OTHER ‘NEW’ HISTORIC VEHICLES

BMW 5 SERIES (E28)

The second-generation mid-size Beemer landed with a bit of a dull thud. Its ‘new’ styling looked barely any different from the outbound E12, yet Munich had been busy underneath. The E28’s suspension was all new, plus there was an automatic gearbox available for all markets (previously US & Japan only). Motronic digital engine management replaced the old mechanical system making engines both more efficient and powerful. The M30 ‘big six’ was still the factory crowning glory but the range offered everything from frugal four-pots to six-cylinder turbo diesels.

TRIUMPH ACCLAIM

Many see this Honda – sorry ‘Triumph’ – as the whimper with which Triumph finally bowed out. Cynics will claim that it was merely Honda’s Trojan horse to circumvent Britain’s punitive foreign car sales policy. Both of which are true, but does that make this British-assembled Honda any less of a classic? It depends on your own personal view of our car industry, though there’s no denying that the Triumph Ballade sorry, Acclaim, did sell... Well off course it did – it was a 1980s Honda!

CHEVROLET CAMARO (3rd gen.)

It’ll have to be an early one because production started in October 1981, but it’s worth the search. The third-generation of GM’S famous pony car was a clean-sheet design with both fuel injection and a four-cylinder engine offered – tantamount to communism by period American standards. The ‘Zee/28’ was Motor Trend magazine’s car of the year in 1982, though pricey now. Buy a good four-speed manual V6, dust off your Kenny Rogers cassette and don a gold medallion for the full Camaro owner experience.