Table of contents for June 2022 in Octane

I’VE BEEN IN this game – it’s too much fun to call it an industry – over 25 years now and still its propensity to reveal its mysteries, out of the blue, continues to astonish me. The classic car world has been an ever-growing entity for well over 50 years, and you would have thought that every discovery had been made, every bit of history mined and noted, but no, not a bit of it. And we have two fantastic examples this month to demonstrate that point. The first is the Marcos 1600GT. If I am a fan of anything as much as 1960s cars, it’s late-1960s music and cheesy 1960s British Invasion TV. I love everything about The Avengers, not least its French title of Chapeau Melon et Bottes de…

28 April – 1 May Rallye de Durbuy Based in the pretty Belgian village of Durbuy, and with a Touring class for those who would prefer to enjoy the roads and the scenery without having to keep one eye on the stopwatch. zoutegrandprix.be 28-30 April Manx Classic On the Isle of Man, roads are closed to allow competition on the three traditional hillclimb courses, including the Sloc, which has recently been regraded and resurfaced. manxmotorracing.com 30 April – 1 May Donington Historic Festival Highlights of the Festival this time around will include the return of the Amon Cup for Ford GT40s, and a 30-car grid for the monstrous machines of Group C. doningtonhistoric.com 30 April – 1 May Keels & Wheels Beautiful old cars and boats share a stage at…

A RADICAL HOUSING development at Silverstone has been proposed to introduce an estate of trackside two- and four-bedroom ‘motor homes’ costing from £750,000 at the home of the British Grand Prix. Planned to open in 2023, Escapade Silverstone is expected to comprise 60 individual residences, a clubhouse and car storage. Some will be sold while others will be retained for renting. The development and clubhouse will border Copse, Maggotts and Becketts corners, with far-reaching views over Chapel, Wellington Straight and more. The properties will also come with the right to use the track on occasions. Will Tindall, CEO of Escapade Living, said: ‘Escapade Silverstone is completely integrated with the circuit – an authentic experience borne out of the world’s foremost racetrack. The result is a unique expression of Silverstone’s purpose.’…

CLASSIC DAYS LE MANS 30 April – 1 May Le Mans, France classic-days.fr ST MAWES CLASSIC CAR FESTIVAL 2-6 May Based St Mawes, UK stmawesclassic.co.uk VINTAGE REVIVAL MONTLHÉRY TOUR 6-9 May Various to Montlhéry, France sceniccartours.com GRAND PRIX DE MONACO HISTORIQUE 13-15 May Monte Carlo, Monaco acm.mc PADRE-FIGLIO 13-15 May Based St Tropez, France happyfewracing.com THE NOT-SO-WILD WEST 13-30 May Las Vegas to Santa Monica, USA fantasticroads.com RALLYE DES PRINCESSES RICHARD MILLE 14-19 May Paris to La Baule, France peterauto.fr THE PYRENEES 1000 17-21 May Starts/ends Pamplona, Spain, via France bespokerallies.com SPA CLASSIC 20-22 May Francorchamps, Belgium peterauto.fr CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA VILLA D’ESTE 20-22 May Cernobbio, Italy concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com COPPA DELLA PERUGINA 20-22 May Based Perugia, Italy coppadellaperugina.com VIKING TOUR 20-30 May Gothenburg, Sweden, to Oslo, Norway countrylanetours.co.uk BERGAMO HISTORIC GRAN PRIX…

If you ask Brian Whalen what prompted him to bid on a 1982 Ferrari 308 GTSi in an online auction, even two years later he still doesn’t know. Given the low bid he put on it, he was rather shocked to win. But, with 50,000 miles on the clock it was far from pristine, so he could drive it without worrying about precipitous depreciation while he worked out exactly what he was going to do with it. Then Covid arrived. His office was going to close for a couple of months, so Brian decided to spend a little while behind the wheel. With no definite destination in mind, he headed out from Philadelphia to the Rockies, taking the Ferrari because it was his most roadworthy car at the time. In…

