Innholdsfortegnelse for October 2025 i Classics World

It’s funny how the motor industry does tend to reinvent the wheel and not always to good effect; sometimes it seems, history just can’t help repeating itself – and not only in the increasingly desperate way some manufacturers lean ever more heavily on their heritage to liven up their uninspiringly identikit current models. I experienced a perfect example just this month. As I was photographing Ian Finch’s superb Austin Princess for our feature on p63, we fell to discussing the lack of the hatchback in the production car despite it being a part of Harris Mann’s original concept. The machinations of internal BL politics were no doubt to blame for that, but just a few days later the subject of company cars was being discussed which threw up a Tesla…

GOT A STORY TO SHARE? EMAIL IT TO CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK Events such as the Festival of the Unexceptional and the boom they have caused in the popularity of 1990s classics has led to a swathe of young people coming into the classic car community, as well as a surge in demand for everyday modern classics. Over 1000 cars turned up at Grimsthorpe Castle near Bourne, Lincolnshire, on July 26, with around half of those on display manufactured between 1990 and 2000. The winning car – a 1992 Skoda Favorit Forum – was owned by a 22-year-old, and that’s becoming a common theme with cars of that era. Indeed, concours champ Simon Packzowski acquired his car from a like-minded mate of a similar age. “The car has covered just 30,000 miles from…

A very minor point but in your piece about the Golf Cabriolet in the four-seat convertible feature in the August issue (p47) it is stated that the Golf Clipper model had a ‘single-point injected engine’ from 1987; the 1.6 75PS EW and 1.8 90PS EX, these used the Pierburg 2E2 carburettor. No Golf 1 Cabrio Type 15 ever had single point injection; if it did, it would have been the Bosch Mono Motronic as used in the 1987 to 1992 Golf 2 with the 90PS RP engine (would it have been a PX?), which would have been a welcomed alternative to the 2E2, a very unreliable over-complicated carburettor. I must have fitted hundreds of Weber conversions to replace them. For the UK, the two injection systems used were mechanical and…

I’ve lost count of the number of cars I’ve seen at shows with a carefully crafted model version on the dashboard, and there’s a line of scale cars in my own office based on the real life examples which have passed through my hands. Naturally it’s slightly less common to do things the other way round, but for serial Land Rover collector Nick Parr, that’s how he came to own the unusual Series 1 in these photos. Nick’s array of full size Land Rover products is extensive but his collection of scale models runs to the thousands and one of his favourites had always been the die-cast Series 1 80-inch ‘AA Road Service’ vehicle produced by Morestone in the late 1950s and itself a collector’s item today. The AA adopted…

On the face of it, a two-seater sports car designed largely for the US export market and a four-door family saloon aimed at the British volume segment might be slightly strange bedfellows in a comparison. Bear with us though and consider how the wedgy style of the pair set them apart from their competition in the mid-’70s. The family car market in Britain was dominated by Ford with its traditional three-box Cortina which looked conservative next to the Princess, while traditional sports cars were still just about alive in the shape of the TR6 and MGB but were looking increasingly old-fashioned as newcomers like the Golf GTI and its Scirocco coupe sibling defined a new market. From our 21st century vantage point, it’s easy to knock the ’70s BL products…

When Citroën decided to expand its range with a new model to fill the gap between the 2CV and DS - and compete with mainstream family car rivals - it turned to Robert Opron to draw up a design. The resulting style set the Citroën GS apart, with a Kamm-tail rear end and saloon bodywork that was more aerodynamic than almost anything else on the road. Following its launch in 1970, the Citroën GS would go on to prove hugely popular: almost 1.9 million would be made before the hatchback GSA arrived to replace it almost a decade later. The small, air-cooled engines fitted to the GS provided modest power and performance at first, but they proved almost unburstable. Larger units were soon added to the range along with a…

