Factory continuation cars - do you like them?

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I vividly remember an article written a couple of years ago by the editor of a well-respected British classic car magazine about the launch of an extra 6 continuation Jaguar E-type Lightweights to be produced by Jaguar at their Browns Lane plant. This article ended with a question addressed to the reader asking him what he thought about all this. Reading that article got me rather sad and very excited at the same time. On my I-pad I immediately wrote a letter in which I ventilated my indignation but... never did send it. We are now 2 years later and Jaguar has announced to re-produce the XKSS cars which were burnt in the factory and Aston Martin decided to fabricate another 25 examples of the DB4 GT, Lister some extra Knobbly's... and, to my astonishment, very little classic car enthusiasts have reacted.  Listening to comments made by my classic car friends and customers I hear that according to them the main motivation to this practice seems to be inspired by making a handsome and quick profit (a 6 -figure sum per car is easily put forward) and is justified by these manufacturers by pouring an ultra-sweet heritage sauce (f.i. Pretending that specialist skills from the past need to be preserved & presenting the continuation XKSS at the world renowned Peterson Museum) over this dish so that the classic car scene swallows these projects easily. Let me ask you:  1) since when is money reason enough to dilute our classic car heritage? 2) weren't the skills of reproducing wide-angels engines, twin spark heads, etc... and exact replicas of the alloy bodies not for many years already developed by engineering firms and body shop specialists within the classic car movement? Far more important than money is our obligation to preserve our automobile heritage. Every one of us, owning and enjoying a classic car, has in my opinion a responsibility towards future generations to preserve this heritage. And certainly so the people in charge at the manufacturers. Does any one agree?

Editor update: meanwhile, this news just reached us, too...

Written by: Bernard Marreyt, Belgium

 

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