Innholdsfortegnelse for 17/11/2021 i Classic Car Buyer

Established automotive apparel, parts and accessories retailer Holden Vintage and Classic has a new owner following its acquisition by Jaguar specialist SNG Barratt Group. The new relationship will see more parts offered to more people. As well as being the world’s largest independent manufacturer and supplier of classic Jaguar parts and accessories, SNG Barratt is the exclusive distributor for Lucas classic car parts, offering a wide range of multi-marque products that will now be available to Holden’s customers. Meanwhile, SNG Barratt’s global presence means Holden’s wide range of products will be exposed to a larger audience. It’s set to be business as usual in Bromyard for the team at Holden Vintage and Classic, but with more impetus and support. Former owner, Jeremy Holden will now step aside to pursue other…

The first British Leyland ‘Wedge’ to leave the production line is set to be offered at WB & Sons’ forthcoming classic car auction early next month. Wearing chassis number 000099, the 1974 Morris 1800 appeared as a wreck at the NEC Classic Motor Show in 2014, having been stored for many years. After being covered in signatures from show-goers, it was comprehensively restored by a team from the Leyland Princess Enthusiasts’ Club before being displayed in all its glory at the 2015 show. Built circa August 1974, it predates the March 1975 launch of the Austin, Morris and Wolseley 18-22 range by several months. After sitting idle it was sold to an employee and registered in 1977 – hence the ‘R’ suffix registration. By this point the Austin, Morris and…

Morris Leslie will host its final classic car auction of 2021 this Saturday (November 20), with another great mix of cars ranging from pre-war entries to modern classics. The sale will be held behind closed doors, with online and telephone bidding only and viewing by appointment. The sale will also be streamed live on Morris Leslie’s YouTube channel. The sale is set to be a notable one thanks to an impressive array of low-mileage classics. An early 1999 BMW E46 323Ci showing just 39,000 miles is estimated at £2000-£3000, while a 46k-mile Vauxhall Omega V6 and a 33k-mile 1992 Rover Metro Quest both carry £1500-£2000 estimates. Rewinding back a few years, £5000-£6000 is expected to bag a 1980 Saab 99 GL that’s covered a mere 25,639 miles, while a late…

Paul Wager, Group Editor MG TF It may look the same but in the transition from F to TF the car was comprehensively re-engineered, especially the bodyshell which was revised to accommodate conventional coil springs instead of the Hydragas after the demise of the Metro made the system unviable to manufacture in low volumes. The result was a much harder ride but in many ways a more focused sports car. By definition, the 2002-on TFs are also usefully younger and there’s no issue over sagging Hydragas spheres either. Dave Youngs, Lancaster Insurance Mazda MX-5 It may be the obvious suggestion but since Paul’s already suggested the TF then someone had to address the elephant in the room. Nicer Mk1 examples are increasingly out of budget at MGF money, but the…

Readers clued up on their car industry history will remember Ford’s short-lived Premier Automotive Group which placed Jaguar with Volvo under the same umbrella alongside Aston Martin and here we have two products of that era. Regular readers will remember our much-loved Jaguar XJ8, now looking sharp after its recent respray but the Volvo S80 is a real curiosity. Run as a project car by our sister title Car Mechanics, it boasts a colossal 720,000 miles and incredibly still functions as perfectly viable transport. Famcy adding to that stellar mileage? Make us an offer at ccb.ed@kelsey.co.uk.…

The London to Brighton Veteran Car Run celebrated its milestone 125th anniversary on November 7, with nearly 300 pioneering pre-1905 cars and their hardy occupants taking part in what has become the world’s longest-running motoring event. It’s now 125 years since the original Emancipation Run of 1896, which raised the speed limit for ‘light locomotives’ from 4 to 14mph and abolished the need for a man to walk ahead waving a red flag. Fittingly, the run always starts with the symbolic tearing of the red flag, which for 2021 was performed by record breaking Thrust SSC pilot Andy Green OBE and Ben Cussons, Chairman of the Royal Automobile Club. Green drove his 1904 Stanley steam car on the run, while Cussons shared a 1901 Mors with renowned British scientist Baroness…

Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg factory – which builds the Golf, Touran, Tiguan and SEAT Tarraco – looks set to produce its lowest annual number of cars since 1958; the first year after control of the company was fully relinquished by the British, following WW2. Back then, the plant constructed 451,526 Beetles, while 105,562 Transporters were built over in Hanover, earning Volkswagen a tidy net profit of DM 319.3m (nearly £140m in today’s money). By comparison, the total production figure at the Wolfsburg site across all models for 2021 had only just crept up to 300,000 units by the end of October. And while its full annual financial report has yet to be published, Volkswagen profits for the third quarter of this year are known to have been down by £420m. At the…

