Sommaire pour May 2019 de Octane

CAR enthusiAst, collector and founder of Revs Institute in Florida, Miles Collier, has launched a major new initiative aimed at safeguarding the future of traditional cars. Provisionally dubbed Revs 2.0, the concept is to establish a data and research hub that will unite car enthusiasts worldwide. With such a global ambition, Revs 2.0 will necessarily exist as much in the online world as the physical one: it will function as a network for people and resources, potentially similar to Wikipedia in the scale of what it covers but also functioning as a ‘bulletin board’ to bring people together. ‘Today’s world is not business as usual. And our meaningful car world can no longer be “business as usual”,’ said Collier, addressing attendees of the biennial Revs Symposium. ‘If we want to…

This year’s Car of the Year contest – the original one started in 1963 and was first won by the Rover 2000 – was the most dramatic ever. The shortlist of seven cars included two particularly interesting ones, the Jaguar i-Pace electric semi-SUV and the Alpine A110. But as the results were announced in Geneva on the eve of the motor show, country by European country alphabetically, Kia’s Ceed looked favourite. Just the scores of the six UK judges, of whom I was one, remained. We weren’t keen on the Ceed, a capable hatchback but ultimately forgettable. The bulk of our points went on the Jaguar and the Alpine, which overtook the Kia to score a total of 250 points each (the Kia amassed 247). A dead heat had never…

Because its engagement with the public is so total – more of a passionate affair than with, say, induction hobs or drain cleaner – the reputation of a modern car depends to an unusual degree on public relations. PR was once defined, by Prime Minister Harold Wilson, no less, as ‘organised lying’. The founder of the PR craft was Edward Bernays, a nephew of Freud’s, so psyche-manipulation was in the family DNA. Bernays defined his business as informing, persuading and adjusting. I think of PR as re-arranging the truth so that people like you. Or your product. And the big weapon in the car PR’s arsenal is the new product launch. In the matter of a car’s reputation, the launch is as significant as creation myths are in the anthropological…

This elegant, classically styled men’s timepiece features a quartz movement inside a stainless steel 42mm case, and a stunning blue galvanic dial with appliqué indexes and date window, protected by a sapphire crystal. It is water resistant to 5atm and supplied on a black calf leather strap with an alligator grain finish. Raymond Weil is one of a handful of Swiss watchmakers that remain in family hands. The Toccata name reflects the Weil family’s interest in music, which has led to many of the watch collections bearing musically themed names.…

It’s a hefty so-and-so. There’s no spidery spaceframe under that taut red skin – quite the opposite, really, with a twin-tube chassis braced by channel sections welded underneath. And most of the oily bits are from an Alvis 4.3-litre, not exactly the last word in featherweights. So push-starting it up a gentle slope in the Shelsley Walsh paddock is a task that gets you breathing… especially when the brakes are binding. We’re here to let the car stretch its legs at its most successful stamping ground. Perhaps because of today’s VSCC hillclimbs we tend to think of Shelsley Specials, those home-built contraptions designed purely to dash up hills like this, as pre-war machines. But the golden age of speed hill-climbing in this country was arguably in the ten years after…

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 SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director • 1981 BMW 323i Top Cabrio• 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante MARK DIXON Deputy editor • 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in• 1966 Ford Mustang 289• 1994 Range Rover 4.0 JAMES ELLIOTT Editor-in-chief • 1965 Triumph 2.5PI• 1968 Jensen Interceptor SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible• 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 1983 Porsche 944• 1989 BMW 320i Convertible JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans• 1961 Saab 96• 1968 Sunbeam Stiletto• 1989 Mazda MX-5 Eunos RICHARD HESELTINE Contributor • 1966 Moretti Sportiva• 1971 Honda Z600…

US-built cars tend to be constructed quite differently from European cars. However, whether they have two doors or four, the challenges aren’t very different – unless it’s a pillarless four-door, in which case there are issues with fitting lap-and-diagonal belts rather than simple lap belts. Delwyn’s Ford ‘Shoebox’ from the 1950s is a good example of a standard two-door coupe with what looks like a B-post strong enough to take a top mounting point. The retractor can be fitted either at the bottom of the B post or, possibly, behind the trim on the rear quarter panel. For pillarless two-door coupes we would look at making a top mounting point at the top of the waist rail, and again fitting the retractor behind the rear quarter trim. The same applies…

