Innehållsförteckning för April 2021 från Classics World

Take a road trip in the USA and the chances are you’ll see pick-up trucks everywhere you go. More often than not these days they will be vast 4x4 monsters that tower over any normal car, but in the classic era there were also stylish car-derived coupe utilities such as the Ford Ranchero or Chevrolet El Camino. The same thing never really caught on in the UK, despite brave efforts from the likes of BMC with their tiny A35s, Minors and Minis, plus the more practical Cortina and Sierra-derived pick-ups that Ford imported from their South African subsidiary. UK buyers, it seemed, generally preferred vans to pick-ups. However, in Australia the car-derived coupe utility found its true home and became a part of the social fabric. This issue we have…

This year marks 40 years since the Cavalier Mk2 was launched on 23rd September, 1981. It arrived on the market just as the Vauxhall and Opel marketing operation and dealerships were merged and as was the first car to launch under this new banner, with the advertising slogan: Vauxhall-Opel Better by Design. The car was launched in 15 different versions of saloon and hatchback, while an estate and convertible were added later. In its first year, the new car won Family Car of the Year in What Car!, and was Tow Car of the Year in Caravan International. It was also consistently in the top 10 of new car sales right from its launch until it was replaced by the Mk3 Cavalier in 1988. Cavalier and Chevette Club Chairman Kevin…

In December, ŠKODA AUTO was able to look back on 125 years of history, making the Czech company one of the longest established car manufacturers in the world that is still in operation. The story began shortly before Christmas 1895 when Václav Laurin and Václav Klement founded a workshop for the repair and manufacture of bicycles in Mladá Boleslav. At the end of 1905, the company presented its first automobile: the Laurin & Klement Voiturette A. The light and manoeuvrable design had a one-litre, two-cylinder engine and travelled at speeds of up to 40km/h. Less than a year later, the range had expanded to include a wide variety of two- and four-cylinder models. L&K then enhanced its prestige with the first eight-cylinder vehicle manufactured in Europe, the Type FF of…

“Paul decided to convert it to a two-seater by removing the occasional seats in the rear” When Paul Ziller and his partner Jenny bought the elegant Austin-Healey 100-6 featured on these pages in 2015, it cost just £6000 on eBay and was a totally rusty wreck. It is not stretching the truth too much to say that Paul virtually swept it off the trailer when he collected it from a farm in the Midlands. Why did he buy it? 'Because I’d just sold a Jaguar E-type and fancied a Healey,' he says with a grin. 'They have that lovely 1950s look about them. Mine is a 1957 model, which was originally exported to America and then imported back into the UK, hence the reason for it being lefthand drive. Some…

A select group of motor cars have the distinction of becoming cinematic and televisual icons – the Austin Mini Cooper 1275S of The Italian Job, the Ford Capri 2.0S MkII of Minder and, of the B-films produced at Merton Park Studios, the mighty Wolseley of Justice. Enthusiasts of Talking Pictures Television know that a police 6/99 would regularly appear at the conclusion of a thrilling Edgar Wallace mystery. They were also as much a part of a Scales of Justice as Edgar Lustgarten intoning: 'It was here the villain made his fatal error,’ or: ‘A seemingly quiet and respectable suburb...’ In fact, the 6/99 – and its 6/110 replacement – was virtually part of the fabric of 1960s British cinema, often with ace stunt driver Joe Wadham at the wheel.…

Will Armston-Sheret Contributor Will has a collection of Morris Minors. This column follows the maintenance and modification of them for daily use, as well as the long-term restoration of a 1950 Lowlight Tourer from a desert scrapyard in America and a 1970 Morris Van which has been in his family for nearly 40 years. MY FLEET 1950 MORRIS MINOR LOWLIGHT SALOON OWNED SINCE: 2012 1950 MINOR LOWLIGHT CONVERTIBLE OWNED SINCE: 2017 1967 MINOR SALOON OWNED SINCE: 2010 1970 MINOR VAN OWNED (BY MUM) SINCE: 1980 Work continues on the bodywork of the Morris van. Following extensive attention over the last month, we’ve managed to get the panels into a much better shape. There are, though, some repairs which were done previously that we’ve opted not to re-do, such as the…

