Inhoudsopgave van August 2016 - Octane

TO COINCIDE WITH its 50th anniversary celebrations for the Miura, Automobili Lamborghini has officially opened its revamped museum at the company’s Sant’Agata Bolognese headquarters, near Bologna. Lamborghini’s CEO, Stefano Domenicali, performed the inauguration of the new museum – complete with fighter jet flypast – which then served as the start point for the Miura 50th Anniversary Tour: 20 Miuras from around the world took a 500km route that wound through Emilia, Liguria and Tuscany to commemorate their cars’ Very Important Birthday. The convoy also stopped at Dallara Automobili to meet Gian Paolo Dallara, who along with Paolo Stanzani was one of the fathers of the Miura. The original Museo Lamborghini opened in 2001 and has now been completely rejuvenated. On display are all the main Lamborghini road car models, including…

NOT ONLY DID his country have almost no industry, it had just undergone a Communist revolution. Which is why Chairman Mao Zedong signed a Treaty of Friendship Alliance and Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union in 1950, so China could industrialise itself. Next step: the construction of the First Automotive Works in 1953 in Changchun, near the Soviet border. Using Soviet machinery and tooling, FAW began making heavy trucks in 1956 as part of Mao’s first Soviet-style Five Year Plan. The idea was to increase steel and heavy equipment production and, over time, rely less on Soviet products. But design, development and production of cars was still in the future, as was recognition of the People’s Republic by the West. However, one non-Communist country willing to do business was France,…

ENTRANTS BREATHED a collective sigh of relief when, despite torrential rain at the start of the Mille Miglia just two days’ earlier, Villa d’Este was blessed with glorious weather for its annual Concours, held at this beautiful venue beside Lake Como since 1929. Sponsored by BMW – celebrating its 100th anniversary – and watchmaker A Lange & Söhne, whose CEO Wilhelm Schmid presented a Lange 1 Time Zone ‘Como Edition’ watch to the Best of Show winner, the 87th Concorso was always going to be a very special event. The unique 1933 Lancia Astura Series II owned by Ton Meyer immediately caught Octane’s eye. Eighteen months after it was first licensed, the Astura was fitted with elegant, aerodynamic Castagna coachwork (which had previously been fitted to an Alfa 8C) on…

TICKETS CAN BE booked through Chantilly Arts & Elegance’s own website: www.chantillyartsetelegance.com. General admission and parking will be from €35 for early bookings, rising to €50 from 1 August or on the gate – though the event is expected to sell out. This ticket allows access to all the major features of the event: gardens, château, the Museum of the Horse, the riding displays and, of course, the concours itself. Other packages include a Potel et Chabot prepared picnic basket (an additional €150 for two people), which includes a three-course meal for two, glasses, cutlery, plates and napkins, plus mineral water. Where to stay Paris is 24 miles away and provides many options. A short walk down the Rue Scribe gives you the Grand Hotel on one side, and the…

THE ANTITHESIS OF the Porsche 911R (see left), or just a different take on going quickly? Certainly the GT-R has never eschewed technology, instead embracing it. Nissan’s four-wheel-drive, paddleshifted, super-intelligent sports car is a giant-killer that’s never been a respecter of reputation. The scalps have been plentiful, but it’s approaching its tenth year. Time for a refresh. Inevitably power grows, by 20bhp to a 562bhp maximum, and torque is up slightly too and available over more of the rev range. The changes are very much in the GT-R mould, then, but poring over the details you’ll discover there’s a new windscreen frame to increase the body’s stiffness, the suspension has been tuned to remove the busy frequencies that can cause harshness, there’s a noise cancellation system, and a more comfortable…

FORMATIVE EXPERIENCE A REFERENCE in a recent Octane to the Aston Martin DB1 put me in mind of a DB1 experience I had many years ago. In 1968, as a young man, I had just moved on to car sales from service and I was summoned by my boss to go with him to inspect an old car. Neither of us were sure what we were going to see but our customer, a local businessman called Roy Cook, had a yen to buy an MGB roadster and chop in his old banger. We duly arrived at Bell Hall near Naburn, just outside York, and were shown into an old barn at the back of the house. There, covered in bird droppings, was this old car without any wheels, standing on…

