Innholdsfortegnelse for July 2022 i Classic Car Mart

22 One of the great things about the classic car scene has always been its constantly changing nature, as the inexorable march of time sees new, younger models welcomed into the fold once they make the jump from simply ‘old car’ to ‘interesting old car.’ Naturally that means the business of maintaining them is constantly evolving too, with diagnostic code readers no doubt living next to timing lights and grease guns in many readers’ tool boxes. Sometimes though, the old ways just can’t be beaten, something which was brought home to me recently when faced with a non-runner BMW. An example of the ‘E46’ 3-Series from the 2000s, it would crank but simply wouldn’t fire and having been online for ideas its owner was naturally full of complex theories relating…

T heBirmingham 2022 Queen’s Baton Relay will visit the British Motor Museum on Friday, July 22 as part of its route around Britain. The Baton will spend 10 days in the West Midlands during its final journey through England this summer. Birmingham is hosting the 16th official Queen’s Baton Relay, bringing communities together across the Commonwealth during the build up to the Commonwealth Games. The opening ceremony takes place on July 28, followed by 11 days of competition. Jeff Coope, managing director of the British Motor Museum, said: “We will be working with our local community and visitors to give the Baton a warm welcome, including hosting a special parade of British iconic cars and a display of royal cars that we have in our prized collection.” Visitors can view…

Despite hosting its April 30 sale a mere five weeks after the previous one, WB & Sons didn’t disappoint when it came to filling its auction catalogue.More than 90 entries crossed the block at its Newcastle base, with another great mix of established classics, performance models and intriguing rarities. The sale offered further evidence that a dearth in the value of pre-war vehicles has been exaggerated. A 1929 Humber 9/28 was able to considerably top its £2000-£4000 guide price to achieve £6850, with a modified 1928 Ford Model A Roadster also impressing at £28,000. Towards the other end of the scale, it was an exceptional day for sporty 1980s classics. A 1989 Mk1 Toyota MR2 showing just 37,000 miles sold above estimate at £10,450, with a very tidy Mk2 Ford…

Few cars can demonstrate the lure of nostalgia quite like the Ford Capri. Although the not quickest or most dynamic of coupes, the lovable fastback has joined several of its contemporary Blue Oval stablemates in being hot property among enthusiasts – with prices to match. The Capri has had its time in the doldrums, but those fond memories often hark back to a time when they were just about everywhere. As Europe’s answer to the muscle-bound Mustang pony car, the Capri was instrumental in bringing sports car style to the masses by following a similar blueprint; borrow the underpinnings of an existing saloon model and reclothe them in a svelte, sporty new package with room for four and a keen price tag. Using the slogan “The car you always promised…

A ttemptingto describe the Vauxhall Nova to someone unfamiliar with the early ’80s British car market would possibly be something of a struggle: it was called the Nova here, but only in the UK, since the Vauxhall brand had been phased out in Ireland and they used the name by which the rest of Europe knew the car: Corsa, which to add further confusion was a product of the Opel marque and not a Vauxhall, the Luton brand by then being purely limited to the UK. Oh and history throws in a further dash of confusion since GM’s UK management referred to the car as being the ‘S83’ platform in internal communication of the day whereas it’s better known worldwide as the GM4200 platform. Oh and magazines of the day…

WhenI first started working on car magazines, the TR7 was something of a poor relation: frowned upon by traditionalist enthusiasts of the older TR models, it hadn’t been around quite long enough to gain classic status purely on account of its age, while Harris Mann’s edgy wedge was perhaps a reminder of the decade we were trying to forget as we forged ahead into the ’80s and ’90s. Nowadays though, things have very much changed and while a TR5 might rumble past a group of teenagers without raising an eyebrow, a TR7 – especially a coupe in the striking Triton Green – will turn heads. In that respect the passage of time has been kind to the TR7, even if the BL-era build quality struggled to shrug off the effects…

Check out loads more news at WWW.CLASSICS-WORLD.CO.UK O neof Birmingham’s best known landmarks, Spaghetti Junction, celebrates its 50th anniversary this week. Opened to the public on May 24, 1972, the road system that’s officially known as Gravelly Hill Interchange is now the busiest traffic interchange in Europe, with up to 220,000 vehicles using it each day. To mark half a century of Spaghetti Junction, Andy Street, West Midlands Mayor, commented: “When it was being built, my granddad used to take me on a Sunday afternoon to look at it… and it was exciting! It was sort of modern and futuristic. And it’s provided a brilliant service for 50 years. It has to be maintained hard now [with] lots of work going on, strengthening the concrete – but I reckon it’ll…

Hooton Park Trust in Ellesmere Port was the venue as Hampsons hosted its second classic car sale of the year on May 7. The catalogue was certainly an eclectic one, comprising 67 lots and featuring everything from a bubble car to illustrious sports cars. It proved to be a very good day for Jaguars, with the sale’s headliner a beautifully restored 1965 Jaguar E-Type Series 1 Coupe that sold midestimate for £90,833. A 1960 XK150 drophead Coupe with just one previous owner achieved £70,458, with another XK150 – this time a 1958 car – changing hands for £59,167. In addition, a stunning Mk2 in 3.8-litre guise sold above estimate for £42,750, while at the other end of the scale a 1994 XJ40 3.2 Gold Edition in need of some work…

