Magneto Magazine issue 17: Spring 2023 by Hothouse Media

ISSUE

17 SPRING 2023

T O P 50 G R E AT E S T R A L LY C A R S O F A L L T I M E

MULLIN COLLECTION’S O N E- O F F D E L A H AY E 2 35

S E C R E T S O F T H E A L FA MUSEUM STOREROOMS

1980 S M A D N E S S ! SBARRO CHALLENGE

’63 o t d e estor r y l l n fu . The

hard n e v i . Dr

$80 y l r a e for n t h g Bou

£10 SPRING 2023

PRINTED IN THE UK

ROMAIN GROSJEAN ON P R A G A’ S N E W S U P E R C A R

T 153G 4 o t ome c l e pec. W s s n Ma

22002233

LE LE MANS MANS Centenary CentenaryCollection Collection

2023 2023 marks marks 100100 years years of the of the world’s world’s most most prestigious prestigious sports sports carcar race. race. From From thethe French French champions champions of the of the 1930s 1930s & 50s & 50s and and thethe heroic heroic Porsche Porsche 917s 917s that that captured captured thethe imagination imagination of Hollywood, of Hollywood, to the to the epic epic eraera of of DBR9s DBR9s that that revived revived Aston Aston Martin Martin Racing, Racing, 8 of8 our of our 14 14 Retromobile Retromobile Collection Collection cars cars paypay tribute tribute to the to the greatest greatest Le Le Mans Mans legends legends of all of all time. time.

14 Queens 14 Queens Gate Gate Place Place Mews, Mews, London London SW7 SW7 5BQ 5BQ +44+44 (0)20 (0)20 7584 7584 3503 3503 cars@fiskens.com cars@fiskens.com www.fiskens.com www.fiskens.com

1982 PORSCHE 956/001

Porsche factory 956 prototype and development car

2005 ASTON MARTIN DBR/9 Triple Le Mans 24 hrs veteran, 4th in GT1 and 9th overall in 2006

1963 ISO BIZZARRINI

The works prototype and 1964 Le Mans test car

1936 DELAHAYE 135 CS

One of 17 Compétition Spéciales, 4-time Le Mans entrant

1970 PORSCHE 917K

Gulf-Porsche works entry for Hailwood and Hobbs. Starring role in Steve McQueen’s 1971 film Le Mans

1939 TALBOT LAGO T26 GS

Four appearances at Le Mans including 2nd overall in 1951

2009 ACURA ARX – 02/1 LMP1

6 victories with Gil de Ferran in the 2009 American Le Mans Series

8th & 9th July 2023

24 COMING SOON Spring season hots up, with plenty to do at the wheel or spectating

29 S TA R T E R From the first Bentley at Le Mans to Rimac’s new EV hypercar, with synthetic fuels, museum changes, Zagatos and a new Bertone in between

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U LT I M A T E FERRARI 250GTO

D E L A H AY E 2 3 5 SAOUTCHIK

M U S E O A L FA ROMEO, MILAN

S E LW Y N FRANCIS EDGE

No. 4153GT was bought for nearly $80m – and then put through one of the most exacting restorations ever seen

The Mullins’ quicksilver dream of the most lustrous kind; the swan song for one of the last great French marques

Highlights of marque’s storage rooms, where you can view some of the best Alfa artefacts hidden away until now

The incredible life and times of this pioneer of motor sport at the dawn of the automotive age, by Doug Nye

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Z A G AT O PORSCHES

SBARRO CHALLENGE

TOP 50 R A L LY C A R S

What’s comes next for Zagato’s Sanction Lost Porsche programme? We reflect on the ItalianGerman combination

Swiss entrepreneur and innovator Franco Sbarro’s spectacular dream machine, by Karl Ludvigsen

When the going gets tough, the world’s toughest rally machines get going. Here are our top 50 stage stars

179 ACQUIRE Buying a Maserati Ghibli, auction news, collecting watches, motoring art, automotive timepieces and whisky, plus new products and books

204 LEGAL: CLASSIC COURT CASES

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206 COLLECTIONS: REGAZZONI MEMORIES

208 HISTORIC RACING: ALL ABOUT GT1 CARS

210 MY HERO: JOCHEN MASS

Magneto

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Editor’s welcome

17 “There’s something magical about this car,” says 250GTO owner David MacNeil, as he describes revving it to 7000rpm on every gearchange over the mountain passes of the Colorado Grand rally. This is the GTO that he bought for a record sum, and has since put through a bare-metal restoration to get it absolutely right. I spoke with David at Pebble Beach last year about it, and he was brimming with excitement over it. I couldn’t wait to feature it in Magneto. It’s not the only car in this issue from a big, regularly used collection. Merle Mullin drove her Delahaye from the Mullin Automotive Museum for our shoot, delighted to be back in the driving seat of the model that she’s also driven around the US East Coast and Italy. While all this was going on, I started the year at the excellent 21 Gun Salute concours in India, where I was a judge. I came across owners whose cars had been in their family for three generations, an MG TC-owning couple who’d driven 1500km to the event, a lady in her 80s driving her 1923 Austin Seven four-up on the 180km preevent tour, collectors with 200-plus cars, and no end of machines that were easily good enough for the best European and US concours. Across Merle, David and the many Indian enthusiasts, there’s a common thread – a delight in driving and owning remarkable cars that represent history and emotion in abundance. It’s an obvious point I know, but one worth reminding ourselves of as another year starts. Enjoy 2023 – and enjoy this, issue 17, of Magneto.

David Lillywhite Editorial director

Magneto

Contributors ROMAIN GROSJEAN We spent the day with Romain at Slovakia Ring during testing of the new Praga Bohema. In this issue he feeds back his impressions of the prototype after countless hot laps. He’s also a classic car fan and owner – and is enjoying life in Miami after his horrific 2020 Bahrain GP accident.

DOUG NYE Since his previous epic contribution to Magneto, renowned motor sport historian and author Doug has received the Royal Automobile Club Motoring Book of the Year’s Lifetime Achievement Award. In this issue, he focuses on the remarkable story of pioneer racer and engineer SF Edge.

PETER ALLEN Magneto’s talented art director is responsible for the award-winning look of the magazine, so it was a shock when he badly dislocated his shoulder at the start of this issue. “Don’t worry,” came the message from the hospital bed. “It’s not my mouse arm.” Well, that was lucky!

It was Don’s job to do justice to the sublime Ferrari 250GTO no. 4153GT in this issue. As Weathertech’s director of photography, he went beyond the call of duty, spending days shooting the car to show off its recent restoration to its painstakingly accurate 1963 Le Mans specification.

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ILLUSTR AT IONS P ET ER A LLE N

DON HUDSON III

OFFERED FROM

THE TERENCE E. ADDERLEY CO L L E C TI ON 1931 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 Gran Sport Spider Coachwork by Zagato 1929 Rolls-Royce Phantom I Derby Speedster Coachwork by Brewster 1969 Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona Berlinetta Coachwork by Scaglietti

1957 Ford Thunderbird ‘F-Code’ 1934 Packard Twelve Coupe Roadster 1932 Lincoln Model KB Coupe Coachwork by Judkins 1949 Snowberger-Offy Indianapolis ‘500’ Roadster

1986 Ferrari Testarossa

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Who to contact

Editorial director

Managing director

David Lillywhite

Geoff Love

Managing editor

Art director

Advertising sales

Sarah Bradley

Peter Allen

Sue Farrow, Rob Schulp

Staff writer

Designer

Accounts

Elliott Hughes

Debbie Nolan

Jonathan Ellis

West Coast US contributor

Lifestyle advertising

Winston Goodfellow

Sophie Kochan

Contributors in this issue Jonathon Burford, Nathan Chadwick, Robert Dean, Michael Furman, Germany Greer, Rick Guest, Sam Hancock, Richard Heseltine, Matt Howell, Don Hudson III, Harry Hurst, Dave Kinney, Evan Klein, Karl Ludvigsen, Jochen Mass, James Nicholls, Doug Nye, Clive Robertson, Ricardo Santos, John Simister, Andrew M Taylor, Simon Thompson, Joe Twyman, Jay Ward, Rupert Whyte Single issues and subscriptions Please visit www.magnetomagazine.com or call +44 (0)208 068 6829

HOTHOUSE MEDIA Geoff Love, David Lillywhite, George Pilkington Castle Cottage, 25 High Street, Titchmarsh, Northants NN14 3DF, UK Printing Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE, UK Printed on Amadeus Silk supplied through Denmaur as a Carbon Balanced product. Made from FSC® certified and traceable pulp sources Specialist newsstand distribution Pineapple Media, Select Publisher Services Who to contact Subscriptions and business geoff@hothousemedia.co.uk Accounts accounts@hothousemedia.co.uk Editorial david@hothousemedia.co.uk Advertising sue@flyingspace.co.uk or rob@flyingspace.co.uk Lifestyle advertising sophie.kochan2010@gmail.com

©Hothouse Media Ltd. Magneto and associated logos are registered trademarks of Hothouse Media Ltd. All rights reserved. All material in this magazine, whether in whole or in part, may not be reproduced, transmitted or distributed in any form without the written permission of Hothouse Media Ltd. Hothouse Media Ltd. uses a layered privacy notice giving you brief details about how we would like to use your personal information. For full details, please visit www.magnetomagazine.com/privacy/

Magneto [mag-nee-toh] noun, plural mag·ne·tos 1. Electrical generator that provides periodic high-voltage pulses to the spark-plugs of an internal-combustion engine, used mostly pre-World War One although still fitted for emergency back-up of aircraft ignition systems. 2. Fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. 3. Great quarterly magazine featuring the most important cars in the world.

