Innehållsförteckning för June 2023 från Octane

I HAVE MANY happy memories associated with McLaren F1s, but then it is testament to the importance of the car that everyone seems to remember their every interaction with one, however small. That could be seeing one static at a concours, spotting one on the road (it does happen) and onwards and upwards from there. I am well aware that my own dealings with the BMW-engined Murray/Stevens masterpiece have been more privileged than most so apologies if what is to come seems boastful – it is not meant to be, it is simply trying to emphasise how much this car matters, to me, to enthusiasts, to motoring history. The first time I went in an F1 was as a passenger. It was in 2002 at Bedford Autodrome, I was in the…

The Three Legs of Mann, 17-18 March The funny thing about hardcore rallyists is that the worse the weather, the more they tend to enjoy the challenge. So they must have loved HERO-ERA’s trip to the home of the TT to honour the 60th anniversary of the first Manx Trophy Rally, because, even in the words of the organisers, the weather was ‘dire’. Regardless, there was a Volvo one-two finish with Dan Willan and Mark Appleton winning in their PV544 (above left) while Amazon crew Paul Dyas and Martyn Taylor were runners-up. Ford Escort-mounted Steve Head and Graham Raeburn (this picture) impressively rounded off the podium on their first HERO-ERA event. RALLY THE GLOBE GENERATIONS RALLY, 24-26 MARCH The north Pennines hosted the second of these popular events. Novice Sophie…

AFTER TWO YEARS in the doldrums, the vast project to site a world-class motor museum in rural Oxfordshire has been revived and revitalised. The new plan for the Mullin was given final planning permission by West Oxfordshire District Council on 27 March, bringing to an end years of wrangling and Covid-enforced stasis. Only a full judicial review could now reverse the decision. Renowned collectors Peter and Merle Mullin, who already have a museum in Oxnard, California, devised the plan for a £150m, 160-acre automotive park in the Cotswolds in 2018. They proposed a 60,000sq ft museum housing 70 cars, small test track, plus 28 motor-focused lodges, but, despite promising to be a signifiant tourist attraction with 200,000 visitors a year and creating scores of jobs, it met with local opposition. Revised…

Craig Breedlove b.1937 THE MAN WHO inherited the mantle of the Campbells as the most obsessed with the Land Speed Record became the fastest man on Earth no fewer than five times. Always piloting his jet-powered Spirit of America ‘cars’, he was the first to top 500mph and 600mph at ground level and fought memorable battles with Walt and Art Arfons, echoing the pre-war tit-for-tats of Segrave, Cobb, Campbell and Eyston. Despite initially maintaining a day job as an aircraft engineer, the Californian hot-rodder devoted his life to speed and the Bonneville Salt Flats, owning his first hot-rod at 13 and achieving 236mph on the salt in an Olds-powered belly-tank by the time he was 20. His first LSR – also the first jet-propelled attempt – raised the bar to…

IN THE 20 YEARS I’ve been writing a monthly column for Octane, I’ve mentioned my McLaren F1 more than anything else. And when Octane celebrated its 100th issue back in 2011, I named it as number one in the top ten of cars that I own. ‘It’s such a focused car,’ I wrote back then. ‘There’s a real sense of purpose to it. The car doesn’t necessarily look dramatic, it looks attractive – then when you hit the door and it opens, it gets dramatic. Then you see that you sit in the middle and that’s even more dramatic, and then you put the key in and you flip up the aircraft-type switch and you push a red button and the whole thing has a wonderful sense of theatre to…

WHAT IS IT they say about necessity being the mother of invention? The proverb could be rewritten to explain the existence of many a fascinating classic car. Or, indeed, truck. So before we get behind the wheel of the somewhat unexpected pick-up before us, it’s worth considering why it exists in the first place. Mercedes-Benz has a long history in Argentina. After World War Two, the country saw rapid industrial and agricultural development, but the transport infrastructure was poor – the car fleet was almost obsolete and the rail network was insufficient to satisfy demand. Mercedes was quick to capitalise on the growing need for vehicles when, in 1951, it opened the González Catán facility in Buenos Aires Province, the first Mercedes factory outside Europe. The company builds the Sprinter…

