The Alfa 33 : Rediscover the magic of motoring

There are a lot of very practical cars around today. But none with the magic of an Alfa Romeo.

Driving an Alfa 33 is all motoring should be. Practical, but with that dash of magic.

And now Alfa Romeo have gone even further. With the Alfa 33 Estate which has an uprated 95bhp engine and four wheel drive.

So you can go practically anywhere, in any weather.

The already elegant lines of the Alfa 33 have been skilfully blended by Pininfarina into what must be one of the most stylish estates on - or off - the road.

Of course, should a spacious four wheel drive estate be a little too practical for you, there's always the rest of the stylish Alfa 33 range to choose from.

There's the Green Cloverleaf for example. With a 105bhp Alfa boxer engine driving through a slick five speed gearbox.

The performance is all you'd expect from a technically advanced car with Alfa's sporting pedigree.

Like reaching 60mph from rest in 9.7 seconds and being capable of 116 miles per hour.

And naturally the Alfa 33 range has handling that makes driving an Alfa Romeo what it always has been.

Pure magic.

The Ford Taunus TC

Up until the late 1960s the American Ford company had two quite separate European divisions - Ford of Germany and Ford of Britain. In much the same way as General Motors had with Vauxhall and Opel, they both had different, competing ranges of models with no shared parts.

In 1967 Ford USA merged the two to create Ford of Europe. The first product of co-operation was actually launched two years earlier in the shape of the Transit - replacing the UK Ford Thames and the European Taunus Transit. The Mk1 Escort followed, and then the Capri.

The next co-developed product saw a differentiation between the UK and European variants, with the Ford Cortina Mk3 and the Taunus TC ("Taunus/Cortina"). Both had the same underpinnings and basic body structures but whereas the UK Cortina had very American "coke bottle" curves to the body lines the European Taunus TC was much more square-edged and restrained. Despite looking quite similar at a quick glance they are very different when studied in detail.

The Europeans got a lovely Coupe variant which was never translated into a Cortina, a great shame in my opinion.

The styling differences didn't make it through to the facelifted replacements as the Taunus TC2 / Cortina Mk4 looked identical.

If you're a classic Ford fan, or are looking for gift ideas for a retro Ford enthusiast then have a look in my shop where I have a range of present ideas available for sale!