Octane的February 2026目录

ADMITTEDLY A 140TH ANNIVERSARY doesn’t look quite so good on a set of party balloons as a nice round century or 150, but that doesn’t mean it is any less significant an event. And, ladies and gentlemen, as we skate serenely into 2026 it should be noted that it marks the 140th anniversary of the motor car. It was in January 1886 that Karl Benz patented his Motorwagen, widely accepted to be the first practical motor car. It certainly proved to be so a couple of years later, when Karl’s indomitable wife Bertha decided to show just how reliable and practical the motor car was by undertaking a 100km trek from Mannheim to Pforzheim with her teenage sons in August 1888, handily just at the same point as the car…

International Historic Motoring Awards 14 November With 400 people including guests who ranged from model David Gandy to Aston Martin design guru Marek Reichman, the International Historic Motoring Awards at The Peninsula London were the best since their inception in 2011. Hosted by Amanda Stretton, the awards followed a superb dinner and preceded the visibly moved guest of honour, design legend Giorgetto Giugiaro, receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award (far right, at bottom). Car of the Year contenders included Blue Bird and BRM ‘Old Faithful’, plus the winning Ford Escort Alan Mann 68 Edition by Boreham Motorworks. Gun Hill Studios Rally of the Tests 6-9 November Reliability reputations were turned on their head when an all-Lotus podium cleaned up on this gruelling event covering 720 miles, 30 tests and 22 regularities…

Palm Beach Cavallino Classic 13-15 February The Boca Raton, Boca Raton, Florida, USA The 35th edition of the prestigious Ferrari-only concours will be held at The Boca Raton resort on 14 February – but the traditional home of the event, The Breakers, will kick things off a day earlier by hosting a display of Best of Show winners from the past 34 years. cavallino.com Oberoi Concours d’Elegance 20-22 February The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India Back following a successful debut in 2024, when the Concours was named Breakthrough Event of the Year at the International Historic Motoring Awards. World-class European and American classics will dot the grounds of the Oberoi Udaivilas hotel, but visitors will also see an array of fascinating cars built and/or bodied in India. theoberoiconcours.com Sydney Harbour…

THE PEBBLE BEACH Concours d’Elegance raised a record $4million for charity in 2025, with many of the donations already distributed to the event’s primary charities at a celebratory lunch held recently at The Lodge at Pebble Beach. Since 1950, the Concours has raised more than $45million for charity, and organisers hope to smash through the $50million barrier by the 75th Pebble Beach Concours in August 2026, though that will require a record single-year effort. Concours chairman Sandra Button said: ‘The Pebble Beach Concours was founded by enthusiasts who wanted to gather together to celebrate cars, and that’s still the focus of the event on Concours Sunday. But from the start, the event has also had another purpose – that of raising donations for worthy charitable efforts. We are fortunate that…

I WAS MOST interested to read Stephen Bayley’s assessment of the smart [above]in Octane 271. I have a very personal interest because I was directly involved in the beginning of the project at Swatch. Swatch CEO Nicolas Hayek contacted GE Polymer Design Associates via GE Plastics to develop the engineering concept for his car. He bought in a young Swiss designer who developed the styling, the main elements for which remained through to the production car. Unfortunately I can’t remember his name – it was rather a long time ago. I was responsible for a team of 12 that engineered the development prototype vehicle. What made it exciting was Hayek’s willingness to encourage ideas to do things differently, which was very much the culture at Swatch. One particular idea was…

‘While it is presumptuous for me to expect to beat a team with so many years of racing experience, we find ourselves in the enviable position of leading on points. It would be a shame if we didn’t at least try to bring the World Championship to America.’ Carroll Shelby said these words right after his Cobras had won the GT class at Sebring in March 1964. This encouraging result led Ford Motor Company to ‘hedge its bets’ on challenging Ferrari’s might with the new prototype Ford GT, finding the money for Shelby to continue to Europe to provide a rear-guard action with his Cobras. The goal: to win the FIA World Manufacturers’ Championship for GT cars, a category that Ferrari had won convincingly with its 250 GTO the year…

BRUTAL, ISN’T IT? Especially in that vivid shade of green. But the Lola T70, even in its ultimate MkIIIB form you see here, was never quite what it seemed. Intimidating to the eye – and the ear, thanks to that wonderfully sonorous 5.0-litre Chevy soundtrack – the T70 was and remains a relatively ‘comfortable’ racing car to drive. Which is just as well. Because, while an illustrious roster of star names raced it at the height of the model’s late-60s/early-70s period life, it was always primarily intended to be friendly to amateurs. For Lola, the customer always came first. That’s what Johnny Herbert quickly discovered on his first encounter with this particular T70 on the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit recently. ‘Surprisingly, it’s a bit like when you jump into a…

