Hot list of classic you can use every day

IN the biggest competition of the year in which there are no prizes, you have voted on what you believe is the most usable classic car.

110910 1969 Mercedes 280 SEC

IN the biggest competition of the year in which there are no prizes, you have voted on what you believe is the most usable classic car.

As usual there is the usual selection of smutty entries; a raft of long and detailed arguments justifying why the car you sadly invested in 10 years ago was a good buy and an unusual number from readers who spent time in their teens on another planet and are now showing the after-effects.

OK, let's get to the pick of the more rational votes.

Adelaide's George Kyprianou nominated his 1966 Alfa Spider Duetto. "It's driven from my home to the city of Adelaide about 3km one way on most days." I did query George if the short drive was the reason the electrics still worked but he pooh-poohed this. Most of you would have seen Dustin Hoffman driving a red Duetto in The Graduate. It was the last car Pininfarina did himself and they really are extraordinarily beautiful and extraordinarily attractive to rust in their lower regions.

Richard Carroll of Aspley in Queensland considered voting for the Rover P5B, Jaguars MK1 and MK2, MGB, Humber Hawk and Snipe, two-door XM and XP Falcons, the MG Magnette and Volvo P1800. "However, I dismissed these as too old, too dear, too complicated, too rare and not suitable as daily drivers."

Well done, Richard. I was worried there for a while. Richard went for a car he owned 20 years ago, a Triumph 2500 saloon.

"The Michelotti styling still looks good today and they are good for about 160km/h, and spares and servicing are readily available, plus they're as cheap as chips." These are really good, reliable cars with a close to bulletproof engine.

Along with about 300 other readers, Greg Collyer went for the Porsche 3.2 Carrera "of early 1980s vintage especially". Porsches from 1984-89 are great buying (I owned one). Just check for body repairs and make sure the service history is spot on.

Jon Faine, responsible for today's lunacy, voted for his own Jaguar E-type and mentioned that when he is not driving it he "slums it" in a 1974 BMW 3 Series.

Doug Coats voted for his 1970 Porsche 911S, saying it's probably quicker than most cars on the road today. Adelaide's Michael Zerman goes for his 1985 Peugeot 505 GTI series II with 335,000km, Pininfarina body and Belgian steel, but he says it handles as well as his mid-70s Ducati 750GTs.

Chris Wallace from Tassie didn't need to see The Graduate; he lived the movie in his series 1 E-type roadster. "It was 1973 and I was very much in love. One Saturday she took me to Grace Brothers in my E-type. We went to the mattress department where she tested various models. Finally she selected a soft Queen-sized model and we went to the loading area to collect it. The mattress fitted neatly over the windscreen and was lashed with string to the front overriders. Visibility started out poor but improved with speed."

The winning car and the best letter award goes to Chevron Island's Warren Hodson. Over 30 years he has owned Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Rolls-Royces and "a magnificent Borgward two-door roadster". In 1979 he bought a 1969 white Mercedes 280 SEC coupe with 200,000km on the clock. It has now done one million kilometres, won 15 major concours awards including a best of show and Warren still jumps in it every now and then for drives to Sydney.