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| Veteran and Historical cars |
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Participation in the Mille Miglia is limited to historical or veteran cars, or cars of similar make and model, that participated in at least one of the original races between 1927 and 1957.
We tray to explain the differnces between veteran, historical and vintage cars.
A veteran car is generally defined as a car over 25 years of age, this being the definition used by the Antique Automobile Club of America and many other organizations worldwide. However, the legal definition for the purpose of veteran cars registration varies widely.
The term classic car is often used synonymously with antique or historical car, but the formal definition of that term has it as applying only to certain specific high-quality vehicles from the pre-World War II era.
25 years is about double the design life of modern cars and an even greater increment on those cars now 25 years old; therefore, a car that's reached 25 is a rare survivor, that's the reason why is an historical car, and probably not economical to maintain as regular transportation.
A vintage car is commonly defined as a car built between the start of 1919 and the end of 1930. There is little debate about the start date of the Vintage period—the end of World War I is a nicely defined marker there—but the end date is a matter of a little more debate.
The British definition is strict about 1930 being the cut-off, while some American sources prefer 1925 since it is the pre-classic car period as defined by the Classic Car Club of America. Others see the Classic period as overlapping the Vintage period, especially since the Vintage designation covers all vehicles produced in the period while the official Classic definition does not, only including high-end vehicles of the period. Some consider the start of World War II to be the end date of the Vintage or historical cars period.
The Vintage period in the automotive world was a time of transition. The car started off in 1919 as still something of a rarity, and ended up in 1930 well on the way towards ubiquity; in fact, automobile production at the end of this period was not matched again until the 1950s. During this period, most industrialised nations built a nationwide road system, with the result that towards the end of the period, the ability to negotiate unpaved roads was no longer required.
This is a simple definition of the differences among historical, veteran and vintage cars.
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