ISSN Number 2631-9489. Magneto is published quarterly by Hothouse Publishing Ltd. Great care has been taken throughout the magazine to be accurate, but the publisher cannot accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions that might occur. The editors and publishers of this magazine give no warranties, guarantees or assurances, and make no representations regarding any goods or services advertised in this edition.

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A U C T I O N S & P R I VAT E B R O K E R A G E

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1958 FERRARI 250 GT TOUR DE FRANCE BERLINETTA Delivered New to Switzerland and Raced in Numerous European Hill Climbs Award-Winning Restoration by Motion Products Inc. Ferrari Classiche Certified Coachwork by Scaglietti Chassis 0909 GT

1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL GULLWING Presented in Original Colors with Factory Rudge Wheels and Karl Baisch Luggage Veteran of Numerous Long-Distance Rallies

1966 AAR GURNEY EAGLE Mk 1 The First Eagle Built by Dan Gurney’s All American Racers Spent 38 Years as Part of the Donington Grand Prix Collection Driven by Dan Gurney, Phil Hill, and Bob Bondurant Chassis 101

1977 PORSCHE 934/5 The Last of Just 10 Examples Built Period SCCA Trans Am and IMSA Racing History Chassis 930 770 0960

1962 FERRARI 250 GT SWB CALIFORNIA SPIDER Presented in Its Spectacular Original Azzurro Metallizzato Livery Amelia Island and Cavallino Classic Award Winner Ferrari Classiche Certified Coachwork by Scaglietti Chassis 3099 GT

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Starter

The Object 1960s F1 pitboard This evocative piece of motor-racing automobilia came from a surprising source – and raises the question of which Hill: Graham or Phil?

Magneto

Words Joe Twyman

Photography Rick Guest

COMMUNICATION BETWEEN THE pitwall and the cockpit has been everpresent in motor racing; nowadays radios and even direct messaging to steering wheels allow drivers to have more information than ever before. This 1963 pitboard, acquired from an ex-ATS mechanic, was the means of communication back then. Bruce McLaren, Jack Brabham, John Surtees and Chris Amon are all easily recognisable names, but perhaps ATS driver Phil Hill may have been confused as to whether it was him running second or rival Graham Hill. Given the success (or lack thereof)

of the ATS Tipo 100, we would take a guess and say it was Graham. ATS, or Automobili Turismo e Sport to give its full name, was formed by Giotto Bizzarrini and Carlo Chiti, with backing from Count Volpi. Its first and only season in Formula 1 was 1963, in which it started five races and finished only once – when Phil Hill took 11th and Giancarlo Baghetti came in 15th at Monza. When Volpi withdrew his support, the ATS 100 was sold to Alf Francis, former chief mechanic to Stirling Moss. It subsequently appeared just once, in the 1964 Italian Grand Prix.

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Starter

Words Sarah Bradley

Concours on Savile Row is back for 2023

MATT HOWELL

May’s exclusive event in central London connects bespoke tailoring with the very best collector cars

ABOVE AND LEFT Concours in Mayfair will offer plenty of substance as well as style.

COMBINING FINE COLLECTOR cars with exquisite hand-tailored style, 2022’s inaugural Concours on Savile Row was an unprecedented success. This year’s event, in London’s exclusive Mayfair district, will take place on Wednesday and Thursday May 24-25, and promises to be even more dazzling. Organiser – and Magneto publisher – Hothouse Media is working with the famous street’s landowners and bespoke tailors to showcase a unique mix of classic supercars, sports cars, GTs and Historic race machines, along with the latest hypercars, concepts and one-offs. In a new move, exotic two-wheelers will visit the Concours on Savile Row as well, with Norton Motorcycles making an appearance. Visitors can browse the spectacular cars and fascinating tailors’ displays free of charge, as well as enjoy the talks and live music on the central

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stage. Ticketed VIP packages will offer special access to soirées and dinners, seminars, meet-and-greets with motor sport celebrities, exclusive displays plus gin and whisky tastings, and Nyetimber sparkling wines. The 2023 Concours on Savile Row will extend into neighbouring Burlington Gardens. Both streets will be closed to through traffic, and will quite literally give visitors the red-carpet treatment, while a tie-in with the nearby Royal Academy of Arts will bring a whole new dimension to proceedings. Among the automotive marques that have already confirmed their attendance is Bentley, from whom historic tailoring partner Huntsman has commissioned no fewer than three Mulliner bespoke cars that will make their debut at the Concours. Meanwhile, Caton’s parent company Envisage is now working closely

‘Will showcase a unique mix of classic cars along with the latest hypercars’

with revered wool merchant Scabal. Further partnerships include JP Hackett and Aston Martin, Dege & Skinner and Morgan, and Arthur Sleep and Lunaz. Maserati, BRM, Automobili Pininfarina, Everrati and Alfa will be supporting the event, as will more names from the legendary street such as Cad & The Dandy, Ozwald Boateng, Gieves & Hawkes, Norton & Sons and Henry Poole. There have been tailors on Savile Row since 1803, and they’ve clothed kings, princes, heads of state and celebrities ever since. At the Concours on Savile Row you’ll be able to see historic patterns, current designs and fascinating cutting rooms, and wonder at how beautifully tradition meets cutting-edge design. Further details, partners and sponsors are continually being confirmed; please see online for details. www.concoursonsavilerow.com

THE TRIPLE-FOUR LIMITED-EDITION RACING CHRONOGRAPH “All British land speed world record cars link back to Brooklands, and this luxury watch pays homage to that legacy with precision timing and exquisite design.” - Land Speed World Record Holder Andy Green OBE. Brooklands designed and operated the World’s first motor race chronograph accurate to 1000th of a second in 1907. Over 100 years later, we introduce a British classic limited to 500 units. Swiss made, designed by Sir Terence Conran and inspired by the heritage of the Brooklands Motor Circuit.

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Starter

Words David Lillywhite

that day in Japan, with Jules Bianchi’s accident… that was pretty horrendous. I remember doing the interviews, trying to act as if everything was normal, but you could tell the drivers knew that it wasn’t a ‘routine’ accident. It never leaves you. I don’t think it should leave you. What is the future of F1? It’s an interesting time; 2026 is the time that everyone keeps going on about. And that’s why companies such as Audi want to get involved. F1 always prided itself on creating the technology that we have in our road cars, and I think it’s important as the pinnacle of motor sport that there is some technology transfer still.

The journalist and sports commentator at the heart of Formula 1 has written a book, Inside F1, on seven leading drivers and their careers

What made you write the book? I was doing an article during the 2020 lockdown on Lewis Hamilton. When I got to the end, I wondered if this was something that could be done with several drivers. What about the others you chose: Schumacher, Vettel, Alonso, Massa, Verstappen and Button? They’re the ones that I have shared an awful lot with over the years. They’re all World Champions bar Felipe, but Felipe has been at the heart of some of the huge stories and has insight as well into Fernando and other drivers. I spent a bit of time with Jenson at the Goodwood Revival, and I’ve interviewed him a few times; it’s all a bit Anchorman – he’s on Sky and I’m on Channel Four. Michael Schumacher means a lot to you, doesn’t he? The Michael stuff was really special because I started watching his career at home as a kid, and I remember being in the paddock in Monaco in the 1990s; there was an aura, just something about him. And then to be able to spend time with him, whether it be interviews or even riding horses at his house in Switzerland, was really special.

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What about Sebastian Vettel? I’ve done more interviews with him than anyone else. They have often been chaotic and controversial, but he’s a really decent person. Did you consider earlier drivers? I am very close with Sir Jackie Stewart, and I have worked with Emerson Fittipaldi a lot. But for me to do the book like this, I needed to be a part of their careers. It would have felt disingenuous otherwise. Do the crashes affect you? You never shake them off. You know

ABOVE Lee with Max Verstappen, the youngest driver in the book.

And then there’s the politics… I was not overly convinced about going to Saudi. And then I decided that the one thing I wanted to do, because my background is news, was to speak to the sports minister when I got there. He is one of the Crown Princes, and actually a really competent racing driver. So you have a nice chat about cars, and then you do this big interview about sports washing. Some thought it was a great interview, other people thought it could have been tougher, but it is a difficult subject. Do you miss Bernie Ecclestone? You can’t take away what he did for F1, but there was a shift change in how we watch TV, how people engage on social media. Bernie was very against all of that. Then in came Liberty Media in a very showbiz kind of way. I think, on the whole, that the show is great now, but Bernie had a real affinity with the drivers – there is no way that he would have let someone with such a crowd draw as Daniel Ricciardo leave F1, for example.

