Table of contents for May 2016 in Octane

THE CLUE IS IN THE NEW NAME. It’s not only literally accurate but also sums up the bolder, more confident feel to a museum that’s been around since 1993, when it was first opened in Gaydon, Warwickshire, to show off the survivors of British Leyland’s mixed reign. So the Heritage Motor Museum has become the British Motor Museum, to cover not only the cars of its founders but anything built in the UK. The original building has been remodelled, the displays expanded and improved and, crucially, a huge two-storey car storage facility added to the site. That new building, The Collections Centre, finally gives a single home to vehicles that have previously been stashed around the country. It’s not laid out as a museum, but it’s packed with automotive gems…

THE JAGUAR XJ13 recreation by Building The Legend has made its first public appearance at the London Classic Car Show, where creator Neville Swales fired up the engine to the delight not only of the show visitors but also a group of former XJ13 development engineers. The XJ13 is a copy of the first iteration of Jaguar’s one-off XJ13, before it was crashed during a demo run and subsequently rebuilt to a slightly different specification, in which form it still survives with Jaguar Heritage. It has been a personal labour of love for Neville, using a genuine XJ13 four-cam spare engine, though such has been the interest that orders are now being taken for further cars using regular twin-cam V12s, under the company name of Building The Legend (www.xj13.eu). A…

Simola Hillclimb 6-8 May Knysna, South Africa A RECORD NUMBER of more than 12,000 people attended last year’s Jaguar Simola Hillclimb in South Africa, and organisers of this year’s event – the hillclimb’s seventh running – plan to build on that success in May. Sponsored for the third time by Jaguar South Africa and part of the larger Knysna Speed Festival, the event promises a bigger and better line-up of classic and contemporary cars than ever, along with plenty of petrolhead-pleasing entertainment. The three-day spectacular kicks off with car displays and parades in Knysna town, and will then feature tyre-smoking action in the practice and qualifying rounds on the 1.9km hillclimb course. Classic Car Friday sees historic machines take to the tarmac, while the final day culminates with the King…

IN 1990 IT STOOD FOR New Sportscar eXperimental. In 2016 NSX stands for New Sports eXperience. But what does that actually mean for Honda’s new supercar? Well, there is an almost bewildering amount of technology in this new car, but the purpose of it (if I’ve understood the engineers correctly) is to give the impressionof a lightweight car when you’re behind the wheel. At 1725kg, the new NSX definitely isn’t lightweight, but on the roads around Palm Springs and the nearby Thermal Raceway it certainly doesn’t feel heavy. Perhaps the biggest trick up its sleeve is its hybrid powertrain. As well as a 3.5-litre twin-turbo V6, the Honda has a pair of electric motors between the front wheels and another one situated between the internal combustion engine and the nine-speed…

Well done Williams! I WAS DELIGHTED to read that Williams is exhibiting and selling some of its large collection of F1 cars. In 1998 I visited the Williams Renault Touring Car offices and workshop based in Didcot to discuss some sponsorship details. While looking at the Nescafé-sponsored Laguna, I noticed on a mezzanine floor that there were a large number of racing cars parked so close together with the gearboxes pointing out that it was hard to tell what they were from down below. My Williams contact took me up to look at them and said that this was just a part of the collection that was in various buildings in the area. They were not covered, a little dusty and with flat tyres. Front wings had been removed and…

r ENO, NEVADA, IS perhaps not the first place you’d think of when talking about cars, yet some significant collections have been harboured there. Everything began in 1956 when Charles H Retzlaff opened a car dealership that would become MCM – Modern Classic Motors – the first official West Coast Ferrari distributor. It was owned by William ‘Bill’ Harrah, who in later years went on to establish one of the most important classic car collections in the world. This is what I had in mind when I arrived in Reno to visit a very special collector, one capable of keeping up the city’s little-known tradition: Robert ‘Bob’ Lee. It turned out that I was one of the last people to meet him – I’m writing this only a few days…

THAT WENT WELL. He seems exasperated by the line of questioning, which would explain the point-blank response. ‘I am not a navigator,’ he deadpans. ‘I never was.’ You could be forgiven for believing otherwise. Our host, Paul Easter, was once a star of rallying: a contracted player with the works BMC, Lancia and Nissan teams, among others. Throughout the 1960s and early ’70s, he sat alongside some of the biggest names in rallying and claimed silverware across Europe and beyond. His victory on the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally alongside Timo Mäkinen in appalling conditions remains one of the most acclaimed in the sport’s history. Just don’t call him a navigator. The articulate and engaging Easter is not one to bask in the limelight. A respected co-driverin period, and a latter-day…

