Table of contents for March 2017 in Octane

WE LOVE IT when a plan comes together. Back in August last year, deputy editor Mark Dixon and I latched onto two fantastic but very different cars that we just had to feature in the pages of Octane – but we’ve had to wait this long to be able to do so. At The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, we saw the just-about-finished Lola GT and knew immediately that we’d found the winner of the Octane Editor’s Choice award. The car looks amazing, as you’ll see on pages 104-114, but it’s the human side – the former Shelby factory race driver waiting 30 years to start the restoration – that really makes the story. Our photoshoot took place at the very first test-run of the completed car. At the McCall’s Motorworks…

Donington Park bought by MotorSport Vision Dr Jonathan Palmer’s company MotorSport Vision has added Donington circuit – whose GP history goes back to the ‘Silver Arrows’ of the 1930s – to a portfolio that already includes Brands Hatch, Snetterton, Oulton Park and Cadwell Park. The lease is initially for 21 years and Palmer is promising ‘some exciting new events… and even better value.’ Jet cars to thrust their stuff at Santa Pod’s Easter festival Jet engines are to join pistons for the Pod’s season-opening Festival of Power. Entries include Martin Hill’s FireForce 3 and 4 Funny Cars and his five-second FireForce 5 dragster, Gerd Habermann’s jet-powered yellow school bus from Germany, and Hervé Franquin’s Peugeot 205 jetting in from France. Streamlining celebrated at the Zeppelin Museum Set in Friedrichshafen, the…

CHAPOURIS GOT HIS start in hot rodding because his dad worked for Edison, installing power lines between Los Angeles and Boulder Dam. Dad earned good money and could afford to fix up his cars. His first hot rod was a Model A, as would be his son’s. Pete Chapouris’s break into the industry came through his old friend Gray Baskerville at Hot Rod magazine. Gray introduced Pete to Jim ‘Jake’ Jacobs, as they were both bucking the resto-rod style that was popular at the time – dammit, they were chopping the tops. Gray put Jake’s Coupe and what became The California Kid on the cover of the November 1973 issue of Rod & Custom. Suddenly, Pete and Jake were in business. They got a call from Batman producer Howie Horowitz…

A DISPLAY OF around 50 cars and motorbikes at Belgium’s premier motor museum rounded off BMW’s centennial year. The vehicles were garnered from BMW in Munich as well as from international collectors, and covered every era of the marque’s 100-year history, with significant models from the prewar 328 racer to today’s i8 hybrid sports car. Representing BMW’s 17 ‘Art Cars’ was the 1989 E30 M3 painted in bright colours by Australian Ken Done and inspired by his love for his native country’s landscape and animals. Of the car he once said: ‘I have painted parrots and parrot fish. Both are beautiful and able to move at fantastic speeds. I wanted my BMW Art Car to express the same qualities.’ Competition cars included the 1800 TiSA, 2002tii, 3.0 CSL and the…

‘WHAT IMPRESSES ME ABOUT McLAREN IS THAT IT HONOURS ITS HERITAGE WITHOUT BLUSTER AND FANFARE’ Looking back, my itinerary in 2016 was of the eye-watering variety. I may be a former racing driver, but I seemed to be busier than ever. It was a wonderful year, though, full of great experiences that I won’t forget in a hurry. I saved the best ’til last, too, an eight-day trip to New Zealand with McLaren Automotive shortly before Christmas, promising an ‘epic drive’. It was all that and more, and on so many levels. I used to love racing in the Tasman series back in the late ’60s. I have written about it before, so won’t re-tread familiar ground, save to say that we were always made to feel welcome when racing…

1. I carry my life in my Land Rover Discovery – I have always had a workhorse. I never clean her and have a reputation for filling her with rubbish. She’s on her second engine, which was installed to keep her going for a bit longer. 2. I’ve played more than 700 semi-pro football games at Ryman and Conference level. I carry my boots in my car just in case I sniff out a game. The last two seasons I’ve played for Arsenal Legends team – as a Spurs fan! 3. I’ve really got into racing and have my MSA race licence. In 2016 I competed in an Austin A35, VW VR6, Ginetta G50 and the Lotus Elite on Channel 4’s For The Love Of Cars. In fact, I have…