The 26th RAC Tourist Trophy Race at Goodwood, for the racing cognoscenti at least, was a slightly disappointing affair. Far from international, the 29-car field of 1961 lacked ‘named’ competitors from outside the sceptred isle and failed to sport an example of the UK’s new flagship sports car, the Jaguar E-type. It did, however, boast the cream of UK talent, such British Racing Drivers’ Club luminaries as Stirling Moss, Mike Parkes, Roy Salvadori, Innes Ireland, Jim Clark and Graham Hill, with a supporting cast of John Whitmore, Peter Lumsden, Les Leston, Peter Jopp and Chris Lawrence. The latter was making a name for himself with his tuning business and his exploits with a Morgan Plus 4, registered TOK 258. Partnering him in the quasi-works Morgan team and lined up alongside…

MORE THAN seven of the nine-plus decades that Gordon Wilkins spent on planet Earth were spent writing about motor cars. Or photographing them, drawing them, racing them, or rallying them. He even had a bash at designing them. Born in Liverpool in 1912, he took his first steps towards his long career as a motoring journalist in the advertising department of The Motor before transferring to the editorial side in 1933. A man of many talents, mostly self-taught, he added photography to his writing skills and was an accomplished artist who contributed hundreds of witty cartoons and illustrations to the magazine. He also studied engineering to better understand and write about the technical aspects of the motor car. In 1938 Wilkins was present at the spectacular Nazi-orchestrated launch of the KdF-Wagen.…

Book of the month Ferrari 1960–1965, the Hallowed Years WILLIAM HUON with photographs by BERNARD CAHIER, Evro, £75, ISBN 978 1 910505 81 6 The ‘hallowed years’ indeed. Between 1960 and 1965, Phil Hill and John Surtees delivered two World Championship titles for Ferrari, Enzo’s endurance racers scored six consecutive Le Mans victories, and the Ferrari 250 GTO became the sports car to beat. All around the world. And few managed the feat. It was – and remains – the iconic Ferrari. As a measure of what that means, let’s not forget that it took up from where its mighty predecessor – the 250 Testa Rossa – left off. Which it did by placing first and second at Le Mans in 1960 and 1961 before handing the baton on to…

IN HONOUR OF the late Mark J Smith, Gooding & Company hammered away the last of his collection for $8,857,040 in downtown Lynchburg, USA. Smith was primarily focused on older classics, so the majority of the 86 cars sold were pre-war. Top seller was a one-off 1932 Chrysler CG Imperial Custom Roadster (above) at $1,600,000, which had been lovingly preserved in almost entirely original condition from new. It also marks a new auction record for the Chrysler marque. Next up was a World War Two-surviving 1934 Mercedes-Benz 500K Offener Tourenwagen, which made $857,500 – considerably lower than the presale estimate. A 1935 Brewster Coupe Roadster smashed the previous auction record, with a final price of $577,000. This was down to a bidding war over the phones, reaching a figure that…

Lamborghini’s first production car debuted at the 1964 Geneva motor show. Styled by Touring, the 350GT offered Ferrari-rivalling performance from its four-cam 3.5-litre V12 and around 120 were built before the model was superseded by the less sporting 400GT 2+2 in 1966. Auction results showed the model made strong gains from 2013, reaching a peak in August 2015 when RM Sotheby’s achieved $935,000 (£762,800) at Monterey for a recently restored example (pictured) with a factory-upgraded 4.0-litre engine. A general decline in values followed: chassis 0196 that had been hammered away in 2013 at $742,500 (£605,700) was subsequently resold six years later at $610,000 (£497,600). An uptick in 2021 saw Gooding & Co take $758,500 (£618,800) for a car it had previously sold in 2014 for $616,000 (£502,500) – albeit with…

