96Magazine - Issue #03 by 96magazine

#03

SUMMER 2021 96 MAGAZINE

$96.00 ISSN 2635-1382

772635

138007

Foreword

Foreword by Tom Kristensen, nine-time Le Mans Winner

TOM KRISTENSEN Friend of the 96 Club

I was surprised and pleased to be asked to write the foreword for this Bentley-focused issue of the 96 Magazine. All good results at Le Mans are special, all have different qualities and highlights, and all are truly memorable. In 2003 I signed up to drive for Bentley and soon became acutely aware of the tremendous heritage and history of the marque, particularly with regard to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was as if the original Bentley Boys were looking over my shoulder and giving me encouragement and support. Support was also very evident from the British fans who flock to La Sarthe in huge numbers every year, the whole team was lifted by this great wave of enthusiasm. On track things could hardly have been better, I managed to top the times in both the Official Test and Qualifying, having that rarest of Le Mans experiences, an almost clear lap, not once, but twice. The race was a dream come true, the Speed 8 never missed a beat, my co-drivers, Dindo Capello and Guy Smith, were fantastic. The whole team, both at the track and back at the factory, were amazing, all the hard work that everyone had put in was rewarded by the result. The day after the race, Derek Bell drove down the Champs-Élysées in our winning car and we followed in a couple of vintage Bentleys. Later in the week, we all attended a celebration dinner at the Savoy, reviving the traditions of the ‘20s. There I met Diana Barnato Walker, daughter of Woolf Barnato, a remarkable lady of much achievement. She was my partner in a driver-change competition that was organised before the dessert course, it was my final competitive moment with the Speed 8. I have to say that I am proud to be able to call myself a Bentley Boy, once a Bentley Boy, always a Bentley Boy!

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T H E WO R L D S R A R E ST C A R S

PRESENTED BY

Car photography by Tim Scott www.fluidimages.co.uk

KEVIN HAGGARTHY, Editor in Chief Kevin Haggarthy is a highly accomplished motoring journalist and broadcaster, having worked prominently in the industry for over 25 years. Kevin has had a glittering career in motoring journalism as a motoring correspondent, road test editor, and feature writer. Kevin has made numerous appearances on screen and television, previously as an ITV motoring programme presenter and commentator, and is one of the most respected journalists in the field. JOHN BROOKS, Photo Editor/Sub Editor John followed his dreams some twentyfive years ago, leaving behind an established career in advertising and design to write about and photograph cars. This has led him all around the globe, working for most of the big names in the sport as well as on a host of books and magazines. In recent years he has extended his scope to cover classic car motoring events. NIALL JULIAN, Automotive Journalist & Photographer Niall is an automotive journalist and photographer with a keen interest in classic cars. In 2015 he founded the award-winning blog Take to the Road. Niall is passionate about classics of which he has a large collection, and loves the human stories that are attached to them.

JAMES SOHL, Automotive Specialist Contributor James has loved cars since childhood, and as such has developed an ‘encyclopaedic’ knowledge on cars old and new. Many of his’ formative years were spent watching and asking questions to a string of specialists working in the garages of his house. When he was 19 years old James bought a BMW 635 CSi which still resides with him to this day. RORY FH SMITH, Automotive Journalist Rory has been writing about cars, motorsport, design, technology and travel for over a decade, Travelling the world during his time as Editorin-Chief of the FIA Formula E World Championship, he’s been at the forefront of the automotive industry while managing to maintain a solid footing in the classic car camp. Rory’s usually found behind the wheel or in the pages of magazines just like this one. ALEX VINCENTI, Luxury & Lifestyle Editor Some twenty odd years (some very odd) at the BBC as a broadcast journalist, radio producer, trainer and organiser of media programmes for journalists from the former Soviet Union. Commercial development manager for motor racing technology publisher, technical writer, and blogger. Passionate about cheese. SIMON DE BURTON, Watches Simon de Burton is a freelance journalist and author who specialises in writing about interesting cars, motorcycles, boats and watches. He lives in deepest Dartmoor with his wife, Helen, children Cosmo and Daisy, various animals and a collection of old (not in a good way) two and four-wheeled vehicles that are regularly exercised on the sweeping moorland roads.

MICHAEL SCOTT Founding Director michael@96magazine.com PAOLO CALLEA Managing Director paolo@96magazine.com KEVIN HAGGARTHY Editor in Chief Kevin@96magazine.com JOHN BROOKS Photo Editor/Sub Editor john@96magazine.com LUCA PISETTA Head of Advertising luca@96magazine.com DEBRA DAVIES Account Director debra@96magazine.com Specialist Contributing Writers: RORY FH SMITH Automotive rory@96magazine.com NIALL JULIAN Automotive niall@96magazine.com JAMES SOHL Automotive james@96magazine.com ALEX VINCENTI Luxury & Lifestyle alex@96magazine.com SIMON DE BURTON Watches simon@96magazine.com LAZAR KACKAROVSKI Design lazar@96magazine.com PUBLISHER 96E LTD Building 3, North London Business Park, Oakley Road South, London, N11 1GN United Kingdom, www.96magazine.com SUBSCRIPTION & BACK ISSUES US$96.00 WORLDWIDE info@96magazine.com +44 (0)7724420521 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher. COPYRIGHT © 96E LTD

MICHAEL SCOTT, Founding Director

PAOLO CALLEA, Managing Director

LUCA PISETTA, Head of Advertising

DEBRA DAVIES, Account Director

96 I Summer 2021

Cover Picture: Photography@ Paul Halliwell

If you could take a classic sports car and improve it in every single way possible, with more power, better handling, superior braking and reliability, whilst retaining all the charm and character of the original...

WHY WOULDN’T YOU? KEVIN O’ROURKE - Moto Technique Limited

ISSUE 3

EDITOR’S WELCOME I

n an odd sort of way, we are embracing change with optimism. There seems to be a new energy in celebrating the things that give us joy. The motoring events’ calendar is buoyant, classic and luxury car sales are booming, and maybe you’ve noticed that there is a true sense of enjoyment and appreciation in interacting with real human beings again rather than talking through teleconferences on PCs, iPads or Macs. Yes, the COVID-19 crisis has been a big wake up call, causing us to stop and reflect on the value of simple human interaction, and to appreciate the more ‘traditional’ ways of doing things. In similar vein, readers are telling us just how much they are enjoying sitting down and reading ‘a real magazine’ – one they can put on the coffee table to read over a glass of wine or during a coffee break. Yes, we are about cars and the love of motoring of course, but we also enjoy sharing with you the inspirational stories of successful companies and business leaders, and how they are responding to new challenges. In this issue we focus on Bentley; a company that is embracing not only

technological change, but equally so diversity. Its flagship vehicle, the Bentley Flying Spur First Edition, proving a case in point that Bentley still produce some of the finest cars in the world. A big thanks to legendary, fivetime Le Mans winner, Derek Bell, for taking the time out to share not only his role in helping Bentley with their successful Le Mans challenge, but equally so in sharing some great stories about his amazing life. I have to admit that he is one of my favourite motor sport heroes, and even more so after spending a good hour and a half with him. There are not many people around who can tell you what it was like to work for Mr Enzo Ferrari! What I can tell you is what it’s like to drive the hill climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed! So enjoyable was the experience it was an irresistible story to tell. I guess what’s great about working on 96 is meeting and sharing with you the stories of great brands, great cars and interesting people; its all inspirational stuff, and we hope it inspires you too!

Kevin Haggarthy, Editor 96 I Summer 2021

ISSUE 3

SUMMER 2021

Beyond a Century!

V Management

Cars of Excellence

Wayne Bruce talks to 96 about Bentley’s future plans

Chris Bucknall talks about his collector car management service, V Management

A look at the Lamborghini Miura SV; the original iconic Supercar

14 The Flying Spur First Edition Driving Experience

Scottie’s Column

Ed’s Life

Road testing one of Bentley’s finest

‘Car Talk’ - What our editor gets up to behind the scenes…

Motorsport Legends

Hot on McLaren’s Tail.

We talk to the legendary, fivetime Le Mans winner and exBentley Ambassador, Derek Bell

Owners of McLaren’s £2.2 million, three-seater 'hyper GT' now have a suitably expensive watch to wear at their central steering wheels.

Our Scottie’s rather full life

49 Little cars, big ambitions

The Cumbria Tour The Bentley Flying Spur First Edition proves the perfect companion for our Cumbrian tour 96 I Summer 2021

Ben Hedley has made it his mission to craft the most authentic – albeit miniature – classic cars…

Embracing innovation

A close-run thing

Paul Symonds proves printing has a future

World championships are often won by the finest of margins, John Brooks looks back to 1982 and how Jacky Ickx triumphed on the last lap of the last race.

The Goodwood Hill Climb Experience

59 Mike Reeves – Claydon Reeves Yacht Design From paper and pencil to dream yacht – and the marmite factor

65 Smiling matters Dr Manrina Rhode: award winning aesthetic dental surgeon, smile by design

Our Editor gets behind the wheel of the new Alfa Romeo GTA at the 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Aged to perfection

Today I drove a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE

The rich history of Gordon & MacPhail

85 Events Calendar Some up and coming international events we think you might like

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Niall Julian test drives a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTE on sale with Girardo and Co

93 My Car, My Passion Reader Andrew Hunter tells us about his Alfa Romeo 6C

WELCOME TO THE WORLD’S GREATEST GOLF COURSES & EXCLUSIVE

EXPERIENCES BEYOND GOLF

Sydney Dublin

“Privatus is an invitation only global private membership club, with a focus on access to the most iconic world class golf courses and luxury lifestyle services”. Chris Game – Club Founder I CEO

www.privatusclub.com chris@privatusclub.com

Overdrive is an automotive club for the active enjoyment of classic and performance cars. We’re proud to announce our inaugural tour in association with 96 Club on 24th-26th September – the Yorkshire Rendezvous is a two-day adventure across the Moors culminating in an exclusive event at Hooton Pagnell. overdriveclub.co.uk

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Places are limited and tour options are conﬁgured for each entrant, with services ranging from vehicle collection and delivery for the event to hotels and transport. Please contact alex@overdriveclub.co.uk for more details – or call 01977 801102

Bentley Brand Focus

BEYOND A CENTURY! How Bentley plans to embrace the future. Bentley Communications Director, Wayne Bruce, talks to 96 about Bentley’s future plans

n November last year Bentley announced its ‘Beyond 100 Strategy’, where it set out plans to become a global leader in sustainable luxury mobility. The company plans to go from the largest producer of twelve-cylinder engines to all of their vehicles being electrically powered within a decade. Alongside that, the company is embarking on a comprehensive diversity programme, characterised by its ‘Art Car’. To quote its Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Adrian Hallmark, “Within a decade Bentley will transform from a 100-yearold luxury car company to a new, sustainable, wholly ethical role model for luxury”. We speak to Bentley’s Director of Communications, Wayne Bruce, for the latest on the company’s performance to date and its future plans. KH. How are Bentley doing, is the company profitable? WB: Yes. The number of orders we are receiving is 10-15% more than the number of cars we’re delivering, so our order bank is growing, growing, growing. Despite everything, we managed to have record sales last year. Each

KH: What is the profile of the modern Bentley customer?

month this year has been a record sales month, and the rest of the year is almost completely presold. KH: How has the company coped over the pandemic? WB: We have this phrase ‘We come back stronger’. Despite everything, as I say, we had record sales here. We turned a profit, whereas at the beginning of the pandemic we thought we were going to turn a three-figure loss. It is through the support of colleagues that we managed to keep the site COVIDfree. We’re the first car company, I think, to have proactive testing across site. We still have people on site, so we are maintaining social distancing and mask wearing. 96 I Summer 2021

WB: It varies according to region.… it’s difficult to figure out exactly, but we have a high percentage of female buyers. There are other areas that tastes are changing, Walnut up until a few years ago for example, was the number one choice of veneer in our cars. Now it is piano black veneer. The other thing that’s changing is that customers are increasingly not specifying chrome – approximately 50% - which shows how tastes are really changing. Anecdotally, the difference between a Bentley and perhaps any other luxury car is that Bentley is a rational purchase because the cars do very high mileages, you can use them every day, and they’re not seen as too extrovert, which also reflects the changes in taste. Extrovert luxury is in on the decline. Modern, sensitive luxury is on the up. And Bentley - from what we’re told - fits in this new world. A Bentley is still going to be the car of choice primarily for a driver. You’re not going to have a Bentley customer walking away saying, “That’s not really what a Bentley should be.” When you drive our

Bentley Brand Focus

cars, they’re about performance, it’s about the torque, it’s about the range. But then it’s also about the craftsmanship. Bentleys are inherently sustainable; 84% of Bentleys registered in the UK (we have that data) are still on the road. Roughly speaking, ownership profiles break down into 50% Bentayga, 35% Continental GT, and 15% Flying Spur. KH: Bentley have embarked on a major diversity programme. Tell us more about it WB: It’s part moral, part business, part customer. One difficulty is actually how you measure diversity. It’s easy to measure gender. It’s easy to measure your country of origin but ethnicity is something you have

Colleagues who are happier being their true selves will be more productive. Equally as I was saying, more diverse groups produce better, more thoughtful results. And of course, we need diverse colleagues because our customers by definition are diverse.

