Different types of classic - a wide choice of cars to suit all! - at Old Classic Car

Different types of classic - a wide choice of cars to suit all!

Oldclassiccar - visit the classic cars homepage (C) R. Jones 2008

Authors note: Please be aware that what follows is just my opinion based on my experiences in this subject. All matters relating to motoring law, or any other legal/official matters should be pursued with the relevant authorities. I cannot accept any liability for loss/damage/divorce/grey hair or any other misfortune based on any of the following advice, given as it is in good faith only. Ta.

Type of Classic Car

Sports cars.

OK so now you've decided that choosing a classic car is for you! A wise choice, if I may say so. But this is only the start of the process - now you need to give some thought as to what type of classic vehicle you wish to buy. There'll be numerous factors which will influence your choice of classic car, not least finances and the opinions of those whom you live with. For those of you who have already set their hearts on a particular classic or vintage car, you may as well stop reading now. But for everyone else who is still in a state of flux over choosing from all the classic cars for sale, read on.

Many people aspire to a classic sportscar of some description. This type alone encompasses a broad variety of potential machinery, varying from cars such as MGBs and Triumph Spitfires of more recent times, back to vintage and post-vintage cars such as Rileys, Singers, 1930s MGs to name a few (read more about vintage automobiles here). Generally speaking the later the car, the more driveable it will be, and in many cases the more practical a proposition for someone new to the classic car scene. Thats not to say that a first time old car owner shouldn't buy something with a few more miles under its belt, just that it may require significantly more diligence, time and determination to run and maintain. Some older sporting cars are very well served on the spare parts front however, best placed being T series MGs which have a large international spares base, and ably supported by some sizeable owners clubs around the world. More unusual and yet of similar style is the Singer 9 range of open topped cars, including the Le Mans 9, but a word of warning: spares are few and far between, so if this is your choice of classic either buy a good one to start with, or get used to trawling around autojumbles and swap meets (something I like doing anyway) and get friendly with fellow owners, either by joining a Singer club or maybe the Vintage Sports Car Club (VSCC).

If you fancy something a lot more unusual and still from the 1930s era, then you could maybe look into something like a Wolseley Hornet (not the Mini-based 1960s version!), or how about a Bentley for the more well healed amongst us?

There are also a number of 'specials' available, ie sporting machines built using a sporty (usually alloy) body fitted to a more widely available, often saloon, chassis, such as that from an Austin 7 or even Ford 8. Specials like this were popular right up until the 1960s, and many sporty looking machines were available based on mundane mechanicals from such companies as Ashley, Tornado, Rochdale, Falcon, Hamblin, Dellow and Shirley, often employing period 1950s tuning accessories from companies such as Ballamy, Willment, Aquaplane and Wooller.

For day to day usability maybe something from the 1950s or 1960s should be considered - there are certainly plenty of competition/sporty cars available from this era, depending on your budget. Examples of cheapies (relatively!) are MG's Midget, Austin Healeys Sprite or bigger 100/6 and 3000 models, but even these can run into several £000s to get a good one! Project cars are available however for much less, eg MGB GTs can be found for a few hundred quid requiring full restoration, just don't underestimate the costs involved with restoring something like this.

Fancy something more exclusive? Then take a look at any of Jaguars range of sports cars from this era, ranging from the very tasty XK120, through to the 140 and finally the 150, available either in fixed head coupe or roadster form. Then of course there is the E Type Jaguar, available from 1961 in a bewildering array of body styles, from roadsters, fixed heads and 2+2s, engine sizes from 3.8 to 5.3, and series 1, 1.5, 2 and 3. Of course you could target something more unusual on our shores, such as Fiats 124 Spider, Alfa GTs, Lancia Fulvias, BMW 507s (£ouch), Mercedes SLs, and Porsche 356/911/912/914s, just check up on the spares situation for these cars before buying a car.
Sporting saloons are an option for those who need a 4 seater but still fancy something with style and a bit of zip - candidates here could be the Triumph Dolomite Sprint or Vitesse, Volvo 122S or 123GT, Riley One Point Five, BMW 3.0S, Mini Cooper, Brabham Viva, Jaguar Mk2 or XJ6, Mercedes 'fintail', MG Magnette or Lotus Cortina / GT.

