Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Classics World

In another statistical story, by analysing data stretching back over 15 years and studying classic cars sold as well as monthly searches, average sale prices and the use of relevant hashtags on Instagram, Car & Classic (Europe’s biggest classic vehicle marketplace) has determined that the most sought-after classic car is the Porsche 911. This is one of the best known and most recognisable sports cars in the world, and undoubtedly Porsche’s most iconic car. While it has changed in many ways since its inception, its iconic silhouette has remained instantly recognisable for almost 60 years. 'Whilst a 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS could set you back the best part of £500,000, there are many more affordable models which bring the average sale price of a 911 on Car &…

With reference to the wheel bearing on your Vanden Plas 1.7 last issue, the police were very big users of the ADO16 and then simply carried on with Allegros for the same type of Panda, local beat, CID and general purpose uses. The police garages were obviously totally familiar with ADO16 and especially its mechanical aspects, so treated the Allegro much as a re-bodied 1100/1300. This was a big mistake! Several Allegro pandas (they did more miles in a shorter period being in use 24/7 when not being serviced) over a relatively short period saw rear wheels detach whilst the cars were being driven, which was most embarrassing for the officer concerned. Driver abuse was initially suspected, but as more Allegros suffered the same wheel loss or seriously collapsed bearings,…

Here is a photo of my Morris 10-6 taken outside my family house in Whitley Bay around 1961. This 1933 model had a short production run. It had a six-cylinder sidevalve engine which was beautifully smooth running. We called her Murgon, and my physics teacher called it a Sumptuous Barouche which rather went to Murgon's head. I've never seen any article about this model in the classic press and wonder if any remain in existence, or if any of your readers have come across this rare pre-war Morris variant? Gordon Lang…

Ibought my Lotus in 2007, as a kind of 60th birthday present to myself. It was the realisation of a long-held dream because I have always been into sports cars, and like many people my age with a similar affliction, the ultimate sports car was always the Lotus Elan. It took me a while to work up to it, though. My first sports car had been a Frogeye Sprite that I bought in 1968 when I was 22 years old. At that point cars like this were seen as vaguely collectible, but were generally considered to be old cars that were a little bit interesting and might be worth hanging on to. I sold that Sprite for just £200, but that was a little more than I'd paid and the…

After recent Driver Diaries that have majored on the Mini Marcos, this issue I'm moving away from the little yellow demon and into the poshosphere, because I’ve been attending my first club events with the Bentley Drivers’ Club and the Rolls-Royce Enthusiasts’ Club. Both of these clubs' members are friendly and welcoming. The first BDC event was a very good whisky tasting in Edinburgh – luckily I can get there easily by train, so there was no driving on that day. The RREC had an informal lunch at the excellent Burrell Collection south of Glasgow – antiquities, sculptures, furniture, paintings and a decent café, reopened after a big revamp and a place that's well worth a visit. My Bentley now sports a shiny new door mirror from Holden Vintage, which…

Recommissioning is a very grand word often used by people who read magazines with posher cars on the cover than Classics Monthly. That might sound a little rich seeing as how the car in question is a Mercedes, but I paid just £2500 for it 10 years ago, so I’m sticking with ‘fixing.’ It needs fixing because I neglected it. For six years it sat mouldering in a dank garage while I tried to pretend it didn’t exist – all at once guilty about leaving it there, too scared to face what the leaky lock-up had done to it and yet desperate to rescue and revive the car. Eventually my hand was forced by a friend who insisted on helping me extract it from its gloomy tomb and installing it…

El Camino The El Camino name was used by General Motors on a series of car-derived pick-ups wearing Chevrolet badges from 1959, but it had first appeared on this concept car from Cadillac built for the 1954 Motorama. General Motors had started to hold shows they called Transportation Unlimited Autorama from 1949, usually in conjunction with the New York Motor Show, where they would pull in the punters with concept cars and special models, but from 1953 the event started to travel round the country and was officially called the GM Motorama. Unlike many of the concept cars, this two-seat Coupé was a fully functioning vehicle with a 331ci (5424cc) V8 engine. There was also a sister car with a convertible body called La Espada. Le Mans This extravagant two-seat…

