[ OUR CARS ] 2006 Aston Martin V8 Vantage

After years of saving and debating known weaknesses, Phil Bell takes the plunge on a 2006 Aston Martin V8 Vantage.

Unusual Slate Blue colour can look pure grey in dull light

• Owned by Phil Bell (phil.bell@bauermedia.co.uk)

• Time owned 1 month

• Latest/total miles 328/41,437

• Latest/total costs £1247/£1247

• Previously Spent too long browsing classifieds

I’ve never read Feel The Fear and Do It Anyway, but whenever I’ve found myself holding back atop an intimidating slope with my mountain bike or snowboard poised, those words have helped me commit. The title resonated particularly deeply when I decided to stop talking about wanting an Aston Martin V8 Vantage, and actually buy one. For the first time in my life, I hadn’t rushed out to view cars the instant my savings finally added up to the price of a decent example. Fear of making a terribly expensive mistake seemed to have the edge over the excitement of owning something so damn good-looking and exciting.

You see, I’ve been infatuated with these cars since the VH2 Vantage was launched in 2005. First, it was the taut, purposeful styling, then the surprisingly un-Astonlike and wickedly raucous sound of that V8. Once I’d seen and heard them race through the night at Le Mans, and beat the Corvettes and Porsches, my brain’s suggestibility enhanced by a beer or red wine too many, I was hooked.

But I had a problem. Every car I’ve ever bought was at least part funded by the sale of the last one, but despite having owned my E-type for 16 years, and enduring some testing moments in the relationship, I cannot bring myself to part with it. So, I’ve had to save and wait, save and wait, save and wait – you get the idea.

Refined interior, meaty controls, sonorous V8

My research suggested that these are fundamentally robust cars if properly maintained, but you won’t be surprised to hear, quite small faults can be painfully expensive to fix, including a list of known weaknesses. Once I’d – finally – accepted that road tax is £790 a year, I asked Hagerty how much it would be to add one to my E-type classic policy and decided that £357 for the remaining months until my renewal was reasonable. Next was the cost of those weaknesses, including a clutch that can need replacement at relatively low mileage. That, at around £3000 fitted, along with the others added up to a risk I decided to take anyway.

Much advice suggests the 4.7 that came later was a better car with fewer weaknesses, but for my budget, it was either a 4.3 with full Aston and specialist history, lowish mileage and not too many owners, or a 4.7 with none of those desirables. Aston made a lot of VH2 Vantages, but the field was further narrowed by my need for a manual, and it had to be a coupé. After considering something like 20 cars, I did the deal on a 2006 example with 41k miles, buying it from only its third owner.

After a week of night-before-Christmas poor sleep, what should have a been a dream day was dented by Thameslink’s inability to get me 80 miles from home to South London. And after the big handover, I had to endure two hours of 20mph zones, speed humps, width restrictions and the M25 at crawl before I could properly savour my new car on a celebratory cross-country run home. But for now, any fear is displaced by pure, can’t-believe-I’ve-finally-done-it, joy.

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[ MONTH IN CARS ] Barn finds

Super-rare coachbuilt estate version of Seventies executive car discovered in France

One-off Renault 30 Break built by Pichon-Parat

This is a 1977 Renault 30 with an estate car body – known as a ‘break’ in France – built by a coachbuilder called Pichon-Parat in Sens, 75 miles southeast of Paris. It was discovered in July 2024 by the collector and digital content creator Xavier Hory, who is close to completing the restoration.

Originally ordered by CEO of clothing firm

‘I was surfing Facebook and I saw photos of the Renault in storage on an urban exploration page. I knew of this car because it was originally ordered by the CEO of a clothing firm called Christine Laure in the Haute-Saone, where my father’s family is from. Using some local contacts, I was able to find the owner. He wasn’t really interested in selling the car at first, but I sent him some photos showing that other cars nearby had been damaged by vandals and had some parts stolen. We negotiated and agreed to the sale of the R30 Break and a R30 sedan for parts, and a genuine Renault 4 Plein-Air – the beach car model, with no doors or roof.’

Used as a rally support vehicle for Michèle Mouton

The Renault 30 was a powerful executive saloon in its day but is now virtually extinct in the UK, though a few remain in France. With a 2.7-litre V6 engine driving the front wheels, it used the same fivedoor fastback-type body as the 2.0-litre, four-cylinder Renault 20. Xavier thinks Pichon-Parat also built one R20 Break, but that car does not survive.

Thorough restoration is now underway

‘Christine Laure sponsored motorsport when this R30 was new, and it was used as a support vehicle on some rallies for drivers including Michèle Mouton and Guy Fréquelin,’ says Xavier. ‘When I found it, the body was OK, but the engine was seized. It was an Alpine-type V6, re-worked for more power, and the car wore adjustable dampers. It was said to be good for 200km/h/125mph!’ Xavier now has the car running and driving but he still needs to rebuild the tailgate and paint it in its original grey colour. ‘The CEO of the firm that ordered this car had a son, who married my cousin, so you could say the R30 Break is back in the family,’ says Xavier.

Seized Alpine-type V6 re-worked for more power

Rare ‘missing link’ Alvis sells cheaply

Around 14 Alvis TC108G Willowbrook-bodied cars built

Alvis sold 37 of its TC108G coupés, the majority bodied by Swiss coachbuilder Hermann Graber of Berne. The remainder were Alvis’s attempt to productionise Graber’s design under licence as a replacement for the TC21 ‘Grey Lady’. They chose the motor coach body specialist Willowbrook of Loughborough.

It’s likely only 13 or 14 were built, of which two recently emerged from long-term storage on a property in Essex. The black 1956 car is thought to have lain undisturbed since 1973, because the owner, something of an Alvis collector, rarely drove his cars. He had a second TC108G which survived in better condition and has been retained by the late owner’s relatives for restoration.

Two TC108G coupés have been found in one Essex property

At first glance, these Willowbrook cars look very like the Alvis TD21 that was produced by Park Ward from 1958 to 1963, but they have a different rear screen and C-pillar treatment, and Graber’s attractive steel dash, reproduced in glassfibre. However, Willowbrook’s adjustment to bodying expensive cars rather than public service vehicles did not go very smoothly, with fit and finish problems and slow production pushing Alvis to look to Park Ward instead.

One car thought to have not moved for more than 50 years

‘There’s a fair bit of rust in the nearside rear quarter and sill,’ said Lewis Rabbett of auctioneer Reeman Dansie, which sold the car for a top bid of £3000 in June. ‘It will be a big project, but it sold to a buyer in the UK for restoration.’

Sold for restoration at auction for £3000

Barn-find Lotuses blossom in summer

Elan Sprint fetched less than SE coupé…

For no reason other than chance, barn finds tend to behave like buses: none for ages, and then… In this case, it’s Sixties and Seventies Lotuses that have all appeared at once in recent weeks. Two came to market via Iconic Auctioneers at its Sywell Aerodrome sale in May: a 1970 Elan SE coupé off the road for almost 30 years, but well stored and surprisingly solid underneath.

Despite its long internment and the layer of grime and bird droppings that concealed it, bidders seemed impressed at its condition, and it sold for an excellent £23,063. Another baby Elan, this time a 1972 Sprint roadster, would normally be a much more valuable car, but despite cleaner storage under a blanket in a garage, it looked a far bigger project classic and reached only £14,063.

Elan +2 130 was owned by late Tony Martin

…because despite cleaner storage, more work needed

A month later, Anglia Car Auctions offered two contrasting Twin-Cam-powered vehicles – an extremely rough 1973 Elan +2 130, rescued from the property of the late Tony Martin, the Norfolk farmer at the centre of an infamous self-defence manslaughter case in 1999. It had lost its engine and made a token £760. Just as rough, though with a potentially much more valuable identity, was a 1963 Lotus Cortina, complete with the A-frame suspension, visible through the rotten cavities present in the boot. Off the road since the Seventies and requiring a ‘very brave restoration’ according to ACA, it was worth £9936 to someone.

Lotus Cortina had been dormant for 50 years

Elan SE coupé off the road for three decades

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[ Alfa Romeo 75 Evo ]

Created to take on the touring car best, the Alfa 75 Evoluzione’s motorsport career was far from glorious. Away from the confines of the track, does is this homologation special redeem itself as a credible Eighties performance classic?

Words CHRIS CHILTON Photography NEIL FRASER/ HISTORICS AT BROOKLANDS

Evoluzione denotes a rare homologation 75

An aircraft-style U-shaped handbrake is just one of many Alfa Romeo 75 quirks. Others include square exterior door handles, a square cigarette lighter, electric window switches on the roof above the rearview mirror, and a radio mounted so low you could only change the cassette if the car was in second or fourth gear. Befitting its serious intentions, however, this particular 75 has no sound system. What it does have is a nice Momo wheel – bright red colour excepted – in place of the original, but the square-jawed dashboard is as artless and straight-lined as the exterior. The gauge pack is pleasingly comprehensive, though, showing a rev counter redlined at 6500rpm, a 260km/h (162mph) speedometer, and minor gauges covering fuel, water, oil and turbo boost information. But then this is no ordinary Alfa Romeo 75. This is one bred for motorsport.

When it comes to Eighties motorsport action, it’s easy to understand why the crazy Group B monsters received so much attention. Most notably when it came to rallying, the beasts lived fast and died young; grotesque caricatures of the cars that were on our drives while we watched the action on our goldfish bowl-screen, faux wood-sided TVs. But a rung down the FIA ladder in Group A, there was some seriously hot racing going on – and the cars really did look and feel not a million miles away from the one parked outside your semi.s

Touring cars weren’t necessarily the fastest or most powerful racing machines, but they always seemed relevant and attainable, and the racing has always been nail-bitingly exciting. While FIA-sanctioned Group N cars were close to standard specification, Group A allowed more scope for modification, without veering towards the insanity and expense of Group B. Every major country had its own national saloon championship, and the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) series had been born in 1963. But how much better could it be if a series raced across the globe? In 1987 the dream became a reality, and very quickly a nightmare, particularly for Alfa Romeo.

‘The turbocharged Alfa feels eager, and willing to change direction’

Love or hate Ermanno Cressoni’s design, you certainly can’t ignore it

On paper, Alfa’s 75 Evoluzione had all the right ingredients for success. A turbocharged engine offered huge tuning potential, its transaxle layout should have ensured the optimum handling balance, and the company itself had scored a stack of ETCC wins in the Seventies and early Eighties. So, just what happened and what does it feel like to drive one of the 500 Evoluzione road cars built to homologate the racer?

