Table of contents for January 2021 in Octane

Despite the devastation of the 2020 concours calendar by Covid-19, one event that is carrying on is the annual Best of the Best Award. Pitting the winners of the world’s major concours against each other in one final showdown, The Peninsula Classics competition has a reduced shortlist, but still four cars will be judged to declare the Best of the Best. How the announcement will be made – usually it is at a dinner in Paris during Rétromobile – was undecided as Octane went to press, but organisers confirmed the dinner would not take place in its traditional form. The four cars vying for the title are Best-in-Shows from September’s Concours of Elegance and Salon Privé in the UK, plus the two early 2020 concours in Florida: Amelia Island and…

So much is going on in the world as this column is coming together, be it the global pandemic or the US elections. As such, motorsport seems so inconsequential in the grand scheme of things. Nevertheless, I cannot hide my admiration – my gratitude – for those who are staging race meetings. Having not attended Salon Privé, I had hoped to make it to West Sussex for Goodwood SpeedWeek but, for obvious reasons, that didn’t happen. I had to be content with watching the live feed instead. I take off my metaphorical hat to the Duke of Richmond and his team for somehow staging such a dazzling show amid the direst of circumstances. There were a few incidents during races that made me wince, but overall I was impressed by…

944 S2 1989-1991 £12,000-20,000 It looks as though it’s finally happening. For years, the 944 has lived in the shadow of rear-engined Porsches, and it’s long been a conspicuous bargain. Well, time seems to be running out: they’ve started going up. Our choice? The 3.0-litre, 16-valve S2. Much cheaper than the uber-collectable 968 Clubsport, but almost as much fun to drive and more plentiful. Convertible is a belter, too. 928 S4 1987-1991 £15,000-25,000 We’ve all missed the boat on the manual GTS, we realise that. But why not enjoy the 928 as the ultimate cruiser or Autobahn-stormer? It’s too hefty for the sports car thing, really. Ten grand won’t buy a good ’un any more, but £20,000 will, and there are still lots to choose from. Manuals exist and are sought after,…

‘The Lancia won the Concorso di Eleganza di Viareggio in the name of Countess Lurani’ The history of almost every car manufacturer seems to include one particular model that has become legendary. In the case of Lancia, despite a lengthy heritage that’s rich in contenders, there is little doubt that it would be the Astura. Launched in October 1931, at the 25th Paris Salon de l’Automobile, this model instantly captured the public’s attention and its imagination. The Astura took its name from an islet in a small river that has a fortified maritime tower known today as Torre Astura, a place that dates back more than 2000 years – a place with the kind of dignity and gravitas that seems appropriate for the top-of-the-range Lancia. The Astura was developed to…

WINNER The Petersen Museum Founded by publishing magnate and philanthropist Robert E Petersen and his wife Margie, the Petersen Automotive Museum consistently hosts globally important exhibitions. Notable in 2020 was its brilliant creation and organisation of Petersen Car Week, a series of virtual events for those missing Monterey Car Week. RUNNERS UP Autoworld, Brussels; Brooklands Museum, UK; The Mercedes-Benz Museum, Stuttgart; Auto & Technik Museum, Sinsheim; Sammy Miller Motorcycle Museum, UK…

EVAN KLEIN Photographer • 2001 Audi TT Quattro 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 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 • 1932 Austin Seven SARAH BRADLEY…

THERE HAVEN’T been many opportunities to enjoy the Delage this dismal year, so the invitation to join in Paul and Valerie Wood’s Austin Seven Tour during the brief period of relative sanity when the world seemed to be getting back to normal came as a welcome relief. OK, so it’s about as far removed from an Austin Seven as you can get – its engine is almost three times as big, for a start – but the chance to drive the backlanes of rural Essex with a crowd of like-minded folk was too good to refuse. Away from the Rolls-Royces and Bentleys that are his daily fare, Paul – the ‘P’ of P&A Wood – is a dedicated heptaphile, with an enviable crèche of baby Austins in his barn. I…

