Classic Cars

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars celebrated a record Goodwood Revival over the weekend. The manufacturer of super-luxury motor cars hosted customers, prospects and VIPs and also entertained the tens of thousands of visitors to the world’s most popular historic motor race meeting in true Rolls-Royce style. The Rolls-Royce Radford building at the March Motor Works – this year titled ‘March Mews SW1’ – presented an appropriate tribute to the ‘Finishing Shop’ of Harold Radford (Coachbuilders) Limited, South Kensington. Harold Radford & Co Limited were long-established retailers of Rolls-Royce motor cars who, under G H Radford, developed a bespoke coachbuilding business in the late 1940s named Harold Radford (Coachbuilders) Limited. The coachbuilding business became synonymous with amendments to suit the rural lifestyle of the landed gentry, developing their ‘Countryman’ range of conversions to Rolls-Royce motor cars. A ‘new’ Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud was displayed […]

The sixtieth E-Type to leave Jaguar’s production line in 1961 went back to Somerset to surprise its previous owner on his 83rd birthday after undergoing a full ‘nut and bolt’ restoration at leading restorers Classic Motor Cars of Bridgnorth (CMC). When former Royal Naval Commander Bob Reed put his pride and joy, a rare Jaguar E-Type into auction little did he expect that it would sell for £109,000 or that it would be purchased by someone who would spend substantially more than the purchase price to bring it back to its former glory. Bob bought the car in February 1965 and owned it for more than 45 years, raced it and only decided to sell it because he couldn’t afford to restore it and didn’t want to see it deteriorate further.

I am a big fan of New Orleans, and also a fan of the SVRA (Sportscar Vintage Racing Association). So what could be better than combining the two? Our video this week is from the SVRA touting their upcoming races in the Crescent City. This new addition to the SVRA schedule will be co-hosted by the Texas-based vintage car club, Corinthian Vintage Auto Racers (CVAR), at this racing facility located just 14 miles from the French Quarter of New Orleans. This event is non-points race for both clubs, featuring two days of exciting racing for all classes. Also sharing the weekend, as a featured group, will be The Trans-Am Series. In addition to the racing, there is a Saturday Car Show. NOLA presents a 2.75-mile, world-class track consisting of 16 turns, with a 5,200-foot straightaway. Designed to be challenging, but […]

History repeated itself last weekend as the JD Classics-owned 1954 Cooper T33 took a class win at the Brighton Speed Trials, just as it did at the same event sixty years ago. The latest victory adds even more heritage to the Cooper’s already-impressive competition history. The Brighton Speed Trials have been running since 1905, and in the 1955 event the Cooper T33’s original owner Cyril Wick competed in his car, setting the fastest time for sports cars over 2501cc. This year, JD Classics Managing Director Derek Hood took the Cooper T33 back to Madeira Drive in Brighton for the latest running of the Speed Trials. Damp roads and more than 90 competitors made for a hotly contested event but the dominant Cooper easily came out on top of its class with a top speed of 106mph and a fastest time […]

Light rain during the opening hour of this year’s International Autojumble didn’t in any way dampen the spirits of the thousands of motoring enthusiasts who had eagerly anticipated their annual pilgrimage to the motoring mecca that is Beaulieu. By Sunday, grey skies had given way to warm sunshine, the fields full to bursting with exhibitor stands and visitors contributed to make this year’s International Autojumble a blissful Beaulieu. The event retained its cosmopolitan feel with thousands of European and overseas motoring enthusiasts joining the British contingent for the 49th International Autojumble, held in the parkland of the National Motor Museum on the 5th and 6th of September.

Caterham has revived the spirit of one of its most illustrious Sevens – the boisterous 1.6-litre Seven Superlight – with the launch of a new special edition model. Just 20 of the special edition cars – launched at this weekend’s Goodwood Revival ahead of the 20th anniversary of the original Superlight in 1996 – will be built. The original Superlight’s production run ceased in 2004, but it heralded a new era of purposeful, track-biased Sevens designed to offer even more performance and low weight at a pared down price point. Despite its ultra-minimalist character – even for a Seven – the Superlight went on to become one of Caterham’s most coveted models, selling some 200 examples while in production. Priced at £29,995*, and sporting a similarly extreme spec sheet to that of the original, the Superlight Twenty receives a 135bhp […]