DAVID LILLYWHITE Editor 1971 MGB GT 1971 Saab 96 1973 Citroën SM 1976 Zip Shadow Kart 1995 Range Rover 4.6 HSE 1996 Subaru Prodrive Impreza ROBERT COUCHER International editor 1937 Bentley 4¼ 1955 Jaguar XK140 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC 1991 Range Rover Vogue MARK DIXON Deputy editor 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in 1963 Ford Galaxie Country Sedan 1964 Chevrolet Greenbrier 1970 Lamborghini Espada 1989/91 Land Rover Discoverys 2001 Honda Insight SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director 1981 BMW 323i Top Cabrio 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor 1983 Porsche 944 1989 BMW 320i Convertible MARK SOMMER Art Director 1968 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 Saloon JOHN SIMISTER Contributor 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans 1961 Saab 96 1968 Sunbeam Stiletto TONY DRON Test driver 1932 Austin Seven…

I’VE DONE some daft things in my time but this ‘Marlin’s Mission’ stunt had to be the stupidest of all. What kind of nutter dreamed up the idea of sailing a small boat 340 miles round the coast to the Southampton Boat Show to prove how much fun you can have on a modest budget? It’s all lies. Golf would make more sense. I’d got beaten up bad as I turned right into the entrance of the Medway, as the stiff wind and tide that had flushed me down The Thames like a crazy bobsled joy-ride started working against me. It was an explosive situation… literally. I was bearing down backwards on the wreck of the munitions ship Montgomery, sunk in 1944 and still with 1400 tonnes of live TNT.…

NEARLY 20 YEARS AGO, David Lillywhite and I did the 1997 Liège-Istanbul-Liège classic rally in my Rover 2000TC. It was one of the most ambitious adventures we’ve ever had, a 4000-mile thrash around Europe that took in many of the gravel tracks used on the tough 1960s Liège rallies, and we were amazed to finish seventh overall against the likes of full-house 911s. I had bought the Rover as a low-mileage, low-owners and rust-free 2000 back in 1993 and developed it into an endurance rally machine, with Holbay-tuned twin-carb engine, uprated suspension, full Safety Devices rollcage and much more. My usual parlous financial situation meant that I had to sell it in 1999 but its new owner, a retired bank manager called Jan Pearce, took up the mantle and continued…

‘FROM SPACE TRAVEL TO SURREALISM, OMEGA SEEMS TO HAVE BEEN INVOLVED IN MUCH OF THE 20TH CENTURY’ TOWARDS THE END of 2016 I travelled to Bienne (or Biel, depending on your linguistic leanings) to visit Omega. I was in town to catch up with the new CEO. Omega is a well-run machine and, since my friend Stephen Urquhart stepped down after 17 years doing so, succession to Raynald Aeschlimann, who has spent two decades at Omega, has been seamless. Omega is an important brand; immortality was achieved when its Speedmaster (the first watch to boast a tachymetric scale around the bezel) was adopted by NASA and went to the Moon. And, like the 600,000 or so watches it makes each year, the brand has proved remarkably robust. Even though, in…

Russell Brockbank was a motoring cartoonist whose work appeared in Punch for over 30 years, and also in Motor. I remember being fascinated as a child by Brockbank, when looking through my father’s book collection, and his cartoons are still as witty and as relevant today as when they were drawn. Brockbank published nine books of his work between 1948 and 1962, and there were further compilations issued during the 1970s. He also undertook commissions from oil companies and other motor industry businesses. For some reason his books are still particularly popular in Germany and France, where they must appreciate his very British style of humour. With their original and attractive period dust-jackets, most Brockbanks can still be found for £35-45, although The Brockbank Omnibus (1958) is scarcer and is…

Many a modeller has had a love/hate relationship with plastic kits. The process of assembling one can be very frustrating and the whole thing often ends up being put back in the box, unfinished and covered with blobs of glue. Back in the ’60s a company called Scalecraft, based in Twickenham, reckoned they’d found the solution: do away with the frustrations of glueing and painting by making the model out of a handful of pre-coloured parts that simply clipped together. To add further play value, Scalecraft vehicles were even supplied with a small electric motor, operated by a simple on/off lever. The BRM is a typical Scalecraft product. Inspired by the 1962 World Championship car driven by Graham Hill, it consists of a simple body moulding about six inches in…

