Table of contents for February 2025 in Practical Classics

A charity that uses opera as a medium to bring music to health and social care is set to benefit from the sale of a Morris Minor belonging to its founder. Camilla Vickers, a former healthcare professional, set up Health:Pitch to help people with mental welfare issues across a variety care settings, by using Opera as a mood and spirit enhancer. Originally called Davina’s Fund in memory of her late mother, Camilla works with Italian soprano Francesca Lanza, performing at various care homes, brain injury centres and mental health wards. Their aim is to help improve mood and connect ‘everyone together in the room’, even those whose lives and minds can be the hardest to reach. Camilla is selling the car, also named after her mum, to fund further projects by the…

SAT, DEC 21 LONDON Waterloo Classics on Lower Marsh Street, SE1 7RG (waterlooclassics.com). LEEDS German Car Meet at The Motorist, LS25 6JE (themotorist.com). KENT Sevenoaks Monthly Motor Meet at The Wheatsheaf, Bough Beech, TN8 7NU (tinyurl.com/bscxdxuj). SURREY Four Counties Car Club meet for pre-1990 cars at The Bletchingley Arms, RH1 4PE (tinyurl.com/d4crab8m). SUN, DEC 22 BRISTOL Horton Historical Car Meet at the Cross Hands Hotel, BS37 6RJ (tinyurl.com/52fv57zw). DEVON Classic Car Meet at Re:Fuel, Cullompton, EX15 1QP (re-fuel.co.uk). THU, DEC 26 CUMBRIA Classic Car Meet at the Lakeland Motor Museum, LA12 8TA (lakelandmotormuseum.co.uk). HANTS Port Solent Classic Car Meet, SO14 3QF (portsolent.com/events/sunday-car-meets). HANTS Locks Heath Classic Car Club Meet at the Strawberry Fields Tavern, SO31 6DX (lock-sheathclassiccarclub.co.uk). HERTS Boxing Day Social at the Lordship Arms, SG2 7BX (lordshiparms.com). LONDON Cold…

EMAIL OF THE MONTH Old friend spotted! Imagine our surprise when opening the pages of Practical Classics to see the Ford Escort MkII RS2000 (DFV 262W) that my son and I once owned (Fantasy Forecourt, PC Dec 2024). I first saw the car when driving along Dumbarton Road in Glasgow, sitting outside a block of tenements with a for sale sign in its windscreen. I haggled a bit and drove it home. It was very noisy, exhaust blowing, and had a twin choke Weber with no air cleaners! We completed several night rallies with the car. On one occasion, my wife had to use it to go to the school where she was teaching, (she hated everyone seeing her in the bright yellow noisy car). On the way home, she…

Austin A30 This Austin A30 is quite clearly well-loved and in regular use in Lincolnshire, with loads of character. It was a joy to see. Dave Hoffman, Brigg Mazda MX-5 NA Seen in Woodstock, Oxfordshire. It appeared to be immaculate. Steven Butterworth, Oxon VW Beetle This wonderfully patinated Beetle was looking great just by the edge of Hyde Park in London recently. Aidan Smith, London Mitsubishi Colt I was amazed to spot a 1987-91 generation Mitsubishi Colt, at La Gomera island, off Tenerife. Graeme Philips, Sunderland Morgan Aeros In South-Western Ontario I spotted these two Morgans that were both right-hand drive, I was told they were the 2001 and 2002 models. Norm Pilsworth, Ontario Ferrari 456 Spotted a stunning Ferrari 456 parked in Southsea. This surely is a practical classic…

Paul: ‘The Titan Tiger is one of our star attractions at the Wythall Transport Museum, having been in preservation since the Eighties. It was built in 1950 as a single decker and rebodied in 1953 with a larger Northern Counties body, but was always a Stratford Blue bus – they just wanted a bigger body for more passengers. It joined our collection in 1996 in a sorry state and we promised it would live again – it just took us a while to get there! ‘It was withdrawn in 1971 shortly after Stratford Blue went into Midland Red ownership, then it went to G&G Coaches in Leamington. It was retired in 1981 and restored in the mid-Eighties to be used for bus rallies. Alas, in 1996, the Titan was subject…

Almost four years and forty editions; this farewell makes forty-one. The time has come, my friend, for me to depart these pages. I’ve reached a fork in the road. Choosing between this and that wasn’t easy, but sometimes in life it’s the hardest decisions that become the most formative we make. Choosing that, meant parting with this, a column I’ve considered a privilege to write. Gathered together, it might read like a mini memoir of my classic car life. I hope you’ve enjoyed the forty-one monthly chapters, we’ve certainly shared some emotional highs and lows. As the first woman to secure a regular opinion column in PC, I was proud to accept the opportunity. I’ll be forever grateful to Danny for giving me that chance. Female role models are incredibly…