CHRIS AMON WON only one race in a Ford GT40. But it turned out to be the biggest victory on his CV. ‘The Le Mans win has become perhaps more special to me over the years because I didn’t achieve what I wanted in Formula 1,’ he says. ‘It’s probably the thing I will be remembered more for than anything else. My wife occasionally runs into Denny’s widow, Greeta, and she’s still going on about it 50 years later!’ Amon was entrusted with a brand-new MkII at Le Mans in 1965. ‘Those cars were quite squirrelly in a straight line,’ he recalls. During practice, they were tamed with chin spoilers, nose canards, tail fins and rear spoilers. ‘I got away first, leaving giant tyre marks behind me. Bruce slipstreamed past…

‘THESE TWO ARE MUCH THE SAME CAR, SHARING A NEAR-IDENTICAL TUB, TWIN-TURBO V8, AND THE SAME SEVEN-SPEED PADDLESHIFT TRANSMISSION’ ‘It’s like meeting an old friend again,’ says Haydn Baker with a happy grin. The old friend in question is McLaren MP4-12C, Job One. Baker was there at the birth of the 12C as vehicle line director, and he’s been here for the birth of the latest version of this car five years on, in the form of the limited edition 675LT Spider. Job One is industry-speak for the very first example of a car intended for public sale. And that was the original destiny of this silver 2011 McLaren, which was headed for a central London showroom to become a dealer demonstrator. That was five years ago; five years in…

YOU’D BE HARD PRESSED to find a better tour guide for Remise Düsseldorf than Martin Smith. After a career with Porsche, Audi, Opel, and latterly Ford of Europe, from which he retired at the end of 2014 as executive design director, and some 40 years making his home in Germany, the celebrated Sheffield-born automotive designer knows the country’s car scene from the inside-out. Rather appropriately, in the Remise context, he is responsible both for acclaimed modern classics such as the Audi Quattro (and – steady on now – Luke Skywalker’s Landspeeder…), and for (so-called, locally) youngtimers like the 2009 Ford Focus RS Mk2 that Martyn Goddard and I drove down from Ford of Dagenham to meet with him. It’s probably the ultimate example of the Kinetic Design motif introduced by…

BRIGHT SUNSHINE, historic backdrops, beautiful women, and the one and only Lamborghini Countach LP500. A wonderful few hours, in 1971, for the photographer employed to capture the new epoch in supercars for publicity purposes. Even if it had bucketed down – streaking the statuary with rainwater, models shivering in their outfits – this car would have looked no less astounding. Its vivid yellow paintwork assured that. Indeed, for posterity, it’s fortunate the pictures survive on Kodachrome film soon to be 50 years old. They are the best records we have of it. It’s the original Countach, the single car that turned an entire generation of schoolboys (like me) into car nuts forever (like me). And it doesn’t exist any longer. What became of its fractured remains, its wilfully wrecked carcass,…

We Brits don’t always ‘get’ the USA’s fascination with big, heavy cruisers of the 1930s, products of their time and of the long, straight roads. But this car? This car has a certain strange appeal. It isn’t classically good-looking but my goodness it’s striking, from the tip of its sharknose grille, as American as apple pie, to the European fussiness of the oddly be-finned rear. And not forgetting those doors. This car is a 1938 Graham Model 97. Six-cylinder, supercharged, 17½ feet long, 1½ tons in weight, bodied by Saoutchik in period and restored last year for the ever-popular US concours season. It’s a remarkable machine. A standard Graham Model 97 was bold but a little odd-looking and, by the time this car emerged, the appearance, a lack of cylinders…

‘So, Darren, what was the problem with the gearchange?’ Darren Turner, works driver for Aston Martin Racing since 2005, has just brought the DB3 sports racer into the ‘pits’ – actually a World War Two hangar next to Bicester Heritage’s airfield circuit – after a quick blast to get the hang of the car. ‘Talent!’ beams the ever-affable 42-year-old. ‘I just couldn’t get the hang of making a clean downshift.’ Typical, you might be thinking: a modern race-car driver who just can’t cope with the old stuff. If so, you couldn’t be more wrong. Darren is a regular at the Goodwood Revival, driving cars as diverse as a Mini and an AC Cobra, and he owns a 1959 Turner sports car, which he bought specifically to go Historic racing. (As…

