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1972 Alpine A110 1600S

Few cars are as rewardingly intimate to drive as an Alpine A110, or as successful in rallying. Richard Heseltine gets to grips with the marque’s own recce car on a Portuguese stage.

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1972 Porsche 911 SC Backdate build from The Hairpin Company

With an architectural approach to its design and build, this SC backdate has universal appeal, as Total 911 discovers…

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Porsche 911 at 60: 2.4S v 996 GT3 v 992 GTS

Eight generations, countless m models and an unending commitment to sports car evolution. Total 911 celebrates the Neunelfer’s milestone anniversary by picking three cars that represent key moments in its 60 brilliant years.

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1972 Honda Civic

A small foot in the door. Civic was pivotal in helping Honda crack the big time in the USA.

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1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 W100

60 years ago Mercedes-Benz defined a new era of luxury cars with its behemoth 600. Glen Waddington drives the choice of celebs and despots.

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1972 Volkswagen 1200 Beetle

It just means ‘People’s Car’, and yet Volkswagen signifies so much more. There’s no shortage of rivals with reliable, cheap utilitarianism at their core, but few have managed to unite counter-culture hippies and surfers with City yuppies and boy racers within their embrace. There’s every chance your first car was a battered Golf – the same thing Prince Michael of Kent uses as a runabout. To investigate this curiously classless appeal, we have gathered six VW icons. There’s the Beetle that began it all, and the Camper that kick-started the ownership cult. The Karmann-Ghia made a glamorous push upmarket, a theme that hit its zenith with the Corrado VR6. And then there’s the Golf GTI, the car that defined the hot hatch. We’ve also included a Lupo GTI, which proved that there was virtue in going back to basics after years of growth. So which will convert us to the cult of VW, and how do you buy your way in? Time to take the wheel and find out.

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215bhp 1972 Abarth 124 Spider Works Rally Car

Abarth’s 124 Spider is often overlooked as a rally hero. Richard Heseltine reckons it’s time to set the record straight.

Editor's comment
‘I waited years to get into the Abarth Spider. It was worth it. The car looked sensational and screamed its heart out. It didn't much like traffic, though. You had to dial in a gazillion revs just to get it off the line.' Richard wrote the works Abarth story on, and also interviewed BTCC legend Patrick Watts
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1972 Matra-Simca MS670

How a French car won Le Mans for the first time since 1950, helped by Graham Hill.

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1972 Mercedes-Benz 220D Automatic La Pick-Up W115

Mercedes-Benz’s W115 saloon was renowned around the world as a taxi. But in Argentina it became more useful as La Pick-up. Melanie May investigates.

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1972 Mazda RX-2 RE Coupé

Mazda is relaunching its rotary technology so we took a fresh look at what the only manufacturer who had sales success with this technology achieved in the past.

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1972 Mercedes-Benz 280S W116 vs. 1980 Mercedes-Benz 450SEL Automatic V116

Marking 50 years since the launch of the 116-series S-Class with help from two keen owners. Half a century after their grand debut, the 116-series Mercedes-Benz S-Classes remain highly impressive limousines, combining breathtaking sophistication with self-assured looks and effortless performance – characteristics that are serving them well in today’s collector market.

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1972 Chrysler Valiant Charger R/T E49

Destined to become one of the fastest cars never to win Bathurst, Chrysler’s Charger was nevertheless New Zealand’s most successful standard production racing saloon, winning the annual Benson & Hedges 500 seven years in a row from 1972 – 1978.

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1972 Oldsmobile Vista Cruiser VC

Before the SUV and the minivan there was the station wagon. One can arguably state that when it comes to the station wagon America has done it bigger and better than anyone else. Originally conceived as a doorless people and cargo mover on a truck platform in the early 1900s, by the middle of the 1920s Ford had added some civility to it with the introduction of the Woodie. That refinement continued after World War II as wooden bodies gave way to steel panels and a foundation based on passenger car chassis.

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1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4 vs. 1970 Lamborghini Espada

Why underrated Espada and 365 GTC/4 offer all the glorious V12 thrills of their exotic brethren for a fraction of the price. Lamborghini’s Espada and Ferrari’s 365 GTC/4 have long existed in the shadow of more exalted siblings. Richard Heseltine says it’s time they received greater recognition.

Editor's comment
‘The Espada continues to pull on the heartstrings and remains my favourite Lamborghini. The Ferrari 365 GTC/4 appeals for different reasons, a true GT from a time before the term became shorthand for a track-orientated blunt instrument.’ Richard compares two thoroughbred underdogs: turn to pages
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