What Jensen 541s might lack in pedigree, they more than make up for in character and under stressed, post vintage charm. Fast and long legged, they made an excellent and cheaper, alternative to an Aston Martin and the appeal hasn’t waned a bit for their many loving enthusiasts. The fiberglass 541 was announced in 1953, [...]

After the extensive debate over the ill fated “F Type” project which was to replace the ageing XJS, Ford cancelled the extraordinary four wheel drive, twin turbo machine and decided to start from scratch on an all new coupe. The car had to be successful in the all important US market. It was in many [...]

The Jaguar XJ 220 was by far the most outlandish of the late 1980s super cars, a food of which were born on the back of the world wide economics boom. It began life as nothing more than a Christmas holiday doodle by Jaguar’s engineering boss, Jim Randle and progressed as “The Saturday Club”, with [...]

The MK X was easily the most sophisticated Jaguar saloon yet. It had the triple carburetor 3.8 liter XK engine from the E Type, power steering as standard and fully independent suspension, the quadruple damper rear and also fitted to Jaguar’s new sports car. Smooth and rotund in styling with a girth of 6ft 4in [...]

The C-Type was the sports car that twice won the Le Mans 24 hour race for Jaguar (1851 and 1953), and is forever associated with those two magical moments of racing glory. Based on the XK 120, it capitalized on all its elder sisters character and strengths, whilst finding plenty of ways to crave out [...]

In the preparation for its fiftieth anniversary, Honda decided that the time had come to launch a line of stripped out high performance versions of ordinary road cars. In a similar vein to BMW’s M Series and Audi’s S types, Honda’s new range would be dubbed Type R. The result, in the form of the [...]

In 1997 Ford finally returned to the successful formula that had produced the Capri: building an inexpensive coupe on the running gear of a mainstream car. The big difference, some 28 years later, was the sophistication of Ford’s engines and chassis. The Puma was based on the 1996 Fiesta, widely held to be a revelation [...]

In 1963 Ford and Lotus got together to produce the classic, race winning Lotus Cortina. Ford supplied the basic two door Cortina shell, with front suspension to the Lotus factory at Cheshunt. Here Lotus installed its own 105 bhp twin cam engine, close ratio four speed gearbox and special rear suspension comprising coil springs, radius [...]

In the mid 1960s, Ferrari needed a large company to build its Formula Two V6 engine in quantity, while Fiat wanted to produce an up market sports car with real credibility. The result of the liaison was an instant classic, the Fiat Dino, Spider and Coupe. The innovative square camshaft all alloy, 54 level V6 [...]

The Fiat 124 Spider is the most commercially successful Italian sports car ever. It was popular when it was launched, it was popular throughout its production life, and even today the car has a surprising amount of committed enthusiasts who are proud of their little piece of Italian motoring genius. With a belt drive, twin [...]