Octane的August 2025目录

IF EVER A TERM has become ubiquitous in the classic car world, it is ‘barn-find’. Where once it meant a long-forgotten car found in an actual barn, or at the very least smuggled out of Cuba in crates under the nose of the Castro regime, or rescued from dereliction in the Eastern Bloc in a tale of great derring-do and George Smiley-esque negotiations, now it is rather more ‘pushed into a lock-up when it broke and now a bit dusty’. In the past I’ve even relished questioning whether ‘barn-find’ is an appropriate name for a car or collection that may be breaking cover publicly, but of which the entire classic car industry has known the details and location for decades. This stance all seems a bit po-faced now, even to…

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THERE ARE two new releases from ECD Auto Design in Florida, USA: a Mustang-based car and what the company describes as its most ambitious project yet, a Jaguar E-type GTO, with GTO standing for ‘Grand Touring Open’. Described as ‘a bespoke, open-top grand tourer blending Series 1 lineage, D-type cues, and modern performance’, the one-off car’s body was built in Coventry and fitted over an S2 chassis housing a Jaguar V12 rebuilt and tuned by Team CJ in Texas. Mated to ECD-developed fuel injection, the engine is good for over 400bhp and has a modern cooling system. Modern tech includes Bluetooth audio, heated seats, USB ports, automatic headlights and power locks. ‘This car pushed the limits of what’s possible when blending three generations of E-type architecture,’ said Elliot Humble, ECD’s…

Letter of the month I ENJOYED the article about the famous Alan Mann Escort, X00 349F, in Octane 265. This car has a particular resonance with me, as it was racing when I was about 14. I was so impressed that I managed to paste a large newsprint image into a scrapbook that I was compiling at the time, probably from an advert in the Daily Mirror or the Daily Express. It was seeing the Escort that really encouraged me to start a career in car design, working for Ford. I finally realised that ambition in 1979, when I joined the Dunton studio in Essex. A member of the design team, François Talou, retired a few years later and gave me some interesting old black-and-white images from his time there.…

A lthough the company was formed in late 1924, the first Invictas as we know them, using Meadows six-cylinder engines, were built in spring 1925. The first road test was published with a car photographed at Brooklands, which was both close to the Cobham factory and well-known to Invicta founder Noel Macklin. Seems like the perfect excuse for a centenary celebration. Captain Macklin (later Sir Noel) launched Invicta with the financial support of Oliver and Philip Lyle, of the sugar refining firm Tate & Lyle. It is therefore fitting that a private Invicta Car Club gathering should be held at Wilton House, just outside Salisbury, this magnificent pile being the home of the Earl of Pembroke, whose maternal great grandfather was Sir Arthur Tate, business partner of the Lyles. Lord…

WHEN MY BRITISH colleagues approached me as the publisher of Octane’s German edition to contribute to this section, I did not expect that my first piece would become a bit of a sad review. Only when I sat down to write did I realise how little I’ve been using my classics recently. That’s partly because I’ve been working a lot (probably too much) and that’s meant spending a lot of time in modern cars rather than classics. But, when I thought about it, there were also some serious technical issues that plagued me and my classics – and, of course, mostly during those sunny summer days when you want nothing more than to be out on the road in them and having some serious fun. My Porsche 911T had been…

AS I HAVE MENTIONED before, every five years or so the XK ‘fails to proceed’. Not its fault, and entirely to be expected, since this now seems to be the lifespan of a battery. The car, being a Jaguar, has always been polite and failed in the garage. So I call the AA man and he comes over in his yellow van and fits a new battery on site. Job done, so far on three occasions. The 140 almost failed to proceed along the King’s Road some years ago when the Lucas fuel pump started to pack up, but I tapped it with a hammer and we got home, whereupon I had a superior Facet pump fitted that works like a Trojan. The other day I thought I’d take the…

AUSTRALIA WAS NEVER a major car exporter and, when it did venture into overseas markets, it was usually to other right-hand-drive countries such as New Zealand and South Africa, as well as parts of Asia. However, Holden’s Monaro coupé of the early Noughties was available in the USA as a left-hooker, wearing Pontiac GTO badges, and in the Middle East as a Chevrolet Lumina. It was also offered in original right-hand-drive guise for UK buyers as the Vauxhall Monaro VXR. It even won a ‘Best Muscle Car’ gong in 2004. Yet despite all this international activity, the Monaro has always been a thoroughly Aussie machine, having debuted in 1968 and continued until 1977 in both two- and four-door form, and then being reintroduced in the early 2000s as the award-winning…

