Innholdsfortegnelse for 24/02/2021 i Classic Car Buyer

The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) is urging patience as work continues with the DVLA to resolve the concerns of historic vehicle owners. The Federation says it’s sympathetic to the enormous challenges the pandemic has placed on DVLA staff, acknowledging their efforts to continue services despite around 500 cases of Covid-19 at its Swansea offices. However, during the pandemic the Federation has been pursuing five policy matters of significant concern to its members and the community that they represent. These broadly surround the non-acceptance of ‘Date of Manufacture’ numbers marked on vehicles, issues around notifying DVLA when a vehicle is dismantled, special case V765 registrations, CKD vehicles, and finally concerns around original and copied documents and new bodies on re-constructed classics. Resolving these concerns was not helped by…

For a car that might outwardly look the same whether it’s from the 1950s or has just rolled off the factory lines, there is actually a great deal of variation in the classic Morgan sports car. There are different models, and not just the strange reinterpretation that is the Aero 8, that split the apparently uniform Morgan range up. But for this comparison, we’re assuming you’ve already decided that you want the simplest 4/4, arguably closest in spirit to the original and, you might say, untainted by the pursuit of performance like the Plus 4 and Plus 8 models. The easiest way into 4/4 ownership is buying a car made between the 1980s and early 2000s. They’re relatively plentiful and affordable, significantly hardier thanks to improved chassis sealant and are…

Contact: Classic and Sportscar Centre Malton, N Yorks YO17 8JB Tel: 01944 758000 www.classicandsportscar.ltd.uk Sending this issue of CCB to press just as the snow had turned to a week of unexpected warmth, thoughts naturally turned to spring and this open-air Moggy jumped out at us from the stock at Classic and Sportscar Centre. There’s nothing that evokes the image of a British summer’s day better than the Minor convertible and somehow in its roofless guise the Minor takes on an exotic appeal you don’t get with the saloon. It’s also one of the few ’60s traditional classic convertibles to offer seating for four adults. Despite the Minor’s back-to-basics appeal, you do need to know your stuff when buying the convertible – or Tourer as it was called until June…

REPORTING ON: BMW 528i Even when lockups are cheap, they aren’t. By some good timing, I acquired the use of a neighbour’s garage recently which meant that I could finally bring the Renault 25 abandoned at my folks’ place since the MoT ran out in October. By some more good timing, someone had already expressed interest in the Renault and so began wheels turning in my mind. The 25 would go and the time had come for a BMW. I came close to buying an E34 525i seven or so years ago, but I quickly became a Mercedes enthusiast when I started shopping for insurance quotes. Now, however, things were different. So too were they for the BMW E34 market, and the E39 one is already heating up so it…

It’s no secret that the Japanese made a far better job of reinventing the traditional British sports car than we could manage ourselves, but while the MX-5 was something like a cross between MGB and Elan, the continued reference to a ‘back to basics’ sports car by the press isn’t entirely accurate: its lightweight construction technology, aluminium componentry and electronically injected twin-cam motor were all a long way from the leaf springs and pushrods we’d been used to. Far more accurate as a reinterpretation of the genuinely basic British sports car of the 1950s – think Frogeye Sprite or early Midget – were the sports cars born from the ‘Kei’ regulations in Japan. Originally developed as a postwar government incentive to encourage development of small cars as an alternative to…

Contact: Epping Motor Company, Ongar, Essex, CM5 9QE Tel: 01277 365415 www.eppingmotorcompany.com There’s remarkable excitement amongst enthusiasts for these late-model Ford Escorts. While I have seen the light, having owned a Mk1 Focus myself, I can also see the appeal that these end-of-an-era models hold. With hot versions recently having shot up in value, the days are numbered for when you can get a Mk6 for pennies. So too are the days numbered for finding one in a condition like this, with just 31,000 miles on the clock. This is an example of one of the very last Ford Escorts made, concurrent with the Focus from 1998 to 2000. It’s the most desirable of the few available specs at that time, with the peppy 1.6-litre Zetec engine and in reasonably…

The furore surrounding C-Type replicas has continued, with Jaguar Land Rover issuing an open letter to the Jaguar community in response to a recent news release by the defendants in a recent Swedish court case, which in turn led to a further response from the defendants. In December, JLR won a landmark copyright infringement case at the High Court in Sweden, giving the brand copyright protection over the C-Type’s external shape in a case it brought against a company manufacturing replicas of the iconic 1950s model. As covered in last week’s issue, that led to the defendants Karl and Ann-Christine Magnusson hitting back with their side of the story, branding Jaguar “the unacceptable face of capitalism” and setting up a crowdfunding page to help support a challenge to the ruling.…

