Indholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Classics World

The Kop Hill Climb organisers have announced that the most recent festival, held during September in Princes Risborough, raised £107,000 for local charities and good causes. This means that the event, which is run entirely by volunteers, has now raised the very impressive amount of £977,000 since its revival in 2009. The distribution of funds raised to those local charities and community projects will happen in the New Year. Next year’s festival dates are September 16th and 17th, when the organisers hope for a record year to take the total past the magical million.…

Tickets for the 2023 Donington Historic Festival on 29th/30th April are now on sale, with earlybird prices offering extra savings on discounted advance tickets until 31st January. The Donington Historic Festival offers a wealth of on and off-track entertainment for spectators, with two days jam-packed with world class race action, track displays and parades, an open-access paddock and pitlane walks, a trade village, plus the presence of hundreds of classic cars in displays staged by dozens of car clubs. Earlybird ticket prices start at £22 for a one-day adult (16+) entry, with discounts for teens aged 13-15. Under 13s are admitted for free, and the event features free car parking. For further information and tickets visit www. doningtonhistoric.com…

Growing up in the 1960s in the family's wholesale fruit and veg business, Mike Marchant’s enthusiasm for anything mechanical started in his school days when he was able to explain the workings of an engine to his classmates, drawing the explanation on the blackboard as he talked them through it. After leaving school in 1966, he did spend three months as a trainee mechanic at Manfields, a Vauxhall dealership in his home town of Brighton, but with a strong influence from his father, he was destined to go into the family business. That had its compensations because the wholesale market his dad worked at was a 2.5 acre site with granite-topped paving, making it an ideal off-road practice ground where Mike got his first taste of driving. He knew that…

With two replacement window regulators and new door cards to fit along with a dodgy door lock to fix, we turn our attention from rough running to interior trim. ‘They’re not available brand new’ were the words that we didn’t want to hear when we tried to order a new pair of window regulators for our MGB GT. Fortunately, Mech Spec came to the rescue as they still have some secondhand spares and luckily had a couple of window regulators in stock for twenty quid each. We discovered they were from a later B, so we needed new winder handles which we bought from Moss, along with a couple of new door cards and all the plastic clips that secure them in place (our old clips were brittle and most…

On the 8th October 1963, Rover’s managing director William Martin-Hurst told the press: ‘Into this car we have put all our engineering know-how and skills.’ The P6 represented an investment of £10,600,000, including a new factory built at Solihull, a sum which used around 80% of the company’s capital employed at that time. It also created a new form of executive motoring. Rover initially considered a replacement for the cheaper P4 models in September 1956, while the upmarket 105R /105S were to be succeeded by the 3-Litre P5 due to be introduced in 1958. David Bache was responsible for the styling, and he aimed for ‘a simple classical form, devoid of all superfluous ornament.’ Management rejected an early plan for a Citroën DS-style front and also ruled out the ideas…

Last issue, I concluded my editorial introduction by saying that there could be scope for us to feature something newer alongside the current MGB GT, Land Rover Safari, Fiat 500 and Vanden Plas 1750 projects, (the latter two of which are yet to start in the magazine,) and inviting your suggestions for suitable candidates. Well, that spurred long-time friend and contributor Roger Parker to suggest a Suzuki Wagon R. ‘The first generation from 1993 to 1998 is a box on wheels not unlike the Panda,’ he wrote, ‘but my father-in-law had one for over ten years before he died and it was a surprisingly competent runaround. When the time came to sell it on in 2010, I didn’t have to do any welding, even though it was of an age…

The most recent royal car sold by Silverstone Auctions was Princess Diana’s black Ford Escort RS Turbo which made a world record price of £730,000. They are now offering another royal vehicle at their sale to be held at Race Retro on February 25th at Stoneleigh Park – aSeries 1 Land Rover. This royal 4x4 was built in late 1953 and registered on the royal number sequence NXN 1 in early 1954, the 11th example from that year. It has a production chassis number, but is considered a pre-production build. Unique features include doors, body, roof, bumpers and twin rear doors to name but a few. Dispatched to Stratstone London on 3rd July 1953, the newly proclaimed Queen had the Land Rover shipped to her beloved Balmoral estate. NXN 1…

