just beautiful!!! Few people know the importance of the 84 and 85 Azzurro spider, of course we all know they were the last years they came to the USA,there were over 100 small but important changes in the 84 and 85 models, Fiat put all the wealth of knowledge they had gained over the years into thease last production cars, with a little research you can find out just how important thease cars are……I purchased mine in the early nineties,I purchased mine from a retired engineer who spent over 4 years loving restoring her, the Eng is a dream come true it is bored and hand polished. The gentleman took it one step further and custom installed an aero dyne turbo charger which gives this little baby some kick in the butt. On the dyno tuner when build it produces 187 hp at a 7 PSI boost we could have pushed her a lot harder but everything was so new I didn’t dare push my luck I’ve now owned it for over 20 years and have put about 8 thousdand miles on her,I have owned Fiat Dinos and many other fine autos but would not trade this for anything in my small stable…… oh by the way I the car was completely stripped to bare metal and had four coats of a special paint which is now illegal in most of the world ( hint ) each coat was hand rubbed between coats as was th 3 coats of lacquer, the car is stunning without a mark on her despite the years that have gone by………your a lucky man to own one and to have taken it on such a beautifull drive……oh by the way the color on your car is absolutely stunning, I’m just on my way outside to give mine another coat of wax,which of course it does not need,but it may have gotten a bit of dust on it since yesterday LOL …enjoy your car enjoy your life…..If you have not done so do a little research you may be surprised the treasure you hold in your hand
When Broadspeed prepared any saloon car for BMC and later Ford, they firstly stripped the car and having removed all the seam sealer (A laborious process!) seam brazed ALL seams with Magnesium-Bronze brazing rods. This was particularly important with Ford cars as the standard of spot welding in the plant was very poor. (At the time, Ford's «service fix», was to spray silicon oil around duff welds to prevent noises when owners complained about their new car!)
Ralph's focus was upon ensuring that the body shell was as rigid as possible.
It was pointless to design good suspension geometry, if the unit-construction (Monocoque) was floppy!
Magnesium Bronze enjoys a far lower melting point than Silicon Bronze. High temps cause crystalisation of the base metal around the joint and thus weakness.
I worked for Ford Europe (Head Office, Warley, Brentwood, Essex) at this time and in the main entrance foyer was a Team Broadspeed Anglia, on a small stage. It was identical to all the Team Broadspeed Anglias. One small point, the model used was the 107E not the 105E. Interesting times as Ford was using motor sport to promote the brand. GT40s were often seen at Warley and Ford were funding Cosworth to develop the F1 DFV.
When I left Ford, I set up my own automotive business, which included Felspeed Racing. Interestingly, an old chum from my youth and a fellow petrolhead, purchased the show car (he also worked for Ford and managed to engineer a transfer to the competition department at Boreham) and I finished up sorting the ex-Broadspeed Anglia for him. The original lump was removed and sold and a 1650 c.c. engine based on a Lotus twin cam block was used, intended for club racing.
Cut down Transit wheel arches were welded in, in my body shop, to accommodate wide mag wheels an slicks. and the car totally re-finished in Rolls Royce regal red metallic as per standard Broadspeed team colours.
My chum nominated me to take the virgin drive, which took place at Lydden Hill circuit during the TEAC (Thames Estuary Auto Club): At the beginning of the season TEAC rented the circuit for a member's test day.
I've been working on a 430 for several years now, bought it as a non-running project with a spare engine harness in the trunk. Today she is a beautiful runner, not perfect, but a fun run about. There is some movements in Europe for modern aftermarket support for these cars, Biturbox, BTIM and even the funky fused double 87 pin relays. The car has more power than my Alfa Milano Verde, but is also softer sprung and less aggressive chassis. The 430 is a grand touring machine with impressive power, even by today's standards. Great article bringing some new light to a much unloved car line.
I read this article with great interest, as I owned this very car a decade or so back. It looks excellent and I am more than a little envious. Hope it’s going well for you. I’d love to see it again at some point. Maybe see you at a car show or similar. Cheers!
What a bizarre second part to this article. The whole point of the 970 S was it’s over square high revving engine. The car driven and referred to as a 970S is nothing of the sort as it has the conventional long stroke 1275 engine bored out to be even bigger. If you set out to test a 970S you really should test a car with a 970 engine, that’s a basic requirement. All this is is a test of an old Mini with a colourful past, a mis-packaged journalistic hoax. No more than click bait.
