Octane的August 2018目录

OUR MAN Stephen Bayley operates on a rather higher intellectual plane than me. That’s why, while he perceives that cars have had a limited impact on film because they seldom embody the meaning and essence of the movie or lead character (or something), for me they have absolutely dominated cinema. Perhaps that’s because these two epoch-defining inventions have grown up together, or more likely it is simply that, for me, the cars are the stars and the humans the extras. I mean, why else would you sit through an hour-and-a-half of a desperately miscast Ryan O’Neal in The Driver if it weren’t for the genius scene in which his character dismantles a Mercedes-Benz 280S by scraping it against the walls of a multi-storey car park? Truth be told – and…

AN EMOTIONAL Duncan Pittaway was overwhelmed as his magnificent 1911 Fiat S76 record car was awarded Best of Show at the London Concours in the heart of The City on 7-8 June. Pittaway, who spent years rebuilding the car known universally as The Beast of Turin, and negotiated with Fiat to secure the monstrous 28.5-litre four-cylinder engine (more than seven litres per cylinder), didn’t expect even to win the class against some stunning restored road cars, let alone take the top honours. Impressed by Pittaway’s enthusiasm and the way he uses this ‘challenging’ car on the road and at events, the judges decided it and its owner embodied so much that is great about the classic car hobby. The only shame was that noise regulations in the built-up area meant…

SUMMER. That wonderful time of the year when UK Land Rover fans are spoilt for choice when it comes to shows. So, why create another at the step-back-in-time setting of Bicester Heritage and call it Land Rover Legends? Three things set this show apart from other Landy shows. It was severely lacking in high-visibility vests, camouflage trousers and chequer plating. The only time chequer plating is cool is if it is factory-fitted, like on Greg King’s extremely low-mileage 50th Anniversary Defender 90. Which is why his near-perfect V8 took second place in the Most Original category. Monique Bass won top honours in this category; your reporter must have walked past her shiny 1991 Discovery 1 a hundred times over the weekend, and each time she would be lovingly polishing it.…

THIS IS THE new face of Jaguar. Long bonnets and six-cylinder engines? No place for them in the new world order. Instead comes this bold vision, designed to tackle the likes of Tesla. And it’s the first in what will be a whole family of electric vehicles from Jaguar as the industry shifts away from internal combustion and towards a world of cars powered by electricity. Of course, electric cars have featured very little in Jaguar’s 83-year history – before this, there had been only the E-type Zero, with which it shares no parts – yet it is the result of rather a tough brief: ‘To design the best electric car in the world.’ Those are the words of Dr Wolfgang Ziebart, JLR’s technical director, and the man whose job…

True, the ludi circenses, the chariot races with their expectation of bloody and violent disaster, laid a cultural foundation for Roman driving. And there are times when circulating the Grande Raccordo Anulare seems positively gladiatorial. But really, there can be few major cities less suited to the car than Rome. And fewer still where cars are so much a part of the city’s story. I was there recently for a dinner at the Circolo della Caccia in the Palazzo Borghese, a club of such ancient grandeur that it makes White’s look like Center Parcs. My lugubrious neighbour, sadly pushing a slice of vitello tonnato around his antique plate, said he hardly ever drove into the city any more since the congestion was terminal and there was nowhere to park. This…

This elegant, classically styled men’s timepiece features a quartz movement inside a stainless steel 42mm case, and a stunning blue galvanic dial with appliqué indexes and date window, protected by a sapphire crystal. 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…

‘DESPITE MY CAR BEING ONE OF THE LAST 107S TO BE SOLD IN THE UK, IT’S SHOWING RUST IN THE NEARSIDE PASSENGER FOOTWELL’ I’VE OWNED MY 300SL for almost two years now and I wish I could find the time to drive it more. Because it was bought from a senior member of The Mercedes-Benz Club I’ve never really had it checked out properly, and during a chance meeting with Sam Bailey, owner of The SL Shop, based in Warwickshire, he mentioned that I should get the car inspected so that I would know exactly what I have got. The company offers a health check that provides a 300-point report of the car using a traffic light system: green for ‘good’, amber for ‘might require attention soon’, and red signifying…

