Lotus lover Sam Hunt adores his Series 1 Elise, but would he like the range-topping Esprit V8 more? With the keys to one of the last Hethel wedges ever made, he’s about to find out.
The homely setting of Ferry Porsche’s front room provides the backdrop for this informal gathering one evening in March 1974. This was a preliminary discussion on the possibility of cooperating with a car manufacturer in what was then the Soviet Union.
Following years of speculation surrounding its identity, this recently restored 964 has been confirmed by former Porsche factory engineer and legendary works racing driver, Jürgen Barth, as being one of two surviving N/GT prototypes assembled under his watch back in 1990…
Readers’ restoration: Lifelong Fiesta fan, Rob Colton always had the desire to one day own a rare convertible Ford Fiesta XR2 Fly Mk1. Tracking one down would be no easy task — and then the hard work really began.
Ford Heritage: When Rod Tebble found this 1975 Ford Consul 2000L Decor sitting unused in a garage he didn’t expect it to be such an original and unmolested example…
This Thames van project started out as a rotten shell with no interior or running gear. Over the course of nine years, it’s been raised from the ashes and reinvented in period restomod style.
Most P100s were sent to the knacker’s yard years ago. Luckily, Gary York found this tidy example locally, but felt that it needed some Bavarian giddy up…
There are different ways to keep the memory of a beloved deceased person alive. In this case, it is Nils Höltmann from Castrop-Rauxel's 1998 E36 328i that keeps the memory of his best friend Hikmet, who succumbed to cancer, alive.
We all have cars that we love because of a personal association and for me the Jaguar X-Type is just that. Yes, I know it has its haters, and the “nice Mondeo, mate” jokes can be a tad tiresome, but for me it’s car with a connection.
There was great excitement in the 1970s and 1980s when Jaguar re-entered international motorsport. It started with support of Bob Tullius’s Group 44 outfit in the States followed by Tom Walkinshaw’s TWR team originally in the European Touring Car Championship with the XJ-S and later Group C endurance racing. But thanks to its five victories in the Fifties, for Jaguar the most important race had always been the 24 Hours of Le Mans. By 1987 and with TWR starting to become genuinely competitive in the World Sports Car Championship we knew there was a real possibility of us winning for the first time since 1957.
Despite ruling Le Mans throughout the Fifties with five overall victories plus three second, two third and four fourth places, Jaguar’s dominance of the famous 24 Hours race came to an end in the early Sixties with a disappointing ninth place. When motorsport’s governing body, the FIA, introduced a new GT class for endurance racing from 1962 onwards, many privateers chose the new E-Type. The homologated version initially showed great promise with two examples finishing a strong fourth and fifth at 24 Heures du Mans in 1962 with the outfits of Briggs Cunningham and Peter Sargent.
With its twin supercharged 5.3-litre V8 resulting in huge performance, yet still having the kind of luxurious interior Aston was now renowned for, the Vantage was the quintessential British supercar of the Nineties. Thirty years after its debut, we explore its history and later development before taking one of these refined brutes for a drive.
