Classics Worldの July 2016 の目次

There’s never a dull moment in the CMoffice, especially when the lucky owner of a unique car rings up to enquire if we would be interested in featuring their pride and joy in a future issue of the magazine. So when the owner of a smart Wood and Pickett converted Riley Elf called and explained how the cost of converting this little Elf into a mini limousine when it was new back in 1968 had been nearly three times the basic price of the car, we were intrigued to see how so much money could have been spent dressing up what was a posh booted Mini. When we finally saw this baby Riley when it arrived at the studio we weren’t disappointed, as this luxuriously fitted-out car’s current owner had…

“I lowered the window to the lowest point it would safely go and marked off the door for drilling” This month started with good intentions with the swapping over a front wishbone assembly and fitting of new stub axles but with one thing and another, mainly work getting in the way, the car sits as I left it lasttime, with the lower trunnion bolts struck fast in the wishbone. After last month’s Diary hit the newsstands I received an email from a reader by the name of Tony Corner, who wrote: “Regarding the A40 trunnions, bite the bullet and buy new wishbones. I worked for a BMC dealer in my youth and this was the way we always did it, as removing the old ones was a nightmare. The issue…

“The flat spot has gone and there’s no need to drop a gear to keep the car on the cam in traffic” The temporary repair to the rear exhaust manifold on the XJ40 Sovereign held well. Gun Gum is pretty useful stuff and works well when applied correctly. However, the replacement manifold from Black Country Jaguar (01384892121), finally arrived, so the job has now been done properly and permanently. In preparation for the job, I called SNG Barratt and ordered a new a new manifold gasket, two new O-rings to fit between the exhaust manifold and the downpipes, and all new studs, locking nuts and flange nuts. That way, I covered all eventualities such as stripped threads and ruined studs. Luckily, all the nuts came away fairly easily and none…

One of the most exciting parts of any restoration project is the time when carefully stored parts start to be refitted to the freshly painted shell and it’s this stage we’re at with the rebuild of Lancaster Insurance’s 1969 Mini 1000. However, before refitting the front and rear screens, the stripped out Mini was wheeled back into the paint oven at the MG Owners’ Club, in the Cambridgeshire workshop where this restoration is being carried out. Here, the sills and wheel arches were painted after checking all the loose underseal and road dirt had been carefully scrapped away. Once the painted shell had been jacked up and securely placed on four axle stands, the road wheels were removed and after the newly painted bodywork, exposed brakes and the subframe had…

Workgauge Overhead camshaft engines with timing belts are fast shaping the next generation of classic cars, whether it’s a Rover K-series in the MGF, a Toyota 4AGE in a Mk1 MR2 or a Vauxhall XE Red Top in an Astra or transplanted into a Ford Escort. Fortunately, the work involved in renewing a timing belt is quite similar for many of the aforementioned classic cars. The timing belt is fitted at the front of the engine and enables the camshafts to be rotated by the crankshaft via a selection of pulleys. There is usually one tensioner to ensure the belt doesn’t slacken off and slip, and at least one idler pulley. In some cases, the timing belt also drives the water pump. The general work involved in renewing a timing…

When Jaguar unveiled the XJ6 in 1968, the new saloon caused a sensation. Motoring journals of the day waxed lyrically about the latest Jaguar’s ride and handling being almost perfect, while period adverts went on to describe the Sir William Lyons’ inspired 4.2-litre XK-powered XJ6 as ‘the best Jaguar ever’. High praise indeed and in 1972 Jaguar built on the success of its top selling six-cylinder saloon by slotting a 5.3-litre V12 under the bonnet of the recently introduced long-wheelbase version of this popular car. A major facelift across the XJ range in the autumn of the following year was sufficient to introduce the revised model as the Series II XJ saloon. Initially the revised XJ range was offered with two different sized wheelbases, but in 1974 Jaguar announced it…

As corporate histories go, the saga of the marques which went into making up the modern day Audi company would rival the whole BMC/BL saga... although the outcome was rather more successful. It almost wasn’t so, though. In the immediate postwar period the company then known as Auto Union – which was made up of the Audi, Horch, DKW and Wanderer brands – found its premises located in the Soviet-controlled Eastern Germany. Fortunately towards the end of hostilities, management had seen what was coming and had moved south to Bavaria where a large Auto Union parts depot was located. It was here in the town of Ingolstadt that the company was re-established under the Auto Union name in 1949. Initially producing two-stroke DKW models, the firm gradually found its feet…

As the Beaulieu International Autojumble celebrates 50 years of trading, its organisers are asking patrons to help put together a special commemorative booklet. “Whether it’s old show guides, booking forms or any other memorabilia – anything is welcome and we will return anything you share with us,” said Beaulieu Enterprises’ public relations manager Jane Riddiford. By post or email, contributions are gratefully welcomed. The 2016 International Autojumble (held this year between Saturday, September 3 and Sunday, September 4) will be the first to run following the death of its founder. The 3rd baron Montagu of Beaulieu coined the term ‘autojumble’ after visiting several enormous swap meets in America; from its humble beginnings in 1966, his event has gained in size, scope and notoriety. Want to appear in the 50th International…

