Table of contents for September 2020 in Octane

Admittedly, it never really struck any of us at the time how substandard our portable garage lighting was, but, now we think about it, in the olden days it could be a bit of a pain. For a start you needed an electrical outlet – and the lead was never quite long enough. Then there was never anywhere convenient to hang your lamp (and it had to be hung), you could never quite aim the light precisely where you wanted it, stopping to move it was a chore, and the shadows plunged too many important bits into black hole status. Finally, despite being encased in a protective shroud of glass that was itself caged in a girdle of safety metal, bulbs shattered like butterfly wings. Nowadays we have multi-functional, multi-directional,…

A few months ago I visited a man who had a collection of cars he wanted to go to good homes after he’d died. One car in particular spoke to me. Among the vintage Porsches, Gullwings, Jaguars, and other exotic cars was a 1953 Talbot-Lago Type 26 GSL: Grand Sport Longue. According to historian Peter Larsen, between 19 and 21 cars were built, of which possibly 11 to 13 survive. This man was elderly; all these cars he’d bought new back in the 1950s and 1960s. He’d gone to France to buy a Teardrop and, when he couldn’t find one, someone suggested this car in a Paris lock-up. He didn’t want to come home empty-handed and so in 1965 he had it air-freighted from Paris to Los Angeles. When the…

‘Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes-Benz; my friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends.’ I know this Janis Joplin dippy-hippy, anti-consumerism song has become a bit of a cliché but, though it was recorded in 1970, it never really registered with me until two decades later. To me Mercedes-Benz cars always seemed serious and formal, so they were never going to sit among the Ferraris, Porsches and Lambos on my list of dream machines. Yet I remember, decades ago, being driven at night in a 300 SE Fintail and being intrigued by the illuminated stacked instruments in the walnut veneer dashboard and the cream-coloured steering wheel. That aside, it still looked like a Beirut taxi. And, at the time, the local rich guy owned a 300 SL…

in association with THE DRIVE TO our lunch stop was defined by amusing anecdotes and near misses. Jacques Alméras doesn’t lift for anything. On arrival, he’s all smiles, his passengers a tangle of arms and legs, profanity making way for fits of giggles as we stare at each other in disbelief. Our amiable host is 71 years young, fearless and modest, although he could be forgiven for doing the big I Am. If you love Porsches – if you love motorsport – you will be familiar with the Alméras Frères team and its creations. Jacques and his older sibling Jean-Marie have fielded cars in rallying, circuit racing and hillclimbing over more than half a century, during which time they have racked up 17 titles at national and international level. What’s…

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 • 1927 Alvis 12/50• 1927 Ford Model T pick-up• 1955 Land Rover Series I 107in• 1966 Ford Mustang 289• 1994 Range Rover 4.0 JAMES ELLIOTT Editor-in-chief • 1965 Triumph 2.5 PI• 1968 Jensen Interceptor JOHN SIMISTER Contributor • 1961 Saab 96• 1972 Rover 2000 TC• 1989 Mazda MX-5 Eunos RICHARD HESELTINE Contributor • 1966 Moretti Sportiva• 1971 Honda Z600 MASSIMO DELBÒ Contributor • 1967 Mercedes-Benz 230• 1972 Fiat 500L• 1975 Alfa Romeo GT…

DURING THE MONTHS of lockdown, London was deserted. The weather was glorious the whole time and we were all astonished at how quiet the city was, birdsong aside – and the saucepan-bashing for key workers on Thursday evenings, of course. As a result, essential travelling about London has been a total pleasure, especially on my trusty bicycle. I have owned this Giant Delta for 11 years and all I have done is to have it serviced every now and then by Mike at Phoenix Cycles (www.phoenix-cycles.com) in Battersea, who has also replaced both tyres. I used to scooter about town but after the second one was nicked I thought a bicycle would be a much better option. I don’t cycle that far, but you’d be surprised at what sort of…

‘Had an intermittent fault with the Triumph’s overdrive not kicking in. Thankfully, it was just a loose connection; better still, it was the end you can actually get to!’James Elliott ‘The BMW arrived back from quarantine just in time for the weather to turn rather less glorious. Hoping for another taste of summer soon’Glen Waddington ‘After what seems like months of research, I’ve finally chosen a set of Yokohama tyres for the Integra Type R. A Japanese tyre seems appropriate, even if it is a move away from the original Bridgestones’Matthew Hayward ‘Early July, and I should have been at Pendine for a weekend of beach racing with the Vintage Hot Rod Association. That wasn’t to be – but the good news is that it may happen in October’Sarah Bradley…

