LANCASTER CLASSIC CAR NEWS
MEET THE OWNER – BOB SIMPKINS AND HIS 1975 RELIANT TW9 ‘ANT’
Never take your work home with you. A worthy adage, but one we’re lucky Bob Simpkins never paid heed. Now treasurer and membership secretary of the Reliant Owners’ Club’s Birmingham, he has three Tamworth cars in his collection: a Rialto and two TW9s, better known as the Ant.
Pick of the saleroom: our favourite cars heading to auction in April, May and June
Spring has sprung – and fascinating lots have come out of the woodwork in search of new homes. From an ex-TV star TR7 to a gigantic Dutch barn find, the coming weeks have a great deal to offer historic vehicle fans, collectors and pundits, on a local and international level.
A NEW DIRECTION FOR LAND ROVER
On the 19th April an article in The Times stated, “Jaguar Land Rover is to drop the 75-year-old Land Rover brand in a reboot of the automotive giant’. On the 20th April Autocar reported:
85 YEARS OF THE VOLKSWAGEN BEETLE – AND 85 FACTS
1. In 1934 Adolf Hitler decreed at the Berlin Motor Show that Germany had to increase the number of cars on its roads from half a million to 12 million.
100 YEARS OF THE JOWETT CAR CLUB
One hundred years ago, petrol was 1s 8 1/2d per gallon, a 1lb box of chocolates was 4/- and a car coat in the finest leather was £5 10s. Meanwhile, £220 would have gained you ‘The Jowett Car’ in two-seater form – The most powerful, economical, and comfortable Car for its size that it is possible to find.
MEET THE OWNER – JOHN MCLANNAHAN AND HIS AUDI 100 CS
I recently wrote about my amazement in encountering John McLannahan’s 1981 C2-Series 100 CS at this year’s Practical Classics Restoration Show. Equally remarkably, this Audi was once on the verge of plying for hire in Istanbul – so read on…
STARS AND THEIR CARS – NOELE GORDON AND HER ROLLS-ROYCE SILVER SHADOW
On the 10th of February 1975, ATV Television filmed the wedding of Meg Richardson to Hugh Mortimer in Crossroads. The location was St Philips Cathedral in Birmingham and chauffeuring the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow on screen was none other than Larry Grayson, who appeared to be ad-libbing.
THE VAUXHALL NOVA AT 40
If you are the same vintage as this writer (born in the year of Abbey Road and Monty Python’s Flying Circus) you would probably have been aware of the Nova several months before its actual launch in the spring of 1983. Opel introduced the Corsa at the 1982 Paris Motor Show when Vauxhall’s need for a supermini was acute.
DAME MARY QUANT - 11TH FEBRUARY 1930 – 13TH APRIL 2023
London is switched on. Ancient elegance and new opulence are all tangled up in a dazzling blur of op and pop. The city is alive with birds (girls) and beatles, buzzing with minicars and telly stars, pulsing with half a dozen separate veins of excitement.
Staying Positive: The CitiCar walked so Tesla could run
The battle between batteries and the internal combustion engine has been waged before – at the start of the 20th century. Before certain key developments put liquid fuelled cars out in front, it looked like electric vehicles were there to stay, even in the soon-to-be-car-mad United States, which soon rediscovered its love for EVs when the Fuel Crisis bit deep.
How the Mazda MX-5 Owners’ Club is preparing for the London ULEZ expansion
The London Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ), set to spread to Greater London boroughs on 29 August, has got many car clubs worried, but the Mazda MX-5 Owners’ Club is busy developing strategies to cope. It has a large number of London based members, and a base of non-compliant models – the MX-5 Mk1 [‘NA’] and MX-5 Mk2 [‘NB’], to attend to.
How to keep your classic safe from thieves
If classic car enthusiasts were to rank their worst nightmares, losing a classic to car thieves would top the list. Stolen vehicle specialists Tracker say that, as values have increased across the board, the majority of classics are stolen to order, stripped and abandoned, with the South East of the UK a particular hotspot owing to the vicinity of Europe bound ports.