Innehållsförteckning för November 2022 från Classics World

A black Ford Escort RS Turbo, driven by Diana, the Princess of Wales, from August 1985 to May 1988 went on sale with Silverstone Auctions at the end of August with no reserve. It was expected to go for a six figure sum – nobody saw the final price of £730,000 coming, as the previous record for a Ford Escort had been £60,000. Arwel Richards of Silverstone Auctions said: 'The final tussle for ownership of the car was between a Dubai buyer and a Cheshire based English buyer, both bidding online, with the English bidder winning the car in the end. The atmosphere in the auction room was electric.' Registered on 23rd August 1985, this RS Turbo Series 1 and its famous driver were extensively photographed outside the boutiques of…

Bognor Regis Motor Club have announced their latest Weekend Charity Classic Car Tour. Having run 20 Regis Classic Tours, 12 Regis TAP (one day tours) and the GT Memorial, the club have now raised over £620,000 for charity since 1998. This new tour will visit the Cotswolds over the weekend of 21st-24th April 2023, based at the 4 star Puckrup Hall Hotel at Tewkesbury and touring some interesting locations on the Saturday and Sunday. Limited to 60 cars, the entry is now open on www.bognorregis-mc.co.uk with an entry fee of £610 for a crew of two that includes buffet dinner on Friday, morning coffee, light lunch, afternoon cream tea plus a three-course dinner on Saturday, then morning coffee and hot lunch on Sunday as well as all visits and parking.…

Gold Star winning road rally navigator Emily Anderson (38) from Aylesbury was relishing the opportunity of becoming an environmentally responsible competitor as she made her special stage speed rally debut with the carbon offsetting NET-HERO Rally Team on the Woodpecker Rally in Shropshire in September, based at Ludlow Racecourse. NET-HERO is a premium carbon offset programme with a dedicated platform for motorists, classic car enthusiasts and competition drivers, allowing the drivers of all manner of internal combustion engine cars to offset their automotive footprint through the NET-HERO web-based platform in three easy steps. Each carbon credit purchased contributes to high quality projects around the world including afforestation, restoration of peatlands in Scotland and grass protection. The NET-HERO Team was totally carbon neutral for the event as it purchased a full…

Car & Classic has revealed the ten most searched-for models on its popular classified and online auction website in the first half of 2022. The Ford Escort topped the list once again, followed by BMW’s 3-series, with almost half of those searching for BMW aiming for M-models. Whilst the popularity of Triumph Stags, MGBs and Jaguar E-Types is never in question, newcomers can be spotted in the search table: VW’s Beetle, featured in 2021, drops off the 2022 list in favour of the marque’s Golf range, especially the hot hatch GTIs of the 1980s. Land Rover has also piqued the classic car enthusiast’s interest enough to appear in the top ten, de-throning the Ford Mustang, one of last year’s favourites. Unsurprisingly given the rise in value and demand in the…

It was great to read your article about the Hillman Super Minx Convertible in the October issue. I own the last known car, registered on the 4th of June 1964, and wanted to find out how many of these are in existence and how many were made. Unfortunately, the production records do not exist, and the DVLA does not specify the body type. So I started my own investigation, and with a fellow Super Minx Convertible owner, Ian Mayhill, we have now found a total of 75 cars scattered across Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Any owner wanting access to this register can contact me on steve@teamhaven.com. These cars were very well built, but as you say the bodywork did rust quite badly. Its short-lived production was down to the…

BIO: Phil White’s first job, at 15, involved restoring classic cars. A decade later he began writing about them in magazines. 35 years on, he’s still at it. He plans to grow up at some point, but in the meantime climbing rocks, running, cycling and, you know, writing about classic cars, seem to get in the way. Itook my father’s 2015 BMW to the local dealer today. The receptionist relieved me of the key and popped it into a plastic binnacle on her desk. 'Ah yes,' she trilled, 'it’s the brake fluid service and MoT.' To somebody born the year this country ditched shillings in favour of decimal coinage, having car keys that know stuff and can talk seems decidedly Harry Potter. Of course, when I say 'key,' I’m not…

