Indholdsfortegnelse for November 2022 i Classic Car Mart

Forgive the personal anecdote, but I recently stretched my finances to facilitate a house move. And to fund some new household bits and bobs (as well as the mortgage), that means selling a car. Which, for someone who works on a magazine dedicated to trading classics, is something I’m not very good at. This time, there seemed like a perfect opportunity. I had a Mini to sell, and a good friend was looking for one. But then the doubts started; I began thinking about all the bits that could break, as well as recalling the memories I had from buying the car for a few hundred quid, restoring it when finances allowed and driving it all over Europe. The conclusion is that I can’t seem to sell a car I’ve…

The Heritage Skills Academy (HSA), an organisation best-known for running apprenticeships for young people within the historic vehicle industry at its Bicester Heritage and Brooklands Museum sites, is now offering a range of courses aimed at classic car owners of all ages. Based at the Bicester Heritage site in Oxfordshire and running over two days, each course is aimed at those owners who want to know more about classic vehicle maintenance but who don’t currently have the mechanical know-how. The HSA’s next Care For Your Classics course takes place on October 15-16 (from 10am to 4pm each day) and costs £355.55 all-in. Participants will learn the basics of changing oil, filters, plugs and all manner of general upkeep that they might normally entrust to their local garage. The HSA is…

Burlen, owner of the J40 Motor Company, has announced its acquisition of the Austin trademark for use on its pedal cars, allowing it to manufacture new models, parts and accessories under the Austin name. A new company known as Austin Pedal Cars is launching with immediate effect, with the existing J40 Motor Company becoming a sub-division as a J40-specific parts, accessories, events and experiences brand. A new Austin Pedal Cars website will be launched later this year. The first public appearance of Austin Pedal Cars will be at the 2022 Goodwood Revival, where an all-new J40 prototype continuation pedal car will be unveiled. Austin Pedal Cars has plans to launch a series of new Austin pedal car models over the coming years. Mark Burnett, Burlen’s managing director, said: “Austin as…

The Elan might not have been Lotus’s first sports car, but it’s the firm’s best remembered. It was born of a desire to develop a sports car that could be built – and thus sold – for less than the price of the Elite – which was priced to appeal to, well, the elite. While MG and Triumph had sewn up the mainstream market, the Elan was a more tailored sports car – acut above, with performance to match. That exclusivity and value has always meant that the Elan has been among the most prized and thus the most valuable of 1960s sports cars, and has represented the pinnacle of collecting achievement to hundreds of owners. Its image was boosted by television appearances too – what red-blooded male growing up…

F orfairly obvious reasons, the classic Mini doesn’t qualify as a hot hatch but there’s no arguing with the fact that in Cooper S guise it set the template for a small city car with unlikely speed. And via countless subsequent generations of GTI, GTE and GSi, the idea of a small car with giant-killing pace remains a popular one today. It was no surprise then that when the reborn MINI brand (all capitals, insisted BMW) appeared in 2001, there would be a performance model. Sure enough, it appeared the following year wearing the iconic Cooper S tag. Featuring a supercharged 1.6-litre engine, it had more than twice the power of the 1960s 1275cc version and is now increasingly finding favour with classic car enthusiasts. “TAKING THE ALREADY BRISK COOPER…

H avingbecome known for its rather fine saloons, including the stately P5 and innovative P6, Rover took rather a different path for its next executive car. The ‘Specialist Division 1’ had become a hatchback with its designer, David Bache, citing the Ferrari Daytona as a styling influence. In development since the early 1970s, the car was launched to an expectant public in 1976 and offered space and comfort in an affordable package. The SD1 went head-to-head with rivals such as the Ford Granada, Citroën CX and Opel Senator as well as premium models like the W123 Mercedes-Benz and BMW 5 Series – all of which still form the main alternatives. Unfortunately, the big Rover soon gained a reputation for poor quality, reliability issues and a propensity for alarming amounts of…

The August bank holiday weekend saw almost 30 Rover 200 Coupes gather at Millbrook Proving Ground, Bedfordshire, for a celebration of the model’s record-breaking runs at the same venue 30 years ago. It was in 1992 that a team of volunteers from Rover Group, including drivers, engineers and logistics experts, took two nearstandard, ex-prototype cars to Millbrook and broke 37 UK Land Speed Records, 36 of which still stand today. These included 156mph for the flying 5km distance and 138.43mph for the 24 hours, from a standing start. The recent commemorate event, jointly organised by the Rover 200 & 400 Owners’ Club and the Rover Coupe Owners’ Club, enabled owners to drive on the same high-speed bowl where the records were broken, albeit at rather more sedate speeds. `It was…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK A specialistonline sales site has revealed its latest Top 10 of the most searchedfor classics during the first six months of 2022 – with the Ford Escort once again topping the list having cropped up in more searches than any other model so far this year. Car & Classic reports that the Escort continues to be the model most searched for on its website, with RS2000 versions in particular proving as popular as they did in 2021. C&C’s online auctions confirm the same trend, with a Lisbon-based 1977 wide-arch RS2000 X-Pack attracting a winning bid of £37,500 back in June. Number two in terms of most searched-for cars is the BMW 3 Series, with almost half of BMW searches said to be for…

