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Classic Cars magazine

Britain's original classic car magazine. Established 1973 — subscribe now: https://bit.ly/46crlF5 Visit members.classiccarsmagazine.co.uk to find out more.

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07/02/2025

NAME THAT CAR…
…or check in on Sunday for more pictures

06/02/2025

🚗✨ Dive into the world of classics at the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show, 21–23 March at Birmingham NEC!

🔧 See 1,300 stunning cars
🏎️ Explore 160 clubs & 260 traders
🚘 Discover over 230 classics for sale

From rustic gems to pristine icons, it’s the ultimate hub for enthusiasts. Enjoy £2 Off with code MDCCSOC!
Get tickets ➡️ https://necrestorationshow.seetickets.com/content/ticket-options/?src=MEDIA

05/02/2025

Gimme 3?

SD: 'Overlooked' isn't usually a word associated with the BMW 3-series. Typically it seems to be the yardstick its entire class is measured against. But in the classic world, things are a bit different. Because I think there is one - the E36.

A lot of it seems to be down to the appeal of its halo model, the M3. While the original E30 M3 is an icon of beautifully-balanced lightweight track poise, the E36 model wearing the same badge is a very different car. It's a hefty straight-six race-cruiser closer in spirit to the old M635CSi. And yet nowadays, an M635CSi is upwards of £30k for a good one. An E36 M3 can be had for half that. Standard E36 M3 not sufficiently hardcore? Thankfully IMSA racing homologation required a 911-bashing GT version...

It's good news elsewhere in the range too. The nimble, zingy, four-cylinder E30 M3 had an E36 successor in the form of the 318iS. The lightest in the E36 range, it featured a four-cylinder twin-cam ultimately bored out to 1.9 litres despite its name. Chassis poise is incredible, and it homologated the car for Super Touring racing - and of course won the infamous 1992 BTCC in the hands of Tim Harvey.

But perhaps the ultimate rare E36 to seek out is the 318iS Class II. Effectively BMW's answer to the rule-bending Alfa Romeo 155 Silverstone, it combined the iS coupé's engine with a four-door bodyshell and added adjustable aerodynamic kit.

But then out came the E46 3-series. More overtly muscle-bound and brutal, with the scene-stealing CSL version winning praise picking up where the E36 GT left off, it's comprehensively overshadowed the E36 to the point where people ignore it entirely. Despite being newer and more numerous, the E46 still commands a classic-market price premium over the E36.

But it's a very different car. Wider, heavier, less tactile and interactive. If you appreciate BMW as a kind of German Alfa Romeo rather than the obvious choice of businessman's express, then the E36 is very much in this mould, and still very affordable.

31/01/2025

Classic Cars' January sale ends on Sunday! It's your last chance to get 3 issues for just £3.
Shop now! ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gpK1Gw

30/01/2025

Enjoy £2 Off with code MDCCSOC! Meet our insightful celebrities and experts at this year’s show. Lineup includes Ant Anstead, Dominic Chinea and Paul Cowland. Visit Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show, 21–23 March, Birmingham NEC for an unmissable weekend. With an abundance of live restorations taking place, you’re sure to leave with your skill set enhanced!

Get tickets ➡️ https://necrestorationshow.seetickets.com/content/ticket-options/?src=MEDIA

30/01/2025

Electric cars - an alternative classic perspective

SD: A lot of furore has been generated by Jaguar's recent electric reinvention. In truth, Jaguar has a long history of being radical and disruptive (its lapse into overt reliance on heritage in the Nineties being the exception rather than the rule, curiously). However, from a wider perspective, the very idea of an electric Jaguar has had me looking once again at the XJ12 of the Seventies.

Like many of you I suspect, I have never bought a new car, nor do I ever intend to. They're too expensive and the depreciation is too steep for starters, plus for the price of even the cheapest, most basic supermini the classic market has so much more to offer. Why settle for spending the second-largest sum of money you've ever parted with on an automotive white-good when you could have a second-hand supercar or luxury saloon?

There's a very good answer to that, actually - running costs. It is this factor which has so often condemned once-expensive cars to early graves. One need only think of Jensen Interceptors, or assorted Rolls-Royces - at times, these cars have been available for very affordable sums, simply because their running costs scare so many buyers off. It's hard to justify buying a hobby car that chews through fuel at a single-figure mpg rate, or, if in need of an engine rebuild, usually needs eight or twelve of something most cars only need four of.

The Jaguar XJ12 absolutely epitomises this breed. They weren't long out of production before you could buy one for supermini money, but few people on supermini budgets can afford to meet its running costs. And so they languished, ended up on banger tracks. Even today, if you shop around and are prepared to take on something slightly less than perfect, you can still buy a Series 2 or 3 XJ12 saloon for £5k or even less. And that seems like a microscopic sum for something so magnificently engineered. And yet, the reason for that - excessive running costs - will always be foremost in your mind if you consider doing so.

And this brings me back to electric cars. Specifically, electric luxury cars. The new generation of luxury saloons are more silent and refined than Sir William Lyons could have dreamed when he created his perfectly-balanced 12-cylinder range-topper. And yet, once these electric luxury saloons hit the second-hand market, their prospect as a classic to buy and run may be very different.

