In 2009, the event will also form the backdrop to the centre’s annual open day, which moves from its traditional June date to earlier in the calendar year, following on from the massive success of Drive it Day in 2008, when over 150 classic vehicles attended.

The site will be open to any member of the public, with a special parking area for those arriving in old or interesting transport. And while the focus of the day will be Vauxhall’s own collection of over 50 classic Griffin-badged classics, from the earliest 1903 model to the iconic muscle cars such as the Lotus Carlton and Monaro VXR, access to the classic car area will be open to any make or model.

In 2008, that included no less than four incredibly rare Citroen GSs, a Guy bus, a Rover P6 Estoura estate and a 1956 Chrysler Imperial, all of which just turned up on the day.

And turning up on the day is the essence of the event. As well as classic cars, autojumblers are invited to just turn up and throw up their pitch in a special area reserved for jumblers, where classic fans can search for that elusive spare part.

Drive it Day is an initiative set up by the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs – an umbrella body representing the classic vehicle movement in the UK – to encourage owners of old or interesting cars, vans, bikes or trucks to take to the road for one day and demonstrate the strength of the historic vehicle movement in the UK. It campaigns against issues that may affect the right to use historic vehicles on our roads.

As part of the Drive it Day campaign, a number of venues throughout the country are hosting visitors who arrive in classic machinery, and those turning up in old cars will be given vouchers entitling them to a free cup of tea or coffee from the on-site catering van.

Opening times will be 10.30am to 4.00pm, and the entrance to the Heritage Centre can be found in Park Street, Luton, behind the main Griffin House headquarters in Osborne Road.

For a fantastic classic car quote with the most benefits then give the team at Sureterm Direct a call on 0800 999 2030.  They won’t charge you for the telephone calls but they will save you money on your classic car insurance.

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The maroon 1956 Chevrolet 210 is a Pro Street hot rod built by customiser Jim Van Gordon. The car features a powerful 454 c.i.d. big block Chevy engine that pumps out more than 600 horsepower, making it suitable for the drag strip while still street legal. Additional highlights include a narrowed 9-inch Ford rear end with Detroit Lockers’ Mark Williams’ axles, 4.30 gears, 4-link coil-over suspension, disc brakes, and custom wheels and tires. Racing gauges and a dark grey color scheme underline the interior of the 210.”

Van Halen’s 1956 Chevrolet Nomad station wagon sports a classic “Cashmere Blue” and white paint scheme and was once part of the famed “The Harrah Collection” in Reno, Nev. The car underwent a frame-off restoration and features a 265 c.i.d., 210 horsepower “Power Pack” V8 engine, power steering and power brakes. An upgrade to disc brakes was added for improved stopping and safer driving.”

“Out of all the cars I have owned over the years, I hung onto the ‘56 Sedan and Nomad because I was closely involved in restoring and building them, so they are very special to me,” explained Van Halen. “I almost hate to let them go, but I don’t have the time to drive them. It kills me to see them sit there when someone else could be driving them and have the pleasure and joy of owning these beautiful American classic cars.”

“Since they are so dear to me, I thought I would make it even more special by having two custom-made Wolfgang guitars built to match each car,” Van Halen added. “I hope the new owners enjoy these cars as much as I have and keep the guitars and cars in their families for a long time, because they are all one-of-a-kind.”

For fantastic classic car insurance with the most benefits, give our team at Sureterm Direct a call on 0800 999 2030.  They won’t charge you for the phone call but they will save you money on your classic car insurance.

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But if you have the time, the 3rd Himalaya Classic Rally is the true drive of a lifetime through the greatest range of hills in the world. The stunning landscape which weaves through Nepal and Sikkim is full of colour, culture and history and for the 2008 classic car event, there is a rare opportunity to drive through that most secretive of kingdoms, Bhutan.

The classic car event starts in Udaipur in Rajasthan and ends in Calcutta in West Bengal.  The 6,000km drive takes in some of the best ancient landscape in the world and offers the chance to experience some of the world’s greatest hotels.

The trip runs from the 16th October to the 18th November 2008 and more details can be found at www.roarr.co.uk, by  emailing john@roarr.co.uk or by calling 01732 740216.

If you need breathtaking classic car insurance, then give the team here at Sureterm Direct Insurance a call on 0800 999 2030.  We don’t charge you for the phone call and we will give the best price possible on your classic car insurance.

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Throughout history, programmes and features have appeared which completely rekindle interest in famous old marques – from James Bond’s supercool Aston Martin DB5 to Michael Knight’s Pontiac TransAm.

Sureterm Direct is the UK’s largest classic car insurer and we know instantly when a car has appeared in a popular TV or film as enquiries for classic car insurance for that particular model shoot through the roof.

