Octane August 2017

THE COMMON VIEW, helped along by Jeremy Clarkson, is that all motoring journalists will have possessed an Alfa Romeo at some point. The occasional punchline is that said motoring journalists only like Alfas because they can hand them back to the manufacturers when they break them. Well, we at Octane own our cars, they’re not borrowed from manufacturers, and sure enough most of us have indeed possessed Alfas, which on the whole have proven to be as reliable (or not) as any other classics. I’m afraid I let the side down here, though in my defence I did nearly buy a Giulia coupé once. Fortunately we have a true Alfa Romeo disciple on Team Octane, and that’s art director Mark Sommer. He drives a 2005 Alfa GT as an everyday…

MARI SOMMER Not only is Octane’s art director Mark responsible for how beautiful Octane looks, he’s an Alfa Romeo fan too. Having dreamt for years of owning a 105-series Giulia, he bought one. In Milan. And drove it back to the UK. With a little drama en route… The Alternative Mille Miglia: pages 72-78. MATT STONE ‘Gypsy Rose registers big on my meter because it is the icon of a culture, one born just an hour from my home. For all its seeming flamboyance, the designs are artful, and the workmanship spectacular. It represents all good things about people who love their cars.’ Lowrider culture: pages 88-94. DELWYN MALLETT ‘In the 1960s, one of the first “classic” events I attended was the 60th anniversary Brooklands meeting at which…

THE INAUGURAL City Concours at the Honorable Artillery Company headquarters has been hailed a great success, and a date for next year’s event already announced. Despite polling day for the General Election falling on the first day of the two-day concours, attendance was strong, with over 3500 visitors, the majority from the nearby financial houses in the City of London. Many hosted business clients at the concours and at the accompanying lunches in the imposing HAC drill hall. Most visitors expressed amazement not just at the cars but at the HAC’s little-known five-acre lawn hidden away in the heart of the City, which turned out to be the perfect setting for a high-class automotive garden party. Of the 110 cars on show, there were a few obvious hits, and a…

AS OCTANE GOES to press, JLR Classic celebrates the opening of Classic Works, its brand new headquarters at the group’s spiritual home-town of Coventry. The £7m, 14,000m2 purpose-built facility brings sales, servicing and restoration operations under one roof for the first time, and includes showroom space plus 54 workshop bays for servicing and restoring all Jaguar and Land Rover models out of production for a decade. It also houses the 500-strong JLR Classic vehicle collection. The workshop is organised into strip-down, remanufacturing and assembly zones for the Land Rover Series I, Range Rover Classic and Jaguar E-type Reborn programmes, including an engine shop, and houses the XKSS line. More than 80 specialists are employed, many with decades of experience, and by the end of 2017 there’ll…

THE INTERNATIONAL Historic Motoring Awards have been renamed The Octane Awards. Name-change aside, the awards will continue the now-familiar format, with nominations accepted for the various categories, and a reader vote for Car of the Year. However, there will be two new categories: Performance Car of the Year and Luxury Car of the Year. The black-tie dinner and awards ceremony will take place this year on 16 November at The Underglobe, beneath London’s Globe Theatre. Details of how to nominate and how to book places at the awards will follow in the next issue and on the Octane Facebook page. For sponsorship opportunities, please email Jerina Hardy at jerina_hardy@dennis.co.uk.…

Napier Blue Bird tribute to be demonstrated at Shelsley If you’re intrigued by our feature about Lorne Jacobs’ Napier Blue Bird evocation (above) on pages 158-164, then Shelsley Walsh hillclimb in Worcestershire is the place to be over the weekend of 22-23 July. During Shelsley’s Classic Nostalgia festival, Blue Bird will make several blasts up the hill, watched by Donald Campbell’s daughter Gina and nephew Don Wales. The festival will also feature at least 30 Group A rally cars plus competition from a wide variety of other machinery, and (on the Sunday) a street concours for the first 100 classics to arrive. See www.shelsleywalsh.com for more. One-off 1970s Bentley racer at Bicester Flywheel festival Talking of one-off specials, just one Bentley racing car was sanctioned while the company was owned…