Everybody’s heard of the BMW M3 Evo and Mercedes-Benz 190E 2.5-16 Evo which, together with the Ford Sierra Cosworth RS500, hogged the podium steps in the second half of the Group A period. By building 500 examples, FIA rules allowed manufacturers to modify existing racing cars that had already been homologated. But you may not have heard of the Alfa 75 Evoluzione. One thing’s for sure, though – now you’ve seen it, you’re not likely to forget it in a hurry.

Alfa Romeo has produced some incredibly beautiful cars, but the 75 is definitely not one of them. Designed by Ermanno Cressoni at Alfa’s Centro Stile, and launched in 1985, it bore a resemblance to Cressoni’s smaller 33, unveiled two years earlier. But this one was much less easy on the eye.

Despite turbo, Alfa’s not quick, but comes alive in the corners

It starts well at the front, that bluff nose promising some mighty lurking powerplant – which the V6 versions did deliver. But then there’s the line of the bootlid, which runs at a totally different angle from the waistline of the car, suggesting some catastrophic spot-weld malfunction somewhere at floor level. Viewed from the rear the whole thing looks heavy-handed, with way too much metalwork above the rear lights. Sift through a load of Google images and find a standard base-model 75 with unpainted bumpers and boring steel wheels and wheel trims, and you’ll have a hard time believing this is an Alfa.

But in the 75’s case, the beauty was all under the skin. Like the Giulietta before it, the 75 was rear wheel-drive – and would be Alfa Romeo’s last rear-drive saloon until the reborn Giulia appeared in 2016. Similarly to the Giulietta, instead of the engine and gearbox mounted at the front, the 75 used a transaxle, with the transmission mounted at the rear of the car to balance the mass end-to-end. The gearbox was mounted to the body and there were inboard brake discs to keep the unsprung weight low, with a de Dion tube slung underneath to link the wheels at either side for a semi-independent layout.

Garrett T03 turbo helped 1.8-litre’s power to 153bhp in road trim

All of which was totally wasted on the 109bhp entry-level 1.6 at launch in 1985, and the 118bhp 1.8 and 126bhp 2.0 didn’t set pulses racing either. The 2.5 V6 seemed like the only 75 capable of getting you anywhere near excited. Until 1986, when Alfa’s engineers added a Garrett T03 turbocharger to the 1.8.

The 75 Turbo’s 153bhp was so close – just 1bhp less – than the power of the V6, but it absolutely trounced it for torque. The Turbo summoned 167lb ft, compared to the V6’s respectable 152lb ft at 3200rpm, and delivered it 600rpm sooner. That was fresh from the showroom; the period turbo technology meant the tuning possibilities were huge. So much so, that the 75 Turbo looked like the ideal base for a Touring Car winner.

Prices have risen. Will they go further?

It had plenty to live up to. The old Alfetta-based GTV coupé had won every ETCC since Group A was introduced in 1982, up until 1985. But to Alfa’s horror, the 75 V6 was a flop the next year, leaving it tenth out of 10 manufacturers at the close of the 1986 ETCC season. And with 1987’s much-hyped World Touring Car Championship looming, Alfa had to do something to save face.

The 75 Turbo Evoluzione is what it came up with. Like other manufacturers including Ford, Volvo and BMW, Alfa took advantage of FIA rules that allowed car makers to race modified versions of their already homologated cars, provided 500 street models of the uprated machine were built. Some, like the Sierra RS500, were hard to spot at a passing glance. But there was no mistaking the menace of the 75 Turbo Evoluzione.

‘Hello…’ The Eighties wants its styling back

Picture it coming at you head-on, where you can’t read the giant ‘75 Turbo Evoluzione’ legend displayed along the bottom of the doors. You’d definitely notice the deep front spoiler, gaping air intakes where you’d expect a pair of fog lights, and jutting front splitter, and know it was something special. Then there are the fat wheelarch spats that follow all the way down to the nose, connected by a chunky pair of sill extensions; modifications you just know are there to help cover some colossal rubber in the racing version.

Trouble is, in the road car, there’s no colossal rubber to fill those wheelarches. Despite the wheel diameter growing from 14 to 15in, the ugly cast alloy rims look lost in the wheel housings, their colour-coding reinforcing the space-saver spare wheel look. Is this really a credible rival to the M3 and Cossie? Better get to grips with the weird-shaped handbrake and find out.

‘The 75 Turbo feels less polished than its rivals, but it’s more interesting to drive as a result’

Apex-hunting helped by 75 Evo’s transaxle handling balance

The boost gauge is calibrated to an optimistic 2.5 bar, presumably in case you wanted to join the Midnight Club and tune it up to chase 1000bhp Skylines, because the road car never got near those heady heights. That said, this was no standard 75 Turbo motor. To level the field, the power rating of turbos was subjected to a multiplication factor of 1.4 in Group A, so the cylinder bores were reduced to 80mm to 79.6mm to lower the 1.8’s capacity from 1779 to 1762cc and slip the car into the under-2.5-litre class. The cylinder block and bottom end were stronger, and the turbocharger and cylinder head modified to deliver 276bhp in racing trim. Yet Alfa claimed the same 153bhp for the road car as it did for the standard 75 Turbo.

Owners who have subjected their cars to dyno runs have reputedly seen around 20bhp more, and if you whip the engine into a frenzy, the mix of turbo whoosh and exhaust noise concurs. This one seems to be pinking, but spins well enough, even if your gut accelerometer tells you the rate of acceleration is only moderately rapid. Zero to 62mph was dealt with in 7.5sec, around 0.5sec off the pace of even a basic non-Evo M3, and the party was over by 133mph. Never mind the BMW, in plain speed terms, a Golf GTI 16v was very nearly as quick.

Boom box: 75 Evo has fizzy steering and feels raw

But line up some corners, and the Evoluzione’s fightback begins – the car is as animated as an Italian in an argument at a coffee bar. There’s proper life in the steering, which fizzes with feedback in response to changes in surface, and a pleasing lack of body roll. It feels eager, willing to change direction at the sniff of a steering input. It works better when it’s being driven: at normal speeds the ride is stiff and there’s old-school turbo lag to contend with. But keep the Alfa’s fire stoked and it comes together, delivering plenty enough pace to let you enjoy the relatively exotic drivetrain layout.

Through brisk corners you can see why Alfa persisted with the unusual transaxle layout, which helps with handling balance, as well as traction. All that weight over the rear wheels, combined with the modest output, means you can put every available ounce of that power to use. Even the gearchange, with its H-pattern rather than the M3’s dogleg, is much less obstinate than I’d heard. Only the brakes, limited in size by those modest wheels, and the looming spectre of Alfa unreliability, threaten to spoil your fun.

FIA rules decreed 500 road cars must be built

Exciting, raw, and rare, fun is certainly one thing you’ll experience when driving the 75 Evoluzione. And while it feels less polished than its German rivals, that makes it more interesting to drive as a result. With prices of all other Group A Evo cars going through the roof, the 75 Evoluzione seemed the last one attainable by normal-sized wallets. This car sold for £23,250 at a Brooklands Historics auction in 2016, less than a fifth of what you’d pay then for an M3 Sport Evo. Your biggest problem is finding one, followed by current asking prices. Although one sold for €44k in 2025, at the time of writing, perfect-looking dealer examples are now being advertised on the Continent for north of €70k….

If you can get past the jarring looks and the knowledge that all that effort was in vain on the racetrack, the Evoluzione is a genuinely appealing car. Feisty and just that little bit different, it’s a truly fascinating and offbeat character from one of touring cars’ strangest seasons.

‘As prices of Group A Evo cars rise, the 75 seemed the last on offer for normal-sized wallets’

Unconventional 75 an unlikely touring car base

1987 Alfa Romeo 75 Evoluzione

• Engine 1762cc four-cylinder, dohc, Garret T03 turbocharger and intercooler, Bosch LE2 Jetronic electronic fuel injection

• Transmission Five-speed manual, rear wheel-drive, limited-slip differential

• Power and torque 153bhp @ 5800rpm; 170lb ft @ 2600rpm

• Steering Rack-and-pinion

• Suspension Front: independent, torsion bars, lower wishbones, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar. Rear: de Dion axle with Watts linkage, coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar.

• Brakes Front: vented discs. Rear: discs (inboard)

• Performance Top speed: 133mph; 0-60mph: 7.4sec

• Weight 1150kg (2535lbs)

• Fuel consumption 31.3mpg

• Cost new c£15,000

• Value now c£40,000

The 1987 WTCC disaster

After the edge-of-the-seat soap opera that was the 1986 European Touring Car Championship (ETCC), with Rover driver Win Percy beating BMW’s Roberto Ravaglia by one point before having the decision reversed a month later, there was a real buzz going into 1987. The ETCC would run again, but all eyes were on the new WTCC, which would feature some unusual metal, like Holden’s Commodore and Maserati’s BiTurbo alongside the more common machines from Ford and BMW.

Despite a poor showing from the standard 75 V6 in 1986, and the shock of a $60,000 entry fee for the new championship, things looked more promising for Alfa in the inaugural WTCC season. The 75 Turbo had performed well on its debut at the last race of the ETCC calendar before a broken gearbox had stopped play, and Alfa had some stellar drivers, including Jacques Laffite, Gabriele Tarquini and Nicola Larini.

But things went wrong from the start, and not just for Alfa. At the first race in Monza, M3s took the first six places, but were disqualified for thin roof skins and bonnets made from Kevlar, while two Sierras were banished for running the wrong injection systems. Yet despite this gift, the fastest 75, run by Albatech, could finish no higher than seventh overall, and third in class. Several 75s didn’t finish because of turbocharger problems.

There were more gearbox woes at the next event at Jarama, and even the 75s that stayed fit couldn’t keep pace with the nimble M3, or the heavier but more powerful Cosworths, which were about to get even more muscle as the RS500 version swaggered on to the grid.

Things improved mid-season, and at Silverstone 75s took third and fifth, their best results. But it was too late. The WTCC was set to leave Europe for its four final races – two in Australia, one in New Zealand and a finale in Japan – but Alfa decided to pull the plug.

The 75 never really got close to its Ford and BMW rivals; and the infighting and cheating that would continue in the races after Alfa’s withdrawal tarnished the series, which was ultimately won by Roberto Ravaglia in his M3. There would be no WTCC the following year – or any other until the advent of the 2005 season.

