Classics Worldの December 2021 の目次

The photo above was taken at the very enjoyable Standard Triumph Picnic at Walton Hall Hotel in Warwickshire recently. This is a delightfully low-key and relaxed event, and I went along in my Acclaim. Having found that there was not a dedicated area for Club Triumph, I parked up in an empty spot a little away from any of the other clubs. This was not, I hasten to add, because of any aloofness on my part, but because I know from personal experience how agitated some people get if their perfect line-up of club cars is infiltrated by an outsider. As it happens, I was instantly joined by another Acclaim owner – he had been waiting in the car park unsure of where he should go, and clearly decided that there…

An unregistered Triumph TR8 with just 73 miles recorded on the clock came up for sale in September, a full 41 years after leaving the production line. The pre-production 1980 Triumph TR8, one of just 14 right-hand drive examples made, was offered without reserve by Historics during their autumn sale at Ascot Racecourse. Built initially for the USA, early TR8s were only available in coupé form, the much-admired Michelotti-inspired convertible not reaching the market until October of their introductory year. A right-hand drive model then received the thumbs-up from BL management, leading to the build of a small pre-production run, of which this car is a part. However, shortly after they were completed, BL’s parlous state contributed to the cancellation of production. Presented in its original colour combination of Pendelican…

PLAIN PIPE CONNECTOR Price: £15.25 Automec have designed an easy way to connect plain fuel pipes using a unique olive, female union and inside stepped threaded fitting. Sold as a set, these are available for 1/4in, 5/16in and 3/8in OD copper, copper/nickel or steel tubing. Available at www.automec.co.uk SHELL ART & ADVERTISING By Scott Anthony, Oliver Green and Margaret Timmers Hardback • 270mm x 249mm • 208 pages • 120 colour and 50 b&w pictures • Price: £39.95 • ISBN: 978-1-84822-378-3 • www.veloce.co.uk Drawing primarily on the Shell Heritage Art Collection’s extensive poster collection, as well as film, cartoon graphics and guidebooks, this book is the first to present a comprehensive overview of Shell’s artistic heritage. The key contributions made by some major artists and designers including Paul Nash, Graham…

We’re in a manky car park in Chesterfield at about 9am on a Sunday morning, and the place is filling up with a motley array of old cars. I’m with my rock-climbing buddy Andy, who is wearing an ear-to-ear grin. He has never had a morning quite like this. It started a while before, when we met up at Mick Ward’s house. I know from 17 years of experience that a rendezvous chez Mick usually precedes an unlikely, but hugely enjoyable escapade. This is Andy’s first time, roped in because Mick needed an extra driver. Our task is to each take the tiller of one of Mick’s vehicles and pilot it a couple of miles to the show in town he was helping to organise. It sounds simple, but there…

The original Mini Cooper was the brainchild of auto racing legend John Cooper. During the late 1940s and 1950s the Cooper family had taken the world of Formula 1 by storm, winning the championship in 1959 and 1960 with Jack Brabham at the wheel. Meanwhile, John Cooper had become interested in the new British Motor Corporation (BMC) Mini, launched in 1959. He was friends with Mini designer Alec Issigonis, and immediately recognised the car’s potential. Despite Issigonis’s initial reservations about turning the car into a racer, the pair eventually worked together to turn the new model into a giant killer. The basic 848cc engine was given a longer stroke to increase capacity to 997cc, a hefty dose of race tuning and twin SU carburettors. They then added a close-ratio gearbox…

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A couple of years ago, I followed the stripdown of a front and rear brake caliper that were exactly the same as the ones fitted to our Bentley project, so I knew what I was letting myself in for when I asked Prestige Services if I could borrow their two-post ramp and service the brakes on our Bentley Turbo R. In theory, the brakes on this car are straightforward to service, even though there are two calipers at each front corner and one at each side on the back. Each front brake caliper contains a couple of pistons, whereas each rear caliper has four pistons. This doesn’t make much difference when it comes to extracting the brake pads – simply remove the R-clips, spring clips and retaining pins, then pull…

Of all the Jaguars manufactured during the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, there’s one that stands out from the rest, possibly thanks to television programmes such as Inspector Morse, but also because it was technically superior (monocoque shell with independent front suspension) and had mouth-watering performance figures. When most saloons were only starting to feature front disc brakes, Jaguar were fitting discs all round to the Mk2, along with leather upholstery and optional power-assisted steering. Plus the top-of-the-range 3.8-litre model was the fastest production saloon in the world when new, boasting a 0-60mph time of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 120.4mph. The Jaguar Mk2 wasn’t originally known by this title. What is now known as the Mk1, (which was produced between 1955 and 1959,) was simply called…