‘against all odds, the design has survived without significant alteration’ IMAGINE THAT you have just created a sweetly delicious new foodstuff and have briefed some highly paid advertising men to create a brand logo and catchy slogan. At the presentation, the agency’s hotshot creative director whips back the cover of his layout to reveal a drawing of the rotting carcass of a lion with a swarm of bees issuing from it. Before you can register your slack-jawed astonishment, he informs you that the proposed slogan is part of an Old Testament riddle: ‘Out of the Strong Came Forth Sweetness.’ You would be forgiven for thinking that he ranked among the maddest of the Mad Men. No way would anything so bizarre make it to market today – but, thankfully, consumer…

let’s be clear from the start: this is not a perfect book. Indeed, two separate dealers in motoring books have told Octanethat they found it disappointing and something of a missed opportunity. so why have we made it book of the Month? One reason is that not very much has been published on De tomaso, so any new book on the subject is already starting with an inherent advantage. another is that, being a Dalton Watson production, it’s beautifully produced and contains fabulous pictures, both archive and recently shot. third, the price of £52 is not excessive for a quality work on a niche subject. but that’s rather to damn it with faint praise, for it has other virtues too. there are interviews with, among others, alejandro de tomaso’s widow…

BLYTON PARK, SITUATED near Gainsborough in Lincolnshire is a test track, not a race circuit, although it does host competitive sprints. The difference between test and race is a subtle one and it lies in the surroundings as much as the road. In a former life, Blyton was a World War Two airfield and the eight-lane runways built to accommodate a Lancaster bomber offer a lot of width. However, if you are not required to install Armco to obtain an MSA race licence, there is less for drivers to hit, even while maintaining sufficient space for when it goes wrong. Blyton’s track is also the span of a national A-road, or narrow when compared with, say, Brands Hatch or Snetterton, but that becomes a bonus when testing or coaching because…

IG GAACG COGG unlikely that Enzo Ferrari ever uttered the phrase ‘the customer is always right’. Even the warmest tributes to il Commendatore tend to include words like ‘dictator’ and ‘tyrant’; it was generally Enzo’s way or the highway. But early in his career as a builder of road cars, he was reminded that you do occasionally have to listen to the people who pay the bills. In 1952 an Englishman named John McFadden, living in Paris at the time, ordered a le-hand-drive Vignale-bodied 212 Inter Cabriolet, one of just four that would be built – reasoning, presumably, that if he was going to have to drive on the wrong side of the road, he should have a car with the wheel on the wrong side, too. This being a…

YOU WOULDN’T IMAGINE ‘the most beautiful car ever made’ to be aesthetically improvable, but it turns out that pulling the bumpers off an E-type and slapping racing numbers on the doors improves it immeasurably. John Coombs would have been among the first to realise this, favoured as he was by Jaguar with two of the very first competition E-types. One of those cars, chassis 850006 (‘4 WPD’), was campaigned extensively, while the other, pictured here, was exercised far less frequently, generally serving as a paddock car and back-up. Chassis 850010 (‘9 VPD’) might not have finished its racing career with a raJ of trophies to its name but, given its historical significance, it deserved better treatment than it initially received in its retirement. When it was acquired in 2002 by…

THE ECONOMICS OF buying a brand new car outright still make little sense in general – the AA reckons that the average new car is worth just 40% of the purchase price after three years – but in recent times several hypercars have demonstrated that not everything loses value the moment it is driven away from the showroom. Defying the depreciation curve with particular belligerence is the Aston Martin One-77, a £1.2-million machine when delivery began in 2011, and even more expensive in the UK once Her Majesty’s Government had added VAT at 20%. It was easy to understand why the price tag was so large, though: each of the 77 cars built was completed to the buyer’s specification inside and out, and beneath the handcrafted aluminium body was an…

EDWARDIAN, VINTAGE AND MORE: VSCC Some elements of the VSCC get a bit sniffy when you describe it as ‘a racing club’, as it does far more. However, it promotes the best Vintage car racing – and we mean racing – on the planet, plus hillclimb and trials series. Whatever you have, from aero-engined Edwardian to Austin Seven, there’s a place for it. The VSCC hosts 1950s single-seater and sports-car races at its meetings, too. www.vsQQ.Qo.uk ‘PROPER’ SPORTS AND GTS: Equipe GTS Real gentlemen driver stuff, this: ‘Our aim is to provide a competitive yet gentlemanly, safe and friendly race series with a high standard of driving and car preparation.’ For sports cars and GTs made up to the end of 1965, in five classes from 1150cc to…

