Sommaire pour October 2019 de Classics World

Packing everything required for motoring into a small car takes ingenuity, and I’m talking here about the engineering, not deciding who is going to have the picnic hamper on their lap! That’s why I find microcars so fascinating. We’ve got one of the most famous types in this issue, the BMW Isetta that gave rise to the description of ‘bubblecar’ for such miniscule motoring marvels. Just don’t underestimate how much restoration such a tiny car can demand, as our feature starting on p42 shows. In fact, there are a number of minimal motors in this issue, from the incredibly basic Mini Moke on p48 to the whizz-bang packaging that created the Smart Roadster on p94. Not that we’ve forgotten the big boys – the Gilbern Invader on p36 is a…

The Cambridge-Oxford Owners Club gathered over 150 cars for their celebration of the BMC Farina's 60th birthday at Swanwick Junction Museum preserved railway, near Ripley in Derbyshire. Lovers of the English fin came from all over the UK and Europe to celebrate all aspects of these humble but much loved cars, all badge-engineered derivatives of the Cambridge and Westminster, which were sold from 1959 until 1971. Activities ranged from a live band doing 1960s songs to technical seminars, a slot car tournament using model Austin Cambridges, period dress competition, the screening of a 1968 documentary about Pininfarina himself and much more. Former Police Constable Tony Gledhill, G.C. was COOC's guest of honour and did two laps of the site in a Wolseley 6/110 police car on blues and twos before…

Bentley has re-created a long-lost car from its illustrious past which provides a crucial link in the history of its most important models. The ground-up rebuild of the only 1939 Corniche ever made also highlights the breadth of skills within the Mulliner division where, since the 1970s, one-off cars have been built for collectors and royalty. The Corniche was conceived to be a high performance version of the new MkV saloon, itself a technological advance that was due to be launched in October 1939. The styling of the Corniche was a radical step forward from the traditional Bentleys of the 1920s and 1930s, introducing streamlining to help deliver greater speed and performance. It heavily influenced post-war models, from the R Type Continental right through to the current Continental GT. The…

HANDBRAKE PADS Price: £94.80 DMG have announced that they’ve re-made handbrake pads on the original tools that will fit the Daimler Dart SP250, Aston Martin DB4 GT (1961-63) and Gordon-Keeble GT Saloon (1964-65). The handbrake set is available now under part number 136203/13, and is also available on an exchange basis. For more information about this product, speak to one of DMG’s experts on 0121 544 4040 or e-mail enquiries@davidmanners.co.uk EMERGENCY WARNING KIT Price: £71.99 This simple kit will work on any car, with conventional or LED bulbs, and on cars either with or without hazard warning lights fitted. If the car experiences a hard impact or very hard braking, it will flash the indicators at all four corners to make the situation highly visible to all other road users.…

Somewhere in the Classics editorial pipeline lurks a Marques and Models feature dedicated to the Rootes ‘Arrow’ range. I know this because I was the mug volunteered to slave over a hot keyboard to write it. Having overcome the dreaded blank page stage, some days later I emerged from a pile of research material with a sigh and a sore thumb, mission accomplished. During this Herculean labour, I began to realise that in the last couple of decades I had written little about Rootes Group cars, despite strong family associations going back over 50 years. Jaguars, MGs and Triumphs by the dozen yes, but Hillmans, Sunbeams, Singers and the rest have been conspicuously absent. Why? The unavoidable reason may simply be that most Rootesmobiles were, and probably always will be,…

For some time now, the yellow project Mazda has been a fixture on my drive. Recently though, it was needed elsewhere and when I dropped it off at Kelsey Towers, the Renault 21 office hack was available to get me back home. That suited me fine, because I had a couple of long trips planned and the Renault’s big boot would come in handy. However, there is always a price to pay when you are handed the keys to a pool car. In this case, I was told that the wiring to the radiator fan had failed and been given an emergency roadside repair using medical tape, apparently the only thing that could be found in the boot. By the time I got home I had added a blowing exhaust…

