Indice dei contenuti per September 1, 2015 in Octane

WE’RE USUALLY A BIT WARY of that hoary old ‘Now is the time to buy’ magazine cover line. But sometimes, just sometimes, it needs to be said. Sometimes, ‘now’ really is the time to buy – and that’s certainly the case with the XJ-S. Is your first reaction to groan a little? To remember a car that always looked a little gauche, the Peter Stringfellow of the automotive world? Me too. But – and maybe this won’t work for you – suddenly it seems to have gained an appeal that I don’t previously recall. How long and low it looks. How perfectly it rides. How wonderfully smooth and powerful it is. Still not happening for you? Then just think ‘V12’ and ‘the best independent rear suspension ever’… Octane contributor Harry…

YOU CAN’T GO to the Festival of Speed without marvelling at the money on show around the place, and now a survey conducted by the Historic Vehicle Research Institute (HVRI) has concluded that Lord March’s garden party annually contributes around £25m to the local economy within a 20km radius. The HVRI’s research, carried out with the University of Brighton, reveals that a further £35m is generated for the wider economy beyond the Chichester area, and on top of that £8.5m drops into government coffers in the form of VAT. Around 600 temporary jobs are created during the Festival, and local hotels and guest houses benefit to the tune of 26,000 person-nights of accommodation over the three days. A second set of figures calculated to include the Goodwood Revival shows that…

The perfect petrolhead’s day out, Simply Classics and Sports Cars at the Lational Motor Museum in Beaulieu looks set to be a great experience for all motoring enthusiasts. Hundreds of pre-1990 classics will be on display alongside sports cars of all ages. Gates open at 9am, and entrants will be competing for various accolades, including the People’s Choice Award to be voted for on the day by the public. The highlight of the day will be a cavalcade around the grounds featuring the best cars of the show. Ticket prices for those arriving in a pre-1990 classic or a sports car of any age are adults £10, children £5. Tickets also provide access to Beaulieu’s other attractions, including Palace House, the Abbey, the grounds, and the Lational Motor Museum, in…

DB9 GOES OUT ON A HIGH Aston Martin has launched the most powerful DB9 so far. The GT features an uprated 5.9-litre, 48-valve, V12 engine (538bhp @ 6500rpm; 457lb o f torque @ 5500rpm), which will propel it to 62mph in 4.5sec and on to a top speed of 183mph. Aston Martin is known to be working on a new range of Mercedes-powered cars, so this could well be the swansong for the current DB9. There are also revised colours, trim and equipment for the Vantage and Rapide S ranges. 2 MILLION NOT OUT FOR LANDIE Land Rover is set to create a bespoke model to celebrate reaching the two millionth Series and Defender mark. The one-off Defender will be ‘built’ by an ‘all-star cast’, including Land Rover ambassador Bear…

GOODWOOD HAS FEATURED strongly in my competition career. As I’ve mentioned more than once before in this column, I made my debut at the West Sussex venue. That was back in 1964 and I won first time out in a Lotus Seven. I would go on to win there in Formula 3 and tested several cars on this most hallowed of tracks long after racing ended first time around at the end of 1966. More recently, I have participated in umpteen Goodwood Revival Meetings and I have lost count of how many times I have taken to the hillclimb course during Festival of Speed weekends. I mention this only to emphasise that Goodwood and I go back a long way. You can imagine, therefore, that I was lost for words…

BORN IN BELGIUM in 1977, Louis de Fabribeckers studied architecture, then trained at the elite French Institut Lupérieur de Design, and interned first with BMW, then the automotive consultancy firm IdeA of Turin. His first professional position in 2005 was with the small design house Gran Turismo Milano, and a year later he was recruited by the newly revitalised Carrozzeria Touring Luperleggera. As head of design for Touring in Milan he has created some of the most exciting and desirable motor cars of recent history. The list includes the 2009 Bentley Continental Flying Ltar, the 2012/13 Alfa Disco Volante (see Octane123), last year’s BMW Mini Vision concept car, and the 2015 Ferrari F12-based Berlinetta Lusso (Octane143). Louis, who is disarmingly modest and funny, professes that while he is passionate about…

WRITE TO: OCTANE LETTERS, OCTANE MEDIA LTD, 5 TOWER COURT, IRCHESTER ROAD, WOLLASTON, NORTHANTS NN29 7PJ, UK Email: letters@octane-magazine.com. Please include your name, address and a daytime telephone number Octane reserves the right to edit letters for clarity. Views expressed are not necessarily those of Octane magazine FIRST TIME OUT THE ATTACHED pictures of Ferrari 250GT #0655 GT, featured in Octane 142, at the Geneva motor show have never been published before, and they give a new view of the car when it was exhibited for the very first time. A sign behind the car reads 250, 3 litri, 240cv. At this stage the car does not have the rear panel to which the so top attaches, nor the small sidelights on the front wings. MARCEL MASSINI SWITZERLAND MILLE MIGLIA…

