Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2022 i Classic Car Mart

Welcome… Push factor There’s a running joke in the CCM office about the random blokes who appear as if by magic as soon as an old car needs pushing. They might even be the same people, following us through life like a kind of oily-fingered automotive guardian angel but they never fail us. They were there (all five of them) when our 2.5-tonne Bentley coasted to a halt blocking a country car park and they were there when we ran a Toledo out of fuel. Never needing to be summoned but just silently appearing at your shoulder with a cheery “Need a push mate?” as soon as an old car gives up. This week though, they let us down when a Lancia Fulvia conked out in rush hour on a…

AUCTION NEWS SILVERSTONE AUCTIONS, NEC, OCTOBER 12-13 There was no better illustration of pent-up post-Covid demand for high-end classic cars and face-to-face dealing than the Silverstone Auctions sale at the Classic Motor Show. A busy weekend saw 1500 bidders registered and a massive £9.2m worth of car, motorbike and automobilia lots change hands, translating to an impressive 83% sale rate. Even for those of us not well versed in two-wheelers, the £550,000 result for a Brough Superior was impressive, but as far as the cars went, we were blown away by the £264,500 bid for the rare Subaru Impreza 22B (even if it did remain unsold), while the hammer may have dropped on the humble VW Type 2 camper van at just £15,750 but the proceeds all went to the…

CLASSIC ROAD TEST: BMW E30 THIRD ACT There was a 3-Series before the E30 and there were many afterwards, but the second generation launched 40 years ago is the car which really set BMW on the road to global dominance. WORDS: PAUL WAGER When the wraps came off the then-new ‘E65’ 7-Series in 2001 and the automotive world gasped in astonishment, BMW explained its decision to go with Chris Bangle’s bold vision for the company like this: the 7-Series sold in such small numbers that the firm could afford to take a risk with it. And it’s that little nugget which illustrates perfectly just how important the 3-Series still was to the Bavarian brand as the new millennium dawned. Today that’s all changed of course, as BMW has expanded into…

TWIN TEST: VOLVO 240 v FORD GRANADA FULLY LOADED We compare two modern classics from the heyday of the big estate car. Words and photography: Paul Wager So fast is the modern automotive industry changing that as busy streets quieten to the hum of electric motors, the familiar streetscape is also changing beyond what would have been familiar just a decade ago. City hatchbacks have been deemed unprofitable and so are gradually dropping off the price lists, while the traditional estate car is also being supplanted by the SUV. You can probably blame the Nissan Qashqai for this in Europe, since its popularity saw other makers scrambling to release me-too efforts. Most little more than high-riding versions of regular mid-range hatchback models, they offer generally less load-lugging practicality than the…

OR MAYBE..? Paul Wager, Group Editor Bentley Arnage There’s nothing quite like the Turbo R… apart from its immediate successor, the Arnage. Although similar in spirit to the older car, the Arnage is a much more modern design and is that little bit easier to live with. Being a younger car and with the benefit of BMW’s assistance in the body engineering, it stands up to living outside rather better and thanks to the R-R/Bentley aftermarket, parts support is excellent. Dave Youngs, Lancaster Insurance Rolls-Royce Silver Spirit If it’s the luxury and style of the Bentley which attracts but you don't really need its mighty performance, then the otherwise identical Silver Spirit may well fit the bill. The advantage of this is that the Silver Spirit tended to attract a…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY 6 ISSUES JUST £12.00* SAVING 56% *Full terms and conditions can be found at shop.kelsey.co.uk/terms. Offer applies to UK subscribers only when paying by direct debit. Your subscription will start with the next available issue with your first 6 issues charged at just £12.00. Payments will continue to be taken at the low rate of £21.99 every 6 months thereafter. You can cancel your subscription at any time and no further payments will be taken. Overseas and other offers available at shop.kelsey.co.uk/CMT VISIT SHOP.KELSEY.CO.UK/CMT21H OR CALL: 01959 543 747 AND QUOTE CMT21H HOTLINES OPEN MONDAY – FRIDAY 8.30AM – 5.30PM. CALLS ARE CHARGED AT YOUR STANDARD NETWORK RATE…

