Ask Goodwin

Dear Tom,

I’m pretty sure values will start to fall.  I think Sixties cars for your generation are what pre-war cars are for mine: very charming and nice to look at but not machines that we can relate to. Someone brought up on modern cars would find something like an XK120 or Healey 3000 absolutely horrific to drive. Slow, poor brakes, truck-like steering and no safety systems at all.

Look at how much money many of the cars from Renault’s heritage collection recently made at auction: £45,000 for a 2005 Clio 182 Trophy and £87,000 for a Clio V6 Mk2. I’m not sure about timeframe but already I’m beginning to see cars like Jensen Interceptors and Sunbeam Tigers start to gradually dip in value. I’d say within five to 10 years it will be quite obvious. The same, by the way, goes for motorbikes.

Dear Colin,

How has car journalism changed in the time you’ve been involved? With respect to the younger crowd it doesn’t look as fun now as it did 20 or 30 years ago. DVR328

Dear DVR328,

Dramatically. The internet is much to blame because it’s stolen advertising revenue from printed magazines and adds to the workload. This has resulted in much smaller budgets. No longer can a magazine like Car, Evo or Autocar send journalists off on fantastic drives across Europe in amazing cars because it simply costs too much. Same with group tests. We used to go away for a few days, stay in a pub and spend a lot of time discussing the cars. This not only resulted in a better and more thorough story but was great fun with wonderful cameraderie.

Another big change is the number of new cars that are launched each year. The young journalist today spends an enormous amount of time flying from car launch to car launch which is not quite as much fun as you might imagine. Especially as most of the cars are pretty bloody boring.

When Richard Bremner and I went to Morocco with a Ferrari F512M for a feature in Car magazine in 1995 we were away for ten days and our expenses were huge. There’s no way that story could be done today. I have been extremely lucky to have lived through those years: I think the Eighties and Nineties were the best years ever to be a motoring journalist.

Dear Colin,

The new 18-inch Formula 1 wheels look terrible. They’re also far too big, at least from an aesthetic point of view. What’s the best-looking wheel ever fitted to an F1 car? Richard Atherton

Dear Richard,

The wheels fitted to the 1967 Ferrari 312 take some beating (their design was used for later road-going cars) but my personal favourite is the six-spoke wheels fitted to the 1970 March 701. Dan Prosser and I visited the Alpine HQ at Enstone the other day and they had their 2022 car in reception. I have never seen such an ugly machine in my life. I was nearly sick when I saw it. I was so traumatised I had to immediately look at a photo of Dan Gurney’s Eagle-Weslake F1 car to restore my karma.

Dear Colin,

We know you fly and ride motorcycles, but have you got much experience with any other vehicles? The weirder the better. Gary

Dear Gary,

In 1980 I was a forklift truck driver in a timber yard for a year. It was a big side loader, made by Lancer Boss, that was designed to pick up large stacks of wood. There was no health and safety so my fellow driver and I would hammer around the yard in our fairly powerful trucks. Once, however, we were sent on a safety course at Lancer Boss’s HQ. Vastly underestimating how much heavier steel stock is than wood, I managed to turn my truck over. Lorries, tractors, dumper trucks; there aren’t many vehicles that I don’t love driving.

Dear Colin,

Would you buy a pink car? Kev348

Dear Kev,

Absolutely. I still have my Dinky Lady Penelope Rolls-Royce from Thunderbirds and it looks great. I quite fancy a pink Silver Shadow come to think of it. Gordon Murray has a pink Ford Thunderbird and it looks cool and of course there is the Porsche 917 Pink Pig. Nissan did a special edition of its Micra convertible in pink but I wouldn’t have bought that car in any colour. Modern manufacturers are so staid in their colour offerings. I’d love to see a return to bolder and wackier colours.

Dear Colin,

You worked at CAR magazine with some great writers. What were people like Bulgin, Llewellin, Bishop and Setright like as people? Clive Brown

Dear Clive,

Very different in character, that’s for sure. Russell Bulgin was a much quieter and more reflective man than his readers would have imagined. I spent a lot of time with him and found him great company; so full of ideas and opinions. George Bishop is one of the best motoring writers that this country has produced. I loved his stuff. We didn’t see much of him but he’d come up to the Christmas party every year. He was curmudgeonly and could never remember anyone’s name. 

Leonard Setright was also a great writer but I didn’t particularly like him as a person. A bit too concerned with promoting his eccentricity and not particularly interested in other people. Phil Llewellin was the opposite. A truly lovely man and incredibly good company. Too good at times. If you stayed at his house you weren’t allowed to go to bed without having had about seven nightcaps. CAR writer Georg Kacher tried to go to bed early and Phil came into the room stark naked and waving a sword demanding Georg have another snifter. I could fill a week’s worth of Ti with my Llewellin stories. 

Dear Colin,

Which generation of Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolution is best? I think it’s the VIII. James

Dear James,

I was always more of an Impreza fan myself (the RB5 being the best ever) but of course have many memories of the Lancer. My first experience of an Evo was being driven in one on the road by Richard Burns. That was a IV I think and it was a memorable experience to say the least. I think probably the VI is my favourite, and why not a Tommi Mäkinen model? Dan and Andrew suggested that I would have a tale to tell about driving Evos. I think they should ask our man Henry Catchpole: I’m pretty sure he wrote one off while on work experience at Autocar.

Remember to leave your questions for Uncle Col in the comments below.