THE LIFE EXPECTANCY of your average upstart car manufacturer compares unfavourably with that of a gerbil, and for small-volume, cash-starved makers of millionaire-mobiles, the outlook can be especially grim. It was no great surprise, then, that American businessman Eugene Casaroll was forced to withdraw from the car industry soon after entering it, despite the popularity of his Dual-Ghia with Hollywood celebrities – but it was a very great shame. Happily for car enthusiasts, his number two, Paul Farago, didn’t know when he was beaten and, without further involvement from Casaroll and Dual, brought to fruition a project always destined to haemorrhage money: the Ghia L 6.4. Like the Dual-Ghia, the L 6.4 was assembled around a Chrysler V8, and Chrysler provided the transmission and suspension, too, but almost everything else…

AN ALFA ROMEO concept car with a racebred, fuel-injected quad-cam V8. What could possibly be more exotic than that? Well, as it happens, the car that went on show at 1967’s Montreal Universal and International Exposition (clearly the Canadians felt they couldn’t rule out an extra-terrestrial visit) was rather less outrageous than what eventually went on sale three years later. In fact, what lay beneath eye-catching bodywork by Bertone was bog-standard Giulia 105-series running gear. Complete with its 1.6-litre twin-cam four. Fine in small saloons and coupés, but this was a pretender to the Miura in terms of styling – check out the vents aft of the cabin (for spotters’ points: seven on the show car, six for production), the eyelashes over the headlamps, even the suggestion of a mid-mounted…

FRIENDS, FAMILY and cars associated with race car constructor John Tojeiro gathered in early June at Bicester Heritage to help film a documentary about the Tojeiro marque. John Tojeiro’s cars achieved success in sports car racing during the 1950s and ’60s, driven by many of the greats of the time, including Jackie Stewart, Jack Sears, Graham Hill, Dick Protheroe, Jack Brabham, John Surtees, Jim Clark and Stirling Moss. However, they’re often overlooked, hence the planned documentary. Five significant Tojeiro cars were arranged for the filming by Robin Tojeiro, son of John: Tojeiro Jaguar 7 GNO, the first Jaguar-engined car that John Tojeiro designed and constructed; Tojeiro Bristol LOY 500; Tojeiro Jaguar 76 NO; Tojeiro Buick, the 1957 Ecurie Ecosse Le Mans car; and a Tojeiro Formula Junior. The Tojeiro family…

Board games are essential coping mechanisms for British down-time, as useful in dismal winter depths as the rain-soaked lowlands of summer. And in these days of constant screen entertainment, there’s something refreshing about playing them. However, as every Monopoly contestant soon realises, the eventual domination of one property tycoon depends on the lucky throw of the dice. That’s where Waddington’s classic Formula 1 departs from most of its contemporaries: quite a bit of skill is required if you’re going to cross that cardboard finish line in victory. Each one of up to six players racing against one another has a nifty cut-out card dashboard on which to select their car’s pace. Driving too fast into a speed-limited corner sees your car spin off the track, setting you back. Yet use…

STEVE SMITH hung up his racing boots almost five years ago – yet he was out at the VSCC’s Spring Start meeting in February in a new old racer, the day after it first turned a wheel under its own power. Smith’s business, Vibration Free, helps innumerable race cars run more smoothly than their designers ever imagined, and it was a chance ride in a client’s ’30s French supercar that set him off again. ‘John Guyatt took me out in his 4.0-litre Talbot Lago T150C and I thought I’ve got to have something like this.’ As it happened, Guyatt had a suitable project, dormant for some years – a Hotchkiss AM80 as used by Albert Divo to set long-distance records at Montlhéry between 1929 and 1935. Divo’s car started as…

LIKE THE TONY AWARDS, the idea for the Greenwich Concours D’Elegance was first touted during lunch at Sardi’s. Greenwich residents Bruce and Genia Wennerstrom presided over the luncheon meeting of the Madison Avenue Sports Car Driving and Chowder Society, which has met at Sardi’s since 1957. Although Bruce and Genia have now passed away, the Greenwich Concours continues as a family endeavour. This year’s 20th anniversary event was in the capable hands of the younger Wennerstrom generation. Hosted in Greenwich, Connecticut, just 30 miles from midtown Manhattan, the Greenwich Concours d’Elegance is a three-day event, beginning on Friday afternoon with a Grand Tour through Greenwich. The lawns of Roger Sherman Baldwin Park, on the waterfront of Greenwich Harbor with views of scenic Long Island Sound, provided a fitting backdrop for…

