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Modern greats vs classics

In a road test special, we bring modern greats from Jag, Porsche and VW head-to-head with their classic counterparts

Modern greats vs classics

Retro models are nothing new; think MINI, Fiat 500 and VW Beetle. But some reborn machines don’t need to make their references to the past quite so obvious.

Here we take a look at three brand new cars and their famous ancestors. And if you fall for the old-world charms of our historic machines, there’s good news – as all of them are still available to buy now. Confused? Don’t be...

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The car that inspired this test is the new Porsche Boxster Spyder, and going up against it here is a replica 550 Spyder from Brazilian specialist Chamonix.

Our second pairing sees the latest Jaguar XK Convertible, complete with 5.0-litre V8 power, line up alongside a remanufactured Eagle E-Type that costs from £89,000. In the final duo, a revised California camper meets a new version of VW’s famed Type 2 bus. The latter is still built in Brazil, only with a water-cooled 1.4-litre engine in place of the original’s air-cooled flat-four. Can you teach an old dog new tricks? We try them all to find out.

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