MOTORSPORT IMAGES

The Interview Lee McKenzie

And the environmental concerns? Sebastian talks about this a lot: We’re still going to Miami in the middle of bookending two European races, and we’re still going to Canada between two European races. And we go to Qatar, then we go to the Americas, and then we come back to Abu Dhabi. So this calendar still isn’t correct, in my eyes, if you really are talking about sustainability.

Romain Grosjean on the new Praga Bohema Behind the wheel in the first road-legal, trackbiased supercar from the Czech Republic

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“IF I HADN’T LOOKED DOWN and seen that I was wearing jeans, I wouldn’t have remembered I was in a road car, because it really behaves like a race car; more like a single-seater in fact, because there’s the aero and the downforce,” says IndyCar and former F1 racer Romain Grosjean, as he pulls up in the Bohema. “I was driving it thinking, ‘this could be a prototype, I could actually be testing to go to Le Mans’. And then you come into the pitlane and drive it away on the road. Amazing!” Grosjean has been testing the prototype Praga Bohema at Slovakia Ring, with me sat alongside him for some of the time. It’s the company’s brand-new, road-legal, track-biased supercar, an all-new design based around a composite monocoque,

modified Nissan GT-R engine and Hewland sequential transmission. It’s quite a thing. The company, named after – and traditionally based around – Prague, has its roots in a heavy-engineering firm of the late 1800s. It built its first cars in 1907, initially as licenced copies of Isotta Fraschinis, before developing its own models. After difficult times during the communist era of Czechoslovakia, the company started to recover – first in motocross, then karting and Dakar Rally trucks, and since 2012 in sportscar racing around the world with the championship-winning R1. Praga tried converting the R1 race car to road spec, resulting in the 2016 R1R, but the team wasn’t happy with the compromises needed. As

Words David Lillywhite

a result, Praga’s small crew of engineers and designers have been working on its replacement, the Bohema, for the past five years. The newcomer is a composite monocoque, which has been designed with aerodynamics and light weight foremost in priority – it weighs a mere 982kg. Suspension all round is by race-style pushrod-operated horizontal dampers, braking is by carbon-ceramic discs and six-piston calipers, and the engine is a Nissan PL38DETT twin-turbo V6, as used in all GT-R models since 2007. Praga buys the motors new from Nissan – in a unique deal – and ships them to the renowned Litchfield Motors in the UK to be rebuilt with a dry-sump system, stronger turbos and other mods that are expected to unleash 700bhp. A rainy day in May 2022, was my first experience of the thencamouflaged Bohema prototype at Praga’s UK HQ. A brief test on wet, bumpy local roads revealed its startling performance, a lot of mechanical noise from the famously tough Hewland sequential trans and

a remarkably good ride – not merely by usual track-car standards, but compared against any modern performance machine. It was clear that the light weight was complicit in the surprising ride quality and the ballistic acceleration. If there was anything that gave away the track focus, it was the paddle-shift gearchanges, which felt violent under hard acceleration. Praga had realised from its R1 experiences that some of the brand’s customers wanted track cars, but felt daunted by the basic, aggressive feel of pure racers. The Bohema manages to keep on the just-civilised side of competition-car manners, despite the compromises brought about by the dedication to extreme weight saving and aerodynamics. To climb into the cabin, you swing up a tiny lightweight door, sit on the wide side pod and swing your feet into the footwell, using neat steps moulded into the carbonfibre tub to ease yourself down into the seat. The steering wheel is removable to ease the task – it’s tiny but weighty, with full digital display,

Photography Words Elliott Hughes Praga

Starter

ABOVE What a relief to see a smiling Romain Grosjean after his fiery 2020 crash.

RIGHT The two Praga Bohema prototypes on track at Slovakia Ring for testing. This secret session was attended by Magneto ahead of the press drives two weeks later – a good chance to see Romain giving his testing feedback.

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Starter

FROM FAR LEFT At this stage, the Bohema was still undergoing final tweaks. Note the additional aero on the rear of the white car, which Romain said made a big difference.

indicator and wiper switches, and neat mode-selection dials all built in. As Romain pointed out later: “A steering wheel is one of the hardest parts to design in a race car. Everyone has different hands – and mine are burned! – but the ergonomics of this are really good.” There are various clever pockets and storage cubbies inside, plus luggage areas in the exterior pods, and the trimming in Alcantara and leather is to a high standard. The same goes for all the neat cast and 3D-printed metal components, such as the sprung cradle that holds a smartphone for use as sat-nav or data-logger. Air-con controls are in a tiny roof console, and the doors are opened using an electronic button, although there’s also a mechanical release in the roof in case of failure. On that first experience, it was clear that two adults can sit in the Bohema without feeling cramped, thanks to the long footwells and sculpted cut-outs for the passenger’s elbows and forearms. For the driver, the positions for the seat angle as well as the pedal box and steering wheel are all adjustable. Even at speed it’s possible to talk normally, although the sharp exhaust and throaty intake soundtracks intrude under heavy acceleration – this isn’t

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a quiet car, but it’s not uncomfortable. On my second visit, this time to Prague, I got to see the more finished version of the Bohema, resplendent in blue metallic, and hear more about the history of the brand from lead engineer and Praga authority Jan Martinek, who grew up in the shadow of one of the mighty Praga truck factories. The decision has been made to offer 89 examples of the newcomer, each made to customer specifications, for £1.1m (€1.28m) each. Why 89? Because at the Bohema’s late-2022 launch, it was 89 years since the historic, marque-defining victory in the 1933 1000 Miles of Czechoslovakia race. It was apparent on this second visit that the levels of finish are high, a result of final assembly and set-up being the responsibility of former WRC rally driver Roman Kresta at his obsessively neat Kresta Racing HQ, following development work there of the R1 race cars. My third visit is to Slovakia Ring, where Romain Grosjean has been busy on-track in one of the prototypes. Time is tight, and I have to choose between driving a couple of warm-up laps or getting the full flat-out testing experience with Romain. What would you do? I opt to passenger, and Grosjean is off, the

smile gone, concentrating hard as he powers around the twisty circuit. At these speeds, the aero comes into play – up to 900kg of downforce at 250km/h. As with any aero car, this makes for otherworldly cornering speeds, but Romain is able to slide the car, catch it quickly, accelerate hard out of every corner and brake heavily into the next, time after time. “It’s really balanced on entry of the corner, then a bit understeery mid-corner,” says Grosjean. This corresponds with Praga development driver (former F2 and F3 racer) Josef Král’s policy of setting up the car to be exciting but safe. “There isn’t 1000bhp, yet on exit it’s good because of the power-toweight ratio,” continues Romain. “It’s got good traction, but you need to manage your throttle, otherwise the traction control comes in, although it’s very subtle. It [the traction control] is quite late; I

‘It manages to keep on the justcivilised side of competitioncar manners’

like it. It’s not like it stops you. We’re discussing different traction-control maps and how many maps they want to use. Maybe two… Race and Race! “Braking has been really good. There was a bit of vibration, but this is a car that’s been pushed to the limit. I was out for six, seven, eight laps at a time, really pushing it, so I was amazed at the brakes; the pedal doesn’t go, and that’s the first thing that goes in many cars when you’re on track. “Maybe the gearbox on the road could be smoother. On the circuit it’s really good, but it needs a map for the road. It’s just a question of the ramp and the cuts to the ignition before it re-engages the clutch. These are the fine details that they are going to get onto.” A couple of weeks later the prototypes are back in the UK, this time in the hands of the former Stig, Ben Collins, at the Dunsfold aerodrome, better known as the Top Gear test track. Ben carries out a full assessment of the Bohema, which he summarises with this: “Fabulous car! I’m actually missing it. Overall, the Praga is really addictive to drive fast. I don’t know of any other super/ hypercar that you drive relentlessly, without any mercy, until you run out of fuel, and then do it again.” For more, see www.pragaglobal.com.

HISTORICS LONDON CLASSIC CAR SHOW SALE SATURDAY 25TH FEBRUARY OLYMPIA, LONDON

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O F F I C I A L A U C T I O N PA R T N E R

Starter

Words David Lillywhite

Photography Winston Goodfellow

Judges with a heart Concours judging is often viewed as too clinical, but a new move by ICJAG sees ‘emotion’ coming into play

WHAT’S YOUR IMAGE OF A concours? Cars restored to within an inch of their lives – almost too perfect? It’s something that has blighted events since the 1980s; over-restoration in the US in particular, and judging that awarded such an approach, inadvertently encouraging owners and specialists to go well beyond the original specifications of the cars in question. In more recent years, the importance of preserving history, even through restoration, has been recognised, and judging standards have been adapted to acknowledge that. Originality, or at least original specification, is now king once more. Judging still varies according to the event organisers’ and entrants’ preferences. ‘French rules’ judging is based around style, from the original concept of concours d’elegance. At the other end of the spectrum are rules based around those devised by the Ferrari Club of America, by the Classic Car Club of America and by Pebble Beach pioneers Lorin H Tryon and Jules Heumann. More recently, in August 2015, senior judge Ed Gilbertson and others came up with ICJAG – the International Chief Judge Advisory Group. This uses its own similarly comprehensive rules to judge a car’s originality, authenticity and functionality, while ensuring that models aren’t marked down for reasonable signs of use – touched-in stone chips, slightly worn-through original chrome, even dirty tyre

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ABOVE Judging varies worldwide. This is Pebble Beach, where judges can award up to three extra points.