FIAT 500 (1957-1975) Smaller than the Topolino and 600 models that preceded it, the ‘Nuova’ 500 is largely recognised as the genesis of the proper city car, with its cheap price getting many Italians off their scooters and on to four wheels for the first time. Dante Giacosa’s superbly packaged creation initially boasted just 13bhp from its rear-mounted 479cc engine and was hamstrung by being an incredibly basic two-seater, but Fiat quickly improved it without upping the price. It added rear seats and extra chrome, while mechanical tweaks boosted power to a heady 15bhp. The 500 Sport introduced in mid-1958 saw an even bigger boost, with the enlarged 499.5cc motor good for 21.5bhp. What’s more, the car had been noticed by a certain Carlo Abarth – arelationship that began with…

“THEY SOLD IN HUGE NUMBERS AND BECAME PART OF BRITISH STREET FURNITURE” F orthose like me who grew up in the ’80s, then these two cars will be as familiar as Noel Edmonds, a Rubik’s cube or taping the charts off the radio on a Sunday night. By being small yet capacious, economical yet comfortable, the Vauxhall Nova and second generation of Ford Fiesta were exactly what mothers on the school run, local police officers or driving schools needed at the time. As a result, they sold in huge numbers and became part of British street furniture. If you didn’t have one, I bet you know someone who did; in my case it was a red Vauxhall that was owned by my older sister. Both arriving in the UK during…

THE MARKETPLACE THE CARS THE BEGINNING Giventhe diversity of a model line-up that now includes hatchbacks, saloons, estates, twoand four-door coupes, cabriolets, commercials and a truly bewildering assortment of SUVs, it’s hard to recall a time when Mercedes-Benz only made big cars. German rival BMW had shown that a prestige take on more compact models could be hugely successful, but Mercedes was almost two decades late to the party when it first launched the 190 series – codenamed W201 – at the end of 1982. Thankfully, the new model would prove to a massive hit regardless, becoming the first of what we now know as the C-Class, unlocking a new market segment for Mercedes, setting the trend for its new design language and selling to the tune of over 1.8…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK A report commissioned by a leading specialist insurer has concluded that the key to securing the future of the classic vehicle industry is to make “sustainable solutions and technologies accessible” – with synthetic fuels also playing a major role. Footman James’ Indicator Report highlights the changes that need to be made over the next 10 years in order to safeguard the classic vehicle scene and the industry that supports it. The sector has enjoyed strong growth in recent years, with estimated total spend rising from £5.5 billion in 2016 to around £7.2 billion now, according to the Federation of Historic Vehicle Clubs. But the world of motoring is in an era of rapid change, and the classic sector needs to adapt, says the…

It may not have been everyone’s cup of tea but there’s no denying that the creativity and skill that went into creating the outlandish show cars of the Max Power era deserves at least grudging praise even from those of us who prefer their cars a little more restrained. A select few on the Classic Car Mart team are even old enough to have worked in the car magazine industry when the modifying craze was at its peak. And for group editor Paul Wager, the Max Power Reunion event at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, over the August bank holiday weekend was a chance to relive his Escort RS Turbo days. Incredibly, enough of the former Max Power feature cars from the era have survived to create an impressive display,…

The height of summer – and particularly the school holidays – is traditionally a slow period for classic car auctions, while this year’s cost of living pressures look to be more significant than at any point in recent memory. Fewer sales have been taking place than at other times of the year, with some firms opting to miss the period altogether and wait until early autumn. The auctions that have gone ahead, however, have been in significant contrast to the prevailing conditions. Indeed, there was not much evidence of a struggling market when Silverstone Auctions held a star-studded sale as part of the Silverstone Classic event on August 27. Much of the talk ahead of it inevitably centred on the black Ford Escort RS Turbo used by Diana, Princess of…

B uyinga prestigious German convertible on the eve of what would ultimately prove to be one of the hottest summers on record surely seemed like a masterstroke. The UK is the biggest market in Europe for convertible car sales, despite our unpredictable climate. I too am a big fan of a drop top, having owned several over the years and continuing to do so with my Honda S2000. When it came therefore to buying a replacement for the Honda Acty Romahome, a low mileage, good condition BMW E36 323i convertible seemed like a no-brainer as my next step in the Great Classic Trade Up. However, for reasons we cannot fathom, it simply proved to be a really tricky car to sell on. One can only speculate the reasons. The market…

W henit comes to your first classic car, there are some key things to consider. Quite aside from the price, are you are going to farm out the maintenance or get your hands dirty doing it yourself? While the latter is certainly fun, there are limits, and even if you might have maintained cars in the past it’s unlikely that anyone but the most experienced will be able to look after – for instance – aJaguar XJ12 at home. But that shouldn’t stop you chasing your dreams, because there are several affordable and enjoyable classics that are perfectly suited to the home mechanic. And whether your tastes cover 1960s, ’70s or ’80s classics, our handy round-up should cover all interests. MGB There’s a reason that the MGB has endured as…

REPORTING ON: BENTLEY TURBO R Although I was responsible for acquiring our Bentley in the first place, I haven’t seen it for quite some time, so when one of our regular project car logistical puzzles saw me exchanging a Mk1 Golf for the Turbo R, I was keen to revisit the majestic experience. Since I last had it in my possession the car has gained a new steering rack and a rebuild of the rear brakes as part of a series in our sister title Classics, Monthly while editor of our Rolls-Royce and Bentley Driver magazine, Nigel Boothman, then looked after it for some time. It’s Nigel who takes the credit for getting the shift quadrant and selector lever to line up correctly, plus having the air conditioning gassed up…