I’m in a bit of a quandary at the moment. How many classic cars are too many for one person to own at any one time?
My other half is convinced that the answer is one or perhaps two at a push, but I’m already at the latter figure and I'm still hungry for more. I've had a fleet of three before (main pic), and that was perfectly manageable.
Actually, it’s worse than that: every free moment I have these days – not to mention plenty of occasions when I really should be doing other more important things – is spent furiously browsing the (free!) listings here at C&SC.com, saving searches and ‘watching’ potential purchases on eBay, or taking extra-long lunch-hours for viewings.
If I’m totally honest with myself, Mrs C is probably right: after all, I can only drive one car at a time, can’t I?
Thankfully, I’ve come up with a new system to defy such logic and justify my old-car needs, which basically involves having a car for all reasons.
I already have my high days and holidays steed (the Magnette, above) – that doubles up as a family wagon, which in my view means that I am already economising.
In the Whizzkid (above), I also have my long-term project car (albeit one that was never meant to be long-term), so next on the list of classic necessities is a daily driver – ideally one that's cheap to buy and run, reasonably brisk, simple to fix and preferably tax-free.