‘Cars are for driving, and they trigger emotions. That’s why we’re here’

treads – and practical touches such as discreetly mounted electric fans, modern bulbs, conversion to dualcircuit braking and power outlets. Still, the ICJAG rules have sometimes been criticised for being too sterile. Now a new adaptation, lead by judges Chris Kramer and Nigel Matthews, has been tried at the 21 Gun Salute Concours d’Elegance in India, leaving a ten percent margin for ‘emotion’. Where, previously, judges would start with a full score of 100 points and then deduct half or full points for a comprehensive list of checkpoint factors, for 21 Gun Salute they started with 90, using the final ten points to reward provenance, usage, owners’ stories and, as chief judge Kramer puts it, “the take-me-home factor”. “Cars are for driving, and they trigger emotions,” he says. “That’s why we’re here. We still have our 20 items in place for the judging process, and can give feedback. We want to educate and not demote

entrants. And they should have fun!” These adapted ICJAG rules aren’t the only ones to include a more subjective scoring system, but it’s a big step for the organisation; one that’s already been recognised and adopted by FIVA, the body that overseas the collector car movement worldwide, for all its events. It is also simple and entirely acceptable for organisers to use the rules with different weightings for the emotional scoring – whether it’s out of 20 or out of just five, for example – as appropriate to the location and the feel of the event. This is a move that should help concours events lose their stuffy image, while inspiring owners to bring an even broader line-up of the most interesting cars. It should also encourage a wider range of judges at top events, so a typical class team could consist of an experienced chief class judge, an expert and a junior or celebrity judge working together. Find out more at www.icjag.org.

Find Your Passion.

I’ve always had a genuine love for art and cars. They’re not only an outlet, but a passion that truly drives me. What started as a means to express myself, became a way to also learn how to look at things differently. When your work embodies your passions, true expression occurs. I’m Jon Sibal, and that’s what you’ll see reflected in my life. Jon Sibal Automotive Artist & Design Consultant

For free personal car care advice, go to Meguiars.com

Scooter stars of the swinging ’60s Italian manufacturers Vespa and Lambretta may have birthed the post-war scooter revolution, but plenty of other countries got in on the craze...

TRIUMPH TIGRESS/ BSA SUNBEAM Britain’s Triumph was a bit late to the European scooter party, launching its demurely named Tigress in 1959. Utilising a four-stroke 250cc twin engine, it was never going to be as light or nimble as two-stroke singlecylinder rivals, prompting a smaller 175cc single to be offered sometime later. The Tigress and its BSA Sunbeam sister were well engineered and very

Words Jay Ward

SOME HISTORY: IN 1944, MANY Italian cities were in a mess from combat and heavy Allied bombing, but the end of World War Two was nearly in sight. Italian industrialist Enrico Piaggio had got a head start on thinking of innovative ideas to move his family’s aircraft business in Pisa and Pontedera into the next era. Piaggio understood that badly damaged roads would stifle war-torn Italy’s recovery, and this inspired him to think about the next generation of personal transportation. Taking cues from the compact folding motorscooters used by American (Cushman Model 53 Airborne) and British (Excelsior Welbike) paratroopers, Enrico commissioned ideas for the Moto Piaggio – or MP for short. After a few failed designs, the

sixth iteration of the scooter penned by aeronautical engineer Corradino D’Ascanio was a winner, packed with aviation-influenced innovation. The MP6 put the engine down low behind the seat, opening up space for the rider to step through the bodywork rather than straddling the machine. The stamped-metal chassis was monocoque, with the drivetrain, suspension and ’bars all being bolted onto the main unit for ease of build. Upon seeing the concept’s striking profile, with its narrow centre and bulbous tail, Piaggio exclaimed: “Sembra una vespa!” (“It looks like a wasp!”). By 1946, the production version was ready: the Vespa 98, an instant success that reimagined cheap, two-wheeled transportation. Milan-based scaffolding specialist

Ferdinando Innocenti followed suit with his Lambretta Model M, which was slightly less sophisticated than the Vespa but provided a solid start. By 1950, the LC125 had arrived, with the ‘L’ standing for Luxury. It featured fully enclosed side panels and leg shields, just like the Vespa. Youngsters were ready for mobility and independence on a budget, and the Italian scooters delivered in style with ever-increasing sales. The New York Times called them: “A completely Italian product, such as we have not seen since the Roman chariot.” Of course, other makers around the world took notice of this huge success, and reckoned they should join in. Here are five of the more memorable attempts to challenge Italy in the golden scooter era between 1955-65.

stylish, with good handling and performance. They even offered an optional electric starter. But between their late arrival in the scooter market and subsequent delivery issues, a mere 25,000 Tigresses and Sunbeams were sold; it all ended in 1964 for the 250 models and 1965 for the 175.

FUJI RABBIT SUPERFLOW As with Vespa, Fuji was making Rabbit scooters right after the war, first offering the S1 based on the American Powell Streamline. Over time, 25 variants were introduced, and by 1957 US imports had begun, although they were never officially sold in the UK. The most popular Rabbits were the curvaceous S301 and S401 Superflow, 125cc and 150cc respectively, but the big daddy was the 200cc S601. Fujis are superb Japanese quality with high sophistication; by 1962, some even had electric start, automatic transmission, turn signals and air suspension.

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RM SOTHEBY’S / BONHAMS / YESTERDAYS

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HARLEY-DAVIDSON TOPPER As Vespa and others began gaining popularity in the US, Harley hoped to expand its market by offering its own, ‘more American’ scooter in 1960. Unfortunately, the brand made some odd decisions, with mixed results. The ‘atomic’ styling was great, but with no fan on the air-cooled motor, the crude pull-start engine could be prone to run hot. Scootaway Drive variable transmission had a mixed reception, and Topper sales were fairly tepid. It was discontinued by 1965.

HEINKEL TOURIST Ernst Heinkel was the father of jet-fighter aircraft and WW2’s He 111 bomber. After the war, he shifted production to a top-notch scooter called the Tourist, first shown as a prototype in 1949 and finally introduced in 1953 with Rocketeer-like bodywork. Known for its excellent quality and smart engineering, with a torquey four-stroke 175cc engine, 12-volt ignition and electric start, the smooth-riding Tourist was dubbed “the Rolls-Royce of scooters”. Various styling tweaks and improvements were made over its model versions, and the lovable Heinkel ended production in 1965 with over 100,000 sold, primarily in Germany and around Europe.

ZÜNDAPP BELLA Interesting that German bike brand Zündapp used the Italian word for ‘beautiful’ to name this model, but it was indeed a handsome machine with fully enclosed, curvy bodywork and a large but graceful front fender. Built from 1953-64, with over 130,000 sold it was one of the most successful non-Italian scooters. Larger and heaver than most rivals, the Bella had two seats, wide cast-aluminium floorboards, a large-capacity tank and 12-inch wheels for a near-motorcycle-like ride. The actual scooter seen here was featured on the cover of Oasis’s Be Here Now album, which may help explain the upturn in thefts in the late 1990s in the UK.

