There was a time when a trip to the local motor spares shop could result in coming home with something you never knew you needed. Perhaps it was a new gear knob. A pair of auxiliary mirrors. One of those little bottles of Feu Orange air freshener. Or a gadget that promised to make driving […]
Read More
Britain’s historic motoring world is full of remarkable people. The restorers who spend years bringing forgotten machinery back to life. The volunteers keeping museums and collections running. The enthusiasts organising events, preserving records and making sure our motoring history isn’t lost. And the younger generation finding their own ways into a hobby that ...
It looks like somebody has been playing with the scale settings. Parked together at Bentley’s headquarters in Crewe are four versions of one of the most famous racing cars ever built. There’s the genuine 1929 Bentley Blower, an enormously important survivor from the Bentley Boys era. Beside it is a slightly smaller interpretation that ...
Asking prices are one thing, but what are people actually prepared to pay for classic cars? Spend any time browsing classic car adverts and you’ll find some ambitious prices. But it’s when the bidding starts at auction that things can get particularly interesting. We’ve seen immaculate-looking classics struggle to attract buyers, while ...
Some of the most interesting things we see at auctions are not cars at all. They are signs. Not necessarily famous Shell, Castrol, BP or Michelin signs either. Sometimes it is a brewery name nobody outside the local area remembers. An old car park notice. A railway warning. A shop sign. An industrial plate. Something [&...
Some old motoring names have disappeared almost completely. Pratt’s is different. Go to enough automobilia auctions, rummage through enough old garages or spend enough time looking at vintage enamel signs and sooner or later you are likely to encounter that name. PRATT’S. Usually in enormous lettering. Often against a bright yellow background. And ...
Some old garage signs need no introduction. Shell. Castrol. Esso. Dunlop. Then there are the names which were once familiar to motorists all over Britain but have quietly slipped out of everyday memory. Dagenite is one of them. We recently picked up this wonderfully worn, double-sided enamel sign measuring approximately 51cm by 38.5cm. One side [&...
Every barn find starts with a question. Will it run? That is usually somewhere in our minds from the moment somebody first contacts us about an old car that has been sitting in a garage, barn, shed or garden for years. Sometimes decades. We might know when it was last taxed. We might know when [&...
There probably aren’t many three-wheelers in Britain more instantly recognisable than this. APL 911H is a 1969 Reliant Regal Supervan III dressed in the familiar yellow Trotters Independent Trading Co livery from Only Fools and Horses. And unlike many of the Reliants associated with the programme over the years, this one has a particularly strong [&...
I was today years old when I discovered that Esso once sold spark plugs. We’ve been working on our 1956 Ford Popular and, after removing the four plugs from its little sidevalve engine, something caught our eye. ESSO. Printed clearly around the white ceramic insulators. We’re used to seeing names such as Champion, Lodge, ...