Innehållsförteckning för Winter 2022 från Classic Car Mart

This one hasn’t always been plain sailing, but I’ve long been a fan of years ending in a ‘2’. It tallies with the one time my football team were champions of England, the year I was born and the year in which I met my fiancée, but also some very important automotive milestones – three of which apply to cars in this very issue. The first is the venerable MGB, launched back in 1962. There’s already been much fanfare about the car’s 60th anniversary and rightly so, but we couldn’t resist a chance to remind ourselves of how the MGB still makes a fine classic today – see page 18 for more. Some 20 years later, the motoring world also said hello to the Citroën BX and Ford Sierra. Granted,…

The latest version of Hagerty’s long-running Classic Index, which monitors insured values, sale prices and auction results throughout the UK, is reporting an average value increase of three per cent for 50 of today’s most popular classics over the last 12 months. But among the findings are some outstanding results, including significant price rises for the perennially popular MGB GT. Hagerty’s Classic Index continues to track 50 different models that it sees as representative of the enthusiast market. The last 12 months have seen the Classic Index rise by three per cent overall, with some cars rising more sharply and others falling back in value. Those that increased the most include the evergreen MGB GT, which rose by an impressive 16 per cent, while the Mazda MX-5 enjoyed a very…

ALFA ROMEO 105-SERIES COUPE (1963-1977) Based on the boxy Giulia Berlina of 1962, the Sprint GT was the first of the 105-series Guilia coupes to be launched. Featuring a 1570cc Alfa twin-cam engine, a five-speed gearbox and all-round disc brakes, it really helped to establish its manufacturer as a producer of sporting cars the working man could stretch to. What followed was a host of new variants, both up and downmarket. The short-lived GTC cabriolet arrived in 1965, and in 1966 the Sprint GT was replaced by Sprint GT Veloce, which was slightly more powerful and had some trim improvements. This in turn would be superceded by the 1750 Sprint GT Veloce (also known as the 1750 GTV) for 1968, plus a restyled nose to eliminate the ‘step front’ that…

While the BX was far from Citroën’s first medium sized family car, it was the first to make any serious headway in the British market. Buyers put off by the GS’s eccentricities took to the Peugeotinspired relative normality of the BX, and earned the brand a new legion of followers in the process. The Ford Sierra and Vauxhall Cavalier were able to appeal to the mass market, but the BX offered customers something that was refreshingly different while sharing enough parts with the Peugeot 305 to make ownership a painless proposition. Here at last was a Citroën with hydropneumatic suspension that wouldn’t see the company fleet manager having a heart attack, nor the family man failing to budget enough for its care. Advanced diesel engines only made the package more…

T heDolomite endured a rather bizarre gestation, even by British Leyland standards. Its roots began with the f ront-wheel drive 1300 of 1965, which spawned both the f ront-wheel drive 1500 and rear-wheel drive Toledo in 1970, and eventually the Dolomite. First driven by the press in 1971 but not put on sale until the following year due to a pay dispute with workers, the Dolomite mixed the Toledo’s rear-wheel drive platform with the 1500’s long-tail bodyshell. It used an 1854cc version of Triumph’s slant-four, overhead camshaft engine, which was funded by Saab and so had first appeared four years earlier as a 1.7-litre unit in the Saab 99. The 1850 was good for 91bhp, but genuine sports car performance arrived with the Dolomite Sprint of 1973. Engine capacity was…

Unusual looking thing, isn’t it? Designed by Shoji Takahashi and Naoki Sakai, the Figaro was one of Nissan’s ‘Pike Factory’ cars which included the Be-1, Pao and S-Cargo van and was launched at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show. Developed from the concept of ‘Nostalgic Modern’ according to the company, it was a feast of retro design cues and a car that turned heads quicker than most supercars. Just 20,000 were built, all of them in 1991 and for the Japanese market only, and such was its popularity that a lottery had to be held to pick the buyers. Underneath the eye-catching skin was the running gear from the Nissan March (Micra to us) with the turbocharged 1-litre four-cylinder engine driving the f ront wheels via a three-speed automatic transmission; 75bhp…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK The Historic & Classic Vehicles Alliance (HCVA), which represents the historic vehicle industry as well as classic car owners, is lobbying for changes to the UK’s Low Emission Zones. It is campaigning for the current exemption for vehicles registered as ‘Historic’ to be expanded, enabling all classics over 30 years old to enter cities without charge. The HCVA is reporting positive news from Scotland, where consultations on new LEZ schemes have been taking place. Transport Scotland has announced that Glasgow will ramp up its LEZ to private cars and other vehicles by June 2023, with Aberdeen, Dundee and Edinburgh having their own schemes in operation by summer 2024. However, Scottish cities are actively considering exemption from charges for classic vehicles over 30 years…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK The fortunes of Jaguar, one of Britain’s best-loved historic marques, have taken a new twist thanks to plunging European sales in 2022, which have seen it falling behind Alfa Romeo – acompany that’s famously had its own struggles. To the end of July, Alfa’s 2022 European new-car sales totalled 16,145, up two per cent year-on-year. This compares with 15,449 Jaguar sales, a figure that represents a massive fall of 41 per cent for the British brand. Like other manufacturers, Jaguar’s current production is still impacted by the ongoing semi-conductor shortage and other supply issues. However, its problems are more complex, as JLR focuses its production priorities on its more profitable Land Rover and Range Rover models. As a result, production of both the…

