Tabla de contenidos para November 2023 en Octane

WHEN I WAS young (long before I could drive) I became fixated on turning a Mini Clubman Estate into a campervan without altering the exterior bodywork. I was perhaps prompted by the availability of a ’shell stashed behind the garage after my brother had liberated its gearbox for his 1973 Mini 1000, and had loads of carefully worked out, quite professional-looking drawings (some even on tracing paper for added credibility), but sadly I was equipped with neither the will nor the skill even to start turning them into reality. In the years since, I have learnt that pretty much every serious petrolhead has at some point entertained a comparable dream (or delusion), usually equally unfulfilled. I guess that’s why I was so engrossed in this month’s tale of Tony Hunter creating…

Goodwood Revival, 8-10 September The 25th edition of the Goodwood Revival was graced by the usual glut of A-list drivers, including Jenson Button, Romain Dumas, Emanuele Pirro, Tom Kristensen, Mark Webber and many more. It also held celebrations for Carroll Shelby (who would have been 100 this year), 75 years of Lotus, and Sir Jackie Stewart (who lapped the track in Tyrrell 006 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his third World Championship), plus, in the Fordwater Trophy, hosted its first all-sustainable fuel race: 30 pre-’66 911s competed (including Lord March in car 44 with James Turner, pictured). The Rudge-Whitworth Cup marked the centenary of Le Mans with a grid of Alfa Romeos, Bentleys and Bugattis presided over by Grand Marshal Jacky Ickx. Two-wheeled machinery took over the opening track…

‘Princess Anne had one those’ has been the bane of Reliant Scimitar owners for decades – well, The Great British Car Journey museum can now answer: ‘Yes, and this is it.’ The custom-built Middlebridge Scimitar No 5, previously owned by HRH Princess Anne for 35 years, has gone on display at the interactive classic car museum in Ambergate, Derbyshire, and the dark green car is said to be exactly as it was the day it left the Nottingham factory in December 1988. It is one of eight Scimitars owned by the Princess Royal and features some unique details, including an equestrian bonnet mascot presented to the Princess after she competed in the 1976 Montreal Olympic Games on Queen Elizabeth II’s horse ‘Goodwill’. With 114,000 miles on the clock, the car…

I SUPPOSE BECAUSE of my Italian extraction I always wanted a Ferrari. Years ago, when I was about 15 years old, I walked past a blue Ferrari 308 with my Mum and said to her: ‘One day I’ll have one of those.’ I have now owned my 1999 Ferrari 355 for 15 years. It’s finished in Tour de France blue with Bordeaux hide and is a rare manual. And of course it’s a convertible Spider… I’m a hairdresser! I fitted a Tubi exhaust system a while ago but it failed the noise test at an Octane trackday at Goodwood, so I’ve put the original pipes back on and now it’s stock throughout. It’s done 50,000 miles, of which I’ve driven 25,000, including trips to Le Mans, Maranello, Lake Como and Florence.…

350GT This is where it all started, Ferruccio’s first car, powered by the 270bhp 3.5-litre V12. The GT looks so restrained in comparison to what would follow, but it was Ferruccio’s desire to build a better roadgoing GT than Ferrari that got him started down this path. Naturally, there was soon a demand for more performance, which is why the following 400GT was a natural evolution, gaining a larger 3.9-litre version of the engine, pushing out 320bhp. A pair of these engines also found their way into Ferruccio’s personal Riva Aquarama speedboat (featured inOctane 129), which was apparently the fastest of its kind at the time. MIURA Adapting the V12 to sit transversely behind the cabin of the Miura was not so simple, and nor was making the gearbox work…

THERE’S NOTHING QUITE as tense as watching a pair of brand new £225,000 Land Rover Classic-built Defenders attempt to cross a river via a makeshift wooden bridge. Especially as we had only just rebuilt the structure using basic knot-tying skills learned less than 24 hours earlier! It’s good to get outside your comfort zone once in a while and the Land Rover Classic Trophy is certainly helping with that. It’s designed to evoke memories of the epic Camel Trophy expeditions, with challenges condensed into an action-packed three days off-road at the Consall Hall Gardens Estate in the glorious English countryside of rural Staffordshire. So what exactly is the Land Rover Classic Trophy? For those lucky enough to buy one of the 25 limited-edition Defender Works V8 Trophy II cars, entry…

