I don't like to say it, but I have said it before and I will say it again, because I believe it is true. There will always be exceptions but for the most part the popular car hobby (excuding the really high end stuff like old Bugattis) will be driven by people wanting to own, restore and drive cars from their youth, either because of good memories, or infulfilled dreams.
When I was younger the prior generation fiddled with Model A's and stuff. The market for the mainstream pre-war cars has been pretty stagnant the last twenty years while the price of post war collector cars has boomed.
Add to that the changing interests of the younger generation, who seem to define themselves less and less by the car they drive ("our" cars were a cool new trend in the 50s and 60s, an alternative to stodgy American cars, Walter Cronkite even did a video about it https://youtu.be/bySosXZHnfI ) and more and more by their high tech phones and watch thingies.
The old British sports car hobby has probably already peaked. ****, the old car hobby in general may have peaked or be close to it. It's a hobby, they come and go, they used to sell model railroad stuff at Sears and Kresges, now it is purely a specialty store item. Times change, life goes on.
glemon,
I completely agree with what your saying here, but I can see it going another way as well. I think the key to getting the younger generation involved is to make the cars cool again (not that they haven't always been cool). I'm on the slightly younger side of British car enthusiasts, being 44 next month. My dad had a GT6 when I was a kid, and in HS my friend's grandmother had an early TR6 that we got up and running again as we learned the fine art of grease monkey-ing. I got a TR6 as soon as I could scrape up the cash. Coming from the deep rural south, all of our friends were into muscle cars. Our interest in the TRs and British sports cars in general was in what they could do. Rapidly moving from A to B, feeling the mechanical nature of the thing, learning it's personality and how to keep it happy.
These cars were first build to be driven hard. They still can be. With even the slightest bit of unobtrusive "hotrodding" (for lack of a better term), any LBC can be made into a tight handling little go kart with enough power to have fun without needing to achieve Ludicrous Speed to feel like you're working it. That's where they next generation will be brought on board IMO. Get a big vintage rally culture going, organize clubs around events and drives and using the cars the way they were designed. Not many kids are going to be interested in parking in a field twice a month all summer with a wicker basket on the back luggage rack waiting for judges to tell them what's not correct on their car.
Sure was...Excellent.Here's a good example...