GOT A STORY TO SHARE? EMAIL IT TO CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK OR POST IT TO CLASSICS MONTHLY NEWSDESK, KELSEY MEDIA, THE GRANARY, DOWNS COURT, YALDING HILL, YALDING ME18 6AL For classic motoring enthusiasts, there is nowhere else in the UK to see quite such a diverse display of classic cars, bikes and other vehicles in one place, spanning over 120 years and featuring everything from traditional British classics, vintage motors and historic racers to American muscle cars and retro hot hatches. With hundreds of clubs at the heart of the show and representing a broad range of marques and models, you can be sure to find your favourites on display. However, it is not just about the classics on display. In addition to all these amazing bikes and cars, you can shop…

Thanks for running my letter about the Imp in the November edition. I thought you might like this snippet on a South Wales club, the Cwmbran-based Forresters Car Club, which welcomes a wide span of classics and does its fair share for charity. Club cars range from grand tourer rarities such as the Jensen CV8 to more mainstream family cars like the Triumph Acclaim. The club holds regular meetings with quiz nights and Playstation challenges, and also stages rallies and tours. Recently, the club held their much-delayed Two Rivers Tour, taking in superb Monmouthshire scenery, the valleys of Rivers Usk and Wye and with a detour through Torfaen. For this, its fourth Two Rivers Tour, proceeds went to help selected Monmouthshire charities. The 50+ strong 2021 Tour involved vehicles spanning…

Like any of the subjects in this Top Ten Trivia series, telling the whole story of such a fine car would fill a book. All we can do here is give a brief overview to the background and the development, together with our own personal pick of the trivia. So buckle up, as we have a lot to get through in a very short space! Colin Chapman had made his name building racing specials under the Lotus name, starting with the MkI in 1948. In 1955 Lotus Engineering Co Ltd became a member of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, marking its transition from a builder of specials to a fully-fledged car company. In 1957 they unveiled two seminal classics – the Lotus Seven and the Lotus Elite. The…

Often overlooked when compared to the later RX-7 coupé or the earlier and far rarer Mazda Cosmo, the Mazda RX-3 was a landmark car in Mazda’s history, one that cemented the company’s association with the rotary engine at home and abroad. By the time production came to an end in 1978, no fewer than 286,757 RX-3s had been produced, making it the second biggest selling Mazda rotary after the RX-7. There were versions of the model with conventional piston engines too, called the Mazda 808, Mazda 818 or Grand Familia depending on the market, and these increased the sales tally further. And while it was the two-door coupé that was the most popular model of RX-3 and the one best remembered today, the RX-3 was also offered in saloon and…

From 1936 to 2018, Morgan more or less made the same car in slightly different flavours. The differences in performance and character between individual cars is sometimes bigger than the difference between models, as while older Morgans are lighter, more modern engines are stronger. Sometimes, as the Morgan decades hurtled past, the 4/4 or 4-4 model became a Plus 4 or Plus Four, and vice versa. Essentially 4/4 usually means a big enough engine, Plus Four means a bigger engine and Plus 8 means a very big engine. If you’re thinking about a Morgan, maybe it’s best to pick a period rather than a model. In my experience, Morgans have been both delicious and appalling, but in both cases hugely entertaining. They remain a proper pre-war sports car, in production…

LAUNCHING THE THE CONSUL GRANADA 50 years ago, Ford engineers were readying one of their most important cars of the 70s The Mk4 Ford Zephyr and Zodiac had been Ford of Britain’s biggest flop of the 1960s. It was true that the Classic and Corsair had not really sold as well as they should have, but at least they were quite well liked by the motoring press. The big 1966 Fords, however, did not persuade either the press or the buying public. With previous generations of the Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac family, the Mk1 cars had sold over 400,000 in six years, the Mk2 a whopping 650,000 in under seven years and the Mk3 a slightly disappointing 289,000 in four years. Those disappointing Mk3 figures were due to a couple of things, namely…