Classic car enthusiast Patrick Francis has owned this superb Jaguar Mk2 since 2007. He says that for him it was always the car to have, explaining: 'My brother Noel had a Mk2 Jaguar some years back when I was young; I always liked it, so much so that it became my favourite car. They were fast and good looking – the police had them, the bad guys had them, they were the Ferrari beaters of their era and for me they were quite simply the sporting machine of the time.' The Mk2 was introduced in 1959 and addressed virtually every criticism that had been levelled against its predecessor. The rear track was widened for one thing, giving the car better handling and a less tapered looking rear end, while slimmer…

PART THREE The reassembly of an engine will nearly always have an air of uncertainty about it, with the potential of having to halt progress and down tools if the wrong part is delivered or something unexpected needs replacing. That could have happened when Wayne Courtenay at The Blue Oval Rescue Centre discovered he’d left a new set of gudgeon pins in his freezer and had forgotten to ask a local machine shop to fit them, but in this case all was not lost because the machine shop was nearby and they had the equipment to do this job in a fraction of the time it would have taken us to do it. However, when we discovered we’d been sent the wrong oil pump, there wasn’t much we could do…

The Royal Warrant for the supply of Land Rovers was first granted in 1951 by King George VI. Given this long association with royalty, Land Rovers played a special part in the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant this year, with representatives that ranged from a very early example to the last Defender – including two used by the royal family – taking part. They celebrated nearly 70 years of development, while the company marked the Jubilee by donating a brand-new Defender 130 to the British Red Cross, a charity of which the Queen was a patron. Mike Gould picks 12 stages in the evolution of what has become a British icon and something of a legend on the classic scene. 1. 1947 PROTOTYPE Legend has it that the first design for…

There were very definite warning signs of what was coming, but the announcement that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II had died on 8th September still came as something of a shock. With her reign spanning a remarkable 70 years, many of us have never known another monarch, and while the actual impact on our daily lives of her passing will not be as immediate or as dramatic as other recent earthquake events such as Brexit, COVID and the shattering of postwar peace in Europe, for many people the psychological impact will still be immense. I say that in the full knowledge that opinions are very divided about the whole question of a monarchy. For a great many people it represents tradition and stability, something to admire and revere, a very…

Ouch! I was sorry to see from Part 7 of the P4 saga in the October issue that the rust is as bad as I feared, and actually made worse by the past efforts of Messrs. B. Odgit and S. Cram. However, as you say, it is a good opportunity to show how these areas can be properly repaired with Wadhams’ panels and the skill of an expert like Alan Denne. Looking at photo 3 in that feature, it looks as if your car has been fitted with a proper tow bar. The layers of paint revealed around the areas to be repaired make me wonder if your car was Rover’s White originally, which is much whiter than the creamy shade it now bears. By way of illustration, see this…

We will be covering the Cavalier story in a later Marques and Models feature, so we'll keep the background brief today. Essentially, by the early 1970s Vauxhall commenced plans for a Cortina-sized Viva HC replacement, but in 1973 General Motors cancelled this HD Viva project. Instead, Luton was told they would be marketing a version of the forthcoming B-series Opel Ascona. Vauxhall's great designer Wayne Cherry created a distinctive new frontal treatment despite having limited time, and management planned a 1977 launch for what was to be called the Cavalier. However, the pressing need for a fleet market saloon meant production commenced much earlier on 1st September 1975, with the dealer presentation staged on the 29th. The new Vauxhall was one of the stars of the 1975 London Motor Show,…

Having followed the progress of the recent Austin Montego project with interest, I was struck by a certain parallel with a car that I once owned – aFord Zephyr MkIV V4 Deluxe. Like the Montego, the Zephyr (and its big brother the Zodiac) were and still are fashionable cars to knock, and yet on the whole I very much enjoyed my three years of ownership. I have to concede, though, that even as someone with a bit of a soft spot for the MkIV Zephyr/Zodiac range, mine did have its Achilles’ heel. If I may cite two recent examples of discrimination against the range from within these very pages (pause for sharp intake of breath!) I refer the reader to Classic Tails from December 2021 and to the Post-War Fords…

