Original Nuts?

Sir,

Yet again, December issue, more about fake and replica cars. I always thought that the real enthusiast was interested really in how a car went, how it performed, how it handled and how it looked. To my mind it shouldn’t really matter to a true enthusiast whether a car was built out of spares, partly from spares, or manufactured as a whole to give that particular person a car that he always admired and wanted. In fact with minor modifications and modern materials some of the basic faults might be removed and a better longer lasting version of the car might materialise. Is that wrong? The years have passed by and among the rest a new type of enthusiast has arisen. The question now of “what’s it worth” tomorrow comes into it to a larger extent and is very often the real reason for purchase. Money has entered the picture and now many “enthusiasts”

are more concerned about how much more the car will be worth when the time comes to sell. In the meantime the car is pottered about, driven nonenthusiastically or stored to make sure that above all else the value is retained.

We have now entered another world away from the time that 5 year old Bentleys were fetching £20 and are now dealing in investment values. I am surprised that MOTOR SPORT would want to get involved in discussions, for example, about original nuts. RONALD GRAHAM Carlisle, Cumbria