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[ THE INSIDERS ]

When the design sketch phase normally takes two months but none other than a prime minister wants to see your work in 20 minutes, it’s time to improvise

It can take weeks or even months to finally arrive on that winning sketch for a new car. Even a facelift or a special version can have you scribbling for days. But when Malaysian car maker Proton bought Lotus in 1996, ownership took on quite a different turn from previous custodians, be it General Motors or Bugatti. We were no longer behest to industry captains and board executives, now the people we had to impress were Malaysian royalty and heads of state.

So, when our engineering director rushed into the Lotus Design studio in a panic telling us he had a meeting that evening with Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, and he needed urgent help, we were all ears. We were to prepare ideas for new cars to put Proton on the global car map.

So, we set to work drawing sports cars, pickups, and saloons. There was an additional time pressure, not only because of the impending meeting, but because it was a Friday and on Friday, we always knocked off early to head down to our local, The Bird in Hand.

While my team worked on more extravagant ideas, I drew the short straw and quickly scribbled down a sketch for a hot hatch based on the Proton’s locally built version of the old Mitsubishi Colt. Come the following Monday morning, a puff of white smoke was received. Astonishingly, my sketch had beaten all others and been given Prime Minister approval. A Proton engineering team had been immediately dispatched and was inflight ready to oversee the project.

‘It wasn’t a bad drawing by any means, but rather hastily prepared so we could make that pub trip’

Great, let’s get down to business, I told the team upon their arrival. Time to start the design process – six to eight weeks to sketch out ideas and properly develop them. I was met with puzzled and slightly annoyed faces. What part of Mr Mohamad’s directive to build this car didn’t I understand?

I explained that the sketch was merely the first stage, with no attention applied to aerodynamics, cooling, manufacturing or even a properly thought-out aesthetic. Now their looks bordered on horror. Their PM had chosen, he had decreed. Going back with something else, however good, would be a failure. The car would have to be an exact replica of that 20-minute sketch.

Consequently, marker pens and sketch pads went into early retirement and we set about making a clay model. As we scraped and carved the full size model I was always aware that over my shoulder watching like a hawk was the Proton Engineering head clutching that sketch in one hand making sure that every detail was exactly the same.

It wasn’t a bad drawing by any means, but rather hastily prepared so we could make that pub trip. So, it was peppered with rather slapdash ideas. The wheels owed something to a Bugatti EB110 but were chosen because they were easy to draw quickly. The bolt-on arches were inspired by a Saxo VTR. And the black rubbing strip that ran round the car stopped strangely on the corners because I drew a brake duct in the way.

Roll on 12 months and with first prototypes complete, our new owners were delighted. Roger Becker had reworked the chassis into something quite good and despite my reservations, quirks aside, it didn't look too shabby.

I was most surprised when Phil Bell reminded me that a Satria GTI had once graced the pages of this esteemed publication. But despite my love of all things hot hatch, and my belief that you should drive what you design, I haven’t bought one. What do you expect? I only spent 20 minutes designing it!

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[ CHASING CARS ] Nigel Boothman’s hot tips

Virage & V8 – is it time for Aston’s unloved Nineties muscle machine to find favour?

The sale of this 1996 Aston Virage Volante ‘widebody’ for £35,000 with Dore & Rees at the Wilton Concours in June stood out. I was surprised to see a smart example of these bulging 330bhp convertibles dipping so low. This one was showing only 30,000 miles and had just been recommissioned with new fluids, hoses, a water pump and expensive Pirelli P Zeros. Historics sold an even better one at £66k in March and a 48,000-miler for a touch less than the £58k low estimate in September last year. Two of the nonwidebody Volantes made £43,700 and £41,400 last summer with RM Sotheby’s and Bonhams. Have they fallen?

I reckon not. That result at Wilton looks a bit freakish and very well bought, but it’s worth remembering how values vary across the model range. The Virage replaced the long-lived V8 in 1989 and the standard coupés can struggle down in the £20k-£25k range. For a parallel, cast your mind back to the way the Aston Martin DBS was seen in the Nineties – heftier and less pretty than the DB5s and 6s it replaced and slower and older than the V8 that succeeded it.

The DBS’s handsome lines have matured fully now, and while I’m not sure we’ll ever take quite the same delight in the Virage, 1996-on versions and Volantes are tempting. The Virage was relaunched in 1996 as the V8 – confusingly enough – using a body resembling the supercharged Vantage – which is in a different league, topping out at £220k for the V600 version. The normal V8 coupés should be £30k-plus, the Volantes a bit more again.

‘For a parallel, cast your mind back to the way the Aston Martin DBS was seen in the Nineties’

There are reasons for optimism. First, there’s a rise in street cred for cars with lairy Eighties and Nineties looks – wide wheelarches, air dams, split-rim alloys. Second, they all look cheap compared to any older Aston. Third, they were made in tiny numbers: 411 Virages, 233 Virage Volantes, 101 V8 coupés, 63 V8 Volantes. Fourth, the valuable Vantages reflect a bit of glory. Fifth, their relationship to the beer-money DB7 is analogous to that between the last ‘proper’ Bentleys – Arnage, Continental R, Azure and Brooklands coupé – and the VW Bentleys – Conti GT and Flying Spur. Remember, no-one is making handbuilt cars like this classic Aston any more.

BMW Z1’s social media hype could indicate rising prices

I have a 17-year-old son who follows hundreds of Instagram and Facebook accounts that offer motoring content. Recently, his feed was filling up with BMW Z1s, and he asked me whether there was a bit of a craze for them. Various influencers were praising them, playing with the drop-down doors and generally acting like fanboys discovering an under-appreciated gem. Is this just an algorithm throwing up a meaningless string of content, or is it responding to something that’s already happening? Or should we, in fact, be using this as a predictor of what could be an incoming trend?

I looked at the results for the model worldwide – social media channels are dominated by content from outside the UK – and two patterns emerge: they’re worth less in the UK than anywhere else, and the real micro-mileage museum exhibits are fetching about double the price of a mint but useable car. This phenomenon is common, especially among German ‘youngtimers’ – buyers seem particularly susceptible to the charms of unused cars.

The red Z1 pictured is the most recent of these to sell at auction, fetching €80,500 (£68,790) with RM Sotheby’s in Munich in October, and could barely claim delivery mileage: just 63km. This sort of result gives hope to dealers, many of whom are advertising cars at up to £60,000 in the UK and Europe, but it’s not clear how close they get to the asking price. A very nice 3000km example failed to sell at Artcurial’s Le Mans Classic sale in early July on an estimate of €70k-€100k, so perhaps 3000km is just too much for the true and ardent BMW fetishist.

Our Price Guide suggests £32,000 for a mint one and £42,000 for a genuine concours car or a great example from a dealer. Their left-hand-drive-only status has kept numbers down in the UK which has in turn limited the following, but if there’s a part of the Z1 market that’s likely to move, it’s probably the cars that are in neither of those upper brackets.

Dore & Rees couldn’t sell a clean-looking black one with 61,000 miles on a £32k-£36k estimate last August, and that feels like the niche to buy into – good, useable, original cars not ruined with six-figure mileages and looking tremendous value next to un-driven powder puffs at £75,000. After all, the Z1 is huge fun. The 2.5-litre straight six makes it feel agreeably quick… and you can actually drive with those doors dropped!

Solid values for Series Land Rovers, despite abundance

Every time I spot a cheap Series Land Rover, I wonder if the bubble has burst and they’re going to drop back to the £1250 I paid for mine 25 years ago, when Series IIIs lay about like stray dogs. They don’t, of course, and the one I’ve spotted invariably turns out to be a disastrous heap. The change in the ownership profile and the money spent on them has been astonishing. What’s more, recent results suggest interest continues to strengthen.

The initial surge in value came from the first of the breed, the game-changing Series I. That soon translated to higher prices for Series II, IIA and III models, and then onwards into the 90/100 range, and the Defender after that. Defenders have evolved their own market thanks to the ever-more expensive variants offered before the model finally died in 2016. If there was to be a reality check for all this, it would be those last to rise that fell first – unremarkable Series IIIs, for instance. But a winning bid of £18,000 for a restored 1979 short-wheelbase example with a galvanized chassis – a normal upgrade when rebuilding one – at Iconic’s Sywell sale in May suggested things are dandy.

Look overseas, and the results for Series III can be startling: $78,400 (£58,618) for a decorated and mildly restomodded 1973 LWB diesel at Bonhams in Miami on 3 May, €57,500 (£49k) for a pretend Camel Trophy LWB hard-top with a 2 ¼ petrol engine in Paris back in January. Another resto-mod, this time a 1977 LWB pick-up with a 2.8-litre Cummins diesel, is catalogued by RM Sotheby’s in Monterey with a $125k-$175k estimate.

It makes the sums paid for the charming selection of Series I Land Rovers offered at the Goodwood Members’ Meeting in the spring look quite reasonable: £23,000 for a 1954 107-inch recovery truck, £31,050 for a 107-inch Station Wagon, £48,300 for a restored lights-behind-the-grille 1948 80-inch. If it were any other kind of classic car, you’d look at the quantities for sale and bite your nails with worry. There are 46 Series IIIs for sale in the UK on just one website, as I write, and 154 pre-1980 Land Rovers in all. But the rules are different here – the appeal is vast, crossing urban and rural crowds, spanning every age group and income level. If you want a safe place to park £10,000-£40,000, a really nice Series Land Rover is as good a bet as any.

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[ The List ] Your Dream Drive made real

Consultant radiologist Morgan Cleasby has lusted after an BMW E9 3.0CSL since the Seventies. Will driving one significantly elevate his adrenal output, or prove to be sedation in motoring form?

Words ROSS ALKUREISHI Photography LAURENS PARSONS

Spandex central. The garment of choice of most people in The Spire & Spoke’s garden, as well as the café/bar’s name itself, leaves us in no doubt that we’re in prime Oxfordshire cycling belt. Every minute or so, the air is pierced by the latest pack buzzing past, while around us cyclists fettle machinery and take on fluids. And yet, owner Rob Forrest and I have been brought here by four, not two, wheels. His pristine BMW 3.0CSL, resplendent in Fjord Blue, sits serenely among this hive of industry, bodywork gleaming in the morning sunshine. It’s quickly joined by Classic Cars magazine reader Morgan Cleasby’s Tornado Red Volkswagen Up GTI, who we’ve lined up to drive his dream BMW. ‘Hofmeister Kink!’ he says, pointing to his VW’s C-pillar. ‘I bought this as a semi-retirement present for my wife, but she knew it was really for me; it’s great for going banzai on a B-road and it had to be the three-door, because the five-door doesn’t have the kink. That design feature is a direct influence of the CSL, and one reason I think your BMW is one of the most beautiful cars, Type-14 Lotus Elite aside, ever made.’

