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Rather than work on the 'perception' that the Reynard in the 80's is some mystical all conquering chassis - lets look at the facts from the British championship...... (and I've included up until 1992 to give the complete picture of the Reynard success). I have bolded all the years in which a Reynard has won the championship.....
1980 - Tommy Byrne, Van Diemen
1981 - Ayrton Senna, Van Diemen
1982 - Mauricio Gugelmin, Van Diemen
1983 - Andrew Gilbert Scott, Van Diemen
1984 - Dave Coyne, Van Diemen
1985 - Bertrand Gachot, Van Diemen
1986 - Jason Eliott, Van Diemen
1987 - Eddie Irvine, Van Diemen
1988 - Derek Higgins, Van Diemen
1989 - Bernard Dolan, Reynard
1990 - Michael Vergers, Van Diemen
1991 - Marc Goossens, Van Diemen
1992 - Jamie Spence, Van Diemen
In my mind, it is madness that anyone has the perception that the Reynard was a better car in the 80's than the Van Diemen.
For some reason, the most competitive pre 90 class in the UK in recent years has been at Oulton, and there has been a preponderance of Reynard chassis competing in this. I don't know why this is, but would guess it has most likely been caused by a Reynard winning the championship for a few years, and then gradually people gravitate toward the belief that that is the quickest chassis to have if you want to win the championship, and now there is this wider perception that, quite simply, a Reynard is superior to other chassis of the same ilk. This is not however, as far as I can remember, a phenomenon that has been seen elsewhere in the UK. If we look at the Combe FF1600 series, which has probably been the most successful for a good number of years, there is a greater mix of Reynard and VD chassis in the pre 90 class. I don't believe that a Reynard has ever produced giant killing performances at Combe..... however an 88 VD has.... in the hands of Matt Rivett a few years back, and the VD is probably still the more popular chassis at Combe.
In short, a well prepared Reynard or VD in the hands of a capable driver will probably be just as quick as each other and I can't see how there is any justification to exclude either of them from a pre 90 championship. Yes they will probably be quicker than a 1980 car - but there is always going to be a variance across years.
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