2023, you’ll be able to buy a plug-in hybrid version of every nameplate. Coming back to this year, we’re introducing two plug-in hybrid Bentleys to the market.

KH: Tell us more about the Art Car (official name Unifying Spur) as a tool for promoting your diversity aims

WB: No. I’d love to. It will reflect the true character of a Bentley; why people buy Bentleys today. One of the reasons why you can’t buy a fully electric Bentley in 2021 is because the technology isn’t right in terms of the amount of range and the power that our customers would expect. So, we’re waiting until the technology is absolutely right. In terms of sales, more than 1 in 10 orders are hybrid so it was higher than our expectations.

WB: We’re actually launching five of these across the world. Last weekend one car was in Miami, another was in Milan, while I was with the UK car at a school Pride Day in Sussex. The reaction has already been tremendous. It’s a literal vehicle for our diversity strategy.

KH: Are you able to say what the electric model will be?

The Bentley Unifying Spur

to ask proactively and someone has to answer. There’s a number of facets to the plan we announced. One was being more proactive in recruiting from different areas, and starting to increase our diversity. The other areas are around increasing awareness and respect across sites, not just for diversity but for everyone. We have three networks now established; one is for LGBT colleagues (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender), and one is for colleagues from the BAME (black and minority ethnic) backgrounds, and the third one is for women. And you don’t have to be, for example, from the LGBT community to be in these networks. You can just be an ally and someone who is supportive and interested for whatever reason.

KH: What are your model development plans for the next 10 years? WB: We’re talking about the strategy we announced on 5th November last year called ‘Beyond 100’. The meaning of the phrase is our intention to make Bentley the leader in sustainable luxury mobility. The headline was that we intend to go from the world’s best producer of 12-cylinder petrol engines - and we have made over a hundred thousand now – to producing no internal combustion engines by 2030. So, going back to Beyond 100, the headline is complete electrification by 2030. By 2025, we will launch our fully electric Bentley. And coming back even sooner, by 96 I Summer 2021

I’m sure you’ve heard the message from other car companies that plug-in hybrids speak to the majority of people very well. Bentley customers here will often do relatively short journeys during the week. Also, Bentley customers will have a driveway on which to put a charger. When they want to go for longer distances on the weekend, such as to visit their second home, they’ve got the petrol range to get there and back without having to worry about charge anxiety and public chargers that don’t work. The point today is that we have the freshest model lineup of any luxury car brand, as all the models are new or substantially revised in the last couple of years. ● Kevin Haggarthy

The Flying Spur Driving Experience Photography © Paul Halliwell

have decided that I am going to savour this. It’s not that Bentleys are new to me; it’s just that on previous occasions I hadn’t thought that this just could be the very last time that I will be driving a brand-new Bentley with a state-of-the-art W12 engine. Bentley twelve-cylinder motor engineering at its finest will soon be mostly hybrid, and ultimately electric. I love the planet just as much as anyone else, but I must admit this prospect has given me sleepless nights. The trouble is that I am what is commonly referred to as a petrolhead, and in the absolute stereotypical sense of the word. I suspect so too are many of you, yet we must all brace ourselves for the inevitable. Cars without engines. I will thus leave aside the politics, for in this Bentley First Edition Blackline specification, is to be appreciated one of the World’s best twelve-cylinder engines.

The temptation to instantly enjoy the driving experience is of course, immediate, yet one is instantly distracted by what the eye can see. The beautifully crafted leather seats with contrast stitching are simply ‘quality’. The wood veneer, again… quality. The feel of the switchgear, yes, even that too is quality. Do I want to sit behind the wheel and contemplate the options of a choice of massage? Or maybe sit in the back seat and monitor financial markets on the rear mounted detachable entertainment screens? I could of course pour chilled drinks from the centrally located refrigerated rear storage compartment…? or maybe I could just drive the car.

Unique specification First, let us appreciate what this £221,520 Bentley Flying Spur First Edition ‘Blackline Specification’ gives

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you for an additional £53,000 over the standard price. The First Edition Spec alone adds another £37,300 to the RRP. We haven’t enough space here to describe the total package, but we believe it justifies the money, for it really lifts your enjoyment and appreciation of the car. If you’re keen to know the detail its worth googling the Bentley website, but highlights include the rotating dashboard display, an illuminated Flying B radiator mascot, mood lighting, panoramic glass sunroof, a special veneer finish, deep pile carpets (or lambswool rugs) and unique badging. The Blackline paint spec (another £3,500) involves subtle black painted trim vents, door handles, bumpers, radiator and tail-pipe. The rest is made up of the amazing premium ‘Naim for Bentley’ audio system, and rear seat entertainment. With all of this your special Flying Spur is complete. Once you’ve experienced the total package

Bentley Brand Focus

MODEL

BENTLEY FLYING SPUR FIRST EDITION Blackline Specification

Price

£168,300

Price as tested (with extras)

£221,520

Engine

6.0-litre twin-turbo charged W12 TSI

Power

626bhp

Torque

900Nm

0-60 mph

3.7secs

Top Speed

207mph

Fuel economy and emissions

21.9mpg (average) /Driving range 378 miles Combined CO2 -19.1mpg – 14.8 1/100km

there is no turning back; you will spec it this way.

Behind the wheel To the driving. At last. Foot on the brake and the press of a button allows state of the art technology to kiss into life state-of-the art combustion. The result is instant pleasure to the ear; a deep, powerful, understated rasp, or in crude terms, 626bhp. Straight away it is ‘Bentley’. Put that sound into written form and it would read; ‘I am extremely

luxurious but above all I was made to be driven!’ The first thing you notice is the torque; 900Nm of it. Yet it is indeed delivered with fitting dignity; the power is unrelenting, yet totally at the fine control of your right foot. The Flying Spur will sit discretely and unobtrusively in a long line of twoway country traffic, but give it the first opportunity of an overtake and it is gone in a flash! – indecent performance for its size and weight, yet so strong is its power, its surge, that your passenger

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will be tensing for grip, whilst the head of the passenger to the rear will be firmly pressed into the sumptuous head rest until your right foot chooses to lessen the pressure. You, the driver, will be smiling of course, as driving this car is where the ultimate pleasure lies. The acid test - in this case passed with flying colours - was to have completed an all-round trip of 1,000 miles in the car feeling totally relaxed and refreshed. The ultimate credit for this accolade must rest with the driveability of the car and its engaging

nature when you are behind the wheel. The Flying Spur is fun to drive at any speed – even 20mph, yet equally so to punt around at high speed. Driven unreasonably hard into tight country bends, instead of wrestling with pitch,

Bentley Brand Focus

roll, or yaw, the Flying Spur corners absolutely flat; you can almost feel the rear tyres digging in for safety rather than begging for mercy – the genius of it will be that your passengers are none the wiser, so composed is its ride and handling. The ‘Spur’ also puts a great interpretation on driver feel – despite its dimensions, in terms of feel it is anything but piloting a large luxury cabin; there is excellent feel to throttle, steering, and brakes enabling you the driver to achieve that lovely ‘at one’ feeling with the car; and it gets better the harder you drive it. The brakes for example, are incredibly powerful yet have enough feel on application to allow carefully tuned progressive braking and indiscernible tapering off, whilst giving enough assurance from the chassis, almost baiting you to enter bends at irrationally high speeds, confident that this big Bentley will retain its composure throughout. Someone at Bentley has been working hard on the HMI (Human Machine Interface – ‘prime points of interaction between car and driver’) and they have succeeded, and it is all so ‘Bentley’. This is the kind of driving experience you would rightly expect from the Continental GT not the flagship Flying Spur, yet somehow Bentley have succeeded in executing

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an all-consuming driving experience, allowing you the driver to switch on and off different driving styles as you choose. You can literally ‘switch’ from ‘comfort’ to ‘sport’ mode of course but believe me, there is a hell of a lot more to it in the Flying Spur than the crude difference between a sporting drive and a comfort drive Ok, so enough of the praise – what about its weaknesses? Well rather than ‘weaknesses’ it is more about what is inevitably inherent in driving a big powerful saloon! You’ll need lots of space to park it, your capacity to exploits its tremendous performance will be limited on narrow roads where smaller sized sporting saloons excel, simply because they need less road space. That said, very few luxury brands are able to travel continents as effortlessly and gloriously as you can in the Bentley Flying Spur. The big surprise was the rare opportunity to take the back seat when rally driving-ace, Malcolm Wilson, was behind the wheel. Little did I know that our photographer and guests were being driven in such amazingly cosseted luxury. As photographer Paul Halliwell said to me afterwards; if you thought I was pulling the short straw sitting in the back seat you were wrong! ● Kevin Haggarthy

Bentley Brand Focus - Motoring Legends

Bentley returned to Le Mans in 2001 after an absence of 71 years. Bell was recruited to act as an ambassador for the venerable marque. Here he assesses the prospects for the race with Martin Brundle.

MOTORSPORT LEGENDS We talk to the legendary five-time Le Mans winner and ex Bentley Ambassador Derek Bell

ven those of us with only the slightest knowledge of motorsport are likely to have heard of Derek Bell. In short, this legendary racer has won the Le Mans 24 Hours five times, the Daytona 24 Hours three times, and is twice winner of the World Sportscar Championship. He has also driven in Formula 1 for Ferrari, McLaren, Wheatcroft, Surtees, 96 I Summer 2021

and Techno teams. Later in his career in 2001, he was a consultant for the Bentley Speed 8 programme, helping Bentley’s efforts to win Le Mans in the car two years later. Derek, now 79, was born in Pinner, Middlesex, and currently resides between his homes in the UK and Florida. During his glamorous motor racing career, he has worked with many

of the best racing drivers in the world. Outside of that is a world of celebrity glamour; Bell took part in the filming of the famous movie Le Mans (1971), starring Steve McQueen, and during the film he had a lucky escape from a near fatal accident when the Ferrari 512 he was driving suddenly caught fire. Whist fondly reflecting on the history of his long-term friendship with our Chairman, Michael Scott, (it was indeed Michael who put us in touch with him), Derek shares with us some reflections on the sport he knows and loves.

Bentley Brand Focus - Motoring Legends Bell and Ickx repeated their success in 1981 driving a factory Porsche 936-81.

The duo scored their hat-trick at Le Mans in 1982. Bell calmly climbs aboard their Porsche 956 while chaos reigns in the pit lane.

KH: What was it like to drive at 246mph in 1971 on the Mulsanne Straight in a Porsche 917? DB: “Well, it’s interesting to reflect on that now as I look at these guys in Formula 1, (and they are very good); they were doing 220mph in Baku recently, whereas we were doing 246mph in 1971 down Mulsanne and overtaking 2.0-litre sports cars! The road was narrower than the Formula 1 tracks of today, because it was just a main street, and to go through that kink at Mulsanne flat out was amazing when you think about it. “When you race at Le Mans you are driving into the unknown, it may be 200mph, or 250mph; you just know you are going to a place where no one else has gone before.” “I didn’t even know I had done 246mph at the time. At the end of the test day Norbert Singer said to me “Derek, how many revs were you pulling at Mulsanne?”. I said 8100. “Ah that is good….” he says “…. because at 8200rpm she blows up!” Singer said

“I’ve just calculated your top speed” I asked him what it was, and he said it’s probably best if you didn’t know! So, I pushed him on the question -he was working it out on his slide-rule and said that, allowing for tyre growth, it turns out at 396kph or 246mph! “We had a great feeling of stability in the car. We (team mates) knew if our car was good or not. We didn’t have massive wind tunnels in those days, so the car hadn’t been over 200mph in that form, and there we were, taking it up to 246mph!” KH: How has motorsport changed since your time as a racer? DB: “…. racers wanted to win races, but quite often you had to be testing

products to justify your budget to go racing. A racing driver wants to win races, whereas manufacturers want to win races and test products. There were certain situations when I had to test new stuff on the car and I knew I couldn’t win the race. It was a philosophy with Porsche; it was a matter of ‘If you win on Sunday, you sell on Monday’ We always had to be developing something, and sometimes it was beneficial to us as a driver and helped us, although the majority of the time it was discarded, and was a pain in the arse. Yet there is nothing like a race track to find out about weaknesses in parts. The intense driving in a race really helps you to evaluate something. PDK, ABS, you name it; we were always testing something, whereas the private teams weren’t”. KH: As a racer, how does your experience compare to modern day drivers?