Every week our sister weekly title Classic Car Buyer runs a nostalgic street scene image and very few of these 1970s and ’80s streetscapes are complete without an Escort lurking in shot somewhere. Such was the ubiquity of Ford’s small family saloon that one was to be found on every street, from run-down estates to leafy affluent suburbs. Its appeal was further bolstered by Ford’s trick of offering the same car in a maze of different specifications from spit ’n’ sawdust Popular to plush Ghia. In truth, like most commercially successful cars, the Escort didn’t possess any single unique attribute and relied very much on a proven mechanical layout and running gear – the genius was in the way it was designed with the customer in mind and then costed,…

It’s easy to take potshots at Phoenix-era MG Rover. Yes, cars like the XPower SV and CityRover were flawed from day one, but Longbridge wasn’t just a graveyard of bad ideas. Behind the scenes, the engineers were still coming up with genuinely clever solutions, often with the limitations of very tight budgets hanging over their heads. These were the same people who turned the squishy Rover 75 into a convincing sports saloon, sprinkled MG magic on Honda-derived runabouts, and, perhaps most impressively, created the Rover Streetwise, a car that was so far ahead of its time that buyers and journalists alike didn’t really know what to make of it. Today, every brand has a vast array of jacked-up hatchbacks or crossovers in its line-up. Back in 2003 however, the notion…

I grew up in the city of Norwich. In the 1960s and 1970s; the county of Norfolk was a slightly remote place, stuck out on an eastern limb and with transport links that were mediocre at best. Those transport links have improved to some extent over the years since, partly I’m sure so that Londoners can get to their holiday homes on the North Norfolk coast more easily, but Norfolk is still one of a handful of English counties that have no motorways within their borders. It may not have motorways, but despite this rather remote and unlikely setting, it does have Lotus. Colin Chapman moved his car company from north of London to Hethel just south of Norwich in 1966, the year before my family made a similar move…

GOT A STORY TO SHARE? EMAIL IT TO CLASSICS.ED@KELSEY.CO.UK Transplanting a show from a busy London Borough to a showground in rural West Sussex may sound like a massive change, but the rebooted Bromley Pageant of Motoring, presented by Classics World, proved it still had the old magic on July 27. The event was effectively forced out of its home of more than 40 years, Norman Park, due to the extension of London’s ULEZ – a change that saw it take a break in 2024. But with a new home found at the South of England Showground near Ardingly, enthusiasts responded in their droves by amassing an impressive 2500 cars – 500 up on the last two events at the previous location. Remarkably, the layout remained pleasingly familiar, with a…

It’s no secret that enthusiasm in the classic car world for a particular brand or model is driven by nostalgia for childhood memories and in the case of the Rover SD1 I can clearly remember my first ride in one. It was the car park of a Berni Inn in Taunton, sometime in 1981 and the occasion a school friend’s birthday. Said friend’s dad, a successful builder, had purchased an early four-door Range Rover but it was in the bodyshop after a comedy impact with our school bus, so the trip to the Berni was in the BL dealer’s courtesy car: a Triton Green 3500S. “You shouldn’t really do this to a car that’s not yours,” he chuckled deadpan as he gunned the V8, dropped the clutch and left a…

Almost unbelievably, development of the XJ40 began just a few years after the launch of the ‘Series 1’ original; but despite plans being laid in the early ’70s, the newcomer was destined not to emerge until 1986. The work of Pininfarina in freshening up the styling of the Series 2 to create the elegant Series 3 also removed some of the urgency to develop a replacement. After evolving from what was originally a rather stark straight-edged concept into a more Jaguar style, the XJ40 received the green light for production in 1980, the BL board signing off an expenditure of £77 million apparently in the belief that this would buy the group reentry into the US market. The launch date was set for 1984, and to go with the new…

