Sommaire pour February 2019 de Octane

One Of the greatest pleasures of classic and performance cars is that ever-present sense of adventure, a frisson of excitement whether it is just a local trip or driving the length of a continent. I adore the gung-ho approach passionate motorists take in confounding the doubters or proving a point with a bit of militant derring-do. And there are three prime examples of that in this issue of Octane. First up is our cover story, a Porsche so extreme that even its creators labelled it ‘Not for street use, for racing only.’ But, predictably, that was a red rag to a bull. The more determined automobilists don’t like to be told what they can and can’t drive on the road so (just as predictably) a very small number of 911…

The surviving CArs from the era-defining car flick The Italian Job are set to be reunited to mark the 50th anniversary of the movie. The gathering is to take place at the London Classic Car Show at ExCeL on 14-17 February, in a special display promoted by Octane. Organisers say they have already secured the attendance of one of the film’s two Jaguar E-types, plus the Aston Martin DB4 Convertible that was supposedly tipped over a cliff by a bulldozer – a Caterpillar 944A, no less – but substituted for a Lancia Flaminia at the key moment. As Octane went to press, negotiations were at an advanced stage to try to bring the Lamborghini Miura over from its current home in Switzerland. While the red, white and blue Minis from…

Go-faster mags of the 1960s and ’70s often featured this strange fish of a carb, which was invented in the US by one Bob Fish in the ’30s and promised remarkable performance improvements. Then it fell out of fashion, having proved perhaps too good to be true. It seemed very clever. The Fish used a hollow throttle spindle with fuel perforations either side of the butterfly, the fuel arriving via a tapered metering groove in the float chamber traversed by a pick-up arm attached to the spindle. One size of this elegantly minimalist carburettor could suit a wide range of engine sizes and power, adjustments were theoretically simple, and the lack of venturi gave great airflow. It even coped with different altitudes without adjustment. But controversy boiled, especially in the…

It started, InevItably, in the pub. Someone asked, ‘How fast does your car go?’ Which naturally led, when told ‘150-ish’, to ‘How fast could it go?’ It’s a leap of faith to go from entering a few club sprints in a 250,000-mile daily driver Jensen C-V8 to aiming for 200mph on the Bonneville salt flats during Speed Week. But that’s exactly what Ian Northeast, and some dedicated helpers, did. ‘A close friend, not much older than me, rather suddenly woke up dead one morning,’ says the motorcycle engineer and educational ambassador for Project Bloodhound. ‘That decided me. It made me realise that life is for making things happen. I’d been thinking about a speed attempt and I mentioned it to Shaun Winfield, the incoming president of the Jensen Owners’ Club,…

Overlooking the Hudson River sits New York’s most exclusive, coolest automotive institution, Classic Car Club Manhattan. Its clubhouse, formerly the NYPD’s stables, has a stylish bar and restaurant. It also houses the CCCM’s eclectic collection of cars, from new supercars such as Aston Martin’s Vantage to classics including a 1966 GT40 and the Dodge Charger, all of which are available to driving members. CCCM also hosts club events and trips. You can join them touring the highlands of Scotland in a fleet of Caterhams or even take a trip to the Nürburgring, having already used their state-of-the-art simulators to acclimatise yourself to the track. Find out more at classiccarclubmanhattan.com.…

Modern versus retro. New versus old. Idea versus reality. Alpine A110 versus Alpine A110. Where does the memory end and the present begin? In my case, 4am on a damp Monday. I’ve already driven the new version of the A110, raved about by all who encounter it and Performance Car of the Year at Octane’s Historic Motoring Awards. But, until now, I have not driven an original even though I have longed to for years. It’s a car that, for a British audience, has long lurked under the radar despite international fame as a multiple rally winner. It was never sold here, being left-hand drive and caught up with UK-specific naming trouble: Chrysler UK and its Rootes predecessor owned the Alpine name and applied it first to various Sunbeams, later…

