Re: Gov.UK: Call for evidence launched on how to future-proof classic cars and back drivers
Posted: Fri Jun 21, 2024 11:23 pm
In Conversation with Paul Griffin, Author & Gentleman Racer.
After a career in a city law firm what has prompted you to write your book The Past and the Spurious - The case of Legitimacy in Historic Cars?
"Chatting around the paddocks and following the press reports, it became clear that a lot of people have been going to court in recent times with claims over which car is which, what’s a ‘proper’ car and what is an original one. These questions also exercise a great many Owners’ Clubs and Registrars, as well as the DVLA.
As values have increased there has been a great deal more at stake. And approaches have changed - using a proper part from another car used to be seen as acceptable but fashions have moved towards things such as ‘matching numbers’ being the mark of originality and authenticity. When I retired from front-line lawyering in 2016, that meant I had more time to spend racing, and writing. I had always written and spoken about legal issues and that writing moved towards the law and historic cars. And questions of originality, authenticity and legitimacy.
What became clear is that more valuable than anything is the history of the car, and two things came out of that. One is that the history of a car may not be that reliable. Sometimes it will be, because great people have done great work in researching and recording what happened. The other is that that history and the car you see in front of you may not always be attached. And that was really what started it off.
In an unlikely way, my greatest ally in writing the book was COVID-19 and the first shutdown. There wasn’t much else to be doing at time when my thoughts had crystallised, and that shutdown did give me the time to begin to write.
Among the more troublesome areas in these assessments is the role of the licensing authorities in relation to historic cars. As well as creating a lexicon of elastic words that can make it difficult to develop a clear or easy understanding, the DVLA’s administration of its rules has become increasingly opaque. To the extent that the originality and history of some of these marvellous artefacts are now being undermined or sometimes destroyed. It’s more difficult than it needs be because the structure of licensing in this country has grown in a way that hasn’t been that well connected to the ways in which the historic car sector looks at these things - or in particular the way that the courts look at them."
https://www.hcva.co.uk/162/about-the-hi ... eman-racer
After a career in a city law firm what has prompted you to write your book The Past and the Spurious - The case of Legitimacy in Historic Cars?
"Chatting around the paddocks and following the press reports, it became clear that a lot of people have been going to court in recent times with claims over which car is which, what’s a ‘proper’ car and what is an original one. These questions also exercise a great many Owners’ Clubs and Registrars, as well as the DVLA.
As values have increased there has been a great deal more at stake. And approaches have changed - using a proper part from another car used to be seen as acceptable but fashions have moved towards things such as ‘matching numbers’ being the mark of originality and authenticity. When I retired from front-line lawyering in 2016, that meant I had more time to spend racing, and writing. I had always written and spoken about legal issues and that writing moved towards the law and historic cars. And questions of originality, authenticity and legitimacy.
What became clear is that more valuable than anything is the history of the car, and two things came out of that. One is that the history of a car may not be that reliable. Sometimes it will be, because great people have done great work in researching and recording what happened. The other is that that history and the car you see in front of you may not always be attached. And that was really what started it off.
In an unlikely way, my greatest ally in writing the book was COVID-19 and the first shutdown. There wasn’t much else to be doing at time when my thoughts had crystallised, and that shutdown did give me the time to begin to write.
Among the more troublesome areas in these assessments is the role of the licensing authorities in relation to historic cars. As well as creating a lexicon of elastic words that can make it difficult to develop a clear or easy understanding, the DVLA’s administration of its rules has become increasingly opaque. To the extent that the originality and history of some of these marvellous artefacts are now being undermined or sometimes destroyed. It’s more difficult than it needs be because the structure of licensing in this country has grown in a way that hasn’t been that well connected to the ways in which the historic car sector looks at these things - or in particular the way that the courts look at them."
https://www.hcva.co.uk/162/about-the-hi ... eman-racer
