one other person knows Metropolitans were converted by a Taxi company in NYC for use as short run/airport taxis. My father drove one for years. Another man stated his father had one. I feel bad for the owner of the car that he gets his award and then has it taken away. Especially since cars are pre-registered shouldn't that have been checked out before hand? And if you look for a body company that did the conversion there isn't one. Most cab companies that operated had in house mechanics that converted cars over before Checkers became widely used. If this had been a 36 Chevy or the like that was a taxi in this class would anyone have questioned it. It's discrimination against the owner because it was a Metropolitan. And the only research that was done was a few phone calls to the Metropolitan club for answers. I think before you pull an award you should exhaust every resource. I can tell you first hand that Metropolitan Taxis did exist. Why is the club being so hard on this particular car when it's common knowledge that Taxi companies did do their own conversion work. Additionally if this is a problem with people then make a taxi class that they can be judged separately from the rest of the cars. It's very unfair to owners who spend the time and money on these things only to have their awards ripped from them for no reason.

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On the contrary, extensive research was done on this issue. Experts from a variety of disciplines were asked to assist on this concern including the club itself. The issue of this vehicle not ever being a taxi came to light though members owning Mets, not AACA judges. Every possible attempt to prove, through acceptable standards of documentation, that Mets were used as taxi cabs proved fruitless. AACA requires written factory documentation or other suitable proof and there was none. If one or two cars were made privately as taxi's that is not acceptable in our judging guidelines. We hate when situations like this come up and would love to have had it come out differently. The car is beautiful and was given the award based upon the quality of its restoration. Only subsequent did the issue of this being incorrect come to light.

Do you think AACA has the ability of investigating thousands of different cars before they are actually shown at a meet? Not hardly. However, when documentation is presented to us that we erred either in giving or not giving an award we attempt to correct it. No judging system is perfect, not ours or any other clubs.

Edited by Steve Moskowitz (see edit history)
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