AS SUMMER TURNS to autumn, there’ll be no sign of the classic calendar winding down. Quite the opposite, because September hosts an embarrassment of riches as far as great events are concerned – even when you look beyond blue-riband motorsport fixtures such as the Goodwood Revival and Spa Six Hours. This year, the September celebrations get under way with Salon Privé, which returns to the majestic surroundings of Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. It opens with the prestigious Concours d’Elégance, which welcomes more than 100 cars across several carefully curated classes, and continues with Ladies’ Day on Friday. The Club Trophy takes place on Saturday – with more than 1000 cars on show, it’s the largest club-only event in the UK – and on Sunday the event comes to a close with…

EVERY AUGUST, the eyes of the classic car world turn to California and the Monterey peninsula. The week-long celebration of all things automotive includes some of the year’s most headline-grabbing sales from several of the top auction houses, historic racing at Laguna Seca and prestigious concours events such as The Quail: A Motorsports Gathering and Concorso Italiano. The jewel in the crown, however, is the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, which was founded in 1950 as a companion to the racing that was held on the nearby road course. While the race meeting has long since fallen by the wayside, the concours has endured and grown in stature. On the Sunday of Monterey week, a selection of the world’s greatest cars stretches along the iconic 18th fairway of the Pebble Beach Golf…

Fit for a King: the Royal Garage of the Shahs of Iran BORZON SEPASI, Dalton Watson, £110, ISBN 978 1 85443 292 6 We’re accustomed to thinking of Iran as an Islamic republic, so it’s worth remembering that until the 1979 Revolution it had been ruled by monarchs for 2500 years. Not surprisingly, those monarchs liked to surround themselves with nice things – and, with the arrival of the automobile age, those nice things included cars. The first car to arrive in Iran was a 10hp Gardner-Serpollet, which caught the eye of the then-Shah (‘Shah’ literally means ‘king’ in Farsi) during a trip to Paris in 1900. But it wasn’t until a former soldier, Reza Khan Pahlavi, staged a coup and declared himself the new Shah in 1925 that expensive…

The Maserati Indy, designed as the successor to the Mexico, was introduced as a prototype at the Geneva motor show in March 1969. With sleek fastback styling and pop-up headlights, this was a classic front-engined, rear-wheel-drive grand tourer. The Indy, so named to celebrate Maserati’s wins in 1939 and 1940 at the Indianapolis 500, was designed by Virginio Vairo at coachbuilder Vignale. Total production was 1104 cars from 1969 to 1975. Only 300 had the biggest 4.9-litre version of Maserati’s V8, and this is said to be the 45th – and one of 39 US-spec 4.9s with a five-speed manual. It was an ideal choice when a Ghibli didn’t have enough room for the whole family and a Quattroporte was a bit too staid. Treated to a professional restoration in…

WHEN IT was placed into dry storage in 1988 by its late owner, collector Chris Sugden-Smith, this beautiful Lagonda 3 Litre Tourer was apparently in running order. As it sits today, it’s in very good and highly original shape – rolling free and with an engine that apparently turns over by hand. It’s going to require some care and attention, although you could go two ways. It’s a prime candidate for a full nut-and-bolt rebuild, but it’s also got a lot of potential for a sympathetic ‘oily rag’ mechanical restoration. Launched in 1929 as an alternative to the 3 Litre Bentleys, the 80bhp Lagonda was a sporting car for driving enthusiasts. This example, chassis 29673, left the factory in 1931 and still wears its original Manchester registration. Manor Park Classics…

SOME CARS REACH legendary status early on in their life, such as BMW’s E39-generation M5. A great engine, sublime chassis and good looks – plus the indefinable M-factor – helped to elevate this BMW beyond the realm of mere hot saloon, as Glen Waddington found out on pages 116-124. A few months before the M5 was launched, however, Autocar magazine actually declared this, the W210-generation E55 AMG, to be the world’s best sporting saloon. It was an impressive package and far more of an all-rounder than the hot rod reputation of AMG might have you believe. Arguably it set the template for a generation of big V8-engined AMGs, yet today it seems largely forgotten and unloved. It shouldn’t be, as we’ll see. As the relationship between Mercedes and the Affalterbach-based…