‘The balance is superb, and the controls are full of feedback. It’s such a responsive car’

Continuing his visual appraisal, he lists the other reasons. ‘Look at those oversized numbers on the rear badge, I’ve always loved that; the rear overhang is perfection; you can lower the windows, and it becomes an elegant pillarless coupé; and that shark-nose is iconic. The Neue Klasse that came before had a very straight front-end and rectangular light clusters that didn’t work for me, but you can see the key design elements of this car that continued and contributed to the success of the later 635.’

A short but spirited conversation on recent BMW design language ends with a few thoughts on the ‘Neue’ Neue Klasse before Rob begins giving us the lowdown on the car, explaining it’s relatively fresh out of restoration with just 850 miles covered since. ‘The engine is almost fully run-in now’ he says, before showing us both a photo of the CSL as bought that leaves us agog. ‘It looks like a hatchback!’ states Morgan. ‘A “restoration” company had almost totally destroyed it,’ explains Rob. ‘There was no boot, they’d cut the whole front end off, no floors or sills… However, the engine had been fully rebuilt, and it came with all new manifolds, which persuaded me to buy it’.

Despite a racing pedigree, there is wood, too

Having originally trained as an engineer skilled in sheet metal work and detail fitting, Rob ploughed ahead. ‘I was lucky enough to buy a jig off a guy in the Midlands that picked up all the main structural parts of the car and gave me a datum line to work from.’ He completed the significant structural work before a coachbuilder added the panels. ‘Finding replacements was hard. Some came from America; some Germany; while others, such as the bonnet skin, were unavailable and had to be remade. It’s without doubt, the hardest car I’ve ever restored’. No pressure then, Morgan. He pops the driver’s door open and slides into the sculpted Recaro bucket seat. ‘It’s every bit as good as it looks – wonderfully comfortable and supportive. This cabin is lovely. There’s a real feeling of spaciousness and it’s wonderfully light thanks to thin pillars. The contouring of the wood veneers on the dashboard and the passenger shelf above is exquisite.’

Morgan turns the key and the BMW’s big straight-six fires into life with a cultured purr; blipping the throttle elicits more acoustic joy thanks to a stainless-steel exhaust system, minus one silencer box. He slots the gearlever into first and begins crawling through a sea of wary cyclists. Slowly, he edges the sculpted Bavarian nose out onto his Maj’s highway and, spotting a gap between echelons, strokes the throttle. The resulting wheel spin and gravel kickback is magnificent, if perhaps a little over the top. None of us look back; we can sense the disapproval.

Bucket-type sports seats are by Recaro

‘Limited-slip differential, an unfamiliar car and a tight left turn out of a loose gravel car park – interesting’, offers a sheepish Morgan. ‘The gearbox has a nice, short throw,’ he says, shifting into second. ‘The lever is well placed, and this wooden gearknob is so tactile’. We’re not experiencing the smoothest of starts to our journey, as the CSL gently kangaroos down the road. ‘I’m just getting to grips with the throttle sensitivity and clutch,’ Morgan explains. By his fourth gearchange things are significantly smoother and it’s clear man and ultimate driving machine are on their way to becoming one.

As we begin the climb up Watlington Hill, he’s marginally harder on the throttle. ‘The BMW six-cylinder engine, in all its iterations, has always been a peach; already I can state this car is so smooth and seamless in its machinations. If I’m honest, the acceleration isn’t as brisk as I expected. That’s not a criticism – I always need to reset my expectations; I’m used to driving 500-600kg cars like my Caterham 7 that accelerate ferociously’.

We hit Christmas Common, and the profusion of hikers, walkers, DofE pupils and yet more cyclists that we’ve just passed lend the impression of a speed awareness course safety video set to max. It’s clear we need to seek out pastures new, so we head north and are soon on the more substantial old London Road, the A40, where Morgan begins to stretch the CSL’s legs.

Morgan (seated) finds spacious cabin light, with exquisite details

‘It’s such a natural car to drive; it’s made easy by the silky powertrain, typical BMW excellent brakes – no doubt helped by car’s low mass – and superb visibility. The steering feel is familiar to my 124 Spider’s; like Fiat, BMW came late to the rack-and-pinion party. It’s good but not pin-sharp,’ he says. ‘What I am surprised by though, is just how refined and quiet it feels. I was, perhaps, expecting more of a raw homologation special but it’s a luxurious grand tourer, albeit one that can roll back it’s gums and snarl, if provoked.’ Ah yes, and in racing form, snarl the E9 CSL certainly did. Under the auspices of the newly formed BMW Motorsport GmbH division, headed by Jochen Neerpasch, CSLs routed all-comers during the Seventies, storming to six European Touring Car

Championship titles from its debut in 1973. Think of motorsport in that era, and the image of a ferocious, M-Sport liveried ‘Batmobile’, with its extreme aero addenda, pops neatly into my head. For Morgan, too, it’s still an indelibly imprinted memory. ‘I remember reading car magazines with my dad from the age of five,’ he explains. ‘And I can still recall poring over those images, and a brochure that started my love for the CSL, road car and race car photographed side-by-side, and all the specifications.’

Rob suggests we join the M40 for a higher-speed blast. Until now, Morgan has eased off the throttle just as the engine has come on cam – respecting its relatively freshly rebuilt nature. However, he now has his permission to open the taps. He buries the throttle as we join the motorway slip road and there’s a regal growl from up front, the exhaust barks and we’re thrust forward.

‘The BMW six-cylinder engine, in all its iterations, has always been a peach’

Silky straight six a defining BMW characteristic, here with 197bhp

‘The faster this car goes, the more alive and responsive it feels,’ says Morgan, shifting into top gear – or what he thinks is top gear. ‘It has a fifth cog; I swapped the factory four-speed for an E28 five-speed Getrag ’box,’ says Rob. Our driver nods his head approvingly, before engaging the clutch again and slotting the gear lever home. The revs drop by 20 per cent. ‘It lengthens its already excellent We pull into a motorway service station for a refresh. Parked up, the CSL draws passersby like moths to a flame. Rob pops the bonnet. ‘That is such a pretty engine,’ says Morgan. ‘Personally, I like big open throttle bodies rather than a sophisticated plenum chamber; my car would have rose-jointed suspension, the full aero kit and be rortier and more aggressive, with flames on the overrun. ‘I’m imagining myself in a Nürburgring Six Hours-winning car…’ he says, with a chuckle. ‘I did buy an aero kit and placed all the parts on the relevant areas on the car, but I didn’t like it,’ says Rob.

Back on the road again, Rob directs us off the motorway and towards some twisty topography that he knows will be free of our two-wheeled friends. As the tarmac tightens, and weaves, Morgan starts to push a little harder. ‘Now it’s really coming alive. The balance is superb,’ he says, blipping the throttle and downshifting into second. ‘Controls are weighted appropriately and full of feedback. It’s such a responsive car. I would love to feel it at the limit and start playing with slip angles and power oversteer but, in someone else’s car, one that’s been lovingly restored and barely run-in, that’s just not going to happen.’

After a brief high-tempo play, our journey back to base is less hectic with the BMW settling comfortably into its relaxed GT disposition. ‘You’ve done an incredible job with this, Rob,’ says Morgan. ‘You bought it looking like a torn-up cigarette packet, and to get it to this stage is incredible. I can do small jobs on my cars but I’m envious of your skill set. Despite my love of raw driving experiences, I like that you’ve kept it close to standard.’

Pulling back into the car park, the CSL parts the gathered cyclists like citronella would bees. Morgan is the last to exit. He stands, hand on chin, contemplating the CSL. Time for the final analysis – does it remain on his List? ‘Absolutely. What a day! Blessed by the weather, in a beautiful part of the country. Up at motorsport o’clock to drive one of the most legendary cars ever made, this has truly been a dream come true.

‘Ask me on ten different occasions and I might have given you a different List every time but three cars would always appear: the CSL; the A110; and the BB. Even though it’s lightweight, the CSL remains a luxurious car, but it’s clear there’s plenty to play with on full chat. It’s a car that would reward being properly driven. I still harbour a desire to own one; whether a CSL or a race “Batmobile” depends on quite how big the lottery win is.’

At that, the unthinkable happens. Four cyclists come over and start discussing the CSL. Classic cars bringing two seemingly disparate, warring parties together – all is well in our world.

Thanks to: Rob Forrest, Richard Head, and The Spire & Spoke (thespireandspoke.co.uk).

1972 BMW 3.0CSL

• Engine 3003cc, in-line six-cylinder, ohc, Bosch D-Jetronic mechanical fuel injection

• Power and torque 197bhp @ 5500rpm; 215lb ft @ 4200rpm

• Transmission Four-speed manual, rear-wheel drive

• Steering Worm and roller, power-assisted

• Suspension Front: independent, MacPherson struts, coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar. Rear: independent, semi-trailing arms, coil springs, telescopic dampers

• Brakes Front and rear: vented discs, servo-assisted

• Weight 2569lb (1165kg)

• Performance 0-60mph: 7.1sec;

• Top speed: 135mph

• Fuel consumption 18mpg

• Cost new £6399

• Classic Cars Price Guide £70,000-£138,500

MORGAN CLEASBY’S’S CAR CV

1986 CATERHAM 7, 1700 SUPERSPRINT

‘Owned 33 years; part of me, part of the family. Used for sprints and track days, driven there and back. Manages to fit my now 6ft 5in son in.’

1982 CITROËN 2CV

‘Hilarious – one of the most fun cars I’ve owned and driven. Could scare passengers witless with the lean-out through corners.’

1998 MAZDA MX-5

‘Handling benchmark with a feel-good factor, top rarely ever up. Driven to the Monaco GP with Mrs C but sold for a family estate.’

1966 FIAT 500F

'A highly original Italian rhd survivor with two-family ownership. On display in Turin for the launch of the new 500, and on parade at the Goodwood Revival for the model’s 60th anniversary.’

1977 FIAT 124 SPIDER

‘Semi-restoration Abarth tribute, by Tony Castle-Miller at Middle Barton Garage. After build, did a 3200-mile Alpine trip in eight days.’

1960 LOTUS ELITE TYPE 14

‘Owned for 54 years by its previous Texan owner. Had a bare ’shell resto and racer prep by Simon Hadfield to compete in historics.’

