ThisVauxhall
Ti gra– oneof
fe w left
ru nning–
re centlysold
at ACAfor
ju st £1400.MODERNCLASSICS 93
Auction
action!Theteam’sfavouritecars
onsalethismonthCAUGHT OUR EYE
1999 LOTUSELISE(SI)
Onsaleat:Privatesale
(viaclassiccarsforsale.co.uk)
Price:£22,999
‘I reallywishI’d boughtan Elise.The
Es pritwasalwaystheLotusthatI
dr eamedof owningbut it wasthe
El isethatI alwayswantedto drive.I wasn’t
di ssapointedwhenI finallygot roundto it
ei ther.This10.5kmileexamplelooksideal
an d hasjustbeenservicedtoo.’JJ1993 MASERATI 222 SR
Onsaleat:GalleryAaldering
(viaclassiccarsforsale.co.uk)
Price:£2 0,692
‘Okay,so I chickenedout of the
SWVAGhibliII mentionedlast
month,but this 222 SR provesjust
ho w behindthecurvewe Britsare whenit
co mesto De Tomaso-eraMaserprices.It
de servesit too– 67,000km,just 210 built
an d a 225bhptwinturboV6.’Nathan1978 FORD FIESTA
On sale at: Private seller
(via classiccarsforsale.co.uk)
Price: £6000
‘I know, you’re looking at this and
thinking ‘what the....’ but in one
sentence I can explain why a Fiesta
has caught my eye and with no arguments,
you’ll totally understand why this 17k mile is
the object of my desire. A MkI Fiesta was
my first car. Enough said.’ SimonTigras on the endangered list
How different things
might have been if
Vauxhall had given the
original Tigra a dash of
street cred by offering a
performance version. But
a 105bhp 1.6 was sadly as good as it got.
Without that, simply being a pretty
little thing that stood out in car parks
wasn’t quite enough to gain the Tigra a
following, so they have died in their
masses. It appears there may be fewer
than a hundred left on our roads,
though they sold fairly well across
the world with Opel, Chevrolet and
Holden badges.That lack of interest is reflected in
their values, so they may be worth
looking out for if you fancy a cheap and
different modern classic to tool around
in. And they are certainly at that stage
where people will stop and look and
realise they haven’t seen one for ages.
That happened at Anglia Car
Auctions recently, where a 49,000-mile
Tigra was offered – the first we
remember seeing lining up on the block
at a classic sale.
Despite that attractive back-story it
made just £1400, although some of that
can be accounted for by it only being a
1.4 model.This Alfa
Romeo SZ, up
for grabs with
Classic Car
Auctions, has
a temptingly
low estimate.Alfafromanotherplanet
We know – it’s hard not to stare.
When Robert Opron decided to boldly
go where no designer had gone
before, it was a fortunate miracle for
the motoring world that Alfa Romeo’s
bosses went with him.
Ever since, the SZ has created
controversy with its brutalist but
compelling lines. It has gained a fierce
cult following, and couldn’t ever
become mainstream as barely more
than 1000 were built – they are rarer
than Ferrari F40s. They also seem like
a classic it’s hard to lose money on.
Three years back I wrote about themhaving gained a third in value in the
previous three years. Since then they
have risen another 20%.
So it’s got to be worth tuning in
when one comes to market, and the
pictured car is being offered by Classic
Car Auctions on 3 August. It was
originally a German market car, but
the vendor brought it to the UK in- For most of the intervening
years in was in storage but was
recommissioned in 2015, which
explains its low mileage of 43,000
(69,025km). If bought at the £38-£42k
estimate, that looks a very nice deal.