THIS COLLECTION could be described as a hidden gem among car museums. Hidden because many people won’t have heard of Caister-on-Sea, a tiny but charming village on the north Norfolk coast; a gem because there are many rare, unusual and interesting exhibits, as well as lots of more recognisable classics. It all began back in the mid-1960s, when Dr Peter Rowland Hill, founder of the Oakham Packing Company, bought Caister Castle. His interest in veteran and vintage cars was sparked by a display during an open day at Belvoir Castle in Nottinghamshire, and his first acquisition was a 1902 Napier, found in pieces under a boat in Brighton and subsequently restored. His collection was founded in 1966 and steadily grew, always housed at Caister Castle, with purpose-built buildings erected from…

Brookes rally cars to fly at Firle A collection of original Russell Brookes cars, all in the famous yellow-and-blue livery of his long-standing sponsor Andrews Heat For Hire, will be the centrepiece of Firle Beacon, a new rally, sprint and supercar motorsport event to be held in East Sussex on 30-31 July. Two-time British Rally Champion Brookes started his association with Andrews in 1974 and the two became inseparable over the next 17 years. To this day, it remains the longest-running private sponsorship in rallying. The cars include three Mk2 Escorts, two Opel Mantas, a Sierra Cosworth, a Chevette HSR and a Group A Astra. All will be exercised multiple times on a 2.4-mile rally stage over the weekend. Robert Brookes, son of Russell Brookes who passed away in October…

I CAN’T SHAKE the notion that there might be a connection between Walter Martin’s design for Jean Studer’s Alfa and the TB14 that Alvis introduced to a startled world at the 1948 Earls Court Motor Show. The Martin-bodied Alfa had a trefoil grille shape that mimicked the Grand Prix Tipo 158 and Wifredo Ricart’s Tipo 162 GP prototype. What was described in one report as ‘a somewhat incongruous pear-shaped radiator grille’ was also a prominent feature of this newest Alvis. All Alvises had coachbuilt bodies on the company’s underpinnings, this one on the 12/70 chassis that dated from 1940. It was made by a company established in 1940 when former Riley men Austin and Perks set up to coachbuild in the Coventry premises of departing Cross & Ellis. At first…

If this car had a working stereo, then Matt Monro would be on it. Because it’s days like this that you will certainly remember. We’re driving a 1963 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1.6 Spider around the twists and turns of what is unquestionably one of the most beautiful and thrilling coastal roads in the world: the UNESCO-listed Costiera Amalfitana, or the Amalfi Drive as it is more commonly known in the UK. The roof of our graphite grey beauty is down and, while the February wind is a little brisk in our hair, the sun is shining, and a hat and gloves are enough to keep us warm. Why this time of year? Well, the roads are empty of the many tourists that flock here in the summer months, turning the…

NEARLY 30 YEARS have passed since Lord March – now the Duke of Richmond – hosted the first Festival of Speed in the grounds of Goodwood House. That inaugural single-day event was a relatively informal occasion and evoked the hillclimbs that the Duke’s grandfather, Freddie March, had organised before the Second World War, but in the intervening years the Festival of Speed has grown into perhaps the biggest automotive celebration of the year. The centrepiece remains the 1.16-mile hillclimb that threads its way past the house, through the off-camber left-hander at Molecomb – where so many drivers have come to grief – then past the flint wall and up to the finish line. Everything builds towards Sunday’s shoot-out, in which cars covering more than a century of motor racing go…

ALTHOUGH RALLY THE GLOBE will be hosting events such as the Carrera España, Ypres to Istanbul Challenge and Vintage Dolomites during 2022, look slightly further ahead and you’ll find the Alaska to Mexico Marathon, which will take place during August and September 2023. This spectacular rally will give entrants the opportunity to traverse three countries and cross 38 lines of latitude in 30 days, with a 12,000km route that will showcase vistas from the Anchorage wilderness to the warm beaches of the Baja Peninsula. Although it’s a relative newcomer to the historic events scene, Rally the Globe is run by a team with vast experience. Its president is none other than 1981 World Rally Champion Ari Vatanen, while its rally director is professional co-driver Fred Gallagher, who has organised events…

