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6 Driven by Design

Exclusive First Look! David Gandyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Restomod Porsche 356

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CONTRIBUTORS AMY SHORE Page 14

b500 magazine

6 Driven by Design

Exclusive First Look!

ETIENNE SALOMÉ Page 28

David Gandy’s Restomod Porsche 356

David Gandy and his Porsche 356 Restomod Photographed by Del Gregory for b500 magazine at Whatley Manor Hotel & Spa. Full article on page 16.

STEFAN JOHANSSON Page 36

GET IN TOUCH Contact: editor@b500magazine.com Tel: + 44 (0) 7704 503315 www.b500.co.uk

MAGNUS WALKER Page 44

@b500magazine

b500 magazine RICHARD GONÇALVES Page 52

BART KUYKENS Page 58

Editor & Publisher: Del Gregory Artwork Production by Graphic Bubble The right of Del Gregory to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the copyright, designs and patents act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher. The articles as published do not necessarily represent the views of the author or publisher. Copyright: Del Gregory 2020

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EDITOR Del Gregory

hen I started b500 back in March I could not have expected that by the end of this year I would be working alongside such automotive greats as our regular contributors are. People like Etienne Salomé, who’s design work with Bugatti is out there for the world to see, as well as Sasha Selipanov who became the first designer apart from Christian von Koenigsegg to be head of design at Koenigsegg. Then of course we have Stefan Johansson. Former F1 driver for Ferrari and McLaren (amongst others) and now a successful manager, artist and watch designer. Magnus Walker has recently got back in touch with his English roots over in LA by purchasing one or two British cars to add to his growing Stuttgart collection, and of course we also have Rich at ROCS in New Jersey who is another artist of cars as well as other media and watches. Bart Kuykens continues to go his individual analogue route with his black and white Leica and Hasselblad work and I believe we are all the better for Bart sharing this with us and the world at b500. I cut my professional teeth on Leica and Hasselblad film cameras and so understand the work and skill involved and therefore have much respect for Bart and his particular style. About a month ago my phone rang and it was David Gandy. He’d been chatting to his friend Damon Jones in LA, and my

name had been mentioned. “Oh oh”, I said to David, but no apparently it was all good and before long he was offering b500 the exclusive first look at his ‘fresh out of the box’ Porsche 356 restoration modification, so how could I say no? We fixed a date, (which we then had to cancel due to lockdown 2.0) but then on December 10th we both finally ended up at Whatley Manor Hotel & Spa to chat about cars and take the first images of his latest classic. David was generous with his time and as the professional he is, was happy to stand wherever I asked to ensure we got a great front cover shot, and I hope you agree it really is a great cover to end the year with. Images and a Q&A with David start from page 16. Finally for this issue and 2020, I’m very pleased to announce a very warm welcome to Journalistic Photographer Amy Shore who has joined the b500 contributor team from this issue. Amy has a massive fan base, myself very much included and so I am really pleased that she has come onboard, and cannot wait to start working with her on b500 throughout 2021. Please find her very first contributor page on pages 14-15. All that’s left for this year is for me to wish you and your loved ones a very safe festive season and a Happy New Year, and I look forward to catching up again in 2021, and of course daily on Instagram @b500magazine Photo courtesy of Stuart Creasey

b500 magazine

CONTENTS

16 34 40

10 14 16 26 28 30 34 36 40 44 50 52 54 58 60 65

DESIGN / Amalgam Collection AMY SHORE / Photographer FRONT COVER / David Gandy EDITORS CHOICE / Bart Kuykens ETIENNE SALOMÉ / Designer & Artist BESPOKE / Cotswold Little Motors FOR SALE / Classic Motor Hub STEFAN JOHANSSON / Racing Driver ROAD TRIP / Scotland with Nick Dalton MAGNUS WALKER / Man with a beard DESIGN / Johnny Dowell aka King Nerd RICHARD GONÇALVES / ROCS Motorsports DEALER / Guy Broad BART KUYKENS / Photographer WATCH / Cartier Santos AUCTION NEWS / Silverstone Auctions

DESIGN Amalgam Collection

oming from the world of architecture and product design, Amalgam Collection has emerged over the last 10 years as the finest maker of model cars in the world. The most respected makers of fine cars in the world have beaten a path to the door of Amalgam in Bristol in the South West of England. Home to Concorde and a historic aerospace industry, the city also takes pride in the civil engineering feats of Isambard Kingdom Brunel that he

created in the 18th century. With such an innovative history it’s no surprise that there is a strong design and creative community in the city, which nurtured Amalgam’s growth to becoming the world’s most respected model car company, since its humble beginnings as a partnership of four in 1985. As one of the original partners Sandy Copeman led the company into the world of F1 and luxury car modelling in 1995, eventually partnering with Ferrari in 1998 and Ralph Lauren in 2010, unintentionally creating the first ever

luxury model car brand along the way. With Sandy taking a minimal architectural design approach to the presentation of the models that had rubbed off in him working with Lord Norman Foster in the 80s and 90s, and his son Leo taking the technical and engineering excellence of Amalgam’s development and build processes to new levels of perfection each year, F1 teams and luxury car makers have continued to beat a path to Amalgam’s door in Bristol. They know they can depend on Amalgam for models that meet the expectations of their design and engineering leaders.

As well as making the perfectly detailed limited editions and bespoke models for owners at 1:8 that are the core of the business, Amalgam is increasingly making one-offs at even bigger scales for owners of extremely valuable and unique cars. Digital technology has been welcomed by Amalgam since the mid 1980s and they pioneered the use of digital scanning to capture extraordinary classics with extreme accuracy, scanning many of Ralph Lauren’s collection at his ‘garage’ in New England, and at the 2010 exhibition of his cars at the Louvre’s Les Arts Decortifs department in Paris, scanning the cars on the museum’s closed days and at nights. For modern cars the CAD designs are shared by the manufacturer’s design department. Recently a very notable Italian manufacturer’s design department responded to photographs of a first Amalgam model for approval, with the amusingly understated comment ‘“Stupenda! Questo modellino è fatto davvero bene, sembra vera! Wonderful! This model is really pretty good, it looks real!” This is the kind of feedback that keeps the passion burning in the Amalgam team and drives them on to keep improving. While reaching ever further up market Amalgam has also opened a new collection at the smaller 1:18 scale, making it possible to own a piece of their exquisite work for under £1000 pounds, and is developing a collection of miniature sculptures in co-operation with the Formula 1 Group. Always looking to exercise their skills on new challenges and opportunities, Amalgam is looking for commissions to create one-off models for client’s yachts and planes, as well as extraordinary cars. Recent extensions of their subject matter have included a truly stunning model of the Spitfire and the Bell X-15 rocket plane, as seen in our last edition and with a small edition of the SR71 Blackbird in the pipeline, scheduled to be completed in 2021. For Amalgam modelmaking is an opportunity to capture something beautiful and extraordinary, and imbue the process of miniaturising it with artistry, an attitude and an authenticity rarely found these days.

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AMY SHORE Journalistic Photography

Amy Shore is renowned for her photojournalistic style in the automotive world. Her aim is to portray the love and passion we all have for machines on wheels through rose tinted spectacles, whether that be road trips across Europe, humble workshops or worldwide events such as the Goodwood Revival.

he first car I ever photographed was a replica Ferrari P4. The night before the shoot, I was panicking a little, Googling ‘How to photograph a car,’ and hoping that my wedding photography skills might help a little bit. I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. But this was an opportunity I certainly wasn’t going to turn down. I shot the car like I would a wedding couple, I looked for what I felt to be the most beautiful sections and angles. I cropped bits of the car, shot details, photographed the workshop it was in, the father and son who built it. The car world, I quickly realised, is never just about the car. I continue to love the stories that the automotive world holds, from 80 year old blokes who have worked in the same workshop for 65 years and refuse to retire, to young female karting champions aiming to be the first woman to win an F1 race. Since that first shoot in 2013, I’ve been very lucky to find myself shooting moments such as Vettel and Leclerc with a Ferrari Monza in Maranello, Guy Martin attempting a land speed record on the Bonneville Salt Flats, a 4,000km road trip in a classic Mini from Athens to Oxford, Sami families in the Artic Circle with Porsche, and cowboys singing in a basement honkey-tonk, to name just a few. Like everyone else on the planet, 2020 has been quite a different year to usual for me. On the last trip I did, I turned to my companions at the airport and said ‘This

Covid thing will blow over in a couple of weeks, I’m sure of it.” Ha... This year did allow me one more trip, though. A great feat for a little car, I celebrated owning my own 1985 Austin Mini Mayfair for 10 years by driving from the most populated place in the UK to the least populated place. Islington to the Shetland Islands. 1,800 miles by road plus another 600 by sea in total with many, many mechanical issues along the way, there was no better way I could have celebrated the anniversary than a solo road trip during a pandemic. There’s something selfishly freeing about road tripping solo. Being able to stop wherever you want to take a photo (and in my case, that’s roughly every 2 miles) or eat whenever you want or wherever you want (in this case, it was many takeaways in my room thanks to local lockdowns). Standing at the most northern point of the UK in gale force wind and rain with thunderous waves crashing, I felt such pride in my Mini for making it. As I sat back inside my little car, eating my Twix, windows steaming up as the rain lashed and the winds rocked us both, I contemplated what the next year may bring. I doubt the world will ever be ‘normal’ again, but I hope that this pandemic has made us each crave adventure a little more. The desire to leave our homes and explore further than the doorstep or the cheapest package holiday destination. I look forward to sharing my own adventures with you, whether they be from the comfort of my own country or further afield, in the next issue of b500 Magazine.

