Innholdsfortegnelse for 14/07/2021 i Classic Car Buyer

My new car is a 2003 Lexus GS300 – a model that seems to occupy most enthusiasts’ blind spot. I’d wager that most in the UK see Lexus as the Toyota-built challenger to the luxury mainstream, with an old-man image perpetuated by wood-and-leather interiors and Alan Partridge one-liners. Much like Jaguar and Mercedes in the modern era, Lexus had to work hard to shake off its stuffy image and attract younger buyers. My silvery beige GS300 is a car that can elicit a yawn from one set of enthusiasts, then – but to others, it’s a thinly veiled oddity dressed up to meet Western expectations. Take off the Lexus badges and you get the Toyota Aristo, a Japan-only model that formed part of a range of large saloons with grand…

The Aston Martin Heritage Trust’s event on June 26 marking the centenary of the oldest surviving Aston Martin ‘A3’ attracted the largest gathering of Aston Martin sports cars in history. A total of 681 examples of the marque attended the event in Warwickshire, which included displays of cars from almost every period in the firm’s 108-year history, with the modern era including the Victor, Vulcan and the one-off Cygnet V8. Meanwhile, the ‘A3’ which inspired the event and which was raced by co-founder Lionel Martin back in period, has returned to display at its regular home, the Aston Martin Museum near Wallingford in Oxfordshire and you can book to view the attractions at aston-martin-museum.arttickets.org.uk.…

As Bugatti and Rimac partner on road cars, we remember some landmark classic collaborations. Vauxhall VX220 When Lotus needed to update the Elise to meet new crash regulations, the work was partly funded by selling the basic chassis to parent GM to use as the basis of the Vauxhall VX220 and Opel Speedster. Lotus Carlton Twin-turbos and chargecooler gave the motorway coppers’ favourite a 177mph top speed and raised questions in Parliament. Alfa Romeo Arna Pairing the Alfasud boxer engine with the body of the Nissan Cherry, this was either the best or worst of both worlds. Aston Martin Cygnet Another ‘Marmite’ car, the ludicrous Cygnet was nothing but a lavishly trimmed and restyled Toyota iQ. The reason? Purely to lower the Aston Martin range’s average economy. Porsche 924 Developed…

HONDA LEGEND (1995-2004) While Honda enjoyed success in the hatchback and mid-size saloon sectors in the 1990s with the Civic and Accord respectively, its luxury saloon – the Legend – failed to make the same impact. And that was a shame, as the third-generation model of 1995-on was a genuinely fine machine, offering a super-smooth 3.5-litre V6 engine (pushing out 202bhp) and opulent levels of comfort and equipment. The trouble is, the Legend cost £33,000 when it arrived here in 1996… and few Brits wanted to pay that much for a Honda, no matter how impressive. Crippling depreciation was an issue for the Legend, but that means it offers great value now. You can get behind the wheel of this flagship Honda (often cited as one of the most reliable…

Manufacturers have always played on the glamour of their most sporting models to bring punters into showrooms, even if most of those customers left having bought cars from much lower down the model hierarchy. In the 1970s Triumph had the innovative Dolomite Sprints flinging up gravel on rally stages, while Ford still reigned supreme with their sporting Escorts. Move down the pecking order though and you got to cars like the Toledo and the 1.1 and 1.3 Escorts; still fine motors in their own rights but somewhat lacking in the fire-breathing department. However, with the current craze for ‘everyday’ or ‘unexceptional’ cars showing no sign of abating and with price inflation pushing the hotter cars out of many people’s financial reach, we decided it was time to take a look…

MGB GT V8 From the year this TR6 was made came in-house rival MG’s uprated offering. Two more cylinders but not quite as much power, the GT V8 is light years ahead of the TR6 in terms of comfort and refinement and has a slight edge in performance. But it’s not as raw or as straightforwardly fun to drive. MORGAN PLUS 8 If it’s raw sporty motoring you want, then the eight-cylinder Morgan has to be the machine for you. You’ll be paying at least a few thousand pounds more than the asking price of this TR6, and it will be a 1980s car but in Morgan terms that means very little. But it’s one of the few cars that can make the Triumph seems sophisticated. DATSUN 240Z This showed…

