Ask most traditionalists what constitutes a great driving machine and they’ll tell you it has two doors, no roof and a big engine. That’s been the standardised formula for driving nirvana for nearly as long as the car itself. As owner’s priorities change, fun behind the wheel can often evaporate – but it doesn’t have to. A sports saloon not only keeps your pulse racing, but negates the need for a beady eye on the weather forecast or to leave family or friends behind.
This Series 8 Bolwell Nagari came to George May some thirty-four years ago. In fact he rebuilt it from a wreck. A young George put so many new parts into the car that it might have been easier to start from scratch. Since then it has never been in an accident, has never had a respray, and has never been driven in the rain.
Porsche’s first purpose-built race car was the 550 Spyder, introduced in 1953 and instrumental in establishing the marque as a winner on the endurance racing scene. We get up close and personal with chassis 550-0020
Jeremy Davies was captivated by nostalgia when he acquired his 1964 Buick Wildcat four-door hardtop. Little did he know, this vehicle arrived with an extraordinary backstory woven into its history.
The 1959 Buick remains an icon of Fifties automotive design, albeit not as revered in Britain as in other regions. However, Jon Gillman stands as a notable exception, keeping three of these classics road-ready. His latest restoration, a remarkable 1959 Buick Invicta Convertible, unfolds a tale of timeless allure and meticulous preservation.
This is one of a few Rolls-Royces built for the oil millionaire Nubar Gulbenkian and probably the least outrageous, yet it was still enough of a head turner to find itself a movie role in a true cult classic.
One of the most engaging things about many Rolls-Royces is their story – the ups and downs of a long and interesting life. This rare Swedish-bodied 1921 Silver Ghost is no exception, with a tale that takes in Stockholm, Switzerland and now Scotland.
This Jaguar XK120 was raced in the 1952 International Race of Champions at Silverstone by Prince Bira and after a life in the USA the recently restored car has returned to the UK.
After the distinctively cheeky character and idiosyncratic mechanicals of the rear-engined aircooled Volkwagens, getting into the firmly-bolstered plaid-clad drivers’ seat of this Golf GTI MkI feels like a total culture shock. Everything is angular, futuristic, hinting at computerised systems and digital precision, created in the same kind of ultra-rational post-oil-crisis idiom that produced things like the Porsche 928 and W126 Mercedes-Benz S-class. Only in-house stylist Herbert Schäfer’s contribution, the gearknob – Schäfer was a keen golfer – hints at any notion of fun. And yet in the Eighties, the Golf GTI would define driving excitement.
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.
Clambering aboard this split-window Type 2 Camper – and you really do have to climb up into it, it’s surprisingly high off the ground – the thing that surprises me most is how far removed from the Beetle it is. I know it’s built on that car’s floorplan and shares its engine and gearbox. But it’s testament to the ingenuity of VW’s platform engineering that the thing it reminds me most of is not a car, but the 201 bus to Stamford.
