Table of contents for August 2020 in Octane

In 1968, the two most powerful men in the British motor industry, Sir George Harriman, chairman of British Motor Holdings, and Sir Donald Stokes, his counterpart at Leyland Motor Corporation, merged into the British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC). This included the remaining major independent British car companies, 12 in all, but also included bus, truck and other manufacturers – totalling more than 100! – employing over 200,000 workers in 42 factories, with capacity to produce over a million vehicles per year. The merger was intended to emulate General Motors, with its multiple brands and vehicles. Stokes had seen how rivals Ford and (GM brand) Vauxhall had created simple cars with basic engineering that appealed to the growing fleet market – and were profitable. However, BLMC’s differing brands and models…

During what will surely become known as The Great Isolation, I drove nowhere. Not least because there was nowhere to go. I drive very little normally, no more than 400 miles a month tops. But it’s usually a driving experience in one car or other that gets me started with an idea for this column. For example, this month was going to be a reflection on the historic bizarrerie of French sports car design after a drive to The Goodwood Members’ Meeting in the cute new Alpine A110, which I was looking forward to with boyish enthusiasm. But it was cancelled. So I began an internal journey for inspiration, with a list of my all-time ultimate driving experiences. Most comfortable? Der Grosse Mercedes-Benz 600, a pompous pharaonic barge if ever…

Prominently, it wears a number on the front wing. ‘Prototype Citroën M35 No.417’. That’s 417 out of, er, 267 built. Citroën had planned to produce 500 M35s – each one of them labelled ‘prototype’ – but soon figured it wouldn’t sell them all. This was a highly complex and commensurately expensive small car, after all, with a complicated tale to match. That Citroën left a numeric gap on those wings between 175 and 376 is only the start of it. I’d spied the M35 first at the Cartier Style et Luxe. You know, that posh concours display on the lawn outside the Duke of Richmond’s place. Sir Jonathan Ive, Nick Mason, Darcey Bussell, Lorenzo Ramaciotti, Marc Newson et al had been deliberating over Peter Neumark’s special-bodied Pininfarina XK120 (see Octane…

in association with IT WOULD BE EASY to underestimate Richard Noble on first acquaintance. He’s an affable, perennially smiling bear of a man, and there’s something of the Hugh Grant ‘bumbling Englishman’ about him (although he’s actually Scottish); it’s not surprising to learn that his father was an Army officer, and that he played with Meccano as a child, or that he was educated at Winchester College. His first job was with ICI, the default aspiration for would-be young executives in the late 1960s. Fortunately, Richard soon realised that his path had to be the one less travelled – and what a journey it turned out to be. Today, he’s best known for setting a World Land Speed Record in 1983, driving Thrust2; then, in 1997, his team broke its…

ROBERT COUCHER International editor • 1955 Jaguar XK140• 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor • 1960 Triumph TR3A• 1962 Norton Dominator• 1965 Aston Martin DB5 GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 1983 Porsche 944• 1989 BMW 320i Convertible SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director • 1981 BMW 323i Top Cabrio• 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante MARK DIXON Deputy editor • 1927 Alvis 12/50• 1927 Ford Model T pick-up• 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in• 1966 Ford Mustang 289• 1994 Range Rover 4.0 JAMES ELLIOTT Editor-in-chief • 1965 Triumph 2.5 PI• 1968 Jensen Interceptor JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1961 Saab 96• 1972 Rover 2000 TC• 1989 Mazda MX-5 Eunos RICHARD HESELTINE Contributor • 1966 Moretti Sportiva• 1971 Honda Z600 MASSIMO DELBÒ Contributor • 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230• 1972 Fiat 500L• 1975 Alfa Romeo GT…

OUR SERIES ONE Landy (christened ‘The Old Lady’ by the previous owner) arrived with us in 2014 after we decided we needed some sort of motorised wheelbarrow on the farm. Recent work included picking up rocks from the arable fields before they became hidden and the combine harvester hit them; then it was helping with fencing repairs by carrying the tools, nails and rails. Once a year, Old Lady gets to show what she can really do because a local landowner holds a Sunday lunch that kicks off with a 4x4 challenge around their estate. The last one was particularly tough and plenty didn’t make it round, but Old Lady did, alongside a couple of Willys Jeeps. I think the secret is light weight. Dating from 1954, Old Lady has…

