Índex per March 2021 a Octane

WHISPER IT, BUT when the Bugatti Veyron steamrollered its way into the spotlight in 2005 I didn’t really approve. I thought that Ferdinand Piëch had blundered big-time, applying the wrong one of the many brands at his fingertips to this blunderbuss of a car. Was this behemoth really a Bugatti? Not to me; conceptually, this modern-day version of the fastest lorry in the world should have had Bentley written all over it. Bugatti, after all, should be all about words such as lithe, agile and nimble, while Bentley is your go-to marque for brute force and pummelling power defeating weight. And what says power better than an 8.0-litre quad-turbo W16 punching out a thousand horsepower to shift two tonnes from standstill to a top speed of 253mph? I’ve grown up…

13 February Concours in the Hills Fountain Hills, Arizona, has long been known for its giant fountain, which shoots water 170m into the air, but has more recently received attention for this relaxed gathering of around 1000 cars, which last year raised $262,000 for charity. concoursinthehills.org 14-17 February Rally Neige et Glace Based in the French village of Malbuisson, close to the Swiss border, this event does what it says on the tin, serving up 1000km of reliably wintry conditions to test crews and their cars. zaniroli.com 4-6 March WinteRace A field of 50 pre-1977 cars, an expertly plotted route through the Dolomites and some of Europe’s most beautiful mountain scenery, plus snow, snow and more snow. winterace.it 5-6 March Per Ardua ad Infinitum South West One-and-a-half days of tough…

So here I am, making my way about the city in a Baroque Gold 1968 Cadillac Fleetwood Eldorado. London isn’t as crowded as it might be, but there are people about, all the more so as the light fades and Saturday evening burgeons. The car feels at home here, in that mix of urban grit and gentrification. Its low and lengthy linearity is reflected in the neon glow of bistro windows, and the solidity of its ‘feel the width’ construction finds its counterparts in the Victorian infrastructure of rail bridges and Thames wharves. Of course, this isn’t the environment it was built for, but Interstates and the grand estates of North America’s more exclusive suburbs have moved on: there you won’t find quite so many Caddies amid the Rolls, Mercs…

Mike Kimberley became boss of Lotus Cars in 1976, and was instrumental in the Talbot Sunbeam Lotus. He still remembers the surprise phone call that started the project, has original test data comparing an Avenger mule (6.6sec 0-62mph) against the likes of the Escort RS1800 (8.5sec), and can now joke about the Sunbeam’s dynamics wrong-footing even some of his own development team, with its power, rear-drive layout and short wheelbase. ‘I was driving into work one icy morning and saw a Sunbeam Lotus, wheels in the air, with an engineer looking nervously out at me from the trees!’ he tells Octane. ‘Fortunately that one was repairable – though we did lose a few cars to overconfidence and the high power-to-weight ratio. It was a hell of a car, a very…

WHEN ENTHUSIASTS LIST motorsport’s photographic greats, the name EV Starr is unlikely to feature, yet when two boxes of his unseen colour slides emerged at auction 15 years ago, their insight into the sport sparked a 15-year project culminating in a book of his work. Not just one, in fact, but a series of five, of which the first has recently been published. Edgar Vernon Starr spent most of his life in the West Country. The aircraft draughtsman was a member of the Cheltenham Motor Club and competed in a Riley, but he followed motorsport widely. He had no association with the teams and no privileged access – this was a keen amateur with a gift for getting into the thick of the action in the pits and paddock. These…

THE BABY-TALK NAME may suggest something for you to do with a tiny tot or what chatty dog owners engage in when out strolling with their pets, but during World War Two the walkie-talkie could often mean the difference between life and death. Who exactly invented the hand-held communication device – the Canadians or Americans traditionally joust for the title – is a matter of debate that largely depends on which side of the border one hails from, but the evidence seems to favour self-taught Canadian electronics wizard Donald Hings. Hings was born in Leicester in 1907, moved to Canada with his mother at the age of three and left school early to help support her. By 1937 he was working for the Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company (Cominco) in…

