Yet More Doors in a Field
The loos in the field had doors, so here are some more doors in a field.
Making the connection this time was difficult because once I’d decided on the idea of “doors” I realised I had very few photos of them! (I have lots of windows photos though. I wonder why that is?) Anyway, one reason behind the connections project is to help me to improve my knowledge of my back-catalogue.
A field is not normally where you’d expect to find a clutch of VW camper van doors. A wider view than the abstract approach adopted here would’ve revealed more about the context, but it might be fairly obvious to most people that the doors are being offered for sale to those wishing to complete their camper van restoration projects. Such “auto-jumbles” can be found at classic car/vehicle events…and what a heap of old tat it can seem to be!
Being a classic car owner (mk2 Golf) I often wonder why people bother to keep them going, or even start a restoration project based on a rusting hulk more deserving of a one-way trip to a scrap yard. I also wonder about the basis on which certain vehicles are awarded classic status. Here’s a list of possible reasons (not exhaustive):
– Many people wanted one at the time of manufacture
– First of a kind
– They were held in high regard because of some performance capability
– Representative of a particular period in time
– Look pretty
– Carry some interesting provenance
– Have “fun” driving characteristics (“Fun” of course being the subject of another debate, given that public roads are not race tracks.)
Many of the cars people attach classic status to are in fact just “old cars”. Sure they can be cheap to run with low/no VED tax, low insurance and an easy maintenance regime, but they can fail on the need for driver/passenger safety, fuel economy and reduced emissions. Why should such cars be allowed on the road if they substantially fail on these aspects? (Such failures were a good reason for the recent scrappage scheme, but then building replacement cars arguably wastes energy.)
This brings me back to the doors in the photo. Old style VW camper vans might look nice (ish), evoke a sense of freedom largely associated with the 1960s and are fairly practical in terms of internal space use, but apart from this there’s nothing to recommend them: they rust to pieces, are challenging to drive in a straight line, are underpowered, emit foul exhaust fumes and rely on the driver to act as the front crumple zone in a crash. On the latter point however, perhaps all cars should place the driver right at the front of the vehicle with just a thin sheet of steel for protection because it might dissuade drivers from tail-gating other vehicles at high speed and generally driving too fast. Does anyone want to buy a mk2 Golf?