In 1986 Bell celebrates win number four, with Hans Stuck and Al Holbert, his codrivers. Podium ceremonies in the old pits were also disorderly affairs.

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DB: “…Well, these days engineers just plug into a computer and it tells them all about the car, whereas in my day you were more dependent on the driver knowing the car. Much of it depends on the drivers getting to know and being comfortable with the car, and some of us had the ability to

Bentley Brand Focus - Motoring Legends

adapt to the car quicker than others. That is why Schumacher was so good, and something I was moderately good at too. In my day the driver had to be confident to tell the engineer what he wants and about the car’s behaviour, and that helps to solve a problem quicker. The car must suit your driving style, and if you’re put with a team mate and you have two very different styles, then you should not have been put together in the first place! Jacky Ickx and I, for example, had the same feeling for the car. We always agreed. You had to have the ability to adapt to the car, and Ickx and I had the ability to adapt quicker than other people. KH: There have obviously been big improvements in safety?

and I don’t know if it’s justified at all, because when you look at Mercedes all you know is that it is Mercedes. We didn’t do it for the money – we did it for the love of racing, and for the passion we all had. When I was at Ferrari, I got £500 for a Formula 1 race and £250 for Formula 2. We did it because we were passionate for racing, and of course in my case there was the added privilege of driving for Ferrari. KH: Tell us a little about your involvement in the Bentley Speed 8 programme. DB: “This was towards the end of my racing career (circa 1999) When I was working with Bentley. I had retired totally, although I was still getting good races. I got a call from Adrian The following year saw another victory for the trio. Bell, in his Porsche 962C, sweeps into the Porsche Curves on route to his fifth win.

that point, but it was being developed. I remember sitting and looking at the Bentley wings on the wall and all that history, and I thought I could be a small cog in that wheel of gears, so I just had to do it. At the end of my career, I had the opportunity (with Bentley) to be involved with one of the greatest brands in history. I was not directly involved in the development of the car, but I was there for my PR value at the time, and that’s how it all started. I started off as team consultant. I drove the car at Snetterton, and then afterwards two or three times in Spain, and I was within half a second of Tom’s (Kristensen’s) best time. I wasn’t too shabby a driver even then in 2004! I would have loved to have driven, maybe in that first year with the team at Le Mans, but someone had to do the job that I had and that was to look after the press and PR side of it. I became an ambassador with Bentley subsequently. You cannot take away the fact that Bentley won Le Mans, and having put all that money into it, they rightly needed to talk about it. KH: What is the Proudest moment in your racing life?

DB: “Safety yes, less so with monocoque structures because of the cost, but certainly with deformable structures, I am sure they learned something from it. A good example is how you see drivers come out of big accidents in Formula 1. Tyres, tyre construction, brakes, hybrid technology and eventually how electric (vehicles) will work, they all learn a hell of a lot from racing”. KH: How close is driver ability these days? DB: ‘What I will say is that some teams have massive budgets and other teams don’t. Some drivers will get £50,000 or £500,000 per race; it is all out of all proportion. You don’t have the big sponsors as in my day such as Rothmans, but more of the high-tech companies are pushing the budgets in

In 1995 Bell was recruited by Moody Fayed and Harrods to race at Le Mans. His co-drivers were Andy Wallace and his son, Justin. Despite leading for much of the event, clutch problems blunted their challenge, and they finished a fine third.

Hallmark (Current Chairman and CEO at Bentley) when he was in marketing, and I knew him from his previous role at Porsche GB. We met at Heathrow and Adrian explained that one of Bentley’s intentions was to go to Le Mans. He asked me to think about getting involved; I was shown around the factory and was totally in awe. There was no race car quite ready at 96 I Summer 2021

DB: Finishing third at the 1995 Le Mans 24 Hours with my son Justin in the Mach One Racing McLaren F1 GTR on Father’s Day. We could have won that race because we were leading for 16 hours and it was a rain drenched event, but it is still my proudest race. ● Kevin Haggarthy

Photography © Paul Halliwell

The Cumbria Tour... by Bentley 96 I Summer 2021

f you are choosing to spend six figure sums on a motor car, regardless of motive, this mode of travel will be important to you. In the case of the Bentley Flying Spur, you will be guaranteed of quality and pedigree of course, and equally so ‘status’…. if that matters. Yet the purpose of sharing this Bentley Flying Spur experience with you is not to explore your purchase motives or values, but rather the Bentley Flying Spur Experience. Time spent describing the endless features of this rather remarkable car would take all the copy space we have, and even after spending over 1,000 miles with this Flying Spur First Edition special, we would discover a new subtle thoughtful feature every day. That’s quality. In short, the Bentley Flying Spur First Edition has to be one of the best luxury saloon experiences on the planet.

Bentley enthusiasts and owners, seemed fitting. Our voluntary tour guide was Cumbrian born businessman David Dixon, whom we fondly nicknamed ‘Mr Cumbria’ as there hardly seemed to be a Cumbrian location or influential business person in the region he didn’t know. Such is David’s influence

The journey With a car like this we needed to do something special. A scenic road tour of Cumbria and the Lake District, visiting some choice stately homes, and seeking out Cumbrian based

Left to right: Businessman and Bentley owner Khal Moualem, Malcolm Ward, the Right Honourable Lord Henley, businessmen and tour host David Dixon, businessman Robin Brown and Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner Peter McCall.

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Bentley Brand Focus

That’s quality. In short, the Bentley Flying Spur First Edition has to be one of the best luxury saloon experiences on the planet.

that on our first night, the Flying Spur and its entourage were treated to a ‘socially distanced’ welcome reception attended by a range of prominent business people including Lord Henley, the ex-parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, and the most recently successfully re-elected Cumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Peter McCall. Our first sight-seeing visit, (albeit under COVID-19 restrictions), was to the beautiful grounds and gardens of Askham Hall on the north eastern edge of the Lake District in Penrith. Based in the heart of Askham Village, this stately residential home dates back to the 13th Century, and has been recently converted into the unique stylish retreat it is today. This stunning Grade 1 listed building, which is still family owned, is surrounded by 12-acres of beautiful gardens with ponds, meadows, wooded areas and excellent little garden cafes. Next up was the stunning historical landmark of Lowther Castle. Lowther Castle has belonged to the Lowther family

Netherby Hall Sales & Marketing Manager Abbie Deeb

since the Middle Ages, latterly under the Earls of Lonsdale, and is currently a prime Lake District tourist attraction. It’s great for a family outing, and the beautiful gardens and woodland are a pleasure to explore, whilst the exhibitions take you through the story of Lowther, amongst an appreciation of the ruins and the garden itself. The same family have lived there for 850 years, and the grounds are stooped in history. Highly recommended for a visit.

Netherby Hall and the Flying Spur We then travelled to Netherby Hall, a Grade II listed mansion house, providing high quality luxury residential apartments making for excellent short stay accommodation. From the 16th-20th Century it was home to the Graham family. The home is built on the site of a Roman fort known as Castra Exploratorum, and it is believed that some sections of the

M Sport Managing Director Malcolm Wilson

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Bentley Brand Focus

Bentley Flying Spur sits sedately outside Netherby Hall.

house in its current form were built using some of the fort’s stones. Standing in some 36 acres of parklands, there are many wonderful lawns, a stable, and a walled garden. We were given a warm welcome by marketing manager, Abbie Deeb, who kindly gave us a guided tour of the accommodation. We would certainly recommend Netherby Hall for your short stay accommodation on a similar touring holiday, and many thanks to local businessman Malcolm Ward for setting this up for us.

Malcolm/M-Sport was approached by Bentley in 2012 to build a Bentley Continental GT3 race car working in cooperation with a newly formed team at the time at Bentley’s Crewe HQ, and are involved in the production of this car to this day. M-Sport ran Bentleys from their first season in 2013, winning their first IGTC victory at the Bathurst 12 Hour in 2016, setting a new distance record.

Malcolm gave us a tour of the highly impressive M-Sport HQ as well as taking the wheel of ‘our’ Flying Spur to demonstrate their new state of the art test circuit. This amazing £25 million test facility with numerous varied grip level surfaces, is soon to be opened and already has a queue of business customers waiting to take advantage of its facilities.

M-Sport As our trip was courtesy of Bentley’s flagship vehicle it would have seemed impolite not to pay a visit to Malcolm Wilson and M-Sport. We were indeed delighted to be invited by Malcolm to visit M-Sport’s headquarters based at Dovenby Hall, near Cockermouth. Our host and its founder, Malcolm Wilson, has over 20 years’ rallying experience, winning two British national titles in the late 1970s. M-Sport, (formerly Malcolm Wilson Motorsport) is one of the world’s leading private rally teams, with many international titles and wins to its credit.

Former British Rally driver, Malcolm Wilson, behind the wheel of the Flying Spur on M Sports new private test track facility

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Bentley Brand Focus

Bentley Boy Robert Gates has a great collection of eight Bentleys.

The Bentley Boy The next step on our journey was to meet the successful retired businessman, Bentley collector and enthusiast extraordinaire, Robert Gates. The ‘extraordinaire’ hint comes from the Pullman railway carriage perched on the verge of the gates to his driveway, in which he often entertains guests for dinner. Robert has not one, but two collections of historic classic and racing cars, reflecting his passion for Jaguars as well as Bentleys. His ‘Jaguar Collection’, (pictured) will no doubt be revisited by these pages, whilst his current collection of Bentleys consists of no less than a 1949 Bentley Special 6.75-litre, a 1952 Bentley Royal Special V8, a 1998 Turbo RLT, a 1936 3.5 Derby Bentley, a 1926 3-litre, a 4½-litre W.O. Bentley, a 1995 Continental R, a V8 Bentayga, and a 2004 Continental GT W12. Yes, that’s eight in total!

Had this been one of the cartoon movie ‘Car’ feature films, our own Flying Spur would no doubt have become quite emotional meeting up with such a grand collection of Bentley ‘elders’, whilst we humans stood equally open mouthed at Robert’s stunning collection. What’s more, each of his cars is kept in pristine condition, so when his mechanic John - who looks after Robert’s cars - offered to start and line them up for our photographer Paul Halliwell, they all started at the first turn of the key, no problem. Robert and his wife, Di Gates, proved wonderful hosts, whilst the garage walls of both Jaguar and Bentley reflect a man who has enjoyed a great life owning and racing some wonderful cars.

Rounding off

Along with the M-Sport connection, we sensed a strong affinity and love for the Bentley brand in Cumbria on our tour. In so many places we visited the Flying Spur was greeted

The Flying Spur First Edition lines up against Robert Gate’s 4½-litre W.O. Bentley.

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Bentley Brand Focus

Bentley Bentayga owner, Mark Walker, uses it every day for business.

enthusiastically and admired by many – from the lads at the local hand car wash to the many passers-by, many asking if they could have a closer look or take pictures with the car to show their friends. In fact, one went as far as waving his lottery ticket to the camera to trick his friends into thinking that he had bought the car from his winnings! Cumbria businessman, Khal Moualem, owns a 2005 Bentley Continental Flying Spur, and has kept the car long term because he has been so impressed by its engineering. Khal told us “Owning the Flying Spur has been a fantastic experience, I have been so impressed with the car that it has been in my ownership some ten years now being the longest

period I have ever kept a personal car” whilst local property developer, Mark Walker, joined us for coffee in his new Bentayga “What I love about the Bentayga is that it makes a great everyday business and pleasure car, well-engineered and totally reliable. I use it for everything” Courtesy of the Flying Spur, we can think of no better way to enjoy the sights and tourist attractions of this wonderful community who, without exception, showed us the utmost hospitality and friendliness. In the words of our host David Dixon, Cumbrians are friendly ‘proper people’. We are inclined to agree. ● Kevin Haggarthy

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Bentley Brand Focus

Bentley has been part of the Le Mans 24 Hours legend since the first race took place in 1923. Recently their exploits were honoured at the main entrance to the track.

