Articles

Our video this week is a bit different, a spot of fun, and a bit odd. The video is an advertisement for the new MG GS out of Australia. Fun, yes. But just how much bum slapping can go on in one commercial?

Giovanni Michelotti was a prolific designer, who styled cars for Ferrari, Maserati, BMW and Triumph, designing some of the latter’s most successful cars in the postwar era. When you look at a Triumph TR4, Spitfire, Stag or Herald, you are looking at Michelotti’s work. Giovanni Michelotti will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017.

Sir William Lyons was the founder, director, chairman and guiding force of Jaguar. That seems like such a short and simple sentence to convey the importance of the man known as “Mister Jaguar”. For over 40 years Lyons led the car company through its many iterations and shaped both the cars and the culture through personal determination. For those many years, Lyons simply was Jaguar. He will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame in just over two weeks.

Richard Langworth, CBE, is not just a renowned automotive writer, he is responsible for some of the most definitive marque histories ever published. Beyond this, he is also a recognized authority on Winston S. Churchill. His most recent book on Churchill is Churchill and the Avoidable War: Could World War II have been Prevented? and Winston Churchill, Myth and Reality: What He Actually Did and Said is due out in August. Richard M. Langworth will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017. Though never intending to become a historian, he has written, co-written or published 54 books and 2000 articles on automotive history—American, English and European. He is also a self-described “Chemistry drop-out at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (1960), a fail-safe graduate of Wagner College (1963), a 120-day-wonder U.S. Coast Guard officer (1964-67), and a bored bureaucrat […]

Our video this week features a breed of car that just oozes the charm and style that exemplifies British Sports cars, the Jaguar XK120 and XK150. Along with the timeless E-Type, the XK line is still what flashes through many peoples mind when they think of a Jaguar. And who can blame them? The lines, the sound, the driving experience, are all pure art in motion. The video comes by way of the King Rose Archives.

Richard “Dick” Knudson is well known as the co-founder of the New England MG T-Register and one of the guiding lights in the British car hobby. Additionally, he has written prolifically about the Sacred Octagon and its many accomplishments. Knudson will be one of 23 deserving individuals inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame on June 2, 2017.

To say that Cecil Kimber is famous for his role in the formation and growth of the MG Car Company would be a bit of an understatement. To title him as just an “automotive engineer” would be even more so. Cecil Kimber was the creator and driving force behind what would become one of the best-loved car brands of all time. Cecil Kimber will be inducted into the British Sports Car Hall of Fame this June. Cecil Kimber was born in South London on April 12, 1888.  At a young age, he became interested in vehicles and motorsport. He attention was originally drawn to motorcycles, but after an accident that badly damaged his right leg, Kimber made the switch from two wheels to four wheels.

David Townsend, the artist behind Sports Car Art, has come out with some beautiful 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles. Some of them have been done in partnership with Moss Motors, and while Moss is carrying the MG, Triumph, and Austin-Healey, David is directly offering the Cunningham E-Type Jaguar, XKSS, C and D-Types, AC Cobra MKI, and the Austin-Healey 3000 Works Rally car. The puzzles are $59.95, build out to a full 18″ x 36″, and come in a really nice flip-top box.The puzzle quality/construction is of good quality cardboard and once constructed they would also look very nice framed. David began working on British cars as a youngster. From his first car—a ‘61 Morris Minor—through a succession of British iron including several MGBs, a Triumph TR3, Austin-Healey Sprite, Jaguar 3.4 MK1 and various other assorted vintage cars, his appreciation for these machines has […]

Our Video of the Week for this first week of May comes via Aston Martin. Watch an incredible celebration of Aston Martin’s heritage, bringing together 28 very special Aston Martins with a combined value of £65 million in a film produced to celebrate the transfer of ownership of the three super hangars at St Athan. The Aston Martin Vulcan was the first car to turn a wheel at the site of the British luxury carmaker’s second UK manufacturing plant at St Athan in South Wales recently, signaling the start of the redevelopment of the former MOD site into a state-of-the-art facility. The appearance of the Aston Martin Vulcan though was just the start of an incredible celebration of Aston Martin’s heritage, which brought together 28 very special Aston Martins with a combined value of £65 million in a film produced […]

Instead of using caffeine to wake you up, how about a nice brisk morning drive in a beautiful Triumph TR3A? Via the fine folks at Petrolicious, our Video of the Week the go rounds is titled “A Triumph TR3A to Warm Up a Cold Morning“. Another soft spot for me since I once owned a small-mouth TR3, although admittedly I sold it before the was put back together enough to see road time.

