CALL them collectors and they will promptly correct you. They would rather be known as enthusiasts.

After all, owning classic and vintage cars requires far greater patience, gumption and involvement than collecting stamps. Not surprisingly, these guys are sticklers for jargon: Call a classic a vintage or vice versa and you will get a earful.

Although both words may mean the same thing to the man in the street, a vintage refers to a car that was built before 1940, while classics are those made after that but are at least 35 years old.

As of March 31, there were 212 classic and 117 vintage cars here, compared to 515,000 cars which are below three years old.

Mr Eli Solomon, vice-president of the Malaysia-Singapore Vintage Car Register, says: 'There is an 'old is bad' policy here, where punitive taxes are placed on older cars.''

The 44-year-old, who deals in rare book collections, recalls: 'When the vehicle quota system was implemented in 1990, it became too expensive to collect cars.''

The system required people to bid for certificates of entitlement (COEs) to own cars. At the peak in December 1994, a COE cost $110,500.

Although the rules for classic cars were relaxed in 2000 to allow hobbyists to own such cars by paying only 10 per cent of the prevailing COE rate, many enthusiasts had already either scrapped their prized collections or shipped them overseas.

Mr Solomon calls himself a historical motorsports enthusiast and has a collection of seven cars. Apart from his 1933 MG J2 and 1969 Lancia Fulvia here, he owns five classic race cars in New Zealand and Macau.

The former investment banker is so passionate about his hobby that he quit his job in Hong Kong to return to Singapore to write a book about the Singapore Grand Prix of the 1970s.

His hobby started by chance. He was in Hong Kong when an old leg injury flared up. 'I told myself that if I could walk again, I would get myself a one-seat racer,'' he recalls.

Well, he recovered and entered a classic car race in 2002 in Zhuhai, China. 'I got bitten by the bug after that,' he admits.

For medical doctor Ivor Thevathasan, 67, the passion is about preserving history. And it is not necessarily confined to cars.

'I tried to preserve the decommissioned fighter planes that were stored on Sentosa a few years ago, but nobody was interested,' he says.

He has been collecting cars for 45 years and is partial to those from the 1930s.

He has a 1930 MG M-Type Sports, which he claims is 'the oldest in this part of the world', and a 1938 Citroen 11CV.

His love for old cars started after he drove his father's 1955 MG Magnet. And his advice for anyone interested in starting a collection is to bone up on relevant information, or risk being taken for a ride by unscrupulous sellers.

But would fans have to put up with issues of roadworthiness in such old cars?

'It's utter rubbish,' says Dr Thevathasan.

Like newer cars, vintage and classic cars need a maintenance regime, he says. In fact, he adds, some of them are more reliable than modern ones because they are mechanically less complicated.

'It depends on how you maintain them,'' he says, adding that many will pass the mandatory vehicle inspection on 'the first go'.

Semi-retired lawyer Q.K. Chia, 62, says many would-be collectors are put off by a dearth of mechanics who specialise in old cars. But for those who persevere, the hobby can be a form of investment.

'These cars don't lose their value,'' he says. 'Over time, they can appreciate. This is especially true of high-end cars.''

Mr Chia has a collection of 'at least' eight cars, making it one of the largest here. It includes a 1959 Cadillac Fleetwood, one of the rare right-hand-drive samples of the American classic, a 1932 Alfa Romeo 6C and 1959 Jaguar XK150S.

In comparison, the average hobbyist owns three cars.

But when quizzed about the value of his collection, he declines to comment, like the other collectors interviewed here.

'There's no common value. It's very subjective,'' Mr Chia explains.

Although collections tend to revolve around cars from Europe and the United States, there are folks who look east.

Workshop owner Harry Tan, 58, has a Honda 600 and a rare Toyota Sports 800 - one of 5,000 ever made - which had been with its previous owner, Mrs Jill Creighton, for 40 years.

Mrs Creighton, who received the 800cc air-cooled roadster from her husband George in 1966, recalls: 'It was very sad to let it go. I cried.''

Mr Tan, who specialises in repairing old cars, seems rather pleased with his purchase, knowing that the Creightons had maintained the car faithfully at Toyota distributor Borneo Motors.

Not all buyers are so lucky. Many classics need more than a buff to shine - they require serious restoration work.

A complete 'bolt and nut' restoration takes at least half a year, and tens of thousands of dollars to complete.

This is a boon for restorers like father-and-son team David and Brian Chan. They operate a workshop that specialises in vintage British cars like the MG, Mini and Triumph.

In their case, their work has turned into a hobby. They own three classics: a 1972 Lotus Europa TCS, a 1964 Singer Chamois and the only 1966 Triumph GT6 in Singapore.

The senior Mr Chan, 63, says he prefers cars with more 'humble' origins.

'I don't want to see them get wiped out,'' he says, adding that cars he has helped save include a 1960 Fiat Nouvo Cinquecento.

Son Brian, 35, says: 'I had to rebuild my first car before I could drive it.''

For his 21st birthday, his dad gave him a Morris Mini Cooper Mk2 - packed 'in a few boxes''. He took 10 months to finish the job.

• The writer is with Torque, a motoring monthly published by SPH Magazines.

This article was first published in The Straits Times on May 10, 2008.