Here's what the Classic Car Club of America has to say about it.

One of the most common questions asked on this Web Site is: "What exactly is a Classic Car?" The Club defines CCCA Classics or Full Classic™ Cars as "...fine or unusual motor cars which were built between and including the years 1925 to 1948. (Some cars built prior to 1925 that are virtually identical to a 1925 model that is recognized by the Club are currently being accepted on a "Please Apply" basis). All of these are very special cars which are distinguished by their respective fine design, high engineering standards and superior workmanship." They were usually quite expensive when new with relatively low production figures. You won't find your Mom's '72 Plymouth Duster or your Grandfather's Model A Ford in the ranks of CCCA. We applaud other clubs who do recognize these cars and recognize that owning one can be a lot of fun, but they are not what CCCA is all about.

I suppose what they were saying is that they are interested in cars that were built after folks had really figured out how to do it right but before they sold out to mass production and marketing.

https://www.classiccarclub.org/CarList.htm

...and such rhetoric nonsense would serve the C&V community zero, zilch, nada (take your pick).

Sounds like a bunch of snobs, IMO. The type of people likely to ask about value before enjoyment.

-Kurt

"They were usually quite expensive when new with relatively low production figures."

This doesn't sound like most of our bikes. Some of us have old Pre War Paramounts and other expensive and low production bikes but most of us have Raleighs, Schwinns, Fujis and Treks.

So the CCCA bought the '58 De Rosa?

-Kurt

I agree, but their dates are interesting. 1948 was the first year of the integrated fendor but what's with 1925?

I know, this is OT.

Nothing better then to send them an email and find out. Would be interesting to see if they'd be condescending about it or not.

-Kurt

As I recall, they've been using these same rules since just after World War 2. They had to work a little harder to distinguish a "classic" from a used car cause cars just weren't that old.

That classification kind of leaves Marilyn Monroe out, so I don't trust it.

Are these the guys I see with the beards and mustaches and those funny hats and the tweed jackets with the patches on the elbows, often smoking pipes and acting really snobby? Oh wait, that's SCCA.

Duh. It was the year my dad was born.

Now don't start knocking the SCCA. Or wait. Was that a compliment? I'll have to think about that while I go downstairs to get the moustache wax that I left in the MG.

Actually, I've met quite a lot of these guys and they aren't condescending, they're just particular. Most of them can respect a wider variety of cars and own a wider variety of cars. It's just that if your gonna drive your Alfa Romeo to a Corvaire show, you leave it in the parking lot.

You don't have one of those Volkswagen-Porsche things do you?

"Someone call my name?"

-Kurt

Nope, and I sold my Karmann Ghia a couple of years back. Heavy duty swaybars and all. I once beat a Porsche 356 with it.
Nope, I'm a bike man now. The MG in the garage is
just a backdrop for all my bike pics.

I once went over a rocky mountain side in one of those one rainy afternoon--brand spankin' new, too. Missed a tree by about 6 inches on the passenger side (where I was sitting ) and finally bounced to a stop about 15 feet from a boulder. The car dropped the rear mounted engine like it laid an egg. My friend, the driver, bought an old Ford 150 pickup after that little adventure.


stan
.

Well, it wasn't exactly designed as an off-road vehicle! The 6's are fast as hell- someone I used to know raced them very successfully. (I need a bumper sticker for my bike that says "my other bike is an '87 944")

Yeah, there was a guy with a 4 cylinder 914 "stock" who used to beet us all, even the vettes. He was just a damn fine driver who knew how to bend the rules.

Somebody tell us what the hell you were doing on the side of a mountain in a 914?

-Kurt

1948!?! i only missed that by 8 years. (1956) i was expensive. babies weren't cheap even back then. and i must have been well made !! i'm still here.

Changing underwear?,,,,BD


I like my little RX-7, although I hope the retired Mazda mechanic who rebuilt the Nikki carb is still alive the next time it needs it. He was truly a wizard.,,,,BD

Not far from the truth. As far as what we were doing...just coming home from a little jaunt in the sierras on a rainy fall afternoon. The driver (a former friend) was driving too fast for conditions, feeling his oats in his new sporty car, hit a curve in the road too fast and next thing you know we were airborne and off road. Even the celebrated Porsche suspension and low center of gravity wasn't going to keep us on that road. Yeah, I know--young and stupid, but as I said he's a former friend. Just too d@mn crazy for me.


stan
.

Sounds like you are talking about the Classic Car Club of America there. Snobs would be accurate enough. They used the same definition in 1953 which tells you they are hidebound as well.

You got it- CCCA has a reputation as being snobs in the classic car community. What we're really looking at is the La Salle crowd rather than the Ford or Chevy crowd. The years they honor and cars they allow in are VERY limited compared with historic car production volumes too (large car boom post WWII, mostly Ford and GM).

'La Salle in, Ford Model A out!". Basically we're talking people who are such snobs that even cars 99% of the population would consider classic (Ford Model A, Ford V8, Chevys of all sorts) they consider beneath them. When you consider how hard it is to get people to agree on that sort of thing, it's amazing how many cars the overwhelming majority of people would call 'classic' that they won't even look at.

I'm a big fan of old vehicles and still miss my '51 Studebaker.

Classic?
Anything that takes me back to a simpler time and lifestyle.

Maybe we're lucky there isn't a CBCA. Take a look at the old car hobby sometime as an illustration of all that is potentially good and bad in exalting the value of what you truly enjoy.

I already feel lucky there's not a Barrett-Jackson Bicycle Auction.