You can no longer buy a hydropneumatically suspended car in Britain. Citroën, citing poor sales of its C5 family car, has pulled the plug on the model – taking the Exclusive trim level (and Hydractive 3 suspension option) with it. The firm shifted just 237 examples of the C5 last year – a far cry from the (still tiny) 6549 cars that found homes in France; most were fitted with steel springs and dampers and diesel engines in a bid to entice fleet buyers. Citroën debuted hydropneumatic suspension (strictly termed ‘oleo-pneumatic’) – on the rear end of the Light 15-H in 1954. A year later, it appeared on the iconic ID and DS; a hydraulic pump and pneumatic spheres filled with nitrogen gas provided bump absorption with automatic self-levelling, regardless…

ALL CONQUERING Thank you for the great article on the Daimler Conquest. Its flexibility is perhaps unique in that two Conquests came first and second in the Production Touring Cars 2 to 3-litre class at Silverstone in 1954. Reg Parnell came first and G. Abecassis came second, so it’s no slouch. On the other hand, you can very often leave it in top gear when in town. It pulls effortlessly away in top, smoothly and quietly without any juddering or pinking. First gear is only used on steep hill starts – like the rock of Gibraltar, I suppose. I’ve been driving Daimlers for 59 years, from pre-war limousines to the gorgeous SP250. My current car is a Conquest Century. It was getting harder to get my old bones in and…

As the workshop doors open and I see John Bonnett’s aluminium-bodied Triumph for the first time, I’m drawn to ask an inevitable question. The answer though is a surprising one: no, he doesn’t have a background in metal fabrication or a ‘man and boy’ lifetime of experience in coachbuilding... just an enthusiasm for all things involving engineering and metalwork, with a very focused vision of what he wanted to achieve. First of all, the car itself: yes, you’re looking at a GT6 but clearly not as it left the Canley factory. The screen, doors and roof may look familiar but there’s something rather different to the rest of it, with the tapered rear and sleeker front end giving it the appearance of a coachbuilt special – perhaps the sort of…

“The ignition light began to flicker and there was a distinct clicking noise from under the bonnet” There’s nothing like a good mystery and my mate Will’s Lotus is always a good source of them. He tries to drive the car as often as possible, but always takes it off the road to avoid the worst of the winter weather. With spring in the air, it was time to get the Lotus back on the road. It was running sweetly before being tucked up for winter and had been started regularly during storage but it had developed a reluctance to start. It’s one of those cars with a very specific start up procedure and if you get it wrong, the carbs flood and the Lotus refuses to play ball. But…

“An internet search turned up a mid-1990s 4.6-litre V8 from a Range Rover with electronic fuel injection for just £300” It’s been a little while since my rag-tag fleet graced these pages and a few things have been going on. Always the core of my collection, the P6 2000 had been gathering niggles which needed the engine pulling out to fix and although were individually too small to warrant such a big job, combined, they reached a tipping point of annoyance. I mail-ordered an engine crane, a tool I’ve been wanting for years, and before the bonnet was off the Rover my neighbour had borrowed it for his Escort! When I was at college I’d taken the engine out so had a good idea what to do. Although a second…

A couple of episodes ago, we featured how new discs and calipers were fitted to our MGB and despite coating the rear of the new pads with copper based grease, the overhauled brakes started squealing really badly almost from the word go. The hotter the brakes got, the more vocal they became and despite whipping the pads out a couple of times and applying a fresh coat of copper based grease to the backs, the racket continued and started to make long journeys a real pain. The only way to cure the noise would be to replace the pads and as the MoT was due, it seemed sensible to book the MG in for a service at the same time and have new pads fitted while the car was on…

It’s been a decade now since the last complete car rolled out of the former wartime shadow factory in Ryton on Dunsmore near Coventry. The site is now carved up into a logistics park and little is left to betray its history as home to the mighty Rootes Group, at its peak touted as a potential ‘General Motors for Europe’. The rise and fall of the Rootes brothers William and Reginald and their car-making empire is a fascinating saga, the pair starting out as car salesmen and eventually acquiring most of the famous British automotive brands and perfecting the art of badge engineering before selling out to Chrysler as profitability waned, the US giant in turn passing the operation on to the French in the shape of PSA. The last…

Events and shows dedicated to the Ford marque are in plentiful supply, but the latest to enter the fray is rather unique. Organised by CCM's sister brand Fast Car Entertainment, the inaugural Ford Summer Festival and Run is set to be an excellent opportunity for owners of Blue Oval vehicles of all kinds to take to the road in a convoy of like-minded enthusiasts, culminating at The Ford Summer Festival at Brighton Racecourse. The event is to take place on Saturday, July 16. The ‘Run’ element of the event will see the assembled cars follow the rough route of the famous London to Brighton run, taking its own unique course from two separate start points – Dagenham and The Grasshopper, Westerham, where breakfast will be provided. Brighton Race Course will…

