Innehållsförteckning för July 2023 från Octane

I CLEARLY REMEMBER when I first heard about Octane. It didn’t even have a name (not publicly at least) at that point. It was at a very chilly Goodwood media day in 2003 and someone asked whether I knew anything about ‘this new comic Coucher’s doing’. I hadn’t, but as someone then editing a different classic car magazine (and in advanced discussions about launching an upmarket version ‘with the porridge taken out’) I scuttled off to find Robert, who proved uncharacteristically tightlipped. ‘Wait and see, wait and see,’ he said with an enigmatic smile. We didn’t have to wait long. As Octane established itself and evolved in those early days, it soon became clear that it might have occupied the same broader ‘media space’ as the titles that had already…

27-28 May Masters Historic Festival The Masters circus comes to Brands Hatch, with grids for pre-’66 GTs, F1 cars from the period 1966-1985, Touring Cars and Le Mans prototypes. mastershistoricracing.com 28 May Valletta Concours Classics assemble in Malta’s capital, under the sunniest sky in Europe and against a backdrop of stunning Baroque buildings. vallettaconcours.com 28 May Bergamo Historic Gran Prix Classics roar around the Circuita della Mura, a street course that follows the ancient walls of Bergamo in northern Italy. bergamohistoricgranprix.com 28 May Ormskirk Motor Festival Cars will travel in convoy from a location in West Lancashire to Ormskirk School, where the show will be held. The event is free for spectators to attend, and the fee to enter a car is just £7.50. ormskirkmotorfest.com 1-4 June Jersey International Motoring…

AS SPRING GATHERS pace, Wednesday 15 November might seem a long way off, but entries are now open for the 2023 Historic Motoring Awards. Last year’s event was the biggest and best yet, with several new categories, and this year continues their celebration of ever more facets of the international historic motoring universe. Entries will close on 31 July – a month earlier than last time, when there were 779 of them – so the sooner you would like to nominate a restoration company, an event, a rising star who might qualify for Apprentice of the Year, a team of colleagues, the year’s best restoration or something in any other of the 22 categories, the better. You can enter as many people in as many categories as you like, at…

Back in 1952, these two special coachbuilt Jaguar XK120s were wheeled across the very avenue in Belgium where we’re standing today. In fact, they were pushed into these exhibition halls, ready for their grande première at the Brussels Auto Salon. This is the story of two extraordinary one-off Jaguars. Jaguar and Belgium have always had a special relationship. There are the Jabbeke speed records, of course, but there was always the Belgian Iron Lady as well. We are talking about Joska Bourgeois, the driving force behind the Belgian Jaguar operation. After World War Two she walked up to the home of Jaguar founder Sir William Lyons and demanded the right to sell his cars in her home country. She wasn’t someone who would take no for an answer. Reportedly, Lyons…

It began as an attempt to fulfil a dream, not only of Henry Ford II but also of his father Edsel. To this day, some see the Cisitalia 808 as the first sports car that Ford created – except that the Ford Motor Company didn’t build it, because the 808 was not designed and built in Dearborn. Here was a mix of Italian design and craftsmanship overlaying American engineering, the highly individual results of which ultimately lost out to what became the first production sports car from the Blue Oval: the Thunderbird. Compagnia Industriale Sportiva Italia, known more commonly as Cisitalia, was formed in 1939 by industrialist Piero Dusio. The onset of World War Two scuppered his early plans and in 1945 Dusio focused on making racing cars with his…

IMAGINE. YOU’RE THE first watchmaker in the UK to earn a PhD in Horology. You’ve restored countless watches, often making each tiny, individual part by hand on a lathe you’ve rebuilt yourself in a business you started from scratch. You’ve just written a best-selling book that Radio 4 has snapped up and serialised as Book of the Week. And, while you were at it, you’ve summitted the ultimate watchmaking Everest, designing and building your own inhouse movement. Champagne, medals and justified self-satisfaction all-round, you’d think. Not if you’re Dr Rebecca Struthers. ‘I still have massive impostor syndrome. I think I’m going to get rumbled any day now.’ Struthers is a marked contrast to most in an industry where a big brand changing the font on a dial usually results in fanfares…

Call it serendipity, if you like. During a recent Octane road trip through California, we were very kindly allowed to shoot an amazing 1960s car outside the equally amazing Palm Springs Mid-Century home of resident Tom Dolle. And Tom, who is a graphic designer, just happens to have recently co-produced this new book charting the way fashion dovetailed with car design from the 1950s and through the ’60s. His co-author, Jeff Stork, is the ultimate car guy; he was brought up in Flint, Michigan, and had a long-term career in GM corporate sales. Their collaboration has resulted in a fabulous book packed with contemporary advertising, all painstakingly retouched, descreened and colour-corrected to present it as the original artists intended. The book begins with an overview of America’s post-war revival, in…

7 April This is a survivor with a twist, part of the sale of the estate of the late Mark J Smith – a collector who championed original and unrestored Classic Era automobiles. There can be little doubt that a 1932 Chrysler CG is a handsome and important car, and this example is said to have had many custom touches added to it under the ownership of its original purchaser, a Dr William F Whelan of Philadelphia, who kept the car until 1952. Whelan replaced the original motor with a Chrysler CW powerplant, providing an additional 25 horsepower. Other changes included chroming the front axle, and removing leaves from the suspension springs so the car would sit lower. A new radiator ornament was added, the seats were lowered, and a…

IT’S FAIR TO say that ‘CUT 7’ is one of the most famous and memorable competition E-types of all time. Owned by former RAF pilot and racer Dick Protheroe, the legendary ‘low drag’ was the original lightweight racing E-type prototype, bought directly from Jaguar. It was actually the third E-type to wear the reg, following two more standard-looking FHCs. Protheroe sadly lost his life while racing a Ferrari 330P at Oulton Park in 1966. With intentions of returning the Protheroe name to racing, his wife Rosemary acquired this car – chassis 860953 – and designated it ‘CUT 8’ as a tribute to Dick. Originally registered as 105 ENX, this dark green FHC E-type was raced by a gentleman racer in 1965-1966. It had been sold and race-prepped through Protheroe’s garage…

A CENTURY SINCE the MG octagon badge was registered by Oxford-based Morris Garages, a brand new MG-badged roadster will go on sale in the UK. That’s in 2024. It will be launched in left-hand drive this summer. The styling nods to MG’s heritage, yet this is a product of modern times: MG will likely lay claim to the first volume-produced electric sports car and, while its design has been led in the UK by the MG Advanced Design Centre in London, it is being engineered by parent company SAIC. The MG marque has been in Chinese hands since 2005, don’t forget. Tellingly, European design director Carl Gotham refers to it as ‘our first sports car’. He’s talking of his 20-strong team, of course, London-based since 2018 though ‘the idea of…

I’D ALWAYS BEEN a huge fan of ‘bubblecars’ and had owned a Messerschmitt KR200 and a BMW Isetta, so next on my wish list was a Glas Goggomobil Coupé. Not many to choose from over here in the UK, so I bided my time until one came up for sale in Hemel Hempstead. Its German owner, Dirk Wurm, was heading home after a three-year secondment in the UK and had decided not to take the car with him. This was in the 1990s and the £1200 asking price seemed high in view of the work that was needed, including a full repaint and some mechanicals. I had taken along microcar expert Lawrence House and he reckoned I should wait for a better example. I heeded his advice, but that better…

READING YOUR feature on doing the VSCC ‘Pom’ in Octane 240, I thought my experience of my first-ever VSCC trial might make an interesting comparison. While sat swigging wine at a posh awards do last year, I’d blurted out to VSCC club secretary Tania Brown that I’d love to take part in a trial – and, months later, out of the blue came an invitation to ‘bounce’ for her partner Adam Jones in his Austin Seven Ulster, nicknamed Gizmo, in the VSCC Herefordshire Trial. I eagerly agreed – even though I didn’t know what bouncing was. I have to admit I was naïve and a bit apprehensive, so when I arrived at Hall Court Farm on a grey overcast morning it was comforting to have such a warm welcome and…

Guessing I might not be alone in this, but ‘Zagato’ for me has always been shorthand for ‘exotic’. Think Alfa 6C, Fiat 8V, Aston Martin DB4 GT and it’s no wonder. Yet maybe it’s a semantic thing, the fact that a name beginning with ‘Z’ somehow stands out on a page and is innately alluring. Because as well as clothing the outer limits of the automotive firmament, Zagato has clad many a more homely motor and thus imbued it with a sense of otherness that goes beyond the sum of its parts. How else do we assimilate our expectations with the notion of the diminutive Abarth 750 in this month’s Overdrive? Similarly, we are expected to be appropriately calibrated to the prospect of the ultra-modern alloy-bodied coupé you see here.…