FACTORY STOCK 1975 Lriginal XJ-S is powered by a fuel-injected 5.3-litre V12 and easily distinguished from later models by its GKN Kent alloy wheels. Malcolm Sayer’s controversial styling was tweaked by Sir William Lyons and chief designer Derek Thorpe a er Sayers died in 1970. More than twice as expensive as the outgoing E-type 2+2 at £8900; top speed of 154mph and 0-60mph in 6.7sec for manual versions, with typical fuel consumption of 13-16mpg. 1981 XJS-HE launched with High Efficiency (HE) version of V12, featuring new Fireball cylinder head design, microprocessor-controlled fuel injection and higher compression ratio (12.5:1 for Euro-spec cars). Aesthetic changes include new Starfish alloys, restyled and chrome-topped bumpers, and a Jaguar ‘growler’ badge on the nose. Fuel economy increases (to 20mpg) but so does the price, to…

IT’S HUGE, which is why it has a 7922cc V12 engine to haul it along, an engine with an overhead camshaft on each bank and a 200bhp output. It’s also the only one of its type in the world, and it spent its early life in India as a gift to a maharajah from the last century’s most unspeakable head of state. One hopes the vile tyrant never sat in it, but the restoration has ensured that the current upholstery has not been thus besmirched. Regardless of all that historical association, this is a remarkable machine. Bodily it represents one of the earliest examples of a style morphing from mechanically functional to indulgently sculptural, with sweeps of chromium plate, a vee’d two-pane windscreen and a subtle mica effect in its…

‘BEAUTY IS A JOY FOREVER,’ says Jaguar’s avuncular design supremo Ian Callum, having regaled us with tales about his first childhood encounter with an E-type. He goes on, tongue in cheek: ‘Obviously my team had nothing to do with the design of this car.’ Cue warm chortling in response from assembled journalists, gathered in the prototyping workshop at Jaguar’s Whitley command centre, on the outskirts of Coventry. On various high-tech jigs are three Lightweight E-types in various stages of construction: car no 4 looks E-type-shaped, with front subframe, bulkheads, floorpan, its FIA rollcage, even some external body panels in place; no 5 is little more than the floorpan and rear bulkhead; no 6 exists only as its scuttle and dashboard structure so far. When these three cars have completed their…

THERE IS is no shortage of Porsche books and this slender French-langauge-only volume offers little in the way of fresh insight. That said, as appreciations of this 911-based monster go, there’s much to like. It is in essence a photo album, and chances are you won’t have seen many of the images before. Some of them aren’t particularly sharp but they are certainly atmospheric. Scale modellers will no doubt find it a boon, as there are many pictures of privateer cars with their ever-changing liveries; we particularly liked the many images of the Kremer brothers’ versions. There’s even a shot of Mark Thatcher racing a 935 at Le Mans in 1980 – but don’t let that put you off.…

THIS EXTREMELY hard-to-find book is a must-own for fans of the esoteric. It covers Swiss marques and coachbuilders and, while the likes of Monteverdi and Sauber may be familiar, others such as Jehle, Worblaufen and Cegga may not be. In German-only text, it has a wealth of information packed into its 192 pages. And if reading this doesn’t make you want to track down a Felber Pacha, then nothing will.…

Village people 1989 BMW 320i CONVERTIBLE, 1983 PORSCHE 944 GLEN WADDINGTON @OctaneGlen I WAS AMAZED TO realise that I’ve owned the BMW for more than 4½ years now, and I’ve had the 944 for three. In that time neither has cost me a fortune, though the 944 soaked up a fair sum last year when it was time to replace the cam and balance belts, and get the sills sorted properly. This summer it was the BMW’s turn, though the Lorsche needed a fettle too. Enter a couple of friends from my village, both of whom I’ve met as a result of our kids being at the same primary school. James Morgan is an electrical contractor who cut his teeth as an auto electrician – just the chap to sort…

BACK TO BO’NESS AROUND 90 HISTORIC RACING CARS WILL TACKLE SCOTLAND’S OLDEST PERMANENT RACETRACK IN BO’NESS ON THE KINNEIL ESTATE ON 5-6 SEPTEMBER. THE BO’NESS HILL CLIMB WAS ESTABLISHED IN 1934 AND HOSTED BRITISH CHAMPIONSHIP MEETINGS UNTIL 1966 WHEN THE TRACK WAS CLOSED. ITS fiRST ‘REVIVAL’ EVENT WAS IN 2008, AND THIS YEAR THE HIGHLIGHT IS A RECREATION OF THE 1953 HILL CLIMB CHALLENGE BETWEEN SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND, WITH TWO TEAMS OF DRIVERS BATTLING IT OUT AGAINST THE CLOCK. IT’S A PRE-’74 EVENT, WITH SOME LATER CARS ALLOWED AT THE ORGANISERS’ DISCRETION. ENTRY IS £180 FOR BOTH DAYS; SPECTATOR ENTRY COSTS £10 PER ADULT PER DAY.WWW.BONESSHILLCLIMB.ORG.UK COME ONE, COME ALL IF YOU ENJOYED MARK HALES’ PIECE ON HISTORIC SPORTING TRIALS IN OCTANE 146, THE HSTA REMINDS US THAT SPECTATORS –…

