Classics Worldの January 2024 の目次

Welcome to the first of our expanded issues incorporating Future Classics. As promised, these new features have been added to the regular mix without taking away any of the regular Classics World content, so I hope that you find more than ever to interest you. Broadly speaking, the new FC section curated by Ian Cushway will focus on cars from the 1990s and 2000s, though as Ian explains in his introduction on p113, this is far from being a rigid time frame. That did get me thinking about the cars I have owned and trying to remember what the youngest might have been. I think it was probably the MG TF from 2005, a car that to my mind would not look out of place in Classics World today despite…

Indian businessman Daman Thakore has completed an amazing trip in his 1950 MG Y-Type, driving 7500 miles from his home in Ahmedabad to Abingdon in Oxfordshire. The YT has been in Daman's family since 1979. It was always kept running, but Daman started a restoration in 2008. 'I am not a mechanic, although I do understand more about how it works now,' he said,'but I found people to work on it who had worked on similar age cars in the past. The big challenge was that they would fit parts which worked but were not strictly correct, yet I wanted it to be factory-fresh in every detail.' As mammoth as that task turned out to be, it pales in comparison to this latest adventure. 'Over the years we have done…

J40 CONTINUATION Price: £25,000 The new Austin J40 Continuation presents an exquisite interpretation of the muchloved classic J40 pedal car produced between 1949-1971, brought back to life by combining modern technology with traditional principles. The end result of over three years of in-house development, the car is radically different to the classic model, with very few carry-over parts despite its familiar looks. Featuring a body formed by hand from aluminium, there's a Moto-Lita wooden steering, Smiths electronic gauges displaying real GPS-measured speed, a working clock and a fuel gauge which displays the charge left in the battery – rechargeable and used to power lights etc. The first run of J40 Continuation cars will be a limitededition version called The Legacy Edition, a beautifully specified car with a number of exclusive…

READERS' CARS TRIUMPH TR6 I 've no room for one and I can't afford one, yet I am obsessed with trawling the web for a classic car bargain. I scroll and scroll and scroll, looking at all the beautiful machines of my youth, remembering how popular they all were then and how rare they are now… and how far beyond my budget they have gone too. They sit on my laptop all shiny and inviting with oodles of invoices and history, all ready for a lucky new owner to jump in, turn the key and enjoy. Such cars may all be a fantasy purchase for me, but there are some lucky people who are in a better position and who are able to indulge their fantasies by actually buying their…

PART 2 Last issue we left the Fiat 500 project with something of a mystery – why the number on the engine in the car did not match the engine number on the V5C document, and why that document listed it as 479cc when it was clearly a 499cc unit. We can only assume that the second of those was a typo on somebody's part, as the 479cc engines were superseded in 1960. As for the different engine number, engine swaps are pretty common on old cars, and owners often fail to update the DVLA. I do plan to correct the paperwork, but it made sense to hold off on that for now because I'd never heard the engine in the car running, and it could quite feasibly turn out…

Coventry was a major centre of automobile engineering, as a visit to the excellent Coventry Transport Museum will show. It was almost the equal of Detroit, but just like its Michigan counterpart, the great names of the past have left Coventry. Alvis, Armstrong-Siddeley, Rootes, Daimler, Jaguar, Hillman, Morris, Triumph and Peugeot are just a few of the illustrious vehicle manufacturers which occupied sites in the UK's own Motor City. Standard, Lanchester, Maudslay, Riley, Francis-Barnett, Calcott and Alpine-and Lea-Francis are some of many more, so you get the picture! One I haven't mentioned is Humber, which by 1928 was controlled by the Rootes brothers, along with Hillman which actually became a Humber subsidiary. Singer Motors was a much later Rootes acquisition in 1956, but the Sunbeam marque of Wolverhampton was added…

FUTURE Classics FORGOTTEN HERO The VX220 shared a production line at Lotus's Hethel plant in Norfolk with the Elise, so it's no surprise that there are similarities – not least the fact that it was developed on the same chassis and borrowed the loutis' extruded aluminium chassis tub. Cloaked in a featherweight glass reinforced plastic body, importantly it also shared the little Lotus’ leech-like grip and scalpel sharp handling. Where they differed most was in the choice of powerplant; while the Elise S2 stuck with Rover's K-series, the Vauxhall used a GM sourced 2.2-litre unit (originally designed by Lotus!) instead. Of course there were other differences between the two cars, notably that the Vauxhall had a significantly better spec, including ABS brakes and an airbag. And while it retains the…

As I write this, I'm steeling myself for the aggro as well as the bill for welding up the rear sills on my 1994 BMW E36 Compact. I've been patching them up for the last five or six years and another traditional British winter will do it a lot of harm, so it's in the workshop. Rust is the one thing that just ruins old car motoring for me. I can't stand it. The trouble is, all the cars I like are usually riddled with it and I know that the weldathon which awaits my BMW won't be its last tango with a masked man and his MIG. About a week or so ago I came back from ten days in Tenerife, and very nice it was too if just…

