Classic Cars - The Ford Capri

In January 1969, a few months before man walked on the moon, Ford introduced the new Capri into Europe, in a bid to capitalise upon the massive success that the Capri's American cousin the Mustang had enjoyed in the pony car and sports coupe market throughout the decade.

When the Mark 1 Capri was launched at the Brussels Motor Show with the slogan 'The Car You always Promised Yourself' it became an instant success with the baby boomer generation.

Within a year of production, almost one in four of all cars that Ford sold in Europe, was a Capri.

In 1970 nearly 250,000 Capris were sold. The car was assembled at Liverpool and Dagenham in the UK and at Ford's plants in Ghenk in Belgium and Cologne in Germany. By 1973 the millionth Capri an RS 2600 rolled off the production line at Ford's Halewood plant in Liverpool.

The early success in Europe led to Ford introducing the car into the US and Australian markets in 1970 and guaranteed the production of two further models, the Mark 2 and Mark 3 Capris.

The Capri Mark 1 was a sporty looking fastback with a long bonnet, wide opening two doors, low roofline often in black vinyl, rounded side windows, fake air intakes and alloy wheels and the distinctive hockey stick shaped indent that ran the length of the side of the car. Inside the car was designed with plastic and fake wood which was to become synonymous with cars of the 1970s. Inside the car was roomy with a rear bench seat and according to an advert by Ford at the time 'We were going to call the new Capri a 2+2 but there's too much room in the back'.

The Capri came in a multitude of engine configurations with many of the components and parts borrowed directly from the Ford Escort which had launched two years earlier. This meant the car had the usual front mounted engine and rear wheel drive.

The most popular Capri sold in the UK was the 1600cc version with either a L, GL or XL trim deciding its look and interior design. With a manual gearbox the car would struggle to reach 100 mph but the buying public were not that concerned with performance in 1969, they were more interested in value for money style and price. The base 1300cc model for the petrol frugant or timid driver started at just £890 on the road. The zippy two litre version was sold for a meer £1088. The range of Capris on offer was so large that no dealer could stock every variety. Incredibly the car featured front disk brakes and rack and pinion steering as standard, but in early models you had to request seatbelts as extras!

In its base form the 1300 Capri was a sluggish drive with its pushrod engine, but the 1600 crossflow Kent engine with its Pinto derived overhead camshaft cylinder head gave the car a lively performance. The 2000 was a different machine again with a V4 Essex Ford engine.

The Ford Capri's handling could best be described as awkward and like the Mustang involved large amounts of oversteer. In the dry the car was maneuverable and fun to drive, but when it rained it could punish the unaccustomed driver with very poor rear wheel traction and a slippery drive.

This became even more apparent with the larger engined later versions such as the 3000 GT and the mark 3 2.8i, which quickly became rated in the high insurance groups. The Capri, like most cars produced at the time was also notorious for rust.

The iconic design was favoured by good and bad. The car was regularly featured on TV screens and films and in cops and robbers style car chases. This may have led to the rise of the British 'Boy Racer' who loved the souped up and modified later versions. The Capri was also favoured by the 'joy-rider' car thief and its poor security led to the Mark 3 becoming the most stolen car in the UK during the 1980's.

As the Capri aged the model changes tended to be more cosmetic than mechanical, for example the distinctive square headlights of the Mark 2 Capri, which as a result left the winning sales formula intact. Production of the Mark 1 ended in 1974 and was replaced by the Mark 2 Capri which was built from 1974 until 1978. The Mark 3 Capri was built from 1978 until the last car rolled off the production lines in 1986. All in all nearly two million Ford Capris graced our streets in the 1970s and 80s.

By Dave Healey

Classic Cars - The Mini

One of the most recognised and plagiarised car designs in the World, immortalised in films such as The Italian Job, the Mini became an icon of British design during the swinging sixties in London and around the globe.

The Mini was the brainchild and end product of a two year research project by the chain-smoking Sir Alec Issigonis for the British Motor Company (BMC) started in 1957 and launched to an astounded public in 1959.

The Mini was born out of economic necessity and demonstrated the differences in the mindsets of US and British car owners at the time.

In America, multi-laned freeways were springing up everywhere and the 1950's was a time of indulgence in classic muscle cars and massive engined saloons. Fuel and economy was not a consideration.

However in Europe the mindset and zeitgeist was totally different, with the first two lane UK motorway not opened until 1959.

In 1956 petrol rationing had been reintroduced in the UK due to the Suez Crisis. When Egyptian leader General Nasser shut the Suez Canal, Britain's largest oil supplier of the time, Burmah Oil, which operated out of Persia, had to find alternative and much longer routes.

Demand for sales of small economic to run cars soon outstripped supply and this gap was filled by the famous two seater 'bubble cars' and other strange machines of German origin like the gull winged doors on the three wheeled Messerschmitt Kabinenroller (cabinscooter) KR175 and KR200.

Against this background, BMC commissioned Issigonis to come up with a world-beating small car to replace its aging Morris Minor, a previously untested idea.