Picture Ford’s Group A homologation specials from the 1980s and it’s no wonder the Sierra RS Cosworth springs to mind, especially given the RS500’s dominance in Touring Car racing. The Escort Mk3 gets a little lost in that context, but it too spawned Group A homologation derivatives, with the RS1600i and subsequent RS Turbo marking Ford’s entry into the newly established category. Though once dismissed by fans of rear-wheel-drive Fords, the best road cars can today command over £40,000 and have long been highly sought after by RS enthusiasts (not to mention something of a weakness for yours truly), while the race cars enjoy an impressive championship-winning pedigree. Four decades have passed since both raced in the British Saloon Car Championship, and we’re revisiting them with two immaculate road-going examples…

IT BEGAN WITH a letter and ended with an epitaph. Chris Lawrence designed and engineered the Monica super-saloon but came close to missing out on the gig. Given that it took over his life for eight long years, only to be extinguished just as it came good, there were times when he wished that he had. Jean Tastevin’s Jaguar Français was initially to have been powered by a special long-stroke Triumph engine devised by Lawrence, but a letter from the French industrialist initially fell on deaf ears. It arrived in early 1966. Lawrence didn’t speak a word of French so he put it in his bureau. He would attend to it later. Weeks ticked by before he attempted to decipher the letter and it was at this juncture that he realised…

IT HAS BEEN an interesting few weeks in the world of Gordon Murray-designed cars. In November, RM Sotheby’s managed to sell the final allocation for the GMSV S1 LM for $20,630,000 during the Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend. John Mayhead has gone into some depth about this car in the Data Mining section, but suffice to say it’s the most expensive brand new car ever sold at auction (aside from the Ferrari SP3 sold for charity a few months back). While the car doesn’t actually exist yet – which is why it’s missing from our Top 10 auction prices – the buyer will get the chance to work with Murray directly to shape its development. Of course, the car that influenced it remains the king, as demonstrated by the next…

IT’S NEVER EASY to think about what might happen to our cars after we die, but for the late historic racer and founder of the Hot Rods motorcycle parts company, Curtis Leaverton, the answer was obvious. After building this stunning collection over the years, he instructed the trust administering his estate to use the proceeds from its sale to support organisations assisting children with cancer and other illnesses. Headlining the collection – to be offered with no reserve at Amelia Island – is his 1932 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Series V Gran Sport. A well-known and beautifully cared for example, it retains its correct engine and original body and is estimated at $1,750,000-2,250,000. Another Alfa highlight is the 1971 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 racing car, which was notably driven to…

1 January 2026 Brooklands New Year’s Day Classic Gathering The UK’s biggest New Year’s Day gathering, featuring hundreds of classics, music and good grub. brooklandsmuseum.com 1 January Vintage Stony Vintage cars and motorcycles take over the Buckinghamshire town of Stony Stratford. vintagestony.co.uk 11 January Bicester Motion January Scramble The first Scramble of 2026 will include a display marking the 40th anniversary of the 1986 WRC season – the last to feature the wild Group B cars. bicestermotion.com 15-18 January Interclassics Maastricht The central exhibit at this edition of the Dutch show is titled ‘Legends of the Rising Sun’ and features a score of the greatest sports and racing cars to come out of Japan. interclassics.events 17 January VSCC Measham Rally The VSCC’s testing overnight navigation rally, run again on the…

IT SEEMS TO have become a tradition that a flurry of new restomods and hypercars is launched just before Christmas and the New Year, and 2025 has been no exception. Leading the charge in terms of impact and debate has been the Encor S1, a limited run of 50 remastered versions of the Lotus Esprit S1, a half-century after the original’s Paris launch and with a projected cost upwards of £430,000. The basis is an S4 V8 Esprit reclothed in a carbonfibre body that mimics the Giugiar-openned S1 – an S1 was scanned before CAD was used to create the new shape – so while it still employs a backbone chassis, it is the later, evolved version. The Encor has been designed by Daniel Durrant, former lead designer at Lotus…

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Few traditions in the car world are stronger than the relationship between Alfa Romeo and Zagato. From the 1920s on, some of the most beautiful (and, in racing, most successful) Alfa Romeos were bodied by the Milanese coachbuilder. Following Zagato’s creations for the Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 from 1927, including the Turismo, Sport and Granturismo bodies, the relationship flourished to such an extent that a 1933 Alfa Romeo 8C print advert was worded as ‘The Spider that, with the trio Alfa Romeo, Scuderia Ferrari and Carrozzeria Zagato, brought countless victories in the homeland and abroad for the honour of Italy.’ Carrozzeria Zagato was founded by Ugo Zagato in 1919, and aimed to capitalise on his expertise in metallurgy and manufacturing aeroplanes – developed during World War One while working at…