There’s nothing more frustrating than a damp-smelling interior, soggy carpets and the sound of sloshing water inside the sills, especially when you can almost hear the rust starting to take over. What’s equally frustrating is trying to find the cause of the water getting inside and being able to fix it – gravity has a lot to answer for and a pool of water in one part of the car could have leaked through from somewhere else entirely. We can’t promise to fix a leaky classic car, but the following pages aim to provide lots of useful tips on tracing and resolving water leaks. Damaged seals, unsecured trim and poor-quality parts are often the main culprits, along with a lack of routine maintenance that results in drain holes becoming blocked…

An introduction from Neil Lamond As I got nearer to the time that I was going to print the images in our club magazine, I rather felt that my virtual 1960 show with images of each car parked in a field or street somewhere wasn’t quite relating to my vision. So I had the idea that I might take old backdrops from Rootes stands (all are period but none actually 1960) and drop our current owners’ cars into the ready-made scenes. To do this, I enlisted my brother Iain’s skills in Photoshop. I think it is right to say that I drew inspiration from a group of British POWs held in German Stalag IVB camp that Malcolm Fletcher (the owner of one of our cars pictured) told me about. To…

GOOD DESIGN ALWAYS SHINES THROUGH This month’s column has been inspired by a car and a vacuum cleaner. Bear with us... Inspired by the news story last issue that the BMW E36 was voted ‘best 1990’s car’ by the readership of Car Mechanics Bargain Cars, I want to talk about really good design. Right now, I will vent my ire on my Dyson vacuum cleaner. Having been pressed into Saturday morning household chores as a nipper, I’m well aware of that marvel of design, the 1975 Electrolux 502 Upright. My folks bought one around 1979 to replace a (now valuable) Hoover Constellation, the Henry of the 1960s. The 502 passed into my ownership around 20 years later, at which point it was still working. It finally bit the bullet due…

If our feature in the last issue on the very first E-type Roadster whetted your appetite for the original incarnation of this great British icon, then you might be interested in seeing this extremely early Series 1 3.8 Roadster (chassis 875407) currently being offered for sale by E-Type UK. It is the 407th LHD Roadster to have rolled off the production line, and the 21st model built after the final outside bonnet locker E-type. Today seen fully restored and finished in a heritage-correct Opalescent Gunmetal over Red interior with French Grey hood, this early Series 1 E-type retains the same pristine feel that it did when it rolled off the production line in August 1961. But what makes Chassis 407 so desirable is the level of early and original features,…

AIR CONDITIONING COMPRESSORS FOR CLASSIC MINIS Price: £465.60 Mini Spares can now offer brand new replacement air conditioning compressors for all models of classic Mini, including the Japanese specification cars. The compressors are a direct replacement on cars already equipped with air conditioning, while four pairs of integral mounting loops are provided for custom installations. Two versions are available: JPB100700 was fitted up until chassis number 134454 JPB100850 was fitted from chassis number 134455. Both are sold outright, so no exchange is required. For more details contact Mini Spares on 01707 607700 or visit www.minispares.com DODGE VIPER THE FULL STORY OF THE WORLD'S FIRST V10 SPORTS CAR. By David Zatz Hardback • 250mm x 207mm • 136pp • 123 pictures • Price: £19.99 • ISBN: 9781787115293 • www.veloce.co.uk It is hard to believe, but the Dodge…

The kit car industry has been culled to a tiny percentage of its 1980s and 1990s size, partly by the growth of thumb-related virtual entertainment to replace creativity, and partly by government interference and punitive testing. From my point of view, that’s a shame. As the launch editor of Classic Ford and agony aunt of Fast Ford, I got insights into the heart of the production car industry. Since I was also steeped in kit car writing for a couple of decades, this made for an interesting comparison and I can tell you that the kit car industry was a whole lot more fun. Don't get me wrong when I talk about the kit car industry being 'fun' though, as I realise that the kit car artist-engineers involved in it…

Donald Mitchell Healey was born in 1898 in Perranporth, Cornwall where he opened the first garage in the village. However, he became drawn to motorsport, entered the prestigious Monte Carlo Rally on several occasions and won the event in 1931. For some time Healey had harboured the notion to build his own sports car, and during WW2 he worked for Humber in Coventry, employed on military vehicles. There he met chassis specialist Achille Sampietro and body engineer Ben Bowden. Together they discussed possible designs for a new car. When hostilities ceased, Healey got his chance – he opened a small business in Warwick where he began to focus on building high end saloons, coupés and sports models. Most cars were fitted with Riley engines, and featured independent front suspension and…