IT’S BEEN WELL over a year since I decided to put bumpers back on the Aston and it’s been away at Mitchell Motors in Wiltshire for almost six months being measured, prodded and poked. Parts of it have been removed and photographed, and bodywork patterns have been made, with images sent off to Ho Chi Minh City (formerly known as Saigon) in Vietnam. It’s here that Harrington Group has its 32,000sq ft factory making 300 different classic-car bumpers and a growing range of half-scale replica cars. Of course, I could have bought unfinished steel blanks, but once tailored, chromium-plated and fitted, they’d cost four times the £1650 of these stainless-steel Vietnamese-made examples. And, since we’ve even been to the trouble of creating a wooden buck for the back of the…

IT JUST HAPPENED, out of the blue. One day the ’Stang was performing sweetly, the next it had developed an irritating noise from the front suspension. Not just an occasional chirp, but a relentless squawk induced by even the tiniest road ripple. Googling revealed that this is a common phenomenon with early Mustangs; so common that it is known as ‘the Mustang squeak’. But it can originate from one or more of several places in the suspension and identifying the source is very difficult, even if you enlist someone to bounce the front end up and down while you stick your head under the car. The noise was coming from the driver’s side, so I jacked the car up and whipped off the front wheel. Pumping the lower ball-joint full…

If you are after a glossy coffee-table tome packed with pics of our chiselled-jawed hero in pitlanes and committing great feats of derring-do on track, this is not for you. In fact, there isn’t a photo in it. Instead, it is a sort of life guide, using the lessons and processes Coulthard learned in his career as a template that can be applied to your own life or career. Sounds heavy, but it is a decent read and has some superb F1 insights.…

Despite having the look and feel of a self-published memoir, this is actually a fascinating and well-researched collection of grassroots accounts of life at Abingdon. The author already has five Abingdon-related books to his name and this is as much written from the town’s perspective as the factory’s. Some of the photos are fabulous, so forgive it some grammatical and linguistic foibles and it will keep you well-entertained.…

LANCIA STRATOS POSTERS BY AUTOMOBILIST… …in collaboration with Pavel Fuska, whose design cleverly references the illustrious past of everyone’s favourite Lancia. There are two versions: the green one features an Alitalia-liveried car and is limited to 1000 posters; the hand-signed orange one features the prototype and is limited to just 100 posters. We assume you’ll want one of each. From $45. automobilist.com STELVIO SHIRT BY T-LAB Drivers adore the Stelvio Pass for the same reasons that cyclists ‘respect’ it: dozens of spectacular switchbacks climbing steeply into thin Alpine air. If, unlike us, you’ve done the fearsome 24km ascent on two wheels, you can now buy the T-shirt too. £27. t-lab.eu SIR HENRY SEGRAVE SIGNED PHOTOGRAPH There can’t be many like this about: a signed picture of Henry Segrave (not by…

UNVEILED AT at the Century of Progress Chicago World Fair in 1933, Ingersoll’s Mickey Mouse wristwatches are an early example of branded movie merchandise. The partnership between the Connecticut watch manufacturer (which at the time went by the name of Ingersoll-Waterbury) and the Walt Disney Company was brokered by pioneering merchandising executive Herman Kamen. His firm held the entertainment empire’s licensing agreement for two decades starting from the early 1930s, as granted by Walt and Roy O Disney. Kamen oversaw a great many product launches starring Disney mainstay characters, including the elephant Dumbo and, from 1937 onwards, Snow White and her seven friends. Ingersoll’s debut Mickey Mouse watch, featuring him in red trousers on the watch face, initially retailed at $3.25 before the price was lowered to $2.95, and it…

BAMFORD MAYFAIR MIAMI PACK Since striking a deal with luxury conglomerate LVMH last year, the Bamford Watch Department has turned its attention to making Bulgari, TAG Heuer and Zenith timepieces look more rock ’n’ roll via many customisation options. The company has also expanded its own timepiece offering with the ‘fun and sporty’ Mayfair, a streamlined 40mm quartz dive watch with a black rubber strap, a matt ceramic bezel and a multiple colour choice for the face. The latest selection of these, dubbed the Miami Pack, is a summer-ready palette of blue, green, neon pink and tangerine for a sunshine theme. £495, BAMFORD.COM OMOLOGATO QUADRIFOGLIO The lastest release from motorsport-inspired brand Omologato is the Quadrifoglio. Ugo Sivocci famously painted the emblem of the cloverleaf on his Alfa Romeo for the…

30 June Mathewsons, Thornton le Dale, UK 30 June Coys, Woodstock, UK 5-7 July Richard Edmonds, Allington, UK 7 July Artcurial, Le Mans, France 7 July Historics at Brooklands, Weybridge, UK 7 July Silver Auctions, Jackson Hole, USA 11 July Brightwells, Leominster, UK 12 July Coys, Fontwell, UK 13 July Bonhams, Goodwood, UK 14 July Silver Auctions, Spokane, USA 15 July Charterhouse, Shepton Mallet, UK 16 July Shannons, Melbourne, Australia 17 July Barons, Esher, UK 18 July H&H, Buxton, UK 19 July Silverstone Auctions, Silverstone, UK 21-22 July Silverstone Auctions, Silverstone, UK 26 July H&H, Bickenhill, UK 27 July SWVA, Poole, UK 2-4 August Mecum, Harrisburg, USA 4 August Coys, Jüchen, Germany 4 August Worldwide Auctioneers, Shipshewana, USA 11 August Mathewsons, Thornton le Dale, UK 13 August Shannons, Sydney, Australia…

WHAT TO PAY Prices dipped relatively quickly after launch, but depreciation levelled out after two years. Today that means an early 12C starts from £85,000. The cheapest cars probably won’t have the upgraded IRIS 2 system, but all should have received the upgraded power and calibration settings. Launched later, and costing around £20,000 more, the Spiders still carry a similar premium over the coupé. LOOK OUT FOR… Spec varies wildly. Carbonfibre options – expensive new – add value today. There’s also a catalogue of upgraded parts from McLaren Special Operations. Engines are extremely reliable. In the main, the transmissions are too. There have been a few cases of leaking internal seals resulting in the need for a replacement gearbox, but these are rare. Carbon-ceramic brakes were criticised for unusual pedal…

BEN COOMBS  ‘We teetered above the abyss, thousands of feet of empty air beckoning my TVR’s tyres as they scrabbled at the wet gravel for mile after mile along Bolivia’s Death Road. Even compared with my journey across Africa in a Porsche years ago, this was something else.’ Ben went to both ends of the world – in search of beer: PAGES 126 TO 136. JETHRO BOVINGDON  ‘“Want to race an AMG GT4 in the N24? Oh, and your teammate is Bernd Schneider.” It took a tenth of a second to say yes. And the race was amazing: elating, terrifying, surreal. Those night laps will live long in the memory. The greatest race on Earth.’ Read about Jethro’s stint as a works driver at the Nürburgring on PAGES 154 TO…

It’s not just any yellow, and those orangey plastic covers sold to 1970s Brits to bend and tint their Lucas beams for driving ‘on the Continent’ don’t qualify as cool. It has to be the more lemony, so-called ‘selective yellow’, with the shorter wavelengths of light inhibited to an exact degree to reduce dazzle in rain, fog or snow. The tint is in the bulbs themselves, and we love them because they are so defiantly, stylishly French. To us Brits they suggest a life-mode of mysterious foreign sorties, arrow-straight avenues of Routes Nationales streaking by in a yellow glow. They seem to be a secret weapon for seeing where others can’t, and no pre-1993 French car is quite complete without them. The yellow lights were devised during World War Two…

IRISH RACER and Lola chief Martin Birrane has died aged 82. As well as being a property developer and owning Mondello Park, Birrane led a fascinating life that included a stint as butler to the Canadian ambassaor in Turkey. While building his property business in Canada and the UK, Birrane got the racing bug, prompting 42 seasons in all manner of machinery, competing ten times at Le Mans, making the podium in 1980 and taking a class win in ’85 in a BMW M1. In 1990, he set an Irish Land Speed Record of 176mph on Dublin’s then-unopened N50 ‘Westlink’. Birrane bought Lola in 1997 and won championships on both sides of the Atlantic, notably with Nigel Mansell in IndyCar. His final race was in July 2007, when he clocked-up…

On 11 August 1968, 138 years of British Railway history came to an end with the running of the final steam-hauled passenger service. Called the 15 Guinea Special on account of its high cost (around £260 in today’s money), the train ran from Liverpool to Carlisle and was pulled by a succession of four locomotives. Britain had brought steam and railway locomotion to the world through Richard Trevithick, builder of the first steam locomotive, and father and son George and Robert Stephenson who, in 1825, set up the first passenger service on a public line running from Stockton to Darlington. Britain’s fortunate geological location meant the abundance of quality coal that supplied the rail system also perpetuated its existence long after other countries had converted to diesel or electric power.…

ONE OF THE RAREST variants of the Citroën DS was the star attraction at the second Valletta Concours d’Elegance on Sunday 20 May. The Chapron-bodied 1960 ID19 Le Paris, one of just nine hardtop versions of La Croisette by the Levallois-Perret coachbuilder, made its debut after a two-year nut-and-bolt restoration and was shipped to the Maltese capital solely for the event. It was no surprise when the spectacular two-door Citroën, the only one of this style on an ID chassis, took Best of Show for owners Peter and Merle Mullin. The presence of the Citroën and its owners added to the growing international flavour of this concours, in just its second year and coming at the start of a summer in which Valletta will shine as the European capital of…

First let me start by saying that I like electric cars, but mainly purpose-built ones. I own a Tesla model S P90D (the dual-engine model), a 1909 Baker Electric and a 1914 Detroit Electric. My wife has an electric Fiat 500. What I have never been a fan of is taking perfectly good gas-engine cars and turning them into electrics, because they never quite deliver on the promise. Electricity is like sex: people seem to have a compulsion to lie about it. Every electric bicycle or motorcycle I have ever ridden promised 80 to 100 miles on a charge, but if you rode them the way you ride a normal motorcycle, you never got more than about 30 miles before you were limping home. Most amateur and semi-professional conversions from…

The Ford Mustang is one American car which, unusually, seems at home here in Britain and in Europe. Most Yank Tanks are too big and flash but the ’Stang is of compact proportions. Also, Ford has been in the UK since opening its first factory in Manchester in 1911 and Fords have been top sellers in this country ever since. It’s a local hero. You could even argue that the Mustang is the slightly larger cousin of the sporty Cortinas that preceded it. The bloodline continued with Europe’s Capri, billed in Britain as ‘The car you always promised yourself’. Around 1.2 million of us bought into that idea. In the early 1960s Ford decided, as part of its ‘Total Performance’ gig, to get some European exposure for its impending pony-car,…

I’VE SPENT the last few weeks having an affair. The mistress in question is an Italian model who’s a year older than me. To make matters worse, she normally lives with my father. Around three years ago, I was fortunate enough to acquire both a new BMW i8 and an early-1970 Lamborghini Espada Series 2. The i8 has been my main car since then and the Espada, after a light restoration – when the car was pictured alongside Mark Dixon’s silver example in Octane Cars [above] – moved into my dad’s garage. His affection for the car was marginally greater than mine, since one had been at the top of his ‘wish list’ in the 1970s, and it therefore seemed fitting that she should move in with him. The i8…

ROBERT COUCHER International editor • 1937 Bentley 4¼ • 1955 Jaguar XK140 • 1988 Mercedes-Benz 560 SEC TONY DRON Test driver • 1932 Austin Seven GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor • 1983 Porsche 944 • 1989 BMW 320i Convertible ANDREW ENGLISH Contributor • 1960 Triumph TR3A • 1965 Aston Martin DB5 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 • 1991 Land Rover Discovery • 1994 Range Rover 4.0 SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible • 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL MARK SOMMER Art Director • 1969 Alfa Romeo Giulia 1300 Saloon JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans • 1961 Saab…