We’re waiting for the start of Pebble Beach’s Tour d’Elegance on the Thursday before the main event with a pristine restored 1930 Cadillac V-16. Answering questions from passers-by, notably about the ‘M’ designation on the licence plate, it becomes clear that we have only a classic 1941 Humphrey Bogart film noir to thank for recognition of the existence of Malta amongst most Americans. Where Malta, or even Gozo for that matter, might actually be, well, that’s another discussion. The build sheet shows that this Cadillac V-16 Series 452 All-Weather Phaeton started life late in 1929. Once completed, its rolling chassis was shipped from Detroit to the Fleetwood Metal Body Co in Fleetwood, Pennsylvania, to have its coachwork built. In May 1930 it was delivered to the Don Lee Cadillac LaSalle…

MY GRANDFATHER REG was a machinist and metalworker, who notably worked on the wartime Spitfire production line at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham. As a boy I loved gazing at the collection of Spitfire models in his study, which ranged in size and materials used, including plastic, balsa and highly polished steel. Years later, during a visit to the Science Museum in London, I was deeply moved to see a full-size Spitfire deconstructed, stripped of paint and displayed on a huge wall. Every file and fettle mark was revealed and I inevitably wondered if Reg’s hands had played a part in shaping those wings. By extension historic cars, stripped back to their original skin of bare metal, hold a particular fascination for me. To a photographer, there is something breathtaking and beautiful…

IF NOTHING ELSE, my experience with old cars has demonstrated that solving one problem inexorably leads to the revelation of another thus far undiscovered. My Tatra T87 has been semi-dormant for some time because of an electronic ignition problem that caused the engine suddenly to die one day while I was driving. Fortunately, I was able to coast into a side-road; like many owners of old cars I dread – in fact avoid – smart motorways, one of the dumbest ideas that our elected representatives have ever come up with. When the car was restored in the Czech Republic some 30 years ago, the previous owner had requested that it was updated with electronic ignition. Not surprisingly, the restorer used the ignition system fitted to the then-current T613. Curiously, even…

WATCHES HAVE A tendency to lead one down rabbitholes. Sometimes these are predictable – digging into the history of a particular movement or casemaker – but the best are utterly unexpected. When I picked up an old brochure from 1938 – The Watch Book – produced by a firm I’d only vaguely heard of, Bravingtons, I’d no idea it would lead to searching London for lost buildings and even finding a connection to an iconic WW1 image. Thomas Bravington started out with a pawnbroker’s shop at 208 Pentonville Road in the early 1860s. By 1905, it seems, he’d opened another on Wardour Street. Pawnbroking appears to have been as eclectic a trade then as it is now – Bravington once accepted 1000 cigars as security for a loan. He was…

Book of the month Colin Chapman: the Biography GERARD ‘JABBY’ CROMBAC, FREDERICK REGINALD BUSHELL & WILLIAM TAYLOR, Coterie Press, £125, ISBN 978 1 902351 74 2 More than 40 years after the passing of Lotus founder Colin Chapman from a heart attack, it would be extremely difficult for any biographer to come up with a significantly new account of his remarkable life. Rather cleverly, therefore, publisher William Taylor has taken a pre-existing biography – the one written by Jabby Crombac in the early 1980s – and married it up with other recollections, notably from Lotus accountant Fred Bushell. Then, by combining the words with a fantastic collection of period imagery, and using bold design – hat tip here to Violet Cruz – he’s been able to offer a hefty two-volume…

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MY FASCINATION with interesting cars goes back to the late ’50s in Farnham, Surrey. Many classic car buffs will have heard of the Tourist Trophy Garage, where Mike Hawthorn’s family sold Ferraris; well, the Goddard family owned the town’s Station Garage and its specialities were petrol, repairs and taxis. Hanging around the workshops as a youngster and restoring my first car – a 1938 Austin – with my father sparked an interest. I then drove the old Austin to Stuttgart on a working vacation, much to the locals’ amusement. However, I soon realised that none of the engineering moondust had come my way, so I chose to study photography at Harrow School of Art, a subject I did have a natural talent for. After I graduated in 1973, by chance I…

