Classic Cars

A few years ago, Jaguar Land Rover made news by purchasing the entire James Hull classic car collection, which featured 543 cars, including 130 Jaguars and some extremely rare prototypes. The company never revealed how much it spent to acquire all of these models, but it seems ready to recoup some of its losses, and concentrate the collection as it will be auctioning at least approximately cars from the group at Brightwells Classic Cars on March 31.  No Jaguars or Land Rovers are being offered up for sale. The collection consists mostly of Rover, Mercedes-Benz, Morris, Ford, MG, Austin, Vauxhall, Peugeot, and Citroën cars, as well as several more minor brands. Some of the most notable offerings will be a 1972 Reliant Ferguson 4×4 prototype car—the only one in the world—a 1974 Rover P6 3500 Estate, a 1978 Vauxhall Chevette 2300, and an […]

Jaguar Classic is re-starting production of the iconic D-type race car in Coventry, 62 years after the last example was built in 1956. The first Jaguar D-type to be assembled by Jaguar Classic, an engineering prototype, will make its world debut at the Salon Retromobile show in Paris this week.  Just 25 new examples of the D-type will be meticulously hand-built at Jaguar Land Rover Classic Works in Warwickshire. In 1955 Jaguar planned to build 100 D-types. With only 75 completed, Jaguar Classic is now fulfilling the company’s original ambition by creating 25 all-new, period-correct sports cars.

Our video this week is a five-decade-old series Land Rover that has been converted to run on steam. Yes. You read that correctly. Retiree Frank Rothwell from Oldham in England says he spent about £24,000 building the vehicle and about 400 hours of his time. He plans to drive Mildred to work this summer, and take it to shows. Best of all, he says, “It keeps me out of the pub.” This is a five-decade-old series Land Rover that has been converted to run on steam. That’s right, it swaps the regular engine for a steam-puffing, chimney-clad, coal-fired burner. At a cost of £24,000, the deep irony of the build isn’t lost on us. The car that became the Defender, itself a vehicle that EU law has deemed archaic and no longer fit to meet emissions rules, has been adapted […]

How about something a bit more eclectic? For our Video of the Week this go-round we are going to feature some early footage with Bill Fink of Isis Imports describing his love of the Morgan car. This video also features footage of Bill in his Morgan SLR, one of 3 Morgan racing coupes built. The SLR name was actually short for Sprinzel LawrenceTune Racing, noting Lawrence’s collaboration with John Sprinzel, who is best known for creating and racing the Speedwell Sprites. The lightweight body’s rough lines were penned by Chris Spender. His design was further refined by Charlie Williams of coach-builder Williams and Pritchard. The final product looked nothing like any Morgan that came before. Isis Imports, now changing its name to Morgan Cars USA, is the work of Bill Fink.  Named for the river on which Bill rowed while at Oxford, Isis […]

According to many, the last “real” MG was the MGB series which included the MGC — a very important part of the MG history. With over a half million built from 1962 thru 1980, the “B” was certainly the world’s best selling sports car until very recently being surpassed by the Mazda Miata. In this new video put out by Shelbourne Films and available on the Youtube MG channel restoration expert Tom Metcalf, North American MGB Register’s Alan Magnuson, and John Rogers of the North American MGC Register provide interesting and insightful information about these cars. In this new video put out by Shelbourne Films and available on the Youtube MG channel restoration expert Tom Metcalf, North American MGB Register’s Alan Magnuson, and John Rogers of the North American MGC Register provide interesting and insightful information about these cars.

Land Rover today announces a limited-edition high-performance version of the iconic Defender, with up to 150 V8-powered examples re-engineered to celebrate the Land Rover marque’s 70thanniversary in 2018. The Defender Works V8 pays homage to the early high-powered engines in both the Series III Stage 1 V8 from 1979 and subsequent Defenders including the 50th Anniversary Edition, which are highly sought after by enthusiasts and collectors today. Defender Works V8 is the most powerful and fastest version that Land Rover has ever created. The 5.0-litre naturally-aspirated petrol V8 powertrain produces 405PS and 515 Nm of torque (the standard Defender delivered 122PS and 360 Nm). The Defender Works V8 will accelerate from 0-60mph in 5.6sec*, while top speed is increased to 106mph.

Let’s look at Minis. Our Video of the Week this week is a brief history of the Mini Cooper. And in this case, we mean the class Mini Cooper, not the more modern version from BMW. The video comes from the guys over at Donut Media and is, shall we say, irreverent. To quote Donut: It’s the most Iconic British car of all time: The Mini. It was an engineering marvel that revolutionized economy car design and became a motorsport legend along the way. Join us as we explore the Mini’s rich history and design quirks that made it one of the best selling cars in the U.K.

Land Rover will mark its 70th anniversary with a series of events and celebrations in 2018, beginning with the restoration of the vehicle that started it all – one of the three pre-production Land Rovers shown at the 1948 Amsterdam Motor Show launch. This gave the world its first glimpse of the shape that would become instantly recognizable as a Land Rover. For years the whereabouts of this launch Land Rover was a mystery. The demonstration vehicle from the Amsterdam show was last on the road in the 1960s, after which it spent 20 years in a Welsh field before being bought as a restoration project; it then lay languishing unfinished in a garden. Following its surprise discovery just a few miles outside of Solihull, UK – where the car was first built – the experts at Jaguar Land Rover Classic […]