This is a bit of an oversimplification, but there are fundamentally two schools of modern hot-rodding. There are those that are celebrating and preserving in aspic a magical moment in motoring and culture, forever re-enacting it but staying as faithful to historical accuracy as possible, rolled up 501s, checked shirt, buzzsaw haircut ’n’ all. The other, seemingly diametrically opposed, philosophy is that the hot-rod movement is and has always been a living, breathing thing that has never stopped or looked backwards, constantly moves with the times and continues to evolve with the same principles it started with, but applied to the modern world and modern tech. I am not exactly embedded in the California hot-rod scene, but would hazard a guess that the former probably outweighs the latter. And rather…

NEARLY THREE-QUARTERS of Range Rover Evoque buyers are urbanites. Appropriately, therefore, Octane was invited to sample the all-new 2019 Evoque in central London – the hipster-ish twist being that the ‘drive’ was an off-road course specially built within the remains of Bishopsgate Goods Yard, a subterranean Victorian railway depot that has lain derelict since 1964. Darned clever. On sale this Spring, the new Evoque has tighter shutlines, a Velar-like touchscreen interior, Velar-style retracting doorhandles, ‘through the bonnet’ composite camera views (and a digital rear-view mirror), plus more rear legroom and a bigger boot. An MHEV ‘mild hybrid’ will be available from launch and its instant electric torque promises to smooth the rougher edges of the Ingenium diesel. Starting at £31,600, the new Evoque offers a lot of Velar desirability for…

There are personal elements to pretty much every car museum, but few are quite so individual as the Malta Classic Car Collection. Situated in the town of Qawra about 20km north-west of the Maltese capital Valletta, this collection might at first sight look rather rag-tag and, dare we say it, unexceptional to the cynics, but it is living, breathing proof that the story behind a car is just as important as the car itself. And there is a story behind every exhibit here. You just have to hope that its founder is on site to share them with you. The owner is Carol Galea, a former racer and race-car builder who gave up motorsport when he married and had children – son Mark is now a famous drift exponent with…

By Automodello Price $249.95 Material Resin handbuilt It’s a Mustang, Jim, but not as we know it. In fact, the Mustang II concept car was built just a few months before the launch of the production model in April 1964 to stir up interest in the forthcoming ‘Pony Car’. While its rear three-quarters view is similar, there’s a more pointed nose (the car survives today), and it’s longer and lower than the production car. Mustang II also features a removable glassfibre hardtop – which is packaged as an accessory in US company Automodello’s 1:24-scale kerbside model. With hardtop removed, it’s fun to spot the differences between the interior of the Concept and a standard Mustang’s, which are mainly confined to a more futuristic centre console (a great shame it wasn’t…

THE REVAMPED Petersen Automotive Museum proved a popular venue for the RM Sotheby’s final sale of 2018. Chief contributor to an impressive $38.9m total on 8 December was the ex-works 1956 Ferrari 290 MM, recently restored and certified by Ferrari Classiche and previewed in Octane 187. It sold for $22,005,000. Further highlights of this 88% sale were a 1971 Lamborghini Miura SV – the only Bleu Medio example built – at $2,205,000, and a 4000km 1989 Ferrari F40 at $1,545,000. A pair of sub-500-mile hypercars sold bang on estimate: $1,534,000 for the 2015 Porsche 918 ‘Weissach’ Spyder; $1,435,000 for the 2015 McLaren P1. Mecum netted an impressive $25.2m at its three-day Las Vegas auction on 15-17 November with 75% of the 885 lots sold. A 1930 Bugatti Type 46 Faux…

EVER SINCE IT PEAKED at 361.1 at the end of September, the HAGI Ferrari index has fallen back slightly in each of the three successive months to post a quarter-on-quarter decline of 1.92% and stand at 354.16 at the end of November. It’s a scenario that’s broadly commensurate with other sectors of the market, most of which also peaked in the third quarter and have since fallen away somewhat. The trend towards convergence is demonstrated by the close alignment of index levels among the HAGI Top overall investment-grade market measure, the HAGI Porsche and HAGI Ferrari indices, with no meaningful separation between them in the ten years since the inception in 2008. While in strong growth years through to 2015 there were dramatic variations in performance, and thus the short…

