Table of contents for December 2015 in Octane

‘MAKING MOVIES is great fun. Being a movie star is a pain in the ass.’ It’s one of the most telling lines from new documentary film Steve McQueen: The Man & Le Mans, which opens in the US on 13 November and in the UK on 20 November. The documentary uses archive footage and interviews with key people from the making of the 1970 movie Le Mans to tell the story of this troubled project, which began filming with no script and suffered a change of director after only six weeks, when John Sturges quit with the immortal words: ‘I’m too old and too rich to put up with this sh*t.’ McQueen then fell out with executive producer and friend Bob Relyea, saying: ‘You betrayed me, you stabbed me in…

THE SHORTLISTS for the 2015 International Historic Motoring Awards have been decided, created from hundreds of nominations. They are as listed (right), and will now be further examined by the team of expert judges before the winners are announced at the awards ceremony on 19 November at the St Pancras Renaissance hotel, London. Tickets for the awards evening are still available for £180 each (including VAT), and there’s also still time for you to vote for the Historic Car of the Year, which is decided by Octane readers rather than the judging panel. The International Historic Motoring Awards are hosted by Octanein association with EFG Private Bank. For more information, visit www.eistoricmotoringawards.com. CLUB OF THE YEAR  sponsored by Footman James Benjafield’s Racing Club Porsche Club GB The Veteran Motor Car…

Vauxhall srV on show Vauxhall’s stunning 1970 SRV concept car (as featured in Octane 124) will star on the manufacturer’s stand at the NEC Classic Motor Show in Birmingham on 13-15 November. The swoopy Earls Court debutant will be displayed alongside the ex-Gerry Marshall racer ‘Baby Bertha’ and HM The Queen’s Friary-bodied 1961 Cresta estate car. www.neeelassiemotorshow.eom the pod immortalised in lego As the Santa Pod raceway – just down the road from Octane HQ on the borders of Northamptonshire and Bedfordshire – roars towards its 50th anniversary, a scale version of it has been built at Legoland Windsor Resort. A model dragstrip was first revealed there in 2001, and now the modelling team have completed a new, faithful scale replica. Its construction involved the use of 84,780 Lego bricks,…

Likely to be feeling groggy after the Christmas and New Year break? Bicester Heritage’s seventh Sunday Brunch Scramble will get you in gear for the return to work. The first event of the year at the venue – the UK’s first park for the restoration, storage and enjoyment of vintage and classic cars, motorcycles and planes – takes place from 9am to 2pm. Organisers hope to build on the success of the 2015 event, which attracted more than 1500 vehicles and thousands of visitors despite freezing fog and icy conditions. The numerous automobilia and aviation specialists based at the WW2 RAF bomber station will allow behind-the-scenes access to their renovated pre-war showrooms and workshops. Tickets go on sale in November. www.bicesterheritage.co.uk…

LAST WEEK I WAS INVITED to a convivial Sunday breakfast in Belgravia with some car types. Obviously a good idea, but then the host good-naturedly explained that my 2015 nine-speed car with paddleshi, voice recognition, collision avoidance system and driver assists to keep you alert even a er several bottles of Morey-Saint-Denis, would not be welcome. So would I park it around the corner and join the others as they scattered brioche crumbs over the lovingly assembled collection of less effeminate Cobras and E-types? I decided that my problem was sourced in contemporary motor racing and its broken connection to the cars we use. Once upon a time, motor racing produced sporting heroes with a synoptic genius for expressing the human dilemma. I love it, for example, that Mario Andretti…

AS THE 1960S began to swing, Britain was clawing its way out of the gloom of post-war austerity and many were for the first time discovering the joys of ‘the Continent’. French Nouvelle Vague cinema was in the ascendant and whetting the appetite for the sophisticated lifestyle of our near-neighbours. When smoking was still cool and cars had not yet become ‘super’, Gauloises and Deux Chevaux were chic, and nothing caught the flavour, quite literally, of Frenchness more than a glass of the nation’s favourite tipple: Ricard pastis. An essential part of the pastis-imbibing ritual was the Ricard water carafe, sharply chamfered and asymmetrical with a chimney-like neck, as if designed by a 1920s modernist architect. The lure of its vibrant red, blue and yellow Riviera hues turned otherwise law-abiding…

