Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2026 i Classics World

I'm writing this as a fun-filled weekend at the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show comes to a close, an event whose scale never fails to amaze. I reckon I've visited six or seven times now and it's encouraging to see that interest doesn't seem to have waned. I'm convinced that the show's opening Friday was the busiest I've experienced, but we'll have to wait to see the attendance numbers to be sure. To celebrate another year of the NEC show, we've packed out this issue with a bumper report – hopefully if you didn't manage to get along this year, these pages can inspire you to book early for next November. If you were there this year or are planning to do so next time, do let us know via…

Introduced last year to celebrate the show's 40th anniversary, the Hall of Fame returned in 2025 to recognise the people, clubs and cars that have made an impact on the show and the wider classic car world. This year's individual inductees were designer Peter Stevens, recognised in the Industry Ambassador category and motoring journalist Danny Hopkins, who earned his place in the Community Ambassador category. While the Jaguar E-Type was last year's inaugural entry to the Classic Car category in the Hall of Fame, it was the turn of the Ford Escort in 2025. A prime example was joined by a 4.5-litre Bentley on the Hall of Fame stand - a representative for the Midland Automobile Club which was deservedly recognised in the Motoring Club category.…

Now part of the same publishing stable as Classics World, Classic American magazine is a cornerstone of the US car scene in the UK. Its prestigious Car of the Year award was awarded at the show, with six finalists assembled on a stand big enough to accommodate their imposing machines. The winner, announced on Sunday afternoon, was the 1961 Chrysler Newport of Geoff and Jan Mitchell. Restored to a fine standard and still sporting its original interior, the 361 cu in V8 slice of Americana looked fantastic in the metal.…

If you wish to create a sense of confusion at a classic car event, display a 1976 Colt Celeste 2000 and watch for the reactions. Visitors to the 2025 Classic & Retro Revival at Tatton Park gazed at NDF 301 P with a mixture of awe and wonder, as they muttered, ‘Is it a Datsun?’ or ‘That's a Toyota Celica, isn't it?’ Such remarks are understandable if you consider that there are believed to be only 23 examples of the Celeste on the road in the UK. This example is owned by Stephen Blackburn – the founder of the Colt Car Club and the son of David Blackburn, who founded the Mitsubishi importer Colt Car Company. The narrative commences in 1974 when the Colt Car Company became Mitsubishi's UK concessionaire.…

Peter has been a classic car journalist for nearly 40 years, and is a past editor of Practical Classics, Car Mechanics, Classic Car Weekly and Classic Car Buyer. These days he writes mainly about old lorries as editor of Classic & Vintage Commercials, but old cars remain his first love. MY FLEET 1949 RILEY RMB 1955 MG ZA MAGNETTE 1958 HILLMAN MINX 1961 AUSTIN CAMBRIDGE A55 MK2 1970 ROVER P6 3500 1990 VOLVO 240 ESTATE 1992 ROVER 827 COUPE Last time, we left my newly acquired Austin Cambridge in running order insofar as the engine started and ran and, by pushing the choke cable in, it continued to run smoothy when warm. The aim was to put the car into a suitable condition to be driven in between my workshop…

One of the most fascinating aspects of the world of old cars is that the scene never stops evolving as more modern machinery earns the right to the classic tag and changing fashions bring previously forgotten models back into the limelight. Unsurprisingly, that means values are constantly changing to reflect the market and if you've had your eye off the ball for a while then you might be surprised: for example, you'll now need £5000 for a nice Marina, while a rough Bentley Turbo R can be yours for little more than half that and a presentable MGF is no longer a £500 prospect, but at the other end of the scale the E-Type is no longer the £100k car it was. One trend you'll notice is that the lockdown-influenced…

1999 Range Rover 4.6 HSE • The Iconic Sale, November 8 Estimate: £25,000-£30,000 Sold for: £32,625 With just 8136 miles on the clock and presented in immaculate condition, this Rioja Red P38 must surely be one of the best around. Generously kitted out from new and supplied with all original paperwork and service documents, it looked like a real museum-quality car. 2005 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti • The Iconic Sale, November 8 Estimate: £100,000-£120,000 Sold for: £129,375 Considered something of an ugly duckling when new, the 612 has matured to become a highly regarded luxury GT. This example boasted the rarer manual gearbox, had just over 7700 miles on the clock and looked resplendent in Tour de France Blue over tan. 2022 Toyota GR Yaris • The Iconic Sale, November 8…

The first ever Nissan to wear the GT-R badge landed in 1968 as part of the ‘Hakosuka’ Skyline range and while looking not much different to the standard car, the sporty model was hiding a breathed-on motor under its bonnet – in this case a rev-happy 2.0-litre twin-cam straight-six. A revised model arrived in 1972 with slick fastback styling (known as the Kenmeri) but just 197 examples were made before production wrapped up. After a 16-year hiatus, a bigger and better GT-R arrived based on the R32-generation Nissan Skyline. A new 2.6-litre straight six was fitted with a brace of turbochargers with explosive results: 0-60mph was sorted in under six seconds, thanks also in part to sophisticated technical features such as four-wheel steering and electronic torque split all-wheel drive. The…

