Think of the Cote d’Azur and you think of refined opulence; F Scott Fitzgerald, Tender is the Night, Brigitte Bardot, Cannes Film Festival; glitz, glamour. The reality if you actually drive there is v

The cars at Hampton Court’s concours event combine the weird, the wonderful and the very expensive. And then there’s the people…

As an international concours judge, I feel qualified to say how the process works. You need a beautiful car with a solid story to start with, then, if necessary, a high-class restoration. A shakedown

Not many successful breakaways involve almost 5,000m of climbing over 324km, but that’s exactly what Napoleon Bonaparte pulled off in just six days in the spring of 1815. After escaping from exile on

The situation looks chaotic in this mid-Eighties dash for the Channel – but there are plenty of vehicles to keep classic car-spotters occupied

Apart from dalliances with V8s (and begging an exception for a currently owned Ford twin-turbo V6), I’ve always had a preference for small road cars with simple engines. So why I should be seized by a