We have never bought a car as a financial investment:certainly, Vintage and Classic cars have appreciated strongly since the 1970s but we have other purposes. There is something banal to be asked by a complete stranger, as a first question, “how much is it worth?”
So the heading of this chapter relates to something precious, as life is precious, as sight is precious and as a reliable, comfortable and elegant motor car is precious.
There is another aspect: nostalgia.
Each of these cars evokes a period of motoring, of the world “they” used to inhabit: a world of fewer cars of fewer restrictions and of more time: it is probably this that we wish to recreate on our each of our journeys and travel with those cars to those destinations.
Over the years of driving these truly precious cars our feelings towards them is that they are part of our precious family.
The Lanchester and The Bentley have been so stalwart in their service to us I feel there is not another car that could replace them if they were lost to us.
Both have scaled the highest mountain roads in the bleakest of winters, both have crossed burning deserts, and both have been subjected to heavily flooded roads, damaged pioneering roads and been driven by night without fear of faulty wiring or charging systems that are working hard to supply 100watt bulbs, 4 of which light up the night. These Lucas units are the Princes of Light.
Our first journey overland to Peking and then to Hong Kong necessitated our carrying an immense quantity of tools and spares, though we rarely used them: a great range of clothing to accommodate the various climates we would encounter and when after 3 months of travelling in these cars one can only have respect, affection and trust: they truly are , “precious” to us.