Moins d'Elegance

Sir,

In Matters of Moment, (Motor Sport, December 1988), your caption to the concours photo says “there are more concours than ever before but the elegance has gone”. This is exactly my view and I wonder if it is realised quite what this nowadays adds up to?

Few would disagree that the loving and immaculate restoration of interesting and beautiful cars is a worthy endeavour. We can add that the integrity and sheer man-hours put in by some young enthusiasts on extremely mundane cars of the Fifties has to be respected.

What I cannot understand, notwithstanding the tremendous pride with which the enthusiast shows off his car which embodies all those hours of winter work, is that when it comes to the presentation of his person nothing matters. Standard uniform seems to be nylon rally jacket, denim trousers and trainers (shoes). Surely such concours meetings deserve to have the occasion elevated and given some style to match that of the beautiful machinery that they so lovingly present. However, I suppose when we have the road test impressions of the £7-million Bugatti Royale published in a major classic car magazine with their driver in the above uniform, what is to be expected?

TA Lee, Wentworth, Surrey