The classics you love, drive and restore
‘It’s one of few Italian imports left’
It’s a 1973 left-hand-drive Italian import – one of only five left here. I love this car because it’s enclosed and not a roadster – there are lots of roadsters of all makes in Italy. Pininfarina did the roof, so it’s really an Italian design!
It’s one of the first shooting brakes. It’s been restored and I did the interior – it’s a nice place to be. The only thing I changed in terms of spec was the interior colour.
I understand that in the UK people think these cars are common? That’s crazy! I mean, look at it, it’s beautiful – it’s like an Italian car because it is an Italian design! I’m restoring a late Jaguar XJ6, which will have a similar interior – red.
‘MPG? Not good, but you can cram lots in it’
This is the diesel-engined P38 so, while it isn’t particularly fast, it should hopefully get us there.
To be honest, it’s pretty good. It has 115,000 miles on it, everything works, it has plenty of room in the back for the kids and you can take the dog plus a bale of hay in the boot.
MPG? Not very good, but you can cram whatever you want in it. I am a farmer, so all that space is genuinely very useful.
I have a great love of Land Rovers and have owned quite a few in the past, but I’ve only had this one for a few months. It was up for £2500 and the chassis is in fantastic condition for its age. It also came with a year’s MoT and full service history so I couldn’t pass it up. It is still on its original air suspension and, amazingly, everything works!
To practical.classics@ bauermedia.co.uk, marked ‘Your Cars’. Make sure your pictures are hi-res and that you are in them.
‘The previous owner lived in it and slept in it’
These were all built with the four-wheel-drive chassis but they wanted to make it a bit cheaper for the Dutch market; and because we don’t really have hills here they thought, let’s just take out the rear drive and sell it for a bit less.
It’s a special colour that was never offered on the 1.0-litre version. From what I believe, it was a demonstrator for Subaru
Netherlands and there are only three like this in the world. I bought it three and a half years ago as my first car. It’s still my only car.
The previous owner lived in it and slept in it, so I had to deep-clean the interior. It was parked in a forest so there were scratches and rust. I replaced the wings, painted it and added pretty much every extra you could get for this car.
‘It’s exceeded all my expectations’