PART 5 Once you have taken the body off the chassis on a Regal, there really is not too much further you need to go to strip the chassis completely. Whether or not you should do this on a running car that has been in recent use would be up for debate, because if the brakes and suspension were working fine then you might decide that a visual inspection would suffice and you didn’t want to disturb them. On something that has been stood for many years like our Regal though, you really do have to go through everything. It will certainly pay dividends in the long run in terms of reliability and safety, not to mention ease of maintenance. For example, everything (and I do mean everything!) on this…

There’s no denying that the VW Golf has been a huge success around the world, but which generation and which model is the one to own? A Mk1 GTI is perhaps the most desirable, but also one of the most expensive, so how about the Mk2? Over six million of them were produced as a three- or five-door hatchback, along with the booted Jetta from 1984 onwards (four-door mainly, but there are some rare twodoor LHD Jettas in mainland Europe). The Golf Cabriolet (Clipper) and Caddy Pick-up that first appeared under the Mk1 continued to be available throughout the production of the Mk2, but were never updated that much, so they retained their Mk1 looks. (For that reason, we’re not including them in this buying guide.) However, a Mk2-styled panel…

Bond Minicar We think this little beauty is a Bond Minicar MkC, a guess backed up by the Huddersfield registration that would have been issued between September 1954 and March 1955. And not just any MkC, but the Deluxe Family Safety model with two inward facing hammock seats in the back for children. Under the bonnet would have been a 197cc Villiers single-cylinder two-stroke 8E engine pumping out 9bhp. Judging from the carpet, this shot was taken at a launch in a hotel rather than at a motor show. The beautiful young lady behind the wheel is doing her best to look delighted with her steed, though we do wonder whether she is just putting a brave face on the situation and would have preferred an Aston Martin. Then again,…

The TRUTH about... The Morris Minor With a million sold by 1961, the Morris Minor was the most successful British car ever at that time and the first to sell in seven figures. The Minor remained on the UK market for another 10 years after passing the million milestone, and by the time all production had ended over 1.6 million had been produced, including two and four-door saloons, Tourers (cabriolets), Travellers (estate cars), vans and pickups. It was ubiquitous in the UK, and in unlikely places such as Sri Lanka (previously known as Ceylon). The Minor is widely viewed as a great design and an excellent classic car. Specialists have been rebuilding the Minor for decades, and the type is well supported by parts and expertise. From a purely British…

David Franklin’s relationship with Fiat started in 1962, when he joined the marque as a Progress Chaser at their first ever UK-based concessionaire in Wembley. Within the year, David had bought his first ever Fiat, the iconic first-generation Fiat 500D, which cost him £399 (or £5800 in today’s money). David spent 12 years working for Fiat, progressing through the ranks as a Car Tester, Technical Representative and Technical Office Manager. His career highlight with the company was the role of Operations Manager for the Fiat 130, the brand's flagship saloon at the time. During his time with the Italian marque, David was also a budding racing driver, competing in off-road production car trials across the country. Between 1963 and 1967 he entered 31 events, placing first no fewer than 14 times,…

This year is the 60th anniversary of Britain’s favourite sports car, the MGB. The model’s longevity is a tribute to its no-nonsense design and robust mechanicals, but also the fact that British Motor Heritage (BMH) has been actively supporting it since 1975 by providing replacement body panels and shells built to the original specification on the very same tools that brought the cars into being all those years ago. As we go to print, no fewer than 30 complete new bodyshells – 16 GTs and 14 roadsters – are in build at the BMH factory in Witney, Oxon. This is the biggest single production run for four years, and underlines enthusiasts’ ongoing determination to enjoy their MGs for many years to come. It brings the company’s total number of MGB roadster…

My name is Walter Draisey and I am writing to you from Melbourne in Australia. I am the proud owner of a beautiful red 1967 MGB Mk1 Roadster, Australian-assembled and fitted with overdrive. I purchased this car locally in the suburb of Werribee where I live. That was in January 1976. Just for the record, I am now in my mid-seventies – Iwas 28 at the time I bought the MGB. I love your magazine and read every issue. I have a Readly subscription so that the latest edition arrives on my iPad the day it is published in the UK. Before I refer to the MGB GT project, I would like to tell you how much I enjoy reading the articles written by Iain Ayre. He is witty and…