‘I WANT LOLA to be exactly what it always was.’ That’s how Till Bechtolsheimer sums up his vision for Lola Cars, three years into his spell at the helm of the once-great British racing car constructor. Bechtolsheimer, 43, is the founder of New York-based investment firm Arosa Capital, which specialises in energy, energy efficiency and renewables, including emerging technologies in the transport and automotive worlds. He is also a racer of historic cars and has competed in modern sports car racing in the US, too. When he took the plunge and bought Lola in 2022, he made it clear that re-establishing the brand in modern motorsport was the intention and he has been good to his word. So far, the Yamaha-powered Formula E campaign has been Lola’s only public appearance above…

The steep and winding drive up to the house is a series of hairpins but we’ve found that, if you judge the approach right, the Lancia Lambda will get round each of them in one. That’s no coincidence. The house in northern Italy is known as Villa Lancia, and it was owned by the Lancia family from the 1840s until just a few years ago. Villa Lancia is now in the care of two British vintage car enthusiasts, who heard it was for sale on a previous Lancia club visit. One of them is Nick Benwell, a Lancia specialist, and he is quite certain that the driveway was laid out so that Vincenzo Lancia could make it to the top in his own Lambda. ‘There’s a story that Vincenzo was…

I HAVE A strong cup of tea in my hand as I sit in the open doorway of a workshop bay at Turner Classics, a few minutes from my home in East Kent, and I have much to be pleased about. After all the hand-stripping and sanding at the very beginning of this restoration, which was followed by nearly three years of what seemed mostly to involve ripping out and cutting lumps off my poor old car, the Duetto’s ’shell is whole once again and being treated to something akin to a spa day. This second, more subtle though extremely thorough scour employs fine aluminium oxide powder, delivered via a hopper and blasting machine by the double act of Josh (outside an airflow booth) to young Toby, sealed inside with…

JOHN S ALLEN, GRAHAM ENDEACOTT & MARK COLE with MIKE TESKE Porter Press International, £325, ISBN 978 1 913089 72 6 A few months ago we had the first volume in this four-book project, which was a greatly expanded and updated version of Ronnie Spain’s seminal 1996 chassis record and race history. Number two in the series traces the evolution of the GT40 from genesis through to the 1964 and ’65 competition seasons, ending with the 1965 Le Mans 24 Hours. So, you may be thinking, what sets this book apart from all the many others that have been written about the GT40’s history? Well, for a start, it’s the production values. The book is massive – large-format, and running to 576 pages and over 1000 period photos and documents…

THIS FANTASTIC SELECTION of Mercedes-Benzes is one of the early highlights of RM’s Paris auction. The 300SL pair at the front nicely represents both the early vs late and open vs closed arguments, with the 1954 Gullwing (est €1,250,000-1,750,000) being one of the earliest steel-bodied cars and the 1962 Roadster (€1,200,000-1,500,000) one of the last to leave Sindelfingen. Equally timeless is the immaculate 1969 280SL Pagoda, offered at an estimated €120,000-140,000. When launched in 2010, the SLS AMG saw the return of those legendary Gullwing doors. The 2013 example for sale here is expected to make €240,000-290,000, while its Roadster sibling is estimated at €210,000-260,000. rmsothebys.com 2001 Ferrari 550 Barchetta Broad Arrow, online, UK 23 Jan, broadarrowauctions.com Just 448 of these appealing roofless 550s were produced by Pininfarina, and this…

SAY THE WORDS ‘Prince of Wales spec’ and the ears of any Aston Martin enthusiast in the immediate vicinity will prick up. It was coined after Prince Charles, as the King was then, requested a subtly enhanced V8 Volante, with the extra power of the full-fat carb-fed Vantage yet without the aggressive bodywork. The configuration later became one of the most desirable of all Newport Pagnell-era cars. Delivered new in 1983 in Buckinghamshire Green with fawn leather, the car currently offered by The Hairpin Company started life as a standard V8 Volante. Its transformation came in June 1988 when then-owner Nick Channing returned it to Newport Pagnell for a full Works Service conversion to PoW spec. That means it has the Vantage engine, manual gearbox and very subtly flared wheelarches…

