Innehållsförteckning för April 2025 från Classics World

There's been a lot of talk among the Classics World team about new cars recently – partly because some of us are in the market, but also because we've been impressed by a number of new releases. Manufacturers seem to have realised that cashing in on heritage and leaning on retro design cues is a recipe for success, and we're fans of the approach. Renault picked up where MINI left off with its new all-electric 5, a car that has captured the imagination of buyers and journalists alike. Like the MINI, it manages to appeal both to those who remember driving the original and younger buyers looking for cheap(ish), stylish transport. Renault also took a page out of BMW's MINI playbook with the introduction of the new Alpine A290, a…

As well as much-needed peace for a beleaguered nation, Donald Trump's vow to end the war in Ukraine might provide a glimmer of hope for fans of the Lada Niva, one of the very few truly functional off-road vehicles left in production. Although the Niva name was transferred to a more modern design in 1998 under General Motors involvement, the original car – renamed Niva Legend in 2021 – remained in production and indeed has been manufactured ever since. Official imports to the UK ended in the mid ‘90s but more recently Mark Key at Lada4x4.co.uk was importing the car here, until sanctions against Russia finally forced an end to sales in 2023. You might have thought that with Russia's economy struggling and sanctions making manufacturing difficult that the 48-year…

What is expected to be the largest ever gathering of SY-generation RollsRoyces and Bentleys will take place in 2025, with the Middlesex Section of the RREC planning an event at the historic Brooklands Museum to mark the Silver Shadow family's 60th anniversary. Heading up the special event is Michael Marshall-Clarke, an RREC Board Director and the proud owner of a superb 1974 Silver Shadow. His inspiration comes from a famous publicity photograph produced by Rolls-Royce Motors that same decade: “In the 1970s, 100 Silver Shadows a month passed through the gates of Crewe for the home market,” explains Michael. “This number was represented in a period advertising shot, which we aim to recreate at the 2025 event – with at least 100 cars, and hopefully many more.” Other highlights of…

I am a bit behind on my reading and just finished the June 2024 issue. I am sure someone already messaged you but I am retired and have time. In the Archive Images article (p104, June 2024) the second picture down on the second page is a 1963 Ford Fairlane wagon. It must be an early car because it has the emblem for the optional 221cu in V8 rather than the more usual 260cu in offered later. I learned to drive on one of these as well as the 1964 VW Camper we also had. Our Fairlane wagon had the 260 V8 and a three-speed overdrive transmission with a 3.80 final drive. I was in high school and in 1968 we, without my parents knowledge, took it to a drag…

My MG often gets confused looks: “I didn't know they made an automatic MGB?” Well, they certainly didn't make many. Aficionados of the marque will know that the MGB's bigger-engined brother the MGC was developed with an auto option. The ubiquitous Borg-Warner 35 was mated to its six-cylinder 2912cc engine and offered throughout the car's three-year production from 1967. Despite the MGC not being a huge success with around 9000 made, nearly 15 per cent were automatic – most were GTs, and the vast majority went to the US market. At the time, the BMC C-Series engine was criticised for being heavy, lazy and not well-suited to a sports car. As a mile-eating grand tourer, however, the auto made more sense. Less well known is that the smaller-engined MGB was…

PART TWO Iended the last report on our Mercedes W124 confident in our purchase, with the old Merc thoroughly serviced and seemingly mechanically solid, ready for its upcoming 24-hour roadtrip. That confidence took a nosedive when I was greeted by the coolant warning light and a squealing noise on the M20. Thinking we'd shredded the fanbelt, I dived into Maidstone Services and popped the bonnet. Coolant was gushing out of a thumbnail-sized slit in the three-inch long hose joining the thermostat housing and water pump, directly onto the fanbelt. Thankfully I'd shut the engine off before it got hot or the bulk of the coolant vacated the vehicle, but being stranded in a services an hour from home with breakdown reportedly unavailable for seven hours didn't exactly inspire confidence. I…

The story of MercedesBenz's ‘Sport Licht’ range may have begun many years before with the 1954 300SL and continues to this day, but the car which would spring to mind for most people asked to identify an SL would be the 1971-1989 ‘R107’ generation. The original gullwinged 300SL had been an exotic creation built with motorsport in mind and the outwardly similar-looking 190SL had built on the 300's halo appeal sufficiently for the company to introduce a more mainstream model in 1963 in the shape of the W113. The car we now know as the Pagoda on account of its doublebubble hardtop roof was such a success that by the late 1960s no less than half of the production went to the USA. Clearly this identified a booming market which…