So here’s the first installment of our guide to the most famous TV and film cars on the planet. We’ve even included a van – see if you can guess which programme that’s from!

TV Programme: Ashes to Ashes – Car: Audi UR quattro:

While the star of the show is Gene Hunt, a fictional police detective in a TV series set in 1980’s Britain, his bright red Audi UR quattro plays more than just a supporting role.

The car sprang into real life in 1980 and with 4WD and a whole raft of amazing other German car-making wizardry packed into it, the car became an instant cult classic.

Brilliant on the road, brilliant on the rally scene. And now in much demand thanks to Gene Hunt. If you can lay your hands on one – do it. Easy and cost-effective to insure.

Our star rating: 4 stars

TV Programme: Kingdom – Car: Alvis TE21

Fruity old thespian Stephen Fry plays an East of England lawyer in this gentle comedy drama and he scoots around Norfolk in a fabulous Alvis TE21 drophead – sparking an interest in classic cars from a whole new generation.

Alvis is a weird marque. In the best part of 50 years from 1920 onwards, the Coventry-based firm produced cars that were noted for top quality, great handling and a nifty, sporty character. The TE21 model arrived at the end of 1963 – and with a stiff suspension it could shift a bit.

The TE21 was pretty heavy yet managed a very respectable top speed of over 120mph and was available with automatic transmission or a five-speed manual gearbox. It’s a very, very stylish classic – and a restored version could easily set you back £100,000.

Our star rating: 2 stars

TV Programme: The Sweeney – Car: Mk1 Ford Consul GT

When ITV in the UK screened The Sweeney for the first time, the programme marked a whole new concept in cop shows. Previously fed a diet of boring old ‘bobbies’ like Z-cars and Dixon of Dock Green, The Sweeney had fast cars, swearing, sex scenes, drinking and extreme violence.

And it made household names of main characters Reagan and Carter. In series 1 and 2 the mainstay of the CID crew was a copper brown Mk1 Ford Consul GT, reg NHK 295M – although in later series, Ford Granadas were the norm.

The Consul had front bucket seats as standard, a central floor-mounted remote control gear shift and the speedometer, fuel and temperature gauges all had black non- reflecting dials.

The Consul ‘L pack offered special seats, loop pile carpet colour keyed to the interior, vanity mirror, heated rear screen, clock and trip mileage recorder (not that the Sweeney ever bothered with anything within the law!). No surprises then, that they went for the GT pack option, which included the larger 3.0 V6 engine – capable of 0-60mph in 9 seconds.

Our star rating: 2 stars

TV Programme: Inspector Morse – Car: 1960 Mk II Jaguar

In Colin Dexter’s novels, grouchy copper Inspector Morse’s car was a classic Lancia, but ITV used a Jaguar MK II 2.4 from the start of the television series. In fact, the Carmen red Jag became so iconic that new editions of the earlier novels have been changed so that Morse’s car is a Jaguar!

The Jaguar Mark II ‘a compact four-door saloon’ was introduced in October 1959, at a price of just £1,534.00 and was made until 1967. Morse’s Jaguar is a 2.4 litre model with a twin overhead-cam 6-cylinder 2,483-cc engine giving 120 bhp.
It’s a bit slow for TV coppers, only capable of accelerating from 0-60 mph in 17.3 seconds, with a maximum speed of 96.3 mph, but Morse didn’t exactly need to burn around the university city of Oxford. Jaguar made almost 84,000 Mk11s, 25,070 of Morse’s 2.4 variation.

Our star rating: 3 stars

Film: James Bond – Car: Aston Martin DB5

Spy 007’s love of fast cars is evident all the way through the original Ian Fleming novels and when they eventually made the silver screen, car lovers everywhere drooled over his gorgeous DB5.

The 1963 DB5 is famous for being the first and most recognised Bond car, featuring notably in: Goldfinger, Thunderball, GoldenEye, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Casino Royale, while it also made background appearances in The World Is Not Enough and Diamonds Are Forever.

The DB5’s engine had been enlarged from the previous DB4’s 3.7L to 4.0L, while the addition of a five-speed transmission and three SU carburetors enabled the car to pull 282hp and propel it to 141 mph (238 km/h). Standard equipment on the DB5 included reclining seats, pile carpets, electric windows and a fire extinguisher. All models had 4 seats and 2 doors. The UK recommended list price of the sports saloon (coupe) in December 1963 was £4,248 including Purchase Tax, the convertible was £4,562.

Our star rating: 5 stars

TV Programme: Dukes of Hazzard – Car: 1969 Dodge Charger

Testosterone-filled teenage boys remember a couple things about the Dukes of Hazzard – Catherine Bach’s never-ending legs (and pert bum in spray-on denim shorts) and the General Lee car.

