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WE'VE NOW HIT the big one – that’s right 'Dep-O' is just over 1 year old. Over the last 8765.81277 hours or 525,948.766 minutes or 31,556,926 seconds –we’ve been serving up the best cars we’ve stumbled across in the retro classic movement. And yes, being blokes, we did of course forget our own anniversary.
Over the year we’ve done our best to do these cars justice with joined-up writing and the sharp photography possible from a modified Rover biscuit tin, and we’ve always tried to put this across with our enthusiasm for things with wheels and internal combustion engines. Plus an important context of proportion – we’ll only plug technology and services which we feel we’d be happy to run on our own cars. Purveyors of snake oil have been politely declined.
This month you’ll also be able to see what Dep-O’s new boy Matt Robinson has been up to with his new-fangled modern cars. As we’ve said before, he’s signed up so that 'Dep-O' can expand and so the old lags Hughes and Charlesworth won’t get distracted from effing and blinding over rusty projects which would test the patience of Job.
Read his thoughts and plans here for future reviews of cars he finds interesting by clicking [here].
By now you will have all heard that this governing shower has decided to extend the shameful ‘scrappage’ scheme. Phase one, our on-line petition on the Number 10 Downing St website has now closed with just under 1500 signatures. Thanks to all those who took the time to sign up and if you didn’t shame on you!
Of course, we’re now waiting for an official response from Number 10 and whilst we are expecting to be palmed off, we fully intend to keep the pressure up.
The only question we have is, how do we keep the pressure up? Yes we did have 1497 signatures, but two people did get in touch saying that they feared for the future of the existing pre 1973 exemption and that we should instead campaign for classic cars to be exempt from scrappage.
This idea has bubbled to the surface before, but it does have one big flaw and that is defining something which has caused much controversy over the years... Just what is a classic car?
So we need your help. Ignore what everyone else has said and fire over your thoughts. What we would say is that this definition has to be simple because it could end up being enforced by car dealers and Whitehall pen-pushers – the very people who have been responsible for the destruction of too many classic cars already.
As an opening suggestion, we would say that a classic car is one built up to and including 1985, because not many non-enthusiasts tool around in 25 year-old motors. Also, in the mid Eighties classic car magazines really took off by covering cars from the Sixties, which were then 25 years old.
So do let us know what you think – is this groundless paranoia? Or is the threadbare government more likely to approve of something which won’t cost them money? After all, our ultimate aim has always been to save classic cars from the scrapper and to save Britain’s classic car industry.
You know how to get in touch.
Finally, as you can see we’ve made the navigation on 'Dep-O' a lot simpler, so it will be far easier to find out what your favourite shed-dwelling car nuts have been getting up to.
Toodle-pip,
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