Indholdsfortegnelse for May 2022 i Classic Car Mart

During the course of putting this issue together I’ve found myself driving a huge variety of machinery from Renault 4 to modern Bentley, no less than three of them being at least part made from plastic: Aston Martin DB7, Lotus Excel and Reliant Scimitar. Even after decades writing about old cars I still find myself surprised sometimes and this month it came courtesy of the revelation that the Reliant with its roots in the 1960s was actually a higher-quality product in most measurable ways than either the Aston or the Lotus, the quality of the fibreglass bodyshell noticeably better than the Lotus, while the panel gaps on the far more modern Aston with its composite wings and bootlid are the sot of thing that once you’ve had them pointed out…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) has confirmed that the carbon balancing scheme it unveiled last December is already proving a success, with 553,564 miles being carbon balanced by the UK’s classic car owners since launch. Although the carbon footprint of the historic vehicle movement is extremely small, with the entire community accounting for less than 0.25 per cent of total mileage on UK roads, the offer of carbon balancing has been well received. The FBHVC’s scheme offers individuals, clubs and events organisers a quick and convenient way to carbon balance their emissions via new areas of woodland in the UK. The woodland is planted using native species to best contribute to the local ecosystem, as well as bringing other benefits…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK A new company based in Turkey is offering a wide range of obsolete and new-old-stock parts for Austin Rover, Rover Group, MG Rover and Land Rover vehicles, with almost 10,000 listed at the time of its launch. MGLRParts has grown from the Umut Auto business, which began in 1989 and was an official Rover outlet from the mid-1990s. The company has been established by Gokhan Gencboyacı, proud owner of an R3-generation Rover 200 VVC, and his f riends Emre and Erdinc Kartal, Rover and Land Rover enthusiasts respectively. The new company’s website is now up and running, with all parts being delivered quickly by UPS. UKbased buyers will be liable for duty and handling fees, as with most imported parts. Among the wide…

One of the highlights of this years delayed Salon Rétromobile was the annual Artcurial auction which was so vast it took up a good proportion of the lower floor at Paris Expo. This was never going to be a sale for those looking for a bargain, but as a window into the top end of the market it made for a fascinating two days. The sale’s headliner was an ex-Works Porsche 907, which attracted a winning bid of €3.8m plus fees, nudging the total to almost €4.4m. However, most of the million-Euro results were achieved by Ferrari supercars, with a 1989 F40 smashing past its €1.3m-€1.6m prediction to reach a hammer price of €1.8m. That was still short of the figure achieved by a sub-1500km 1996 F50 though, which set…

RELIANT SCIMITAR GTE With the benefit of hindsight, if you had to come up with the recipe for the perfect classic performance car, it might well include a rust-proof bodyshell, a gutsy engine plucked from a major manufacturer, rear-wheel drive naturally and space for family members both two and fourlegged. A recipe which in fact sounds a lot like the Reliant Scimitar GTE. In many ways the Scimitar is the perfect illustration of the ingenuity of the British motor industry during the ’60s and ’70s, with the concept of the ‘lifestyle estate’ pioneered by the little Tamworth firm going on to be a popular niche for volume makers and emulated by everyone from Volvo to Lancia. The car would famously be popular even with the royal family, which is a…

Until the late Sixties, BMC’s sports car range was traditionally topped off by the six-cylinder ‘Big Healey’ models, a successful line that began with the Austin-Healey 100 and ended with the MkIII 3000. Those old soldiers couldn’t be kept in production indefinitely, however – thanks to increasingly strict safety legislation in the USA – but how should they be replaced? The unlikely answer lay in the form of a six-cylinder version of the immensely popular MGB, launched in 1967 as the MGC and available in both roadster and GT guises. There was even a plan to badgeengineer the MGC into an Austin-Healey, though that never reached f ruition and the idea was quietly dropped before the MGC’s launch. This made the new MGC a unique offering within the BMC sporting…