QUICK TO LAUGH and winningly modest, our host is great company but the bonhomie slips momentarily. Matthew Humphries is about to reach the Big Four-Zero and our mention makes him groan: his age has long been a talking point. This is a man who helmed a car design department while barely out of his teens, let’s not forget. ‘Yeah, but I was the design department,’ he counters. ‘I still have trouble believing that was almost 20 years ago.’ As do we. So just how did the likeable Midlander make the leap from student to master so quickly? ‘When I was four, dad took me with him to a Citroën show in his DS21 Pallas,’ he muses. ‘That was the defining moment. I became addicted to cars. Dad is an architect…

HOROLOGICAL LORE SAYS that the watch your watchmaker wears will be a Jaeger-LeCoultre. It’s the watch for people who are more interested in craft than bling, but the issue is that class and understatement come with quite the price tag. Not every product from Rue De La Golisse will immolate your wallet, however. You can snag a JLC Powermatic for – if you’re exceptionally lucky – a smidge under £1000, although you’re better off aiming for a better example around the £2000 mark. Mind you, in the same way there are no cheap Citroën SMs, there are no cheap JLCs. Repair costs will leave you wishing you’d spent the money on buying a good one. First, you get one of the most interesting and involving self-winding complications there is: a…

Last month we featured a superb resincast 1957 Ferrari Superamerica in this prime spot; that one cost nearly £400 but, to be honest, if you parked this almost-one-fifth-the-price 1962 Lusso alongside it on your model shelf, you’d struggle to detect much difference in quality at normal viewing distance. Made in good old-fashioned diecast metal rather than resin, KK Scale’s Lusso still manages to incorporate convincing-looking Borrani wire wheels and a fully detailed interior. The underside is perhaps best described as impressionistic, but the front wheels can be turned slightly to add a little dynamism. Overall quality of finish is excellent but it’s a shame that KK has opted for the predictable ‘retail red’ paint, which flattens the body’s curves. A period metallic would enhance them so much more. Models above…

COMPETITION CARS always seem right at home at Bonhams’ annual Goodwood Members’ Meeting sale, and this ex-Richard Burns 1999 Subaru Impreza WRC99 was a real star of the £6.3million auction, which scored a 75% sale rate. Restored and boasting good provenance, it sold for £448,500, although it was beaten to the top spot by a 1931 Bentley 8-Litre Le Mans-style Tourer at £563,500. The sale also included two other rallying stars. A great 1963 Mini Cooper S rally car – which was driven by Rauno Aaltonen as part of the 1964 Monte Carlowinning assault – sold for £143,750. In contrast, neither of the headline competition Austin-Healeys, including a Pat Moss works car, found new homes. Over in the US, Bonhams also recorded some fantastic results with its ‘Two Generations Collection’…

JUST HOW MUCH of a difference does a celebrity connection make to the value of a car? While that certainly depends on the car, and the celebrity, anything with a Steve McQueen connection has always proved to be a highticket item when offered at auction. The $3.74m Bullitt Mustang is one such example, not to mention his special-order Porsche 930, which sold in 2015 for $1.95m. Then there’s this 1967 Ferrari 275 GTB/4. This very car was sold by RM at the 2014 Monterey auction for $10,175,000, at a time when a 275 would normally have struggled to make $3.5m. It was bought by the actor in 1967 to replace his damaged NART Spider, and he immediately sent it to be repainted from its original shade of brown to this…

Goodwood Members’ Meeting, 15-16 April The 80th Members’ Meeting presented by Audrain Motorsport kicked off in grand style the celebrations for the 75th year of motorsport at Goodwood. For many, star turn was a parade of GT1 cars including Aston Martin DBR9, Ferrari 550 GTS, Maserati MC12, Chrysler Viper GTS-R and Lister Storm, while Brabham BT52 and iconic racing Porsche 911s also put on mouthwatering demos. An all-Lotus Cortina grid for the Jim Clark Trophy was among the more confusing racing spectacles, but at least the progress of eventual winner Andrew Jordan was easy to follow in his green example. Off-track, the GMA T.33 Spider was unveiled by Gordon Murray, the Duke of Richmond and Dario Franchitti.…

