Classics

Your Classic car is worth so much more than just money, it is a piece of our engineering heritage, a physical testimony to all the people who designed it, built it and maintained it for all those years. It’s living history.

We have to value our engineering heritage more than we currently do, not just for perfectly valid nostalgic reasons but for the very practical point that lessons from the past are vital when solving problems of the future. So many times I’ve seen very bright young engineers designing solutions that have basic flaws due to their lack of experience and knowledge of previous ways of solving very similar problems.

The is a huge wealth of knowledge in our classic vehicle community, methods of machining obscure parts, use of alternative materials, the skill gained from years of experience of being able to look at something and instantly knowing if it will work or not.

For instance one of the very modern systems in engine management ECU’s uses the change in resistance of the mixture, measured at the spark plug, as it get compressed to indicate compression and hence control spark timing as appropriate, this technique is part of the ignition control on some variable compression ratio engines. This idea came about by observing how trembler ignition works on a Model T Ford.

And that means we should all cherish our fantastic engineering heritage, and we should also do our best to enlighten those who so far have failed to appreciate it. Car shows are one of the many great places to do this, engaging with people who already appreciate the fantastic lines of a beautiful old vehicle or relish the atmosphere that our classic car community creates, they are already head down the road to enlightenment so let’s all do our bit to share the enthusiasm for great machines and the people who made them.

If you don’t already know much about the engineering on your classic, which is fine, I’m not suggesting it is something for everyone, it can be fascinating to dig a little deeper and find out more. Look at what makes your car different to other models and ask why did they do that? The answers are often shrouded in myth but often fascinating, sometimes there was a great idea about making a performance or efficiency improvement by doing things in a different way, sometimes it’s down to the complexities of manufacture or simple cost savings. What ever the reason for unique features in your car there is always a story behind it.

And whether that unique idea worked or failed there is always something very valuable to be learned from it. Some things change because there is a clear advantage to a new method, such as fuel injection or electronic ignition, but sometimes it’s not so clear why old methods died out, such as Trafficators.