Automotive
Classic & Sports Car
$85MILLION SALE REVEALS MIDDLE EAST ENTHUSIASM
Classic car culture is developing at a meaningful pace in the Middle East, with events, collectors and auctions now well established, and gaining momentum as demonstrated by the $85million total for the RM Sotheby's sale in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on 5 December. As well as the extraordinary auction results that included $25,317,500 for McLaren F1 chassis 14 (right), a $10,130,000 Pagani Zonda F Riviera and high six-figure sums for a variety of 2010s Ferraris, there has been a proliferation of motoring events for enthusiasts in the region.
5 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
IT'S SO GOOD, I BUILT IT TWICE
I originally created my Special 30 years ago, using full-size paper patterns. It loosely resembled an MG J2, being flat-sided with a slab tank. It was constructed from 3/4in plywood with an aluminium skin and it had no compound curves. After nearly 25 years of fairly hard use, including two years of it being my only car through sun, wind, rain and hail (which really hurts), with no hood or heater, it was looking a bit tired. Then, driving back from Supercar Sunday at Wilton House, the 'box began to feel like stirring a bowl of porridge, so I embarked on a rebuild.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
AC COBRA MKIV
AC Cobra values have been rising for a number of years now. If you're after an early, Thames Ditton-built example of Carroll Shelby's V8 hot rod, you'll need £500,000-plus in spare change, or potentially millions for a nice 427.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
BOOM & BOOST
Formula One's first turbo era fuelled a runaway freight train of technical one-upmanship and unmanageable horsepower
10 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
GARY GAND
This Avanti owner and guitar collector is a curator of mid-century Modernism
3 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
ASTON MARTIN: THE ENTIRE STORY
Aston Martin is fertile ground for marque histories. There are almost as many twists and turns in the company's ownership as at the Circuit de la Sarthe, where Aston achieved its greatest motorsport successes. Being better known for producing beautiful road cars than any particular technical mastery, Aston can attract the ‘coffee table’ treatment, where lovely photography and immaculate production values can mask vapid copy - but that’s not the case here.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
RENAULT 5 TURBO
No car screams “TURBO!” quite like the Renault 5, er, Turbo. The clue is in the name. And in the not-so-subtle badges and stickers that wrap this so-ugly-it’s-gorgeous little homologation-special hatchback.
4 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
MEET & GREET
Lee Irish FOUNDER, PRISTINE PANEL WORK
1 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Mick WALSH
The journey, as much as the destination, is a key part of any road trip, as proved on one of my greatest motoring experiences, the 1991 Carrera Panamericana revival. As copiloto to 'Julio Balmez' in his Lincoln Cosmopolitan, 'Wooly Bully', the journey to the start and back to Los Angeles had highlights to match the surreal rally from Tuxtla Gutiérrez to Ciudad Juárez.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
ESCORT DOMINATES IN THE FORESTS
Osian Pryce and Dale Furniss emerged as resounding winners of the Roger Albert Clark Rally from 20-24 November, after one of the toughest editions yet in the 16-year story of this marathon, during which only 125 of the 176 starters made the finish.
5 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
COLLECTORS AND RACERS STAR IN SPAIN
AutoClassic Alcañiz marked the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Aragonese town's former street track, Circuito Guadalope, during the 28th edition of the indoor show, which returned to Feria Alcañiz exhibition centre from 12-14 December.
6 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
PAUL CAMERON
This design specialist has channelled his creative talent into automotive art, with dramatic results
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
FERRARI 12CILINDRI
Maranello's latest V12 gran turismo sticks to its famous maker's core values
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
MAZDA MX-5 2.0i
Given that the Mazda's continuing dependability has a bearing on my input - and therefore my worth - to C&SC by delivering me come what may to each assignment, I'm pretty conscientious when it comes to its maintenance.
3 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Model of the month
BENTLEY SPEED SIX Spark, 1:18, £169.99
1 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Simon TAYLOR
Ever since the inelegant term 'restomod' emerged in the USA in the 1990s, it has been hung on a great variety of cars: from over-lowered, over-wheeled café showoffs to beautifully engineered developments of the original, such as those Eagle E-types that can cost you half a million quid.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Great expectations
The hype is justified: the BMW 328, as it reaches 90 years old, is still a fantastic car to drive.
