It’s hard enough for people to define a “classic” let alone a sports car too
If you check the OED, the definition of Classic doesn't match a lot of so called "classic " cars. I'm very much in Rich's camp, if it makes you smile and floats your boat then that's all trhat is required.
Well when I was a nipper I’m pretty sure a Classic was something special, something that broke the mould
Nowadays it seems to be any old s#1+€
As I have typed more than once, I think the term Classic relative to old cars came into being when the Classic press arrived on the scene in the seventies, up till then most folk would describe old cars as bangers. I remember the then editor of Car Mechanics (John Bolster..?) was repairing his old XK Jag and was searching the country for a replacement door as the bottom of the Jags door was well rotted, he was over the moon to eventually find one having phoned round just about every Jag dealer in the UK ..!
How different are things became when just about every part for so many old cars is available off the shelf, and it seems even the average person in the street might use the word Classic to identify any sort of old mundane machine as a classic..... Then of course there are the Modern Classics, a CX Morgan perhaps might be described as such with not even a mile on the clock..?
John, your description of air cooled Porsche fits well with my experience of them and perhaps why there are so many mechanically educated folk who choose to own them, from hands-on spanner wielders through to top automotive designers, and many others outside the industry such Terrance Conran a long time 911 fan till he departed this mortal coil...
It would seem difficult to deny the popularity of the VW Beetle which was built upon hard won principals of basic and reliable engineering with a degree of quality built in that ensured it`s longevity.... Reading your impressions of your Porsche experience John, you could have been typing of that which made the Beetle such a popular vehicle for the masses..? That Mr Porsche sought to carry over the qualities he had built into the peoples car to create a sports car, and did so with great success given the number of Porsche wins in sports car races of every type to try to deny the obvious seems perhaps less that well thought out...?
Air cooled Porsche detractors fall into quite a few categories, and those of my fathers generation had justifiable reasons for not appreciating anything German or Japanese, though after many years of suffering BL products my father in law had bought the then new to market Metro, it let water in around the top front curve of the door seal, the car was written off by his son, and the new replacement leaked water in exactly the same location.... I suggested he might like to try a Nissan Micra, which he did and he could not believe the reliability and minimal maintenance requirements and thus stuck to buying Nissan without issue for many a year...There is no denying better quality engineering when it is found to be exactly that...?
