Now feels like the right time to consider a sociable classic buy, and to debate the merits of electrifying classic cars
As I write this we’re still in the thick of lockdown restrictions and looking forward to a time when we can mix more freely with family and friends, and get back to creating all of the special feature types that make Classic Cars different from the rest. Some have been impossible for the past couple of months, so we’ve had to be creative in how we produce the magazine remotely.
Ever the optimists, we felt it was time to seek out the best-value sociable classics on the market right now, a diverse range of choices from a van to an exotic GT, united by their ability to share classic adventures between four or sometimes more people. I nearly added the words ‘surprisingly active’ in front of ‘market’ but stopped myself, because the continued appetite for browsing and buying characterful old cars has proven itself resilient time and again when challenged by everything from economic meltdown to the phasing out of classic-friendly blends of fuel. Through good times and bad, classic cars imbue us with an enormous sense of wellbeing – driving them, fixing them, scouring the internet for elusive parts, talking about them, kicking tyres, watching them race, buying, selling, rolling the money into the next one. We can’t have too much of what is an extremely good thing.
When I spoke to Jon Peck about the work that Electric Classic Cars is doing, he revealed that he’d taken a further seven orders for electric conversions since lockdown began, on top of an already busy order book. Apart from providing another encouraging bit of news about a company weathering the current storm, it revealed how more people are changing their attitudes to classic car electrification. The concept certainly gave our petrol-loving Quentin Willson plenty to think about when he drove an electric Mercedes SL. You can read his thoughts in the feature starting on page 6, and when you have, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on classic car electrification.
Enjoy the issue