SHOCKING TO realise that I last drove this elegant Lancia Aurelia Spider more than 30 years ago. Imported from Naples to Cape Town, this very car was bought by my late father in 1967 as a project. He restored and repainted it in the carport and we knocked about in it to the salty beaches of Muizenberg, making fast runs up the lee of Table Mountain and then carelessly leaving it open outside the Capital ‘bioscope’ during matinee film shows. And now it’s for sale in the UK. For £650,000! The B24 Spider America was the open version of the Aurelia B20 GT and was built only in 1954 and 1955, just 240 in total, of which only 59 were right-hand drive (the more numerous Convertible followed from 1956 to…

NOT JUST ANY HILL. If you read Octane Cars in the last issue, you’ll know I took a trip to Shelsley Walsh in my 1989 BMW 320i Convertible. But apart from a stretch of average-speed cameras on the way there, the nearest I got to being timed in it was a quick pic or two on the startline. No, the real reason I was there was because I’d been invited by Abarth. And so it came to pass that, on a warm late-summer day, I arrived at Shelsley ready to be timed on the hill. No pressure. I’m not alone. Abarth has invited journalists from a number of publications, and there’s already been a benchmark batch in the morning. Could we beat them? We’d certainly be up for trying. My…

£11,418,000 ($14,840,000) Alfa Romeo BAT 5, 7 and 9d Sotheby’s, New York, USA. 28 October £2,155,000 ($2,810,000) 1952 Ferrari 225 S Berlinetta RM Sotheby’s, Elkhart, USA. 23-24 October £1,876,500 (€2,070,000) 1959 BMW 507 Series II Bonhams, Knokke-Heist, Belgium. 11 October £1,616,000 (€1,782,500) 1963 Ferrari 250 GT Lusso Bonhams, Knokke-Heist, Belgium. 11 October £1,564,500 ($2,040,000) 1953 Fiat 8V Supersonic RM Sotheby’s, Elkhart, USA. 23-24 October £1,522,500 ($1,985,000) 1957 Jaguar XKSS Continuation RM Sotheby’s, Elkhart, USA. 23-24 October £1,463,500 ($1,892,000) 1956 Maserati A6G/54 Gran Sport Spider Gooding & Company, online. 26-30 October £1,353,500 ($1,765,000) 1955 Cooper-Jaguar T38 MkII RM Sotheby’s, Elkhart, USA. 23-24 October £1,311,500 ($1,710,000) 1963 Jaguar E-type Lightweight Continuation RM Sotheby’s, Elkhart, USA. 23-24 October £1,269,400 1967 Ferrari 330 GTS Bonhams, Goodwood, UK. 17 October…

Interest in early electronic digital watches is slowly growing, and this year the granddaddy of them all turned 50. The Pulsar was created by Hamilton and Electro/Data in 1970 but it took two more years for a production version, the P1, to reach the shops. When it finally did, it cost $2100… when a nice Rolex was $150 less. The power-hungry red LED display was switched off by default; you pushed a button to show the time. Commercially, the Pulsar project was a disaster: by 1976 Texas Instruments was knocking out LED digital watches for $10 and Pulsar haemorrhaged money. The design was influential, though, and Hamilton has reissued the stainless-steel Pulsar P2 – yours for £675. How much for an original? Well, the non-functioning one consigned to Prop Store’s…

DONALD OSBORNE ‘Having the chance to meet Cliff Hall was a great honour. I was brought up to believe that hard work, curiosity, imagination and confidence were the keys to a fulfilling and successful life – Cliff Hall embodied all those qualities and more. His is a story that must be known by as many as possible.’ Corwin Getaway: the full story, pages 80-86. DEAN SMITH ‘The 993 Turbo sounded fantastic and it certainly looked quick – I kept having to remind myself that this car was a quarter of a century old, and I’ve been shooting 911s for well over a decade! Only those rain gutters really give the game away.’ Dean’s incredible photography accompanies Glen Waddington’s story on pages 54-64. JAMES PAGE ‘There have been great characters in BTCC over…

