Classic Cars is the original classic car magazine. It defined the world of classic motoring 40 years ago and still does it today. Every issue is put together by our team of classic car experts and enthusiasts. Using the best expert writing and photography, the magazine helps you experience what it's like to drive, keep and restore the classic cars of days gone by. We bring the stories and people behind the cars to life - showing you how to buy, keep and enjoy your cars. Every issue of Classic Cars is packed with: - Road tests - Drive stories - Expert buying advice - News and events coverage Classic Cars is the original classic car magazine.
Welcome • This month we celebrate originals so special their makers revisited them. Did they do the right thing?
‘Oh yes, she can boogie’ • As a young man Eoin McKenna owned an E30 325i Sport, but always lusted after an M3. Time to find out if four cylinders are better than six, as we put him in a BMW M3 Evo II
EOIN’S DREAM DRIVE LIST
[Want a Drive?]
EOIN McKENNA’S CLASSIC CV
High roller or eye roller? • Even with an unseemly interior, Corniche convertibles are attractively low-priced
ASK QUENTIN
Formby’s flier • It turned out nice again at ACA auction
Market indicators • What look like crazy prices are being paid for Fifties and Sixties British classics
PRICE GUIDE MOVERS
Arizona auctions bring big rewards • Dustin Hoffman’s Rain Man Buick smashes pre-sale estimate
WHAT THE K500 MARKET INDEX SAYS ABOUT THE...
IN THE TRADE
Market Headliners
Scrambled at Bicester • Sold-out first Scramble of the year rivalled established formal shows as Bicester Heritage businesses displayed their wares
WIN TICKETS TO PRESCOTT HISTORIQUE! • We’ve teamed up with the Bugatti Owners’ Club to give one lucky Classic Cars reader the chance to win tickets to the inaugural Prescott Historique event on Saturday 28 May 2022
Guts and Glory to John o’ Groats • Supercar visionaries subject themselves to the UK’s toughest rally
PC Resto Show returns • Innovations await re-emerging Practical Classics Classic Car & Restoration Show, set to return with gusto 18-20 March
March-April 2022 • After a quiet February, events season is back on
Globetrotting Merc to go green? • Rare unrestored 300S Roadster survivor on the move again after a 20-year slumber
Quentin Willson’s SMART BUYS 2022 • The May issue of Classic Cars is shaping up nicely
Damning with faint praise
Addicted to horspower
Classic cars
Quentin Willson • I vividly recall a first-hand experience of the McLaren F1 – and how its appreciation exceeded the most outrageous predictions
John Fitzpatrick • Sourcing seatbelts and working with a team that didn’t want me to win – that was all part of the game when racing works Fiat Abarths
FIRSTS AMONG EQUALS • Iconic cars sometimes inspire revivals years later, but are the originals still the best? We drive seven all-time greats, and find out how to buy the best
SECOND COMING • These are the pretenders that took inspiration from icons and ran with it – but to what level of success? The Classic Cars team has a retro-modern round-table
‘I HATE THAT WORD “RETRO”’ • Frank Stephenson, one of the world’s most in-demand car designers, devised both the new Mini and reborn Fiat 500. Here he talks about the tricky logistics of revisiting iconic car designs
THE DRIVING ELITE • Rising F1 star Ronnie Peterson chose the new Type 75 Lotus Elite as his road car. We take the Super Swede’s 1974 machine for a spin to travel in his shoes
‘They all found me. I never went looking for any of them’ • After a successful corporate career, Brian Bruce never went into...