Enthusiasts might debate about whether it was the first ‘hot hatchback’ but few would argue that the Golf GTI defined the genre. The first two generations quickly garnered a legion of devoted followers, so the third model needed to be good. Unfortunately, those fans – and some of the motoring press – were left somewhat underwhelmed. On the plus side it had grown a little which improved interior space, and you could pick from three or five-door flavours, but slotting the 8-valve 115bhp 2.0-litre engine under the bonnet of this heavier model meant that it lacked the sparkle promised by that famous badge. And it didn’t help that many felt the Mk3 had taken a backward step when it came to solidity and quality. VW wasn’t deaf to the concerns…

A reader who’s looking for a Citroën as his next classic is appealing for help in tracking down a smart example of the company’s big success story of the 1980s. Midlands-based Mark Bradbury emailed us to explain more: “With a chronic hydropneumatic itch that needs scratching, I’m after a Citroën BX.” Mark is quite specific in his requirements and is appealing to fellow readers to help him locate the right car: “It must be on the road, in excellent condition, preferably petrol, and to have a reasonable history would be a nice extra. I’m not too worried about age or specification – the overall condition is the most important thing – but it must have power steering.” If any CCM reader is thinking of parting with any well-preserved Citroën BX,…

Charterhouse returned to the hustle and bustle of the Haynes Motor Museum in Somerset on March 3 for its first classic car sale of the year. Over 50 lots were put under the hammer, with a fascinating mixture of pre-war vehicles, projects, quirky classics, traditional favourites and modern prestige. One of the most intriguing lots of the day was a 1960 Daimler SP250 ‘Dart’, which had been tucked away since 1974 and was offered with no reserve. It was expected to sell for £7000-£10,000, but plenty of interest saw it hammered away for £11,000 plus fees. Much cheaper was a 1964 Triumph Herald 12/50 restoration project being sold in situ from a garage in Yeovil, which attracted a top bid of £850. Staying with Triumphs, a 1956 TR3 in need…

TRIUMPH SPITFIRE (1962-1980) The Spitfire was the first of Triumph’s range of small sporty cars based on the underpinnings of the Herald, and it turned out to be the most successful and the longest lived. The slinky wasp-waisted bodywork came from Michelotti and thanks to that Herald heritage it featured a spacious cockpit with generous elbow room and refinements like winding windows at a time when most rivals still used side screens. Power came from a twin-carb 1147cc version of the Herald’s OHV engine. A stylish, refined and fun to drive package, the Spitfire was an immediate success. More powerful engines were fitted from 1965, a f ront facelift and a fixed folding hood in 1967 and a rear facelift and a new fascia in 1970. This Spitfire MkIV (by…

As automotive niches go, the business of making supercars must be one of the most precarious, as proved by the number of brands which have come and gone over the years: marques like Cizeta, Iso and De Tomaso are mentioned only when the few survivors pop up at high-end auctions. The surviving marques have lasted the years only under the wing of a bigger volume maker: Ferrari and Maserati under Fiat, Lamborghini and Bugatti under the protection of the VW Croup and Lotus lurching from Toyota control to General Motors subsidiary, then Proton and finally Geely. Porsche meanwhile, is either the owner or a subsidiary of the VWGroup depending on which way you interpret the labyrinthine corporate manoeuvres which saw the two close-knit firms forge permanent ties. Perhaps the less…

The SD1 is something of an enigma. Although in fact much less advanced technically than the P6 it replaced, the car traded on its Daytona-inspired good lacks and hatchback versatility, further bolstered by the ‘halo’ appeal of the range-topping V8 engine to become a success for Rover. And this was despite being born in the darkest days of the industrial unrest which dogged the BL years. It even managed to win the coveted Car Of The Year award in the year after launch but in true BL fashion its success was hampered in the early stages by the firm struggling to meet demand: in 1976 the Rover/ Triumph market share went from the 2.3 per cent of the previous year to just 1.6 per cent, purely because of the shortfall…