MORGAN CLEASBY’S TOP TEN

Honda NSX

‘Engine in the middle. Late-wedge supercar looks. Senna. Need I say more?’

Alpine A110

‘I used to see them on mid-Seventies family trips to the south of France. Rear negative camber. Blue. Decals. Buckets. Cibiés.’

BMW 3.0CSL

‘One of the most beautiful cars ever made. I had the brochure in period and line drawings of the “Batmobile” aero parts have been etched in my memory ever since.’

Bugatti Type 35

‘I had the Airfix model and read about the Schlumpf collection in the Seventies. Finally managed to visit Mulhouse in 2018 with my son, as part of an Alpine road trip.’

Lotus 11

‘Just like my Caterham 7 but without the aerodynamics of a brick. Light weight and late braking slay the giants. My daughter refers to this era of endurance sports racers as “fish cars” (oval air intake, dorsal fin).’

Porsche 911 Turbo (930)

‘I frequently change my mind about which 911 I would love own. But air-cooled and lairy? Proper!’

Light Car Company Rocket

‘Gordon Murray taking “added lightness” to its natural conclusion. A Sixties cigar-shaped formula car for the road; don’t expect not to be noticed.’

Cord 810/812

‘So advanced for the Thirties. Front-wheel drive, flip-up headlights and an astounding art deco dash. A Lycoming engine, too, just like the Cessna 150 my son learned to fly in.’

Ferrari 365GT4 Berlinetta Boxer

‘Cover car on Motor magazine. In Oenokarian Rosso Córdoba, not Corsa, please! The “BOX 365” registration is up for sale again. Now, where did I leave that lottery ticket? I like my cars pretty. The rival Countach is brutal, not pretty.’

Alfa Romeo Montreal

‘Top Trumps. The same pack – yellow XJ-S on the front – as the BB and 930. Those headlight brows! Must be one of the bright colours from a pack of Skittles.’

[ Want a Drive? ]

Classic Cars will make a dream drive happen for one reader in every issue. Send us your list of the ten cars you’d most want to drive and why, along with a CV of the classic cars you’ve owned to thelist@classiccarsmagazine.co.uk. Be prepared for the photoshoot glamour of an early start and a long drive to get there.

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[ THE INSIDERS ]

I’d hoped we’d learnt from the old days when ever-greater capacity and resulting excess size and weight was prioritised over efficiency, but here we go again…

Alex landed his first television job in 1998, working behind the scenes on Top Gear. He’s made several classic car TV series since, and currently writes and presents The Car Years on ITV4. PHOTO: JOHN LAKEY

When it comes to internal combustion, efficiency is measured in miles per gallon, and bigger cars tend to use more fuel than small cars. Range doesn’t come into it, because if it did, you might be confused as to why a Rolls-Royce Corniche – which has a 23.5-gallon fuel tank – has a better range than a Mini.

But with electric cars, range is everything. Consider the new electric 3 Series. It does 5.2 miles for every kWh, making it just about the most efficient electric car in the world. But no-one cares. So rather than reap the benefits of a smaller, lighter and cheaper battery, BMW have given the i3 a whopping great big one so it can brag about its record-breaking range of 562 miles. So, the i3 is longer, wider and taller than its ICE predecessor and half a ton heavier.

This ‘big battery equals big range’ equation reminds me of the early 20th century, when received wisdom said that serious power required a huge engine. In 1909, the ‘Blitzen Benz’ was created to break speed records and so it was given a 21.5-litre four-cylinder engine that made 200 horsepower. Or less than 10 horsepower per litre.

With the benefit of over a century of hindsight, it’s easy to see where the Blitzen Benz might have been losing power. With a bore of 18.5cm and a 20cm stroke it probably took five minutes for the flame front to spread from the spark plug to the far reaches of those massive combustion chambers, by which time the mixture would’ve lost so much heat it wouldn’t ignite.

‘I imagine a lot of fuel never got burnt at all and just disappeared out of the exhaust’

I imagine a lot of fuel never got burnt at all and just disappeared out of the exhaust. Not that there would have been a lot of fuel getting there in the first place as it was equipped with only a single carburettor. And the fuel probably wasn’t great either, so the compression ratio was just 5.8 to 1 and with all those heavy rotating parts it couldn’t rev much past 1600rpm. Nevertheless, the Blitzen Benz still managed an unofficial 140mph on Daytona Beach in 1911.

Fiat’s S76 – the so-called Beast of Turin – was designed to go even faster, so it went bigger still, using a 28.5-litre engine from an airship. The S76 had two spark plugs for each of its four cylinders which must have helped a bit, because it managed to produce a bit more than 10 horsepower per litre and pumped out a staggering 2000lb ft of torque. But with an even bigger bore and a 25cm stroke it was very tall, weighed nearly 1700kg and was dangerously unstable. It never achieved the speeds it was designed for either.

Seeing how far we’ve come since 1909 bodes well for the future of electric cars. But it would probably be good if a Chapman or Issigonis could emerge and apply some lateral thinking to speed things up a bit. And maybe progress is slower than it needs to be because back in 2012, Gordon Murray’s three-seater T27 electric city car could do more than eight miles per kWh with a tiny battery pack of just 12kWh.

In 1924, Fiat did manage to set a new Land Speed Record of 146.01mph – on a public road! – with the slightly downsized Mephistopheles 21.5-litre six. But the pace of development was such that just two years later Henry Segrave set a new record of 152.33mph in a smaller, lighter, higher-revving Sunbeam, which made 76.5 horsepower per litre from a supercharged V12 engine of only four litres. So, whether it’s engines or batteries, efficiency matters more than size.

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[ Buying Guide**]**

Pioneering technology and supreme comfort made the Renault 16 a family car hit 60 years ago. With softening prices, it’s an affordable classic today, if you can find one

Words RICHARD GOODING, JAMES WALSHE & CHRIS HOPE Photography JONATHAN JACOB

The 16 may be scarce, but there is loyal and enthusiastic support available from owners

A supremely practical design, the Renault 16 appealed to shrewd owners who adored its chic looks, spacious cabin, comfortable ride and robust mechanicals. Renault proudly proclaimed it to be ‘an entirely new breed of car’ at its Côte d’Azur launch in January 1965, and the company was quite correct about its claim of several technological advances in automotive design – the R16 quickly proved itself to be one of Britain’s most popular imported cars.

Its revolutionary body style, comprising a two-box shape with a lifting tailgate at the back, was undoubtedly key to its success and provided the blueprint for the five-door hatchback. Cleverly, the modular rear seats could be re-configured into several positions or removed completely.

The Renault also offered an extremely compliant ride and sound road-holding thanks to its slightly tweaked version of the R4’s all-round torsion bar suspension set-up, along with the longitudinally-mounted engine mounted behind the gearbox to keep the weight between the axles. Add to that, front-wheel drive, a smooth column gearshift and an electric cooling fan, and this was one very clever and technologically advanced family car. With a reception little short of rapturous, it was named European Car of the Year in 1966 ahead of the Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow and Oldsmobile Toronado, the first French car to take the accolade.

The 16 is powered by the world’s first pressure-cast light alloy engine in three different displacements; 1470cc, 1565cc and 1647cc. As well as the 16, Renault’s ‘A-type’ engine – or ‘Cléon-alu’ as it’s more widely referred to in France – also found its way into single-seater racing cars and the famously World Rally Championship-winning Alpine A110.

Almost every European car manufacturer offered a hatchback of one sort by the time R16 production ended in 1979, though Renault had six of them – the 4, 5, 6 and 14, in addition to the four-cylinder 20 and V6 30 – the two cars that were supposed to replace the 16. However, the 16 wasn’t retired until four years of 20/30 production had passed. During its 15-year production run, 1,851,502 R16s were made at Renault’s purpose-built Sandouville plant in Normandy and other locations including Australia, Canada and Morocco. It was even sold in the US.

When buying, enthusiastic support is offered by the Renault Classic Car Club (renaultclassiccarclub. com), the Renault Owners’ Club (renaultownersclub.com), and The Renault 16 Site (r16site.com), while specialists such as Retro Renault Services (retrorenaultservices.co.uk), Melun Retro Passion (melun-retro-passion.com), Arnaud Ventoux Pièces (arnaudventouxpieces.com) and Der Franzose (franzose.de/en/Home/) are on hand for parts, even if finding some of them isn’t straightforward.

The biggest issue though is finding one. The car’s scarcity in 2026 means you won’t get the chance to be too choosy as to which model to buy, but the later, luxurious TX will always be the most prized version.

Compliant ride and supreme comfort is a Renault 16 strength

Which is which?

▶ Earliest cars come in L (de Luxe), GL (Grand Luxe) and GLS form – all with the 55bhp 1470cc unit.

▶ The sportier 100mph TS introduced in March 1968 offered a 1565cc engine developing 83bhp along with a slightly different dashboard design.

▶ The TA arrived in 1969 with automatic transmission in addition to some features from the TS – chiefly the 1565cc engine, optional powered windows as well as a new instrument panel.

▶ September 1970 saw a mild refresh with the introduction of new rear lights and the deletion of the GL and GLS. Find a car from around this era and it’ll most likely wear either L or TL badging.

▶ Range-topping TX launched at the 1973 at the Paris motor show. Powered by a 93bhp 1657cc engine, the luxury TX brought five gears, electric windows, central locking and a rear wash/wipe system – features that stunned the buying public at the time. It’s recognisable by its distinctive quartet of square headlamps, roof spoiler and Gordini wheels.

Bodywork and structure

Like many Sixties classics, poor corrosion resistance saw many Renault 16s scrapped in a criminally short time – many early examples within the car’s own substantial 15-year lifespan. Despite its immensely sturdy and clever structure, serious corrosion can take its toll in all places. Your first check should be to the engine bay, especially the inner wings. Then examine both the inner and outer sills, A-posts, the areas around the jacking points and the tailgate, and finally, the structure around the rear suspension mounts as well as the rear inner wheel arches. This is crucial to any Renault 16’s survival and viability as a restoration project – repairs in this area are complex, and usually a specialist job.

Check the base of the front wings and the door bottoms. Then the front and rear valance – these may only require cosmetic repairs but they’re tricky to do well. Panels can be difficult to source now but there are some reproduction parts available from Europe, including new stainless-steel bumpers from Renault 16 Shop (renault16shop.com) at around £1300 a set. New wings cost from around £345 each.