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Single-marque collections hold a special place in the world of automotive museums. They celebrate not just the machines from one company, but the people who made them possible. These museums remind us that some cars are more than mere means of transportation: they are expressions of human creativity and ambition, best understood through the singular lens of a marque or its creator. While the Shelby American Collection, located in Boulder, Colorado, houses examples from several car companies – AC, Shelby, Ford, Sunbeam, De Tomaso – they all have this in common: Carroll Shelby and his goal to beat Ferrari. Shelby achieved his success not because he was an engineering genius like Dr Ferdinand Porsche or Ettore Bugatti. He was more like his arch nemesis, Enzo Ferrari: a charismatic leader who…

WHERE IS THE NATIONAL MICROCAR RALLY? Follow the smoke, the soothing aroma of combusted two-stroke oil, and arrive at the Cotswold Wildlife Park just outside Burford, Oxfordshire. Why here, and won’t the animals object? Because it’s where this event started, 50 years ago, so there’s celebrating to do. So what will we see there? That depends on what it means to be a microcar. Broadly, a microcar for the purposes of this event’s organisers is a car with an engine under 600cc or three wheels, or in many cases both attributes. It’s not vital for that engine to be a two-stroke, but many are, not least because they tend to be smoother and more powerful than a same-size four-stroke and therefore better at propelling something that purports to be a…

Here is a hulking Midwest linebacker dressed in the finest Neapolitan tailoring. American footballers have shoulders artificially enlarged by statement armour; tailors in Naples don’t use shoulder padding, preferring a more easy-going look, flattering the body rather than exaggerating it. But that might simply be the difference between the American and Italian ways of doing things. The Ghia Cadillac is a demonstration of these contrasting styles. The result of them coming together is a masterly synthesis of brute force and elegance. The linebacker steps backwards, rips off his sweaty armour, gives a graceful nod and puts on a nice suit. But New York and Turin were involved as well as Detroit and Naples. Cars, of course, transport you. On the ground and in the imagination. I often think the latter…

AS EAR-SPLITTING and life-affirming as a Hendrix solo, the Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo sears along Goodwood’s pit straight, turbos hissing to a crescendo before the Doppler effect discloses the flat-plane V8’s bark. Its driver pummels the brakes, downshifts and dives into Madgwick. From the pits, it looks fast – but nowhere near as fast as it feels from the driver’s seat. Minutes later I am strapped in with a five-point harness. My helmet is tethered to a HANS device. My hands clutch a Formula 1-style wheel. A bank of switches sits between me and pro driver Gus Bowers, who’d been warming the Pirelli slicks while I watched with nervous excitement. This Ferrari is one of four race cars on the menu in Goodwood’s ProDriver Experience with DTO Motorsport, a day…

Colnago Steelnovo Last year, Colnago celebrated its 70th birthday by creating the Steelnovo, a design that blends traditional steel-tube construction and newfangled 3D printing. The venerable Italian bicycle maker got a helping hand from Additiva, a Modena-based company that supplies 3D-printed metal parts to F1 teams. The finished bike offered both the ride quality of good old-fashioned steel and beautifully sleek, modern lines – but production was strictly limited, and the price was steep. Now, however, Colnago has decided to make the Steelnovo available as a standard model (though no more than 400 units will be made each year), and you can buy the frameset alone if the cost of a complete bike from Colnago makes your eyes water, as we suspect it might… Frameset £5290; complete from £14,811. colnago.com…

THIS WOULDN’T BE the first time a car had appeared in this slot because it had caught someone’s attention while re-watching old episodes of Breaking Bad. The Tercel 4WD was always something of a cult car in the USA but, after frequent appearances throughout the series as Jesse Pinkman’s main vehicle, a new generation of enthusiasts followed. Yet the real reason it’s here is because a couple of particularly nice examples at Festival Of The Unexceptional events had a few of the Octane team admiring what was (even when new) a relatively uncommon sight on UK roads. Launched in 1978, the first-generation Tercel was a compact two - or four-door saloon, with a hatchback following soon after. It was significant for Toyota as the company’s first front-wheel-drive car, although it…

I DIDN’T START watching motorsport until the late ’80s. It was mainly Formula 1 and Moto GP. I’ve done some competitive driving but only at a junior level. I did some karting, and whenever there have been opportunities I’ve taken them – I’ve done a bit of Formula 3 and Formula Renault. I did it to feel really connected to the drivers, to understand what they’re going through. But to make it as a driver, you need a lot of financial backing and you need to be the best, and I wasn’t – it was as simple as that. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, but I knew that if I couldn’t be a driver I wanted to be as close to the action as possible, and I…