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Keep up to date with the latest news and events from the world of classic cars.
The Renault 4CV - A Celebration
- 20th April, 2020
The 4CV is, without any sense of hyperbole, one of Renault’s most famous cars. It was their first to sell more than a million units, and it was developed in circumstances that are hard to envisage.
MEET THE OWNER – BRIAN HALL AND HIS MG 1100
- Ellie Priestley |
- 16th April, 2020
An MG 1100 has to be one of the most attractive cars of its generation - especially when finished in Connaught Green. Brian Hall came across his 1967 example five years ago – ‘it appeared at local shows having just been bought from the original owner who had kept it for 40 years, I had the first refusal on it, but I thought he wanted too much for it so I didn’t buy it’
MARK CLINTON’S FIAT 130 BERLINAS
- Ellie Priestley |
- 16th April, 2020
As a child growing up in rural Hampshire in the early 1970s, there was a select group of cars that seemed to exemplify an impossibly remote world of glamour. Admittedly, I was raised in a village where Marty Wilde was still regarded as a young Teddy Boy and watching BBC2 a sign of dangerous radicalism. The fact that my family ran a succession of near wrecks also shaped my views concerning automotive excellence. At that time I classed any vehicle where the passenger door did not actually fall off as a “luxury car”.
When Did You Last See – A Vauxhall Royale Coupe?
- Ellie Priestley |
- 16th April, 2020
John Worth’s splendid Royale Coupe is a ‘not quite one family’ car. It belonged to his father ‘until 1985. He liked six-cylinder Vauxhalls, needed a hatchback and four seats - and enough towing capacity for a horsebox’.
HAPPY 40TH BIRTHDAY PRACTICAL CLASSICS!
- Ellie Priestley |
- 15th April, 2020
In the spring of 1980, a new motoring title hit the W H Smiths and Martins of the nation. The front cover featured an Austin A40 “Farina” and a Riley 4/47 while the name of this new publication was Practical Classics. And, in the words of the 2020 editor Danny Hopkins ‘the 40th anniversary edition is the May issue which goes on sale on 15th April’.
Sir Stirling Moss 17th September 1929 – 12th April 2020
- Ellie Priestley |
- 15th April, 2020
Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss passed away on the 12th April at the age of 90. His racing career commenced in 1948 as an 18-year-old racer in a Cooper 5000 and ended 14 years later with his crash at the International 100 race at Goodwood. During that time, as Giles Richards wrote in The Guardian, he went on:
Mazda MX-5 winner joined Brian Chandler on track day
- Ellie Priestley |
- 15th April, 2020
On Friday 6th March John Williams, the winner of our MX-5 competition last year, joined Lancaster Insurance and Brian Chandler at Donington Park to test the Mazda at one of the most internationally renowned and historically significant circuits in the world.
10 of the best American muscle cars
- 14th April, 2020
Just as with cinema, food and literature, every country has its own unique take on car manufacture. Historically, the Europeans and Japanese have highlighted handling, while the traditional American approach was to go for power. And they don’t get much more powerful than the American muscle cars of the 60s and early 70s.
Meet the Owner - Georg Dönni and His Daimler Ladbroke Avon Estate
- 8th April, 2020
‘People usually believe that the car is a hearse. As almost every car is now a hatchback, she does not generate that much attention anymore, but Jaguar folks are all highly amazed that there was ever a five-door XJ’. And this is quite understandable for the marque expert Georg Dönni owns one of the most exclusive cars ever to wear the famous Daimler fluted grille.
Classic car rallies around the world
- 7th April, 2020
There are some quite incredible classic car rallies to be found out there. As long as your classic car is up to the challenge (rallies can be quite the endurance test), you should really consider participating in one. But where?
Coronavirus and your car insurance - Lancaster Insurance is here to support you
- 2nd April, 2020
For many, spring signifies starting the engine of our classics and looking forward to the season ahead. This year, however, we understand enthusiasts will be unsure when they’ll be able to do this. We’ve been receiving a lot of queries from club members during this time, so Andrew Evanson, Senior Operations Manager at Lancaster Insurance, answers a number of these questions.
THE RAREST CARS IN BRITAIN - THE CIMITAN FAMILY'S FIAT 127 GT 1300
- 31st March, 2020
‘When we bring her out the amount of people that come up and start asking about it…’ remarks Chris about the Cimitan family’s Fiat. And this is hardly surprising, as any 127 is now a very unusual sight – let alone the third-generation GT 1300.
CAR OF THE MONTH – STEPHEN PARRISH AND HIS 1934 CITROEN ROSALIE
- 30th March, 2020
The public reaction to Stephen’s Citroen Rosalie 10CV (who, of course, goes by the name “Rosie”) is often one of surprise – ‘most people have never seen one or didn’t realise that Citroen’s were ever built in the UK and the fact it is a RWD surprises most’.
PHIL CAUNT AND THE PRISONER MOKE
- 27th March, 2020
On the 29th September 1967, ITV screened the first episode of The Prisoner which featured an unusual taxi cab - one that offered a ‘local service’ only.