Finally, examine the rear suspension locating points. Here, two bushes with needle roller bearings at either end of a hardened steel stabiliser shaft allow the trailing arms to pivot. Excellent mud traps, the outer sill needs cutting off to repair this area, and is not a job for the faint-hearted. While genuine bush stock is now thought to be exhausted, Renault 16 Shop makes and sells good reproduction items, as well as repair plates for the box-section chassis beam.

Lifting tailgate a key breakthrough; watch for rust around it

Engine and gearbox

The R16 is mechanically tough. The 1470, 1565 and 1647cc all-alloy overhead valve, wet-lined engines were shared with several other Renault models, so basic parts availability is pretty good, and they’re easy to service. They tend to wear miles well, too with many hitting 200,000 without need of major work.

Some model-specific items can now be hard to track down, and don’t under-estimate minor component failures, such as condensers or points. When it comes to more major jobs, a cylinder head gasket replacement is an involved process, so check for misfires, poor performance, overheating and oil contamination in the coolant and vice versa. Also look for oil and coolant leaks.

Transmission issues on a Renault 16 generally result from neglect, so be surte to check any history for regular maintenance. On a test drive, if the gearchanges aren’t smooth or if the gearbox itself crunches, the synchromesh could be worn.

‘Mechanically tough, the 16 shares its engines with many other Renaults, so parts availability is good’

Light alloy engines are robust and wear miles well

Suspension, steering and brakes

If your prospective buy feels like it is particularly susceptible to sidewinds on a road test, then this can be a warning sign that the steering column’s universal joint needs replacing. They’re no longer available but identical items for the Renault 5 still are, and should you need it, a complete new-old-stock steering rack is priced from around £250.

Girling rear wheel brake cylinders are becoming scarce according to club sources, but Bendix wheel cylinders for R12 station wagons and the R15TS and R17TL are more plentiful alternatives that can be fitted on R16s that have automatic brake adjustment.

Long-lived interior, but beware for minor trim part availability

Interior and electrics

The vinyl interiors of Renault 16s are long-lived and rugged, but the soft – and very comfortable – cloth seats aren’t durable and are difficult to repair if they’re damaged. Unsurprisingly, because the earliest R16s are now more than six decades old, minor trim items are tough to find.

Electrics are pleasingly generally easy to sort and uncomplicated. The front electric windows fitted to TX models can be troublesome to keep operating smoothly, but fellow owners can advise on what needs to be done to solve any issues. Other than that, watch for bad earths causing lighting and more general operational problems.

Finally, any issues relating to poor or inoperative air-conditioning – on models where it’s fitted – will require the attention of a specialist, while sourcing replacement parts can also be difficult.

[ What to pay ]

▶ TS and TX models are more sought-after because of their increased performance and rhd cars are preferred. However, given the R16’s scarcity, you may have to look outside the UK.

▶ Mileage is less critical than overall condition and you don’t need deep pockets to secure a R16 – good condition cars start at £3500.

▶ The Classic Cars Price Guide says mint condition cars begin at £8000, regardless of trim level.

▶ A concours or dealer-sold example can fetch upwards of £11,500.

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[ OUR CARS ] 1962 Jaguar E-type S1 FHC

Phil’s E-type upstaged at Caffeine & Machine…

• Owned by Phil Bell (phil.bell@bauermedia.co.uk)

• Time owned 16 years

• Latest/total miles 54/111,935

• Latest/total costs £0/£16,905

• Previously Easy restarting after winter layup

There was a pronounced spring in my step as I headed for the garage on bank holiday Monday. Ahead lay a long overdue visit to my nearest Caffeine & Machine, The Bowl – a 20-minute drive across Bedfordshire, if you take the direct route. Of course, fun cars and sunny mornings would be wasted on direct routes, so Mrs Bell plotted an extended loop south to take in the Pegson Hills/Barton Hills countryside.

My positive mindset was a legacy of my last Our Cars report which caught me in a jubilant mood, sharing the joy of an E-type that fired up enthusiastically with just a couple of brief prods of the starter button. And that after four months of inactivity. On all six cylinders, settling near-instantly to a smooth idle. Sixteen years of reluctant cold-starting – even after just a week or so – and countless attempted fixes, all consigned to history with one bottle of fuel stabiliser added pre-layup and topped up with E5.

As Geddy Lee once sang, ‘Wheels can take you around. Wheels can cut you down. We can go from boom to bust…’ On this morning, my Jaguar decided to cut me down, metaphorically at least. Its cold-starting reluctance was back, bad as ever, testing my patience and the starter circuit wiring before finally giving a feint cough of ignition and then struggling into life.

But hey, for now I had a sweetly-running Jaguar with an interesting route and new destination to enjoy – surely enough positivity for me to park my frustrations until another day.

… and then upstaged again!

With no towns or tedious dual carriageways to dilute the experience, we savoured every twist, turn and view as the flatter local geography gave way to actual rolling hills – what I call the Bedfordshire Peak District – and 40-something minutes later we were scrunching onto the gravel car park at The Bowl.

For a moment it felt like we’d gatecrashed someone’s track day, with seemingly every variant of Porsche and performance BMW on display, plus Lotuses, Caterhams, hot Mazdas, Nissans and Toyotas. And one TVR. Sprinkled among them were classic American saloons, muscle cars and pickups, and some beautifully executed replicas.

Partly because of its age, and partly because it was the only one there, my E-type set the phone cameras clicking, right up to the point when a Lamborghini Aventador landed next to it like an angry-sounding spaceship. Then a Ferrari 365GTB/4 rocked up.

And so it continued in an endless carousel of interesting metal until we decided we’d had enough of the extreme bank holiday sun for one day. After scorching our fingers on the E-type’s tiny chrome door handles and gasping at its blast-furnace interior, I wondered how its first owners coped with the climate of San Diego, where it lived for 20 years. I imagine, at least, it would have started more readily on the carburettor-friendly gasoline then available.

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Inside the September issue, we find out how the affordable Triumph Spitfire and awe-inspiring Jaguar E-type roadster fitted into the very different lives, aspirations and landscapes of the Sixties owners who bought them. They couldn’t be further from the pioneering and handbuilt 1958 Chrysler New Yorker show car, that Sam Dawson test drives.
We also discover how preserving the motorsport history of the most successful Lola T70 racing car made addressing its restoration even more tricky, if a 60-year fan of the Lancia Flaminia is won over by a Touring-bodied GT version, and an owner of a Panther Kallista tells us why it’s been with him for over four decades.
All that, plus columnists Julian Thomson and Alex Riley, market news, event highlights, the highs and lows of owning our classics, cars for sale tested and a Renault 16 buying guide make your latest issue unmissable.
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[ MONTH IN CARS ] Barn finds

One-owner Super 90 version of Sixties Porsche discovered after 45 years

This Porsche last saw the road in 1981

This 1963 Porsche 356B Super 90 was sold new in Switzerland, delivered in July of that year. By the early Seventies it found its long-term owner, a young man who acquired it secondhand when it was still quite lightly used. Nonetheless, an engine rebuild became necessary at the end of 1976, when the car was given a re-paint in its current shade of green – the factory’s slightly brighter green is emerging where the second paint job has peeled off on one door, among other places. The red vinyl interior is thought to be original.

Once the car was ready for action again, the owner used it for his wedding, as shown by photos in the history file, with the car de-bumpered and looking sporty despite the wedding ribbons across the front. A handwritten log survives, showing entries to cover a busy period of usage between 1977 and 1981, including regular maintenance. At the end of 1981, the last entry reveals an odometer reading only 100km less than the 62,520km that the car shows today; it was put away in storage shortly afterwards.

Last owner bought this 356 in the early Seventies

Paint peel reveals factory green

Vinyl interior thought original

There it remained for 45 years, presumably superseded by a younger car, or one with more room for a family. Despite this, no efforts to move it on or sell it came to anything, and it appears never to have left the barn or garage in which it was stored. Following the long-term owner’s death, the car was discovered by his heirs and rolled out of the building for the first time in March 2026. The Super 90 – implying a 90bhp engine – was desirable, even if the 356B lacked the four-wheel disc brakes brought in by the 356C in 1963.

This is a big restoration project, though it appears structurally intact and most of the work seems likely to be cosmetic and mechanical. The CHF30,000-CHF40,000 (£28,000-£37,500) estimate at Oldtimer Gallerie’s sale in Lucerne in late May looked a little shy for a car with such an appealing story, even if the cost of restoration would outstrip the car’s finished value, but it sold for CHF39,200.

Clues to final miles pre-layup

356B Super 90 has 90bhp flat-four

Once was used as wedding transport

Huge classic hoards in one US sale

With a field full, there’s no dodging these Chargers

Large private collections of old cars are far from uncommon in the rural USA, and this case two were disposed of in the same sale. The auctioneer turned entrepreneur and John Clay Wolfe bought both collections outright, taking on the task of moving the cars, listing them and disposing of them with the hope of some profit at the end of the process.

The first collection of some 77 assorted classics was stored both inside and outside on a property near Anniston, Alabama and featured one or two European and Japanese cars – including an MG BGT – but a vast majority of US favourites, especially Corvettes, and most of the indoor cars were too wellpreserved to be called barn finds.

Owner collected around 70 1971-1974 examples

Riveria sailed into GMTV sale

More surprising was the 73-car stash in a couple of fields in Brookshire, near Houston, Texas. Almost all of the vehicles were repeats of the same thirdgeneration Dodge Charger, built from 1971 to 1974. The late owner kept buying them and their associated spares over the years, without ever starting the restoration of his first example.

Chainsaws and forklifts were required to gain access to the leafy resting place, before all 73 cars and eight tractors were eventually moved by a team to a holding lot for assessment and temporary storage until the no-reserve sale by GMTV (‘Give Me The VIN’) Auctions completed on the weekend of 6-7 June. The sale was conducted live from the Roadhouse bar and restaurant in Walnut Springs, Texas, by GMTV proprietor Wolfe himself.

MG BGT among Alabama hoard

Oldmobile Cutlass dates from Eighties

Six-wheeled Hustler needs new home

Harrier Six off the road for almost 20 years

We’ve seen Hustlers in the Barn Finds pages at least twice before, in 2020 and 2012, but for those with shorter memories these were Mini and Metro-based kit cars designed by William Towns, better known for his work on the Aston DBS and Lagonda. The Hustler evolved into a variety of sub-species, most with four wheels but some with six, thanks to the use of two Mini rear subframes in tandem at the back.

