Classic Cars

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 • After the year we’ve just had, escaping somewhere swiftly in something as refined and stylish as a Bentley Continental Flying Spur seems like essential therapy

‘It’s like driving a concept car’ • Classic Cars reader Jon Ranwell has always fancied driving a Lotus Esprit ever since The Spy Who Loved Me was released. Will reality match celluloid dreams?

E-types of all flavours take a hit • Those in lesser condition look cheap but the nicest examples are better value

ASK QUENTIN

Amazing that you can buy a good Alfa 164 for Morris Minor project money

Super-unleaded prices stifling Mercedes R107 SLs

Pick and mix • Risky Bora bargain stars at Historics

Market indicators • Even when it’s quiet the right cars find a queue of ready buyers, like this varied selection

Ferrari F40 rockets to superstardom

Time to reassess Rover P4’s fading glory?

PRICE GUIDE MOVERS

Sharp opportunity

A Life Well Lived • Heading for Paris – an art deco beauty with a tale worthy of a Netflix mini-series

IN THE TRADE

Record-breaking prices for Bavarian legends

UK and USA dominate McLaren F1 ownership • Gordon Murray’s design masterpiece remains most popular in the English-speaking world

Birmingham back with a bang • Classic Motor Show on terrific form with rare cars aplenty

Rallying back to Prescott • The second Rallye Prescott firms up the new event at historic venue

Sue Baker, 1947-2022

Jan-Feb highlights

Mauro Forghieri, 1935-2022 • Master Ferrari and Lamborghini engineer has died aged 87

TVR has a bright (pink) future • Super-early Grantura Climax turns up in Scotland with amazing motor sport history

TOP 50 TOURS OF 2023

Tesla vs Daimler

Classic Cars

QUENTIN WILLSON • An overheard conversation in a Paddington pub took me back to time when we bought, used and sold tired, ageing supercars with carefree ease

JOHN FITZPATRICK • The arrival of Lola’s new IMSA contender in 1981 really wound up the Porsche teams. In fact, I remember things getting quite hairy at times

Smooth OPERATORS • Fancy escaping the relentlessness of modern society and making expeditious motoring progress at the same time? Now’s the time to breathe deeply and luxuriate in a cosseting classic or five…

‘The Seventies fuel crisis prioritised economy, and improved efficiency brought reduced noise’ • As project leader of the Spectre – the first all-electric and quietest-ever Rolls-Royce – Dave Monks has unique knowledge of how to bestow a car with inner peace. And also when to throw long-mastered understandings out of the window…

UNLEASHED! • An IMSA veteran with racing provenance that spans the most legendary US circuits, this one-of-51 1993 911RSR 3.8 is the most extreme 964 money can buy. We set this road-converted ASBO-on-wheels loose in sleepy Oxfordshire

The Solihull secret • As ‘1970 Manual Prototype Number One’, this car spent five years and hundreds of thousands of miles being developed by its maker. Today we drive it and ask: is this the zenith of the Rover P5B...