Abingdon Spares will be hosting British Carburetor expert Joe Curto on Saturday, March 31, 2018. Joe is known nationally as well as internationally as an authority on SU carburetors. Joe will be at the Abingdon Spares shop in Deep River, Connecticut, for an informal presentation on SU carbs of all types. There will be a particular emphasis on the SU carburetors used on post-war MGs. Joe will explain the how’s and why’s of British carburetion. He will also provide tips on carburetor maintenance and tuning, as well as information on the do’s and don’ts of modifying your current setup. There will, of course, be lots of time for questions and answers from the audience. Joe is well known for his guidance and advice to both the expert and the bewildered MG owner on the subject of SUs. Mark your calendars now for […]

Morgan Motor Company will celebrate its most iconic Plus 8 with a 50th Anniversary Special Edition. The British marque has today released teaser images and video for the exclusive special edition ahead of its much-anticipated reveal at the Geneva Motor Show. The family-owned, bespoke sports car manufacturer will produce 50 of the special edition models, each to be sold through their existing Dealership network. The Plus 8 50th anniversary edition will be a true V8-powered thoroughbred tribute to Morgan’s most celebrated 4-wheeled model. Morgan’s crowning vehicle for fifty years, the Morgan Plus 8 continues to pioneer new technology within the classic Morgan bloodline. Deriving its name from the famed eight-cylinder engines it has adopted throughout its 50 years, the Plus 8 consistently offers the greatest power to weight ratio of any Morgan.

Porter Press International, the publisher of some of the world’s finest motoring books including the award-winning ‘Great Cars’ series, has launched a new entry-level book format under the name of Porter Profiles. The first book in this series is Austin-Healey 300 : The Story of DD 300 by Simon Ham. This more accessible series starts by taking readers back to the swinging sixties and the adventures of one of the most successful Big Healeys of all time – a charming story of a lost era told in 96 pages featuring insightful narrative, evocative archive photos, and new studio shots, all for a cover price of just £20 (currently about $27 USD). The Austin-Healey 3000, introduced in 1959 and manufactured until 1967, was relatively big and brutish for an English sports car. It was received affectionately in the UK but sold […]

Warwickshire-based auction house, Classic Car Auctions (CCA), will present 160 classic cars spanning 72 years of motoring history at its festive December Sale at the Warwickshire Exhibition Centre on Saturday 2nd December. Bidders will be spoilt for choice with the huge variety of quality ‘everyman’ classics on offer, including 17 BMWs, 14 Fords, 12 Mercedes-Benz, 11 Jaguars, eight Volkswagens, seven Triumphs and even a Porsche tractor.

Did you ever think about the vintage of the cars you collect? Do they fall into a particular time frame? I was thinking about this today as I was cursing a job that I have done innumerable times before on different cars – refitting the plastic steering cowl.

Jaguar Land Rover Classic enjoyed a double victory at the 2017 Octane Awards, held in London this week. The ‘Legends Continued’ Jaguar XKSS continuation was crowned 2017 Car of the Year and Jaguar Land Rover Classic also received the Manufacturer Heritage Collection of the Year accolade. Dubbed the ‘original supercar’, the XKSS was introduced by Jaguar in 1957 as a road-going conversion of the Le Mans-winning D-type racing car. Nine original XKSSs were earmarked for export to North America in 1957 but were sadly lost in a fire at Jaguar’s Browns Lane factory in Coventry that same year; meaning only 16 of the planned 25 examples were completed – until this year when Jaguar Classic set about completing the missing nine cars.

The 32nd running of the MG Classic meeting, the longest running event of its kind in New Zealand and one of the biggest in competitor numbers, will be at Manfeild this weekend. Still known by many as “The Whittakers” because of the brand’s long association in the earlier events, this year’s meeting has attracted more than 200 competitors who will race in a record nine different categories covering open wheel, sports cars, and saloons.

Duckhams, the much-loved oil brand, known around the world for its distinctive green hue has been inextricably linked to British motoring heritage since 1899. Duckhams invented Europe’s first ever Multigrade oil, Duckhams Q in 1951, an advancement that changed the face of automotive lubricants forever. Now, in 2017 the company will make its long-awaited return. Duckhams will re-launch with an initial focus on oils for classic vehicles, with the intention of expanding the range into motorsport and modern vehicles in the near future. Duckhams, which remains one of Britain finest exports reaching over sixty countries worldwide, was specified by almost all UK vehicle manufacturers responsible for producing cars from the golden era of motoring. MG, Morris, Wolseley, Rover, and BMC all recommended that you didn’t use anything else!

For our Video of the Week this last Wednesday of October we are going to let the famed British brand dunhill do the duties. When dunhill first laid plans to enjoy the ultimate Flying Scotsman Rally experience, there was only one man they could turn to for the job – William Medcalf. Supported by dunhill, The Flying Scotsman Rally is Britain’s premier vintage car rally that comprises three days of open-road motoring against the most picturesque backdrops in the north of the UK. And William Medcalf has one of the greatest competitive histories at the event.

Jaguar Land Rover Classic has launched a brand new Classic Drive event at Eastnor Castle, allowing guests to experience the terrain where Land Rover honed many of its legendary all-terrain vehicles, and to get behind the wheel of some of the most beautiful Jaguars ever made. Based at the spectacular 5000-acre Eastnor Castle estate in Herefordshire, the new Classic Drive experience will see visitors tackling Eastnor’s thick mud and challenging slopes in some of the vehicles that helped establish the Land Rover legend. The Land Rover story began with the Series I in 1948, a spartan but unstoppable four-wheel-drive vehicle originally designed for farm and industrial use. This Classic Drive experience offers guests a rare insight into where Land Rover’s off-road DNA was developed from the early 1960s by getting them behind the wheel of an early Series I.