FIRST THINGS FIRST: you must be able to see the road, and if there is too much spray or water on the screen then perhaps it’s time to make a different decision. No shame in that, as Niki Lauda proved in Japan in 1976. With certain caveats, though (which I will get to in a moment), driving on a wet track is much the same deal as driving on a dry one. You’re looking to get the maximum out of the car and approach the edges of the performance envelope without overstepping them, or at least not so that it needs corrective action. The potential problem is that on a wet track you’re much more likely to reach the edge of that envelope – or the limit of the car’s…

THE FEDERATION of British historic Vehicle Clubs (FBHVC) is seeking to moderate the latest emissions from the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules anciens (FIVA) about what constitutes a historic vehicle. Increasing numbers of low-emission zones (LEZS) across europe have focused the minds of those who represent the interests of historic-vehicle owners and the freedom to use them. Same aims, different interpretations. Or so it seemed after FIVA’S press release of 2 February, and FBHVC’s request for a raincheck on 26 February. Two issues are troubling our legal representatives. One relates to those leZs: FIVa wants all of them across europe to adopt the same stance, exempting historic vehicles from potential exclusion from these zones, whereas FBhVC thinks it better to negotiate individually with leZs as they are created, and not involve…

CAN A SPYDER also be a GT? Maserati thought so with the open 4200, and now Eagle E-types has filled another niche for covetable Jaguars with the Eagle Spyder GT. ‘It’s the obvious missing link,’ says Paul Brace, the engineering brain at Eagle. ‘It can be perceived as a Low Drag GT convertible, or a Speedster with a folding hood.’ Like those cars it has a body structure made entirely of aluminium, and is in effect a Speedster with a higher, heated windscreen – still lower and more raked than standard – and a folding hood that’s effective enough to cope with a downpour. ‘We’ve wanted to build it since the Speedster hit the road a few years ago,’ Brace continues, ‘but we haven’t had the time or a customer…

18-21 FEBRUARY London, UK  THE SECOND ANNUAL London Classic Car Show, held at London’s ExCel Centre, has already evolved into an admirable celebration of classic and performance cars, and this year attracted more than 33,000 visitors. Its highlight was the Grand Avenue and Turning Circle Viewing Platform, where dozens of cars were seen and heard in action, ranging from thunderous vintage Bentleys, full works rally Audi Quattros and a shattering Matra F1 racer to the snarling Harrods Le Mans McLaren F1. ‘Cozens of cars were seen in action, ranging from vintage Bentleys and works Audi Quattros to the snarling Harrods Le Mans McLaren F1’ The show was officially opened by 2009 Formula 1 Champion Jenson Button arriving in a McLaren F1. Its designers, Gordon Murray and Peter Stevens, were…

IT’S STILL INSANELY QUICK. Some stats: Caterham’s 620S has a supercharged 2.0-litre Ford engine that puts out 310bhp at 7700rpm and it weighs only 610kg. So it will sprint from rest to 60mph in 3.4 seconds. But while the S inherits the R’s engine, it mates it to a five-speed manual gearbox (from an MX-5, in place of the R’s six-speed sequential transmission), wraps it in the wide-boy S5 body (room for the broader of beam) and comes with a windscreen and weather gear. Suspension is revised from race spec to sport spec, and the price comes down by five grand to £45,000 or so, depending on options. There’s a sting in winter’s tail-end on the day I take the 7 out around the Surrey Hills and South Downs, a…

THERE’S SOMETHING viscerally appealing about an engine with four big cylinders. Once your engine’s capacity is approaching 2.7 litres, accepted rules of engineering politeness suggest that your swept volume should be distributed between six cylinders. Using just four seems uncouth, the route to bigger, fewer, more obvious bangs. But there are advantages. Four pistons and big-end bearings generate less friction than six. And a four-pot is both shorter and lighter than a same-capacity six-pot. Consider simultaneously all the factors so far mentioned, and you have the fundamental difference between an original Austin-Healey 100 and its six-cylinder descendants, the 100-6 and the 3000. Now think on this: a Healey 3000 has 65% of its weight on the front wheels, while the racing 100 you see here, admittedly lightened with aluminium panels…

