Sommaire pour December 2021 de Octane

Darren Sullivan Vince from Waterloo Classics car events is already in negotiations with Lambeth Council to open up an underground car park just outside the South Circular so people can store their classics without being charged every time they turn the key. ‘We want to make it affordable, probably around £100 a month,’ he says, ‘so normal people who run a modern classic can afford to store it.’ Damon Oorloff of West Oxfordshire-based Kingsley Classics has launched a ‘Re-engineered Range Rover Classic’ that features upgraded fuel-injected V8s, upgraded gearboxes, transfer boxes and brakes. He says: ‘It’s so important for businesses like ours to keep classic cars on the roads, so we want to establish our vehicles as the alternative to modern Range Rovers and SUVs.’ That means your Kingsley ‘new’…

Living with supercars such as the McLaren F1 need not be as expensive as people make it out to be. I’m constantly amazed at the huge bills a lot of people seem to rack up, some justified, some not. I recently watched a video on YouTube of a man who had bought an F1 a while back. He seemed like a nice enough fellow, but his problem, at least in my opinion, stemmed more from his lack of knowledge than from the car itself. He said it was designed as a racing car and it had been modified for the street but in reality nothing could have been further from the truth. Gordon Murray has consistently stated that the F1 was always designed to be a street car. The owner…

Got to love a big, swanky, four-seater hot rod. Since the 1920s, car bods like Count Louis Zborowski have been shoving large engines into unsuspecting chassis to create leviathan Chitty Chitty Bang Bangs. Over the decades, driving enthusiasts have enjoyed the performance and nimble handling of stripped-down sports cars but at the same time rather more ‘formal’ motor cars have quietly been subjected to the intoxicating addition of lashings of raw grunt. Skunkworks have been part of automotive engineering forever. Did WO Bentley really need a massive 8.0-litre lump in his limousine? No, but he did it anyway and quite promptly bankrupted himself. Meanwhile, the Germans began fitting superchargers to their large Mercs and the Americans went for the simple expedient of ‘inch pinching’ – bigger cubes. Unfortunately, in the…

EVAN KLEIN Photographer • 2001 Audi TT Quattro MATTHEW HAYWARD Markets editor • 1990 Citroën BX 16v• 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four• 1996 Saab 9000 Aero• 1997 Citroën Xantia Activa• 1997 Peugeot 306 GTI-6• 2000 Honda Integra Type R• 2001 Audi A2 SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible• 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL JESSE CROSSE Contributor • 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390• 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth MARTYN GODDARD Photographer • 1963 Triumph TR6SS Trophy• 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII DELWYN MALLETT Contributor • 1936 Cord 810 Beverly• 1937 Studebaker Dictator• 1946 Tatra T87• 1950 Ford Club Coupe• 1952 Porsche 356• 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL• 1957 Porsche Speedster• 1957 Fiat Abarth Sperimentale• 1963 Abarth-Simca• 1963 Tatra T603• 1992 Alfa Romeo SZ TONY DRON Contributor • 1932 Austin Seven SARAH BRADLEY…

IT HAD BEEN quite a long time since the last Delbò family get-together. Two freelance careers plus families with children meant that any gathering had to be planned well in advance. After the summer, however, the opportunity arose and the Alfa paid a visit with my brother. The Alfa had spent a couple of months parked in a Milan underground garage; she was protected there and kept dry, but her bright red paint was covered in dust. As soon as lunch was over, I washed her, enjoying the sight of brown water flowing away under my soapy sponge. After giving the car a good rinse and dry, my brother and I went for a ride on the beautiful twisty roads around my home. Every time I drive the Alfa, I…

YOU MIGHT REMEMBER the Kia Stinger from a few issues ago, a large sporting saloon with a twin-turbo V6, priced north of 40 grand, with BMWs and Audis in its sights. I recall it being quick, refined and great fun. Yet it shares showroom space with far more sensible cars, the kind that appeal for their value for money, eco credentials, and the peace of mind afforded by a seven-year warranty. The South Korean company dates back to 1944, when it manufactured steel tubing and bicycle parts, before moving on to licence-built Honda motorcycles (from 1957), then Mazda trucks (1962) and finally Mazda cars in 1974. Military dictatorship shut all that down in 1981, but it began again in 1986 in partnership with Ford, and started selling cars in the…