The Cortina was probably the Ford which really transformed the fortunes of the British company, for it stayed in production for 20 years and more than 4.4 million of them were built. Not only that, but it underpinned the fortunes of the modernised Dagenham factory, and it helped to make the Kent crossflow engine (and of course the Lotus-Cortina power unit) famous in their own right. When the new Cortina was conceived in 1960, Ford UK was selling only two model ranges – the small Anglia/Prefect types, and the much larger Consul/Zephyr range. Admittedly there were plans to fill some of that gap with a still-secret Classic saloon, but otherwise there was a yawning gap which was being plundered by rivals like BMC (Austin and Morris in particular), Hillman and…

AUSTIN SPRITE RESTORATION QUESTION Q I am currently undertaking the restoration of a 1970 Austin Sprite. The bodywork needs quite a bit of attention, and as this is a long term project I will be carrying out the work over several months. Once completed, I then intend to trailer the car to a local spray shop for the paint job. I am, though, confused. I was always of the impression that using a wax on the inner surfaces of the panels before fitting would be beneficial in the long run, but I have been told by the paint shop that this could affect the result of the finish and they would not advise me to do so. Gary Dawton A Whilst wax is indeed a great way to preserve…

Iain Ayre Contributor An expat motoring author and journo resident in Vancouver, Iain was unable to resist the opportunities that comprise his fleet of projects, but is also unable to muster the focus, energy or organisational skills to complete them. MY FLEET 1947 BENTLEY MKVI OWNED SINCE: 2015 1957 BENTLEY S1 OWNED SINCE: 2019 1958 CHEVROLET DELRAY OWNED SINCE: 2005 1974 MINI MARCOS PROJECT OWNED SINCE: 2015 1990 ROVER MINI COOPER RSP OWNED SINCE: 2016 1992 JEEP CHEROKEE OWNED SINCE: 2006 1992 MAZDA MX5 SUNBURST OWNED SINCE: 2015 199X COBRA REPLICA PROJECT OWNED SINCE: 2007 1952 8-LITRE-INSPIRED BENTLEY SPECIAL PROJECT OWNED SINCE: 2010 Having made a start on reducing the size of my fleet by selling the Dodge campervan, I have made even more progress this month. Not because I…

The most worrying aspect of our MINI One’s MoT test in July 2020 was the fact that it failed on the rear brakes, but due to poor implementation of the MoT extension the car could legally continue to be driven on the road. When I discovered this, there was no way it was going anywhere until I’d fixed the issue. The front brakes were in good working order, but to be safe I still stripped and serviced them, removing the pads and slider bolts to clean them along with the caliper carrier before applying brake grease and reassembling each brake. Typical of many modern cars, the front brakes consist of single-piston calipers with 7mm Allen key upper and lower slider bolts. It’s not only important to ensure the slider bolts…

Upward mobility is a feature of many great British brand stories. Shoe manufacturer Clarks and clothier Barbour, for example, are both premium names with decidedly quotidian beginnings. The fate of our car makers is far more variable, but one which has very successfully expanded its homeland from farmer’s field to the chic streets of London is Land Rover. What is common to these British tales of achievement is that the actual product didn’t really change much. A Barbour jacket has always been a highly-waterproof garment constructed principally of waxed cotton. 49 years after the Series One Land Rover first extricated itself from a muddy puddle, the company was still making 4WD vehicles popular with farmers and soldiers. In fact, it had only really created three models in all that time,…

The Morgan Sports Car Club celebrates its 70th anniversary in 2021. The club started life as the Morgan 4/4 Club in 1951, when a band of Morgan enthusiasts answered an advert in Autocar magazine. At the time, the 4/4 was the only four-wheeled car Morgan manufactured, but with the introduction of the +4 and +8, the club was renamed the Morgan Sports Car Club in 1971. The first meeting was held at the Flying Horse in Kegworth, and since that time the club has grown into one of the largest single make car clubs, catering for thousands of Morgan owners and enthusiasts in many parts of the globe. The MSCC is planning to celebrate their anniversary in July 2021, welcoming owners of all models, and non-owners too. Yearly membership subscription…

