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The original Spen King-designed Range Rover was one of the British motor industry’s proudest success stories. When it went out of production at the end of 1996, it still looked as fresh and forward-thinking as it did back in 1970, when one was chosen for an exhibit in the Louvre as an example of modern…

The BMIHT Certificate states that this DB2/4 was completed on February 2, 1954, and it was originally sold to a Scottish customer. While its early history is unknown, its build sheet documents an early factory engine replacement. According to Anthony Forshaw, it is believed that its current engine is that period replacement unit. Aston Service…

Chassis number GT108 is one of just six open-top GT40 roadsters constructed, reflecting Ford’s experimentation with the open configuration to test for market appeal and salability. Built for Shelby American as a test and development vehicle, it was driven by Ken Miles, Lew Spencer, Carroll Shelby, Jim Clark and others. Documented by GT40 historian Ronnie…

One of just 91 examples produced with coachwork by Abbott of Farnham during a four-year production run, OLY136 was first registered on March 25, 1954. In the current ownership since 2007, the car was entrusted to marque specialists Classic Restorations Ltd. in 2009 to carry out soda blasting of the body and a bare-metal respray,…

Undoubtedly one of the “must-have” cars as well as James Bond’s iconic vehicle, the DB5 continues to generate immense interest among car collectors, owners and users. Understandably so, as the total production of all DB5s over a two-year period was only a little over 1,000 cars. Born of the frustration that Harold Beach had encountered…

This famous Aston Martin DBS was manufactured in the spring of 1970, complete with special modifications for its role in the British television series “The Persuaders!” in which star Roger Moore drove it in almost all of the 24 one-hour episodes. Moore had expressed an interest in the Aston Martin, which he felt would be…

The Lotus Esprit was built between 1976 and 2004, and a future release is forthcoming in 2014. The silver Italdesign concept that eventually became the Esprit was unveiled at the Turin Motor Show in 1972, and it was a development of a stretched Lotus Europa chassis. It was among the first of designer Giorgetto Giugiaro’s…

Following the debut of the original 4-cylinder Austin-Healey 100 in 1952, and the subsequent change to the 6-cylinder 100-6 in 1956, the British Motor Corporation in 1959 launched the car that would become the defining model of the range: the 3000. As it had a 3-liter engine that could produce 124 horsepower, it was the…

As popular now among enthusiasts of traditional British sports cars as it was in its heyday, the TF was mechanically little different from the outgoing TD II. The TF kept its predecessor’s body center section, while featuring a changed front end with shortened, sloping, radiator grille and headlamps faired into the wings — plus an…

With the Lotus 14 of 1959 — better known as the Elite — Colin Chapman demonstrated that his skills as a racing-car designer and constructor could just as easily be applied to production road cars. Just as innovative as Lotus’s outright competition cars, the Elite featured a fiberglass monocoque body tub, independent suspension all round…