Early 356s top the Brussels bill A superb selection of Porsches rounding off the Stuttgart marque’s 70th anniversary was the highlight of the fourth Interclassics Brussels, which took place in the Belgian capital during 16-18 November. The display included one of the oldest 356 Gmünd coupés from Porsche’s own museum, a 550 Spyder, a rare 1961 356 Roadster D’Ieteren and a 1960 Carrera Abarth (one of only 21 built). The star car, however, was the rarely seen Swedish 1949 Gmünd coupe in which Cecilia Koskull won the Midnattssols Rally, one of the first-ever Porsche victories. Yoney to lend and mend Cambridge & Counties Bank, which offers finance for classic car purchases, is to become official ‘Finance Partner’ to the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC). The bank, which launched…

CHAD MCQUEEN AND McQueen Racing have announced the start of production of an official Steve McQueen Edition Bullitt Mustang. With only 300 set to be built a year, the cars will be a collaboration between the estate of Steve McQueen, Chad McQueen, McQueen Racing, Galpin Auto Sports and Steeda Autosports. Galpin and Steeda will do the US builds, with Steeda UK also covering Europe, and Mustang Motorsports supplying Australia. The specced-up Mustang, available only in Highland Green (of course), will be available via Ford dealers. It will come with a choice of a naturally aspirated 500bhp engine or a supercharged one with 775bhp. Other features include McQueen Racing suspension, Steve McQueen Edition aluminium 20in wheels shod with Nitto NT555 G2 tyres, a Steve McQueen Edition rear plate numbered JJZ109 (echoing…

‘AT 140MPH in a 70-year-old race car you need to trust the people who prepared it,’ says front-running international Historic racer, Chris Ward. When not competing at the sharp end of the grid, Chris is Operations Manager at Woodham Mortimer Ltd, one of Britain’s leading specialists in the sale, restoration and race preparation of the finest historic cars. With many wins at Goodwood, Spa and Monaco, Chris adds: ‘I have been extremely lucky to race some of the most exciting cars at the best events, ranging from an ex-Fangio C-type Jaguar to a lightweight E-type, and customers’ Knobbly Lister and Ford GT40.’ Luck? Legendary golfer, Gary Player, once commented ‘the more I practise, the luckier I get,’ and you get the feeling something similar is happening at Woodham Mortimer Ltd.…

About four decades ago, late one night, a young teenager stumbled upon a movie on TV with the most enticing Ferrari footage ever. It was of an incredibly alluring – sexy, indeed – one-off, its body painted gold, thundering through Italy at night. Cue wide-eyed astonishment and 40 years of yearning to see it in person. That impressionable teenager was me, and this is not the tale of a car as such but the life-story of a body. Yes, those golden panels have, over the course of several decades, graced not one chassis, but two. And – briefly – even a third. Spirits of the Dead, a trilogy of films made in 1968, featured three short stories translated by French poet Charles Baudelaire from Edgar Allan Poe writings: one each…

Klang! It takes me a second to realise what has just caused the loud metallic noise as I begin to execute a slow, sweeping turn in the Skinner Special. I’d forgotten that its twin rear wheels stick out considerably further than the fronts, and my beautifully judged cornering manoeuvre, which relied on the exposed front wheels for inch-perfect positioning, has just become an embarrassing faux pas as the nearside rear clipped a sandwich board at the side of the road – fortunately with no damage other than to my pride. We’re at Old Sarum airfield, where the owner has very kindly allowed us to photograph the Special, and I’m trying to imagine what it must be like to hurl this 4.1-litre, straight-eight-powered single-seater up Shelsley Walsh or Prescott. We’ve already…

