Letter: On the road

Sir: Mark Ormiston (letter, 9 January) is incorrect in assuming that classic cars are fuel-hungry. My 1946 MG regularly achieves 40mpg and comfortably reaches the exhaust emission standards of the last cars built without catalytic converters.

Since the fuel/air mixture of catalyst-fitted cars is deliberately set rich to give lower nitrogen oxide levels and catalysts only function when they have reached working temperature, over a three-mile journey (the average car journey in the UK), starting from cold, a comparable, correctly tuned, classic car is almost certainly less polluting than a car fitted with a catalyst.

RICHARD BROWN

Heathfield, East Sussex