The Mini's ingenious concept and design meant it offered a staggeringly large amount of interior space for what was essentially a 10 foot long car. The short wheelbase meant the Mini was extremely maneuverable and the car only weighed just 587 kg.

When Issigonis set to work he imagined an ultra compact cube to house four passengers, fronted by a space-saving front wheel drive system. However in a flash of genius he positioned the engine transversely across the engine well with the gearbox underneath it, to keep the drive-train super compact and outside his cube, and in doing so he invented the transverse engine.

The prototypes were fitted with a 950cc Morris Minor engine which could reach speeds of 92 mph, but the production car was first released with a more limited 848cc BMC engine that had a top speed of 72 mph.

Every available space was utilised in the design of the BMC Mini.

The car had tiny ten inch wheels in very tight wheel arches. Inside the car was basic with novel storage drawers in the doors but nowhere to put a radio on a small dialled facia. Issigonis did however include an ashtray!

Issigonis couldn't have possibly known that his cube car would go on to be voted in 1999 the second most influential car ever built, behind the Model T Ford.

BMC launched the first Mini Mark 1 in August 1959 under the brands Austin Seven Mini and Morris Mini Minor. They were manufactured at the respective Austin and Morris plants at Longbridge in Birmingham and Cowley down the road in Oxford.

The basic Mini cost just £496 when it was launched, the cheapest car in Britain.

Despite rapidly developing a cult following, and the car being driven by Stars such as Steve McQueen, Paul McCartney and Margot Fonteyn, initial sales were extremely slow and by the end of 1960 only 116,000 Minis had been sold, way below BMC's production capacity.

The car didn't reach its peak sales for another eleven years when in 1971 318,475 new Minis were sold.

It was also rumored by competitors Ford that the basic BMC Mini cost more to produce than it was sold for.

BMC responded by saying that the profits were made by having additional extras to the basic model, such as a radio, but on inspection the records show that the Mini did not make a profit for the company until 1982.

As a nationalised company with considerations of employees and trade unions, coupled with the investment in technology, BLMC as BMC became, could not halt a slightly loss making production.

So Mini production continued until 2000 and over 5,380,000 cars were built, making the Mini the most successful all British car ever made.

By Dave Healey

Classic Cars - The MGB GT

Throughout its eighteen year production life the MGB was a lovable sexy looking little roadster, with a low growling engine and a snug cockpit more reminiscent of a world war two fighter.

When first launched in 1962 the two seater MGB looked and felt very modern and went on to epitomise a more middle class view of the 'swinging sixties'. The car was of course built on solid time honoured MG virtues and class, and for the most part of its construction, adopted from its forerunner, the now much sought after MGA.

Built at Morris Garages in Cowley Oxford, the engineers took the MGA's B series 1492 cc engine and re-bored it to the much larger 1798 cc, and by fitting it into the same amount of engine space as the MGA raised the output of the MGB to a healthy 94 bhp. This gave the sports car a very lively performance with a top speed of 103 mph. The MGB could do 0 to 60 in 11.4 seconds. The engine had plenty of torque in the higher gears and it was renowned for the cars predictable road-holding, you could throw it around corners without losing control unlike many other sports cars of the time, which made the MGB popular with both young and old alike.

In the summer of 1965 when The Byrds were Number One in the UK Music charts, MG launched the highly desirable and elegant MGB GT fastback coupe.

The stylish lines of the MGB GT were designed by Carrozzeria Pininfarina whose Italian company had also produced designs for Peugeot and Ferrari.

The GT featured a rear hatch door, what could technically be called a 2+2 rear seat, which was so small a dog had difficulty sitting in it, and was often fitted with a leather sunroof. The extra bodyweight meant that the GT's low end acceleration was not as good as the MGB, however its naturally aerodynamic shape and lines gave it a top speed of 106 mph.

Production of the MGB continued under the auspices of the nationalised BLMC or British Leyland as it was known from 1968, but the MGB received poor investment, despite it being Britain's top export car to the US market for many a year.

In 1973 after much demand from enthusiasts British Leyland made a sincere attempt to pack the MGB GT with a much more competitive punch and fitted the car with Rover's 137 bhp 3.5 litre V8 engine!

Suddenly the quaint lady of british motoring could reach a top speed of 125 mph and do 0 to 60 in an impressive 8.4 seconds. In many ways the MGB GT V8 could claim to be Britains first 'hot hatch'!"

The new alloy engine weighed nearly forty pounds less than the old B series lump and the handling was much improved. Sadly, sales of the car were poor as its heavy fuel consumption did not bode well with the oil crisis and petrol rationing that were occurring when BLMC launched the car.

In 1975 all MGBs were given those rather unsightly black polyurethane bumpers or fenders to be precise. They were actually installed to meet US safety standards. All other changes to the MGB GT were also as a direct result of being so popular an export to the US and included the ride height being raised to meet US headlight standards and a single carburettor and catalytic converter were added to all US models to meet strict emissions standards. This, unfortunately for those driving them in the US, reduced the bhp to just 62 with a maximum top speed of 90 mph.