THE CHÂTEAU de Chantilly and its lands are so quintessentially aristocratic French in their appearance. With its steep roofs and flèches, the great house seamlessly combines echoes of the medieval with the swags, stone decoration and domes of the Belle Époque. The original château was begun around 1358 and the main house built in the 16th Century, though almost destroyed in the French Revolution. The present château was rebuilt in the 1870s by architect Honoré Daumet for Henri d’Orléans, second youngest son of King Louis-Philippe I. Henri (Duke of Aumale, 1822-97) was as conscious of his ancestry as he was of a fitting architectural style. His forebears were the Princes of Condé, the most illustrious being Louis II de Bourbon, Duke of Enghiem, who did much to break the myth…

SO, GONE SOFT, eh, McLaren? Giving us extra luggage space, additional soundproofing, quieter exhaust, a more compliant ride… is this the beginning of the end for the world’s most focused car manufacturer? We’re talking about the 570GT, the third derivative in the Sports Series after the entry-level 540C and the more powerful 570S. Both are highly usable, highly credible competitors to the 911 Turbo and Audi R8. But the idea of the 570GT is for it to be even more suitable for everyday and distance driving. To that end, the flying buttresses, upright rear window and part-exposed mechanicals of the mid-mounted, twin-turbo V8 are gone, to be replaced with a leather-trimmed luggage area and side-hinged glass access hatch for an extra 220 litres of storage space. It looks great. Swing…

ROAD AMERICA’S 4.0-MILE, 11-turn circuit is an entertaining place to race, though it pales in comparison with the Le Mans 8.4-mile public-road course, famous for its 3.5-mile, 200mph-plus Mulsanne Straight. But never mind the half-length venue or the restrictions applied to my stint in the first (mostly) American car to win Le Mans; this was an opportunity not to be missed. George Stauffer, the Wisconsin sportsman who rescued GT40 MkII P/1046 from obscurity, sponsored a drive I’d rank second only to a 244mph run across the Bonneville Salt Flats. My time in 1046’s saddle came in 1991 during a Road America vintage race event’s noon-hour touring session. I won’t dazzle you with stories of derring-do, death-defying speed, unconscionable risks taken or brushes with catastrophe, because none of that happened. Still,…

‘Ferraris were for those who wanted something only an ashtray apart from a race winner’ REFERRING TO THIS as a ‘road car’ might be just a tad misleading. It certainly looks the business, with all the coachbuilt Vignale artistry that traditional Italian craftsmanship could provide. By period GT standards, the amenities quotient is high, too, with lots of leather and shiny metal, plus map pockets and cargo nets, a clock, even a heater, and neat little foldaway knobs on the window winders that keep your elbows bruise-free. Paraded along the elegant pathways of stately villa gardens, the 212 Europa is as civilised as tea with the Queen. But no matter how Enzo Ferrari referred to it, when we drive out into the real world there’s another, familiar and earthier side:…

‘THE 1977 BRITISH GRAND PRIX SHOULD HAVE BEEN A LANDMARK DAY FOR PURLEY AND HIS TEAM’ He didn’t stand a chance. Throttle jammed wide open on the approach to Silverstone’s fearsome Becketts kink, Grand Prix driver David Purley was engaged in a 140mph fight for his life. Right foot pushing the brake pedal with all his might, arms straining to get his LEC CRP1’s nose turned away from the fast approaching earth bank, Purley’s car resolutely refused to obey his desperate commands. the handsome blue, white and red machine ploughing though umpteen layers of catch fencing before piling into the unyielding bank and its wall of railway sleepers with appalling force. As qualifying for the 1977 British Grand Prix was red-flagged, an ominous hush descended on the Northamptonshire circuit as…

