Índex per June 2025 a Practical Classics

NextGen 2000 In February the Triumph 2000/2500/2.5 Register’s stand at Stoneleigh was given over to a display younger members cars. Now it has announced ‘NextGen’ as its young person’s section – a name that it came up with, together with a logo that will be used internally by the Register. Old Number One returns The British Motor Museum’s MG ‘Old Number One’ made a guest appearance in Cornwall for the Motor Cycling Club (MCC) Land’s End Trial over the Easter weekend. The event marked 100 years since the car won a gold medal at the trial. Golden Razor On July 13, 2025, the Triumph Razoredge Owners Club’s Golden Anniversary Rally will be held at the Cotswolds Wildlife Park in Burford, Oxfordshire – the very same attraction that hosted the first…

MG picnic supports PCUK The MGB Register is set to hold its annual picnic at Millett’s Farm in the brand’s hometown of Abingdon on August 17, with all proceeds to Prostate Cancer UK. Find out more online at mgb-register.org. Classic club supports cancer care The Sedgemoor Vintage Club handed over a cheque for £1000 to support cancer care at Musgrove Park Hospital in Somerset. The funds were raised at the Sedgemoor Vintage Show last July. Stony meet makes over £7k The annual Stony Stratford New Year’s Day classic meet raised £7265 for Willen Hospice in Milton Keynes, after being rescheduled to March because of inclement weather. Classics boost Air Ambulance A cavalcade of classic turned heads across Cheshire in March, as the Knutsford District Motor Club held a road rally…

The British Motor Museum has relaunched its Gaydon Gatherings, with the first event already having taken place in April. But the second of these Tuesday evening events is set to run on May 13, with subsequent Gatherings scheduled for June 10, July 8, August 12, September 9 and October 14. Although it’s free to take part, you need to book online; if the 500 or so spaces are already taken, you can park separately for free to have a gander around the varied classics on show. There’s also plenty of variety with the events that the British Motor Museum is running this season. Next up is the Vaux ALL day on May 18, while one of our annual favourites is the National Metro and Mini Show on June 1; on the same…

Tell us about your Nova… I used to work on them. The SRi and GSi were nippy. Nearly every service involved reshaping the driver’s door lock hole where it had been forced. There was a tool to do it. David Houghton My 1.3-litre… 39 years-old and a straight MOT pass recently with no advisories. Calvin Walker I owned a Nova MkI 1.3SR, right after I owned an Astra MkII 1.6SR. Good car, very nippy and good memories, but no power steering back in those days. Would love to have another one, but finding one in good condition may be hard. Rob Masterson My first car when I was 17 was a Nova 1.2 ‘Luxe’ – so called as it had disgusting Mistral Grey paint. Owned it for all of three…

MGB Roadster Seen near Vancouver in British Columbia, Canada. Sounded to be in fine fettle, with a rorty-sounding exhaust helping turn more heads. Dave Wakefield, Godalming Toyota Corolla Spotted in Skiathos, Greece. A lovely old Toyota GT 16-valve, not sure of the model… could be a booted Corolla? Martin Leonard, London Volvo Amazon Estate I spotted this very nice 1967 Volvo 121 Amazon estate near Bromley, Greater London, not far from where I live. David Sower, Surrey Citroën DS Decapotable One that might interest Citroën fans. Spotted in Ucluelet, Vancouver Island – utterly beautiful. Charlie Thomson, Canada GAZ 12 ZIM Not your average daily driver. Seen near my workplace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Richard Moss, UAE Ferrari Mondial A Ferrari Mondial spotted in Reims, France recently. Looked to be in…

Yes, the Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show at the NEC has come and gone again. It has long been my favourite classic car show, and this year’s one was as fascinating as ever. For me it was all about wandering around the show and seeing what gems I could spot. As a Rover P6 owner, I found myself first heading to where the three clubs that cater for this singular motor car were clustered. And at one of them, the Rover Sports Register that covers all Rovers and so is potentially the most interesting of all of them, I spied the most singular P6 of all. Except it was actually a P7. The only one in existence. Originally there were four prototypes of what was planned as a…

FANCY A PUNT? WITH RUSS SMITH ‘Particularly if the price is right’ Who amongst us can say they’ve never come away from a motor museum wishing one of the cars was coming home with them? Your chance to fulfil that fantasy is just around the corner. On May 16, the crowded but charming Moretonhampstead Motor Museum in Devon becomes one big gift shop, as the collection is auctioned off by Charterhouse. The day before too if you are interested in automobilia or ‘bikes. Some cars are said to be ‘on the button’, but sales like this can be a happy hunting ground for PC readers. We’re likely to be less worried than most about taking on a car that needs some degree of recommissioning. Particularly if the price is right.…