IMAGINE YOUR first sighting of this new Eagle Lightweight GT was from a distance. Not far enough away to require binoculars, but perhaps as you’re walking towards it across a large picturesque car park in the South Downs. If you didn’t already know what it was you would probably think, from a reasonable remove, that it was one of the original dozen ’60s Lightweights (or perhaps, given the colour, one of the six continuation cars). If you caught a fleeting glimpse of it out on the road you would probably reach the same conclusion. But afforded a closer view and a few more seconds to inspect it more lingeringly, you would instinctively sense the differences. You might not be able instantly to pinpoint the lower sills or the bespoke front…

THE WORD ‘CHRONOGRAPH’, like so much of our language, is an import. ‘Chrono’ is from the Greek for ‘time’ and ‘graph’ started its life in the agora as ‘graphein’, ‘to write’. But take a look at that chronograph on your wrist – not a whole lot of writing going on, is there? To find why it’s called a chronograph, we need to look into a historical story that mixes horse racing, watchmaking, a Frenchman called Nicolas Mathieu Rieussec and the restoration of the French monarchy. Nicolas Rieussec was already making watches in his Île de la Cité atelier in his 20s, just as Napoleon was close to the height of his powers. Like his contemporary, the great watchmaker Breguet, he was as deft commercially and politically as he was a…

£2,143,000 ($2,640,000) 2003 Ferrari Enzo RM Sotheby’s, 29 May. Online £1,875,000 ($2,310,000) 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO RM Sotheby’s, 29 May. Online £757,500 (€844,500) 1969 Lamborghini Miura S Osenat, Fontainebleau, France, 27 May. Online £678,500 ($836,000) 2017 Ford GT RM Sotheby’s, 29 May. Online £591,251 ($730,000) 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren 722S Bring a Trailer, 6 May. Online £544,500 ($671,000) 1958 Ferrari 250 GT Coupé by Ellena RM Sotheby’s, 29 May. Online £491,000 ($605,000) 2020 Ferrari 488 Pista Spider RM Sotheby’s, 29 May. Online £392,500 ($476,000) 2015 Ferrari 458 Speciale Aperta Bring a Trailer, 15 May. Online £390,500 1962 Jaguar D-type Short Nose recreation Silverstone Auctions, 23 May. Online £379,500 ($467,500) 2020 Lamborghini Aventador SVJ RM Sotheby’s, 29 May. Online…

To the bemusement of co-star Lee Marvin, Marlon Brando stayed in character when László Benedek yelled ‘cut’ on the set of The Wild One, and in retrospect it seems possible that Brando himself did not quite know where he stopped and Johnny Strabler, leader of the Black Rebels Motorcycle Club, began. Brando admitted to being ‘all-around incorrigible’ as a young man, and he was kicked out of high school for hooning up and down the corridors on a motorbike. During his early years in New York he could often be found rumbling aimlessly through the city in the dead of night. The Triumph Thunderbird he rode in The Wild One was his own, and before filming began he spent time with ‘Wino Willie’ Forkner and the Boozefighters MC. ‘More than…

1939 Peugeot 202 Berlina €10,000 Peugeot had some forward-thinking ideas with its pre-war cars, and the metal sliding sunroof on this looks thoroughly modern. A nice ‘improvable’ project for sensible money. antequeraclassic.com (ES) 1991 Honda Civic 1.6i-16 £13,995 Not a classic hot hatch that enjoys much reverence today, but it was surprisingly quick. Very few remain, and probably none as good as this 17k-mile example, hence the price. 4starclassics.com (UK) 1954 Aston Martin DB2/4 Vignale, £2,800,000 This one-off DB2/4 was bodied by Vignale for the King of Belgium, and is currently undergoing a ground-up restoration at Aston Workshop. Utterly beautiful and unique. aston.co.uk (UK) 1983 Porsche 944 AUS $35,995 A very tidy and original 944, which was delivered to Australia with leather seats, air-con and special order Siena Red metallic…