Sunny South Africa. Except today it’s emphatically not. Angry black clouds are rolling over the hilltops of Knysna, an upmarket resort town perched along the beautiful Garden Route that runs up the east coast. While standing on a ribbon of road that snakes up the valley, I’m nervously eyeballing the glisteningly wet tarmac. The seventh annual running of the Jaguar Simola Hillclimb will certainly be entertaining for the thousands of spectators and very attention-grabbing for the 145 competitors. And I’m one of them. Team Octane had arrived in Knysna with Charles Arton acting as team leader. Last year he won the Classic Conqueror trophy on Classic Car Friday in his rapid March Formula Atlantic 79B with a time of 45.894 seconds (see Octane 146). This year Charles has invited me…

‘1000 miles. And another 1000 back. In four days. An old-fashioned grand tour for an old-fashioned kind of modern car’ Is there a more characterful luxury car on sale than the Rolls-Royce Phantom? Especially the two-door versions? In a singular manoeuvre, the rejuvenated marque severed old connotations with grandiose comedians and pools winners, soared serenely above Premiership footballers and presented a perfectly modernised rendition of what old money bought. That was in 2003; four years later the Drophead arrived, then the Coupé in ’08. And now, this is its swansong. Yes, the current Phantom bows out later this year and the assembly lines at Goodwood will be dismantled. When they’re running again, there’ll be a new platform, on which there’ll be a new limo – and a gargantuan new ‘high-body’…

THOSE OLD ENOUGH to remember little sachets of ultramarine Dolly Blue with the boiling whites on wash day will feel a twinge of reminiscence when driving into the car park of the Lakeland Motor Museum. The building is bright Reckitts blue – appropriately, because it used to belong to the company. Equally appropriately, it’s the home of the Campbell Bluebird Exhibition. Previously located at Holker Hall, the new Lakeland Motor Museum opened its doors in 2010. It’s big and bright, with a cheery atmosphere, unlike so many of its contemporaries. The displays illustrate the development of the car nicely, with some excellent examples of once-commonplace saloons (such as the Morris Minor pick-up and an outstanding Citroën Traction Avant), the best of British sporting cars (1950 Healey Silverstone, Jaguar XK140), more…

LEGO 919 HYBRID & 917K PIT LANE There’s clearly a petrolhead running amok in the Lego development workshop; this pit garage tableau, featuring Porsche’s latest 919 Hybrid (not pictured) and 917K racers, is the latest in a long line of car-themed, plastic brick-based offerings that are way too nice for kids. £69.99. shop.lego.com MAURICE LACROIX AIKON CHRONOGRAPH Retro continues to be all the rage and this new Aikon Chronograph from Maurice Lacroix is inspired by the company’s well-loved Calypso design. It features a quartz movement inside its 44mm stainless steel case. £890. mauricelacroix.com SPITFIRE HERITAGE BOTANICAL GIN Female Spitfire ferry pilots often flew unarmed aircraft, so to maintain their pluck were prone to carry a snifter of gin with them; this supremely pure, British-distilled spirit celebrates their courage. Concocted by…

JUAN MANUEL FANGIO drove this Maserati 4CLT, as did his compatriot Benedicto Campos and also Froilán Gonzáles. The Argentinians raced it first in their home country before they, and it, came to Europe and continued its winning ways. It’s typical of the Grand Prix race cars of the late pre-war and early post-war era, with a little 1.5-litre, four-cylinder engine given big power (around 260bhp) by supercharging. The 4CLT, the archetypal basis for many a small boy’s racing car toys, grew out of the pre-war 4CL, gaining a new tubular chassis (hence the ‘T’) and a second supercharger. And now this one is for sale, complete with a continuous history from new. It’s in fine and authentic condition, but is no museum piece because in recent years it has been…

Join us for the fifth running of the Octane Tour. Last year we headed north to Scotland for an enthralling run through the glens and over the hills to the Concours at the Palace of Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh — it was a blast! This year the Tour is back south again, heading once more to Windsor Castle, the majestic setting for this year’s Concours of Elegance. Following a delicious Cliveden House breakfast you’ll set off through the leafy lanes and backroads of Berkshire and Surrey on a specially selected route designed to entertain both car and driver. About 2½ hours later you’ll arrive at Windsor Castle at the Long Walk to park in a special Octane Tour display, then it’s off to the Concours followed by a well-deserved lunch. Entry…

