Donington Park Grand Prix Circuit is like riding a fast undulating rollercoaster and I couldn’t wait to get on track! I had an interesting qualifying session, with extremely close lap times, and managed to qualify 2nd for the first race and pole for the second race.
A warning to any to any reader of an age to remember The Goodies, Rentaghost and Cadbury’s Aztec Bars – these film clips may make you feel slightly older than Methuselah.
Mark Ashbridge is the owner of one of the most historically important foreign-built cars in the UK. It is not a vehicle that can claim dramatic 0-60 figure or a thrilling top speed, and nor would it claim to be radical in form or content.
The Morris Marina never set out to be one of the more controversial cars from the British Leyland (BL) empire – indeed its specification and appearance both went out of their way to be as straightforward as possible.
In the very late 1970s, you might sometimes encounter owners of the Vauxhall Chevette L engaged on secret work in their lock-up. After months of carefully applying “Strobe stripes”, a front spoiler and a home-applied change of body colour from ultra-sensible brown to silver, they too could to take the roads in their own interpretation of the incredible 2300HS.
You could almost always detect the arrival of an early Saab 96 long before it came into view. Firstly, there was that engine note – a succession of popping noises – and then there was the unmistakable aroma of the two-stroke engine.
Or, a trip into the real 1960s, as opposed to the myths about “Swinging Britain”, a decade of shops with striped awnings, chaps with Hank Marvin/Peter Sellers glasses and when parking seemed laughably easy by modern standards
There are those cars that possess an innate sense of dash – cars such as the Sunbeam-Talbot 90. You can imagine Leslie Phillips or Terry-Thomas driving one to Goodwood or Henley, the hood down on the drop, the sliding roof open on the saloon, overtaking Ford Consuls and Vauxhall Wyverns with zest and élan.
October 1978 saw the launch of two crucial Vauxhall models, ones that were aimed at the sort of driver who thought nothing of using Luncheon Vouchers five times a week. We have already encountered the Carlton earlier this year and it was complimented by the first really upmarket Gryphon-badged product since the demise of the wonderfully flamboyant Viscount in 1972.
As Father’s Day has just passed, I would like to celebrate the Talbot-Matra Mureena – a fine motor car and the latest in an extensive line of my own father’s ‘projects’.
Drive-In, for those readers who are too young to remember the great days of ITV, was Thames Television’s motoring programme and the editions posted to YouTube provide viewing that is not so much unmissable as totally addictive. Plus, there is a special guest appearance from a Womble - enjoy!
It was my first time racing at Donington Park and I couldn’t wait to get started but unfortunately it began with a less than brilliant qualifying session!
The Austin A30/A35 has been a cornerstone of the classic car scene for so many years that it is sometimes easy to forget that they were everyday transport well into the 1970s.
As the theme for this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show is “Built to Last”, what car merits this description more than the Peugeot 404? It is the sort of vehicle that you would encounter across the world long after its production ceased.
The theme of this year’s Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show, with Discovery, has been revealed as ‘Built to Last’.
What are the elements that you mainly associate with Minder? There are the cars of course – Terry’s array of slightly down-at-heel Capris, the Daley Jaguars and Daimlers, Detective-Sergeants Chisholm and Rycott attempting to fight crime in a Vauxhall Cavalier Mk. II or a Talbot Solara.
How many of you remember this TV licensing warning from 1977 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRau5ysqrXY? There is the stern voice-over from Edward Judd, the idea that watching Columbo is to be utterly condemned - and that blue-grey Commer.
My love for classics stems from my family, like so many in our industry. My dad was, and still is, a massive motor enthusiast and he and I share this passion today.
My Lancaster Insurance Hyundai Coupe headed for Mallory Park for rounds 7 and 8 of the Cup, our mid-season meeting, and the sun was shining! We were without a win so far this season and there’s been a fair amount of head scratching at previous meetings as to why we were almost, but not quite, on the pace.
After many years – decades even - of viewing some of the finest spy/thriller shows to hail from the ITC empire I feel that I have identified the vital ingredients behind their success.