If your classic budget runs to something of a more vintage age, and of greater rarity, then there is a jaw dropping collection of sporting cars all clamouring for your wallets attention. Although maybe not best suited to daily use, your choice could be a classic chariot from such lauded manufacturers as Bentley (say a nice 3 litre or a blower Bentley for the Tim Birkin - Bentley Boys - wannabees), Bugatti (how about a nice T35 GP car?), Alfa Romeo (a nice Monza 2300 for sir/madam?), Singer (a nice Le Mans coupe say), Riley (maybe a Brooklands lookalike single seater?) or Mercedes Benz (a glittering restored supercharged SSK would look good in my the garage). Just don't expect to be able to visit your local Halfords and pick up an overhaul kit for your Bentley's magneto on a Sunday afternoon.

There are rumours circulating in some quarters that many late 1970s and 1980s cars now qualify as 'classics'. Whether you subscribe to this view or not, theres no doubting the number of more modern sportscars that can now be found splashed across the pages of your favourite classic car magazine. Only yesterday I saw an article expounding the merits (there weren't too many however) of early Escort XR3 and XR3is, so I suppose we can no longer automatically label everything from the 80s as being a piece of modern tat (certain cars excluded of course, such as Morgans and XJSs which are probably suitably deserving of the 'collectible' tag). Many magazines have run articles on recent delights like the TVR Tasmin, rubber bumper MGB, Triumph TR7 (shudder), Toyota Celica, Ford XR2 & 1300S, S3 Jag XJ12 (ok I quite like these), BMW 6 series (M635 would be a hoot), SAAB 99 turbo (another fave of mine), various Mitsubishi turbo saloons, Capri 3.0 and 2.8, BMW M1 & M535 / M5, Escort RS Turbo, MG Maestro Turbo and EFI and many many more, not forgetting of course British Leyland's finest attempt, in the wedgey shape of the SD1 V8 Rover Vitesse.
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Classic Saloons & sedans.

However it could be that your tastes run to saloons of a more sedatory disposition. Here again there is a huge choice to go for, once more dependant on your budget, what you want to use the car for, and which era tickles your fancy.

Maybe you are a Michael Caine wannabee, and long to thrash a Mini around the streets of Turin a la Italian Job, or you have mafiosi tendencies, in which case only the longest and lowest jet black American sedan of the mid 1930s would suffice. Coming back to earth for a moment and we can consider more reasonably priced vehicles, this after all being the type of car most affordable to those of us without a bottomless £ pit, labelled as 'classic car purchase fund'.

The 1960s probably offers the best balance of practical and interesting cars that don't cost a fortune to run, and for which spares are by & large available. Britain was one of the frontrunning manufacturers of home grown cars in late 1950s and 1960s, and the choice here is great. You could look into running a classic Austin for instance (A35, A40, Mini, A60 Cambridge, or even slightly earlier A40 Somerset, Devon, Dorset), Ford (sit up and beg Popular 103E, 100E, 107E Prefect, 105E Anglia, Cortina, Corsair, Escort etc), Vauxhall (Victor, Viva, VX, SL90), Hillman (Minx, Super Minx, Imp), Standard Triumph (Vanguard, 8, 10, Herald) Wolseley (1500, 16/60) or a Riley (4/72, Kestrel). By the 1960s cars from oversees were beginning to be seen in greater numbers, notably VWs infamous Beetle, along with some real curiosities such as those produced by DAF. Renault were making themselves known with their R4, as were Citroen with their 2CVs. The Swedes were on the case as well by this time, Volvo selling 120 Amazons to UK buyers, while SAAB pedalled their 2 stroke 96 saloon and 95 estates (later V4) to our shores. Italy was represented by FIAT (eg the 500 & 600), Lancia, and Alfa.

