John Simister
Exercise does your car a power of good, says John
Classic cars should be used and enjoyed – it’s good for them.
How vigorously do you drive your classic car? Gently, because it’s old and it might break? Gently, because you don’t feel safe in it when going faster? Gently, because the din and vibration get a bit too much at speed? Well, fair enough. That’s what old cars are like and it is amazing how people used to put up with their shortcomings when they were new.
Or maybe you see things differently. You realise that, actually, the cars were a lot better when new than people today often think they were, that often the bad vibes (actual and mental) come about only when a car is a bit worn out, and that if a car is in the same mechanical health today as it was back in the last century, then it can be driven with just as much gusto now as it could be back then.
For me, seeing a sports car or sporting saloon pottering sedately along, its engine never breaching 3500rpm, seems a waste. I have a friend with a nice Triumph 2000, and on a run a few years ago he was being ridiculously cautious with it. Why? ‘Because, you know, it has old car brakes.’ But they were disc brakes, on the front at least, and they were absolutely fine, if lacking in the over-servoed munch of a modern car. You just had to press the pedal harder and, as this friend was not used to old cars, he thought that meant the brakes were no good.
Experience counts
It helps greatly in the understanding of a classic car if you were around to drive cars of its era when they were new. Luckily, though, it’s not vital. If you’re a reasonably sensitive driver, you can soon sense if a car is performing as its creators intended. Soggy dampers, loose suspension joints, tired bushes, mushy brakes, sundry buzzes, rumbles and vibrations; any of these would make a modern car feel as though something is wrong. And it’s exactly the same with classic cars. When new, they suffered none of these, and nor should they now.
For me, it’s vital that my classics drive as they should. So I spend a lot of time getting them to feel right, much of it involving dampers, bushes and
engine mounts (all as close to Oe-spec as possible) and the exorcism of rattles and wind noise. With all those addressed, it’s amazing how good, how capable a classic can feel. Your confidence in it and enjoyment of it rockets, and you can feel that thrill of whizzing along at modern cruising speeds and seeing the wonderment of other road users.
Three friends and I put this to the test recently in a run to the Welsh borders. Actually fellow journalist Andrew Frankel was already there, as that’s where he lives, but he then took us on a route into the mountains as we swapped in and out of each car.
So Richard Bremner (another scribbler) took his late, minimal-miles Triumph TR7, which drove beautifully. Former journo and current head of BMW’S UK PR operation, Graham Biggs, took his delicious BMW 3.0 CSI, recently bought from Denmark. Andrew used his brilliant blue Porsche 968 Sport, an outrageous bargain because mice had eaten its seats. No rodent evidence remains, I’m pleased to report.
And I took my Sunbeam Stiletto, its engine half the size of the Triumph’s and a third the size of the other two motors. But if I kept the momentum going and made full use of the far end of the tachometer scale, I could pretty much keep up with the other cars once bends and traffic were factored in. At no point did the Stiletto get too hot, and my friends all loved its tight, taut, rattle-free feel. ‘It’s like a new car,’ they said. And now it’s going better than ever.
A classic car should feel retro, of course. But it doesn’t have to feel old.
‘It’s amazing just how good, how capable a well-maintained classic can feel’