The centenary of Bentley’s first success in motor sport was recently celebrated at Brooklands. Frank Clement drove EXP2, the oldest surviving Bentley, to victory on 16th May 1921 in the Whitsun Junior Sprint Handicap at the Surrey track.

The Bentley 3-Litre production line at Cricklewood.

The start of the 1930 Double Twelve at Brooklands with the two Bentleys heading to eventual victory. Away from the tracks the financial position of Bentley was extremely precarious and the following year the whole enterprise was acquired by Rolls-Royce.

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Bentley Brand Focus

By the end of the ‘30s Bentley were experimenting with aerodynamics and engaged the services of the French designer, Georges Paulin, to work on a new project, the Corniche. The outbreak of war put an end to such activities.

Pyms Lane, Crewe was originally created to build Merlin engines for the RAF in the Second World War. Once hostilities ceased, Rolls-Royce moved their two automotive jewels from Derby to Crewe, to separate them from the aviation side of the business.

By the late ‘40s a form of normality had returned and Bentleys rolled off the production line at Crewe.

Ownership of Bentley fell eventually to Vickers in 1980 but they failed to invest to bring the products up to date and the brand was in decline as the century drew to a close.

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Bentley Brand Focus

In 1997 the Volkswagen Group acquired both Bentley and Rolls-Royce, the latter was then sold to BMW. A massive investment program was launched at Crewe, the most public manifestation of this was a return to Le Mans, after a 71-year gap. In 2003 Bentley took its sixth win at La Sarthe, leading from start to finish, the Bentley Boys were back in town!

In common with a number of prestigious automotive brands, Bentley has expanded its horizons to cover all manner of luxury goods from fragrances to furniture. Indeed, they recently announced the launch of the world’s first Bentley-branded residences, located in Sunny Isles Beach, Miami.

In 2019 Bentley celebrated its centenary. One of the symbols of this landmark was the Bentley EX 100 GT, a vision of where the company sees the direction of Grand Touring heading in the 21st Century.

Despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, Bentley achieved a record sales level in 2020 of 11,206 vehicles. Further landmarks were recently achieved, with the 80,000th Continental GT rolling off the production line. Another milestone was the 200,000th luxury car sold in the company’s 102-year history.

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A ZI E N DA AGR ICOL A

BENEDETTA VERGA FALZACAPPA VINO ITALIANO CONEGLIANO

DAL 1849 TRADIZIONE NELL’INNOVAZIONE ITALIA

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Chris Bucknall talks about his collector car management service V Management

Row upon row of exotic super cars are cared for to the highest standards

Collector Car Management Service Par Excellence Setting a new standard for collector car services

ollecting rare and exotic cars is a life-long passion for many automotive connoisseurs, some taking decades to carefully bring together and curate their collections. Maintaining such a stable of exotic motors can however be very time consuming and one of the biggest issues that collectors often grapple with is space. Storing high value vehicles correctly is absolutely vital, not only to maintain their value, but also their mechanical condition. This is where V Management offers an all-encompassing 360-degree car management service to the discerning collector, one that goes above and beyond traditional car storage services. And since it started in 2016, V Management has grown to form a group of three highly connected businesses that offer a comprehensive range of services to owners and collectors. V Management, which is based in Berkshire, was founded by Chris Bucknall in 2016. With a background in television screenwriting, Chris’s automotive career was not immediately apparent. “Cars are very much in my DNA and I inherited my passion for them from my father. He had a couple of lovely Austin Healey’s and an Aston Martin DB3S, which he raced at Goodwood in 1960. He also used to take me to school in an E-Type Roadster. So, I grew up with an interest in cars and motor racing.”

Even though Chris was exposed to a wonderful selection of motor cars from a young age, he never thought about cars as a career until much later. Whilst working in television, Chris got invited to take part in a London to Monaco tour. “I just got completely addicted to it. The first year I did it was in 1987 and I entered a VW Beach Buggy. I was in my early 20s and I was mad enough to think it was a good idea to drive from London to Monaco in a Beach Buggy! Flat out it was about 140dB… it was so loud! The following year Chris upgraded to a much more sensible Peugeot 205 1.9 GTi and the tour quickly became an annual pilgrimage.

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V Management’s in-house team check each vehicle to maintain its optimum condition

Business Leaders

“I became good friends with organiser Jeremy JacksonSytner, who later started the original Concours of Elegance at Windsor Castle, which has now found a permanent home at Hampton Court Palace. In 1999 we teamed up and started organising the tour together. We upgraded the hotels and the food, and called it The Grand Tour. Fast forward 22 years and the event is still going strong.” As he grew more and more involved in the collector car world through The Grand Tour, Chris called time on his TV writing career. “I decided to change career about six years ago as I had a new car business idea brewing for some time. I knew a lot of collectors who were frustrated not only by the lack of high-end storage options, but also by the amount of management that even a small car collection requires. I realised there was a gap in the market to provide a full concierge service, and that was the genesis of V Management.” V Management’s modern, high security 40,000sq ft facility is as impressive as it is pristine. They currently care for over 170 cars and all are parked in their own spacious and dedicated bays, which allows enough room to freely move around them. Some high-end car storage offerings cram as many cars into a storage unit as possible. This is a policy that V Management steadfastly disagrees with. As part of the maintenance program, client cars are taken out into the secure 20,000sq ft yard where they are gently exercised. First, they are moved around inside on an electric dolly to minimize the risk of damage and to ensure the air inside the building remains uncontaminated by fumes. While the cars warm up outside, the on-site technicians run through a comprehensive checklist

to ensure that everything is working correctly. That checklist is then signed and dated, and becomes part of the car’s history file. “You have to love detail to work at V Management, and it helps if you’re OCD.” Chris also takes pride in what he calls a “no notice service”. Clients can arrive at the facility without notice, and in the time it takes for them to enjoy a great cup of coffee and 10 minutes of automotive chat, their car is ready, checked and prepared. It is all part of the V Management service. The storage business is the hub of V Managements activities and the relationships built with their clients flows naturally into

the P1 and 12C right through to the current Ultimate Series cars like the Senna and the Speedtail. Paul is hugely experienced in Ferraris too, from the halo models like the 288 GTO, the F40 and the Enzo. They will also be offering fixed-price servicing for Ferraris like the FF and the 458, which are no longer on the seven-year service programme. “Experience is critical in the proper care and maintenance of supercars, whether it’s a 288 GTO or a 720S, and Paul and Steve’s combined experience is extraordinary. Couple that with V Management’s range of concierge services, from storage and transport to detailing and repairs, and we are now able

V Management’s headquarters houses some of the finest super cars and hyper cars in the country

other related services. In June they launched V Engineering, a high-end service centre specialising in McLaren and Ferrari. The business is headed up by Paul Saunders who, with twenty years at official Ferrari service centres in the UK and Far East and then ten years at McLaren, is one of the most highly regarded automotive engineers in the country. He is joined by Steve Spender who left his role as ‘flying doctor’ at McLaren to join Paul. Together they have unrivalled experience across the entire McLaren range, from the heritage models like 96 I Summer 2021

to provide a comprehensive 360-degree service.” V Events is the tour, track day and events side of the business, and after a challenging 2020 when they cancelled no fewer than eight international tours, this year they have announced their most ambitious calendar of events yet. In addition to Veloce, their award-winning charity track day at Goodwood, where guests are driven by stars, including Derek Bell and Damon Hill, in cars like the Ferrari 250 GTO, Ford GT40 and Jaguar D-Type, they have some spectacular tours planned.

Business Leaders Left: Company founder Chris Bucknall (right) interviews racing driver Ben Collings at the Veloce charity trackday at Goodwood in 2019

Right: Magnificent adventures and stunning vistas await on the exclusive V Events tours

“We are focusing on Provence this year, which is my own personal favourite region for tours. In mid-September we have La Vie en Rosé, a celebration of our favourite summer drink that meanders through the vineyards where it’s grown. We then have The Derek Bell Tour at the end of September, which starts in Casino Square and takes in the very best of Provence before arriving in Saint-Tropez 4 days later, just in time for the inaugural Rendez-Vous Riviera at The Saint-Tropez Polo Club.’ Hosted by Derek, along with Jodie Kidd, this intimate oneday event will have the feel of a high-end private party, and while it will feature some of the fastest and finest cars ever built, it will also include live music, DJs, champagne and cocktail bars, a fashion show and superb food. “We have timed the event

to coincide with Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez, the classic regatta that marks Saint-Tropez’s last hurrah of summer. We’re offering two and three-night accommodation packages, with parties each night, so it’s going to be the ultimate late summer weekend.” But the event closest to Chris’s heart is Veloce, which he co-created with collector and racer Peter Neumark in 2017. “In the first year of Veloce we had Gerhard Berger driving a Ferrari 250 SWB, Derek Bell in a Bentley Speed-Six, Andy Wallace in a works D-Type and Darren Turner in a Cobra. It is a unique and unforgettable experience and it is the cars and the drivers who really make it special. Thanks to them, and our wonderful sponsors and owners, we have raised over £350,000.” The superb selection of cars and

Damon Hill driving the 1956 Aston Martin DB3 and one very happy passenger around the Goodwood Circuit

celebrity drivers really highlights the calibre of the event that Chris and his team organise. “While we like having the more modern supercars, it›s the older cars that are more fun. Especially the pre-war cars. Seeing them race around Goodwood is very special.” Places on this year’s Veloce are available for £2,500 per person. Working in a building that houses a collection of some of the finest and rarest cars in the whole of the country, Chris feels very privileged to offer the service he provides. Unsurprisingly he also has quite a few favourites. “Picking just one favourite is impossible, but we looked after one of the Leyton House March F1 cars and a McLaren F1 GTR that raced at Le Mans in 1996. It’s hard not to just stand at stare at these icons. I’m also a great fan of the F40 and the 288 GTO, and we have a few of these. We take enormous pride in doing what we do, but with this privilege comes huge responsibility. There are no compromises. We never rest on our laurels and whether it’s V Management, V Engineering or V Events we strive to be the very best at what we do.” ● Niall Julian

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Driven by Excellence

Classic & Sports Car Hire

Make your dream drive a reality for a day, weekend or week long hire in one of our fabulous classic cars. Specialising in British Classics with a fleet of Morgan and MG classic sports cars these are available for self drive hire, wedding car hire, special events and corporate days and incentives. We also offer a gift experience option making a perfect present for someone special. You can collect your chosen car from our Oxfordshire headquarters or we offer a full delivery and collection service to your chosen location. We also offer a courtesy collection and drop off service to our local main train station as well as secure parking if you drive to us. Terms and Conditions of hire apply and we have set driver requirements to meet the hire conditions.

For information please contact Mark Ellis Tel. 07974 333 789

www.classicconcierge.co.uk

HIRE Classic & Sports Car Hire Services

Ed’s Life!

‘CAR TALK’ What our editor gets up to behind the scenes…

Ed’s Life! I

t’s certainly been a busy quarter since the last issue! The world of motoring as we know it is transforming slowly but surely, as electric powered vehicles are inevitably the future.

Volvo Manufacturers seem to be tackling the issue with different strategies. Volvo, for example, are 100% committed to an electric vehicle future sooner rather than later. I attended a Volvo press briefing at the beginning of March where their Chief Executive, Hakan Samuelsson, set out Volvo’s electrified and on-line future. It’s a serious commitment, for in the same way Volvo were one (but not the only) pioneers of vehicle safety, now equally, they see electrification as the key to sustainability. By 2025 Volvo plan for 50% of their car sales to be all-electric, and by 2030 - in line with government targets - all Volvo new car sales will be fully electric. The plan is that all new cars will only be available on-line, (i.e., no showroom visits) and sold at pre-set fixed prices. They will all come with preselected configurations for fast delivery, along with a special customer care package that will also include insurance. I guess this makes car buying as simple as ordering a takeaway. It’s the way we do things these days. As a business

strategy it works too as it cuts out dealerships as we know them, and maintains profits by keeping prices fixed and doing away with new vehicle discounting. I suspect this sales model may well become the norm. It is indeed already a reality, as many manufacturers have seen on-line purchasing increase over lock down. New car dealerships as we know them, could be a thing of the past. The electric vehicle prospect was ‘driven’ home when, just a few weeks later, I was invited by Mazda to drive their new and very first all-electric MX-30. Unlike Volvo, Mazda have a mixed strategy, choosing to maximise the virtues of their highly efficient SkyActiv engines alongside drip-feeding in the electric vehicle option. That said, I was mightily impressed with the performance and driveability of the MX-30. That’s one to earmark as your family runabout!

