Peter Wrote...

: Nowadays most people that I meet driving the Lotus, think it is a
: wonderful car with lots of history. They have stories about
: uncles or neighbours having a Lotus and they are impressed that
: an old car will do 0-100 km/h in less than 6 sek. But in the
: Lotus Klub Denmark there are a few nerdy purists that have no
: respect for my car, because it is so modified and
: “improved”. They prefer faded paint, narrow tires and thin
: chrome. (READ: They prefer unreliable unmodified calibre
: 11, yellowish faded lume, unpolished case and cracking Corfam
: straps)

: So where do I stand in the “relume” debate?
: - When it comes to my Lotus, making it able to take part in the
: modern traffic and beating Golf GTI’s, I am in favour of
: “reluming”.
: - For those of my watches that has survived untouched till today, I
: am a nerdy purist.
: - For a lot of my not so perfect vintage Heuers, I have no problem
: improving them, including a relume if that is needed.

: Not a very clear answer!

Peter

First, I love your lotus picture and the story is fantastic. I think your explanation is spot on too. I think when anyone starts a restoration project they have to know that there will be purists snots with "NOS" goods who will stick their noses in the air and look the other way when you show them the results. Unfortunately most of us can't have an NOS Lotus or an NOS Dauphine handed Autavia. The lines I draw for the aesthetics and ethics of restorations may be different from someone else' but as long as we are both honest about what has been done we have restorations and not fakes. There is room in the world for the snots and the rest of us. A nose up in the air is probably just as honest as a set of finely crafted new Dauphine hands.

JohnCote