THINGS HAVE always happened slowly at Morgan. Living heritage is the main reason why its factory has become one of Worcestershire’s most popular tourist attractions, as visitors come to see cars built using techniques unchanged for decades. Until last month that was true of some parts, too. But on 16 June this year an epoch quietly ended as the last Morgan Plus 4 was driven off the line. This was the last car to use the company’s steel chassis – which had survived in barely altered form since the first four-wheeler was built in 1936 – and also the last to use the sliding-pillar front suspension that the rest of the car industry gave up on at least 60 years ago. The frame dimensions had changed over the years to…

BMW M1 PROCAR RM Sotheby’s, online auction, USA 13-15 August, rmsothebys.com RM’s Monterey auction has transitioned this year to form an online auction, and this BMW Procar is just one part of the excellent line-up. It was sold new to American racing driver Joe Crevier, and it competed in the IMSA GT Championship for two seasons. It has been raced throughout its life, including more recently at a range of events. Fully restored, this car is expected to sell for $600,000-800,000 and is offered with no reserve. MORBIDELLI COLLECTION Bonhams, Bicester Heritage, Oxfordshire, UK 14-16 August, bonhams.com Forming a significant part of Bonhams’ Summer Sale motorcycle auction, the Morbidelli Collection is headlined by this very special 1975 Suzuki 750cc XR11 Formula 750. Originally used in the USA, this chassis was…

ART DECO CARS are rarely seen driving on UK roads, but that’s something you could put right with this spectacular Cord 810. Originally intended to be a ‘Baby Duesenberg’, the Cord 810 was displayed at the 1935 New York motor show as part of Cord’s dramatic relaunch. It was designed by Gordon Buehrig and his team, who had also been the driving force behind many of Duesenberg’s greatest hits. Buehrig notoriously didn’t like the then-fashionable big grilles, and came up with the ‘coffin nose’ front end. It’s certainly a defining feature, which sets off the rest of the teardrop sedan body. That body is jam-packed with clever little features – most lovable being the pair of concealed headlamps, which swivel and open up when you crank two dash-mounted handles. A…

JEREMY TAYLOR ‘My return from testing the Rodin FZED in New Zealand was on one of the last flights back before lockdown. Was it worth it? Well, I’ve driven an F1 car before and this was more memorable: it makes you appreciate what F1 drivers experience. I just need a few hundred thousand pounds to buy one.’ To find out more, turn to pages 66-74. PETER ROBINSON ‘Researching the late automotive historian Griffith Borgeson confirmed my opinion that he sits at the top of my motoring journalism heroes. Nobody better understood original research. Spending days talking about him was a joy and reminded me that Griff’s inspiration led to me living in Europe.’  Remembering Griff Borgeson: pages 92-98. FIONA RICHARDSON ‘Having been involved in historic cars all my life, bringing the two…

June passed by with me rueing the fact that, for the first time in decades, I wouldn’t be at Le Mans. I mean, I could have enjoyed the race virtually from the comfort of my sofa. Except I didn’t do that. Instead, I got a bit wistful. This year marks 50 years since I made by debut in the Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans. That’s fully half a century since I first competed in a race that, in so many ways, went on to define my motorsport career. A while back, I was invited to be the grand marshal at this year’s event in honour of this. Until that moment, it simply hadn’t dawned on me that 2020 represented a personal milestone. And even then, it didn’t really register. But the…

A LOT HAS happened to the Baur since my last report, when I treated it to storage with BOXD London throughout the winter of last year. BOXD also maintains your car while it is in its care and the team cured many niggles with the Baur, such as using a brand new power-steering additive which made a vast improvement. On collection, the car looked amazing and I was delighted to have it back. The one problem that BOXD could not resolve was the warning light for low oil pressure coming on at low revs. The Baur didn’t lack power and it was not using much oil or water, but it seemed to be running a tad hot. The needle never went all the way into the red but it was…

THINGS WERE GOING swimmingly with the Espada rebuild – right up until the middle of March, when the world went into lockdown. At least the new bespoke, Teflon-coated, forged pistons had already arrived from CP-Carrillo in California; the bad news was that the valve shims had just gone off to be sized correctly before the cylinder heads could be built up, but the machine shop had closed its doors as soon as lockdown hit. Bother. As the calendar ticked over into April, May and then June, I started to think that I was being over-optimistic in hoping the Espada engine would be finished in time for some late-summer motoring. But then I got a call from specialist Iain Tyrrell to say that the machine shop had reopened and the heads…