Lister Cars is eagerly anticipating this weekend’s Goodwood Revival with a host of Lister competition cars taking to the famous track. Some nine Lister racing cars, including five ‘Knobbly’ models, have been entered into the fiercely competitive Sussex Trophy on Sunday September 13th for world championship sports racing cars built between 1950 and 1960. In Goodwood’s own words the racers featured in The Sussex Trophy are “big, powerful cars, perfectly suited to Goodwood’s fast, sweeping curves, and which always produce a stunning spectacle.” The nine Listers will compete in an expected 31-car field racing against other period machines including several examples of the Jaguar D-type and Maserati Tipo 61 ‘Birdcage’ as well as the Ferrari 246S Dino and Aston Martin DBR2 among others. The privately-entered Listers include one Lister-Jaguar ‘Flat Iron’, three Lister-Jaguar Costins, three Lister-Jaguar ‘Knobblys’ and two Lister-Chevrolet […]

Jaguar will celebrate its glorious history in style at the Goodwood Revival this year, with the presentation of a selection of famous heritage sports cars, new products for heritage car owners and the opportunity for festival visitors to race heritage cars of the electric-powered kind on its stand within the Earls Court Motor Show enclosure. Jaguar is celebrating its 80th anniversary in 2015, and Jaguar will present iconic and award winning Jaguar sports cars on its show stand. In addition, Jaguar invites festival visitors to compete using scale model historic race cars on a custom-built Scalextric race track, which will be positioned on the main stand. The 1938 SS100 Jaguar 2 ½ Litre is one of the rarest of the breed with only 191 examples ever made. Also on display is a cherished piece of automotive history – the 1950 XK120 wearing […]

Joining the headlining Colton Collection Ferraris at H&H Classics’ 14 October Duxford sale is another car from one of the Grandes Marques, this time an Aston Martin, though certainly not one many would recognise. Named the ‘Sotheby Special’, after sponsor W.D. & H.O. Wills’ brand of cigarettes (yes, the ‘Sotheby’ comes from a short-lived licensing deal with the auction house), the cutting edge lines of the car were by Ogle Design, the Letchworth-based studio also responsible for the Raleigh Chopper bike, Reliant’s Scimitar GTE and the Bond Bug. The Sotheby Special was based on an Aston Martin DBS V8 chassis (DBSV8/10380/R), with outrageous 1970s glassfibre coachwork supported on a Reynolds 531 tubular steel frame. The entire ‘glasshouse’ is in Perspex. Under the bonnet lies an early prototype Aston Martin V8, while the cockpit is a riot of bright green courtesy […]

Aston Martin returns to the evocative surroundings of the Goodwood Revival this weekend, with a selection of superb sports cars that celebrate the 102-year-old brand’s rich and exciting heritage. The luxury British sports car maker is once again an automotive partner of this year’s meeting at the famous old English race circuit where examples of some of Aston Martin’s most exclusive and highly-prized sports cars of the revival period – 1948-1966 – will be on show, and in action. Among the cars set to do battle on the West Sussex track will be a rare and valuable DB4 GT driven by Aston Martin Chief Creative Officer Marek Reichman. Aside from the numerous iconic Aston Martin racing cars in action on the Goodwood track, the 1950s-inspired Earls Court motorshow will play host to a broad selection of Aston Martin models from […]

Renowned writer of all things MG, David Knowles, has recently issued a request for information in regards to MGA.  His request is as follows: I am writing a book about the MGA of 1955 to 1962, the sports car that marked perhaps the most remarkable change of policy for the famous Abingdon company. It finally saw the abandonment of the old ‘square rigger’ MG styling that had seen service since the beginning of the 1930s, replacing the blunt upright shapes of old with a modern sleek shape. The MGB of 1962 to 1980 is, of course, the MG sports car most people now remember, and is rightly revered as a great sports car – more than half a million versions were sold. But it was the MGA (which had sales of more than 100,000) that broke the traditionalist mould.The MGA […]

A JD Classics-restored Jaguar XK120 ‘Jabbeke’ – famous for its Flying Mile world record – has won Best of Show at the world-renowned Salon Privé Concours d’Elegance. The impeccable Jaguar also won in the Post-War Coachwork class. The Salon Privé Best of Show accolade is the latest in a string of successes for the XK120 ‘Jabbeke’, named for the Jabbeke Highway in Belgium where it set a Flying Mile world record, piloted by Norman Dewis OBE. Following a full JD Classics restoration in 2013, the car won at the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance 2014 in the Post-War Sports Racing class. A world-class judging panel, consisting of 18 automotive experts headed by five-time Le Mans winner Derek Bell, carefully scrutinised a selection of the world’s finest cars in the stunning grounds of Blenheim Palace during the weekend’s Salon Privé. The […]