ThaT’s righT, it’s 100% reliable. At least that’s what I tell everyone. Seems Alfas run great for short periods of time. I’m starting to become embarrassed when the car breaks; it doesn’t leave me stranded, it just, well, doesn’t do what it’s supposed to. And if I do tell anyone, I have to put up with the ‘Why don’t you get something new?’ speech. Last month, at the height of the Los Angeles rain-storms, the brake master cylinder failed, leaving me without brakes. OK, no problem, I’ll just carefully drive to the shop using that horrible under-dash handbrake. The traffic was horrendous, bumper-to-bumper, rain coming down in buckets. At one point I was following a motorcycle officer. If he only knew. Fortunately I arrived without incident. We lifted her up…

Late summer in 1989. The Berlin Wall has yet to fall, Margaret Thatcher is still Prime Minister, and a skinny 25-year-old with big hair is about to attend one of his first magazine photoshoots as a tyro motoring journalist, as part of a road test of a 1950 Studebaker Land Cruiser. Thirty years later, and the same journalist has thinning hair and an expanded waistline, but has by now driven quite a few old cars. And the one he will be driving today is that very same Studebaker. Unlike the journalist, it looks exactly the same as it did in 1989. This strange reunion came about when that journalist – yes, me – happened to see the Studebaker for sale with Northamptonshire classic car dealer Martin Eady. Back in 1989,…

Barely four years after the first cars emerged from Citroën’s Quai de Javel plant a century ago, scale models of them started rolling off the production line in a factory in Briare, south of Paris. An ingenious toymaker called Ferdinand Migault made a 1:10-scale replica of a Citroën B2 and showed it to André Citroën, who at once saw its potential as a publicity item and placed a large order with the company, which became known as CIJ (la Compagnie Industrielle du Jouet). They may have been toys but, even by today’s standards, they are pretty accurate models as well. Les grands magasins made up elaborate window displays to promote them, notably the famous diorama of a complete Citroën production line that graced the windows of the Printemps department store…

£14,663,500 (€16,745,600) 1939 Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 B Touring Berlinetta Artcurial, Paris, France. 8 February £4,253,500 (€4,842,500) 1987 Ferrari F40 LM RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France. 6 February £3,694,000 (€4,218,800) 1966 Serenissima Spyder Artcurial, Paris, France. 8 February £2,672,500 (€3,042,500) 1956 Porsche 550 RS Spyder by Wendler RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France. 6 February £2,512,000 (€2,860,000) 1996 Ferrari 275 GTB/6C Alloy Berlinetta RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France. 6 February £2,292,000 (€2,617,200) 2009 Mercedes-Benz SLR Stirling Moss Edition Artcurial, Paris, France. 8 February £1,998,500 (€2,275,000) 2018 Bugatti Chiron RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France. 6 February £1,783,000 (€2,030,000) 1994 Bugatti EB110 Super Sport RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France. 6 February £1,493,000 (€1,700,000) 1996 Ferrari F50 RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France. 6 February £1,385,000 (€1,581,250) 1939 Mercedes-Benz 540K Cabriolet A Bonhams, Paris, France. 7 February…

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about this month’s curio is that it has ended up at auction and not at the rubbish tip. There are few things more useless than a key without a lock, yet this one has escaped the attention of busy Marie Kondo types for centuries. The engraving ‘No servants without their master’ suggests that it belongs to a less enlightened period of our history, and we can date it fairly precisely to around 1780. Thanks to markings on the stem we can also be fairly certain about who it belonged to: either General George Morrison or his son, General Edward Morrison. The high-ranking George Morrison was a Quartermaster-General to the Forces who had helped to suppress the Jacobite uprising. What is unusual about a key of…