Alongside the discussion over replicas (see page 6), Jaguar Land Rover has also hit the headlines for the unveiling of its new ‘Reimagine’ global strategy. The plan will see Jaguar become a pure electric luxury brand from 2025, but in a surprise move, it won’t include the long-awaited all-electric XJ replacement. The XJ nameplate began life in 1968 and enjoyed a 41-year run until the last (X351 generation) XJ saloon ceased production in 2019. Back then, Jaguar announced that a new XJ was on the cards, but now JLR CEO Thierry Bolloré has cancelled the long-awaited new flagship saloon, despite it being destined to have an all-electric drivetrain and development being at an advanced stage. That means the Castle Bromwich site will eventually stop making cars and be repurposed, though…

Air doesn't freeze. Air doesn't boil over: that was the strapline of one famous Volkswagen advert back in the ’60s and illustrated one reason why the air-cooled flat-four unit enjoyed such enduring popularity, especially in countries with extreme climates. In northern European countries the air-cooled VW was a popular choice not only for its lack of maintenance requirements but also for its rear-mounted location which placed the weight over the driving wheels for better traction in snow and ice. Swedish and Canadian VW owners didn’t need to worry about winter anti-freeze or electric engine block heaters, since there was no liquid to freeze. The most extreme example has to be the VW which was for years used by research scientists in Antarctica. At the other extreme, the air-cooled engine proved…

Were it not for the Meadows Frisky Sport, there’d be no Triumph Stag. Seriously. The small sporting microcar was the brainchild of Captain Raymond Flower, with a 325cc Villiers engine and bodywork by Michelotti. Flower wanted to follow this with a more serious sports car, so approached Harry Webster at Triumph with the aim of buying a TR3A chassis to rebody. Webster was on the cusp of refusal, when Flower made the bold claim that a prototype would be ready to display at the Geneva Motor Show, a few months away. Webster, intrigued, let him buy a chassis to prove the boast. VHP720 was duly presented at the Geneva Motor Show of 1957, and Webster was impressed. A little digging led to the discovery that it was the work of…

Contact: Richard Thorne Classic Cars Grazeley Green, Reading, RG7 1NB Tel: 0118 983 1200 www.rtcc.co.uk It’s design and engineering flair that you want from your Italian car, and the Flavia is a rare example that delivers in spades without being an exotic with a price tag in the clouds. This, after all, is what Lancia meant back in the 1960s and 1970s. Its Flavia coupe was an elegant body, not quite as flash as the Zagato sport model, that lends it a restrained glamour above its station. Then again, the mechanical underpinnings are impressive enough, with an all-aluminium boxer engine, double wishbone front suspension, anti-roll bars front and rear, and vacuum assisted disc brakes all round. This example is a later Flavia 2000 with, as the name would suggest, the…

With the fuel light blaring as brightly as it was possible to be, and the needle bending against the stop at the bottom of the fuel gauge, I was convinced I could eke out just a few more miles from the tank of my daily Xantia HDi. My good lady was less convinced (“You do know I have to be home tonight?”), and distinctly unimpressed at the prospect of a 15-mile walk at 9pm when there was a job interview the following morning for her to prepare for. We were 45 miles into a journey which had begun with the fuel light on, and I was adamant that I could make it on what little was left in there. But in deference to the potentially disastrous consequences of failure on…

SILVER AND DIAMOND JAGUARS It’s not only 60 years of the E-Type this year, but 25 years of the XK8, so it’s time for a big celebration. NIPPY RIVALS Finding out how the perennial hot hatchback, the Golf GTI, compares against the iconic Mini Cooper S. BUYING A Mk3 CORTINA Ford’s legendary everyman’s classic from the 1970s is an appreciating asset. We look at how to buy a good one. DOWNLOAD THE DIGITAL ISSUE OF CLASSIC CAR BUYERF ROM AS LITTLE AS 94p! Visit: www.pocketmags.com or download it via the App Store; search ‘Classic Car Buyer’. The printed version of Classic Car Buyer is available in ASDA, Tesco, Morrisons and WH Smiths, plus all good newsagents Plus… tracking the values of hopeful investment classics, as well as all the latest…