THIS IS the third in Bernard Viart’s fabulous trilogy of XK works, following previous books on the XK120 and XK140, and like the others it’s an amazing production. To describe it as something between a production history and a parts book is to do it a disservice: it contains literally thousands of razor-sharp 3D drawings of virtually every component on the car. No surprise that Viart spent nearly three years working full-time on this one volume. Apart from the drawings (which benefit from subtle use of colour) there are numerous period photos, too, making this an invaluable reference work for any owner or restorer of an XK150. Given the effort that’s gone into it and the high production values, the price looks very reasonable.…

THERE IS NO shortage of Lamborghini books, and this latest effort from Motorbooks does cover familiar ground. That said, this glossy hardback concentrates only on the assorted supercars made by the Sant’Agata concern over the past half-a-century, and Codling has an engaging writing style that stops it short of being just a list of achievements. The many sidebars on key players such as Dallara, Gandini and Stanzani are also a welcome touch. On the flipside, there are few revelations, but this isn’t intended to be a warts-and-all history of the calamity-marque. It is, however, an effective introduction to the subject. In addition, James Mann’s studio shots are as striking as the subject matter.…

Spyder Amertca by MLB of Italy ONE OF THE earliest toy companies in Italy was founded by Agostino Marchesini in Bologna in 1908, using the trademark AMBO (an acronym for Agostino Marchesini Bologna). Several generations of the family were involved and cheaply made tin toys were still being produced in the 1970s. At the other end of the spectrum in terms of quality and finish is this magnificent convertible with the ‘MLB’ trademark, standing for Luigi Marchesini Bologna. Luigi was the son of Agostino and branched out on his own a er World War Two; the America series, produced between 1949 and 1955, comprised some of his most desirable toys. The full description on the box label reads: Spyder America cromato con fari. ‘Cromato’ refers to the highly polished…

IN THIS PICTURE Hot stuff Circuit des Remparts, Angoulême, France. 18-20 September A warm weekend in western France occasionally boiled over at the 2015 Circuit des Remparts. Richard Depagneux was forced to bail out of his 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS with flames spewing from the rear (facing page, top right) and the ’47 Gali Special of Bernard Colombie (right) had overheating problems. There was bad luck, too, for Barry Foster, who was carted to hospital after a collision that left him upside-down in his MG Montlhéry. He is now recuperating following surgery to put his left arm back together, while the MG is awaiting its turn on the operating table……

UNCOMMONLY GOOD VALUE Classic Car Auctions, Leamington Spa, UK 5 December Classic Car Auctions, purveyor of ‘everyman classics’, has recently begun accepting entries worth up to £50,000, but no such wedge will be required to buy this pretty 1966 Datsun Fairlady SP311, which is expected to sell for no more than £15,000 on 5 December. That might sound like a lot of money when a decent MGB Roadster can be had for half as much – but the Datsun is rarer by a factor too large for our feeble brains to calculate. In fact, it is thought that there are just three SP311s on the road in the UK today, including this ‘on-the-button’ example. There aren’t many classic sports cars that offer that sort of exclusivity for a smaller price.…

THE THOUGHT OF Denmark being a car-collecting hotbed had never occurred to me until 1994, when I was sent there with Sotheby’s to help stage the dispersal sale of part of the Åalholm Collection, a diverse range of vehicles from a private museum built-up over a 30-year period by the barons Raben-Levetzau. Held when values were somewhat in the doldrums, that initial auction of 181 lots of cars and automobilia raised a relatively paltry £865,000. In 2012, however, RM (now RM Sotheby’s) was tasked with shifting the remaining 175 cars from the collection in a no-reserve sale that, in a rising market, realised more than £8.2 million. This September, however, Bonhams managed to make even RM’s success pale into insignificance with its first auction on Danish soil, at which it…

