Please e-mail us with any suggestions for cars you would like to see available for self drive or wedding hire at Summer Wine Classics. Drop us a line at info@swcch.co.uk

Thanks

Richard Skelton

1979 Rolls Royce Silver Cloud

1973 Jaguar XJ6 4.2 Series II

This superb car was the most painful of all for us to part with. The original interior was delightfully patinated (nicely worn in) and the body was completely solid. The brakes and suspension were sorted for us by IK Classics and driving in this big saloon was like wearing velvet underpants! In our view the styling of these luxury cars was a true William Lyons masterpiece but the groovy green sand seventies colour seems to have put people off hiring it.

After agonising for weeks, and then nearly changing our minds at the last moment, we sold this splendid saloon car to Mr Roger O'Sullivan of County Cork in Ireland. Roger keeps it in fine fettle along with his early MBG Roadster and we have an open invitation to take it for a spin if we are ever in the Emerald Isle.

1978 MGB Roadster

Rubber bumper 1970s MGBs are unpopular compared with the earlier chrome bumpered versions as changes made to the model to comply with crackpot US safety legislation strangled its performance and ruined its handling. But our super 1978 roadster had those issues rectified and it cornered and accelerated like an MGB should. Furthermore the car had flawless bodywork and was in fabulous mechanical condition, having had a great deal of love and attention and many thousands of pounds lavished on it by its previous owners.

Sadly, such is the prejudice against these misunderstood classic vehicles, it was rarely picked by our hirers and eventually we could no longer justify keeping it on the fleet alongside our more popular 1964 chrome bumpered MGB Roadster. The car was sold locally to an MGB enthusiast and it is now a regular on the MGB Car Club rally scene.

1955 Jaguar Mark VIIM

I fell in love with this splendid and aristocratic Cornish grey saloon with its fantastic red leather and walnut interior and bought it as our flagship wedding car but unfortunately it proved to be something of a grey elephant. Brides and grooms didn't share my feelings about it and when it became apparent there was plastic body filler all around the lower body and in the bottoms of the doors it became clear the car was not up to the high standards of the rest of the Summer Wine Classics fleet. The problem was extensive and the cost of rectification prohibitive. I had made a mistake and it was time to say goodbye.

In order to sell this huge historic Jaguar at a price we felt was fair we lost a great deal of money but at least we can sleep at night! The selling price was set low to enable the new owner to budget to improve the bodywork if he so wished and as the car had a completely rebuilt engine and a great many other good points the deal was more than reasonable. The experience cost us dearly but we have learned from it. The Mk VII's history file showed the car was once a dearly loved and much cherished vehicle. Let's hope that is now the case once again.

1961 Jaguar E-Type

The earliest E-Types are definitely the most collectable of these fabulous Jaguars and our 1961 car was the 91st RHD FHC to roll off the production line at Browns Lane. This special car handled superbly, pulled like a train and was by far our most popular self drive car throughout 2006, 2007 and 2008. So why did we sell it?

A switch of emphasis means Summer Wine Classics is now concentrating more on wedding hire and having acquired a more practical 2+2 Series Two Jaguar E-Type during 2008 our early car became surplus to requirements. And it was perhaps time for this historically important vehicle to find a new home where it might take life slightly more easily.

1964 MGB Roadster

This tartan red MGB roadster was another victim of our decision to concentrate more fully on wedding car hire from 2009 onwards which resulted in three sports cars being cut from the fleet during the winter of 2008-09.

A really 'together' car, this 1964 'B' was fantastic fun to drive and quick too (we suspect the engine was mildly tuned). A great little car and much missed.

1977 Triumph Stag

The first time I ever drove a Triumph Stag (this one before I bought it) I was amazed how good a car it was and when motoring journalist Mike Renaut drove it a few months later for a feature in Classics Monthly magazine he couldn't stop raving about it either. As good as a standard Stag gets, it was a superb low mileage example of a superb car.

So good, in fact, it was almost not right for it to rack up the miles and start to wear out. The car performed brilliantly for us and made many people happy during its three years here, but when we rationalised the fleet in late 2008 it no longer fitted in with our plans and we decided it really needed to go to someone who would pamper it more than we could.