Classics Monthly May 2021

editor

Spending my days putting Classics Monthly together and most of my free time of an evening and at weekends in the garage, I think it is fair to say that I live and breathe classic cars. Naturally I have my own personal favourites, but I can’t really think of any car from the 1980s or before that I wouldn’t like to try. Yet despite this, I have always maintained that if you stand back and look at the hobby dispassionately, then it makes little sense to try and keep a car in shape and on the road for many decades when it had an original design life of just eight or ten years. Increasingly though, I am less and less sure this is the case. It is invariably true that tailpipe…

mitsubishi motor’s uk heritage fleet to go under the hammer

Mitsubishi Motors in the UK has announced details of its heritage fleet auction, which is scheduled to run from 1st April to 30th April on the specialist online platform Auto Auction. All 14 cars are up for grabs, with detailed descriptions and a comprehensive array of images and videos for each vehicle, as well as introductory films by TV presenter and ex-Mitsubishi racer Tiff Needell. Amongst the cars on offer are two of the earliest original UK Mitsubishis ever registered in the country (a Colt Lancer and a Colt Galant), the brand’s flagship sports cars of the 1980s and 1990s (a Mitsubishi Starion Turbo and a Mitsubishi 3000GT) as well as three of its iconic 4x4 vehicles – a Mitsubishi Jeep and a Mk1 and Mk2 Shogun. Of most interest to performance…

farewell to johnstone syer

In February, the rally world said goodbye to one of its best loved characters from the glory days of the sport when Johnstone Syer lost his battle with cancer at the age of 87. The former miner and later professional photographer started competing in rallies in 1956, and ended up partnering some of the biggest stars of the day in a career that lasted until the 1993 London to Sydney Rally. Johnstone was particularly noted for his partnership with Brian Culcheth, the duo competing together in a wide variety of cars that ranged from Minis to Morris Marinas and from Triumph 2000s, Dolomites and TR7s to a number of Opels. Brian said of his friend and former colleague: 'For 58 years Johnstone was a special friend, and despite living 400 miles apart,…

rare mercedes parts uncovered

Classic Mercedes-Benz specialists the SL Shop (www.theslshop.com) have acquired one of the world’s largest collections of classic Mercedes-Benz parts. Discovered in late 2019, the unique haul of parts comprises many thousands of components to suit W113 (Pagoda) and R107 generations of SL, and many of the items have until now been near impossible to find and out of production for decades. The gigantic collection was unearthed following numerous online enquires from a Dutch gentleman who was trying to ascertain values for parts, and repeatedly found himself on the website of SLSHOP. Instead of trying to value components individually, he decided to speak to the team about selling the entire collection. A trip to Holland was arranged on the understanding that it was an all or nothing transaction. As SLSHOP’s highly experienced…

properly-engineered led conversions won't fail a classic mot test

There has been even more debate and confusion than usual recently about the use of LED bulbs in classics, fuelled by changes to the MoT that became effective in February. These saw the automatic MoT failure of a car with HID headlamp conversions that had been brought in during 2018 being expanded to also include any LED headlamp conversion of an original halogen unit. However, on Thursday 18th March the government made a U-turn so that with effect from 22nd March, any car first used before 1st April 1986 is not now to be automatically failed if it has an LED or HID headlamp conversion, so long as the lamps meet all the practical aspects of the MoT test of beam alignment, matched pair and no dazzle etc. As former policeman…

motoring memories could soon be lost

Mum and dad bickering over maps and directions, playing I Spy with the kids and using wire coat hangers for replacement aerials are now all part of a bygone age of motoring, according to a new survey by the BBC's Top Gear programme. The research into family car travel over the last 40 years reveals a seismic change between generations, and identifies the in-car travel experiences that could soon be consigned to the history books and never be encountered by the younger generations. The survey of 2000 UK adults aged 40 and over was commissioned by BBC Studios to mark the start of the 30th series of the flagship BBC One motoring entertainment show in March. In the series opener on 14th March, presenters Paddy McGuinness, Freddie Flintoff and Chris Harris…