THERE ARE all sorts of reasons why I didn’t press the Jensen straight back into regular service after its prodigal-son routine. First, I wanted to feel proud of it again, to lavish a bit of time on it and rekindle the desire. Oh, and to sort out all sorts of issues. Lots of issues, not least the rotten running. So I spent a few weekend hours washing, polishing and tinkering, and pottering around locally to rebuild my confidence in it. I distracted myself from the horrors of the rusty rear ’arches with little jobs such as stripping what was left of the woodwork from the gearshift surround and re-covering it in black vinyl. I told myself it was a temporary measure, but suspect that the fact I included a nice…

‘The XK140 seems to have developed an exhaust blow from the manifold to downpipe joint. Maybe now’s the time to investigate fitting a free-flow exhaust system?’ Robert Coucher ‘Had to change a flat tyre on the De Dion due to a leaky valve on the inner tube – never a fun job when the tyre is of the beaded-edge type’ David Burgess-Wise ‘After six years of intermittent restoration, my Singer Le Mans will finally drive to the Singer National Day, with £1000-worth of new rear hubs’ John Simister ‘As always, cars that were running perfectly before being garaged for the winter have developed faults. The Fiat 500L is leaking fuel and the ABS warning light for the Mercedes 500SL has come on – and its battery is dead’ Massimo Delbò…

If you incorporated everything in this book into your quadruple garage, you could probably build a Formula 1 car. A pre-carbonfibre one, anyway. Most of us can only dream of the lathes, welding tackle, four-post hoists and slick toolchests, but there’s good advice here on tool choices, storage, lighting and how to lay it all out without tripping over stuff or blowing yourself up. Thus inspired, one day I might even build myself a proper workbench. And have a clear-out.…

The first of a series that eventually ran to more than 20 titles, including books on Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin and AC, this marque history was a pioneer of its genre. With chapters grouped according to model – 3 Litre, 4½ Litre and so on – it is very well-illustrated, and unusual in publishing details of coachbuilders and chassis numbers. The book was reprinted in 1973, ’74 and 78 with similar green covers, and then again in 2003 with a red cover when Dalton Watson passed to new ownership. Photos in the newest version are notably inferior, however, being scanned copies of the originals. That’s why the 2003 edition is worth £55, while a 1969 first edition is valued at £135 and the 1970s versions about halfway in-between. Like the cars…

SHREVE & CO ART DECO POCKET MANUAL Established in 1852, Shreve & Company is one of San Francisco’s oldest companies. At the ground-breaking for the city hall in 1913, mayor James Rolphe used a silver spade cast by Shreve & Co. For sale on 1stdibs.com at £4184, this timepiece produced by The Waltham Watch Company, with exhibition back and 14ct yellow gold case, is dated to 1935 and was intended as a pocket watch. CARTIER CRASH Theories explaining the striking shape of Cartier’s Crash watch include inspiration from Salvador Dali’s 1931 The Persistence of Memory painting or a Cartier Bagnoire that suffered a car crash. What is certain is that the Parisian firm’s London dépendance unveiled it in 1967. It has become highly collectable: a 1991 model, one of a…

MILITARY MANOEUVRES H&H, Buxton, Derbyshire, UK 18 July Land-Rover too ubiquitous? Jeep too clichéd? Then you might need a Fiat Campagnola. The thing to know is that while 1951 to 1973 models are suitably Jeep-like in appearance, later 1974-87 cars look like Fiat got Zastava to style it rather than the other way around (see also Renault TRM500). At £7000-9000, this 1968 example is an intriguing prospect. handh.co.uk WELL-TRAVELLED ROADSTER Silverstone Auctions, Northants, UK 22 July Supplied new to the USA in 1958 and arriving in the UK in 1999, this 300SL was restored over two years with Ron Waghorn, one of two engineers trained on the 300SL at launch, looking after the engine and gearbox. Since then, it’s done 9000 miles including France, Italy, Jordan and Monaco, bringing the…

Keynote speakers The first speakers have been announcedfor Octane’s Evening With Aston Martin, which takes place at the Sheraton Grand Park Lane in London on 17 July. The evening – which includes a Champagne reception and three-course meal with wine – will be hosted by Steve Rider, who will interview Aston boss Andy Palmer, test driver Matt Becker, racer Darren Turner, styling chief Marek Reichman and others. Book at aneveningwithastonmartin.co.uk . Nominate now You have until 31 July to nominate the stars of the classic car world for Octane’s Historic Motoring Awards 2018. The awards are now in their eighth year, will take part in London on 25 October, and will reward everything from the restoration of the year to the best museum, recognising those who most support and contribute…

South Africa’s rich motorsport history will be the focus of a new event from the same team that created the impressive South African Historic Grand Prix. UK-based Speedstream, which is to run the Grand Prix festival from 25 November to 2 December to celebrate the country’s pre-war motorsport history, has announced a new event called the GT Classic, to be run in 2019. Catering for road-legal sports and sports-racing cars built from 1950 to 1975, the GT Classic promises to be an epic adventure spanning nearly 3000km and five racetracks in eight days, in a part-race, part-time-trial, part-tour-style event across spectacular South Africa. It will run in two categories, one for those intent on the touring experience, the other for more competition-minded participants wanting to exercise their classic a little…

Easy, you’d think. Use the jack that belongs to the car, insert it in the jacking point provided, toil away for a while with the handle, elevation achieved. But what’s that creaking, crunching noise? Rust, probably, where once there was steel able to take a car’s weight. It doesn’t necessarily mean the whole structure is disintegrating, but the jacking points are now off-limits. Maybe you don’t want to risk possible crunch time in the first place and you need another way of raising your car. For this you’ll need a jack with a proper lifting pad – a trolley jack or bottle jack – but where do you place the pad? Somewhere stout and strong, which won’t be damaged by the jack pad (use a piece of wood or rubber…

AT £86,425 ONT HER OAD, the new M3 CS is over £20,000 more expensive than the already quite accomplished Competition Package version, so is it worth it? Power is up by just 10bhp to 454bhp, though torque jumps 37lb ft to a useful 443lb ft, thanks to recalibration of the twin-turbo straight-six. It breathes through a revised active sports exhaust that sounds particularly belligerent in Sport+ mode and drives the rear wheels via the only gearbox option – the excellent dual-clutch M DCT unit. Still, BMW says the CS is a tenth of a second quicker to 62mph from rest, at 3.9 seconds, thanks in part to a 10kg weight reduction. That’s due to a (slightly) pared-back interior, gorgeous new CFRP bonnet and boot spoiler, and stunning forged alloys There…

The Lavant Straight disappeared in a blur, the mind-bending part being that I was driving a road car. According to my son Sebastian, who was acting as ballast, we touched 173mph. That blew me way. It was only my third, albeit final, lap of Goodwood in a car that I had sat in for the first time only moments prior to venturing trackside. That’s one of the perks of being an old-boy racing driver: owners of interesting kit often ask you if you would like to have a go in their cars. I find it hard to say no, which is why I found myself being strapped into a Koenigsegg Artega R during one of the Duke of Richmond’s recent ‘special’ track days. I mention this only because I have…

1. This is a picture frame from my bespoke furniture business, Linley. I’d studied wood craftsmanship and opened David Linley Furniture Ltd in 1985. The photograph was taken by my late father, Anthony Armstrong-Jones, and includes my son Charles. It captures his playful movement. 2. These Leica binoculars look small and that’s the point – I can take them anywhere because they fit easily into a pocket. They are powerful, ideal for watching the action at Goodwood or other circuits. Normal binoculars are too ungainly and get in the way, hanging around your neck. 3. Alex Moulton gave this Moulton Standard bicycle to my father in 1962. Somewhere there’s a photo of me as a child in the luggage box on the back, with my father on the saddle. Currently…

‘THE BULLITT MUSTANG SEEMED TO DISAPPEAR AND BECAME THE WORLD’S MOST HUNTED “MOVIE CAR” FOR THE NEXT 50 YEARS’ Very little of what you are going to read about this 1968 Ford Mustang GT Fastback is logical. The life it has led, and the love its owners have had for it, make little sense. Its story brings to mind something by Hollywood scriptwriters. So let’s start there. In the late 1960s, Tinseltown was at the height of its powers, producers were making fortunes and spending evermore money to create the latest blockbuster, while stars were revered and their characters (in real life, that is) were rarely tempered by press managers. In 1967, Steve McQueen was a highly successful 37-year-old actor, already famous for his stunt-driving scene during The Great Escape…