This story goes back a long way. My dad and my step-mum met at the 62 Car Club in Scarborough, so I was brought up with an interest in cars, going to watch rallies and helping them on events. That club was mostly about rallying, but of course everybody in it had an interest in cars generally. I would have been going there from about the age of ten, but even before that I was always a bit of a tomboy, much happier playing with Dinky Toys than dolls. Dad was a big Ford man. I remember him having Mk2, Mk3 and Mk4 Cortinas. I used to hate burning my legs on the hot vinyl seats in summer when I got in wearing shorts after the car had been sitting…

During the nasty cold spell in December I’ve been enjoying driving Lily, my 1967 Morris Minor – with its uprated heater it is lovely and warm. Unfortunately, a while ago I lost a set of keys and as a result have been unable to lock the boot. Conscious that a lot of tools and spares could easily be stolen, I set about fixing this. I could have bought a new lock for about £45, but that seemed a bit steep when I could get a key cut for a few pounds. Of course, finding out which key I needed was slightly more tricky. I decided to try to find one that would fit one of the three boot handles we had in store. Sometimes the key code is stamped on…

ART3 WITH THANKS TO... This work on our Land Rover was carried out by Tony at TW Autos in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire. Tel: 01733 341188 You don’t buy a Land Rover for ride comfort – as a utility 4x4 designed to shoulder half a ton of cargo for many thousands of miles across rugged terrain, durability and capacity take precedence over suppleness, and even the later generations with coil springs allround can have a harsh and fidgety ride by comparison to a fairly sporty saloon car. The Series models, with axles hung by four semi-elliptic leaf springs (technology that was little evolved from that found on a stagecoach or farm cart) are certainly not winners in the ride department. But that doesn’t mean things can’t be improved, and it certainly doesn’t…

Afew years ago I finally shook myself free from serial ownership of diesel-engined VAG products. There had been a couple of great moments during this period, but for the main I had been driving machinery best dubbed worthy-but-dull. The nadir was an incredibly tedious VW Touran, which I fantasised about replacing for every single mile I drove in it. When its clutch was about to fail, I shuffled it away on eBay and vowed to replace it with something I actually liked. Sadly, the available budget was extremely tight, thanks to the chaos of a recent marital implosion and consequent sole parenting. I pondered hard, wondering what on earth would give me reliable transport, decent fuel economy and an engaging ownership experience, all for very few pounds sterling. Then I…

The TRUTH about... the BMC Mini Imagine that you are a car manufacturer in the 1960s and you have recently introduced a model which is selling like hot cakes at home and abroad, winning motor races and rallies and, despite being a small economy model, has transcended the class structure, becoming so fashionable that it is being driven by everyone from the district nurse to the A-list celebrity and even royalty! As a manufacturer you’d have it made, wouldn’t you? The money would be pouring in, enabling you to invest in new models and modernise your manufacturing facilities so that you could consolidate your position as a leading world car-maker. Unfortunately, in the case of the BMC Mini things didn’t quite work out like that. Selling lots and lots of a…

GOT A STORY TO SHARE? EMAIL IT TO CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK OR POST IT TO CLASSICS MONTHLY NEWSDESK, KELSEY MEDIA, THE GRANARY, DOWNS COURT, YALDING HILL, YALDING ME18 6AL Hagerty has revealed the 10 cars selected as the 2023 UK Bull Market List stars. For this annual compilation, experts from the Hagerty Valuation Team identify cars from all eras which offer a great ownership experience, while also using their industryleading market data to determine which of those models may appreciate in value. The Hagerty Bull Market is aimed at people who want to find, buy and drive a classic or modern classic with the potential for a return on their investment, but the standout advice is always to buy a car you like first and foremost and if the car later delivers…