Just came across this troubling story from the Bay of Plenty Times in New Zealand. While the story of the demise of this car club is sad enough in and of itself, there is some thought that we may see this happening more any more. And not just in the classic car hobby. Many hobbyists in areas from model trains to surfing have voice that opinion that folks just aren’t as interested in joining clubs these days or getting together for physical meetings. Passionate enthusiasts from the British Cars Bay of Plenty club have decided to call it quits on the registered charity after 21 years of operation. Ron Harvey, 76, who has been president for 18 of those years, said due to ill health he had decided to step down and there were no volunteers to take on the […]

We are going a little more rare and esoteric this week, though when they were new they weren’t that odd.  Our Video of the Week returns again to the BBC series The Car’s the Star with an episode on the Hillman Imp. The Hillman Imp was also badged as the Sunbeam Imp, and there were other variations as well. The Hillman Imp is a small economy car made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. It was the first mass-produced car with the engine block and cylinder head cast in aluminium. Being a direct competitor to the BMC’s Mini, it used a space-saving rear-engine, rear-wheel-drive layout to allow as much luggage and passenger capacity as possible in both the rear and the front of the car. It used a unique opening rear hatch to […]

  This superb book tells the story of one of the most historically interesting of all Jaguar D-types – a car that has raced more than any other D-type. The long and varied life of XKD 504 is recounted in full, from its role as a works car used extensively for testing fuel injection, to two seasons of racing throughout Europe with Ecurie Ecosse, to four busy years of national competition in the hands of first Mike Salmon and then Peter Sutcliffe. This book provides fascinating insight into every aspect of this D-type’s history, supported by a fine collection of period photographs. Any Jaguar enthusiast will enjoy this addition to the ‘Great Cars’ series. Key content Life as a works car, including its important testing role and two races in 1956. Two seasons with Ecurie Ecosse, including sixth place in […]

The National Motor Museum, Beaulieu, has launched an appeal to raise funds to build a new gear box for Sir Malcolm Campbell’s historic 1920 Sunbeam 350hp Land Speed Record car. The museum’s manager and Chief Engineer, Doug Hill says: “During the Sunbeam’s long and chequered history, its Achilles heel has been a weak gearbox. At some time after WWll, the original gearbox was removed and subsequently lost. It was replaced with a gearbox that was originally used in an Albion 35hp van, designed to take only one tenth of the power this engine produces and the way in which the braking system has been modified means that this installation severely compromises the braking of the vehicle. “For the next stage of the Sunbeam’s restoration story, we need to build a new gearbox from scratch. As the original gearbox no longer exists […]

A week of motoring celebrations in Scotland is underway with the Concours of Elegance Highland Tour, now complete with the arrival of the cars in Edinburgh this evening. More than 50 incredible pieces of automotive history dating from a 1903 Mercedes 60HP Simplex to a 2015 Ferrari La Ferrari took part in the tour, covering over 200 miles through Scotland, arriving the centre of Edinburgh on Thursday afternoon. A welcome party aboard the Royal Yacht Britannia officially opens the Concours of Elegance in Edinburgh tonight, and sees the inaugural Scottish Motoring Hall of Fame presented by His Royal Highness Prince Michael of Kent, the Association of Scottish Motoring Writers and Bridge of Weir Leather Company. The three-day Concours of Elegance itself opens in the grounds of the Palace of Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh on Friday 4 September following a parade down the […]

Now in its fifth year, the annual Motorsport Festival at the Brooklands Museum in Weybridge, Surrey always has something new to amaze visitors. Among the vast number of competition cars from all eras booked to appear on Sunday 11th October, this year’s Festival will for the first time be welcoming the 22.3-litre W12-engined Napier-Campbell Blue Bird. In 1927, on the Pendine Sands in Wales, this Land Speed Record car set a new record at an average 174.883mph on the two-way run, with Malcolm Campbell at the wheel. What’s more, the Blue Bird will be run with the Napier-Railton, the all-time Brooklands lap record-holder – and a car that broke 47 world speed records between 1933 and 1937. Other highlights at the Festival include a recreation of the 1905 Fiat Land Speed Record car, powered by a genuine 16.5-litre Isotta Fraschini V6 […]