International Historic Motoring Awards AFTER FIVE SUCCESSFUL years at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, the International Historic Motoring Awards has a spectacular new venue for 2016: Guildhall, in the heart of the City of London. Completed in 1440, this magnificent medieval building will provide a fittingly historic backdrop to the awards ceremony, which, as in previous years, will honour the people whose talent and passion keep the historic motoring world turning. Awards categories include Motoring Event of the Year, Car of the Year and Lifetime Achievement, with past winners in the latter category including F1 legends Sir Stirling Moss and Murray Walker. Up to 650 people can be accommodated in the great hall at Guildhall; if you would like to be among them for this year’s prestigious IHMA black-tie awards…

THERE’S A SLOGAN on a sign by the harbour that translates as: ‘God created time, but he never mentioned haste.’ An annual beach volleyball tournament is a major attraction; the most popular place to eat is called Pudding Café; the island’s oldest building, known as the Western Tower, was built in 1597 – and started life at the eastern end of the island, but ended up so-named thanks to the North Sea current and the island’s shifting sands. Welcome to Wangerooge. There’s a village-size population living here, numbering just under 1300, yet that figure easily broaches 7000 during the holiday season. Those people come to relax. They come to ‘get away from it all’. And that includes their cars. There is no internal combustion allowed in Wangerooge. If it moves…

‘Laureato translates as “graduate” and, in Italy, this model became a favoured graduation gift’ BOOKING AT ITS octagonal bezel and its integrated bracelet of polished and brushed links, I felt the emotional rush of being reunited with an old friend. The Laureato from Girard-Perregaux is one of the great classic integrated case-and-bracelet watch designs, sometimes compared to the Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. It is a rugged yet stylish and elegant steel sports watch that can trace its lineage back to the 1970s, when it was introduced as a quartz watch: Girard-Perregaux was a pioneer of this new technology in Switzerland. It could even be argued that this year is the 40th birthday of the model, as the brand’s late owner Gino Macaluso told me: ‘In the official history of Girard-Perregaux,…

HELD AT Birmingham’s NEC, just a stone’s throw from the home of Land Rover, and mere weeks a er a Defender rolled off the line at the Solihull plant for the final time, the annual Restoration Show Sale was always likely to produce some strong results for classic Landies – and it did not disappoint. In addition to the usual array of barn finds and project cars, organiser Silverstone Auctions had managed to lay its hands on a number of interesting early Land Rovers, the most notable of the bunch the vehicle pictured above, a seriously rare 1950 and most attractive Series I Station Wagon by Tickford. Only 650 examples of the ‘luxury’ seven-seater were built, its appeal limited not by any glaring flaw but by the sticker price of…

NO OTHER ESTATE car has made as big an impact at the Volvo 240… particularly if you get hit by one. In short, this tough and cavernous cube is the defining expression of the idiom, perhaps even its pinnacle. And, unlike many other underappreciated cars, there will still be plenty around when the world learns to value this culturally significant machine. Over the years the 240 estate has been all things to all sorts. Today it’s an artefact of a dinosaur age, which Volvo dominated before SUVs and people-carriers ruled the ’burbs and shunted the all-purpose carry-all up a motoring cul-de-sac. Frankly, we’re talking ‘icon’. I mean, how can a car with no fewer than five washers and five wipers not be an icon (bear in mind the original E-type…

I’VE DRIVEN MOST THINGS over the years, but it’s taken me a long time to find Clubmans – and I’m not sure why. Could simply be that most people who own a Clubmans car will drive it themselves. That’s been the whole point of the category since its inception, and there was a time when the owner/driver would also have built the car, either from a kit of parts, or to his own design. But, having recently discovered Classic Clubmans, I’ll say it now: over a season, you cannot go faster for the money. Not in any category, neither modern nor ancient. More of that in a moment, but since I’ve become more closely involved, I have realised that most people know little about the cars and the category, which…

ITS CARS HAVE WON the toughest endurance rallies in the world, and Rally Preparation Services (RPS) is fielding no fewer than 20 on the next ‘big one’, the Peking to Paris. Starting in June, the event is the sixth of its kind, and the first major rally run by the Endurance Rally Association since the untimely death of its founder, Philip Young. Young, widely acknowledged as the kick-starter of historic rallying, was an early RPS mentor. Since starting the company back in 2007, Simon Ayris has built on the experience handed down by ‘the lord and master’, building cars that will go the distance. We visited RPS’s latest premises in Witney, Oxfordshire (the company has had several moves over the years to keep up with expansion), to check out the…

