Crazy insurance rules "back in the day"

[tom406]

I did an appraisal a couple of weeks ago, and got to talking to the owner of the storage place about his '70 Hemi Cuda. He spoke to the original owner, who drag raced the car here in the NW, and asked about the column shift automatic. The original owner told him the insurance was significantly cheaper if you got a column shift car. This seemed ridiculous to me, since a column shifted Hemi ANYTHING could still get you into trouble fast. So I just wrote it off.

Then I get the new issue of Hemmings Muscle Machines, and there's a write-up on a one-owner '70 GS Stage 1 4sp. He relates that he was ready to buy a (coincidentally) Hemi Cuda, but his insurance agent shot him down. (Didn't ask about the column shift exemption, I guess). He asked about Buicks, and the guy told him fine, just no racing stripes. Could it be a Stage 1 car with a 4 speed? Fine, just no racing stripes. So he bought it and got reasonable insurance, even though that Buick could probably get him into as much mischief as the aforementioned Hemi car.

So, to those of you old enough to remember, were there other examples of these arbitrary rules of questionable logic? If so, what loopholes were you able to exploit?