DIRK DE JAGER ‘I’ve always wanted to shoot on the oval at Ford’s proving grounds in Belgium, but it’s always a “no!” – unless you show up with three GT40s! The sound of those cars on the banking was just astonishing.’ Not only did Dirk shoot the epic GT40s (pages 52-62), he also shot a rather special BMW 328 Mille Miglia (pages 76-84). SARAH BRADLEY ‘Barry Sheene was a household name during my 1970s childhood in a motorcycle-mad family. Decades later, I finally saw him in action at Goodwood. To be acquainted with his “long lost” 1973 Seeley-Suzuki TR500 for our Brands Hatch photoshoot was a real treat.’ Barry Sheene’s racer: pages 102-108. ALEX TAPLEY ‘I’ve always liked older Citroëns, mainly because they are so different from so many other cars.…

Not just any Halfords socket set: this is the Halfords Advanced socket set, a regular in the high street chain’s ‘special offer’ section and much loved by the discerning classic car owner. A quick vox pop in the office shows that nearly every Octane staffer has one. Why is it so popular? Well, the tools are genuinely well-made yet the price is modest. They feel good in the hand, too. Invest in one of the bigger sets and it will last you a lifetime – literally, for if you break a tool, Halfords’ lifetime guarantee means that you can walk into any of its shops and it will be replaced there and then. Long-term ownership has thrown up a couple of useful tips. First, the plastic hinges and clips for…

I’ve always been a fan of noble failures: cars that were better than they needed to be to get the job done. The Model T was the huge success it was because it did exactly what it was designed to do and nothing more. Everyone knows the story of Henry Ford, but they might not know the engineer behind the man, who was C Harold Wills. Wills was Ford’s chief engineer as well as one of Ford’s first employees, if not the very first. He designed the planetary transmission and, being a metallurgist, he was the genius behind vanadium steel and helped to develop molybdenum steel too. He was also a graphic artist and designed the famous blue oval Ford logo, which is still in use today. The reason you…

‘Oi, mate, can you turn that old car off, it’s creating pollution…’ or words to that effect have been shouted to an Octane reader a couple of times while he was sitting in his vintage Invicta with the engine idling. Many of us presume the public understands that classic cars are ‘green’, being the ultimate expression of automotive recycling rather than disposable white goods to be replaced every few years. Of course, it’s not as simple as that. Masses of research ‘proves’ that new cars are cleaner than older cars, including classics. Take a new electric-powered vehicle on a test run of say 50 miles – anything more than that and the battery juice may well run out – and follow it in a classic car. Any measure of the…

RESTORING CARS in the midst of a global crisis isn’t one of the easiest – or most essential – tasks, but it sure helps to keep your mind off life’s unpleasant realities. At the time of writing, still in lockdown, I’m battling on with my 1952 Studebaker Champion Starlight Coupe. In spite of current restrictions including a lack of additional manpower, furloughed fellow specialists and a dwindling supply of consumables, Jeff Marshall at Marshalls Fins ’n’ Chrome in Titchfield, Hampshire, is stoically working his way through the never-ending job list – in glorious isolation, of course. For this I’m truly grateful, and I’m happy to do my bit to help keep his small business ticking over during the ongoing economic uncertainty. Right now, he is (literally) up to his eyes…

MY GRANDFATHER Cesare, who passed away when I was 16, during World War Two had to escape from a window one morning to avoid being taken by the Germans, and the following night do it again so that he wasn’t abducted by the Italian partisans and pressganged into working for the other side. Which helps explain why he told me the secrets of a good life are waking up healthy in the morning, the smile of a happy wife welcoming you home, a son or daughter who turns out to be a decent human being – and the freedom of having in your hand the key to open a closed door. I’ve grown to realise how right he was on every point, but it was not until this forced lockdown…