Remember the good old days of racing? The thunder of big V8s fighting it out with smaller-capacity screamers. Crowds so close to the track they could almost touch it. Races so tough and circuits so dangerous that surviving was a victory in itself. Cars with familiar shapes sent to race around the clock. Track limits defined by Armco; overtakes requiring layers of paint to complete, celebrated rather than punished. We love to read about these battles and imagine witnessing the wheel-to-wheel action glimpsed through grainy black-and-white images. We rail against the sanitised feel of top-level motorsport in the here and now. But we needn’t. The good stuff still exists. I know, because I’ve just lived through it. You want old-school blood and thunder? You want drivers laying it all on…

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 DAVE KINNEY Markets expert • 2005 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti 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 SARAH BRADLEY Contributor • 1929 Ford Model A hot rod • 1952 Studebaker Champion • 1956 Chevrolet 3100 pick-up • 1969 Plymouth Roadrunner • Various motorbikes MASSIMO DELBÒ Contributor • 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230 • 1972 Fiat 500L…

THE GUY WAS standing in the middle of the parking lot with his back to the car, wearing goofy red gym shorts and a puffy green jacket. To get his attention, I did what any gearhead would do with unfiltered dual Webers and a straight-through exhaust: I blipped the throttle. He spun around with a startled look and we locked eyes – it was actor Adam Sandler. He looked down at the Giulia and a huge smile spread across his face as he pointed at the car. I blipped again and smiled back. That’s the thing about classic cars: you can’t get mad at them. And it’s why I love the random nature of Los Angeles. Sure, I could have jumped out of the car and chatted to him, but…

So, how many races are we talking about here? There were exactly 200 of them, including a few in non-Porsches powered by Porsche engines. That’s unless you add the 1977 Nürburgring 1000km, in which Bell was nominally part of the winning crew but didn’t actually get to drive the victorious 935, owing to team owner Georg Loos’s liking for a ‘fluid’ driver line-up. Of those 200 Porsche-propelled race drives, Octane’s columnist won (or co-won) 39 and occupied the podium after 86, which is undeniably impressive. Equally impressive is that Bell apparently remembers every one of them in detail, the bad as well as the good. He has won Le Mans five times, and only one (1975) wasn’t in a Porsche. It was instead in a Gulf GR8, but even that…

This weighty volume offers an impressively detailed history of the Pininfarina dynasty and how it has shaped many of the most illustrious and beautiful cars in the world. The emphasis is on history, with much on Pininfarina’s relationships with Ferrari, Lancia, Alfa Romeo and Fiat, and it’s pleasing to see that marques including Austin, Peugeot, Jaguar, Rolls-Royce and even Cadillac are mentioned in dispatches. While it’s hard to see any significantly new material within the book’s 215-odd large-format pages, the story takes us from Battista Farina’s early days in the ’30s to the company’s most recent automotive design studies and ‘brand extensions’, which encompass yachts, watches, pens and even buildings. Production values are high and there are many colour and mono images to go with Greggio’s text, with English translation…

You might expect a book thus titled to be a very in-depth look at the story of Jacques Kellner, Parisian creator of carrosserie to the automotive aristocracy, heroic French Resistance fighter, murdered by the Nazis in 1942 along with designer Georges Paulin and several others. The company’s handsome designs would be celebrated, the war crimes would be rued. Yes, all that is here, in detail so forensic that it includes photographs of every related German indictment document and what is surely the definitive assemblage of Kellner brochures and Kellner-bodied cars: Hispano-Suizas, Bugattis (including a Type 41 with an impossibly long bonnet), Rolls-Royces, Renaults, Duesenbergs, Bentleys, even the odd Ford. But that’s not the half of it. Nor even, necessarily, the point. Pouring out from 1056 pages, distributed between three slipcased…