Audi R8 V10 RWD Thankfully, my motoring life was not to be confined to electrically propelled silence. Audi gave me the opportunity to test drive their rear-wheel-drive Audi R8 V10. I have always been a fan of the R8 since attending the original launch in 2006, but with hybrid and electrification winning the propulsion battle, this car is the tail end of a dying breed. Previous reiterations of the R8 have always been fourwheel drive, but the enthusiasts amongst us have been calling for the purity of rear-wheel-drive cornering/handling so Audi has duly obliged. Hence this entry level model debuted as the rear wheel steer version in 2018 and remains such, bar a recent facelift. At £118,000-ish it is the cheapest version, but to many the ‘purist’ for the driving enthusiast.

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Unlike the higher spec versions, the suspension setting is fixed so you can’t have it with magnetic ride dampers even if you want them. The engine of the car is at its least potent with 540PS but that’s a fair whack nonetheless. The V10 is naturally aspirated, which is a boon in these days of small turbos for everything, delivering its power via a seven speed semi-automatic gearbox. You could say the RWD V10 is the keen driver’s choice. Yet the difference is one of subtlety. The ride quality for a car that is versatile enough to be used for everyday travel will be a little too firm for many, and especially after a long journey it proved a little tiring and uncomfortable for my six-foot frame. For more spirited B-road driving the purity of rear wheel drive and high grip thresholds makes the car ultimately more exciting , but whilst the rear wheel steer enhances composure and grip, personally I missed the pure integration you get from a chassis when steering a car in the traditional manner without the assistance of back-end steer. As it happens natural grip thresholds are very high, and you’ll enjoy punting this one through bends, but in terms of all round enjoyment/satisfaction your best looking further up the R8 spec tree.

Range Rover Autobiography

Photography © Paul Halliwell

Luxury, stature, quality, sound engineering, and ultimate off-roading capability. That’s all-Range Rover DNA. Add to that a whole range of on-board goodies wrapped into the Autobiography package and the Range

Rover retains its crown as the definitive luxury off-roader. Even today. It was a nice round off to the last quarter to be given the chance to appraise this top spec V8 powered beast. Maybe the term ‘beast’ accounts for the roar and power of the 565bhp V8 and 700Nm of torque, but otherwise I guess the term ‘beast’ is misrepresentative. Refined, comfortable, and engaging is perhaps a better description for a vehicle that to my mind justifies its £144,000 price tag for being three cars for the price of one; a luxury cruiser, an all-purpose workhorse, and still the ‘World’s ultimate off-roader’. This is the car to choose if you want to tour the world on four wheels, be chauffeur driven between business appointments, drive the family to school, work, supermarkets, or just get out there for a luxury staycation. The Range Rover continues to maintain its stature and credibility and as such remains an institution as far as off-roading goes. Despite this one being

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wrapped in Autobiography goodies, it doesn’t detract from the reassurance of its toughness and competence, and maybe bar the Bentley Bentayga, is the only of its kind that sits well in the Director’s parking space, attending Ascot, or should you be connected with such circles, the odd visit here or there to the Royals. The Autobiography includes special paint and leather interior finish, 10-inch screens, additional plug sockets and a driver’s head up display at no extra cost, plus close to thirty detailed accessory options and upgrades over the standard car, including a sliding panoramic roof, 24-way heated and cooled ‘Hot-Stone’ massage front seats, heated leather steering wheel, soft door close and a Driver Assist pack which, in short, incorporates every currently conceivable electronic driver safety aid. Put another way, once you’ve sampled the Autobiography package, you’re hooked. Yet really, it’s the engineering capability which is this car’s star feature. Off-roading capability is fully automated in this latest version Range Rover, hardly requiring manual interference (unless you choose) to climb Everest before lunch during a conceptual worst winter since climate change. This one could be your only car, or indeed ‘the only other car you’ll ever need’ if your daily is ever more likely to be battery charged all electric. In a monumental way the Range Rover proudly holds its head up high. It may be climate change cheeky, but it’s proud, and rightly so. ●

Watches & Style

Simon de Burton explains the partnership, visits Bremont's new manufacturing facility in Oxfordshire and discovers how Zenith is going to extremes

HOT ON McLAREN'S TAIL Owners of McLaren’s £2.2m, three-seater 'hyper GT' now have a suitably expensive watch to wear at their central steering wheels

lenty of partnerships between watch brands and car marques have come and gone during the past couple of decades, but one that seems to make more sense than most is that between Richard Mille and McLaren. Anyone who has seen the Sir Norman Fosterdesigned 'MTC' (McLaren Technology Centre) and the McLaren Automotive factory that adjoins it in Woking, Surrey, will know that the attention to detail paid to every aspect of the marque's businesses is as meticulous as you'll find in any Swiss watch manufacture. But what makes McLaren a plausible fit with Richard Mille is a joint obsession with boundarypushing in terms of engineering and materials that much of the competition likes to pretend to emulate, but rarely does for real. The foundations of the RM/McLaren partnership date back to 1966 when the then

15-year-old Richard Mille's father took him to the Monaco Grand Prix where he saw Bruce McLaren driving the M2B, the first McLaren Formula 1 car. The occasion made such an impression on Mille that he hunted down that very car 10 years ago to add to his stable of other competition McLarens, which now numbers seven and includes models designed for both F1 and CanAm. It was partly that personal enthusiasm for McLaren that led to Richard Mille, the brand, signing a 10-year partnership with the car marque in 2017, the first fruit of which was the high-tech, RM50-03, a split-seconds tourbillon chronograph costing a cool £1m. The following year saw the joint unveiling of the McLaren Senna and the Richard Mille RM1103 McLaren chronograph that paid tribute to the third car in McLaren's 'Ultimate' series (following the legendary F1 of the 1990s and the P1 of 2012).

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Watches & Style

Just 500 road-going versions of which were made by McLaren at £750,000 apiece. But soon after the launch of the Senna, McLaren announced plans for 'the world's first Hyper GT' in the form of the 250mph Speedtail, a car that, like the F1, has a central driving position and a passenger seat either side but, instead of the earlier car’s BMW-built V12, it features a 1,055 horsepower hybrid powertrain.

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Watches & Style

droplet by being significantly wider at 12 o'clock than at six o'clock and tapering between the titanium bezel and the back, the two parts forming a 'sandwich' with the Carbon TPT band. The RM40-01's 603-part movement is made largely from titanium, with a platinum and red gold winding rotor inspired by the car's bonnet. Its curve is based on the metal divider between the car's cockpit and bodywork, and the orange line running from movement onto the strap recalls the vertical stoplight mounted in the Speedtail's rear screen. And, speaking of glass, the sapphire crystal that protects the 52mm by 42mm watch is tapered to a mere 0.2 of a millimetre - yet still offers water resistance down to 50 metres. By now you'll have guessed that the RM40-01 isn't going to be cheap. And you're right. At CHF 900,000 plus vat (so roughly £850,000) it's less than half the price of a Speedtail - but more than five times the price of McLaren's entry-level GT. Discuss.....

Bremont backs Britain

Williams Racing team leader, George Russell.

Even before the Speedtail order book was opened, Richard Mille and McLaren had started on a project to create a suitable watch to complement it. - and

the RM40-01 self-winding tourbillon is the result. Based on the Speedtail's distinctive silhouette, the case mimics the form of a water

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Resolutely British watch brand, Bremont, demonstrated its passion for patriotism this spring with the opening of an impressive new manufacturing and technology facility on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. 'The Wing' is a 35,000 square foot, state-of-the-art factory with the capability of producing up to 50,000 watches per year - all of which will eventually contain mostly UK-made parts.

Watches & Style

The opening of the £20m building (which features a fully-equipped CNC machine shop, dustfree assembly areas, a museum of British watch making and, most importantly, an impressively large bar) coincided with the announcement that Bremont has joined forces with Williams Racing. As well as sponsoring the F1 team, the brand will also be its 'technical partner' and, as Williams Racing's official timer, its watches are worn offtrack by drivers George Russell and Nicholas Latifi and there is Bremont branding on their gloves and cars. But Bremont co-founder Nick English says there's more to the deal than just marketing.

“The partnership is as much a technical one as anything else. Williams is genuinely interested in what we are doing at our new HQ and we can certainly learn a great deal from having access to the team's amazing engineering facility just a few miles away in Wantage”.

Zenith takes the high (off) road Zenith demonstrated perfect timing when it unveiled an extra-tough version of its Defy sports watch called the 'Extreme' just as Formula E boss Alejandro Agag launched his latest venture,

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Watches & Style

In Senegal with Extreme E

Extreme E. Zenith is the official timing partner of the electric offroad race series and the winner of each round will receive a Defy Extreme watch - which, says the blurb, has a titanium case that is 'faceted and carved like a boulder in a storm'. Zenith CEO Julien Tornare was moved to back Extreme E because of its (ostensibly) 'green' credentials and Agag's

experience with the wellestablished Formula E singleseater series which he founded in 2014. The first Extreme E race happened in April at Wadi Rum in Alula, Saudi Arabia, and saw nine teams competing in the Odyssey 21-E SUVs that were especially developed for the championship, the rules of which state that each crew must

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comprise one man and one woman. The remaining races of the five-event series will take place in Greenland (August 29), Brazil (October 23) and Argentina (December 11). Meanwhile, if you want to get hold of a Zenith Defy Extreme via an easier route you can buy one for £15,300. Zenith-watches.com. Extreme-e.com

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The Lamborghini Miura CARS OF EXCELLENCE

Cars of Excellence

It was the 1969 film The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine, that rocketed the Lamborghini Miura to global fame

erruccio Lamborghini wasn’t all that bothered about producing his first rear mid-engined supercar. His tractor business was doing OK and for his car company, he preferred to build powerful GTs. The Miura began as a spare time project of his three top engineers, Gianpaolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani and Bob Wallace, who were keen to produce a road car with credentials for racing and road use. From Ferruccio’s point of view, the Miura would, at best, be a useful marketing tool for the brand, so he let them get on with it. Little did Ferruccio know that this car was to define the brand…

the P400

Photography © Paul Halliwell

A rolling chassis was presented at the 1965 Turin Motor Show,

after which Marcello Gandini of Italian car designers Bertone, turned his hand to a sleek and stunning body design, and the car debuted at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show as the prototype P400. The P400 was acclaimed by press and public alike, and Ferruccio’s decision to give his engineers a free hand in this part time project was paying off. Yet the car had to be rushed for the Geneva show, and had to be presented without an engine. Even more worrying was the uncertainty that the V12 engine, with a transversely mounted mid-engine layout, could actually fit into the car! The V12 was designed to merge with the transmission and differential on account of the limited space. Yet the tumultuous press and public reaction fired Lamborghini’s enthusiasm, and the car went

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into production the following year under the name ‘Miura’. It was named after the famous bull fighting breeder family presided over by Eduardo and Antonio Miura, also leading to the famous Lamborghini ‘bullfighting’ badge. A bit like the James Bond Aston Martin, it was the 1969 film The Italian Job, starring Michael Caine, that rocketed this car to global fame. That initial opening scene with the car being driven through Switzerland’s St Bernard Pass to a literally ‘explosive’ end was most memorable. Worrying too for those of us who are fans, but as it happens it was never actually crashed as the company had two identical orange P400s. The one that met the fiery end had already been earmarked for disposal. (Phew!) The Miura was also an effrontery to Enzo Ferrari too,

Cars of Excellence

who now had Ferruccio Lamborghini as a serious rival on his hands. It’s an interesting story, for according to the legendary chief Lamborghini test driver, Valentino Balboni, Ferruccio was having to shell out lots of money on clutch parts for his Ferraris which he later found were identical, and yet much more expensive, to the very same parts he fitted to his tractors. Ferruccio was angry at having to pay out lots of money for parts so he did his own thing and produced his own supercar…. or so the legend goes.