QUIETLY, IN EARLY MARCH this year, Girard-Perregaux, the Chaux-de-Fonds high-end watchmaker known for its mechanical planetariums, tri-axial tourbillons and minute repeaters, launched a watch, the Casquette 2.0. So far, so normal; you can barely walk around Switzerland without having to dodge new watches getting thrown at you from various ateliers. But this new GP was – whisper it – quartz. Not only was it quartz, it was digital. And it was a digital watch with an LED display and the spit of a watch first made in the 1970s. This is like Aston Martin throwing back the dust sheets and revealing its 2022 replacement for the Rapide is a Towns-designed, Series 1 Aston Martin Lagonda with a chest-wig and medallion in the glovebox. For readers who missed the paisley shirts…

DER PORSCHE SPRUNG PHOTOGRAPHS In 1960, photographer Hans Truöl parked his Porsche 356B on the recently cleared Flexen Pass, readied his camera, and signalled to a distant Egon Zimmermann. The future Olympic downhill champion pointed his skis down the mountain toward the road, and seconds later he was airborne, flying high above the car. In his long career, Truöl made many prettier pictures of skiers (and of Porsches, for that matter), but none as famous as the daring Porsche Sprung (‘Porsche Jump’). Last year it was recreated, with another Olympic champion, Aksel Lund Svindal, doing the hairy bit, and with a Taycan standing in for the 356B – and the new and old images are now available as a pair, in a limited edition of 300. £1750. shop.porsche.com A500 MINI…

DESPITE ITS LOW mileage, Artcurial’s €4,161,600 final result for this Ferrari F50 was still a surprise. Most of the recent big F50 results have been for US-market examples sold Stateside, but this single-owner Monegasque car has confirmed that the global F50 market is incredibly hot right now. Showing 1318km, it was offered in ‘as new’ condition but in need of significant servicing due to lack of use. At roughly $4.5m, it’s a new auction benchmark. It came from a significant Ferrari hypercar collection, which also saw an F40 (€2,102,400), Enzo (€2,846,000) and LaFerrari (€2,714,800) sell for similarly strong figures. The Ferraris were only just pipped to the top spot by the 1968 Porsche 907 (previewed in Octane 226), which settled at €4,390,400 – towards the lower end of its estimate.…

Shown at the 1969 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Ferrari 365 GTS/4 ‘Daytona Spider’ was in production from 1971 to ’73, by which time 122 had been built. Seven were right-hand drive, 19 were left-hand drive European-spec cars and 96 were destined for the US market. Spider values made significant gains in the early-to-mid 2010s, as chassis 15417 demonstrates. Consigned to RM Sotheby’s Amelia Island sale in March 2012, the US-spec example with Ferrari Classiche certification was hammered away for $1,210,000 (£896,000). Returning to Amelia Island three years later, this time accompanied by a Platinum Award from the Cavallino Classic, it fetched $3,300,000 (£2,450,000) – equalling the price RM had achieved in January that year for a similar car. At current exchange rates that signalled the high-water mark for Daytona Spiders,…

IT CAN BE EASY to get distracted by numbers when it comes to classic Ferraris. This might be one of two Series 1 250 GT Cabriolets with side vents, and one of only 11 left in the world with full matching numbers, and the 23rd of only 40 built, but in the end these cars transcend mere digits. Aside from the basic chassis, those 40 Series 1 cars built between 1956 and 1959 were all unique in colours, specification and minor details. They were assembled by Pinin Farina to a very high standard for a select few of Ferrari’s most special customers. The US list price of $14,950 put the Cabriolet firmly at the top of Ferrari’s model range, at $2500 more expensive than the ‘Tour de France’ Berlinetta and…

Back in its Spring spot, the 79th Members’ Meeting served up a feast of Historic motorsport in West Sussex. Star cars were indubitably the selection of Porsche 956/962s, but crowds were entranced by everything from synchronised drifiting to David and Goliath saloon battles between Rowan Atkinson’s Jaguar MkVII and plucky Morris Minors. The debut AFP Fane Trophy for Frazer Nashes was red-flagged after a serious crash.…