TOYOTA MR2 ROADSTER MKIII Tiny roadsters are a thing of the past, so the MR2 MkIII is a bargain. It combine perfect form with Toyota reliability and thrill-a-minute driving. Insanely good fun. Spend £3k and you won’t lose a single penny. SMART FORFOUR This 2004 tie-up with Mitsubishi was a sales flop but it’s an uniquely intriguing supermini, especially if the plastic clip-on panels are brightly coloured. The 140mph Brabus is a very smart buy indeed. JAGUAR E-TYPE In the past five years the E-type bubble has burst, with decent SII 4.2s now available for around £50k. What’s more, with high costs of labour for high-end restoration, there are plenty of project cars hitting the market at more attainable money for the DIYer. PRE-WAR SALOONS Although those pre-war cars served…

If you were anywhere near social media at the end of November, you won’t have been able to escape the story of Jaguar’s rebrand. A new logo and new typography for the brand was ushered in by a teaser video with a bold colour palette featuring a diverse line of models, flamboyantly dressed and proclaiming, ‘copy nothing’. There wasn’t a single car to be seen. This is Jaguar reimagined. Given that so few people have been buying Jaguars since the pandemic, and with its market share but a fraction of what it used to be, reimagination is exactly what the iconic marque needs. Since the new XJ-E electric flagship, due out about now, was cancelled in 2021, the range has withered away – to the point that the company quietly…

I've rarely managed to find out much about previous classics I've owned, and when I have, it has mostly consisted of: 'Someone had it for a bit, then sold it'. But chassis number ALD1, the 'Scuderia Cemetori Ford Special' – the only one of its type – is different. The story starts with a beer. I used to work with a chap called Steve Alderton, whose dad Viv told me about his memories of his Austin-Healeys. Viv also mentioned that his late father Bill had owned an early E-type and a Lotus or two. Scoot forward a couple of years and I spotted the name 'W A Alderton' in Graham Capel’s book on the history of the Lotus VI, and thought I would ask Charles Helps, the VI registrar of…

Matt Tomkins WORKSHOP EDITOR Our workshop puppet master, Matt has a penchant for restoring British classics in particular. This month Set to work on steering and gearing improvements before taking to the track once again. Rich March PRO BUFFER New recruit Rich runs UK Detailing Academy. Our expert at making things shiny. This month Cuts through the noise to describe the wonderful world of waxes in this month’s PC Academy. 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 to keep it that way. This month Demonstrates how to strip and rebuild your driveshafts and fits a new windscreen seal to the Volga. Nigel Clark DIY RESTORER Nigel’s driveway achievements rival those of…

The rebranding of Jaguar has caused a furore among fans of the car maker, with many finding the dramatic November 19 change in direction difficult to stomach. However, Jaguar’s bold move was accompanied by bullish marketing. ‘A completely transformed Jaguar brand recaptures an ethos to “Copy Nothing” that can trace its roots back to the words of its founder, Sir William Lyons,’ was the official line. Next came the debut of the Design Vision Concept at Miami Art Week on December 2. Less new car launch, more installation reveal where ‘Exuberant Modernism’ was the theme. The reaction from traditionalists has been predominantly (and often vitriolically) negative. But others have praised the move – as Martin Brundle, the former Formula 1 driver, put it: ‘I have no idea what this is all about,…

BMM Brickies The British Motor Museum has launched a ‘Brick Bank’ scheme, encouraging visitors to donate their unwanted or unused LEGO® bricks for a fantastic cause! Museum Volunteers will collate the bricks into build kits, which will be donated to children in the area through local Community Pantries. Landcrab legend An Australian Auction house has just sold this Austin 1800 with a guide price of $5-7k (half all values to get UKP) for $27,850. Two keen bidders pushed the price up with the successful bidder paying the price. This is a world record for an 1800 MkII. MGF at 30 The MG Car Club’s MGF Register is hosting a show at The British Motor Museum at Gaydon to celebrate 30 years since the launch of the MGF and the formation…