From time to time Aston Martin, using their Lagonda brand, launched a four-door saloons. In 1961 they brought back the Lagonda name again with the Rapide saloon which was based on the then current Aston Martin DB4 but was the first car to use the new dual overhead cam 4-liter inline six which produced 236 bhp, at 5500 RPM and 288-foot-pounds of torque at a relatively high 3850 RPM. With this power unit, the car was reported to achieve 0-60 in 9.0 seconds, quite fast for the era, and a top speed of a very impressive 130 MPH. This was, however, the last Lagonda to use a six-cylinder engine although this engine was standard fitment in the DB5.

Our Video of the Week this go-round features a car that is the favorite of James Bond and man other people. What we are talking here is, of course, the Aston Martin. This video is from the recent Simply Aston Martin gathering and show and is courtesy of the folks at the Beaulieu National Motor Museum. Every generation of DB model was on at the show, helping to make this one of the biggest gatherings of Aston Martins in the south of England.

The Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex, is the subject of the second chapter in a series of short films. Not only that, it is out Video of the Week! In the film, the world is introduced to Rolls-Royce’s global center of luxury excellence, a place where artisans practice the art of true luxury. The first film was titled Spirit of Ecstacy. Academy Award-winning actress Kate Winslet once again becomes the voice of the Spirit of Ecstasy, leading us on a journey to a place where colourists and sculptors, designers and engineers collaborate under one roof, with a single objective… to deliver perfection.

The British Classics XI car show was last weekend, April 1st, and the Land Rover and I attended. Hosted by the British Car Club Midlands Centre, this show is held in conjunction with Tartan Day South Highland Games and Celtic Festival. The site for the event is the Historic Columbia Raceway in Cayce, South Carolina. The funniest part of the day was pulling up to the show’s registration table and having the very nice woman manning it look at me and then look quizzically at my ride. I told her I was there for the show and had pre-registered. She cocked her head, looked at my ride again, and then asked, “OK, but what is it?” 

There are lots of great British car shows throughout the season and lots of fine car museums. But, every so often people and events and places come together to create a not-to-be-missed opportunity. This is the case with the upcoming Induction Ceremony to the new British Sports Car Hall of Fame that will be held the evening before Moss Motorfest in Petersburg, Virginia. The event is filling up fast, and the ticket-required ceremony and party are going to sell out soon. Make your plans now, get your tickets, and you won’t regret it. Registration for the Friday activities officially closes on May 19, but will likely end earlier if they reach their maximum capacity. And I believe they will. The new Hall of Fame is being constructed to not only showcase the cars we all know and love, but to highlight and thank the folks […]

Not to do two MG videos in a row, but this one is fun. And I like MGs, so there is that two. This week out Video of the Week is the second in a series called “The Wrenchmen” from Hagerty and features work on a 1970 MGB. Seems lots of good videos are coming out of Hagerty these days. Anyway, this series basically has a couple of professional mechanics going around to regular folks with classic cars and helping them over some rough spots to get them back on the road. The description of this video is… Three days, two Wrenchmen, one garaged MGB and a bunch of problems. Wrenchmen Davin and Matt roll through South Carolina to help David and Jocelyn get their 1970 MGB back on the road after being parked for far too long. The MGB’s […]

Featuring a video from the talented folks at Petrolicious, this week we take a ride in Bjartur Gudmundsson’s Pininfarina-styled MGB GT track car, gravel road slinger, and daily driver through some of Iceland’s most stunning back roads. “It’s loud, it smells of gasoline and fumes, but that’s part of the car. It is loud so you’re not allowed to think. You can’t. You just have to drive,” chuckles Bjartur as he revs the stylish British coupe before sidestepping the clutch. It’s evident this petrolhead has mastered the “it’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than a fast car slow” mindset, as he’s caught sliding the flickable classic sports car down wet tarmac and fearlessly flogging over narrow muddy gravel paths.

A note of good luck to our friend and occasional contributor Robert Morey as he and John Scott take on the 9th annual Flying Scotsman Rally going from Slaley Hall to Gleneagles. They will be at the wheel of this beautiful 1937 MG VA. Departing from Slaley Hall on Friday 31st of March the 9th running of the iconic Flying Scotsman,  Britain’s Premier competitive Vintage car rally will be another epic adventure set in the glorious and big sky countryside of Northern England and Scotland. The schedule is … Day 1 – Slaley Hall to Edinburgh – Friday, March 31 Day 2 – Edinburgh to Aviemore – Saturday, April 1 Day 3 – Aviemore to Gleneagles – Sunday, April 2 A list of the participants’ vehicles includes some astounding cars, for the record Robert and John are in car #96. The parade of cars […]