Octane April 2016

SO MUCH TALK suddenly of the classic car market being in trouble. A couple of points here: one, it isn’t, though it does seem to have flattened a little. Two, I think many of us feel uncomfortable with the term ‘market’, however naïve that may be. It’s a hobby for most of us, whether in the trade or not. All this because, at the time of writing, we’re fresh out of the madness of the Scottsdale and Paris Rétromobile sales, the latter of which yielded a world record price (in sterling and euros, if not dollars) for the Ferrari 335 Sport Scaglietti. But there was a higher than usual percentage of no-sales, and that’s what’s got the pundits punditing. Here’s what we reckon: that, thanks to date changes this year,…

JOHN COLLEY ‘Being a car nut as much as a photographer helps. The beauty of shooting in the studio is that you spend more time appreciating the car, in its transformation from tatty barnfind to the perfection of Aston Engineering’s final work. I am in awe of the skill involved.’ John documents an Aston Martin DB4 restoration on pages 64-76. MARK HALES ‘I thought motor sport and the pursuit of a modest reputation would occupy me for as long as I could do it. Then I discovered flying: just as challenging, and the romance of the machinery is much the same, yet you can sample it in your own time.’ Mark tells us about a restorer of World War Two Hawker Hurricanes on pages 132-138. DALE DRINNON ‘Like lots of…

GOODWOOD TRACKDAYS Join Octaneat Goodwood for our next trackday on 12 May (there’s another on 13 October). Cost is £299 per car with driver, plus £60 per guest. Visit www.octane-magazine.com and click on ‘merchandise’. 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. HISTORIC MOTORING AWARDS The International Historic Motoring Awards are back! Run in association with EFG, the venue is The Guildhall, London, on 17 November. See www.historic motoringawards.com. SUBSCRIBE TO OCTANE Have Octanedelivered hot off the press – or read the digital edition on your iPad, PC or laptop. See our special offer (pages 164-165) or search for ‘Octanemagazine’ in your app…

ANYONE CONCERNED about the direction that classic car values might be taking will have been heartened by the headline result for the 2016 Artcurial Motorcars sale at Rétromobile. The star lot, a 1957 Ferrari 335 Sport Scaglietti, campaigned by Sir Stirling Moss and Mike Hawthorn amongst others, made €32.07 million (£24.7 million) including the buyer’s premium, a world record amount in sterling and euro currencies. Cue smiling auctioneers and plenty of column inches in newspapers not normally renowned for their classic car coverage. Make no mistake, the Ferrari’s sale was big news. But for the current strength of the US dollar, the ex-works Pierre Bardinon collection 335S Scaglietti would have assumed the mantle of the ‘world’s most expensive car’ (at auction). Even so, at $35.7 million it becomes the world’s…

AT 9.22 IN THE MORNING of Friday 29 January, the last Land Rover Defender left the production line at the Solihull factory where every traditional Land Rover has been made since 1948. A huge crowd of employees and invited guests thronged the assembly area as the final batch of Defenders were bolted together, and for once Health and Safety considerations were put aside while memories were captured on every kind of recording device, from mobile phones to TV outside broadcast units. Far from it being a sombre occasion, there was something of a party feel – not least because no-one has been made redundant, and line workers will be deployed elsewhere in the factory. The very last Defender, chassis 490328, is a soft-top 90 in Keswick Green, and it will…

ONE OF THE CLASSIC car world’s most ebullient characters, Stanley Mann, has died following a fall in his workshop on 4 February. Described by his close friend Philip Strickland of Benjafield’s Racing Club as ‘a big, warm-hearted, generous family man’, Mann was globally renowned for his deep love of vintage Bentleys, selling, restoring and racing them. And above all, enjoying them to the full. Stanley Mann was born in April 1945 and began his career as a professional photographer. But he became smitten by the Bentley marque after he had the opportunity to restore a 3 Litre model; he soon binned the photographic career and set up a vintage Bentley operation behind his parents’ butcher’s shop in Edgware, North London. As the business grew, he later moved to a farm…