CHECK OUT LOADS MORE NEWS AT WWW.CLASSICSWORLD.CO.UK PLUGS & LEADS ANTI-MODDING THREAT RECEDES Regular readers will be aware of the alarm initially raised after the publication by the Department for Transport’s Future of Transport Regulatory Review. Designed primarily to future-proof vehicle regulatory standards in the light of expected technical developments in fields like autonomous driving and safety systems, the proposal aims to overhaul legislation surrounding road vehicles to “address areas of transport regulation that are outdated, a barrier to innovation, or not designed with new technologies and business models in mind.” However, some aspects of the proposals had set alarm bells ringing among enthusiasts of both classic cars and modified vehicles. Alongside legislation allowing low-volume or prototype vehicles to be more easily approved for use on public roads in order…

MARKET TRENDS ’80s CLASSIC MINI This issue, we track the market prices of the ’80s classic Mini and a range of its different guises. Words: James Bowers Following the era of the flat-faced Clubman, interest in Minis had begun to waver once the 1980s arrived. After all, the basic concept was now a 20-year-old design, and British Leyland (then succeeded by the Rover Group) was readying to phase the car out of existence. It seems almost implausible to think about now, but back then, the intention was to gradually replace the icon outright with the Austin Metro. Ironically however, once the Metro had evolved into the Rover 100, a disastrous NCAP showing and a plummet in sales forced it out of production by 1998, whereas considerable demand from Japan in…

ROUND UP: ’80s ICONS ACCEPTABLE IN THE ’80s We pick our favourite examples of cars that defined a decade. WORDS: SAM SKELTON Some cars automatically speak for their eras. The Harris Mann school of design could exist in no decade outside the 1970s, just as the Anglo-Italian flair of the Farina range could only have been a late 1950s construct. The 1980s was a power decade on the surface, one in which greed was good and money was there for the taking, but also one where there was a vast divide between the haves and the have nots. Some cars transcended this owing to differences in spec. Both sides of the divide the Peugeot 205, the Ford Escort, the Volkswagen Golf held an undeniable appeal. But the halo models, the…

THE MARKETPLACE THE CARS THE BEGINNING DATABASE: ASTON MARTIN DB7 (1994-2004) DATABASE: ASTON MARTIN DB7 (1994-2004) The life and times of the car which saved Aston Martin as a brand. Just don’t mention the Jaguar XJ-S. WORDS: PAUL WAGER Aston Martin may be one of the world’s blue chip sports car brands but for much of its history the company itself was on fairly shaky financial ground. Indeed it’s best summed up by ebullient ’80s Aston Chairman Victor Gauntlett’s comment when asked how to make a small fortune out of Aston Martin: “Start with a big one,” he laughed. A period of relative security began when Ford Motor Company took a 75% stake in the firm in 1987 (later to become full ownership by 1991) but with its tiny volumes it…

STAFF CARS STAFF CLASSICS We revisit some old projects, welcome some new members to the collection and look into staffers’ own garages. BENTLEY TURBO R PAUL GUINNESS Last month, I reported on how our Turbo R project car had been dispatched to marque specialist Nigel Sandell for some pre-MoT attention, the most immediate problem being its permanently-lit airbag light. Despite there being no airbags on board, it still counted as an MoT failure item. With the car’s dashboard suffering other illumination issues, Nigel sent the entire instrument pack to his electronics guru for a rebuild. Two weeks later, the refurbished pack was reinstated, the airbag light was switched off and (once a new rear damper had been fitted) the Bentley was issued with a fresh MoT certificate. This was all…

OR MAYBE..? James Bowers, Editorial Assistant Subaru Legacy Mk4 Want the Subaru badge, but on a car with less of an attitude and reputation? Well, the Legacy could be the answer. If sporting heritage is a concern, then fear not, as Subaru’s World Rally programme began with the original Legacy after all, not the Impreza. The Mk4 generation is arguably the one to have though. A handsome looking car, these are considerably newer than the Impreza, yet are positioned at a similar price point. Subaru purists, if there are such people, will be tempted by the saloon variant with the same boxer unit that you’ll find in an Impreza. However, the Legacy is a bigger, more practical car in general, and this can be taken advantage of further if you…