The car was bought in 1985 by a guy in Southall who spent a fortune on it, it was painted pink and had a full engine rebuild and sold in 1991. I should know it was my dad's car.
As a schoolboy I bought Motor or Autocar most weeks from the mid-Sixties to the early Seventies, carefully removing the road tests, which I still have. It’s fascinating to compare your and your readers’ impressions of classics with those of contemporary road-testers. With the Aston DBS V8, reader Jim Pace noted the heavy clutch, and that the car ‘churns away on the starter’ before firing, and commented that some areas of the interior were crude. In July 1971 Autocar noted a 50lb effort needed for the clutch and 45 seconds of churning to start the engine. That they made no comment about the crudeness of the switchgear says much about how such things have improved over the years. In the Autocar March 1968 test of the Jensen FF, its four-wheel drive and ABS system made the car remarkably advanced. On paper it’s surprisingly similar to my Bentley Continental GT. I’d love to compare the two side by side!
As a schoolboy I bought Motor or Autocar most weeks from the mid-Sixties to the early Seventies, carefully removing the road tests, which I still have. It’s fascinating to compare your and your readers’ impressions of classics with those of contemporary road-testers. With the Aston DBS V8, reader Jim Pace noted the heavy clutch, and that the car ‘churns away on the starter’ before firing, and commented that some areas of the interior were crude. In July 1971 Autocar noted a 50lb effort needed for the clutch and 45 seconds of churning to start the engine. That they made no comment about the crudeness of the switchgear says much about how such things have improved over the years. In the Autocar March 1968 test of the Jensen FF, its four-wheel drive and ABS system made the car remarkably advanced. On paper it’s surprisingly similar to my Bentley Continental GT. I’d love to compare the two side by side!
The MG was actually the second one in the 1100 range to be launched; the Morris came first, in summer 1962, with the MG in autumn the same year, but the Austin did not appear till 1963. I was the owner of the black car pictured above until about 2011 when I sold it and bought an MG 1300 Mk II the following January.
The unusual colour of the upholstery is called terracotta, and since 2017 I have owned a virtually identical C-reg MG 1100.
Before it all came crashing down, the Eighties vibe gave us many colourful reasons to be optimistic, particularly the cars. Little wonder their appeal is growing now.
Quattro.
One word, instant picture in your mind – box wheelarches and squat, bodykitted stance; turbo, when that was a real badge of honour; clever, self-assured four-wheel drive. And red, had to be Tornado Red. It didn’t actually, but that’s how it seemed. This was the Eighties on wheels – self-assured, future-facing, successful. Not everyone enjoyed the brief, heady gold rush of the decade and for many it would end in tears, but for a while it was as if we were all infected by the feelgood factor. Just as the Sixties had an optimism that distracted Britons from the remnants of post-war austerity, the Eighties – once well into its stride – helped us forget the decay that characterised the Seventies.
Add Cosworth, E24 635CSi, GTE and Testarossa – now there’s Eighties car culture defined. Rallying and saloon racing glory, the rise and rise of German car desirability, gritty suburban hero and a big showoff fantasy just one utilities share deal away from reality. Well, maybe. And with a bang, it was over, the symbols of excess treated with either ridicule or remorse, depending on how close you were to the cocaine and champagne when the party stopped. But now look at the cars, hotter than a hairsprayed stadium rock band at the peak of its MTV video chart posturing. Just without the dry ice.
If, like me, you were too young to experience the star cars of the decade firsthand, perhaps the rash of crash, jump and roll stunt-ridden TV shows and films was as close as you got. In which case, you’ll be enthralled by our interview with Jack Gill, the man responsible for so many of those iconic stunts from a time before CGI made it all safe and unreal. You’ll just have to forgive him for all those future classics he wrecked in the line of duty. But hey, without attrition we would appreciate the survivors less.
Whatever your view of Eighties excess, you have to accept it left a colourful mark on motoring history.
Eighties heroes of the rally stage and race track are hot.