2003 Renault Avantime Barons Auctions, online auction, UK 5 November, barons-auctions.com The final car to be built at Matra’s Romorantin-Lanthenay factory was one of the most memorable. Even in an era before everything had to be SUV-shaped, the idea of an MPV Coupé was still a particularly unusual concept. Some might think this 2.0-litre Dynamique model is less desirable than a fully-specced V6 but, with fewer electronics to go wrong, it’s actually the more sensible choice. It could be yours for £3500-4750. 1982 Porsche 924 Turbo Anglia Car Auctions, Kings Lynn, UK 6-7 November, angliacarauctions.co.uk A right-hand-drive Mauritius Blue 924 Turbo, driven in Germany for the first two years of its life, before being registered in the UK in 1984. A very honest and original example, which has been cherished…

MARK BRINKER ‘From the beginning I knew the odds of reuniting all components of the long-lost Fageol Supersonic was a long shot, but it was never a choice I made, it was something I was driven to do. Reassembling the pieces of the puzzle has turned out to be my most exciting automotive adventure.’ Find out more on pages 94-104. NIGEL HARNIMAN ‘Such a beautiful car, but to say it’s a four-seater would be stretching it – it’s a very intimate experience just for two normal-sized blokes! Even so, I very much enjoyed spending time with the Squire.’ Nigel’s stunning images accompany Mark Dixon’s story of Britain’s forgotten 1930s supercar on pages 84-92. EMMA WOODCOCK ‘I grew up dreaming about the Porsche 964 RS; its naked violence fascinated me. Now I’ve grappled…

As this column is being lovingly crafted, I am sitting in my room in the Hotel de Paris staring at the Prince’s Palace of Monaco from across the harbour. I’m currently on the DB Tour, an event that started in Antibes with 21 cars that included Ferrari 250 GTs of varying kinds, Daytonas and more besides, and which will end in St Tropez in time for the yacht races. I only mention this not so much to say ‘Look at me’, but more ‘Look at me, I cannot believe I am doing this.’ I am enjoying being in a place where I have to pinch myself, rather than being cooped up at home. I feel like me again, my schedule having gone from empty to full again. I have actual…

THE FÉDÉRATION INTERNATIONALE de l’Automobile [FIA] is about to announce a new president, with Jean Todt vacating the seat after his three terms. As it’s the governing body for world motorsport and the federation of the world’s leading motoring organisations, you’d hope that the new president is a classic car enthusiast. Current vice president Mohammed Ben Sulayem is an obvious candidate. And it seems pretty clear that he fits the bill. Ben Sulayem comes from an influential Emirati family, and has taken the FIA Middle East Rally Championship title no fewer than 14 times between 1986 and 2002. He also owns a collection of exceptional cars, among them some of the rally cars he drove himself during his active days. That’s only to be expected. Less so is a private…

WHAT A MISERABLE summer we have had in the UK, weather and otherwise. Except when I drove my Jaguar, which turned out to include two of the hottest days so far! When I last collected the car from specialist Twyford Moors in Hampshire in June, I began the drive back to London amid glorious sunshine. Eschewing the A3, I got slightly lost enjoying the byways. As the ambient temperature rose, I opened the just-renovated side windows, then the rear quarter windows, then the fresh air vents in the footwells. The cabin got still hotter. So I felt the heater (switched off on the dashboard) and sure enough it was blowing hot. That’s when I realised that I’d left the master heater switch (at the back of the cylinder head) fully…

HAVING SPENT NEARLY all its life in California, the Mustang is still beautifully rust-free and I try to avoid using it in bad weather. I’m not precious about it, though, and I drive it a lot, so there will inevitably be occasions when we’ll get caught out in the rain. The last time this happened, I received a nasty wake-up call. I was turning left off a roundabout, accelerating gently and doing no more than 15-20mph, when the back end snapped sideways – it was as if I was driving on ice. Fortunately I managed to catch the slide but it was a scary moment. While the car’s tyres still had loads of tread, they had likely been fitted back in Los Angeles and then been baked by several years of…

