One of the pleasures of visiting the Lancaster Insurance Spring Pride at Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show is the opportunity to appreciate the sheer dedication that so many enthusiasts put into their car.
Michael Carpenter is a young man with a mission and his most recent challenge was the restoration of a vehicle now so rare as to make the Jaguar XK120 appear positively common and one that is sure to draws crowds wherever it goes.
If you take a look at almost any brochure for a British light commercial vehicle of the 1960s, it will contain page after page of drawings featuring smiling and Brylcreemed tradesmen delivering bread or milk with a smile.
Classic car insurance specialist, Lancaster Insurance, has once again shown its commitment to the car club community, by supporting the National Car Club awards; and will be sponsoring four categories at the prestigious awards ceremony, ‘National Car Club of the Year’, Outstanding Online Presence by a Car Club (including social media, website and other online presence), National Car Club Judges Special Recognition Award and a new award for this year ‘National Car Club ‘Young Member’ of the Year’’.
Texan chocolate bars, youths in shopping precincts desperately trying to look like Johnny Rotten or Captain Sensible, How on Southern Television - and the Chrysler Alpine. These are all everyday sights and experiences from the late 1970s that now seem impossibly remote in time, especially the Car of the Year 1976.
Some cars effortlessly exude an air of good living - fine wines, Belgian chocolates etc. – just as there are those vehicles that seem to have been created for the purpose of making the driver feel like a pauper.
Organisers of the Lancaster Insurance Classic and Supercars Show are thrilled to have been chosen as the venue for a recently-completed ‘Meteor Special’ to be shown for the very first time.
In the year that sees two BMW anniversaries, 50 years of the 2002 and the E3 "New Six" saloon, our February club of the month goes to ‘BMW Car Club of Great Britain’.
Lancaster Insurance is delighted to announce its continuing support as headline sponsor of the MG Owners’ Club (MGOC) Race Championship 2018.
When you have a meeting at Elstree Studios, it is essential to arrive in style. Your transport should reflect your hopes, dreams and aspirations – and that is why I was delighted to be chauffeured by Tanya Field in her 1994 Montego Countryman.
For many, including myself, one of the most memorable aspects of the 120Y Sunny are its wheel trims. Before you had a chance to absorb the subtle beauties of its quasi-American styling, there were the hubcaps that resembled pie tin lids - yet another reason why the Datsun appeared so different from its British rivals.
As any MG enthusiast will tell you, the Octagon badge is as much associated with fine saloons as it is sports cars, and so here is a quintet of FWD models from the 1960s to the 1980s that each made quite an impact on their debut.
In late 1980 there was one question constantly asked by the nation’s racing enthusiasts, fans of The Professionals , and, to be quite honest, boy-racers - how could any FWD hatchback possible match the RS Escorts?
One of the side effects of the passage of time, apart from noticing how young police officers look, is that how certain once respected cars slowly vanish from our roads.
On the 23rd January, the nominations for the 90th Academy Awards were announced, which prompted me to think of the many cinematic greats and near-misses with the name of the car in the titles.
For many of us it is the smallest details of an old car that can evoke such powerful memories – the transmission whine on a Vauxhall Viva HB, the tip-up seats on a four-door Morris 1100 – and the oval shaped interior mirror on a 1965 Hillman Super Minx.
A major joy of the classic car world is the finding of a famous or historically important model in a barn, a field or even beneath some bramble bushes. The original Saint ‘Volvo’ and the Bullitt ‘Jump Mustang’ are two famous examples and seven years before Genevieve entered production, the 1904 Darracq was found in a London scrap yard.
The 23rd February will see the announcement of the new UK Car Of The Year (COTY) – which prompts me, and many others, to recall some of the great British COTY winners of previous decades.
One of my all-time favourite film series also features my all-time favourite car marque. In each edition of the Scotland Yard B-features made between 1953 and 1961 there often is at least one highly polished 6/80 and, after 1958, 6/90 arriving at a crime scene located conveniently near to Merton Park Studios.
If you happened to glance at the Radio Times or similar publication some 57 years ago, you might well have read the following startling announcement: