Sommaire pour September 2019 de Octane

Some of my favourite collectable cars are those I like to call noble failures, cars that were ahead of their time and no-one realised. The 1934 Chrysler Airflow is a good example. Call it the shock of the new, because the 1934 model with its Art Deco streamlining and waterfall grille was so different from the previous model that people just couldn’t take it in, especially the long-wheelbase Imperial version. Luxury cars were supposed to have huge imposing radiators with prestigious-looking hood ornaments like the Rolls-Royce flying lady or the Packard cormorant. They learned their lesson. After that first year they switched back to a more traditional front end. The car I’m writing about today is not so much a noble failure as a forgotten one. I have been after…

Amazingly, the first Porsche still exists and guess what: it’s a Volkswagen! Sorry, I can’t resist teasing my Porsche-owning friends. Some of them are rather sensitive to the fact that the great Porsche brand grew out of the humble Volkswagen componentry of the ‘people’s car’, the VW Beetle. In this issue we feature the Volkswagen Type 60 K10, now usually referred to as the Porsche T64, with its VW Type 1 drivetrain and all of 32bhp. Of course, the T64 is not actually the first proper Porsche – that would be 356 No 1 – but it is the link between Professor Ferdinand Porsche’s car for the masses and the sports car to bear his name. As you will read in the feature, the T64 was born of the German…

JESSE CROSSE Contributor • 1968 Ford Mustang GT 390 • 1986 Ford Sierra RS Cosworth DAVID BURGESS-WISE Contributor • 1903 De Dion-Bouton • 1911 Pilain 16/20 • 1926 Delage DISS MARTYN GODDARD Photographer • 1963 Triumph TR6SS Trophy • 1965 Austin-Healey 3000 MkIII DELWYN MALLETT Contributor • 1936 Cord 810 Beverly • 1946 Tatra T87 • 1950 Ford Club Coupe • 1952 Porsche 356 • 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL • 1957 Porsche Speedster • 1957 Fiat Abarth Sperimentale • 1963 Abarth-Simca • 1963 Tatra T603 • 1992 Alfa Romeo SZ TONY DRON Contributor • 1932 Austin Seven SARAH BRADLEY Contributor • 1929 Ford Model A hot rod • 1952 Studebaker Champion • 1956 Chevrolet 3100 pick-up • 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner • Various motorbikes EVAN KLEIN Photographer • 1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia…

AFTER SOME 60 YEARS, the driver’s seat of the Delage was looking more than a little sorry for itself, its dry cracked leather having gone beyond the recuperative powers of regular applications of hide food. The stitching was disintegrating, too. Installed around 1960 by then-owner Richard Barton, the upholstery had replaced a wartime retrim with secondhand leather taken from an old four-seater Hillman by Dr Gerald ‘Bob’ Ewen when he had carried out the modifications that I had at last decided to reverse. So – as there was no originality to preserve – I felt no qualms in deciding it was time to have the seat retrimmed. Happily, my corner of northwest Essex is a ‘go-to’ area for restoration, with specialist firms great and small catering to the needs of…

MASSIMO DELBÒ ‘I was a car-mad teenager in the 1980s when the Lancia 037 was the final weapon in the old school of rallying. To drive the prototype and to listen to its creator about its development has been a dream come true. And to do so on the tarmac of Campo Volo put the cherry on the cake.’ Read Massimo’s story on PAGES 98-106 . DELWYN MALLETT ‘The fabled trio of Berlin-Rome racers has long topped my list of all time greats – I’m a lifelong enthusiast of Porsche and 1930s streamlining. The Type 64 was the precursor to the 356, and the impossibility of ever owning the sole survivor prompted me to add spats to my own 1952 car in homage.’ For an in-depth history, turn to PAGES…

THE MASTERMIND of the Ford Mustang has passed away, aged 94. Of course, that was only one junction in a varied and fruitful life in which the Pennsylvanian also turned around Chrysler, but he will be remembered best for giving the go-ahead to the car that spearheaded the pony car revolution. Having joined Ford as an engineer in 1946, he moved into sales and by the early 1960s was Vice President and General Manager of the Ford division. During his time at Ford, Iacocca (the name is Italian) was responsible not only for championing the Mustang, but also the introduction of the Pinto and bringing the Mercury brand back to life. He joined ailing Chrysler as President and CEO in 1978, secured its future via loan guarantees, acquired AMC, starred…

David Lean’s 1952 film The Sound Barrier, and Neville Duke’s book Sound Barrier published the following year, created a romantic historical ideal surrounding the quest to go faster than the speed of sound. After World War Two, Britain was still facing rationing, it had a massive ‘lease lend’ bill to pay off and the war-ravaged country had to be rebuilt. Despite this, the engineering minds of the British aviation industry felt compelled to continue the exploratory work begun during the war to build a supersonic aircraft, a machine which could travel at more than Mach 1.0. That’s around 767mph, depending on atmospheric conditions such as air pressure. After the war, Britain’s Air Ministry signed an agreement with the United States in which the British Miles M52 aircraft designs were handed…

The dust is settling on the 87th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours as I write this. To be honest, I was exhausted even before I left the United Kingdom for France, largely because I needed to be in London on the eve of the great race for a rather special birthday celebration. Sir Jackie Stewart reached the big eight-zero in June, and accordingly his many friends and admirers descended on the RAC Club in Pall Mall for a commemorative luncheon. I have nothing but respect for the three-time Formula 1 World Champion, and not just for his achievement behind the wheel of a racing car. I knew I had to be there. What really made it memorable was the arrival of a very special guest: Her Majesty The…

This elegant men’s timepiece features a quartz movement inside a stainless steel 42mm case, and a galvanic dial with appliqué indexes and date window, protected by a sapphire crystal. (Note: the dial of the prizewinner’s watch may be finished in a colour other than blue.) It is water resistant to 5atm and supplied on a black calf leather strap with an alligator-grain finish. Raymond Weil is one of a handful of Swiss watchmakers that remain in family hands. The Toccata name reflects the Weil family’s interest in music, which has led to many of the watch collections bearing musically themed names. raymond-weil.com…

THE ELAN IS the car that truly put Lotus on the road. Previous efforts were either sports racers that were tokenistic as road cars (see Lotus 8 through 15 and beyond, minus the single-seaters, natch), vehicles that ticked all the fun boxes and none of the practical ones (Seven), or masterpieces of drop-dead gorgeous innovation that were simply too far ahead of their time… and sold accordingly (Elite). Then came the Elan in 1962, a car that via four series plus Sprint, 26R et cetera, chalked up sales that, if they didn’t exactly catapult Lotus into the big leagues, did earn enough to fund a massively accelerated (and world-dominating) racing programme. Which, after all, was pretty much Colin Chapman’s sole purpose for making road cars in the first place. The…

Some call this car the Volkswagen Typ 60 K10, but to most it’s the Porsche T64. As the first car to wear a Porsche badge, it will become the most significant Porsche-designed car to change hands in this millennium when it is offered by RM Sotheby’s at Monterey in August. And as the progenitor of the Porsche marque, for many it will be the most significant sale of the century so far. Here’s a history lesson. In the last few days of 1930, Professor Ferdinand Porsche, recently unemployed at the age of 55, started his independent 12-man design bureau in a tiny rented office in Stuttgart, comprising a hand-picked group of almost exclusively Austrian engineers and designers, including his 21-year-old son, known as Ferry. Another ex-pat Austrian was at that…

A ROAD TRIP TO the Le Mans 24 Hours, to celebrate a mate’s 50th birthday? Count me in! And I knew straight away that I’d be taking the Mustang. This is what classic cars are for. Our crew – pictured above, left to right – of Dave, Damon, Robbie, birthday boy (and top Octane photographer) Matt Howell, Sam, Samarth (not shown, because he’s having a kip in the BMW) and myself were distributed between three cars, the others being Sam’s ‘turbonator’ Mitsubishi Evo and Damon’s ’80s-cool BMW 525e. Preparation of the Mustang mainly consisted of painting the headlights yellow to give that period French look, for which I used some translucent lacquer that’s intended for decorative glass. I have no idea quite how legal this may be, but it does…

I’VE LEARNT A LOT. First, that I’m enjoying the 944 a whole lot more simply because it sounds better. But I’ve learnt a few engineering terms, too. Such as ‘mandrel bending’ and ‘purge welding’. No, not things that go on around a maypole or in the vicinity of Morris dancers; instead, the work of artisan craftsmen who take the art of building a new exhaust system very seriously indeed. Art? Oh yes. Just take a look at it! I’d first noticed a bit of fluffing from the 944’s exhaust when I was driving back from the NEC Classic Car Show in Birmingham, a fair few years ago. Decided I’d live with it until it got a lot worse. Well, the 944 wasn’t failing its MoT on exhaust, emissions or noise,…

‘Having been too busy to use my Mercedes 500SL much in recent months, I’ve just spent five days driving it through central Italy – more next month’ Massimo Delbò ‘It’s the day before we leave to start the Liège-Brescia-Liège, and the TR3A has brake trouble due to a batch of faulty reservoirs. That’s not how I wanted to begin this rally’ Andrew English ‘To Ireland and back in the Saab, using Castrol Power 1 Clean Burn two-stroke oil, which really does reduce the smoke. And the Singer, with rebuilt engine and new propshaft, is now smoothness itself’ John Simister ‘My 1957 Abarth Goccia needed a bit of hot-wiring to make it to the Goodwood Festival of Speed, where it won an award – for looks rather than performance’ Delwyn Mallett…

IT WASN’T SO long ago that a 308 was the Ferrari bought by people who really wanted a new model but couldn’t afford it. They were relatively cheap and fairly ubiquitous, with about 10,000 of all variants produced. The cheesy ’80s association with the moustachioed Tom Selleck in Magnum PI probably didn’t help values, either. Times change, however, and the 308 now appears ‘classic’ rather than merely ‘old’. Prices have risen – along with those of everything else in the classic car scene – and a decent 308 is a £60,000-80,000 car rather than the £25k it used to be. One of the rare and early glassfibrebodied examples, the vetroresina, can easily fetch £150,000. And that’s as it should be, because the 308 is one of the best Ferraris ever…

It’s quite common for a model car to be supplied in some kind of display box or diorama, but in the case of this 1980 Alfa Romeo Spider the packaging does more than provide a backdrop – it tells a story. The female driver of the Alfa, emerging from a busy junction, has collided with a pizza delivery driver’s Vespa. Fortunately, he seems to be dazed rather than seriously injured, but the pizza is definitely ruined. This slice of 1:43-scale life comes from Vitesse, a company founded in Oporto, Portugal, in the early 1980s to make products ‘aimed purely at the adult collector’. It was one of the first to spot the growing demand for models of classic cars of the ’50s and ’60s, and Vitesse showed originality in producing…

£1,725,500 (€1,930,800) 1965 Ferrari 275 €TB Artcurial, Paris, France. 17 June £618,000 (€690,000) 1952 €ordini Type 15S Bonhams, Chantilly, France. 30 June £575,500 (€643,680) 2006 Porsche Carrera €T Artcurial, Paris, France. 17 June £356,500 (€400,000) 1929 Bugatti Type 35B Osenat, Fontainebleau, France. 5 June £331,000 ($417,500) 1949 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Cabriolet by Pinin Farina Bonhams, Greenwich, USA. 2 June £309,000 ($390,000) 1924 Bentley 3/5.3 Litre Le Mans replica Bonhams, Greenwich, USA. 2 June £302,000 (€339,000) 1938 SS Jaguar 100 2½ Litre Roadster Dorotheum, Vösendorf, Austria. 15 June £263,000 (€294,424) 2011 Porsche 997 Speedster Artcurial, Paris, France. 17 June £261,000 (€292,040) 1996 Porsche 993 Carrera RS Clubsport Artcurial, Paris, France. 17 June £247,000 (€276,000) 1932 Invicta 12/45 4½ Litre Tourer Bonhams, Chantilly, France. 30 June…

HOT HATCH RENAULTS Bonhams MPH, Bicester UK 26 September, mph.bonhams.com MPH is the new division of Bonhams that will allow the auction house to open its doors to a slightly different audience. Headlining its first auction at Bicester Heritage on 26 September is this trio of hot Renaults, including two of the most collectable modern classics – a Clio V6 Phase 2 and Renaultsport Mégane Trophy R, both estimated at £35,000-50,000. There’s also a collection of weird and wacky military Land Rovers. GOLDFINGER ASTON MARTIN DB5 RM Sotheby’s, Monterey, USA 15 August, rmsothebys.com Headlining RM’s Evening of Aston Martin at this year’s Monterey auction, this is one of two DB5s produced to promote Thunderball in 1965. It was fitted with the full complement of John Stears-designed Bond gadgets in period,…

24 €uly H&H, Buxton, UK 26 €uly SWVA, Poole, UK 27-28 €uly Silverstone Auctions, Silverstone, UK 30 €uly H&H, Bickenhill, UK (motorcycles) 31 €uly – 3 August Mecum, Harrisburg, USA 3 August Classic Car Auctions, Leamington Spa, UK Coys, Jüchen, Germany 10 August Charterhouse, Sparkford, UK (motorcycles) 15 August Worldwide Auctioneers, Monterey, USA 15-16 August Bonhams, Carmel, USA 15-17 August Mecum, Monterey, USA RM Sotheby’s, Monterey, USA Russo & Steele, Monterey, USA 16-17 August Gooding & Co, Pebble Beach, USA 17 August Cheffins, Harrogate, UK Mathewsons, Thornton-le-Dale, UK Morris Leslie, Errol, UK 24 August Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn, UK 26 August Shannons, Sydney, Australia 29 August – 1 September RM Auctions, Auburn, USA 31 August Worldwide Auctioneers, Auburn, USA 31 August – 1 September Lucky Collector Car Auctions, Tacoma,…

2012 Fisker Karma EcoSport £69,950 As time goes on, the Henrik Fisker-penned Karma seems increadingly ahead of the curve. With under 14,000km recorded, this Italian-market car certainly has future classic potential. ddclassics.com (UK) 2012 Sea Lion Prototype $159,500 This curio holds the delightfully unofficial Amphibious World Speed Record. It was built from scratch and is therefore unique – but could be easily upgraded to defend its crown… fantasyjunction.com (US) 1972 Maserati Bora £139,995 The Bora was probably the most civilised of all the ’70s supercars. This 4.7-litre car has covered 5100 miles since restoration by Swiss specialist Garage Limacher AG in 2014. hexagonclassics.com (UK) 1954 Alfa Romeo 1900CSS Boano. P€A A unique and stunning 1955 Turin motor show exhibit, powered by the venerable 1.9-litre twin-cam. Recently found in Italy, it’s…

WHAT TO PAY An early Riviera in complete, running condition can start from around $10,000 in the USA, but anything you look at below about $20,000 is likely to need a lot of work. Values haven’t moved a huge amount in the last three years, which means an extremely good car can be found for around $35,000. Dealers are likely to charge around $50,000 for a concours car with the 7.0-litre engine. Finding any car in the UK is more of a challenge, but there are a few here. Just be sure it has been maintained correctly and is well rustproofed. €OOK OUT FOR... If you’re importing a car from the USA, make sure it’s bodily sound, as rebuilding the floorpans and structural crossmembers is a huge undertaking. Finding parts…

EARLY 1960s PADDY HOPKIRK RACING HELMET £350 www.theclassicera.com This rare survivor would add to any helmet collection or look great on the back seat of a competition car. Paddy Hopkirk was not only a very successful rally driver but also a prolific motoring accessory manufacturer. Condition is fantastic for its age, with just the right amount of patina. The Classic Era has just launched a new website with an online sales platform. They strive to bring you the best in collectable, functional, wearable, usable, or just plain fun items to enhance your passion for four wheels, two wheels, or the home environment. They will be exhibiting at the Beaulieu Autojumble in September and at the Lombard RAC Revival in October. HAYNES AUDI QUATTRO RALLY CAR ENTHUSIASTS’ MANUAL £25 www.haynes.com/motorsport The…

Goodwood Festival of Speed 5-7 July The most memorable Festival of Speed in recent years had it all. Aston Martin took pole position on Gerry Judah’s sculpture on the 50th anniversary of Salvadori and Shelby’s Le Mans win in the DBR1. Also 50 this year is the unfortunate Michael Schumacher, who was honoured with a fine selection of cars. Other highlights included a Jackie Stewart celebration and Romain Dumas demolishing the hill record in VW’s electric ID R. BIC€ST€R SUP€R SCRAMBL€, 23 JUN€ Bicester Heritage’s first Super Scramble was a huge success, with 6000 visitors flocking to the former RAF base. Stars included the Rover-BRM turbine car, Napier-Railton and a host of others. HOP€ CLASSIC RALLY, 14-15 JUN€ Now in its sixth year, this unique charity event has so far…

Gaffer tape. Strong, sticky, easily torn across the weave if you want it to be, trustworthily robust if you don’t. Ruptured radiator hose? Leaking window? Fluttering numberplate? Frazzled wiring? Departing body panel? Gaffer tape is your friend, your rescuer, for long enough to get you where you need to be, but temporary enough to make sure you have to fix the fault properly. Why ‘gaffer’? Its ubiquity in film studios for holding props together is one possibility (there’s always a ‘gaffer’ on the set, fixing things). People also call it duct tape, or even duck tape. US soldiers gave it that last name during World War Two, when it was invented for their use by Johnson & Johnson’s Permacel division, on account of its resistance to water. It even helped…