IT’S NOT UNUSUAL for the same car to break its own sale record, and that’s exactly what Michael Schumacher’s final Monaco-winning Ferrari F1 car – the F2001 – managed to achieve this month. Offered during the Monaco GP weekend by RM Sotheby’s, the F2001 achieved €15.98million, making it the most expensive Ferrari F1 car ever sold at auction. This same car was actually sold by Sotheby’s back in 2017 for $7.5million, which itself was a benchmark sale at the time. This is the chassis in which the seven-time World Champion secured his fourth drivers’ title, winning at Hungary, and is undoubtedly one of the most significant Ferrari racing cars ever sold publicly. The only modern F1 car sale that ranks slightly higher is the $18.8m achieved for Lewis Hamilton’s 2013…

ALTHOUGH IT’S OFTEN pigeonholed as a rally car, ‘XOO’ – the extreme Alan Mann Racing track-focused racing car – featured in our last issue proves that the Ford Escort Mk1 actually has a broad range of motorsport talents. This striking black-and-gold example has been competing on track since the early 1980s, and more recently has been developed by Braunesiser Renntechnik in Germany. The historic championship winner is powered by a 304bhp 2.3-litre Cosworth engine – with a Holbay Warrior 16-valve cylinder head – and a mechanical layout inspired by the 1975 Zakspeed factory car. It’s offered at the Festival of Speed sale with no reserve and an estimate of £40,000-60,000. bonhams.com…

IT IS QUITE unusual to see an A110 in white, or more specifically in this case, Ivory. Most Alpines, especially those destined for competition use, were finished in the instantly recognisable shade of Alpine Blue. As a relatively early example, this car – offered by Classic Motor Hub – was built in Dieppe, and features a dainty 1108cc Gordini VB engine. Aside from the very earliest 956cc versions, this car represents the purest Alpine experience, which boasted four-wheel disc brakes and a five-speed manual gearbox. 85bhp doesn’t sound like a huge amount today but with only 650kg to propel it’s enough to make this small coupé a lot of fun. This car arrived in the UK in 1984, when it was bought by an enthusiast from the Lenham Motor Company,…

THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY of the Formula 1 World Championship is set to dominate the festival calendar this summer, starting with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, which is going all-out with its celebrations. The event, held on 10-13 July, will break its F1-backed celebration down into six classes, starting with the AIACR Manufacturers’ World Championship of 1925, the progenitor of F1, then Pioneers, Innovators, Underdogs, Champions and Teams. With more than 100 F1 cars expected to participate in the Festival, F1 President and CEO Stefano Domenicali said: ‘We are thrilled to be working with Goodwood to present this celebration of 75 years of the Formula 1 World Championship at the Festival of Speed. The Duke and his team have an incredible ability to bring the past, present and future of motorsport…

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TRUE BARN FINDS ARE RARE BEASTS. During four decades of classic car enthusiasm, I’ve personally encountered only three real examples of a barn find: I recall a straw-filled barn (literally) at a Cornish farm we camped on as a child, full of vintage cars; an Austin Seven dragged from a neighbour’s tumbledown garage; and, about 15 years ago, an Alfa 2600 Sprint that had been serviced in around 1968 after 5000 miles, then locked up in a coach-house in Brighton until I witnessed it seeing the light of day again. To experience those doors opening for the very first time in over 40 years was extraordinary; the paper footwell protectors were still untouched and the service tag was swinging from the mirror. It felt magical, as if I had stepped…

‘They’re actually the same rear tyres as a Lamborghini Countach’s.’ A fun fact dispensed by this car’s eager owner, Dominic Taylor-Lane, as I’m hunched down behind it. It measures two full metres across at the rear, so it makes sense that this widened Alpine GTA’s voluminous rear wheelarches would need monster tyres to fill them. While sharing tyres with the Italian supercar might sound like great pub chat ammunition, it’s unlikely that anybody down at your local will have any idea what it is. Tell them it’s an Alpine GTA, and it will still take a reasonably knowledgeable car enthusiast to know. And this is clearly no ordinary GTA. Even more significant than the wide bodykit is the fact that this is a convertible. At this point you might be…

ABSENCE MAKES THE market grow fonder: a twist on an adage that’s deftly proven by one of the priciest product drops in Hot Wheels history. After 15 years without an official Ferrari casting in its line-up, the headline piece of the brands’ glorious reunion sold out in under two hours. Impressive, when it commanded $100 for a pair of 1:64-scale cars tucked in a teasing black box. ‘From a volume standpoint, the brand is bigger than it’s ever been,’ Hot Wheels’ Global Head of Design, Ted Wu, tells me at the glamorous unveiling in the Fiorano pitlane. ‘Our fans are as engaged as ever, so the timing is right to bring Ferrari back into the offering. We’re all about performance and design. Our brands are so similar in ethos that…

