Octane June 2020

HERE AT OCTANE we have a great deal to be grateful for in these challenging times. While our work couldn’t be further removed from having to selflessly fight this horrible disease on the frontline like the real heroes, we still have a job to do and hopefully a purpose to serve while so many people are in lockdown. First of all I must congratulate our wonderful extended family of a team – not just the editorial faces that you may be familiar with, but all those others within Dennis Publishing and elsewhere without whom the magazine couldn’t exist – for grasping that nettle and making this edition of Octane happen. It might not look complicated from the outside, but the way we operate (and we are all extremely grateful that…

SIMON CHARLESWORTH ‘It takes quite an occasion to eclipse a drive in an Aston Martin, and meeting the Virage’s designer, John Heffernan, was one such incident – especially as his work had encouraged my own studies at art college. A personal hightlight was being asked: “Do you still draw?”’ 30 years of the Virage: pages 44-59. EVAN KLEIN ‘Spending the day with Raymond Loewy’s landmark Studebaker Avanti close to his own house was just pure design heaven. I love the desert and Palm Springs architecture. It was great being able to spend the day shooting in this oasis.’ Evan’s stunning photos accompany Preston Lerner’s authoritative text on pages 108-116. PAUL FEARNLEY ‘Colin Vandervell has by choice been off the motorsport radar since the 1970s, so our conversation was a little…

Southern Cross Safari 15 February – 5 March Some 25 cars in five classes, ranging from vintage to modern 4x4s, set off from Watamu on the coast of the Indian Ocean for this 19-day epic through Kenya and Tanzania. Not that it was all hard work, the stats reading 3600km covered, 12 regularities, six tests on private land… and ten open-air dinners, of which three were beside the ocean. Demonstrating that such events can often render the class system vestigial – and testament to both modern prep and the sturdiness of vintage-era vehicles – first overall and in class were Keith and Norah Ashworth in their 1927 Bentley 4½ Le Mans. They scooped victory on the final day by accruing just 13sec of penalties over 200km to win by two…

ARMY FLYING? Is that contradictory? Well, a couple of hours at the Army Flying Museum (formerly the Museum of Army Flying) will explain all. After parking near the memorial to the 5000 personnel lost over the century that the Army has been in the air, the first thing the visitor will see outside the entrance is a formidable Soviet ZSU 23-4 ‘Shilka’ self-propelling anti-aircraft gun. This machine could fire up to 4000 23mm shells per minute from its four cannon, tracking aircraft by radar, and was said to create an impassable wall of fire. Once in the entry hall it’s clear that the £2.59 million lavished on a recent renovation was well spent, the scene set by the bright, well-equipped shop and information desk. The museum is on two levels,…

AS OCTANE WENT to press, the Covid-19 outbreak was continuing to wreak havoc across the classic car industry, with businesses forced to shut their doors, the events calendar in turmoil and major auction houses pushed online. And with a more-or-less global lockdown expected to last months, people were only expecting things to get worse for some time to come. Indeed, with no sense of timescale for battling the killer virus, at least two leading dealers privately predicted a full-scale market collapse when the outbreak is finally quelled. One, who asked not to be named, said: ‘The world economy is being absolutely crippled by the effects of this illness and there is no way the sums that have been invested in classic cars will stay there. As soon as things return…

Still on (as Octane goes to press) 31 May Valletta Concours d’Elegance vallettaconcoursdelegance.com 31 July – 2 August Silverstone Classic silverstoneclassic.com 1-2 August Vintage Prescott vscc.co.uk/page/events 7-16 August Pebble Beach/Monterey Car Week pebblebeachconcours.net Cancelled or postponed (new date/s where appropriate) ALL UK MOTORSPORT EVENTS UNTIL AT LEAST 30 JUNE 25-29 March now 24-28 June Techno-Classica Essen siha.de 20-25 April now 31 Aug – 5 Sept Tour Auto Optic 2000 peterauto.peter.fr/en/tour-auto-2020-2 26 April Drive it Day fbhvc.co.uk 1-3 May Donington Historic Festival doningtonhistoric.com 8-10 May Grand Prix Historique de Monaco acm.mc 13-16 May now 22-25 October Mille Miglia 1000miglia.it/ 17 May Stonor Supercar Sunday stonor.com/events/supercarsunday2020 22-24 May Spa Classic peterauto.peter.fr/en/spa-classic-2020-2 22-24 May now 16-18 October Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este concorsodeleganzavilladeste.com 10-11 June now 19-20 August London Concours londonconcours.co.uk 13-14 June now…