‘Have I sold out?’ After a brief flirtation with a gorgeous yet wallet-emptying Swede, I vowed I’d never return to ‘modern’ motoring. Though the bad taste left by the constant and expensive failure of a Volvo C30 had finally faded by the start of this year and a change of daily circumstances meant a lot more miles needed to be piled onto my exclusively modern classic fleet. Though I dearly love it, the prospect of paying to fuel a 2.8-litre, automatic Mercedes-Benz estate caused me to reevaluate. At the same time, an extremely fortuitous fork in the road presented itself when a friend happened to have a similarly long-roofed Korean estate for sale for not a lot of change. Is it exciting? No. Am I emotionally attached to it? No.…

Matt George Regular followers of PC will have read about my efforts to get this piece of quality Bavarian metal back on the road in Staff Car Sagas over the past few issues (see PC Spring/May 2025). But to quickly recap, the story goes as follows. Having been owned and appreciated by PC reader Paul Wilson-Smith and his family for several years, then been driven off the road due to the cost of the ULEZ charge in London, it had ended up sitting on Paul’s drive for eighteen months. Having been unable to sell the car through the regular channels, and fearing it may end up being scrapped, Paul offered the car to us here at PC. I was more than happy to take it on and, once back at…

Two big failures to sort this month, the first of which began far, far away in Paris. You may have read the ramblings in the May 2025 issue of PC about ‘Tupperware’s’ trip to the French capital. The 800-mile round trip, which involved whizzing across the cobbles of the Champs Elysees and encircling the Arc De Triomphe several times, concluded rudely with a splutter on the return leg. I’d noticed a minor misfire in Paris and assumed it to be a lack of attentiveness on my part. I’d run the car, albeit with oil changes and a kingpin greasing every 3000 miles or so, pretty much without maintenance since the early 2023. So, was this the car trying to tell me something? The engine is fitted with electronic ignition, so…

The ZAZ Tavria of 1987 represented the first time the Ukrainian motor industry had attempted to build something normal. It was a vast improvement over the previous eccentric and wilfully temperamental rear-engined Zaporozhets. The Tavria was in almost every way a dull facsimile of a normal FWD hatchback. Build quality had improved somewhat at the same time and so the result was something actually useable as daily transport. One area of weirdness remained: the wheels were simply rims, bolted on to massive hubs containing a centreless disc at the front or a large drum at the rear. Otherwise, you'd struggle to identify any part of it as being the product of Soviet Science. When I last reported on mine in 2017, I'd nobbled enough of its niggles that it had…

▶ ‘My convertible lives outside on the drive year round under a tree, and every year I end up with the same green growth on the roof. Is there anything I can do to clean it and prevent the algae coming back?’ Matt Holden, Lancashire RICH’S JOB CARD SOFT TOP MAINTENANCE Cleaning a convertible fabric roof tends to be, unfortunately, an annual job in the UK. While protection products will help, maintenance is the only preventative measure that will keep algae and lichen (the green patches of ‘fungus’) at bay for any period. In order to grow, these organisms need three things: moisture, tepid warmth, and time. We can prevent one of these – moisture – with a protectant to help shed water and dry quicker, and the third –…

Oldham-based mechanic Jody Bevan is restoring her third car to raise money for charity, via her Auto Lass YouTube channel. Jody is donating all the money from raffle tickets to veterans’ charity Help for Heroes as her partner served in the Armed Forces, as did several other relatives of theirs. ‘It’s a bit personal for me because I'm doing it in connection with my dad,’ said the 46-year-old. ‘He always wanted to own a Calibra, but sadly passed away before he could make that dream come true. At present, there’s no exact date for the raffle or for the project to be completed, as Jody is rapidly learning that, as with her previous restorations, there’s a bit more work to do than originally anticipated. She said: ‘We thought it looked…

SUN, MAY 4 DERBYS Pre-1941 meet at the Great British Car Journey, DE56 2HE (greatbritishcarjourney.com). NOTTS Newark Autojumble, NG24 2NY (newarkautojumble.co.uk). SOMERSET Haynes Breakfast Club, Sparkford, BA22 7LH (haynesbreakfastclub.org). SUN-MON, MAY 4-5 NOTTS Classic Car Show at Thoresby Park, NG22 9EP (classicshows.org). MON, MAY 5 DERBYS Million sellers at the Great British Car Journey, DE56 2HE (greatbritishcarjourney.com). WED, MAY 7 NORTHANTS Earls Barton classic car meet, NN6 0EP (classiccarmeet.co.uk). SAT, MAY 10 GLOS Italian Day at Prescott, GL52 9RD (prescotthillclimb.co.uk). SUN, MAY 11 WARKS Autojumble at Stratford Racecourse, CV37 9SE (stratfordautojumble.co.uk). HANTS Classic Car meet at Port Solent, PO6 4TP (tinyurl.com/4cbejdk7). W SUSSEX Classic Car show at Amberley Museum, BN18 9LT (amberleymuseum.co.uk). W SUSSEX Classic Ford Show at the South of England Showground, RH17 6TL (co.uk/volksworld-show). STIRLING Stirling & District…

