LANCASTER CLASSIC CAR NEWS
Behind the Shutters: Katie Bushell
Workshop technician and YouTuber, Katie Bushell, has been into cars for as long as she can remember. Coming from a car-mad family, she was bound to end up a petrolhead, with her VW Scirocco GT2 appearing at shows the length and breadth of the country.
THE 2023 PRACTICAL CLASSICS CLASSIC CAR AND RESTORATION SHOW
There it was, basking in its orange glory on the Lancaster Insurance Pride of Ownership stand – the vehicle of my childhood dreams. This was a 1977 Escort 1300 Sport Mk. II, one of a mere handful of survivors, and a vehicle that belonged in the Ford brochure of that era.
MEET THE OWNER – CHRISTOPHER SHURLOCK AND HIS MG COLLECTION
I had no interest in MG cars as a young man and certainly not as a family man when other things were more important. It was only when I was approaching retirement in 2001 that I was looking for new interests. A chance trip to our local MG-Rover dealers had me looking at a new Solar Red MGF in the showroom.
THE RELIANT KITTEN – THE 57.5 MPG CAR
The name of Reliant is so associated with three-wheelers that its small four-wheel saloons are too often overlooked. They launched the Kitten at the 1975 Earls Court Motor to replace the long-established Rebel. Your friendly local dealer would tell you about the 24 feet turning circle and the remarkable fuel economy from the 850cc light-alloy engine – Reliant marketed the Kitten as the “57.5 mpg car.”
The Lancia Fulvia Berlina at 60
If you were visiting the Geneva Motor Show in 1963, the new model on the Lancia stand would probably have drawn your eye. The bodywork, by Piero Castagnero, was low-key in the manner of many bourgeoisie Italian saloons, but to lift the bonnet was to be mesmerised.
The Day I Encountered a Series 79 Buick Roadmaster Estate Wagon
“Starting a 79 calls for a faintly disconcerting procedure; you turn the key and then press the throttle pedal to the floor, thereby activating a vacuum operated starter button.
MEET THE OWNER – CHRISTINE LYNNE BROWN AND HER COMMER HIGHWAYMAN
The Commer was once part of the fabric of life in the UK – delivering milk, bread and groceries, attending to a telephone box vandalised by the local scooter boy gang or even starring in one of the best-remembered public information films of the 1970s:
MEET THE OWNER – RUSSELL MACFARLANE AND HIS FORD ESCORT GL MK. III
A few years ago, Russell was the proud owner of a Cortina 1300 ‘Base’ 2-Door Mk. V, but this classic Ford marked the pathway to decadence. No more would Mr. Macfarlane be satisfied with beige paintwork. But now, he craved the luxury of a dashboard with a quartz clock.
Meet the Owner – Alastair Fitton and his Rover 75, ‘Grace’
It’s fair to say that Alastair Fitton, founder of the Bus Stop Model Museum in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was in the right place at the right time when an early Rover 75 came his way. Not that he was on the hunt for an example of Rover’s last great hope, you understand; he’d simply handed over £120 to stop the scrap man from carting it away.
Meet The Owner – Mark Lee-Kilgariff and his Peugeot J7
Man, van, plan. That was Mark Lee-Kilgariff four years ago – and since opening his coffee shop to the locals around Knutsford, Cheshire, he hasn’t looked back. Tatton Perk is its name; while he now has two static locations around the town, the business began trading from a 1976 Peugeot J7 van outside the local railway station.
THE 2023 LONDON CLASSIC CAR SHOW
Last month’s London Classic Car Show at the Kensington Olympia was an event that put many visitors in a quandary – i.e. how could I afford one of many utterly tempting exhibits without putting my entire family on eBay? It was not just the Porsche display celebrating 60 years of the 911. It was not just the trio of Harold Radford-bodied Minis that were initially the property of George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Richard Starkey, aka Ringo Starr.