THE MAN behind the delectable shape of the Dino/Ferrari Dino has died. Having started his career at Cisitalia, in 1953 Brovarone joined Pininfarina where he started as understudy to Francesco Salomone and Franco Martinengo, and where he worked until his retirement in 1989. Rarely credited for entire projects, he had a distinctive hand in many great designs such as the Alfa Romeo 6C Superflows, Maserati A6 GCS and Ferrari 375 America and Superamerica. More mainstream perhaps were the Ferrari F40, for which he was responsible for the rear wing, and the Alfa Duetto, for which he penned the original outline.…

These days, pretty much everything you could imagine can be built in Lego, including countless cars – all of which seem to be bought as presents for kids and yet are built by adults. But it wasn’t always thus. The humble Lego brick is a supreme piece of design: literally a brick, but with interlocking capability, so no need for mortar in your construction. Anything built can be taken apart again, and the pieces reused to make new things. Every child of the ’70s seemed to grow up with Lego, which, along with Airfix kits and Meccano, was one of the toys that allowed you not only to play but to be creative, too. Many an architect began their career on the living room floor. Lego’s inspiration arguably came from…

If William Lyons had not been so epically tight-fisted, James Bond’s car would have been an E-type. And then where would Aston Martin be? How might the F-type’s fortunes have been improved? The producers tried to blag freebie Jaguars, but Lyons was disinclined to deal. So 007 got a DB5. But that was only in Goldfinger, the third Bond film. Few remember now, but Bond’s first movie car was a Sunbeam Alpine. (In the books, it’s a Blower Bentley.) Sometimes we forget for a reason. Sean Connery’s death brought this to mind. Seeing our suave spy – the face that shook a thousand martinis – in a DB5 delivered to Aston Martin an infinitely precious set of brand values without which, I suggest, the company would not have survived. With…

Cars, like people, are taking longer to age. When I was a youngster in the 1970s, it wasn’t unusual for a family hack to be worn out by the time it was four or five years old. Resprays were common. They broke down. Stuff stopped working. In the early Noughties, my 1974 BMW 2002 felt far more ancient than does my 1989 BMW 320i Convertible today (28 plays 31). My wife’s decade-old daily driver still seems new. And I’m not convinced it’s simply because I’m so much older, too. In 1994, it was a commonly held belief within senior Porsche management that the 911 had been in this world too long: a rear-engined, air-cooled anachronism. Time for change. Of course, we’d heard that before, hence the Porsche 928 and the…

Well, I have to say, the tenth anniversary of the Historic Motoring Awards did not happen quite as we’d envisaged when we started planning our huge celebration at the start of the year – but there were big benefits to that. Of course, it would have been wonderful to replicate previous years and gather 300 or so of our closest friends and supporters in a grand room awash with good food, fine wine and bonhomie, but this way we got to share our ceremony live with everyone through a live stream hosted by the incomparable Amanda Stretton. And what a night it was. With most of the year wiped out by that blasted illness, we had a raft of new awards celebrating everything from apprentices to our elder statesmen. However,…

WINNER REVS-Limiter Take away our summer and you take away our soul! Scribbling vicar Adam Gompertz formed a Facebook support group for bereft enthusiasts to share pictures and news of their cars. It now has 6000 members, has hosted two celebrity-packed live broadcast weekends, and has also held its first outdoor show. RUNNERS UP Le Mans; Tim Layzell/GRRC; Concours Virtual; Le Mans Classic/Peter Auto; Petersen Car Week; The Mercedes-Benz Museum; Isolation Island Concours d’Elegance…

