Classic Cars June 2018

Welcome Preconceptions are there to be challenged, and sometimes commitment has to be tested Aston DB5, Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Maserati Sebring – words loaded with the promise of fast road adventures, destination somewhere special, journey even more so. Imagine swinging open a pair of garage doors, flicking on the light and seeing any one of these visions of luxury travel sketched out in steel, chrome and aluminium over glittering multi-cylinder engines, each topped with a brace of camshafts. Heady stuff for the early Sixties; even more so today when aspiration for them has been burnished by decades of adulation. It made us wonder how deserved they are when tested to their limits, as their makers intended in that far-off world of the early Sixties. It’s fascinating to find out,…

Aston DB5, Ferrari 250 GT Lusso, Maserati Sebring – words loaded with the promise of fast road adventures, destination somewhere special, journey even more so. Imagine swinging open a pair of garage doors, flicking on the light and seeing any one of these visions of luxury travel sketched out in steel, chrome and aluminium over glittering multi-cylinder engines, each topped with a brace of camshafts. Heady stuff for the early Sixties; even more so today when aspiration for them has been burnished by decades of adulation. It made us wonder how deserved they are when tested to their limits, as their makers intended in that far-off world of the early Sixties. It’s fascinating to find out, but if our pick of the bunch leaves you a few hundred thousand short of making the…

‘It would have been so modern when it was new, just like the buildings being designed then. It’s the kind of car Norman Foster would’ve driven’ Temperature in single figures, rain falling in a steady mist – dreich, as we Scots say – and the roads greasy, gritty and pot-holed almost beyond redemption after winter, it’s not a day for driving a classic. Best keep the garage door locked and just daydream of being behind the wheel. Unless… maybe, just maybe. Following a seemingly never-ending line of parked modern Volkswagen Group cars, I negotiate security and pull into its Milton Keynes headquarters. Amid a sea of modernity is today’s car, all sharp-angles, purposeful, squat and with bodywork resplendent in très Eighties pearlescent white, it’s the antithesis to its identikit neighbours. Classic Cars reader…

[ The List ] Your dream drive made real ‘I’d buy one before a Ferrari’ Piers Taylor has always admired the Audi Quattro from afar. Time to see how the reality stacks up, as he fires one up Words: ROSS ALKUREISHI Photography: ALEX TAPLEY ‘It would have been so modern when it was new, just like the buildings being designed then. It’s the kind of car Norman Foster would’ve driven’ Temperature in single figures, rain falling in a steady mist – dreich, as we Scots say – and the roads greasy, gritty and pot-holed almost beyond redemption after winter, it’s not a day for driving a classic. Best keep the garage door locked and just daydream of being behind the wheel. Unless… maybe, just maybe. Following…

LAND ROVER SERIES IIA ‘I’ve had loads and every time I sell one I regret it. Bought sight-unseen online, it’s only had two owners and covered 35,000 miles.I’ll hang on to this one, but my boys aren’t as impressed as I am by it; they’re a little embarrassed when I drop them off at school in it.’ BMW E30 M3 ‘Bought when I graduated in 1999 – they were cheap then. I had another couple of E30s – 325is– and the M3 always felt leagues ahead in terms of performance. Crazily, I sold it to buy a Caterham because I wanted something even rawer. If there’s one car I regret selling, it’s that.’ CATERHAM 7 ‘After the M3 it felt a bit of a come down – so badly made by comparison and just not…

‘We’ve forgotten how good old-shape XKRs are – their straight-line heave is quite remarkable’ I see opportunities in the 1998 to 2005 X100 XKRs. The trade has been squeezing prices up over the last couple of years and there are lots of low-milers up at £25k-plus, but last month H&H hammed down two of the supercharged Jags at very reasonable money. A blue ’99 convertible with 46,000 miles and three owners made £12,365 and a black 2003 coupé with 76k made just £8437. For a get-in-and-go neo classic that you could use every day this is no money at all. And we’ve forgotten just how good the old-shape XKR is. Top end is a limited 155mph, 60mph comes up in less than six seconds and the burble from the V8 is…