Innholdsfortegnelse for 4/13/2022 i Classic Car Buyer

Giving any classic car the title ‘British icon’ is a bold statement… but it’s justifiable when it comes to two of the models in this week’s CCB. First up is the MGB, the bestselling sports car that’s celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2022; a genuine sporting great, the ’B managed to break all sales records for MG throughout its extensive career. And then there’s the Land Rover Freelander, a 4x4 that in first-generation guise opened up a whole new market for its maker. The MGB helped to keep the two-seater sports car market buoyant for many years, selling in healthy numbers even towards the end of its career. These days, however, the global sports car sector is tiny by comparison, with even the hugely successful Mazda MX-5 selling a fraction…

Sign up to our newsletter at www.classicsworld.co.uk A study of 45 different car models no longer in production has revealed which have survived in the greatest numbers. The study, commissioned by national dealer group Bristol Street Motors, has also tracked the average values of such cars at auction – and it’s claimed that discontinued cars in the UK are currently worth a collective £3.7 billion. From that total, cars that are currently declared SORN are said to be worth over £1.5 billion, meaning that around 40 per cent of discontinued cars’ total value is tucked away in garages and on driveways rather than vehicles in use. Perhaps not surprisingly, the Ford Escort takes the top spot as the UK’s most valuable discontinued car, with an average sale price across all…

To celebrate the centenary of MG cars next year, the MG Owners’ Club, Early MG Society, MG Octagon Car Club, MG ‘T’ Society and MG Car Club are all joining forces to organise an MG spectacular on Saturday, May 27, 2023. The celebration will be held at the British Motor Museum, Gaydon, with a full range of attractions promised. Full details of the action-packed day will be released later, although the clubs are urging MG owners to save the date now – and to make sure they don’t miss out on what promises to be a memorable event. It was in 1923 that Cecil Kimber designed, built and sold his first MG sports cars, marketing them as the ‘MG Super Sports Morris’ with sporting coachwork by Charles Raworth. The first…

Hobbs Parker’s first classic car action of 2022 took place on March 30-31, working to the now-familiar timed online format. The sale offered a great mix of prestige and everyman entries spanning a wide range of eras and budgets, but it was the traditional British classics that really shone. OK, we’re cheating a little with the first one, because the sale’s headliner was a replica of a great British classic – a Realm Engineering Jaguar C-Type copy to be more specific. Finished in Ecurie-Ecosse racing colours, it looked the part and sold for an impressive £41,360. A little newer was a 1998 Jaguar XKR, which looked good value at £9680, as did a late entry 1994 XJS 4.0 Coupe that beat its estimate to sell for £4012. In addition, a…

The MGA had been a major success story for BMC, transforming MG’s sporting image after a decade of post-war T-series models. Inevitably though, it would need replacing at some point, a task on which work started as early as 1956/57, with BMC determined not to let the MGA fall into the trap of outstaying its welcome. The end result was the MGB of 1962, a model that will be the subject of many 60th anniversary celebrations throughout this summer. MG’s chief engineer, Syd Enever, was the man responsible for overseeing development of the MGB. He was tasked with achieving the right balance between the driver appeal of a proper sports car and the level of comfort and convenience that buyers of the ’60s would expect. That meant doing away with…

There was very little to challenge the BMW 3 Series in the 1980s. It captured the imagination of yuppies in a way that the Audi 80 didn’t and offered far more prestige than similarly priced British or French contenders. Especially in its second generation, the E30, it felt like BMW had the market sewn up among those who were a step above a sales rep and wanted the car to prove it. But Mercedes-Benz had spent a decade designing the W201 190E, and once it was launched it offered customers a very different approach to the blue-chip saloon. It may have been spartan in standard form, but it had the three-pointed star, and if many of the world’s leaders were to be believed this was the ultimate in status symbols.…

MGF You’ll probably have heard the long-running criticism about its hydragas suspension and frail head gaskets, but if you’re after a cost-effective summer roadster, then it’s hard to look beyond the MGF for value to money: you can pick up a perfectly good one for as little as £2000-3000. BMW Z3 Sometimes a badge can hold a lot of value for an owner, and if you’re that sort of driver, then a BMW will always win over a Mazda. The Z3 has a range of engine options, offering power either comparable to or far greater than that of the MX-5. MGB Fancy something a little more retro? The MGB is arguably the benchmark for cheap roadsters that came before the MX-5. Despite their age, MGs are still a great classic…