Mk2 (1998-2005) If you can make do without the iconic pop-up headlights, the secondgeneration MX-5 makes for an interesting prospect. Tipping the scales at just over 1000kg, it remained true to the original’s lightweight, rear-wheel drive roots, yet added an array of key evolutions. The peppy 1.8 litre engine that you got in the Mk1 was kept on, however an increased compression ratio and reworked intake system meant that horsepower was upped to 140bhp, about thirty more than the lower-end 1.6 litre variant. The biggest changes came in 2001 however, when the MX-5 underwent a facelift. In addition to some aggressive ridges being added to the styling, the engine was bolstered with variable valve timing, and major updates were made to the platform underpinning it all. A stiffer chassis gave…

A company that specialises in restoring and upgrading classic Range Rovers has switched to a less damaging and more environmentally friendly stripping method. Having previously used sandblasting and chemical stripping during the early stages of restoration, Kingsley Re-Engineered now employs cryo dry ice cleaning – and will be offering the service to others from early April. According to the Oxfordshire-based firm, the abrasive solutions used on previous Range Rover projects have been harsh on metalwork, which in some cases meant the vehicles were too far gone to save. The company says that up to 70 per cent more panels could be saved using the cryo process compared with more abrasive stripping methods. Dry-ice blasting is a particle spray procedure that uses CO2 granulate as a spray agent. Unlike most other…

The Historics 2022 classic auction season got under way on March 12 with a wide variety of cars on offer, one of the highlights being a 1965 Austin Mini Cooper Mk1 that had covered just 100 miles since being restored – at a cost of £31,000 – to an exceptional standard. Finished in Almond Green with an Old English White roof, it was an outstanding example of one of the rarer Cooper variants and was expected to beat its £28,000-£32,000 estimate, although its eventual sale price of £47,040 surprised many at the auction. Another star of the sale was a 1968 Triumph TR5, superbly restored but also benefiting from period-appropriate engine tweaks and subtle external upgrades. Proving that a sympathetically modified classic can command a premium, it went under the…

Part of the appeal of this job is naturally the variety but even after three decades writing about old cars for a living, few days offer such an extremes as a Honda NSX and Renault 4. Having photographed and driven the pair within the space of just a few hours, we were idly contemplating the incongruous sight when it occurred to me that in one sense both cars are really very similar. Namely, in the sheer focus of their engineering and the way in which they were designed to do one job and do it very well. They also both follow a very minimalist philosophy, at least in the engineering sense: Honda’s hightech supercar took the fight to Ferrari with two fewer cylinders and rather less bulk, while being as…

Jaguar. It’s one of those brands that everybody in the classic car world seems to love. And there have been scores of historic models too, ranging from the bank robber’s favourite Mk2 to the XJ line, the raffish XK120 to the gamechanging E-Type and the grand touring XJ-S. And over time, Jaguar has repeatedly changed its remit – from sporting saloons to luxury lines, a wide range to a narrow one, mid market to top of the line. Many of its most iconic models have been cars which heralded changes in direction for the company. And each and every one makes for an excellent classic buy today. Whether you want a modern classic for daily duties or something special for Saturday sauntering, you’ll find a car for you with the…

Whereas the MGA was a fresh new design, the Triumph TR3 was more of a final evolution rather than a ground-up project. Its DNA differed little from the TR2, but there are nonetheless a few key differences. In fact, there are more noteworthy distinctions to be made between TR3s of different ages, unofficially referred to as the TR3A – like the car we present to you here – and TR3B. As a nod to the famous racing venue, the hue that this TR3 is presented in is known as ‘Sebring White’, and a manual gearbox with overdrive certainly adds to its sporting persona. Rust is obviously a major concern when buying cars of this age, but you can rest easy knowing that around £20,000 has recently been sunk into this…

It’s reckoned that some 80 per cent of MGA production was exported, with the USA being a particularly strong market and it’s there that this car was first sold. Any fears that it may be left-hand drive, however, can be immediately quashed. Having been brought back to its homeland in 1991, the MGA underwent a full restoration, including the process of converting it to right-hand drive for ease of use on British roads. Finished in a gorgeous shade of red, the car’s aesthetic qualities are enhanced by a cream-coloured leather interior, and period-correct stainless steel luggage rack. During its restoration, certain aspects of the car were tastefully modified too. The gearbox is now a Ford five-speed, the exhaust system has also been upgraded, while two additional spot lamps on the…