Classics Worldの March 2022 の目次

I have been looking at a couple of potential candidates for future project cars, both of them true design classics that can trace their origins back some 75 years or more. (There are no prizes for guessing what they are, but feel free to have a go anyway and send in your suggestions.) One of them was being sold without an engine, and that got me idly thinking about the possibilities of also carrying out a conversion to electric power. Now before you throw down the magazine in disgust, I should say that I have serious doubts about the global green credentials of electric cars, and I am also not totally convinced either way whether converting classics is a good idea that will allow us to continue driving them unhindered by…

'I Iove the simplicity of the Spitfire,' says Jane Rowley, 'you just get in and go, but it delivers so many smiles per mile and it is very stylish.' This enthusiasm is not surprising because to say Jane is a devotee of the post-war small Triumph sports car is perhaps an understatement – in addition to this very handsome Powder Blue 1962 example, she also currently owns a 1965 model, a 1967 GT6 Mk1 and a 1976 Spitfire 1500. We will get on to Jane’s story in more detail shortly, but first let’s start with the background to the model line. The Spitfire closely followed in the footsteps of the Herald, which had debuted in the spring of 1959. Three years earlier, Standard-Triumph’s management had considered building a smaller alternative…

As soon as a motor manufacturer launches a new model, the collective thoughts of its staff invariably turn towards a successor because it takes several years to go from the first design sketches to the finished article. That generally means that a production run of eight years is pretty good going for a model, even though it must be admitted that most ‘new’ designs usually carry over a significant proportion of parts from the outgoing one. Sometimes though, a lack of cash or simple industrial or political inertia means that a model stays in production long past its sell-by date. I am no stranger to this phenomenon because I have a fondness for cars from behind the former Iron Curtain, not because of any particular political views but because I…

Last issue, we took a little detour out of the bodyshop and looked at creating plastic clips on a 3D printer. Before that, we had carried out a partial respray of the repaired panels, but as expected had not got a perfect match between old and new paint. Having put so much time and effort into reviving our tired old Montego, we weren’t happy with this, so the only option was a full respray to tie everything together. That has now been done, and the car reassembled into something drivable. Here is a whirlwind tour of the latest developments. CALD150 Digital caliper with measuring length of 150mm and jaw length of 40mm. Supplied in a plastic case – £74.88 TTPSAD Five-piece body working hammer set including two dead blow and…

From a 2022 perspective, it is tempting to regard the British Motor Corporation’s Farina dynasty in the same light as the BBC Home Service and the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marples films – safe and comfortable products that would rattle few cages. Yet in the late 1950s, this apparent symbol of suburban middle-class security was a radical step for BMC with its carefully planned blend of straightforward engineering and new Italian suiting. The narrative commenced when BMC paid Battista ‘Pinin’ Farina an £84,000 commission to revitalise most of their saloon line-up in the mid-1950s. The first result of this collaboration was the two-box Austin A40 which debuted in 1958, but our focus this issue is on the bigger models that started arriving in December of that year. This was the Wolseley…

On a sad day for all Lotus enthusiasts worldwide, Hazel Chapman – the wife of Colin Chapman and co-founder of Lotus – died on 13th December aged 94. Her contribution to motorsport and the motor industry in the latter half of the 20th century should not be underestimated. She was a successful racing driver, a shrewd businesswoman and the rock upon which the Lotus foundations – since 1948, when the very first Lotus car was made – were built. Her involvement in the development of the Lotus business was almost without equal at the time in a world where women so often played second fiddle to their husbands. Hazel Williams was born on the 21st May 1927 in North London. She met Colin Chapman at a dance in 1944 when…

Here’s a thing that can come as something of a surprise: when your personal favourite car gains a hundred thousand pounds in value, that actually becomes a problem. This happened to a friend in Vancouver who owned an Aston Martin DB2. You might think: 'Boo hoo, tough life innit?', but this particular bloke is not rich, although he is child-free which is a big help financially when it comes to petrolhead activity. He was previously a Volvo dealership service manager, then he ran a B&B on one of the islands near Vancouver, where he was actually able to earn about the best sort of money anybody ever could because he had bought and home-restored a rough sailing yacht to a very good standard. So in the summer months his B&B…

We had stripped out the interior of our Cortina so that we could tackle some rust under the driver’s seat more easily and without the risk of a stray spark causing unforeseen damage to the soft furnishings. Part of that stripping entailed removal of the entire carpet, and that was when we discovered some rust that had previously been hidden from view – at the front of the nearside inner sill and below the A-post on that side. Having completed our repairs to the floor and to the offside inner sill that we had already known about, we decided to tackle this new problem next, before then turning our attention to the spare wheel well in the boot and also what promises to be the most complex of the repairs…

The Acclaim is currently a key to turn the alarm on and on SORN for the winter, not because I am worried about taking it out during inclement weather, but mostly because I have too many vehicles on the road and not enough places to go in them! Since I want to tidy up the Acclaim’s body and paint anyway, when its insurance and tax expired, I parked it up in Alan’s barn to await its turn. There are a couple of things to report though, which happened a little earlier but are only just making it into print. The first concerns a bit of tidying up to the wiring. When I bought the Acclaim, it had already been fitted with an aftermarket alarm by a previous owner. I am…