THERE HAVE ALWAYS been less-explored corners of the classic car world, where long-lost cars turn up after decades or hangars full of exotics are tantalisingly spotted and occasionally snapped. South America, Cuba and others have all had their moments, but nowhere has this happened more consistently than in the Middle East, where oil-rich collectors hoovered-up rarities and one-offs. However, while there is an unquantifiable amount still to discover, the Middle Eastern classic world is opening up. In recent years there have been major concours in Kuwait, UAE and Saudi Arabia, while museums have opened in Sharjah (UAE), Abu Dhabi and Jordan. There’s also Iran’s Historical Car Museum and its display of cars owned by the former royal family before its ousting in 1979. Now a major new exhibition in Qatar…

ONE LUCKY OCTANE subscriber is going to win a dream trip to the Goodwood Revival Meeting for themselves and a guest, including a money-can’t-buy experience of laps of the circuit in the Course Car during the festival. And don’t worry if you are not currently a subscriber: all those in the UK that are signed up before the competition closing date will be included in the draw. The winner will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation. The Goodwood Revival is the most celebrated historic race meeting in the world, taking place at the Duke of Richmond’s super-quick West Sussex circuit and attracting 150,000 people from across the globe. With participating cars limited to those that could have competed at Goodwood in its first life from 1948 to 1966, it…

I STARTED MY business with this van more than 35 years ago. Signsmith is a pun on my surname. It’s a 1949 E494C, for Commercial, 5cwt. I restored it in the mid-80s and sprayed it myself. It was midnight blue and it had been bodged. I did a proper four-year restoration, and made a lot of it myself including the wheel tubs, rear valance and quite a lot of the front wings. I rather like tin-bashing – it’s the artistic side of working on cars. I tend to leave the wonder of the internal combustion engine to others, and I was lucky with this one. At a jumble there was a 10hp 1172cc engine on the grass, all shined up and looking lovely, but it was seized. It was £25.…

AS A LONG-STANDING classic car owner, I read a lot of magazines, and a recurring theme is the desire to attract a younger audience. I encouraged my son James to purchase a 1960 Morris Mini 850 at the age of 16, and he has taught himself how to service the car and loves driving it. However, he has come up against the problem of trying to insure it on a classic car policy. For his first year of driving, he couldn’t find any classic car insurer who would insure him, but he did manage to add the Mini onto the policy for his regular car, a BMW 116. Total cost for both was £1362.67. Now armed with one year’s no-claims bonus, we spent an afternoon ringing round all the specialist insurers…

Winter’s chill is receding, daylight creeps ever longer into the evenings. With Spring in the air, it’s time to imagine the delights of setting off on a drive in a decent classic car – hood down, naturally. As for an appropriate destination, what better than the country residence of the Royal Automobile Club? With such a grand port of call in mind, suitable conveyances are required. Roll forward, with leather-lined grace, this pairing of a 1976 Rolls-Royce Corniche Drophead Coupé and 1980 Aston Martin V8 Volante, both marques being holders of the Royal Warrant. Fortunately the repeal of the Red Flag Act, 126 years ago, under which your man had to proceed ahead of your ‘horseless carriage’ waving a red flag, allowed the Great British motorist the freedom of the…

Father and son, two aristocrats with the name Zborowski: both made their mark in motorsport, but are almost forgotten today. Yet their biographies make for compulsive reading. William Eliot Morris Zborowski was born in the USA in 1858. He was heir to a fortune that dated back to Albert Zborowski, born in 1633 in Żółkiew, Poland, who was sent by his family to Holland to complete his education as a priest but sailed to New Amsterdam (now New York) and made his money trading with North America’s indigenous people. Albert’s great-great-great-great-grandson, Martin, left his family a fortune so great that one newspaper stated ‘No estimation can at present be made of the wealth of the deceased.’ For several generations the family name had been used in its anglicised Zabriskie form,…

At the risk of descending into cliché, we Octane types have been locked-up for a while alongside a sizeable quadruped with a trunk. Big V8s are facing their last hurrah. Manufacturers have been down-sizing for some time and are now in a race to prepare for the switch to electrification. Sure, we can continue to burn hydrocarbons for now, and hopefully we Octane types will still be able to after this decade has drawn to a close, if perhaps to a more limited extent. But the move to battery EVs and increasingly tricky political hurdles and legislation are making life harder for niche manufacturers. Especially niche manufacturers of big, fast, V8-powered luxury saloons. And so ends the independence, after 57 years, of Alpina, which is being swallowed-up by BMW. Obviously,…