28 September – 1 October Audrain Newport Concours & Motor Week The packed schedule for this year’s Motor Week features seminars on car design, a Bonhams auction, a tour, and opportunities to explore the Audrain Automobile Museum before the concours itself, held at The Breakers – one of Rhode Island’s grandest properties. audrainconcours.com 28 September – 1 October Porsche Rennsport Reunion The seventh edition of the world’s biggest Porsche gathering, held at Laguna Seca Raceway.  porscherennsportreunion.com 30 September Self-publishing workshop for motoring writers A workshop held at the British Motor Museum in Gaydon, and aimed at both both budding and established writers. michaelsedgwicktrust.co.uk 30 September MG 100 at Beaulieu Organised by members of the MG Owners Club, but open to all wanting to celebrate the centenary of the marque.  beaulieu.co.uk…

A 1938 DELAGE Type D8-120 S Cabriolet has triumphed in the prestigious Peninsula Classics Best of the Best Award. Eligible for the honour after it scooped the Best of Show trophy at the 2022 Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace, the car is owned by Fritz Burkard and his Pearl Collection. The decision was announced at Quail Lodge & Golf Club in Carmel, California, during Monterey Car Week, and Burkard said: ‘This award is truly the highest honour for a car collector like myself. It has been such a joy bringing this car to numerous concours around the world. To be selected as the recipient of this distinguished award by such an acclaimed group of judges is truly humbling.’ Bodied by De Villars, the Delage is a one-off two-seater…

JAY LENO’S PIECE about American muscle cars in Octane 241 had me revisiting a cherished memory of an epic road trip made in 1973 when I’d just turned 21. A friend and I were fulfilling an adolescent ambition to ‘do the States’. A total lack of budget wasn’t going to hinder us, so to get from Detroit to California we found a car delivery agency in the Detroit Free Press that had a car that needed driving to Las Vegas to a guy who was stationed out there in the Air Force. Incredibly, we would be given the car upon payment of a small refundable deposit, conditional only that the FBI would be notified if we didn’t arrive in five days. We duly showed up to collect ‘a small Dodge’, only…

There are degrees of homologation special. Many are no more than raw street-legal versions of savage race or rally cars, but there are a few that are so comfortable in their own skin that it feels almost as if the rally car might have been invented solely as an excuse then to create the road car. The Renault 5 Turbo is firmly in the second camp. Sitting in its plush 1970s-style (and coloured) seats, flicking the flimsy stalks straight out of the model that inspired it and gave it two-thirds of its name, and gazing in wonder at (and through) a steering wheel that looks as if it could have come straight out of Logan’s Run, the rally stages of Corsica seem a million miles away. As, it has to…

Bond had the most selfish car in England… She went like a bird and a bomb and Bond loved her more than all the women at present in his life rolled, if that were feasible, together.’ Undoubtedly a petrolhead, then: that’s how Ian Fleming introduces the car owned by his fictional creation James Bond in the 1961 novel, Thunderball; not a Silver Birch Aston Martin DB5 – which was a conceit of the movie makers – but a one-off Bentley Continental roadster. The Continental wasn’t Bond’s first Bentley by any means, but it’s the one that appears most often in the books and it is the car now owned by Bond enthusiast Tony Hunter. Of course, since Bond’s Bentley was entirely fictional, the only way Tony could own it was…

WRITING A MONTHLY column on model cars in Octane has often led me to reflect on the connection between miniatures and full-size vehicles. Owners of classics invariably seek out models of their pride and joy, but the process can work in the opposite direction as well: in the case of my latest acquisition, I had the model first and then progressed to the real thing. It was in August 1960 that Dinky Toys brought out a replica of the Jaguar Mk2 in a beige colour, fitted with a special feature described as ‘directional control’ or ‘fingertip steering’. This simply meant that the front axle swivelled slightly when the car was pressed down and gave the impression that it was cornering. Doesn’t sound all that exciting now, but Dinky hoped it…

The B is back IT SAYS MUCH for the changing face of modern classics that Japanese performance cars of the 1990s are now must-haves alongside hot BMWs, Mercedes and Porsches from the same era. Of those Far Eastern exotics clamoured for by collectors, the Subaru Impreza 22B stands proud. And with good reason, for very little else captures the drama and relatability of ’90s World Rally Championship cars quite like the blue-and-gold ones from, er, Banbury. The 15-year collaboration between Prodrive and Subaru is one of motorsport’s most successful and enduring partnerships. Yielding 46 WRC victories, a hat-trick of WRC titles between 1995 and 1997, plus a trio of WRC Drivers’ titles in ’95, ’01 and ’03, it made household names of Colin McRae and Richard Burns and brought a…