Last issue we dismantled the front suspension and compiled a list of new parts that would be needed. As usual, the exact definition of the word ‘needed’ was a slightly grey area. The brake discs were still within tolerance for thickness and so could have been used again, but they were only a fraction over the minimum permissible thickness and so that made little sense. Similarly, the calipers were functioning, but the chrome on the pistons was pitted, so they only had a very limited life remaining and I had no wish to suffer brake failure when on the road. Other no-brainers were the track rod ends, balljoints and brake hoses, the rubber on all of which was badly split. The front uprights themselves were more of a grey area.…

If ever you were compiling a list of Mercedes models that helped to promote its reputation of reliability and longevity, the saloons, estates and coupés that were internally codenamed W123 and produced between 1976 and 1985 have got to be at the top of it. The model line-up replaced the W114/115 series and was initially available only as a four-door saloon, but a two-door coupé was introduced in 1977, along with a long wheelbase seven-/eight-seater saloon and a standard-length estate. Mercedes also supplied the W123 as a part-assembled vehicle for coachbuilders to convert to ambulances and hearses – Crayford made 12 St Tropez convertibles based on the coupé, for example. Practicality & performance These are spacious and practical family vehicles, with seating for five people or more (rear seatbelts may…

Car photographers tend to carry a lot of gear. Unsurprisingly, they tend to choose estate cars as their transport. So when the snapper rocked up to our shoot rendezvous in a custard-yellow VW Beetle, I was somewhat taken aback. This was in the autumn of 1998. Lensmen are quite an exuberant bunch, and this particular snapper has always been one of the most outgoing of his kind. A massive fan of fun and novel vehicles, he was one of the first to go for VW’s new toy, and he was very enthusiastic about it indeed. ‘It has loads more room than you’d think,’ he declared happily, folding the driver’s seat, then diving headfirst into a cabin stuffed literally to the roof with flight cases and bits of lighting rig. ‘And…

To celebrate 35 years of production at their Sunderland plant, Nissan commissioned a very special conversion of the Nissan Bluebird – the first car off the factory’s production line in 1986. Called Newbird, the one-off project car is powered by the 100% electric drivetrain of a Nissan LEAF, the pioneering mass-market EV. The Nissan Bluebird was extensively modified to integrate the LEAF’s electric drivetrain. The original petrol combustion engine and gearbox were removed and a LEAF motor, inverter and 40kWh battery pack installed, with the battery modules split between the engine bay and the boot for optimised weight distribution. Updates and modifications were made to the power steering, braking and heating systems to enable them to be electrically powered. A custom suspension was also installed to support the additional weight…

Vauxhall has often been overshadowed by Ford, but many of its models deserve far more respect than they seem to get. Take the Mk1 Astra GTE for example, a successful if short-lived hot hatchback and rally car of the mid-1980s. The front-wheel-drive Astra initially replaced the successful rear-wheel-drive Chevette in 1979, but the sporty GTE didn’t appear until April 1983 and was very late to the party, because 15 months later the sleeker Mk2 Astra replaced all Mk1 models. Despite this short production run, the Mk1 Astra GTE got off to a promising start, not surprising when you consider the specification. It was powered by a 1796cc fuel-injected, single-overhead camshaft engine mated to a five-speed close-ratio gearbox. With a top speed of 115mph, an equally credible power output of 115bhp…

The planned move from Canada to Scotland is looming, which puts some pressure on the project list. I alternated between keeping and discarding Pimple the 1990 RSP Mini Cooper and the Mini Marcos, but Pimple would need an MoT and road tax on arrival, whereas the Mini Marcos should soon get a 1974 Canadian registration in my name, after which it just cruises into the UK as a tax-and MoT-free 40+ year-old, like the rest of my cars. I have decided both to sell and to keep Pimple on several occasions now, but ultimately importing two Minis is unnecessary, and Pimple is worth substantially more in the States. Besides, it’s a pain to work on, with power brakes, an oil cooler and air conditioning jammed in the already tight Mini…

Rust, and the prevention of it, has long been high on the agenda of car companies, though sometimes not as high as it might have been! In the early days it was considered that a wipe down with solvents before being primed and painted was enough to protect the car’s body from rusting. Of course, many cars of the time had wooden-framed bodies with fabric covering, so rust wasn’t an issue (though rot may have been). After the Second World War few cars had fabric bodies, and by the 1950s many cars were built without a chassis, as in the Austin A30 and later Mini, or with unitary or integrated chassis, and most had steel panels. Rust, especially on Britain’s roads where salt was routinely used in winter to melt…

Taking a car apart is largely a matter of patience, logic and common sense. It certainly won't hurt to reiterate some basic truths, though. Firstly, our primary focus tends to be on cars from the 1950s to the 1980s. That means for most likely candidates there will be a Haynes manual available, and this is essential reading before tackling each major task. Just remember to make sure you are reading about the correct model. For example, often the manual will detail first one engine family in section A, then another in section B of the same chapter. Remember also to check in the Supplement chapter at the end of the book, as there can be some quite dramatic changes in here for later models – my Fiat Panda manual for…

I can remember exactly where I was the first time I saw a Sierra – M5 northbound, en route to the NEC on press day, 22nd September 1982. ‘There’s a new Sierra,’ said Everett Snr as I caught a glimpse of it steaming down the opposite carriageway, a pale grey one with a dark grey grille signifying the base model that about nine people bought. The Sierra signified some new thinking at Ford. Since the days of the first Cortina launched 20 years previously, Ford had been increasingly using its model range as a barometer of what they could get away with – many manufacturers are still doing this today as I alluded to recently, but Ford really did make it into an art form. The early Mk3 Cortina, for…