29 April Brooklands Italian Car Day Italian cars descend on Brooklands, the rarest and most interesting of them displayed in the new ‘Nuvolari Paddock’. brooklandsmuseum.com 29-30 April Donington Historic Festival A busy schedule for 2023 includes the three-hour Royal Automobile Club Pall Mall Trophy for GTs, Touring Cars and sports-racers. doningtonhistoric.com 30 April Audrain Veteran CarTour Pre-1908 cars from across the USA meet at the Audrain Automobile Museum before chuffing off for a 50-mile trip around Rhode Island. audrainmotorsport.com 30 April Curborough SpeedTrials The VSCC Speed Championship gets underway at Curborough, which hosted its first sprint meeting 60 years ago this year. vscc.co.uk 30 April Vintage Velos Assembly A gathering for owners and fans of vintage bicycles, free to attend for paid-up members of Bicester’s Scramblers club, and £5 for…

Appeal court rules on Jag replica The court case between Jaguar Land Rover and Swedish replica builders Karl and Ann-Christine Magnusson has taken another dramatic turn. Less than two years ago Swedish courts backed JLR’s claim that the couple’s C-type replica infringed its copyright, but that decision has been overturned in Stockholm, with near-£1million costs heading JLR’s way. The about-face is down to the interpretation of the law and the Magnussons’ plans. While they had completed one C-type rep, they intended to build and sell more and that prompted the original challenge and informed the verdict. Then, the outline of the C-type was awarded copyright protection, while the first replica was ordered to be destroyed and the Magnussons to pay £500,000 in costs. The appeal court decision upholds the copyright…

I’VE PREVIOUSLY owned a 1972 Mini that I restored in 2010 with a 2.0-litre 16-valve Vauxhall engine and lots of carbonfibre, plus a replica Porsche 356. When our boy Archie arrived in 2015 my wife Marion and I wanted something we could all enjoy. I’d always been a fan of stack-headlight Mercs – I look after UK sales and marketing for Unimog – so when a US low-rider W108 popped into my Instragam feed in 2014 I instantly knew what I wanted. It took three years before I found the right car on an auction site and I jumped on it in May 2017. It was a Californian 1972 Mercedes-Benz W108 280SE 4.5 V8 with sun-bleached paint and sunburned and peeling MB-Tex, but the body was solid and it was…

IT WAS GREAT to see the Ford Puma recognised at last by writer Stephen Dobie in Octane 239. Early in 1996 I joined Ford of Europe’s PR department, just as focus turned to the new Puma. Reporting to the mercurial Ray Day, who was then heading new product launch – and later would become Ford’s global head of communications – my junior role was to help curate key messages from a technical perspective. Month one was spent teasing newsworthy tech stories from often reticent engineers in every department in Dunton and Cologne. The aim was to flag up stories that best illustrated Ford’s embrace of clever, cost-effective engineering and vehicle dynamics – and its determination to restore its reputation after the 1990 Escort fiasco. It wasn’t until the start of…

‘A car for those who can choose from the world’s best, irrespective of price consideration.’ Quite a mission statement from the marketing johnnies at the MG Car Company. And there was more. ‘A well-tested machine, capable of a performance as fast as anything on the road, much safer than most, outstanding in appearance, supremely reliable and unequalled in value.’ The brochure for the new 2.6 Litre model certainly wasn’t stinting on the superlatives. But then this wasn’t your regular MG. Think pre-war MG and for most of us a diminutive sports car comes to mind, most likely an early Midget: long of bonnet, narrow of body, two bucket seats, rorty four-cylinder engine, slab fuel tank and spare wheel strapped on the back; uncomplicated, unsophisticated and unadulterated fun. Such cars were, of…

IMAGINE FOR A MOMENT that the now fêted ‘few’ had in 1940 failed in the air battle over Britain, and that Germany had invaded our sceptred isle. If Churchill’s entreaty to fight them on the beaches then also failed, as it surely would have, and the Germans reached London, he had declared that he would fight to the last from his bunker in Whitehall, Tommy Gun in hand. He had even sent a Tommy Gun to Buckingham Palace so that the King (who had refused to be evacuated to Canada) could practise firing one. Princess Elizabeth, then the future Queen, was also instructed in its use. It was a familiar theme for Churchill. On a morale-raising tour of the country in July 1940 a defiant-looking, pinstripe-suited Churchill, with customary cigar…