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Words Nathan Chadwick

Illustration Peter Allen

Es are good Classic cars could play an important role in the roll-out of sustainable fuels IN THE WINDY HILLS OF CHILE over Christmas, Porsche opened a plant that could be a great gift for the internal-combustion engine – an E-fuel formed via wind power, water and carbon dioxide that provides near-neutral CO2 levels from a petrol engine. While the initial 130,000 litres will be reserved for Porsche’s Experience Centres and Mobil 1 Supercup race series, the aim is to produce 55 million litres by 2025. It’s not the only solution – British firm Coryton’s sustainable fuel uses agricultural waste, converted to ethanol, methanol then gasoline, to effectively recycle the CO2 already in the atmosphere. While this progress offers a viable alternative to EVs, fuel firms, FIVA and the Royal Automobile Club all believe classic cars are a great way to demonstrate sustainable fuel’s potential and to keep the internalcombustion engine going without putting out too much ‘new’ CO2. “We need more support to create the demand that enables us to scale up [production],” says Coryton’s David Richardson. “A lot of firms around the world are investing in sustainable fuels and factories, and they’ll come online in the next five to six years. It’s going to take a while until we reach price parity with pump fuel; six to ten years at least.” This is what’s leading Coryton to focus on old cars. “Fuelling a classic is probably not the biggest outlay you’ll have over the course of a year,” Richardson explains. “Owners are also more likely to be able to afford to spend a couple of hundred pounds more per year on using sustainable fuel. You can then say you’ve started to do something for the environment while keeping these cars going.” Classic organisations have pledged

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support for such schemes. FIVA’s Mario Theissen says: “The ideal pilot project is classics, because there are not many of them and they are well taken care of. We can demonstrate that it works, and then as production goes up, prices will go down.” Having access to sustainable fuels is an important way to keep history alive. “These vehicles should remain on the roads, in the sense that they’re a moving museum,” Theissen goes on. “It’s part of our cultural heritage;

ABOVE New E-fuel plant signals a bright future for classic vehicles.

it should be possible to drive them with no limitations across the globe.” Coryton’s next step is to widen the distribution of its sustainable fuel. “We’re working with a number of partners that are well placed to distribute it,” Richardson says. “There seems to be a lot of clusters of classic car ownership within the UK, and it’s the same globally, so while we’re aiming to have fuel available in cans or drums, we’re looking at setting up refuelling units that are very much like a normal petrol forecourt.” The Royal Automobile Club’s Ben Cussons believes that sustaining ICE with ‘green’ fuels is about more than just preserving the cars. “The industry is worth several billion pounds and provides employment for a lot of people, particularly those for whom

‘Classic cars are a great way to demonstrate sustainable fuel’s potential’

a more academic career might not be suitable,” he says. “It’s more skills based rather than numeric, and if we go down the electric route it’s fairly clear we will be getting rid of that.” However, all are clear that they are not pursuing an anti-EV agenda. “We want to get to a lower-carbon future as quickly as possible; just converting the whole vehicle world to electric and effectively dismembering the classic world and scrapping it all is not the way to do it,” Cussons says. “We’re not advocating any single powertrain direction; we’re saying, set the targets of low emissions and let the engineers get on and solve the conundrum. If we all agree where we want to get to, there are different ways of getting there – and none of them is better than the other.” “I don’t think it’s the government’s job to define the technology that must be used, as much as to set the objectives,” Theissen adds. “How the industry achieves that should be left to the industry itself.” Some makers are coming on board, despite their marketing teams’ output about an EV-only future, Richardson says: “OEMs were just reacting, following whatever politicians told them they think is going to happen with legislation. But some OEMs have sat back and said ‘we’re not overly comfortable with this, we don’t think it’s achievable’. “They have continued to work on ICE development behind the scenes, because they know that with the efficiencies they’ve made over the past 20 years – specifically the past ten – these can potentially be a lot more beneficial to the environment than an EV can be. They know they can’t electrify the entire fleet.” Richardson points to Mazda, one of Coryton’s partners, as an example. “It’s really on board with sustainable fuels, as are GM and Toyota.” As Cussons says: “You could say the internal-combustion engine is dead – long live the internalcombustion engine.”

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Words Nathan Chadwick

Auriol’s late charge Ford led for 19 of 22 stages at the 1993 Monte Carlo Rally – until at the last gasp Didier Auriol clawed back more than two minutes for a Toyota win. Here’s the Frenchman’s unlikely route to victory

Andrea Aghini may have scooped victory on the opening Col de Turini stage in the ageing Lancia Delta Integrale, but from then on Delecour stormed into the lead, pulling out 18 seconds on the second stage. He judged his tyre choices correctly to pull a gap that had grown to a 1m 30s lead over Aghini by the end of stage six, despite a sticking clutch on the final stage. DELECOUR

A PPROACH R A MP

LEG ONE: S S1-S S6, SATURDAY AU RIO L

The Ford Escort RS Cosworth made its World Rally Championship debut on the 1993 Monte Carlo, with François Delecour and dual World Champion Miki Biasion behind the wheel of the Works cars. In the Toyota camp, Didier Auriol and triple World Champion Juha Kankkunen piloted the Celica GT-Four ST185 that had notched up four wins in 1992 en route to second in the Manufacturers’ Championship. The event itself, the 61st running of the Monte Carlo Rally, was one of the driest ever. But the rally certainly wasn’t dry…

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Auriol, however, started the rally in the worst-possible way, shedding around a minute after hitting a wall, so losing a left rear strut and then the wheel. Then the handbrake stuck on during stage two, leading to a spin at a hairpin. Despite setting the fastest time on stage five, it was by just a second from Delecour; at the day’s end, Auriol was 2m 17s seconds behind in fourth, trailing Biasion, Aghini and Delecour.

MCKLEIN / MOTORSPORT IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES

Lancia new boy Carlos Sainz tied with Biasion for the opening-stage lead. Delecour responded by taking victory on the next stage, although he was 22 seconds slower than Biasion on the next, Lalouvesc stage. By the end of the day, however, Delecour was 1m 29s ahead of Biasion and 2m 17s ahead of Auriol after the Lancia challenge ended with both Deltas clobbering two separate bridges on the same stage; Sainz would continue, far down the field.

Monday blues referred to the Blue Oval in particular. Not only did Delecour have an off-road excursion on the first stage of the day, but both Escorts were suffering from misfires, and only Biasion could score a stage victory. By the end of the day, Delecour still led by 1m 03s from Biasion, with Auriol a further eight seconds behind.

Delecour started the day with the fastest time; could the Escort serve up a debut onetwo on its competitive debut? Yet in the darkness, Delecour was seemingly powerless as Auriol took 25 seconds out of his lead in a mere 22km stage, and another 31 seconds on the next – he was over one second slower than his rival every kilometre. By the penultimate stage, Auriol had wrestled another 22 seconds to put his Celica ahead of the Ford.

DELECOUR

L EG T WO: S S7-12, S UN DAY

L EG T WO: S S13-17, MO NDAY

L EG TH R E E: S S18-22, TUE SDAY

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Day two didn’t begin any better, with another spin on the Burzet stage costing Auriol 30 seconds. However, he had a plan. “The engineers told me to keep the revs down where the torque was better, but that upset the handling – it kept on understeering,” he told Autocar & Motor at the time. “As soon as I revved the engine higher in the gears, the handling was better and we started to go well.” With 7000rpm to play with, rather than 5500rpm, Auriol could begin his charge, winning the final two stages of the day.

Auriol also went off on the first stage, yet he stormed to victory on the final two stages of the day. He was still a minute in arrears, but again he had a plan. “We did our sums,” he would tell Autocar & Motor later. “I knew the stages better, and if everything was equal, I reckoned we could win.” Auriol had five stages, 134.71km and the pitch darkness to conquer to make it happen.

It nearly went very wrong on the first stage, with brake failure on the downhill Col de Turini costing him five seconds – but the Frenchman couldn’t be contained. As a rival told Motor Sport, “Something must have come loose inside Auriol’s head. He went berserk.” Having taken the lead on the penultimate stage, Auriol pulled out a 15-second gap by the event’s end. He had defied the odds and won. “Every stage I nearly crashed half a dozen times,” he told Autocar & Motor. “I hope I never have to drive like that again.”

Given the sudden injection of pace from the Toyota, the rumour mill immediately kicked into overdrive – especially as the Celica’s turbo was replaced after the final Col de Turini stage. Spot checks at the time revealed no irregularities but, of course, two years later Toyota was kicked out of the World Rally Championship for what FIA president Max Mosley described as “the most sophisticated device I’ve ever seen in 30 years of motor sports” – a highly illegal way to allow air into the turbo intake that completely bypassed the seals around the restrictor without the FIA noticing. Of course, it’s just a coincidence…

BELOW Celica’s victory was thrown into doubt several years later, after Toyota’s swift exit from the WRC.

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Hand picked from our current stock of exceptional cars

1965 Aston Martin DB5 Convertible One of just 81 RHD examples of the DB5 Convertible, built and delivered in 1965. Restored to perfection and upgraded to 4.2 litre Vantage specifications by Aston Martin Works in 2011 with just 1,000 miles covered since. Presented in sublime, concours condition and ready to be enjoyed this forthcoming motoring season. POA.

↓ 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Vantage One of just 60 DB5 Coupe’s to have been delivered with high performance Vantage specifications. Totally restored between 2013 and 2016 with minimal miles covered and in immaculate condition throughout. Finished in Silver Birch over Black hides. POA.

↑ 1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT Built and delivered in 1961, finished in California Sage with Connolly White Gold hide interior. One of just 75 production examples built by Aston Martin. This particular DB4 GT, we are delighted to offer, has an excellent history and is in ultimate driving condition, having been comprehensively overhauled and performance enhanced by renowned engineering specialists RS Williams in 2007. POA.