NOT MUCH HAD happened with the Cossie in recent months due to a house move and the fact that I was building a big new garage. Once that was done, Online Automotive retrieved it and the 1968 Mustang GT 390 from storage in Oxfordshire to my new place north of the border. The Sierra was out of MoT and I was keen to get it out on some glorious Scottish roads. There were a couple of jobs to do first. One was the steering, which had some play at the road wheels; although it looked like either a track-rod end balljoint (both old) or the suspect track-rod balljoint that’s inside the steering rack gaiter, it was actually the steering-rack bush on the driver’s side that had given up the ghost.…

I DON’T THINK anybody is under the illusion that a new hybrid Bentayga is going to save the planet, but it is a small and important step for Bentley’s drive to electrification by 2030. It’s a way of offering Bentley buyers a way to reduce their impact, use a bit less fuel and even glide along in the silent EV mode in situations where a thunderous V8 might get you in trouble, or at least a few dirty looks. This updated 2021 model replaces the shortlived 2019 Bentayga Hybrid, powered by the same 3.0-litre V6 engine, and supplemented by a 126bhp electric motor and 17.3kWh battery pack. That’s good for a total output of 443bhp and 516lb ft which, thanks to the way it’s been configured – the car always…

THE OMEGA MUSEUM in Bienne early in 2021; sitting around a table strewn with watches are Susanne and Hans Kocher and the museum staff. The watches are Hans’ father’s lifetime collection, carefully chosen over a remarkable career in Swiss watchmaking, and now bequeathed to him. Hans Kocher Sr was General Director at watchmaking firm Buren and one of four men who in the mid-to-late 1960s took on not only their countrymen at Zenith but also the Japanese in the race to make an automatic chronograph. Who got there first is still disputed but the Buren/Heuer/Breitling Calibre 11– codenamed Project 99 – went on to power the Heuer Monaco that sat on Steve McQueen’s wrist in Le Mans, as well as the Autavia and a host of other chronographs. Hans Kocher Sr…

£1,673,500 (CHF 2,142,500) 1958 BMW 507 Series II RM Sotheby’s, St Moritz, Switzerland. 17 September £1,541,500 (CHF 1,973,750) 2002 McLaren MP4-17D RM Sotheby’s, St Moritz, Switzerland. 17 September £1,541,500 (CHF 1,973,750) 1988 Porsche 959 Komfort RM Sotheby’s, St Moritz, Switzerland. 17 September £1,441,000 ($1,980,000) Risky Business 1979 Porsche 928 Barrett-Jackson, Houston, USA. 16-18 September £1,344,000 (CHF 1,720,625) 2012 Aston Martin One-77 RM Sotheby’s, St Moritz, Switzerland. 17 September £1,273,500 ($1,765,000) 1938 Bugatti Type 57C Atalante Worldwide Auctioneers, Auburn, USA. 4 September £1,102,000 (CHF 1,411,250) 2015 Porsche 918 Spyder Weissach RM Sotheby’s, St Moritz, Switzerland. 17 September £1,080,000 (CHF 1,383,125) 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing RM Sotheby’s, St Moritz, Switzerland. 17 September £1,075,000 ($1,490,000) 1965 Shelby Cobra Daytona Coupe Worldwide Auctioneers, Auburn, USA. 4 September £1,058,000 (CHF 1,355,000) 1953 Fiat 8V Berlinetta…

Jaws resurfaced in the public consciousness in early October with the West End debut of The Shark Is Broken, a play about the film’s production, which is usually described as ‘troubled’. That word has never seemed adequate. The fact that the producers originally wanted to train a great white shark to perform in the movie should tell you all you need to know about the naïveté with which the project was approached. No-one was prepared for the difficulties of shooting at sea, or for the utter uselessness of the three 25ft mechanical sharks, which proved much less functional and much more absorbent than promised. Filming went more than 100 days over schedule, the budget ballooned from $4m to $9m, and director Steven Spielberg – then just 27 – feared he…

