the following is an excerpt from Town and Country magazine.
the story is called 'Auto Hypnotic'. it's about the pebble beach
classic car weekend. i think it is pertinent subject matter. do you??
e-RICHIE


The subject of restoration is hotly debated in the world of vintage
automobiles as it is in the world of fine art. Repaint a famous track
car, or lengthen a tailpipe to prevent carbon from smudging a boat tail,
and you may find yourself the target of the same disapproval aimed at the
well-meaning cleaners of Michaelangelo's Sistine ceiling. For some--
let's call them true believers--the patina of age and the original trappings
of tradition should never be tampered with. For others---the protestant
aposty, perhaps--a car ought to look as it did the day it rolled out of
the showroom. This division, written about in this magazine by Stephan
Wilkinson (June 1999), is ever more hotly debated. The competition for
top prizes is keen and costly; restorations can end up running to half a
million dollars or more. Those who spend this kind of money want a
new-like car, however old the original, and aren't pleased to hear
grousings about the results. But antirestoration forces are passionate
in their orthodoxy.
When I strolled from one resplendent classic to another in the company of
Chris Renwick, a well known international expert with Symbolic Motor
Car Company in La Jolla, California, we stopped in front of a particularly
dazzling machine, an immaculately refurbished 1938 2.9-liter Alfa Romeo
roadstewr. To anyone with an eye for kinetic sculpure, there couldn't be
a more satisfying sight. But Renwick was unmoved. Or moved only to
mutter, " It might as well be plastic. Imagine taking a piece of Louis
Quartorze furniture, sandblasting it and slapping on a coat of varnish!