I ALWAYS GET very nervous come MoT time. Will it, won’t it? A bit like visiting the dentist: he is sure to find something. And you can bet your life it won’t be a cheap fix. So imagine my relief when ‘Enrico’, my Maserati 4200GT Cambiocorsa, scored a first-time pass, with no advisories. Let’s call that a win. Even better, Vic, who owns my local Ferrari and Maserati specialist, Migliore Cars in Bromsgrove, after giving the car his personal attention (including a check for clutch wear – only 30% worn) declared it ‘one of the nicest he’d driven’. This, of course, means yours truly is now riding cloud nine, and looking forward to a summer of Italian-style motoring without twitch or worry. Meanwhile, at the beginning of May I entered…

DURING A RECENT trip to Berlin for a preview of the latest 911 Spirit 70 – full story of the Pascha-trimmed special on the website – I finally got behind the wheel of a 997 Sport Classic. Unveiled in 2009 and intended to tug the heartstrings of 2.7 RS fans, it has, for many years, been my dream-spec 911. The 997 is still in my opinion one of the best-looking 911s, and the Sport Classic elevates it further with unique cosmetic changes. Most notable is the ducktail rear spoiler, to which was added a bespoke rear bumper, gorgeous Fuchs-style wheels and a unique double-bubble roof – not to mention Sport Classic Grey paint. The interior is beautifully trimmed in a dark coffee leather. A 997 feels so narrow after a…

KARL LUDVIGSEN, Evro, £395, ISBN 978 1 910505 37 3 Three slipcased volumes, 1960 pages, 665,000 words and 3584 images – now you know why you’re being asked to stump up £395 for a work on supercharging and turbocharging. In its simplest terms, both these processes force air into the combustion chamber for increased efficiency and power. Superchargers are mechanically driven, for example by the crankshaft, whereas turbos are spun up by exhaust gases to compress the incoming air. The principle is the same for both, and turbos were known in earlier years as turbine-superchargers. As so often in the history of motoring, supercharging has been around as long as the motor car itself. In 1883-4, Wilhelm Maybach designed a single-cylinder engine that had a spring-loaded poppet valve built into…

15-16 August THERE ARE FEW collectors as highly regarded as Ralph Lauren. And not many cars bought by the legendary fashion designer ever find their way back onto the market, which is partly why this very special Ferrari F50 is expected to sell for $6,500,000-7,500,000 when it heads to Monterey later this summer. While the Lauren connection is quite a draw, there are multiple factors that could make this the most expensive F50 ever sold at auction. Of the 349 F50s built, this is one of only 31 optioned with the Giallo Modena paint finish – and one of just two original US-spec cars. Of that pairing, this car is unique for having a Nero interior, optioned by Lauren himself. The easy way to identify the American-spec F50s is by…

WHEN YOU HEAR the phrase ‘Japanese import’, generally a mental image of Mitsubishi Evos or Subaru Imprezas tends to spring to mind. During the late 1990s and early 2000s, though, Japan also became a fruitful place to source clean, well-maintained British sports cars – especially the MG RV8. A great many returned home via this route, meaning that today – 35 years since production ended – there are more RV8s running in the UK than were originally sold here. That might sound impressive, but it’s really indicative of just how poorly the ‘modernised’ MGB V8 sold in the UK when it was new. In total, only 307 of the 1983 built were actually registered at home. With a small number sold to mainland Europe – it wasn’t even offered in…

The genius of Gordon Murray Full interview, a tour of his personal car collection, all the cars he’s designed, plus a very special road-test Plus Facel Vega vs Gordon-Keeble Which does ultra-luxe with US V8 power best? Frazer Nash SS On track in a super-competitive single-seater Cars of the Vatican The rare limos that pre-dated the Popemobile Learning to race historics The world’s only race school exclusively for historics (Contents may be subject to change)…

26-29 June  La Leggenda di Bassano A first-rate regularity rally for classic open-top competition cars, held in northern Italy. laleggendadibassano.com 26 June – 14 July  White Nights From the start in Copenhagen, crews will drive north through Sweden, Finland and Norway, chasing the midnight sun. bespokerallies.com 27 June Hope Classic Rally Entrants motor around Surrey in classic cars provided by a group of generous owners. The event raises money for WeSeeHope, a charity helping children in sub-Saharan Africa. hopeclassicrally.org 27-29 June The Aurora Held in the pretty Norrviken Gardens just outside Båstad in Sweden, and this time with special classes including one for Zagato-bodied cars and another for restomods. theaurora.se 27-29 June  Dragstalgia Santa Pod Raceway serves up the sights, sounds and smells of drag racing in years gone by.…