Monte Carlo has long been associated with glamour, and the Mettoy company no doubt hoped some of that would rub off on its futuristic model of a ‘sports coupe’. The toy, which represents a 1950s vision of what cars of the future would look like, is a curious mixture of old and new. Its ornate grille and bumpers are moulded in plastic, yet its lithographed tinplate bodyshell harks back to toy-making in the past. Lavish colour and decoration was printed onto thin sheet before being pressed into shape, and the bold two-tone coachwork and tartan upholstery would certainly have made an impact on the toy-shop shelves. In addition, this 14in-long model was not only powered by a friction motor, but had an opening luggage compartment and removable ‘Perspex’ canopy. Yet…

24 June H&H, online 26 June SWVA, online 27 June Classic Car Auctions, online Classicbid, online 10 July Dorotheum, Vösendorf, Austria 10-18 July Mecum, Indianapolis, USA 14 July Barons, Sandown Park, UK 18 July Cheffins, Cambridge Historics, Datchet Mathewsons, Thornton-le-Dale Richard Edmonds, Allington, UK 21 July Artcurial, Monte Carlo, Monaco Osenat, Fontainebleau, France 22 July H&H, online 25 July Bonhams, Bicester, UK 29 July Charterhouse, online 29 July – 1 August Mecum, Harrisburg, USA 1 August Bonhams, Jüchen, Germany Silverstone Auctions, online 3-7 August Gooding & Company, online 13-15 August Mecum, Monterey, USA RM Sotheby’s, online 14 August Bonhams, Los Angeles, USA 19 August H&H, online 22 August Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn Cheffins, Harrogate Mathewsons, Thornton-le-Dale Morris Leslie, Errol, UK 27 August Charterhouse, online (motorcycles) 29 August Dorotheum, Vösendorf,…

WHAT TO PAY Early cars are the cheapest – and arguably best-value – way into an S2000. Prices start from £4000 for a high-miler, to around £7500 for a clean car. Later post-facelift examples are in strong demand, with tidy post-2004 cars fetching up to around £15k. With finite UK numbers, fresh imports are proving increasingly popular. Last-of-the-line UK cars still carry big premiums, with the best commanding £20k-plus. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Honda VTEC engines are extremely reliable, but they demand regular oil changes. A little oil consumption is normal. The cams are chain-driven, so no belt to worry about, but the chain tensioner can require replacement from time to time. Corrosion can be a problem, so it’s worth checking in and around the rear wheel wells. Regular…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Rather than suspend this section due to the classic car calendar being obliterated, we threw it open to readers and were swamped with thousands of superb pictures capturing the pre-Coronavirus classic motoring dream and the frustrations of ‘lockdown’ in equal measure. Here are just a few more of our favourites… The call of the wild Will Aron is busy building an automotive freelance photography career in North Wales. He says: ‘One of the best events up here is the Three Castles Trial. The cars begin on the Promenade in Llandudno and venture across North Wales for three days.’ One of 2019’s participants was this 1964 Lotus Cortina driven by Chris Howell and Jon Briggs, which Will captured on prologue day using his Canon 5D Mk IV and…

You’re never a cheat until you get caught. I must admit to stifling a chuckle when I heard that Formula E stalwart Christian Abt had been caught cheating during a round of the Race at Home Challenge late in May. He had hired a ‘ringer’, a Pro Sim gamer whose performance in the ‘Berlin E-Prix’ was perhaps a bit too good. Abt claimed that it was meant to be a joke, that he would show that a teenager with certain skills could teach a racing driver a thing or two in the virtual world. He would then admit to his cunning ruse and everyone would have a good laugh. Except that didn’t happen. Instead, he was fined €10,000, lost his real-world drive with Audi, and was mauled by keyboard warriors…

Any misconception that this is an ordinary BMW 328 with race numbers painted on is dispelled the minute that restorer Tom Fischer steers it down the mountain. The noise it makes is unbelievable. There is only a 2.0-litre straight-six in front of us, but the low-hanging exhaust makes it howl like Wilson Pickett screaming ‘1-2-3’. You actually have two soundtracks to enjoy when you sit in the car. In front of you, you instantly recognise that characteristic humming of the six-cylinder BMW engine, while at the rear, the exhaust rumbles on. Then, as the revcounter hits 3000rpm, this puppy-sized BMW starts releasing a deep, timbrous growl like a hunting dog ready to bring down lions. Sadly, we won’t be pushing things too much further today. The restorer is behind the…