We love a leathery classic, especially when the leather has the creasing and patination of a life well-lived, but sometimes patination crosses the line into decrepitude. The leather cracks and splits, the stitching tears its holes, and the leather’s life is over. There are leather magicians who can remedy such damage, but normally it’s time for a re-trim. Yet if the leather is just worn, faded and scuffed, you can revive it yourself with very pleasing results. Done the wrong way, a DIY attempt can look unnaturally shiny, as if you have painted your leather with Dulux Weathershield. Done the right way, with a lot of patience, the result will have the correct subtle sheen and will simply look like gently sat-upon, well-preserved leather. I used a Gliptone kit to…

1o For many years I owned Whitney Straight’s Maserati Tipo 26M, and one year at the Goodwood Festival of Speed an elderly Brooklands racer told me he had Straight’s old racing helmet. He’d bought it from the man himself and repainted it red – Straight’s own blue colour shows through from beneath. 2o I still have my first car, a 1953 MG TD that I bought for $800 with money I’d saved from two summers working at an ice-cream parlour. Like any speed-mad teenager, I hotted it up with a TF 1500cc cylinder head, bigger carbs, and MGA front disc brakes and wire wheels. 3o My father-in-law was vice-governor of Novosibirsk Oblast in Siberia, USSR, and this telephone was his hotline to the Kremlin. Knowing I have an interest in…

There’s no question that car design, along with rock music and movies, is one of the most significant cultural expressions of the era now passing. But the car has an uneasy relationship with museums, traditional guardians and boosters of that culture. While David Bowie, Elton John’s trousers, Pink Floyd and Kylie Minogue’s knickers have been the subjects of blockbuster museum exhibitions in London, and the Deutsche Filmmuseum’s itinerant Stanley Kubrick show has drawn huge crowds over the past 15 years, of the car’s place in museumland there is not much to be said. True, New York’s Guggenheim was inspired by the parking garage that Frank Lloyd Wright designed for Porsche importer Max Hoffmann on Park Avenue, but Wright had a barmy fascination with cars, even installing petrol pumps in his…

HERE IS A LOTUS so far ahead of its time on its 1966 launch that the pundits didn’t quite appreciate its significance. And, thanks to the self-sabotaging effect of typically Lotus minor failings in execution, the Europa remained largely unappreciated right up to its replacement a decade later by the larger, but similarly mid-engined, Esprit. It was the first road-purposed mid-engined production sports car to be built in Britain, and one of the first in the world after the Lamborghini Miura and the Matra Djet. It was low, lithe, light and intially for export only. UK buyers would have to wait a while to experience the semi-reclined driving position, the super-simple cabin, the ultra-functional racing vibe. Lotus Type 46 had a Renault 16-based engine and gearbox, initially of 1470cc and…

IT SAYS MUCH for the Evora that our sister magazine Evo declared it their Car of the Year when it made its debut – Lotus’s newest launch is now a decade old. It also says much that you’ll struggle to find any for sale at much less than £25,000. Granted, it’s a quick, rare and desirable car for that kind of money, yet that still represents depreciation of only 50%. Over a decade. Few cars can match that. But a landmark Lotus? Really? Yes, really. It’d be all too easy on one hand to dismiss it as a millennial Excel (older tech rendered faster and more reliable with borrowed bits of Toyota), but the Evora was all about ambition. What would – surely must – follow. Related to the Elise…

ROBERT COUCHER International editor • 1955 Jaguar XK140 • 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor • 1960 Triumph TR3A • 1962 Norton Dominator • 1965 Aston Martin DB5 GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 1983 Porsche 944 • 1989 BMW 320i Convertible SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director • 1981 BMW 323i Top Cabrio • 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante MARK DIXON Deputy editor • 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in • 1966 Ford Mustang 289 • 1994 Range Rover 4.0 JAMES ELLIOTT Editor-in-chief • 1965 Triumph 2.5PI • 1968 Jensen Interceptor SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible • 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans • 1961 Saab 96 • 1972 Rover 2000 TC • 1989 Mazda MX-5 Eunos RICHARD HESELTINE…