E-TYPE TO THE MAX ‘A new Golf GTi and a BMW had a bit of a go, so I pulled over into the slow lane, but the E-type was still accelerating at 135mph and it was fun to watch them fall back because they couldn’t go any faster!’ Former British Hill Climb Champion David Franklin describes his attempt at ‘maxing’ a standard 1961 E-type on pages 80-90. A JOURNEY FROM GREECE ‘Driving the length of Italy, through Switzerland and then France in a Citroën DS I’d bought in Greece and knew little about was surreal, sometimes mildly terrifying but absolutely unforgettable. We all like to pretend that our lives are one long adventure.’ Read more about Jethro Bovingdon’s adventure on pages 110-116. BAYLEY GOES SUBURBAN ‘I have always enjoyed things…

RALLY ORGANISER HERO has added a driving experience day to its line-up of events, to allow anyone interested in rallying to sample a range of historic rally cars. Octanetook part in HERO’s Oxfordshire day, based at The Manor Hotel, Weston-on-the-Green, where we were given the chance to drive a choice of the company’s Arrive and Drive cars, which are available for hire in any HERO event. We started out in a BMW 1602, swapped into a Lancia Fulvia Zagato, then a short-wheelbase Porsche 911 and finally into an E-type. All the cars are equipped for historic rallying with tripmeters and safety equipment, though none was so competition-orientated as to make it unpleasant to drive. There were other cars available – we missed out on the MGA, for example – but…

JOHN SIMISTER HAS ALREADY raved about the latest Ford Mustang in these pages (Octane138 and 145), but on both occasions he was talking about the standard car. You know, the one that leaves the Ford factory as Ford intended. Just imagine if the original had done only that. No Shelby GT350, no GT500. Less of a legend, in other words. The Shelby name has been synonymous with power-pumpin’ Ford V8s and go-faster Fords for so long. And while the Mustang has basically been a bit crap for two or three (maybe four) decades, it has now undergone the kind of resurgence that can’t be ignored. And Shelby American Inc, even without ol’ Carroll himself in the saddle, hasn’t missed it either. The starting point is any Mustang 5.0 V8. A…

THE BIG STORY of the month, the year and probably the decade is the Volkswagen cheating scandal. The thing I find fascinating about it is that they have admitted the fraud. That’s the difference between German companies and everyone else. When GM had its ignition switch problem or the Japanese had their airbag problem and, going back 40 years to when Ford had the exploding Pinto, it was ‘Oh sorry, we didn’t know what we were doing.’ The Germans would never do that. They’d rather admit to fraud and go to jail than admit they didn’t do it correctly. In Germany, incompetence is a much worse crime than fraud. I think there is actually an upside to this scandal for enthusiasts, at least here in the States. Manufacturers are fighting…

HUMAN BEINGS LOVE movement. We are designed to move and are very good at it. That’s why we (unfortunately) have to walk so far to burn off a decent amount of calories. Our bodies can lope along for hours. Being human, our enjoyment of movement is enhanced the faster we go. Stone Age man apparently invented the wheel to move things along, so to speak, but it was the horse and then the bicycle in Britain and Europe that allowed people to move faster and therefore further. With a bicycle, a young man could ride to the next village and meet all sorts of new (girl) friends. No doubt he learned how to ride that bike pretty fast before trains arrived. Wealthy types took to motorised vehicles as soon as…

I READ WITH GREAT INTEREST your article concerning Sir Paul Smith’s various cars in Octane149. I had just le the Royal College of Art when I was lucky enough to be asked by Paul to suggest some designs for a limited run of Paul Smith Minis and a one-off show car. I was given complete – albeit unpaid – freedom to come up with anything I liked. My first efforts were based on the old Minivans and trucks. Body-coloured stamped grille, steel wheels with hub caps, and a series of industrial colours that included ‘cement-mixer orange’. At the eleventh hour Rover let us down; they could not make or source any of the parts, nor could they mix a decent orange. So I had to do a whole new design…

