Retro Classics Winter 2012

Happy New Year to you, and welcome to Issue 4 of Retro Classics. With Christmas now but a memory, and with the summer show season still a good way off, many of us will retreat into the safety of our garages over the next while to work on our classic creations. Hopefully some of you will have been given something more useful than a box of hankies or a seaweed face balm over the holiday period; my constant pre-Christmas hint-dropping for a set of Compomotive Turbo split-rims seemed to fall on deaf ears unfortunately, but there’s always next year.

After the general engine-transplant craziness of our last issue we’ve taken things down a notch with our feature cars this time around. After all, the term ‘retro’ applies to all cars of a certain age, regardless of whether they have a standard pushrod or a flame-breathing turbo lump under the bonnet. Gracing this month’s cover are two cases in point; while being no slouches thanks to their twin-carbed Pintos, Tom Flynn’s Escorts aren’t caged-up 250hp monsters, but have been lovingly restored by their owner while retaining much of the character that made these cars famous in the first place. Driving that orange Mk1 was one of my highlights of the last few months, and brought home to me just how ‘right’ a well-modded rear-wheel-drive Escort really is (I’ve been secretly scouring the classifieds for four-door Mk2 Ghias and 8- inch Revolution wheels ever since, but don’t tell the missus!).

Similarly the classic Toyotas of John and Jeremy Keohane are to all intentsand purposes standard cars, but they are cherished by the father-and-son team and represent a fun hobby that they can enjoy together. Of course, some retro motors are built not for genteel Sunday drives, but for doing battle on the racetrack; Nino Forte’s MG Midget does that very well, but what really drew our attention to the car was how well it’s finished. Out of necessity, many circuit cars put performance and reliability before cosmetics and appearance, but this green machine looks just as well as it goes, both inside and out.

That all said, we just couldn’t let the issue slip by without one wolf in sheep’s clothing. John Doolan’s Mk2 Cortina looks like any other Lotus replica, but the view from under the bonnet will come as a big shock, as nestled between the inner wings is a screaming two-litre VTEC from a Honda S2000, complete with its six-speed gearbox. We were delighted to hear that a spin in this classic rocket scared the pants off our roving contributor Carl Czanik; thankfully he is a better photographer than he is a passenger, and his shots showcase this stunner beautifully.

For the eagle-eyed readers who’ve noticed that the supercharged Camaro feature promised last time isn’t included in this issue, I have to admit that due to reasons beyond out control we won’t be able to run that story after all, but I hope that our extensive other content makes up for that. A mean-looking Sunbeam Stiletto from Enniskillen, an unusual RHD Mustang II and a supercharged VW Scirocco on air suspension complete our varied selection of features; we hope you enjoy them, as well as our event reports from around the country.
Talk to you in the spring,
Andrew Pollock, Editor.

Ones & Twos

When faced with the choice between a Mk1 and Mk2 Escort, Tom Flynn did

the sensible thing; he got one of each! These two cars have become a regular sight at
Ford events all over the country, as Tom has owned both of them for the bones of a
decade. He has seen them both stripped to bare shells for full restorations so he knows
them inside and out, and he really built them to last, as he shows every intention of
hanging onto them for another ten years again. With good Escorts only getting scarcer
as time goes on, we reckon that’s not a bad plan.

Heart Transplant

John Doolan seems to have a knack of finding solutions to engineering
problems by thinking outside of the box. Having recently completed a Zetec-powered
105E Anglia, he set himself the challenge of putting a rev-happy Honda VTEC
engine into a Mk2 Cortina shell, undoubtedly a great combination on paper, but not
exactly a tried and tested route to more power. However, by forging out in his own
direction he has built one of the most interesting classic Fords we’ve come across for
a while, as Carl Czanik reports.

Still-Retro

The Sunbeam Stiletto is a cracking little car in standard form, with its fastback
coupe shape and quad headlamps marking it out from its more humble Imp brethren.
The example Stephen McEvoy brings us this month, however, stands out even more
than usual thanks to its home-fabricated bodywork mods, which give it a real ‘mini-
Thundersaloon’ look. Owner James Stephenson from Enniskillen certainly has a good
eye, and has given his car a unique style all of its own.

The Right Hook

Many hard-line American car fans have put the Mustang II down as a bit of a
damp squib over the years, and to be fair the car’s combination of four or six-cylinder
engines and slightly overburdened bodywork weren’t exactly a recipe for creating a
legendary classic. However, Denis Malone’s example shows us perhaps the way it
should have been built, complete with its iconic 302 V8.

Green Meanie

While these Historic racing Midgets are small, and “only” have an A-Series
engine under the bonnet, in real terms they are a hugely effective and entertaining
competition car, which would no-doubt show a clean pair of heels to almost any
exotic road car on a twisty track. However Nino Forte’s example stands out in another
way, as it has been finished to a high standard; indeed, it almost looks to good to race!

An Ill Wind

The VW Scirocco was named after a wind, and indeed most versions went
like the wind, particularly in the bends where their competent chassis really showed
through. We say ‘most’ becuse when Padhraic Forde picked up this 1.5 automatic
example he couldn’t get over how slow it was! That has been remedied very
comprehensively, however, thanks to a supercharged G60 Corrado lump with lots of
careful performance tweaks. Air suspension, unusual paint, Image wheels and an
interior retrim make this a seriously complete car.

Crown Jewels

Marque loyalty often runs in families, and when you see this stunning line-up
of classic Toyotas there can be no doubt as to which camp the Keohane’s occupy!

Father John’s kinship with the brand started with his 1980 Carina many moons ago,
leading him to recently enter the classic car hobby by picking up a rare ’66 Corona,
followed soon after by an equally rare MkII version. Son Jeremy’s head was soon
turned too, with a Celica ST2000 joining the stable soon afterwards.