CARS AND COFFEE. It’s such a simple idea, but one that has quickly become a staple of Sunday mornings for many car enthusiasts. Not only the perfect excuse to exercise your cherished classic at the weekend, but also a good reason to meet up with friends who share the same enthusiasm. In the last few years the number of these meets has exploded, creating a huge demand for interesting car-friendly locations – especially those offering good-quality food and drink. These venues are often more than just a place to meet, as Phil McGovern, founding partner of Caffeine and Machine, explains: ‘When we started Caffeine and Machine, it was always supposed to be a hangout. We launched it to invite every faction of the automotive community, and, despite the differences between,…

HERO-ERA aims to host rallies for enthusiasts of all ability levels, and rates each of its events depending on its difficulty. ‘Green’ introductory rallies are suitable for beginners and feature daytime driving on sealed surfaces. Things get tougher through the ‘Blue’ intermediate and ‘Red’ advanced levels. Then there are the ‘Black’ expert events, in which crews could be driving long and challenging sections at any time of day or night, and in any season. In 2022, only two rallies hold the Black classification: Le Jog and the RAC Rally of the Tests. Although the former covers the greater distance – 1300 miles in four days – and has a fearsome reputation as one of the hardest endurance rallies in the world, the latter is every bit as gruelling. This year…

THE FRENCH RIVIERA has long been the destination of choice for ‘the right crowd’, from 18th-Century Brits seeking its medicinal air to the playboys of the 1950s and ’60s. Stories abound of one particularly memorable summer when a young Count Volpi and Gianni Agnelli cut a dash in the most fashionable towns aboard the legendary Ferrari ‘Breadvan’, so where better than St Tropez to hold an event that brings together the finest cars, great food and a party atmosphere? Organised to coincide with the classic yacht regatta Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, Rendez-Vous Riviera takes over the beautiful St Tropez Polo Club and showcases 50 of the world’s more stylish cars against the backdrop of rolling hills. After celebrating Ferrari last year, the 2022 line-up will include classics and more recent…

Daimler’s last fling before the Jaguar takeover in 1960, the glassfibre-bodied SP250 was launched the preceding year – but we can deduce that this model is of a Jaguar-era car, thanks to its front bumper (early SP250s only had chromed ‘whiskers’) and lack of doorhandle recesses. Enough pedantry: what’s more important is that it’s a superb replica of an often-overlooked sports car. The SP250’s challenging styling helps explain why only 2654 examples were produced over five years. It went well, however, thanks to its 2.5-litre V8 engine, and the Metropolitan Police bought about 30 of them, finished in black like this model. Black is notoriously difficult in terms of showing up blemishes but Cult’s finish is just perfect; you can also order it in BRG and (yet to come) metallic…

‘RED FIVE’ became Nigel Mansell’s signature race number during his first stint at Williams, and it was comforting to see its reappearance when he returned to the team in 1991. That year he was yet again cruelly denied his first World Championship, but he did win five races – including one of his most fondly remembered victories at Silverstone. After Senna ran out of fuel after the final lap, Mansell stopped to offer him a lift back to the pits. Although the stewards looked on the act unfavourably (a Health and Safety nightmare, in their view) it created one of the sport’s more poignant moments. The former World Champion has given RM Sotheby’s the job of auctioning that very FW14 at its forthcoming Monaco sale. It’s offered from his personal…

MY WIFE AND I have just had our second child, so I worked the first couple of races of the Formula 1 season from home via remote link, but I was back with the Sky Sports team for the Melbourne GP. To minimise jet-lag I always try to stay awake through the night before I fly to Australia, and the new baby did his best to help me out! Race day always starts with a production meeting where we go over the key talking points and share any information we’ve heard overnight. We go on air an hour-and-a-half before the formation lap, so once the meeting is over I usually have an hour or so to wander around the paddock and do a bit of digging. A good way of…