ALFREDO ‘DINO’ FERRARI was just 24 when he died, on 30 June 1956, and his loss broke father Enzo’s heart, affecting his marriage and his work. The Ferrari company was never the same again. When Alfredo was born, in January 1932, to Enzo and wife Laura, Enzo was running the Alfa Romeo race team, under the banner of Scuderia Ferrari. He was so affected by the birth of Alfredo that he vowed to give up racing – and eventually left the team to establish Ferrari SpA. Alfredo, named after Enzo’s father, soon became known as Alfredino (‘little Alfredo’). There was never any question in Enzo’s mind that Dino was destined to become his successor. He was thoughtful and intelligent, and quickly picked up technical know-how. Enzo sent Dino to the…

Held at the London Olympic Park’s Copper Box Arena and live-streamed around the world, Gran Turismo creator, Kazunori Yamauchi (above left), presented the latest Gran Turismo title, Gran Turismo Sport, claiming there are major innovations on a scale that hasn’t been seen since the original Gran Turismo. Select fans enjoyed the first public hands-on play of the new game – which is also GT’s debut on PlayStation 4; a Q&A session with Kazunori; and rides in a selection of supercars and race cars. Top worldwide players were also invited to participate in a pre-season test for the online FIA Gran Turismo Championship. Offline there are Arcade and Campaign modes, the latter helping prepare you for the online events with four sections: Beginner’s School, Circuit Experience, Mission Challenge and Racing Etiquette.…

‘MANY CELEBRITIES WERE BEHIND THE WHEELS OF THESE CLASSICS, INCLUDING SUSIE WOLFF IN A GULLWING AND TWO FORMER MISSES ITALIA’ THEY SAY THAT if it rains for the start of the Mille Miglia, then it will be a lucky race. So it must have been a very lucky run for the 446 entrants of this amazing event as they set off along Brescia’s Viale Venezia on Thursday 19 May, one every 20 seconds from 2.30pm. Not that it dampened the spirits of the drivers and their co-drivers in a huge variety of machinery dating from 1923 to 1957, nor those of the enthusiastic spectators squelching through the puddles or sheltering under their umbrellas to cheer on the piloti. Today, of course, the Mille Miglia is not the manic race first…

AS CHIC AND rarefied as the lawns of Arts & Elégance are, Chantilly is always refreshingly broad and eclectic in its celebration of all things automotive. It has both a sense of drama and a sense of humour. And this year’s classes reach right back to the steam cars of the 19th Century to ground the concours, so don’t be surprised to find machines that George Stephenson might have felt quite at home riding. A class that would have taken his breath away, and can still do the same to us today, will be the otherworldly forms of the ‘Aerodynamic’s Beginnings’ era: pre-war road cars. Expect to see some swooping lines, tapering tails and unapologetically riveted aero alloys. And length for length’s sake. Celebrated names will be on show, with…

Even for those whose sole passion is cars, it’s hard not to be enchanted by the diversity of the exhibitions. And if you’ve come along as a partner with absolutely no motoring interest, you will still love Chantilly. STABLE RELATIONSHIP The Grand Stables is home to the Living Museum of the Horse. Tracing civilisation’s relationship with our great animal partner, it is full of dynamic displays, models and pictorial histories. MUSIC TO YOUR EARS If that stirs up a desire to see yet more horses, the mounted band of the Republican Guard will be giving a display in the arena. You’ll get a fine view from the great stone staircase. HORSE PLAY If that is all a little too ordered, French horse master and equestrian stuntman Maurio Luraschi and his…

‘IT’S FASTER.’ That’s how Porsche’s GT department boss Andreas Preuninger responded when asked, in the press conference at the launch of the 991 GT3, why Porsche had switched to a PDK paddleshift auto. His reason is undeniable and, for a company that aims to be first, perhaps justifiable. Yet he admitted later that they considered a manual GT3. Indeed, Porsche built three of them to test, one of which ended up rotating on a plinth at the Geneva motor show in March wearing red stripes over white paint – and a 911R badge on the back. The 911R owes its existence to the GT3 then, and in particular to the development hacks that, Preuninger admits, he and his staff ‘would find any excuse to drive’ long after the GT3 was…