IF YOU OWN an Austin Seven (or are thinking about getting one) and want to compete with it, there’s an alternative to the out-and-out race series and trials run by the two ‘main’ Vintage racing clubs, the VSCC and 750MC. The Pre-War Austin Seven Club, the largest club catering for Sevens, runs the Bert Hadley Memorial Championship, a series of sprints and speed hillclimb events open to members in both race and road cars. It was established to enable the sporting Austin Seven owner to engage in keen but friendly competition with like-minded enthusiasts, without being too strict about eligibility rules. There are class awards for both road and track cars and, although the points structure will generally favour the faster track cars, that’s not always the case. A supercharged…

ON 15 MARCH Stephan Winkelmann left Lamborghini after 11 years as its CEO to become the new boss at Audi’s quattro GmbH division. During that time he oversaw the launch of such key models as the Aventador and Huracán. He has been replaced by ex-Ferrari F1 boss Stefano Domenicali. The 51-year-old was born in Berlin and grew up in Rome, where he studied political science before moving back to Germany, to finish his degree in Munich. He then spent two years in the German paratroopers before leaving the Army as a lieutenant. In 1991 he began his professional career working for a German bank, but Winkelmann’s natural interest in cars began to take a hold on his life. So he left the bank for the automotive industry. His first major…

Porsche 911R Porsche made a few pre-RS lightweights in 1967, setting the tone for race-flavoured, less-is-more 911s for every generation since. Now there’s a new 911R, the most instantly covetable of all this year’s Geneva debutantes. This pared-down machine eschews the turbos now entrenched in the mainstream 911 range, instead using the GT3 RS’s normally aspirated, 4.0-litre, 493bhp flat-six mated to a six-speed manual gearbox. It keeps the GT3’s rear-wheel steering but lacks that car’s aerodynamic aids, relying instead on the regular 911’s retractable rear spoiler. Wheels are narrower than the GT3’s and the whole car has weight-saving measures to suit the R badge. These include some carbonfibre outer panels and a magnesium roof. This could be the most enjoyable and involving 911 in years, but only 991 examples will…

ALMOST 50 years to the day since the original 124 Spider made its debut, Fiat has revived the badge. However, while it’s packed with retro cues – the headlight fairings, grille and bonnet bulges – and an interior that gets more upmarket materials, under the skin it’s almost 100% Mazda MX-5. Almost, because the Spider uses Fiat’s own 138bhp turbocharged 1.4-litre MultiAir engine, mated to a six-speed gearbox with tougher internals. There are also stiffer springs and dampers, plus thicker anti-roll bars, and remapped electric steering to give greater weighting. There’s not much in the way of mechanical fettling but it’s just enough to give the Spider a character of its own. That turbocharged engine serves a muscular 177lb ft of torque – 30lb ft up on the peakier 2.0-litre…

‘IT’S GREAT TO BE ABLE TO SHED A BIT OF LIGHT ON A SIDE OF MOTOR SPORT THAT USUALLY GOES UNMENTIONED’ THE RIGHT CROWD attended Brooklands Museum for one dinner back in February, and the friendly meeting at the bar beforehand – for pints of excellent Hog’s Back local real ale – was only slightly crowded. Any dinner in the historic Brooklands Clubhouse is a special experience, but there was an extra significance because this was the annual gathering of the British Racing Mechanics Club. Too often, the mechanics are the unsung heroes of motor sport, with very few motor racing fans being aware of the existence of such a club – even though it was formed 80 years ago this year, in 1936 and in this very same place,…

DESPITE A LEGACY extending to the original Alfa Disco Volante of 1952, a renowned Touring masterpiece of a different bloodline altogether played an important part in realising the new Disco Spyder. The Spyder’s commissioning buyer also owns the 1950 ex-Gianni Agnelli, ex-Olivier Gendebien Ferrari Tipo 166 MM (left). Bodied by Touring and using its pioneering lightweight Superleggera technology, the 166 MM is among the truly great barchetta designs, a minimalist triumph with effortless, graceful lines, competition-proven mechanicals, and only the barest of road equipment. For many a post-war enthusiast, it’s the absolute definition of the term ‘sports car’. This is the car the buyer was visiting in the Touring restoration shop, undergoing correction to repairs completed elsewhere for a previous keeper, when he was taken with the Disco coupé –…