Good write up, thanks. I'm in UK and a new 048 index 11 injector for my N53 325i is £450 from BMW. Yikes. The value of may car means that I can't justify spending £2700 on injectors that may still fail! And that's before I may need to deal with O2 and NOX sensors. Not sure what to do.
Separate note, where are the pictures you are referencing in the last paragraph?
The words of your reader chimed with me. I'm lucky to be old enough to have owned a Rover P6 first time around – a 1972, 93k-mile example that I bought in 1982. The V8 was the attraction but the abiding memory is of a car that was a joy to drive, coupled with a feeling that every trip was an adventure tinged with slight anxiety – would we actually make it? Of course we did, every time. But the character remained – flickering oil light, a thirst for coolant, optically clear inner wings and that rear suspension member whose rustedthrough anchor point provided an early rear-wheel steering effect.
Looking back over the 30-odd cars I have so far owned, from Jag to Smart ForTwo, the P6 provides the biggest aftersell regret. What a fabulous car! Even now it has so many styling features that, in my opinion, no other car has ever provided. And maybe there is a second regret – I saw a yellow SD1 (yes, with the orange seats) for sale in near perfect condition at an independent dealer in the mid Eighties for (if memory serves) £1600. How I wish I had bought it.
The March issue brought back memories of a Rover SD1 (‘I knew it was rotten as a pear. It was scrap’) and Opel Monza (Everyman Executive). During the Eighties my friend Brian had a Monza 3.0E with a fivespeed manual and limited-slip differential, which was mainly fitted to the automatics. It was a metallic brown that still looked dirty after spending a whole day washing and Simonizing! I bought it because Brian had his eye on a twin-plenum SD1 Vitesse. At the time, some school buddies and I were keen on skiing – and we had the offer of a flat in Schladming in Austria for two weeks. Somewhere in Germany after quite a few petrol stops, Brian spotted on the map that the next section of the autobahn had a long straight. Soon after we set off from the lunchtime stop my passenger in the Monza dropped off to sleep while Brian accelerated quickly until the SD1 was a dot on the horizon – but not for long. I caught him up, the speedo reading just over 150mph. When we pulled in to top up the tanks, Brian was miffed at being caught up by his old car; my passenger was miffed that he had missed it all.
The Monza did suffer from snobbery; how can a GM car be better than a BMW or Mercedes-Benz? Well, it was. The only annoying thing was central locking that didn’t operate the rear hatch. If you dropped someone off and they had things in the back, you had to switch off and open the hatch with the key. It was one of the best cars I've owned; superbly comfortable and ideal to travel many miles, even off the motorway – and the limited-slip differential kept the tail under control out of wet roundabouts.
Well, Graham, as was pointed out last month, Car of the Year last year was run no differently from any of the previous 30-odd years. It’s a concours competition, always has been and is judged on points awarded to each individual car, awarded by three separate independent judges that are all tallied up at the end on Sunday afternoon prior to the announcement of the winner. If any car in any condition was eligible to enter, what criteria would one use to choose such cars? How would they be judged, or would it just be a case of spinning a roulette wheel? As for having two categories for restored and original, only one of the cars last year could possibly have qualified for the ‘original’ category, which means it would have won that category simply on merit of having been the only car within that class! As for featuring ordinary or ‘normal’ cars that’s something we regularly do. Out of the four cars featured last month (April) three would easily fit into that category: the 1979 Trans Am, low mileage, all original and unmodified, the 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air, again a nice clean, straight car, unmodified and the 1970 Lincoln Continental, again low mileage, good straight condition and not hideously expensive to buy… We could fill the magazine with cheap ’n’ cheerful Chrysler 300s or V6 Camaros all day long, but when presented with the opportunity of featuring something as unique and rare as a 1936 Cord, it would seem a no-brainer to feature the latter!
Unless you have a bottomless pit of money to throw at your car, it appears to be you don’t have a chance to even qualify. This to me does not give the person with his pride and joy, keeping it on the road with a limited budget, any chance of being recognised. This also brings up another issue to me. The magazine puts nice cars in, but I feel the budget-restricted owners are being left out. It would be nice if you did features on what I class as normal people with normal cars. By this I mean cars as they came from the factory and kept that way. Not expensively restored and modified. There must be a lot of American car owners that agree with me. The various local meets I go to certainly have a vast array of this type of car, but we don’t appear to see them in your site.