One day recently I'd been down the workshop I share with Alan, then afterwards picked my wife up from work. We were driving home and my face was pretty black from having been cleaning up suspension components with the wire wheel in an angle grinder and an assortment of wire brushes in the drill. “You look like you've been busy,” said Mrs G. “What were you working on today?” I explained that I'd been working on the Fiat 500, and she asked how close that was to being finished. Knowing how long the last 10% of a project can take, I didn't want to oversell progress, but it was nice that she wanted to be kept in the loop, so I explained: “We've finished the body and paint. The interior…

The Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show attracted tens of thousands of visitors over the weekend of 7-9 November, 2025, showcasing over 3000 classic vehicles spread across hundreds of stands in the NEC's sprawling halls. Over 310 car clubs set out their typically varied stands, with an array of exhibitors, car dealers, industry organisations and traders joining in the fun. The Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership competition took its usual place as a headline exhibit, showcasing some of the most interesting and well-presented vehicles in the show. The competition also celebrated its 10th anniversary this year, with a standalone Best of the Best competition featuring some very special winners from previous years. Meanwhile, the show staple Meguiar's Club Showcase competition celebrated 20 years with a collection of some of the shiniest…

Celebrating a decade of the Pride of Ownership contest, the Best of the Best saw five former winners chosen as finalists via thousands of votes to feature pride of place in Hall 1, with the lucky winner crowned on the Saturday.…

Steven Connolly has been an enthusiast of classic police vehicles since his childhood. In his words: “When growing up in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, I was raised on a diet of Heartbeat, and repeats of The Sweeney, and Dixon of Dock Green. When this was combined with my love of cars from the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, especially the Rover P6, it was almost written that I would eventually own a classic police car!” These were the vehicles piloted by ace stunt drivers such as Joe Wadham in pursuit of Jason Kingmoustachioed villains in Harry Fenton suits. Some years later, Steven acquired a succession of emergency service cars: a 1973 Rover 3500 P6B Met replica, a 1986 former Essex Police Ford Granada MkIII traffic car, and an ex-Met…

The moment you buy a late-'90s Ford, you know what you're in for. It doesn't matter whether it's a basespec 1.6 LX or something more exotic like our Mondeo ST24: rust will be waiting for you somewhere. If it isn't, chances are someone has already been there with the welder. And yet, when we finally stripped our Panther Black ST24 to bare bones, the truth was a little more encouraging than we expected. We already knew the car wasn't a peach. At £500 it was never going to be. A walkaround before we bought it showed bubbling arches and tired sills, the sort of surface corrosion that tends to hide something nastier beneath. But in our case, fortune smiled. The car's main structure, sills and floor were fundamentally sound. What…

Back in the ‘50s, the US influence brought to bear on the previously rather dowdy Vauxhall range by its parent company General Motors was a good thing. A dose of transatlantic glamour, a touch of chrome and even fins on the bigger models all suggested Detroit rather than Luton and all that held the firm back was its rather unfortunate reputation for rot. Into the ‘60s, the recipe continued to work well but as the decade wore on, the need to downsize became more apparent as changing tastes and wider car ownership dictated smaller, more efficient cars. The first fruit of this thinking was the Viva of 1963, which was the smallest Vauxhall model to date and sold well. Crucially, it sold well to private buyers rather than the growing…

Jaguar had proven that a mid-sized saloon was popular when it created the X-Type with its front and all-wheel drive configurations, but while those models ceased production in 2009, new car buyers had to wait another six years before a similar-sized replacement arrived. That replacement was the XE – a slick, handsomely styled machine that, like its larger siblings, did away with the overtly retro styling of its forebear in search of a younger audience. Everything about Jaguar's new baby saloon looked promising from the start, especially the Solihull-constructed aluminium body – light, strong, modern and, perhaps crucially for many X-Type owners – far less susceptible to corrosion. With prices starting at £26,995 for the entry-level 2.0-litre petrol-powered SE model and up to £44,870 for the supercharged 3.0-litre V6 S,…

Our project MX-5 NC has limited invoices for servicing within the official Mazda handbook. There's a replacement Service Record booklet with service stamps – the last in 2019 at 69,510. Hand-written alongside the garage stamp are the words ‘front discs/pads, oil filter’. Our MX-5's last owner had owned this 2-seater Roadster Coupe since 2019, so the above was probably done prior to their ownership. The only service invoice sheet outside the Service Record is an estimate invoice – totalling £1555 in September 2022. The major parts were front brake calipers and caliper carriers. Plus, engine servicing items and front pads but no mention of front discs. The actual invoice when the work had been completed (Nov 2022) was nearly £600. Either a deal was done, or the original parts quoted…