WHAT A difference a year makes! I last wrote about my Porsche 356 Judson-supercharged ‘streamliner’ in Octane 197, but it’s actually been away from home for five years and living at Classic Fabrications in Dunkeswell, Devon, for intermittent restoration by proprietor Steve Kerti following an unfortunate body-distorting incident (the car’s, not Steve’s). When the Porsche was almost finished, Steve transported it to a Porsche Club meeting at Goodwood in August 2019, where I’m pleased to say it met with general approval – I’m the first to admit that there are some purists who question the aesthetics of my bespatted streamliner. Steve then took it back to base for some final tweaking and it was due to be delivered to my home – guess when? The weekend that the first lockdown…

WHEN MY Mustang arrived from the West Coast of America, the Ford FE GT 390ci engine was intact but had a battered sump, broken engine mountings from joyriding around a ranch, and a Carter carb instead of the factory four-barrel Holley. It also had non-standard tubular exhaust manifolds and, as it later transpired, a rodent’s nest in the thermostat housing and a 428 camshaft. Usual mods, then, except for the nest. The engine hadn’t run for years and contained no water but still had plenty of sludgy black oil in the sump. I reckoned rebuilding would be pretty simple but the big-block V8 actually has some tricky aspects to it. The main one is that the 390, like most FEs, has a ‘top-oiler’ system, with multiple galleries routing oil via…

OWNING AN Audi TT is not like owning a ’60s Alfa. It’s a different culture altogether. I was notified by Instagram about an Audi meet – all correspondence is by Instagram – and my preparation consisted of washing the car. I didn’t wonder if it would start, or whether the Webers were spitting, or what that mystery smell of petrol was. The hardest part of an Audi gathering seemed to be deciding what to wear. We met on a Sunday afternoon outside a very nondescript shop in the Valley part of Los Angeles. I was curious to talk with other TT owners, and several people asked if mine was the car at the Art Center show that was signed by designer Freeman Thomas (it was). I had a bunch of…

IF THERE’S ONE thing you can rely on Honda for, it’s attention to detail. The current Civic Type R was already considered one of the best front-wheel-drive hot hatches on sale, yet still Honda felt there was room for improvement. Detail improvement. An example: the reprofiled aluminium gearknob returns to a more slender teardrop shape, reminiscent of titanium Type R gearknobs of old – and, as any Type R owner will tell you, the fabulous gearshift is a hugely significant part of the driving experience. More important than the shape, however, is a 90g internal counterweight to improve the feel. Result? The most satisfying shift I’ve experienced in anything on sale today. The interior wasn’t the Civic’s strongest point, but the seats remain a highlight, and the steering wheel’s new…

CISITALIA 202 by Dugu Seventy miles from Turin lies the town of Varallo Sesio, where a model car company called Dugu was founded in 1962. This was the era when toy companies were starting to model vintage vehicles aimed at adult collectors and, although the first Dugu models were christened the Miniauto Toy Series, they had many fragile components and weren’t intended for children. Dugu found inspiration in the Turin-based Museo Carlo Biscaretti of Ruffia, named after the son of its original founder, Roberto. Subjects ranged from an 1896 Bernardi Tricycle to a 1937 Cord, although Fiats and Lancias predominated – hardly surprising, as Roberto Biscaretti had been one of the founders of Fiat. From 1964 onwards, Dugu’s link with the museum was made more explicit with a series of…

25 November H&H, online 3 December Artcurial, Paris, France 3-5 December Mecum, Houston, USA 4-6 December Classicbid, online 5 December Bonhams, London, UK 8 December Osenat, Fontainebleau, France 9 December H&H, Buxton, UK 10 December Brightwells, online 11 December Bonhams, Bicester, UK 11-12 December Historics, Ascot, UK Mathewsons, online 12 December Classic Car Auctions, online 13 December Aguttes, Paris, France 15 December Barons, Sandown Park, UK 19 December H&H, Bickenhill, UK (motorcycles) 21 December Osenat, Versailles, France 7-17 January Mecum, Kissimmee, USA 16-24 January Barrett-Jackson, Scottsdale, USA 20 January Worldwide Auctioneers, Scottsdale, USA 20-24 January Russo & Steele, Scottsdale, USA 21 January Bonhams, Scottsdale, USA 22 January RM Sotheby’s, Phoenix, USA 22-23 January Gooding & Co, Scottsdale, USA 26-31 January Mecum, Las Vegas, USA (motorcycles) 29 January SWVA, Online 30-31…

