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 /// [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list /// Send admin requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// or try http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/majorcool /// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive /// Send list postings to [EMAIL PROTECTED] /// Edit your replies! If they include this trailer, they will NOT be sent.