The final MGB rolled off the production line in 1980 and by then the car had sold over half a million. Throughout that time the second hand market for the MGB and GT was as strong as it is now with very high demand. Buying an MGB today is not beyond the pockets of many and as when new, the classic MGB and the MGB GT still remains affordable and is particularly popular with new collectors of sports cars.

Owning classic used cars can be fun and the MGB and MGB GTs are no exception The car's servicing can be done at home with a limited tool box, a set of axle stands and a decent jack. The spares situation for all parts for both the MGB and MGB GT is amongst the best for any classic car on the market. in the UK MGB specialist and garages can be found in every region and city. Car Insurance quotes are very fair, especially if you compare classic car insurance quotes, due mainly to the MGB's limited performance and the very wide availability of spare parts.

By Dave Healey

Classic Cars - The Audi Quattro

The year was 1980 and Gary Numan's Cars was at the top of the Music charts. In Britain at the time and throughout Europe, fast cars and so called 'Yuppys' were the order of the day in what becoming an increasingly competitive and socially divided world, prior to the technological advances brought by the infant information age.

At the Geneva Motor Show in March that year a car was revealed that was to technically change the future design of most road cars - The Audi Quattro.

The four-wheeled drive turbocharged road car, rally car and angular designed coupe, stole the show and proved that Audi with the new Quattro really had made 'Vorsprung Durch Technik' a massive advancement through technology.

The original or Ur Quattro as it became known, as opposed to subsequent quattro models with a small q, was not the first 4x4 road car; this honour is held by the Jensen FF.

However the innovative four-wheel drive system that Audi developed for the Quattro, did away with all the previous problems of additional driveshafts and extra weight. The Quattro team had produced a practical solution that amazed the motoring world of the day and led the way for the development of all modern 4x4 road cars.

Audi in the 1970's was not the most avant garde of the stoic German manufacturers, however they had a young and enthusiastic research and development team and more importantly, since 1969 the financial backing of owner Volkswagen, which was needed for the Audi Quattro to be born.

The seeds of the Quattro had sprouted three years before the car was launched in 1977 when chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger and a team of Audi engineers were visiting Northern Scandinavia to evaluate the performance of another Audi car, the front wheeled drive 100 series saloons.

While there, Bensinger was highly impressed by the performance of a protype of Volkswagen's Iltis military vehicle which was also being tested under extreme conditions.

The Iltis had new four-wheel drive technology and superb handling which easily outmaneuvered all competition in the snow and ice.

Jörg Bensinger was impressed and on his return to the Audi factory at Ingolstadt, with the encouragement of Walter Treser, a former rally driver and head of advanced development at Audi, in March 1978 the Quattro project commenced.

The Quattro design team started out by taking the worlds first 5 cylinder engine from the highly successful turbocharged 170 mph Audi 200, which was in parallel development at the time.

To the 2144 cc engine the team added a single overhead camshaft with two valves per cylinder, which boosted the engines output to 200 bhp at 5500 rpm.

This gave the Audi Quattro a top speed of 137 mph and the car could do 0 to 60 mph in just 7 seconds.

What took the world by storm though was not the power of the engine but the ingenious configuration of the new four-wheel drive system. Based on the Iltris concept, the design reconfigured the transmission and did away with the cumbersome and heavy traditional transfer box and driveshaft.

The Quattro team took the new engine and mounted it on the car in line, rather than in the usual transverse layout of the time. This allowed the gearbox to be attached to the back of the engine in a usual rear wheel drive manner. On the Quattro, power was transmitted through the gearbox in the usual manner, to a small grapefruit sized differential box immediately to the rear. From there it was conveyed by a typical rear axle.

But what made the quattros configuration so special was that it also transmitted power forward, using a hollow gearbox output shaft, to a similar differential that drove the front wheels!

The cars unique handling and sensational road holding that won so many Rallies throughout the 1980's in its sporting configuration, was further enhanced by the Macpherson suspension, all round disc brakes, and low profile radial tyres.

When the World Rally Championships changed the rules to allow four wheeled drive cars, the future of the Quattro was certain. In order to comply with the World Rally organisers rules of homologation, Audi had to produce a minimum of 400 cars per year to be considered a production vehicle. The development project was pushed forward and Audi attempted to build 10 new cars per day or 2000 per year.

All in all, Audi managed to produce 11,452 Quattros over the period 1980-1991. The rally versions the A1 and A2 evolutions, went on to win multiple World Rally Championships between 1981 and 1983.

Today the latest versions of Audis including the stunning RS range, still use the old Quattro technology!

It is still possible to buy an Audi Quattro classic although be prepared to spend a pretty penny, the best cars fetching in excess of £50000. There are not so many original cars still available as later Audi quattro models but they can still be acquired from specialist Audi used cars dealers. Running cost are reasonable and parts available, however like all Audi Insurance, cover for the Quattro is in the higher rating groups, due largely to the cars stunning performance and the growing scarceness of original or replacement parts outside of Germany. Shop around for cover for the Audi Quattro insurance. It may well be worth visiting a specialist classic car insurance website, for cheaper cover. Similarly if you join an Audi Quattro owners club, you'll have access to spare parts and also get large car insurance discounts for being a member!

By Dave Healey