In October 1959, Ford launched the Anglia 105E and the old Anglia 100E duly became the Popular 100E. The new car's styling was distinctive, with a sloping bonnet line, frog-mouth grille and prominent headlights, along with a reverse-slope rear window and small fins at the rear. Underneath, its engineering was really quite conventional. A 1.0-litre, four-cylinder pushrod engine and a four-speed gearbox drove the rear axle, drum brakes featured all round, and suspension was via the usual Macpherson struts at the front and leaf springs at the rear. Recirculating ball steering was also standard fare. The new Anglia sold strongly and represented a minor revolution for Ford in the UK. While conventional, the Anglia's engine was up-to-date: it had an extremely short-stroke engine with an eight-port cylinder head in place…

The 986 Boxster is often vaunted as the car responsible for saving Porsche, a company that found itself in a dire financial position back in the early 1990s. The brand's product lineup consisted of the expensive and low-volume 964-generation 911, the poor-selling 928 and the 968, which was a Porsche 944 facelift with so many changes it ended up coining its own model designation. What Porsche needed was a cheaper, entry-level sports car to sell in high volume. Despite there being a raft of popular roadsters already in production by various big-name manufacturers, Porsche took the fight to the Mazda MX-5, BMW Z3, Mercedes-Benz SLK, MGF and Alfa Romeo Spider with the 986 Boxster. The Boxster concept was first shown at the 1993 Detroit Motor Show. It took styling cues…

I am not particularly sentimental about my cars. I will admit to being slightly obsessed with them because classics are my hobby, my job and my only real passion (after family and beer of course) – but not to being overly sentimental. I have never given my cars pet names, for example. The MG is just ‘the Midget’, the Triumph is ‘the Acclaim’, the Morris is… well I'm sure you've figured it out by now – but Prudence, Gerald, Harry the Herald or Billy Beetle? I've never been tempted even in the slightest. That's not to say I don't give them human characteristics every now and then, but in my defence I think there's some justification for this. Small cars that punch above their weight in terms of performance –…

Kelsey Media has launched its classic show line-up for 2025, with a stellar selection of events catering for a wide range of enthusiasts. The season gets underway on March 23 with VolksWorld Show, the popular annual celebration of Beetles, Karmann Ghias, T1/T2 campers and buses, plus all other air-cooled Volkswagens. For 2025, the show will take up residence at its new home at the South of England Showground in West Sussex, a spacious venue with a great combination of indoor and outdoor space. Expect displays, club stands, the famous international swapmeet and trade exhibitors, plus the inaugural VolksWorld Concours Collection for the very best VWs. See classicsworld.co.uk/volksworld-show for tickets and full details. The South of England Showground will also host the Classic Ford Show on May 11 – Europe's largest…

After eight successful years of encouraging the next generation of classic enthusiasts, the Classic Car Loan Project (CCLP) has been rebranded for its next chapter. Borrow A Classic was launched at the FBHVC's Club Expo event at the British Motor Museum on January 18, with the invitation to become involved now extended to more clubs. The scheme was launched back in 2016 to provide selected drivers with a unique chance to live with a classic car for a whole year, free of charge save for insurance. There have been over 100 participants during that time, and around 25 of them have gone on to buy their own classic as a result of their experience. Applicants for the scheme normally have to be at least 25 years old with a full…

A car such as Colin Shepherd's C-series Kadett Coupe would have caused a minor stir in suburbia in 1979, when Opel ownership meant you were a cut above the average. It is also a prime example of General Motors’ world car programme that resulted in one platform being sold with approximately 40 different names. GM commenced its T-Car programme (codenamed 1865) in 1970, with the objective of creating a global small car. Opel was responsible for the basic design, including chassis and suspension, which served as the template for the entire programme. The Brazilian-built Chevrolet Chevette was first to debut in March 1973, followed by the Kadett C six months later. The T-Car programme would also include the Japanese Isuzu Gemini, the Australian Holden Gemini, the Argentine Opel K180, the…

After messing about with and writing about old cars for more years than I care to remember, I've sampled everything from Alfa to Zastava but there are a few which will always stand out. Naturally, some are exotics like the Jaguar C-Type and ‘50s Bentley Continental, but perhaps surprisingly it's the more humble machinery which leaves more of an impression. Two which immediately spring to mind are the Frogeye Sprite and the Austin A30/ A35, both of which provide grins per mile far in excess of what you'd expect from the modest power outputs of their A-Series engines. Launched as the A30 in 1951, the baby Austin was born from the failure of a proposed Austin/Morris collaboration in 1949 which meant that Austin needed to create a competitor to Morris's…

