What's Your Flavour?

Somebody far more famous than I, once said “If you restore a car, and you're making money, then you're doing it wrong.”  Jay Leno is known for his wit but he makes a fair point.  It starts at the point of sale, when all rational thought goes out of the window, perhaps because it’s red, or there’s a V8 under the bonnet, and sometimes simply because “my dad owned one when I was a kid.”`

You get your beloved prize home to discover it needs a shedload of wonga spent just to make it driveable.  So you spend said wonga, safe in the knowledge that you’ll never actually recover even 20% of the expenditure before you shuffle off this mortal coil.  But does it matter?  Every time you open the garage door and twist that ignition key to start that journey, your grin becomes wider than the Thames Estuary.  Smiles per mile are more important than pounds per mile.

And ultimately this is old car ownership, or it was.

Over the past four or five years there has been a noticeable increase in car related gatherings.  Cars and Coffee meets are happening on a regular basis, usually monthly, where the only criteria for membership is car ownership.  There are also well known venues such as Caffeine and Machine, or the Ace Café, where people can meet, enjoy a meal and perhaps a beer whilst admiring the various cars in the car park.

And this is where I believe the move away from traditional “Classic Car” meets to just “Car” meets has arisen.  Last year I attended the Bicester Scramble, Leighton Buzzard Cars and Coffee, Caffeine and Machine, Sywell Pistons and Props, plus the Chiltern Hills Rally and a couple of Silverstone Social gatherings.  At all of these I found a mixture of traditional classics (MGs, Jaguars, Older Astons, Peugeots etc.) together with more recent machinery such as Subarus, post 2005 Mustangs, Dodges, Chevrolets, high performance Audis and BMWs etc. 

In earlier times the fun came from modifying a standard car to reflect the factory and/or racing modifications, hence 1500GT Anglias, wide arch twin cam Escorts and the like.  Customising was a popular choice.  Cars were lowered at the front and jacked up at the rear to look like dragsters on the road.  The fact that the engine was possibly standard and so breathless it wouldn’t pull you out of bed, was immaterial. They were fun.

Often, and rather amusingly, the effect of these restomods on the traditional classic car owner can be likened to the effect of a ham sandwich on a vegan!

Now along has come the “Restomod” whereby you can either buy the kit to install yourself, or have a dedicated company restore and modify your car.  Examples include MGBs with Mazda MX5 engines and gearboxes, revised suspension systems, uprated brakes etc. They still look like an MGB but are far superior in the handling, and more importantly, reliability areas.  Often, and rather amusingly, the effect of these restomods on the traditional classic car owner can be likened to the effect of a ham sandwich on a vegan.

If the important thing is the car, then what is driving the scene today?

It could be that enthusiasts today are not as lucky as some and thus own only one car.  In which case it must not only be interesting, it has to be reliable.  Gone are the days when an enthusiast had one or two classic cars in the garage and a good daily for normal trips.  Nowadays the “classics” have to perform sensible duties as well as being suitable for displaying at a car meet. They need to be interesting, either by way of looks, or by the type of engine installed.  An example of the former is this VW Golf.

There are many interesting cars; possibly prompted by the performance Fords of the eighties but you don’t have to look far to find reasonably priced (in real terms not Gezza’s Top Gear terms) performance cars.  A Jaguar XK8 similar to this one, seen at at Pistons and Props, will set you back around £6-8k.  Not unreasonable for a 370bhp V8 sports car.  And at this age all the original niggles will have been solved.

And if your taste is for Americana you could spend a bit more and snag a Mustang GT such as this one for around £28k, earlier “live axle” versions are somewhat cheaper but "only" 4.6 litre. 

Then again, if performance is the main criteria there are quite a few options available.  0-60 in 5 secs and 150 mph?  Why not try a Focus ST? As daily drivers go the Focus meets all the requirements.  Fast? Tick. Good handling? Tick.  Takes mum shopping? Tick. Easy to service?  Well most people have access to the diagnostic tools, and one of the advantages of the coffee and cars crowd is the general willingness to assist a fellow driver who may find him or herself in difficulty.

Perhaps this illustrates the point that the car, rather than the marque is what is becoming increasingly important to enthusiasts.  And the effect of this may be that younger enthusiasts are ignoring the clubs; such as the MG Car Club/Owners Club, Club Triumph and others that in most part cater for what may be called “proper classics”; and are now just simply turning up at random events where their car, rather than it’s pedigree, matters.

The fear therefore, is that the traditional car clubs may wither on the vine.  I spoke to a couple of blokes at the Classic Motor show who were interested in joining the MG Car Club.  They told me that they’d spoken to a member locally to them who wanted to sign them up there and then, simply because they were under fifty!

Often the traditional club members deserve their reputation for stuffiness but equally those traditional club members are important because they tend to be part of the archive for all things about a particular marque, or model.  But there’s definitely a case for moving with the times.  In the case of the Jaguar Enthusiasts Club and the Jaguar Driver’s Club, they cover vehicles from prewar right up to current production, likewise the two MG clubs have “modern” MGs to discuss and preserve along with a wealth of important models from the 1920s onwards.  But generally, none of them deal with the restomod issue. Arguably there is little point in restomodding a Jaguar since they have all the right bits anyway.

By way of illustration, this wide arch XJ-S just doesn’t look right to my eyes.

When it comes to values, according to the most recent Hagerty Market Analysis, the period of the 80s and 90s is providing the biggest increases.  Although generally these cars are not outstripping inflation they are attracting Millennials, as is borne out by the RADwood exhibition at Bicester Heritage last year. 

This is what they say:

“The criteria encouraged for the cars shared at RADwood events is simple. They need to have been registered in the ‘80s or ‘90s, and should loosely fit with the ‘greed is good’ theme that permeated those decades, where drivers aspired to own hot hatchbacks, sports saloons, sports cars, supercars, luxury cars and 4x4s.

Authenticity and originality count for much, but period-correct modifications are also welcomed.”

Here again, a quick look around and we note that the values of 911 Porsches, 635 BMWs and the like are improving quite nicely.  But there are some bargains still to be had in the shape of the Jaguar XJ-S (make sure all the necessary restoration work has been carried out), and the Golf GTi, but Sierra 4x4 Turbos, Escorts XR3i, RS1600 and RS Turbo are increasing quite rapidly and probably moving beyond the useable daily criteria and into the second car/classic area.

Perhaps it's time for the traditional single marque clubs to consider opening their doors to "restomods".  A good way would be for those clubs who run "Pride of Ownership" events to open a category for examples of these cars?

So, what's your flavour? A full blown classic, a restomod or a modern?  

Food for thought.

(All pictures by Peter Mallett)