MASSIMO DILBÒ ‘In 1977 I was eight years old, playing with an Alitalia-livered Lancia Stratos model. To celebrate the 40th anniversary I brought together the 1977 Monte Carlo Rally-winning Stratos, the team that worked on it – and driver Sandro Munari himself. It’s a childhood fantasy come true.’ Turn to pages 64-80 for the full story. IVAN KLIIN ‘I truly felt privileged to be photographing the Lola; it played such an important part in history, as well as being a beautiful machine. It was a warm desert day, we had the track to ourselves and, when the owner fired it up for the first time, the thing roared and my camera clicked away. Perfect.’ The Lola GT is featured on pages 104-114 . GIRARD BROWN ‘When I’m covering an…

Goodwood Motor Circuit is full of history. It’s also one of the UK’s fastest circuits, and getting the lines right is a real thrill. Our trackdays give you the time and space to explore your classic car’s dynamics and hone your skills, as part of a great social event with like-minded enthusiasts. The days run from 8am to 5pm, and to ensure plenty of track time for all we’re restricting them to 30 cars. EFG Private Bank’s support has pegged prices at £299 for one car and driver and £60 for an extra driver. Bacon rolls, hot and cold refreshments and a two-course lunch in the control tower are included, and are available for spectators at £35. Book on octanetrackdaymay.eventbrite.co.uk or octanetrackdayoctober.eventbrite.co.uk. Fees apply.…

THE BROOKLANDS Double Twelve Motor Sport Festival is a regular June fixture, but the dates take on a special significance this year. The event’s first day of two, 17 June, will unfold 110 years to the day since the Brooklands circuit opened in 1907. To mark the anniversary, Brooklands will stage a grand re-opening of the original Finishing Straight, its uncovering close to completion as we go to press. The Finishing Straight has been hidden under a Bellman hangar since 1940, when the former aircraft manufacturing site was given over to wartime production of the Wellington bomber. The hangar, itself now a listed building, has been dismantled and renovated, and it will be re-erected to the right of the straight as seen in the period photograph above. A layer of…

It was a gentler world in 1959, when the Rank Organisation (symbol: man hitting a giant gong) began its 10-year series of mini-documentaries on, well, life. They were shown in cinemas before the main event, and several had a motoring theme. The tone was one of wonderment and assumptive optimism, with music to match. The past was rubbish, with war still a powerful memory for many; the future was bright, with new technology rushing ahead and social progress unstoppable. New Roads For Old shows urban motorways cutting through the clutter, towering over the rooftops of dilapidated terraces whose roads lead nowhere, now that ‘the more important fast traffic’ has free rein. Transport Minister Ernest Marples features a lot. Then there’s Down In The Dumps on scrapyards and the scourge of…

A THIEF slipped into Graeme Hunt’s Radley Mews showroom on 1 December and tried to make off with a valuable Transcriptors Hydraulic Reference turntable. Hunt and his colleague gave chase and pinned the culprit to the cobbles for 20 minutes before the police arrived. While Hunt was giving a statement a brain haemorrhage struck, leading to a nine-hour operation by leading neurosurgeon Mr Nair on 14 December. Octane is delighted to report the operation was a success and Graeme is recovering well. We look forward to his No 1 buzz cut growing back to his usual, more luxurious bouffant. Meanwhile, business continues at the Mews.…

The world’s oldest manufacturer-owned aftermarket parts brand is 80 years old this year. But Mopar means more than just an oil filter or a fanbelt. It’s also enthusiast shorthand for any car, particularly a quick one, produced by the US end of the Chrysler Corporation and wearing Chrysler, Plymouth or Dodge badges. Nowadays Chrysler is merged with Fiat, which means that Europe’s Fiats are serviced with Mopar-branded parts. Back in the Mopar musclecar heyday, Detroit wouldn’t have seen that coming… MOPAR ANTIFREEZE The first manifestation of the Mopar (MOtor PARts) brand in 1937 was on cans of antifreeze. ‘Lasts all winter’ was the promise. DON GARLITS The ‘Big Daddy’, one of the biggest names in drag racing, took to Chrysler Hemi power in 1956 and has stayed with Mopar ever…