Our Escort’s engine may be in a few pieces, but I was impressed with how good it was looking already. True, the head wasn’t on the block, but the space had given George at Q-prep an opportunity to clean off a great deal of the grease that had been liberally applied around the engine bay in the past to help protect the paintwork. We could well reapply fresh grease, but for now the engine bay looks much tidier, and it’s surprising how much more orange it is. Laid down neatly on a table ahead of the Escort were all the components of the CVH engine’s top end. Also on the table, next to plenty of other components, were our two manifolds. Since their clean-up last episode, the exhaust manifold has…

Nicolas Hayek was a man of vision. His radical thinking was responsible for the creation of the Swatch watch empire, whose modern approach to company structure and efficient manufacturing processes eventually brought about the complete overhaul of the Swiss watch industry. Hayek’s interest in modernising strayed beyond timepieces: he wanted to build a car. Rather like his spiritual successor, Elon Musk of Tesla, he brought a singular vision to an industry which at the time (1982) was really rather set in its ways. Hayek believed that the world needed an all-new city car, and set about ripping up the rule book as he planned it. Tiny cars have long been associated with inventive design, as the bubblecars of the 1950s, the Mini and Japan’s Kei-class vehicles proved. Hayek’s concept literally…

Two of the heavyweight clubs in the Triumph world, the TR Register and the Triumph Sports Six Club, each have a tradition of staging a big international event for their members every year, but for 2019 they combined forces to create the first Inter-Club Triumph Weekend at Stratfordupon-Avon's Racecourse over the weekend of 16-18 August. With over 2000 attendees across the three days, it proved to be a winning formula, allowing the clubs to pool resources and offering members a wider selection of cars to admire. There must have been a few anxious moments for the organisers on the Friday when heavy rain turned the camping fields into muddy quagmires, but fortunately Saturday dawned dry and bright and the remainder of the weekend stayed dry and warm. As always when…

Already established as the country’s biggest free-to-view car-themed spectacle enjoyed by more than 500,000 visitors, this year’s Regent Street Motor Show will also serve as one of the stand-out events marking Regent Street’s distinguished 200th anniversary. As tradition dictates, the crowd-pleasing attraction will be staged on the eve of the Bonhams London to Brighton Veteran Car Run and will feature a magical mix of motoring past, present and future. The formative early days will be wonderfully represented by more than 100 extraordinary pre-1905 pioneers taking part in the annual Veteran Car Concours d’Elegance before heading off on their route to Brighton at first light the following morning. The unique concours is always a huge attraction – even more so as many of the intrepid time-travellers, who come from all over…

I’m writing this because, to my lasting regret, it is almost ten years since I last spoke to Spen King, before he died in a bicycle crash in 2010 when he was 85 years old. I always thought he was a really heroic engineer, and I still miss him. So, here is a perfect exam question: 'Two famous engineers, Spen King and Alec Issigonis – compare and contrast.' My immediate judgement is that Issigonis liked to be famous, while Spen King shied away from publicity. Most enthusiasts think they know everything about Issigonis, but know little about King. Issigonis's team were vital for turning his ideas into practice. By contrast, Spen King could do it all himself, and he was also an accomplished stylist. Oh yes, and Spen King inspired…

The year is 1959, and you are making a journey to the capital in order to evaluate the choice of small cars at the Motor Show. You reject the new Triumph Herald as too expensive, and although the Austin A40 Farina seems promising, you do prefer a saloon with three-box styling. As for those Morris Mini-Minors and Austin Sevens, a car with a sideways engine and those tiny wheels will never catch on. The shortlist is narrowed down to a pair of very desirable models, one of them long-established and the other brand new. The former is the Morris Minor – smart, reliable and socially acceptable in virtually every scenario. If you took delivery of a 1000, there would almost certainly be nods of admiration from the neighbours. True, some…

THE MKI: AUTO-TO-MANUAL CONVERSION BEGINS Our automatic Mk1 Eunos is finally being converted to manual and although this operation means major surgery, the long-term prognosis for our sporting Mazda looks good. COSTS THIS ISSUE: New alternator: £162 Drive belts: £19.20 Labour: £1 32 It has been one of those jobs that has been on and off for quite a while, but a decision was finally made and our Mk1 Eunos is now on the ramp at marque specialist MX-5 City having the automatic gearbox replaced with a five-speed manual. The final 50 mile drive up to MX-5 City’s new premises in West Yorkshire was in some ways a bit of a sad one, as the next time I drive our Eunos it will have a clutch pedal and gear lever…