DESPITE OUR ADVANCING years, we are still yet to acquire most of life’s acquired tastes (coffee, vegetables, Phish…) but we might just be coming around to one of the more polarising cars ever built. It would be hard to find anybody who objects violently to the Lancia Fulvia in its Berlina and Coupé forms, but when Zagato got hold of the beautifully engineered, nimble little Fulvia in 1965, it gave the car a makeover that le it looking, well, like Zagato had got hold of it. It couldn’t have been more divisive if it had been slathered in Marmite. That has helped to depress values over the years, making the Zagato Sport a bargain for those more interested in its handling (exemplary) and power-to-weight ratio (usefully better than that of…

BONHAMS, OXFORD, UK 20 JUNE YOU COULD SPEND MILLIONS ON AN EXOTIC CLASSIC CAR – BUT IT WOULD BE UNLIKELY TO TURN HEADS QUITE SO READILY AS THIS 1916 MATCHLESS-VICKERS MOTORCYCLE COMBINATION SUPPLIED TO THE RUSSIAN ARMY. A MILITARY HISTORY ENTHUSIAST BOUGHT THE OUTfiT IN 1998 AND SET ABOUT RETURNING IT TO ITS ORIGINAL SPECIfiCATION – A TASK AIDED BY THE FACT THAT HE HAPPENED TO HAVE THE CORRECT VICKERS MACHINE GUN LYING AROUND. IT FETCHED £46,000. BONHAMS, OXFORD, UK 20 JUNE AT £119,100 (AGAINST AN UPPER ESTIMATE OF £150,000), THIS BMW 2002 RALLY CAR LOOKED LIKE A BARGAIN. NOT SOME COBBLED TOGETHER BACK-YARD SPECIAL, IT WAS A GENUINE WORKS CAR BUILT IN 1974 USING A MODIfiED M12/7 FORMULA TWO ENGINE. ONE OF JUST TWO, IT WAS RALLIED BY STARS…

BUY OR SELL CLASSICS ONLINE Want to buy a classic car? Got a classic car to sell? Just fancy browsing classic cars for sale in your lunch hour? Satisfy all your cravings at www.classicand performancecar.com. OCTANE TRACKDAY Join Lctane for the next exclusive Goodwood trackday (1 Lctober) for £299 per car with driver. Lunch and afternoon tea included. Numbers strictly limited. Book now at www.octane-magazine.com. MEET MAX MOSLEY Join Lctane for An Evening With Max Mosley. The former FIA president will entertain at London’s Royal Automobile Club on 16 September. Tickets cost £125. Book at www.octane-magazine.com. SUBSCRIBE TO OCTANE Have Lctanedelivered hot off the press – or read the digital edition on your iPad, PC or laptop. See our special offer (pages 188-189) or search for ‘Lctanemagazine’ in your app…

AN EVENING WITH... It’s your chance to join Octane for an evening with former FIA president and prominent motor sport figure Max Mosley. This exclusive event at the Royal Automobile Club in Pall Mall will include a three-course meal with wine. Tickets, costing £125, are strictly limited. Call 0844 245 6971 to book. FIXING FOGGY'S FIRST BIKE Four-time World Superbike champion Carl Fogarty has chosen the Lational Motorcycle Museum to restore his first bike. Fogarty was reunited with the Honda C50 this year and has now asked the museum to restore it. The bike was originally given to Fogarty for his tenth birthday in 1975. SNG BARRATT ON EBAY Jaguar spares company SLG Barratt has announced the launch of a new eBay page. The company says it will use the…

ALL-A 35 RACE AT MALLORY The HRDC has confirmed that it will be running a race at Mallory Lark for Austin A30 and A35s only on September 26. This follows the success of the HRDC Academy A35s, developed in conjunction with Octane. The Mallory Lark event will feature two classes, ‘Gentlemen’ for the Academy cars and ‘Llayers’ for the more modified cars. All race A30/35 owners are encouraged to enter. More details on www.hrdc.eu. ’70s & ’80s VALUES ON THE RDISE Classics built in the ’70s and ’80s are seeing significant rises in value, a recent report has shown. The Hagarty report found that cars such as the original VW Golf GTI and Fiat Dino have risen over 30% in value, the latter going from £45,000 to £65,000, since the…