The Hagerty Festival of the Unexceptional – set up to celebrate the long-forgotten everyday family cars from 19681989 – enjoyed another sell-out success at Grimsthorpe Castle on Saturday 30th July, with a record attendance of 1200 cars and 3000 guests enjoying the Lincolnshire sunshine. The 2023 Concours presented one of the best display lawns seen over nine years of the Festival, with highlights including a 5000mile Cavalier and the only Yugo Sana in the UK. In addition, many owners displayed period accessories such as original dealer signage and modelspecific brochures in a bid to ensure their cars caught the judges' eyes. While the Concours lawn presented 50 of the most mundane motors ever assembled, the main spectator car parks boasted an equally impressive selection of lesser spotted rarities, including a…

A swimming sports car is the star attraction at the Lakeland Motor Museum this month – the perfect vehicle to cope with the wet summer we have had so far! The Amphicar was made in 1966 and is one of the most unconventional vehicles ever produced. It had a top speed on land of 70mph, but could be converted into a seaworthy boat at the flick of a lever. It could then reach 10 knots on water thanks to twin propellers, and it used its front wheels as a rudder. The Amphicar's engine was mounted at the rear of the craft, driving the rear wheels through a four-speed manual transmission. In the water, the same engine drove the propellers at the rear, a second gear lever engaging forward or reverse…

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. One of the reasons for my return to the UK and Europe was the increasing difficulty of creating new cars in BC. As the land value skyrocketed, small businesses in old single-storey buildings were cleared out for more condos to be built. My instrument guy went, my radiator guy, my dynamo and electrical repair guy, my favourite machine shop... The traditional trades also evaporate as the old men retire and no apprentices replace them. The upside of BC from a car design point of view is that you build a car, take it…

April Fool’s Day 2023 had a special meaning for me. Besides the usual possibility of falling victim to some devious practical joke, this day marked the point at which I would no longer be required to pay Vehicle Excise Duty for the privilege of driving my Bedford HA van on the King’s highway, with it having qualified for the Historic Vehicle zero rate. My connections with Bedford HA vans go back to the mid1970s. A school pal’s mum was manageress of a local pasty-making firm (yes, I live in the south-west!) and she enjoyed being able to use the delivery vans in the evenings and at weekends. On many occasions my pal and I would be transported in a Dewdney’s HA, one of us in the passenger seat and the…

Since getting the Jeep back on the road, it's been running really well. That's not to say it hasn't required attention. Whilst driving to Bristol (a regular trip the Jeep makes) the control unit for the heater fan started to smoulder! A quick trip to the hard shoulder ensued, where my son David promptly dived under the dashboard, disabled the wiring and circumvented what could have been the Jeep's fiery finale! The problem turned out to be a resistor that, in brief, had stopped resisting, cooking the blower motor circuit board in the process. Apparently, this component failure is relatively common to the breed. The cure was a new control board. The price varies, but David paid £30. Whilst fitting the new part, David took the opportunity to repair a…

I’m not sure at what point during this task that I decided I really didn’t want to work on cars again, but it was probably halfway through changing one front damper and knowing that I still had the other to go. I don’t know what it is about VAG (Volkswagen Audi Group) and why they have to make the simplest of tasks a swearfest, but they must do it on purpose. Prior to this front damper swap I’d done both our previous BMW Z3 (easy with the usual old age provisos) and a 2008 Fiat Panda (laughably simple), so why was this job such an utter pain on what is only a Mk4 Golf in a Beetle suit? The problems are various, and not to be sniffed at. Unlike the…

BMW’s ‘02 range was born as a logical two-door extension of the well-received Neue Klasse 1600 saloon range when the 1600-2 (‘2‘ for two doors) was launched on 7th May 1966 – BMW’s 50th anniversary. The 1600-2 was joined by a twin-carb’d, higher-compression 1600ti in 1967 and was popular in Europe, but couldn’t meet emissions regulations for the US market which was already crying out for a faster version of the small BMW. The answer was the BMW 2002, created by dropping the two-litre version of the M10 engine into the two-door shell. In 1968, a twin-carb version of the 2002 was unveiled, badged as 2002ti, but this was just a taste of what was to come because in 1971 the 2002tii was launched, available in the UK from 1973.…

To say the SD1 laboured under a weight of high expectations when British Leyland unveiled the first 3500 on 30th June 1976 is an understatement. As we wrote in our Jaguar XJ-S Marques and Models last issue, BL was in such a parlous state that the government nationalised the corporation in 1975 to stave off potential bankruptcy. According to Keith Adams in www.aronline. co.uk: ‘The only other car Leyland could shift easily in the showrooms at the time was the humble Mini, and there was next to no profit in that. This was why the SD1 was so vital to British Leyland.’ When BL commenced work on the P6’s replacement in 1971, Rover’s Head of Design, David Bache, intended to create a five-door supercar on a limited budget. He later…