1930 ISOTTA FRASCHINI 8A SS CASTAGNA, $1,175,000 Restored over a period of 25 years, this imposing 7.3-litre straight-eight Castagna-bodied Roadster is regarded as the finest Isotta Fraschini 8A SS left in existance. hymanltd.com (US) 1999 TVR CERBERA £28,995 One of the most outrageous cars built by TVR, the Cerbera can be an acquired taste. This fairly restrained example is powered by the 4.5-litre V8, and has covered only 18,000 miles. gilescooperautomotive.co.uk 1948 AC 2 LITRE ¤18,950 A fine example of AC’s first post-war car, the often overlooked AC 2 Litre. Located in Belgium with accompanying papers, this right-hand-drive example seems like great value. oldtimerfarm.be (BE) 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL $AUS 339,995 Originally a UK car, with optional City Package, this CSL has lived in Australia since 1997. It has been…

What to pay Earlier Turbo rs remain an absolute bargain, starting from as little as £5000 in running condition. Spend about £10,000 and you can get yourself a genuinely good example. Low-mileage, concours examples are out there, and you will always pay more for these. The much-improved later cars are worth holding out for, and £15,000 should be plenty for a car with good history and needing very little major work. Prices step up considerably if you’re looking at the later rT and S models, especially if in top condition. These start from about £25,000 in good condition, rising to £40,000 or even more for an immaculate, low-mileage example. look out for… Specialist knowledge is required so even cars in the best of health can be expensive to maintain. a…

Paul Harmer ‘Years ago I studied architecture, and the Audi TT’s proportions, sense of purpose and its lack of decoration have always appealed. The somewhat more brutalist Alton Estate where we photographed this one has the same effect on me.’ See Paul’s superb photography, and read why one Octane columnist thinks the TT should be revered, on pages 88-94. Nigel BootHmaN ‘I grew up around Alvises yet, despite almost 20 years writing about old cars, hadn’t visited Shelsley Walsh until now. It’s remarkably unspoilt and the Alvis Goodwin Special has just the right mix of science and brutality – thrilling but far from crude. I think it’s going to have a very successful second career on track.’ Turn to page 96 for more. mark Hales ‘I thought nothing would ever…

Some of my favourite cars are hybrids, I’ve realised, but they’re not the ones you’re probably thinking of right now. I come from an era when the word ‘hybrid’ meant something totally different. And last week I finally found one. I had my heart set on an Aston Martin DB5, but I just can’t bring myself to justify the price. It’s not that I don’t think it’s worth it, it’s just that I grew up in an era when used DB5s were just a few grand more than an E-type. The car I’m talking about is much rarer than a DB5. I think they made fewer than 500 of them. It’s a car that has fascinated me for some time, probably because I never actually saw one in person. Then,…

The MGB. I have never owned one, which is a pity because the examples I have driven always under-promised and over-delivered, especially the one I raced at Donington. It has long been regarded as the cliché classic car by car snobs; they think it too common because the MGB Roadster became the world’s best-selling sports car before the Datsun 240Z rolled up. And then the Mazda MX-5 arrived, in some ways a modern-day reinterpretation of the venerable B and a fabulous little sports car which shocked me when I first drove one years ago. It was uncannily good, an automotive version of a Seiko wristwatch. MG should have replaced the B with a car like that, instead of letting it soldier on for too many years, only to end up…

ROBERT COUCHER’S column in Octane 190 about the future of petrol and diesel, and the same issue’s Letter of the Month about electric conversions of classic cars, have prompted me to write. Having spent most of my career in the downstream oil industry and most of my passionate life rallying, racing and generally larking about in a vast array of vintage and classic cars, I find myself (again) in the midst of a significant logistical issue. Way back in 1999 I worked with Lord Montagu and the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs to try to overturn the ban on leaded petrol. That didn’t work, as it was a European directive. So we (Bayford and Co) got an amendment to the small print of the legislation: ‘…apart from special interest…

