Innovative scheme created to encourage more young people to get into classics now has more applicants than vehicles
SPECIAL REPORT
The Classic Car Loan Project has proved to be such a popular and effective way of encouraging the next generation of classic owners that it now has more applicants coming forward than it has cars to loan out to them. It has also revealed that it has provided 100 years’ worth of motoring experience since it started in 2016.
This is a far cry from the time when project founder, Ford Model Y &C Register stalwart Bob Wilkinson, had to admit that not enough people were coming forward to take the cars; now the situation has reversed and the project is seeking more clubs to come forward and encourage the next generation of owners. Now even more young enthusiasts are preparing to get behind the wheel, following a meeting last Saturday (10 February) of clubs keen to share their classics.
Bob told CCW: ‘The project has been going for seven years and in that time we have reached just about 100 drivers. Some of those drivers had cars for slightly more than a year because of Covid, but in that time we’ve delivered 100 individual years of classic driving.
‘We started out with one vehicle, then it grew to five and in the last few years it’s averaged out around 20.
‘We’re reaching new clubs all the time and are hoping to partner with more. Some of the clubs now even run their own young driver schemes using our project as a blueprint so we could add that on to part of our success as well.
‘Of the 100 people who were loaned cars, 20 went on to buy classics of their own within a short space of having had
