The P6's main competitor, the Triumph 2000/2500/2.5PI was a great example of the downsides of the IRS technology commonly used at the time. They handled reasonably well for a big saloon (albeit with a fair bit of body roll), but had an infamous vice. If you applied power while cornering, the splined half-shafts would…

That's a tough call. The Jag is beautifully imposing, and the XK engine is, in my opinion, one of the greatest ever made, but the nerd in me still wants the Rover. They were so technologically advanced for their time, with De Dion rear suspension, all-round disc brakes, and very clever (and safety-oriented)…

I dunno... I'd buy the Rover for that fantastic upholstery alone.

That is gorgeous! Pre-war engines fascinate me – there were so many different things being tried, and some pretty advanced (for the time) stuff amongst the weirdness. I've not had the pleasure of working on any, but in my youth, my great-uncle had a 4.5 Litre Bentley, which truly was a joy to behold.

I love the octagonal oil filler! MG really did go nuts with the octagon motif.

Looks like a fantastic trip! It's great to see classics actually out there, being used. Back when I lived in New Zealand, I had a '70s Triumph 2500 that I drove all over the country. I think that one of the big things is to just get over the "it's an old car, it'll break down" mentality. Sure, most parts are going to…

It's been a double-edged sword for me. I came from New Zealand, where inspections are every six months, and very thorough. I swear that over half the cars on the road here in Minnesota would fail terribly. Call me a nanny-state liberal if you may, but frankly, the general public cannot be trusted to keep their cars in…

They're actually a fairly conventional electromagnet type, rather than compressed air-powered, but they use a very long tuned air column, which is what I think gives them their lovely sound. Given their mechanical nature, I agree, cold-weather performance could be a problem (I live in Minnesota, so I know what you…

I'm totally with you on the horn thing. My 1956 MGA restoration project has the original Lucas Wind-Tone horns, and they sound fantastic (as well as looking really cool). If I can get hold of more of them, they're going on all my cars.

Amongst the younger crowd that grew up with Harry Potter, the 105E Ford Anglia seems to get a fair bit of love. I've had a few square-rigged British saloons of the era, and young'uns all thing that it's a "Harry Potter car". Of course, back when I was growing up, my mother actually had a clapped-out Anglia in the same…

It's tough to argue against the Jaguar XK straight-six, but I think that Triumph's six comes pretty close. Torquey, smooth, and damn-near unkillable, their pushrod six came in a minuscule 1.6 litre version for their small Vitesse sports saloon, but was much better known in its 2.0 and 2.5 litre variants that powered…

I drive a British sports car with wire-spoked wheels, and wheel collapse is a concern, amongst other things. In my scene, the problem is more a result of putting modern sticky rubber on wheels designed for 1950s crossplies – the cornering forces can cause the weaker 48-spoke wheels that some smaller cars were equipped…

It really is remarkable how far things have come. A great-uncle of mine has a 1910 Stanley steam car. It's a magnificent piece of equipment, and is actually remarkably smooth and quick for a hundred-year-old car – it'll keep up with traffic admirably.

Citroën was in the US market until the late '60s, I think, and Renault and Peugeot soldiered on into the late '80s and early '90s respectively. I suspect that part of it is just that the French approach to cars is fundamentally different to that of the Americans, and they just didn't catch on.

I'm not certain, but a '94 XM could possibly be using R134a already. My '93 Xantia was R134a from the factory.

In many ways, there's less to go wrong than in a conventional car - there are no shocks, no brake booster or master cylinder and the ABS is much simpler than a normal system, since it has no need for an electric pump.

Agreed. To me, the XM wagon looks like it was designed by two different teams that weren't talking to each other. I suspect that may have been the case - Citroen's station wagons were built by Heuliez, a separate coachbuilding company. That said, their other wagons were much better looking. The smaller Xantia,…

The hydraulic systems are nowhere near as complex and scary as they are made out to be. Change the fluid every 30,000km (and make sure to use the proper green LHM fluid - regular brake fluid will kill it), drive it lots, and it'll be trouble-free for years. In any case, most of the testing and repair would be…

Even some of their petrol engines. The XU9J4 in the BX 16v that I used to drive was still going strong at 320,000km.

I seem to recall it having a further purpose than that, too. In the days before collapsible steering columns, it was designed so that you didn't get impaled on it in a crash. The DS was a remarkably safety-conscious vehicle for its time – as well as that, it was the first car to have designed-in front and rear…