Poking round the lots while previewing the upcoming Hobbs Parker sale (see page 8), we found this 1983 Toyota Corolla, a real survivor once owned by a local vicar but off the road since the mid ’90s. Parking it up next to one of our company cars – the current twelfth-generation ‘E210’ Corolla – was a perfect illustration of how the automotive world has changed. As befitting a car chasing the Ford market, the ’83 car is as conservative as it gets, but not only is the new Corolla bristling with hybrid technology and origami styling that could only be proudly Japanese in origin, it was actually made right here in Britain.…

Motofest Coventry will return this year as a month-long festival of separate events, but new for 2021 will be the Coventry Concours, which will take place on the weekend of July 24/25 and builds on the success of a similar event last year. Organised in conjunction with the Association of Heritage Engineers and supported by prestige car sales brand Car-Iconics, the competition will begin with all entrants convoying into the city centre before parking up in the famous cathedral ruins. The organisers promise a strong local theme to the exhibits, with Jaguar, Daimler, Standard, Triumph, Rootes and Armstrong-Siddeley all represented. Meanwhile, the final weekend of the four-week programme on August 7/8 will be the ‘MotoFest Car Weekend’ which will showcase over 100 classic cars in the city centre, with modified…

It’s been a long time coming and there’s been much discussion within the classic car world about it, but E10 fuel is now in the forecourt pumps and the government advertisements have started appearing on billboards. As its name suggests, E10 petrol contains up to 10 per cent ethanol, twice the proportion of the E5 grade which has been the standard for the last decade. The issue of ethanol in fuel has long been a hot potato in the classic car world but at the lower concentration of the E5 fuel has proved not to be a problem in practice. However, the E10 grade has people worried about its effects on older cars. There are two big issues with ethanol fuels and older cars. The first is that ethanol can…

David Brown Automotive, makers of the Speedback GT and Mini Remastered, has expanded from Silverstone into central London with a new showroom in the prestigious St John’s Wood area. The purpose-built dealership is in Park Road, next to Lord’s cricket ground and Regent’s Park and is the first of its kind in the UK for the company. It can display three cars indoors and three outside, with test drives available by appointment. Both of David Brown Automotive’s flagship models are accessible at the new showroom, as will be future models to be announced over the coming years. The Silverstone HQ and factory, where the company has been since 2017 after relocating from Coventry, will continue as a retail space and workshop. It’s the first phase of growth for the company…

Based at Ashford in Kent, Hobbs Parker is an established name in the general car auction world but only holds three classic sales a year, although the firm’s James Johnson suggests they may well add a fourth to the calendar. The firm’s premises are set up for big drive-through auctions, but the July sale retains the timed online bidding format, although there’s ample opportunity to view the cars in person from Monday July 26 to Wednesday 28, from 9am to 6pm and also on the Thursday morning. And that’s exactly what we did, Group Editor Wager having to be forcibly removed from the Alfasud and the rest of the team getting sidetracked by the XK8, Mk1 Jaguar and an amazingly well preserved Ford StreetKa among other lots. Perhaps the highlight…

ROVER STREETWISE (2003-2005) It could be argued that the Rover Streetwise – essentially a two-wheel drive crossover – was ahead of its time, despite being based on the Rover 25 that itself was an updated Rover 200 from 1995. With its raised ride height, plastic ‘off-road’ add-ons and generally toughened-up appearance, it had the potential to be on trend… although its Rover badge meant its appeal to younger buyers was minimal. The collapse of MG Rover in April 2005 saw the Streetwise die prematurely, although some examples were still sold ‘new’ a year or two later. With a choice of K-series petrol and L-series diesel engines, there was a Streetwise to suit most potential buyers. It proved reasonably popular for a while, although HowManyLeft.co.uk suggests there are now just a…

As the staycationing country prepares to flood the South West over the next couple of months, it seems appropriate to visit Cornwall this week. Here we see the village of Polperro back in 1967 when road traffic was banned from the narrow streets and visitors were directed to park and walk instead. What caught our eye in this particular shot was the Renault Dauphine which in 1960s Cornwall must have seemed like an alien craft. The owner has the AA badge proudly displayed in the screen, no doubt realising that the rear-engined car’s inner workings would be unfamiliar to any local garages. The Renault is tailed by a more conventional sight in the shape of a Mk2 Cortina and parked up we can just see the rear of a Morris.…