THERE’S A MARVELLOUS saying in Zen that ‘whatever is true, the opposite is truer’. You can apply that principle to the question of Japanese sports cars. The question being: are there any great ones? Japanese culture is stiff with concepts of the superiority of collaborative endeavour over individual expression. They have a concept known as nemawashi, which translates as ‘root-binding’, but actually means collective responsibility. Then there is jishu-kiseifor self-restraint. Hence a public fast train, the glorious Shinkansen, is preferred over a personal idiosyncratic sports car. Moreover, Japan’s 60km/h speed limit is among the most stringent in the world. And yet there is a Japanese sentiment that finds its best expression in sports cars, often of very unusual character. The 1959 Datsun SP211 was based on the Bluebird saloon and…

I DO NOT KNOW whether two instances of utterly covetable 18-carat pink-gold, rubber-strapped watches constitute a trend. But both Rolex and Bulgari brought out great rubber-wristed timepieces, although Rolex being Rolex made sure that it did not call its rubber strap anything as commonplace as rubber – preferring the pleasing neologism Oysterflex. However, I will consecrate this particular column to just one of these triumphs – the Bulgari Scuba – which made its dramatic return to the line-up of Bulgari models. There are steel and bi-colour iterations, but the contrast of the pink gold and the black rubber are what give this watch its unique presence. Incredibly, it is 21 years since Bulgari first launched the Diagono Scuba. I can still remember the excitement I experienced when I first saw…

O’NEIL HAS WRITTEN several well-received works on American road-racing history and this latest effort is typically well-written. This is not the definitive history of Luigi Chinetti’s squad, however; second-generation team principal ‘Coco’ Chinetti hasn’t contributed his thoughts and reminiscences (he’s working on his own history of NART with Michael Lynch). However, there is plenty to commend, not least the background on Chinetti Sr’s early driving career and his love/hate relationship with Le Mans. The author has also delved into the story behind Ed Hugus’s claim that he was the ‘Third Man’ who secretly piloted the 1965 24 Hours-winning 250LM as relief driver for Jochen Rindt and Masten Gregory. O’Neil hasn’t taken Hugus’s claim at face value, unlike some works we could mention.…

GIORGIO NADA APPEARS to be on a roll right now, especially with its many race histories. And while there are countless other Mille Miglia works, this is something else entirely. It’s predominately a picture book – but the images are captivating. Acerbi went to great lengths to track down never-before-seen photos, and the overwhelming majority here will be unfamiliar. Offered in Italian and English, the text (mostly informative captions) can take a turn for the florid and confusing, eg ‘Because the lines and the images of this book we will all find, along with the scent of petrol and Marinettian blooming of the bolide, rather than in the statuesque, chronicalistic, portrait-esque and aggressive staticity of the still shots...’ You get the idea. But it is beautifully produced and a must…

Defender pedal car £TBC. www.landrover.co.uk OH, TO BE A CHILD again, when pedal cars are this good. Handbuilt in Blighty, this roofless tribute to 60 years of the original Land Rover has an aluminium body, spring suspension, working brakes (including the parking brake) and a leather upholstered interior. Its off-road ability will be governed by the strength of little Johnny’s legs, as will its top speed. Before getting too excited at the prospect of buying several for the whole family, we should let you know that it’s likely to be quite dear… Ayrton Senna portrait by Annemarie Wright £300. www.mementoexclusives.com A PICTURE IS worth a thousand words, they say, but in this case thousands of words have painted a picture. British artist Annemarie Wright is renowned for creating portraits of…

Scotland tia the easy route 1955 Jaguae XK140 ROBERT COUCHER @OctaneRobert SEPTEMBER’S CONCOURS OF ELEGANCE, held at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh, turned out to be a fabulous celebration of superb motor cars (see last issue). The setting in Scotland was breathtaking and enthusiasts from all over the world enjoyed each other’s company as well as superb driving through the heather-covered hills. The Octane Tour on the Sunday promised to be interesting as a number of exciting cars had signed up for it. In a fit of optimism I volunteered to take part in my Jaguar too, though it needed a bit of attention before the off. In the cold light of day, it’s a long slog up to Edinburgh, so I began to get cold feet. But a…

