Stop dreaming and start driving! C&SC tests the classics you can buy. Click here for the full listing – and see below for our expert’s conclusion.
This V8 has covered an incredible 4000 miles from new, having been put away early in its life – showing 1078 miles – after the wheels were stolen. It was sold and re-registered in 1987 with a new number because the DVLA had no records before ’83. Old MoTs show 3619 miles in 1995 and 3876 in ’99.
It’s a timewarp car and still in its original Tundra paint, which is mostly good – with just a couple of tiny bubbles at the scuttle joints – over a typically flawed BL body of the period: door fit isn’t great and there are spotwelds evident in the rear bumper recess… But they were all like that, sir. It was Ziebarted from new, with plenty of ‘Z’ bungs in evidence, and more of the stuff in the engine bay.
The chrome is decent, though some of the steel rims on the Dunlop Safety Wheels are starting to rust. These wear old but unworn Avon Turbosteels, with an older Goodyear on the spare. The exhaust is so new that it still has its paper stickers, and the car retains its original V8 mudflaps.
Inside, the Autumn Leaf seat velour is a little baggy but not worn, the carpets are good, and the door cards and headlining are excellent, though the steering-wheel spokes are just becoming rust-speckled. There are inertia-reel rear belts, and the rear carpet is good. It even still smells newish.
