Letters to the editor

A love of classic cars

The article “Classic cars not for daily drivers” (Nation, Wednesday) reveals a few problems in current legislation regarding these vehicles in Virginia. As the owner of a registered antique vehicle in Virginia, I have been issued four tickets in the past three years by Fairfax County police officers because the car wasn’t safety-inspected. I appealed and won each case.

The fact remains, though, that Virginia’s classic car law regarding limited usage is annoyingly ambiguous. The police officers deemed me to be overstepping the law of “limited usage” as I used my classic car on a daily basis, which is specifically mentioned in the law. This same law allows for “occasional pleasure driving no more than 250 miles from home.”

What “occasional” means, who knows, and I certainly wasn’t driving it more than 250 miles each day. Further, what right does a police officer, or the state for that matter, have to decide which outings in my car are pleasurable and which are not?

As most antique car owners I’m sure can attest, every time I get behind the wheel of my 1972 BMW, it’s a pleasure. Each judge who heard my appeals seemed to agree.

However, the ambiguity of the current law forces us owners who don’t have cars that would satisfy modern-day safety standards to exploit the loophole.

I’m not mad at the officers for ticketing me because I believe they thought they were enforcing the law correctly. I’m just upset at Virginia lawmakers who have instituted such a dubious law.

KEITH WOJCIECH

Vienna

Not the old ‘Dukes’

Kudos to Ben Jones for his boldness to speak out against Hollywood’s sleazy remake of the “Dukes of Hazzard” (“Cooter puts up his ‘Dukes,’” Culture, yesterday).

I grew up watching “The Dukes of Hazzard” on TV. Actor John Schneider was my middle school crush, and I had a poster with him standing next to the General Lee on my bedroom wall.

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