If things had gone to plan, you’d see three strikingly wedgeprofiled cars here, with the TR7 and Princess joined by a smaller car which would have replaced the ‘ADO16’ BMC 1100/1300 range. You might assume this was a concept which simply fell by the wayside, a victim of sparse development budgets and poor sales but in fact it did make production and became a staple of the British screetscape for many years: the Allegro. Yes, you might wish to suggest a visit to Specsavers is in order but the reality is that the dumpy creation we know from production reality was envisaged by Mann as something really very different. Early proposals for an ADO16 replacement had centred around a simple reskin of the older car but in an unusual fit…

In 1953, the old range of Standard cars as well as the ill-fated Triumph Mayflower was indirectly replaced by the all-new Standard Eight, featuring the all-new iron OHV engine with a capacity of 803cc. Coming hot on the heels of the small Austin BMC unit of the same capacity, it’s fair to say the Standard unit was a stronger engine than the rather fragile BMC unit. Designed under the eye of Harry Webster, the engine is quite similar in design to the A-Series with an iron block and head, pressed steel rocker cover, chain-driven cam in the block, three-bearing crank and a non-crossflow head albeit with the carbs and exhaust manifold on the driver’s side of the engine. The only real difference is that the crank centre line is recessed…

There was a time when an SUV was more than just a high-riding hatchback-based crossover as has become the norm today; in the late 1990s and early 2000s, an SUV could usually back up its rough-and-tumble looks with genuine ability off-road, in poor weather or across farm tracks and fields. If you need that sort of capability today, the good news is that many of the best examples of the breed from this era are still attainable – although some of the most desirable models have seen their values climb in recent years. There was no shortage of variety in this period: from three-door runabouts to seven-seat family cars, there’s likely to be something to fit most use cases. It’s worth preparing for higher-than-average running costs, however: emissions were high…

Initially, I had no idea that VW Group’s DSG gearboxes use a Dual Mass Flywheel but just like a manual gearbox with a DMF, after so many miles the component will wear. The internal springs lose their stiffness and the DMF will clatter, especially noticeable at idle. Replacing the part isn’t an easy task and even in the workshop took most of the day even with the luxury of a two-post ramp. Essentially the DMF swap involves dropping down the front subframe which is held with just four bolts, but as you’ll see we need to remove other parts before we get to this stage. This is one job we didn’t know about when we first bought the VW Caravelle, but it’s an essential one. A worn DMF can eventually…

Launched in 1998, the M Power version of the new 5 Series was eagerly awaited and didn’t disappoint. The first M5 to dispense with a six-cylinder engine, it was also the first BMW M product to use V8 powerplant and raised the already high bar even further. Offered only in conjunction with a six-speed manual, M Power’s 4.9-litre twin-cam V8 boasted a nice round 400 metric horsepower which translated to rapid pace and a real driver’s car. In the finest M5 tradition, the M5 boasted subtle looks and at a glance passed under the radar more easily than the Sport-spec lower models. It also came with a lovely detail in the rev counter which gradually increased the rev limit as the engine warmed. This, clearly was a product for people…

When Suraj Karavadra was just eight years old, his grandfather informed him that the ‘Rolls-Royce of India’ would be their transport during a summer visit to that country. Even now, he can vividly recall that white Hindustan Ambassador, from the curtains in the windows and the front bench seat to counting to 120 in the intense heat while waiting for the diesel engine to warm up. Some 26 years later, Suraj acquired one of his own. The term ‘iconic’ is much overused, but the Hindustan Ambassador is one of the select few cars that merit the term. For generations, Indians relied on it as family transport, and it was the vehicle of choice for countless taxi operators and police forces. The Ambassador was also chauffeur-driven transport for dignitaries, with 16…

In most cases the XJ40 examples left on the road have been well cared for, so minor issues like bubbling around wheelarches and panel edges is about as bad as it gets. Repair panels are available for most of the common areas, although complete genuine front wings are unavailable new. Even tidy-looking cars can be hiding structural corrosion in the bulkhead area, so use a torch to check under the dash as much as possible and from the engine bay. Wet soundproofing behind the dashboard and damp footwells can also be a giveaway, but can also be caused by a poorly sealed windscreen. Front and rear scuttles and screen surrounds can rust too along with sills; the latter should be obvious and will also appear on the car’s MoT history.…

