I know I have 3 of them!!!!!, Audi Q7, R35 GTR and 911 And yet my twin deck 44 tonne 60 foot race transporter only costs £165..... Go figure that out
The bigger question, why bother collecting 10 Euro? Just keeping some bureaucrats off unemployment I guess....
Exactly....I suspect that there are very few Historic cars being registered though. The real money is in the $70 Euro everyday car.
Therein lies the truth. All the talk about restored cars is fine but it only relates to cars that have lost their originality. The car that will be worth the most is the original car not the restored one.
A time capsule car is useless, sitting around for 30, 40 years never driven, everything mechanical needs replacing and going over. Maybe nice to look at, but that's about it.
Agreed. But that's not what preservation is about. The idea is to keep the cars running with the minimum of destruction of the original fabric of the machine. In this superheated market some have confused decay with patina. Rust is not patina.
This. I always find it odd that guys can look at a dented, rusty car with leather turned to jerky, carpets soiled to black, chrome pitted, and call it original. It didn't leave the factory looking like that, and no one around when it was new would appreciate it being left to rot. Ironically, in some cases, restoration with the proper materials is much closer to original because you get a sense of what the car looked like when it was made. There's actually nothing more gratifying, automotively, than recommissioning a vintage or classic car that has been left for dead. Ruinously expensive, yeah, but puts a lump in your throat when the gauges come to life. I flip through the restoration album for my Porsche from time to time, usually right before I grab the keys and use it like it was intended. Then you quick detail it afterward and you realize that by removing the rust, repainting it and replacing the ancient wiring that you probably saved it for the future. There's nothing cooler than driving a vintage/classic car that looks new -- all the style, none of the old car headaches.
Those who bring back lost cars perform a great service to the marque, but driving an original car in great shape is even more rewarding than driving a perfectly restored car.
The standards are clear. Nuvolari scored a 99 out of 100 with his Dino and some of the things he did wouldn't have been done at the factory because they weren't able to at the time. Enzo once said in Italian - "I don't care if the door jams line up, but when you hit the gas I want you to S&*% your pants".....Some things never change......LOL.
The clubs, the shows and even the factory aren't always the best guardians of the marque. I'm not sure what your point is. That every car should be as perfect as possible?
Actually it is. patina (ˈpætɪnə n, pl -nas 1. (Metallurgy) a film of oxide formed on the surface of a metal, esp the green oxidation of bronze or copper. See also verdigris1 2. any fine layer on a surface: a patina of frost. 3. the sheen on a surface that is caused by much handling [C18: from Italian: coating, from Latin: patina²] Collins English Dictionary Complete and Unabridged © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003
It may be patina but it's not Patina In any case I'm not taking advice on collector cars from a dictionary.
Ahhh, Patina. 10 years ago I never heard the term. Now I have spent too much time thinking about it. This is what I have come up with. If your car is female, patina is bad. Nobody likes saggy wrinkly women. She needs to look like the young super model that she is. If your car is male, patina can be good. Like a rugged cowboy, the wear and tear can be bad-ass. Nobody wants to see an old hockey player with a face lift. The scars bring character if they are not too ugly. Some of my cars are female and some are male. My Dino is an old fart like me with wrinkles and scars.
This is all very personal taste but for me if a car is restored to as new or better condition it seems to lose it's personality somehow. It's nice to see a well looked after car but one that at least shows it's been used would be my preference. It's the same for vintage guitars that I'm also into. It's the play wear etc that gives them character.
But they are both patina. Patina is an oxide layer of a metal. Rust is the common name for iron oxide.
Speaking hypothetically, as I believe you are, what would be wrong with a car that was started once a month and brought to warm, then driven one mile each month and all functions used? Had its fluids changed every year, then every five years, the belts were changed. It would be practically brand new and as pristine as the day it left the factory. The truth is that if you watch the market for practically any car, the ones that pull the highest amounts are the ones that are dead original (but not dead) . Its not because they are more useful, its because there are fewer of them and they represent the absolute state the vehicle was in at time of production. Restored cars, as expensive as restorations are, and as high as people go to buy them, are relatively a dime a dozen.
FYI - I was supposed to be buying a 1985 308 QV tomorrow. I have a 83, 84, and wanted a 85. I asked the guy to send me pictures and only sends me a few. I asked him to go see the car and he never returns my call. I finally make an appointment with him for tomorrow and he just texted me saying the car has been sold. The car was in storage and it needs a major service. The buyer bought the car sight unseen and at the full asking price without even doing a PPI. Are we in a bubble? You bet your sweet A$$ we are. If only I had his luck.