The general perception is that flying a light aircraft is difficult, dangerous, exclusive and expensive. None of those needs be the case but, as with cars, it depends on what and where you want to fly, and whether you want it to be a means of travel – or simple pleasure. Aeroplanes in general, and lighter ones in particular, are not complicated: cleverly designed in the load-bearing and aerodynamic senses, but simple mechanically, especially in comparison to a car. Flying controls are generally still connected via cables and pulleys, the typical engine is mechanically managed, probably still has a carburettor and contact points, and the propeller is usually bolted straight to the crankshaft. There’s no transmission, nor gears, clutch, driveshafts… The aircraft’s suspension is simple, sometimes just a big leaf…

Racing drivers must always make their peace with fear and danger. That’s the same today as it ever was. But in the good old (bad) days, the levels of risk were such as young, modern-era racers simply wouldn’t comprehend. Pierre Dieudonné, like all survivors from his generation, nods and smiles now, but half a century ago fear was an intimate acquaintance. He just never thought to question it. Take Spa-Francorchamps. The old Spa, all 8.761 miles of ditch, tree and telegraph pole-lined sweeping public road. It’s a track that Dieudonné, highly regarded Belgian saloon and sports car campaigner – and a gentleman racer in the best and fastest sense – is most closely associated with. Yet he admits it terrified him. ‘I remember leaving the hotel room on the morning…

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• 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 Contributor • 1929 Ford Model A hot rod• 1952 Studebaker Champion• 1956 Chevrolet 3100 pick-up• 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner• Various motorbikes MASSIMO DELBÒ Contributor • 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230• 1972 Fiat 500L• 1979/80 Range Rovers• 1982 Mercedes-Benz 500SL• 1985 Mercedes-Benz 240TD EVAN KLEIN Photographer • 1966 Alfa…

This Time last year we had snow. My 944 had just recently blown its rep by blowing out its own electrics, and the Beemer was tucked up safely in my garage. Where it spends too much time. But I don’t like taking it out on wintry roads, because it’s nearly 30 years old, factory-original and in damn fine fettle. As I write this on the last day in February, I’m looking out onto a sunlit garden, daffodils swaying gently in the breeze, birdsong drifting through an open window. Two record-breakingly warm days preceded this one. But tomorrow it’s back to normal. Whatever counts for normal in 2019. Anyway, I’ll stop wittering, because my point is that this is the first winter during my eight-year tenure of the BMW – today…

‘My Norton Dominator and Triumph Bonneville have gone down the road for the purchase of a reassuringly expensive Moto Guzzi V7 Sport. More soon’ Andrew English ‘With rear axle installed in the Mustang GT 390, latest job was rebuilding the power steering system, front suspension, complex steering column and brakes. Almost rolling’ Jesse Crosse ‘I’ve been using my Saab 96 scandalously little of late. But after six inactive months it started instantly and then flew painlessly through its MOT’ John Simister ‘Had huge fun using the Triumph this winter, with a couple of big days out where I’ve consciously taken the long way home. Just for once, I wish I would remember my thermals’ James Elliott…

wE’vE just drivEn almost 200km from the heart of Seville to the foothills of the Sierra Morena mountains. A short stretch of autopista quickly made way for some of the most stunning stretches of wide, twisting and empty roads I’ve ever experienced. Porsche clearly knew what it was doing when it picked this unseasonably warm location to launch the new ‘enthusiast-aimed’ 718 Cayman and Boxster T. Aren’t all Porsches geared towards enthusiasts? Leaving the minutiae of Porsche’s range aside, the T effectively takes the most basic 2.0-litre 718 model and combines it with some of the best chassis options available (and a few that are not), creating something with a much sharper focus at a price just below that of the more powerful S at £51,145. It’s an interesting concept,…

29-30 March RM Auctions, Fort Lauderdale, USA 30 March Oldtimer Galerie, Toffen, Switzerland 2 April Coys, London, UK 3 April H&H, Online 4-6 April Mecum, Houston, USA 7 April Bonhams, Goodwood, UK 10 April Brightwells, Bicester, UK Charterhouse, Shepton Mallet, UK H&H, Buxton, UK 11-12 April RM Sotheby’s, Essen, Germany 11-13 April Barrett-Jackson, Palm Beach, USA 12-13 April Branson Auction, Branson, USA 13 April Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn, UK Coys, Essen, UK 26 April SWVA, Poole, UK 26-27 April Bonhams, Tupelo, USA 27 April Cheffins, Cambridge, UK Mathewsons, Thornton-le-Dale, UK 27-28 April Bonhams, Stafford, UK (motorcycles) 29 April Shannons, Melbourne, Australia 30 April Barons, Sandown Park, UK 3-4 May Vicari, Nocona, USA 4 May Dan Kruse Classics, Midland, USA 4-5 May RM Sotheby’s, St Louis, USA 10 May Silverstone…

