Men & motors : myth-making and the emulation of a past elite class

Abstract

This thesis is about a motor club of, mostly, middle class Englishmen of senior years and the activities of that club. The club in question is the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC), which is a club dedicated to the use and preservation of vintage cars, the cars of the 1920s. The club was originally established in the 1930s as one of many clubs in existence at that time for participation in club motor sports events – circuit racing, hill climbing, sprints etc. What makes the VSCC unique is that the club has continued holding the same competitions and competing with the same cars as it did when first established over 70 years ago, but is now a large international club.

In this thesis I have analysed how the members of the club, over the many decades of the club’s existence and over the generations that have now passed through the club, have created myths of the past relating to their cars, and more specifically how they have mythologised a version of history that has transformed cheap old cars into a special category of objects that are superior to everything that has followed. I analyse the myths, and I discuss the myth creation and maintenance processes in relation to ideas of class and notions of superior values and in relation to living out a mythical idealised past.