Concours back in the City A wide range of classes for the London Concours has been revealed. The event takes place on 6-8 June at the Honourable Artillery Company, a green oasis in the heart of the City of London, and one of the most eagerly awaited groups will be Golden Age Coupés, which will pay tribute to some of the most iconic cars of the 1950s and ’60s. Jaguar E-type, Aston Martin DB5, Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwing and Ferrari 250GT SWB are all set to appear. Other star attractions will include a mammoth Porsche RS celebration, including a special 50-car exhibit on 7 June, plus the marking of the 60th anniversary of Lamborghini turning its hand to building road cars as well as tractors. Built To Race For The Road…

It is the apotheosis of a grand line. The 250 GT range was fundamental in establishing Ferrari in its hallowed position, and the legendary GTO was the culmination of everything it could offer. Yet then came the second series, or the ’64 as it has come to be known, given its introduction two years on. And this is no subtle tweak of the GTO: it is not simply a case of race engineer sorcery hidden within identical bodywork. No, the ’64 is just as much about the way it looks as what lies beneath. After two seasons of unparallelled sports car success, Ferrari sought improvement by changing everything you can see, as well as much of what you can’t. ‘I postulate that the ’64 body was intended to align the…

The call came unexpectedly from Octane’s associate editor Glen Waddington. ‘As you are going to be judging at The ICE, would you like to drive the Mercedes 300 SLS on the frozen lake while you’re in St Moritz?’ It was very short notice. And it took me no more than a nanosecond to accept, without even thinking about potential consequences. The first Mercedes I drove was a Stroke-8 220D, and the first I owned was a W123 200D. Humble cars both, but I’ve also been lucky enough to drive many a kilometre in 300 SL Gullwings and Roadsters – though never on snow. And certainly not along the frozen surface of a body of water! The car I’ll be driving in St Moritz is no ordinary 300 SL. No, this…

We’re both wondering whether the Land Rover – and me, its driver – are going to make it through. Riding shotgun alongside me is Mike Bishop, an ex-pat Aussie who grew up thrashing Series vehicles around the Bush and is now Land Rover Classic’s resident historian, and he has just pointed out that he recently had to organise the recovery of a much more modern Landy from this very stretch of boggy, rutted mud. Our vehicle is a 1965 Series IIA with a standard 2.25-litre petrol engine. No traction control, no ‘All Terrain Response’ dial; just mechanical four-wheel drive and a set of period Michelin XCAs that look unhelpfully road-biased. And neither of us is wearing boots. If we get stuck in the mud, at least one of us is…

ASTON MARTIN AMR-C01 2017 LE MANS WINNER EDITION The AMR-C01 simulator was styled by Aston Martin but it was engineered by Curv, the company founded by Darren Turner, so it’s a wonder that this particular edition has taken so long to materialise. The livery, if you don’t recognise it, is that of the works Vantage GTE that won its class at Le Mans in 2017 – when it was driven by Jonny Adam, Daniel Serra and one Darren Turner. Various options from £57,500 exc VAT. curvrs.com 1906 CIRCUIT INTERNATIONAL POSTER BY GAUDY This well-preserved 1906 poster is classic Georges Gaudy – at once elegant and clever. The cars taking part in our trans-European regularity race are drawn in the middle distance; behind them the scenery changes to reflect the landscapes…

OK, SO THE list of three-seater sports cars is rather a short one, dominated by the £20m McLaren F1, but it’s a cool talking point nonetheless. French sports cars are often viewed with some scepticism in the UK, but the Bagheera offers great looks and some interesting racing heritage. Although incredibly rare, it’s also largely forgotten and that means the Matra can still be available at an appealing price. Matra was best-known for its racing cars and engines, and had built the low-volume mid-engined Djet and M530 sports cars during the 1960s. With a desire to expand into the mass market, Matra planned to build a cheap and practical sports car for the 1970s to rival the Fiat X1/9, by joining forces with Chrysler France for its parts and distribution…

MY WORK BACKGROUND is in hospitality and I’ve been working with luxury hotels for 20 years, but I have been a petrolhead since I was a little girl in Brazil, where F1 was – and still is – a religion. My first job was at Interlagos when I was 17 and Ayrton Senna was racing. In the course of my work I came across so many hotel owners and guests who shared my passion for cars that I’ve been finding ways to unite the two subjects ever since. I’m artistic by nature: I was a ballet dancer when I was a teenager, I play the piano, write and design, so the art side of the work I do is a reflection of that. Hospitality is a strong platform to showcase creativity;…