Indholdsfortegnelse for June 2025 i Classics World

I've recently been volunteered for the task of cleaning out a relative's garage on the rather tenuous basis that as I “know about cars” I may be able to sort the valuable from the not-so-valuable from the absolute junk. This kind of thing is always an exercise in diplomacy as you pick through someone else's hoard of “might come in handy” detritus and inevitably throws up some amusing finds. Who, for example feels the need to keep a box full of rope offcuts just slightly too short to be useful? Or several more boxes full of electrical cable, most of it domestic wiring bearing long out of date colour coding? “You do,” was the swift and burning response from Mrs W and yes, she may have a point there… although…

The latest ‘restomod’ MG from Frontline, the MGA Factory Edition, marks 70 years since the launch of the original MGA. It's the lightest and most refined car in Frontline's portfolio to date, combining classic aesthetics with modern engineering. The car made its debut at the 82nd Members’ Meeting at Goodwood on April 12–13. Weighing just 815kg, the MGA Factory Edition is powered by a choice of naturally aspirated 2.0-litre (225bhp) or 2.5-litre (290bhp) Duratec engines. Both units feature individual throttle bodies, stainless steel exhausts, tuned camshafts, and a modern ECU. These are paired with Frontline's renowned five-speed manual gearbox. Developed entirely in-house, the chassis has been significantly updated. The original leaf springs have been replaced with a fivelink rear suspension system and a limited-slip differential. Uprated shafts, bearings, front telescopic…

The recent Japfest show at Silverstone on Sunday April 13 proved a roaring success for the iconic celebration of Japanese machinery, with a huge 25,000 people attending and some 4000 club and display cars on show. With tickets sold out in record time, and inaugural campsite packed to capacity, it's indicative of a surge in interest for Japanese classics – something also demonstrated by the classic auction market. Clearly, fans are not afraid to make use of these often rare and valuable retro and classic cars, either – the track time that allowed owners the chance to drive on the iconic Silverstone circuit was all but sold out in advance and saw the track filled with everything from Toyota MR2s to rally-spec Subaru WRXs and, of course, a plethora of…

We're Capri fanatics really,” laughs Simon Williams by way of explaining how this rare special edition Jaguar XJ-S came into his life several decades ago. At the time, Simon's dad Gordon had three of the iconic Fords already and Simon had acquired his first back in 1990, but Williams senior had always hankered after an XJ-S. And why not? In some ways, the Jaguar is a logical step up from the Ford and they share many similarities: both are derived from their makers’ volume selling saloons, both were more costly and less practical than the four-door version but both major on style and performance. And if you like your performance motoring to be done while looking down a long bonnet then both will do the job very well. Finally having…

The image which floats to mind when TVR is mentioned depends largely on your age: older readers will be thinking of Vixen and 3000M, while those in their 20s or 30s will be seeing visions of the curvaceous Cerbera and Griffith or the edgy Tamora. To anyone who was a teenager in the ‘80s though, it's the wedges which define TVR. The ‘wedge’ TVRs began with the Tasmin coupe launched in 1980, running a tubular spaceframe chassis developed from that of the earlier M-Series cars carrying a striking body styled by Oliver Winterbottom of Lotus Eclat fame. Initially the Tasmin was powered by Ford's 2.8-litre Cologne V6 familiar from the Capri, although a short run of cars was also produced with the 2-litre Pinto. When Peter Wheeler assumed control of…

Last time, we left off with ‘Red Lego Brick’ - as my family have rather unkindly christened my Volvo 240 estate - in roadworthy condition with an MoT test pass as evidence that it met the safety requirements. However, given that the car's recent service history was a tad patchy, and it had hardly been used having had little use in the year or so prior to my taking ownership, I decided that a bit more going-over might be wise. First though, an intermittent running problem arose. Sometimes, and seemingly at arbitrary times, the car would not restart when warm; irritating to put it mildly. It is, however, a common Volvo weak spot, and once you know the likely cause, it's a dead-easy fix. Nine times out of ten, this…

One of the most misguided attempts to peddle a US-market design to British customers, the Pacer was imported by a private firm and converted here to right-hand drive. Aside from the car's comedy dimensions – longer than a Cortina and wider than a Silver Shadow – the Pacer had some serious drawbacks on British roads. The first was its asymmetric bodyshell, with the US-market passenger door being larger than the driver's door, which ended up reversed for right-hand drive cars. The conversion involved some truly scary engineering: the steering gear was left in place and a simple chain connected it to the relocated steering wheel! Where the Cherokees won European sales by being European in flavour, the Wrangler sold on its unashamed American character. Sold in right-hand drive from 1996,…