Speed limits have long been an emotive issue in the UK, ever since our 19th Century Government insisted that a man with a red flag walk in front of any vehicle in motion. Thanks to agitation by the likes of the Automobile Association, a degree of sense eventually prevailed, and for decades we had speed limits that were broadly rational in their application. No longer. We now live in the age of the ideologically driven speed limit; of random numbers chosen by car-hating councils drunk on their own power, or fearful of losing votes (ironically, from the very locals who are usually the first to be caught up in any speed-monitoring exercise). There’s a fine road near me, the A424, connecting the Cotswold towns of Stow-on-the-Wold and Burford. Go on,…

I was brought up amid Cortinas, Granadas and mock-Georgian detached houses. We’d lived there for four years before the road into the estate from both ends finally met in the middle. Cue huge excitement and the demand for a drive out in dad’s Austin Princess. It was 1980. I was seven. A year later, the A56 Haslingden bypass opened. I’d been in hospital for a minor op. My treat on release? Yup, off we went on this new stretch of road. There and back. Twice. The excitement that began in my formative years has yet to diminish. Right now, we’re coming to the end of two years developing a ‘half-hamburger’ roundabout on the A45 in Northamptonshire. But there was a surprise last month: not all the signage was in place,…

I no longer own a car. If that seems incongruous for someone with a regular presence in a car magazine, I would simply say that theatre critics don’t have to own theatres. My thing is, I enjoy looking at cars as much as using them (and I enjoy using them a lot). The carnival of traffic I find forever fascinating: if someone established a university chair devoted to car-spotting, I’d be an ideal, possibly unbeatable, candidate. And since the University of Florence now has a post-grad course in coffee, and Liverpool University is offering an MA in The Beatles, why ever not? I unchained myself from the lunatic that is car ownership because my wife suddenly bought an electric Cinquecento, which is a useful and cheerful urban tool. And in…

There are many universal truths in the classic car world regardless of your ‘entry point’, as the financial sorts like to say. One is that whether you are maintaining an Austin A35 in your shed or have a team of ten keeping your 250 GTO in tip-top nick, the level of passion and enthusiasm for the cars tends to be precisely the same. Another is that the financial self-flagellation is much the same, too, comparatively. In terms of our classics, regardless of those cars or our means, we all seem to live a little bit (often a lot) beyond them. Have you ever met anyone just comfortably owning and maintaining a car without monetary pain or having to secretly squirrel away cash from a suspicious partner? No, me neither. If…

ROBERT COUCHER International editor • 1955 Jaguar XK140 ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor • 1962 Norton Dominator• 1965 Aston Martin DB5• 1967 Triumph GT6 GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 1989 BMW 320i Convertible SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director • 1981 BMW 323i Top Cabrio• 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante MARK DIXON Deputy editor • 1927 Alvis 12/50• 1927 Ford Model T pick-up• 1942 Fordson Model N tractor• 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in• 1966 Ford Mustang 289• 1994 Range Rover 4.0 JAMES ELLIOTT Editor-in-chief • 1965 Triumph 2.5 PI• 1968 Jensen Interceptor JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1936 Singer Nine Sports• 1961 Saab 96• 1972 Rover 2000 TC• 1989 Mazda MX-5 Eunos MATTHEW HOWELL Photographer • 1962 VW Beetle 1600• 1969 VW/Subaru Beetle• 1982 Morgan 4/4 MASSIMO DELBÒ Contributor • 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230• 1972…

AS MENTIONED BRIEFLY in the last issue, not only did I manage to squeeze in a holiday (abroad!) in late August, but my mood was further lifted on arrival in Corsica by a prolonged burst of pinging from my phone as Massimo Olimpi from Autostilo (autostilorestorations.co.uk) sent me a bunch of pictures of the latest progress on my Jensen. It would appear that there have been some changes in the resto of my car and, whereas up until now just one metal magician had been entrusted to do the bodywork from start to finish, a new chap had been enlisted and he has given it some real impetus. Which, frankly, is just what it needed because, despite the lovely quality of his work, one guy fitting in a few hours…