An MGB road test may sound all a bit predictable. After all, what more can you say about a car that was already an established classic even before production ended in 1980? But in an ever-evolving historic car arena – for which many of the foundations were laid by the MGB – is this archetypal British sports car still worthy of its canonical status, 60 years on from its launch? Certainly, the MGB got off to a flying start in 1962 when it replaced the outgoing MGA with a notably more sophisticated design. Syd Enever was the man tasked with achieving the right balance between the driver appeal of a proper sports car and the level of comfort and convenience that buyers of the ’60s expected. And that meant doing…

At first glance you could be forgiven for thinking that what we have here is very much a case of automotive chalk and cheese. Ponder a little more, though, and the comparison between Jaguar’s traditionally engineered grand tourer and Porsche’s unconventional ‘transaxle’ sports car makes rather more sense. Indeed, although the more classical style of the Jaguar might suggest it’s from a different era than the aggressive wide-hipped Porsche, the two designs are in fact remarkably close in age. The XJ-S arrived in 1975, but Porsche’s 924 was unveiled just a year later and it was this car which would evolve into the 944 in 1982. This coincided with the fitment of the AJ6 powerplant to the Jaguar and in 3.6-litre, six-cylinder form it was initially offered only in fivespeed…

With its hatchback body, ‘jellymould’ aerodynamic styling and dispersal of the Cortina name that had been a mainstay since 1962, the Sierra marked a massive change for its manufacturer. But it could have been very different. In 1976, when Ford set out to create the brief for the fourth-generation all-new 1980 Cortina, all it had to do was scale up the Mk3 Escort that was already in the design studio to create its new big brother, codenamed Project Linda. Attractive but conservative, Linda would have appealed to UK sales reps. But that wasn’t enough for Ford of Europe’s new boss, Bob Lutz, who wanted something more cutting edge to challenge the f resh-looking machines being served up by competitors. He loathed the staid-looking Cortina and, in early 1978, called a…

PRICE: £12,995 The perception of the ‘M100’ Elan will always be dominated by two things: its unmistakable wedgeshaped, square-stance looks and its controversial f ront-wheel drive layout. Both were in stark contrast to the original 1960s Elan, but for all the stigma, the M100 was found to have the fun, direct and engaging handling you’d expect of a Lotus thanks to extremely clever front suspension that isolated the front wheels from the drivetrain to eliminate torque steer. The Elan was also blessed with reliability, build quality and durability at a level not seen on a Lotus before. Despite its capabilities, however, the M100 didn’t get the pulse racing or the heart fluttering like its predecessor did, and before long other cars came along that did the ‘classic sports car for…

With doom and gloom over interest rates and the cost of living continuing to loom large in people’s minds, the resilience of the classic car auction market has come under more scrutiny over the last month. Nevertheless, special cars are continuing to do well against expectations, as some surprising results have demonstrated. And nowhere were the results more surprising than at the latest of WB & Sons’ regular sales on September 17, where two auction records were broken. An entry list chock full of homologation specials, hot hatchbacks, hero models and traditional classics was surely the firm’s most alluring yet; but even so, we couldn’t help being shocked at some of the results. One of the record breakers was perhaps to be expected: a 22,000- mile Toyota Celica ST185 GT-Four…

The sad loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II brought the nation to a standstill on September 8; the country had a lost a motoring monarch the likes of whom will never be seen again. Her tenure behind the wheel maintained Royal Warrants for Bentley, Daimler, Jaguar, Land Rover, Rolls-Royce and Vauxhall, all of whom supplied vehicles in their dozens (if not scores) in standard and specially modified guises; the issue of the new Royal Cipher means that these warrants will need to be sought again, under King Charles III. The legacy Queen Elizabeth II left behind the wheel was considerable: while she may not have needed a driving licence, owing to Royal prerogative, she impressed (and terrified) many heads of state, including the incumbent Prime Minister, David Cameron, and…

The evolution of the family car has been a long and f raught one. Cars like the BMC ADO16 – better known as the 1100/1300 range – were among the first to identify a particular need for a family f riendly and spacious yet inexpensive runabout, and it was cars like this that effectively set the blueprint for others to follow. As it the ADO16 turns 60, it’s time to consider not only its impact but the evolution of the genre it represents. As the 1950s became the 1960s, arguably the ideal template for the family car had been set in the form of the Morris Minor Traveller. No longer than the saloon upon which it was based, it nevertheless offered more space inside for people, dogs and other family…

See more of our project cars on our Classics World YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/ ClassicsWorldUK REPORTING ON: JAGUAR XJ8 It’s been a while since I saw the XJ8, a firm favourite on our fleet and a car which I once used daily. Since being stranded in a bodyshop during the Covid lockdowns and then emerging after a full repaint looking smarter than it ever has in our ownership, it’s been pressed into regular use again. Inevitably some niggles started to appear as it crested the 145,000-mile mark, the most significant being the air suspension which required a pair of replacement front air springs and the rear recalibrating to suit. Next came the MoT and here it started to get costly, with a flicker from the HID headlights meaning a failure.…

PRICE: £5,050 FORD FIESTA MK2 YEAR: 1985 MoT: DECEMBER 2022 There has been a noticeable trend over the past few years for rising interest in ‘everyman’ classics – ordinary, average-spec cars that represent the street furniture of the past four decades. This is particularly the case in 2022, which has seen buyers side-stepping thirsty, complicated cars in favour of more economical models. Both trends meet in this Mk2 Fiesta, which is in just-off-the-bottom 1.1 L spec. Its mileage of 69,290 is not ultra low but averages out as very little across its 36 years, and until coming to Villiers Classics, it had been with the same owner since 1986. Ford experts may notice that the specification seems generous for an L model – sunroof, rear window wiper and a passenger-side…