Goodwood Revival, old bumpers and insurance for cars with classic credentials
Living, as I do, near Goodwood, West Sussex, I biannually notice an influx of petrol-headed visitors to the area: in mid-summer it's for The Festival of Speed and as the nights start to draw in we have the glorious Goodwood Revival meeting. And it was to the latter event that the retro motors flocked recently, leading me to ponder what sort of price you would have to pay on insurance for cars over a certain age.
Usually, as a car loses resale value and adds a few years to its registration document, getting a cheap car insurance quote becomes a little easier, especially if it has a small engine and isn't modified greatly. If the driver also has a few miles on the clock, this will also help to decrease the cost of motor cover, but conversely the cost of insuring a really old car is likely to put a fairly hefty dent in your pocket.
We're not talking about old bangers here, we are talking about showroom quality, gleaming examples of automotive history; usually complete with full documentation for every nut, bolt and spare part, and a complete history of the vehicle's past from the day it left the factory, to the moment it spluttered onto the cow field near the Earl of March and Kinrara's Stately home. As it he, heir apparent to the 10th Duke of Richmond and caretaker of the family seat at Goodwood, who has championed the motoring connections there to establish a brand of quality and style that has the punters flocking in, and out - very slowly - of West Sussex over those two weekends in the summer months.
This particular time, the roads were full of classic car enthusiasts, a lot of whom were making the most of the late summer sunshine by having the black fold-away roofs of their convertibles well and truly down, so that the wind whistled over the top of their bald pates and their dignified lady passengers made good use of their fifties style head scarves as they bowled down the A27 at a sedate 50mph.
Of course, these cars are positively creaking as they make their way along the speedy dual carriageways near Chichester, but, buoyed by the envious looks as people overtake them in the outside lane, the occupants probably don't mind the bone-shaking, or the probability of a hard-shoulder sojourn when the ancient engine gives out with fifteen miles to go. No, it will be the bill for spare parts that will make the owners' eyes water and this is another reason for the expansive price of insurance for cars not recently off the production line.
When figuring out the cost of car insurance one of the factors the providers must take into account will be the potential cost of repairing damage to the car and it's just not that easy to find a replacement boot catch and chrome bumper for a 1955 Humber Hawk Mark III, just ask the man on e-bay who has been searching for these items since 2007.
And when you do find that original carburettor for your 1964 Daimler SP250 Dart, from an ex pat now living in Qatar, you are probably going to have to dig deep for the pleasure of getting your hands dirty to fit it because these things are few and far between and people are going to try to make the most out of your petrol head enthusiasm.
So, if you invest in a cheap pile of rust with the intention of restoring it to its former beauty, think hard about insurance for cars because it is definitely something you are going to have to factor in to your speculation before you clog up the B roads on your not-so-speedy way to Goodwood in 2015.
