The weird world of obscure classics | Thank Frankel It's Friday

Hopeless addict that I am, what I like best is finding cars of which there is just one example left on the road, imagining its driver and hoping he or she realises their car, as least so far as taxed vehicles in the UK are concerned, is now unique. Over the years I have, for example, been tracking the fortunes of one of my favourite cars as it neared this exalted position. At the beginning of 2017 there were five Citroen Visa GTIs on the road, but by the end of the year that figure had fallen to three. A year later it was just two and, finally at the end 2019, it was down to last man standing. But by the end of the first quarter of 2020, even that sole survivor was gone. There were no Visa GTIs left which could be legally driven on the road. That was a grim day in the Frankel household, I can tell you.

But lo! By the end of quarter three last year, that big fat zero had turned back to a ‘1’ again, just as the number of SORNed Visa GTIs dropped from 19 to 18. Some absolute hero somewhere had had enough of seeing it there unloved and unused, toddled off to the MOT station and perhaps with a spot of welding later – who knows – is now the proud owner of the only legally mobile Visa GTI in Britain. Were I in power I’d give ‘em a medal.

See what this site can do to you? For those wishing to maintain a balanced sense of perspective, it is not just not healthy. At all. But the most pernicious thing about it is its addictive qualities. I simply can’t help myself, which is why I can bring you the sad news that there is now also just one Panther Solo left on UK roads.

Ok, it’s been that way for a year, but ‘Panther Solo’ is not the sort of thing that even I search for regularly.

Actually, I’m a little surprised the number is so high. I’m even more surprised that there are a further 10 that are SORNed and therefore have at least the potential to rise again. This is a car whose production run ceased over 30 years ago after which fewer than 20 had been delivered to customers, so over half of all Solos not only survive – or at least have not been scrapped – but are here in the UK.

My final curiosity thrown up by the howmanyleft website is common as muck compared to the Visa or Solo. Indeed as 2020 drew to a close there was a grand total of two Lancia Thema 8.32s taxed and insured on UK roads. Interestingly that’s one down on the three recorded in the third quarter, but one up on the single unit left clinging to legality at the end of Q2. But that’s not what’s strange. Indeed it’s probably fairly predictable. What I’m struggling to understand a bit is that there are, wait for it, 30 of the left hand drive, Ferrari-powered saloons on the SORN register which means some, most or all of them physically exist in some shed or other. That’s six more cars than were registered for use in the UK 20 years ago. But none of them are being used.

What anyone might hope to do with this information escapes me. Except hopefully that some may use it to decide never to visit the site and commence the downward spiral into statistical geekery from which there is no return. If I have at least provided that small service, these words will not have been in vain. You’re welcome.