Classic Cars March 2021
Classic Cars is the original classic car magazine. It defined the world of classic motoring 40 years ago and still does it today. Every issue is put together by our team of classic car experts and enthusiasts. Using the best expert writing and photography, the magazine helps you experience what it's like to drive, keep and restore the classic cars of days gone by. We bring the stories and people behind the cars to life - showing you how to buy, keep and enjoy your cars. Every issue of Classic Cars is packed with: - Road tests - Drive stories - Expert buying advice - News and events coverage Classic Cars is the original classic car magazine.
in this issue
welcome
What’s the best car you’ve driven? Or, the greatest classic car ever built? Inevitably, some variant of the big question is one that I hear often. Intuitively, the answer is never based on anything that can be measured or counted, like engine output, performance statistics, Nürburgring lap times or competition victories. Instead, it’s everything to do with the emotions that a car can fire up, even fear. Take Group B rally cars, long since surpassed by the performance of World Rally Championship descendants, but secure in their position as the most exciting machines ever to take on the most treacherous and demanding gravel, snow and tarmac stages on the planet. We revere them for their raw, uncompromising approach to speed, but partly for the fact that they were compromised; flawed in…
the fisherman’s tale
Alvis had become something of an anachronism by the mid-Sixties. With an upright grille, pontoon wings and an overhead-valve engine from 1950, they were out of place in a fast-paced world of Minis and E-types. Alvis’s final roll of the dice, the TF21, saw just 106 built before it ceased making cars altogether in 1967. But it had no trouble finding 106 buyers willing to pay a healthy sum to keep one foot in a past that spoke of the importance of tradition and quality. For one man, Edward Farr, chairman of an eponymous Essex estate agents, even that wasn’t enough. He had bespoke requirements that led to the creation of the unique Alvis TF21 we’re taking for a spin today. For many, fishing is more than merely a hobby or pastime.…
turbo r values feeling the weight
I’m sensing pressure on Bentley Turbo R values. After a gentle rally in 2019 and 2020, prices appear to be softening, pulled down by over-supply. I counted 60 Turbo Rs for sale on one classic online platform, and 15 no-sales at recent auctions along with a couple of surprisingly reasonable hammer prices. H&H’s Masons Black ’86, sold in November last year, looked very good value indeed with 39,000 miles and two owners for only £10,125. In September, Bonhams MPH sold a black ’96 facelift RL with floor shift and 68,000 miles but only partial history for a landmark low of £7875 while in Wales a private seller has a cherished ’91 RL in grey with 65,000 and good history for £9950. ‘A watch-and-wait situation to see how prices fare’ These flat prices…
ask quentin
Restore or sell my Merc 6.9? I bagged a decent 1979 Mercedes 6.9 ten years ago after being wowed as a moody 15-year-old by a journey to Cornwall with my mate’s uncle. It was the best thing about the trip. I knew values would climb because of rarity, pedigree and Seventies nostalgia but was waiting until I retired to start a restoration. Well, I retire in January and am pondering the economic sense of spending an estimated £15–20k to bring the 6.9 to a good standard. I have so far spent about £15k including purchase. What is your view? Jason Phillips If the dilemma is all about money, there’s no economic sense in restoring an SEL 6.9 in the current market. The very best make around £50,000 and average drivers sell from between…
no lockdown blues
Historics’ good year ended with another stonking sale. It offered 185 cars at Ascot Racecourse (and online, of course) and shifted 151 of them for a superb 81.6% sale rate. Once again the buyers for top-end cars largely remained in hiding, but there were plenty of strong results in the sub-£30k range, like the Jaguar XJ-S highlighted in the Market Indicators section below and the Alfa Spider pictured here. It is an S3, so the least desirable of the long-running range thanks to its spoilers and rubber bumpers, not to mention them only being sold in lefthand-drive. This one had notably been converted to right-side layout in period by Bell & Colvill and was one of the few originally sold in the UK. It had also covered less than 40,000…
market indicators
1994 Aston Martin Vantage V550 £130,000 Historics, Ascot, 12 December A one-owner Vantage with full Works service history and just 14,700 miles should fetch £100k more than this, so what’s the deal? Well, all Vantages were originally sold with six-speed manual gearboxes. This was one of a handful converted in period by AM Works to an auto ’box. Connoisseurs were horrified and it didn’t even hit its £132k low estimate. That looks like far too big a discount. I’m calling this well bought. 1954 Pontiac Chieftan £8877 The Market, online, 1 December This cool-looking slice of Americana stands well enough on its own. But this one had been owned for the last three years – and had its straighteight sidevalve motor fettled – by no less than F1 and Indycar engineer Adrian Reynard. Imported and…