SOMETIMES IT’S the most innocuous events that provide the greatest thrills. One week into 2017, William Medcalf Vintage Bentley launched the first of its new open showroom mornings at the company HQ in Hill Brow, West Sussex. To mark the occasion, customers and Octane readers were invited along – and the result was a wonderful gathering of a wide and wild variety of classics. A team of marshals was needed to direct visitors around the overflowing car parks, with pre-war machinery allowed pride of place next to the showroom, post-war classics next door, and moderns tucked away round the back of the neighbouring industrial estate. A trail of oil led to the heavily campaigned Itala of David and Karen Ayre, the oldest of all the cars present. London dealer Gregor…

BENTLEYS WERE LONG known for their low-revving, large-capacity, high-torque engines. And with this latest iteration, ‘the bloody thump’ is back. This Bentayga is Bentley’s first diesel and the specifications are astonishing: 429bhp at 3750rpm, 664lbft at 1000rpm, 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds and a top speed of 168mph… from a diesel SUV! But why would you bother with the fastest diesel SUV on the market when the W12 petrol version is more than man enough? Set off on a 600-mile tour (walking in Scotland, wine-tasting in Bordeaux, skiing in Verbier) and you’ll do so on just one tank. That’s why. The secret is the triple-charged 4.0-litre V8 (co-developed with Audi, whose diesels did rather well at Le Mans). It employs two twin-scroll turbochargers, plus an electrically powered supercharger that primes the…

‘ONE OF THE MOST SHOCKINGLY ILL-PROPORTIONED CARS EVER MADE: ARCTIC SNOW-SHOES WITH ARMANI DETAILS!’ There are years when more happens than usual. Caused by climacteric oscillations, who can say, but 1848 was, for example, a year of remarkable revolutions in all of Europe. So much happened in 1913 that Florian Illies recently wrote a whole book about it with lots of Viennese angst, but only after Liliane Brion-Guerry had devoted three entire volumes to the same 12 months with lots of Parisian élan. Personally, I have always been fascinated by 1957. It was when the last Jaguar D-type won at Le Mans, the Space Age began with the launch of the Soviet Sputnik 1, while Bill Haley and his earthbound Comets landed at Southampton, introducing Britain to rock ’n’ roll.…

THE MILES are racking up on the Prodrive Impreza. Fifty thousand of them in less than two years. And, touch wood, utterly reliable and trouble-free. But low-maintenance? Not lately. It’s still ‘highly original’, of course – except that a good number of parts have been changed in the last month, prompted by an ever-increasing drip of oil onto the drive, the office car park and wherever else I choose to abandon my beloved everyday car. So, with QPrep in Oundle temporarily out of operation for workshop refurbishment, I thought I’d better investigate the garages closer to our new offices in Bedfordshire, and it wasn’t long before I was asking local car sage Neil Godwin-Stubbert for advice. It helps that he’s a fellow Subaru owner. The result was a visit to…

TOOK MY LOVELY old Ranger up to specialist Bishop’s Heritage (www.bishopsheritage.co.uk) in Peterborough with a view to having some work done. Chris Bishop came highly recommended by Patrick Cruywagen on sister magazine Land Rover Monthly. My Vogue EFI always looks smart in its clean Ardennes Green paintwork and the gutsy, low-mileage 3.9-litre engine pulls well; Chris liked the look of it when I arrived. Then he put it up on a ramp. Oh dear. Rust, and lots of it. He had a very good look around, sat me down with a coffee and explained what had to be done. New A-posts, front inner arches and rear arches, rear door shuts, sills, floors, rear cross section and probably a new bulkhead. All eminently possible but at what price? It was clear…

£651,100 1989 Aston Martin V8 Vantage Volante PoW Bonhams, London, UK 4 December £561,500 1926 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Bonhams, London, UK 4 December £535,000 1968 Maserati Mistral 4000 Spyder Bonhams, London, UK 4 December £516,700 1914 Vauxhall 25hp ‘Prince Henry’ Sports Torpedo Bonhams, London, UK 4 December £359,900 1967 Aston Martin DB6 4.2-Litre Sports Saloon to Vantage spec Bonhams, London, UK 7 December £331,900 1971 Ferrari Dino 246 GT Bonhams, London, UK 7 December £309,500 2003 Aston Martin DB7 Zagato Bonhams, London, UK 4 December £219,900 1962 Jaguar E-type Series 1 Roadster Bonhams, London, UK 4 December £216,540 1966 Aston Martin DB6 Sports Saloon Bonhams, London, UK 7 December £214,300 1918 Stutz Bearcat Rumble Seat Roadster Bonhams, London, UK 7 December…