SALES SPOTLIGHT MORGAN PLUS 4 In the early ‘90s the motoring world was going nuts over the Mazda MX-5, hailed as the return of the back-to-basics, fun-to-drive, wind-in-the-hair traditional sports car that had last had a heyday in the 1960s. Manufacturers were scrambling to enter this revived market. But nestled in the Malvern Hills, Morgan was still making sports cars so traditional that they were considered old-fashioned when the MGB was in its heyday. But that very refusal to ‘play the game’ had enabled Morgan to keep turning out cars (albeit often in unsustainably small quantities) fundamentally unchanged since the 1940s as the rest of the sports car industry rose, fell and rose again. When the Mazda MX-5 burst on to the scene, the Morgan Plus 4 was still there,…

TAILGATE PRESENTS WELL Sam Skelton considers the subconscious effect image has on car buying decisions. I moved house recently. Unsurprisingly this has thrown my world into disarray, my office is full of boxes yet to be unpacked, my cars have all had to be moved, and I’m adjusting to life with my partner and her house rabbit. Having moved so far off grid that my nearest bus stop and pub are both in the next county and I can’t see any neighbours except from the kitchen window, it became clear that I might need a fourwheel drive car for winter. My nearest tarmac is half a mile away after all, and these are conditions not conducive to daily driving an old Jag in the sludge. So naturally I bought myself…

Classic Crossword 193 Across 7 Rootes Group limousine discontinued in 1954 (6,7) 8 Streamlined in design (11) 9 _ R, performance Bentley model (5) 11 _ Reisner, Intermeccanica founder (5) 14 British makers of the 1930s Firebird (5) 15 Body style of the Isuzu 117 (5) 18 Enduring Toyota off-road model (4,7) 20 German aircraft firm who built bubble cars after WWII (13) Down 1 Foresters, Outbacks, etc (7) 2 This version of the Toyota MR2 came with removable roof panels (1-3) 3 Specification of engine oil (5) 4 Cars like the A30 Sports and 950 Sports (7) 5 Mr Bertoni, noted car designer (8) 6 Hot _, the XR2i or Golf GTi (5) 10 Popular name of the very first Morris Oxford (8) 12 Tornado’s speciality (3,4) 13 ‘Silver’…

CLASSIC ROAD TEST: FIAT STRADA HUMAN AFTER ALL Famously ‘Handbuilt by Robots’, the Fiat Strada was a bold attempt at modernism, but is it now best left in the past? WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY: JEFF RUGGLES As car adverts on TV go, it’s up there with the most memorable of all time. Lots of sparks and intelligent automotive machinery are set to a soundtrack of Figaro’s Aria from Rossini’s opera The Barber of Seville, before the advert ends on the simple caption ‘Handbuilt by Robots.’ Sadly, that’s about the only way many will remember the Fiat Strada, as they are far from a common sight on our roads anymore. Fortunately though, we were lucky enough to get behind the wheel of a rare survivor. Somewhat confusingly, the Strada was only known…

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MARKET TRENDS FORGOTTEN GTIs Think GTI and it’s the Golf and Peugeot 205 which spring to mind, but there are some overlooked curiosities out there with the same badge. Words: Craig Cheetham PEUGEOT 309 GTI The 309 was the 205’s ugly sister, lacking its Pininfarina delicacy. But while it might not have been as obviously attractive, the 309 was actually a better handling car, as its longer wheelbase and heavier body work made it less prone to liftoff oversteer. The 309 lived in the doldrums for many years, but values have spiralled of late and while you used to be able to pick one up for a couple of grand, you’re looking at three times that for a good one now, or five figures for a Goodwood special edition. ROVER…

SALES SPOTLIGHT MGB GT A restored B GT is pretty much as far from unusual as it’s possible to get in the classic car world. But this one caught my eye for being thoroughly restored to a high standard to its original 1972 condition. People have been restoring 1970s MGBs for decades, but very often the opportunity is taken to back-date them to the chrome grille/wire wheels/pastel colours look of the 1960s Mk1 cars. That goes all the more for the interim 1970-1974 black grille/chrome bumper models which are much easier to back-date than the post-74 cars. But none the less here is a 1972 B in entirely original spec. It still has its inset black grille, Rostyle steel wheelsand italic-font ‘BGT’ badges on the tailgate. The interior has its…