BIO: Iain Ayre’s automotive enthusiasms span everything from Minis to Bentleys. He has prototyped several car designs without commercial success, and has written 18 books on random motoring subjects. He continues to avoid getting a proper job. My adjustable spanner pleases me. The use of – and in fact the very existence of – adjustable spanners annoys engineers because they are lazy, inaccurate and sloppy, and they exude compromise and imprecision. That is the spanners of course, not the engineers. And without wishing to come across as mean spirited, it is good fun annoying engineers. It’s especially entertaining to watch their faces when you say something like: 'I just finished putting my engine back together, and there were hardly any bits left over at all.' My own adjustable spanner is…

This story really starts with the October 2017 issue of Classic Car Mart. That contained a feature detailing a number of potential project cars which were up for sale. These included a Ford Zephyr Mk3, a Wolseley 1500 and what was described as 'an easy 2CV project.' The Citroën was an all-white car that had been in storage for a long time and not taxed since 1997. As a 1986 car, that meant it had only been used on the road for 11 years before being laid up, which suggested that the low mileage of 32,000 was most likely genuine. 'There is some rust in the boot area,' explained the writer of the feature, 'but otherwise the body seems to be impressively rot free and the chassis is said to…

It’s always reassuring to find someone who’s done a job before that you are about to tackle, especially if you are unsure about what potential disasters may hit you. They can prepare you mentally for the problems that may arise, and add that extra dash of confidence which makes any job seem easier. I was in such a position when my local garage, MJ Motors, offered me the use of their two-post ramp, block and tackle and expertise (when needed) so that I could remove the engine and gearbox from our MGB GT to replace the rear main oil seal, which we believe is the cause of an engine oil leak. PART 3 Proprietor Mike Smith has previously owned an MGB Roadster, which he assembled from a Heritage shell. He…

PART 8 Visits to the workshop have been slightly depressing of late, as each one uncovered more and more previous bodges on the back end of the Rover. Things were not helped by the fact that picking apart those bodges revealed so much rust that at times it was difficult to see how we could start building things back up. Fortunately Alan Denne has seen it all before, many times over and often far worse than this. It is surprisingly reassuring when you are a little down in the dumps to have somebody remind you: ‘We can sort it!’ Especially when he is the one who is going to do the sorting... My friend and fellow P4 owner David Inch added a little further perspective, reminding me: ‘I’m afraid such…

It was rather a shock to me that 31 years has flown by since VAG gathered Škoda into its family to join SEAT, Audi and VW, but although it feels like yesterday, this merger happened in April 1991. Having weathered four decades of communist rule and nationalisation, Škoda was ailing. However, it had fared better than some other historic names stranded on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain because instead of factories full of cast-off Fiat tooling, the Czechoslovakian firm had a recent and well-regarded product on its books. This was the Favorit, a decent-looking car with plenty of interior space for five people and their chattels. It packed a proven engine alongside an uncomplex chassis. Unburdened by air conditioning, ABS braking or power steering, there wasn’t much to…

It would be fair to say that when the TR4 made its bow in September of 1961, many a sports car traditionalist was aghast. Since the original TR2 had made its bow at the 1953 Earls Court Motor Show, (there never was a TR1, though there was an unsuccessful 20TS Roadster proposal shown in 1952,) keen drivers associated Triumph sports cars with cutaway doors and a minimalist approach to creature comforts. The TR3 from 1955 offered more of the same, but this newfangled TR4 featured a full-width body with vestigial tail fins, winding windows, and even fresh air vents on the facia. In addition, dealers could highlight the 2138cc version of the familiar four-cylinder wet-liner engine, the modified chassis, the twin H6 SU carburettors, the allsynchromesh transmission, and the rack…

MEET THE CARS OF ’87 Can it really be 35 glorious years since I first broke that ‘four cars in one year’ threshold? Yes, it certainly can, because it was 1987 when I bought a 1966 Hillman Imp Super, RNK 243D, finished in dark green with black vinyl trim. It was parked on the drive of a house next to a garage in Thatcham that my dad ran from 1986 to 1988. The Imp cost me 20 quid and I could see an earner once I’d replaced the head gasket. The paint T-Cut up to a superb shine and the small areas of rot on each rear spring perch were soon repaired. Of course, the engine was scrap. However, I bought a 1966 Singer Chamois with its hot twin Stromberg…