It’s hot. Sweating-standing-still hot. The kind of weather that requires you to peel yourself slowly off 1970s vinyl seats for fear of either taking something with you or leaving something behind. Thankfully, Honda has seen fit to trim the centres of its seats with a soft fabric and I’m wearing jeans, so it’s not as uncomfortable as it could be, though I do worry that the jet-black rim of the three-spoke steering wheel might make a mark on my palms like a branding iron. If there’s one thing I don’t have to concern myself with, it’s that the inline-four up-front will, without fail, fire into life within a few churns of the starter, and whirr away at idle with no hint of a stumble in the 30º Catalonian sun. Passing…

it used to be a garden centre. Now the airy, glass-fronted building on Sint Jansveld in Wommelgem, a little east of Antwerp in Belgium, is full of proud old motor cars being worked on by experts as versed in computer-aided design as they are in magicking away imperfections in ancient bodywork or restoring the engine for a supercharged, twin-cam, eight-cylinder 1929 Maserati 26M. Meanwhile, shiny and imposing machines sit in the showroom or out front for potential buyers to admire. Here, at Historic Competition Services, old meets new. Fears that the skills needed to maintain, improve and restore vintage cars are being lost, evaporate as soon as you pass through HCS’s showroom, via more glass, and into the workshop. The Invicta S Type gearbox that youthful-looking Tom is building looks…

‘DESPITE HIS EMPLOYMENT BY GENERAL MOTORS, THE TONE OF OLLEY’S LECTURE APPEARED TO GENTLY MOCK THE AMERICAN CAR’ ‘Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin.’ Famously ad-libbed by actress Julia Lang in 1950 at the beginning of the BBC’s Listen With Mother radio programme, the invitation would have been equally appropriate for a lecture by Maurice Olley. The work of the British pioneer suspension engineer and theorist at General Motors in the 1930s defined the parameters of vehicle dynamics and had a deep effect on the entire automotive industry. He is credited with introducing the circular skid pad, and with coining the terms ‘understeer’ and ‘oversteer’ to describe a vehicle’s handling characteristics. He also helped plan the Motor Industry Research Association’s testing facility. Olley was hardly the first engineer to…

UGEARS ROADSTER VM-01 no prizes for guessing which wooden-framed sports car inspired this new, rubber-band-propelled model, which boasts a ‘working’ engine with moving pistons, forward and reverse gears, and a winding key cleverly disguised as a spare wheel. £41.90. ugears.online KLIPSCH THE THREE WIRELESS SPEAKER the latest iteration of the three might be part of Klipsch’s heritage range, but it’s a clever little thing: it offers first-rate sound for such a small device (14in across) and supports high-res audio files, and it comes with Google Assistant built in, meaning songs, news, traffic reports and the answers to inane questions are all just a conversation with an unnerving robot lady away. £450. klipsch.com PORSCHE 944 HOODIE Lose the pinstripe suit and live in this. tough yet soft and comfy, with a…

Chapeau to ArtcuriAl for not only reclaiming its ‘birthright’ auction at Rétromobile in Paris a few years ago, but also turning it into something a bit special and maintaining a very high standard. Of course, it’s unlikely to top the 2016 Baillon collection sale, but it continues to present a catalogue of intriguing rarities and tantalising prospects. Chief among them for the 2019 event is the 1966 Serenissima Le Mans Spyder. Far from the most valuable car consigned for the auction – that honour belongs to a €16-22m Touring 1939 Alfa 8C 2900B, sister car to the Pebble Beach-winner featured in Octane 185 – this beautifully battlescarred racer ran as number 24 at Le Mans in 1966. From the stable of Count Giovanni Volpi, the Spyder was built…

Commissioned by british collector and Aston Martin enthusiast Barry Weir, this one-off shooting-brake version of the Rapide was built by Bertone in 2013. The idea was inspired by the earlier 2004 Jet 2 concept and came to fruition following a chance encounter between Weir and a group of Bertone employees at Venice’s Marco Polo airport in the summer of 2012. With an agreement forged to build the car, and a few drawings hastily sketched on some coffee-shop napkins, a Rapide donor vehicle was sent over to Turin at the end of 2012. Bertone built the fully functioning vehicle in a little over three-and-a-half months, ready for its international debut at the Geneva motor show. Over 70% of the car is standard Rapide so it drives very much like any other,…

