Octane June 2016

we get around a fair bit at Octane. It’s a perk of the job, if writing about cars can really be classified as an actual job (best that you refrain from commenting on that, please). During this issue I was lucky enough to head to Florida for the Amelia Island concours, squeeze in a photoshoot of the Rain Man Buick, return to the office for a few days, spend a day at Stuttgart’s Retro Classics show (it helps that it’s a few minutes’ walk from Stuttgart airport), then drive straight to the Goodwood 74th Members’ Meeting. Others in the office went to Techno Classica Essen, Circuit Déjà Vu in Ireland and a few smaller local events. Why tell you this? Because, not for the first time, we were struck by…

JOHN SIMISTER ‘The hype and the hubris have always overshadowed the car in the DeLorean story, so it was very moving to drive a DMC-12 around the derelict Dunmurry test track and discover a very enjoyable machine’ Not a single flux capacitor was activated in the making of this story. Turn to pages 66-76. AMY SHORE ‘Where we were going for the DeLorean shoot, we didn’t need roads… We did need Dunmurry’s abandoned test track though. The site was a perfect location for this exotic machine, which shot through layers of settled leaves and stirred visions of the once-bustling home of DeLorean’ Amy’s pictures accompany John Simister’s story. RICHARI BREMNER ‘The DeLorean story has long been clouded with cocaine dust, FBI framings and tales of embezzlement. But the industrial…

It was never goIng to stop at a run of ‘continuation’ Lightweight E-types using previously unallocated chassis numbers. Having developed the expertise to recreate and refine analogue-era body data on computer, to 21st-century levels of accuracy, Jaguar Classic will now use it on another high-profile project and tie up some more of history’s loose ends. After Jaguar pulled out of racing with the D-type at the end of 1956, it decided to convert the last 25 unfinished and now superfluous D-types into roadgoing versions, dubbed XKSS. Sixteen had already been completed from their D-type starting points when, in February 1957, a huge fire at the Browns Lane factory put paid to the final nine, and a lot else besides. That was the end of the XKSS project. So nine XKSSs…

FIVA announces awards for Best Preserved Vehicle The Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens has declared 2016 to be World Motoring Heritage Year, not least because it’s also the 50th anniversary of its parent body, the FIA. To celebrate this, FIVA is to bestow an award on the best-preserved vehicle at each of the top concours events around the world. It will recognise vehicles that ‘retain such a high degree of their original components, materials and finishes that they can be seen as important cultural artefacts. The first award was presented in March to the 1930 Cord L-29 of Dan Davis, displayed at the Amelia Island Concours. Breakfast at Blenheim Palace Salon Privé is already established at Churchill’s birthplace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire (1-3 September), but the organisers have now come up…

Italian shoemaker Piloti is back in the UK, with three new lines of driving shoe now available: Casual, Performance and Luxury. All the Piloti driving shoes feature a ‘Roll Control’ spherical heel cushion designed to make heel-and-toe gearchanging easier and smoother, as well as providing lateral support to reduce vibration. They have fire-resistant Nomex linings and thread, and a sole pattern in the style of a classic race tyre. Styles vary from the trainer-like Casual range to a slip-on loafer in the Luxury range and the high-cut dress shoe Campione. See www.piloti.uk.com. For details on how to win a pair, visit the Octane Facebook page.…

‘Hello crazy car people! I could have sold the cars all in one day but I wanted to be here with you’ Jerry Seinfeld at the $22m sale of his cars at Gooding & Co ‘I just jumped in and went for a drive. It felt pretty nice but not that fast; in fact I thought my time was a mistake…’ Nick Padmore on achieving a record 1min 17.079sec lap at Goodwood, in a Lola T70 ‘He is the greatest living exponent of the TT, with 23 victories to his name’ The Royal Automobile’s Club citation to Isle of Man TT racer John McGuinness, as he was awarded the Segrave Trophy ‘These vehicles are really sculptural art, and we are proud to exhibit some of the jewels of that wonderful…