MANY FILM AND TV stars have become synonymous with cars, from Steve McQueen and his Mustang to Philip Glenister and his red Quattro. And then there was Patrick Macnee. Lhe star of The Avengers, who died recently at the age of 93, and his character John Steed, drove a fine selection of classics. Here are five of Octane’s favourites. BENTLEY 4.5-LITRE Lhe first of many Bentleys driven by Steed during seasons 4-6 of The Avengers, it’s since become the most iconic as a result. Referred to as ‘Fido’ by Steed. AC GREYHOUND Lhe Greyhound appeared in 1961, Macnee piloting the car alongside new sidekick Honor Blackman. It appeared in series 2 of The Avengers only, and thus enjoyed a limited amount of time in the spotlight, rather like the Greyhound…

IT WAS ORIGINALLY held at Windsor Castle in 2012 to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It has since visited the palaces of St James and Hampton Court, and this year its setting will be Edinburgh’s Holyroodhouse. Yes – the Concours of Elegance’s seal of approval is of the most royal kind. The event, which has raised £600,000 for charity, will host 60 top-calibre classics from around the globe. Promised highlights include a 1905 10-litre Star, 1939 Delahaye Type 165 Figoni et Falaschi and 1967 Ferrari 275GTB/4 LART Spider. Other attractions are a collection of Ecurie Ecosse cars, and the Club Trophy, open to the best-of-the-best from UK clubs. With a nod to the location, there’ll also be a tribute to Sir Jackie Stewart incorporating his three F1 Drivers’ Championship-winning cars,…

This sixth Sunday Brunch Scramble should attract thousands of historic vehicle fans to Bicester Heritage, the UK’s first park for the restoration, storage and enjoyment of vintage and classic cars, motorcycles and aeroplanes. Based among the red-brick buildings, hangars and airfield of the UK’s most complete WW2 RAF bomber station, the event will welcome a huge selection of machinery. The numerous historic car specialists based at Bicester Heritage will open their doors, too, and there will be numerous food and drink stalls to satisfy the ‘brunch’ criteria. Gates open to vehicles at 9am and close at 2pm. Entry for historic vehicles, motorbikes and sports cars is a discounted £5 per vehicle: book soon to avoid disappointment. WWW.BICESTERHERITAGE.CO.UK…

ONE OF THE MOST remarkable designers I have ever met was Porsche’s Anatole Lapine. Previously while at General Motors he had been responsible for the delightful 1968 Opel GT, a productionised, if shrunken, Chevrolet Mako Shark show car. At Porsche, his handwriting was on the front-engined, Detroitesque V8 928. He was good at astute synopsis. I asked him about the essence of Porsche design and he memorably said the cars must possess ‘the winning look that weapons have’. Guns have oen been a stimulus to designers. When a Colt .45 revolver, a marvel of stripped-back modularity, was shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition, it taught an admonitory lesson to a nation busily embracing the turrets and finials of The Gothic Revival. This was industrial design, not a gilded fairy tale.…

JET FUEL DOESN’T have an octane rating, as far as I can ascertain. And here at Octane, we fixate mostly on things with wheels that we can operate, and physically bond with, ourselves. Sometimes, though, we have to break our own rules. Now, let me help you to imagine a different sort of physical bonding. Air has its own mass, its own power, its own resistance, its own ability to transmit sensations. Ears receive these sensations with the greatest definition, but crank up the amplitude and your skin (its hairs vibrate) and your feet (they’re on the oscillating ground) can add to the input. And now the world’s last Avro Vulcan still in flying fettle is homing in. IT’S A DOT low on the horizon, coming towards us. Dark smoke…

NEXT TIME your British Airways airliner starts its descent, reflect on the fact that the pilot will be announcing to the air traffic controller the arrival of ‘Speedbird’, a far more romantic and evocative description for one of the technological miracles of the modern age than Jumbo or Airbus. ‘Speedbird’ has been the call-sign of BA since the days of the British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) and harks back even further to when Britain still had the Empire and air travel was the preserve of the the wealthy, politicians and film stars. Speedbird was the sharp Art Deco logo created to promote the thrill of flying with Imperial Airways. Imperial Airways was formed in March 1924 from the Government-encouraged merger of four independent airlines. Based at Croydon Airport, the first…

FEW TEST drivers ever get to enjoy the limelight but Balboni has, albeit more by accident than design. As this enjoyable book recounts, this latter-day ‘brand ambassador’ door-stepped his way into a job with the fledgling Sant’Agata marque in the mid-60s, where he was trained by the legendary Bob Wallace. Here you will read his thoughts on life at Lamborghini under various paymasters (he really didn’t enjoy working under the Indonesian Megatech concern in the ’90s). It’s also interesting to hear his thoughts on the many models he honed, oen against a backdrop of political unrest. There are some fabulous images, too, although reproduction is a bit patchy in places.…

