Conventional wisdom suggests that two days before Christmas in a foul storm wouldn’t be an ideal time to drive half-way round the M25 to try and photograph a pair of high-powered rear-drive performance cars for our front cover. In the event though, the London Orbital car park was a breeze and we spent a very pleasant few hours talking cars and drinking coffee at Nutley Sports and Prestige until a break in the weather saw us scramble to get the photos done – with the result that we were able to put our feet up over the Christmas break knowing we’d got it in the bag. Big thanks to Nutley’s Matthew and Kelly for helping out and refusing offers of help to wipe the cars down again afterwards.

Conventional wisdom also says you can’t afford to buy into the Mk2 Jaguar dream unless you’ve got a surplus 30 grand but with a bit of lateral thinking and some soul-searching about why it is you want one, you can sneak your way in through the back door and get yourself all the enjoyment for a fraction of the cost – as you’ll see in our feature on page 56. As our Jaguar expert Jim Patten advises, buy it for yourself and not what others will think of you: a comment which could apply to so many areas of the classic car hobby.

And meanwhile, if the Mk2 still comes with too many connotations of the underworld for you but you want a classic British saloon with straight-six power then the big Farinas could be the answer.

Not as sporting as the compact Jaguar, they ooze a refined charm which is every bit as British and luckily, we’ve put together a buying guide for you covering all of them from the Austin Westminster to the Rolls-Royce powered Vanden Plas 4-litre R.

All of which flag waving contrasts nicely with the BMW 635CSi driven for this month’s Tried & Tested. I’ve driven a few ropey examples of these in my time but this one was a delight, with a timeless elegance the firm has yet to recapture. Rather like the Mk2 Jaguar...

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For all this and much more see the March 2012 issue of Classic Car Mart.

With our focus on the MG brand and more specifically the MGB this issue, it’s fitting that this month saw me make a visit to British Motor Heritage, the firm which can supply you with panels and even entire shells for the B and other British classics.

Compared to modern manufacturing methods the production of panels for classic cars is a labour-intensive one and requires some old-fashioned skills which are apparently in danger of dying out. Chatting to the people charged with maintaining the original production tools it was fascinating to discover just how overengineered they were even in the BL days when you’d assume that things were done on the cheap. Not so: apparently these tools will outlive us all.

Something from the BL/Rover days which hasn’t outlived us all yet is the Metro Turbo. We’ve commented in the past how the original Metro seems to have suddenly disappeared from our roads, but the MG Turbo is rarer still, with just a handful registered with DVLA and single figures actually in use. Which made it all the more surprising when Jim Lott, owner of the car photographed in this month’s feature told us that he keeps the car taxed and on the button all year round, just in case he fancies taking it to work. Respect to Jim for actually using a car which is rarer than some Italian exotica,.

On the subject of MG, we’ve kicked off the 50th anniversary celebrations for the iconic MGB by investigating the different extremes of the market, from £20k chrome bumpered roadster to project GT and it seems that no matter what your budget, there’s an MGB somewhere out there to suit you. It may be 50 years old but it’s easier to restore and run than the blown Metro from an era which still seems like recent history to me. Strangely though, BMH didn’t seem too keen on my idea of producing new Metro shells...

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For all this and much more see the February 2012 issue of Classic Car Mart.

I write this column after recovering from the miles walked around the NEC capturing the annual Classic Motor Show for CCM. Encouragingly, as the show ended the organisers were reporting good attendance figures, confirmed by a press release which has just popped up reporting visitor numbers up again on last year’s record levels.

It’s good to hear something positive in a world full of financial doom from the media and curiously, my train journey to the NEC for the show showed just how many classics are out there in daily use. Before even backing out of my drive I had to wait for a neighbour in his Morris Traveller and driving to the station I passed an Aston Martin Lagonda of all things.

While buying a ticket the counter clerk noticed my Jaguar logo’d jacket (a souvenir from this year’s Mille Miglia) and commented how much he had enjoyed the show, and then while buying a cross-city ticket in Birmingham an hour later, a second ticket clerk told me all about his pair of classic bikes which were on show at the adjoining Classic Bike Show. And the following morning I found myself chatting to the proprietor of our village post office about his £800 Triumph Stag bargain.

All of this shows that Morris Minor guru Charles Ware’s philosophy of the classic as a durable car to be used for years and upgraded as required has taken more of a hold than people might realise.

And yes, the humble Minor is a world away from the Silver Shadow we road test in this issue but the principle still applies and you won’t buy more elegance and luxury than a late ’60s Shadow. Although the square-jawed ’80s style of our twin test subjects this month, the MkII Granada and E28 BMW come a close second to anyone who can remember the Sinclair Spectrum being a new and exciting thing. Mind you, if I was expected to use one of those on a daily basis I might just refuse...

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For all this and much more see the January 2012 issue of Classic Car Mart.

There’s something reassuring about driving a classic you’ve owned for a number of years, where all the little quirks and issues alert you to something out of the ordinary just as quickly as the big touch screen colour display in the dash of a top-spec modern car.

In my old Alfa for instance, there’s no buffering in the fuel gauge circuitry so the needle swings wildly between nearly full and almost empty if you drive enthusiastically and in fact if there’s anything less than half a tank then the low fuel light will flash too. Personally I’ve always ignored it and learned to look for fuel only when the ever-louder buzz of the fuel pump behind me gets especially irritating, at which point I know I’m on borrowed time.

A pity then that I didn’t have the same degree of familiarity with the Rover P5B I drove recently for a photo shoot, which coughed gently to a halt with the gauge on the stop, just as I was wondering how much fuel it had on board.

I like to think I’m pretty fit but pushing a P5 uphill feels like Geoff Capes lifting up the VW Polo in that ’80s TV ad, so the walk of shame with the plastic Bell can was in order.

At the other end of the scale, this month’s focus on Swedish classics brings you the Saab Sonett and Volvo P1800, both cars which proved the Swedes could do exotic as well as sensible. Of course as I write this both firms have been through the mill but it’s Volvo which has ended up in front, with Ford having sold the firm to Chinese interests while Saab’s Trollhättan lines have remained idle since the spring.

All of which is a great shame, as poring over both the Sonett and the 99 Turbo made me remember just why Saabs developed such a cult following in the UK, with an engineering depth which went way further than the ignition key on the floor. It’s one brand which will be sadly missed.

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