Mechanics at the National had been dropped into the Motor Museum in Beaulieu filler neck of its engine oil have discovered items worthy tank while he checked the of any time capsule when levels – and stayed inside for starting the restoration of the almost a century. Meanwhile, a Land Speed Record breaker preserved shilling with a 1921 Sunbeam 1000hp. The historic stamp was found in solidified finds were made while the oil on top of the rear suspension workshop team removed its spring when the bodywork was two colossal V12 aero engines, taken off to expose the chassis. workings and body panels. An adjustable spanner from A 1920s wooden-handle the time of its landmark run screwdriver, which was used by was also uncovered after being one of the original mechanics…

I just wanted to endorse your left-field MG ZS alternative to the Ford Capri in the August issue. My first six cars were Capris, starting with a 1.6LS and ending with a 2.8i Special. In the late 1990s they were cheap to buy and relatively unloved, but I enjoyed owning them all. Time moves on and I had started to think about getting another one, but given what else is available out there and the current value of Capris I couldn't justify it to myself. Realising that I hadn't owned an MG-Rover, I set out to buy a 75 as a winter runaround, but was swayed by the ZS and I haven't been disappointed. It embodies what I used to love about Capris – fun to drive, cheap to buy…

Ford launched the Puma in 1997 at the Geneva Motor Show. It went on to be very well received by the motoring press, with road testers raving about the New Edge styling and impressive driving dynamics despite its humble Fiesta underpinnings. The main contemporary rival for the Puma was Vauxhall’s Tigra, but the Ford was generally considered to be the enthusiastic driver’s car of choice in that marketplace. Ford produced the Puma between 1997 and 2001, during which time around 133,000 examples were built. At launch the only version available was the 1.7, but smaller-engined 1.6 and 1.4-litre variants joined the line up over the relatively short four year production run. There was also a special edition Racing Puma introduced in 1999 using a reworked version of the 1.7 engine…

Last issue I reported how the project Vanden Plas was about to be handed over as finished, when the steering became a bit vague and a rear wheel bearing collapsed. Having sorted both of those issues, I was once again ready to hand over the keys to the lucky people at Head Office, but decided that first I should take it on one last extended proving run. This was to be a 120 mile round trip to Cambridge, which I felt should be more than enough for me to sign the car off as finished and hand it over with a clear conscience. I must admit that until this point, I quite liked the Vanden Plas. I’ve always been unreasonably fond of the Allegro on which it is based, staunchly…

Not long ago, I received an email from the editor asking me to write this piece. 'Crikey,' I replied, 'where on earth did all the Saxii go?' While I’m not completely certain that this really is the Latin plural for the small hatchback Citroën unleashed on the world in May 1996, I do know that it used to be abundant on Britain’s roads. While my original suggestion to include it in our Emerging Classics section was prompted by seeing a very tidy VTR model in town one day, I’m certain that I haven’t spied a single example since. I did a little work in the office, then loaded my longsuffering Mercedes and set off for the local tip. There, as I was heaving garden prunings into a skip, I noticed…

It's a shocking fact that the only Lancia presently in production is the Ypsilon small car, and that is available only in Italy. The brand, we are told, has an exciting future as part of the Stellantis portfolio of manufacturers which includes Peugeot, Chrysler and Fiat, together with all of their subsidiaries. Sadly though, any revitalised Lancia will only produce EVs. In the latter part of the twentieth century Lancia's Stratos and Delta Integrale rally cars chalked up an impressive list of manufacturers' championships, but that was under Fiat control and those cars embodied little that was traditionally associated with the independent company begun in 1906 by Vincenzo Lancia and Claudio Fogolin. Before 1969, Lancias were known for innovative and individualistic design, pioneering the unitary body with the 1922 Lambda…

35 years ago Andrew bought his first BMW. It's amazing he ever bought another. You know that sinking feeling you get when a car reveals itself to be utter rubbish? For me this terrible and bitter disappointment turned out to be a 1977 320 Automatic. Back then I bought and sold cars. Prime auction stock consisted of tired Mk3 Escorts, and you quickly learned to avoid Metros. This BMW, XJX 989R or something like that, would once have been an expensive and highly prized thing, but 11 years and 100,000 miles later its value was best measured by weight having received the attentions of a well known local craftsman called Monty. The head had been off to cure oil and water mixing (‘It’s the head gasket mate’) and it was…