The standard Hustler Six featured face-to-face bench seating in the back but this one, a Harrier, has a low-loading rear door and an empty rear compartment that could apparently take a wheelchair. It is tightly confined in a storage unit in Essex, and its owner, Sobur Khan, would like it gone.

Suspected Metro Vanden Plas wheel and dashboard

Six wheels on this wagon

‘I bought it in 2018 when it had already been off the road for more than ten years, from a friend who was selling another car. I spotted it sitting in the back of the garage and asked, “what’s that?” and soon, I was buying that, too.

‘I think it’s complete and it looks to be a late, Metro-based example, registered in 1986. The front seats, steering wheel and maybe even the dashboard seem to be from a Metro Vanden Plas. It also has six nice eight-spoke alloy wheels. I was going to use it as a promotional vehicle for a business, but sadly I’ll never get round to restoring it.’

Interested parties can contact the magazine at classic.cars@bauermedia.co.uk and we’ll pass any details on to Sobur.

Rear compartment believed to take a wheelchair

Seats – and car – in need of restoration

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[ MONTH IN CARS ] Events

High-quality cars and A-list guests define Wilton event

Promoted as an all-new event, Wilton’s old Classic & Supercar Show was reworked into a top concours for 2026. Significant UK concours debutants lined up alongside live stages hosting designers, racers and rock stars. Restoration skills were celebrated with live demonstrations of coach-building, the sound of hammers on metal ringing out across the lawns.

Guilloré Delahaye 135M Coupé

Prototype Delahaye remained a one-off

Despite being acquired by a private British collection in 2016, UK showgoers got their first glimpse of this unique 1949 grand tourer.

This Delahaye proved to be the last evolution of Alphonse Guilloré’s passenger car designs who worked extensively with Delahaye from 1934, This 1949 car was intended as a prototype for a new generation of Guilloré Delahayes, but despite French concours appearances when new, it remained a one-off. Sold to a Mareseille buyer who kept it for most of its life, it was only used sparingly. In 1950, Guilloré stopped bodying passenger cars, concentrating his business on larger commercial vehicles. Both Guilloré and Delahaye ended production in 1954.

Derham Cadillac 60 Series Special

Cadillac ordered new by Duke of Windsor

‘This is this car’s first concours, following a ground-up restoration,’ said Martin Newnum of his Royal Cadillac. ‘It was ordered new by Edward, Duke of Windsor, and Wallis Simpson while they were living in the Waldorf Astoria in New York in 1950,’ he explained. ‘They sent it to coachbuilder Derham in Philadelphia for extensive modifications. This included removing the rear windscreen and much of the roof, then reworking it with a smaller opera-style window for privacy. There’s also an electric glass divider between the rear and the chauffeur’s compartment, which can be operated by switches in any of its four doors. There’s also a compartment beneath the divider for Mrs Simpson’s jewellery, and a blue light worked into a bespoke housing on the roof, traditional for British Royal cars. The colour is standard Cadillac, but its range of colours was vast, so they would have had a shade of Royal blue. You can also control the radio volume from the rear seats. The car was twice the price of a standard 60 Series.

‘No-one had seen it after it left its original ownership, but someone told me it was for sale, and told me to contact – a collector in Minneapolis who was having a clearout. It turned out that I was the first person to call him. He’d stored it and never used it, and prior to him it had been in a New York lockup for 35 years, owned by a collector who’d actually bought the car from the Duke himself.’

Ferrari 250GT PF Coupé

Hawthorn imported Ferrari in October 1958

Restored by Haynes Motor Museum last year, this was the first Ferrari road car sold in the UK, having been personally imported by then-current F1 world champion Mike Hawthorn.

After his championship victory with Ferrari in 1958, Hawthorn did a deal with Enzo Ferrari to become the marque’s first official UK importer, operating through Hawthorn’s Tourist Trophy Garage in Farnham, Surrey. Hawthorn’s first act as a dealer was to import three 250GT PF Coupés, exhibiting them at the 1958 British Motor Show at Earl’s Court. This car was sold at the show to the Irish landowner and historic building preservationist Major Desmond Fitzgerald.

Tragically, Hawthorn’s tenure as a dealer lasted just three months before he was killed in a road accident in January 1959. This is the only one of his Ferraris to remain standard. The other two were dismantled to create racing replicas.

Bristol 401

Barn-find Bristol is incredible survivor

One of the show’s most talked-about cars, this miracle-survivor Bristol appeared as a fully-functional barn-find, owned by motoring artist Julian Kirk. ‘It had a few owners and fell into disrepair. I have found one photograph of it, taken in 1960 when it was eight years old.’

‘It survived thanks to Bristol specialist Bryan May squirreling it away in the early Eighties. He kept it in an open polytunnel at his dealership in Solihull, where he’d keep the cars he intended as parts donors. I wanted an early Bristol, but didn’t have enough money for a mint example, so went to see Bryan and asked him which of his parts donors would be the easiest for me to restore, and he pointed to this one.

‘It was heavily patinated, so it didn’t matter if I just patched it up – they’re tough cars that can just “take it”, somehow. May found an engine and gearbox to cobble together – it’s essentially a BMW unit with the measurements changed to imperial from metric, and I managed to find a cylinderhead from a Cooper-Bristol racing car. Weighing just 1200kg, it’s quick. A friend of mine who was in the RAF in the Fifties remembers Bristol testing these cars on the runway at Filton.’

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[ 1958 Chrysler New Yorker ]

Handbuilt by Virgil Exner and his team, this 1958 Chrysler New Yorker show car also pioneered new technologies. Nearly 70 years on, we drive the future

Words SAM DAWSON Photography IAN SKELTON

Early one evening in summer 1956, a distinctive blue Buick Century convertible burbles its way south down Detroit’s Mound Road. Its houndstooth-suited driver loosens his tie and starts thinking about what might be waiting on the dinner table for him when he returns home to the upscale neighbourhood of Royal Oak. As the stoplights slow the rush-hour traffic at the intersection of Mound and Eight Mile, he finds his gaze wandering over a low-set fence on his left-hand side behind Chrysler’s sprawling Warren factory.

The lights up ahead change to green, but as the quivering, shimmering chromed behemoths start to crawl forwards, the Buick stands its ground. The driver’s gaze remains fixed on the roadside. Motorists behind him start to sound their horns. Fists wave. But rather than moving with the herd, the man in the houndstooth suit wrenches the Buick’s column-shifter into Drive, whips its steering wheel round onto full lock, and performs a lurching, tyre-squealing U-turn, leaving acrid rubber smoke in his wake on his way back up Mound Road.

Down to the last detail, everything’s exquisitely shaped

In the distance, Eero Saarinen’s futuristic dome of General Motors’ Technical Center hovers in the smoggy haze. And when the Buick’s driver, GM styling chief Bill Mitchell, returns to the Technical Center, he will gather together any stylists still at their desks and announce that he’s cancelling all GM’s current design plans. What he saw behind that fence would render everything from the lowliest Chevrolet to the most exalted Cadillac distinctly old-fashioned and dowdy.

The car I’m guiding through these New England-esque outer-London suburbs may possibly have been one of those Mitchell saw, albeit in part-finished form at the time. Handbuilt in the corner of the factory under the auspices of Mitchell’s opposite number at Chrysler, Virgil Exner, it was part of a batch of cars set aside to test new ideas, evolve design features through the model’s lifespan, and carry out show and publicity duties.

Buttons next to speedo are for shifting gears

This particular car eventually graced Chrysler’s stand at the 1958 Detroit Auto Show, its chrome adornments demonstrating how the 1959-model New Yorker would look. To this day, the frontal chrome isn’t quite symmetrical, testament to the car having been put together by eye in an ad-hoc fashion and tweaked repeatedly by Exner and his team.

However, under its skin it concealed advances that made its rivals quake. Beneath this car’s bonnet may well lie the very first example of an engine which precipitated Detroit’s muscle-car era. Also within its engine bay is quite possibly the very first example of cruise control ever made, and its power-steering system, an industry first, was still just four years old. All of it set to be gestured at by models in a Mad Men world of pastels, chrome, stainless steel and fantasy jet imagery.

New Yorker defined mass production luxury car genre

Behind the wheel, the first thing that really impresses about this Chrysler is its sense of composure. There’s no avoiding its size, of course, although it’s surprisingly easy to judge given the way its tailfins and wingtips mark out its corners. A Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud from the same era is roughly the same size, and such a car would have been no stranger to arboreal suburbs such as these in the Fifties. But while Fifties American cars have a reputation for poor handling – wobbling on their springs, lurching heavily through corners, their weight overwhelming their tyres and dragging them into understeer, undersized brakes requiring stopping distances measurable by map – there’s no such cause for panic here.

One hand on the steering wheel, its lower half styled with grips and colour variations to look like a flight yoke, I flick the Chrysler through a tight cul-de-sac U-turn. The Hydraguide power steering takes the strain, and although there’s a bit of body lean, the New Yorker clings faithfully to its line, even on a blanket of wet, gold-coloured leaves.

Keep an eye on the sky: roof takes a while to erect

It was this sense of control that set luxury cars aside from those which were merely big. The reason in this New Yorker’s case is a suspension set-up that seems more European than American, especially in the context of the Fifties. Chrysler called it Torsion-Aire Ride, and it essentially involved longitudinal torsion bars acting on lower transverse arms at the front, with wishbones locating the assembly from above and telescopic dampers set up diagonally. Standard Detroit practice at the time involved heavy coil springs and lofty suspension turrets, whereas Chrysler’s configuration resembled that of the Citroën Traction Avant or the Morris Minor. It was more compact, lighter and stiffer. And with an anti-roll bar added – not something commonly found on American cars for another decade – the car corners not unlike a Bentley Continental of the era. Big and heavy, yes, but it doesn’t feel like a liability, and the hydraulic assistance adds an effortlessness not even the Bentley pilot would be familiar with. At the rear, there’s a Dana Powr-Lok limited-slip differential, ensuring the rear tyres don’t squeal when cornering.

‘Under its skin were advances that made its rivals quake’

Five can be seated in some luxury and considerable style

Mitchell, of course, had no idea of the Chrysler’s technical innovations when he made his famous about-turn in 1956. What really caught his eye was Exner’s styling. With regard to America at least, we often rather lazily label the Fifties the ‘fins and chrome’ era, but the reality is much more nuanced. Pontoon sides lent themselves to what were referred to as medallion tail lights in the early-to-mid Fifties, resulting in ornate clusters which increasingly resembled jet afterburners, a fad emphasised by two-tone paint and sometimes dummy air intakes. But what Exner created for the 1957-model Chryslers was something new. Rather than looking tacked-on, the towering, razor-sharp tailfins were integral to the entire bodywork structure, lending the car a dynamic wedge profile unlike anything seen on the road before. The rest of the bodywork was low, wide and angular and, anticipating such fixtures becoming legal in all US States by 1958, featured quad headlights.

