Classic Car Mart Magazine Vol.20 No.3 70's Family Favourites Zurück Ausgabe

As floods spread across the country and the weather shows no sign
of abating, it’s perhaps fitting that we should turn our attention to the modern classic side of things this month. Our feature on £3000 Jaguars shows just how easy it is to step out of humdrum modern cars and into
something interesting without spending a fortune or ending up in a car with exotic running costs. Not all of our choices are gas-guzzling V12s, either: the later XJs are a superb blend of classic and modern practicality, while the newer models like the S and X-Type are controversial in the context of the classic car scene but certainly meet one of the requirements of a classic car: to arouse, er, ‘heated debate...’ On less controversial ground, we also bring you a comparison between the
conservative Triumph Toledo and the HC Vauxhall Viva which shows how very varied the selection of cars available to the ’70s buyer was. The Triumph appeals with its traditional style but suddenly seems very
old fashioned next to the Viva, yet both were on sale together for quite some time. Under the skin, they’re surprisingly well matched too, sharing the same mechanical layout, weighing about the same and offering similar performance from similar-sized engines. They’re both pretty rare
cars today too and attract as much attention on the road as something
far more exotic. At the other end of the scale as far as British saloons go, we bring you a buying guide to the mighty Bentley Turbo. It’s not for the
faint-hearted but you can’t argue with the value for money involved
in picking up a 150 mph car which once cost well over £100,000, for the price of an MGB. Just ensure you make friends with your local Rolls/Bentley specialist before taking the plunge... and look back to our
December issue to fi nd out how involved those hydraulics are. If that frightens you off, then perhaps our in-depth look at the A-Series engine is what you need.