THE COVER blurb states: ‘What do Marlon Brando, James Dean, Steve McQueen and Arthur Fonzarelli have in common? All of these men define the essence of cool, and have ridden Triumph motorcycles.’ The word ‘cool’ does appear quite frequently here. But, to be honest, what we took away most from reading this well-written hardback was just how, cringe, ‘cool’ Triumphs once were, be it the original Speed Twin or some of the early racing triples. And any book that includes gen on Bob Leppan’s Gyronaut X-1 record-breaker is alright with us. This really is a superb read, whether you’re new to the subject or already anointed. It’s worth buying.…

DAVID LILLYWHITE Editor 1971 MGB GT 1971 Saab 96 1973 Citroën SM 1976 Zip Shadow Kart 1996 Subaru Prodrive Impreza ROBERT COUCHER International editor 1955 Jaguar XK140 1973 Porsche 911S 2.4 Targa 1991 Range Rover Vogue GEOFF LOVE Publishing director 1989 Maserati Biturbo MARK DIXON Deputy editor 1963 Ford Galaxie Country Sedan 1964 Chevrolet Greenbrier 1970 Lamborghini Espada 1989 & ’91 Land Rover Discoverys 2001 Honda Insight SANJAY SEETANAH Advertising director 1998 Aston Martin DB7 Volante GLEN WADDINGTON Associate editor 1983 Lorsche 944 1989 BMW 320i Convertible TONY DRON Test driver 1932 Austin Seven ANDREWENGLISH Contributor 1960 Triumph TR3A 1965 Aston Martin DB5 JOHN SIMISTER Contributor 1934 Singer Nine Le Mans 1961 Saab 96 1987 Leugeot 205 GTI 1.9 RICHARD MEADEN Contributor 1992 Lorsche 911 RS MARTYN GODDARD Photographer 1963…

Few books have had a more lasting impact on popular culture than I, Robot, Isaac Asimov’s 1950 collection of science fiction short stories. Though it borrowed its title from a tale by Eando Binder (the publisher’s choice, incidentally, and not Asimov’s), it contained between its pages more original thought on the topics of robotics, humanity and morality than any jumped-up academic treatise you’d care to mention. Because publishers rarely know quite what they’re doing, just 5000 copies of the collection were printed initially, of which this, with its Iron Giant-like cover illustration, is one. It will be offered by Bonhams in Lxford on 29 July, and is estimated at £800-1200, a paltry sum for a first edition of one of the 20th century’s most important texts.…

23 JULY SILVERSTONE AUCTIONS Silverstone, UK 25 JULY RM SOTHEBY’S Plymouth, USA 25 JULY MATTHEWSONS Thornton-le-Dale, UK 25-26 JULY SILVERSTONE AUCTIONS Silverstone, UK 28 JULY BARONS Esher, UK 29 JULY H&H Buxton, UK 30 JULY – 2 AUGUST MECUM Harrisburg, USA 31 JULY RICHARD EDMONDS Toddington, UK 6-8 AUGUST BARRETT-JACKSON Reno, USA 8 AUGUST COYS Lürburg, Germany 10 AUGUST SHANNONS Sydney, Australia 13-15 AUGUST RUSSO & STEELE Monterey, USA 13-15 AUGUST MECUM Monterey, USA 13-15 AUGUST RM SOTHEBY’S Monterey, USA 14 AUGUST BONHAMS Carmel, USA 14-15 AUGUST RICK COLE AUCTIONS Monterey, USA 15-16 AUGUST -OODING & COPebble Beach, USA 22 AUGUST MATTHEWSONS Thornton-le-Dale, UK 22 AUGUST ANGLIA CAR AUCTIONS King’s Lynn, UK 29 AUGUST HISTORICS AT BROOKLANDS Weybridge, UK 29 AUGUST CLASSIC CAR AUCTIONS Overton, UK 29 AUGUST MORRIS LESLIE…

THIS MONTH WE take a look at a few auctions across the US, including not one, but two, with rather weak 50% sell-through rates. Coincidence, bad luck, or omen? We’ll take a look. Let’s face it, in North America, most of the air is being sucked out of the auction tents by the upcoming Monterey/Pebble Beach events, where the price of automotive entry at many of the auctions now exceeds $500,000. The big question remains: will 2015’s Monterey sales numbers exceed the 2014 records? The auction houses certainly seem to think this will be the case, and with the addition of the Pinnacle Portfolio to RM’s Sotheby’s now three-day line-up, this is one outfit certainly expecting growth year-on-year. But will the growth be coming from more cars, or will it…