THERE HAS BEEN one benefit of the necessary lockdown in the Howell house – or, rather, garage. With my photographic workload radically reduced and no limits on how long I could spend on non-business stuff, the Subaru-Beetle has taken some huge steps forward towards completion. With the 2.0-litre Forester engine in and hooked up to the original Beetle gearbox, the two jobs I had been fearing most were next on the to-do list. First: where do you mount a radiator in a formerly air-cooled VW without ending up with loads of stupid-looking ventilation holes cut into the bonnet? As this car is a strict two-seater, I did play with the idea of mounting it in the back, where the original rear firewall is, and taking the air supply from underneath…

MATTHEW HAYWARD Markets editor • 1990 Citroën BX 16v• 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four• 1996 Saab 9000 Aero• 1997 Citroën Xantia Activa• 1997 Peugeot 306 GTI-6• 2000 Honda Integra Type R• 2001 Audi A2 SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible• 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL JESSE CROSSE Contributor • 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390• 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth DAVID BURGESS-WISE Contributor • 1903 De Dion-Bouton• 1911 Pilain 16/20• 1926 Delage DISS MARTYN GODDARD Photographer • 1963 Triumph TR6SS Trophy• 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII DELWYN MALLETT Contributor • 1936 Cord 810 Beverly• 1937 Studebaker Dictator• 1946 Tatra T87• 1950 Ford Club Coupe• 1952 Porsche 356• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL• 1957 Porsche Speedster• 1957 Fiat Abarth Sperimentale• 1963 Abarth-Simca• 1963 Tatra T603• 1992 Alfa Romeo SZ TONY DRON Contributor •…

‘I’ve just had the first repair bill for my Audi TT: $240 to fix a leak in the cooling system. It’s weird how I find newer cars intimidating when something goes wrong’Evan Klein ‘The Series 1 Landy’s carburettor overhaul stalled because I’d put the rebuild kit in a safe place. I’ve just found it, after weeks of looking’Mark Dixon ‘Strange times. My Porsche 944 has moved on to its new home after being sold, sight unseen. Full details in the next issue’Glen Waddington ‘It’s hard work keeping a Honda Integra Type R clean when it’s finished in Championship White, even when you’re not using it. At least having it parked up has given me time to detail its paint and wheels’Matthew Hayward…

THE WORLD’S FIRST microwave oven was an astonishing 5ft 11in tall, weighed 750lb (340kg), had to be plumbed into the water supply to keep it cool and, at $5000 in 1947, the year it was introduced, was twice the price of a Cadillac. The Radarange, as it was called, was the brainchild of Percy Spencer, who worked for the Buck Rogers-sounding Raytheon Company, and it was aimed at restaurants, railroad cars and ocean liners, where large quantities of food needed to be prepared quickly. Yet despite its ability to heat food in a matter of minutes, the miracle of cooking by ‘radar’ found few takers at its inception. Percy Lebaron Spencer was born in Howland, Maine, in July 1894 and was almost entirely self-taught. His father died when he was…

FORD GT COMPETITION ROADSTER Mecum Auctions, Indianapolis, USA 10-18 July, mecum.com One of the two surviving Ford GT Prototype Roadsters, and the only one with Le Mans history, GT/109 was driven in the 1965 24 Hours by French racers Maurice Trintignant and Guy Ligier. That was just the beginning of its career and it lived on in the US, Shelby using the car for development work before it was sold to Dean Jeffries in 1968. In 2013, a full restoration by GTC Mirage Racing took it back to Le Mans spec. FORD MODEL Y Barons, Sandown Park, Surrey, UK 14 July, barons-auctions.com Built all over the world, the Ford Model Y was Ford’s replacement for the ground-breaking Model A. This 1934 example was originally built for the Canadian market –…