ACADEMY HITS 20 The Caterham Academy celebrated its 20th anniversary in October. The initiative, which has started almost 1000 drivers on the racing ladder – including Octane’s own David Lillywhite – first ran as the Top Gear Caterham Scholarship at Mallory Park in 1995 and has inspired several more series intended to attract novices to motor racing. The Academy offers five classes in increasing degrees of ambition, fierceness and cost. UK.CATERHAMCARS.COM SUPER TOURING RETURNS TO GOODWOOD As well as the new GT40-only Alan Mann Trophy race, Super Touring cars return to the Goodwood Members’ Meeting on 19-20 March for demonstration runs on both days. The 2000 Honda Accord in which Tom Kristensen won the last BTCC race held to Super Touring rules, Rickard Rydell’s Ford Mondeo from the same season,…

‘1953 DKW F89 L52 Schnellaster,’ says the catalogue. ‘Estimate: €40,000-60,000.’ We can’t help feeling that the Ingolstadt engineers responsible for this little van must be having a good laugh at the expense of the collector car world right now, because the Schnellaster (‘Rapid Transporter’), was hardly lusted a er in its day. Conceived in ’49 as DKW’s first post-war project, it was utilitarian in the extreme. Pick-up and panel-van variants were offered; the floor was made flat throughout to increase cargo space; to the same end the engine was mounted transversely; and the engine bay contained the fuel tank as well as the radiator and noisy 688cc two-stroke motor. (The Schnellaster would not have scored highly in a Euro NCAP safety test.) It was a worthy little thing, but not…

BRIGHTWELLS, LEOMINSTER 23 SEPTEMBER The MGB is so ubiquitous that it often gets ignored – but there’s no denying that it really is the ‘quintessential’ British sports car. And, while the best of the best can make decent money, the thousands in the middle remain remarkably affordable. A case in point was this tidy, 1971 Mk2 Roadster: great in white with Minilite-style wheels and a quality mohair hood. The buyer who paid £4800 isn’t going to lose anything. BRIGHTWELLS, LEOMINSTER 23 SEPTEMBER Honda’s Gold Wing seemed like a sophisticated behemoth when it was launched in 1974, yet the original now seems almost small and understated. early ones in good condition are becoming hard to find, which makes this tidy example an excellent buy at £2700. Remember how exotic that water-cooled…

BONHAMS, SIMEONE MUSEUM, PHILADELPHIA. 5 OCTOBER ‘Seldom seen on the American market’ is a bit of an understatement when applied to this extremely original, matching-numbers 1937 Morgan Super Sports. et was said to have been acquired by Lex du Pont in 1953, while visiting England. Excellent patina throughout, and one of the best ownership chains to be seen on any North American Morgan. The $88,000 achieved here should please both the buyer and seller. AUCTIONS AMERICA, AUBURN, INDIANA. 6 SEPTEMBER This 1960 Bristol-engined AC Aceca coupe with triple downdraught Weber carburettors and four-speed manual transmission was a nicely restored example that had been converted to left-hand drive and offered a nice interior plus lots of fresh chrome and paint. One of only 169 with the BMW-derived Bristol engine, it wore…

HISTORIC MOTORING AWARDS The International Historic Motoring Awards are back! Run in association with EFG, the venue is the Renaissance St Pancras, London, on 19 November. See www.historic motoringawards.com. BUY OR SELL CLASSICS ONLINE Want to buy a classic car? Got a classic car to sell? Just fancy browsing classic cars for sale in your lunch hour? Satisfy all your cravings at www.classicand performancecar.com. ONE FOR BOND FANS Look out for the next issue of Octane’s sister magazine Vantage, which features a cover story that celebrates the relationship between Aston Martin and James Bond – including the DB10 from the new film Spectre. SUBSCRIBE TO OCTANE Have Octanedelivered hot off the press – or read the digital edition on your iPad, PC or laptop. See our special offer (pages 190-191)…

