Compiling the ‘Tried & tested’ pieces for CCM is often a risky business and it’s generally advisable to leave your wallet at home for fear of taking home everything you drive. This month was no exception, when a trip to Malcolm C Elder’s Bicester base offered the chance to drive a Mk2 Jaguar and a late model Mini in the same afternoon.

You won’t get two more iconic British classics and they both represented ideal examples of the model which would appeal to very different types of buyer. The Jag wasn’t perfect but could have been made into a really nice example with little more than elbow grease and time, while the Mini showed how the last gasp of development by BMWowned Rover Group did add a dose of modern practicality to what was by then a 37yearold design.

Ask me why the pair don’t appear in our Best of British selection and the answer is simply that in my view the best sort of Mini is a bargain basement one – as someone who started out helping schoolfriends fi x up tatty examples, the DIYfriendly aspect of the cars has always been their appeal.

Meanwhile, our selfimposed budget of 10 grand will secure you a Mk2 but is heading into risky territory unless you have a large dose of luck behind you and plenty of welding wire to hand, all of which made this example for just a little more look like good value.

In fact a budget of £10,000 is at once both too much and too little for many of our favourite classics, although the ageless class of the Silver Shadow falls well within it and is undeniably appealing. Lucky then that I’ve just had the perfect opportunity to get that one out of my system, courtesy of an invitation from RollsRoyce to their ‘100 motor cars for 100 years’ event in July.

All In need to do now then is to line up a suitable Shadow for the trip... and meanwhile, back down to earth again, I’m off to carry on polishing the cat scratches out of my Alfa Spider...

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For all this and much more see the August 2011 issue of Classic Car Mart.

Back issues available here