Coca-Cola Porsche Speedster BY EDOCAR Even the most ordinary product is guaranteed to sell if it’s emblazoned with a famous brand name. Before World War Two, Dinky Toys issued a series of vans carrying trademarks such as Kodak, Oxo and Fry’s Chocolates, and persuaded some of these companies to pay for the privilege of putting their logos on the toys. Nowadays, use someone’s brand name on a toy without paying a hefty licensing fee and they’ll have their lawyers onto you. During the 1990s, Dutch company Edocar secured an agreement to produce model cars carrying the Coca-Cola logo and packed in special boxes. There was even a bright yellow VW ‘Baja Bug’ with Coca-Cola markings, which could play the tune of Always Coca-Cola, a song used in a 1993 commercial.…

FARER’S CONTRIBUTION to the midrange watch market has been highly praised, for good reason. Its designs, vintage-inspired and anchored in exploration, are drawn-up at the brand’s central London studio where bright dials and textured surfaces are a house speciality. High-precision movements are made in Switzerland in partnership with Roventa-Henex, so the emphasis is on quality and value with most mechanical and automatic editions priced under £1000. The British brand’s new collection of three self-winding watches, named Stanhope, Hudson and Lansdell after British adventurers, are distinctively stylised but classic enough to remain beyond the realms of ‘quirky’. They are characterised by their super-thin cushion cases, just 8.3mm thick and designed to allow for the widest possible dial aperture. This slim structure also creates an optical trick, making them appear larger than…

£3,700,000 (€4,197,500) 1993 McLaren-Cosworth Ford MP4/8A Bonhams, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 11 May £1,890,000 (€2,142,500) 1966 Ferrari 275 GTB RM Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 12 May £1,517,500 (€1,720,625) 2015 Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport Vitesse RM Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 12 May £1,493,000 (€1,692,500) 1962 Ferrari 250 GT Cabriolet Series II by Pininfarina RM Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 12 May £1,419,000 (€1,610,000) 1984 Toleman-Hart TG184 Bonhams, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 11 May £1,343,500 ($1,815,000) 2017 Ford GT Mecum, Indianapolis, USA, 15-19 May £1,096,000 (€1,242,500) 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Lightweight RM Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 12 May £1,074,500 (€1,219,000) 1957 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster Bonhams, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 11 May £977,000 (€1,107,500) 2018 Ruff CTR3 Clubsport RM Sotheby’s, Monte Carlo, Monaco, 12 May £758,500 (€860,000) 2006 Ferrari 575 Superamerica RM Sotheby’s, Monte…

For £100,000-150,000, you might reasonably expect this map to point you in the direction of the City of Gold or the Kruger Millions or the wreck of the Flor do Mar – but it is the modestly sized piece of paper itself that is the treasure. This, billed as ‘probably the most famous map in English literature’, is the original drawing of Hundred Acre Wood, home to Winnie the Pooh. Reproduced on the endpapers of AA Milne’s first book about that ‘silly old bear’ (Winnie-the-Pooh, 1926), it is presented as the work of Christopher Robin himself and is signed ‘Drawn by me and Mr Shepard helpd’ [sic]. That’s Ernest Howard Shepard, whose illustrations so brilliantly complemented Milne’s stories. Shepard’s contribution to the success of the book was great enough, in…

1995 De Tomaso Guarà ¤POA Not only the final car to wear a De Tomaso badge, but one of only seven Barchetta versions produced. This one’s covered just 416km from the factory. speed8classics.be 1973 Triumph Stag $67,500 Unrestored and completely original with 40,747 miles. Owned by a Triumph dealer principal from new, it’s been lightly fettled by Canepa to a ‘concours’ standard. canepa.com 1960 Austin-Healey Sebring Sprite. £POA This Sebring Sprite’s competition history stretches back to club racing in 1960, before it was treated to custom bodywork by Peels of Kingston. Looks like great fun. pendine.com 2004 Ferrari Enzo AUS$3,988,000 Most were red by default, and this Grigio Titanio Enzo looks great for being different. Just four were painted this shade, and this has had typically little usage, showing 4060km.…