REMEMBER JOHNNY KNOXVILLE? He of TV reality stunt and idiocy show Jackass? Well, it’s probably no surprise that the late Evel Knievel was a hero of his, and so he set out to produce a documentary on the man – resulting in Being Evel, produced and narrated by Knoxville. It’s brilliant. Rather than indulging in pure hero worship, Knoxville has covered the good and bad sides to Knievel: the latter included womanising, drinking and violence to a quite shocking extent. As the story unfolds, Knievel’s ever-crazier stunts and ever-increasing injuries give Being Evel a compelling can’t-look-away quality, as the ageing stuntman careers towards his inevitable downfall. All this is achieved through well-chosen archive footage of Kneivel’s stunts and TV appearances. These are mixed in with interviews of former colleagues, friends…

PLANS ARE UNDERWAY to mark the 90th anniversary of Sir Henry Segrave’s record-breaking 152.33mph run at Southport Sands, Merseyside, UK, with a week-long series of motoring events, which include a return to the Sands on 16 March 2016. Segrave, a British national born in Baltimore, USA, set the record in March 1926 driving his 4.0-litre V12 Sunbeam Tiger Ladybird. The record lasted just one month, until JG Parry-Thomas achieved 171mph in Babsat Pendine Sands in Wales. Segrave regained the record a year later in the 1000hp Sunbeam Mystery(also known as ‘The Slug’) at Daytona Beach, Florida, at 203.79mph – making him the first person to travel at over 200mph on land. His final record came in March 1929, when he drove to 231.45mph in Golden Arrow, again at Daytona Beach.…

3-7 Sept Lakeville, Connecticut, USA A VERY RARE public gathering of six of the most important competition cars in Mercedes pre- and early post-war history was the highlight of this year’s Lime Rock Historic Festival, chaired by Murray Smith. The idea originated, at a dinner in London between Murray and Michael Bock, head of Mercedes-Benz Classic, who pledged to bring ‘722’ and Sir Stirling Moss together for the 33rd edition of the Festival, together with Fangio’s Dutch Grand Prix-winning 1955 W196R Formula 1 car. Oh, and Jochen Mass too, as official Rennfahrer. The Collier Collection brought up two Mercedes Grand Prix cars: the 1914 Car no41, featured in Octane 134, and the 1939 W154/39 ‘Silver Arrow’ which was driven to second place in the Belgrade GP by Manfred Von Brauchitsch.…

If your New Year’s Eve party hangover isn’t too unbearable and you manage to drag yourself out of bed, get ready for what the organisers reckon could be South-East England’s largest New Year’s Day classic vehicle event. The New Year’s Day Gathering, held at Brooklands Museum near Weybridge in Surrey, welcomes all classic, vintage, veteran and supercars, as well as motorcycles and commercial vehicles of a similar provenance. Parking for display vehicles will be around the Paddock, Finishing Straight and Members’ Banking. First entries are at 9am, while you’ll be able to gain access to Brooklands’ buildings and displays between 10am and 4pm. Usual Museum admission prices apply for the New Year’s Day Gathering: on the gate, adults are £11, children (5-16) £6 and under-5s FOC. A family ticket is…

WE ALL KNOW how good Peugeot’s hot hatchbacks used to be, and we’ll revisit its best in the next issue. We reported on the 208GTi 30th a few months ago, the hard-edged special edition created by Peugeot Sport to commemorate the 30th anniversary of the 205GTI’s launch, and now a range regular under the guise of 208GTi By Peugeot Sport. A highly entertaining machine it is, too. Next in the renaissance comes the car you see here, the 308GTi. It’s another Peugeot Sport development, but this time all the specially engineered parts are sent to the main 308 factory instead of being assembled in Peugeot Sport’s workshop.That’s because the new car is a head-on rival for a Golf GTI or Seat Leon Cupra, and Peugeot hopes to sell quite a…