We are sad to report that Club Triumph Vice-President, David Shewry, was taken ill in January and passed away in hospital. David was on the club committee for 47 years, and for 17 of those he served as Chairman, bringing a light touch and unfailing friendly good humour to the proceedings. This will be well appreciated by anyone who heard his addresses at the club's annual dinners over the years, even when joining in from his hospital bed by audio link to participate in the 2017 event. David actually planned these dinners for over 20 years, together with his wife Shirley with whom our thoughts now reside. David was one of life's true gentlemen in the full sense of the word; in all the years he was involved in the…

XM PARKING BRAKE I saw your reference to the Citroën XM in the latest Archive Images feature, and I am pleased to be able to reassure you that your memory is not at fault! I was head of Press for Citroën UK and, in fact, the XM was my very first press launch in the 20 years I headed up the Press Office. I used to write all of the press packs, and commission the photoshoots. Perhaps surprisingly, I don’t remember that photo you have reproduced as being one of my press shots, however there’s a lot I don’t remember these days! But back to your query regarding the XM’s parking brake. It was indeed a foot-operated parking brake (in common with Mercedes which, I think, is why it was…

“I always loved the TR7 and, when I was in boarding school in Plymouth, I had a poster of one over my bed.” When the Triumph TR6 was coming to the end of its long and illustrious road, designer Harris Mann was asked to come up with a replacement. The result was the TR7, with a fashionable wedge shape that Mann had previously used on the Leyland Princess. Original drawings show the TR7 incorporating a Targa roof, but the Triumph engineers were unable to get their heads around that so it went into production as a fixed head coupé, the convertible not arriving until 1979 for the USA and 1980 in the UK. The TR7 was pretty futuristic stuff in the mid-1970s, but was criticised by many traditionalists for not…

It should come as no surprise to learn that a lot of the repairs required on the offside of our Midget mirrored those that had already been carried out on the nearside. In that way, both the inner and outer sill panels had to be removed and replaced, but there were also a number of other tasks that came to light. Rather than repeat the steps shown previously, we will rattle through the basic repairs and focus a little more on those additional jobs. For example, the driver’s side A-post which has had a new skin at some point, covering all of the vertical section. This has been positioned poorly and closed up the door gap on the driver’s side so that it is 3/16in shorter than on the passenger…

There is no great suspense involved in telling you what we finally bought for Project Shoestring because we let that slip last issue. Yes, it is a Triumph Acclaim, the car that started British Leyland’s fruitful cooperation with Honda. As things turned out, the Acclaim also brought the production of Triumph cars to a close in 1984, the subsequent Anglo-Japanese models being badged as Rovers. On the bright side, it also brought volume sales and product pride to BL – the Acclaim recorded the fewest warranty claims in the company’s history, and despite being a niche model, it muscled its way into Britain’s top ten best sellers list during its short production run from 1981-1984. Sadly, it also muscled its way to the top of the list of Triumphs that…

The humble coupe utility, or ute for short, was an Australian invention, created by Ford Australia in 1933 and copied around the world. The ute was an instant success story and its designer, Lou Bandt, went on to become Ford Australia’s Manager of Body Engineering from 1966 to 1973. The ute quickly became part of the Australian identity, especially in rural areas, with the key to its success being that it was as comfortable as a saloon car, yet practical for the man on the land or the tradesman. Many people even bought them as a second family car, or even the only car. But even into the mid-1960s neither Austin nor Morris, nor BMC for that matter, had anything to compete with the ubiquitous Holden FJ model, which accounted…

Last August, Jeff O’Meara celebrated the 50th birthday of his Austin 1800 ute, an Aussie original that has never been restored and is in amazing original condition. Jeff had wanted an 1800 ute since 1970, but his father talked him out of it. ‘Two years later he let me go and buy a Morris Marina, which was not one of my better decisions,’ Jeff recalls. Over time his family owned 14 cars from the BMC range, but he always longed for an 1800 ute. Then in 2012 he heard about a possible car available in Airport West, about 100 miles from Jeff’s place on the opposite side of Melbourne. He rang the chap and was told he was welcome to come around and have a look, but the car was…