Classics World

Each issue is packed with the best down-to-earth advice, useful specialist information and news based on realistically priced classic cars, which will inspire you to buy, repair and restore your own classic cars. Please note: This digital version of the magazine does not currently include the covermount items or content you would find on printed newsstand copies

Classics World

Editorial

NEWS

PRODUCTS

LETTERS

IAIN AYRE FORUM ETIQUETTE

PHIL WHITE PRESERVATION SOCIETY

ROBIN FLETCHER FOR LOVE OF CLARA

BEST OF BRITISH • Could you select just five cars to represent the Best Of British in each of five categories – Sports, Prestige, Family, Iconic and Groundbreaking? It is perhaps an impossible task, but Simon Goldsworthy and Iain Ayre are up for a challenge and give it their best shot.

SPORTS CAR CLASSICS • Britain had a fine tradition of building sports cars that massively out-performed what were often humble origins. Throw timelessly elegant styling and no-nonsense running gear into the mix and it was a recipe for worldwide popularity that endures to this day.

PRESTIGE MOTORS • The concept of ‘prestige’ can mean different things to different people. That makes it hard to define and often dependent on the environment in which you are circulating, but in one way or another each of our five suggestions have plenty of it.

FAMILY CAR CLASSICS • These are the cars that people tend to remember from their childhood – family outings to the seaside, summer holidays loaded to the gunwales or trips to visit grandma and grandpa – forgetting all about the horror of burning hot vinyl on bare legs!

ICONS OF THE ROADS • Double-deck buses, milk floats, Reliant three-wheelers – there are numerous vehicles which could be described as British icons, but we have resisted the urge to go off-piste and stuck with four-wheeled cars. That still left a great selection to choose from.

THE GROUNDBREAKERS • Sometimes, breaking new ground can be dangerous for a company’s health (ask NSU whether it regretted its forays into Wankel engines…), but for those who got it right, innovation was a passport to fame, wealth and lengthy production runs.

A RARE SURVIVOR • This is a very unusual car for three reasons. Firstly, it is one of the few surviving Talbot-badged Avengers, a model offered only from 1979 to 1981. Secondly, it is one of the final cars to hail from the Linwood factory near Paisley. Thirdly and incredibly, the same family has owned this last-of-the-line example since new.

FANTASTIC FIVE FOUND IN MELBOURNE • There are few enough E12 5-Series BMWs around today even in the car’s home country, but we have found a wonderful example in Melbourne, Australia belonging to James Heaney.

PEOPLE AND PLACES RUN TO THE SUN VOLKS MUSIC • It’s a cornerstone of UK aircooled VW culture that went missing for a decade, but Run To The Sun is back, so we just had to pay it a visit.

Scratching an Itch

Scottish Transport Extravaganza

Entry level or new top dog?

PROJECT MARINA • We make a start on the crusty rear wheelarches, but finishing them will have to wait while we concentrate this issue on the rusty nearside sill.

FIAT 500 PROJECT • We solve a series of puzzles as we build up the front suspension, using new rubbers, stainless shims, threaded rod – and an old Jaguar tow bar.

PORSCHE 944 • Based on the 924 – the car that saved Porsche in the 1970s – the Porsche 944 was a fantastic evolution of the original. Here’s how to buy one.

YOU MIGHT ALSO CONSIDER… • Classics World editor Simon Goldsworthy and Broking Director at Lancaster Insurance Services Rich Morley each choose one car that they would recommend as an alternative.

GO SWIFT, GO SAFE, GO SAAB • The first Saabs were...