Octane December 2015

IT FEELS NO TIME AT ALL since I wrote ‘One hundred issues. I can hardly believe it!’ And here we are at issue 150, and not only can I scarcely believe that time has passed so quickly, and that there are several of us still here who’ve survived 150 press days (and nights), but I’m also becoming rather conscious of repeating myself… Anyway, we all sat down a while back, to think about what to do for issue 150. Some frankly daft ideas came up, and were promptly dismissed, and then came the daftest idea of all: ‘Let’s see if an early E-type really will reach 150mph.’ Funny how feasible that seemed at the time; and funny how similar the meeting was to the first get-together in a pub back…

E-TYPE TO THE MAX ‘A new Golf GTi and a BMW had a bit of a go, so I pulled over into the slow lane, but the E-type was still accelerating at 135mph and it was fun to watch them fall back because they couldn’t go any faster!’ Former British Hill Climb Champion David Franklin describes his attempt at ‘maxing’ a standard 1961 E-type on pages 80-90. A JOURNEY FROM GREECE ‘Driving the length of Italy, through Switzerland and then France in a Citroën DS I’d bought in Greece and knew little about was surreal, sometimes mildly terrifying but absolutely unforgettable. We all like to pretend that our lives are one long adventure.’ Read more about Jethro Bovingdon’s adventure on pages 110-116. BAYLEY GOES SUBURBAN ‘I have always enjoyed things…

HISTORIC MOTORING AWARDS The International Historic Motoring Awards are back! Run in association with EFG, the venue is the Renaissance St Pancras, London, on 19 November. See www.historic motoringawards.com. BUY OR SELL CLASSICS ONLINE Want to buy a classic car? Got a classic car to sell? Just fancy browsing classic cars for sale in your lunch hour? Satisfy all your cravings at www.classicand performancecar.com. ONE FOR BOND FANS Look out for the next issue of Octane’s sister magazine Vantage, which features a cover story that celebrates the relationship between Aston Martin and James Bond – including the DB10 from the new film Spectre. SUBSCRIBE TO OCTANE Have Octanedelivered hot off the press – or read the digital edition on your iPad, PC or laptop. See our special offer (pages 190-191)…

A RARE vintage Panhard engine of more than ten litres capacity – similar to the ones used in early Grand Prix cars – has been found abandoned on a pavement in a Spanish village, after being tracked down by a teenager using Google’s Street View. It seems that the engine had been taken out of a car and used to power the machinery in a local mill, probably in the early 1920s. The engine was later removed when electricity was installed at the mill, and dumped on a pavement in the village of Los Gallardos in Andalusia. It has remained there ever since, perhaps since as far back as the 1930s. VSCC stalwart Mark Walker received a tip-off about the engine and asked his teenage son Hughie if he could…

THE AUTOMOTOCLUB STORICO ITALIANO, Italy’s largest private classic car club, with more than 100,000 members, has bought all 79 cars in the Bertone Collection. Last month Octanereported that the collection was being offered in one lot following Bertone’s bankruptcy, and that it was feared it would disappear from view or one day be relieved of its protected status (a condition of sale is that it remains in Italy and can’t be broken up). Most of these fears were dispelled when ASI revealed that it had made a successful bid of €3.44 million, 61% above the reserve price, against four other interested parties. ASI’s president, Roberto Loi, commented afterwards: ‘I’m very proud, not only because we have saved a piece of Italian history, but also because, being from Turin, I would…

NEXT YEAR’S Concours of Elegance is to take place at Windsor Castle – the largest and oldest inhabited castle in the world – on 2-4 September. This will be the second visit to the Castle by the concours; the inaugural event was held there in 2012, followed by visits to St James’ Palace, Hampton Court and (this year) the Palace of Holyroodhouse. Organisers always hoped it would be possible for the event to return to Windsor, though that was by no means guaranteed. Fortunately Her Majesty the Queen has now given permission for the event to take place, with plans for a spectacular display of 60 of the world’s most important cars in the quadrangle of Windsor Castle, plus further displays in the castle grounds and along the Long Mile…