MORGAN X PISTON GIN Morgan is a steadfast upholder of tradition rather than a restless innovator, but the company has just achieved a rare world first. With the help of Piston Distillery, it has created a gin infused with ashwood – the stuff used to build the frames of Morgan cars. A hint of apple was added, too, and the concoction is apparently especially good when served over ice with ginger ale and fresh blackberries. £45. morgan-motor.com SEGWAY DIRT E-BIKE X260 Unlike those two-wheelers for which Segway is best known this one requires known, you to be able to balance on your own. It’s a whole lot more fun than its stablemates, however, boasting 184lb ft of torque, a top speed of 47mph and a range of 75 miles. $4999.…

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For a short period of time, there was an active market for domestic German cars to be brought into the States and this 54,000-mile Delphin Gray CSi, with Pearl Beige leather and striking BBS RS005 three-piece wheels – rebuilt in 2019 – and an automatic transmission, was shipped to the US in 1985 as a grey market import. The process, known as ‘Federalizing’, included making cars compatible with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Transportation (DOT) specifications. This process often included the installation of catalytic converters, welding braces inside of doors, and a downgrading of lighting to sealed-beam units. Values keep increasing on many 1980s and 1990s BMWs, including the 635CSi, and the exterior styling and luxury interior fittings are now considered among the highlights by collectors of these…

THE ONLY ONE of its kind produced, this striking silver 1993 Isdera Commendatore 112i was the brainchild of German engineer Eberhard Schulz. Built around Mercedes-Benz running gear, it’s powered by the mid-mounted 6.0-litre M120 V12 engine, producing around 400bhp. A specially adapted six-speed RUF Porsche gearbox is used to send power to the rear wheels. Housed around a spaceframe chassis, the bodywork and gullwing doors are made out of glassfibre. Although only one car was sold, it became surprisingly well known thanks to an appearance in the video game Need for Speed II. In 2016 this ‘unicorn’ was reacquired by Islero and returned to its former glory. It’s now offered directly from the manufacturer with its original gold BBS wheels and a clean bill of health. This car, which was…

SWEDISH CARS HAVE traditionally been safe and ruggedly built saloons and estates. Some have been pretty rapid, and many have appeal as an executive car that isn’t the predictable German choice. So the idea of a lightweight, glassfibre-bodied two-seater Saab seems unusual today. And strangely appealing, too. Like many interesting automotive ventures, the original Sonett started out as a motorsport side project. Starting with the 93’s basic front-wheel-drive running gear, a lightweight aluminium monocoque chassis was constructed with a glassfibre body around it, weighing in at just 500kg. The completed prototype made its debut in March 1956, and six more were built for testing – only for the competition rules to be changed the following year, which made the 96 a more appealing motorsport prospect for Saab. Game over for…

AND NOW FOR something completely different. Describing itself as ‘A Museum on the Move’, the East Anglia Transport Museum is meant to appeal to all ages: the older generation will enjoy reminiscing with the younger generation about a different, simpler world. Youngsters who have probably never seen a trolleybus or tram will be equally enchanted. There are no supercars here, just a relaxing, interesting and informative day out. Just outside Lowestoft, the museum celebrates all kinds of vehicles and is laid out like a small village, just perfect for a gentle stroll, or visitors can travel around the site in all manner of public transport. Just inside the entrance is the Chapel Road Terminus, the main pick-up point for trams and trolleybuses. Beyond that is Tramway Avenue, with its tearooms…

Bust to boom, again, for Coys Coys of Kensington is to be reborn, less than a year after collapsing and leaving debts of millions. The company, which previously went bust and left a trail of creditors in 2004, has this time been bought and relaunched by the Calleri family fund, run by classic enthusiast Richard Calleri and advised by his father Antonio Calleri. Nick Wells, formerly a consultant to Coys, will be part-owner and managing director and run the business from its previous Richmond showroom, which is being refurbished. Meanwhile, creditors to the old Coys are ramping up their campaign to retrieve £6million of monies owed, largely from non-payment for cars that had been sold at auction. London-based specialist Chris Oliver of Evoke Classics is calling on MPs John Cryer…

