Its amazing what a difference a season makes. As the temperatures drop, the classic car comes into its own. The water temperature starts behaving itself, oil pressure lifts encouragingly, performance seems more enthuisiastic. The lack of ventilation suddenly becomes unimportant and heat soak your warm companion. Nine months of changing foliage, fragrance,and fortitude lies ahead, and you want to seize every moment. Every journey seems to offer a different experience, every trip a triumph over conformatism, a road less travelled. Its who you are. It's a statement of your individuality. It tells the world that you will not accept the pigeon hole they want to put you in, you will not insulate yourself from the real world, and you certainly would never use a cell phone whilst driving, [ a strange pre-requisite. when driving a modern car ].

Other benefits include the obvious financial ones, lack of depreciation, low insurance, as well as the less obvious ones, like increased blood flow, heightened senses, curlier hair, and a greater feeling of well being all round. Is there a downside, you may ask ?

Occasionally, you may lose all feeling in your extremities, [ no, not those ones ] your ears and nose may feel as if they belong to someone else in the midst of winter, the balaclava makes a mockery of acceptable hair styles, and you may be forced to wear gloves from time to time, the constant attention from the cocooners can be a bit embarrassing too, less so if you are looking for a partner of course, the endless bits of paper stuck to the windscreen, enquiring as to whether you are for sale is also an interesting side effect of classic car ownership. Maybe a classic lonely hearts club wouldn't be a bad idea. I can see it now, pre-requisites may be that you were previously disadvantaged [ forced to drive a modern car or something like that ], and have oil leaks and a dodgy cylinder,[ something that can easily be sorted by a good service ]. Please send pics of you in a compromising position with your car to qualify!!!