1:18 scale 1957 FERRARI SUPERAMERICA By BBR Price £393.50 Material Resincast The original owner of the full-size Superamerica modelled here had an appropriately Ferrari lifestyle – as well as surname. Jan de Vroom was a close friend of Margaret de Cuevas, only child of Bessie Rockefeller, and as such benefited greatly from her largesse. Among the several Ferraris she bought for him was Superamerica Series 2 chassis 0719 SA, with unique Superfast coachwork by Pinin Farina. De Vroom, who co-founded the North American Racing Team (NART), was murdered in 1975. His Superamerica survives, although latterly repainted in metallic green. BBR has modelled it in its original Blu Genziana with Avorio roof, and it looks absolutely stunning. It may cost the thick end of £400, but the quality of finish is…

THE MEDIA-FRENZY-PROMPTING emergence of a 230-car collection coming up for sale in the Netherlands may be proof that ‘barnfind’ has become a look rather than a status, but that should not detract from the significance of the discovery. When the impeccable (in content if not in condition) Palmen Collection hits the market via specialist Gallery Aaldering and Dutch online sale-house Classic Car Auctions – starting on 19 May and running in three segments into June – it is unlikely to have suffered from a lack of exposure. Make no mistake, there are some stunning cars in there, it is just that despite their dusty and sometimes distressed-looking state, the warehouse-stored classics were not lost or missing, nor totally neglected. The collection was amassed over four decades by a car dealer in…

To take advantage of this month’s special offer and get three issues of Octane for £5, either visit octane.co.uk/subscribe or call +44 (0)330 333 9491 and quote code DAPR23 Buying your issue of Octane – new and old PRINT ISSUE 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 magsdirect.co.uk and searching for ‘Octane’. 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 (order…

Join us with a group of 17 cars, both classic and modern, for a 2-night/3-day West Country weekend getaway, with great driving and superb hospitality. Your home from home will be a private 100-acre farm nestled in the rolling Dorset hills just a few miles from the Jurassic Coast. There will be scenic driving routes through Somerset and Devon each day (including a spectacular drive across Exmoor), with relaxed lunch stops along the way before we return to our idyllic Dorset retreat. This will be much like a weekend at a friend’s country home, with superb food and a fully-stocked, help-yourself bar. After a great day’s driving there will be plenty of time to relax on the terrace with a glass or two of rosé (or perhaps a swim or…

WITHIN A FEW hundred yards of where Rolls-Royce created the Silver Ghost, building has begun on a new training, services and retail hub for the classic car industry, as well as a destination for enthusiasts. Great Northern Classics is based at the former Victoria Ironworks foundry, in Derby. Due to open at the end of August, it will house a training school, workshops, dehumidified car storage, exhibition and entertainment space, a café and retail spaces. It is hoped that specialists such as upholsterers, engine builders, panel beaters, paintshops, toolmakers, instrument repairers, suspension experts and wheelwrights will be among those attracted to the flexible accommodation, complete with security, fume extraction, compressed air, single-phase power supply, reception services and so on included. Central to Great Northern Classics will be its commitment to…

‘ON A YORKSHIRE B-ROAD, WE CAUGHT THE LIMITER IN FIFTH BEFORE OUR DRIVER BACKED OFF. IT GOES TO 180MPH IN FIFTH…’ JOHN BARKER The former Performance Car road test editor on living with a McLaren F1 for two days in early 1995 – and what followed IT WAS LATE AFTERNOON on our second day with the McLaren F1. I was in one of the passenger seats, the driver sitting centrally was someone I trusted completely, and up ’til then the pace was what you might call ‘brisk but relaxed’. We were exiting a small roundabout on a smooth, rural B-road in south Yorkshire when ahead of us the road appeared empty and arrow-straight for at least a mile. Well, it would have been rude not to… The throttle was squeezed…

