|
Hum. On the topic of what makes a classic car, my feeling is that one man's meat is another man's poison. The only reliable definition is an objective one based on (a) age and (2) whether there are any left, otherwise you fall into the trap of being subjective, or even snobbish.
Classic car ownership, let's face it, is a (largely) male mid-life crisis thing. Hence, classics are defined by a generation about 25 years after the fact looking back and thinking "yeah, I thought that was a great car when I was a kid".
I was quite partial to the Allegro when I was a kid. It was the first car I remember coming out as a new model - yes, that's all it took. I had a friend whose parents had the estate version, and I liked the way the rear of the car flicked up slightly in what I now think of as an ironic mockery of a rear spoiler. If I see an Allegro (estate or saloon) on the streets today, cared-for or beaten up, as far as I'm concerned, it's a classic.
I had another friend who had a Cortina estate that we always got ferried around to football matches in the boot of. Can't say I have the same feelings for the Cortina (apart from the Lotus-tuned version of the earlier model, of course), but I know people who do, so who am I to say that it's not a classic?
Perhaps what really defines a classic is whether, after a set time period, say 25 years, the car generates sufficient interest still for there to be sufficient critical mass for an owner's club to be born.
|