‘The tailfins were integral to the low, wide, angular bodywork’

A two-door convertible longer than a Transit van? Sure, why not…

It might have surprised Mitchell to know that all the stylistic elements which made this car so striking had their origins not on Exner’s desk or in an all-American customer clinic, but more than 4000 miles away in Turin. Exner had formed a working partnership with Mario Boano of Ghia via Luigi Segre in 1953, which resulted in the Dual-Ghia and a series of exclusive Italian-bodied Chrysler Imperial limousines. But what really impressed Exner was Ghia’s ability to realise prototypes at far greater speed and lower cost than lumbering, bureaucratic Detroit. When Segre became owner of Ghia in 1954 following differences with Boano, he saw Exner as a way of getting the carrozzeria’s work in front of a far larger audience across the Atlantic.

In 1955, Segre’s technical director, Giovanni Savonuzzi, was tasked with creating an aerodynamic study based on a Chrysler. The result was the Ghia Gilda, named after Rita Hayworth’s titular character in a 1946 noir. It was on the Gilda where the wedge profile, dualled headlights, low, wide stance and body-length, sharp-edged, high-set tailfins originated. They were no mere flight of fancy – utilising Europe’s longest wind tunnel, Savonuzzi demonstrated their contribution to straight-line high-speed stability, daubing inkblots onto the sides of plastic models to observe the way the air flowed at 200mph and noting a wedge shape with a broad comet-like fan. The following year, he evolved his Gilda concept into the Chrysler-badged Dart convertible show car. Savonuzzi also applied similar coachwork to a new Ferrari 410 Superamerica. The result looks even closer to this Chrysler than the Gilda or Dart, but by that point Exner had begun translating the Gilda’s themes into something more practical for the American mass market.

Ten seconds to 60mph: this 413ci V8 earned its keep

But the public never saw Exner’s vision in concept car form. His Ghia-built concept intended to introduce the public to the styling, the Norseman, was put on board the SS Andrea Doria en route to its intended debut at the 1957 New York Auto Show. The ship struck the MS Stockholm in thick fog off the coast of Nantucket and sank, claiming 46 lives and taking the Norseman to the bottom of the Atlantic. As a result, the pre-production cars including this one had to serve the public-shocking show-car role as well as developing the showroom reality.

There’s a restrained burble from the exhausts. It’s not the whisper of a Bentley V8 or even the muffled Ford flathead in a Lincoln. But nor is it a dragstrip blare or utilitarian pick-up chug. Roof down, I’m reminded of a motor launch in the harbour of somewhere like Nassau or the Florida Keys, the sort of sound you hear echoing off the hulls of superyachts. It’s cultured. It’s also quite overtly powerful, with a peak of 350bhp, and an enormous 450lb ft of torque delivered at a lazy 2800rpm. The result is 0-60mph in ten seconds and a top speed of 123mph. In other words, Jaguar XK120 performance in something weighing two tonnes and capable of seating five.

‘Its role was a futuristic grand tourer, whisking affluent Americans across the continent’

Fins not just styling – they also help driver judge the car’s size

The reason for this urge may well be the very first example of its type. Chrysler used this very show car to introduce its Golden Lion V8 engine to the world. Its wedge-headed combustion chambers were cheaper to cast than the domes of the optional Hemi of 1951-1958, with its military origins and cost-no-object design approach, and yet the Golden Lion was capable of delivering the same amount of power and torque much more affordably. Ultimately, in 1962, it would dominate dragstrips as the cross-ram-induction Max Wedge, prompting Ford and GM to respond, precipitating the muscle-car wars.

But that’s not what this New Yorker was for. This convertible sat just below the Cadillac- and Lincoln-rivalling Imperial in Chrysler’s range, high above workaday Dodge and Plymouth in the conglomerate’s pecking order. Its role was essentially a futuristic grand tourer in the wake of Eisenhower’s 1956 Highway Act, whisking affluent American families across their vast continent on the new network of freeways.

Hydraguide power steering makes life easy

On the Detroit show stand in 1958, this car revealed a new innovation made for this exciting new era. Chrysler engineer Ralph Teter’s Auto-Pilot system introduced what we now call cruise control, effectively holding the accelerator in position at the touch of a button. The speed could then be adjusted via dashboard dial in the manner of a vintage car’s hand throttle. Alongside another Chrysler innovation for this generation of cars – the push-button transmission that did away with the awkward, obstructive change in favour of simple dashboard toggle switches to select transmission mode – the New Yorker emphasised an effortlessness for owner-drivers that not even Cadillac could offer at the time. It also further improved the car’s fuel economy. The 1957 Chrysler range won that year’s Mobilgas Economy Run, demonstrating superior mpg to its rivals, apparently a result of its aerodynamic design.

In 1958, with cruise control eliminating unnecessary prods of the throttle, Chrysler – possibly as a result of tests carried out in this car – claimed in its advertising that ‘Auto-Pilot can save as much as three gallons out of every tankful!’

Cost-effective Golden Lion V8 engine’s debut

Mitchell would have been furious, even though his last-minute GM restyling exercise inadvertently resulted in what’s now a design classic, the 1957 Chevrolet Bel Air. It wasn’t just the styling shock. Chrysler had broken an unwritten rule in Detroit – that automakers did not introduce new styling and new technical innovation at the same time. Instead, after a particularly lucrative sales year in 1955, Chrysler took out a $300 million loan from Prudential Insurance to fund the design and development of a new era of cars.

Sadly for Chrysler, it didn’t quite pay off. In mid-1957, the consumer boom had driven up interest rates, and housebuilding stalled. American consumers stopped replacing their goods quite so often. Car sales in 1957 were 31 per cent down year-on-year in the US, and this conspired to help plunge an economy that was based heavily on consumer spending and domestic goods manufacturing into recession.

Actual golden lion takes pride of place on the hood badge

After an initial flurry of enthusiasm, customer interest in the 1957-generation Chryslers took a dive, especially as the sharp metallic clang of snapping Torsion-Aire bars started to become a familiar sound on suburban American streets. When this car made its Detroit show debut the intention was to use the Golden Lion engine, Auto-Pilot cruise control and strengthened torsion bars to arrest flagging sales, but only an ominous 666 New Yorker convertibles were sold in 1958.

As part of this car’s show duties, as well as Chrysler’s television advert, it’s likely it starred in a Vogue fashion shoot in the magazine’s 15 October 1958 issue. The licence plates aren’t visible in the shots, but every element of it points to this car, including the Persian Pink paint, trim colour schemes and swivelling easy-entry front seats. Given the chronology of the photoshoot, it’s also too early for it to have been carrying 1959-model chrome as a production car.

‘These innovations are the sorts of things we expect to find in Mercedes and BMWs today’

Cruise control as we know it began here

Standard practice at the time would have seen the car crushed in 1959, but a Chrysler employee from Pittsburgh intervened, rescuing it from the crusher and taking it home, ultimately retiring to Miami with it.

As I ease the Chrysler between two stone gateposts – the only time today that it’s felt genuinely massive – I can’t help but think the production model that this show car helped introduce should be regarded as a much more important car than our detached and condescending European perspective often allows. It feels like a landmark moment in the development of the mass-produced luxury car. Measures taken to make a big, heavy car handle more like a smaller, more nimble one. Windtunnel-honed aerodynamic theory. Push-button effortlessness behind the wheel, from the new three-speed TorqueFlite gearbox to the innovation of cruise control. An engine designed to be both powerful and affordable to make and buy. And its $4638 price undercut the Cadillac Eldorado by more than $1000.

If the chrome is slightly wonky that’s because it was fitted by hand for the 1958 Detroit show

We may point to the Citroën DS of the same era as a futuristic innovator, but in its own way this Chrysler matches it. Not only that, it influenced the automotive industry in ways the French car just didn’t. The New Yorker’s most obvious stylistic legacy is the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Biarritz, which prompted Exner to comment that, ‘by 1959 it was obvious that I’d given birth to a Frankenstein.’ But beneath the skin, the kind of innovations devised to address the unwieldiness of American cars and make freeway driving effortless are the sorts of things we expect to find in mass-market Mercedes and BMWs nowadays. In 1958, in contrast to this New Yorker, a W180 Mercedes 220S cabriolet was underpowered and undergeared, a Baur BMW 502 was just plain hard work, and both looked old-fashioned and overpriced by comparison. In reality, Chrysler was creating a genre those premium German brands would later come to define – a mass-production luxury car.

But this one is even more special, as part of Exner’s handbuilt batch from the corner of the Warren plant. The pre-production cars that had to stand in for a concept car when disaster struck still stole the show, and were as technically innovative as they were dramatic to look at.

1958 Chrysler New Yorker

• Engine 6768cc V8, ohv, Carter AFB four-barrel carburettor

• Power and torque 350bhp @ 4600rpm; 470lb ft @ 2800rpm

• Transmission Three-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive, limited-slip differential

• Steering Recirculating ball, hydraulically-assisted

• Suspension Front: independent, wishbones, lower transverse arms, torsion bars, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar. Rear: live axle, leaf springs, telescopic dampers

• Brakes Front and rear: drums, servo-assisted

• Performance Top speed: 123mph; 0-60mph: 10sec

• Weight 1914kg (4220lb)

• Fuel consumption 8-12mpg

• Cost new $4638 (£1650)

• Value now £75,000

OWNING THE 1958 CHRYSLER NEW YORKER SHOW CAR

‘I’ve been in love with American classics ever since taking a trip to Canada as a child,’ says Gavin Garrow, who co-owns not only this handbuilt Chrysler New Yorker but also a 1957 Ford Thunderbird with his brother Robert.

‘As a surviving Fifties show car, this New Yorker is incredibly rare, but its whereabouts were known about for a long time, from Pittsburgh to Miami,’ says Garrow. ‘The American historian Charles Phoenix found out about it, and went to Miami to view it with a view to buying it back in the early Nineties. But he was beaten to it by a Swedish classic car importer, who brought it to Europe – where it was driven by his wife, a Brazilian beauty queen, for the rest of the Nineties.

‘I first encountered it at the Västerås Power Meet in 1999, and when it came up for sale a few years later I sold two of my classics to raise the money for it; I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity.’

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