‘Congratulations! You are now a racing driver.’ From the wry smile on the instructor’s face, I suspect that this isn’t the first time that he’s delivered that line and that he doesn’t believe it any more than I do. But, crucially, I’ve just passed the Association of Racing Drivers’ Schools (ARDS) test, and that means I’m now officially entitled to a UK race licence. Which is good news, because in three weeks’ time I’ll be taking part in my first-ever competitive track event. I’ve done lots of historic rallying in my time and I’ve done some spirited track driving, but I’ve never taken part in an actual race. Strictly speaking, I’m not about to, either: the Vintage Sports-Car Club’s annual Pomeroy Trophy is not a race per se but a speed…

IF THERE’S A theme to the conversation, it’s this: all the received narratives have been handed down and recycled. Spend five minutes in the company of John Heffernan and it soon becomes clear that he isn’t one to crow. He doesn’t do ‘the big I am’ but he cares about accuracy. ‘I’ve read a lot about cars that I was involved in designing,’ he says, musingly. ‘I don’t expect everyone to get everything right. It isn’t as though they were there when we were doing stuff. Even so, I don’t understand why those writing books or whatever don’t contact me first for a fact check.’ Warming to the theme, he continues: ‘I’ve seen loads of times that the Bentley Continental we did started out as a sketch done internally at the…

In 2023 one can reliably expect that most 300SLs, Coupés or Roadsters, will sell for well into seven figures when expressed in US dollars. That given, combined with this motor being offered on Bring-A-Trailer, which is widely recognised as the ‘golden ticket’ to sell your collector car in North America, should have produced a top result. This Roadster – one of 1858 built during a six-year production run – appears to be complete, with good records and with at least a good (possibly very good) overall appearance. It has an older repaint in its original shade of white, with a black leather interior, removable hardtop and black soft-top. The odometer shows 92,000 miles, although the true mileage was listed as unknown. The sale included a two-piece luggage set, various service…

HEULIEZ WAS ONE of the most creative and industrious French coachbuilders, surviving well into the late-2000s. As well as a close relationship with Citroën, assembling most of the company’s estate cars throughout the 1980s and ’90s, it was trusted to build some pretty special stuff, too. This included a few low-volume homologation cars such as the Peugeot 205 T16, Citroën BX 4TC and Renault 5 Turbo road cars. Then there were the many clever and intriguing one-off concepts. Although most had a strong French connection, this 1996 Intruder was a far more Teutonic affair. Developed for the 1996 Paris motor show, it was a convertible off-roader – a fairly radical idea at the time. Despite the curvaceous body, it was actually based on a Mercedes-Benz G320, retaining the 3.2-litre six-cylinder…

IT MIGHT SEEM clichéd to liken small sporty Fiats to ‘baby’ Ferraris but in the case of the 124 Sport Coupé there’s no denying the heritage. Although based on humble three-box saloon underpinnings, this striking coupé was designed by Mario Boano – known for many one-off and low-volume projects he worked on at Ghia, and later his own Carrozzeria Boano – which produced some very interesting-looking Ferrari 250s. The Fiat 124 saloon was launched in 1966 as a replacement for the 1300. It was typically well-engineered for an Italian car of the era, boasting a fairly advanced technical specification, although it remained rear-wheel-drive. Highlights included an effective coil-sprung suspension and all-round disc brakes. In 1966 an estate version followed – as did the somewhat more sporting 124 Spider. It wasn’t…

I HAD MY FIRST car when I was nine and first took the engine out at the age of ten. My dad was pretty interested in cars, but was busy raising a family and restoring an old house, though he did manage to buy Austin Sevens for myself and my two sisters. We had a couple of acres of garden near Cheltenham and over the years I did 268 miles around it. I’m 59 now and still have that 1930 Chummy, of course. The other big thing in my youth was Fiat 500s. We got our first from some friends who were scrapping one and it snowballed from there. They were so cheap – we’re talking £25 for a car! – that when I went to Australia for a year, I…