NEWS We should have sent this issue of the magazine to print just before the Classic Motor Show opened, but we persuaded the printers to hold back this opening spread for a couple of days. That means we do not yet know the many award winners that are announced on Saturday evening and on the Sunday, but we have been able to bring you a selection of cars and displays that caught our attention. The show theme this year was Perfect Partners, and many clubs came up with ingenious links to tie that into their displays. The Sunbeam Talbot Alpine Register went further than most with their stand (pictured above) celebrating the model's rallying success with perfect partner pairings of Stirling Moss and John Cutts in one car and Sheila…

A 1959 Fiat 500 Nuova which has been in the same family for nearly 60 years was awarded the prestigious Awesome Autumn Trophy at the Lakeland Motor Museum's Classic Drive and Ride in Day. The Fiat belongs to Blair Williamson from Ulverston and was first bought by his father back in 1967. When Blair turned 17, he learned to drive in it and passed his test in 1970. In 1971 he bought the Fiat from his father and used it for his 50-mile daily commute, but in 1977 Blair's head was turned by a Lotus 7 and he parked the Fiat 500 up. 'I went from having one of the slowest accelerating cars to one of the fastest!' he says. The Fiat remained in storage for the next 41 years.…

READERS' CARS ROVER P5 3.5-LITRE COUPÉ Rover's P5 may look somewhat old-fashioned and conservative, but in reality it is something of a landmark car for the company. For one thing it was Rover's first unitary car whereas all their earlier designs had featured separate chassis, and for another it was to introduce an engine that has become something of a legend among UK classic car enthusiasts. That engine was a later addition though, because when introduced in September 1958 as the 3-Litre saloon, it was powered by a six-cylinder inlet-over-exhaust engine of 2995cc. A development of the earlier 2.6 Rover engines, this featured a separate inlet manifold instead of the previous integral casting which had been so complicated that the air needed a map to navigate its way into the…

Volkswagen's Beetle will need little introduction to classic car enthusiasts, nor for that matter to the wider and more disinterested public. After all, it was the world's best-selling car with an astonishing 21,529,464 units sold between 1938 and 2003. And yes, despite being designed in the 1930s and produced from 1938 (although volume production did not get underway until the late 1940s), it really was produced until 2003 – production in Germany ended in January 1978 after over 15 million had been built, but continued in Brazil and Mexico. In Brazil it was produced until 1986 and then again from 1993-1996, but Mexico continued to churn them out until July 2003. Official VW sales of the Beetle in Europe ended in 1985, but examples were imported from Mexico by other…

SPECIAL FEATURE RMB GENTRY This year, 2023, is the 50th birthday of the RMB Gentry, although the story actually all began 51 years ago, early in 1972. Roger Michael Blockley had always fancied an MG TF, but back then at the age of 25 and newly married, his finances would simply not allow such an extravagance. An accomplished engineer and qualified carpenter, Roger was then working as a fitter on the production line at Standard-Triumph assembling Spitfires. One day, looking at the Spitfire and Herald chassis, it occurred to him that it would make a lovely base for a one-off MG TF lookalike. ‘The wheelbase was almost the same, within about a half inch, so I reckoned that it just might work,’ he explained. ‘Having driven a genuine TF and…

Citroën Rosalie 10 The Rosalie was a range of three cars introduced by Citroën in 1932. The 10CV was the middle offering, as there was also a smaller 8CV and a bigger 15CV. The Traction Avant may have stolen the Rosalie's limelight from 1934, but it also donated its OHV engine (which had to be turned through 180° to drive the Rosalie's rear wheels rather than the Traction Avant's front). This must be an early Rosalie with the sidevalve engine, because from 1934-1938 the smaller models were renamed the 7UA and 11UA. We rather like the no-nonsense lines of the model with proportions that are perfectly balanced – and before any of you get smart, we are talking here about the car, not the young lady who is posing so…

Buy cheap, buy twice goes the saying and nowhere is it more appropriate than our experience acquiring a Bentley Continental. Backed with a confidence which comes from gambling company money rather than personal cash, we set out on a mission to discover whether a Continental from the bottom of the market can be a worthwhile project or an expensive disaster. And it's fair to say we've learned a lot on the way. After trawling the bargain end of the Continental market, you'll find there's always someone who brightly offers a comment along the lines of 'You paid how much?' before commenting how they could have found you one so much cheaper than that. But, in reality, it's not that straightforward. Bottoming out At the sub-£20k mark, there's actually not a…

Rover 75 (1998-2005) Part of a clutch of retrothemed cars launched towards the tail end of the 1990s, there's no doubt the 75 had plenty of classic styling kudos about it. However, the attraction was more than skin deep because it was a classy, well-engineered, well finished, nicely equipped vehicle that offered surprisingly high levels of comfort and refinement. It was launched with a range of very capable engines, including the tried and tested 1.8-litre K-series petrol, 2.0and 2.5-litre KV6 motors and a refined BMW-sourced diesel. Classic, Club and range-topping Connoisseur were the trim levels, all of which were available in SE guise which only added further appeal. Following the sale of Rover in 2000, production moved from Cowley to Longbridge and it's a generally accepted notion that the output…

A completely new car museum has opened in Taunton, Somerset – a large and beautifully laid out museum located uniquely in the city centre of this fine old county town, in a historic department store building dating from 1836. The personal passion of local businessman Patrick Hawkins – a true car enthusiast who has sunk his life savings into converting the County Stores into a car museum – it is focussed on affordable and accessible cars and motorcycles, mostly from the 1960s to the 1990s. Beautifully detailed and featuring a café and small shop, the Tardis-like building extends 110m back from the street front over two floors to house around 100 cars and 80 motorcycles, plus an aeroplane! Vehicles are from Pat's own collection and loaned by local enthusiasts. Pat…

On New Years' Day the town of Stony Stratford just a few miles north of Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire will once again be invaded by over 400 pre-war cars and motorcycles in celebration of motoring history as the Vintage Stony Festival gets underway. This free annual event is now a regular part of the vintage and classic events calendar and attracts well in excess of 1000 visitors and vehicle exhibitors to the town, making it one of the largest free vintage motoring street festivals in the UK. Now in its 14th year, the Festival has raised over £100,000 for local charities since it started and through the generosity of the sponsors and donations from the general public it hopes to be able to raise even more much needed funds this…

READERS' CARS CAPRI 1.6LS My dad bought this 1984 Capri 1.6LS brand new. He owned it for many years, and I took over its care nine years ago. Dad wanted it to stay in the family, and for various reasons he needed a more modern car. Neither of my sisters wanted the Capri, so even though I didn't have a lot of room for another car, there was never any argument about me having it. It is my first classic car. I was a mechanic back in 1984, at a Ford dealership as it happens. There were two Ford dealerships in Northampton at the time, and dad got the Capri from the opposition! Naturally I was a Ford man myself and had plenty of Cortinas – Mk2, Mk3 and Mk4,…

PART 1 Though I've written about and drive numerous Morris Minors in my long career as a classic motoring journalist, this is the first one that I've ever actually owned. Its purchase was also, dare I say it, unintentional. Let me explain. I saw a 1955 MG Magnette advertised – by the son of its sadly deceased owner – as an unfinished restoration, and having fancied one of these for some time, I took a look. The Magnette was pretty much as expected and I knew I wanted to buy it, subject to agreeing a price. However, it was also sharing barn space with this 1965 Morris Minor Traveller which, underneath the typical working-barn dust and dirt, looked a decent example. The two most critical elements of an old Moggy…

AUSTRALIA When the Morris 850 sales began in March 1961, BMC-Australia centred its operations on the factory outside Sydney. The Corporation did not use the Mini name until 1965; management was apparently worried Holden drivers would associate it with minimum motoring. Fortunately, Wheels magazine believed: ‘As far as I can see it has no disadvantages whatsoever and the advantages make it a sensation for £775.’ Modern Motor was similarly impressed, stating: ‘If the 850 doesn't shatter Australian motorists’ prejudice against small cars, nothing ever will!’ Two dealerships – Peter Manton in Melbourne and P & R Williams in Sydney – offered the £790 Morris Sports 850 with twin 1¼in carburettors and a modified exhaust system for those keen drivers who craved more performance. It remained available until 1963, and Australian…

MORRIS LESLIE, SEPTEMBER 16 The latest Morris Leslie classic vehicle auction on 16th September included more than 75 lots. Entries gracing the specialist's floor ranged from pre-war cars such as an Austin 7 Deluxe snapped up for £3630 to modern classics of all kinds, amongst them a rare VW Golf Mk3 GTI Colour Concept that sold for £4400. For the most part the guide prices were bang on the money, but a few vehicles stood out as over performing on the day. The next Morris Leslie Classic Vehicle Auction is set for 18th November. Visit morrisleslie.com to watch the catalogue as it grows. 1996 Jaguar XK8, £4400 Despite classic car publications such as ours banging on about what excellent value the XK8 is, seeing them go through auction at such…

The convoluted series of events which saw the Bentley brand end up in the hands of the VW Group is one of the strangest stories of modern automotive history, but 25 years since the deal was finally done, both the Crewe workforce and car enthusiasts have reason to be grateful to the late VW head Dr Ferdinand Piëch. Not only has VW's emphasis on volume allowed production to expand to the point where the workforce at the historic Pyms Lane plant has tripled, but the products themselves have become vastly more credible in a competitive modern market, offering very modern levels of reliability and performance. The accepted version of events is that VW craftily outbid BMW at the last minute for the combined Rolls-Royce and Bentley business, only to discover…

Hot hatches from this era are rapidly gaining interest, and we think the Clio's got potential to eclipse cars like the Mk4 Golf GTi and Focus ST170 in years to come. Why? Because being light, fun and fast it fits the hot-hatch ethos perfectly and as it only ran for a few years before being replaced by the more powerful but heavier 182, its future collectability is assured. In short, they're terrific little cars that should be relatively cheap to run given the performance on tap. The first 172s were well equipped with lots of kit as standard, but were priced higher than its main rivals. That all changed with the introduction of the strippedout Cup version in 2002 of which only 2392 examples were made. These were fitted with…