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An appeal court recently heard a case on whether a vintage car should be deemed authentic after a good number of its original components were replaced. An earlier decision to award a buyer following significant work was done on a 1930 Speed Six Bentley was considered unreliable by the appeal court.

The vintage car was a Bentley valued at £425,000 and was purchased in 2007 by Mercedes Brewer, a US businesswoman, from a notable dealer with the belief that it still had its original components.

However following her discovery, she was awarded £90,000 for damages from Stanley Mann, which maintained that she already knew of the repairs made on the vintage car before it was purchased.

The lawyers who represented Mr. Mann indicated that the sale of the vintage car as a 1930 Bentley Speed Six does not signify that all components were original as the description is not relevant to restoration work on the vintage car. The earlier decision was disapproved by Lord Justice Rix together with Lords Justice Lewison and Sullivan.

According to the judges, the Bentley Speed Six will remain as a Bentley Speed Six even though it was falling apart prior to being restored. The decision was accepted by Mr. Mann indicating that the earlier decision on the vintage car will have a significant effect of the antiques market.

Mr. Mann said that eighty-year-old vintage cars would require some components to be replaced at some point in time. The recent decision was favorable to the vintage car industry and if the earlier decision was sustain, the antiques market would be very much affected.

The legal tussle started when the Bentley was purchased by Mrs. Brewer almost five years before. The Bentley Speed Six was unveiled in the 1920s and is considered as the best vintage car that was produced by Bentley.

The vintage car offered 180HP due to its ix-and-one-half liter engine and was the most successful race car of Bentley as it won the Le Mans twice. According to Mrs. Brewer, the only original component of the vehicle was its chassis since the engine was reported rebuilt. The earlier decision was reached by Judge Anthony Thornton since the work on the vintage car was extensive enough not to call it a 1930 Bentley Speed Six Car

The decision on the vintage car was disapproved by the appeal judges since the evidence presented was misunderstood and the appeal judges regretted the results although the decision was made since there a loss of objectivity in the judge that made the earlier decision.