Having received a good used electric window motor from Naki at www.blackcherryjaguar.com,there was no further excuse to put off the job of replacing the faulty motor on the XJ40 Sovereign nearside rear door. The first task to be done was to remove all of the door trim. This is tedious, but easy enough so long as you remember to take care when removing the door courtesy clear and red lens warning light assembly. When levering the lens away, it is all to easy to crack the plastic so it is most important to treat it gently. That done, the remainder of the trim is held in place by the usual Philips self tappers and plastic clips. With the main trim panel off, the three screws that hold the window regulator…

Last issue we looked in some detail at the difference between repair and restoration, the different types of rust that can affect a classic car, the various methods of construction and the different types of welded joint that are used in car construction and restoration. As part of the repair-versus-restoration section, I mentioned the importance of cutting out ALL the existing rust, right back to solid metal, and then letting in fresh material to replace it. Once present, rust will only spread. It’s pretty-much impossible to weld directly on to rust anyway, but if new metal is even touching rust, it will be affected. THINK BEFORE CUTTING! As we saw last month, a unitary-construction shell carries all the structural loads of a car, and while many early unitary cars were…

Few vehicles are as recognisable or seem as intrinsic a part of the British scenery as a Land Rover Defender – anywhere you go you can expect to see the familiar boxy shape or hear the characteristic rattly-bang cacophony of a Landy going about its business. Of course the Defender has been around for a long time, spanning what you could call the classic, modern classic and modern eras. One of the reasons why it seems such a constant presence is that, stylistically at least, it was little different to the previous Series Land Rovers that had been built and evolved since 1948. However, for all its similarities in appearance and broad design, there were very few directly carried-over parts. Initially presented in the spring of 1983 in long-wheelbase form…

Specialist Vehicle Associates (SVA) is extremely proud to have been chosen as an official partner to Marque II Media & Events, a recently formed international lifestyle events company who, in 2020 over the weekend of 17th-19th July, will be hosting its 'jewel in the crown' event Auto Royale at Althorp House in Northamptonshire, home of the Spencer family and where Lady Diana grew up. More than a classic car show and much more than an exclusive summer party, Auto Royale Althorp will bring together Europe's finest vintage and classic car restorations of the year, and the rarest and most beautiful examples of automotive design from around the world. Think 'Pebble Beach in the English countryside' and you won't be far off the mark! Q: So what is the SVA? A:…

Mitsubishi Motors in the UK has registered the final Mitsubishi Shogun and added it to its fleet of heritage vehicles. The Shogun SWB Barbarian was one of the last examples of the formidable 4x4 icon to make its way into the UK via the brand’s Portbury-based import centre, following the end of European production at the Mitsubishi Motors Corporation manufacturing facility in Sakahogi, Gifu, Japan. The roots of the Mitsubishi Shogun (also known as Pajero and Montero in other countries) can be traced back to 1934 with the pioneering Mitsubishi PX33 prototype, the first 4WD vehicle built by the company. Mitsubishi Motors presented the Shogun prototype at the Tokyo Motor Show in November 1979, with production starting in 1982. Since that launch, a total of 114,164 have been registered in…

A VIEW FROM AMERICA July 4th was American Independence Day. It seems a bit ironic that we would fight a war with Great Britain to gain our independence, and a couple of hundred years later some of us would fall in love British cars and we now find ourselves beholden to the UK for our cars, parts and quirky engineering. Who won that war? As we all know, sadly there is virtually no British automobile industry remaining as foreign companies own all the major British marques. Rolls Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin and Mini are all German owned. India’s Tata owns Jaguar and Land Rover, and Jaguar is rumoured to be for sale now. The Chinese own MG. As of 2017 the Chinese company Geely owns 51% of Lotus. The French…