THE PROBLEM WITH attending most historic car events as an ancien pilote is that you are always on duty. By that, I mean sometimes it would be nice just to be able to stop and have a nose around; kick some tyres and actually chat to people for more than a picosecond before bidding them farewell. This was brought home to me in late September when I participated in the fifth Rennsport Reunion, at Laguna Seca. I have been to all five, the first staged at Lime Rock back in 2001, and this was the best yet. I loved the sense of informality and cannot wait for the next one. This Porsche-only event attracted close on 50,000 spectators over the three-day weekend, not to mention 1400 or so 911s, including…

1 // EVEL KNIEVEL’S SUIT ‘Evel’s own Elvis-like leathers. One of Evel’s best-known jumps was in 1975 at Wembley Stadium when he hurled himself on his Harley over 13 buses. He was my daredevil hero.’ Bruce Meyer 2 // CARBONFIBRE LIFT ‘Having a li in a house was very rare years ago. Still is. This is the only carbonfibre li designed by the Williams racing team. It is a tremendous piece of kit, although Susie won’t use it at the same time as I do in case it stops.’ [A most sensible policy, as it turned out: not long a er this interview the li malfunctioned, leaving Sir Stirling with two broken ankles. Both the li and Sir Stirling have since been repaired. Ed] Sir Stirling…

BOGUS BUGATTIS I HAVE NO AXE to grind, living in Australia and not owning a classic car, but it seems to me that the Bugatti Owners’ Club and your magazine are taking the view that the DVLA’s position [regarding the possible withdrawal of historic registrations, as reported in News, issue 149] is somehow unreasonable. The simple and inarguable fact is that if a car such as a Bugatti wasn’t built in France in period, it cannot be a Bugatti, regardless of the provenance of some of the parts. Cars such as the Pur Sang are just that: Pur Sangs. Registering them as 1923 models or similar is pure nonsense. There is a huge difference between restoring a car which is incomplete, and assembling a range of genuine parts from different…

IT MAY BE DIFFICULT to believe now but, when the Jaguar E-type was launched in 1961, it was such a sensational motor car and such a rare sight initially that the few examples on the roads of Britain were literally mobbed when they stopped. Peter Sargent, who would race E-types at Le Mans, worked in the City. When he left his office at the end of the day, he could not get near his newly delivered E-type parked in the street, such was the crowd. He had to go and have a gin and tonic! There were two reasons for this extraordinary aura. First, the E-type was, and is, a piece of stunningly beautiful automotive sculpture – quite possibly the most beautiful car ever made. Second, it would do 150mph,…

A DAY OUT at the races? In the 1920s and ’30s, that didn’t just mean the gee-gees if you lived in greater London and had an empty Saturday afternoon. If you liked the brum-brums then there was at least one steam train an hour to whisk you from Waterloo down to Weybridge. For here was the home of Brooklands, the world’s first purpose-built motor racing circuit, where speed and lap records were constantly being shattered, and where well-to-do petrolheads hung out – the air thick with the proverbial aroma of Castrol R – to be in and around sports and racing cars. The Brooklands Automobile Racing Club’s Open Meetings were the most common fixtures throughout the 1930s, jostling with Junior Car Club and Light Car Club meetings, and motorcycle race…

LOVE HIM OR loathe him, ‘Our Nige’ le an indelible mark on motor sport, belying a middling career in junior formulae to become Grand Prix and IndyCar champion. Much of the narrative is fairly well-known: how he sold his house to fund an F3 drive; how he saved Elio de Angelis from drowning, and so on. There have been umpteen Mansell biographies, so it’s the non-F1 stuff that really intrigues. His thoughts on his first and final outing at Le Mans in 2010 are fascinating, not least how head injuries apparently curtailed his driving career. It was also amusing to read about his time serving as a Special Constable while at the height of his fame. A diverting time-whiler, then, and good value.…

FIRST THINGS FIRST: this is not light bedtime reading. Not even close. It is, however, remarkably in-depth. Combined, this twin-volume set of sobacks runs to more than 1400 pages and covers every conceivable aspect of the subject, from basic body repairs to how to operate pressing tools and just about everything in-between. In addition to the highly informative but still relatively easy-to-digest text, there are also numerous photos and line drawings showing you how (and how not) to become your own coachbuilder. So, if you need to know how to measure ‘holes with collars’ for a Jaguar XK150 bonnet, or how best to shape a doorframe using a turnbuckle, then look no further. Recommended.…