EDDIE RICKENBACKER cheated death so many times in so many circumstances that he came to believe he was divinely blessed. Before WW1 he survived being tossed from his cartwheeling racing car on more than one occasion. In the war, flying more combat missions than any other US pilot, he not only eluded enemy bullets and shells but also survived when the fabric ripped from his plane’s wing in a dive during a dogfight. In 1941 he suffered horrendous injuries when one of his airliners crashed into woods in appalling weather, killing nine of the 17 on board. Perhaps most remarkably, however, in 1942 he survived 24 days adrift in the Pacific when the B17 bomber taking him to a secret rendezvous with General Douglas MacArthur ran out of fuel and ditched…

1:18 scale ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM V By Paragon Price £174.95 Material Diecast The Phantom V was a mainstay of the Royal Mews garage, so it’s appropriate that Paragon’s hefty diecast model is finished in Mason’s Black over Royal Garnet – although it doesn’t depict a Royal car, being left-hand drive. A right-hand-drive version is also offered, as is an alternative colour scheme of Mason’s Black over Ivory, but to be frank that’s reminiscent of a wedding car or a northern town mayoral limo… Besides its sheer size, the Paragon model impresses with its numerous opening panels: all four doors, bootlid and centre-hinged bonnet, the last of these revealing a fairly good replica of the black-enamelled engine. Detail is perhaps a little simplified – the tyres have no sidewall lettering, for example…

AS ALWAYS, IT’S not the headline figures that tell the full story of what actually happened in Monterey. Hagerty reported that, across all auction houses, sales totalled $400.1million, which, despite around 200 more cars being offered over the week, was lower than 2022’s $473m total. The overall sell-through rate dropped, too, from 78% to 68%. More telling was that, when broken down by value, it was cars at the $5m-plus level that were struggling to sell. Bonhams proved that there was still some appetite for the very heaviest hitters, however, as it hammered away the 1967 Ferrari 412P for $30.25million – making it the top seller of all the 2023 Monterey results. Its Quail auction totalled $51m, with the 1966 Porsche 906/‘Carrera Six’ racer making $2,040,000. RM Sotheby’s achieved the…

RM Sotheby’s, New York, USA 13 November THE MOMENT THAT any Ferrari 250 GTO is sold is always significant. It’s a rare occurrence and, even though most private sales remain shrouded in mystery – the last high-profile semi-public sale was of the Tour de France winner, sold for around $70m in 2018 – those offered via auction offer a real glimpse into how the market continues to evolve. RM Sotheby’s last sold a GTO at Monterey in 2018, where the later-bodied example made $48.4m. Before that was an earlier-bodied example sold by Bonhams in 2014 for $38.1m. With all those figures in mind, what would a GTO be sold for at auction in 2023? RM Sotheby’s is about to find out with this particularly special example, 3765 LM. It’s true…

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WITH PEBBLE BEACH, The Quail and Salon Privé the traditional launchpads for cars with an historical angle – whether fresh-to-market restomods or old names dropping new cars – August and September are always frenetic on that front, but this year the multiple reveals at the big events were comprehensively trumped by a factory effort in Italy. It was always going to be, from the moment that someone at Stellantis rubberstamped Alfa Romeo reviving the legendary Tipo 33 Stradale moniker. The news broke on 31 August that Alfa Romeo would build – via Touring Superleggera – a limited run of 33 cars (even though every one of them has already been accounted for, following a preview during the F1 race at Monza in 2022) in its first foray for decades into…

The landscape is charged with a sense of mystery. It’s almost filmic, flinty shards dotting the Serra do Caramulo landscape amid sagestippled pastels. It’s also deserted, which is just as well, as our presence would otherwise have a sore-thumb resonance. A Lamborghini Miura SV announces your impending arrival. You hear the car long before you see it. And let’s be honest, matters have taken a turn for the juvenile, or adolescent at the very least. On these roads, in this car, it’s hard not to picture the opening scene of a certain British heist flick. It’s harder still to quell the impulse to murder the Matt Monro classic that accompanies it. But that’s the thing about the Miura: it invites romanticism. Nothing about this car is in the realm of…