From Bond 3-wheeler projects to a rally-spec Landcrab and Jaguar XF-S police car, the Anglia Car Auctions sale held on the first weekend of the month had plenty to offer. As expected, the star of the show was a 1955 Aston Martin DB2/4, which eventually crept just past its reserve price at £91,800. Although no other car could match a price tag that large, there were a few examples which quietly performed well above expectation. One such car was a 1963 Mercedes-Benz W110 ‘Fintail’, which sold for £9072 – around double its estimated value. Likewise, a British Racing Green Triumph TR4A IRS went for £23,328, seven grand over its reserve price despite it needing some light reconditioning. The marque was well represented in this auction, with a so-called ‘TR3A’ selling…

MERCEDES-BENZ R129 SL To be on a par with the XJS in terms of character you’d really need to go for the 12-cylinder SL600, although the much easier to find SL500 with the V8 will still provide superior performance. The granite-like build quality is a bonus too. ASTON MARTIN DB7 VOLANTE Yes, we all know that if you strip away those beautifully sculpted composite panels the DB7 is little more than a rebodied XJS. The Jaguar will have taken the years more in its stride, will be rather better screwed together and have more affordable parts. But then you could have an Aston Martin. JENSEN INTERCEPTOR A very different prospect from a different era, but if you want a big-engined convertible tourer and there ain’t no replacement for displacement then…

Historics has announced its auction calendar for next year, with five major sales to take place in 2022. The calendar gets underway on March 5, with a sale at Ascot Racecourse. A return trip to the Berkshire venue is then scheduled for May 21, before a summer sale at Historics’ own Windsorview Lakes venue on July 16. Completing the quintet are two sales at Mercedes-Benz World, set to take place on September 24 and November 26. As in previous years, all Historics auctions will be held on a Saturday, with three full preview days preceding each sale. Historics is not done for 2021 yet though, with its final sale taking place at Mercedes-Benz World on November 27. Turn to page 8 for our preview or visit www.historics.co.uk.…

Buying project cars became one of the salient themes of lockdown as we were confined to our homes, but recent market trends indicate the desire among enthusiasts to resurrect down-at-heel classics has continued – even if the numbers don’t add up. A perusal of recent auctions reveals that while there are still bargains to be had for those happy to get their hands dirty, there have also been numerous instances of projects achieving eye-watering figures. A prime example was a 1982 Lamborghini Countach 5000 S offered by Historics at the end of September, which had been stripped for refurbishment before work had stalled and subsequently required a full restoration. Estimated at £145,000-£180,000, it sold for £257,000. That’s around £50,000 more than good, running examples have commanded in the United States…

Fans of Eighties excess are well catered for at the upcoming Historics sale, with the CCB team particularly taken with a pair of widebody Mercedes – one a Koenig-modified 500SL at £49,000-£55,000 and the other an AMG creation packing the 6-litre quad cam V8. Another product of our favourite decade is the factory-built flatnose Porsche 911 estimated at £38,000-£45,000, while its ’90s equivalent the rare 911 Speedster is estimated at £145,000-£155,000. More attainable fare from the two marques includes a 1988 280GE with no reserve alongside a 1993 300GE at £18,000-£25,000 and plenty of SLs of all generations, while other Porsches range from a pair of no-reserve 2000 Boxsters to a 944 Turbo Cabriolet at £27,000-£33,000. At the other end of the scale is a charmingly bog standard 1988 Mini…

LAND ROVER 12-SEATER (1959-2007) Across five generations, Land Rover offered the only solution if you wanted to carry an entire football team plus the manager up the side of a mountain. Land Rover squeezed a dozen places into the long-wheelbase Station Wagon version of the Series II thus making it exempt from all sorts of taxes as well as an incredibly versatile machine with its cavernous interior and flip-folding seats. The One Ten with coil springs, five-speed gearboxes, power steering and other overdue upgrades came along in 1983. The Defender of 1991 introduced the excellent 200Tdi turbodiesel and the 12-seater remained a popular model right up to 2008 when safety regulations meant the centre front and inward-facing rear seats had to go, cutting the Defender 110’s capacity down to seven.…

For probably fairly obvious reasons it’s not very often you’ll see a shot of 1970s Soho in Classic Car Buyer, but this week’s image shows nothing more risqué than the offices of Warner-Pathe Distribution, the company formed when Warner Bros absorbed Associated British-Pathé in 1958. It’s probably safe to assume that the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow parked in the foreground is the transport of a cinema industry bigwig, although his status is somewhat diminished by the 1967 F-registration and lack of a chauffeur waiting in the car. In front of the Shad we see a left-hand drive Ford Consul Classic, which is wearing a foreign number plate that has beaten the CCB team’s attempts to identify. Perhaps you know its origins? Wherever the Ford has come from it clearly suffered on…