Classics Monthly April 2022

My son recently sent me details of a pay-asyou-go community car hire scheme which allows members to rent vehicles from locations across the UK on an hourly or daily basis. He lives in a city, doesn’t have a car and usually travels by train, but thought this might be useful for those few occasions when he really did need a car. I had a look at the various costs and tried to compare them to something like a Citroën C1 or Fiat 500. Their annual road tax of around £20, would equate to club joining fee of £25. The club’s £5 monthly membership fee would add up to roughly the cost of an annual MoT test. Assuming petrol at £6.35 per gallon and 45mpg, a small car costs you 14 pence…

My son recently sent me details of a pay-asyou-go community car hire scheme which allows members to rent vehicles from locations across the UK on an hourly or daily basis. He lives in a city, doesn’t have a car and usually travels by train, but thought this might be useful for those few occasions when he really did need a car. I had a look at the various costs and tried to compare them to something like a Citroën C1 or Fiat 500. Their annual road tax of around £20, would equate to club joining fee of £25. The club’s £5 monthly membership fee would add up to roughly the cost of an annual MoT test. Assuming petrol at £6.35 per gallon and 45mpg, a small car costs you 14 pence…

Alfa Romeo has teamed up with acoustic experts Sandy Brown to develop a Sound Tunnel Index of the best road tunnels in the UK for motorists to enjoy the sound of their cars. They began by asking Alfa’s Alfisti fan base to nominate the UK tunnels that provide the best acoustics. The top 10 were then shared with Sandy Brown, whose experts visited every tunnel. Each location was rated based on a sound recording of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio performance SUV driving through it. The sound, captured from inside the vehicle, was then assessed by Sandy Brown, one of the UK’s leading acoustic consultancies. Its experts – who led acoustic improvements to the iconic Royal Albert Hall – measured the engine and exhaust sound, plus tyre, road and wind noise, to help…

Alfa Romeo has teamed up with acoustic experts Sandy Brown to develop a Sound Tunnel Index of the best road tunnels in the UK for motorists to enjoy the sound of their cars. They began by asking Alfa’s Alfisti fan base to nominate the UK tunnels that provide the best acoustics. The top 10 were then shared with Sandy Brown, whose experts visited every tunnel. Each location was rated based on a sound recording of the Stelvio Quadrifoglio performance SUV driving through it. The sound, captured from inside the vehicle, was then assessed by Sandy Brown, one of the UK’s leading acoustic consultancies. Its experts – who led acoustic improvements to the iconic Royal Albert Hall – measured the engine and exhaust sound, plus tyre, road and wind noise, to…

British Motor Heritage (BMH) subsidiary Tex Automotive is now offering an ever-increasing range of enthusiast car parts and accessories, not to mention a mouth-watering selection of rare or, in some cases, unique ‘mint and boxed’ model cars. A collectors’ gold mine, the selection has been amassed over many years by BMH in its role as global licensee for the Austin, Austin-Healey, MG, Morris, Rover, Triumph and Wolseley brands. The collection comprises everything from one-off prototypes to limited edition runs, all boxed and in mint condition. A selection of the offerings can be found at www.texautomotive.com. However, this is only a fraction of the total stock, with more examples being added to the website all the time, so collectors are advised to make regular visits to the site in order not…

British Motor Heritage (BMH) subsidiary Tex Automotive is now offering an ever-increasing range of enthusiast car parts and accessories, not to mention a mouth-watering selection of rare or, in some cases, unique ‘mint and boxed’ model cars. A collectors’ gold mine, the selection has been amassed over many years by BMH in its role as global licensee for the Austin, Austin-Healey, MG, Morris, Rover, Triumph and Wolseley brands. The collection comprises everything from one-off prototypes to limited edition runs, all boxed and in mint condition. A selection of the offerings can be found at www.texautomotive.com. However, this is only a fraction of the total stock, with more examples being added to the website all the time, so collectors are advised to make regular visits to the site in order not…