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Words Nathan Chadwick

The many lives of VNKy The long-lived development car for the V8 Vantage and Zagato project could soon be up for sale. Here’s its story

TAKE A CLOSE LOOK AT THE Vantage you see here – seems a bit, well, odd, doesn’t it? Yet there’s a reason for the stubbier demeanour and Speedline wheels from an Aston Martin Zagato – it’s the engineering mule for that very car. However, its life as a development hack began when the Z machine wasn’t even a twinkle in Peter Livanos’s eye. It wasn’t supposed to be this way, as its owner, ‘Dr Ulrich’, explains: “It was one of the early flip-tail Vantages – one of the first 50 – and a customer car, built to RHD specification,” he says. “The original owner didn’t like it because it kept overheating.” VNK 360S, chassis no. V8/11967/ RCAV, was thus bought back by the factory and thrust into action as a development hack. That action, according to notes from the development logbook, included breaking the front spoiler on an errant rabbit in 1982. The car also spent seven months at Piper to develop the fuel-injection system from 1983 onwards, and it trialled an electric vacuum-pump braking system, too. However, the tester did wonder if he’d even switched the pump on when he experienced poor braking performance. The most drastic change was for the V8 Zagato project, for which ‘VNKy’ was used to develop the engine in the UK. “They brought it down to the weight of the Zagato, 200kg less than a normal Vantage,”

FROM TOP With subtle styling variations along with an experimental engine, this is a very special Aston.

Ulrich says. “They removed the aircon, sound-deadening and rear seats, and put in a smaller fuel tank.” The engine produced 437bhp at 6250rpm, matched to a low-ratio diff that allowed the car to do 0-60mph without changing gear. Not only did it outperform the standard Vantage, but it was also quicker than the production Zagato cars. Its V8 has a very special claim to fame: “It’s an experimental engine, with a plaque on the cylinder-head covers that says it was built by the engineering department,” Ulrich says. “That’s because it was the engine used in the prototype Zagato that did the highspeed run at Le Mans with Roy Salvadori – it was supposed to reach 300km/h, but didn’t due to a blocked breather valve in the fuel system.” That car was then used by José Rosinski of France’s L’Auto Journal on an autoroute on July 8, 1986, where it reached 298.75km/h. After that, a new engine was built for the Zagato prototype, and the 298.75km/h unit was reworked and put into VNKy. While the lessons learned from the Zagato programme would influence the later X-Pack upgrades, by this point avowed Aston fans began to learn of a mysterious lightweight Vantage, and asked for replicas. The engineering team’s desire to take it racing was also a distraction. By early 1989, Aston had sold the car to a loyal customer, Wensley Haydon-Baillie. “Until the early 1990s it was

displayed at the Haydon-Baillie Aircraft and Naval Museum,” says Ulrich. Then it went to Aston Martin Owners Club (AMOC) member Bill Goodall, who started competing with it. After he sold it, the car was involved in a crash for which the recovery apparently caused more damage than the original accident. Once repaired, another AMOC member raced it with success at various club sprints and hillclimbs. VNKy then headed to Australia, before surfacing in the US in 2003. Ulrich bought the car in 2015 and, although he lives in Germany, he registered it in the UK to retain its special numberplate; he used to own five other Vantages, all with similar VNK plates in recognition of those issued in the Newport Pagnell area. While the engine, chassis and suspension have been refurbished, it still retains its original paint, the Zagato seats and NACA bonnet ducts. However, Ulrich’s love affair with this Aston and his one other remaining Vantage, a left-hand-drive example, may be coming to an end. “Because of all the modifications it’s had, and Brexit, I’m not allowed to drive it [in Germany] anymore,” he sighs. It’s clear he can’t really bear to part with it. “Modern cars are limited to 155mph, so passing an Audi A6 on the motorway because they can’t go any faster is impressive,” he chuckles. “As the English like to say, it goes like stink.”

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Words Elliott Hughes

Grenadier is on the attack Hardcore new off-roader from INEOS aims to be a surefire hit with fans of traditional mud-plugging

IT’S TUESDAY MORNING IN the Scottish Highlands, and I am huddled around the warmth of a fire pit with a gaggle of fellow journalists. It’s bitingly cold. Snow has been falling relentlessly, and plumes of condensation rise from our coffee cups and out of our mouths. The Narnia-like scenery couldn’t be any better for what lies ahead; the maiden adventure of the deliveryspecification INEOS Grenadier, a machine that has been six years and £700 million in the making. It certainly looks the part. My allotted vehicle is a Trialmaster Edition, and it is finished in an agrarian shade of Sela Green. It looks completely at home covered in mud and snow in such a remote setting. Steel wheels, BFGoodrich tyres and a snorkel indicate that this car means business. Snow crunches underfoot as I shuffle over to the driver’s door. I’m thankful the engine has been left running as I climb into the warm cabin. Inside, it’s clear that all the characterful utilitarianism promised by the prototypes remains intact. The interior’s biggest talking point

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FROM TOP Channelling the classic Defender, the new Grenadier is right at home in the Scottish Highlands.

‘I enable the hilldescent control and grimace as I tease the grille over the summit’

is the roof-mounted control panel that’s reminiscent of an aeroplane cockpit. The centre console is festooned with dials and switches that are modular and usefully chunky for my cold, gloved hands to operate, while the Recaro seats are supportive and comfortable. Ergonomically, it’s a great cabin, although the omission of heated seats seems a bit stingy for a model that starts at £59,000. There’s no hiding the fact that the gear selector is from BMW. This, however, is no bad thing, because in ‘my’ car it’s connected to the Bavarian manufacturer’s excellent B57 3.0-litre straight-six diesel motor via a ZF eight-speed automatic transmission. With a bespoke ECU map, this produces 249bhp and a muscular 406lb ft of torque. Our intrepid cavalcade puts those impressive numbers to good use. The all-terrain route begins on a narrow, craggy track glazed with ice and pockmarked by mud-plugged potholes and rocks. Lock the centre differential, engage the low-range ratios, and the INEOS off-roader resolutely forges onwards. The going gets tougher when the

Grenadier’s slab of a nose is faced with climbing some steep, snowy inclines. Right on cue, my walkietalkie crackles into life and I’m instructed to lock the rear differential, squeeze the throttle pedal and keep the steering dead straight. I oblige, and the Grenadier determinedly hauls its 2600kg heft towards the summit. Of course, what goes up must come down, so I enable the hilldescent control and grimace as I tease the Grenadier’s grille over the summit. Plucking up some courage, I remove my feet from the pedals and the INEOS slowly descends, the snowy ground filling the view through the windscreen. As the punishing day comes to a close, it is clear that the Grenadier is just as capable as a classic Land Rover Defender. But there are a few niggles. Some of the switches feel flimsy, a lack of self-centring makes for frantic steering out of junctions, and interior storage is oddly meagre. Even so, the Grenadier finds itself in an increasingly rarefied group of hardcore off-roaders. In short, it’s a triumph of mechanical simplicity and go-anywhere toughness.

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Meeting the man behind the monster The Zagato Mostro Barchetta by Maserati stunned showgoers in 2022 – its designer explains all

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography Matt Howell

THERE’S NOTHING QUITE LIKE a Zagato car. Close your eyes, and you may recognise engine-sound timbres from what lies beneath – but the surface impact will make you think, even if you don’t always fall in love. There’s no mistaking a Zagato. The roofless version of the gullwing coupé first revealed in 2015, the Zagato Mostro Barchetta by Maserati is one of only five built; it debuted at Villa d’Este in 2022. Even without those gullwing doors, there’s no doubting the impact of the design from Zagato’s Norihiko Harada. While influenced by the Maserati 450S Costin-Zagato that was dubbed ‘The Monster’ by Stirling Moss, it still looks like something beamed in from another universe. Zagato’s uniqueness is what attracted Norihiko to the firm in the first place. “Beauty and technology

interact directly and spontaneously,” he says. “Zagato designs are always very sporty, and they have their own identity – evergreen and pure.” His first exposure to the brand’s work came at an early age. “I was 12, an elementary-school student; I saw an ad for the Alitalia airline in one of my father’s magazines,” he explains. “An Alfa Romeo Junior Z was parked under the wing of a Douglas DC-8. I fell in love with the car right away – the Plexiglas-covered headlights on the sleek nose seemed so impressive, with such a mean and proud look.” Norihiko has been with Zagato since the mid-1990s. He defines the brand’s style as representing the spirit of the automobile itself, pushing the car forwards: “Zagato’s style is the best way to understand how beauty has been created between designers and engineers throughout history,

FROM OPPOSITE This roofless Zagato Mostro Barchetta was based on the 2015 gullwing coupé, and is one of only five built. The attention to detail is superb.

