Classic Cars

Aston Martin Works, the world-renowned heritage arm of British luxury sports car maker Aston Martin Lagonda, is promising visitors to the upcoming Retromobile Show in Paris next month an unprecedented view of one of the brand’s rarest and most sought-after classic cars – Aston Martin DB4 Convertible, chassis no. 1173. This one-off model, built in 1963 at the historic home of Aston Martin in Newport Pagnell – now center of operations for the Aston Martin Works heritage sales, service, and restoration business – is unique as, of the circa 70 DB4 Convertibles made by the brand between 1961 and 1963, chassis no 1173 is the only car known to have been built by David Brown’s factory team with the more potent DB4 GT engine as an original fitment.

Beaulieu’s new events season gets off to a stylish start with Simply Aston Martin on Sunday, April 7th as it marks the 25thanniversary of the DB7 going into production. More than 300 Aston Martins are expected to gather in the grounds of the National Motor Museum for the fourth Simply Aston Martin rally, with an impressive display to celebrate one of the world’s most revered sports car marques. A special area will be set aside for Aston Martin DB7s, from coupes to Volante convertibles powered by smooth six-cylinders to brutal V12 engines. An important landmark in the company’s history, the DB7 reintroduced the legendary ‘DB’ title after a two-decade break – and all are welcome to join the display.

MG ZR, ZS and ZT cars are quickly disappearing from roads in the UK; with over 78% of the cars ever built now gone. The MG Car Club and Zed Register are hoping to reverse this trend with the launch of Save Our Zeds; a campaign to highlight the decline of Zed MGs and help equip owners with the right tools to keep enjoying and running their cars, rather than consigning them to the scrapheap.

It was done in haste. It was to be an alluring delivery system to introduce Jaguar’s brilliant new XK engine intended to power the substantial Jaguar Mk VII luxury sedan. But the Mk VII wasn’t ready, so Jaguar Chief William Lyons and his men created a quick solution. They shaped it on a shortened Mk VII chassis, painted it bronze, named it the “Open Two-Seat Super Sports” and took it to the 1948 Earls Court Motor Show just to show off their new XK engine.

The 60th anniversary of the extraordinary Mini Minor will be celebrated with two record-breaking races at this summer’s Silverstone Classic (26-28 July). To mark this magical milestone in true Classic style, the packed on-track program will – for the first time ever – feature a pair of very special showdowns dedicated entirely to huge numbers of much-loved Mini racers competing for The Mini Celebration Trophy presented by Adrian Flux. The automotive icon’s enduring popularity with historic motorsport competitors is certain to create the world’s biggest-ever grid of racing Minis and, fittingly, another major crowd-pleasing highlight at this year’s running of the biggest retro-racing festival on the planet.

When it comes to our classic British cars, SU carburetors are one of the common denominators. Sure there are Zenith Strombergs, Amals, and others plus fuel injection, but the SU is the norm. And when it comes to SU carburetor experts, Joe Curto is the man. Joe Curto provides carburetor rebuilding. He also provides a full range of replacement and repair parts. and now, thankfully, he is making much of his knowledge available to us via videos on YouTube. Our video this week is a great introductory one with Joe discussing the different varieties of SU carburetors. After watching this you will not be able to stop yourself from going out to look at your car to make sure of what is bolted up to that manifold. Joe also now offers float bowl koozies. The koozies are used to prevent […]

Nominations are now open for the National Land Rover Awards 2019, the winners of which will be chosen at Land Rover Legends, the ultimate show for Land Rover connoisseurs, preservationists, restorers, and enthusiasts, taking place at Bicester Heritage, on 25th and 26th May. The focus of Land Rover Legends is on authenticity and originality, with the event featuring carefully-curated static displays of important Land Rovers as well as the National Awards for Most Original, Best Restored and Best Bespoke Land Rover. The inaugural event in 2018 attracted a very strong list of contenders for the Awards, and the judges had a tough job to determine the Highly Commended and overall Winner in each of the three categories.

On 26 August 1959, British Motor Corporation (BMC) proudly revealed a car that captured the imagination of the world and revolutionized the compact car segment. Six decades later, in 2019 MINI marks the brand’s 60th birthday and the extraordinary story of a British innovation that went on to achieve iconic status. To kick-start this anniversary year, MINI is introducing a limited run of 500 very special vehicles for UK customers. MINI is kicking off its 60th anniversary year with the introduction of a limited edition model celebrating the best of MINI. Just 500 examples of this worldwide edition will go on sale in the UK. The car features a new British Racing Green exterior paint finish, black contrast roof, exclusive 17-inch light alloy wheels, and a unique interior.

A one-off Land Rover Defender made a dramatic entrance at Selfridges in London, entering the famous department store through a first-floor window. The unique Selfridges Edition Defender Works V8 will form the centerpiece of the new-look menswear department at the Oxford Street store, but not before technicians from Land Rover Classic reassemble the vehicle in full view of shoppers.

