by R.L. Corn Sixty-one years ago, “Q” presented James Bond with a highly modified Aston Martin DB5 so that he could save the world from Goldfinger. The next year, the good folks at BMC released a Pininfarina-styled hardtop version of the extremely popular MGB to save the world from pricey, high-end sports cars while providing…
by David Mathias Over the decades I have owned literally dozens of British and German sports cars. I can’t say this without likening myself to a character in Aesop’s Fables about the grasshopper and the ant. The ant is wise. He works hard, saves his money and is both thrifty, conservative and probably drives a…
*This essay was written way back in 1984. All the cars mentioned are now just memories, except the 1968 Mercedes, which is still my favorite car and still bears the cut in the rubber bumper guard. The Alfa Romeo is now owned by the girl’s brother and is sitting in a barn waiting restoration, but…
By Emilee Crawford “First step, let’s see if they start,” a lover of vintage British sports cars says to me, the weary yet excited, girlfriend sitting beside him. It’s barely daybreak and two twenty-somethings rev the engines of their decades-old British sports cars, embarking on an ambitious road trip down south to The Mitty. Sunrise…
Given that the overwhelming majority of British sports car production in the postwar era went to fill export orders, these cars are typically more valued in their land of creation than they are here in the United States. As such, it’s always helpful to check prices across the pond to see how the market is…
Little known in the United States, the MGB Costello V8 is admired as one of the most historically important variants of the car produced. A skilled engineer and talented racing driver, Ken Costello saw a need to increase the performance of the standard MGB without resorting to measures that would adversely affect reliability. Costello considered…
Jensen introduced the Jensen GT Shooting Brake in 1975 hoping to see the same success that MG realized with the BGT. With more luxurious trim and more gentrified image, the car was to sell at a higher price and generate more profits to keep the struggling company afloat. Jensen was – reportedly – losing money…
From the debut of the MGB in 1962, Abingdon had worked to develop an attractive – and marketable – coupe from the roadster that could be sold alongside the open car and entice new customers into the fold for whom the standard car was impractical. Most of the primitive design studies suffered greatly in comparison…
The fact that the high-performance MGB GT V8 shared the same appearance as its more pedestrian siblings was deemed harmful to its position in the marketplace especially as it was difficult to distinguish the more potent car in various advertising efforts. As always with most British manufacturers, cost was an issue but it was deemed…
It’s easy. Just tell a proud owner you’re putting their car in this class, when they want to be in that one. I’ve seen it happen before, and likely been responsible myself. After hosting the British Car Festival in California for five years, and now preparing for our second Motorfest next summer, we’re still trying…
