Dear All,
As the usual flood of Triumph-related messages seemed to have dried up
for a while, I idly began musing over the definition of various terms
associated with our cars - classic, vintage, veteran, and so on.
Assuming that some all-powerful authority (perhaps the RAC) had ruled
upon these definitions, I went googling. All I found was discord and
disagreement. No-one seems to know what these terms mean.
In order to spark some discussion, here's my stab at it. Please feel
free to comment on, or redefine, the following:
Vintage
^^^^^^^
Back when I was a small kid (around 1970), I remember being told that
"Vintage" meant "over 50 years old" for cars. Does it? That
certainly would seem to fit with my mental image of vintage cars *then*,
but what about now? 50 years ago was 1952 - and none of the cars
produced in the early 'fifties fit with my mental image of "Genevieve"
and her ilk. Pre-1920 seems a better definition to me - what do you
think?
Veteran
^^^^^^^
At the same time I was told about vintage cars, I was told that veteran
cars were "over 25 years old". Back then, that effectively meant
pre-war (there wasn't much of a domestic motor industry from 1939 to
1945) - all those sexy SS-Jaguars, and perky little Baby Austins, stolid
Morris Cowleys and so on. Nowadays, that date cut-off brings us to
1977. Well, I'm sorry, but Carly (my Spit) is 25 this year, and I really
can't bring myself to think of her as a veteran car. Maybe "pre-war"
is still a pretty good definition, despite the passing of the years.
Classic
^^^^^^^
Oh, boy! We've got to dump this description. I've seen it applied to
everything from a 2001 Ferrari to a 1935 Jaguar, via a 1981 Ford Escort.
It seems roughly to equate to "over 20 years old and still running," but
flashy expensive cars, like Ferraris and Aston-Martins, are apparently
"classics" from the moment they roll off the production line, and are
given their final bash with a peening hammer. The word has been so
over-used that it has become meaningless (cf. "democracy," "fast-food,"
and "Have-a-nice-day-thank-you-for-shopping-at-Hecks"). We need some
new definitions for cars built during and after the war.
How about:
1936-1952 - Georgian
1953-1965 - Early Elizabethan
1966-1980 - Mid Elizabethan
1980-date - Late Elizabethan
OK, so they are rather Anglocentric titles, but then again, our cars are
British, dammit! And I rather fancy telling some BMW-driver that my
car is "Early Elizabethan". :-)
If you've got any better ideas, let's hear them...
ATB
--
Mike
Ellie - 1963 White Herald 1200 Convertible GA125624 CV
Carly - 1977 Inca Yellow Spitfire 1500 FM105671
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