Let’s just get this said: the simple fact is, you’re either going to love or hate a restomod based on your own car leanings and prejudices. I love the Eagle E-Type Speedster for its elegance and beauty. On the other hand of the spectrum, I love the TWR Supercat for its unapologetic aggression. But I drew the line at the Evoluto 355.

Even though I wasn’t around when the original Ferrari 355 was launched, it’s a timeless supercar that wasn’t broken – and thus didn’t need fixing. I note the reimagining of this car was at the hand of Callum Design, proving even the best in the business sometimes can’t improve the original.

Restomodding is a popular trend, but if the quest for perfection continues, then original examples of the cars we’ve promised ourselves when we retire will become increasingly rare or unobtainable. We’ll be left with a warped perception of cars that weren’t perfect when they were made as intended by the original manufacturer.

Restomods are now coming so thick and fast, it’s hard to keep up – and with greater numbers comes a greater chance of poor execution. The term itself is constantly evolving, and the definition is being stretched to include retromodding, electromodding and now ‘continumodding’ – a coining one firm is so proud of, they’ve trademarked it. Soon, driveway project cars will be called ‘projomods’.

Personally, I like my cars to be flawed. Perfection is an illusion, and the best cars are fundamentally imperfect. The Modena Automobili Maserati Biturbo Shamal is a good illustration – by erasing the iconic Gandini slash-cut wheel arches and replacing the famous V8 with a present-day twin-turbo V6 and eight-speed automatic, how much authenticity remains? Losing the V8 perhaps isn’t the crime it might read as, given the Biturbo originated as a V6.

Sometimes things are best to be left how they were. You wouldn’t tear down the Mona Lisa and replace it with a digital version, would you? Part of the issue is that I’ve seen so many renditions of the same handful of cars that I’ve lost track of the Jaguar E-Type and Porsche 911 restomods launched in the last decade. I wonder when we’ll run out of performance cars to fettle, and whether we’ll soon be met with a 600bhp Fiat Multipla restomod.

All restomods walk a fine line between refining or removing a part of the car’s DNA. Another prime example of this is converting automatic or automated single-clutch cars to become manuals – which I didn’t find offensive until it was done to the Alfa Romeo 8C. Everyone has a car they see as impeccable, and the 8C is that car for me – inclusive of its semi-auto gearbox. Removing this takes away some of the charm and character of the car. In a world where unique character is becoming harder to define, why are we doing everything in our power to try and remove this, rather than embrace it? Every post of an E46 M3 CSL on the internet is riddled with folk stating how the gearbox ruins the car, conveniently forgetting BMW aren’t exactly famous for their manual transmissions in the first place.

Ultimately, restomods are like music: is a remix album ever truly better than the original release? Most of the time, no. So we sit back and listen to the original again, enjoying the memories once more. Like music, cars have a magical power to transport us back in time – or indeed, forward. The same applies to restomods: original is best. Personally, I’ve seen enough. Surely I can’t be the only one suffering from restomod fatigue.

So now I ask you, dear reader, to ponder which side of the fence you find yourself on. Do you find restomods to be an oasis among comparatively synthetic new offerings, or do you think that nostalgia is no substitute for evolution? No doubt in the 1980s, certain car enthusiasts were bemoaning the erosion of the connection between man and machine through the standardisation of the likes of power steering and anti-lock brakes.

Regardless of our opinions, there’s a good reason why restomods capture our imaginations: for many of us, they’re the stuff of dreams. Ask three car enthusiasts to describe their dream restomod, and you’ll get three entirely different answers. That’s why this particular argument is set to run and run. One man’s restomod is another man’s resto’god – what were they thinking?