Another returning favourite, the Meguiars Club Showcase brought together 14 winners from regional competitions to compete in a final. The standard of the assembled cars was as lofty as ever, making the judges’ job particularly difficult. This year's winner was Steve and his 1970 Ford Cortina 1600E (pictured). One of the last examples to roll off the production line, the car was treated to a full restoration after 20 years in storage and the result was enough to claim the trophy – plus plenty of Meguiar's goodies. Other finalists included Darren Green and his revived 1994 Jaguar XJS, Philip Weatley's slick 1993 Mercedes W124, Can Bitrim's 1970 Ferrari 365/GTB-4 in rare Pino Verde, and a glorious 1981 Morris Ital 1.3 L owned by Brian and Trevor Ford.…

Attendees of the 2024 NEC Classic Motor Show may have spotted this stunning MGA Coupé, displayed on the Auto Anonymous Car Club stand. I admit, MGA Coupés are one of my favourite MGs, but this Fastback one-off is something else. We visited owner, Warren Kennedy, of Classic Restorations, in Bedfordshire, who has been in the professional restoration business for four decades and has a bit of a soft spot for Healeys and MGs. He's also a rally devotee, having done the Mille Miglia for eight years in a row. Whilst on the way back from the Leon Historic rally, when running the Milton Keynes MGOC region, a fellow participant's misfortune got him thinking. “We were in an MGA, which are brilliant, as they drive and handle well, and you can…

You don't need me to tell you how different car brands evoke completely different images depending on your age. To a car-mad youth today, a Cooper S is a turbocharged hatch or even an EV rather than an A-Series-powered flying brick, while of course a Beetle is a mundane pastiche on a MkIV Golf platform rather than the 22-million-selling air-cooled icon. It's much the same for MG and for me, as a child of the ‘70s and learning to drive in the ‘80s, a rubber-bumpered B is just as much an MG as the MG Metro my schoolmates lusted after. Back in the day of course, the badge-engineered MG versions of the mainstream Metro, Maestro and Montego were rather sneered at by lovers of the more traditional cars from TC…

The Camargue is one of Rolls-Royce's rarest models of the last half century, with just over 500 examples sold between the model's debut in 1975 and its demise eleven years later. This idiosyncratic Rolls-Royce coupe divided opinion in period and continued to do so thereafter but now appears to be receiving the appreciation it deserves. The Camargue project was initially developed as a replacement for the Silver Shadow MPW two-door, a Silver Shadow-based coupé. But the company's financial difficulties and subsequent launch of the mildly updated Corniche proved one thing: if the newly rebadged Corniche could save the company from bankruptcy, there was life in the old car yet. The project was therefore repositioned as a range-topping personal car to sit above the Corniche in the range and to give…

It's hard to picture it now, but there was once a time not that long ago when a typical street scene wasn't completely dominated by crossovers, SUVs and skateboard-chassis EVs. Even for car enthusiasts born as late as the 1990s, these modern takes on the family car are new-fangled; before the revolution, families were transported by hatchback, estate – or three-box saloon. While the saloon still exists in today's market, it's mainly limited to the compact and full-size executive classes – the phenomenon of the ‘normal’ family saloon seemed to die out with the sad passing of the Ford Mondeo and the steady creep upmarket of the Skoda Superb. With that in mind, we've gathered together some of our favourite and less-obvious three-box family saloons from the genre's twilight years.…

The 8000-unit Z1 began BMW's ‘Zukunft’ (Future) line that would go on to include hits like the Z3, Z4 and Z8. In isolation, it was over-equipped for the 1990s roadster revival, but never really had any interest in participating anyway. That the Z1 blazed a trail should never be forgotten; it revived a BMW roadster tradition last glimpsed in the limited-run 507, and before that, the pre-war 328 which, with its overhead-valve Fritz Fiedler-designed straightsix, was instrumental in the fortunes of the (post-war) Bristol Car Company. The most lasting treasure the Z1 gave us was its newly created and tested Z-axle. This rear suspension unit, with some refinement, ended up on the 1992-onwards E36 and, with further modification, under the boot floor of the Rover 75, banishing the evil vicissitudes…

Mercedes SLK (R171) (2003–2011) The Mercedes SLK had been something of a shock at launch, offering comparable style, luxury and folding metal hardtop to the flagship SL, in a more affordable package. However, while comfortable, it provided numb handling on account of its C-Class underpinnings, while the styling was too soft for many, and quality could be lacklustre. The follow-up R171 SLK of 2003 sought to broaden the model's appeal – growing 72mm in length and 65mm in width, the R171 had more presence than the R170, while its sharp new nose was inspired by the McLaren Mercedes SLR supercar and gave a muchneeded touch of aggression to the SLK's looks. The folding metal roof remained, but it now lowered three seconds faster and boot capacity with the roof lowered…