‘A run in my Porsche 356 “Streamliner” concluded on the end of an AA tow bar. The reason for apparent fuel starvation has yet to be discovered’Delwyn Mallett ‘Trixie, my Triumph GT6, hasn’t moved much recently but my bank balance has. My brother and I have acquired most of the bits to build up a hellzapoppin’ engine and transmission’Andrew English ‘Took the Delage to watch a c1898 Daimler being inspected by the Veteran Car Club’s dating panel and got caught in a sudden sharp shower. Thank heaven for Rain-X on the vee screen!’David Burgess-Wise ‘The Morgan’s been running better and better since I’ve had the suspension properly dialled-in. Sadly, a very expensive rebuild has not stopped the diff’ from whining’Matthew Howell…

CHITTY CHITTY BANG BANG By Corgi Toys ‘Part bird, part boat and part car’ was how the adverts described the new Corgi Toy that arrived in toy shops in November 1968. Three years earlier, Corgi had enjoyed huge success with a model of the James Bond Aston Martin loaded with action features. This opened the door to a lucrative market for toy cars associated with films and TV shows, and was quickly followed by others, such as the Man from U.N.C.L.E. Oldsmobile and the Batmobile. Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was a film based on Ian Fleming’s fantasy novel about an inventor called Caractacus Pott (‘Potts’ in the film) who rebuilds an old car that then develops magical properties and sprouts wings. Corgi replicated this action feature on the toy by…

27 October H&H, Bickenhill, UK (motorcycles) 28 October Brightwells, online 29 October SWVA, Poole, UK 4-22 November Artcurial, online 5 November Barons, online Bonhams, London, UK 6 November RM Sotheby’s, London, UK Worldwide Auctioneers, online 6-7 November Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn, UK 7 November Osenat, Chassieu, France 11-13 November Mecum, East Moline, USA 12 November Silverstone Auctions, Birmingham, UK (motorcycles) 12-13 November Mathewsons, online 13-14 November Silverstone Auctions, Birmingham, UK 17 November H&H, Duxford, UK 19 November RM Sotheby’s, Le Castellet, France 19-29 November Bonhams, online 20 November Morris Leslie, Errol, UK 23-30 November Shannons, online 24 November H&H, online 25 November DVCA, Stalbridge, UK 27 November Historics, Weybridge, UK Richard Edmonds, Showell, UK (motorcycles) 1-13 December Cheffins, online 2-4 December Mecum, Kansas City, USA 4 December Bonhams, London,…

2004 ASTON MARTIN VANQUISH, £79,500 A very late ‘pre-S’ model, with seven-spoke 19-inch wheels, mildly re-worked interior and many other updates over the early cars. Just 27,600 miles and a perfect maintenance record. Stunning. chilternaston.co.uk (UK) 1932 FORD ROADSTER $139,500 Not just a great-looking hot-rod, but one with period El Mirage and Bonneville history. Built by Jack Kukura to 190mph-plus spec, it’s offered in remarkably well-preserved condition today. fantasyjunction.com (US) 1971 PEUGEOT 204 BREAK €12,000 This surprisingly rare estate version of the 204 was exported from France in 1987, and has recently been restored in Portugal by Timeless Garage. A charming and compact load-lugger. lisbonclassics.com (PT) 1966 DATSUN BLUEBIRD NZD $17,990 Thanks to Pininfarina, this generation of Bluebird took on a very European (and pretty) style. This car survived due…

WHAT TO PAY Pay £35,000-45,000 and you will get a good solid car, with a fair few miles but a decent service record. Restored cars are out there, and if done to a good standard will cost £60,000-85,000 – which is also what you will need for a reasonably low-mileage original example. The best cars are pushing upwards of £100,000; a basketcase restoration project will be more like £15,000. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Many will have been modified, which can lead to premature engine problems. A well-maintained engine is good for over 150,000 miles before it needs a rebuild. Listen for a noisy timing chain; failure causes huge damage. It’s common for the viscous fan to fail, especially on infrequently used cars. The gearbox is tough, but the heavy…