RETROMOTIVE

Porsche celebrated a milestone 50th birthday of its Design studio in late 2022. A cool accessory offered by the Zuffenhausen car maker is a unique timepiece - The Chronograph 1 - 911 S 2.4 Targa, that uses the original Design Chronograph 1 from 1972 as its base. The unique watch was specifically made for RM Sotheby’s. The design of the winding rotor on the back of the case relates to the historic Fuchsfelge wheel of the 1972 Porsche 911 S 2.4 Targa. It was developed and tested at the brand’s watch making base in Solothurn, Switzerland. Movement of the wearer’s wrist produces energy to drive the mechanical chronograph caliber in a rotation-optimized manner. The collector’s special timepiece serves to celebrate the past and the present, leading the brand into the future. Together with this…

Welcome to a new year and to Issue 18. In the last few months, if you have been following the auctions, there has been a stunning array of big-ticket motorsport machinery and items that have come under the hammer. A couple of auctions leading up to last Christmas made me drool. The first was the Newman-Haas collection. Newman-Haas was a powerhouse IndyCar squad formed by actor Paul Newman and Carl Haas in 1983 until it folded after the 2012 season. Among the lots to go under the hammer at the RM Sotheby’s auction was the famed red #5 that Nigel Mansell raced in his triumphant maiden IndyCar year in 1993 which fetched a stunning $995,000USD. A race-worn Mansell helmet from that year also brought $56,000USD. The 1984 Cosworth-powered Lola which Mario Andretti piloted to the championship…

ADVERTORIAL Vindana Wines is a family-run winery located in the beautiful Barossa Valley of South Australia, with a legacy that stretches back over 170 years. Under the guidance of 7th generation vigneron Scott Higginson, the family rich history in wine dates back to 1846, when they were among the first families to settle on the banks of Jacobs Creek in the Barossa Valley. Vindana is dedicated to showcasing traditional, bespoke wines sourced from a selection of single vineyard sites that utilise sustainable growing practises and then craft through vinification with minimal intervention techniques. They specialize in limited release wines with a focus on Northern Rhone varieties, Shiraz and Grenache, with traditional techniques to create small-batch wines of exceptional quality that truly capture the essence of the Barossa region. These are wines that…

A significant anniversary came and went in 2022. In the world of endurance motor racing, the single most successful car in history celebrated its 40th anniversary - the Porsche 956. Over the decades there has been no shortage of spectacular Le Mans machinery. All with varying levels of notoriety, infamy, astonishing performance, exquisite design, and clever engineering. Some of memorable weapons that have been produced in the Le Mans arms race have included the Jaguar D-Type, Coventry’s most successful car with three successive wins in the 1950s, Ferrari’s 250 LM which came at the end of the marque’s Le Mans-winning streak from the early to mid 1960’s, the incomparable 917K Porsche which essentially started it all at Le Mans for Zuffenhausen, Ford’s Ferrari-beating GT40, Audi’s technically brilliant R18 e-tron quattro diesel hybrid that…

During the three great plagues of Europe, virus infected households were said to be identified by a ‘plague cross’. However, there is no such need for a ‘plague cross’ to identify a household infected with the Alfa Virus. These households are easily identified by the Alfa Romeo projects on full display at the entrance. JohnAnderson’saddressin Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is one such abode. John soon greets me with a firm handshake accompanied with a wide, knowing smile at his Brisbane bayside home. Weirdly, those infected with the Alfa virus (your author is a victim too) quickly identify one another and slip easily into conversation using Alfa Romeo chassis code numbers, 105,116 916 etc, to test and gauge the extent of the infection. It is soon clear that Johnis beyond a cure as he…

Like many other countries, May 1 is defined by Labor Day in Italy. It is also recognized by The Vatican as a day dedicated to Saint Joseph, The Worker, and as such is listed as a public holiday in the independent city enclave that is the center of the catholic universe. The first of May carries scars, too, from the events of that horrific weekend in 1994 when the deeply religious catholic ‘racing god’, Ayrton Senna, lost his life at Imola on the western edge of the Romagna region in Italy’s north. At 2.17pm on Lap 7 of the San Marino Grand Prix, Senna’s Williams slammed into the wall on the outside of the Tamburello corner at more than 200km/h after entering the left-hand kink at over 300km/h. He suffered catastrophic head trauma…