LOS ANGELES had been on lockdown for weeks. The natives were getting restless. My friend Nick and I talked every other day… ‘What are you doing?’ ‘Nothing’ has been our normal conversation, until… ‘You know the poppies are in bloom?’ Once a year in Antelope Valley, 1½ hours’ drive outside Los Angeles at the edge of the Mojave Desert, are hills of poppies filling the landscape. What are we waiting for? Nick has a fantastic 1957 Giulietta Spider with a 1750cc engine and five-speed gearbox. It’s properly sorted and tired of sitting. Now, Nick probably would have let me drive it if I had just asked, but his elaborate scheme of ‘photographing the car with the poppies’ was just perfect. Nick’s son Christian is 16 years old and taking photo…

GIVEN THE FLAMBOYANCE, exuberance, excess, and showbiz pizzazz of Harley Earl’s reign as head of styling at General Motors, it seems appropriate that he was born in the wellspring of glitz and glamour: Hollywood. Yet in 1893, the year of his birth, the inhabitants of this agricultural settlement ten miles west of Los Angeles could not have imagined what lay ahead. Four years earlier, Harley’s father, Jacob, had opened the Earl Carriage Works in central LA, building and repairing horsedrawn vehicles. The city was experiencing a population boom, business was brisk and profitable, and in 1906 – accepting that the horseless carriage was here to stay – he changed the company’s direction and renamed it the Earl Automobile Works. In 1910, Hollywood’s citizens voted to become part of the rapidly…

MOST OF US who collect and fuss about watches have long given up even trying to be rational about them. They’re a daft but hugely enjoyable thing to be irrational about, though. That machine full of clicking cogs and springs on your wrist is a little universe of fascination, even if it gains or loses a few seconds a day. A watch with a battery and a bit of quartz crystal, on the other hand, is accurate to a hair’s breadth, but to some it isn’t a proper watch: it’s barely a step away from some wrist computer thing that calculates your golf handicap and beeps at you if you sit down for too long. So what about a watch that combines clicky cogs and the battery quartz bit –…

£1,178,500 (€1,320,000) 2020 Porsche 935 ‘Martini’ RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £806,500 ($990,000) 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 Bring a Trailer, 29 June. Online £687,500 (€770,000) 1939 Bugatti Type 57 Cabriolet by Gangloff RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £677,500 (€759,000) 1958 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £638,500 (€715,000) 1968 Lamborghini Miura P400 RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £618,500 (€693,000) 1964 Porsche 904 GTS RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £609,000 (€682,000) 1997 RUF CTR2 Sport RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £559,500 (€627,000) 1967 Aston Martin DB6 Volante RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £402,500 (€451,000) 1979 Lamborghini Countach LP400 S RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online £402,500 (€451,000) 1981 Lancia 037 Stradale RM Sotheby’s, 3-11 June. Online…

If you’ve ever wondered why so many spy stories are set in the past, it is because intelligence-gathering in the internet age involves a whole lot of sitting at a computer. The Jacob Collection, which will be dispersed by Bonhams in London on 29 July, includes some relics of a more interesting and marketable time, when the business of espionage was often stranger than fiction. There’s an example of the Tessina, a 35mm camera that fits comfortably inside a cigarette packet. It was a favourite tool of the notoriously nosy Stasi, and a Tessina was also found on one of President Nixon’s ‘Plumbers’ during the Watergate break-in of 1972. Most intriguing, though, is the gadget pictured here. The Echo 8, which was made in Japan between 1951 and 1956, is…

1981 Alfa Romeo GTV 2.0 Grand Prix, €19,950 Busso V6 models might be the most popular, but the four-cylinder GTV is the sweeter handler. This is one of 650 special Grand Prix edition cars in great original condition. erclassics.com (NL) 1987 Ferrari Testarossa $POA If you took a fancy to the one-off Agnelli Testarossa Spider in the last issue, this Richard Straman-converted Spider could be just the thing. A dozen or so were made, and to a high standard. stuartparrcollection.com (US) 1972 Lotus Elan Plus 2S £33,995 With a great history and some nice options, this Elan also has a galvanised chassis, recently rebuilt 1558cc big-valve engine and fresh paint. All that’s left to do is get out and enjoy it. hexagonclassics.com (UK) 1998 Dodge Viper GTS R $135,000 Number…

IN ASSOCIATION WITH Rather than suspend this section due to the classic car calendar being obliterated, we threw it open to readers and were swamped with thousands of superb pictures capturing the pre-Coronavirus classic motoring dream and the frustrations of ‘lockdown’ in equal measure. Here are just a few more of our favourites… Famous Belgians Julien Mahiels started taking photos for Jean-François Devillers’ Belgian rally set-up Trajectoire (liege-rome-liege.org) a decade ago and since then has seen it boom from arranging a few local events to planning gruelling full-on endurance rallies such as Liège-Rome-Liège. The Christian Crucifix and Yves Noelanders Ford Anglia was photographed on a Nikon D800 with 16-35mm F4 lens during the 2017 Liège-Rome-Liège on a stage from Cuneo to Chambéry. The main image shows the same crew but…

A DECADE AFTER the death of Luigi ‘Gino’ Macaluso, a foundation has been opened in Turin honouring the rally star, pilot, designer and entrepreneur. Fondazione Gino Macaluso per l’Auto Storica has been established by his wife and children with the intention of ‘promoting cars as cult objects’, celebrating their technical innovation, craftsmanship and groundbreaking design, and their influence on 20th Century society. Macaluso is best known to motoring fans as a navigator and co-driver, winning the European Rally Championship in 1972 with Raffaele Pinto in a Fiat 124 Sport Spider and the 1974 Italian Rally Championship in a Fiat 124 Abarth with Maurizio Verini. After motorsport, he remained a key figure on bodies promoting motoring and Italian classic cars and amassed a large car collection – ranging from Fiat-Abarth X1/9…

The first free flight of a balloon carrying humans was in 1783, using a balloon made by the Montgolfier brothers in France and achieved by hot air filling a paper and silk envelope. After that, and despite the considerable cost of producing a balloon, ballooning became a fashionable pursuit for the super-wealthy pioneers of the air. Ever since early balloon flights by Frenchmen Jean-François Rozier and the Marquis des Arlanders, the desire for endurance, altitude and the associated accolades was a driving force in their design. It soon became apparent, however, that hot air was not the best way to make a balloon ascend: hydrogen was the answer. The adoption of hydrogen offered a more sensible way to fill the balloon and also, by means of valves operated by the…

Cultural anthropology gives us many examples of the arrival, after many false promises, of a handsome prince from over the horizon to bring light, freedom and opportunity to a people hitherto lonely, oppressed and struggling in fearful darkness. That’s exactly how I felt when, after a false start in March, a man with a flatbed truck at last delivered a new, opalescent white Alpine A110. It was a symbol of the end of The Great Isolation. Within an hour, four neighbours emerged from their lockdowned freeholds, blinking in the sunlight, to admire this gorgeous little car. My neighbours are used to all sorts of interesting stuff outside my house. Ferraris, Astons and Bentleys don’t stir them much. But their curiosity about the Alpine was exceptional. Within an hour and a…

OK, OK, it’s not orange. The colour is called weissherbst. Translates as ‘white autumn’. And, in the metal – well, glassfibre – it’s more a kind of bronze. Mercedes-Benz’s ‘supersports’ car (their word, not mine) burst onto the scene in March 1970 at the Geneva motor show, powered by a 350bhp, 2.4-litre quad-rotor Wankel engine that promised a top speed of 300km/h (188mph) and 0-62mph in 4.8 seconds. That top speed turned out to be conservative, although the records it subsequently achieved came after that tricksy engine had been consigned to Mercedes-Benz’s own museum. Of course, there’d already been a C 111, the first generation that did the rounds as more of an engineering study during 1969. But this time, the design department chief Bruno Sacco and his colleague Josef…

A star was born on the lawns of Pebble Beach in August 2015. There, at the most important classic car concours in the world, a surprise nomination for the coveted Best of Show went to the 1953 Abarth 1100 Sport Ghia Coupé, chassis 205-104, a car not seen complete in public since 1954. It didn’t win – the other three nominees were considerably grander, and the accolade ultimately went to Jim Patterson’s 1924 Isotta Fraschini Tipo 8A Cabriolet – but, if it had, no-one would have complained. Since 1969, when the concours began featuring only classic cars, a post-war car has won just once – Jon Shirley’s unique 1954 Ferrari 375 MM Scaglietti Coupé, in 2014 – so even to have been nominated makes clear exactly how special this little…

I’M WRITING THIS in my new home office. Which means the dining table can resume its proper role, the guest bedroom can become exactly that, and I’m no longer quite so disturbed during working hours by the background noise of home-schooling kids. It also means I’m down to a single space in the garage, taken up by my BMW now that it has returned from storage at RH Classics (more on that soon). But the big news is that the 944 has moved on to its new home. I faced facts in the New Year and put it up for sale, when the likelihood of renting space locally looked increasingly slim. There was plenty of interest, even a couple of early test drives. Then lockdown happened, the BMW was forced…