PART 9 When we first saw this Marina for sale, the advertisement had explained: ‘There is a slight lumpiness on part throttle at low speed that feels like a fuelling issue.’ And indeed, on my drive home I had noted that the car had poor light-load throttle response, the Marina just feeling like it was struggling and leading to an unpleasant stutter when trying to cruise on a light throttle. As detailed in the pictures, I checked what needle was fitted to the carburettor in case this was the wrong one and a potential source of the poor running, but I found two recommendations in the BL handbook, BAQ and BAS, with no explanation of the difference. I had the BAS needle fitted, but I put both of these needle…

The first-generation 3-Series first saw the light in 1975 as a replacement for the ‘02 models, making them seem suddenly very old-fashioned. At the time BMW was just a small, niche player in the UK market Making the Ferrari look like exceptionally poor value was Jaguar's replacement for the E-Type. The XJ-S retailed for £10,570 against the £11,360 of the Ferrari but its V12 packed half as much engine again To many eyes one of the prettiest Ferraris of the modern age, the 308 first appeared half a century ago, the earliest examples bodied in fibreglass The first of Oliver Winterbottom's wedgy Lotus designs, the Elite was announced in 1974 but first went on sale in January 1975. It was the first model in Lotus founder Colin Chapman's drive to…

1997 Volvo V90 • WB & Sons, January 25 £4905 Looking smart in plum purple with a tan interior, this 1997 Volvo V90 boasted the 3.0-litre straight-six engine, upgraded audio system, heated leather and air conditioning. Seemingly tidy inside and out and quite the rarity, it nearly doubled its £2500 lower estimate. Still a large estate even by modern standards, it's certainly a lot of car for the money. 1991 Nissan Figaro • WB & Sons, January 25 £4088 The Figaro is still a popular modern classic choice thanks largely to its cute looks and reliable underpinnings. Boasting plenty of history and £2200 worth of recent expenditure in cambelt, head gasket replacement plus major engine and gearbox services, this 1991 Nissan Figaro's lack of MoT did little to deter bidders…

The TVR story is typical of the low-volume British brands in that it's a saga of rise and fall culminating in what currently appears to be something of a dead-end as the world waits for a muchhyped revival. For most fans of the marque, the zenith was the ‘80s and ‘90s period during which the firm was in Peter Wheeler's ownership. Under his leadership the firm moved away from its kit car image to more polished products, running from the ‘wedge’ series and the traditional S-Series to the new models like the Griffith and Chimaera which with their unique styling and V8 soundtrack made TVR a genuine alternative to established supercar brands. For most of this time the cars were powered by the ubiquitous Rover V8, albeit fettled by TVR…

In today's automotive landscape, you're not a serious player without an SUV in your range, but back in 2002 things were less clear-cut, making the Cayenne the most controversial Porsche to date. Just how worried Stuttgart top brass were at the enforced dilution of their pure-bred sports car philosophy is obvious from the pre-launch advertising campaign. Using imagery of the Paris-Dakar winning Porsche 959, the advert announced “At this moment we are testing a five-seater version of this idea. The Cayenne is on its way.” The phrase ‘a real Porsche’ also appears anxiously several times in the early press releases, Dr Ing HCF Porsche AG conveniently forgetting that the Cayenne owed more to the larger VW Group than even the Audi-derived 924 of the 1970s. Just like the 924, the…

The Ford Focus has retained its position as the UK's most scrapped car, with 2024 marking its eighth consecutive year at the top of the list. Data from Scrap Car Comparison revealed that the Focus accounted for 6.3 per cent of all scrapped vehicles last year. Close behind, the Vauxhall Astra claimed second place with 5.6 per cent, followed by the Vauxhall Corsa at 4.8 per cent and the Fiesta at 4.4 per cent. These cars were some of the biggest sellers in the 2000s and 2010s, but are now starting to disappear. The Volkswagen Golf, Renault Clio and Vauxhall Zafira occupied fifth, six and seventh places respectively, and notably, the MINI hatch climbed to eighth place having first appeared on the list two years ago. Meanwhile, the Peugeot 207…

Our sister title Motorsport News will celebrate its 70th anniversary in style at Race Retro on 21-23 February, with a world-famous Jaguar D-Type set to take centre stage on the long-running weekly's display stand at the Stoneleigh venue. The car in question is a shortnose Jaguar D-Type prototype, pictured here at the MIRA test track in 1955 with Jaguar aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer and test driver Norman Dewis. It's at the show to represent Jaguar's Le Mans win in 1955, the same year that Motorsport News was launched, originally called Motoring News. When Motorsport News first published in July 1955, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister, ITV had just flickered onto our screens and James Dean was making the girls swoon in Rebel Without a Cause. In the motorsport world, besides Jaguar…