Your article about the Ascari Ecosse brought back mainly happy memories of my time at Ascari Cars’ base in Banbury. I joined to take responsibility for sales and marketing activity for the yet-to-be-launched KZ1.
The team in the factory had been pulled from all parts of the automotive and motorsport sectors, and I personally had spent a number of years within the retail motor industry, latterly running MG Rover’s site on Park Lane (we were selling the SV and SV-R) as the flagship dealer.
Klaas Zwart was very focused on motorsport and as part of my interview process I flew to Spain, where Klaas took me at speed around the Race Resort Ascari track. I think collectively we did very well with what little we had and the KZ1 was a world-class product. However, when I joined the company it soon became clear that the KZ1 wasn’t going to be customer-ready for quite a while.
I concentrated on promoting the brand and getting it on the radar of high-net-worth individuals in the meantime. The factory was a perfect setting for tours, as one side housed Klaas’s Formula 1 collection, which included numerous Ferraris and the two-seater Arrows, while the road cars were on the other. Languishing in the corner here was the yellow ex-demo FGT — the car, later repainted blue, in your feature [above] — which was basically little more than a shell.
During one of the tours a Canadian chap called Kenny Schackter showed an interest in getting it back on the road and a price was agreed with a very ‘flexible’ delivery date — my first sale of a roadgoing Ascari! An immeasurable amount of time was spent on preparing it, helped by technicians who had worked on the FGT and Ecosse at Blandford Forum so knew the car intimately. The production Ecosse had a luxury leather-lined interior but the consensus between the customer and ourselves was that it should be more raw and track-focused. As I recall, Kenny was very happy with the finished article.
It was a real shame when it all came to an end as I do think we could have been another Wiesmann if we had sourced the KZ1 engines directly from BMW. The costs to build the car certainly exceeded its £235,000 ticket price, which ultimately finished off the road car product in Klaas’s eyes.
just beautiful!!! Few people know the importance of the 84 and 85 Azzurro spider, of course we all know they were the last years they came to the USA,there were over 100 small but important changes in the 84 and 85 models, Fiat put all the wealth of knowledge they had gained over the years into thease last production cars, with a little research you can find out just how important thease cars are……I purchased mine in the early nineties,I purchased mine from a retired engineer who spent over 4 years loving restoring her, the Eng is a dream come true it is bored and hand polished. The gentleman took it one step further and custom installed an aero dyne turbo charger which gives this little baby some kick in the butt. On the dyno tuner when build it produces 187 hp at a 7 PSI boost we could have pushed her a lot harder but everything was so new I didn’t dare push my luck I’ve now owned it for over 20 years and have put about 8 thousdand miles on her,I have owned Fiat Dinos and many other fine autos but would not trade this for anything in my small stable…… oh by the way I the car was completely stripped to bare metal and had four coats of a special paint which is now illegal in most of the world ( hint ) each coat was hand rubbed between coats as was th 3 coats of lacquer, the car is stunning without a mark on her despite the years that have gone by………your a lucky man to own one and to have taken it on such a beautifull drive……oh by the way the color on your car is absolutely stunning, I’m just on my way outside to give mine another coat of wax,which of course it does not need,but it may have gotten a bit of dust on it since yesterday LOL …enjoy your car enjoy your life…..If you have not done so do a little research you may be surprised the treasure you hold in your hand
When Broadspeed prepared any saloon car for BMC and later Ford, they firstly stripped the car and having removed all the seam sealer (A laborious process!) seam brazed ALL seams with Magnesium-Bronze brazing rods. This was particularly important with Ford cars as the standard of spot welding in the plant was very poor. (At the time, Ford's «service fix», was to spray silicon oil around duff welds to prevent noises when owners complained about their new car!)
Ralph's focus was upon ensuring that the body shell was as rigid as possible.
It was pointless to design good suspension geometry, if the unit-construction (Monocoque) was floppy!
Magnesium Bronze enjoys a far lower melting point than Silicon Bronze. High temps cause crystalisation of the base metal around the joint and thus weakness.
I worked for Ford Europe (Head Office, Warley, Brentwood, Essex) at this time and in the main entrance foyer was a Team Broadspeed Anglia, on a small stage. It was identical to all the Team Broadspeed Anglias. One small point, the model used was the 107E not the 105E. Interesting times as Ford was using motor sport to promote the brand. GT40s were often seen at Warley and Ford were funding Cosworth to develop the F1 DFV.
