Doppelgänger?

Sir,
I applaud DSJ’s highlighting of the vandalism being perpetrated on Multi-Union II and Tarf II (Motor Sport, October 1988), and suggest that it might form the basis of a campaign to ensure that the cars which will emerge will never be recognised as genuine by any organising club or body. This might go some way to protecting other cars which may be threatened.

I believe, from comments quoted in another magazine, that the rationale behind such vandalism is that a car such as the Multi-Union enjoyed two distinct careers and identities, and therefore is a Doppelganger. We are asked to believe that a service is being rendered by restoring the two distinct identities.

This is a little like a grown man demanding to travel half-fare on a bus on the grounds that he once had the career and identity of a schoolboy. As for a car being a Doppelganger, it’s interesting to note that in Teutonic mythology a Doppelganger was a spirit duplicate of a living person, which had no actual substance.

Mike Lawrence, Chichester, Sussex