S to SV

by a 3.9-litre 350bhp Lamborghini V12-engine, used in the Lamborghini 400 GT at the time. The car was put on the market for approximately $20,000 amounting to circa $160,000 in today’s money. The cars had steel frames and doors, and aluminium skinned front and rear sections. The uprated P400S was to follow, making its introduction at the 1968 Turin Motor Show, boosting performance by another 20bhp. The P400S also had revised chrome exterior trim, a new overhead in-line console, power windows, and comfort upgrades. It worked, as purchases by stars such as Frank Sinatra and Miles Davis added to the car’s public appeal. The most famous factory Miura however, is the one featured here, the P400SV. Originally presented in 1971 it featured different cam timing and altered Weber carburettors to the ‘S’, upping the power to 380bhp and achieving some 400Nm of torque. The example featured here in mint condition, belongs to a customer of top luxury and supercar dealer, Joe Macari Performance Cars. This has to be one of the most pristine Miuras on the planet. Every inch of this car both inside, outside, including engine, is nut and bolt perfect. If you’re going to buy a Miura, it really should be in this kind of condition. Needless to say, several ‘special’ variants of the Miura latterly evolved in very small numbers, one being the P400 Jota, a super lightweight modified version of the SV, and only six known examples of another high-spec conversion, the P400SVJ – privately commissioned to order. The Miura thus remains the stuff of motoring legend and good used examples are comfortably selling between £1.0-£2.5 million and beyond. But then, just look at what you’re buying…….

Whatever the formal story, the Miura was a hit. As we say, the earliest model was the P400 powered

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● Kevin Haggarthy

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Scottie’s Column

Fond reflections

was really impressed with Issue 2 and I’m so pleased to be yet again updating you on some of the events we have been able to experience over the last few months, now that we are gently returning to post pandemic normality. Reading Nick Mason’s generous foreword in Issue 2 really gave me so much pleasure. Nick’s memories really brought back those carefree days when we had the best of both worlds and lived life to the full. One such memory was Les Vingt-Quatre Heures du Mans, which was the greatest extravaganza of the 96 Club year! Nick was one of only seven 96 Club debutants to drive in the great race. The best I could achieve was to finish 14th in the Willhire 24 Hours race at Snetterton in a 2.8 Capri! And I thought I had won Le Mans!

Sponsor a Puppy and Marley’s reincarnation You will I hope have seen the photo in Issue 2 of Marley Bristol, our 96 Club top dog, who sadly passed away recently. Marley Bristol was owned by club member Mark, who is President of the Bristol Owners’ club and actually owns three Bristols himself. Two years ago, I “sponsored a puppy” for my lovely 12-year-old granddaughter, Willo. Imagine my surprise when I received my second PUPDATE from Linda, my

Marley Bristol was a much loved and regular visitor to Chesham Place Garden

puppy’s raiser, and amazingly, he too is called Marley! What a coincidence! This reminded me what a wonderful job Linda is doing as the puppy is now over a year old and nearly fully trained. This means that Marley can very soon help transform the life of someone who is blind or partially sighted. And you can help by donating as little as £1 a week! CALL FREEPHONE: 08009530113

The Bristol Coincidence The next coincidence followed almost immediately… and surprise it is another Bristol connection. Toly Arutunoff, who featured in the Stirling Tribute in Issue 2, contacted the club from his home in USA. He dropped us a line to announce that he has decided that after 35 years of ownership, he is selling his 1961 Bristol 407 Zagato. It is the only right-hand drive example ever made and was one of Andrea Zagato’s favourite designs! The car has had a magical journey and was raced and rallied around the world. It was displayed at Laguna Seca and even at the Louis Vuitton Concours in Paris. The only problem is the asking price, which is a whopping $4 million! Despite loving Andrea’s designs, I sadly will not be joining the queue to buy this one! Sorry Toly!

Toly’s stunning Bristol 407 Zagato.

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Motoring Legends Tribute to Stirling I have been delighted by all the additional tributes that have come in following our sharing of club members memories of the late Sir Stirling Moss in Issue 2. So many of you have reacted to the article by sending in your own stories, which has been wonderful. I would like to extend an invitation to our readers to do the same, if they haven’t already done so, so we can have a special edition next year.

Barn Find in Muswell Hill You will all have seen the marvellous Austin 7 “barn find” in my last column and as promised, here are more photographs and a brief update on its revival journey. It really is a remarkable story! Since being rescued, the Austin 7 has been entrusted to Ivan Dutton's restoration workshop, where it is currently rubbing shoulders with a host of Bugatti’s and wonderful prewar Specials. Ivan and his team of apprentices have already made good progress and the chassis has been repaired and restored. The Austin’s new owner Patricia now believes she has bought a wheelbarrow! I hope you all enjoy Issue 3.

An Austin wheelbarrow?

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Little cars, big ambitions After founding The Little Car Company just over two years ago CEO Ben Hedley has made it his mission to craft the most authentic – albeit miniature – classic cars. From baby Bugattis to shrunken Aston Martin DB5s and a 1980s kids classic. Rory FH Smith finds out how it came to be and what the future holds for the pint-sized classic carmaker. Rory FH Smith 96 I Summer 2021

Lifestyle Leaders

ess than three years ago, it’s unlikely The Little Car Company founder and CEO, Ben Hedley, would have predicted he’d be discussing carbon fibre and honeycomb tubs with the likes of Bugatti or Aston Martin. As a self-confessed petrolhead, Hedley had an interest in cars since an early age. “When I was growing up, my folks both worked full time, so when my brother and I finished school early, we’d have to wait in the waiting room. There was always Country Life (which was boring), Private Eye (which I didn’t understand at eight!) and Autocar, so I just used to read that every week and that made me into a petrolhead,” he explains. While Hedley’s introduction to the car world might sound ordinary, the work of his company and team is anything but. Founded just over two years ago, The Little Car Company is responsible for creating the ultimate automotive accessory for any collector, in the form of beautifully authentic scale replicas for auto-addicted children and adults alike. After dreaming his way through the pages of Autocar, Hedley went on to study Mechanical Manufacturing Engineering at Cambridge, before working as a business consultant and entrepreneur in London. “I did actually want

to be a car designer but I wasn’t good enough at drawing!” he adds, regretfully. But, despite not perfecting the art of car design in the first instance, it wouldn’t be long before Hedley’s business exploits would steer him into the path of not only the most prestigious automotive manufacturers in the world but also car design - albeit on a slightly smaller scale. “About ten years ago I saw this company in Vietnam that was making miniature replica AC Cobras and I became an importer for them. They looked quite fun and I ran it as a side hustle only the cars weren’t particularly well put together and they kept breaking down - I had mechanics that quit after refusing to work on them anymore!” Running short on patience with the tiny but temperamental Cobras, Hedley came close to winding down the operation until an entirely unexpected call from a prominent motor manufacturer in Molsheim came through one day. “I got a call from Bugatti who asked me to help them relaunch the Bugatti Baby, which was originally made back in the 1920s,” explains Hedley. “I’d thought about how I might make our own, officially licensed cars at some point - because the ones made in Vietnam were just tributes - but it was an untested market. No one had tried to do this before but with the Bugatti name, there was a precedent. The Bugatti baby had existed in the 1920s and ‘30s and I thought that was probably enough to take a punt, so we stopped the importation, moved away from that original company and set up a completely new venture and said, right, let’s do this!” In the space of a phone call, Hedley went from importing miniature replica cars to embarking on a journey of painstakingly reconstructing a 75 per cent scale Type 35 Bugatti that was engineered from the ground up and authentic to the full-sized 1920s car. “I wanted to do something different, I wanted to try and build a new classic car almost - one that could really be enjoyed.” With a full-sized Type 35 priced anywhere between £500,000 and £4 million, Hedley’s pint-sized recreations look like a bargain at £50,000, especially when the top-spec Per Sang model requires 200 hours of labour to make the aluminium body by hand and will

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Lifestyle Leaders

top out at 42mph with 10kW of power from its 2.8 kWh battery. Armed with some early investment and a couple of engineering degrees from Cambridge, Hedley’s new venture looked (slightly) less daunting. “I hired a load of engineers, like the ex-chief engineer of Ariel, guys from Ginetta, Radical and TVR.” Scanning every component from a Type 35, Hedley and his team scaled down and re-engineered every inch of the original car save for the engine. “We put it together with an electric powertrain and tried to include as many bits from the original as we could. The suspension geometry is identical to the original car and I’m even told by Type 35 owners that it handles just like it,” says Hedley with a smile. The handbrake and the bodywork are identical. The number of louvers is

the same, they’re the same size and the spacing is identical. We went properly authentic - the aim was to be respectful of the past but not a pastiche,” he insists. Of course, starting a car company (albeit a little one) in the middle of a recession was never going to be easy, with or without a global pandemic thrown into the mix. “We’ve had sleepless nights,” admits Hedley but two early backers provided the company with enough capital to hire a team and get their first cars up and running, which has since attracted more investment from the classic car community. “We were founded just over two years ago with my first two team members and me. Then, in April last year going into lockdown, we had nine people and now

we’ve got somewhere between 25 and 35 people.” With a site on the historical airfield-cum-classic car haven of Bicester Heritage near Oxford, Hedley splits his time between there and London, when he’s not out and about meeting everyone from prospective buyers to suppliers and the other manufacturers. Now the Type 35 is well established in the car community, Hedley and his team are looking to recreate the much-loved Aston Martin DB5, which weighs in at 66 per cent smaller than the original car. Still not satisfied with scaling down two of the most iconic cars in the world, Hedley set his sights on an upsizing project more recently, after the Little Car Company revealed its plans 96 I Summer 2021

to produce a fully-drivable, road-legal 8/10th version of Tamiya’s Wild One 1985 radio-controlled car. “We thought, how can we keep our next project a bit simpler but still have the authenticity of an original? ...so, we thought we’d start with something small and make it bigger...it’s like every kid of the eighties dream!” says Hedley excitedly. Beyond that, the company still has more news to share in the coming months - something Hedley won’t reveal just yet, but it promises to be something as equally exciting as everything that’s gone before it. “The Tamiya Wild One is going to be interesting because it might be the stepping stone to something else we have up our sleeves,” teases Hedley. What started as a project to bring to life the classic Type 35 Bugatti has snowballed far beyond the expectations of even its founder and CEO. After an encounter in Vietnam led him into the miniature car business, Hedley and his team are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the field of classic car engineering. “Now we’re working with Bugatti, Aston Martin and Tamiya, it’s reached a ‘wow’ stage and what we’ve got lined up for the future is even beyond that.” With much more to be announced in the coming months and years, and some top-secret projects nearing release, Hedley’s ambitions for the car company are anything but little. “We’re having a crazy amount of fun. I can’t believe I get to do this as a job. It’s just amazing.”

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EMBRACING INNOVATION

LBf Printing: From Ink to Communication Is printing dead? Not a bit – as long as you stay ahead of the technology (and health) curve. Paul Symonds Owner & Founder LBf International Photography © Graham Glenn

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“I put ink on anything,” says Paul Symonds. “One day I may be printing business cards, the next day the whole side of a building”.

aul is the owner and founder of LBf International, a worldwide print & marketing company established exactly thirty years ago, when the money was in pre-printed business forms. As a commission-only salesman for a company supplying custom NCR sets & forms to banks and financial companies in the City, he was the fastest salesperson to earn £100,000. That’s before he was 23. And that is also why as the drummer and backing vocalist of the ‘80s rock band Big at 6 he turned down a record contract with a major music company.

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“I was always an entrepreneur, from a very young age. I had an uncle who was an importer and when I was seven or eight, I brought in the first digital watches from China and I sold them at school. I always wanted to start my own business and that’s when London Business forms was formed, and where my company name came from, LBf.” When LBf started, a major revolution was challenging the printing world: in 1990, HP introduced the first sub£1,000 monochrome laser printer, and by the mid-nineties Apple released its first colour laser printer. Offices

Business Leaders

could now print on demand, and with the following digital revolution they didn’t need to print at all. The bottom fell out of the printing market. “I had to reinvent myself through all this time and a lot of competitors fell by the wayside because they did not understand the need for change. I changed from having my own printing presses, warehouse and staff, to be as lean as possible and be able to maneuver as I needed to. And that is what I did. I started working in Asia 15 years ago to save costs and bought a share in a printing factory in Shanghai and an office in Hong Kong. There we are able to print and procure anything, be it a keyring or a marquee that needed printing.

The Printing Battle: Now It’s Personal Has the internet killed printing? “People still loved the touch and feel of a good magazine.” says Paul. “There’s so much more you can get from the physical touch and the smell of ink on paper, as in the case of 96 Magazine. You do not get that on the internet. I do not think that printing will ever die, and certainly not now in the UK. Other European countries like France, Spain and Italy have adopted a more paperless approach, but in the UK and in other major countries like the US and China, printing is still going strong. The biggest change has been the personalisation. That is what people really want now. Your name on a brochure or a calendar means that it is

personalised to you. People are asking for anything from a printed bath towel to a jigsaw puzzle and that is the trend. This is possible because everything is digital. There is no setup. As long as there is stock available, all you do is press a button.” At the other end of the scale, LBf customisation can become a uniquely crafted one-off. “We’ve even manufactured a jewellery box with different stories printed for a young girl for her birthday. The stories are about her pets, two dogs and a cat. We did the illustrations and when opened, the box revealed a screen with her own video. That was personalisation on the next level.”

The Evolution of Printing: Branding “Back in 1995 I sponsored a TVR Tuscan Challenge Racing Team.

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I had a couple of TVRs racing with our LBf livery. The driver broke his leg while skiing, so I stepped in. I have always loved cars and motorsport and took to the wheel of the car for a few races. I used the branding of the car – which we did ourselves and still offer today - to invite clients and we got more business that way.” Paul’s main business model is now to focus on a few major customers and support their branding drive in print and online, and soon on video. While there is a demand for what Paul defines ‘tacky’ mass produced products, those done at the press of a button, at the higher end of the market there is a confluence of technologies, niche demand and personal service that has changed again the role of printing. The demand is now for smaller runs that are highly customised and for

Business Leaders

services that include branding and communication. “We work long-term for a selected number of companies, which in fact we target specifically and approach when we have identified their needs. For a chain of national hotels, with whom we have been working for twenty years, we cater for all their printing requirements. For a worldwide marketing company, over a period of four-five years we arranged for each of their offices in every country to have an updated, uniform and consistent brand image, identical to that in London. And for this client we supplied one of our largest ever prints, eight feet high and one hundred and eighty feet long.”

Post-COVID Printing “After COVID, the first thing that companies want to do is get back to normal – says Paul. “We are assisting them with Get Back to Work boxes containing a mask, sanitiser and everything staff may need to safely share office space with their colleagues. And the boxes, obviously, are unique to each company. Moreover, to help with marketing their business, we are developing products that will keep them a step ahead of their competitors. For the housing market, for instance, instead of the usual brochure, ours is customised for the prospective buyer and has no pages, but a screen between the covers that

shows a video of the specific property." Today, change is the biggest factor in the print industry. Technology, the market, the resources, the environment – all

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are affecting the print world and in fact offering unprecedented opportunities. Covid has suddenly highlighted a new and different set of requirements, including the need to protect anybody handling print and packaging material. The cover of 96 Magazine has been printed by Paul’s company, LBf, with a special antibacterial layer that kills microorganisms that come in contact with it. This is a brand-new technology that is expected soon to evolve and protect also from viruses. “Anti-bacterial laminate is just another option available to try to minimise the spread of any unwanted germs and contagions – explains Paul. “It has to be made clear this is not ‘a beall and end-all’ answer to the current situation we find ourselves. But anything we can do to help minimise the spread of unwanted bugs has to be beneficial.”

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Lifestyle Leaders

Aeroboat 'chassis' and Mike Reeves.

MIKE REEVES – CLAYDON REEVES YACHT DESIGN Car and Plane Design for the Perfect Boat 96 I Summer 2021

Lifestyle Leaders

“C

ontemporary yacht design” says Mike Reeves “can be like marmite. Some people like it, some don’t.” Mike Reeves and his partner James Claydon started their yacht design business, Claydon Reeves, in 2010 and have been involved in the design and construction of some of the most iconic yachts and superyachts to date. “James and I have different strengths and weaknesses. I suppose my strength in this partnership is that I have some of the bigger ideas, I look at kind of the broader concept of what we're doing. James is a fantastic designer, equally talented at concept, but I think he has a more detailed focus, he has a greater technical understanding. We also do interiors like cabinetry, joinery and fabrics, but I think our real strength lies in establishing very strong concepts that conform to a cohesive design aesthetic.” For Mike, every project starts with paper and pencil, sketching the boat in real time with the client. The white wall in Mike’s studio opens to show concealed shelves where boat models can be quickly assembled to choose hull and superstructure colours and internal textiles and materials. “The core of any design begins with just that. It's not about CGI graphics and 3D modelling, that comes far later down the line.” In fact, Claydon Reeves were among the first yacht designers to adopt programs to do A Class Surfacing, a threedimensional modelling procedure mainly used in the automotive world. “Our surfacing was so good that you could really just deliver that package to a shipyard, and they could build your product. And the thought behind those surfaces was much higher than perhaps had been done up to that point: when you actually look at one of our yachts, the surfaces are very subtly always doing something, they're always naturally flowing.”

From paper and pencil to dream yacht – and the marmite factor The Solis The Solis, a 34-meter superyacht was one of Claydon Reeves’s most comprehensive projects where the company designed everything: exterior, interior, down to crew uniforms, table crockery and an allimportant logo, revised 104 times before being accepted by the client. The Solis earned Claydon Reeve the World Superyacht 2016 Silver Neptune, not only for the lines and the build, but also because the judges felt it was ‘built on a human scale that not only satisfies the demanding aesthetic requirements of her owners, who tend to shy away from ostentation, but also provide a high level of comfort and convenience’.

Is it a car or a yacht? Cars and boats have a lot of common DNA, not least the typical boat tail of many early cars. In the ‘90s, Riva’s Ferrari 32 speedboat

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took inspiration from the Ferrari Testarossa for the design of its flank and stern. And more recently Mercedes, BMW, Jaguar and Bugatti, amongst others, have been involved in cutting-edge boat designs. “A lot of the leading studios and designers have a grounding in transportation or have studied transportation design, because there isn't really a degree in yacht design – explains Mike Reeve. “If you look at a modern car, you notice there is great subtlety about it, a very cohesive form language that flows through it, and even through brands. We wanted to bring that cohesive design into everything we do, from the ultimate form of the whole superstructure to the details like the coat, funnel tips, radar masts, aerials, the shape of the frame ports and the chrome details. All of these come from an automotive industry mindset that nothing is seen in isolation, and everything has to flow together. I see an overlap between people who own classic cars and supercars and yachts. This is something that consistently comes up because they are essentially small and big machines. One of our clients was very involved in classic cars and we designed the master cabin side tables with a flip down panel that mimics a classic Porsche dashboard. We also designed special clocks to look like time clocks out of a classic sports car. And another detail is so subtle, that only he would know it: the planking design when you walk into the mainstream is the exact track of his classic Porsche.”

Lifestyle Leaders

water, you run out of diesel. Hence the need to design a boat that has a longer ‘autonomous survival mode’. And that, again, reinforces the idea of explorer yachts, which have become one of the most interesting sectors of the industry in the last 10 or 15 years. In fact, we have designed such yachts and they may become a renewed focus of design because of COVID.

Aeroboat

The COVID Factor In 2020, the yacht business had mixed fortunes. Boat yards suffered as the construction of new boats was put on hold. Conversely, after a short hiatus, the second-hand market expanded together with yacht rentals, as people took to the sea to escape the crowds and the threat of COVID-19. Now, the demand for new yachts has taken off again, with sales up almost 60 per cent worldwide, reflecting the attraction of the boat as a preferred place to be with friends and family in a secluded bubble. However, the conventional approach to yacht design has to be rethought, argues Mike Reeve, as new realities become apparent. “Firstly, during any lockdown, you can't fly so you can't get your yacht. If you can fly, there is the question of the harbour, which may not allow you to land. Then, everyone's living in quite close proximity to each other and if one person were to get it, it would spread. Also, very few yachts had been built with long range autonomy in mind: they need to refill and restock, and somebody has to go ashore to reprovision the boat. If you run out of water and you start running your generators to desalinate

While much of Claydon Reeves’s design has roots in cars, the Aeroboat project begun with a visit to a Hurricane and Spitfire restoration company. There, the frames, technical structure and, especially the 27-litre Rolls-Royce V12 Merlin engine, inspired the adoption of aircraft technologies to create the ultimate 21st century day boat. From an original 3000bhp 80-knot monster, the project has evolved into a less extreme, more comfortable and practical long-range 50-knot day boat, with all the machinery coming from the Rolls-Royce portfolio of products, and some unique technical solutions. “The core to this idea” – says Mike “is how you arrive and depart on the boat. On the smaller end of the market, you see lots of stylish boats turn up in harbours with great pomp and noise, but the real problem, from either a safety or a functionality point of view, is how you get on and off. Often, only a tiny passerelle will pop up and people will cling to it for dear life. The Aeroboat addresses this shortcoming, and the arrival and departure becomes a real party piece: a grand staircase unfolds from the rear; and a passerelle extends from the side of the boat and connects with it with a one-meterwide handrail – leading to an incredibly graceful arrival and departure. Also, that same staircase can be loaded into the water and give an incredibly large, safe and easy access bathing platform at the back of the boat. Ultimately, however, I see it as a quintessential day boat, maybe for someone who has a nice villa by the sea and does not want to spend the night on board, but only wants to go out with friends for an elegant outing, have a great time, go to lunch. And then at the end of the day come home and stay there.

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Dr Manrina Rhode AWARD WINNING AESTHETIC DENTAL SURGEON

Smiling matters The aesthetics of health: Smile by design

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“Once upon a time,” says Dr Manrina Rhode “a sign of wealth was the watch you wore. Now it is your smile.” Manrina helps her patients to smile: “Many people are insecure about their smile,” says Manrina. “They may be conscious their teeth are yellow, or broken, or twisted, and they hide their teeth. That means that when they are interacting with other people, they're not letting their full personality shine through. Those insecurities or those imperfections may be impacting their life. And they come and find me.

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Diversity & Inclusion

ith a record of more that twelve thousand porcelain veneers, Manrina Rhode has been voted among the top fifty aesthetic dental experts by Dentistry magazine for two years running, in 2020 and 2021. Formerly on the board of directors of the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry (the only woman to do so at the time and for several years after), she is a judge for Private Dentistry Awards & Dental Industry Awards; sits on the Communications Committee for the British Association of Private Dentistry; is a consultant for major dental and cosmetic companies; and was named ‘Marie Claire’s 21st Century Woman’ for her charitable work.

Facially Driven Dental Design Cosmetic dentistry is relatively new and didn’t really take off until the 1980s, with the development of resin cement. Dental veneers were invented in the 1920s as a temporary fix for film stars – temporary being the key word, falling out after and even during shoots. It wasn’t until the 1980s that new techniques and adhesives allowed dentists to bond porcelain dental veneers to teeth as a long-lasting solution. “It's very much a science and also an art” explains Manrina. “There are scientific principles behind creating a perfect smile, but then there's also art. It is personality and facially driven, because it's not a ‘one smile fits all’ scenario.” The procedure starts by taking photographs of the patient, for diagnosis and better communication, and that’s the first challenge: “I say smile, so I can take a ‘before’ picture. And they say they don’t know how to smile, so you have to coax it out of them. Sometimes you get a grimace because they really don’t know”. The photos can then be edited to show the expected ‘after’ outcome and give informed choice to the patient. Then moulds are taken, the teeth are prepared and the porcelain veneers, as thin as a hundredth of an inch, are laid in place. Including the final review, the process may take up to five weeks, at 96 I Summer 2021

Diversity & Inclusion

the end of which, says Manrina, “they find their smile.”

The Journey “With general dentists, patients come to them with pain and the dentist helps them to take the pain away. That's not what I do. There are about five treatments that I do. For anything else, I send the patient to someone else who is the best in their field. So, for root canal treatment, for cleaning, for extraction of, any of these treatments, you're always in the best hands. Health and wellness are at the basis of everything I do, but always with an aesthetic tint, to make someone look better. There is a world of difference between luxury and normal dentistry, from the materials that we use to the comfort of the whole experience. At every step of the journey, I make sure that every procedure is as comfortable as it can be. Every patient has a long appointment, they never feel rushed. The first thing we'll do is sit down and have a chat, so I can get an idea of how that patient is feeling and work around that. People come to me because they want to change the look of their smile, they want to change something about themselves. By the time they come to me they already know what they want, and that anticipation lasts through every appointment. When finally goal is achieved, patients may cry, as it can be quite emotional: ‘look, that's me, that's my face now, and it looks great’. Then, when they come for a review after six months or a year, the way they interact with people is different: they may have a new partner or a new job, and all these things that come with suddenly being able to appear warm and confident, rather than serious and distant.”

The Client “I have equal amounts of male and female clients from all over the world. People assume that there are more women in aesthetics, but that's not the case and certainly not within cosmetic dentistry. Men seem to be just as proud of having a great smile, and they 96 I Summer 2021

appreciate its importance. Their age ranges, I don't see many young patients and I never see children. I would say they start from around 30 and can go anywhere up to 70. Many are high-net-worth business owners or professionals who can afford to have a beautiful smile. And why not? If you can afford it, why not do it?”

Beyond the Smile

brand of cosmetic skin care, DRMR, runs a training academy for dentists and is opening a new large clinic in London’s Knightsbridge. The Porsche has long gone. “At the moment, my life is very busy developing all these three businesses as a single woman and I use my time in the car to check emails and catch up on work. So, I will normally just get a driver to

In her early twenties, Manrina took the newly created position of resident dentist first at Harvey Nichols, and then Harrods. “I was working really hard, sometimes till midnight and weekends. I always wanted a Porsche 911, so I bought myself a brand new 997 convertible. You could put your sim into the car and the car turned into a phone, and my sister used to laugh that I had the most expensive hands-free phone.” Fast forward to today, and besides cosmetic dental surgery Manrina has launched her own 96 I Summer 2021

drive me. Since very young, I always knew I was going to be a businesswoman with an empire and create something great. I'm a fixer. That's what I like to do. I want to help people and I want them to use my products and come to my clinic and learn from my course and say ‘Manrina, that was amazing, you created something amazing. And I want to say ‘Yes, I did. Because I did.”

Jacky Ickx is a motor sport legend, with six wins at Le Mans, two world championships and eight grand prix victories to his credit. He led the pack approaching Brands Hatch, could he pull it off?

A Close–Run Thing I

magine an endurance racing season, races of one thousand kilometres each at Monza, Nürburgring, Spa-Francorchamps, Mugello and Brands Hatch, six hours at Silverstone and Fuji, twenty-four hours at Le Mans, over sixty-three hours in total; the margin of victory in the driver’s championship was just 4.7 seconds. If a film script suggested such an outcome, no one would take it seriously. And yet, it happened in 1982, with the final race arguably being as dramatic as any witnessed before or since.

Jacky Ickx and Rothmans Porsche had not planned to contest the driver’s title, their mission was victory at Le Mans and the team championship, which they accomplished. Lateseason wins at Spa-Francorchamps and Fuji had propelled the Belgian legend to the head of the table with 73 points and just the final round to come at Brands Hatch. Three other drivers were in contention; Riccardo Patrese (71 points), Michele Alboreto (63 points) and Henri Pescarolo (58 points). Who would emerge on top to take victory?

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Photo Story

The most likely challenger to the Belgian was Riccardo Patrese, who drove the Martini-sponsored Lancia LC1. The Barchetta was built to the transitional Group 6 rules that were not constrained by the fuel economy regulations of Group C, meaning that it could be driven flat-out for the entire race.

The grid was heavily influenced by the weather, Ford managed to get their cars out in the early, dry conditions and, consequently, monopolised the front row.

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Photo Story

Marc Surer and Manfred Winkelhock in their Ford C100s led the first five laps, driving around the sinuous Brands Hatch circuit together. They later maintained that this tactic maximised their visibility. Inevitably, the two cars nudged each other in the torrid conditions, Winkelhock’s Ford destroyed itself and the barriers, causing the race to be suspended to enable repairs.

From the restart Hans Stuck in the Sauber SHS C6 jumped into the lead but, as the track dried, he had to give way to the faster competitors. The interruption to the race meant that it was unlikely to go the full distance as darkness would fall. This uncertainty added spice to the contest. Stuck powers past Eddie Jordan in his Porsche 935 K3 and David Kennedy’s Chevron B36B.

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Photo Story

The title chase was now between Ickx and Patrese, as Alboreto had damaged his car in the opening laps. The contest between the Porsche and the Lancia kept the crowd entertained with a titanic struggle.

The fourth driver chasing title honours, Henri Pescarolo, pushed his Joest Racing Porsche 936C hard, spinning a couple of times, but he could not match the pace of the two factory teams.

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Photo Story

Eventually the agile Lancia slipped past the Porsche and soon built up a 63 second lead. However, it was clear that the race would be ended earlier so Ickx’s codriver, Derek Bell, turned up the turbo boost and began to chip away at the Italian’s advantage.

The Kremer Porsche CK5 was a good example of how some teams adapted their existing Group 6 prototypes to comply with the new Group C regulations. Their efforts were rewarded at Brands Hatch with a sixth-place finish.

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Photo Story

Another Kremer development, the fearsome Porsche 935 K4, propelled John Fitzpatrick, David Hobbs and Bob Wollek to a fine third place in its final appearance in Europe.

A brake pad change undid much of Bell’s hard work. The final stop left the Belgian some 70 seconds adrift of Fabi in the Lancia with about an hour to go. Ickx drove flat out to gradually whittle the gap down and at the flag he managed to get to just 1.7 seconds behind. This amazing performance happened in spite of the left-hand door coming loose just out of Ickx’s reach.

Ickx and Porsche were initially disappointed not to have caught Fabi, then it dawned on them that they had been 6.4 seconds ahead when the race was interrupted. The championship was the property of the Belgian, after season of endeavour the victory margin was 4.7 seconds. An exhausted Jacky Ickx celebrated with Derek Bell on the podium as night rolled in.

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Over more than 125 years have passed since James Gordon & John Alexander MacPhail opened a grocery business in the northeast of Scotland – a company that would, over the course of more than a century, become synonymous with the finest whiskies in the world. Weathering the storm of World Wars, Prohibition and global recessions, Rory FH Smith looks back at the legendary lineage of the Gordon & MacPhail family business.

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AGED TO PERFECTION THE RICH HISTORY OF GORDON & MACPHAIL

espite its reputation as one of the most respected producers of Scottish Whisky in the world, the story of how Gordon & MacPhail came to be is far from typical. With origins dating back to 1895, the story starts when James Gordon and John Alexander MacPhail joined forces that year to establish Gordon & MacPhail, a grocery business in the heart of Scotland’s Speyside region. Stocking everything from teas, coffees, wines and whisky, the pair built a reputation as curators of some of the finest flavours from around the world. “James Gordon was a smalltime whisky broker at the time,” says Stephen Rankin, Director of Prestige, and fourth-generation family member, at Gordon & MacPhail. “The brokers are the ones with all the ingredients - sourcing their grain and then their different individual component flavours, which come from distilleries to make their blend,” explains Rankin. “John Alexander MacPhail was the grocer in the partnership. So, he was the one that had an eye for fine fruits and the whole concept of being a local grocer, wholesaler and merchant.”

Fine flavours Alongside MacPhail’s taste for imported teas, home-roasted coffee beans and fine meats, the Scot also stocked wine and spirits; something that would eventually give way to the whisky powerhouse that exists today. Still occupying the same building in which all this took place more than 125 years ago, Rankin and his family counterparts have stayed true to their Elgin roots, keeping the business alive and well in the far north of Scotland. 96 I Summer 2021

But despite the pair’s effective partnership, it took more than the founding duo to make Gordon & MacPhail a celebrated name in the whisky business. Joining as an apprentice working under the two founders in 1915, John Urquhart quickly established himself as a valuable associate for his ability to select, purchase, and mature whiskies from local distilleries. “He came from farming stock and he worked very closely with James Gordon on the sort of whisky side to the business over the next 20 years,” says Rankin. Joining the business at a favourable time, Urquhart found himself working in the midst of a whisky boom in the industry. “The world of whisky was going crazy,” says Rankin. “There were multiple distilleries

Lifestyle Leaders

the heart attack struck, Gordon had a penchant for motorcars, as the first man in the north-east of Scotland to own a car. “Can you imagine being John Urquhart at that time - he’s gone from being a senior manager to a partner and to the sole owner of the business within the space of a month!” says Rankin excitedly. Around the same time, Urquhart’s son George came to work for the business, where he pioneered single malt whiskies and mastered the maturing process. Over the years, the Gordon & MacPhail name became known around the world, gaining popularity in countries like France, the Netherlands, Germany and Italy. Still a strong family business, George’s children all joined the firm between 1967 and 1981, shortly before the company realised its dream of owning its own distillery in 1993. Located on the outskirts of Forres - just twelve miles from the original shop in Elgin - the Benromach Distillery was re-equipped and renovated over five years before it was officially reopened by HRH Prince Charles in 1998. opening up here in the north-east of Scotland every year from 1895 until the 1920s,” he adds.

Riding the rollercoaster Caused in part by the Great French Wine Blight in the mid-19th century, the whisky boom saw the industry in the north-east of Scotland blossom as global demand for whisky rose sharply as a substitute for wine and grape-based drinks. “Whisky began to become much more popular and it began to travel, especially with industrialisation, the developments being made in shipping and more global travel taking place,” explains Rankin. “In short, whisky got its time to shine and grabbed it!” From the start of the 20th century through to the post-war years, the whisky business was a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs. At the mercy of global events, everything from two World Wars to global recessions and even the period of Prohibition in the United States of America took its toll on demand. But, with a strong side-line in selling produce, Gordon & MacPhail weathered the storms, emerging 20 years down the line with Gordon and Urquhart continuing to develop blends together and an impressive portfolio of maturing whisky casks. After two decades of working together, the one-time apprentice was made into a fully-fledged partner of the business while John MacPhail retired and left the area. “Now that partnership was to last a massive two weeks, as after only a fortnight working together, James Gordon had a heart attack and died,” says Rankin. Rumoured to have been at the wheel when

Continuing the legacy After celebrating 125 years in the business last year, the company remains focused on creating the finest whiskies in the world. From those early days in the shop selling groceries and fine foods, to creating aged single malts and blends for markets all over the world, Rankin and his family members proudly continue the legacy created by their ancestors. “The brand has just gone from strength to strength over the years, ” says Rankin. “Unlike any other whiskey company, Gordon MacPhail is still one family, passing the whisky down through generations.” Flying the flag for their finest liquid creations is the Generations range, which showcases the longest matured Scotch whisky ever to be bottled. Maturing under the watchful eye of four

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Lifestyle Leaders

casks on 15th October 1938 by John Urquhart himself. With three single malts making up the Generations range, the fourth chapter in the series arrives in September with the release of another world first for the oldest single malt Scotch whisky - an 80-years-old from Glenlivet Distillery. With a presentation devised in partnership with celebrated architect and designer, Sir David Adjaye OBE, the drink will be a landmark event, not just for Gordon & MacPhail, but for Scotland’s long and rich liquid history.

A truly democratic drink

generations of the family, the first release came in 2010, when Gordon & MacPhail made history by launching Generations Mortlach 70 Years Old then the world’s oldest bottled Single Malt Scotch Whisky. Unveiled within the walls of Edinburgh Castle, the whisky was first filled into one of the

“Whisky is an incredibly democratic drink,” insists Rankin. “It could be drunk by kings or paupers and, in many respects, it knows no social class boundaries at all.” While the global drinks market remains an incredibly competitive place, Rankin is optimistic about the high-end single malts Gordon & MacPhail have become known for, and about the future of whisky drinking in its different guises. “At the end of the day. If you like the taste of whisky and you want it neat, on the rocks or you want to put water in it, or lemonade, or to make it into a cocktail, we’ll help you with that. We’ll help you bring out the flavours and help you enjoy it the way you want to enjoy it,” says Rankin, acknowledging the variety of ways people drink whisky. “In terms of the future of whisky, I think those rollercoaster moments are softening - they won’t go away entirely, as everything is cyclical – but, and people have realised that whiskey is not only a drink, it’s something that can be unique and extremely personal.”

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● Rory FH Smith

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International Events

UP AND COMING INTERNATIONAL EVENTS A

fter the major success at the premiere in 2019, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2021 will once again be launched with an outing for some of the participants, the Villa d’Este Prelude Tour. This year, the tour will be held on Thursday 30 September

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2021 and will take a route from Cernobbio to Como, along the banks of Lake Como to Bellagio and back via Asso. The cars will be available for everyone to admire when the drivers take a midday break in Bellagio.

International Events

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