When the cat bites its own tail ...
09/13/2019
How difficult and complicated it always is to get the papers for an H license plate (or a veteran's registration) for a "genuine" classic car, let alone for FIA and FIVA certificates.
On the other hand, the English are currently rebuilding their showpieces by the dozen, thereby unsettling the market of the future. Soon nobody will know what is genuine and what is not. Of course, many people will try to "legalize" their car by hook or by crook after buying it, unfortunately often with a fictitious and largely false story.
After the Jaguar E-Type Lightweight, the XKSS and the Aston Martin DB5 , Bentley now also wants to exactly recreate twelve "new" 4 1/2 l Blowers from 1929 to mark its 100th anniversary. To this end, the works car with chassis number HB3403, in which Tim Birkin personally competed at Le Mans in 1930, has been completely dismantled and digitized using a 3D scanner.
Bentley CEO Adrian Hallmark is unconcerned that the value of the originals could suffer. He says: "We know that there is a demand for authentic replicas that can be used and enjoyed without affecting the award-winning originals." I think this is short-term thinking, because over the years and generations, some of these "replicas" will certainly become more and more "real".
But now there are also owners of genuine classic cars whose paintwork has been changed and they suddenly have to prove that they are original. Racing cars that have undergone a logical development in the course of their use and thus adapted to the competition are suddenly no longer permitted. And on the other hand, 60-year-old and even older cars are now being rebuilt and sold by the factory in the mistaken belief that they will function as replicas forever and ever. Do you ever see a Pur-Sang that doesn't have a Bugatti emblem on it?
My suggestion to those with purchasing power: Ignore these replicas, rather buy an original that fits your personal budget. Because if nobody buys these elaborately made recreations, then the factories will also stop producing them.
