Older cars can be grouped more or less by the year they were made, such as with vintage and veteran cars for instance, vintage cars (as defined by the Vintage Sports Car Club I think) are anything built pre-1930. A car built between 1930 and WW2 is generally classed as being a Post Vintage Thoroughbred, quite a grand moniker for many cars that fall into this group, which at the time were less than grand. After this time things get significantly less clear, with the term ‘Classic Car’ being applied by various quarters to any car from the 1940s right through in some cases to the 1980s even. Confusing things even more, for the UK enthusiast of classic cars, is the zero rated road tax, and the new DVLA classification of historic car (formerly PLG, which remains for later cars).

The zero rate road tax was introduced by the Conservative Government back in the early 1990s, the idea being that the cutoff would be on a rolling 25 year basis. At the end of the day, the term ‘classic car’ is now accepted as applying to any car over say 15 years of age that has some fan base to draw upon, with one or two exceptions for truly interesting more recent automobiles. For some only absolute perfection will do, the concours arena being their natural habitat, where the ultimate spotless condition of a classic can often mean more than the driving experience of that car, many being trailered in cocooned transporters to avoid flies meeting their maker on the paintwork.

For more information, please visit http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk