Photography by Remi Dargegen
With a collision between classic Mercedes-Benz and Lister race cars at the 73rd Goodwood Members’ Meeting making news headlines around the world, is it time to put away our really nice vintage cars?
Some owners already do keep their precious metal in their collections and take to race tracks in exacting recreations of vintage cars. Given enough time and money, several companies around the world—both past and present—offer recreations of famous racing machines from the Shelby Cobra to Jaguar C-Type. Often customized at the buyer’s request to exactly match a certain body style and period livery, they’re available for a steep price—but still cost pennies compared to the owning real thing.
There’s also a question of approach. In the U.S., vintage racing is often less of a wheel-to-wheel contest as it is in Europe, where thrills and spills seem to be a more regular occurrence. Here at Petrolicious, we focus on the people and then the cars—the reason you don’t see crash-damaged vintage machines here each week is because, well, people always come first.
That said, are some classics simply too nice to race?