When I left Ford, I set up my own automotive business, which included Felspeed Racing. Interestingly, an old chum from my youth and a fellow petrolhead, purchased the show car (he also worked for Ford and managed to engineer a transfer to the competition department at Boreham) and I finished up sorting the ex-Broadspeed Anglia for him. The original lump was removed and sold and a 1650 c.c. engine based on a Lotus twin cam block was used, intended for club racing.
Cut down Transit wheel arches were welded in, in my body shop, to accommodate wide mag wheels an slicks. and the car totally re-finished in Rolls Royce regal red metallic as per standard Broadspeed team colours.
My chum nominated me to take the virgin drive, which took place at Lydden Hill circuit during the TEAC (Thames Estuary Auto Club): At the beginning of the season TEAC rented the circuit for a member's test day.
Happy days...
I've been working on a 430 for several years now, bought it as a non-running project with a spare engine harness in the trunk. Today she is a beautiful runner, not perfect, but a fun run about. There is some movements in Europe for modern aftermarket support for these cars, Biturbox, BTIM and even the funky fused double 87 pin relays. The car has more power than my Alfa Milano Verde, but is also softer sprung and less aggressive chassis. The 430 is a grand touring machine with impressive power, even by today's standards. Great article bringing some new light to a much unloved car line.
I used to own 26-s2-09 in the mid to late 1970s.
Jim Z
Hi Mike
I read this article with great interest, as I owned this very car a decade or so back. It looks excellent and I am more than a little envious. Hope it’s going well for you. I’d love to see it again at some point. Maybe see you at a car show or similar. Cheers!
Ian
What a bizarre second part to this article. The whole point of the 970 S was it’s over square high revving engine. The car driven and referred to as a 970S is nothing of the sort as it has the conventional long stroke 1275 engine bored out to be even bigger. If you set out to test a 970S you really should test a car with a 970 engine, that’s a basic requirement. All this is is a test of an old Mini with a colourful past, a mis-packaged journalistic hoax. No more than click bait.
some miss led information here.
The car was bought in 1985 by a guy in Southall who spent a fortune on it, it was painted pink and had a full engine rebuild and sold in 1991. I should know it was my dad's car.
Different impressions
As a schoolboy I bought Motor or Autocar most weeks from the mid-Sixties to the early Seventies, carefully removing the road tests, which I still have. It’s fascinating to compare your and your readers’ impressions of classics with those of contemporary road-testers. With the Aston DBS V8, reader Jim Pace noted the heavy clutch, and that the car ‘churns away on the starter’ before firing, and commented that some areas of the interior were crude. In July 1971 Autocar noted a 50lb effort needed for the clutch and 45 seconds of churning to start the engine. That they made no comment about the crudeness of the switchgear says much about how such things have improved over the years. In the Autocar March 1968 test of the Jensen FF, its four-wheel drive and ABS system made the car remarkably advanced. On paper it’s surprisingly similar to my Bentley Continental GT. I’d love to compare the two side by side!
Different impressions
As a schoolboy I bought Motor or Autocar most weeks from the mid-Sixties to the early Seventies, carefully removing the road tests, which I still have. It’s fascinating to compare your and your readers’ impressions of classics with those of contemporary road-testers. With the Aston DBS V8, reader Jim Pace noted the heavy clutch, and that the car ‘churns away on the starter’ before firing, and commented that some areas of the interior were crude. In July 1971 Autocar noted a 50lb effort needed for the clutch and 45 seconds of churning to start the engine. That they made no comment about the crudeness of the switchgear says much about how such things have improved over the years. In the Autocar March 1968 test of the Jensen FF, its four-wheel drive and ABS system made the car remarkably advanced. On paper it’s surprisingly similar to my Bentley Continental GT. I’d love to compare the two side by side!
Hello,
my father in law was the owner of F758 LMY for a few years until his death in 2000. A wonderful car. I hope the current owner is enjoying it.
David Pope.
The MG was actually the second one in the 1100 range to be launched; the Morris came first, in summer 1962, with the MG in autumn the same year, but the Austin did not appear till 1963. I was the owner of the black car pictured above until about 2011 when I sold it and bought an MG 1300 Mk II the following January.
