Love for Classics

DNACC

Just curious to see what made you fall in love with classic cars or a particular classic car that you might have?

I'll start, for me its when I started to go to rallys in the early 2000's and seeing MK2 escorts on the stages and how fun they are to watch. The love for classics has grown from there.

Now own a MK1 and MK2 Escort and a Ford Sierra. All under restoration.

Andrewf20

I actually find it hard to warm to modern cars. Its as if old cars have more soul and because they are often rare enough sites, they become a genuine head turner.

Cars today have all this technology and weight that I have little to no interest in. I love an na engine too but that engine type seems to be a dying breed. I dont think there is a single BMW engine that doesnt have a turbo for example.

Even every day bread and butter cars from the 1970s and 1980s bring a smile to my face when I see them now (like a Mrk 4 Cortina and the like).

kadman

Classic cars were designed to have the owner able to interact with the simplicity of the
mechanics and maintain them.

More modern day cars were designed to keep the owner away from self maintaining.
Unless you had the computer prowess of Edward Snowden, and expensive diagnostic equipment,
it was a fruitless task to understand why your engine light and spanner was flashing in your dash.

I'd rather have the simplicity of the classic, and the leisurely pace of driving them.

RobAMerc

I love that engineers saw problems and had to engineer a way round them - take cabin noise and vibrations for example. Manufacturers spent hours and massive brain cycles to develop numerous different solutions to the issue - and engineer it out

or design suspension for handling and steering feel - now its a software program faking it.

they even use the sound system in the car to make a noise at a different level to fake it and trick my brain !

I know - its just a different sort of engineering, but it seems less pure ( And I say that as a Software engineer !)

Instead of video game developers trying to make the cars feel and behave like real cars - motoring engineers are trying to make cars feel like video games !

Beltby

Cars and engines have never been 'better' than they are now. Power levels, handling, power/economy ratios are far better etc. Cars today, especially run of the mill cars, have no character though.

I love classics too, though I am selective in what I like. I would have zero love for many older Ford's, for example.

I think classic enthusiasts go for cars they have a passion for, as opposed to which has the best economy, or the best PCP deal.

To get back to the title of the thread, my extended family drove italian cars for years, which contributed to my love for them.

_ptashek_

DNACC wrote: »

Just curious to see what made you fall in love with classic cars or a particular classic car that you might have?

In my case it was the conservative, but timeless design of older Mercs that makes me like them, and own some. Plus, a car I can mostly repair myself is a car I like. I wouldn't call it love, more an appreciation of times when engineers, not marketers, built cars.

Wibbs

RobAMerc wrote: »

Instead of video game developers trying to make the cars feel and behave like real cars - motoring engineers are trying to make cars feel like video games !

20 years ago I was having a general conversation about cars with a mate of mine who is a heavy duty programmer type who was always ahead of most IT curves and him saying that in the future(he reckoned 10 years at the time) cars would likely be generic shared platforms with a layer of computing that would give the driver the various virtual feelings of different cars with some user adjustability on top. That they'd become more like "Playstations on wheels". We've had many oddball convos down the years but that one struck me even at the time.

Now modern cars are more capable, powerful and versatile for the most part and significantly safer, but they're also fatter and bloated down with tech. Much of which is not designed to last much beyond the warranty/PCP loan period. "Feel" is almost entirely engineered out, or virtually engineered in. Having mates in the motor trade and others into cars in general I've driven a fair number of modern examples, including those labelled and known as "drivers cars" and though many were very capable and bloody quick with few exceptions the feel involved is like making love with a condom, in a wet suit, over skype.

DNACC

I see what ye are saying about modern cars, but I have to say I love the luxury that some modern cars have compared to older cars as a daily driver.

For me, the 90's cars would be my favourite for some of the reasons ye have all touched on. A big step up in engineering from the '80s and also just before all the electronics started to take over everything in the car.

It's also a generational thing in that everyone seems to love the classics from when they were young. I know 90's cars aren't classics yet, but they will be in the next decade. That's certainly the case with me anyway.

Wibbs

DNACC wrote: »

I see what ye are saying about modern cars, but I have to say I love the luxury that some modern cars have compared to older cars as a daily driver.

Oh that's for sure D. Your average runabout has levels of luxury and comfort that a 70's Rolls Royce could only dream off. Minus the rolling like a ship in heavy seas rounding a corner.