PART 6 Last time, we left Project Volvo midway through the rear brake overhaul, and with the old rear brake calliper still held in by one securing bolt which was resisting all efforts to remove. It had, basically, forced me to sacrifice the calliper itself by separating the two halves while it was still in situ, to allow the disc to come off and provide access to both sides of the bolt. Undoing the four bolts holding the half-shaft fixing ring down caused a further issue; two of the bolts sheared off! So that was three bolt issues to sort before anything could go back together. However, before getting into this month’s nitty-gritty, I need to apologise for a ‘schoolboy error’ in last month’s coverage. Photograph 1, which was supposed…

1994 Lamborghini Diablo VT ● Historics, July 19 Sold for: £265,408 Second only to an Escort RS1800 in terms of sale price, this rare, right-hand drive Lamborghini Diablo VT had covered just 8500 miles. It was a truly exceptional example of the V12 supercar, and accordingly beat its estimate of £180,000-£210,000 1989 Toyota MR2 Mk1 ● Historics, July 19 Sold for: £14,872 A time-warp example from the last year of production, this MR2 Mk1 had covered only 24,860 miles from new. Pampered and kept in a garage, it was immaculate throughout and sold well above its lower estimate, confirming the market’s continued interest in modern classic Japanese sports cars. 1990 Peugeot 205 ● Historics, July 19 Sold for: £4576 This 205 was one of 150 Roland Garros Cabriolets built for…

Meant as a credible alternative to Audi, BMW and Jaguar’s top-drawer offerings, Alfa made a pretty good fist of things with its Giulia. It arrived here in late 2016, five years after the firm’s last saloon (the 159), with a choice of a 197bhp 2.0-litre petrol engine or 2.2-litre JTDm-2 four-cylinder diesel, the latter being available in either 148bhp or 177bhp guise. Oh, and there was also the range-topping 2.9-litre V6 Quadrifoglio – with a monstrous 503bhp on tap, that was the real firecracker. A six-speed manual was offered to our friends across the Channel but we only got the ZF eight-speed auto. There were no bad feelings though because the auto works beautifully. The 276bhp Veloce arrived in 2017, followed by the Veloce Ti in 2018 which inherited lots…

Inspired recently by a late 1970s magazine test of ‘Best car in the world’ candidates, we fell to discussing options other than the obvious RollsRoyce, Daimler and Cadillac, whereupon at least two of us suggested the fourth-generation BMW 5 Series. A stretch, you might think to propose a mass-produced executive saloon as the equal of the Double-Six or Silver Shadow, but there’s some credibility to the idea. A big leap forward from previous generations, the E39 represented the state-of-the-art in car design when it was launched, offering a combination of safety, performance, handling and efficiency which has only been incrementally bettered since then. Indeed, BMW’s own follow-up, the E60 upped the game only in the levels of on-board gadgetry, while its hybrid part-aluminium construction proved to be a technology dead…

Suzuki Jimny Mk4 (2018-2024) Launched in 2018 and on sale in the UK from January 2019 with a four-cylinder 100bhp 1.5-litre petrol engine, the Jimny’s top speed of 90mph confirms it’s not a vehicle particularly suited to long motorway jaunts. Nor is it particularly thrilling from the lights, either. Indeed, it’s not a particularly modern motoring proposition at all as it uses a lot of old-school technology, including – believe it or not – a ladder frame chassis. The Jimny is, however, a fantastic off-roader. A small lever gives the option of two-and four-wheel-drive, along with an ultra-low all-wheel-drive ratio for particularly tricky terrain. Instead of employing a traditional lockable rear diff, Suzuki preferred directing torque to the wheels via electronic traction control. Additional driver aids such as hill-hold and…