That’s a long title for a long race from the east coast to the west coast of America. This unusual idea was inspired by the pioneering cross-country adventures of early 20th Century motorcycle rider and racer Erwin George ‘Cannonball’ Baker (above). During his racing career Erwin traversed the United States, point to point, a total of 143 times – a remarkable 550,000 miles in all. The modern ‘Memorial’ run was conceived by automotive journalist Brock Yates and his Car and Driver editor Steve Smith in 1971. Not only was it an excuse for having some fun, the race was also used as a celebration of the United States Interstate Highways System and to protest against restrictive motoring laws that would soon be imposed. Using the same principle of riding coast-to-coast…

My plan to throttle back a little this year, to take a breath every once in a while, lasted as long as February. I don’t know who I was kidding, other than myself. After the Rolex 24 endurance classic at Daytona, it was off to Scottsdale, Arizona, for the opening of the Arrowhead BMW dealership. Without wishing for this to sound like a blatant plug, I was astonished by the size of this place and hugely impressed by the people who made it happen. Some of them had plenty of experience in the motor industry as a whole, rather than just the ‘trade’ side. And the point of mentioning this? Well, in my role as a professional ‘car guy’, I often find myself at dinner sitting next to people I…

1 This is my father’s [Duncan Hamilton] original helmet and would have been used from 1951 or ’52 through to 1958 when he retired. Just imagine the history it has, including a Le Mans win and a second place. It is a Herbert Johnson cork helmet, which was de rigueur in the 1950s. 2 My father’s autobiography is a great read and very amusing. It also shows the fun that was had in those days rather than the awful health-and-safety-restrained motor racing of today. It’s all true except one thing: the book suggests he was pissed the very night before Le Mans, the Friday, but it was actually the previous night. See, he was very sensible really. 3 Pa and I went to the first ever drag racing meet in…

WHAT IS STYLE? According to the poet and artist Jean Cocteau (always very sound on these matters), it is ‘for most people… a complicated way of saying very simple things. To us, it’s a very simple way of saying complicated things.’ And that is an appropriately neat description of the extremely neat Audi TT that, now 21, has come of age. For us, it is a simple proposition, but one with many layers of meaning. Some cars transcend their original humble condition. They actually become more than a sum of their simple parts, acquiring en route the courage of their own restrictions. The Audi TT is exactly that. It could have been merely an aggregate of upcycled Golf componentry. With great ingenuity, that’s how Volkswagen created the Skoda Octavia, over…

There are lots of different ways to fly and the entry fee will vary only depending on what you want to fly and where. Assuming that’s not a WW2 fighter or a turbine twin, the biggest cost difference is between manufacturer-supported certified aircraft and non-certified. The former (Cessna, Piper, Robin, Cirrus, Mooney, Tecnam) allow you to fly much like a commercial airliner (including flight on instruments), but require maintenance at an approved facility. The latter (such as Jodel, Europa, and the majority of classics) have some restrictions on use but allow maintenance by the owner. Non-certified includes building your own ’plane – 10,000 people have completed and flown an American RV kit aircraft, and there are many others. GaononG a YoHenHe The access you’ll be granted is determined by the…

Yes, Yes, that picture of me working on the engine of the Landy (right, at top) is obviously a set-up shot, but needs must when you’re on your own and all you have is an iPhone gaffer-taped to a pair of step-ladders. But I genuinely was taking the plugs out, so I could clean them and then spin the engine over on the starter to circulate the oil before firing it up. Last time I drove the 107, it started coughing and spluttering and eventually died completely. I immediately suspected the electric fuel pump, which almost certainly dates from 1955, and disconnecting the feed to the carburettor showed that fuel was indeed not getting through. So I ordered a solid-state replacement from my good friend Philip Bashall at Dunsfold DLR…