‘I HAVE BEEN ASSOCIATED WITH BEAULIEU SINCE I WAS A BABY. AT 16 MY FIRST JOB WAS TAKING TICKETS ON THE MONORAIL’ I AM UP AT 6AM EVERY day to walk the dogs. We have Ted, a pure Patterdale Terrier – like a Jack Russell on steroids – and Wilf, a Border-Patterdale cross. I am always at work for 8am, but as an agent for NFU Mutual I spend most of my life out on the road visiting customers. I would say about 75% of the time I am out and about, then I tend to go back to the office to catch up in the evenings and then head home at about 8pm. I know that insurance doesn’t have the most exciting reputation, but because NFU Mutual specialises in…

VSCC Cotswold Trial 17 NOVEMBER For the 13th consecutive year, the Vintage Sports-Car Club based itself at Prescott Hill Climb for the 12-section Cotswold Trial. The event ran at capacity – 110 pre-war cars – and attracted more than 1000 spectators. It is the only event on the VSCC’s trials calendar that has a special class for first-timers and it was won by Dave Wall in his 1929 Austin Seven saloon. The main image shows ‘Beast of Turin’ owner Duncan Pittaway at the helm of Ben Collings’ Mercedes 60hp. South AfricAn hiStoric GrAnd Prix 25 november – 2 december this 10-day tour and festival culminated in a 150-car gathering at the Val de Vie estate. Earlier, 24 pre-war cars ran at the East london gp/prince george circuit, including two Eras,…

PETER MULLIN’S PLANS to bring a major car museum and motoring destination to Oxfordshire are back on track after the American philanthropist’s vision was reinterpreted by world-famous architect and classic car aficionado Lord Foster. Initial plans for a £150-million complex on the 160-acre Enstone airfield site hit the buffers after it prompted protests from local residents that centred around likely traffic levels and a proposed development of 28 upmarket motor lodges on adjacent fields. As a result, Mullin’s team called in Foster + Partners, who radically changed the plans and submitted them to West Oxfordshire District Council at the end of November. The scale of the development has been reduced by 15% and more than half of the motor lodges have been moved onto the brownfield site as ‘mews’ garages…

26 December Romsey Boxing Day Classic Car & Bike Meet More than 600 cars and 250 motorbikes fill Romsey’s town centre on Boxing Day to raise cash for Prostate Cancer UK. romsey-classiccarandbikemeet.co.uk 1 January Brooklands New Year’s Day Gathering Wrap up warm and head to Brooklands to kick off 2019 in style. Pre-’89 cars assemble on the banking, and the museum will be open all day, too. brooklandsmuseum.com 1 January Classic Motor Hub Coffee & Classics The Bibury-based venue expects 300 cars and motorcycles at its first 2019 Coffee & Classics, raising money for Kate’s Home Nursing. classicmotorhub.com 1 January Vintage Stony The busy Stony Stratford event is for pre-1940 cars and bikes, but there’s always plenty of post-1940 stuff on show, too. There’s nothing to see post-2pm, though. vintagestony.co.uk…

As we cruise into the small Florida town of Ocala, I’m reminded of a meeting in the UK with Don ‘Big Daddy’ Garlits in 2014. With tears in his eyes, he explained how he’d prayed for God’s help finding a location for the museum, and the next morning had been guided to this very place. Daughter Donna and wife Lisa are behind the museum’s reception desk, full of Southern charm. A knock on the office door behind them prompts a growl from within and we head through to be reunited with Don, who is busy at his desk signing memorabilia for the gift shop, pictures of his cars in action filling the wall behind him. He’s still tough and wiry at 86 years old, and his eyes blaze as he…