My MkII Cortina GT was unusually nice, bought for a very good price in the mid-1970s minus its engine. The details are now a bit vague, but I’d heard about the empty GT through the grapevine, and also knew where a quite violent but eminently suitable engine was going spare. It had come out of a crashed rally Escort that had also written off a potential professional rallying career. The engine was also very well priced. It had obviously cost a fortune, but a used racing engine is only worth a tiny percentage of its cost – if you’re going to pay any real money for a used race engine, you need to know the builder, the precise spec and brand names of the components inside it, the hours it’s…

I’ve been in the motoring publishing world for almost 25 years and I thought I had a fairly wide general knowledge about the market; I’m certainly not an expert on every car, but I thought I knew a bit about most of them. Or not, as it turned out, because I’d never even heard of this car before lining it up for a feature. It’s a MkI Gilbern Invader. Gilbern Sports Cars was formed in Wales by Giles Smith (Gil) and Bernard Friese (Bern) back in 1959. They started production with the Gilbern GT, followed by the Genie and then the Invaders in MkI, II and III guises. Car production ceased in 1974. Only 78 of the MkI Invaders were ever manufactured between 1969 and the start of 1971, so…

The Mini Moke was originally conceived as a lightweight infantry support vehicle which could be air-transportable by aircraft and helicopters. It was offered to armies of the UK, Commonwealth and the USA in several forms between 1959 and 1964, but lacked the required ground clearance for military service. So BMC decided to reorientate the Moke as a commercial vehicle, and put it into production at Longbridge from 1964. The original Mk1 Moke was built until around September 1967, based on Mk1 848cc Mini parts. In late 1967 a revised model arrived using Mk2 Mini parts, but the Moke was axed in the UK in October 1968 after 14,518 had been built. However, BMC Australia had been building them since 1966, and had even modified their Mokes with bigger 13in wheels,…

Having fitted the LED bulbs to my Stag, it was now the turn of the E-Type, which was going to be somewhat more involved as I also wanted to upgrade the indicators to include hazard flashers. The Stag has a Lucas 39976 hazard switch, which would have been ideal for the Jag as it offered a single push pull switch that I could incorporate into a small panel I planned to fabricate for the digital speedo head. However, I could not source one locally and purchasing one from the UK was likely to cost £60 or £70 to land in Australia. I also looked at the flasher kits available, but they were likely to be even more expensive and many came with quite bulky switches. In the end I decided…

FORD FIESTA RADIO UPDATE Q I have a 1989 Ford Fiesta 1400 LX which is still equipped with the original radio. This has the joystick controller to alter the fade and balance to the four speakers. The original radio has a short loom going to the joystick, and then eight wires come from the joystick to the speakers. I want to put in a modern unit with Bluetooth capability and one which will supply all four speakers without the complexity of the joystick. Will I need to rewire each speaker back to the new unit? Dave Hayes A The speaker wires now going to the back of the joystick should be perfectly adequate and it should be possible to wire them directly into the new radio. Depending on what…

In the last issue of Classics Monthly, we followed the strip down of a 1998cc Triumph straight-six engine that looked particularly sludgy from the inside. The following pages show any remaining cleaning and checking before reassembling the engine with new parts including pistons, bearings, seals and gaskets. We’ve included some recommended torque figures, but have discovered that these can vary depending on specification of fittings, parts and engines, so it’s worthwhile referring to the workshop manual for your vehicle, and also to check parts availability with suppliers such as Rimmers. Cleanliness is essential when building any engine. Use clean cloths that don’t shed any threads, and it helps to soak them in a little paraffin to help wipe and catch any traces of dirt. Also, an air line from a…

It’s interesting that ‘Big Healeys’ aren’t really particularly big, unless you’re comparing them with the tiny Frogeye Sprite that arrived later. By that same logic we should also refer to the TR4s as Big Triumphs and MGB/ Cs as Big MGs. Confusingly, all these were often classed as LBCs (Little British Cars) by Americans, who were, of course, the chief buyers. Moving swiftly on... The background story starts in 1898, when Donald Mitchell Healey was born in Perranporth, Cornwall. After service in the Royal Flying Corps, he was invalided out in 1917, to spend the remainder of the war checking aircraft components. When the dust settled, he returned to Cornwall and opened the first garage in his home town. It seems that young Healey was more interested in competitive motoring…