Bonhams, Olympia, London, UK. 7 December. £17,250 Imported from California in 2014, this ’66 Mustang was honest and original. The colour is no help in a world looking for red convertibles; the owners have chosen to leave it alone. Bonhams, Bond St, London. UK. 4 December. £169,500 Last year, another black Jaguar XK150 sold for a record price. Alas, lightning did not strike twice but this figure surely did not disappoint. Respectable money for a very nice example. Mecum, Kansas City, Missouri, USA. 1-3 December. $24,750 This nicely restored 1958 Volvo PV544 sold well. You could undoubtedly use all of its 85bhp on a rally; the PV’s legendary durability and simplicity count for more in that department.…

‘Go and get the pillowcase’, I always say when quizzed on some matter of world geography. Embarrassingly, the only map of any size in our house is printed on a piece of bed linen, and it’s not exactly the most helpful reference any more. The USSR, East Germany, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, South Yemen – they all still exist in the guest bedroom at our place. As inaccurate as that pillowcase has become in two-and-a-bit decades, there was a time when the world map changed in important ways with even greater frequency – and not just because of political upheaval. In the 18th Century, exploration of the Pacific gathered pace and, following the first voyage of Captain James Cook, London’s makers of globes began competing to offer the most accurate product possible…

‘Can you check under Alec’s vehicle and see if there’s an oil leak?’ Forensic officer on BBC1’s Silent Witness, on discovering an oil-stained driveway, calling his colleague about a suspect’s Series III Land Rover. Cue mirth from Landy-owning viewers… ‘We plan a great new era for Donington, with much enhanced quality of experience’ Ex-F1 driver Jonathan Palmer, announcing the acquisition of Donington circuit by his company MotorSport Vision. ‘I put the passenger window down and now it won’t come back up’ New owner of Mark Dixon’s Lamborghini Espada, five minutes after taking delivery. ‘‘‘Tingling testicles!” is all I’m allowed to say after this experience’ Motor sport broadcaster Henry Hope-Frost on Twitter, after viewing a Porsche 917 that’s under restoration. ‘It hasn’t been a terrible life – I just lost out…

A RENAULT IN THE USA? These are not normally words you’d find in the same sentence, unless the unlikely 1980s joint venture with AMC is part of the conversation, but this one has been there since its 1907 birth. It was one of the first cars to be raced in America, and now it has a permanent home at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Philadelphia. Millionaire William K Vanderbilt was one of America’s racing pioneers. He wanted a Renault to race following the marque’s victory in the carnage-strewn 1903 Paris-to-Madrid event (curtailed in Bordeaux) and in the first race to be called a Grand Prix, held in 1906 on what later broadly became the Le Mans circuit. Renault acceded to Vanderbilt’s request, but only on condition that he took…

Let’s be absolutely clear: any resemblance between this cheaply made, 5in-long toy car and the real-life Allard P1 is more down to luck than judgment. With its grinning driver and passenger depicted in the crudest possible 3D through imaginary windscreen and side windows, it’s certainly charming, and there are speed-suggestive ‘whooshes’ of air around the wheelarches. The only design sophistication is a separate tinplate grille and headlights, held in place by the crimping method which secures the one-piece stamped body to the baseplate with its rattly, hollow tin wheels. Don’t get me wrong, I love its naivety. It was made by GTP, Glamorgan Toy Products. The company, founded by Jacob Beatus in 1935 and vanished by 1953 (although his packaging business survives to this day), made simple tinplate toys that…

Reporting the passing of a well-known motoring figure is a necessary hazard in this job, but it’s especially hard when it’s one of your own. Brian Laban, who succumbed to cancer just after Christmas at the age of 68, was truly the informed motoring and motor sport journalist’s informed motoring and motor sport journalist. He seemed to know everyone and had anecdotes about them all, always told with his straightforward Yorkshire humour, bullshit monitor on full alert. Brian’s output was prodigious, with over 40 books to his name, all produced while writing or editing for magazines, newspapers, websites or anyone else. He started on this road in 1973, as the British Automobile Racing Club’s press officer, and seemingly never paused for breath. He thrived on crises, always forging ahead with…

