{"id":4875,"date":"2020-01-22T08:52:16","date_gmt":"2020-01-22T08:52:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.co.uk\/magazine\/?p=4875"},"modified":"2024-09-12T15:52:08","modified_gmt":"2024-09-12T14:52:08","slug":"its-about-the-journey-not-the-destination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/its-about-the-journey-not-the-destination\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s about the journey, not the destination\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve mentioned in the past, I own a Rover 800 Vitesse Sport. It\u2019s my \u2018forever\u2019 car. My ongoing project. The source of a great deal of my time, money and patience. And that last one, patience, is what\u2019s key here. <\/span><\/p>\n

The car isn\u2019t on the road at the moment, as I still need to finish some bits before I stick it in for an MOT. That said, I move it around the car park every other day, partly to amuse myself, and partly to keep the old girl ticking over. And ticking over it was until this morning, when a wheel fell off. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

That’s not how the wheel should look. Bugger. <\/em><\/p>\n

It turns out the nearside lower ball joint failed, which is spectacularly bad luck considering both lower front ball joints are brand new. In fact, they\u2019ve covered less than a mile. But anyway, the ball joint failed, the hub spat outwards, pulling the driveshaft from the gearbox at the same time. Deeply annoying. Thankfully, I managed to shuffle the car back into its space by resting it on a stock trolley from Tesco next door. I am now not talking to the Rover. It is the dog that barfed on the new rug. The child that scrawled bright colours on the living room wall. It is in my bad books. <\/span><\/p>\n

But, like the dog or child, it will soon win my favour once more. I will forgive it, and I\u2019ll carry on with it until the next major component falls off. And I write this knowing that while a great many of you may not \u2018get\u2019 my choice of car, you will at least understand and relate to the cycle of rage and reinstilled affection. It\u2019s a scenario prevalent in the old car world, but why? They are cars, machines, lumps of metal in which other bits of metal move about. Why do we get so attached to them, and why do we take such an assault on our very being when they fail us? <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

Project Benz is an ongoing love\/hate affair<\/em><\/p>\n

Charles Babbage, the father of the computer, spoke in the 18th Century of \u2018the unerring certainty of machines\u2019 by which he meant machines don\u2019t bugger things up, at least not if they\u2019ve been engineered correctly. The machines in our lives generally adhere to this train of thought. Our ovens work, our fridge works, the washing machine, so on and so forth. And when they fail, they generally come to an absolute conclusion. Cars don\u2019t do that, though. Cars can fail, yet still work. In fact, cars are very good at that. <\/span><\/p>\n

Cars, despite being machines, have soul. They have presence and personality. A lot of that, especially in the case of older cars, comes from the engine, the way they drive, so on and so forth. A lot of it, however, comes from their ability to fail. Cars develop idiosyncrasies and in doing so, we see them as being more human. Because humans are flawed. It\u2019s our flaws and differences that make us unique. And because it\u2019s in our nature to look for familiar ground, we put those vehicular flaws on a human, personal level. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

My old Zodiac. Breaking down. Again. Still loved it though.<\/em><\/p>\n

This then brings about a bond. Our cars are now seen to have soul, we drop our guard and build a human-like attachment with them. The longer we own a car, the more work we do, the more we are in tune with it. No other appliance does this. New cars don\u2019t even do this. New cars are too full of computers, there is nothing to bond with. It\u2019d be like getting really attached to your laptop, and that\u2019s just weird. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

My ’76 3.0S on a trailer. There’s a theme developing here. <\/em><\/p>\n

While I was pondering all this, as I stood there looking at my Rover and its wobbly wheel, I realised that the thought of scrapping it, or setting fire to it, or grabbing a branch and going full \u2018Basil Fawlty\u2019 on it never occured. I wasn\u2019t mad at it, I was more upset that it had broken. I know this car better than I\u2019ve known any, so now it\u2019s something I will help and protect, not abandon at the first sign of trouble. <\/span><\/p>\n

And I think for many of us, this is just how it is. But more than that, I think we enjoy this relationship with our cars. As I said on Twitter while ranting about what had happened, it\u2019s annoying, but it all adds to the rich tapestry of my time with the car. I\u2019ve now got a \u2018the wheel fell off\u2019 anecdote for the future. It’s now a memory, something else that will strengthen the bond. I have no memory of the fridge I had five years ago.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"classic<\/p>\n

My father’s ’55 Thunderbird, another car the owner has a strong bond with<\/em><\/p>\n

When our cars fail, and when they test us, we react to them in a human way. Admit it, you\u2019ve spoken to your car, whether desperately begging it to start, or gleefully spilling praise on a spirited drive. You\u2019ve never offered reassuring words to the oven for cooking a pizza correctly. <\/span><\/p>\n

And as a relationship, there is no goal or objective. The relationship itself is the journey, that\u2019s the adventure and the goal. Being there. In the moment. And that\u2019s why we spill endless cash into old cars, it\u2019s why we go to shows, it\u2019s why we align ourselves with people of a similar mindset. Because we want to capitalise on the journey of classic car ownership, we want the adventure, and we accept that sometimes things go wrong. Or in my case, fall off. And do you know what? We, or certainly I wouldn’t change it for the world. I love old cars, and I\u2019m fine with that. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As I\u2019ve mentioned in the past, I own a Rover 800 Vitesse Sport. It\u2019s my \u2018forever\u2019 car. My ongoing project. The source of a great deal of my time, money…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":4877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[988],"tags":[15,143,12,13,11,1502,1503,150,62,1499,239,1501,105,14,16,58,462,550,574,1500],"yoast_head":"\nIt\u2019s about the journey, not the destination\u2026 - Car & Classic Magazine<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In our latest blog, we ponder why we put up with old cars when they fail and why it\u2019s worth sticking it out.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.carandclassic.com\/magazine\/its-about-the-journey-not-the-destination\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"It\u2019s about the journey, not the destination\u2026 - 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