With the Weather improving I rang a local chum, James, to see if he fancied a V8 trip to the Barley Mow – me in my 1950 flathead Ford and him in his hemi-headed Daimler. As the Barley Mow is only two miles from my home, if slightly further for James, this was less a major day out than a chance to park the cars outside and sip a pint in the sunshine while we admired (or not) our respective steeds. As I may have mentioned in previous Ford updates, among other problems it’s displaying a voracious appetite for fuel. Its consumption seems to be way off the scale and down in single figures. Unfortunately the fuel gauge doesn’t work – it was the only item that refused to respond…

When something has been a feature of your car for three-quarters of a century, the decision to get rid of it isn’t easy. But after 32 years with the makeshift screen fitted in 1944 by the Delage’s then owner, Twickenham GP Dr Gerald ‘Bob’ Ewen, I decided that it really had to go. Mocking up a vee-screen on Photoshop to the original 1926 pattern showed how much better the car would look after the change. It all began when Doc Ewen, invalided out of the RAF during the war, replaced the original hood frame – a dire emergencies-only thing, assembled from tubular sections like a camp tent on a central pole behind the seats. His new hood was a conventional folding one, intended to keep him dry when he did…

all i can figure is that the invitation phone calls went out in alphabetical order, and A, B and C never checked their voicemail. Because here I am, D, early on a Monday morning at Touring’s workshops in Milan, still almost a month before its latest piece of bespoke sculpture will debut at the Geneva International Motor Show, and about to be the first motoring writer to drive it. Apart from the oh-so tastefully stylish Italian journo who has just posed for pics with the car, I might even be the first to see it. It really is better to be lucky than good, it seems. Unless you’re Louis de Fabribeckers, and I suspect he’s so good he doesn’t need luck. As head of design for Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera, Louis…

you might be wondering why there’s a Citroën Xantia on the pages of Octane, but it’s a car that has served our staff, contributors and photographers well over the years. Former editor David Lillywhite often enthused about the great value he had out of his when launching the magazine. The burble of Dale Drinnon’s V6 was a regular highlight in the office car park; art editor Rob Gould had a diesel Xantia; while John Simister bought a petrol 1.8 LX mainly for its extraordinarily supple ride. And this extremely rare Activa has been my daily driver for four years. Launched in 1996, the Activa features Citroën’s oleopneumatic suspension system at its cleverest. It combines the regular computer-controlled Hydractive suspension with ARCS: the Active Roll Control System. This adds a pair…

The Museo delle Auto della Polizia di Stato (State Police Car Museum) in Rome is a bit like an undercover operation. The online presence is minimal, and its location, in an off-the-beaten-track neighbourhood well south of Rome’s main tourist attractions, is understated. But for the intrepid explorer, it yields a unique museum devoted to police vehicles. From little 1950s-era Fiats to a supercar Lamborghini, the evolution of Italian police cars has kept pace with the criminals they are meant to capture. Typically, the vehicles of State Police in Italy are distinguished by a livery of ‘Police Medium Blue’ with a white stripe. The blue is similar to that worn by the Italian national football team. The 70-vehicle display here focuses on the post-World War Two era and is split into…

FIAT-ABARTH 750 GT BY ZAGATO RM Sotheby’s, Villa Erba, Italy 25 May, rmsothebys.com It’s hard to believe that this ‘Double Bubble’ Fiat-Abarth 750 GT by Zagato can trace its roots back to the Fiat 600, but Abarth and Zagato made it into a genuine racer via a lightweight body and Mille Miglia-spec engine with lightened crank. This example spent the first few years of its life racing in the USA and was recently treated to a full concours-standard restoration. It comes with an Abarth Classiche Certificate of Authenticity. CITROËN DS21 DÉCAPOTABLE Bonhams, Goodwood, UK 7 April, bonhams.com Citroën is celebrating its centenary year and, as one of the most desirable versions of one of the company’s greatest models, this DS21 Décapotable could make a great buy. As a genuine Chapron-built…