Beaulieu has launched Bond in Motion – No Time To Die, a new exhibition featuring cars, gadgets and costumes from the latest 007 film. Beaulieu Enterprises Managing Director Russell Bowman said: 'This entirely new exhibition follows in the footsteps of our acclaimed Bond In Motion exhibition, which opened ten years ago showing 50 original vehicles from 50 years of Bond, and we know this will be just as popular.' The exhibition will be the first opportunity for the public to see the folding-wing glider from the film – the full-size model will be suspended above Bond’s iconic Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5, complete with new LED number plate and machine guns. Also on display will be the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera driven in the film by new agent Nomi, the…

GOT A STORY TO SHARE? EMAIL IT TO CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK OR POST IT TO CLASSICS MONTHLY NEWSDESK, KELSEY MEDIA, THE GRANARY, DOWNS COURT, YALDING HILL, YALDING ME18 6AL Ford has been celebrating a major milestone at Dagenham this month. Just over 90 years ago, at 1:16pm on 1st October 1931, the first Ford vehicle – the Ford AA truck pictured above – rolled off Dagenham’s production line at what was then Ford’s newest global production facility. Over the next 71 years, nearly 11 million cars, trucks and tractors were built there which, if placed end to end, would stretch 10 times around the world. Close to 50 million engines have been produced to date too, and Dagenham continues to play a major role in Ford’s European operations, building the advanced technology…

I do like a good harrumph, and I also enjoy the contradictions inherent in harrumphing. Secondhand German engines in new Bentleywagens and Rolls-und-Royces? Outrage. Naff accountants’ decision? Grrr. Once a brand has stopped making its own engine, it just becomes an empty marketing slogan being abused by low-class money men. So what about Rolls-Royce buying Bentley in 1931 and sticking Bentley badges on a 20/25 Rolls? Also outrageous and appalling. However, time has softened that blow. My 1947 Bentley may be a travesty of the real thing, but I’ve had 90 years to get used to the idea, and at least the MkVI is a genuine sports-saloon Bentley, only slightly compromised by a few token RR Silver Dawn versions fitted with RR grilles. My nightmare 1957 S1 Bentley is not…

To see a V8-S basking in the sun is to be reminded of designer David Bache’s genius. When British Leyland unveiled the original 3500 SD1 in the summer of 1976, many enthusiasts were incredulous at what indeed resembled a five-door Ferrari Daytona. But equally importantly, the new Rover seemed a world apart from depressing news bulletins concerning the latest BL industrial dispute. And three years later, BL introduced the V8-S, prestige transport which demonstrated 'The difference between the best and the rest.' The story of this now ultra-rare SD1 dates back to 1977, with the launch of the 2300 and 2600. Having introduced these entry-level SD1s, that left BL with scope for a more expensive version to compete with the Audi 200 C2 and Opel Senator 3.0 CD. Furthermore, many of…

Last issue, we had the Cortina professionally inspected on a ramp at our local classic specialist and MoT test centre, Hall’s Garage. They gave it a very definite thumbs up, but added one or two jobs to a list that we had already started compiling. As you would expect, some of these were more urgent than others as they related to safety. Pretty much at the top of the list were some rusty brake pipes that needed replacing. If the original steel pipes are pitted enough to feel the roughness with your finger nail, and ours definitely were, then they will be seriously weakened and a slight leak is likely to be the least of your problems – more likely they will burst and the brakes fail entirely without warning…

When it was launched in 1980, the Panda came with a tubular rear axle on leaf springs. However, we have bought a 1992 car, and from January 1986 the Panda’s rear suspension was changed to a more modern dependent type with an Omega-shaped axle tube located centrally with a special shackle and fitted with coil springs. The most obvious problems on this car in that area were a non-functioning handbrake, rusty brake pipes and general surface corrosion of the suspension parts. There is not room for a total step-by-step description of all the work, but the pictures and their captions show the main tasks. I would add here that I went slowly, and made sure that all the necessary nuts and bolts were loosened before removing any of them. That…

One of the reasons why our Montego looked so down at heel when we bought it was because there were blemishes on virtually every panel, some of them worse than others. The offside sill had a small section of rust at the front end, but the nearside sill was in worse shape with no fewer than four problem areas – rust at the back by the rear wheelarch, a dent below the rear door, some filler under the B-post, and finally some surface rust by the A-post. As the pictures show, despite this litany of woe, the actual damage was not too bad, most of the rust having been caused by sweating where two panels overlapped and so very localised. However, the front doors looked particularly unsightly. Each of them…