The fuel pump clanks, the starter buzzes, then the 3.0-litre straight-six erupts. It rips through a pair of megaphone pipes, rasping aspiration over oozing bass, and VMF 65 rolls into the light. Roundels and spotlights are smeared over black-green paintwork, led by a baby blue grille, and a label-maker list by the B-pillar recites previous pilots: Stirling Moss, Peter Collins, George Abecassis, Rob Walker, Eric Thompson, Tony Rolt. I’m all goosebumps, about to add my nobody to their somebodies and drive one of three prototype Aston Martin DB2s built for the 1950 24 Heures du Mans. Last in a trio of consecutive chassis and registration numbers, LML/50/9 rounded out the works squad for that famous race. Only the fifth DB2 built – after both team-mates, a motor show star and…

Five minutes into the interview and one thing is clear: you would grow old waiting for Mark Grinnall to sing his own praises. A man who has achieved much on two, three and four wheels, he is pathologically averse to the limelight, openly wondering if anyone will want to read about him. He also hates having his photograph taken, that much is clear. His discomfort is writ large. After a lot of ribbing, Grinnall reaches a strained détente with the snapper – a mate of long standing – before finally relaxing his shoulders and unclenching his jaw. It is this lack of the Big I Am that makes you instantly warm to the Worcestershire man who is clearly happier lost in pencil-chewing contemplation than in playing the frontman. ‘You could…

THE MODEL T and the Frazer Nash both date from the same era, 1927-29, but they’re about as different as a pair of cars can be. So, too, were my experiences with each of them during a ten-day window last month. First, the T: after the problems I’d had with its ignition timing, as described in the last issue, I needed to regain some confidence in it. The perfect opportunity arose when Hagerty invited Octane along to the opening of its new clubhouse at Bicester Heritage, just a few country miles away from the workshop where I’d left the T to be repaired by Richard Rimmer of The T Service (tservice.co.uk). The T ran perfectly there and back; in fact, I got it up to a GPS-measured 45mph on the…

1972 Datsun 240Z Mecum, Monterey, California 17-19 August Not just any nicely presented 1972 Datsun (Nissan) 240Z, this was one of the 37 recipients of 200 planned factory-sponsored restorations, something that Nissan called the Vintage Z program. In 1996, to much fanfare, Nissan purchased an allotment of decent, non-rusty 240Zs and contracted with a restoration shop to rebuild the cars to factory spec, using as many original Datsun/Nissan parts as possible. The resulting cars were resold through authorised Nissan dealers, in effect becoming ‘new’ for the second time. The list of manufacturers involved in this kind of project is limited at best, so three cheers for Nissan! When it embarked upon this unique restoration programme, it was charting new waters in the world of post-war and popularly priced sports cars.…

IT’S EASY TO understand why many of us love Defenders so much: there’s just something about the way they look, feel, sound and even smell. While Land Rover was still producing the original Defender, in many ways it had the charm of a classic vehicle. And, as with many classics, there’s plenty of scope for improvement as well as customisation. Taking inspiration from the hugely popular Heritage Edition Defenders launched at the very end of production – of which just 400 were built, now highly sought after – this rebuilt Defender 90 ‘Falcon Soft Back’ comes from Peterborough-based Rivolve, part of Land Rover specialist Nene Overland. Featuring the same retro-inspired Grasmere Green pearl metallic paint and colour-matched steel wheels, it takes the scheme up a notch with co-ordinating dash and…

IF YOU WANT an interesting, older off-roader, it’s easy to get drawn into the world of Land Rovers and Land Cruisers, but there is an alternative. During the 1990s there were many options if you needed a useful all-terrain load-lugger, capable of towing a decentsized trailer – and one that seems to have been forgotten (except by those in the know) is the Isuzu Trooper. It’s a bit of a bargain, too. The original Trooper was launched in Japan as the Isuzu Rodeo Bighorn in 1981. The Rodeo part was soon dropped, and the model quickly became well-established around the world as a tough, utilitarian 4x4. It came to the UK in 1987, but it’s the larger second-generation car we’re more interested in. The Mk2 Trooper came on-stream in 1992…