The unusual colour of the upholstery is called terracotta, and since 2017 I have owned a virtually identical C-reg MG 1100.
Before it all came crashing down, the Eighties vibe gave us many colourful reasons to be optimistic, particularly the cars. Little wonder their appeal is growing now.
Quattro.
One word, instant picture in your mind – box wheelarches and squat, bodykitted stance; turbo, when that was a real badge of honour; clever, self-assured four-wheel drive. And red, had to be Tornado Red. It didn’t actually, but that’s how it seemed. This was the Eighties on wheels – self-assured, future-facing, successful. Not everyone enjoyed the brief, heady gold rush of the decade and for many it would end in tears, but for a while it was as if we were all infected by the feelgood factor. Just as the Sixties had an optimism that distracted Britons from the remnants of post-war austerity, the Eighties – once well into its stride – helped us forget the decay that characterised the Seventies.
Add Cosworth, E24 635CSi, GTE and Testarossa – now there’s Eighties car culture defined. Rallying and saloon racing glory, the rise and rise of German car desirability, gritty suburban hero and a big showoff fantasy just one utilities share deal away from reality. Well, maybe. And with a bang, it was over, the symbols of excess treated with either ridicule or remorse, depending on how close you were to the cocaine and champagne when the party stopped. But now look at the cars, hotter than a hairsprayed stadium rock band at the peak of its MTV video chart posturing. Just without the dry ice.
If, like me, you were too young to experience the star cars of the decade firsthand, perhaps the rash of crash, jump and roll stunt-ridden TV shows and films was as close as you got. In which case, you’ll be enthralled by our interview with Jack Gill, the man responsible for so many of those iconic stunts from a time before CGI made it all safe and unreal. You’ll just have to forgive him for all those future classics he wrecked in the line of duty. But hey, without attrition we would appreciate the survivors less.
Whatever your view of Eighties excess, you have to accept it left a colourful mark on motoring history.
Eighties heroes of the rally stage and race track are hot.
Good write up, thanks. I'm in UK and a new 048 index 11 injector for my N53 325i is £450 from BMW. Yikes. The value of may car means that I can't justify spending £2700 on injectors that may still fail! And that's before I may need to deal with O2 and NOX sensors. Not sure what to do.
Separate note, where are the pictures you are referencing in the last paragraph?
Hi Viv
Please upload photos of this car in comments section
Rovers Regret
The words of your reader chimed with me. I'm lucky to be old enough to have owned a Rover P6 first time around – a 1972, 93k-mile example that I bought in 1982. The V8 was the attraction but the abiding memory is of a car that was a joy to drive, coupled with a feeling that every trip was an adventure tinged with slight anxiety – would we actually make it? Of course we did, every time. But the character remained – flickering oil light, a thirst for coolant, optically clear inner wings and that rear suspension member whose rustedthrough anchor point provided an early rear-wheel steering effect.
Looking back over the 30-odd cars I have so far owned, from Jag to Smart ForTwo, the P6 provides the biggest aftersell regret. What a fabulous car! Even now it has so many styling features that, in my opinion, no other car has ever provided. And maybe there is a second regret – I saw a yellow SD1 (yes, with the orange seats) for sale in near perfect condition at an independent dealer in the mid Eighties for (if memory serves) £1600. How I wish I had bought it.
OpelMonza vs. Rover SD1 Vitesse
The March issue brought back memories of a Rover SD1 (‘I knew it was rotten as a pear. It was scrap’) and Opel Monza (Everyman Executive). During the Eighties my friend Brian had a Monza 3.0E with a fivespeed manual and limited-slip differential, which was mainly fitted to the automatics. It was a metallic brown that still looked dirty after spending a whole day washing and Simonizing! I bought it because Brian had his eye on a twin-plenum SD1 Vitesse. At the time, some school buddies and I were keen on skiing – and we had the offer of a flat in Schladming in Austria for two weeks. Somewhere in Germany after quite a few petrol stops, Brian spotted on the map that the next section of the autobahn had a long straight. Soon after we set off from the lunchtime stop my passenger in the Monza dropped off to sleep while Brian accelerated quickly until the SD1 was a dot on the horizon – but not for long. I caught him up, the speedo reading just over 150mph. When we pulled in to top up the tanks, Brian was miffed at being caught up by his old car; my passenger was miffed that he had missed it all.