WHAT DAVID GANDY DID NEXT b500 get an exclusive first look at his Porsche 356 Restomod Q&A with Del Gregory & David Gandy Photos: Del Gregory for b500

et’s start at the beginning to explain how I’ve ended up with David Gandy on the cover of issue 6 of b500.

I was introduced to David by Damon Jones @damon_jones and we subsequently had a chat on the phone about his latest classic this rather beautiful Porsche 356 Restomod. David then very kindly suggested b500 could see it first and from that moment on the final issue of 2020 was conceived. After a couple of false starts (due to lockdown restrictions), we met at Whatley Manor Hotel in Wiltshire and spent much of a whole day moving the car from place to place in the grounds of the hotel to

follow the fading December light, and for me to grab as many shots as I could of both David and his dark blue Porsche. During our day together we found time to have lunch in Whatley’s Brasserie (first turkey lunch of the season), and chatted about cars, photography, travel and of course lockdown! David then had a couple of hours drive back to London but by midnight the same day I had edited the images, sent him a stack, (which together we selected the accompanying images). A true pro and a pleasure to work with. Del: So David, not only am I getting the very first look of the car in its newly restored and modified form, but you’ve just announced

when it came off the transporter, this is also the first time you’ve seen it finished! David: Indeed. This project has been a labour of love for the last three years. I have worked closely with Parry Chana at Lux Classics (who also restored my first classic the Mercedes 190SL) from concept to finding a donor car and then the full process of a bespoke restoration. This year with Covid-19 to work around it put a little spanner in the works so to speak, where I couldn’t visit the work shop, so Parry and I have worked on much of the final details through digital communications such as WhatsApp and Zoom. So yes this is the first time I have seen the finished article in person and I am extremely proud of the

results. However I have already spotted a few areas that need some tweaks, so we are not quite finished yet, but that is always the way with car restoration. Del: So much has been written about your Jaguar XK120, so it’s great that we can talk about your latest project as something quite literally new out-the-box and very different. So how did this come about and why a 356? David: The XK120 was a very different project. For that car I worked with JLR Classics, who have huge facilities and resources and thus the restoration only took 10 months. The restoration process of the XK120 was also made much more public so that people could follow the build closely. Even I was surprised at the engagement and reaction, reaching over 10 million people. But this is one of the reasons I restore classic cars and not just invest in them. I want other people to enjoy them, I want to restore them so they are on the road for at least another 50 years. The 356 was much more bespoke and involved, taking less design inspiration from the heritage of the vehicle and incorporating more of my own design and vision. Porsches have always had a heritage of racing, replacing engines and adapting to make them faster and improve balance and handling, I felt I had much more free rein restoring the Porsche than I did with either the Mercedes or Jaguar that are much more historically correct. Del: So now that you’ve see your new 356 off the transporter, and you obviously know the car so well, what are your first thoughts? David: I may allow myself a pat on the back for this one. Lux classics have done an incredible job of bringing my vision to life. Looking at the car now, the car sits beautifully on the larger, wider wheels and the ride height is perfect. I’m fortunate enough to have had some great advice along the way from Ian Callum, one the greatest car designers

ever and Damon Jones, who was in charge of production at Singer. I would often send them pictures and ask for advice on various areas of the car. Ian advised me to lower it by 1cm at the front, which sounds so silly but he has proved to be correct. I am thrilled at the results, the colours work beautifully, the single knock off painted wheels work incredibly well. The bumpers were also a complete bespoke design, I think they have improved the looks of the later 356 design with them being shorter, narrower and much closer to the body. There are of course still a few things to improve upon, but overall I think it’s beautiful. Del: What plans do you have with this car for what we are all hoping will be a ‘different’ kind of year in 2021? David: As mentioned I restore these cars for other people to see and enjoy. There have already been requests for it to appear at a few classic car shows and events for 2021, like my XK120 did in 2020. However I am also finally building a house and more importantly a garage where I can finally bring all my cars together, to enjoy and drive them much more than I do now. I am a big believer that classic cars should be driven, not just put on display or kept in a private collection. Del: You continue to have a successful career in modelling, did your passion for cars develop alongside your career, or have you always had the car passion? David: My passion for cars started way before my passion for clothing and fashion, I always say that ‘fashion pays for my passion’. For as long as I can remember I adored cars, as a child I could tell you the make, model, bhp and 0-60 time of every car on the street and that hasn’t really changed. I worked for AutoExpress magazine during my year between school and University and always say I should have stayed on and not bothered with University. However I have

still been able to follow my love of writing about cars for GQ, Vanity Fair, Mayfair Times etc. I gained my racing licence a few years back and have competed in a few races and two Mille Miglias with Jaguar in their XK120s.

what I want to be doing in the future and building towards this, unfortunately I cant talk about any of these at the moment. However if I could I would quit the fashion business and go into building and renovating cars full time.

from this some great opportunities have arisen. I’ve also had more time to spend with my 2 year old daughter, who also turns out to be a natural petrol head and already embarrassingly has a 3 electric car garage.

Del: Aside from your modelling contracts, I know you’re also a successful business person so can you tell us what else you’re up to in business right now?

Del: I suppose it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t mention 2020 and the travel restrictions, so has most of your overseas work been cancelled or has some of it been able to be put on ice until we can all travel again?

Del: My last overseas shoot was to LA to photograph Magnus Walker for the first b500. Are you a fan of LA yourself?

David: I’ve been building my brand, companies etc for 20 years but things really accelerated from 2006. I have invested in many British startups and I’m on the board and an advisor for many others. I’ve stepped away from being in front of the camera so much now and work with brands on collaborations, or as creative director and also directing films for the RAF and Breitling. There are many exciting projects in 2021, all have come about from having more time in 2020 due to lock down, to put teams and ideas together and really think

David: Travelling for projects has been put on hold which is strange for me as over the last 20 years I have been on and off planes and living out of a suitcase. I miss travelling. Many people hate it, but I love exploring and I never spend much time in one place. Routine and the monotony of being in one place affects me quite badly. However I have an ever increasing number of investments, businesses, projects and interests and 2020 has allowed me to expand on these, and

David: I love the California weather, I love the fact you can swim and 3 hours later be skiing. I love the P1 highway. Unfortunately I’ve never taken to LA and its a place I have spent a lot of time in. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I just don’t connect with the city, it always confuses me that there doesn’t actually seem to be a centre just lots of different areas that you sit hours in traffic trying to get too. I much prefer NYC and have always said it is one of my favourite cities in the world.

Del: So back to cars, clearly you’re a petrol head, so I have to ask, what’s your thoughts on electric? Is there one out there at the moment you would go for…or have you one already? David: I think the car brands have done an incredible job to bring electric cars to mass market so quickly. Lets face it, it doesn’t matter what we think of them, the government have banned the sales of petrol

and diesel by 2030 so whether we like it or not electric cars are the future. I have ordered two hybrid engined cars myself this year and admit that around London I enjoy the serenity of driving in full electric mode, not having to worry about filling up with petrol and just plugging the car in for a few hours a night to charge. I think the most desirable electric car right now has to be the Porsche Taycan Turbo S. The cleverest design I believe to be the Jaguar I-pace. Many of the manufacturers

have stuck to pretty standard saloons and SUV style electric cars. The I-Pace is a great demonstration of what can be achieved with design and space when you don’t have to incorporate an engine into the design. Electric also suits 90% of the cars and the drivers on the road. Brands and cars such as Rolls-Royce or the Mercedes S class have for decades tried to make the quietest car, so an electric engine is perfect. Electric cars have also proved themselves

to be astonishingly quick, as quick as many supercars. However when it comes to sports cars the engine, the exhaust note, the response from a V6, V8 or V10 is the essence of the driving experience and the beating heart of the car. I for one will sorely miss having these engines and I believe most people who are truly passionate about cars and racing will feel the same.

everywhere, car parks, super markets, driveways etc, but the government has to start making drastic changes to the charging network now in order for everyone to see electric cars as a viable alternative and not have to worry about the range. As it stands the infrastructure is abysmal. Maybe the answer would be that all in the government have to drive or be driven

the production process. There are also alternatives to fuel such as hydrogen, which although extremely inefficient to produce, requires the same infrastructure of service stations that we already have. Porsche are also spending hundreds of millions in creating carbon neutral synthetic fuels, which are extremely expensive but with mass production will come down in price.

