My name is James and I am an unfit parent. Not to my kids, I hope, but to my other kids if you know what I mean. The kids I had first, the ones that used to be spoiled rotten and who were accorded all the time and money they required to live an idyllic existence. Then the other kids came along and, because all that time and money seems to have evaporated since their arrival, the original ones have been suffering increasing levels of neglect ever since. Not equally, either, which makes it even worse.
The C&SC team has been suffering my long, tortured discourses on this classic fleet malaise for about 18 months now – I even e-mail them regularly for opinions on what I should do – so it seemed about time I shared it with everyone.
The problem, very simply, is that I have too many classics. Yes, I know it is only four and some people manage with a lot more than that, but it turns out (sadly) that four is more than I can physically and financially cope with at this point in my life. I sincerely wish it weren't true, but I can no longer live in denial.
It doesn't help that I am one of those people who always buys the cheaper, less good examples of classics I can't really afford rather than a really good example of something I can afford. Don't be fooled by the pictures, none of my classics was ever going to trouble the concours judges even at their best, but recently it has become a full-time battle just to keep them road legal and running.
Worse than that, for the first time I can remember I would describe two of the four as "off the road". Albeit hopefully only temporarily, but already for far longer than I can usually tolerate.