G'day Kathleen and Glen
Kathleen,your idea of a cut-off date has been dicussed at various club meetings for some years, but because there is no definative cut-off date for a Street Machine, (unlike Street Rod Federation Rules which spell out clearly what is a Street Rod, a Custom and a Custom Classic and what is not) it is very hard to get concensus to limit what year of vehicle can and cannot enter.
I have an open mind on the subject to a degree, because when I originally started the club back in 1977 my Street Machine was a 1974 Monaro 2 door GTS, which was only a 3 year old car (admittedly it was running a 465 BHP Stroked engine, big wheels custom paint etc), but my reason for starting the club at that time was because the Street Rod Federation (of which I was and still am a member) would not allow late model cars, which caused the birth of Street Machining Australia Wide and damn near killed Street Rodding for a few years as members deserted in large numbers.
Going on this criteria and given the popularity of Turbo buzz boxes with young people, I think we have to include some of them (particularly modified ones) and hope that the youngsters pick up an appreciation of the older cars through their initial involvement with a fantastic plastic.
Thats only my opinion though.
Cheers
Jockster