Octane December 2024

MG IS 100…or is it? We are well aware that some celebrated this historic milestone last year, a century on from when the Octagon badge was first used; a few even went for years earlier than that, and no doubt some will settle on 2025 or later. As you’ll learn, you could have pretty much any year between 1921 and 1928 – so why did Octane opt for 2024? Because that is when production began of the first proper MG, the Bullnose Morris-based Super Sports. Oh, and it was the year marque authority Jon Pressnell told us we should choose. Jon Pressnell is a man I have been working with since the 1990s and one who I assure you is the greatest unraveller of complication, the greatest confronter of anomaly…

JONPRESSNELL ‘I’ve spent a lot of time writing about MG and its parent companies, culminating in the publication of my biography of founder Cecil Kimber. Since his day the marque has often had a pretty rough ride – it really deserved better. Selecting 100 key moments was thus an enjoyable but bitter-sweet exercise.’  100 years of MG: pages 46-58. TONYTHACKER ‘I read about Alex Xydias and the So-Cal Speed Shop as a young English paper-boy but didn’t get to meet him until I moved to the US in 1988. We immediately started to laugh, despite age and cultural differences. We travelled a lot together and I fondly remember our trip to the Goodwood Festival of Speed.’ Alex Xydias remembered: pages 70-74. RICHARD HESELTINE ‘Dave Brodie was deliciously indiscreet, a joy…

Ferrari 288 GTO Fit at 40! Driving Maranello’s seminal supercar, plus assessing its fortunes vs the rest of Ferrari’s Big Five Plus Finest GTs Aston Martin DB4 and Lamborghini 350GT Targa Florio road race Mercedes 2-litre racer, back for more a century on Is it a car, is it a, er… Meet the crazy, genre-defying two-wheel Gyro X Time with Mr GT-R The Octane Interview: Nissan’s Shiro Nakamura (Contents may be subject to change)…

To take advantage of our special offer and get three issues of Octane for £5, either visit octane-magazine.com/subscribe or call +44 (0)20 3966 6695 BUYING YOUR ISSUE OF OCTANE – NEW AND OLD Print issues  Octane is available at the usual branches of UK shops, such as Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Waitrose and independents, as well as WH Smith High Street and Travel. You can order the latest magazine or a back issue, delivered direct to your door, by visiting octane-magazine.com Digital issues Download the Octane Magazine app on Android or Apple and you will be able to enjoy the new issue. Alternatively you can source the digital edition via either Zinio or Readly. Subscribe You can find superb offers on print and digital at octane.co.uk/subscribe. Order before 15 November 2024 to…

Velocity Invitational 4-6 October Only in its fifth year, already huge and yet still getting bigger and better every year, the Velocity Invitational at Sonoma Raceway, California, seems to be setting the template for how to launch and rapidly grow an event. The 2024 edition was dripping in star cars and drivers, including three outings for 2009 F1 World Champion Jenson Button, in his 1952 Jaguar C-type, a Ferrari 250 Testarossa and an Alfa Romeo GTA. Romain Grosjean was also on an impressive roll-call of ‘name’ drivers. Car highlights included a celebration of 70 years of the Jaguar D-type and NASCAR, but the three days boasted everything from a hillclimb to drifting and Group B rallying. Next year’s event will shift to early summer, so put 6-8 June in the…

24-27 October Auto e Moto d’Epoca Bologna Bologna Exhibition Centre is filled with classic cars and motorcycles, thousands of them available to buy. There’s also a huge trade village – two whole halls of parts and automobilia. autoemotodepoca.com 26-27 October VSCC Cotswold Trial The Cotswold Trial moves to a new venue at Gretton, just up the road from Prescott Hill Climb. Old hands will compete on the Saturday before novices (those who have driven in fewer than six VSCC trials before) tackle the course on the Sunday. vscc.co.uk 26 October – 1 November Rallye de Grèce Post-1949 classics follow a 1280km route around Crete. rallystory.com 30 October – 3 November Classic 24 Hour at Daytona Some of the great competition cars of old thunder around Florida’s most famous circuit. hsrrace.com…