REMEMBER PROJECT 7? The first Jaguar to benefit from the company’s Special Vehicle Operations department weighed 85kg less than a standard F-type R roadster, offered 567bhp instead of 542, and only 250 were built. They sold out straight away. ‘Don’t bet against SVO applying lessons learnt here to further F-type models in future,’ we said in Octane 147. And so here is the F-type SVR. That badge denotes the same supercharged 5.0-litre V8 as Project 7 (up 25bhp over the F-type R), but with four-wheel drive (Project 7 chanelled it all rearwards), weight-saving measures that strip 50kg (another 50kg via optional ceramic brakes and a carbonfibre roof for the coupé), tweaked suspension, increased downforce and reduced drag. Oh, and did we mention the coupé is good for 200mph? And that…

Unadorned by the stunning black-and-silver bodywork it wore while famously winning the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1966, the dull blue chassis of GT40 P/1046 looks naked and incomplete as it sits on a frame table in the Rare Drive restoration shop in rural New England. Yet as shop owner Mark Allin gazes at it, he’s not an artist considering the possibilities of a blank canvas but an archaeologist contemplating a historic artefact. ‘As a restorer, I’m not using my imagination,’ he says. ‘I’m not a hot-rodder. I’m not trying to create something out of my vision. I’m just a mimic. Preserving history is the most important thing to me. If one of my restorations were put in a barn for 50 years, I’d want people to think it…

 LOST CAUSES ARE fascinating and this is why the NSU Ro80 and Milton Keynes make such compelling spectacles. ‘There is no future for the future,’ essayist Max Beerbohm once defiantly explained to the Futurist pamphleteer, poet and activist FT Marinetti (who was so car-mad he suggested Venice should fill-in its canals and turn them into roads). ‘There is nothing about the NSU’s specification or design that is confused, concessionary or secondhand’ The Ro80 and Milton Keynes are now almost 50-year-old antiques, but they were conceived in a common delirium of Futurist ambition. So much in common, yet so very different. One of the best descriptions of design is that it turns dumb materials into expressive forms. Here are expressive forms located at the polar extremes of aesthetics: a gorgeously sculpted…

Like many brilliant motoring ideas, from the Système Panhard to the Grand Prix, France seems to have got there first. It was a group of motoring-mad Jazz Age Parisian entrepreneurs who reckoned a car park could be more than just a place to park cars, and in 1927 launched the exclusive Banville Garage, aimed solidly at the city’s Right Crowd. It was the first purpose-built multi-storey parking structure, and offered secure, individual display cages for vehicle storage, plus car sales and maintenance facilities, restaurant, tennis courts, even a putting green on the roof. But the concept gained its current, rather more inclusive interpretation in modern Germany. From the early Noughties, car storage locations have opened in Berlin, Düsseldorf and Stuttgart, each founded on a clever business model: distressed but exciting…

 THE CRUMPLED remains of LEC CRP1-77-001 were always one of the more macabre exhibits at the Donington Collection. So graphically did the wreckage portray the violence and destructive energy of the impact that Purley’s survival was almost beyond comprehension. ‘MUCH OF THE FRONT END WAS BEYOND SALVAGING, YET THE REBUILT CHASSIS INCORPORATES PARTS FROM THE ORIGINAL’ It seems just as unlikely that anyone would consider attempting to rebuild the car, but the enduring interest in Purley’s life and the burgeoning popularity of 1970s F1 cars led to the purchase of both CRP1s from the Purley family and created the impetus required to tackle the gargantuan task of restoring the pair of LECs to race-ready condition. That task fell to Hampshire-based race preparation team and historic F1 specialist WDK Motorsport. Responsible…

‘THE WORKS’: the alternative name for a car company headquarters that usually suggests a place on a smaller scale to ‘a plant’. Hence, any interesting competition car that’s touted as ‘ex-works’ could hail from somewhere on a human scale, like Newport Pagnell or Malvern Link, but not really from Cowley or Dagenham. Browse the latest Parts Books issued by Lea-Francis Cars Ltd and you get a warm feeling when you read ‘a comprehensive record of each car is retained at the Works’. Plough on through the reams of stock and it seems all you need is a chassis frame and a chequebook to begin a total reconstruction of almost any Lea-Francis; even an engine block appears easily available. ‘The policies of Richard Lea and Gordon Francis included that of never…