For me, the 90's cars would be my favourite for some of the reasons ye have all touched on. A big step up in engineering from the '80s and also just before all the electronics started to take over everything in the car.

+1. It was that sweet spot alright. Way more reliable than previous generations(some could argue more reliable than current in some cases) and better dynamically with more safety and brakes that actually worked. And mostly still easily fixable by the bloke with spanners in the driveway of a weekend.

It's also a generational thing in that everyone seems to love the classics from when they were young. I know 90's cars aren't classics yet, but they will be in the next decade. That's certainly the case with me anyway.

There's a couple of 70's and 80's cars I love, but they'd generally be the really high end kit, for everyday cars I'd prefer many more 90's iron and that would be the generation after me.

Conway635

Like many here, I have a love for the feel and smell and sound and simplicity of classic cars in my leisure time, but also a deep appreciation of the comfort and reliability of modern cars for the long commute on a winter morning!

My love of cars (and buses) started very early, the first new car my parents ever had was a 1962 Ford Popular 100E, and I adored that car. In those days there were no rules about where children sat, and if I was going somewhere with just my Dad he would allow me to sit in the front and change gear for him as he drove. I would be watching his clutch foot, and he didn't have to tell me -I'd see the pedal go down, and would change quickly into the next gear (I was clued up enough to know whether an upshift or downshift was needed).

I was desolated when they sold the car (for scrap) in 1971 and bought a new Opel Kadette B, but I soon grew to love that too. I was fascinated by the cars of the day, it was a world of Mark I Escorts, Hillman Hunters, Beetles, Minors, and Fiats everywhere.

When I was 18 I bough a Ford Anglia 100E (almost identical to my parent's Popular - the Popular was a stripped down "no frills" version of the old Anglia design when it was replaced by the 105E version). But I was too young to be able to afford to run or insure it, and so it was passed on to a fellow enthusiast.

Recently (2017) my wife persuaded me to buy another, and I have a lovely black 100E dating from 1957, which I use to potter around at weekends. I've been teaching myself how to do maintenance, and this weekend just past did a full ignition service (points, timing etc) for the first time. Bread and butter to many of you on here, but felt like a real achievement to me not to have to go to someone to get it done.

Much as I love the Anglia though, I have a very extreme commute (pre Covid) and clock up 45,000 km a year, so I'm very grateful for my modern car too!

If I could have one extra classic, it would be a Rover P6 - the car i always wanted my parents to buy when we replaced the Kadette (they bought a Puegeot 504 instead).

I do enjoy reading the Classic car forum on Boards, and seeing the pictures of what is out and about.

C635

outfox

I was just thinking the other day that the sweet spot of reliability is probably the early noughties, before manufacturers went nuts with sensors and ECUs. It's unfortunate that this period also happens to be when car design went through a really ugly phase (eg. Yaris, Avensis, Mondeo).
The latest cars are superb engineering marvels, and beautiful to drive. But the reliability isn't there. Too many sensors to go wrong.

RobAMerc

DNACC wrote: »

For me, the 90's cars would be my favourite for some of the reasons ye have all touched on. A big step up in engineering from the '80s and also just before all the electronics started to take over everything in the car.

I've a 90's Jag outside that would sort of disagree - the engineering ( ride comfort and refinement ) is superb - but the electronics feel like something someone built with their christmas
present electronics set !

Conway635 wrote: »

Recently (2017) my wife persuaded me to buy another, and I have a lovely black 100E dating from 1957, which I use to potter around at weekends. I've been teaching myself how to do maintenance, and this weekend just past did a full ignition service (points, timing etc) for the first time. Bread and butter to many of you on here, but felt like a real achievement to me not to have to go to someone to get it done.

Great story - and yes, there is a huge sense of achievement when you fix something. Well done!. I almost look forward to the challenge set for me by the NCT inspector This year - missing battery bracket and misaligned lights !

I am also influenced by the cars my Dad wanted, or I wanted him to get. And the hours spent debating the merits of each ( and trying to get my mother to green light the next purchase )

Wibbs

RobAMerc wrote: »

I've a 90's Jag outside that would sort of disagree - the engineering ( ride comfort and refinement ) is superb - but the electronics feel like something someone built with their christmas
present electronics set !

True enough. As far as 90's electronics go the Germans and the Japanese usually got it right, which tends to cloud our judgement if that's what we were/are used to, the rest of the manufacturers not nearly so much.