Nick Larkin
A one-year car loan could have a revolutionary effect
Our Nick shows us that there really is a future for older classics.
The fact that one of my favourite ever cats has just died (farewell BP, 2000-2017) reminds us that nothing and no-one is here forever, and eventually fate will force us to surrender the keys to even our must beloved classics. It would be nice to think that vehicles we have lavished so much care on will continue to survive, for, what is now a little bit of a cliché, future generations to enjoy. Or at least have to put up with. This will, however, especially in the case of older classics outside the main radar, not happen if owners merely keep the cars to themselves and not spread the word about them.
Hence the importance of a new scheme, which I have touched on before here, in which a young enthusiast is loaned a classic for a year. This followed the revelation that the average age of the Model A Club of Great Britain membership is 67.3 years. And that’s despite the recent addition of a 19-year-old to the ranks!
Club member Peter Garrett has been involved with Models As since the Sixties and with friend Tony Wrobleski, has owned no fewer than 14 of the beasts, 11 of which are used for wedding hire. ‘The club has a problem with the membership ageing, and something had to be done,’ he says.
Peter got together with the ever-resourceful Bob Wilkinson, vice-chairman of the Ford Y&C Register and organiser of the Classic Virgins events for ‘newbies’ to the old-car movement. The result was a presentation at the British Motor Museum in which one-year’s custody of a 1929 Ford Model A Phaeton, valued at £14,500 was officially granted to Richard Gordon-colebrook, a 26-year-old electrical engineer from Oxfordshire, who was selected from many applicants. It’s a brilliant idea. Richard had applied after his dad had read about the scheme in ‘the world’s greatest ever classic motoring column’.
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Richard was given a thorough tour of his new one-year acquisition and was soon treating his family to a trip around the museum’s internal roads, with scarcely a mistimed gearchange.
To be honest, Richard was a sort of dream applicant for the car custodian position. He comes from a classic loving family and has restored a 1976 BMC 850 Mini he got when he was 11 and last year bought a 1964 Sunbeam Alpine Series IV. ‘I never thought I would be in with a chance,’ says Richard. He adds something even better. ‘Over the past few years I’ve become particularly interested in pre-war cars. I think it’s because I got to look more and more at the mechanics and the skill of driving them.’
A carefully drawn-up document has been produced and is very fair to both parties. The car has to be garaged, must not be raced commercially and normal maintenance carried out. Neither is Richard allowed to convert the Model A into a Fifties-style hotrod, slick back his hair with Wildroot, don a checked shirt and cruise around calling everyone ‘Daddy-o’. Special insurance has been arranged. As Bob Wilkinson says: ‘We now have a blueprint for something which could have a massive impact on the future of the classic movement.’
Young enthusiasts really do need every possible encouragement to look favourably at less mainstream older cars. So, please answer their questions at shows or meets and let them have a good look around your vehicle. And please, all clubs, have a very serious look at implementing a classic loan scheme. Contact Bob at bobwilkinson49@hotmail.co.uk if you have a plan.
PS How embarrassing is this? I only found out at the handover that ‘Phaeton’ is American for convertible!
PPS I really was impressed by the six-cylinder Ford Model A and how usable it was. Anyone should give these cars a try!
‘A 26-year-old was given custody of a 1929 Ford Model A – it’s a brilliant idea’