This year marks 55 years since the Ford Anglia 105E ceased production, with the final example rolling out of Halewood in November 1967 to make way for the launch of the Escort the following January. This period shot is an official Ford image, issued in 1965 to show the latest-spec 1200 Super – the top-of-the-range Anglia that employed the same 1198cc ‘Kent’ engine as the Cortina, plus a slightly more sumptuous interior. Almost 1.05 million Anglias (excluding the vans) were built between 1959 and ’67, making it one of the most successful Fords of the ’60s.…

An online poll of more than 2000 UK car owners commissioned by The Motor Ombudsman has revealed that the majority – 56 per cent – of those who do not currently have a service plan in place are planning to miss (33 per cent) or delay (23 per cent) their car’s annual service in order to save money. April has already proved to be a challenging month for UK households, with a 54 per cent increase in the price cap for gas and electricity bills, plus rises in council tax and Vehicle Excise Duty. This has come on top of the current high cost of petrol and diesel at the pumps – a concern for 87 per cent of car owners, according to The Motor Ombudsman poll. The online study…

Two of the biggest names in classic motoring have gone head to head in friendly rivalry thanks to the launch of the Trading Up Challenge, with CCB’s sister channel, Classics World TV, battling it out with Lancaster Insurance to see who will end up with the most valuable car at the end of the year. Each company was given a maximum budget of £5000 with which to buy their first vehicle. This would then be sold on, with as much as possible of the sale price being reinvested in the next classic. This will continue throughout 2022, with the final two vehicles then being displayed at the NEC Classic Motor Show in November to decide which is the most valuable. Andrew Evanson, from Lancaster Insurance, initially had his sights set…

David Brown Automotive has unveiled a new special edition of its Mini Remastered in collaboration with amplifier manufacturer, Marshall. Called the Mini Remastered Marshall Edition, the limited-run restomod celebrates the 60th anniversary of the British company – and just 60 examples will be built. Inside, a gold control panel in the centre console features amp-style control knobs, with gold detailing appearing on the handbrake and door cards. The pedals – also finished in gold – have the ‘skip track’, ‘pause’ and ‘play’ symbols engraved into them as a further nod to the special edition’s musical inspiration. The audio system has had a significant upgrade, with new dash-mounted tweeters working together with additional speakers in the doors, while the boot has been fitted with a full-size guitar amp featuring an independent…

Anglia Car Auctions’ latest classic sale of the year took place at its King’s Lynn base on April 2-3, with an intriguing mix of vehicles auctioned in front of the public for only the second time since the beginning of the pandemic. It proved to be a red-hot sale for Italian classics, with the star of the show a 1965 Alfa Romeo 2600 Spider that had been in storage since 1999 and beat its £40,000-£60,000 estimate to sell for an impressive £61,020. Another Alfa in the shape of a 1976 1600 GT Junior in right-hand drive flavour similarly eclipsed its pre-sale prediction to change hands for £21,600, with a 1973 Lancia Fulvia Coupe 1.3S doing likewise by selling for £13,230 against a guide of £9000-£12,000. Other Italians to find new…

Although BMC’s sports car range was traditionally topped off by the six-cylinder ‘Big Healey’ models, a replacement would be needed at some point. The unlikely solution lay in the form of a six-cylinder version of the MGB, launched in 1967 as the MGC and available in both roadster and GT guises. There was even a plan to badge-engineer the MGC into a new Austin-Healey, though this was quietly dropped at the prototype stage. The MGC should have been a useful new model for BMC, bringing six-cylinder power and smoothness to the MG range. Despite the promise shown by its impressive specification, however, the MGC was destined to become one of MG’s shortest-lived models, with a production run that didn’t even reach its second anniversary. The main aesthetic difference between the…

Imagine it’s the mid-1950s. Europe’s economies are strengthening after years of war in the previous decade, and more people than ever are able to enjoy the freedom of motoring. Indeed, it feels as though every nation has a de facto People’s Car. Germany has the Beetle, France has the Deux Chevaux, while in Britain the Morris Minor is doing rather well for itself. Over in Italy, meanwhile, Fiat is developing a model that will go on to mobilise millions of its country’s citizens and even become a cultural icon: the Fiat 500. The Turin-based marque had already dabbled with small family cars, of course, with the outgoing Topolino’s roots being be traced back to the 1930s. So, when the ‘Nuova’ 500 arrived in 1957, it breathed a breath of fresh…