MY FASCINATION with hot rods began when I found a copy of Hot Rod magazine lying around at St Martin’s School of Art, where I studied in the 1960s. I loved the style of the dry lake racers – pith helmets and white T-shirts with fag packets tucked up the sleeves – which struck me as impossibly cool, living as I was in stuffy old West London. Remarkably, by the late 1970s I had a garage next to my flat in West Hampstead, and a friend called Simon Pickford had bought an unfinished Ford Model B hot rod project… so we ended up building it together. It had the usual chromed Jag IRS rear end, which I disliked – even then, I was more ‘trad’ – but a sweet Daimler…

Letter of the month THE WONDERFULLY evocative article in Octane 212 about the pre-war Grands Prix held at Lwów in Poland had me checking personal recollections of my father, who was born in Lwów in 1915 and would have been at the very impressionable age of 15-18 years when they took place in 1930-33. Father was Witold (Lanny) Lanowski – my mother remarried in the 1950s, so I have a different surname – and was one of the Polish flying aces of World War Two. He fought in the Polish, French, British and US air forces, racking up around 420 combat hours, and went on to fly around 50 different types of aircraft, including post-war jets such as the Hunter and Venom. His favourite and most successful was the P-47…

The collective response is one of unfeigned awe. The fanfare from within the covered trailer can only be that of a V8 being awoken from its slumber. It sounds less guttural than many of its type, but burbly all the same. And then the car is backed out slowly until it is revealed in its entirety. It is spectacular, that’s for sure, as befits a coachbuilt exotic that has emerged only recently from a five-year restoration. It’s just that onlookers are openly debating the identity of the marque, and none are even close. It’s enough to give any car low self-esteem. But therein lies the appeal of the Fiat 8V. This most proletarian of marques has produced several landmark classics; cars beloved the world over. It’s just that it doesn’t…

The Monaco pits are awash with star drivers and supermodels, walnut-faced security staff and (of course) the super-rich. In one display area sits the Porsche 804 aboard which Dan Gurney won the 1962 French Grand Prix. It remains the sole Formula 1 victory for the marque. Nearby, and ignored by the media, stands the man who developed not only that car but just about every legendary road and race Porsche for almost half a century. He was the firm’s first-ever employee. Herbert Linge is seemingly invisible. At least, he is until Jacky Ickx makes a beeline for him. So does Derek Bell, along with countless other legendary wheelmen. Then the world seems to take notice, and the softly spoken nonagenarian is surrounded by photographers and film crews. He is clearly…

One of the great ‘advances’ of this social-media-driven world has been the democratisation of hyperbole. Once largely the preserve of politicians, journalists and advertising copywriters, such lexical exaggeration has become a free-for-all… and inevitably diluted as a result. ‘Iconic’ now roughly equates to ‘quite good’, ‘legendary’ to ‘you might have heard of him/her/it’, and ‘national treasure’ to anyone who is generally presumed to be liked but is wholly inadequate in their chosen publicfacing profession. There’s even an equivalent in our cosy little world: has any word suffered more than ‘barnfind’? We are all to blame, of course, not least the hacks, dealers and auction houses, but what started as a valid romantic description for that stashed California Spyder discovered in and dragged out of the remote barn where it had…

Other interesting cars we’ve been driving MERCEDES-BENZ MULTITUDE MATTHEW HAYWARD LIKE SO MANY things in 2020, much of Mercedes-Benz Classic’s planned activity was curtailed by Covid constraints, but that didn’t stop the company celebrating more than 130 years of motoring history during that brief window before restrictions were reinstated. Octane joined its ‘Dream Drives’ event at the Immendingen vehicle test track, the company’s newest and most impressive facility. Normally the track plays its part in prototype vehicle development; today it’s the perfect environment for experiencing a huge variety of cars. So let’s start at the very beginning… 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen There’s only one known original survivor, and that’s in a museum. So what we have here is one of a few very nicely built reproductions, lovingly crafted by Crosthwaite &…