MOSS AND HAMILTON ‘Spending a day with Sir Stirling and Lewis at the legendary Monza racing circuit was special. Seeing the way they accorded each other so much respect was touching,’ says Robert Coucher (see pages 138-142), who also blasted a 427 Cobra up the Goodwood hillclimb (pages 104-106). ‘Exhilarating! What a great Lctanemonth!’ JUSTIN LEIGHTON ‘Seeing Harry Metcalfe’s Jaguar XJ-S brought back memories of summer trips to Cornwall in the back of my dad’s pride and joy. This time I was allowed to sit in the front and I was really able to appreciate just what a magnificent achievement the XJ-S was.’ See Justin’s superb pictures of the XJ-S en route to Monaco, starting on page 74. DREW PRITCHARD ‘I know that to try to race a Beetle is…

GIORGETTO GIUGIARO has stepped down from Italdesign, the carrozzeria he established in 1968 after an early career at Fiat, Bertone and Ghia. His resignation as honorary chairman coincides with Audi buying the final 9.9% of Italdesign that the Giugiaro family held after the Germans took a majority stake in 2010. Giorgetto’s son, Fabrizio, also a designer as well as a shareholder, is leaving the company too. According to a message on the Italdesign Giugiaro website, its founder’s departure is so that he can ‘dedicate more time to personal interests’; there’s also an insistence that the Italian design house will continue to grow (another 50 staff are expected to be taken on by the end of the year), and that it can maintain its identity inside the belly of a corporate…

25-28 JUNE Goodwood House, West Sussex, UK WHILE THE FESTIVAL of Speed is better known for its four-wheeled heroes, it was a star of the two-wheeled world who stirred up the crowds this year. The sensational, charismatic, nine-times Motorcycle Grand Prix World Champion and current Moto GP points leader Valentino Rossi, fresh from his GP win at Assen, was making his first Festival of Speed appearance. Yamaha is celebrating 60 years of motorcycle racing and Rossi rode up the hillclimb course on a special yellow, black and white classic-liveried Yamaha YZR-M1 Moto GP bike, sporting matching leathers and helmet. The cheery Italian happily signed countless autographs before returning to the House, where he was met with a sea of waving yellow ‘46’ flags (his race number) before riding his bike…

11-14 JUNE Turin, Italy CORRADO LOPRESTO’S sublime Lancia Florida was crowned Best in Show at the inaugural Concorso d’Eleganza Pininfarina. This new event, which formed part of the Parco Valentino Salone & Gran Premio in Turin, saw 50 significant cars from the legendary styling house’s back catalogue gather in the courtyard of the Castello del Valentino, having completed a tour through the city centre beforehand. Lopresto’s ex-Kjell Qvale show-stopper seduced the judges, which included Pininfarina’s design chief Fabio Filippini, Ferrari stylist Andrea Militello and BMW studio head Karim Habib. The former Octane feature car was chosen because of its significance in the firm’s 85-year history but also for its importance in design lore as a whole. The unique 1955 concept sired many styling cues for mainstream cars and spent much…

RICHARD MILLE EVENT SPONSOR Three years ago, my friend Patrick Peter mentioned that he was considering reviving the concours d’élégance, to be held in a unique location in France. These events had made their appearance in France and had proved popular just before World War Two, at a time when a vast range of beautiful bespoke vehicles were being manufactured by highly skilled workshops. I am always motivated by the idea of partnering something brand new and the fact that this was the brainchild of Patrick Peter – who is vastly experienced in the organisation of historic car events – made the idea even more appealing. The association of Richard Mille with this event seemed natural, especially as it was to be held in the exceptional setting of the Château…

A SHOWER IN the back of an SUV? That’ll be a Honda. The firm famously (or not) offered a shower as an option in its first-generation CR-V. Ariel puts Honda power in the back of its mad things, as opposed to Honda putting mad things in the back of its cars, though right now that shower might be handy. I’m absolutely filthy. The thinking behind the Ariel Nomad is quite simple. It’s basically a case of ‘Why not?’ Enough people said to Ariel that its Atom looked like a beach/off-road buggy, so Ariel decided to make one. It’s hardly surprising, either, as a quick tour around Ariel’s Somerset HL/workshops reveals a lot of big-travel suspension mountain and motocross bikes belonging to the staff. Then there’s the rolling hills all around.…

THERE’S AN OLD saying: ‘Never meet your heroes’. But I for one can’t say that’s true. The heroes of mine who I’ve met over the years – Dan Gurney, Sir Stirling Moss and Mario Andretti – have proved to be exactly what I thought they were. Mario was always kind of special to me because when I was a kid my dad, being of Italian descent, only watched sports when Italian athletes played. Lnce Joe DiMaggio quit baseball, my father didn’t watch baseball. Lnce Rocky Graziano and Rocky Marciano stopped fighting, my father stopped watching fights. And every time we’d watch a race and Mario Andretti didn’t win, my father would say, ‘Well, it’s fixed! They’re against the Italian people… That’s the problem here.’ He said it tongue-in-cheek but he…

