We live in changing times. Which makes the passing of classic cars from one generation to the next a complicated issue.
One of my children wants my Lotus Elise; the other, the narrow-body Porsche 911S. As a 1975 model, the 911 is already a classic, while the 19-year-old Elise is well on its way.
Neither car is as hopelessly antique as an MG TC, which makes every trip into Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride.
The 911 and the Elise are both capable of cruising at highway speeds, and they have lights that light and wipers that wipe. The Lotus, with its airbags, has an edge in safety, but neither car would protect you as well as a brand-new, $20,000 Kia Soul.
Is it really a gift?
I’m sure we’re not the only family having these kinds of discussions.
I sometimes wonder if my kids wouldn’t be better off if I made provisions to sell all my cars, and let them take the money and buy a vehicle that is more relevant to their lives and the era they live in. Or use the money for something else entirely.
I also worry that their desire to own these sports cars might be unrealistic, underestimating the amount of care and feeding (and money) involved.
If you factor safety, reliability and ease of maintenance into the equation, there’s no reason to have a classic car.
Classic cars aren’t practical, useful appliances; they are toys to be used to do fun things. If tackling the back roads on a sunny day or enjoying the camaraderie of a bunch of other car enthusiasts is what matters, the right modern car can even offer an equivalent kind of fun.
The Macan owners I see on our local PCA tours are certainly having a good time.
Both the Lotus and the 911 are worth about the same — say, $50,000. For this kind of cash, each kid could have a new car, one that is fuel- or kilowatt-efficient, with up-to-date safety equipment, a warranty, nav system and climate controls.
What they might miss, though, is the exhilaration of driving a real vintage sports car. Of running the rpms up with one eye on the tachometer (and the other on the water-temperature gauge), feeling the chassis plant itself in a turn as the skinny front tires transmit all their twitches and twists. Always hoping, of course, that nothing breaks.
Without a classic car, there’s little opportunity to find yourself in a group of other old car owners at a roadside stop while one person tries to figure out why cylinder number 1 isn’t firing.
There’s not a “one-size-fits-all” answer to this question. But simply asking my kids, “Would you rather have the cash or the cars?” seems like a good place to start.
479 pages of Draneas
I first met John Draneas when I was a speaker at a Porsche event.
That was over 20 years ago. I had always enjoyed the articles in boat and airplane magazines about legal analyses of mishaps, and thought something similar might be good for SCM.
I talked with John about it, and he was agreeable to give it a try. Since then, his column has appeared in SCM every month. It’s been universally regarded as a favorite by SCMers for 21 years now.
SCM was fortunate in that it was started at about the same time as the internet. Consequently, all of our content has been digitized from the very beginning. It’s not possible to see a compilation of all Peter Egan’s Road & Track columns or Brock Yates’ writing for Car and Driver, but, fortunately, we don’t have that problem.
In fact, as a subscriber, once you log in to our website, you have access to our “Mega-Search” tool with which you can perform a keyword search on all 37 years of SCM back issues — it’s right there on the homepage.
Several years ago, we published a compilation of John’s columns in book form, The Best of Legal Files, which was quite popular. There are just a few copies left, which can be purchased from our website if you’re so inclined. But before you do…
Subscriber bonus
We’ve asked friend Jodi Ellis, who is a wizard at book creation and design, to update the “Legal Files” compendium and make it complete. So she has combined all of John’s columns, from the first one through the end of 2024, into one giant digital “flipbook.”
Even better is that if you are a subscriber, it is a free bonus for you.
Log in to your SCM account and click on the “Issues & Guides” dropdown menu. You’ll find it under “Digital Books.” You will be able to read all of John’s writing in a fully searchable flipbook format.
You can look forward to similar flipbooks in the near future featuring the Ferrari articles of Steve Ahlgrim, the race-car articles of Thor Thorson, the Porsche articles of Jim Schrager and Prescott Kelly, and more.
Best of all, each of these will be a subscriber bonus, available at no cost. We will announce them through our weekly newsletter when they are launched. These will be only for subscribers and not for sale. What better reason to sign up a friend? In fact, we have a special offer you can find at www.sportscarmarket.com/gift.