Scottish Club raises £17k The Stirling and District Classic Car Club’s annual show raised an impressive £17,200 for local good causes. Among the event’s beneficiaries were Home 2 Hospital in Larbert; Maggie’s Cancer Centre; Phantom’s Legacy of Longriggend; and the Strathcarron Hospice. Perfect Peaks supports PCUK The Perfect Peaks Tour organised by our friends at the Great British Car Journey, raised over £800 for Prostate Cancer UK, with the Derbyshire museum’s own member’s club hitting the road in over 40 classic vehicles. Scramblers aim for festive thousand Bicester Motion’s final Scramblers event of the year, Festive Four-Wheelers, will see around 100 vehicles touring nearby villages on Sunday, December 15, aiming to raise £1000+ for StarterMotor and Alexandra House of Joy. bicesterheritage.co.uk/events/festive-four-wheelers-2024 Bangers4BEN raises £44k The annual Bangers4BEN rally visited the…

In the October 2024 issue we told you about the imminent launch of the Colt Car Club, for all Mitsubishis. Sure enough, at the NEC show club founder Stephen Blackburn had a three-car stand and signed up lots of new members, proving that the launch of the club is long overdue. An avid Mitsubishi collector himself, Stephen told us: ‘I’m now on a mission to track down a couple of rarities from the Eighties. I’d love to find a Tredia, and I know there are one or two out there. Also on the list is an Australian-built Lonsdale, but I’m not sure any have survived, because very few were sold here. Most of the cars imported weren’t sold, so Mitsubishi rebadged them as Sigmas.’ If you know of a Lonsdale, drop…

We were struck by the simplicity of a recent idea spotted in the Standard Motor Club magazine: its Fellow Owners scheme. Chairman Peter Lockley comments: ‘For more than 20 years we’ve run the programme, which involves panels of very knowledgeable members beingavailable to help fellow members, via email or phone. Each panel covers a different era or model type.’ One of those experts is Robin Wilson, who says: ‘We give advice on sourcing parts, how to work on cars, restoration tips and upgrades, so it’s all about sharing knowledge and talking to people who I would probably never otherwise be in contact with, which is what membership is all about.’ standardmotorclub.org.uk.…

Sleeker sibling The P5 Coupe’s roofline was lowered by two and a half inches compared to the saloon, with the B-pillars also made slimmer. It cost £200 more than its taller sibling. All clear Thames Trader Clearways only came in chassis-and-windshield form from Ford; coachbuilders then added specialist bodies. In 1965, the models became Ford M-Series Clearways. Wide bays The P6’s wide engine bay was intended to accommodate a gas turbine unit. That never happened, but it did allow the ex-Buick V8 engine to later be easily fitted. Money in Transit By the early Seventies, the Metropolitan Police estimated that Ford Transits were used as getaway vehicles in 95 per cent of all bank raids in Britain. Edgbaston, Birmingham, mid-January 1968 We almost feel chilly just looking at this photo…

A humble chap, is our Phil. ‘I’ve been trying to work out if I have any skills.’ Standing beside his Triumph in the garage he built himself, he begins our day together deflecting much of the praise towards his best mate, Ray Preston. ‘Ray is a proper car restorer. He does everything. I just make the tea’. Ray chips in to confirm this, but with a wink. ‘He’s very good at fetching spanners’. Truth is, they’re both fibbing. Phil was no mere casual observer in the revival of what began as an extremely rotten workhorse. He and fellow 2000 Register member in Kent, Charles Harrison, saved the car in 2016 and managed to get it back on the road for use as a daily driver, Phil ragging it around motorsport events…

They’re unpredictable and exciting, reflecting so many human emotions. Love, lust, the spirit of battle, impulse envy, and disappointment. I’m talking about the wonderful world of classic car auctions, having just worked out that I have attended a hundred of these events over the past 35 years, mainly in a journalistic capacity. And how things have changed! What got me counting was one particularly astonishing result from the Iconic Auctioneers sale at the wondrous Lancaster Insurance Classic Motor Show. If only the much-missed Roy Castle had been around to proclaim: ‘It’s a Ford Escort Cosworth auction price world record-breaker!’ Indeed it was. The 1992 car actually went under the hammer for £180,000, which worked out at £202,500 including premiums, ever so slightly exceeding the estimate of £80,000 to £100,000. It…

Renault 5 It’s a ‘Renault 5 Le Car’! (as marketed in USA/Canada from 1976-83). Our friend in California Rexford Parker has presented us with an amazing collection of mostly French or USA variants of French classics from his friend’s site in Tennessee, USA. Citroën ID19 A pre-1967 Citroën ID19 that rests here safely undercover. It’ll need some major work to bring it back – well worth it though, being the pre-facelift model. Renault Alliance Launched in 1981, the Renault 9 became the Renault Alliance under AMC, and by 1982 Renault owned 46 per cent of AMC, followed by 49 per cent and controlling interest the following year. This model is a GTA. Renault 17 Gordini Minus a few parts, this a Renault 17 Gordini (1971-’79). By 1974 the Renault 17TS…

