Blogs Posts

Richard tell us that his M635CSi was manufactured at BMW’s Dingolfing plant on 18 May 1987 – number 421 of 524 right-hand drive M635 models. Reader’s Rides Interestingly, it was the penultimate pre-facelift UK-spec car to roll off the production line. Painted in Royal Blue Metallic with a Pearl Beige leather interior, it boasts factory-fitted air-conditioning, an electric sunroof, headlight washer system, electric seats, rear headrests, and a rear sunblind.

Potent and plush, you can now buy BMW’s alluring E64 650i V8 Sport Cabriolet for just £8,000. Words: Guy Baker Photography: Various Market WatchFast, gloriously smooth and understatedly glamorous, BMW’s E64 650i Sport Cabriolet is now a real bargain, with good examples changing hands for as little as £8,000.

Two compelling BMWs from very different eras – which makes the better classic buy? That’s the £65,000 question... Words: Guy Baker Photography: Hexagon Classics Classic BMWs are enjoying something of a renaissance at the moment, with cars built in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s most in demand.

Maybe it’s my age, or perhaps it’s simply that I’ve been out in the sun for too long this summer but I have a severe hankering for a convertible. Normally I’d go for the most practical option which would see me behind the wheel of a 3 Series cabrio and having had a quick look at the classifieds it looks like there are some real bargains out there if you’re not to fussy about which generation you go for and which engine you’ve got under the bonnet.

There are always creative people in a car company who want to try and do things that are off the radar, possibly off the wall but certainly off the product plan. And I think that’s always been the case at Jaguar. When I started there in 1978, the styling department worked out of a building called Experimental (which was where the X in the XK name originated from). In the early Fifties this changed into the Competition Shop which two decades later became the studio.

It’s not going to be a universally popular opinion, but I’m afraid I love a bit of banger racing. Indeed, I probably have it to thank for my love of old cars. Back when I was a kid, in the mid 1980s, a Sunday afternoon out at High Edge Raceway in Buxton was a rare and intoxicating treat.

There’s an interloper currently in my garage. But it’s not a neighbour’s cat or the chest freezer my wife has wanted in there for some time but rather an Aston Martin. As the new editor of Aston Martin Driver, I’ve been given the keys to Kelsey Publishing’s DB7 3.2 and since it’s parked next to my 2000 Jaguar XK8 4.0 X100, I can’t help but compare the two.

Chromium is a chemical element occurring naturally in many forms, but in hexavalent form it’s toxic and carcinogenic. And it covers significant parts of an old car, including bumpers, doorhandles and windscreen surrounds. Funny thing though, as Nigel Hayward, production manager at S&T Electroplating, points out: ‘We don’t use a lot. In fact, the chromium is really just a thin lacquer to seal in the nickel-plate underneath.

‘A summer of excuses’, I predicted. And sure enough, at every opportunity I’ve enjoyed a blast in the Boxster – when I haven’t been using my BMW Convertible, that is.

You may have noticed a bit of a theme with this series. It usually celebrates a car that was once good, great or merely interesting but which tended to hang around a bit too long, by which point customers become interested in something newer and shinier. That’s not the case with the just-axed Ford Focus ST. Recently departed performance title MOTOR gave the hot Ford hatch a runner-up position at this year’s Sports Car of the Year award.

Cult appeal means these are a safe place for your money – but prices are rising. Words RICHARD DREDGE Photography JOHN COLLEY Buying Guide  How to buy a Ford Anglia 105E/123E while avoiding Harry Potter hype Ever since a magic Anglia 105E flew across the screen in 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Ford’s ‘baby Thunderbird’ has been transformed from charming old saloon to decent investment.

Introduced to Mercedes-Benz and the first generation SLK at a young age, it was only natural for William Duke to purchase his own roadster two decades later The R170 still looks striking today — a mixture of neat detailing and clean sides.

One of the most original W100 600s we’ve ever seen recently found a new home in Poland. We catch up with the car’s proud owner as he nears the end of his restoration mission. WORDS & IMAGES ROBB PRITCHARD Worth its weight in gold Catching up with the owner of a W100 600 as he nears the end of his restoration project The mighty 600, an absolute behemoth of a vehicle, was in it’s time the most luxurious and expensive car in the world.

A very warm welcome to the first of CAR’s three special 60th anniversary issues. Yep, the world’s best (and most modest) car magazine pre-dates the Apollo 11 mission to the Moon (1969), Porsche’s first overall Le Mans win (1970) and the arrival into this world of one Elon Reeve Musk (1971).

Not only did former engineering director Bob Knight have the reputation for being very clever but also a chain smoker and someone who worked all hours, all of which I experienced first-hand. When I joined Jaguar in the late-Seventies not only was he the managing director of the company but on the basis of how Jaguar’s founder Sir William Lyons had always operated, he’d also taken charge of what he called styling despite having no experience.