particularly between the 1920s-60s.” Underneath his Mostro design lies the lightweight chassis of a Gillet Vertigo .5. Gillet has been around since the early 1990s, building a lightweight chassis from carbonfibre and Formula 1-inspired honeycomb materials. While early Vertigos had a Ford Sierra Cosworth engine, for much of its life it used the Alfa Busso V6, and it competed in the Belgian and FIA GT Championships. In 2008, motive power switched to the Ferrari F136 unit, as used in crossplanecrankshaft form by Maserati, and also as featured in the Mostro. Zagato says the 4.2-litre V8 puts out 420bhp, which is marshalled by a manual-sequential six-speed ’box. The car features double-wishbone suspension with pushrod-actuated springs and dampers, while AP Racing calipers do all the stopping. There’s no electronic traction control, and the car weighs a mere 1200kg. Norihiko is very pleased with how the Barchetta has turned out, and highlights the continuity between the door’s panel and glass in particular. “It continues with no surface break or bend,” he says. “I was able to realise this because the side glass is fixed and doesn’t drop into the door – it helps to

keep the styling essentially pure.” This purity extends to Norihiko’s design approach, which was only loosely inspired by the 450S and other ’50s racing cars: “If people appreciate the pureness and simplicity of line, it’s because I didn’t look at too many things to get inspiration.” Instead, he draws his design influence from elsewhere. “I have always loved aircraft and ships – any kind of invention built to move fast,” he explains. “I love to see or stay close to flowing rivers.” That organic influence is reflected in the way he approaches a fresh design. “I start by sketching, ballpoint pen on paper,” he says. “Once I find some nice feeling, with a spontaneous mess of lines, I try to fit to the package or technical restrictions. Then I start to ‘cook’ them using Alias computer software – we don’t normally make a physical model.” Such fluidity in the design process is a reason to be positive about the incoming rush of EV powertrains, according to Norihiko. “I’m positive to any kind of opportunity that can give us wider space to explore our creative spirit, as well as evolve the automobile between new technology and design creativity,” he says. Just like every Zagato should.

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Words David Lillywhite

Is Bertone coming back?

1912 F RO M CARR ADORE TO CA R ROZ ZERIA

The famous coachbuilding name is now in the control of two brothers with a long automotive-industry history

1920 A PE R IO D O F GROW TH Giovanni Bertone began expanding his workshop to become a coachbuilder. His first assignment was a torpedo body on a chassis of a SPA 23S (below).

The Carrozzeria Bertone story began with Giovanni Bertone in 1912 in Turin. He specialised in the construction of horsedrawn carriages, and quickly gained attention for his quality and artisanal craftsmanship.

1930 INTE R N ATIONAL S UC C ES S IS THE GREAT BERTONE NAME set to make a comeback? That’s the intention of its owners, brothers Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci. Bertone’s history dates back to 1912, but as with most coachbuilders its fortunes began to fade during the 1970s and ’80s, and it went out of business in 2014. The name was then acquired by an architect, who continued as Bertone Design. In 2016 Bertone Design was bought by automotive consultancy group AKKA Technologies, which was part-owned by the Ricci brothers. AKKA was subsequently sold in 2021 to the Adecco Group, based in Zurich, in a deal thought to be worth €2 billion. The Bertone

brand, meanwhile, was sold on to Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci. The brothers’ first move as Bertone has been to release images of their planned new limited-edition hypercar, the GB110 (below), of which just 33 examples will be built. The design of the GB110, named for last year’s 110th anniversary of Bertone, is said to have been influenced by the coachbuilder’s BAT cars, Stratos Zero and Marzal. At the heart of the GB110 is an internal-combustion engine that is capable of using fuel converted from plastic waste. It’s said to be “the first in a series of limited-edition vehicles” from the revived company. More details at www.bertone.it.

The SPA led to international success, with the design of the Lancia Artena in 1932. Giovanni Bertone’s son ‘Nuccio’ joined in 1933, bringing a new level of design innovation.

1940 R E B UIL D ING TH E F UTUR E Having pivoted in wartime to military vehicles, Bertone started its reconstruction shortly after World War Two.

1960 MA K ING H ISTO RY The ’60s saw Bertone complete a move to a new plant at Grugliasco. Also, the company launched the Fiat 850 Spider, and started its partnership with Lamborghini.

1950 CO NTIN UED E X PANS ION In the 1950s came the first orders from countries other than Italy. This was made possible through collaborations with the likes of Alfa Romeo.

1970 NE W PARTNERS HIPS Bertone also began working for Volvo, and created the Lancia Stratos Zero, too (below).

1980 CO L L A B O R ATIO NS Bertone was now responsible for the production, sales network and aftersales assistance for the Fiat X1/9. This was followed in 1986 with the signing of a new agreement with General Motors Europe.

2000 F UL L SE RV ICE When Lilli Bertone took over the management of the brand in 1997, Bertone became a fully integrated service company in the automotive, transportation and industrial design sectors.

2020–23 A N ICO N R E B O R N Bertone’s new owners are car enthusiasts Mauro and Jean-Franck Ricci, who are relaunching Bertone with a new vision for the future.

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1990 INNOVATION Bertone entered the 1990s with a focus on technological innovations including the Blitz Barchetta, a show car that featured an electric engine and avant-garde construction.

2010 NE W OWNERS HIP After unveiling the Bertone Mantide (below), the company went on to pioneer the birdof-prey-inspired Alfa Romeo Pandion at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, before being sold to AKKA Technologies in 2016.

THE LAST OF ITS BREED

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This 1965 Shelby 289 Cobra, CSX 2588 is the second to last Shelby 289 Cobra built. As part of the Shelby family collection that once housed the Shelby Cobra prototype CSX 2000, CSX 2589 was personally constructed for Carroll Shelby himself. Naturally, with no immediate plans to sell such a personal vehicle, this 289 Cobra, the penultimate small-block produced, and the last to be sold to the public when new, is an intriguing 'bookend' example of one of the standout icons – automotive or otherwise - of the 20th century. This example represents the last of the breed. With regular servicing, a known list of previous owners, and listed within SAAC World Registry of Cobras & GT40s, Collectors Garage is proud to offer a significant matching numbers example of Carroll Shelby's finest creation.

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Words Harry Hurst

LAST JUNE, DR FRED SIMEONE, founder of the Philadelphia museum that bears his name, passed away. As with any such great institution with valuable historic collections, concerns have been expressed about its future. Did Dr Simeone provide for the continuation of its mission? Will his legacy be preserved? Harry Hurst, Simeone director of programs, sat down with executive director Kevin Kelly to discuss the future of this important museum.

the research library, Guston Lowe is in charge of the gift shop and Ron Fanelli keeps care of the facility. Few people knew that Fred was ill for the final year and was not strong enough to even come to the museum. Before that, he’d hardly missed a day. But his absence allowed the team to run the day-to-day aspects on our own, with him only a phone call away. That ‘rehearsal’ made the transition somewhat easier. What about the finances? The foundation has an endowment, and is financially stable. Again, it falls back to Fred. We joke that he built the museum with the Craigslist Construction Company. He wasn’t born into money, he worked for everything he had and he paid for all of the museum renovations out of his own pocket. That frugality extended into its operation, and we work here to try to do our share. The operating budget is very low in comparison with other museums’; we do a lot with a small staff. The money from the gift shop, front desk and events combines so that we run a financially stable enterprise. That also allows us to weather economic storms as they arise. When we had to close to the public during Covid, we were still able to keep all the staff on the payroll.

First, tell us what has happened since Dr Simeone passed away. Well, it’s been a very hectic time. You can’t completely prepare for such a transition, but Fred did his best to put everything in order. Over the years he’d made his wishes clear on how he wanted the museum to carry on. He knew he wasn’t going to live forever – and he knew he wasn’t taking the collection with him. He thought it should be in a trust. He was acutely aware of what had happened to Reno’s Harrah Collection after Bill Harrah didn’t address it in his will – much of it was sold. All of the assets of the Simeone, the cars and the library, have been transferred to the Foundation over the years. The Foundation now runs the museum via a small board, many of whose members have been on it for decades. Fred’s daughter Christina is one. She has extensive non-profit experience and understands Fred’s desire to keep the museum going. And the day-to-day operation? I’m executive director, and Amanda Jimenez – who was with Fred before the museum, as his medical practice’s office manager – is administrative director. We also have Chris Webb handling operations and William Murphy doing our communications including digital. Ryan Bollinger runs

The Simeone after Fred Preservation, education and research – how the famous automotive museum will stay true to its late founder’s legacy

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Photography Michael Furman, Andrew M Taylor

When you talk about keeping Fred’s legacy going, what do you mean? There are three major elements: preservation, education and research. We’ll continue to preserve the cars we have, as well as any additions. It’s important that they all run – that is the heart of our popular Demo Days. The Simeone is, to our knowledge, the only place in the world where cars with this history and importance can be seen running regularly. These days are also educational, since we preface each event with a

historical lecture on the cars. Each Demo Day has a theme, such as Le Mans or 75 Years of Ferrari. So, in addition to having the thrill of seeing and hearing these magnificent cars run, everyone learns something new. We also feel it is important to educate the ‘hobby’ on Dr Simeone’s philosophy of preservation. It doesn’t mean vintage cars should never be restored. It does mean significant models should be preserved as historical artefacts. Owners should consider themselves as stewards, and treat their cars responsibly. Dr Simeone spelled out his thoughts in The Stewardship of Historically Important Automobiles, which has just been reissued in paperback. Fred said certain cars of significant historic value shouldn’t be raced. Yes, he felt strongly that it would be better to race replicas instead. Many people argue that they were raced and repaired in the day, so what’s the difference? Well, those repairs are part of their historic legacy. Damage done today eliminates some of that history, and it can’t be replaced. When Fred first showed his cars at the garage on Philadelphia’s 8th St, the emphasis was on teen-driver education. Will this be resumed? We will take education beyond just research and history. We want young people to grow their appreciation of cars, and also to understand driver safety. This was always an area of frustration for Fred, that there was not an accepted way to do this. So, yes, youth education is important. How will the Simeone’s huge research library of automotive literature be part of the museum? Collecting automotive sales literature is where Fred started his involvement with cars. You could say it was his

ABOVE The famous Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum is home to a world-class car collection.

