Innholdsfortegnelse for 03/02/2021 i Classic Car Buyer

As a massive fan of The Italian Job, I was saddened to learn that the man behind the incredible Turin chase sequence I’ve watched countless times, Rémy Julienne, had sadly passed away aged 90. Even before I received a VHS tape of the 1969 Michael Caine caper for my eighth birthday, I knew it all scene-by-scene, and without it, I might have ended up doing something completely different with my life. What I didn’t realise as a youth was just how many other productions Rémy had worked on. There were around 1400 in all, including six James Bond films – who can forget the carjacked Renault 11 taxi being shorn of its panels while being thrashed through Paris in A View to a Kill, for example? Or perhaps the impressive…

From fearing the worst to managing big demand for classic cars, specialist dealers have begun 2021 with remarkable positivity. Practical solutions and co-operation have meant the classic car trade is buoyant despite national Covid-19 restrictions. During national lockdowns, only a select number of businesses can open their premises to the public. Car and other vehicle showrooms are not among them, but this has not meant that they must cease all operations. They can still conduct sales by phone, online or post, then transfer goods by delivery. In England and Wales, click-and-collect services are also permitted. When lockdown restrictions were first put into place in March 2020, most businesses shut up shop completely. “We had to sit and wonder how we could work around it,” Alex Halfpenny, owner of Sherwood Restorations…

As we went to press, the catalogue was filling up nicely for Brightwells’ first sale of 2021 which retains the tried-and-tested timed online format. Opening lots are a pair of intriguing Mk1 MGB projects, the GT needing recommissioning and the roadster more extensive restoration work but both estimated at an affordable £3000-£4000 as enticing projects to see you on the road for summer. Needing less work and ready to drive away is an Oselli-tuned 1966 roadster offered at no reserve, while a fully restored ’77 roadster is estimated at £7000-£8000. For those preferring the Italian take on the MGB, a presentable Series 3 Alfa Spider comes with an estimate of £10,000-£15,000. More modern octagon-badged fare comes in the shape of an unusually pristine MG Maestro for £4500-£5000. At the other…

Granted, it’s all a bit corporate and clean these days, but as the pinnacle of world motorsport, Formula One racing has long been a prime goldmine for marketing types. Nowadays it’s used to flog everything from energy drinks to posh watches, but in amongst the cynical branding and baseball cap swapping, a little sprinkling of F1 magic has also helped to create some memorable road cars over the past 60 years. Last year marked the 70th anniversary of the first Formula One world championship races taking place, and back in those formative years, things were a bit different. The glamour was mixed with rather more grease as chivalrous daredevils went hell for leather in cars constructed by an intriguing David and Goliath mix of teams. It was sexy and exciting,…

We’ve got a slight twist for you today, pitching an MG TF against an MGA. It’s a twist partly because they are both from the same marque, and partly because they weren’t contemporary rivals, but instead one succeeded the other. There is, however, some method in our madness because not only are they rivals for your MG pounds on the classic market today, but the way they overlapped in development is not as straightforward as you might have thought. The TF was the last of MG’s T-Types, a line which stretched back to the TA of 1936. As such, by the start of the 1950s it was looking decidedly old hat when compared to modern rivals such as the Jaguar XK120, not to mention the TR2 that Triumph was developing…

Caught on the hoof just before lickdown, sorry lockdown, our video man and editorial assistant Joe enjoyed some foaling about in the New Forest at the wheel of our Mk3 Toyota MR2. Joe has put plenty of effort into sprucing up the paintwork since being saddled with the car and it’s certainly looking rather tasty, proving to be the mane act amongst this group of bystanders. It’s a beautiful spot too, but with a 40mph limit, you do need to keep a rein on all that horsepower… (OK, that’s quite enough horseplay for one week, you’re having a mare here – ed).…

Following a successful pilot issue last year, the first issue of Bargain Cars is now on the shelves. Produced by the publishers of Car Mechanics and Classic Car Buyer, Kelsey Media, the January/February edition is full of interesting of interesting cars from the last 30 years – not least a 717,000-mile Volvo S80. The sturdy Swede dates from 2001 and has recently been purchased as a new Bargain Cars project car. It’s fair to say it’s well travelled, with its mileage the equivalent of driving to the moon and back, then to the moon again. Or, if you prefer, around the equator almost 29 times. The car is a diesel manual with the earlier direct-injection, 2.4-litre VW motor. The engine was replaced with a fully-rebuilt unit at 349,000 miles, but…

The debate over the safety of so-called ‘smart motorways’ rages on, with the police and crime commissioner for South Yorkshire calling for an urgent review into scrapping the hard shoulder for a live lane. In a letter to the Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps Dr Alan Billings said that smart motorways are “inherently unsafe and dangerous and should be abandoned.” In a subsequent interview with the BBC, Mr Billings said that he believed that smart motorways were created to expand capacity on the cheap, adding: “We’re trading cost - cheapness - for other people’s lives.” Mr Billings’ words came just days South Yorkshire’s senior coroner David Urpeth ruled that turning the hard shoulder into a live lane on the M1 contributed to the deaths of two men near Sheffield. He said…

