In a break from the usual Touring format, this one focuses more upon the car than the place. Peter Simpson visits Tom Lenthall’s workshop to drive a newly enlivened XJ Coupé.
Jaguar scored a hit with its first home-grown engine, the XK of 1948. But when it came to its second go, it aimed high. And the Jaguar E-type Series 3 was the first beneficiary of the new V12 unit.
As a variety of cars we excelled at, there were plenty of British-built grand tourers during the Sixties and one of the best was the Aston Martin DB5. Or did the rarer Bristol 408 off er something more?
How many of us ever have the opportunity to drive an 87-year-old car, and not just around the block? Peter Simpson takes the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust’s 1935 SS1 Airline Saloon on a tour of the English Cotswolds…
Despite Ian Appleyard dominating the Alpine Rally throughout the early Fifties with his cream XK120, registration NUB120, since the Monte Carlo Rally’s rules at the time demanded cars over 1ó litres had to be four-seaters, it meant he had to ditch the sports car in favour of a MkVII instead. For his first Monte in 1952, Appleyard ordered a brand new example, registered PWN 7, but due to poor weather he, together with his co-driver wife, Pat (who was also the daughter of chairman of Sir William Lyons) finished a lowly 53rd. He would use the car again for that year’s Tulip Rally in April when he came home a strong second.
The Mercedes-Benz A124 Cabriolet is one of the classic car world’s most enduring four seaters, but it was expensive when new. How does a similarly priced BMW alternative compare today?
If you were an executive in the late Sixties and early Seventies, there was only two choices of car – the Spartan Mercedes-Benz W114 or the prestigious Jaguar XJ6. With both cars worth similar values today, how do the 2.8-litre versions of both compare now?
With a larger 15.6kWh battery pack, the arrival of the more powerful DS 9 E-Tense 250 model to replace the current 225 allows the plug-in hybrid executive saloon to run in pure electric mode for up to 38 miles. The newcomer is powered by a four-cylinder, 1.6-litre 197bhp PureTech petrol engine, linked to a 109bhp electric motor and eight-speed automatic transmission
The Range Rover P38a was targeted not only at other off road vehicles, but at the world of the luxury saloon. The Jaguar XJ was Britain’s poshest plutocrat carrier – how does the Range Rover compare?
These two chairmen’s carriages offered what their manufacturers felt was the perfect blend of comfort and technology but achieved their aims in different ways – one favoured evolution, while the other was unashamedly revolutionary. Both are excellent value modern classics today, but one’s just that little bit more captivating
