Welcome to Think Cars... thinking about Modern Classics

Welcome to Think Cars. It's a sister blog to Tarmac, which focuses more on green technology in the automotive industry, small cars, and having fun in small or eco-friendly vehicles. Think Cars is a little more informal - it's just me, picking the first car-related subject that comes into my head, and talking about it. If you follow Tarmac with any regularity you'll realise that it's not very regular, and hopefully Think will be updated more often as it's less specific. I hope you enjoy it.

...thinking about Modern Classics

It's a term that gets banded about with great regularity in the motoring press and I've seen it applied to umpteen different modern cars. It's a difficult concept to understand, the modern classic, as a classic is something old, and something that you only learn to appreciate with hindsight, perhaps much more so than it's appreciated as a new vehicle. Jaguars, Ferraris, MGs and the like have had an easy route into classicdom - they've been special since they rolled out of the factory gates, and I'm sure the F430s and Jaguar XFs of this world will be considered classics in 30-odd years time.

But the humble stuff doesn't tend to cross your mind when you think of classics, and yet they still end up as such. It's why cars like the Austin Princess and Morris Marina have thriving owners clubs, and ex-repmobiles of the sixties and seventies like Cortinas and Dolomites are considered genuine retro classics now.

In the last few years though it's been the turn of the humble transport of the 1980s. These are cars that often lacked the style of previous decades as well as being significantly worse to drive and less well equipped than cars of the 90s, the decade in which car safety and equipment began to increase significantly.

Perhaps it's due to the backlash of heavy modern cars that shield you from the driving experience, but humble 80s runarounds are starting to attract attention again. Cars like the Mk3 Escort and the Vauxhall Nova that have miraculously escaped both the jaws of the crusher and the paws of the cruiser are becoming collectors items yet at the same time are currently escaping the hikes in value that we're now witnessing with cars like the 2CV and Beetle, both of which used to be the bargain-basement and student wheels of choice. Check out this Nova for example, that I photographed at a car show earlier in the year:


It's a car we love to hate, and yet someone, somewhere has invested the time and money in finding the best example they can and bringing it to concours condition, or even finding a bit of a tired example and restoring it. It's even in a fairly basic trim. I think it was a 1.2, or perhaps a 1.4. Many people would have slapped big wheels and a bodykit on it and then spun it into a tree.

It's the same story with old Fords and Volkswagens too - old Escorts, Sierras and Fiestas are turning up at shows, as are Sciroccos, Polos and non-GTI Golfs (though the VW scene is huge regardless of the model), and old Italian cars will always be popular, but strangely, the French scene is lacking a little. Where are the base Renault 5s and 11s, non-GTI Peugeots and Citroen Visas? Have they all rusted away? Have they been crushed? If you're reading this and you have a 1980s French car in great nick (preferably a base model) get in contact because I'd love to see it and post it up here.

What I'd advise though is that if you have a low-mileage, humble, 1980s family car or supermini, tuck it away in a garage somewhere because one day you'll be the owner of a modern classic.