The organisers of the Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show have revealed that this year’s show theme is Heroes and Heroines. Held from Friday, November 11 to Sunday, November 13, clubs and exhibitors are invited to pay tribute to the people that inspired their cars. Dan Nwaokolo, show director, explains: “Everyone has a hero, something or somebody that inspires and encourages them, and with the timing of this year’s Show being Remembrance weekend, we simply had to recognise the brave men and women who have served their country, so this theme was the perfect choice.” Some may choose to celebrate the people who changed motoring history by setting a world record, designing a revolutionary car, or inventing things we take for granted, such as traffic lights and road signs. Then there…

As classic cars go, Reliant’s distinctive Scimitar ranks as one of the most practical. Rugged Ford running gear, a fibreglass bodyshell and parts sourced from volume car makers make it an ideal proposition for the keen DIYer. They’re affordable, too if you don’t mind a bit of work to bring a tired example into usable condition. Which is largely the thinking which inspired Jonathan Smith to go hunting for a Scimitar a few years ago. “I thought I’d buy one for the summer,” he laughs. “They were cheap at the time and it looked ideal for the dog...” but as you’ll see the idea rather ran away from him to result in the car you see here. Those readers well versed in the history of the car will already have…

We’re used to the owners of a few of the cars we feature in Classics Monthly being reluctant to get their pride and joys wet while we’re doing a photo-shoot. Working around the weather is all part and parcel of being a classic car journalist, but when we had a phone call from Graham Smith asking if there was anywhere we could photograph his car indoors, we were intrigued to know what was going to turn up. When Graham went on to say his recently restored Riley Elf was going to be transported to John Colley’s Derby-based studio in a covered trailer, we were left wondering just how special this booted Mini was going to be. As it turned out, Graham’s MkIII Riley Elf was indeed a very special example…

“One hole looked like it had been drilled with a spoon, as it was more eroded than machined” Last month on planet Frogeye I left off having fitted the engine out with some of the ancillaries. This month it’s dashboard time! So I stripped the old dash of its crumbly vinyl and gave it a good sanding down with an 80-grit pad on a dual action sander. Next out came the concours book, as some nice chap in the car’s history had added a few additional switch holes. One of these looked like it had been drilled with a spoon, as the hole was more eroded and deformed than machined! My concours book helped identify which holes were original and which were not. Unwanted holes were then filled with a…

“The Romain Green looks lovely, a very different colour to the later Minors, much more old fashioned” Well I’ve only gone and done it again. Yep, that’s right, you guessed it. I’ve accidentally bought yet another project car. I put in a low bid not expecting to win it but did. I hope I have got a bargain! The car in question is a 1950 Morris Minor series MM tourer from California, quite a rare beast. I use the term car loosely, as in reality it’s little more than a shell with a rusty floor, missing interior, most of the body panels and all the running gear. Nevertheless I am reasonably confident that it should not prove too difficult compared to the current Lowlight; it actually has never been welded…

The push continues to get my Stag registered but the effort was focused on getting the speedo operational. While waiting for the replacement square drive to arrive, I checked under the car for any fluid leakage. There were no drips on the floor but I inspected underneath checking for small leaks, as these can be annoying in the long term. I didn’t find any areas of concern but did see what appeared to be melted plastic or clear silicone sitting between the right-hand wing and engine. I couldn’t make it out from underneath but a quick inspection from above confirmed that a melted windscreen washer bottle was the culprit. At some stage the bottle must have dislodged from its bracket and then slipped onto the exhaust manifold that had heated…

When we introduced our ’80s VW bus last month, it was something of an unknown quantity: the engine was running but the Caravelle wasn’t really driveable and the promotional paintjob left us in danger of finding a ‘Police Aware’ sticker on the window every time was parked in public. Despite the vehicle’s appearance, first priority was clearly to get it running and driving properly, but despite an exploratory investigation and enlisting the help of the staff from Volksworld magazine, we were stumped – well, as the Beetle fans pointed out, water-cooled VW engines aren’t exactly their speciality... The solution was to load the bus on to a trailer and deliver it to the local garage which is well used to various oddball vehicles from the Kelsey fleet turning up. There…

The all iron Ford OHV V6 had one of the longest production runs of any engine, and yet it has an interesting and fairly complex story. Typical of Ford in the 1960’s and 1970’s, two different factories only a few hundred miles apart decided to build two completely different engine ranges but they were both often fitted to the same models of Ford – the Capri and Granada were their two main ones. So let’s start with the Cologne V6 designed and built in Germany. The Cologne V6 Arriving in 1964, the new Ford Taunus was available as a front driver with a new V4 (based on the new V6) or a rear drive conventional design. The Taunus 20M was a 2 litre (as suggested by the 20M name) and…

The science of badge engineering may have been established by Rootes and BMC back in the ’60s but the idea of platform sharing – where a range of models is spun off the same basic floorpan architecture – is rather newer. It had been tried successfully before of course in a limited way as the basis for ‘world car’ designs from multinational makers, incuding the Chevette, the MkII Cavalier and even the Escort but all these were recognisably similar. Ultimately it was the Volkswagen Group which really got stuck into the science of platform sharing during the ’90s and took the idea just about as far as the technology then allowed it. Instead of simply producing mildly different versions of the same car to suit different local markets, Wolfsburg used…