Welcome back to my coverage of the 2025 London Concours. The first of my articles covered ‘Art In Motion’, looking at art cars. You can read all about it here: http://motorsportformentalhealth.com/2025/06/05/london-concours-2025-art-in-motion
Today we’ll be looking at The Youngtimers category. This is a recurring category at this show that highlights cars from the late 1970s to the early 2000s that are becoming more and more collectable as time passes and younger people get into collectible cars.
We’ll start with a couple of cars that are really close to my heart – Bruno Sacco era Mercedes. Through most of my 20s I owned a W124 230TE and a W202 C240 Sport, both of which were brilliant cars. In the 1980s and 1990s Sacco designed some really stately looking cars and excluding the stacked headlight cars of the 1960s I think this was the best era in design for Mercedes Benz.
This is a W126 560 SEL AMG. The SEL was the extended wheelbase W126 S-Class which gave the passengers in the back more leg room. AMG reworked the 6.0 litre M117 V8 which now boasts 385bhp and 410lbft of torque. Bigger brakes, reinforced subframes and lower, stiffer suspension and the iconic wheels finish off the AMG package.
It would hit 0-60mph in 5 seconds and would top out at over 180mph, faster than the 911 turbo of the time.
The W201 (190E) AMG 3.2. AMG took the 2.6 litre M103 straight six offered in more upmarket 190Es and increased the capacity to 3.2 litres. In total 200 were made.
The Lotus Carlton. Based loosely on the Vauxhall Carlton this monster was powered by a 377bhp 3.6 litre twin turbo straight six that would propel this sensible looking four door saloon car to 170mph and from 0-60 in 5.1 seconds.
On the 26th October 1993, a Lotus Carlton with the registration 40 RA was stolen and used as a getaway car for ramraids on shops around the West Midlands. The average police ‘beat car’ at the time was the Rover Metro (for my U.S audience – picture a motorised shopping trolley) which absolutely had no chance of catching 40 RA.
The media obviously got a hold of the story and launched a campaign to have the car banned, which was ultimately fruitless as the car had gone out production a year earlier in 1992.
The thieves were never caught, 40 RA was never found and the car remains an urban legend to this day.
This particular car was found neglected in a garage and has been restored over 5 years.
The E30 M3 Cabriolet. My Dad owned a couple of E30s when I was a kid, and when I got into drifting they were still cheap enough to be used as practise cars, so the E30 has always been alright in my eyes.
Only 786 cabriolet M3s were made to bolster the homologation numbers so BMW could keep racing the M3. This particular car only has 7500 miles on it!
The E34 5-Series was the E30’s bigger brother. This is the Alpina B10 – one of only two right hand driven cars built. It had been sitting in a field for 15 years prior to an extensive restoration, which took 7 years to complete.
Rounding off the BMWs is the Z3 M. M-Sport decided that the Z3 could handle more power as a coupe, creating this lovely body, then put the running gear from a E36 M3 under it.
The Audi Quattro was the car that paved the way for four wheel drive in rallying. The historical significance of these cars can’t be overlooked.
This particular car was apparently originally used by a rapid response doctor.
The RS2 Avant, based on the 80 Avant, was partly developed by Porsche.
The 930 generation 911 Flachbau (flatnose) was derived from the streamlined bodied 911s that were in endurance racing at the time.
This particular car was once owned by Rockstar Games’ David Jones who developed the original Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2 back in the 1990s.
Finally we have the Porsche 911 964 3.3 Turbo.
The main production 964 came onto the market in March 1990. It came with a 3.6 litre M64 flat 6, but Porsche didn’t have time to develop a turbocharged version of that engine, so they used the 3.3 from the earlier 930 with some modifications to reduce turbo lag.
It wasn’t until January 1993 that the 964 would get it’s turbocharged 3.6, but production of the 964 would end in December 1993, making a 3.6 turbo a very rare car!
Thanks for reading.
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By Richard Francis
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