The XF was a huge change of direction for Jaguar. It ushered in a new era of styling, of interior ambience, technology and modernity that was all forward-focused, rather than looking to the past to maintain tradition. When Ian Callum took over as Jaguar's design director in 1999, he took Jaguar's entire design team into a room with all the Jaguar saloons from the MkVII onwards lined up. For each successive generation, he indicated its revolutionary styling and how each Jaguar saloon car changed, became sleeker, was made sharper and challenged convention. The S-Type facelift in 2004 followed this trajectory, but its ultimate replacement had to be much more modern to keep buyers interested. The car that eventually came out of the design studio to replace the S-Type was, due…

MotoFest Coventry festival, which celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2024, will take a break for 2025. However, there will still be activity, with a smaller weekend of events to be held on Saturday May 31 and Sunday June 1. Many popular elements of the big festival will still be featured including the impressive classic vehicle displays in Broadgate, Coventry Concours in the Cathedral Ruins, and live motorsport in the Autotest Arena in Gosford Street under the famous Ring Road. The weekend will fire up with the Motorcycle Ride-in, though the Ring Road will be fully open to regular traffic this year. This will be quickly followed by One Big Alarm which will feature on both Saturday and Sunday. The parade of police and emergency vehicles from around the world has…

Visitors can sit pretty in the classic cars that were once street furniture at Beaulieu's newest attraction, We Had One of Those, which was opened to the public on April 5. Located just outside the National Motor Museum, the new display is an interactive, hands-on tribute to the vehicles, gadgets and everyday objects that shaped life from the 1960s through to the 2000s and beyond. Among the motoring icons featured are a Morris Minor, an original VW Beetle and the oft-maligned Austin Allegro, plus newer classics that were once street furniture, including a 1980s Mk2 Vauxhall Cavalier, a 1990s Ford Mondeo and an MG ZS from the 2000s. Visitors will be actively encouraged to get involved with the cars; open the doors, sit in the seats, get their hands on…

The UK loves convertibles for some reason, despite the fact that our weather is always the butt of everyone else's jokes. Our summers are somewhat fleeting, so it makes sense that we'd want to make the most of those hot days when they do appear; a soft top is the perfect way to do just that. And, if you're a fan of the classics, there are few better ways of soaking up the sun out on the road than in a BMW E30 Convertible. We could wax lyrical about the E30 3 Series for days on end because it's a classic icon loved the world over. There's so much to love about this car, from that angular yet elegant ‘80s styling to the quad round headlights, the diverse range of…

1950s Here in Britain, Ford had traditionally been seen as a maker of smaller, basic cars but as austerity gradually declined in the postwar period, attention turned to creating new products. To achieve this end, Ford in Britain gained new resources and with them the autonomy to pursue its own development work. Ironically, this meant that Ford's British and European products could embrace new technologies resisted by the conservative Dearborn management and the US carbuying public. Cars like the 100E would give Ford a new, modern face while the Consul and Zephyr saw it branching out into more upmarket segments. 1953 100E Where the 103E Popular was old fashioned, the new 100E series was fresh and modern looking, apeing the MacPherson struts and unitary construction of the Consul despite being…

Once touted by chairman William (later Lord) Rootes as a future ‘General Motors of Europe’, the Rootes Group comprised the Hillman, Humber, Singer, Commer, Karrier, Sunbeam, Darracq and Talbot marques so how did it all go so terribly wrong, ending its days as a collection of dormant badges owned by a foreign maker? Central to the Rootes demise is the era of ownership by Chrysler, which was at once both the saviour and the downfall for the business. The American car making giant had originally built up a stake in Rootes during the late ‘60s and it seemed like a mutually beneficial idea: Rootes was starved of the cash needed to develop new models and Chrysler wanted to create its own European outpost just like its domestic American rivals Ford…