THE ALPINE A110 S dances over the train linkages as I enter LeShuttle, its burbling exhaust note flamboyantly ricocheting off the carriage’s steel walls. Once parked, the 1.8-litre turbocharged engine settles to a gruff idle before I silence its quartet of cylinders with a jab of the big red button in the centre console. Then the radiator fan whirrs into action, enthusiastically massaging air over the hot engine block, mounted just behind my fixed-back bucket seat. The exhaust ticks gently as the metal cools, relieved after funnelling 200°C combustion gases for the past 115 miles to England’s south coast and the Channel Tunnel. It’s an incredibly good car, the A110. It feels effervescent, lightweight, brimming with character. And today I’m driving it to its birthplace in Dieppe, France, for Alpine’s…

Most cities are harsh, noisy and aggressive in character. Those who can will do their best to insulate themselves from the cut ’n’ thrust of the urban jungle, and this includes their choice of motor vehicle. Somewhat absurdly, those who really can will often choose large SUVs and 4x4s for their tough demeanour and lofty visibility when dealing with interminable traffic, never mind that these vehicles are inherently unsuitable, being both gross and unwieldly. Here we have a better solution, one that’s 55 years old… Launched in 1968, the marque’s first new car since the E-type in 1961, the Jaguar XJ6 cost the company a whopping £6million to develop. In both 2.8- and 4.2-litre versions it was intended to replace the dated Mk2 and S-type, the huge MkX and Daimler’s…

EVERY APRIL FOR the past 37 years, I have rolled the ’Healey out of winter hibernation to get it ready to use over the summer, instead of the daily grind of 21st Century highway hell. Over the years we have had epic adventures, top down and armed with a red Michelin Guide, to the French Alps and Riviera, Lake Como in Italy, the Rings of Kerry, Ireland, and Le Mans. This year is the Healey’s 60th birthday, so it seemed appropriate to visit the place where the car was made – the BMC works in Abingdon, Oxfordshire – as part of our road trip to the Cotswolds and a Bicester Scramble. We planned to start on national Drive It Day, 27 April, a charity event organised by the Federation of…

THE LAST TIME we featured a Range Rover given a makeover by Oxfordshire-based Kingsley was in Octane 234, almost three years ago. That was a 1971 early three-door, with a 3.9-litre injected Rover V8 and suspension upgrades, and it cost £125,000. This one is based on a 1991 five-door with a 4.6i V8 and it costs £260,000 plus VAT. What’s changed, apart from the pricing? Well, the company has, for a start. Since 2022 it’s been through a clean sweep of owners and management team, and been renamed Kingsley Re-Engineered. But this early example of Kingsley’s latest offering is also quite a different beast from that previously tested example. Externally, it looks pretty stock, although the 18in Defender all-black Sawtooth alloys – necessary to clear huge 350mm brake discs –…

BURFORD. GATEWAY TO the Cotswolds. Cozy tea rooms. Posh hotels. Burning clutches as Honda Jazzes try to reverse into parking spaces on The Hill. A major watchmaking centre that supplied watch dials to firms all over the world and re-lumed hundreds of Rolex and other military timepieces for the Ministry of Defence. Huh? Burford is obviously a place better known for high teas than high horology, but it was once an international centre for watchdial printing. The original workshop, now a private house, is still just off Tanner’s Lane but the only trace of the firm in the town today is a few old photos and some memories. In 1952, when Watchdials (Burford) Limited was founded, things were very different. Barely 25 miles away in Bishop’s Cleeve on the edge…

Scalextric 1965 Monte Carlo Rally Minis pack The conditions on the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally were some of the worst in memory. ‘Falling snow restricted vision to ten yards or less,’ wrote John Davenport in his report for Motor Sport. ‘Already many of the road signs were obscured by the snow and many, many cars simply got lost.’ Just 35 of the 237 starters made it to Monte Carlo, yet the No. 52 Mini Cooper S of Timo Mäkinen and Paul Easter reached the finish without dropping a single second, and won. The two other works Minis (one crewed by Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon, the other by the Morley brothers) survived the blizzards and the ice, too, and models of all three BMC team cars are in this set.…

MY JOURNEY into motorsport has probably been quite a bit different from most people’s because I don’t have any family history of it – I was just a kid with pictures of race cars on my bedroom wall. I remember going to Knockhill with my dad in 1994 and hanging through the fence thinking, ‘Wow – racing cars! Wouldn’t it be incredible to drive one of those one day?’ Little did I know I would end up here. But I didn’t start karting until I was 16 – which is ancient by today’s standards. If you look at someone like Lewis Hamilton, he was five years old when he started. I was definitely late to the party. After karting, I managed to do some support races – Fiestas, as it…