Fantastic classic car rentals

By Carla Davidson

updated 2:18 p.m. ET Jan. 23, 2009

Next time you plan a vacation that includes a rental car, think vintage.

“I believe that everyone should drive an E-Type before they die,” says Richard Gaunt, proprietor of the aptly named Aspirations Classic Cars, based in Brisbane, Australia. “There is nothing like driving a car with personality.”

One of his enthusiastic clients volunteered about the E series Jaguar, that was unveiled in 1961: “It’s sexy to look at and sexy to drive. Most sports cars are stiffly sprung, but this just undulated.”

So for those who aspire to drive the iconic Jaguar XKE, a 1959 MGA, a 1966 Ford Mustang or a 1960 Triumph TR 3, there are lots of options worldwide. The rental business for vintage cars, some of which are true automotive classics, is thriving, as drivers cite the allure of the smell of wood and old leather, the thrum of the engine, the whipping wind in an open cockpit.

John Pollack, of Sports Car Rentals in Charlottesville, Va., points out that he’s no more than a ten-minute drive from scenic Shenandoah National Park. Dream Car’s owner Ted Stevens, calls his 1950s and ’60s vehicles “rolling pieces of art.”

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Pollack never got over his affair with an MGA he owned in college. He sold it when he married and started a family, but in his late 40s after he sold his previous company, he bought an MGB “out of the blue.” That launched the Charlottesville business he’s owned for the last 15 years, now with a fleet of six cars and growing. Other U.S.-based outfits include Imperial Classic of Albuquerque and Dream Car Rentals in Las Vegas.

Get your own insurance
But stringent insurance requirements can create difficulties for the vintage rental market in the U.S., where the driver is generally required to arrange his own insurance. In the less litigious U.K., says Tony Merrygold of Open Road Rentals near Stratford, England, the situation is completely different: British companies have insurance and don’t require a collision damage waiver.

If you’re ready to consider a vintage car rental, the next steps are which to choose and where to go. Merrygold has simplified the quest by creating a web site, Classiccarhireworld.com, organized by both the dream car and the country you might want to explore. This and sites like it can put together memorable driving tours, complete with maps, routes, special inns and hotels, and suggestions for wonderful places for a meal. Elsewhere in the U.K. Motorparty Classic Car Hire promises a getaway in the “lovely forgotten South West of Scotland,” where owner Martin Edgar says that you might not see another car for an entire day.

Courtesy of The Open Road Based near Stratford, England, Tony Merrygold started out in 1998 and now rents 10 classic cars — nine British and a 1966 Ford Mustang Fastback like the one Steve McQueen drove during the famous car chase in “Bullitt.”

Ask any owner of a classic car rental business how he got into it (and from our informal survey it’s usually a he) and you’ll find he followed his heart back to childhood and teenage days. “Whatever cars were around when you were growing up and learning to drive” remain the most coveted, says Merrygold.

Scotland’s Edgar agrees that by the time people reach their 50th or 60th birthdays they’re reminiscing about the cars their dads owned and recalling Sunday drives in the country. To fulfill that dream Edgar offers a 1960s Morris Oxford, “a super practical stylish saloon,” or to bring back the way we were in college days, there is his Triumph Herald: “Great fun on hot sunny days and challenging on cold wintry ones.”

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