It may have taken the best part of 20 years to finish, but Neil Shore’s Mk1 XR2 turbo is an incredible creation built from pure determination — and a love of Fiestas.
In the early 1980s, a designer sought a calling card. With backing from The Observer newspaper, this unique glass-topped BMW 635CSi E24 show-car was the result.
This restomod Capri is at once quintessentially British and wonderfully multicultural, shaking off the conventions of the scene to create something unique.
Showcasing Buick’s turbo technology in the early Eighties was this one-off model, the PPG Buick Skyhawk Turbo, that was built to pace the Budweiser Cleveland 500 in 1982…
By and large, when it comes to the business of fitting innovative technologies into their cars, automobile manufacturers tend to reserve such features for their flagship models or limited-run offerings. The price tags and discerning clientele who can afford it justify the cost of such fancy features.
Martin Cliffe developed the engine for the Lotus Turbo Esprit, yet he’d never owned one until recently. Today we both drive it, then compare notes on how it shapes up retrospectively.
After the demise of Abingdon and the MG sports cars, the Metro arrived amidst some controversy. It wasn’t a big hit with the purists but, today, Austin- Rover’s first hot hatch has quite a following…
Life Cycle The high-speed musical life of the Lynx Eventer prototype, featuring Tina Turner, Sir Bob Geldof, Cy Curnin, Howard Jones and a bootful of synthesisers. What began life as a substandard outcast soon became a showpiece, and mobile rehearsal studio to.
It’s sometimes amazing just how quickly time passes. I look at the subject of this month’s Across the Pond as an example. The year 1982 doesn’t seem that long ago to me, but four decades have passed since then.
Some may question why the Alfasud rates such a lofty position as seventh in our top 12. After all, this is a car that could so easily have a tragic opera written about it, so troubled was its birth and its early life, as it returned to base mineral elements. The reason why the Alfasud is in seventh position – and why the tragedy of its reputation for rust is all the more acute – is because it’s an absolute cracker of a car.
There was more than a little criticism from the press when in early 1982 Tom Walkinshaw Racing (TWR) announced it was to enter the European Touring Car Championship (ETCC) with a Jaguar XJ-S. Big, heavy and very thirsty, it was – on paper at least – an unsuitable choice for this highly competitive series, just as the XJ12 Coupe had been five years earlier. Worse still, TWR’s effort had limited backing from the factory, only getting paid when the cars finished on the podium. With BMW dominating the series, doing so would be a tall order.
Signal of intent Restored by Cardock Classics in Ireland, this 230GE Cabriolet must be one of the best in the world What started out as a paint polish turned into a detailed restoration of a rare open-topped G-Wagen in Ireland, and now it could be coming up for sale Restored 230GE Cabriolet
In the heart of South Africa, a 911 collector decided not to simply restore his SC to be used as a daily, but to upgrade it to be taken far off the beaten track. Written by Wilhelm Lutjeharms Photography by Peet Mocke.
