I certainly agree with the earlier comment along the lines that a fixed gear, taildragger Curare with a .91 fourstroke would be as far from "classic" as you could get although it does fit in the BPA rules (I think?). A taildragger should be built as a taildragger and a tricycle should be built as a tricycle.

That being said, I understand (I do not fly either SPA or BPA) that if you wish to build a Curare with a piped side exhaust .61 and retracts then by all means go ahead, just put on a standard muffler and leave the wheels down when you fly a SPA contest weekend.

I can completely understand that some older gents want two less things to worry about when it comes to flying their plane, they have probably tinkered to their hearts content in their younger days and now just want to flip a prop and fly a schedule. They don't want to have to be changing compression, plugs, nitro content, pipe length and prop size every time they fly at a new field (slight exageration but not unheard of).

I could build a piped Curare today with 2 aileron servos, 2 elevator servos, 2 flap servos, 2 speedbrake servos, rudder, throttle, retracts and in-flight mixture which would require a Futaba 12FG, 12ZA or heaven forbid a 14MZ :-)

I say good on the SPA for keeping it simple, even if at the expense of a little historical accuracy