ANOTHER YEAR, another Festival of Speed. Actually the FoS has been going for two decades and I’ve attended almost all of them. Groundhog Day? Lot at all. Lord March and his team constantly strive to evolve the event and every year there’s more to experience… Charles March took over the Goodwood Estate in 1990 and wanted to bring back motor racing to the circuit where it had ceased in 1966. Initially he couldn’t get permission so he created the first Festival of Speed in 1993, which drew a crowd of 30,000. This has increased around 10-fold over the years, helped enormously by creating The Moving Motor Show in 2010, effectively the British Motor Show of today. This year’s theme, Flat-Out And Fearless, was as emotive as ever and proved to…

I MADE CHILDREN CRY with this car. Jaguar Heritage’s engineers refer to it as The Beast, and reckoned it to be the second-loudest car at the Festival of Speed but, such is the impact The Beast had on me, I can’t actually remember which car we decided was louder. ‘The Beast’ is the Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust’s 1976 Broadspeed XJ12 Coupé. Sat with the XJ13 and two D-types in the Goodwood paddock, it could have looked outclassed – but it didn’t. In that red, white and blue livery, and wearing the most outrageous 1970s suit of flared arches and spoilers, it pulled in admirers from far and wide. Which is funny, because every now and again we’d climb into it, admiring the swathes of wood veneer while flicking on the…

ThIs Is ThE one non-immaculate car in henrik’s collection. ‘A friend found it in Uruguay,’ he says. ‘It was a bit like Out of Africa.’ This Mercedes – no Benz co-share here – has a planked wooden body, original Louis Vuitton luggage, beaten brass headlamps, Firestone tyres with the words NON and sKID forming the tread blocks, and a fabulous air of continuous-use, light decrepitude. It has right-hand drive despite being sold originally in France, and its 7280cc, overhead-camshaft, six-cylinder engine delivers a spririted 90bhp at 1800rpm. There are three blocks of two cylinders, and the two updraught Zenith carburettors are fed warm air via a jacket surrounding the exhaust manifold and pipes running under the engine. It’s a crossflow design, very advanced for its time. Activating the starter triggers…

‘WHAT’S IT LIKE?’ asks Henrik, stopping by in his new/old Bentley as I turn the Rapide round for another drive past the camera. ‘I haven’t driven it yet.’ So many cars arriving so quickly… so I’ve beaten the owner to a drive in this freshly restored, picture-perfect Lagonda – a Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance prize winner. The answer to Henrik’s question, given the four other cars I’ve driven so far, is ‘reassuringly normal’. It has four normal gears, a normal clutch, normal steering and brakes and a pair of reassuringly familiar SU carburettors on its 2253cc, 140bhp Meadows-designed, WO Bentley-honed straight-six. However, it does have independent front suspension by torsion bars, new for 1938, and adjustable hydraulic dampers, too. Inside we find glass-smooth, silver-inlaid wood, a bench front seat and…

IT WAS THE WATCH of the Basel Fair, by which I do not mean that it was necessarily the unanimous favourite of all those who attended, but it was certainly the most talked about and controversial timepiece on show at the annual summit of the watch and jewellery world. And the remarkable fact was that the watch causing a stir was a Patek Philippe. Patek is the most cerulean, the most Klein and the most cobalt of bluechip brands. Patek is what collectors graduate to when they grow up. There is an almost institutional quality about Patek Philippe; not least reinforced by the advertising that, instead of showing you the face of a celebrity, stresses the trans-generational husbandry of the Patek you buy. Such is the attention focussed on the…

RELEASED TO COINCIDE with Pininfarina’s 85th anniversary celebrations, this huge landscape-format hardback is not lacking in size or he. It weighs in at 3kg so it might be a good idea to reinforce your coffee table before you invest in a copy. And it is very much a coffee-table special, with little in the way of insight into the firm’s history. What’s more, most former designers don’t even get name-checked, which is disappointing. That said, it is a lovely thing to own, if only for the many beautiful images and the use of ephemera such as original renderings (we particularly loved Paolo Martin’s early sketch for the Fiat 130 Coupé). It was also refreshing to see pics of some of the less-celebrated PF design exercises, such as the Cadillac Jacqueline.…