Still fancy a saloon, but maybe a little older? There were many cars available on the UK market produced by manufacturers long since consigned to the hi

story books. Standard, Austin, Morris, BSA, Wolseley, Riley and so on from our own fair isle, all producing saloon cars to suit all budgets, Ford and Austin especially chasing the bargain hunter with their £100 offerings, namely the Ford Model Y and the Austin 7. Morris were soon to join the fray with the original Morris Minor, but enjoyed a fraction of the success that old Herbert and Henry were experiencing. Most of these vehicles were very similar, employing the then-usual combination of rear wheel drive and sidevalve (or 'flat head') design engines. BSA did buck the trend though with their front wheel drive models, though it never really caught on and most cars stuck with the rear drive layout, right up until the 1950s when cars like the Citroen Light 15 (then ID19/DS afterwards) and Mini brought front wheel drive to the masses.

Buy a Ford, Austin or Morris and you shouldn't encounter too many problems with spare parts etc. Fall for a Standard or Wolseley and your safest bet for finding spares is through an owners club.

However if you were born after John, Paul, George & Ringo parted company, then you may fancy something from the decade that fashion forgot, namely the 1970s. Plenty of 70s tin, scorned and ignored by so many for so long, now features in the collector car magazines on your coffee table ... whereas until recently the best place to park a Mk3 Ford Cortina was the bottom of a reservoir (full), you'll now find willing buyers queueing up to buy it from you. Likewise, Gary Glitter tribute bands are now lining up to buy sound examples of Vauxhall HC Vivas, Mk1 Fiestas, Mini Clubmans (especially 1275GT) or even better Mk1 Transits in which to cart all their equipment in.
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Commercial vehicles.

So what about an old commercial vehicle? The choice of old commercial is vast, although in reality only certain historic trucks are really useable regularly, most being ideally suited as weekend and classic car show 'toys'. You can choose large commercials (buses, heavy lorries, military, fire engines) or smaller ones (coaches, small - medium lorries, lightweight pickups) plus special build vehicles such as ice cream vans, refuse wagons, racing car transporters, bread vans, mobile libraries, police vans, 1940s WW2 NAAFI canteens, builders trucks and so on.

You really need to be 'into' old wagons to buy a heavy classic truck, and then there are serious issues with storage. If you can't fit your prized London bus at home in the drive, then you're going to have to fork out a £wad in storage, thats assuming you can find somewhere that has the facilities to allow you to work on your chosen vehicle. Easier to live with are coaches and other commercial lorries that will fit at home. Pick up a copy of a historic commercial vehicle magazine and compare prices - that 5 ton Atkinson lorry may be yours in restored condition for £3k say, yet to buy a much smaller 10cwt van in equally well restored condition (say an E83W Ford) may relieve you of £5-6k easily, simply because more people are in a position to take on car-size vans and pickups.

However if you are fortunate enough to live on an idyllic farm in the middle of nowhere with plenty of empty buildings, then go for a biggie and get a bargain!

Popular small vans to consider are Fords 1950s 10cwt and 5cwt range from 1938-57 (the latter sharing many components with contemporary Ford Pops), Bedford CA and HA vans, Morris J-Type (and similar JB and Austin 101), Morris Minor vans (Austin versions are available), Ford Anglia based commercials, plus some more oddball offerings from Jowett, Trojan, Reliant and others.
If you are capable of running something a little larger, then there are plenty of old trucks and public service vehicles available in wildly varying

conditions - just remember that to restore an old bus, with all that wood and leatherwork, can cost a fortune. Examples of Albion, Atkinson, Seddon, ERF, Foden, Leyland etc are all available to greater or lesser degrees, plus chassis from abroad such as real rarities from companies such as Dodge, Mack, International, Opel, Chevrolet and many many more. Older commercials are a very specialised thing to take on, especially if needing full restoration.

Spares can be very difficult to locate, and are often not interchangeable with more commonly found road cars built by the same company - you have been warned! However, if you want to stand out at your local historic vehicle event, go commercial and take along something unique, as opposed to taking the easier route and buying something easy and predictable like the rows of MGB and Moggies you'll see there. You can read more about the lighter stuff on my classic vans page.
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