1965 RA272 FORMULA 1 CAR Honda entered Formula 1 in 1964 with a car powered by a miniature transversely mounted V12. A year later it was finishing in the points with driver Richie Ginther. The last F1 race of 1965, and the last of the 1.5-litre formula, was the Mexican Grand Prix. Ginther took the lead from the second row and never lost it, scoring Honda’s – and Japan’s – first GP victory. The engine revved to 14,000rpm but Ginther never needed to exceed 11,000. 1973 CIVIC CVCC Compound Vortex Controlled Combustion reduced emissions without a power-sapping catalyst. An extra inlet valve admits a rich mixture to an area separated from the rest of the combustion chamber by a perforated screen, the flame from which then ignites the ‘normal’ inlet…

If all the NIsseN huts ever built were placed end to end they would form a tunnel that stretched from London to Moscow. Don’t quote me, though – I just made that up. What’s not in doubt is that if you include the larger Romney hut and the American-built Quonset, several thousand miles of corrugated steel huts were erected during the two world wars. The unprecedented number of men under arms during World War One created an accommodation crisis. So in April 1916, while serving in Ypres, Major Peter Norman Nissen of the Royal Engineers sketched out a design for an inexpensive corrugated iron hut that was easy to transport and erect. Just a few months later it was in production, and by Christmas 20,000 were providing shelter for Tommies.…

FOR THOSE happy to forego the Champagne, the plush carpet and the polished display cases, the depreciation on new watches means there’ll be some cracking bargains if you wait a bit. It’s all about knowing what to look for – and where. The sweetspot for a ‘new’ model is usually at about three years old. It’s still contemporary, if that bothers you, but most of the depreciation is done. Generally, quartz depreciates faster than mechanical, fashion brands fall more quickly than established watchmaking names, and used Smart watches sink faster than an old discount-era Citroën. Take a classic like the mechanical TAG Heuer Vintage Monaco, pictured below. These are remakes of the original Heuer Monaco 1133B that Steve McQueen wore in Le Mans. Your local plush, high-street jeweller will pour…

We all know the reasons why you should not own this car (cost of spares, regular maintenance, jealous neighbours, suspicious co-workers, danger of being mistaken for a soccer star), but the reasons why you should are less often examined. The Bentley Continental GT and its convertible GTC sibling are bubbling just under supercar specification, with potent 0-60mph times, prodigious horsepower (especially in 12-cylinder form) and, for the fastest versions, a stupendous top speed around 200mph. Each successive generation of Continental has been evolutionary rather than revolutionary, visually at least. We’ve now reached the third, but even an 11-year-old first-gen example like this one doesn’t look dated, at least to the general public. More reasons? Unlike many earlier Rolls-Royces and Bentleys (not that this one, of course, has anything to do…

As we put these pages together we are plunging headlong towards Christmas, which means that the annual Arizona feeding frenzy at Scottsdale is just a month away. The Barrett-Jackon bidfest that started it all nearly 50 years ago is still at the centre, but all major auction houses now have sales in Scottsdale or satellites. Except Mecum, which belligerently holds a giant auction in Kissimmee, Florida, at about the same time. To focus on just one of the Scottsdale auctions for preview, we have picked Worldwide. The eclectic selection on offer is headed by a 1925 Bugatti Type 35A that comes with a rich history, including being raced in period by Louis Chiron and taking part in the 1925 and ’26 Provence Grands Prix. More recently, in 2017 it did…

Big classic saloons often tread a fine line between sub-zero cool and completely unfashionable, but there’s no doubt where the Lancia Flaminia sits. It always exuded style and sophistication in a way only an Italian car could and, while the rarer two-door versions have become seriously collectable, the Berlina remains a hidden gem. Pininfarina styled the Berlina but, unlike the Coupé and other coachbuilt models, it was manufactured in-house by Lancia at the Borgo San Paolo plant in Turin. It made quite an impact at the 1957 Turin motor show, with styling much influenced by the earlier Florida prototype, although sadly the ‘suicide’ rear doors didn’t make it to production. It was larger in size, and more conservatively styled, than the Aurelia it replaced, in an attempt to move Lancia…