By Dean Sprague
Lately it seems I have been reading more articles panning the antiquity and profoundly professing the impracticality of driving classic British cars. It seems British offerings have always been the brunt of stories about failing Lucas electrics and of course jokes about the decrepit hydraulic systems, leaky engines and persnickety transmissions. We have all heard “you know why the British drink warm beer; because Lucas made refrigerators” or the description of the Lucas toggle switch “it has three positions off, dim and flicker”. Do you know how to tell if a British car is out of oil, it stops peeing oil on your driveway? You may not know this one “British engines are the only ones built to burn oil almost as fast as they burn fuel”. I am sure you can recount many more. These disparages are funny and frankly not baseless in content but of course we British car owners know they are all exaggerations. We also know when these cars are properly prepared and serviced they can be quite reliable. I admit not as dry in the rain or as smooth riding as a modern touring car but they are always an adventure to own and drive. I have a 1953 MGTD and a 1971 MGBGT and a 1964 Volvo P1800, which is more British than anything else. My MGs are driven regularly and sometimes great distances with very few if any issues. My Volvo will be if I actually ever get it restored. I have deduced that one of the real problems with these cars is they were engineered differently than the domestic offerings of their time. Many garages that attempted to repair them were not properly trained and really didn’t know what they were doing so reliability suffered with sloppy and/or incompetent repairs thereby helping to create a legacy of unreliability.
It seems lately many of the more recent articles about British classics appear a bit more condescending than I remember from the past. In fact, some writer’s pan the cars from beginning to end without ever revealing (or realizing) any of their redeeming qualities and of course they have many. I have a hypothesis. The young writers (Millennial types I assume) of today have no real experience with any of these classics. They simply compare them to modern vehicles or maybe just base their evaluations on their limited experience having maybe once driven one. That is if they can push in a clutch and shift a transmission or if they can’t maybe they think just riding in one will create sufficient experience to render opinions. After reading some of these new interpretations it’s obvious they missed the real reason why these things were built in the first place. Of course, we know they were built for fun first and practicable transportation second or last. The fun factor is huge! You know what they say, “ life is too short to drive boring cars”.
Some say the classic car market is disintegrating or at least diminishing. Well, several things seem to be at play here.
One, we the people who drove these things when they were new are getting older. I see advertisements all the time reading “illness forces sale”, “estate liquidation” or “I reluctantly must sell due to age”.
Two, newer generations don’t seem to have the same interest in collecting cars that we do and many don’t seem to even want to own a car for that matter.
Three, this one is probably the good news, the “non-car lover” investors are leaving the market to pursue more lucrative investment opportunities leaving us to share our hobby with our selves without having to compete with the futures and other markets. However, all of these things seem to be pushing prices down a bit. This appears to be particularly true with the Little British (LBCs) ones.
Don’t despair though all is not lost. While prices may be dropping a little, interest in the cars is not. The proof is in the attendance at British car shows. They are still very popular with the general public. Many people of all ages seem to enjoy looking at and talking about them. For example, the “British Invasion car show” in Stowe, Vermont is one of the best-attended cars shows in North America. Last year over 650 British cars were on display and thousands of spectators came to see them. There are hundreds of British car shows like this one (not all as large though) all over the US and Canada. People will attend them even in inclement weather and this interest does not seem to be slowing.
I never drive my MGs without getting a thumbs-up, a smile, wave or a honk. Almost every time I park them someone comes over to comment or ask questions. Just the other day a young women in her late teens came up to me and said, “what a cool car- what is it?” When you get those questions take the time to share your interest and knowledge. I usually ask them if they would like to sit in it. That’s the same way most of us got interested in these things in the first place. Who knows maybe we can help recreate the “British invasion” by sharing the love.
Driving a classic MG, Triumph, Jaguar or any old British car sports car creates a sense of motoring freedom seldom experienced when riding in most modern cars of today. I think it was Babs Hoffman who quipped, “Stop worrying about the potholes in the road and enjoy the journey!” When the destination is not your mission you will find the mishaps and memories created along the way are what really matter. I can’t think of a better way to make a journey the destination than to begin in a classic British car out on the open road with a good friend sitting beside you and luggage packed in or on the boot. If you have never just thrown the map in the jump seat and look for a two-lane road heading nowhere I suggest you give it a try. It might just become your most remembered adventure ever.