Today, most of the big British car firms have found themselves creating electrified cars under new ownership to keep up with shifting legislation, customer tastes and customer demand. Lotus has embraced EVs to keep the doors open, MG has been repositioned as a budget-friendly brand (save for its Cyberster halo model), and Jaguar is set to take a big step upmarket with an entirely new electrified take on its products. A quarter of a century ago, however, decades of experience were being filtered into creating some of the best sports cars the world had ever seen – often against a backdrop of financial uncertainty and with plenty of ingenious engineering solutions. What follows is a collection of our absolute favourite modern classic sports cars from this era, each arguably one…

Taking on a highperformance coupe such as our BMW 335i can seem like a daunting and potentially expensive prospect. However, as we've discovered, the work involved in servicing the engine and brakes and replacing the suspension hasn't been as complicated as we'd anticipated. Replacing the headlight was more frustrating than technically demanding. We've also found the range of tools required to work on this car hasn't involved anything special and, in many cases, a Clarke cantilever toolbox containing the usual assortment of spanners, sockets, screwdrivers and pliers has been all that's needed. We're confident that our 335i is in a better state than when we bought it, although it's a typical project car that can go on being improved, so there are some modification plans already underway, which will appear…

The original ‘baby’ Benz, the A-Class, comes of age this year, marking 21 years since its debut and 20 since it went on sale in the UK. Codenamed W168, it had a difficult launch. After being brilliantly well-received by the world's motoring media on the press reveal, it fell, quite literally, at the first hurdle. Swedish magazine Teknikens Varld subjected all of its road test cars to what it called the ‘Elk Test’, simulating an evasive manoeuvre to swerve around a moose that idly sauntered onto the carriageway. Granted, this is hardly likely to happen here on a quick nip down to Waitrose for a bag of quinoa, but nevertheless it caused a storm of bad publicity, making the national TV news in Sweden, Germany and the UK, and leading…

A huge stash of barn-find classics is set to go under the hammer in South Gloucestershite on June 28, comprising a collection of over 170 hugely varied cars amassed over many years by a single owner. The vendor now feels it's time to move them on, and has instructed Tewkesbury firm F.M. Hutchings to offer the cars and much associated paraphernalia for public auction. Among the images, we could spot various Mercedes, a JensenHealey, a Golf GTI Cabriolet, a Triumph TR7, an Alfa Spider, Porsche 924 and 944s, a TVR Chimaera, a host of Peugeot 205s, various Jaguars including an XJ-C, Land Rovers, MGBs and various pre-war cars. We also spotted an Aston Martin DBS and a 1960s Cadillac Eldorado. There are also tractors, signs and much more. The cars…

Mercedes-Benz has confirmed that the A-Class will be discontinued after 2026, ending its nearly 30-year production run. The decision, revealed by Mercedes’ chief technical officer Markus Schäfer, is driven by the company's focus on globally popular models, particularly in key markets like the USA and China. First introduced in 1997, the A-Class marked Mercedes’ move into the mass market, featuring an innovative flatfloor design that provided exceptional rear legroom. However, its unconventional styling and infamous failure in the ‘elk test’ hindered its success. The secondgeneration model of 2004 retained a similar design and although much-improved, still struggled in sales. In 2012, the third-generation A-Class adopted a more conventional hatchback design, aligning with premium rivals like the Audi A3 and BMW 1 Series. This shift brought greater success, along with high-performance…

EMAIL: CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK I enjoyed reading the Space Race review of high-performance estate cars in May's Classics World (p113), though I'm curious as to why the Saab 9-5 Aero wasn't included? Moving on to Paul Wager's summary of the Rover P5B in the same issue (p36), Paul contemplates the fascinating dilemma facing buyers choosing between the big V8 Rover and the then-new Jaguar/Daimler XJ. As a schoolboy in the mid-seventies, I clearly remember a friend's father deliberating whether he should buy a (used) Rover 3.5 litre or a second-hand Daimler Sovereign 2.8. I recall he test drove the Rover one Saturday morning, and then the Daimler the following weekend. I was given the full debrief by his enthusiastic son at school on Monday morning. Being the motoring authority which we –…

Jaguar XJ-S A grand tourer with understated elegance, the XJ-S combines luxury with a plenty of power regardless of engine choice Aston Martin DB7 The car that saved Aston, the DB7 fused XJ-S underpinnings with modern style, setting the tone for the brand's modern era LAST MONTH'S WINNER Last month's winner was the Lotus Elan, beating the AustinHealey Sprite pretty comprehensively. Here's just some of what you had to say: @kramnam4716 Owned both. The Midget is tough as old boots, the Lotus more sublime and subtle but delicate too. Midget/Sprite very underrated @bugeye23 My Bugeye is lonely in the garage, I'll take the Lotus! @colrhodes377 I'm cheating, I'll take both! Let us know which you'd pick and why at classics.ed@kelsey.co.uk – we'll publish our favourite replies in the next issue along…

