By Dean Sprague

We had been waiting for a nice warm day.  Bobby Cox’s MGB roadster needed a new top.  Actually, the car belongs to his wife Sandy.  We arrived at their home about 10:AMish to begin the process.  It went fairly well and within a couple of hours the car was sitting outside under the warm sun softening the vinyl for the final stretch required to remove all the wrinkles.  While we were waiting for the sun to do its magic we went inside to pine over his rather extensive model car collection.  He has premiere examples of cars from the 1930s thru the 1960s and plenty of British ones well into the 80s.  As we studied some of these wonderful specimens of automotive art it occurred to me that this might actually be in many ways a more rewarding hobby than actually possessing the real vehicles.  After giving this concept further thought advantages of model ownership vs. dealing with the weight of actual classic car proprietorship began to emerge.  Ten noteworthy benefits immediately came to mind.

1. You could have all the cars of your dreams at the same time. I almost always have to liquidate one treasure to acquire another.  This is a result of high acquisition costs and limited storage space not to mention the ongoing expenses.
2. Owning and caring for a model car is much more affordable. In fact aside from occasional dusting there is very little if any maintenance required.  Plus the insurance costs are significantly lower.  Usually even if your collection is extensive it can simply be added to your homeowners insurance policy for a nominal fee.
3. If you decide that one of your acquisitions is not the vehicle that you always thought you wanted you can simply give it away, sell it or heaven forbid destroy it all without severe financial ramifications. In reflection, I have found myself sitting in a pool of buyer’s remorse after impulsively purchasing what I thought was the perfect car of my dreams.  Usually this occurs just after the removal of my “rose colored” glasses when the reality of my dream acquisition comes fully into focus.  Sometimes you’re OK with the vehicle but just can’t live with the color.  When it’s a model car a few hours and an airbrush can usually resolve the problem but if it’s actual size your solutions are not so simple or frankly not as cost effective.  Repainting a classic car today is a time consuming and costly endeavor.  Many body restorations can cost upward of 30K depending on condition.
4. When you possess the model car of your dreams you can always enjoy it in its perfect form. There are no tires to wear out, no frequent fluid changes required and nothing that breaks or fails in service.  Unless of course you let your children or grandchildren “admire” them without close supervision.  Then you will hear something like, “it happened by accident or he (she) did it, not me”
5. Another advantage, models don’t require the same volume of garage space. In fact, you can keep 20 or 30 in one display cabinet.  My garage in its current form will hold maybe 3 to 4 full-size LBC vehicles but that leaves little room to service, repair or restore them.  
6. This is a major advantage; Lucas electrics only exist in full-sized form never in the models. If you have ever had the experience of trying to find an elusive short in your loving classic’s electrical system.  “There be gremlins in our midst”.  That was what I was told anyway.  They crawl mysteriously about in our electrics toying and playing with our mind.  A model car might have a wire or two connected to a battery to light the lights or interior but very little else to fail.
7. A model also never has to be registered and renewed each year like the ones in your garage plus very little if any personnel property taxes to pay either. Once you complete the acquisition your hard costs are in your rear view mirror.
8. When you buy a real classic you can get it in a box(s) affectionately known as a project or turnkey ready just like a model, called restored. The difference is if the model box was never opened all of the parts are usually there.  If you buy a classic car in boxes all of the parts will never be there no matter what you are told.  Plus with a model you can avoid the de-greasing, cleaning, sandblasting and re-chroming required for your classic.  You may have to remove a little glue or paint from your fingertips occasionally when building a model but you can do it from the comfort of your kitchen table or model room (if you are fully committed).
9. This is considered by some to be the greatest advantage of model ownership. You almost never have to convince your wife that this purchase is the smartest thing you have ever done.  She will view your next model purchase as just another healthy way to keep you busy but usually not frustrated.  When you are in the garage fixing or restoring your life-size treasure eventually many words will come to mind.  Some of them may peel the paint from the walls as your frustration intensifies.  I have always viewed this as verbal release of the inevitable frustrations of restoration and as the antithesis of “un-healthy”.
10. A final advantage, if you position yourself carefully behind the rear of the model, as you look thru the windscreen and across the bonnet you can pretend you are traversing the open road.  I remember doing this when I was a child.  You can go as fast as you can imagine without consuming any fuel, fear of causing an accident or getting a ticket.  Plus if you have a nice camera with micro lenses and some period correct backgrounds that are in scale with the model the car can seem as realistic as the real thing.  Then you can enjoy the pictures forever.

There you have it all the best reasons I could conjure for defending model car ownership over the real thing.  Actually, when we finished Sandy’s MGB top installation and determined why the car would not rev beyond 2500-RPM ownership of the MGB was looking much more favorable.  Now that I think of it a model never has the aroma of a rich patina interior only found in old English leather nor could you see or feel the road actually unwinding beneath you.  There is a certain joy that can only be found when riding in a classic old car, especially English ones.  Maybe we could have our bucket list cars in the models and enjoy a more measured corporeal experience found only in more affordable big toys.