Heritage Dictionary for Historic Vehicles

compiled and written by Dr. Gundula Tutt

In collaboration with David Cooper, Mario De Rosa, Peter Diehl, Ben Erickson, Carsten Müller, Prof. Dr. Karl Heinrich Hucke, Norbert Schroeder, Thomas Wirth and Julian Westpfahl

In the classic car community today, there is a confusion of language of Babylonian proportions. While passion can be communicated in lyrical tones, facts demand precise wording. Expert opinions and appraisals typically toss around terms like condition, originality, or patina – whose meanings are considered depending on one’s experiences and perspectives.

Meaningful discussions, however, become more difficult when the same vocabulary gets lost in this broad panorama of free interpretations. Recently, the difficulties have been magnified because terms from the spectrum of art and cultural assets have found their way into the world of historic vehicles. These terms have been separated from their established definitions, although they are anchored as legally valid standards in international norms, agreements, laws or treaties on the protection of cultural property. This new Heritage Dictionary incorporates these terms of art and cultural heritage, following their established international definitions, as well as reviewing and clarifying many commonly used automotive terms.