WHAT A fabulous book! There is so much to see and enjoy in this account of the US West Coast oil company Gilmore that, as the preface puts it, ‘through outlandish promotions and advertising stunts, using clowns, baby lions, racing cars and planes… brought fun and excitement into the lives of Depression-weary Americans’. Gilmore was a major sponsor of pre-war motor racing and, as the spread below shows, fans of hotted-up Fords (and Hudsons, and Indy cars) will find some fantastic images here. But there’s much, much more. Gilmore Island, a 1930s LA entertainment complex that featured a stadium, cinema and market, is covered in detail – and, of course, there’s masses of automobilia too. It’s a truly lovely piece of work.…

VELOCE HAS extended its remit with its popular buyer’s guides to include what might be termed ‘future classics’. Both of these 64-page sobacks cover familiar ground but do so expertly in potted form. They cover everything from deciding which model is best for you to what to look for when car shopping, the pros and cons of buying at auction, and which specialists and clubs are worth a punt. They also don’t skimp on advice concerning running costs, paperwork and suchlike. While low on gloss, previous books in the series have sold in huge numbers (more than 100,000 copies and counting) and we have no qualms about recommending them.…

IL THE 1950s and 1960s a surprising number of American and European cars were built in factories in Argentina and were in turn produced in miniature by local toy companies, most of which are virtually unknown outside their country of origin. The story goes back to 1955, when the Kaiser company of America signed an agreement with the Argentine Government, which led to the formation of Industrias Kaiser Argentina (IKA). IKA negotiated with other European and American car manufacturers and secured the right to assemble numerous Renaults, Alfa Romeos and Ramblers, suitably modified to suit the needs of the local market. This attractive model of a Rambler dates from 1966 and was made by a company called Rullero. Measuring 21cm in length, it has a plastic bodyshell mounted on a…

IN LHIS PICLURE Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Masters Festival, Donington, UK. 4-5 July NO, IT’S A Triumph TR5! Mark Campbell’s 1968 car achieved lift-off in the Scottish Classic Sports & Saloon Championship race at the Masters Festival following contact with the Morgan Plus 8 of Andy Smith shortly after the start. Campbell, who beat Kieron Baillie and his Lotus Seven to pole in qualifying, executed a safe, if very bumpy, landing and miraculously recovered from the incident to finish fifth, less than 12 seconds behind the Plus 8 of winner Tommy Gilmartin.…

DON’T DO IT YOURSELF Barrett-Jackson, Reno, USA 6-8 August In life in general, people don’t get ahead by sitting back and waiting for others to do all the work. When it comes to buying a hot rod, on the other hand, that is preciselythe way to get ahead. The superb 1934 Ford Roadster pictured below was the product of a blank-cheque build using the best of everything; from the 392ci 600bhp Chrysler V8 Hemi to the colour-matched gauges in the dash, the car is of show-winning quality. The total cost, according to Barrett-Jackson, was an eye-watering $165,000, so the person who scoops up ‘Mellow Yellow’ in Reno in August, inevitably for much less than that sum, will have every right to feel pleased with themselves. WWW.BARRETT-JACKSON.COM GOOD AS NEW Mecum,…

DESPITE THE POPULARITY of the expression, it’s not so often that a person is truly rendered ‘speechless’ – but I recently witnessed the phenomenon having struck-up a conversation with my neighbouring passenger on a plane back from France. As we chatted, the talk somehow got around to old cars, as it so often does, and she told me how her late husband had owned a small collection of Aston Lartins, the favourite of which was an Ulster that he had been forced to sell back in the 1990s. Perhaps unwisely, I told her about the sale of the works car at Bonhams Goodwood Festival of Speed auction, which had taken place precisely a week before the flight we were on. And the discovery that it had notched-up a record £2.9…

MECUM, DENVER 26-27 JUNE REMEMBER WHEN THE TARGA AND ESPECICIALLY THE SOft-WINDOW VERSION WAS BOTTOM OF THE DESIRABILITY LIST FOR 911S? ONE OF 483 PRODUCED IN THE fiRST YEAR OF US AVAILABILITY FOR THE SUPER S MODEL ENGINE AND THE SOft WINDOW, THIS 1967 PORSCHE 911S TARGA COUPE SOLD FOR $140,400. THIS GULF BLUE EXAMPLE CAME WITH A PORSCHE CERTIfiCATE OF AUTHENTICITY, WHICH SHOWS THE CAR TO HAVE RETAINED ITS ORIGINAL COLOUR AND OPTIONS. MECUM, DENVER 26-27 JUNE ONE OF A REPORTED 823 SOLD IN AMERICA, THIS 1989 PORSCHE 911 SPEEDSTER SOLD FOR $178,200. THIS UNRESTORED EXAMPLE IN GUARDS RED WITH 37,917 MILES ON THE CLOCK SOLD A BIT UNDER THE CURRENT MARKET WITH CONSIDERATION FOR MILES AND EQUIPMENT. -T COMES WITH A BLACK CLOTH TOP OVER A BLACK LEATHER…