9 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
LEST WE FORGET
The site of one of WW2's key battle grounds is now home to its key mechanical protagonists
3 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
FIRE-BREATHING DRAGON
When a keen amateur from Wales wanted a one-off racer with V8 punch, he turned to a niche local car maker. The Gilbern-Chevrolet was the result
8 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Martin BUCKLEY
In early spring 2025, the time came, for various reasons, to 'get out of Dodge'. But where to go? Somewhere warm with lots of old cars, ideally, so I could continue earning a living. My friend John had been regaling me for years with tales of Palm Springs: of desert scrapyards full of sun-bleached, rot-free British gems; of living in a condo with a pool, in a place where you could ogle daily-driven classics under endless blue skies while indulging a passion for architecture – or drown your sorrows at Polynesian-themed tiki bars. So I made hasty arrangements, packed a bag and was on the next plane, under instruction from my 82-year-old mum to “bloody behave”.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
STICKING WITH WHAT YOU KNOW
Family firm I Say, Ding Dong! has found a niche supplying specialist stickers to the classic world
3 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
It's hip to be square
Post-war drivers seeking real practicality could choose from a new breed of estate cars from traditional favourites Standard, Ford and Hillman
9 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Two's a party
Alejandro de Tomaso not only redefined Maserati for the next two decades with the 1982 Biturbo, but also introduced the world to twin turbocharging
10 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Pick of the month
GADGET GEAR
4 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
ELECTRON IS REBORN FOR THE ROAD
Air Vice Marshal DCT ‘Pathfinder’ Bennett had an extraordinary career, first in the Royal Air Force and then in commercial aviation after that, before becoming a Member of Parliament. Rather than retire into obscurity, he then started to make cars under the Fairthorpe name in rural Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire. After a limited run of a microcar called the Atom there was a four-wheeler called the Atomota, which became the Atom Major. Following the arrival of the Coventry Climax 1098cc engine, Fairthorpe took a modified Atomota chassis and produced a desirable sports car called the Electron, but the high cost of the motor made the car uncompetitive in the marketplace.
1 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
FORD SIERRA RS COSWORTH
The Ford Sierra RS Cosworth's British credentials are upheld here, not because of where the base car was manufactured – its assembly plant was in Genk, Belgium – but rather by its UK-led conception and powertrain development for this iconic high-performance model. That's important because, before the RS Cosworth's launch at the Geneva Salon in '85, the only turbocharged production cars of note that had emerged from Blighty were the MG Metro Turbo in 1983 and its MG Montego Turbo sibling, along with a gaggle of blown M-series TVRs. Prior to that, British buyers' limited exposure to turbocharging had come in the form of the left-hooker-only BMW 2002 turbo and Saab's 99, plus the exotic Porsche 911.
4 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
Brawn with a silver spoon
To some at Crewe the idea of a hopped up Mulsanne went against all the firm stood for, but the Turbo R would save Bentley's bacon
8 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
A STORED SCIMITAR WITH A STRANGE FACE
Of the 1006 examples built of the original Reliant Scimitar SE4 coupé, some 705 survivors are known to the Reliant Sabre and Scimitar Owners’ Club. Martin O’Sullivan has a 1967 example, registered NAR 261D. He had been working on a building site at Bicester in 1975 when one of his colleagues put the word out that his sports car was for sale, because he wanted to raise money for a mortgage. When he said it was a Reliant most lost interest, thinking that it was a three-wheeler, but Martin was bowled over by the car and bought it for £350.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
LEA-FRANCIS TO RACE AGAIN
Lea-Francis cars can trace their roots back to 1903, when the firm, which had previously produced bicycles, made its very first automobile. During the 1920s and ’30s its cars were successful in competition, and the company was rescued from bankruptcy by George Leek and Hugh Rose. Production was suspended for WW2, but engineering for war work proved profitable, which enabled production to start again using mainly updated prewar models. Yet behind the scenes, a number of experimental cars were being worked on, including a prototype sports-racer.
2 min |
February 2026
Classic & Sports Car
CHEVROLET CORVAIR CORSA TURBO
Long before the arrival of the Corvair, the USA had form when it came to turbos. The first turbocharged aero engine was an American Liberty V12, which set altitude records from 1919 (p88). The first turbocharged diesel racer was the Cummins Diesel Special, a 6.6-litre, 380bhp single-seat monster that raced at Indianapolis (without much success) in the early 1950s. But even if we're restricting ourselves to petrol-burning turbocharged engines created for earthbound, roadgoing purposes, then the Americans got there first with the Oldsmobile Jetfire Turbo-Rocket V8 in 1962.
3 min |