‘THE DUFFEL WAS SPORTED BY MANY BRITISH ARMY OFFICERS – INCLUDING DAVID STIRLING, FOUNDER OF THE SAS’ DUFFEL OR DUFFLE? Popular usage is weighted towards ‘duffle’ but anyone who wants to be etymologically accurate might think ‘Duffel’ to be more appropriate. It was in this small Belgian town close to Antwerp that, sometime in the Middle Ages, the coarse woollen material that gave the garment its name originated. For older readers the duffel might conjure images of extravagantly scarved Trad-Jazzenthused students or CND supporters purposefully striding to Aldermaston, while younger readers might recall the sleeve of the Oasis single Roll With It, on which the incongruously duffel-clad band watched TVs on Weston-super-Mare beach. Although duffel cloth originated in Belgium, by the early 1600s it was being produced in England as…

That title – The Autobiography of 2528 – is at once accurate and hugely misleading. Certainly the latest in Porter Press’s Great Cars series is an impressively complete account of the life of chassis 2528, one of the three 250F lightweights produced, but its scope is much grander than that. For large portions of this large book, author Ian Wagstaff pulls focus and explores the wider Maserati story, with help from Adolfo Orsi Jr, and there are welcome deviations throughout – here a piece on the formation of the racing drivers’ union, the UPPI; there a goggles-on, foot-down tour of Monte Carlo with Tony Brooks. If that makes the book sound like a meandering mess, be assured that it is not. Wherever Wagstaff pursues a tangent, he does so with…

1:18 SCALE 1953 FERRARI 340MM VIGNALE By BBR Price £205.55 Material Resin handbuilt A couple of hundred quid for a large-scale handbuilt model is not bad value, and BBR’s ‘kerbside’ replica of the 1953 Mille Miglia-winning 340MM – driven by Giannino Marzotto to one of the Mille’s most epic victories – certainly looks the part. The overall finish is excellent and the superfine wire wheels add a real touch of class. These resin-bodied models are made in China for the Italian market and are limited to a total of 400 examples. While it seems churlish to be hypercritical, the exhaust ‘portholes’ on our sample showed traces of glue, the printed decals for the instruments look rather two-dimensional and, bearing in mind that the Ferrari is not removable from its base,…

It’s a horse and cart thing. When speculators leave a market, quality judgement returns – or perhaps it’s the other way round. Either way, when cars fail to satisfy as objects of trade, it makes room for those who appreciate them as more than objects. I suppose the word for the latter is ‘enthusiast’, a buyer who bases their choices on passion, taste, knowledge, discernment and quality judgement. In many respects the HAGI Mercedes-Benz Classic Index reflects a paradigm shift being played out to varying degrees throughout the market. In May the MBC-I fell back 1.24%, while other sectors traded unchanged or made small gains. Year-to-date the MBC-I is down 1.14%, and year-on-year it has gained just 3.08%. That, as with the performance in other sectors, is never going to…

McLaren M1B, Group B Lancia 037, Porsche 935, Alpine A110, Delage D6 3-Litre Grand Prix… Artcurial’s sale at the Le Mans Classic will not be short of desirable machines with racing history, but the star lot is, in contrast, a car best known for its appearance at the 1961 Paris motor show: Ferrari 250 SWB chassis 2917GT. Presented on that occasion by importer Franco-Britannic Automobiles, it was snapped up by one Jacques Fildier, who had the Azzurro bodywork refinished in black almost immediately. By 1969 the Ferrari had changed colour again, resplendent in traditional Rosso Corsa for its first meeting with the current custodian, who – prepare to feel extremely jealous – at the age of 22 acquired 2917GT as his first ever car. Our hero had apparently been given…

‘SOME OF THE EQUIPMENT I USE IS OLD AND I HAVE TO BE CAREFUL. I ALMOST TORE MY THUMB OFF ONCE’ IT’S JUST AS HARD to make a wooden wheel for a Ford Model T as one for an expensive, low-production car, such as the Rolls-Royce I’m finishing now. This one’s large, at 27in diameter; a regular one would be 23-24in. I can spend three weeks on one set. It’s quite intense and I start early most days by 8am. I have three kids and – I’m going through a divorce right now – I have them for two days during the school week, which means there’s a lot to think about some mornings. I’m making wheels for two 1907 Silver Ghosts, supposedly the oldest in the world. It’s my…