Nick Larkin
Our Nick on the ever-surprising classic fraternity
Our Nick ponders the ever-changing classic car movement
‘The rise in prices has substantially changed the classic car scene’
Ihave recently spoken to a 15-year-old who overcame major obstacles to organise a classic car event, met a dealer selling classics to billionaires and discovered there is now an Astra MKII Belmont Facebook page.
I also learned that the Fiat Panda is 40 years-old next year and a 1990 World Cup special edition with half football shaped hubcaps is being restored. Enthusiasts have rescued a deeply rare Mini-based Status 365 kit car of which only 25 were built and no-one previously knew this one existed. Not least former Lotus departmental manager Brian Luff, now 83, who had set up Status in the Seventies and revealed to me that he named it after the popular music group, Status Quo.
It seems that as time goes on, classics are being enjoyed by a more and more diverse range of enthusiasts with utterly and completely different lifestyles. Our movement never stops changing.
More people are earning cash from their cherished classics; from hiring them out for prom nights to running online sales brokerages and
businesses selling car parts via the web. And many other things my locked-in-1957 technology brain has yet to assimilate.
What about the increasing number of companies offering old cars converted to electric power? We never saw that coming. Nor, years ago, did we predict exemption from MOT or road tax for older cars. Or a classic car club in the House of Commons. It seems not too long ago that many of the vehicles seen at shows today hadn’t even been designed, and the BL ‘Wedge’ was not considered the magnificent and joyful style icon that it is in 2019.
Gentler times
Today’s £6 designer falafel burgers at rallies had yet to replace the Westler’s tinned variety, complete with fried onions that could be smelt 40 miles away.
So many great characters, including industry legends were still around. Classic car clubs whose committees were full of dynamic young blades in 1989 may well have the same people today, which is a great worry for many.
Nowadays classics are recognised by the world at large, and the movement has become a multi billion pound industry, so things can get rather more serious. Technology has meant club magazines can be produced to extremely high standards.
The rise in classic prices has substantially changed the old scene and taken many a car out of the price range of ‘normal’ folk. But would anyone dare predict the cars to invest in for the future? Mint MG Z-cars maybe?
One day at a time
With all these continuing changes only we could produce a major documentary or other study entitled A Day in the Life of the Classic Movement. This could feature dozens of people from high end dealers awaiting the arrival of a billionaire punter, someone in South Wales who has just acquired a ‘barn find’ Ford Capri to add to his garden full of rotting cheapies, a teenager on an apprenticeship scheme in a classic car ‘hub,’ another ‘newbie’ finding her way around her ‘new’ Morris Minor and an 80 year-old still polishing his Armstrong Siddeley. All lives in which classics play a massive part.
The documentary would be a fantastic social document for the future, as well as a tribute to a movement that does so much good. I bet there are loads of people who would loved to participate or even try out their classic Gaumont British cinema newsreel clipped tones to do some presenting
Even if they do live in different worlds, the people in our study actually meet each other at events such as the Practical Classics Classic Car and Restoration Show at the NEC – a great leveller at which half million pound Astons don’t take the limelight from a Bond Minicar.
Now that really is something incredible!