Category: Classic Cars

No comments

PORSCHE 924

  By ,
1981 Porsche 924

In the early 1970s Volkswagen planned to introduce a sports coupe to lift its image in some markets, particularly the USA. The car was to use as many VW parts as possible including a current engine to minimise retooling costs. The VW management approached Porsche to design the vehicle for them and the project soon got under way but as it approached finality the VW people suddenly dropped the whole project and it went into limbo. Fast forward a couple of years and there was suddenly a fuel crisis on… Read more

No comments

SUNBEAM ALPINE

  By
1953 Sunbeam Alpine

Sunbeam was one of the very few British companies to seriously build, develop and race a team of Grand Prix cars. When it won the French Grand Prix in 1923 Sir Henry Seagrave became the first driver to win a Grand Prix in a British car. This feat was not repeated again until the 1950s. The company went into liquidation in 1935 and was eventually taken over by the Rootes Group, along with its sister company Talbot, to join the Hillman and Humber marques. The first two-seater Alpine came into… Read more

No comments

AUSTIN A40

  By

The Austin A40 did much to help Britain recover financially after World War II with the country badly in need of export dollars. Whilst millions of dollars were poured into Germany and Japan in the form of aid Britain received little assistance in recovering from the war. The Managing Director at the time Mr LP Lord travelled to the USA in May 1946 and after a close study of conditions returned to the plant and prepared for a large-scale attack on the most difficult of all markets, with a new… Read more

No comments

LANCIA FULVIA HF COUPE

  By ,
1969 Lancia Fulvia HF Coupe

At the top end of the Fulvia range, Lancia offered a 1298cc version of its narrow-angled V4 overhead camshaft engine, supplementing the 1216cc and 1091cc versions. The 1.3-litre came in two forms for two variants of the Fulvia couple. The Rallye 1.3 used a 9 to 1 compression engine producing 65kW at 6000rpm and the Rallye 1.3HF produced 75kW at the same rpm, with the aid of a 10.5 to 1 compression ratio, high-lift cams, larger valves with stronger springs, different pistons and lightened flywheel. The 65kW engine was installed… Read more

No comments

FORD FESTIVA 1991-2000

  By ,
1997 Ford Festiva

Built by Kia in South Korea, the Ford Festiva is a tough little car that seems to just keep on keeping on. After a successful 10 years on the Australian market that began in October 1991, the Ford Festiva was succeeded by the Ford Fiesta at the end of the year 2000. While the two names continued to be mistakenly intermingled to this day, the two machines are significantly different. The first Festivas were virtually identical in appearance to older Mazda 121s, except that the Ford was sold as a… Read more

No comments

BENTLEY SPEED SIX

  By ,
1930 Bentley Speed Six

Bentleys came to be regarded as the archetypal vintage sports cars following their many successes at Le Mans. Introduced in 1929 the 6.5-litre six-cylinder model was designed to give the marque a more prestigious, quieter performance model. On the 6.5-litre and the later 8-litre models the camshaft was driven by a system of coupling rods which were quieter than the shaft. In all other cars Bentley kept to the single overhead-camshaft layout until the time of his unsuccessful 4-litre model of 1931, by which point his company was on the… Read more

2 Comments

MG Y-TYPE

  By ,

This sports saloon version of the MG, first released in 1947, was known affectionately as the ‘Y’ by MG afficionados. The model YA stayed in production until 1951 and 6158 cars were produced and then it was replaced by the YB in 1952. The YB was only produced for a couple of years and it was discontinued in 1953 with a production run of 1201 cars. Little external changes were made to the YB but it did get twin leading-shoe brakes and hypoid rear axles. The Y-type was powered by… Read more

No comments

DAIMLER SP 250

  By

Daimler was a company with no tradition of sports cars so the SP250 “Dart” was something completely new for them to consider. Previously its one and only sporty car had been the Conquest Roadster of the mid-50s, which had much less performance. The decision to build it came after a change of management in the late 1950s; Daimler was in trouble and the senior management thought a new sports car would be a fine way to woo American buyers, just as Jaguar, Triumph and MG had done before them. Using… Read more

No comments

VOLVO 144

  By ,
1973 Volvo 144

With the launch of the 144, Volvo adopted a new and logical numbering system. The second figure denoted the number of cylinders and the third and last the number of doors. Although first announced in August 1966, production did not get underway until 1967. The new 144 was available with a choice of engines – the B18A delivering 85hp at 5000rpm and the B18B rated at 115hp at 6000rpm. The A was fitted with a Zenith Stromberg horizontal carburettor, while twin SU units were used on the B type. The… Read more

No comments

MG M-TYPE

  By
1929 MG M-Type

From 1923 Morris Garages of Oxford had been building slightly more sporting versions of each of their standard Morris cars. These might have been considered as sporting but certainly were not small and could not be considered elegant either. After the launch of the Austin Seven, which was an immediate success and carved out for a completely new market for Austin, Morris countered by launching its Eight. Since it had already become a tradition that MG built a sports version of each Morris model a prototype was built in which… Read more