Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Peter_L]

A friend sent me a link to this site.

http://www.dwarfcarmuseum.com/

After looking through the photos and reading the text it got me to thinking about differences between the U.S and the UK in respect to (automobiles)

Many auto shows on this continent, will have older cars that have been extensively renovated and modified, new, larger engines, transmissions interiors etc. Little attention to having the correct bolt for the time period and yet they are viewed with enthusiasm and praise.

"Classic" examples may have original equipment, but are encased in a bodywork that has a finish many times more pristine than an original.

I have seen older cars with worn upholstery that carry a sign advising those viewing it that the upholstery is the next project.

Are there UK individuals/companies that are well able to make dwarf versions of E-Types, or 1950's Rolls and the like, but choose to use those skills and facilities to produce a screw head perfect restoration because of a difference in culture ?

[Riley Blue]

What difference in culture?
_________________
David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[Peter_L]

Remind me , next time, to write a more banal post that justifies a zero comment.

[D4B]

don't worry it's only been a couple of hours

plenty of time yet

[Riley Blue]

I still don't understand where a difference in culture figures in this.
_________________
David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[BigJohn]

Why build a dwarf model B, when you can buy a model Y? Why? (see what I did there?)
I get Hemmings classic mag every month and I have noticed a recent tendency to swing towards original cars. I think you in the Colonies had a head start on car culture as a personal transport was a necessity in the early years due to your longer distances to get anywhere.
A working man with a car is comparatively a new thing in GB. Now he, his wife and his kids all need a car each. My wife and her sister are the first generation in their family to have cars, whereas my old man had a car as teenager before the war. He was an apprentice to a Rolls Royce, Minerva, and Daimler garage, and he bought scrappers and fixed them up. I have never not known a time without a car.

[Riley Blue]

'Working men' in the UK have owned cars for as long as I can remember, i.e. since the early 1950s. My dad and four of my five uncles owned cars. My school teachers owned cars, our milkman owned a car, the baker down the road owned a car. By the late 50s an elder cousin had left school and was modifying cars, and by the middle of the 60s, so was I, at school after hours - it was one of our regular extra-curricular activities. By the late 60s two-car families weren't uncommon and finding an on-street parking space was already a problem in the London suburbs, the car (and motorcycle and scooter) culture had become firmly established by then. Minis played a large part in that and there had already sprung up many companies offering modified parts.
The UK may have been later than the USA at mass car ownership but it more than caught up in the post-war years, when I was at college fifty years ago I was one of the few students not to own a car.

So back to my question - where is this difference in culture?
_________________
David

1963 Riley 1.5
1965 Riley 1.5

[Ellis]

I have thought at length about Peter's question about a difference in culture and whether attitudes to vehicle ownership differ between here and across the Atlantic.

I read many years ago of an opinion in, I think, Classic and Sportscar that restoration standards in the USA were far higher than here. Probably so because in a car culture society US citizens have more disposable income to spend on and indulge in classic car ownership.
Why owners tend to upgrade their cars to such an extent in all likelihood reflects this. Hot rodding and custom car culture began there after all.

On the other hand if any of you have watched episodes of "Chasing Classic Cars" you cannot but have noticed the breathtaking original examples that have passed through Wayne Carini's hands. 100 point cars are his stock in trade evidenced by the auction prices paid for them. The one exception was the superb "S" Type Jaguar that reached a paltry $12k. Had it have been a Ford Thunderbird of the same era................

I have seen a "Vicarage" Mark 2 Jaguar and fantastic as it was with modern air con, 5 speed Getrag gearbox and more it was NOT a 1960's Mark 2 but an early 1990's recreation with fuel injection.

As for the "Dwarf Cars" - where else but "only in America"?
That is a further evidence of a need for individuality which is part of the US culture.

Only my opinion.
_________________
Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[V8 Nutter]

I haven't been to America for a few years, but I saw many variations in culture across the country. The deep South in particular is very different. The price and availability of parts must also make a big difference. I recently bought some suspension parts for my Cadillac, at the same time a friend bought some similar bits for an early VW Golf. Even with the shipping and taxes the Cadillac parts were about 50% cheaper than those for the VW. The Cadillac parts arrived after three days the VW parts took three weeks. I also own a '37 Ford and virtually everything is available off the shelf.

When I worked in the motor trade some years ago we found some parts for Brit cars were much cheaper in America than here in the U.K.

[Peter_L]

Aligned to this thread.

http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=133451#133451

[emmerson]

REF working men owning cars; in the street where I lived as a kid (mid to late forties), there was ONE car. I left there in '53, and it hadn't changed. When I went back for the first time in 1993, there wasn't a parking space in the whole street!
Everyman car ownership did not become the "norm" until the mid sixties, hence film of the workers buses outside every factory of any size.

[Penman]

Hi
Reference car ownership since the 1950's see figure 3 on this document.
http://tinyurl.com/cjp5naj

As well as all the workers buses, I can remember that back in the 50's there weas a special workman's daily return rail ticket (it even had a child's rate or else it was cheaper than the standard child rate) on Southern Region which allowed considerably cheaper travel into London provided you arrived before 08:00 we always used them when going to town for the day.

I say it was on Southern because that is where we lived, it may be that a similar commuter ticket existed around other cities such as Manchester and Birmingham etc.
_________________
Bristols should always come in pairs.

Any 2 from:-
Straight 6
V8 V10