EMAIL: CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK Paul's article in the March issue about Longbridge and the closure of Rover took me back to Saturday 12th October 2002, when the Rover Sports Register AGM was held at the Conference Centre at Longbridge. We had the opportunity to look round the Visitor/ Heritage Centre and there was a tour of the Vehicle Assembly and Despatch areas. I vividly remember our guide on that, one of the factory workers, talking with great enthusiasm and describing with pride the massive effort and detailed planning which the swapping of the production lines (MINI to Cowley and Rover 75 to Longbridge) had involved. Established in 1953, the Rover Sports Register, as the club for all Rovers, rather than concentrating on one model, has generally enjoyed a good relationship with the…

The BMW 5 Series has a legacy that goes all the way back to 1972 when the first-generation E12 first appeared, while fast Fives can trace their lineage back to the E28 M5 of 1984, a car that wowed the motoring scene at the time and which is still considered to be one of BMW's greatest hits even now, over 40 years on. As a brief aside, we can already hear a collective “actually…” forming on the lips of particularly pedantic people reading this. They will be extremely eager to point out that the first 5 Series to wear any sort of M badge and to have received some fettling from BMW's M department was in fact the E12 M535i, which arrived in 1980. This is absolutely correct, with this…

The recipe of big engine and small car has long been a simple way of creating a performance model by judicious picking from the parts bins, notable examples from history being the Escort RS2000 and of course the Golf GTI, popularly regarded as the original hot hatch and this year celebrating its halfcentury. In reality though, the Golf wasn't the first hot hatch and GM's European Vauxhall-Opel division got there the year before with the homologation special Chevette HS, created by fitting the 2.3-litre Vauxhall Victor engine further modified with a twin-cam, 16-valve head and twin carbs for a heady 135bhp. It was a rough and ready creation in many respects, wearing its homologation-special status proudly and more a match for RS Escorts than the newfangled sophistication and benign front-wheel…

The history of the Rover V8 dates back further than you might expect – and begins across the pond with General Motors. Work on a new ‘small’ V8 began at GM as far back as 1950, with the earliest 3.8-litre unit initially cast in iron but very quickly changed to alloy, along with a capacity hike to 4.1 litres. The idea was to build a smaller, lighter and more economical V8 to take the place of the dismal straight-sixes that powered many American compacts; there was no great hurry to do so, however, and it wasn't until 1957 that Buick decided to really crack on and develop the unit with production in mind. Early prototype engines fitted to development hacks used pure alloy blocks without liners; GM had worked out…

The 1998 British International Motor Show was particularly notable for two launches, both of which were crucial for their makers and both of which would be remembered for rather different reasons. The first was the German idea of a modern British car which was the Rover 75. Unashamedly retro, it was packed with BMW componentry and promised to be the best vehicle which had emerged from the Rover Group since the Longbridge firm parted ways with Honda. Sadly, the launch was marred by a spectacularly ill-judged speech from BMW chief Bernd Pischetsrieder, essentially threatening the British workforce with closure of the brand should things not work out. All of which rather stole the thunder from an altogether more positive story at the Jaguar stand where chairman Nick Scheele was unveiling…

How complicated can it be to replace a couple of rear telescopic dampers? In the case of our BMW 335i, it was more involved than I had initially expected although, on reflection, it could have been far worse. Before we started the job at AES near York, Mark Shipman and mechanic Pete were already sucking air through their teeth at the prospect of finding the upper mounting points for the suspension dampers. If it involved removing the parcel shelf, they weren't looking forward to this potentially back-breaking part of the job. Fortunately, after emptying the boot of the 335i and peeling back the trim along the inner wheelarches, we spotted the upper mounts. And as I laid inside the boot and attempted to undo the top nut with a ring…

Bentley Turbo R (1985-1999) There was much negative speculation when Volkswagen took ownership of Bentley, but in reality the German firm has proven itself a great custodian of the Bentley brand, demonstrating its intent with the mighty Continental GT complete with twin-turbo W12 engine. Somehow though, these new-era models, while undoubtedly technically superior to the classic Bentleys, lack the character and charm of the more classic models. And by classic, I don't mean the odd fusion of BMW and Bentley which created the Arnage, but the ‘SZ’ series cars based on the Silver Spirit platform which spawned the Mulsanne Turbo and Turbo R. There is in fact a significant link between the Turbo R and the VW-era cars, since it was the appeal of the Turbo R which finally allowed…