Collector Car Uses: What to do with it when you’ve got one
The second most influential reason for collecting these cars is probably the recapture of youthful memories, or the first time capture of youthful dreams. This is one reason why the values of older vehicles tend to decline again over time after their heyday of increasing value. The people who remember them as the cars of their youth are fewer and have been replaced to a large extent by younger collectors with memories of newer vehicles. [On this point I again refer the reader to the article, The value of a collector car: Determining its worth.]
Memories from your youth can be the deciding factor in defining what you want to collect. If you are 47 years old in the year 2004, you likely have never heard a Duesenberg roar down a stretch of road. But you certainly remember the Shelby Cobra that screamed out at you one night - and those Hemis and that '69 Pontiac GTO that belonged to your next door neighbor. If you had any one of them now, you know you would take it to shows. And if you go looking for a car to recapture your youth it will likely be one of those that impressed the heck out of you in your youth.
The same car might also inspire you to tackle a restoration project. This is probably the third most typical reason for getting into this hobby - a project. If you are looking for a way to spend your time constructively, why not use it to refurbish a relic into a moment from your youth? Why not make your pastime the reconstruction of your racing heartbeat when you first saw that car, the beautiful beast that stole your heart, that glorious machine you remember from back then? And of course, when you do get the project under way you certainly will not need to get it fully completed before the urge will strike you to take it to a show.
But shows and parades and the weekly "cruise" at the local burger joint are not your only options. There are venues for antique racecars where they are actually put through their paces again. What Fun! There are cars that never drive but are trailered to shows, but there are also tours in which the old beasts have a night or two on the town. If you are thinking about collecting for the first time, it
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