How to look after a classic that hardly gets driven: what museums do, step by step

If your classic sits for weeks between outings, the museums that look after the world's most valuable cars have already answered your question, and their answer is a choice. Either the car is kept fit to drive and is actually driven, or it is treated as an artefact, cleaned and stabilised and never run again. What kills cars is the middle ground, a vehicle that is neither maintained for use nor protected from decay.

The Porsche Museum sits firmly at the first end. Its own workshop employs eight certified technical specialists, and the museum says it sends over 750 vehicles from its collection to over 300 events in over 30 different countries every year, with each car prepared in the workshop before it travels so it can meet its original purpose, to drive. The Toyota Automobile Museum in Nagakute takes the same view on display cars. Its official description states that "almost all the exhibited vehicles are maintained in roadworthy condition", and that the museum frequently performs vehicle maintenance and rotates the items on exhibit to keep that condition.

Decide which car you own, then act like it

The other path is conservation. When the Porsche Museum prepared its 910/8 Bergspyder, it chose preservation over restoration under the Charter of Turin, and said only three of its roughly 640 vehicles have remained untouched since they were decommissioned. Museum director Achim Stejskal put it as "the focus is no longer just on restoring them to their original pristine condition". That car's engine was not to run again.

The method is worth copying even on a normal classic. Cleaning alone took a week, done with a moist air jet and a soft brush so that dirt came off without taking the surface underneath with it, because corrosion starts below the dust. Mechanical parts were treated with gun oil. Paint and the plastic bodywork got a wax coating. Flaking paint was tacked back down with heat from a converted soldering iron, using reversible adhesives. The materials specialist on the job, Dr Gundula Tutt, said "any substance I use can be removed again". For an owner, that is the test to apply before any work on an original car. Can the next custodian undo it.

The India part: E20 petrol, damp and dust

Fuel is now the biggest storage problem for an Indian classic. Autocar India reports that the nationwide E20 rollout was completed in April 2025 and that vehicles made before April 2023 were designed for lower ethanol blends, so compatibility varies. ARAI testing found no significant corrosion of metal components, but certain rubber compounds and plastics used in older vehicles deteriorated more than they did with E10. Ethanol is hygroscopic, so E20 is more open to water contamination if moisture enters during storage or handling. SIAM has reported chloride levels of 500 ppm in samples from vehicle tanks against an acceptable ceiling of 3 ppm.

Hagerty's guidance for older cars is to go one way or the other, either fill the tank and seal it or drain it fully before a long layup, because an air gap plus ethanol means condensation in tanks, lines and carburettors, and corrosion in brass, copper, lead, tin and zinc parts. Hoses and seals perish faster, so replacing fuel lines with ethanol-compatible material before storage is the real fix, with a stabiliser additive as support. Autocar India notes ethanol-free 100-octane petrol as an option for classics.

So the routine is short. Pick runner or artefact. If it is a runner, maintain it on a schedule and give it a proper drive, not a two minute idle. If it is an artefact, clean it carefully, protect the surfaces, use only reversible methods, and keep the fuel system dry. Then write down everything you did, because originality is what the museums have run out of.

Sources

• The Museum Workshop, Porsche Museum press kit
• The Porsche Museum is preserving the 910/8 Bergspyder, Porsche Newsroom
• About the Toyota Automobile Museum
• Worried about E20 fuel? We answer all your burning questions, Autocar India
• Everything you need to know about using E10 fuel with your classic car, Hagerty UK