- The UK 'historic' car industry is estimated by FBHVC in their 2016 survey to be worth £5.5Bn. I can't find information on the value of the kit car industry to the economy, but it is a good assumption to make that the two industries combined make a large contribution, keep lots of people employed and represent a major hobby.
- On the flip side, progress is a good thing for our health and the environment - and I'd be happy to do a daily commute in an electric car, keeping the V8 for the weekends. (I appreciate this may not be a view everyone shares).
There's no getting away from the fact that a replica is not the same as the real thing, but good replicas of low-volume production cars bring the enjoyment of these vehicles to a wider audience. Additionally, replica building (and the minutely-detailed research that is undertaken in the process) serves to preserve the understanding of these cars, their history and construction. Some replica-building tasks develop transferable skills that are applicable to classic car restoration. And finally, the knowledge that some people have acquired and the cars they have constructed could reasonably be considered to be encyclopaedic in nature.
I've always thought that if you've got a problem, you'd better get off your backside and do something about it. If the proposed Norwegian ban on combustion engines were proposed in the UK, it is likely that FBHVC would lobby for exemptions for classics, but that might leave owners of replica cars high and dry without representation - or scrabbling around to achieve representation at the last minute. In most legislative situations, compromise is inevitable. Getting a compromise that works in our favour requires that we stick our oar into the process rather than complaining from the sidelines.
A few questions for discussion:
- What other benefits of the replica or kit car industry have I not thought about?
- Do we think a representative body for such vehicles is worthwhile?
- If so, what would such a body do?
- Who would it represent? All kit cars, or some hard-to-determine definition of a 'replica'?
Andrew