Why there’s a vintage car renaissance going on

Trad wives, ’90s blowouts and remake after remake — nostalgia drives trends in every industry, and the cars we want are no exception. While most trends that evoke nostalgia can easily be accessed through ‘dupes’, vintage cars are a much larger investment that can cost anything from a few hundred pounds just for a day of playing around, to thousands — maybe even millions — if you want one of your own. In a period of economic instability and cultural mish-mash, why is the vintage car making a comeback?

When Robbie Gillison first started RNG Classics, he wanted to “fulfill other people’s dreams of driving cool cars, while fulfilling [his] own dream of driving cool cars”. In practice, that simple enough concept entails renting self-drive — not to be confused with self-driving — cars to brands and independent customers, either for content, pleasure or special occasions. Gillison’s even been approached for a Fake Taxi video (he politely declined). One setback you wouldn’t have gotten back in the cars’ manufacturing days, though, was the Covid pandemic, which interrupted Gillison’s dreams less than six months later. Nevertheless, business muddled on thanks to freelancers and brands who wanted to go out and capture beautiful cars against empty backdrops.

Following lockdown — and a run in with the police where they blocked Gillison in like something from “a dystopian film” — RNG Classics saw a bit of a vintage car resurgence. “We came out on the other side,” the vintage car expert says, “where people wanted to hire a classic car just to drive to the coast or to a forest. Maybe to get married — or just generally have a social life.” Perhaps it was a symptom of lockdown itself, but this newfound enthusiasm felt like a play on the old adage, “the real treasure was the friends we made along the way”, or something like that. Instead of rushing to a destination, people started to notice that riding in a classic car transforms the journey into part of the experience. 

The power of nostalgia is undeniable, and hiring a vintage car for a special occasion doesn’t just show a desire to stand out — it’s about reinventing an image that we don’t see much of any more. “People want to emulate movie stars and old pop icons,” Gillison explains, “because there’s not as many [celebrities] now that can compete with the likes of Cary Grant, James Bond and Steve McQueen.” According to Gillison, it’s this ‘old gentleman’ model that’s partly responsible for young people’s fascination with vintage cars. He cites David Beckham as a good example of a modern equivalent. Consistently relevant, a sex-symbol and fashion icon through various ages, the ex-footballer slash Spice Girl husband is also a big vintage car fan himself and can often be spotted behind the wheel of a Jag. To base your style around the classics, then, is an easy way to be timeless.

Gillison’s penchant for Beckham, however, isn’t to overshadow the other stars who use vintage cars in their projects — JME and Stefflon Don (to name just a couple) have actually used Gillison’s services in their music videos. And, of course, celebrity culture sets the tone for what people want in their own wheels, which the RNG Classics owner knows as well as anyone — Gillison has had countless requests for Frank Ocean’s iconic orange BMW E30 M3 (aptly adorning his album Nostalgia, Ultra) and Taylor Swift’s naughty ‘getaway car’, the Jaguar E-Type, seen in the “Getaway Car” music video. Obviously.

But vintage cars also aim to resolve a deeper issue in overall trends and aesthetics — longevity. The trend cycle is getting shorter, to a point where a certain brand and colour can be everywhere for a week and be deemed outdated the next. When trends circle round so fast, then, it seems that sometimes only something so obviously anachronistic can maintain its appeal. According to Gillison, that’s particularly true for younger clients, who apparently have a bit of a thing for the ’80s right now. “They’re getting excited about cars from that period,” he says. “The dress, the fashion, the music they played.” You might say it’s similar to the success of Stranger Things — a fascination with an era that sits somewhere between familiar and novel. 

In a similar way, vintage cars also offer a slight escape from the chronically online nature of modern life. “With all the technology that we have in our hands and in our homes,” Gillison explains, “all we want is a bit of a switch off — to get away from the screen and get behind the windscreen.” There is a certain romance in going off-grid, which many Gen Z-ers might be longing for — the landline, cycling to your friends house or only seeing twenty pictures of someone’s holiday. From disposable cameras to apps that can transform your phone into a dummy phone, it’s no wonder that young people want cars that won’t notify them of a call from work or a text from their ex, and instead might opt for a driving experience that offers some much-needed escapism.

Collecting vintage cars, then, plays into that longing for simpler times seen in the current toy collecting craze (Labubus replacing the Pokémon cards of our youths), yet the price tag isn’t so similar. Car culture comes with an element of dedication to it — between buying the dream car, expensive garage trips and adding extra features, it’s no wonder that ‘car guys’ form such a close community. And it’s one that’s growing. Whether motivated by gaining a new social hub or bagging a financial investment for a pension fund, the classic car is re-entering culture in full force, playing on the trend of nostalgia and our growing anxieties about technology (thank you, Black Mirror). So, we should expect to see these beauties around more, in music and art and editorial. And if there’s one thing we can all agree with Gillison on, it’s that James Bond should always stay riding around in an Aston Martin DB5.