My older sister and her husband bought this Golf MkI as an MOT failure in 2006, but never got around to sorting it. It’s a 1981 GLi – quite rare in this spec, as the Cabriolet was only offered in this colour for a year. As a teenager at the time, I’d often just go and sit in it! The bodywork was quite rusty and, despite several attempts to sell the car as spares or repairs, it ended up in the garage with stuff piled up on it. I’ve always been around old cars, including the Stag that my grandparents bought in 2000. I spent a lot of time as a child in the back seat, going to classic car shows and watching my dad work on his own cars.…

International Women’s Day!’ I heard somebody scoff recently at an autojumble. ‘What’s that for then? Another stupid day, made up to sell cards?’ There will always be a corporation looking to exploit, as like any day of celebration, certain people will suggest such events are mere gimmicks for attention seekers. However, International Women’s Day is a statement of togetherness; it’s a day with, at the very heart of it, unity. It is not, by any stretch of the imagination, intended to be a division of the sexes. Thankfully, I’ve seen a lot more thoughtful celebration and a lot less ‘hurried tokenism’. Of course, we shouldn’t get a pat on the back simply for being born a woman or daring to get involved in what has traditionally been a male hobby.…

There’s no better way of reminding you that you’re getting old than events you were intimately involved with becoming history. I simply can’t believe that it’s been 20 years since the shutters at MG Rover Group in Longbridge were lowered, and 6000 workers were laid off. But here we all are – two decades older, and not necessarily wiser. Although I wasn’t working for MG Rover at the end, I’d spent some months at Longbridge as an IT contractor around the time of the BMW sell off in 2000. The mood was strange back then, especially as the Rover 25, 45 and 75 had just been rolled out – there should have been optimism; instead, a cloud of despondency had settled over the place like a lingering fug. But the…

Taking a break from MGF work this month, I’ve reverted back to my comfort zone in an attempt to make my Austin Seven Special a little faster in anticipation of this season’s antics with the 750 Motor Club’s Historic 750 Formula. Looking around the grid at other Class A competitors I was running alongside last year, I noticed that each had one thing in common: an HS4 carburettor feeding their tiny sidevalve engines. Manufacturing a one-off custom tubular inlet manifold for the ‘Tomkins Special’ has taken a significant amount of time, thought and care over the past couple of months to get it to the point where I’m happy with it, and can finally share the process with you. SU’s HS series of carburettors are numbered in order of size;…

Editor Hopkins is definitely the reason for this. Ownership of a Rover 25 wasn’t really on my radar; I had nothing against them, in fact I’d never had any real contact with one. I was looking for something to replace my Ford Mondeo, mainly because my wife really didn’t enjoy driving it and we wanted something smaller. Then enter ‘Hopkins’ Carriages of Distinction’… and a brief mention of a lowish miles diesel Rover 25 for a bargain price. A few emails later and there’s Danny standing in my kitchen handing me the keys. My test drive was delivering Mr H back home to rural Cambridgeshire. Should I have been concerned? Not a bit of it. The (mighty) little Rover was a superb companion, soaking up the miles with aplomb and…

Forza Ferrari £20 ISBN 978-1-836002-82-6 This enthralling tale takes an inside look at what is arguably motor racing’s greatest team, as Hamilton’s arrival heralds a new era. quarto.com Standard Vanguard Cars £15.99 ISBN 978-1-3981-1978-9 A comprehensive account of the Standard Vanguard range of cars, examining the various models and their development alongside both contemporary and current illustrations. amberley-books.com Landcrabs and 3-litres £15.99 ISBN 978-1-3981-2159-1 An in depth look at the Issigonis-designed BMC 1800, which followed the success of the Mini and 1100. The book is comprehensively illustrated and features tech specs and period ads throughout. amberley-books.com…

Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, March 1964 No prizes for guessing where we are this issue, thanks to British Railways’ handy sign on Cambridge’s stately railway station. We’re just emerging from winter and the grime of the passing season is still clinging to the assembled cars, ahead of any spring cleaning. Nosing in on the right is a Ford Prefect E493A of 1949-53 vintage. Even though other drivers would still have been watchful for trafficators in 1964, the owner has perhaps sensibly upgraded to flashing amber indicators. Even the more modern Ford Anglia 105E only has white indicators, forming part of its sidelights either side of the grille. Orange lenses wouldn’t appear until 1966. Appropriately enough given the location, the next two vehicles are Austin Cambridges of the short-lived 1957-59 A55 variety. Behind…

I enjoyed JJ’s ‘Clever Money Cars’ article covering the excellent Škoda Octavia vRS MkI (PC, May 2025). The poor reputation of Škodas in the Seventies and Eighties was justified, as they did come with numerous design flaws. However, while my old country was obviously a Soviet colony/client state/satellite, Škoda was never a ‘Soviet brand’. As JJ points out, it simply isn’t true that Škodas were ‘outdated rubbish’ until VW got involved. The illustrious history of Škoda goes back to 1895, initially as a motorcycle manufacturer under the Laurin & Klement name (the names of the founders) with cars produced from 1905. Škodas from the pre-war, but also post-WWII period were well-designed, often innovative cars renowned for their quality, reliability and economy. One example is the independent suspension front and rear…

‘We are the the MG/Rover enthusiasts of Devon’ Cars of Longbridge, enthusiasts of the south west This is one of many regional groups in the UK with a focus on the cars of Abingdon, Cowley and Longbridge. Meet the members of ‘Coffee & Cars MG/Rover’ who meet regularly in and around Devon. Based in Kingsteignton, it’s a club with strong ties to the community while offering owners and restorers technical and moral support. It began a decade ago and is going from strength to strength, according to Tania Barrett, who co-founded the group with husband Mark. ‘Our eldest member is 99 and our youngest is 10 years-old. We’ve all become such good friends, helping each other when it comes to searching for parts and helping local charities. It’s what owning…

Renault 5 TX Just when you think there can’t be any rusty collections left in the UK, Russell Wilcox comes along with this. The first set of images are from an abandoned house in Worcestershire, where this sporty Renault 5 TX is still surviving in the grounds. Ford Cortina MkIV Nearby, a 1979 Ford Cortina MkIV nestles between the farmhouse and the trees, only showing minor surface rust but who knows how bad it is underneath. Commer camper van A ’67 Commmer camper van that hasn’t ventured onto a highway since 1993. It saw a quarter of a century of holiday motoring before being retired out of service. Citroën ZX Volcane And finally, a Citroën ZX Volcane in a woodland outside Cheltenham. It has been there since 2004 – perhaps…

I bought my 1975 Spider last year as a stalled project from my friend Brian Webb. It was intended to be a parts mule for my original 124 Spider project, which was a 2.0 litre injection model donated to the mag by Steve Blayney. However, when I got it back to the workshop I discovered It was in better than expected condition. I decided that the two cars would be combined, with the earlier car being used as the base. It is a 1975 Californian Spider, imported in 1991, and has been converted to right-hand drive, which could also be useful. In barn find condition, it hadn’t turned a wheel in 25 years, although Brian had completed some bodywork restoration. The 1800 twin cam engine had not been started for…

Changing the oil filter is one of the first jobs anyone learns to do on their classic. And one of the cheapest and easiest, unless, like me, you’ve got an early Ford Sidevalve engine in your car. Prior to the introduction of the 100E engine, the small Fords usually didn’t have any kind of oil filter at all as standard. Optional and aftermarket filters were available, and that is what the biscuit barrel-sized unit plumbed into my block was. ‘Change the filter regularly’ was proclaimed in a jaunty font on the side, but the rust all over it suggested that in this case ‘regularly’ meant ‘every fifty years or so’. These filters are no longer made, so the options are to hunt down NOS items at autojumbles or take advantage…

Matt Tomkins WORKSHOP EDITOR Our workshop puppet master, Matt has a penchant for restoring British classics in particular. This month Has been preparing for the race season with an oil change for the Seven and a service for his car trailer. Rich March PRO BUFFER New recruit Rich runs UK Detailing Academy. Our expert at making things shiny. This month Is getting down and dirty with some hot tips for convertible roof cleaning and long-term maintenance. Ed Hughes WORKSHOP GENIUS A former teacher, Ed singlehandedly keeps a fleet of obscure classics on the road. He’s never owned a modern car and intends keep it that way. This month Has been wondering where to start with a pair of extremely rusty windscreen pillars… Nigel Clark DIY RESTORER Nigel’s driveway achievements rival…