FIAT 500 (1957-1975) Even smaller than a Mini, the Nuova 500 really is dinky. For that and its beautiful, simple charm, it has become a much-loved classic, so much that the design was revived for a production model in 2007. The original was cheap transport for the masses; mostly Italian masses, but plenty still found their way to the UK. That said, a big proportion of those here today have been imported from mainland Europe. The market has been treating the 500 as a classic for years now, and since well before the new retro 500. Values hit their lowest in the 1980s, where you could have picked up a usable example for less than £100, but values quickly rose over the following ten years. It was appreciated then that…

The original X100-series XK8 and supercharged XKR range that arrived in 1996 – replacing the evergreen XJS in the process – proved to be a major hit, effectively reinventing the Jaguar sports car and going on to enjoy a decade-long career. A successor would eventually be needed, however, if Jaguar was to remain competitive in the hotly contested GT market, hence the 2006 launch of the all-new X150-generation XK – the production version of a concept coupe that had made its motor show debut the previous year. The X150 still looks fresh and modern to this day, and so it’s a sobering thought that 2021 marks its 15th anniversary. It now falls into ‘modern classic’ territory, insist many Jaguar aficionados, with falling prices adding to the XK’s appeal. This new-generation…

The troubled Bloodhound land speed record project has been put up for sale for the second time, with owner Ian Warhurst citing pandemic-induced funding difficulties as the reason. Warhurst rescued the project from administration in December 2018, with plans for the jet-fuelled car to achieve its 1000mph goal. The car hit 600mph during trials in the Kalahari Desert in 2019, but the pandemic has slowed progress. To break the all-time record speed of 763mph achieved by Thrust SSC in 1997 it needs a bespoke monopropellant rocket booster, expected to cost more than £8m. A purchaser would take control of Grafton LSR Ltd, the holding company that owns the Bloodhound LSR project. But even if no buyer is found, the car itself will never be broken up. “I won’t let that…

Rémy Julienne, the precision stunt driver behind The Italian Job chase sequence and six James Bond films, sadly passed away on January 21 at the age of 90. The Frenchman was hospitalised two weeks ago in the town of Montargis after testing positive for Coronavirus, and was taken into intensive care. Born on 17 April 1930 in the nearby French village of Cepoy, Julienne became one of the most prolific stunt drivers in Europe and, over a 40-year career, participated in more than 1400 productions. His spectacular stunts were calculated to eliminate as much risk as possible, with French director, Claude Lelouch, describing him as “a reasonable madman.” Julienne became the French motocross champion in 1957, before beginning his movie career doubling for Jean Marais in the 1964 film Fantômas.…

The London Classic Car Show 2021, originally set to be staged at Syon Park in April, has now been moved back 10 weeks until June 25-27 to better avoid potential Covid-19 restrictions. The show will still take place at the same Covid-compliant Syon Park location, which is new for this year. The organisers, Brand Events say that the new summer date will not only provide more time to curate a more impressive visitor experience, but the longer daylight hours will also be far more welcoming for all those attending what will be a largely open-air event. “We are very grateful to those at Syon Park for making these new June dates available to us,” explained Mark Woolley, Show Director. “While we are confident that the rolling out of vaccines together…

Historics has announced an increased 2021 auction calendar that will see the firm continue to stage major sales in the UK, plus a debut in Europe. Significantly, all sales will again be open-to-public – subject to prevailing Covid-19 legislation – maintaining Historics’ policy of hosting traditional sales with a live auction hall, supported by its online bidding platform partner, Bidpath. Historics founder and Managing Director, Mark Perkins, commented: “We were unique in hosting open-to-public classic car auctions throughout 2020 whilst complying with prevailing legislation. They proved hugely popular and 2020 was actually our most successful year ever in terms of both sale rate and income.” The firm’s 2021 opener is scheduled to see 180 classics go under the hammer at Ascot on March 20. A month later will see the…

BMW E21 (1975-1983) The successor to the legendary ’02 range, the E21 has the distinction as first 3-Series but so far it seems to have avoided widespread appeal. A cult following has always been alive for the most powerful 323i model, and these have reliably been worth twice as much as the others ever since the 1990s, but an E30-like enthusiasm has yet to spark through the rest of the range. In the early 2000s you could have picked up a half-decent E21 for around £1000, or a little more for a tidy 323i. As numbers thinned, values did creep up on the basis that there is always some demand for a BMW, but this was mostly for the six-cylinder cars, while the four-cylinders continued to languish not much above…

As we see the first heavy snow falls of the year in England, we look back to the infamous ‘Big Snow’ of 1981 which presented some challenge for motorists of the day. Strong anticyclones dragged cold arctic air down over the UK between December 1981 and January 1982, creating one of the coldest winters on record, peaking – or rather, bottoming out – at -27.2°C. In an age roughly four decades before the four-wheel-drive MINI Countryman was released, the couple in the Clubman estate are stranded in a snow bank roughly half the height of their car’s 10-inch wheels. Looking at the wheel marks, it would appear they lost traction on what looks like a patch of ice and slid into the bank. Thankfully, the car appears undamaged and the…