Jack Grover Production Editor MGB GT Another closed-roof car with a 1.8-litre engine with long-distance touring ambitions, the MGB GT approaches the brief from the other direction, being a sports car that has been refined into something worthy of the initials, while the Volvo was a saloon that has been pepped up and preened. It’s hardly a surprise that the MG is by far the most engaging and enjoyable to drive. The Volvo is actually quicker in terms of both acceleration and top speed, but it doesn’t feel it – the P1800’s greater heft and refinement mask its added punch and neither the drivetrain or the running gear really demand or encourage brisk driving. And the ‘B GT is a car that can cover long distances at speed without stressing…

The turbulent history of Bugatti takes the marque in another new direction with the announcement this week of a joint venture with Croatian EV maker Rimac. The agreement sees the establishment of a new company, Bugatti Rimac which will be led by Rimac founder Mate Rimac as CEO. Rimac Group will hold a 55% stake, with Porsche holding 45%. Both Bugatti and Rimac are to continue as individual marques, with Bugatti retaining its production facility in Molsheim, although its headquarters will eventually be moved to the recently announced Rimac campus near Zagreb. Meanwhile, a separate company, Rimac Technology will continue to provide EV expertise to car makers. It doesn’t take a leap of imagination to predict that the result of the move will be electric hypercars bearing the Bugatti badge,…

CCM subscribers lucky enough to get their copy through the letterbox early in the week will still be in time for Tuesday evening’s Gaydon Gathering at the British Motor Museum. Held outdoors between 5pm and 8.30pm at the museum site on the second Tuesday of every month, these informal events are free to attend and feature the ‘Gaydon Garage Feature’ at 6.30pm when the workshop doors are opened for a car from the collection to drive out which isn’t often seen outside the museum. Refreshments will be on offer outside but although the event itself is free to enter, visitors must register beforehand at www.britishmotormuseum.co.uk/whats-on/gaydon-gathering-july.…

As part of its awkwardly-named ‘Renaulution’ strategy, Renault has confirmed that the reimagined and electrified Renault 5 previewed back in our January 27 issue will be making it to production, with a performance model marketed under the Alpine brand. Slated to be on sale from 2024, the regular model will use a 134bhp motor, with the Alpine getting a 215bhp version, or 160kW in new money. The bigger motor is physically longer than the regular unit, so with it mounted transversely expect the Alpine to feature chunky boxed arches in the spirit of the original 5 Turbo. The Alpine versions of the classic R5 were marketed as Gordini over here since Chrysler at the time owned the rights to the name, but following the revival of the Alpine brand in…

Trying to review an Anglia sale in just a single page is never an easy task and the June sale was no exception, with the 240 cars on offer spanning everything from a Honda Z600 restoration project to a £110,000 BMW CSL. Highlights for us at CCB included what must be the only running Audi 200 Quattro Avant left which sold as a project for just £2700, while the 1997 Bentley Brooklands LPT put our own Turbo R to shame and the 1991 example at £3240 needing some paintwork had us wondering if it was just possibly the steal of the year. Another rarity to stand out was the 1977 Fiat X1/9 which made £8640, while the sale included no less than three Escort RS Turbos, a brace of really…

If Sir William Lyons hadn’t turned down a request to provide a Jaguar E-type for a new TV series called ‘The Saint’, the car you see here – arguably Volvo’s most stylish model – would probably have remained relatively unknown in the UK. But such was the power of television even in the early Sixties, Volvo’s decision to supply a P1800 made it an overnight sensation, ensuring it would forever be associated with Simon Templar, famously played by Roger Moore. The P1800 was a new addition to the market back then… and a surprising one, given Volvo’s reputation for producing sturdy saloons and hardworking estates rather than sporting coupes. The other surprise was that the P1800 would initially be built by Jensen in West Bromwich, thanks to Volvo’s Swedish plants…

A Metro for seven grand? Indeed it is so. When I first started on Classic Car Buyer in September 2012 I bought a very tidy 30,000-mile Metro for £400. Granted it wasn’t an MG, but how things have changed in nine years! Booming values for 80s cars, especially those with a performance bent, a reassessment of the Metro’s image and the model’s 40th anniversary making people realise that Metros are both old and rare now are behind the meteoric (Metro-oric?) rise in prices. That goes all the more for the MG Metro, which never quite cut it with the critics in the 1980s (especially near the end of the decade) but was always a good seller and now, shorn of the need to stand up to bar-room bragging and magazine…