Mild, hairy, fast road, rally, peaky, full race… many are the adjectives applied to camshafts, depending on what they do to an engine’s demeanour. The history of sporting cars is full of camshaft lore: BMC Special Tuning’s 631 or 749 cams for hot Minis, a Cosworth A2 in a souped-up Ford, Isky cams in US hot rods. Underpinning all camshaft designs, though, are some undeniable truths. More ‘overlap’ – the period when exhaust and inlet valves are both open – tends to boost high-revs power at the expense of low-down vigour. More valve lift makes everything better everywhere provided the ports and valves are big enough. More duration – the length of time a valve is open – allows more intake air in and gives a bigger chance for the…

‘THE LAST REAL MAINTENANCE I WAS ABLE TO DO ON A MODERN CAR AT MY OWN GARAGE WAS ON THE McLAREN F1’ The other day I started up my ’41 Plymouth, for the first time in over a year. Every collector has one or two vehicles that don’t get driven as often as the others. My Plymouth is not special, just a good old girl. It’s unrestored, a two-door business coupe; the Deluxe model with heater, radio and three-speed column shifter, with a vacuum assist to make shifting easier, a 201ci six-cylinder flathead engine and about 87 horsepower. Even after sitting for over a year, the engine cranked about half a dozen times and started right up. The reason it made me smile is that so many modern cars would…

‘MY PHILOSOPHY IS TO HAVE A SINGLE CLASSIC CAR THAT’S READY TO DRIVE TO LE MANS OR THE LOCAL DELI’ British drivers are generally excellent. You wouldn’t think so from reading the newspapers or watching television, where driving is reported as a contact sport with horrendous resulting carnage. Of course, every road injury or death is a tragedy but the fact remains that Britain has some of the lowest road death statistics in Europe, only bettered by Norway and Sweden. Ukraine is the worst, followed by Portugal, Italy, France, Germany, then Spain. Being a small island, Britain suffers terrible traffic congestion (London’s is the worst in Europe). So it is remarkable that the vast majority of British drivers are safe and considerate. I grew up in South Africa (fewer vehicles,…

WE HOPE you’ll look at the photo opposite and think ‘nice picture’. What may not come across is the Force 10 gale that was blowing in this particular part of County Kerry, Ireland, as we desperately struggled to prevent Jimmy McRae from disappearing off the side of the mountain. Not for nothing does Jimmy have his foot braced against that rock. So it helps that Jimmy McRae is a genuinely nice guy who doesn’t mind (too much) getting frozen to the marrow for ‘just one more’ photograph. And it probably helps that Jimmy is a hardy Scot, born and bred in the farmlands of Lanarkshire, south of Glasgow. We’re across the water today for the homage to the Circuit of Ireland, known as Circuit Déjà Vu and run for the…

IT’S GONE. The beautiful Lamborghini that good mate Richard Heseltine and I bought together, about two-and-a-half years ago, has a new owner. And since he already has a number of classic Lotuses, he’s the perfect guy to take on the responsibility of running an old Lambo. Not that the Espada was ever unreliable. It always irked me when acquaintances, on hearing of what we’d bought, would shake their heads sadly and make comments along the lines of ‘You’re a braver man than I am!’ Fact is, the Espada is not temperamental, unlike some exotics. Don’t forget that Ferruccio started out making tractors. No, if Richard and I have any regrets, it’s simply that we didn’t get to use the car enough. The Espada spent ages waiting for work to be…

ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor 1960 Triumph TR3A 1965 Aston Martin DB5 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 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 DAVE SELBY Contributor 1978 Sailfish 18 KEEP UP TO DATE Follow the progress of the Octane fleet via Facebook and Twitter www.facebook.com/octanemagazine @octane_magazine…

I HAVE BEEN rather down in the dumps about my Baur during the last couple of months. Initial forecasts were that its restoration would have been finished last May, but work was delayed on several occasions due to parts being very difficult to source. As we edged towards the end of summer I knew all hope of enjoying the warm sunshine with the roof down was out of the question. But finally, and to my delight, the call came and I collected the finished car in October, with just enough pre-winter weather left to enjoy a few topless drives. And that’s when I discovered all was not as it should be. The car looked absolutely gorgeous but, to my horror, it drove nothing like as well as it looked. Clearly…