AUFRECHT’S HAMMER. Sounds like a chapter from the Ring of the Nibelung. You could make something very Wagnerian out of it: Mercedes-Benz’s famous blue Renntransporter driving deep into the Black Forest, with a frightened, white 1985 230E chained on board. The wide-eyed crew unloading it in the gloom, leaving it next to a huge moss-covered rock, then scurrying back to their truck and speeding away before the sun finally sets. The next you know, this glowering, muscular über-Q-car bursts from the forest to the stabbing brass and rushing strings accompaniment of Siegfried’s Funeral March. OK, that may not have been how Mercedes dropped off its cars to business-suited Hans-Werner Aufrecht and his racing/tuning firm of AMG. But the most shocking element of the story is true – this prototype of…

‘KEY TO SUCCESS IS THAT LOCAL WORKERS WERE VERY KEEN TO LEARN NEW SKILLS’ WHERE IN THE WORLD can you find more than 200 people working in one restoration complex – with vast hangar-like halls for bodywork destined for Jaguars, Rolls-Royces and Mercedes, for future projects, and more? Perhaps surprisingly, in the Philippines, on the former US air base that is now Clark Freeport Zone. The brainchild of Australian businessman Jim Byrnes, the Byrnes Motor Trust was established to invest in classic cars, and putting together its own restoration facility was a logical step six years ago. Choosing a location where workers are skilled and dedicated, but labour rates are a fraction of those elsewhere, meant that Jim could get his rapidly burgeoning collection restored well but cheaply, commissioning restorations…

‘Drifting into – let alone out of – corners isn’t exactly what i’D call an enDurance racing set-up, but it sure as hell is fun’ POLL THE YOUNGER generations today and most would probably assume Ferrari to be the most illustrious of automotive marques. They may well be correct, but it wasn’t always so. In the first half of the 20th Century, Alfa Romeo best advertised Italy’s automotive prowess, with a level of competition success envied by all at the time except, perhaps, Mercedes-Benz. The P2, the Tipo B, 8C 2300 and Alfetta Grand Prix cars all contributed to the burgeoning Milanese trophy cabinet until the brand shockingly retired from competition in 1953, by when it was under government control. So when Alfa Romeo announced its return – not only…

‘His stories ran from hellraiser and hotel-wrecker to tales of Le Club des anciens Pilotes and Scottish travel adventures’ D ANY OF US could recall our own personal Damascene moment, one suspects, if prodded: that very first occasion when the light switched on. Innes Ireland certainly well remembered the spark that ignited his rather extraordinary motoring life, and related it often. He was ten years old, it was 1940, and he drifted into the garage of a septuagenarian family friend, to find therein the dear lady’s brace of genuine Red Label Bentleys. Which she was overjoyed to ‘share’, with much gusto and considerable velocity – and for Christmas she gave him Bentley Boy Tim Birkin’s seminal volume Full Throttle. He was, of course, hooked forever. Innes nevertheless hardly became a…

Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahnkurier 1:18 BY KK SCALE PRICE £64.95 MATERIAL Diecast QUALITY VALUE NO, IT’S NOT a misprint. The retail price of this large-scale Mercedes is a mere sixty-four-pounds-ninety-five – which is about the going rate for a decent 1:43 scale model these days. And for that you get a proper high-quality replica, not some toy-like diecast of the sort found on a thousand autojumble stalls. This Chinese-made model would sit happily in a display cabinet among others costing four or five times the price. Nobody is sure whether two or three Autobahnkuriers were built in 1938: one went to the Shah of Iran, another to a Spanish professor, and it’s the latter (restored by Paul Russell for collector Bruce McCaw) that has been modelled. Yes, a few compromises have…

NICK LEVENTIS is best known in the competition world for Strakka Racing – the World Endurance Racing team he founded, runs and drives for, with a highlight of taking the highest overall place ever (fiEh) at Le Mans with an LMP2 car. But, like an increasing number of ‘modern’ racers, Nick has a foot in the Historics camp too, a world away from the carbonfibre and telemetry of the day job. His is more firmly planted than most, thanks to his dad Harry having been active in Historics for several decades. And the jewel in the crown of family heirlooms is this Ferrari 246S. No HTP replica, 0784 has raced all its life, first time out taking second place for the Ferrari works team of Hill and von Trips in…