The things which used to condemn old luxury saloons - thirst, complexity - may well be a thing of the past in future. An electric car is fundamentally simpler than a petrol one, its drivetrain consisting simply of batteries and electric motors. The same recipe underpins everything from the cheapest Dacia Spring to the Porsche Taycan.

And then there are the running costs. If electric range can be compared to petrol mpg, consider that the Taycan's range is 360-420 miles on a full charge. The Dacia Spring's is just 140. And that's after both have received a 45-minute charge. Paradoxically, as a result the Porsche is less 'thirsty' than the Dacia.

So, could it be that in future, when this controversial wave of electric luxury cars are deep into their second-hand years, and available for much smaller sums, they might actually be - whisper it - SENSIBLE purchases?

A new all-electric £180k Maserati Folgore passed by me yesterday. Second-hand Maseratis can be had for £four-figure sums, but are risky buys as a result of tempramental engines and gearboxes and rampant thirst - they always have been.

The Folgore has neither, and a range of 260 miles. In other words, the same as a Fiat 600e.

When they're the same kind of money a questionable 3200GT is nowadays, won't they make an absolutely perfect modern-classic daily-driver?

26/01/2025

FRIDAY'S MYSTERY INTERIOR…
…was from this 1986 Alpine GT 2.5 Turbo cabriolet by German tuning specialist Autohaus Pahnhenrich. It's one of around a dozen built, and five with the wide body. The company now focuses on selling sensible modern Renaults. Different era. Phil

25/01/2025

The Classic Cars January Sale ends soon! ⏳ Get 3 issues for just £3 (an 83% saving). But hurry, offer ends at 11:59pm on the 2nd February. Shop now ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gpK1Gw

24/01/2025

NAME THAT CAR…
…or pop by on Sunday for more pictures. Phil

23/01/2025

Moment of inspiration?

SD: I know I'm not alone on this - Alex Riley agrees with me too, that the Rover 'R8' 200/400-series is worthy of fair more praise than it gets. Looking at the reasons why, it's also a reminder of quite how long ago 1995 was, but it also subtly reveals the car as a quiet groundbreaker.

This model was the midlife facelift, but THAT grille said it all. In a world of Astras and Escorts where there was an overwhelming sense that you knew your place, with relentless grey plastic interiors, droning engines and amorphous-blob styling, Rover's entry to the market looked for all the world like a sort-of baby Jaguar XJ40. The sort of car, in other words, that Middle England promised itself but could often rarely afford.

The theme extended inwards too. It may have been based on a Honda Civic - with many models inheriting smooth, complex-yet-reliable engines as a result - but Rover deliberately broadened the colour palate from the class norm, injecting rich creams and caramels and making a strip of wood-effect veneer, a world away from the sort you used to get in Fords that looked like you could strike matches on it. It made buyers feel special in a way that rivals didn't.

Elsewhere in the range, the non-Honda, Rover Special Products variants gave it an upmarket, coachbuilt feel. The Tomcat turbo coupé did a supercar-baiting 150mph, the Tracer cabriolet pitched itself as a kind of bargain-basement Mercedes SL, and then there was this - the 400 Tourer, a kind of poor man's Aston Martin shooting-brake.

Sadly the ball was dropped with the next generation of Civic-based 200/400-series, with its less ambitious range of body styles and kettle-like K-series engines resulting in dire residual values (early high-spec K-series 200s shed up to a third of their value within warranty).

However, it's interesting to note that the modern Mini range, which effectively occupies the same market slot as the 200/400 series, has followed its range structure and sense of personalised, special, semi-upmarket charm. It even nods to the R8 with its 'floating' roof style.

It's also worth noting that after the Mini's success, pretty-much everything in the class followed suit. But can the themes underpinning the Mini's rebirth be traced to the R8, which albeit briefly broke the Ford/Vauxhall stranglehold on the British bestseller slot in 1995?

22/01/2025

Pick up the latest issue of Classic Cars or subscribe and enjoy 3 issues for just £3 in our January Sale with FREE UK delivery. ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gpK1Gw

What to expect from the March issue:

🚗 We experience eight V8-powered cars to drive before you die, offering drama, luxury, performance, and value.

🚗 We ask whether Ford’s 2005 GT stands up as a classic today, and we steer you around the horrors to look out for when buying a Range Rover P38.

🚗 A reader fulfills his six-decade dream and drives a 1971 Lotus Elan Sprint, we learn how a race-winning Nissan Skyline GT-R was reunited with its original owner to become an epic restoration to in-period specification, and so much more!

19/01/2025

FRIDAY'S MYSTERY INTERIOR…
…was from this 1969 Porsche 911 2.4E. Can anyone tell me what the 'E' signifies? Phil

15/01/2025

Motorsport Perfection?

SD: Has there ever been a more ideal set of rules than Group C? Announced 45 years ago and inaugurated in 1982, although there was a dull-sounding stipulation regarding minimum fuel consumption, the premise was fairly simple - the engine had to be something homologated in Groups A or B, and aside from assorted dimensional regulations and a need for a closed cockpit, the rest was left to the engineers.