1922 ALVIS 11/40 TOURER £30,000 Thought to be the sole surviving 11/40, and offered in running, driving condition. It was first restored by Sutcliffe of Macclesfield in the 1950 and has been well-maintained since. fiennes.co.uk (UK) 1994 SUZUKI CAPPUCCINO £14,750 A very original and exceptionally clean UK-supplied example of this Japanese kei car, with just 4800 miles from new. Described as ‘one of the best Cappuccinos left in the world’. We wouldn’t disagree. stonecoldclassics.com (UK) 1939 BMW 327 SPORTS CONVERTIBLE, €215,000 Delivered to Stockholm on New Year’s Eve 1939, it was sold to Denmark shortly after the end of WW2. Now extensively restored, this fully matching-numbers example looks stunning. thiesen-automobile.com (DE) 1966 LOTUS TYPE 47 $165,000 A lighter, Lotus Formula B-derived Europa racing car. One of roughly 55 built, and…

WHAT TO PAY Condition is king. Most desirable is the V8-powered 3500S manual at £7000-12,000 for a good example, although the very best can fetch beyond £20,000. Even so, road-legal cars, usually automatics, start at £3500. Four-cylinder cars are more of a bargain, with good examples from about £5000; you’ll still pay £10,000 for a particularly tidy car. TC models are worth a premium, too. If you’re less fussy about condition, or fancy a project, then you could find a solid runner from around £2500. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Bolt-on panels can hide corrosion. The worst areas are usually underneath; check the inner sills and the D-posts behind the door shuts. The V8 engine needs regular oil and (because it’s all-alloy) coolant changes. The four-cylinder is reliable, but listen…

AFTER EVENT-STARVED enthusiasts were thrown a late-summer lifeline by Goodwood, many were left wondering whether SpeedWeek might change the face of festivals forever, just as Covid-19 has forced the classic car auction world to evolve rapidly, developing and rolling out online solutions in a matter of weeks. It seems unlikely that Goodwood’s innovative SpeedWeek will be a template for any future in which spectators are permitted to attend events, but it did offer hope. By staging this behind-closed-doors live-streamed spectacular, the West Sussex team showed that pandemics, lockdowns and enforced absences need not augur inevitable postponement, or even ring the death knell, for leading events. Best of all, SpeedWeek brought a little joy to legions of fans deprived of events and on-track action in 2020. But, then, Goodwood is special…

Old enamelled-iron advertising signs are now very valuable, which is why you never see them in situ anymore. Collectors have nabbed the few that escaped wartime scrap drives. It’s ironic, then, that you’re more likely to spot a much less durable kind of sign today: the type that was painted directly onto a wall or railway bridge. Usually they were overpainted once their message was out of date, but occasionally they linger on in faded form as ‘ghost signs’. The superb example pictured here was recently spotted in Exeter. Advertising Redline Super Petrol and depicting an old-fashioned pump with illuminated glass globe, it dates from the early 1930s and survived because it was concealed behind a later hoarding that has recently been removed. Like shipwrecks revealed by shifting sands, once…

HAVING STARTED his design life with aircraft – he worked on the Lancaster – Don Hayter was instrumental in the creation of the MGB. He had already had a hand in the production of Jaguars, Aston Martins and MGs before he was taken on at Abingdon full-time as a draughtsman. Hayter worked on the MGA-based EX205/1 and the monocoque EX214/1, and, with the MGB given the go-ahead, it was Hayter’s task to make the concept production-ready. The rest is history. While that is unsurprisingly the feat for which he will be best remembered, it was not the end of an Abingdon career that concluded only when the factory shut its doors for good. He later designed mobility solutions for disabled people.…