FOR THE HAGI Top measure of the overall investment-grade market, as well as most other sectors, the story of the first two months of 2016 is one of consolidation. Grom a year-end peak of 317.38, a 2.50% fall-back in Manuary and a 0.32% decline in Gebruary have pulled back the IAHK Top to 308.46 – shy of the level seen five months ago at the end of September. Reduced turnover has been part of the picture over most of this period: not only has supply caught up with demand, but there is also oversupply of cars that don’t meet the quality demands of a more selective and cautious market. Two months into 2016, year-on-year growth of 11.81% is adri of the long-term annual average of 13.5%, as the market hovers…

INTIL 20 YEARS AGO, everything in Formula 1 was open. It was fantastic for photographers. You had freedom in the paddock, and it was great to watch the mechanics at work. Now they have closed-off garages. You can’t get any ‘inside’ pictures, and photographers are the enemy! I haven’t been able to see an engine for six years. I suppose the changes are for safety, progress, anti-spying, whatever. But it is a great pity for my creativity. The FIA decided in the early 1990s that accredited photographers had to have at least 240 photos published a year in newspapers or magazines. That was no good for me because my work is for books and calendars. But fortunately, Bernie Ecclestone heard I‘d been kicked out. He gave me an FOM [Formula…

CLUBMANS ARE SPORTS CARS with the engine in the front and, in period, relatively few restrictions on design, mainly in respect of dimensions and weight. Wings and formula car noses appeared during the 1970s – as did slick tyres on 13in rims, which are still current today. The make and number of these per year are mandated by regulations. GRYPHON Developed by Andy Diamond between 1972 and ’75, with around 30 built. Similar layout to the Mallock, and with the same spec engine and ’box. Herald-based front but a fully independent rear around an Elan diff and outboard discs. Cars are usually similar prices to the Mallocks. CENTAUR Designed as kits by Richard Scott and developed by David Childs as a budget racer. Four Mk14Bs for Super Sports, all with…

International Historic Motoring Awards AFTER FIVE SUCCESSFUL years at the St Pancras Renaissance Hotel, the International Historic Motoring Awards has a spectacular new venue for 2016: Guildhall, in the heart of the City of London. Completed in 1440, this magnificent medieval building will provide a fittingly historic backdrop to the awards ceremony, which, as in previous years, will honour the people whose talent and passion keep the historic motoring world turning. Awards categories include Motoring Event of the Year, Car of the Year and Lifetime Achievement, with past winners in the latter category including F1 legends Sir Stirling Moss and Murray Walker. Up to 650 people can be accommodated in the great hall at Guildhall; if you would like to be among them for this year’s prestigious IHMA black-tie awards…

PHILLIP ISLAND CLASSIC 10-13 March Phillip Island, Australia httpR//vhrr.Qom GOODWOOD MEMBERS’ MEETING 19-20 March Goodwood, UK WrrQ.WooSwooS.Qom TARGA TASMANIA 11-16 April Tasmania, Australia httpR//tOrWO.Qom.Ou JIM CLARK REVIVAL 15-17 April Hockenheim, Germany www.hoQkTnhTim-historiQ.ST TOUR AUTO 18-24 April Paris to Côte d’Azur, France httpR//pTtTrOuto.pTtTr.Ur MANX CLASSIC 28-30 April Isle of Man www.mOnxmotorrOQinW.Qom DONINGTON HISTORIC FESTIVAL 30 April – 2 May Castle Donington, UK www.SoninWtonhistoriQ.Qom GRAND PRIX DE MONACO HISTORIQUE 13-15 May Monte Carlo, Monaco www.OQm.mQ SPA CLASSIC 13-15 May Francorchamps, Belgium httpR//pTtTrOuto.pTtTr.Ur GRAND PRIX DE PAU HISTORIQUE 21-22 May Pau, France www.WrOnSprixSTpOu.Ur GRAND PRIX DE L’AGE D’OR 3-5 June Prenois, France httpR//pTtTrOuto.pTtTr.Ur MODENA CENTO ORE CLASSIC 7-12 June Rimini to Modena, Italy www.moSTnOQTntoorTQlOssiQ.it LE MANS CLASSIC 8-10 July Le Mans, France www.lTmOnsQlOssiQ.Qom THE SILVERSTONE CLASSIC 29-31 July Silverstone, UK www.silvTrstonTQlOssiQ.Qom VINTAGE PRESCOTT…