Writing about the classic car market for a living we're often asking ourselves “how bad could it be?” every time a modern classic exotic gets hammered away at auction for a seemingly knock-down price and recently we've seen a few Porsche 928s offered at temptingly low reserves. You don't need us to tell you that Porsche's front-engined V8 grand tourer is a mighty beast with towering performance and styling which still stands the test of time… but you also don't need us to tell you that accepted wisdom suggests that Porsche ownership can also be crushingly costly when things go wrong. But does it have to be that way? So often in the world of modern classics we discover that a bit of hands-on expertise and a lot of confidence…

With ‘wedge’ profiles all the rage in the 1970, TVR tooled straight edges and ran with them for a series of models that would run into the early ‘90s. The 400SE was effectively the swansong for the wedge series, and this 1989 convertible is a showwinning example of the breed. Resplendent in Formula Red with magnolia leather, a new wooden dash and red carpets, the car has been meticulously restored and comes with an abundance of service history. Its nature as a show car means there's also an extensive list of modifications, even if not immediately obvious from the outside. The 4.0-litre Rover V8 has been breathed upon by Andy Rouse and features upgraded pistons, extensive head work and numerous supporting modifications to enable an output of circa 300bhp. Further…

Peter has been a classic car journalist for nearly 40 years, and is a past editor of Practical Classics, Car Mechanics, Classic Car Weekly and Classic Car Buyer. These days he writes mainly about old lorries as editor of Classic & Vintage Commercials, but old cars remain his first love. MY FLEET 1949 RILEY RMB 1955 MG ZA MAGNETTE 1958 HILLMAN MINX 1965 MORRIS MINOR TRAVELLER 1970 ROVER P6 3500 1990 VOLVO 240 ESTATE 1992 ROVER 827 COUPE While work has been progressing in my workshop on the Riley RM and Volvo 240 estate, over at Usher Classic Restorations Andy Usher has been burning a certain amount of midnight oil on getting my MG Magnette ready for the road. There were two basic issues outstanding; one concerned the engine, the…

Volkswagen's PR machine did fine work last year pushing the fact that the very first Golf came off the line in Wolfsburg's famous Hall 54 on March 29, 1974 and most commentators have been quick to contrast the front-drive hatch with the rear-engined air-cooled cars on which the brand was founded. The accepted version of events tells us that the Golf was the car which saved the company from its reliance on the Beetle and yes, there's a grain of truth to that but it wasn't the first Volkswagen of the modern era by a long way. Before the Golf, there came the Passat which was unveiled in May 1973 and arrived in UK showrooms in August, but even that wasn't the first front-engined, water-cooled VW: that honour goes to…

1992 Renault 19 16v Cabriolet • Classic Car Auctions, March 22-23 £5850 Surely unique on the market was this 1992 Renault 19 16v Cabriolet. Smart in Glacier White and boasting a fresh mohair hood, this original UK car showed just 54,000 miles and earned itself an £8000-£10,000 estimate which it failed to get close to – we've no doubt its new owner is very happy indeed. 1994 Renault Clio Williams • Classic Car Auctions, March 22-23 £25,312 This 57,000-mile 1994 Renault Clio Williams sold for £25,313 despite the need for recommissioning after a decade in storage, confirming continued collector interest in this hot-hatch icon. Interestingly, a Clio Williams 2 elsewhere in the sale with a few mods and 113,986 miles on the clock sold for £7,875. 1990 Volkswagen Golf GTI…

It's likely that price would have been the main thing that dissuaded buyers when the Lexus IS F arrived in the UK in 2008. At a jawdropping £50,650, even those keen not to buy a BMW M3, Audi RS4 or sporty AMG Merc would have thought twice before opting for the brutally quick Japanese alternative. A decade and a bit on, however, and that particular stumbling block isn't as relevant, with prices now much more affordable. When it comes to bang for your buck – assuming you can cope with a mid-20s mpg figure – it's a performance saloon with a difference that offers great value for money. From its aggressive stance to the heated, electrically operated leather seats, the F is a very different car to the IS 250.…