The General Lee was a 1969 Dodge Charger with a 426 Hemi in every season of the hit programme (except season two, where it had a 440 Magnum engine). It was also said to be the Road/Track model.

Bright orange with a Confederate battle flag painted on the roof, and the words ‘General Lee’ and number ‘01’ on each door, the car’s name refers to the American Civil War Confederate General Robert E. Lee.

The show also used 1968 Chargers since the start (which shared mostly the same sheet metal) by changing the grill and tail lights to the 1969 model year style, and smoothing over the round ‘68 side marker lights, which were rectangular on the ‘69 model year.

Our star rating: 3 stars

TV Programme: Starsky and Hutch – Car: Ford Torino

We loved the 1970’s. Big hair, disco music, chunky sweaters – and all of this in just one TV series. Los Angeles cops Starsky and Hutch fought villains in a two-door Ford Torino, which was red with a large white vector stripe.

It was nicknamed the Striped Tomato by Hutch but the term didn’t come from the series’ writers – it came from a real-life comment that actor Paul Michael Glaser (Starsky) made. The standard Torino was pretty dull, so producers jazzed it up with a large white vector stripe, 5-slot alloys and larger rear tires. Air shocks were added to give the car an aggressive rake and it worked – especially for Ford, who built 1,000 replicas of the “Starsky and Hutch” car in the spring of 1976.

The ‘Starsky and Hutch’ replica was available with all Torino engines, and the limited production package was essentially a special paint option with the deluxe bumper group and dual colour-keyed sport mirrors as mandatory options. Seat colours were restricted to white or black and were available with all cloths and seating options.

Our star rating: 2 stars

TV Programme: Knight Rider – Car: 1982 Pontiac Trans Am

Forget Baywatch – bubble haired David ‘The Hof’ Hasselhoff first shot to fame in Knight Rider – a bonkers TV series that ran from 1982 to 1986 which featured KITT, a talking car equipped with mind-blowing gadgetry.

Unsurprisingly, given its low-budget cast, KITT became the star of the show, but then it was a gleaming black 1982 Pontiac Trans Am. The car oozed sex appeal and sparked a massive interest in American Classics, which exists still to this day.

By the way, KITT stands for ‘Knight Industries Two Thousand’ an eponymous doff of the cap to its weird technology-cum-crime fighting creators.

Our star rating: 3 stars

TV programme: The A-team – Car: The GMC van

Da-da-da, dada, da. Da, dada, da, da, dadada, da. It’s hard to believe any TV programmes, especially from Hollywood, could make vans sexy – but the A-team did it in bucket loads.

The black and metallic grey GMC van used by the A-Team – a crackpot collection of crime-fighting misfits – had a characteristic red stripe, black and red wheels, rooftop spoiler, and became an instant icon.

The van is a 1983 G-series which was heavily customised by the Universal Studios prop department. The engine is a 350 cid with minor modifications (mainly the carb and exhaust system), while the wheels are turbine style 15″ painted black with red accents.

Other modifications included – quad headlight conversion, full front brushbar, fog/driving lights, exterior sun visor, quad square exhaust tips (each side in front of rear wheels), and custom made rear wing. Interior was custom-white bucket seats, shag carpet, and custom gun case in the back.

It also had beefy air shocks in the rear to improve handling, which was poor and underpowered. In fact, scenes where it burns out were done by spraying bleach in front of and onto the rear tyres which creates billowing grey smoke.

Our star rating: 2 stars.

Film: Back To The Future – Car: De Lorean DMC-12

Look, make no bones about it, apart from James Bond’s DB5 this is THE iconic TV and film car. It grabbed attention in real life and it grabbed attention on-screen.

The De Lorean DMC-12 became a time machine for Back To The Future, but was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro and manufactured for real in 1981 by the De Lorean Motor Company, in Northern Ireland. The 2-door coupe had a 2.8 L (2849 cc), V6 engine and was available in 5-speed manual or 3-speed automatic transmissions.

It was the only model ever produced by the company and featured gull-wing doors with a fiberglass ‘underbody’, to which non-structural brushed stainless steel panels are fixed.

The first prototype appeared in March 1976, and production officially began in 1981 (with the first DMC-12 rolling off the production line on January 21st) at the DMC factory in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland. During its production, several aspects of the car were changed, such as the bonnet style, wheels and interior.

About nine thousand DMC-12s were made before production stopped in late 1982.

Our star rating: 5 stars

Film: Herbie ‘The Love Bug’ – Car: 1963 Volkswagen Beetle ragtop sedan.