MATTHEW HAYWARD Markets editor • 1990 Citroën BX 16v• 1994 Toyota Celica GT-Four• 1996 Saab 9000 Aero• 1997 Citroën Xantia Activa• 1997 Peugeot 306 GTI-6• 2000 Honda Integra Type R• 2001 Audi A2 SAMANTHA SNOW Advertising account manager • 1969 Triumph Herald 13/60 Convertible• 1989 Mercedes-Benz 300SL 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• 1937 Studebaker Dictator• 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 •…

I THINK IT WAS Top Gear’s James May who said that buying a new gas boiler is the least enjoyable way you can blow a few grand. As far as I’m concerned, buying new tyres runs it a close second. So when Goodyear’s PR got in touch to offer a set from its new Vector 4Seasons Gen-3 range to test, I bit his hand off. During the winter months, I normally run my XC70 on a set of (coincidentally) Goodyear Ultragrip winter tyres, bought as a package with a set of aftermarket Borbet black alloys from the-wheel-shop.co.uk. Together with the Volvo’s four-wheel drive, they make it almost unstoppable in conditions like those pictured right. Because I run my summer tyres on the stock Volvo alloys, which were starting to look a…

YOU HAVE TO hand it to Bentley: when it came to snagging the coolest-sounding Le Mans names for its cars, it didn’t leave much for the opposition. Toyota Tertre Rouge, anyone? Of course, Bentley has special bragging rights for the Circuit de la Sarthe, having won there in 1924, 1927-30 and 2003. But now one of its most famous monikers associated with the 24 Hours has itself become history: the Bentley Mulsanne is no more. Production of the Mulsanne, until now the flagship of the range, quietly ended during lockdown. Back in March, Octane was planning a full photoshoot at Crewe, taking a 1983 Mulsanne into the hall where the current car was built, but the rapid spread of Covid-19 put the kybosh on that. Shame, because there was more…

‘Dinky Toys’ and ‘Hong Kong’ don’t quite seem to go together, do they? After all, Dinky had been making high-quality diecast cars since the 1930s, whereas Hong Kong had a reputation for churning out cheap plastic copies of other people’s designs. But by the late 1970s things were not going well at the Meccano factory in Liverpool where Dinky Toys were produced. The company had been in financial trouble for years and had been bought out, first by Lines Brothers, owners of Britain’s biggest toy brand, Tri-ang, and subsequently by Airfix of plastic kit fame. Intense competition from Matchbox and Corgi, and subsequently from the Far East, meant that the days of the Binns Road factory were numbered. One rather desperate tactic in these final years was to sub-contract manufacture…

22 July H&H, online 23-30 July RM Sotheby’s, online 25 July Bonhams, Bicester, UK 29 July Charterhouse, online 31 July – 2 August Silverstone Auctions, online 3-7 August Gooding & Company, online 13 August Brightwells, Leominster, UK 13-15 August Mecum, Monterey, USA RM Sotheby’s, online 14 August Bonhams, Los Angeles, USA 19 August H&H, online 19-26 August Shannons, online 22 August Anglia Car Auctions, King’s Lynn, UK Mathewsons, Thornton-le-Dale, UK Morris Leslie, online 27 August Charterhouse, online (motorcycles) 27-29 August Mecum, Kissimmee, USA 29 August Dorotheum, Vösendorf, Austria 3-6 September RM Auctions, Auburn, USA 5 September Tennants, Leyburn, UK Worldwide Auctioneers, Auburn, USA 6 September Bonhams, Brussels, Belgium 9-12 September Mecum, Dallas, USA 10-12 September Barrett-Jackson, Las Vegas, USA 12 September Bonhams, Goodwood, UK 13 September Artcurial, Gibel, France 16…

WHAT TO PAY Early 3.0-litre cars are the entry point at about £10,000, but £15,000 should get a tidy 3.2. Condition plays a bigger role than spec, although early convertibles are usually the cheapest (£8000-20,000), with late-spec 3.2 Evo coupés the most desirable: perfect cars are up to £30,000, with dealers asking considerably more for exceptional examples. Saloons are rarer than coupés, but prices are roughly the same. The UK-spec GT carries a small premium; a full EU-spec version is up to 20% more. US Lightweights cost up to $100,000. WHAT TO LOOK OUT FOR Engines are tough, but a tired Vanos unit is a common problem. Located on the front of the engine, if it sounds noisy and the car has a lumpy idle, it will require an overhaul.…