IT JOURNEYED TO the North Pole and the South Pole, George Mallory brewed up with one on his ill-fated 1924 Everest expedition, as did Hillary and Tenzing on their successful 1953 ascent. It has made millions of campers happy, and countless motoring mums and dads have pulled over into a layby for a quick cuppa brought to the boil on a Primus stove. Invented in Sweden in 1892 by Frans Wilhelm Lindqvist, the Primus was the first wickless pressurised paraffin stove, and so successful that ‘Primus’ soon became the generic term for its many copies. For 200,000 years or so, mankind’s food was cooked by burning wood, charcoal, peat, manure, animal fat or coal – it was the discovery in the mid-19th Century of how to synthesise coal into paraffin…

WAFT 4 LIES DE MOL & BART LENAERTS, €40 from www.waft.be How do you describe the WAFT series of books? Produced by the Belgian husband-and-wife team of Bart Lenaerts (writer) and Lies de Mol (photographer), they’re like nothing else in motoring publishing. The best analogy is that they’re a style magazine in book form: think Wallpaper or Ramp in hard covers. Whether you like or loathe the result, it is certainly different. Part of WAFT’s unique character is the Belgian-accented nature of the text (which is all in English). Lenaerts writes in a poetic, at times Kerouac-ian style that, to a British ear, often verges on parody. Random quote from a review of the Audi R8 V10 Quattro: ‘The first R8 was sexy weird, like Emerson Fittipaldi. This one got…

‘THERE WERE LOTS OF CARS FROM THE ’80S AND ’90S. THE CONTINUED MOVEMENT OF THE MARKETPLACE SAYS THIS IS THE PLACE TO WATCH’ DAVE KINNEY New Year always brings new realities. Many of the cars we have seen with high-value percentage gains had a flat year in 2016. Cars built in the 1980s were the glamour kids in 2015 and early 2016; then it was cars of the 1990s and the first decade of the 2000s. We all know that, historically, such change is ongoing, and that the young bucks with bucks (or pounds or euros) are the ones who buy what they couldn’t in their teenage years. There is nothing new there. We have new cars entering the marketplace and gaining instant recognition as future classics. All well and…

‘WHAT INSPIRES ME,’ says Hervé Ogliastro, ‘are the stories of my cars and the lives they have lived. The more they have “danced”, the more I become attached to them.’ It is easy, then, to understand why the French collector was unable to resist this 1936 Talbot-Lago T150C when it came to auction in 2013; very few cars have lived like chassis 82930. By the mid-1930s, many manufacturers had begun to question the sense in going Grand Prix racing, so dominant had the Silver Arrows of Mercedes and Auto Union become. To encourage French marques to remain involved, the Automobile Club de France devised new regulations for the ACF GP ahead of 1936. Cars had to conform to a long list of standards and, crucially, be of a type available…

Even if you haven’t the slightest interest in buying a racing Yank tank, we urge you to look up this 1968 Chevrolet Camaro on the Silverstone Auctions website right now, for there you will find footage of one of the most entertaining races in living memory, the 1971 BSCC Iberia Trophy at Crystal Palace. Our Camaro, driven by Martin Thomas, diced for 14 of 15 laps with Mike Crabtree’s Escort RS1600 and Gerry Marshall’s Viva GT before crashing out immediately after retaking the lead, to yelps of ‘Spin! Spin! Spin!’ from commentator Murray Walker. Thomas owned the car right up until 2004 and rebuilt it to its current spec (5.0-litre V8 mated to a four-speed Muncie ‘rock-crusher’ gearbox) in the early ’90s. It is valued today at £65,000-75,000, but to…

25-28 January Mecum, Las Vegas, USA 26 January Bonhams, Las Vegas, USA 27 January SWVA, Poole, UK 28 January Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn, UK 5 February Charterhouse Shepton Mallet, UK 6 February Stanislas Machoïr, Online 8 February RM Sotheby’s, Paris, France 9 February Bonhams, Paris, France 10-11 February Artcurial, Paris, France 11 February Mathewsons Thornton-le-Dale, UK 11 February The Finest, Boca Raton, USA 12 February Charterhouse Shepton Mallet, UK 17-18 February Mecum, Los Angeles, USA 18 February Morris Leslie, Errol, UK 18 February Coys, London, UK 22-23 February H&H, Castle Donington, UK 24-26 February Leake Auction, Oklahoma City, USA 24-26 February Silverstone Auctions, Stoneleigh, UK 27 February Shannons Melbourne, Australia 28 February Barons, Esher, UK 2 March DVCA, Dorchester, UK 2 March Richard Edmonds Allington, UK 4 March Historics…