Lotus has underscored its intention to move towards an entirely electrified future with the unveiling of its Eletre. Dubbed the world’s first “electric hyper-SUV”, the all-new model represents an unprecedented step in Lotus’ rapid modernisation, shown just a few months after Elise, Exige and Evora production wound up – and in the wake of the reveal of the Emira, the final internal-combustion Lotus. The Eletre marks many firsts for the marque: it’s Lotus’ first SUV, and represents the first series production model to use electric power (the Evija hypercar is a limited-run halo product). It’s also the largest model ever to wear the Lotus badge, measuring in at just over 5.1m long, 1.6m tall and 2.2m wide including mirrors. At first glance, the Eletre looks much like many other large,…

The man who effectively saved Land Rover in the 1980s and helped to transform its fortunes, Tony Gilroy, has died at the age of 85. Although not as widely known as his contemporaries – Michael Edwardes, Harold Musgrove, Graham Day, and George Simpson – Gilroy was considered an unsung hero of the British motor industry by those who knew him best. His career started at Ford before taking on one of the toughest jobs in the motor industry: manufacturing director of the Longbridge factory. He managed to convince the workforce to accept the British Leyland rationalisation plan, and was instrumental in the dismissal of the Longbridge trade union convener, Derek ‘Red Robbo’ Robinson, who opposed it. Tony went on to play a key role in the introduction of the Metro…

TRIUMPH SPITFIRE (1962-1980) The Spitfire was the first of Triumph’s range of small sporty cars based on the underpinnings of the Herald, and it turned out to be the most successful and the longest lived. The slinky wasp-waisted bodywork came from Michelotti and thanks to that Herald heritage it featured a spacious and well-equipped cockpit. Power came from a twin-carb 1147cc version of the Herald’s OHV engine. More powerful engines were fitted through the years, a front facelift and a fixed folding hood in 1967 and a rear facelift and a new fascia in 1970. This Spitfire Mk4 (by now with a 1296cc 63bhp engine) also featured the ‘swing spring’ rear end to tame the unpredictable nature of the Spitfire’s swing axles. The rear suspension was further revised for the…

Head back to the middle of the 1990s and the Land Rover range consisted of the Defender and Discovery (plus, under a different badge and in a very different market position, the Range Rover) and while they were selling well a third model would represent a desirable addition. That led to the CB40 project which would be launched at the 1997 Frankfurt Motor Show as the Freelander. In first generation (with the model code L314) this would remain in production until 2006. While still promising excellent off-road ability this was clearly a more tarmac-biased offering, and it introduced several firsts for the brand, including monocoque construction and transverse engines. There was also no selectable low range gearing, with a pioneering Hill Descent Control (HDC) system operating via the anti-lock brakes…

Let’s take a trip back to Easter bank holiday Monday, 1969, as a two-lane queue of traffic makes its way to Manchester from the direction of sunny North Wales. At the side of the road is a broken-down Ford 100E, its bonnet up and its driver leaning over the engine bay to see what’s wrong. The queue of (just about) moving traffic is even more interesting, though. The outside lane shows an almost-new Fiat 124, behind which are an aged Austin A35, a Mini and a Vauxhall Viva HB amongst others. A couple of caravans are in that same lane, the one furthest away being towed by a Bedford CA. The inside lane, meanwhile, includes such disparate models as a Lotus Elan, a Wolseley 16/60, a DKW Junior, a Viva…

This Kadett makes an interesting counterpart to the Escort, showing just how quickly standards in the everyman sector of the car market changed in the late 1970s. The best-selling Escort had its rear-wheel drive, leaf-sprung live rear axle, simple overhead-valve engine and three-box saloon body. Just four years after the Ghia on the this page was built, this Opel Kadett D was turned out with front-wheel drive, a rear torsion beam, an overhead cam and a hatchback. Of course, we know the Kadett D better in the UK as the original Vauxhall Astra – such was the sea change the new car (GM’s first transverse-engined front-drive design) ushered in, it wasn’t deemed appropriate to carry on the Viva name. This Kadett GLS was built in Port Elizabeth, South Africa (in…