DO YOU HAVE A PRODUCT OR SERVICE YOU’D LIKE FELLOW CLASSIC CAR ENTHUSIASTS TO KNOW ABOUT? GET IN TOUCH BY EMAILING: CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK TRIUMPH TR COLD AIR INTAKE FLAP Price: £22 British Motor Heritage has introduced the centrally-mounted intake flap that allows cold air to be drawn into the passenger compartment which was a standard fitment on all TR4, TR4A, TR5, TR250 and TR6 models with chassis numbers CC or CP. The replacement product is carefully assembled at the BMH plant in Witney before being transported to Northamptonshire to receive a top quality electro-coated paint finish. Part no.705242, it is available now from Triumph specialists nationwide. Details of BMH’s many other replacement parts for the Triumph TR range, as well as those for the Spitfire, GT6 and Stag models, can be…

Amid the clutter on my bedroom mantelpiece is a framed photograph. It is a black-andwhite image, a little grainy but quite nicely composed. In it, a car is being driven across a field. Mud is flying from the wheels, and the driver is clearly pressing on. The picture was taken sometime in the early 1960s, at an autocross event in the Midlands. The car is an MGA and its driver is my father. Autocrossing was big back then. Its popularity had swelled during the 1950s as it was an accessible and affordable way to participate in motorsport. Unlike circuit racing it was relatively safe as cars ran separately from each other, so there was a good chance that you’d be able to drive home after the event, which was welcome…

After the ravages of World War Two, with European economies in ruins and raw materials in short supply, entrepreneurs looked for ways of providing motorised transport at its most basic level. Often this was a small motorbike with a simple two-stroke motor, but not everybody was either willing or able to ride one of those on a day-to-day basis. In Italy, Piaggio moved one step away from this most basic of starting points when it unveiled the Vespa scooter, its curved front protecting the rider from mud and the metal body shielding the grubby mechanicals from view. Others took this one stage further, adding a third wheel to create a vehicle that straddled the divide between car and bike. In many ways this was merely reviving a tradition of cycle…

In one of my recent columns I discussed the merits of various sports cars and I denigrated the Z3 a bit. Not because it’s a bad car (it’s not) but because in BMW speak, the Z stands for Zukunft or ‘future.’ In the case of the Z1, that epitaph was genuinely true – plastic composite construction, the first iteration of the Z rear axle and so on. Fearsomely expensive to build and about the same cost as a Porsche 911 to buy, it was a ‘look what we can do’ moment. In contrast, the Z3 was the money-maker, built to be a big seller. And it did indeed fly out of the door – in the end it was the second best-selling small sports car after the MX5, and BMW…

►Triumph Herald According to the caption on the back of the photograph, this rather weather-beaten Herald Coupé was being driven by Annie Soisbault and Renee Wagner, but I would defer to the late Graham Robson who says that YWK 534 was driven on its one and only Works outing (the 1960 Monte Carlo Rally) by Annie Soisbault and co-driver Annie Spears. Although the pair did not qualify as finishers, Graham did point out that they gained maximum publicity by turning up at the start and finish with Soisbault's pet cheetah curled up on the back seat! These early Heralds only had 948cc of course, but while the saloon made do with just 34.5bhp, the Coupé was at least finessed up to 42.5bhp – clearly half a bhp is important at…

Ican’t recall exactly what month of the year my passion for Alfasuds began, but I can pin it down to the spring of 1983. That’s now 40 years ago – blimey! At that time I was mad into Minis and I even had one, a rusty hand-painted black 1967 850. But in early 1983 we moved from Somerton to Bucklebury near Newbury and the Mini made its final voyage to Smiths scrapyard whilst I was at school. Upon my arrival in Bucklebury Slade, I did what I always did and went out on my bike looking for rubbish cars, and I sure found some. Where there is now a million quid mock tudorbethan thatched residence of many bedrooms, there used to be an old forge with a row of scrap…