DAVID LILLYWHITE Editor 1971 MGB GT1971 Saab 961973 Citroën SM1976 Zip Shadow Kart1996 Subaru Prodrive Impreza ROBERT COUCHER International editor 1937 Bentley 4¼1955 Jaguar XK1401973 Porsche 911S 2.4 Targa1991 Range Rover Vogue GEOFF LOVE Publishing director 1989 Maserati Biturbo MARK DIXON Deputy editor 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in1963 Ford Galaxie Country Sedan1964 Chevrolet Greenbrier1970 Lamborghini Espada1989/’91 Land Rover Discoverys2001 Honda Insight SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor 1983 Porsche 9441989 BMW 320i Convertible TONY DRON Test driver 1932 Austin Seven ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor 1960 Triumph TR3A1965 Aston Martin DB5 JOHN SIMISTER Contributor 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans1961 Saab 961987 Peugeot 205 GTI 1.9 DAVID BURGESS-WISE Contributor 1903 De Dion-Bouton1911 Pilain 16/201926 Delage DISS MARTYN GODDARD Photographer 1963 Triumph TR6SS Trophy1965 Austin-Healey 3000…

Not nearly as well known as his compatriot Tintin, but infinitely cooler, private detective Gil Jourdan was created in the 1950s by Belgian writer Maurice Tillieux, a man who evidently knew his cars. Gil Jourdan was notable for its refusal to stretch the bounds of credulity in typical comic book fashion, and carefully drawn, real-life cars featured throughout its run. Several of those have since been immortalised in resin, metal and wood by model-maker Michel Aroutcheff, including Gil’s red Renault Dauphine, an example of which will be offered by Sotheby’s at its comic book sale in Paris on 24 October – estimated at an appropriately realistic €400-500.…

22-24 OCTOBER Richard edmonds Allington, UK 23-24 OCTOBER Worldwide Auctioneers Fredericksburg, USA 24 OCTOBER Theodore Bruce Melbourne, Australia 24 OCTOBER Matthewsons Thornton-le-Dale, UK 25 OCTOBER Silverstone Silverstone, UK 27 OCTOBER Barons Esher, UK 30 OCTOBER Bonhams London, UK 30 OCTOBER – 1 NOVEMBER Collector Car Productions Mississauga, Canada 31 OCTOBER Auctions America Hilton Head, USA 1 NOVEMBER Artcurial Paris, UK 6-7 NOVEMBER Motostalgia Austin, USA 7 NOVEMBER Vicari Zephyrhills, USA 7 NOVEMBER Anglia Car Auctions King’s Lynn, UK 8 NOVEMBER Charterhouse Auctions Shepton Mallet, UK 12-14 NOVEMBER Mecum Anaheim, USA 14-15 NOVEMBER Silverstone Auctions Birmingham, UK 18 NOVEMBER H&H Buxton, UK 20-22 NOVEMBER Leake Auction Dallas, USA 23 NOVEMBER Shannons Melbourne, Australia 25 NOVEMBER Brightwells Leominster, UK 27-28 NOVEMBER Dan Kruse Classics Houston, USA 28 NOVEMBER Historics at Brooklands Weybridge,…

BARRETT-JACKSON auction house has two announcements that are of note. This was their last adventure in Reno, Nevada; the Hot August Nights events that coincided with their sale apparently just weren’t enough of a draw for the long term. But B-J has also announced that it will be holding a new sale on the east coast, specifically Connecticut, at the Mohegan Sun Casino. At least one other auction company has attempted a sale at Mohegan Sun but it lacked the massive draw of Barrett-Jackson: few companies can match its potential audience. This year’s Barrett-Jackson Reno auction, held in early August, was another all no-reserve sale, with 233 cars sold out of 233 offered. The total came in at just over $9,000,000, a number that served to remind us that this…