MY JENSEN HAD been with the chaps at Autostilo (www.autostilo.co.uk) for a couple of months when I received that call. It might be a good time to pop up to Potters Bar and have a look, they said. Being a glass-half-full kind of guy, my natural reaction to this was fear and the thought that it could prove very expensive. On the way up there, however, I started to rationalise this a bit and found two positive needles in the haystack of uncertainty. The first was that a fair bit of progress must have been made, otherwise why bother getting me up there? The second was that it probably meant the car was going to be at its absolute worst because, if I were a bodywork guy, that’s when I…

LE MANS IS the usual excuse to get out of the country for a bit of a boys’ weekend – see Mark Dixon’s report in Octane Cars – but for many there is a slightly less obvious pilgrimage. The Nürburgring 24 has been growing in popularity for years, and it’s a race I’ve long had on my automotive bucket list. Having heard colleagues’ tales of campsites that ‘make Le Mans seem like a garden party’, an invitation from Hyundai to stay in an out-of-the-way corner of Camping Am Nürburgring sounded ideal, especially as Hyundai was fielding three factory cars in the race. It takes its motorsport-led ‘N’ brand very seriously – indeed, the i30 N that I would be driving to get there was developed partly at the ’Ring. Regular…

A FAMILY WEEKEND away in Dorset beckoned. Cottage on a farm. Kids, dogs, mud, kids, mud, kids, food shopping, kids, maybe browse an antiques market, visit a stately home. And probably more mud. Perfect credentials for testing an SUV to the hilt, then. Only I’m a bit, well, bored with them. The novelty’s worn off. Heavy, thirsty, massively popular yet in the face of the prevailing zeitgeist. Just massive full stop, frankly. What did we do before them? Estate cars! And I was always a big fan of the original Jaguar XF Sportbrake, yet I hadn’t tried the new one. Despite the aluminium construction, both XF and F-Pace tip the scales at a too-heavy 1800kg+; there’s not much in it boot-wise, the XF’s being a tad smaller seats-up but its…

IF YOU WERE lucky enough to be at Dijon Prenois back in June, you might have seen a crowd gathered around a slightly shabby old car. It was parked next to a showroom-new, debt-of-a-minor-South-American-country GTC4 Lusso. But the Ferrari might as well have been old flypaper for all the interest it attracted. The car that snapped eyeballs was an early 1920s Bugatti Type 49 tourer. There was something about the Bugatti that marked it out as different from the toys around it that had nothing to do with the marque or the price; it was the character that comes from being loved and driven over many, many miles. This was a car that could tell tales of pre-autoroute, sun-blistered tarmac D-road runs to Perpignan, packed with tennis rackets and kids.…

2003 HUMMER H2 V8 Mecum Auctions, Portland, Oregon It won’t pass the state emissions test and has previously been written off. So, despite power-everything and a ‘custom lift’ of 2.5 inches, it seemed a bad buy even at just $9900, unless you’re a down-and-out oligarch from a former Soviet state. A quick internet trawl shows plenty of H2s for sale even more cheaply, but asking prices for nicer, low-miles H2s are now passing six times this amount. The laugh might be on me after all.…

When Bloodhound wasannounced in 2008, it seemed that the Land Speed Record held by Thrust SSC would soon be smashed by a car theoretically capable of 1000mph. More than a decade and £60 million later, Bloodhound remainsaworkin progress and, while repeated delays have not dampened enthusiasm for the project, they have served to remind everybody that Thrust SSC was one of the great engineering achievements of our time. Designed and completed in just five years and for a paltry £2.48 million, it advanced the Land Speed Record by almost 100mph, and on the way to 763mph it became the first car to break the Sound Barrier. Everything about building a 763mph car is difficult, but one of the trickiestchallengesthe Thrust team faced was making a wheel that would not disintegrate…

I GET UP AT 5AM and start work at 6am. It’s not so bad because we have an apartment above the workshop, and I’m in the office first, going through my paperwork. My wife is in the office too, and, when I’ve prepared the list of tasks, the workshop technicians can then ask questions and raise problems. We have a workshop meeting at 7am, work out what needs doing, what is missing, what parts are needed. We always have a break for breakfast, the whole team, around 9am. I recently established the business as FZR GmbH; really it’s called Fahrzeugrestaurierung Rosenow, and it was founded by Peter Rosenow in 1987 – he was the 1970 World Raceboard Champion, so quite well-known in East Germany. Back then, he was based in…