The Monza did suffer from snobbery; how can a GM car be better than a BMW or Mercedes-Benz? Well, it was. The only annoying thing was central locking that didn’t operate the rear hatch. If you dropped someone off and they had things in the back, you had to switch off and open the hatch with the key. It was one of the best cars I've owned; superbly comfortable and ideal to travel many miles, even off the motorway – and the limited-slip differential kept the tail under control out of wet roundabouts.
Well, Graham, as was pointed out last month, Car of the Year last year was run no differently from any of the previous 30-odd years. It’s a concours competition, always has been and is judged on points awarded to each individual car, awarded by three separate independent judges that are all tallied up at the end on Sunday afternoon prior to the announcement of the winner. If any car in any condition was eligible to enter, what criteria would one use to choose such cars? How would they be judged, or would it just be a case of spinning a roulette wheel? As for having two categories for restored and original, only one of the cars last year could possibly have qualified for the ‘original’ category, which means it would have won that category simply on merit of having been the only car within that class! As for featuring ordinary or ‘normal’ cars that’s something we regularly do. Out of the four cars featured last month (April) three would easily fit into that category: the 1979 Trans Am, low mileage, all original and unmodified, the 1954 Chevrolet Bel Air, again a nice clean, straight car, unmodified and the 1970 Lincoln Continental, again low mileage, good straight condition and not hideously expensive to buy… We could fill the magazine with cheap ’n’ cheerful Chrysler 300s or V6 Camaros all day long, but when presented with the opportunity of featuring something as unique and rare as a 1936 Cord, it would seem a no-brainer to feature the latter!
Unless you have a bottomless pit of money to throw at your car, it appears to be you don’t have a chance to even qualify. This to me does not give the person with his pride and joy, keeping it on the road with a limited budget, any chance of being recognised. This also brings up another issue to me. The magazine puts nice cars in, but I feel the budget-restricted owners are being left out. It would be nice if you did features on what I class as normal people with normal cars. By this I mean cars as they came from the factory and kept that way. Not expensively restored and modified. There must be a lot of American car owners that agree with me. The various local meets I go to certainly have a vast array of this type of car, but we don’t appear to see them in your site.
Selling the Ascari Ecosse
Your article about the Ascari Ecosse brought back mainly happy memories of my time at Ascari Cars’ base in Banbury. I joined to take responsibility for sales and marketing activity for the yet-to-be-launched KZ1.
The team in the factory had been pulled from all parts of the automotive and motorsport sectors, and I personally had spent a number of years within the retail motor industry, latterly running MG Rover’s site on Park Lane (we were selling the SV and SV-R) as the flagship dealer.
Klaas Zwart was very focused on motorsport and as part of my interview process I flew to Spain, where Klaas took me at speed around the Race Resort Ascari track. I think collectively we did very well with what little we had and the KZ1 was a world-class product. However, when I joined the company it soon became clear that the KZ1 wasn’t going to be customer-ready for quite a while.
I concentrated on promoting the brand and getting it on the radar of high-net-worth individuals in the meantime. The factory was a perfect setting for tours, as one side housed Klaas’s Formula 1 collection, which included numerous Ferraris and the two-seater Arrows, while the road cars were on the other. Languishing in the corner here was the yellow ex-demo FGT — the car, later repainted blue, in your feature [above] — which was basically little more than a shell.
During one of the tours a Canadian chap called Kenny Schackter showed an interest in getting it back on the road and a price was agreed with a very ‘flexible’ delivery date — my first sale of a roadgoing Ascari! An immeasurable amount of time was spent on preparing it, helped by technicians who had worked on the FGT and Ecosse at Blandford Forum so knew the car intimately. The production Ecosse had a luxury leather-lined interior but the consensus between the customer and ourselves was that it should be more raw and track-focused. As I recall, Kenny was very happy with the finished article.
It was a real shame when it all came to an end as I do think we could have been another Wiesmann if we had sourced the KZ1 engines directly from BMW. The costs to build the car certainly exceeded its £235,000 ticket price, which ultimately finished off the road car product in Klaas’s eyes.