Where I think there might be a problem is the infrastructure to be able to charge electric cars and having driven a few examples this is the biggest challenge. I look at the 60 cars on my road and think, if they were all electric how do we charge them without a driveway, the recharging process taking many hours in some cases rather than minutes to fill up with fuel. However I think we have to understand that unlike fossil fuel cars, we do not have to go to specialist stations where the fuel is stored. Electricity is available

in electric cars and when they see the difficulties we may see a rather drastic change. We are also in our infancy of electric car production. We have to firstly remember that electric cars are only cleaner and reduce CO2 if the electric is coming from a renewable source, otherwise you are just burning fossil fuels to create electricity. I also hope we havenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t put all our eggs in one basket, so to say. A recent study I was reading says an electric car has to be driven 50,000 miles before it becomes cleaner than a fossil fuel car because of

So I hope that more development and billions are spent looking at all alternatives not just relying on electric cars. I therefore feel that with those alternatives, whether you are passionate about cars or not, whether you drive sports cars, classic cars, or you race cars, everyone will be satisfied, because of course the main goal here for everyone is to reduce the CO2 and reliance on Fossil Fuels.

Del:Â Are you just into classics or is there a supercar you might like to add to your collection?

David: I don’t believe there will ever be a supercar in the collection. I appreciate supercars, however they have become so fast and so capable that I think unless you were on a track you wouldn’t be able to use anywhere near the capability of the modern day supercars. Supercars seem to be bought as a statement piece more than anything else. Once upon a time you would buy a supercar because they would have a sub 4 second 0-60 time and you couldn’t get that performance anywhere else. However the F-Pace SVR that I drive daily is 0-60 in 4 secs and is a big heavy SUV. A Mercedes A45 or Audi RS6 are both sub 4 second cars, so you can now access supercar performance in much more practical everyday cars.

Del: You drove the famous Mille Miglia back in 2013 with Yasmin Le Bon, tell us a bit about that.

in twice. I was supposed to compete in the MM this year in my own car for the first time, unfortunately like so many other things it was cancelled due to Covid-19. The MM is of course 4 days and 1000 miles of at times complete madness. With 350 pre 1957 cars racing on some closed public roads but also some open public roads. It truly is a spectacular race and one that could only take place in Italy. The Italians are so passionate about cars and motoring and really it is the spectators and fans that make the event so special. Both races were incredibly gruelling, sometimes being in the car for up to 15 hours a day, but I adored every minute of the MM and have the most incredible memories. Both times I competed in Jaguars own XK120’s, the first time with Yasmin, driving in a precise, calm and calculated manner when it came to the time trials of the race. The second time with Jodie (Kidd), who is an incredible driver, was more hell to leather style. The focus was speed and frankly more speed and I have to say so much fun.

David: The MM is an incredible event and one I have been fortunate enough to compete

Del: Given a ‘money no object’ budget tell us your three car garage and why…

Cars such as the Cayman GT4 or Alpine A110 or even something like the new Toyota Yaris GR are much more appealing to me.

David: Virtually an impossible question. All I can say is that I love the three classics that I have. I will never tire of them as I think they are some of the most beautiful cars that have ever been built. However, having said that I did sell the Mercedes 190SL just before lock down, so if I had to replace this it would be either a Jaguar XKSS or a Ferrari 250 GTO SWB. However I am going to need to sell a lot of clothes to afford one of these. With thanks: Firstly my thanks to Damon Jones for the initial introduction to David. Thanks to Whatley Manor, particularly Eloise Gordon for allowing access to the grounds for the shoot. Thanks to Parry Chana at luxclassics.com for preparing the car for the shoot and to Stuart Creasey at stuartcreasey.com for transportation and his assistance with the photoshoot. Finally my thanks to David for his availability and for giving the first look of his Porsche to b500 magazine, for which I’m grateful and consider it a real honour for us to see the car first.

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EDITORS’ CHOICE Bart Kuykens - A flat6 love affair By Del Gregory

’m Del Gregory founder/Editor of b500. Some of you reading this might know me already but for those of you who don’t, I’ve been a photographer of people, places and lifestyle for over 40 years. Along with that I’ve been in publishing all over the world for what feels like a similar time. As a publisher of books and magazines myself, I know how difficult and often exhausting a process it can be, with this in mind I wanted to write about the photographer

Bart Kuykens and his book series A flat6 love affair.

I would have to design and build a new one.

I invited Bart to have his own regular page in b500 a few months back as I knew he would add a great value to the content of the magazine each issue.

After some discussions with my wife, (which took all of ten seconds as she’s been asking me to build new book shelves for the 10 years we’ve been in our new house), she asked suspiciously, “why all of a sudden do you want to build the new book shelves”. No reason darling, I replied as I was lifting the 14kilo box containing P.O.R.S.C.H quietly up the stairs whilst her back was turned. (E as volume 7 is due next year)...

I’ve been happy to promote his series of books through b500 and a couple of weeks back I made the decision to add his entire back catalogue to my own book shelf. The problem however was that my own bookshelves are now so rammed with books, I knew

I’m not going to dress this up - If you just like classic pictures of cars, then you might not even ‘get’ Bart’s work. But if you like looking at dark, moody, gritty, street style, quick off the mark, fly on the wall style photos, then you’re going to love Bart’s work. Bart’s style isn’t always about sharp focus and whilst you might be wondering isn’t that the point of photography? I’m here to tell you no it isn’t. We have left the comfort zone of conventional photography behind and entered into a whole new arena which lives and breathes a separate life of its own - as pure art. It’s easy to get pulled into Bart’s world through his camera and I’ve just spent a glorious whole weekend poring through his six current volumes and immersing myself into his dark and mysterious world whilst sipping a fine 30 year old malt with just the noise of a crackling fire next to me. Pure heaven. His style is honest and completely understanding of his subject, which as a longterm owner himself, he knows so well, but for me it’s the different Porsche owners who he captures within his story board that make the images so personal. It’s like I’ve stumbled into a private film set with every shot in every volume. Some of the people I know, some I don’t - but immediately want to.

And so I now have my own full set (eagerly awaiting E) and have no further excuses not to build some new book shelves over the forthcoming holidays to house my flat6 love affair series. It was during a recent conversation with Bart that I decided to bite the bullet of the whole series, because as Bart explained to me, he now only has a few left of various volumes and before very long you simply won’t be able to get a whole complete series - so I felt it was now or never.

Frankly I’m not sure how I’m going to hide these and then suddenly put them on my new bookshelves before I get my head chewed off for investing in ‘more car books’, but I’ll have finally made some new book shelves so what more could my long suffering wife possible want? Bart is a unique photographer who knows how to get the very best from his Hasselblad and Leica film cameras, and as a fellow photographer of both of these brands myself, I could literally wax lyrical about his skill and style all day long!

Within these beautifully crafted books Bart has clearly decided to let the images speak for themselves and as someone who believes that less is more, I love the fact the books are in no way ‘over designed’. The design is minimalistic but like the images equally exquisite, which makes picking up each volume and turning the pages even more pleasurable. I guess to sum up, I’d say there are books and then there are books. There are photographers and then there are photographers. With A flat6 love affair you get the very best of both. If I had to score these books out of 10? 11. Don’t miss getting a whole series whilst Bart still has them. Each one comes signed and numbered.

b500 magazine

ETIENNE SALOMÉ Yacht & Supercar Designer / Artist

After working for 12 years on the design of Bugatti Automobiles, Berlin-based Etienne Salomé decided to create his own company: ‘Salome Yachts and Design’, He officially launched with his team the ‘Atlantic Project’ in September 2019 during the Monaco Yacht Show, a 12 meter sport tender, immediately recognisable on the water, a true head-turner. He keeps one foot in the automotive industry as a consultant for various car manufacturers including the supercar/ hypercar manufacturer Koenigsegg.

cannot deny that I love speed, not always for its own sake but for being in control of it. There is a huge responsibility and it requires concentration and respect. My latest art works embody the fact that exercised with care and precision driving is hugely rewarding. For me the detail in the car that connect the man to the machine are the instruments. So for my Porsche artwork “70 years Man Machine”, I collected as many photos of Porsche tachometers as possible through my travels, exhibition, car fairs, concours, and created an art work using those images. The final piece is a 100x100cm lambda print mounted under 4mm plexiglass on a 3mm aluminium di-bond, an edition of 70 numbered examples, hand signed and dated by myself. This piece of art is using 35 selected iconic Porsche tachometers, all compressed into one single image that can be looked at in one moment. It draws you visually and gets you trying to figure out how these visual traces in the result relate to the source material. I like the way that the source material is my own photography, and that I create visually interesting but semi-abstract imagery by means of a very clearly defined process. For the “70 years Man Machine”, the integration from multiple speedometers selected

all through the years of production of the brand, provides the third parameter in the realisation of these two-dimensional photographic objects, time! Through this process of creation, we can clearly see the consistency of the design created at Weissach, the font, colours, concentric circles... 70 years of perfection. Interestingly there is no need for a brand logo in order to recognise the brand, even in the details, Porsche is immediately recognisable. I have also created this style of artwork for an exhibition in Paris, pre-lockdown when exhibitions were still possible! For those pieces I used some tachometers or speedometers from other brands too: Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Maserati, Rolls Royce, Bentley or Alfa Romeo and printed them in 200x200 cm. The accompanying video to this article is a great memory of the exhibition!

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COTSWOLD LITTLE MOTORS ‘Building the car you dreamed of when you were young for the children of today’

any of us dream of driving around in a bespoke open top vintage car, some are fortunate enough to realise those dreams as they grow older, but what if we could we could open up these opportunities to the younger generation and pass on this passion? With this vision, Cotswold Little Motors designs & engineers bespoke aluminium

bodied junior cars, each one aiming to capture what makes the vintage & historic cars that we dreamed of, special. Each car starts life as a simple sketch, capturing the client’s own taste & design influences. These then move into 3D on the computer, allowing the detailed design & engineering to be developed & visualised, before finally being brought to life in the workshop. It’s here where the flat panels of aluminium are beaten & hand-formed into the curved bodywork, before being married to the

mechanical hardware, resulting in the envisaged machine. Variants range from pull along models, suitable for the first few years, through traditional pedal powered & steered as they grow and into electrically powered, and if you’d like, remote controlled machines in a range of styles from liveried racers to elegant tourers. Either way they’re designed to complement a modern lifestyle, fitting in the back of the family car where a buggy

or pram would, and more importantly, have storage space for a picnic lunch out! As these are hopefully something to be treasured for years to come, the design is an exercise in packaging, ensuring the very young, to the not so young, can fit, all while being durable enough to take the toll of many muddy walks. The business was born out of the feedback received while out with the original prototype car, made for the founder’s son. That idea, conceived while his wife was still pregnant, was to make something more interesting than a buggy or pram, that would stay with his son as he grew. Many months of evenings & weekends spent cutting, machining, shaping, refining & trimming resulted in the car you see here. The first proper test run was a sunny afternoon through the Maple trees at Batsford Arboretum, resulting in a very happy toddler and smiles from all who saw it. Since then the core design had been developed, upgraded & re-tested and is now a familiar sight at the local walking spots. The engineering that goes into these designs draws on the founder’s automotive engineering background in the vehicle dynamics & chassis areas of premium vehicle OEMs. This means the skills & knowledge gained there in analysis & test driving is applied here, just shrunk down a few sizes! One of the new models includes fully independent suspension, which draws on the same principles applied during the development of its full size counterparts; it does also have a little teak rimmed aluminium steering wheel, that definitely doesn’t however! Another stark contrast to modern cars, is that the vehicles here draw on a purer, more analogue era of timelessly styled machines, more suited to tearing up a hillclimb, and so don’t age, just gather patina that tells their story. More information on this little company & their designs at www.CotswoldLittleMotors.com

FOR SALE 1965 TVR Trident Prototype by Fissore

very good car story should include a design or idea being written on the back of a cigarette packet or in this case, a napkin! In the early 1960’s TVR was going through some financial remodelling and the plan was to introduce a new model that would be aimed between the Jaguar E-Type and Aston Martin DB4/5. In 1963, a Director of TVR, Bernard Williams, met with a budding designer by the name of Trevor Frost at the Derby Arms in Treales, Lancashire, where the first sketches were put forward on the aforementioned napkin. Frost was half Italian and worked with a number of design houses using his Italian name, Trevor Fiore, principally Carozzeria Fissore of Turin. The design was met with delight but the means to pay for such a project were not available until 1965 when two prototypes were commissioned in Left Hand Drive.

Originally, the idea was to use the Mk3 1800 chassis with MG running gear but soon the powerplant was changed to a V8 and so the chassis was lengthened and modified as a result. A Ford 289ci V8 was decided upon as the engine of choice and prototype No.1 was soon built and put on the TVR stand at the 1965 Geneva Motor Show, where it stole the show. After another successful display at the New York Motor Show in April 1965, two more prototypes were approved, another Coupé and a Convertible, this time in Right Hand Drive. Sadly, management conflict and the spiralling costs of the Trident led to TVR going into liquidation in summer 1965 and the Trident program looked to be over. Fortunately, TVR was snapped up rather quickly by Martin Lilley and his father, who ran TVR dealer The Barnet Motor Co and who were very attracted to the idea of continuing the plan to build the TVR

Trident. Unfortunately for Martin, TVR dealer, Bill Last, had seen an opportunity and went to Fissore, who some sources say hadn’t been paid a penny by TVR, and he acquired the Trident design. What ensued was an acrimonious tale of legal battles and even alleged theft but the end result was that Bill Last set up Trident Cars, building fiberglass versions of the Trident on an Austin Healey chassis with a V8 engine. The crisp, clean design was lost through the use of fiberglass and open headlights but the Trident would be produced for a number of years until the business ultimately failed in 1976. Rewinding back to 1965, to placate Martin Lilley, Fissore decided it was best to send the last two prototypes to TVR. The Convertible (No. 4) would be used by Martin Lilley as his personal car for a number of years and No.3, the RHD coupé would sit in the factory where it would reside until sold in 1972.

This car: The TVR Trident for sale at The Classic Motor Hub is Prototype No. 3. When completed in 1965, No. 3 was displayed at the Turin Motor Show that year, after which it was delivered to the factory in Blackpool where it is most likely that the engine and perhaps even chassis, were used on the production line. In 1972 the body and spares were bought by a Mr. Worthington in Manchester, who later sold the car to Ian Stronach, a racing driver well known for building the futuristic 1964 mid-V8 engined Vixen racer, who fully intended to restore it but never did. He advertised it in Classic & Sportscar in 1986, where the advert was seen by the current owner, who had fallen in love with the TVR Trident when, as a teenager, he bought a copy of Style Auto in 1965 and saw a picture of Prototype No.1 at the Geneva Motor Show. In his words, the cars driving around at the time were the likes of the Austin Cambridge, so this futuristic wedge design was literally out of this world. To satisfy his lust, he bought one of the fiberglass Tridents which he ran for a number of years. One can imagine his surprise and excitement when an advert in a 1986 issue of Classic & Sportscar seemingly offered an original TVR Trident for sale. He shot over to where the car was being offered for sale and a deal was struck for what was described as a complete body and interior, correct specification chassis, a Rover V8 and a garage full of parts. Most of the parts, which included no less than seven LHD steering racks for MGs, were not of any use. So began a painstaking 5 year restoration to return Prototype No.3 to as close to its original specification as possible. Work was entrusted to Don Haldenby of DCH Autocraft, Don had been Stirling Moss’s race mechanic and, at the time, still maintained and looked after Stirling’s collection of classic racing cars. The owner travelled far and wide to autojumbles and fairs to acquire correct period parts for the TVR. A reconditioned 289ci Ford V8 was sourced, as was a correct specification

Borg-Warner T10 4-speed transmission. The back axle was built up using parts from a Jaguar S-Type that Don Haldenby had in his workshop that was modified to fit and suited the correct track and set up perfectly, as well as giving the advantage of disc brakes on the rear as well as a Salisbury 4HU Limited Slip Differential. Upon completion the car has been used on high days and holidays by the first and only owner to drive the car, and has been the subject of many an article in a number of top publications including Classic & Sportscar, Classic Cars, Classic Car Weekly and Auto Italia, copies of which are with the car. These articles go into great detail about the restoration and the lengths gone through to return this stunning motor car to its former glory. The car has also been featured on the Cartier Style et Luxe Lawn at Goodwood Festival of Speed in 2016, Goodwood Revival, London Classic Car Show and the NEC. In 2018, a minor accident prompted a full bare metal respray with any corrosion or imperfections that may have come to light in the 30 years since the last restoration being rectified and returning the car to even better condition than it was after the first restoration. Today, No. 3 presents in stunning condition with its extremely low original mileage and extensive history file with invoices and MOT certificates going back to when the car was finished in 1991 and before. There is even a copy of a TVR catalogue that featured the Trident in the future line up of the TVR range. The V8 engine roars into life readily and offers huge performance for a car of this era. Not only is this rare and fascinating motor car an absolute joy on the road, it is sure to be invited to some of the best shows and events around the country, if not the world. It will also most likely have magazines knocking at your door wanting to tell the story of this fascinating car, which would have no doubt shot TVR to new heights and may well have meant a more solid future than that which we know it has been through.

Details: - 1965 TVR Trident Prototype by Fissore - One of four prototypes built in steel - The only Right Hand Drive Coupé - Displayed at the Turin Motor Show in 1965 - Restored in 1986-1991 and body fully restored in 2018/9 with bare metal respray Price: £135,000

b500 magazine

STEFAN JOHANSSON Racing Driver / Artist / Watch Designer

Stefan Johansson is a Swedish racing driver who had a 10 year career in Formula 1 for both Ferrari and McLaren, among other teams. Since leaving Formula One he has won the 1997 24 Hours of Le Mans and raced in a number of other categories. He lives in Santa Monica, where he is nowadays an accomplished artist, designer entrepreneur and independent thinker.

’ve been extremely busy here in the studio, painting almost every day and we’re starting to commercialise some of the art, especially the abstract painting. I had no intention of doing that when I started but the style of the art lends itself very well to those types of products. All those paintings are inspired by my memories of racing on different tracks over the years, the images are something I think of when I think back to racing at a certain track. Every one of the paintings is named after a corner or section of different grand prix circuits. We started making some face masks based on one of the paintings for fun really but we’re actually selling a lot of them. We’re now doing hats, skateboards, surfboards and a whole range of other clothing items that will be launched gradually over the next 6 months. And we’re doing prints of the original paintings in three different sizes which

have been extremely popular. We’re branding it all around the abstract art. It’s colourful and eye catching. I’m quite chuffed that it’s been so well received. I enjoy it all but the portraits I do separately are more serious art. There’s quite a lot of effort in terms of the research I do before I even start to paint them as the text I overlay once the subject is painted is really what brings meaning to the work. The whole process is quite time consuming. It takes almost a month to do one portrait. I like all of them for various reasons but I just did one – a “Lucha Libre” portrait of Lewis Hamilton where he’s wearing a Mexican wrestling mask painted in his helmet colours. It’s fun and different and I want to do more of that concept. I just finished one of James Dean and one of Steve McQueen. They’re all meaningful to me and I hope they will cause some level of emotion in my viewers too. I sell all the art on my website and until now the response has been very positive.

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by palisade fencing, anti-ram barriers and a monitored CCTV and alarm system. This is all in a very discreet location, right on the M25, 30 minutes from Central London. We have in house transportation and can deliver a car to, or collect from anywhere. Our in house detailer to clean your car after use or prepare it for a concours event. This is done at our bespoke detailing building, adjoining the storage facility. We can also look after all your MOT tests, servicing, maintenance, repairs and tyres. We will do this for a customer with one car or comprehensively manage your entire collection. When in storage your car will

be kept under one of our bespoke fleece lined covers and its battery maintained with a CTek battery conditioner. Moss Automotive is also a HMRC approved Customs Warehouse, one of only a few in the U.K and the closest to London. This allows you to import a vehicle to the U.K and defer the VAT payment, whilst in our care. During that time, the vehicle can be released for maintenance, or to display at events. Our anonymous location enables us to maintain a low profile and operate in private. Our ethos is to provide the ultimate service in the best environment, on a discreet and confidential basis.

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ROAD TRIP When a global pandemic makes reaching destinations by air less than appealing, what’s the obvious answer? That’s right - the road trip. Nick Dalton reached for the road atlas and set a course due north…

ny other year, we’d probably be drawn to somewhere Mediterranean, and be looking forward to a ‘leisurely’ balance of deliberate inactivity and inevitable over-consumption. It’s a time-proven recipe for getting away

from things and sufficiently agreeable to be repeated annually, with perhaps the most significant concern being ‘which language do you fancy stumbling over this time?’ Recent world events had something to say on this topic, obviously. The sole ‘Plan B’ in either of our minds was

to dust off an idea we’d discounted frequently in the past for being ‘a bit difficult’; Yes, the extremities of the British isles are as awash with natural beauty as many exotic destinations, but was it really worth driving all the way to them? The forced hand of 2020 would help us arrive at a definitive answer.

‘Plan B’, in truth, was barely more formed than ‘head north’ - although at its core lay a romantic notion of wilderness and isolation, perhaps at odds with mainland tours such as the NC500. No, this isolation would need to be real, tangible - Hebridean perhaps. The ultimate aim was set - and a string of highland waypoints would take us there. Skirting the shores of Loch Lomond in bright September morning sun, the dream started becoming real. Even at a gentle cruise, spirits grew with the landscape as it rose taller by the mile, eyes widening to take it all in. By Glencoe, each corner rounded gave rise to incredulous guffaws, neither of us being quite able to process the grandeur unfolding through the windscreen.

Unsurprisingly, said grandeur hasn’t escaped others - making a number of locations used in feature films within spitting distance of a main road. Ticking off Bond (Glen Etive), Harry Potter (Glenfinnan) and Highlander (Loch Shiel & Eilean Donan) within a single day is easily done, although be prepared for the 007 fantasy to come with a dose of realism. The single track road is the wrong type of driving challenge, and on arrival, you’ll most likely be in a queue for

After such a whistle stop tour through the highlands, the chance to set up base for a few nights - on Skye. Like a sharper-toothed lake district dropped into the Altantic, it could be argued that this ‘inner Hebride’ has it all; sweeping vista peppered with whitewashed cottages, craggy ranges offering world class mountaineering, white and turquoise shorelines frequented by all manner of wildlife - and as it turns out, a mean line in haute cuisine.

overlooking Staffin Bay (with its real dino-footprints) hosts an insta-friendly strip of tarmac looking every inch the rally stage, and though a jaunt up it proves more ‘car preservation’ than ‘time attack’, it’s an opportunity not to miss. The views are incredible - whether you choose to include your wheels or not...

that layby - because everybody else has used the same google maps coordinates. Nevermind, the photographs need capture only the sheer chutzpah of standing in Dench and Craig’s footprints.

From its charming centre Portree, the island divides neatly into ‘West’ and ‘North’ loops chock full of stunning viewpoints; although it’s on its northern loop, that its roadtrip pinup lies. The Quiraing, a still-moving landslip

to return before we’d even left, it was already time to move on.

It takes a couple of days to take in the major sights of Skye, but rather less to fall in love with it. Making plans

After two hours at sea, the difference between inner and outer Hebrides should come as little surprise, but arriving in

Harris, the sense of wilderness was immediately palpable - the prettiness of Skye making way for a more hardheaded landscape. Attacking the C79 coastal route to Rodel, a joyous ribbon undulating through barren outcrops, tiny homesteads and rocky shorelines proved the perfect introduction to the island - as well as providing a memorable lunch (served from an old caravan, natch). The western coast of Harris is much less rocky, but hosts several beaches which received wisdom would say have no business being that far north, Luskentyre is perhaps the most famous, and deservedly so - the layers of thick cloud, dusky mountains, bright aqua sea and shocking white sand an extraordinary combination. Worth staying for as long as the weather will let you… Heading further north still, through North Harris and into Lewis (it’s all one island, go figure) via a spectacular blast up the A859, our ultimate destination lay in wait. While Stornaway takes credit for planting the seed, it’s the west coast which embodied the vision perfectly. At one end of a half hour dead-end, devoid of signal, and at the full mercy of the Atlantic, Mangersta proved to be the real deal. Wild. Huge. Remote. Raw. Ancient. Beautiful. The ‘Hebridean isolation’ dream we’d had made real. A few days to take things slowly (away from the roads, at least) proved perfect ahead of the long return leg, via Ullapool and Pitlochry, planning the next tour as we went. So, why the TT? Even in run-outspecial ‘QS’ form it’s neither the most luxurious nor most focussed of devices, and though reasonably practical, still demanded that we pack lightly. Yet its ability to dispatch lengthy transit sections, entertain with pace and poise wherever the going grew twistier and hold its own as a photographic subject makes for a superb road trip companion. The only regret was not having pointed it north sooner.

b500 magazine

MAGNUS WALKER Man with a beard

Man with a Beard Builder, Collector, Driver Born in Sheffield -1967 Wrote a letter to Porsche as a 10 year old wanting to be a car Designer Lives in Los Angeles since 1987 Car Enthusiast

ne thing often leads to another. That was how our Mille Miglia adventure began. The epic 1,000 mile fourday romp through the Italian countryside in search of la Dolce Vita. The Mille Miglia was not actually an event on my dream list, though. The journey began 18 months prior with a random Instagram photo post of my buddy Ray’s 1963 220 Mercedes. It was a rather fetching example in slate gray with a red interior, a three-speed column shift, and gobs of character, soul and patina. Often, that’s all you need. The IG post I recall was well-received. One comment in particular stood out, from Michael at the MercedesBenz museum in Stuttgart, Germany. It went like this: “How cool that a Porsche guy posts a Mercedes photo.” This was followed by an invite to tour the Mercedes-Benz museum if I wanted to the next time I was in Stuttgart. Naturally the next time I was over there visiting the other team across town, I visited the iconic museum. The structure alone is enough to grab the attention of anyone, car fan or not. About half way through the guided tour, we came across a 300SL. Casually I mentioned how I’d love to drive one, and to my surprise, Michael replied, “Hey that could be

arranged. Would you like to drive it in the Mille Miglia?” “Yes,” was the only word I could think of. Of course I’d like to drive it. It was as simple as that. Now, the Mille Miglia is no longer the balls-out pedal to the metal race it was back in the day when Stirling Moss and co-pilot ‘Jenks’ set the course record of 10 hours, seven minutes, and 58 seconds back in 1956. Today’s Mille is more of an exhibition tour of the countryside. We flew to Frankfurt. Michael met us at the airport, in a Mercedes of course. We drove straight to Brescia, to a nondescript convention center where we first got to see and inspect the car and the MercedesBenz team. Soon, the slightly daunting excitement of the next few days began to sink in. The good news was we had factory support. All we needed to do was show up and drive. Our steed for the next few days was a 1955 Mercedes-Benz SL in black with no bumpers. It was car number 359. The three-litre inline six is quite an impressive sight to behold. The doors open towards the sky like a gullwing, hence the name. The sill is wide and low and requires a balletlike pirouette to slide on down into the low-slung bucket seat.

At first I was tilting the oversized moveable steering wheel back to make entry easier. But I soon realized this was tedious, time consuming, and a little over dramatic. After a few tries I was able to slide right in quite easily underneath the steering wheel. Once inside, the car was quite roomy. In fact, I could even wear my signature Derby hat. The controls of the car are elegant. The shifter lever is dainty with an ivory ball tip. The four-speed transmission shifts into gear quite easily. The inline – six fires right up to a lazy idle. After a short briefing about the car and a long drivers meeting in Italian, which gave us time to look at the road guide book—also in Italian— Hannah and I decided our best plan was to have fun and not worry about the competition side of things. We had noticed almost everyone else was taking this very seriously, with their road guides filled with highlighted markers, notes, and post-it notes no doubt in reference to where they should be and at what time. At this point, I should mention I had the easy job of driving. Hannah, the greatest co-pilot and navigator, had the hard job of keeping us on track. The start at Brescia was filled with excitement, noise, energy, people and rain. With 358 cars in front of us, it was also a long wait before we started. But having the likes of Jochen Mass and Jackie Ickx on board telling stories helped to pass the time. Soon it was our time to belt up and proceed through the tiny streets to the rolling start. The group cheered, the engine roared, and we were on our way. Once the excitement of the crowds disappeared, the true journey began. Soon we faced our first important decision: Should we follow the car in front of us, who appeared to be going the wrong way, or should we trust our gut, and poor Italian. This was a decision we would make many times over the next few days.

Our mantra was, “Run our own race and course.” The first day was quite short and over rather quickly. the next three would not be the same. One of the many exciting things about the Mille is following the motorbike cops into oncoming traffic. This seemed strange at first but quickly became the norm. As did splitting traffic and splitting past the countless tractors, caravans, and mopeds that dot these tiny narrow Italian streets. remember, the event takes place on open public roads, and it’s often dog-eat-dog out there. I grew fond of this manoeuvre, as did other drivers. The tricky bit was always slicing back into traffic just before the inevitable roundabouts. I have often thought the Mille Miglia should be called “the thousand roundabouts.”

The 300SL is a joy to drive. The gears are tall. The motor is torque. The rear end moves around a lot, and the brakes are wooden. It’s a bit like an e-type jaguar that doesn’t stop as well. The days were long and sleep was limited. A usual day goes like this; up at 6am; quick bite to eat; pick up the car; report to staging by 7am; on the road by 8am. Then, the race is on. The days are a mixture of time trials set by stages marked by a certain time distance and average speed. Sometimes we would arrive early only to have to pull over and wait it out watching the stopwatch in preparation to cross the line at the designated time. Lunch was always a mad dash affair. Then it’s back on the road in the afternoon, often hooking up with a

pair of like-minded spirited drivers swapping positions on the road for fun. Occasionally we’d have to remind ourselves that we were in someone else’s million-dollar car. Perhaps the best part though of the Mille are the people who line the route cheering you on in all hours of the day and all conditions of weather. Often as darkness falls and tiredness overwhelms, the night stages are the most difficult. Poor visibility of light rain, fog and weak headlights didn’t help with the fatigue. After 12–14 hours in the car on unknown roads following the

guidebook in Italian, the day would end in the town square filled with cheering locals at 9pm to 10pm. By the time you returned to the hotel, handed over the car, got out the luggage, found the bar, had a drink and ate some food, it was almost midnight before we hit the feathers. My mind was racing about the day’s events, and I probably only slept four hours a night. This was the schedule for the next two days, rushing from one checkpoint to another. And then, just like that, it was day four. We had covered almost 1,200 miles and were back to where it

all began. To be honest, the finish was a little anticlimactic as we waited together in line at a staging area and then drove over the final ramp for a few photos. And that was it. No big fanfare, no party. But a lifetime of memories. It was a whirlwind of emotions. I’m not sure we found la dolce vita, as there was no time to stop and sip an espresso and enjoy the view. If you want to see Italy from a car, don’t do the Mille. But if you want an adventure of a lifetime, drive the Mille.

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I was shocked at the cost of maintaining them properly - and the most important part of being able to enjoy such a car is to have it in good order. This makes them reliable, easy to use and far more fun in the knowledge that you can drive it as intended, and not just to the local classic car gathering. The Ferrari House is an old-fashioned workshop, with everything needed to fix and maintain your classic Ferrari. We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have a new glass showroom, numerous salesmen or a plush staff canteen; but we do have real tried and tested knowledge of the marque, a deep seated enthusiasm for these wonderful cars

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DESIGN Johnny Dowell aka King Nerd

first met Johnny also known as ‘King Nerd’ virtually (after all this is 2020), back in April after chatting online to Phil Toledano (@misterenthusiast). Phil had shown me the Rolex collaboration he was working on with Johnny, an image of which you can see within this article.

After a bit of research I then stumbled upon the Leica Johnny engraved for photographer Gavin Bond, and I just knew I wanted to feature this amazing work in an issue of b500. Well here it is and sorry it’s taken so long, such is the fact that both myself and Johnny have been so busy over the last few months that we have only recently caught up again on the phone to discuss ‘getting it done’.

Johnny has a lot of different projects on the boil right now, a couple of which I have been given a preview of, and although I’m sworn to secrecy I can say they look bloody amazing! Johnny began his journey by studying Art with the plan of one day studying Fashion at Central Saint Martins.

Central Saint Martins ultimately wasn’t the route he would take though, as a chance encounter with someone working for 200 year old gun company James Purdey and Son’s, would make him start to reconsider his options. Johnny recalls a family friend saying to him “look at me, I’ve done it without Saint Martins, people don’t go there and automatically come out as the next Versace, it doesn’t work like that and if you love fashion enough you can come back to it at any time and try something else first”. Johnny believes this discussion is what made him make his decision and from there he would go on to complete a five year apprenticeship as an engraver at James Purdey and Son’s, a company he would remain at for 15 years in total and in that time he was the only person trained as an engraver. After 15 years under the Richemont group, spending every day in the luxury world, Johnny would eventually leave and apply his love for Art, Design and Engraving to various luxury and bespoke products and projects. The Gavin Bond Leica came about when GQ photographer Gavin contacted Johnny and gave him the brief to do what he wanted, but ensuring his name was on it to give it the finished personal touch. Johnny had thought about engraving a Leica for sometime and so this was the perfect commission. The end result a masterpiece of engraving skills creating a one-of-one for the GQ M6 Leica shooter. For this special and highly personal camera Johnny used a series of ornate scrolling patterns which cover pretty much the whole body. As a Leica shooter myself I could think of no better way to personalise what is already a work of art. With Johnny’s skill and experience nowadays attracting (quite rightly so) a high cost, I might just about be able to get King Nerd to engrave ‘DG’ on the baseplate.

b500 magazine

RICHARD GONÇALVES ROCS Motorsports / Studio RG Art

Artist, designer and custom car builder, Rich operates ROCS Motorsports in New Jersey, a custom house founded in 1995 reimagining and personalising vintage Porsche cars. The same space houses Studio RG Art from where his paintings, sculptures and reimagined watches are generated.

I don’t believe anything is ever simple nor simply cut and dry, what I do believe is that our own realities can only benefit from looking at the very things we may find unusual without immediate interjection by momentarily casting aside common views and perceptions, even if just temporarily.

I’m talking about ROCS ART CARS, a movement we unveiled a few years ago which actually has nearly two decades of development and maturing in the making.

ere is one I am sure you have heard at least a handful of times; a child sees a Porsche for the first time and is in awe at its beauty, its color, its sleek movement or its sound...if that child was lucky enough he or she experienced the above all at once. Moments like these are often the big bang to a life filled with aspiration. Its utterly amazing how motivational and impactful a car can be on one’s life and how it can lead you to do certain things, but lets digress for a moment and let’s talk about the usual do’s and don’ts of custom car building and customization in general. Just because something can be done, it doesn’t mean it should be right? Well not so fast, I think that question carries with it more gray area and perhaps even gray matter than a quick answer can satisfy. Allow me to elaborate before you shut the door and run out the back to gather up a Porsche posse.

Even though I feel that “art car” is a bit of a misnomer, it is what people started calling them, dubbed I think by the lack of a better set of words to describe our take on these cars that carry this highly detailed, nostalgia infused treatment. When you hear art car you hear BMW art cars and the likes of Lichtenstein, Stella, etc. or Ichwan Noor’s rolled up beetle. But then to simply call them Hotrods, which they also are doesn’t really quite fully capture the full essence of what they are in totality and let’s not raise any eyebrows by calling them outlaws which, seems to be the more marketing friendly and popular term adopted by the Porsche populace, the rightful bearers of which are the Emory family. Speaking of families and now that my art car dissertation has been submitted I’d like to tell you my story.

I was born in Paris to Portuguese parents, my father who had begun his automotive technical career at the age of 12 and found himself racing Mini Coopers in Portugal, soon realized that if his larger automobilist dreams were to be realized that he likely would have to do it elsewhere and so he set his sights on Paris. By the time I was born my parents were running a successful sports car specialty shop dedicated to selling, servicing and modifying mostly Porsche and Ferrari. He was also racing 911s and while I would love to say that my earliest memories were of my father racing and the glorified lifestyle that went along with it, I am the youngest of three and those memories if any, actually belong to my older brother Paul. I experienced a tiny glimpse of it however, just enough to hold the door cracked open. A lot of it via family stories of the abundance of eclectic cars, a few of the old photos I still retain today, stories of eccentric showmanship and flair, barefoot Parisian night club appearances. The alluring tales romanticized by an imaginative, starry eyed little boy. By the time I was fourteen my parents had long divorced and I was living in Portugal with mom when I decided I wanted to experience life with dad. So I was pre-packing my bags for Geneva, Switzerland when I learned my father was coming to the States. New York? Well that’s huge and

I love Ghost Busters; so hell yeah New York here I come! The summer of 1985 was bittersweet as I looked back and waved goodbye to my sister and brother and along with that a closed chapter of my life but I was eager for the next one and new experiences and so I arrived at JFK to a sea of cars the size of small villas. I recall the ride to my new home, sliding around the shiny tufted red leather back couch of a black Fleetwood Brougham and having to prop myself up by the front headrests in order to listen to him speak, Portuguese, French then English depending on whom he

was addressing, a haze of cigar smoke gleaming off his aviators that created sparkly swirls, a familiar look from pictures and a voice I normally got to hear via the telephone. So I was in the presence of the man I glorified, the hero of my grasp-less early childhood. Life had cheated me long enough out of the experience and I was determined to live it, to find out as much as I could and to learn even more…and learn I did. Even though life Stateside was quite different, I learned what I needed to learn while learning what I had to. The allure, if not illusion of a glorious era even though gone, I finally got

and I understood it fully. That period I lived with dad allowed me to absorb it all and allowed me to carry on and become who I am today, the feeling remains and the knowledge I fully own. The starry-eyed little boy hasn’t left, he is right here and if there is anything he is sure about in life is that he learned to build you one special Porsche as a result, one that embodies soul, feeling and nostalgia…. Have I told you about the time I first saw a 911? … It was a black and white photo and it was of my dad going around a race track… How may I help you?

Dijon, circa 1970

GUY BROAD From the spiritual home of Jaguar Browns Lane

uy Broad’s roots into the car world started from a very young age with a family that has spent a lifetime owning some of the most wonderful cars and doing great and exciting things in racing and touring and all things car based. It all began with Guy’s grandfather, John Broad being the founder of what

was going to be the beginning of the start of the Broad Dynasty. Over a span of 50 years he owned more than 140 cars, with some of them still being the most desirable cars today.

Jeremy Broad’s passion for classic cars was boundless. He was a walking encyclopedia of facts and figures; a former editor of the XK Register and an authority on his favourite marque, the Jaguar XK.

Guy’s father, Jeremy Broad was nurtured on the heart-throbbing roar and the heady octane whiff of these titans of the track. As a teenager, he became part of his grandfather’s pit team, and was bitten by the racing bug, for which there is no known antidote!

No chance really that Guy could therefore escape becoming infected by the same passion. Now Guy’s life revolves around everything XK, within a quest that has taken him all over Europe and the Americas in building up the Guy Broad organisation and the world-wide reputation they enjoy today.

Starting Guy Broad Spares was something of a lifetime mission with the inspiration beginning in his childhood. From the spiritual home of Jaguar Browns Lane Coventry, Guy Broad now runs a global emporium of XK spares with a total dedication for this exclusive marque series. Ordering parts from Guy Broad Spares couldn’t be easier. Upon phoning or emailing, you will instantly be dealing with a trained parts expert, who has the knowledge to ensure you get the right parts for any XK job you require. Part numbers are not required, just simple, pleasant communications and the parts you need will soon be on their way to you. You can check information through the website for – XK 120 – XK 140 – XK 150 – XK and with Guy’s total dedication to the Jaguar XK series he has managed to obtain a huge stock of thousands of parts covering everything you could ever need for your XK. Whether you want to build the ultimate original car or you want to drive your car as fast as possible at a race track they can advise you on the best parts for your project. Having driven and restored many XKs, Guy broad has developed, manufactured, tried and tested BroadSport replacements. At Guy Broad Spares they can build an XK from the chassis up; to any performance standard.

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Contact: Call: + 44 (0) 7765 253413 Email: jonathan@rarecarfinance.com

b500 magazine

BART KUYKENS Photographer

Belgium-born Bart Kuykens successfully navigated both the art world and commercial photography since the outset of his career. Following the global success of his automotive art books ‘A Flat6 love affair’, he has attracted the attention of world-class actors, musicians, and media personalities who have become subjects of his grainy, visually-rich and powerful black and white portraits.

ho is Magnus Walker to me and maybe a lot of other people in the car scene? I think he’s the guy who has given a ‘kind of permission’ to do whatever you want to do with your car. If you want to change things up a bit or put on a different colour bumper, this is all fine. So I did some modifications over time to my own car inspired by what he has done and I mailed him a couple of years ago about the colour of a car as I had to repaint mine, and he replied it was GT Silver - so I painted my car as well in GT Silver. He’s given inspiration to thousands of owners around the world and continues

to mix it up and does that on a daily basis with his different videos and photoshoots he produces every year. I went to LA for Vol.5 of my book series, A flat6 love affair, and it was during this trip I spent some time with Magnus at his place in DTLA. We spent some time together discussing his cars and we went for coffee at a little place on the corner of his street. I photographed Magnus up on his roof and around his whole place and you can see the results here as well as of course in Vol. 5 of my book. I hope that we are all able to do more travels in the next year and look forward to catching up with you all again through Instagram and my page right here in b500.

WATCH Cartier Santos by Ahmet Aydin @watchmania

ike many of us my interest in timepieces goes back a long way. Over the years I’ve used vintage timepieces, modern watches, dress watches, chronographs, divers, pilot watches, of all classes and price levels. Many of them have been part of my collection and then went out. Some of them were the watches that were given to me for a while to review and have a user experience with them.

In any case I’m always excited when I first get a watch I’ve never seen before. It has always been a great pleasure to take it into my hands and touch it, and adjust the time and put it on my wrist. Possibly this infatuation has reached people through Instagram and allowed me to reach more than half a million followers. I’ve always liked Cartier. I think that they have been manufacturing timepieces for true gentlemen and

gentlewomen, and that they are a ‘Maison’ that has improved in years, while they still keep alive that glorious and noble air of the early 1900s. As all aficionado will know, one of the brands that had initiated the present watch industry is Cartier. It was Cartier who ensured the wrist watches to become a part of the daily life by crafting a wrist watch in its true sense, though of course there had been some brands that produced wrist watches before.

They have been very much admired with the models they have launched in recent years and they reached out to a larger mass of people. Although there’ve been some flying high exceptions like Richard Mille and MB&F coming to my mind, many brands in the world of horology have been trying to reach their target group by emphasising the pride they take in their past and forging a link with their old models. Among modern Cartier models, the ones that have mostly attracted my attention were Santos, Dumont and Tank Americaine. In fact I also love the classical Tank model, but I prefer the vintages and especially the ones with precious metals, instead of modern ones in that model. I had a yellow gold vintage Cartier Tank for a period, and now wonder why I sold that watch. You know this is what the horology world is; they come and they go. Sometimes you may even buy the same watch again. One day, I may buy again a vintage Tank. Now if I’m to get to the point, I was very excited with the revamp of the Santos and Santos Dumont family in 2018, due to my admiration for Cartier and my respect for its past. My first impressions were very much positive. In recent months a desire to buy a new steel watch that I couldn’t resist –and you know how. So I went to Cartier without looking at any other brand and focused on the Santos, Santos Dumont and Americaine models. In fact it didn’t take long for me to decide and after trying on all three watches, I bought the Santos offered together with a leather strap and a steel bracelet. Although I couldn’t find any flaw in Dumont, the fact that it was delivered only with a quartz movement and had no steel bracelet at all led me to eliminate it. The situation is much complex with the Americaine; the medium-sized model that I tried on didn’t fit somehow on my wrist at all, and I just couldn’t feel comfortable with it. Besides I noticed

that the central seconds hand doesn’t look great to me. I think what I’ve said about the Tank model is also true of the Tank Americaine. This model would be much better with precious metal and manual winding mechanism. I just didn’t want an automatic steel Americaine with central seconds. The Santos that I went for was the medium one. The large Santos didn’t look so good on my wrist. In addition another plus to the medium Santos was that it didn’t have a date window. When I first took the watch in my hand to review what surprised me about the watch was its weight, or rather its lightness! Although I liked the old generation Santos, when I put it on my wrist I didn’t like the feeling it gave me with its heftiness. The New Santos is so different from the previous model and once again has the classical Cartier elegance. The fact that it is offered with both a steel bracelet and leather strap was also very effective in my decision. After I took the watch home I removed the plastic protective film on it and examined it in more details. First of all I realised that it was, in case form much more similar than the previous generations of Santos, to the watch Louis Cartier produced in 1904 for his friend the Brazilian aviator Albertos Santos Dumont. Santos is a model that has its own peculiar design codes and a robust history and yet the new updated design has now become a modern watch without leaving the historical codes. To sum up, I bought the medium-sized steel version of Cartier Santos and I wear it often. It’s quite a practical watch in my daily life since it’s an automatic, timeonly model with a bracelet. The retail price of the watch at www.cartier.com website is £5,950 including VAT. If you ask me there are many watches at twice this price that don’t appear to have such a quality of workmanship. The Cartier Santos gives you a quality feeling much more than its price.

IF YOU’RE JUST AFTER A VANILLA FINANCE SOLUTION THEN YOU’LL PROBABLY BE SPOILT FOR CHOICE... LIKE MANY OTHERS WE PROVIDE:

OTHER SERVICES WE OFFER:

Straightforward finance on road and racecar purchases - although our finance offers encompass a wider range between £20,000 to over £20m.

Collection management services encompassing administration, servicing and maintenance logged on our software platform for customers to review at anytime.

Conventional refinancing on existing agreements - although invariably we can restructure legacy arrangements in a more efficient and cost effective package. Traditional equity release on existing vehicles although our extensive knowledge on specialist road and racecars means we can offer finance on the rarer and more exotic. Mainstream finance on other asset classes such as marine and aviation - although due to the volume of our existing aviation and marine clients we have unrivalled practical experience.

State of the art 200+ vehicle storage facility in London, in conjunction with MOSS Automotive from where we can store, detail and maintain client cars. We sell specialist cars from our London facility with typically 40 on public offer at any time. We also have a large inventory of off-market cars on offer for qualified customers.

BUT IF YOU’RE LOOKING FOR SOMETHING MORE EXOTIC THEN WE’RE PROBABLY YOUR ONLY SERIOUS OPTION EXCLUSIVE SERVICES WE PROVIDE: For overseas clients we often can provide finance solutions where others simply do not have the breadth of partnerships we enjoy and the capability to deliver. As a truly independent entity, we are not tied to restrictive lending criteria imposed by a parent company. We can arrange finance on a wider range of vehicles and assets that many traditional lenders do not understand. Our business is based on discretion. We are experienced in dealing with customers who value their privacy and do not want their vehicles used in any promotional activity. Visit our facility yourself to get an understanding of the environment in which we operate.

The two principals behind Rare Car Finance have over 50 years’ first-hand experience in not only financing, but also buying and selling very specialist cars. We can quickly make decisions and deliver solutions based on our own judgement, where many need to defer to others to complete deals.

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AUCTION NEWS Silverstone Auctions / A year in review

ilverstone Auctions have had a pretty busy year and pretty good one at that. Whilst 2020 has not been what anyone anticipated, the UK classic car auction house was quick to adapt to the restrictions and precautions that came with Covid-19 – and with great success. Just one sale went ahead in their traditional event-based format back in February and after this point all their sales have been in the live-online format. Despite this change, Silverstone Auctions have continued to achieve great results and over the course of 2020 sold £33million worth of classic, competition and collector cars. One of the key changes that the Midlandsbased auction house implemented was an extended viewing window in the weeks

preceding the auction day(s). Previously the viewing opportunity was just one day, whereas this year viewings have been available for two, sometimes three weeks with the cars have been in one central location – offering greater flexibility to the customer. Just one viewing window was cut short by the second lockdown and even when this happened, they moved to virtual, one-to-one viewings via FaceTime.

Some of the standouts include a toolroom copy 1962 Jaguar D-Type Short Nose Recreation (£390,500, May 2020), the stunning 1972 Lamborghini Miura SV (£1,912,500, August 2020) and a period-upgraded 1980 BW M1 (E26) (£382,500, November), not forgetting the 1995 Rover Mini Cooper ‘Monte Carlo’ which sold in November for £37,125, with all proceeds going to the wonderful Sporting Bears Charity.

Their successes this year do not end there, their August sale was their highest grossing sale in their ten-year history, more recently in November they achieved a world record auction price – this time for a low-mileage 1988 Porsche 928 SE (£129,375), the August sale was the largest auction in Europe behind closed doors this year and they sold some absolutely beautiful cars!

Next year the Silverstone Auctions team plan to have a combination of live online sales and event-based auctions, with their first sale being The Race Retro Live Online Auction (5 – 6 March). Classic and competition cars are now invited and if you are considering selling you can talk to a member of the team on 01926 691141. www.silverstoneauctions.com

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b500

Articles inside

Auction News

Watch

Bart Kuykens

Guy Broad

Richard Gonçalves

Design

The Ferrari House

Magnus Walker

Road trip

Moss Automotive

Stefan Johansson

For Sale

Cotswold Little Motors

Etienne Salomé

Editors' Choice

What David Gandy Did Next

Amy Shore

Amalgam Collection

Editor