SAT JAN 11 Barons, Unit 6, Harbour Close, So’ton, Hants. (023 8066 8413, barons-auctions.com) SAT JAN 25 WB & Sons, Killingworth, Newcastle upon Tyne. (0191 268 9011, wbandsons.com) SAT-SUN 25-26 ACA, Cattlemarket, King’s Lynn, Norfolk. (01553 777 444, angliacarauctions.co.uk) THU JAN 30 South West Vehicle Auctions, Parkstone, Dorset. (01202 745466, swva.co.uk) WED-FRI FEB Mathewsons, Thornton-Le-Dale, North Yorkshire. (01751 474455, mathewsons.co.uk) SAT FEB 15 Morris Leslie Classic Auctions, Errol Airfield, Perth. (01821 642574, morrisleslie.com)…

I need to preface this month’s ramblings as, if you have a classic that’s woefully impractical, very expensive or incredibly rare or old (or all the above), then I’m not talking to you. The rest of you, read on… I use my cars 365 days a year. It’s not just that I love them to my core, but also because old cars often prove to be just as capable as modern cars. They were built to be used in a vast array of temperatures and climates and if they’re suitably maintained, there’s really no reason why they can’t work when you need them to, even in the depths of winter. My most up-to-date car was made back in 1995 and, though that might not seem like that long ago, 30…

James Walshe… reckons early ones are the best Almost 20 years ago, one dark frosty morning on the M1 near Barnsley, I was doing 70mph aboard my 2001 Rover 75 when I hit an errant wheel, which had detached itself from an HGV. Riding over the offending object ripped out the bottom half of the engine and in a shower of debris, we made an uncontrolled slide into the grass beyond the hard shoulder. With police called and waves of now slow-moving traffic picking its way around bits of shattered Rover, I hopped back into the warm, cosseting cabin and waited for help. The key was in my pocket and yet the TV/sat nav screen hummed and fizzed. Flickering momentarily before dying, the car’s well-spoken, robotic female voice made one…

Winter looms and as usual I’m lining up my classics for use. I don’t shy away from the salt, having carefully rustproofed my fleet. So, you’ll see me driving the MX-5, which I spent a happy day winterproofing, my Alfa 147 (ditto) and Rover 75. One car that has yet to ‘receive the wax’ is my E36 328i though, which gave me a dilemma. I’m moving house and with a queue of jobs to do on my fleet, time was short. So, for the first time ever I decided to put a car into professional winter storage. Worth it. My BMW is mint, low mileage, prone to rust and deserves to be under cover until it’s protected. A tip from a friend saw me call Birch Gatwick, near Crawley in…

My second ever race weekend, at Silverstone (PC, January 2025), had given me plenty to think about. From the ‘perched atop the car’ seating position evident from trackside photos to the phenomenal difference in acceleration and handling brought by the 15in wheels kindly loaned for the race by fellow competitor Mike Harvey – not to mention the crippling misfire brought on, I hoped, by a defective fuel pump. I therefore had a fairly long list of jobs to complete before the Historic 750 formula’s season finale at Mallory Park. First up was the fuelling. I had been left frustrated in my second 15-minute race at Silverstone, having finally found my stride, by a car which pulled beautifully… until it just didn’t. The cure was to lift my foot from the…

It’s back. Once again we invite you to choose your favourite story from the restorations we’ve covered this year. Restorer of the Year celebrates the amateur shed heroes who, every 12 months, produce breathtaking work, putting life back into basket case classics and bringing beautiful motors back to the road. The PC team scours the country for the very best restorations, 26 of which are visited and photographed to become our flagship features every issue. Now it’s time for you to choose the one you think is the best. To vote, get yourself over to practicalclassics.co.uk/restorer-of-the-year-2024 or simply click on the QR code on this page and you will go straight to the voting site. Voting runs from December 18, 2024 to January 22, 2025. Once the votes are in…

A very special edition Caterham assembled using parts from a Puma HC2 helicopter has raised an impressive £66,000 at auction for the RAF Benevolent Fund and Mission Motorsport. The special-edition – and truly one-off – Seven 360R was built as a joint project between the Royal Air Force, Caterham, Mission Motorsport as well as the RAF Benevolent Fund, and was auctioned via the Collecting Cars online sale platform to raise money for the two service personnel charities. The Caterham was built using the skin, interior and other components from a Puma HC2 helicopter that had come to the end of its service life. A team of serving personnel at RAF Benson in Oxfordshire worked with Caterham to build the car as a tribute to the servicemen and women the Puma…

