Classic Cars is the original classic car magazine. It defined the world of classic motoring 40 years ago and still does it today. Every issue is put together by our team of classic car experts and enthusiasts. Using the best expert writing and photography, the magazine helps you experience what it's like to drive, keep and restore the classic cars of days gone by. We bring the stories and people behind the cars to life - showing you how to buy, keep and enjoy your cars. Every issue of Classic Cars is packed with: - Road tests - Drive stories - Expert buying advice - News and events coverage Classic Cars is the original classic car magazine.
Welcome • Decades before TV viewers had the modern slew of car programmes to feed their needs, trainee petrolheads got our weekly fix from tyre-squealing cop shows
‘It’s a proper Jekyll and Hyde character’ • From a list filled with movie and TV show star cars, will Stephen Marshall’s ultimate choice of the Lamborghini Islero 400 S haunt him for ever, or produce a special bond?
CHASING CARS
CHASING CARS
CHASING CARS
CHASING CARS
Scalextric hero flies again
Bologna adds sauce to the 40th running of Auto e Moto d’Epoca
November-March event highlights
Bubbles surface in Norfolk • Isetta and Heinkel stored for decades; Thirties Topolino offered at same auction
Next Month
Love/hate relationship
Classic Cars
QUENTIN WILLSON • A recent experience underlines how classic car restorations can suddenly go horribly wrong for all sorts of unexpected reasons that nobody can predict
ALEX RILEY • I look in dismay at modern dashboards reduced to giant smartphones. Will the classics of the future ever resonate without the tactile joys we once relished?
PROFESSIONAL MISCONDUCT • These Ford Capri 3.0Ss were the cars driven by Bodie and Doyle in a bunch of 1980-filmed episodes of cult TV show The Professionals. We drive both – cardboard boxes beware
‘WE’D TURN UP TO CALLOUTS WITH GLOWING BRAKES’ • It wasn’t just on screens that police Capris spelt disaster for criminals. Many real-life UK forces gave marked examples to traffic officers, including ex-police sergeant Geoff Roberts
Neo-nostalgia • The SP3 Daytona blends Ferrari’s past, present and future in one delectable, V12-powered whole. Does it make history, or merely look longingly to the past?
‘We realised just how much of a prototype it was’ • Tasked with restoring a unique Jaguar created for a Yorkshire industrialist by a British design great, Hepworth International was faced with making a bodged Seventies prototype road- and concours-worthy
ORIGIN OF A SPECIES • This was one of the first Ralliart cars built. We drive it, and meet two other examples that prove the Mitsubishi Starion is an unsung motor sport hero
... AND THE STARION ALSO BROUGHT THE FIGHT TO THE BTCC
‘Audi came knocking once they realised the opposition benefitted’ • As an integral cog at FF Developments, Stuart Rolt convinced the world’s leading car manufacturers to embrace four-wheel drive – for use in rallying and beyond
LIFE STORY OF A Mercedes CLK200 • One car, three countries, four registrations – this one-owner, ex-demo W208 has been as far north as Nairn, Scotland and as far south as Strahan, Tasmania
VW Karmann-Ghia • Buy a Type 14 well and you’ll reap the rewards. Here’s how to spot a good one
INVESTOR CLASSICS
Figoni on Delahaye
Smelling trouble
Shoe shopping
A Farewell to the MR2
1987 Aston V8 Zagato £450,000 • A rare opportunity to own a superb, well-travelled (but very low-mileage…) Aston Martin, as Sam Dawson discovers
1978 Maserati Merak SS £74,995 • This is a rare opportunity to own the most powerful...