It benefitted everyone. All the manufacturers needed to do in order to get involved was supply some road-car engines and marketing budget and bankroll a garagiste. Obviously things were different for Porsche - everything was done in-house - but everyone else could enjoy a situation where no expensive road-car versions needed to be built, and motorsport specialists could do their thing unencumbered by the usual budget shortfalls.

This Ford C100 was the first, but it proved ineffective and short-lived compared to the Porsches. However, partnerships like TWR-Jaguar, Sauber-Mercedes, WM-Peugeot and Abarth (via Lancia) Ferrari yielded a spectacular amount of entrants. Then look at the likes of Spice, supplying chassis which allowed Lamborghini, Pontiac and myriad others to get involved. Ecurie Ecosse came back, names like Allard looked set to be reborn as Group C cars, parallel versions sprang up in Japan and the US, and it got to a point where it made more sense for most to get involved in than F1.

Sadly, this seemed to seal its fate. Bernie Ecclestone persuaded Jean-Marie Balestre to put him in charge of Group C promotion, and the pair set about capping displacements at 3.5 litres in a manner that 'just happened' to encourage anyone involved to essentially build (or, as it transpired, borrow) F1 engines, after the failure of his attempt to force the same situation via his Pro-Car-based World Touring Car Championship plan.

Similar formulae have employed not-dissimilar rules - most notable the SR class of the Nineties and 2000s - but nothing quite united both manufacturers and garagistes alike in such high-profile competition quite like Group C.

12/01/2025

FRIDAY'S MYSTERY INTERIOR…
…was from this 1972 Saab 99 which used a 1.7-litre sohc four-cylinder engine that Triumph was developing for its own use and would appear in the 1850 saloon in 1972. Seeing this one brought back fond memories of the 900S I owned in the early 2000s. On th efew occasions when I needed to work on it, it struck me as an engineer's car. Do you have any Saab memories? Phil

10/01/2025

Save an incredible 83% in our January Sale! Try 3 issues for just £3 and kickstart your year with inspirational human stories of buying, owning, driving, restoring and living with great cars from the past. What are you waiting for? ➡️ https://bit.ly/4gpK1Gw

09/01/2025

Racing through Time

SD: 75 years of Formula One is celebrated at the NEC this weekend with a special display at Autosport International.

A 22-car grid of genuine, histories cars documents the whole of the sport's history. From front-engined Italian thoroughbreds of the Fifties to the British garagistes' mid-engined revolution; the arrival of customer engines, then the aerodynamics revolution with down force wings, the ground effect. Then the materials and power revolution, of carbon fibre and turbochargers. Then the rise and fall of IT: traction control, active suspension and sequential automated gearboxes. Then the post-Senna safety evolution.

What's your favourite era of F1? And perhaps more significantly, if your favourite is a bygone age, which changes brought it to an end?

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SAVE ME?

RESTORE, PRESERVE, CUSTOMISE… …or park in your garage and stare at wistfully? Think I'd go for the latter, you? Phil Bell

Hear this 760bhp, 7.6-litre Chevrolet V8 erupt. Brace yourself for the mighty BRM P154 Can-Am car being coaxed into life at Goodwood. This is the car that Pedro Rodriguez drove in the last three rounds of the 1970 Cam-Am Championship.

Don't miss the May 2024 issue of Classic Cars. Find it now in your local retailers.

Get ready to ignite a classic car debate, Porsche Vs TVR, Who's your money on? find out in the next issue of Classic Cars magazine, on sale 17th January. #classiccarsmagazine #cars #classiccars #carsofinstagram #greatmagazines #porsche #TVR

PB: OUCH! PAINFUL FERRARI DAMAGE This 1960 Ferrari 250GT with unique Drogo bodywork took on a few scuffs at the Goodwood Revival this year. The racers argue that these cars were born to compete, and that accident damage and mechanical breakage are just realities you have to deal with; historians feel that significant historic cars should be protected and preserved, having already proven themselves back in the day. This one began life with Pininfarina bodywork and a longer wheelbase chassis before the Drogo transformation in 1965. The other factor to consider is that most old race cars were crashed and repaired many times, long before they reached classic status. Where are you on this?

1964 Ferrari 250LM – how quickly did you identify the car?

PB: PREPARE TO BE DEAFENED! Friday's mystery interior was from this 1963 Cheetah Chevrolet, caught firing up in the Goodwood Revival paddock. What's the loudest car you've ever heard?

The boys are back with an even bigger challenge. Watch episode one now to see Clive's reaction to Danny's new Fixing Up with Amazon restoration, plus find out how you can win the car and our brand new Kit Corner! https://youtu.be/ulghVRkr0xE *T&C's apply #ad

PB: FRIDAY'S MYSTERY INTERIOR… …was from this 2005 Honda NSX, where the handling poise of a mid-engined Ferrari met the everyday usability of a Porsche. Not a car for badge snobs though. But who cares – cars are about driving, right?

The Le Mans 24 Hours centenary celebrations continue with the fabulous Le Mans Classic at the end of the month. Here’s a preview. Turn the sound up on this one!

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