How did your interest in cars and classics start? 'My grandad had owned his Alvis since long before I was born, so I grew up with that always being in my life. I would sneak into his big garage, swing open the door and sit at the steering wheel when I was little! My parents later had a 1972 Volkswagen Campervan and a 1965 VW Beetle that we used to take to VW shows and festivals, so I became a bit of a VW nerd for a while. When it came to buying my first car at 16 it only made sense for it to be a classic, so I bought a 1965 Morris Minor.' What classics do you own? 'I currently own my grandad’s 1926 Alvis 12-50 and my…

The Mazda Rotary Club was formed in 2003, and for its 21st birthday it made its NEC debut. At the show, the club’s events organiser Malcolm Case told us: ‘We cater for any Mazda with a rotary engine and within our ranks is pretty much every model you can think of, even the rare R100 and Cosmo 110S. The focus of the group is mainly to help owners keep their cars on the road, because parts supply can be very tricky. We attend lots of events throughout the year and we work with other clubs to put on our own gatherings.’ More at mazdarotaryclub.com.…

‘My dad got it nearly new. I restored it over 24 years’ 1978 Ford Cortina MkIV 1.6 GL Steven Ransom, South Wales The colour is Jupiter Red metallic, which was an optional extra, as was the vinyl roof and the passenger door mirror… First registered on August 1, 1978, my parents bought it on August 11, 1979, with 11,000 miles on it. I learned to drive in it and it became my first car in 1988, despite being a bit rotten. It was Waxoyled and garaged but at four years it needed a new sill. Someone has also tried to steal the Cortina, it’s been broken into three times, and the car has been the subject of a major restoration after I decided to finally get into it in 1990.…

We absolutely must move with the times in order to keep our beloved hobby alive. We all know this, but it was still a bit disturbing to see quite recent only-just-classics modded to death with suspension lowered so much it looked as if it had broken, huge wheels with rubber-band tyres and large lashings of street-culture glitz, vying for attention on the NEC Classic Motor Show’s Pride of Ownership stand. It attracts visitors, of course, and we should welcome all flavours of classic car love, especially when these machines showed such skill in their creation. But at times I did feel as though I'd wandered into a rod and custom show by mistake. Or maybe a motor caravan show. What were all those modern motorhomes doing there? Capitalising on the…

Odd to think in a falling market, but now looks a good time to buy a classic. Not least due to the sheer number of cars coming to market right now. More auction houses are switching from one to two-day sales next year, so there’s a lot of choice and prices are mostly pretty keen. Except, it seems, at high-profile sales like the NEC one. There’s no one reason for all the selling. Just things like the cost of living, ageing or sadly late owners, probably unfounded fears about near-future fuel supplies, or simply rationalising fleets because of what’s not being used. That saw even me drop from three to two classics. There’s obviously still some buoyancy in the market because dealers are still hoovering up desirable stock (see report,…

Danny Hopkins Every year since most of my family can remember, my dad has taken a trip France to visit his good friend George, who lives near Beaune at the north end of Burgundy. His reasons to visit were partially to do with friendship, partially a getaway, but mainly to do with wine, which he and George both thoroughly enjoy. The wine would be consumed at the end of each day after several arduous hours driving around in George’s XJS visiting the famous vineyards of the region. It was a tough job, but George and dad agreed… someone had to do it. These visits ended when Covid struck, and advancing years meant they hadn’t restarted; it’s a long way, even in dad’s XJ8. So, I put my hand up a…

They arrived in their masses! Well, sort of. I love my Smart pals. I love all my car club mates, from those in the Citroën Car Club to the Saab Owners Club and others. I honestly don’t know where I’d be without them. But this lot, from the Cotswold Roadsters and Midlands Roadster groups, who were willing to leave the comfort of their homes hundreds of miles away and visit us at the Practical Classics workshop… on a Sunday… in winter… to help fix my recently purchased and non-functioning £500 Roadster? ‘Good excuse for a drive – it’s what these cars are about!’ declared owner Martyn Edwards. Bunch of heroes. Especially Matthew Thomas, who brought with him his wealth of knowledge and ‘special’ software. That’s half the battle with a…

Since presenting you with my last Saga, I have been working away steadily in the background, reattaching parts and getting the final bits of painting done on my Traveller. With the rear roof fitted at last and the guttering attached, it was time to prep the roof for painting and although most of this prep had already been done, it needed a bit more to perfect it. No point coming this far and not doing it properly! Once my son Sam and I were happy with the roof, we asked our good friends nicely if we could squeeze the car into their paint booth for a couple of days to get the roof sprayed up, and they kindly obliged! Sam sprayed the wheel rims, but we were able to do…