A bout ten years ago I set off to find that most British of British cars, a Bristol 403. I’d never even seen one in person. They’re extremely rare here in America. Years of reading LJK Setright made me feel as if I just had to have one. When looking for a car they always tell you: ‘Don’t buy the first thing you see, have it inspected by a professional.’ Whatever you do, for goodness’ sake don’t buy it sight unseen over the phone. Of course, I broke those rules. I only found one. I couldn’t find anybody who had ever heard of a Bristol, let alone a professional. And I bought it sight unseen, over the phone. Mr Setright, in his book, said that only the finest gentlemen purchase…

I distinctly remember my first Porsche 911 Turbo experience. It was in the late 1970s, when most cars were pretty humdrum. Whatever, I wasn’t interested in cars because, as a teenager, I was madly fixated with ’bikes. Motorcycles were so much faster, more exciting and dangerous. My father’s classic cars, consisting of Bentleys, 356 Porsches and a couple of old Lancias, were pretty unexciting and felt lumbering in comparison to my Yamaha RD50. OK, it only managed 60mph flat on the tank but through traffic it was like a red-hot poker, with the throttle always cranked wide. There was a gang of us who rode and ‘scraped’ our bikes around tree-lined mountain roads and I still have cold shivers thinking about how dangerous it all was. Every time I swung…

‘Owners get the best of both worlds,’ says Greig Daly, sales and marketing director at Porsche specialist RPM Technik. ‘Arguably the 993 is the prettiest generation of 911 and you get the full air-cooled experience, yet it’s properly rapid, even today. The perfect amalgam of old and new.’ The car in these pictures belongs to a customer of RPM Technik. ‘It’s a rare example: no sunroof, 22,000 miles, one previous owner. So it has a market value of £150,000. But you can pay £175,000, maybe £200,000 for a car with even lower mileage, and the entry point is more like £80,000-90,000, for a car with 80,000-120,000 miles. At those prices there will be maintenance issues to keep on top of.’ The engine is chain-driven, so no cambelts to swap, but…

in association with DESPITE THE FACT that his career spanned more than 20 years, an entire generation of enthusiasts associates Andy Rouse with the heady days of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Whether it was going toe-to-toe with Steve Soper in Sierra RS500 Cosworths or trading paint with John Cleland as Ford battled Vauxhall, his name was shouted into countless living rooms by excitable BBC commentator Murray Walker as Rouse helped the British Touring Car Championship reach uncharted levels of popularity. With four titles to his name, plus 60 class and overall wins, the man himself has got plenty to shout about – but that’s not his style. Quietly spoken and with a hint of a Gloucestershire accent still evident, he describes his adventures in an understated way and…

WINNER Weekend Heroes II Tony Adriaensens, pub. Corsa Research, £500 Three volumes comprising an indispensible photographic record of sports car racing in the western USA in the ’50s. In-depth text plus wonderful tones and reproduction bring a golden era back to life. RUNNERS UP Ballot, Daniel Cabart & Gautam Sen, pub. Dalton Watson; The Aston Martin V8 1969-2000, Russell Hayes, pub. Palawan Press; Shadow, the Magnificent Machines of a Man of Mystery, Pete Lyons, pub. Evro; The Lamborghini Miura, Jon Pressnell, pub. Kidston SA…

WINNER Darren Turner This racer’s career has encompassed everything from F1 test driver to British Touring Cars, but it is with Aston Martin that he is most associated. His first Le Mans for the marque came in the DBR9 in 2005 (third in class with David Brabham and Stéphane Serrazin) and he has competed there in an Aston every year since. Since 2012 he has had an Aston factory seat in the FIA World Endurance Championship as well as many other disciplines. RUNNERS UP Dylan Miles; Guy Wyles; Kees Huis in’t Veld; John McGurk…

