Classic car mechanic’s weekly motoring – Jubilee classics

‘In the corner of the workshop, Olli Ragbin sits watching events unfold before him’

The weekend before last saw the Silverstone auction rumble through the usual mixture of interesting and exotic cars from all corners of the classic world. I’ve had a scan through the catalogue and have selected 3 or 4 that took my eye. Interestingly, I noticed that a higher proportion of lots went unsold, suggesting that reserves were not being met and prices may be softening. Could global uncertainty, rising interest rates, a war nobody wants and a prime minister clinging on to power post ‘party-gate’ have anything to do with buyer sentiment? 3 of the 4 possibly.

Anyway, the following lots all sold. The right car with the right history will always go for good money.

Back in the early eighties when I was but a youth, my barber used to run one of these. Exactly the same colour. The 3.5 litre V8 as well. He was a bit of a bohemian stoner deftly demonstrated by the poster which adorned his wall (I’ll see if I can find it and will post at the end). It was this hippy who had the not inconsiderable challenge of cutting my wiry Leo Sayer-esque bouffont. Something he did with a smile and a particularly robust set of scissors which had likely last seen action in lambing season. Anyway, ever since I’ve had a soft spot for the old Rover.

Not too long-ago Eric bought one on one of his usual whims. Twas a lovely thing. Anyway, this little beauty was recently subject to a £100k+ restoration. With only 14,000 miles under its wheels it went for £47k. That seems like a bit of a bargain. Let someone else go through the pain of restoring her and come in to bag the loot at half-price. Nice work.

Another blast from my childhood past. The Porsche 928. A poster of a white one adorned my wall, next to my dart board and the Liverpool FC 1978 squad picture. This particular example is one of the last of the line. Initially intended by Porsche to be the replacement for the 911, the 928 never truly captured buyer's imagination. It had pop-up headlights (which therefore meant it was instantly cool) and whilst they may not have quite tickled motoring hacks back then, they are starting to gather much more interest. Time has been kind to the 80’s lines.

This being the sought-after GTS version with a lowly 60k on the clock, the ticket price of £56k, whilst high for the model, will probably seem cheap a little way down the line. Gone are the days of the sub-£10k 928.

2 Porkers in one blog. I shall be expecting a stern word from Eric when he spots this, but I couldn’t help it. A Mk I GT3 with a super-rare paint option of ‘Orangerot’, black leather bucket Recaros and only 34k miles. £74k may seem a lot, but this was the first ever GT3 and I don’t think there is one of any variant in the classifieds for less than £75k, particularly not one of this calibre and rarity. If I had the means, didn’t have the commitments, had the garage space and could convince Mrs Olli to get into an orange car, then I would have been in quicker than you can say ‘short back and sides please’.

And so to this week’s pictures from CCM. I made passing reference last week to not having had too many photos from the workshop. Since then, I’ve had more photos than at any other point this year. Mostly of Minis mind you. Shrimp eye Justin’s obsession with them continues unabated as more shows are graced by the yellow peril.

Yellow doesn’t get more yellow than this. I think this colour option was noted in the catalogue as ‘look at me now yellow’

I’m unsure what this little beauty was in for, but doesn’t it look good. A quick check of the colour options from the factory reveal it is in the rarely specified hue of ‘look at me now purple’

Cooper time. A gen-ew-wine original coop…. luverly

Disaster strikes on the return from the festival. Shrimp eye’s yellow beauty blows a head gasket. ‘Stick in a 1275’ calls ring out from all asunder goading Justin for a good 2 hours afterward to use this as an opportunity to 'go large' and upgrade

Dickie Attenborough takes a break from the filming of ‘Jurassic Park 8: Return of the bitey lizard’. You didn’t know he was an MG fan did you? (or still alive for that matter...)

The Daimler off for an MOT. When the size of your taste was measured by the length of your bonnet

Sam appears to have collected a new car. It’s an estate and is seemingly made up of 8 different cars. Anyway, tis rumoured to run like an absolute peach, hence the wide smiles

It’s not every day that Shrimp eye cracks out the Jon Inman impressions…Duncan clearly startled after Justin had just shrieked ‘I’m free’…. Young Chris just looks the other way. He’s heard it all before

Eric has bought Siobhan a new paperweight to stop papers fluttering all over the place when customers open the front door. Whilst pleased at the gesture she does suggest this may be over-engineering things somewhat. Not sure it will get much use which is a shame really, as Eric put his back out lifting onto the desk in the first place

And so the Platty Jubes weekend draws to a close and another week opens up ahead of us.

From all the team at CCM, have a great week. Happy motoring.

Olli

My Rover-driving hippie barber from the late 70's idea of appropriate artwork for the walls of his shop. The money that buys me a snickers bar today, bought me a haircut back then. Neither have been great purchases for me