You miss my point...
I am well aware they are funding their passion and good on them, I do the same but on a smaller scale so I am hardly critacisng them for that. As a spectator however, one who has seen them go like they should I find this type of racing a bit boring. I'd much rather go to Goodwood as the cars there are at least spectacular at low speeds. A modern single seater sounds nice and goes like stink on the straights, but not much spectacle outside of that if they are braking early and taking the bends at 85% in the main. These cars need to be driven on their toes to be spectacular, bit like modern Group C where I always leave thinking "that should have been better than it was". The reason? Because you have 3 or 4 boys giving it the beans and the rest are fodder. In the day you had 90% of the grid ripping their nuts off and THAT is what I remember.
I agree with the sentiment on the BOSS series. The grids are regularly very thin and the performance differences between the cars/drivers are often very large. Last time I saw a BOSS race, much as Housey suggests it was an anti climax where apart from one or two cars at the front the rest weren't being driven anywhere close to the limit. Modern F1 cars aren't particularly spectacular to watch at the best of times either (even with the best drivers in the world in them!)
There was a period in the 90s where BOSS was a bit more interesting. There were a number of F1 cars (Jordan, Footwork/Arrows etc) and a whole load of F3000 cars that actually were very comparable in pace if driven well. It was a much more competetive series back then. Those days are gone now as the later cars are so mind blowingly expensive to run that only one or two ever make the grid.
The best F1 machinery to watch IMO was always the 3 litre era cars (1966 - 1984). In the early 00s the historic grids were huge (40+ cars at Silverstone supporting the GP in 2001 for example) and several of the drivers were capable of pushing the cars past the point where they were constantly sliding - which was always spectacular to watch. Of course there were also plenty of 'Gentleman' drivers at the other end of the field - but I found they added to the entertainment with plenty of mistakes spins and passes going on. The grids aren't quite as big since the recession, but these are still impressive cars to watch racing.
As for the Group C ... A big grid of 30+ Group C cars is a sight to behold (and to hear) no matter who is driving them. Much like the 3 litre F1 series - there are some Gentlemen drivers who make up the grid and are well off the pace, however it's a little unfair to say there are only 3-4 boys giving it the beans. I'd say it's more like 10+ at the bigger events.
Quite a few of the drivers are pros (in GTs or single seaters), Historic specialists or drivers who raced Group C in period and are still racing them now. Whenever one of the guys who raced the cars at the sharp end in period turn up for a race there is rarely much difference in pace between them and the regular front runners which I think proves that a good proportion of the cars on the grid are being driven 'properly'.
Yes the original Group C era was particularly spectacular (I followed my father racing at many of the European rounds through the 80s) I think you are comparing the two with rose tinted glasses. Yes it was undoubtably something special watching the handful of works cars with some of the top drivers of the day racing the cars ... but equally they were endurance races so they were often nursing the car/running at far below full power because of the fuel limit .. .where the historics are effectively running 40minute sprints at full boost (900bhp+ in the Mercs and Nissans!). Back in the 80s more than half of the grid were made up of weathly gentleman drivers too! Of course it's never goign to be quite the same - but I think you are being quite hard on the modern series - I've watched a lot of the races over the last 10 years and many of them have been exciting races to watch.
Regardless of the Then vs Now argument - I think the Historic F1 and Group C series are some of the very best racing you can watch these days. I personally find watching most of the modern series (F2, Gts etc extremely dull as the cars are on rails and the races soon get strung out).
Any of the big historic/classic events such as the Silverstone classic are well worth going along to both to see some spectacular machinery up close but also for some very entertaining racing with huge grids of cars.