ROBERT COUCHER International editor • 1955 Jaguar XK140 ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor • 1960 Triumph TR3A• 1962 Norton Dominator• 1965 Aston Martin DB5 GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 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 Junior• 1979/80 Range Rovers• 1982 Mercedes-Benz 500SL•…

I’M A BIT of an originality freak when it comes to classic vehicles. Few things irritate me more than oversized modern alloys on a classic, or the ‘wrong’ style of registration plate. The fact that my 1955 Land Rover has incorrect tail lights, as seen in the picture top right (they should be chunky Lucas ‘pork pie’ units), is a constant source of dissatisfaction. Sticking a modern diesel engine in a classic Land Rover should, therefore, be total anathema to me, but I confess I was very glad of the 200Tdi turbodiesel in my friend Iain’s 1951 Series One when I needed to tow the 107 recently. Iain’s Landy had lost its original 1600cc engine back in 1977, when a previous owner fitted a 2.2 BMC diesel, so he can’t…

‘I was hoping that the noisy back axle in my Morgan 4/4 was just my imagination – but no such luck. It’s now at Allon White Sports Cars in Bedford for a differential rebuild’Matthew Howell ‘A week off work and it rained every day. I’m determined to drive the BMW through winter, but today’s quick blast might have to do for a while. Thanks, lockdown’Glen Waddington ‘Since our son was born, my two-seater Mercedes 500SL has rarely been used. Covering the 2020 Bernina Gran Turismo in Saint Moritz for Octane was the perfect excuse for a drive to the mountain’Massimo Delbò ‘My Jensen has hit rock bottom – hooray! All the rust and all the holes are now exposed and everything done from now on can only make it better.…

TO MISQUOTE AN old saying, ‘If it flies, floats or has flashing lights, rent it’. Point being that, if you wish to remain financially solvent, a boat, a plane or an old emergency services vehicle is something you don’t really want to own, just to experience. Fortunately, I didn’t have to shell out any money to get behind the wheel of a 1978 Range Rover Ambulance by Wadham Stringer. For the opening day of Goodwood’s SpeedWeek, Jaguar Land Rover was organising a parade of 50 Range Rovers to mark – you guessed it – 50 years of production, and so it needed owners and assorted hangers-on such as journos to drive them. Now, the small boy in all of us loves the idea of owning a police car, fire engine…

Enzo’s baby Porsche 911 rival seemingly has it all: gorgeous looks, a beautifully balanced chassis and a tuneful mid-mounted V6 engine. It’s seen as a ‘must-have’ for any collector, and values have been the subject of much analysis in recent years. Dinos make regular appearances at auction, with over 200 going under the hammer since 2013. Factory-built ‘chairs and flares’ (optional Daytona-style seats and wider wheelarches) examples command the most, with Gooding & Company setting the benchmark at Amelia Island back in 2014, its one-owner, 31,000-mile 1972 US-spec GT fetching $627,000. Stand-out results among the targa-topped Dinos include RM Sotheby’s European-spec Spider in Blu Dino Metallizzato (pictured right). Unrestored, in single-family ownership from new and showing just 26,500km, it achieved €529,000 in 2017. Project cars are rare, although Bonhams sold…

1972 Jaguar E-type S3 Coupé H&H, Buxton, UK 9 December, handh.co.uk We don’t have to justify our appreciation for the V12 E-type. Here’s a car that looks great, sounds great, and offers the full E-type experience for considerably less money than the early cars. The E-type evolved from sports car into the very finest of grand tourers, and this glorious green example, with cinnamon leather, is a prime reason why it shouldn’t be dismissed. With 52,000 miles, it’s estimated at £45,000-55,000. 1987 Fiat Panda Bianca Barons, Sandown Park, UK 15 December, barons-auctions.com Of all the cars you might expect to boast ‘full rebuild’ in its catalogue description, this delightful Fiat Panda might be a surprise. One of the now almost extinct 1987 ‘Bianca’ special edition, it has been owned by…