‘it was a fertile period in automotive design’

JAMES ATTWOOD Illya, shall we start with your Mini, given that it’s from 2001? ILLYA VERPRAET It’s significant on a number of levels. Originally it was meant to be just a car, but BMW built a whole br

John Simister gets under the skin of six classics that are now officially ‘historic’

The first Autocar magazine of the new century was a cracker: official details of MG’s hot new roadster, the F Trophy 160 SE, conceived to do battle with the BMW Z3 via its 158bhp engine and £21,000 pr

It might not seem like it to those of us of a certain age, but the turn of the 21st century happened quite a long time ago: 25 years, in fact – which is, conveniently, the sort of nice rounded number

Price new: From £18,950 Price now: £16,000-25,000 Engine: 1.8-litre, four-cylinder petrol Gearbox: Fivespeed manual Power/torque: 118bhp/165Nm 0-60mph: 5.8 seconds Top speed: 126mph HAD Lotus not come

John recalls some standout motors of 1985…