Calling on enthusiasts, collectors and car hunters worldwide, Lotus needs your help in tracking down the long-lost Lotus Mark I, the first car built by company founder Colin Chapman. As the British marque continues its 70th celebrations, it wants fans from around the world to pick up the trail of the most elusive Lotus ever – the competition car that the young engineer hand-built in a small London garage owned by his then girlfriend’s parents. Overcoming the standard car’s limitation Chapman applied innovative approaches to improve its performance in challenging trials competitions.

With this being the height of show season, we decided that this week we should take a moment to look at the judging process in a concours d’elegance. Now, different shows do judging differently. There are, of course, the popular choice car shows, but even within the concours shows the judging can be varied.  Our video is The Judging Process at Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Some shows that I have attended have cared more about the presentation and condition of a car than its originality. Other shows have stressed original equipment and options even if that meant that condition may suffer a bit. Still, other shows want every part of the car to be of an original type and quality or be period correct, but the part itself does not need to have been original. Again, there are many variations and it […]

Classic Car Auctions (CCA) achieved a sales rate of 75 percent at its September Sale held at the Warwickshire Event Centre on 15th September, where 107 quality ‘everyman’ classics were sold to bidders around the world with total sales exceeding £1.8 million. British classics proved particularly popular at the sale with a beautiful, restored 1968 Jensen Interceptor Mk 1 manual at the center of the longest bidding war of the day. As one of just eight surviving examples of the 22 made and finished in striking Anthracite with a Black leather interior, the super rare manual sold for a huge £85,800, more than double its lower estimate.

Aston Martin Works’ new Heritage satellite showroom in the heart of London’s Mayfair is now open for business. Situated with the Aston Martin Brand Experience Centre at No.8 Dover Street, the Works Heritage showroom is a convenient destination for customers interested in acquiring a heritage model or learning about the restoration services available at Aston Martin Works Service in Newport Pagnell. Paul Spires, President of Aston Martin Works, said: The expansion of our Heritage showroom activity into Central London enables us to engage with our customers in the location where they work and live their lifestyle. It also supports the international appeal and invigorated interest in Aston Martin Heritage cars, allowing us to deliver a personal service to customers visiting the UK.

A landmark new history from design journalist Nick Hull, Land Rover Design – 70 years of Success offers a detailed insight to the company’s design story, from the early days of Land Rover in Solihull to the latest generation of the Range Rover Velar in 2018. The Land Rover was born from a desperate need by the Rover Company to develop a stop-gap model to provide cash flow in the post-war years. The original aim of a simple 4×4 agricultural tool soon developed into a multi-purpose vehicle that became the mainstay of the British Army and produced numerous offshoots for the emergency services, police, forestry and aid agencies worldwide.

Midlands classic motoring specialist RBW Classic Electric Cars has joined forces with world leading names to secure the future of classic motoring with the launch of two limited edition electric recreations. RBW is working closely with Zytek Automotive, part of Continental AG, who provides the world championship winning technology applied to Formula E racing cars. The aim is to create a stunning vehicle that has the aesthetic appeal of a classic car but with all the engineering of a modern electric vehicle.

British firm JD Classics, a dealer of classic cars but also an expert restorer and organizer of classic racing events, entered administration last Friday. This is the UK equivalent process to entering bankruptcy protection here in the US. And yes, this is the same JD Classics firm the only just a few months ago hired as its CEO former Lotus CEO, Jean-Marc Gales.

For our Video of the Week, let’s take a spin with something a bit on the lighter side. This is perhaps one of the world’s smallest races – in terms of the number of entrants, size of entrants, and the size of the cars. This is the Settrington Cup at Goodwood Revival, and the 2018 edition was held this past Sunday. Held annually at the Goodwood Revival since 2012, the Settrington Cup race is for children ages 6 through 9. Cool, you think … so go grab a pedal car and let your kind hit the track, you think. But no. In addition to the age restriction of the drivers, the only pedal cars allowed are Austin J40 models built by disabled coal miners beginning in 1949 (true story). Here is a quote from an original brochure for the car, which […]

McLaren Automotive is introducing a new service to authenticate the heritage of iconic McLaren F1 supercars. The launch of the new programme is coincident with the unveiling of the first F1 to be approved for certification, the renowned ‘25R’ 1997 F1 GTR Longtail. Pristine after a full restoration to ‘as new’ condition by McLaren Special Operations, the last F1 GTR to compete in period is one of the stars of the Hampton Court Concours of Elegance (31 August – 2 September 2018). Even among F1 GTRs, this car, designated ‘25R’, is unique – and now it is as near to being new as we can make it. The car is the exemplar of everything that the new certification programme stands for and we are proud to have ‘25R’ as the very first McLaren F1 Certified car. — Ansar Ali, Managing Director, […]