"The Austin Allegro. Forever derided and an almost permanent squatter in any ‘Britain’s Worst Car’ list. 2018 marks the Allegro’s 45th birthday, so perhaps the time has come for a re-evaluation. A drive in a showroom-fresh Allegro may help "
Viva la Vauxhall Viva
"The Vauxhall Viva is one of the earliest cars I can remember. I recall sitting snot-nosed in my neighbour’s HC Viva on the way to nursery. I was also slightly jealous because the saloon looked cooler than my dad’"
A Civic duty: four-and-a-half decades of the Honda Civic
"Say ‘Honda Civic’ to any Millennial, and there’s a fair chance that the fire-breathing, engine-screaming EK9, EP3 or FN2 Type R versions of Honda’s family hatchback will be their first weapon of thought. But, it wasn’t always "
Gareth Jones: The Ford Cortina And Me
"When we got asked to make this film, it had a working title of ‘Dad Had One’ and was always going to be a nostalgic look back at the cars of our youth. Cortinas, Chevettes, Dolomites, Cavaliers, that sort of "
Auto Finesse
"We chat to Auto Finesse’s head honcho James Batty. Here’s the story so far: Danni Bagnall: Hey James – thanks for your time! For those that don’t know, what is Auto Finesse? James Batty: No worries at all. "
Renault Clio Williams: a hot hatch hero
"Sorry Subaru, Renault rocked the blue-paint-and-gold-wheels look first. Like the Impreza, the Clio Williams’ colour scheme was inspired by racing, specifically Alain Prost’s 1993 championship-winning Williams-Renault FW15C. Instantly iconic, it was the icing on the gâteau for one "
Dakar support
"Which vehicle holds the record for the most stage wins on the gruelling and frankly insane Dakar Rally? A highly-modified Porsche 959, perhaps? One of those two-wheel-drive lightweight buggies, inevitably sponsored by Gitanes (well, back in my day anyway) with a "
Hermann Tilke: Grand Prix draw-er
"The stunning Baku F1 circuit in Azerbaijan, like Monaco, seems like a period classic. It’s a street circuit that is as eye-catching as the cars that race on it – and what racing it inspires. It’s unforgiving, too: if "
Influx Social
FOCUS on Jakob Ebrey
"Our FOCUS for this edition is Jakob Ebrey. From discovering a natural knack of being in the right place at the right time, Jakob wasted no time becoming a professional photographer. We chat to the friendly photographer about how it "
The Fiat Barchetta – An Underrated Roadster
"Fiat flogged just 751 Barchettas during the decade or so the model was on sale in the UK. It wasn’t popular between 1995 and 2006 because it only came in left-hand drive – and power went to the front wheels. That put us "
A brief history of three-wheeled vehicles
"From the Dacia Sandero to the LaFerrari, most cars have one thing in common: four wheels. But why? Sure, wheels are a fairly necessary feature of any car, but why four of them? Two-wheeled vehicles are common, obviously – so why "
Lamborghini Diablo
"It’s just about to tick over into a new decade, the 1990s, and Italian ego-masseur Lamborghini is getting ready to take the silly blanket off of its brand new car. Expectations are high, the new car is going to "
Daddy Car SOS: tears as dad reveals secret Sunny to daughter
"In a bitterly cold car park in Stoke, 22-year-old Shanice Stanier waited patiently by her father Pete’s rare Nissan Sunny ZX. She was there to hand him an award bestowed by Retro Japanese magazine for the car they restored "
Karmann Chameleons: The Ghia-Styled Volkswagen
"The original Volkswagen Beetle’s silhouette is as distinctive as it is ubiquitous. Curvy yes, sporty, no. But then that wasn’t part of the Beetle’s brief. Designed in 1938 to get the German masses moving, it took until 1945 for "
The Fiat 500 Electric – The EV of futures past
"If you’re in the market for a small city EV but are put off by the somewhat ‘rubbish’ nature of them all, now there is another way. This is the Fiat 500 Electric and beneath that achingly cool retro bodywork "
VW T7 Camper – what’s coming next?
"Talk about a ‘campervan’ and you’re almost certainly thrusting a picture of a VW into the listener’s mind. It's the benchmark. The yardstick. The trendsetter. And that makes each generation of VW Camper very important. The iconic splitties "