Peace and love, man. With the amount of ‘acid’ dropped in the hippified atmosphere of the late 60s, we weren’t all that surprised when a film starring a humanised VW beetle appeared.

Herbie The Love Bug was a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle deluxe ragtop sedan painted in Volkswagen L87 pearl white. The interior would normally be a matching white but Herbie’s interior was painted a special non-reflective grey, so the camera and studio lights would not reflect.

In this original 1968 film, Herbie’s stripes differ from those in later movies – the stripes do not cover the valances or louvers of the car and the blue is a lighter shade. Also, Herbie features color-keyed running boards, while in later films the running boards are standard black.

Our star rating: 2 stars

Not only do we know our film and TV motors, we know our amercian classic car insurance and our classic car insurance too. So give the team at Sureterm a call on our FREEPHONE number 0800 999 2030 and let us save you some money.

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The 49-year-old has organised a rally for classic car owners to drive from the Midlands to Prague to raise thousands of pounds for the Acorns Children’s Hospice in Birmingham.

Mr Button, who is a solicitor and father of two, is hoping for at least 20 cars to join him with his 1960 Morris Minor for the 1,300 mile 10-day round trip and he will lend some of his sleeker models, which include a vintage Bentley and an MG, to the six people who have already agreed to come along.

He said: “It is going to be a lot of fun with all like-minded people who have an interest in cars and want to do a lot of good for Acorns.

“I have been planning the trip for about two years now. We could take up to 50 cars but it’s more likely going to be 20 or 25. Any car can be used for the rally – we are not concerned about the make.”

Participants will work in pairs to complete the route which goes through Holland and Germany and each team is asked to give £4,500 to cover their donation and the expense of the trip.  This is the equivalent cost to running an Acorn’s hospice for a day.

Mr Button said: “We chose Acorns because they are a very good cause and who are very much in need of money.”

The rally begins on September 26th 2008 and ends on October 5th 2008.  Visit www.acorns.org.uk/classiccarrun or call 024 7652 5457 if you would like more information.

For great classic car insurance, give Sureterm a call for FREE on 0800 999 2030

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This jolly old car isn’t just a quaint antique. It is the machine that changed everything. And it is a centenarian. According to varying points of view, the Model T Ford, launched in Detroit in 1908, either marks the moment when the fun started – the point where the convenience and comfort of the modern car for all replaced our historic reliance on domesticated animals for personal transportation – or the birth of the Model T represents the terrible moment when we started out on a road that has led us to the beginning of the end of our lovely planet. Or very possibly both, given that no one had heard of global warming back then.

The truth is that what Ford and his little troupe of engineers came up were two remarkable machines, dependent on one another, and both still with us, in a way.

The first machine, the Model T Ford, was a sturdy, comfortable, reliable method for humans to get around and, yes, have some fun.

The second machine Ford created was the modern manufacturing corporation, a machine for making money first and things second: Fordism. It served as a template for modern industry that, adapted and improved by many since, and troubled financially as it is now, has survived.

Before the T, it was pretty much the case that only the wealthy could own an automobile. Most were hand built, and the toys of the rich. The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost that came out the year before Henry’s Model T, and which remained a benchmark for refinement and performance for decades after, was a more typical product of the industry, although American makers were starting to become more conscious of the potential of the middle-class market. Europe invented the car, but the Americans democratised it. None more so than Ford. While most cars of the era commanded a price of $2,000 or more, the Model T came in at just $825. By 1925 the price was down to $260. It could be bought with a few months’ wages by a Ford worker.

So, give thanks to Henry, for giving us enthusiasts many hours of driving pleasure.  If you would like many hours of driving pleasure with cheaper car insurance, then give Sureterm Direct a call for FREE on 0800 999 2030

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The Challenger, despite being a legend, was only made for five years yet sold more than 188,000 – that’s 100 cars sold every single day! 

The new Challenger SRT-8 is not as sleek as the original – streamlining has been sacrificed for muscle to make it safer and sturdier. But the essence of the icon has been kept, with five-spoke chrome wheels, sunken grille, huge air intakes on the bonnet, road-hugging side sills and a full-car-width back brake light. The whopping 6.1-litre HEMI engine will cover 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds and goes all the way up to 174mph.

Inside they’ve kept the pleated leather seats, three-spoke steering wheel and sloping console to create a cockpit which wraps around the driver for the ultimate sporty experience.

The orange paintwork immediately evokes memories of the Challenger’s little brother, the Dodge Charger – “General Lee” from The Dukes Of Hazzard – a firm favourite of us all at Sureterm.

Now whether you can afford a new Dodge or you’re enjoying driving a classic, give Sureterm Direct a call FREE on 0800 999 2030 and get the best American classic car insurance for your pride and joy.

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