Tobe fair, it’s unlikely that when designing their current range Toyota benchmarked it against a 40-year old car from a long-defunct manufacturer which even when new was often ridiculed. But bouncing along a cratered farm track in our Vanden Plas 1750, I was struck by the fact that BL’s upmarket small car handles the potholes far better than the current state of the art from one of the world’s biggest car makers. My company-issue Toyota hybrid estate had bounced around dramatically even at walking pace, but the Allegro – sorry, Vanden Plas – stayed pretty level with its long wheel travel throwing the occupants around far less violently. Which little anecdote neatly sums up the retrospective view of the Allegro that, well, you know it really wasn’t that bad. Or…

T heMG Midget is to many the archetypal classic small sports car. Front engine, rear wheel drive, tried and trusted mechanicals and an open body that screams of summer days and picnics. But as the 1960s became the 1970s the Midget lost its delicacy of line. Fitted with polyurethane bumpers that looked five times too big for what was already an old design, against cars designed for the new decade it appeared an irrelevance. And one of the sharpest was the Fiat X1/9. Styled by Bertone and looking as angular as Leyland’s larger TR7, the mid engined machine sat squarely in line with the Midget’s target audience – even if its asking price was closer to that of the Triumph. While prices may have been too far apart to consider…

Y ou’llsometimes hear it said that the first frontwheel drive Volkswagen was the Golf. Is that true Technically, no… but still sort of correct. If we’re being pedantic then the first front-wheel drive car to be marketed with the Volkswagen badge on its nose was in fact the K70, but as those immersed in Wolfsburg history are no doubt already pointing out, the K70 was originally developed as an NSU. The idea was that the pistonengined, conventionally powered K70 would sit next to the avant garde Wankel rotary-powered Ro80 – that ‘K’ signifying Kolben, or piston as opposed to rotary. Just as the car was about to hit the market though, the relatively small NSU company had finally been brought to its knees by the spiralling warranty claims of the…

We’ve referred to ‘forgotten Jaguars’ before in CCM – generally the ’60s cars like the S-Type and 240 – but none have been so comprehensively swept under the carpet as the XJ40. Only just emerging from its lengthy tenure in that twilight zone between cheap old prestige smoker and modern classic, the XJ40 represents more classic Jaguar per pound than it’s ever been possible to buy... but it also potentially represents more trouble per pound than you’d ever want to buy, too. The main difficulties facing the XJ40 are simply that its predecessor, the Series 3, was so very good and so well loved that it continued in V12 form as a special order until 1992. At the other end of its lifespan, the XJ40’s successor, the X300, was so…

A1968 Morris Minor Traveller set the tone at SWVA when it was hammered away above guide for £7700, only to be trumped by a very smart two-door saloon model from the same year. It was a good day for the numerous Triumphs too, as a 1973Stag was sold above its £6750-£7750 guide for a hammer price of £10,400, a lovely 1964 Spitfire reached £10,000 and a 1977 2500S Estate £6000. The British successes didn’t end there though: A 1948 Rover P3 75 comfortably beat its guide at a hammer price of £7200, with a 1972 P6 3500 making £6600 and a lovely P4 110 from 1964 £9100. In addition, a 1967 Wolseley 6/110 described as “out of the box” surpassed its modest £6750-£7750 estimate to reach £8600 and an ‘Audax’…

Over 130 lots were put under the hammer as Brightwells hosted its latest Classic Motoring sale from May 7-11, sticking to its well-established timed online format. Entries included everything from a pair of Piaggio Apes to an ex-MoD Steyr-Puch Pinzgauer, but the sale was particularly notable for excellent performances from pre-war vehicles and traditional British classics. The oldest car in the sale was a 1921 Humber 11.4hp Doctor’s Coupe with fantastic patina, which beat its £6000- £8000 estimate to reach £11,256. A powerful Buick Series 25 tourer from 1925 was another to find a new home for £18,480, as was a 1931 Ford Model A Roadster Deluxe for £16,912. More affordable was a 1932 Austin Seven RN Saloon that sold mid-estimate for £5163, with a 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans…

W ithclassic cars, it’s often down to a bit of good luck, and sometimes even better timing. We were just fortunate that a first time showgoer to the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC back in March happened to be looking for a compact motorhome to use as a portable beach hut. The deal was done late on the Sunday afternoon, just an hour or so before the show closed. Within a week, we’d made arrangements to drive the Honda motorhome to its new owner up in Lincolnshire. There was a minor complication with the V5, as the Acty was previously registered to a disabled owner, which meant it was tax exempt. We’d applied to the DVLA to amend its status back to a standard registration,…

GT is a seemingly innocuous term. Bolted to the back of Morris Marinas, MGBs and Ford Cortinas with gay abandon, it felt like every other car on the road was a GT of some sort. But to any schoolboy worth his pack of Top Trumps, a GT meant a big engine, two doors, and the sort of car that could whisk you down to the South of France in the same sort of time it would take for a Morris Marina to start in the depths of winter. The cars we’ve chosen here epitomised the breed – from British bulldogs to Continental chic, so here are our favourite cars for the ultimate grand tour. JENSEN INTERCEPTOR You can’t build a list of the greatest grand tourers of the 1970s without…

It might not be the most exciting classic on the road, yet the Morris Minor remains highly revered by its army of fans and is always a strong seller. It’s a very significant vehicle, of course, having been created by the innovative mind of Alec Issigonis (the man who would famously go on to design the all-conquering Mini) as well as being the first British car to sell a million units. Such was its popularity when new, the Minor remained in production for the best part of a quarter of a century, during which time it received various updates and iterations. The car showcased here is a latemodel example of the perennially popular Traveller, built in 1969 – just a couple of years before production of this estate derivative ceased.…