Top eight must-read Classic & Sports Car articles

By Greg MacLeman

| 6 Mar 2017

The brand-new April issue of Classic & Sports Car is now on the shelves, and it’s stuffed with incredible content. Here’s our roundup of this month’s must-rear features, including the sublime Ferrari Lusso and a trio of young pretenders: the best hot hatches from the turn of the millennium.

8. MG SV

One of the most exciting and powerful MGs ever produced first broke cover at the Frankfurt Show in 2001. Mike Taylor delves into the history of the fascinating X Power SV, in the process reuniting designer Peter Stevens and production engineer Ian Moreton with the wild V8-powered GT 15 years on.

7. SS2 Sports

The SS2 grew out of Swallow Sidecars and into Jaguar, but it was never a product of either. Just a handful of examples are thought to remain, including Bernard Rice’s stunning show car. Discover the complete history of the model, plus a story of perseverance and dedication lasting for decades that took Rice’s car from languishing in a lockup to the show fields of Essex.

6. Ford vs Singer

If you were in the market for a practical estate car in the early 1960s, chances are you would be swayed by either the Singer Vogue or Ford Consul Cortina Super. Both share styling cues from across the Atlantic, but is it the finned Singer or plastic-clad Cortina that more draws you in? Andrew Roberts discusses the pros and cons with owners Steve Brown and David Angel.

5. The lost Nürburgring portfolio

In 1958, a tourist took a series of magical photographs at the 1958 German Grand Prix at the Nurburgring before putting them away for 58 years. We’ve published the highlights of that collection, while Simon Taylor tells the story of the intrepid photographer alongside that of the tragic race.

4. Hot hatch heroes

Renault, Honda and Ford tore up the front-drive rulebook at the turn of the millennium with three incredible tin-tops that embodied the spirit of early pioneers like the 205 and Golf GTIs. We pit Renault Sport Clio 182 Trophy against Honda Civic Type R and Ford Focus RS to determine which makes the best case for joining your fleet. Make no mistake: the time to buy is now.

3. The beast of Anaheim

The Cheetah was one of the best looking and ferociously quick GTs of its generation, but its drivers had to battle with heat exhaustion and wild handling. Mick Walsh tells the compelling story of its early beginnings and race career before being shoe-horned into the famous Clarence Dixon Cadillac-liveried car for a heart-stopping drive at Goodwood.

2. Ferrari Lusso

Unquestionably one of the most beautiful Ferraris ever built, the 250GT Lusso has for far too long been under appreciated by people who unfairly fault it only for not being what it was never intended to be. James Page gets to grips with a stunning example.

1. Ultimate Sunbeam Tiger

The final Sunbeam Tiger rolled off the production line 50 years ago. We mark the occasion by driving the ultimate V8 Tiger belonging to Sunbeam Tiger Owners’ Club member Graham Vickery. “It may still bear the poor man’s Cobra sobriquet,” says Vickery, “but unlike the AC, the Tiger is a car for all tastes and you can make it whatever you want it to be – a street rod, rally car, circuit racer or long-distance GT.”

Click here to order the brand-new issue of Classic & Sports Car and claim free postage!

To download one of five briliant desktop wallpapers taken from the current issue of Classic & Sports Car, click here