The air is thick with the aroma of black coffee, Panatellas and Tabac aftershave. Inside the Maker Space café in Nuffield, an important business deal is being hammered out. The future of a coffee bar, two licensed victuallers and the management of Danny and The Rotavators, Southampton's premier beat combo, are at stake. Meanwhile, the cars parked outside are testament to their respective owners' standing in the community. Not just anyone can own an Austin A110 Westminster, a Ford Zodiac MkIII or a Vauxhall Cresta PB.
The last-named is our trio's rarest. The debut of the new Velox and Cresta PB at the 1962 London Motor Show was a significant talking point: gone were the wraparound windscreen and tailfins of the outgoing PA. Instead, as the in-house journal Vauxhall Motorist accurately described, its new lines were 'clean, simple and restrained'. The 2.6-litre engine was the same as its predecessor's, but front disc brakes were now standard equipment. An entry-level Velox cost £822 4s 7d, but the range-topping Cresta justified the additional £94 13s 4d with the fitment of fog and reversing lamps, leather trim, a clock, a heater, a cigarette lighter and windscreen washers. Not to mention the headlamp flasher and duotone paintwork.
With a wonderful lack of modesty, Luton claimed that the PB was 'very nearly perfect. To increase public awareness of the car, Vauxhall arranged for the Cresta to guest-star as villains' transport in The Saint, as well as appearing in a number of British B-films. In The Earth Dies Screaming, the PB out-acted the human cast and, for sheer style, little could surpass Leslie Nielsen driving a Cresta in the endearingly inept Night Train to Paris.
Denne historien er fra April 2023-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
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Denne historien er fra April 2023-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
Thunderous torque, flame-spitting stub-exhausts, white-knuckle thrills - and hopefully no spills - aboard a trio of Edwardian racing titans
ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring