I was a bit flabbergasted to say the least but hey that is competition and me living on a dirt road and then having to drive 150km to the show and then have an hour or so to clean it does not help. It is just too hard to keep it in tip top condition and at the same time and i really want to enjoy it more and drive it more so paint chips etc are unavoidable.
I hear you Garry I am in the same boat: spend 30 hours prepping the car for a concours, then drive 200km because I am too poor (or too cheap?) for a trailer and I like to drive my car (real reason), arrive 3 hours before the show and use that time to remove all traces of the trip. But then, you need to drive BACK home another 200km, which means you need to clean it again when you get home.
I like to drive old sports cars more than to clean them. And every km you drive in a freshly restored 230SL (especially the 230SL) takes it closer to "condition 2" where all the $$ and time invested in the car cannot possibly be recouped. Like Mike S wrote in another post, it starts deteriorating the day after the restoration is completed, making it increasingly difficult to keep a car looking "fresh" like it does the day the restoration was completed.
What I need is a butler