Price £139.95 & £95.95 Material Resincast Comparing different-scale models of the same car is always an interesting exercise: how have the details been treated? Have the modelmakers interpreted their subject matter in the same way? How much has been compromised on the smaller version? Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised at just how similar these two models of Aston’s performance SUV appear, since they are both new releases by Chinese company TrueScale (the 1:18 version is in its Top Speed range). Not only is their paint an exact match, but there’s remarkably little to differentiate them in terms of detail – both have full interiors and the 1:43 version even has miniature drilled brake discs, just like the 1:18 model. These two are finished in Hyper Red but they are also…

THE WORLD WILL not forget 2020 in a hurry. Public health crisis aside, the economy has faced unprecedented shutdowns, and both international and local travel have been curtailed. After the initial shock and event cancellations, it was clear that the auction world would continue in one form or another. We’ve highlighted some of the highs and lows during the year but, as we head into 2021, it’s a good time to reflect on just how things changed in 2020. As the pandemic hit in March, everything ground to a halt. The many big event cancellations hurt in the short term, and it felt like the shift towards online happened almost overnight. RM Sotheby’s led the way in May with its timed online auction, posting strong results, with Gooding following in…

We covered the history of this Group A homologation hero in Octane 212, and it’s certainly a car that has seen a monumental rise in prices during the past decade. A limited production run of only 502 examples ensured demand outstripped supply at launch, with many heading straight to private collections – good news for today’s buyer looking for a timewarp Evo II with minimal miles. Silverstone Auctions raised the bar in February 2016 when its 2772km car (pictured) blitzed the £140,000-160,000 pre-sale guide, fetching £292,500. Six months later Silverstone was back in the market, offering a UK-supplied 885-miler that made a mid-estimate £202,500. An uptick at the start of 2020 saw Gooding & Company set a new auction record of $434,000 (£326,000) for no. 256, which had 7615km on…

IT MAY HAVE started life as a 1960 Giulia SS, but this car’s interesting history saw it converted to Coda Tronca (square tail) spec just two years into its life. According to dealer Mark Donaldson, it’s known affectionately as ‘The Chilean Car’. It earned its name in period, as it was sold new in SS form to Eduardo Kovacs Jones, an Alfa Romeo distributor in central Chile. After some racing it was passed on to another owner, before the third – Santiago-based racer Jorge Comandari – asked Zagato to rebuild the car to SZ2 specification. It then went on to race until 1964, when it was once again sold, remaining in Chile with fellow racer Evaristo Pena. In 1990 the SZ2 was sold by Pena to a German dealer, who…

This one-day event at HERO’s Bicester HQ had to be reinvented just hours before the off (and several times before that) to adapt to the fast-changing Covid-19 regs. Yet, after much of the 2020 calendar was wiped out, and despite the mud-spattered faces (we’re looking at you Mary Antcliff, left, in a 1929 Riley Brooklands with Nigel Dowding!), the 19 December event offered 70 crews a hugely enjoyable set of 11 treacherously slippery tests and three road regularities. Winners were Paul Crosby and Andy Pullan in a Porsche 911, clocking up just over a minute in penalties. Darrell and Nicky Staniforth were 40 seconds behind in a Mini-Cooper S, with the Porsche 924S of David Alcock and Barry Green a further 20sec back.…

BREXIT BRINKSMANSHIP (blame the EU or blame the UK Government, depending on your views) resulted in an incredibly lastminute agreement at the most difficult time of year, compounded by a new Covid crisis. Brexit’s full implementation will inevitably take time, but what are the immediate effects? The simple answer is that very little has changed – but there are small changes that could have a big effect for some, and the lastminute deal has caused temporary panic among suppliers on both sides of the Channel, causing them to refuse to supply or ship parts until they are sure of the requirements and liabilities. For classic car owners planning a trip to Europe, advice on driving in the EU is at gov.uk/guidance/driving-in-the-eu. As before, you must carry your UK driving licence…

THE ASTON MARTIN DB7, Ferrari 328, Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG and Jaguar Mk2 are the shrewdest buys a UK classic car enthusiast can make right now, according to a new report. Insurance company Hagerty has released what it says is a ‘data-driven’ report highlighting ten undervalued classics it reckons you should invest in now. Yet it is not just about the cars likely to have the biggest hike in values over the next 12 months. According to Hagerty: ‘The list isn’t tailored to investors, it’s aimed at people who want to find, buy and drive a vehicle they love. Buy a car you like first and foremost, and should it deliver a healthy return financially, consider that an added bonus.’ With analysis of global market trends and opinion from a roster…

