ABSTRACT
Evolved from a community of enthusiasts, the commitment for historic vehicles today is mainly guided by the interests and perspectives of private owners. They commonly perceive their collections as a hobby or means of individual self-expression and use the vehicles for leisure activities. This usually means buying a car or a bundle of parts and investing a lot of work and expense to renovate (or, colloquially speaking, “restore”) it to an operable state in more or less detailed, “factory-new” appearance. Therefore, all parts are meticulously refurbished; signs of wear and tear on materials are removed. The result often is quite speculative and, in many cases, over-perfected, especially when the vehicle is outfitted with today’s materials or even with modern components and using contemporary working methods. In doing so, important aspects of the vehicle’s historic and documentary value will be destroyed irretrievably. 1 This approach is not only typical for most privately curated projects but is also common practice in the company museums of automobile manufacturers, where vehicles from historic production are mainly regarded as “shiny advertising ambassadors” that support today’s sales, and only secondly as expressions of cultural history.