Speed thrills, but distance matters. The combination of a Bugatti Veyron and a limit-free stretch of the German Autobahn is every bit as exciting as you would expect, especially when trying to keep an even-quicker Bugatti Chiron in sight. But the velocities that both cars can conjure in even short gaps in traffic create less adrenaline than the need to maintain a safe gap from other road users. There’s plenty of visceral thrill at 300km/h as the W16 engine bellows and the road surface blurs; but much more in the sight of a flashing indicator in an adjacent lane as somebody contemplates moving out to pass a lumbering truck a couple of hundred metres ahead. At this pace that gap will be covered in less than three seconds. Yet the…

1966 MORETTI 850 SPORTIVA RICHARD HESELTINE IT’S A TERRIBLE thing, obsession. When it comes to cars, I tend to veer towards the strange stuff. Moths show greater resistance to flame. More than anything, though, I have craved an ‘etceterino’ – a small-series Italian car – for as long as I can remember. Scroll back to 2016 and a visit to McGrath Maserati led to the principal, Andy Heywood, showing me around his secret stash. And there it was: a first-series Moretti 850 Sportiva, one of my all-time dream cars. What’s more, it was for sale. The car pictured here isn’t it. Unfortunately, the sale of the Lamborghini Espada I co-owned with Mark Dixon took longer to conclude than expected, and I missed out on Andy’s car by a few days.…

1963 TATRA 603 DELWYN MALLETT SADLY, I HAVE to report that my Tatra T603 has redefined the term ‘moth eaten’. While the car has been in storage, the headlining has served as a massive banquet for a marauding horde of voracious tineola bisselliella larvae. That’s the posh name for the common clothes moth. Undisturbed for nearly two years, the corpses of thousands of deceased moths were scattered throughout the interior: I recoiled in shock on seeing them. It seemed sensible to get the Tatra into the fresh air so that I could tackle the task of cleaning out the newly musty and dusty interior. After I had connected a fresh battery and primed the carburettors by pumping up fuel using the lever on the mechanical pump, with just a few…

A PRODIGIOUS talent for drawing combined with an obsession with the future led to Syd Mead’s extraordinary ability to turn inner visions into fabulously exotic artwork. Born in 1933, the son of a Baptist preacher in St Paul, Minnesota, he was soon on the move as his peripatetic father spread the word of God. It’s said that he started drawing at the age of three, and he was an accomplished draughtsman by the time he graduated from the Colorado Springs High School in 1951. Army service took him to Okinawa, Japan, from 1953 to ’56, after which he followed his calling and enrolled in the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now the Art Center College of Design, Pasadena). He excelled. Perhaps not surprisingly, on graduation in 1959 he was…

HALF A CENTURY. That’s how long this beautiful 1937 Bugatti Type 57S has sat hidden away from the world. Owned by engineer Bill Turnbull, it was nearing the end of a full rebuild before his death in 1969. It’s now being offered in surprisingly wellpreserved condition by Bonhams, who will sell the car with no reserve at its Legends of the Road auction in February. First purchased by Robert Ropner of the Ropner Shipping Line family from London dealership Jack Barclay, it was registered ‘DUL 351’, and nicknamed Dulcie. It was specified with a custom four-seater sports Grand Routier body from coachbuilder Corsica of London. Powered by the standard 3.3-litre inline eight-cylinder engine, the chassis has been identified as one of three special lightweight frames produced for the 1936 GP…

I GET UP at 6am and have a quick shower and some breakfast and then head straight to work at P&A Wood. It is about 30-45 minutes away from my home in Chelmsford and we start at 8am, but I like go get there up to half-an-hour earlier and think through the day and how it is going to go and what I am going to do. I have been there for four years now, having started when I left school at 16, straight after my GCSEs. I always knew what I wanted to do and, when all my friends were worrying about A-levels or colleges or jobs, I was already planning and applying. We have loads of brilliant classic car specialists round here and I would have leapt at…