Starter first love. He started collecting it before he could even drive. As a youth, he had an association with the Free Library of Philadelphia – it even gave him a card introducing him as its representative. He would go to Hershey every year and look for rare pieces. He was so fixated on this event that, later, he’d schedule his vacation around Hershey. He even set his wedding date with it in mind. After we opened the museum and brought all the literature over from his house, he’d be in our library all the time. You could drive past at 11:00pm and see the lights on; he was poring over things, doing research for other people. He never stopped growing the collection; today it’s among the world’s largest automotive-research collections. We plan to make the collection more accessible to serious historians. In addition to the sales literature, which covers almost every car ever produced, Fred was able to acquire the archives of many notable figures, including Alec Ulmann and Briggs Cunningham. He also found some extremely rare publications on prewar racing. When Ferrari biographer Luca Dal Monte was here a few years ago, Fred brought him up to the library. As they talked and Dal Monte would mention a rare Ferrari book, Fred would reach into a drawer and produce a copy. Luca was impressed. You’ve been here since the start in 2008. What’s your background? I picked up my love of sports cars from my dad, who had an MGA, a TR6, Fiats... When it came time for my first car, I had $1000 to spend, so I got an MGB and promptly blew the engine racing a station wagon on the New Jersey Parkway. It cost me about $500 to fix that – and from then on, I told myself ‘I’m not taking a car to a shop, I can’t afford it’. And that’s what I did, right or wrong. I learned everything the hard way. It was just dive in and learn by experimentation. It forced me to develop analytical skills, to figure out a problem. It forced me to ask, what were they trying to achieve here? In many ways that was a good development; it set me up for the flexibility that I need here with the variety of cars. We have everything from a 1909 American Underslung to a Porsche 917, so the variation in technologies is pretty wide.

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But you did end up restoring the collection’s Stutz Bearcat for Fred? Yes, that’s something people may not realise, that Fred did have automobiles restored. When he got that car, it was the wrong colour and just didn’t look right. And he wanted it back to a factory colour scheme. If it had been a good preservation car, Fred would have left it alone. But it wasn’t, because it had already been redone several times. Did you help launch the museum? Yes, I had left restoration and was working for a construction company. One day in 2007, I came into the shop and they told me somebody had called. I didn’t recognise the number – it was a Philly number. I asked if they’d left a name, and they said: “It’s V Jano. J-A-N-O.” Of course, I recognised the name Vittorio Jano, the guy who designed 8C Alfas. I called, and it was Fred. Turns out, that was how he had his home number listed in the phone book – he was an important doctor and couldn’t have his real name in the telephone book. He told me that the museum he had been talking about for years was now really going to happen. Would I want to come up and discuss being a part of it?

FROM TOP Historic cars keep co-directors Kevin and Amanda and their team busy, with Demo Days being a real highlight. You worked for Ralph Buckley in New Jersey, one of the first fulltime restoration shops. Ralph was pretty much a pre-war specialist. He had been working in a shipyard during WW2 building PT boats, and when the war was over he lost his job. He’d restored a Mercer, and people asked him to work on their classics. So in 1946 or ’47, he and a friend opened a shop. They got the

‘Over the years Fred had made his wishes clear on how he wanted the museum to carry on’

top clients: Cameron Peck, Henry Austin Clark, Briggs Cunningham. The best cars from the best clients. I came by with a Bugeye Sprite I’d restored, and asked him for a job. He put me on as a painter. I cut my teeth on brass cars. I loved working there; we’d sit on running boards at lunch, and he would tell stories about the old days, stories about all the clients that they had, and all the great cars. It was just wonderful being there. How did you hear about Fred? One day I came in and there was this yellow 1750 Alfa, supercharged, a 6C. It looked a little rough and tumble; like a warrior. I asked Ralph: “When are we going to start restoring this?” And Ralph said: “Oh no, that’s how he likes them.” He was talking about Fred. This was my introduction to the concept of preservation. All our other clients wouldn’t stand for a scratch on the engine, let alone the rest of the car. But Fred wanted his maintained and repaired, and not restored.

What struck you most about Fred? I was touched by his compassion. When I got to know him better, working with him every day, I found that he truly was like that. He was one of the busiest doctors in the world, but he’d take time to give you a call if you were having a problem. Anybody could come to him with medical problems, and he’d help them through it. He’d make connections for them, not expecting anything in return. He just wanted to do it. And he did that for so many friends – for my family, for many people. Sure, he could be a tough guy. But if you were having a hard time, he was somebody you’d want on your team. Where does the Simeone go now? We want to use all the new technologies available to reach a larger audience. Facebook Live, podcasts, Zoom events... these can allow us to communicate with people outside of Philadelphia; to reach people all over the world. These are going to be exciting times. www.simeonemuseum.org

Preserving Preserving the the past, past, present present and and future: future: Preserving Preserving the the past, past, present present and and future: future:

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www.ferrariparts.co.uk www.ferrariparts.co.uk www.ferrariparts.co.uk www.ferrariparts.co.uk

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Photography Rimac Automobili

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Words Elliott Hughes

The car of the future is here, today Rimac is leading the charge for all-electric hypercars with its exciting Nevera. We drive it – and speak to the man behind it

Starter IN SEPTEMBER 2011, A NEW Croatian start-up called Rimac Automobili stunned the Frankfurt Motor Show with its first hypercar, the Concept_One. Underneath the voluptuous carbonfibre bodywork were four electric motors delivering a total of 1073bhp, allowing the car to sprint to 62mph in 2.8 seconds and reach a top speed of 190mph. These figures were otherworldly, yet understandably the Concept_One was met with more than a little scepticism. How could a brand-new company with a 24-year-old CEO from a country with no car-building heritage ever hope to deliver such an ambitious machine? Perhaps that’s why the media at the time seemed to agree that the star of Frankfurt 2011 was Jaguar’s C-X16, a concept car that preceded the F-type. Twelve years later, I’m on an aeroplane headed to Rimac’s Zagreb headquarters to meet founder and CEO Mate Rimac. I’ll also be driving the Concept_One’s successor, the Nevera. On the face of it, and against all odds, it seems as though Rimac has succeeded in its original goal of “making something revolutionary”. The Nevera is currently the fastest all-electric production car on the planet, and Rimac has recently joined forces with Bugatti. No one in 2011 saw that coming. Meeting Mate for the first time is memorable. He comes into view as I sit with a coffee in Rimac’s reception area. He’s slightly late, which is understandable, and jogs down the stairwell towards me, apologising before affably shaking my hand. He’s tall and dressed casually in jeans and a Rimac-branded jacket. I’m instantly aware that – somewhat depressingly – he’s only slightly older than I am. Mate leads me into a room full of engineers gazing pensively at CAD models on dozens of computer screens. “All of these guys are developing the hybrid system for the next Bugatti; I can actually show you some,” he says. His openness is both disarming and refreshing – journos are usually required to put stickers over smartphone lenses and sign non-disclosure agreements before even setting foot in such a place. It’s obvious that Mate is in his element as he enthusiastically talks me through the design of the next Bugatti’s front axle. “Current models don’t have anything at the front

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Starter

FROM ABOVE The Nevera is hand-built at Rimac’s Zagreb HQ. Founder Mate has huge plans for this most modern of manufacturers.

aside from a differential and some cooling components, so the new one is going to be very densely packaged,” he explains. He then makes several suggestions on how to improve the design to the engineer, before we continue our tour. Each section of the factory is an immaculate, orderly hive of activity. It teems with intelligent people creating fascinating components, whether it’s intricate, hand-crafted wiring looms or stacks of carbonfibre body panels awaiting fitment to cars in various stages of completion. “A big problem for us is space,” Mate admits. “I remember walking around here before we moved in a year ago, and thinking, ‘wow, there’s so much space; we should be fine for a while’. But it’s already packed.” Amazingly, the building was a deserted Home Depot before Rimac arrived – it was simply the best facility Mate could find in a country that has little industry: “The building was really run-down. It looked like shit!” The solution is the purpose-built Campus currently under construction that’ll become the centre of Rimac’s operations. This was made possible only after the firm received $536 million in investment as part of its recent deal to partner with Bugatti. My two-hour factory tour comes to a close in an area known as the

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Gallery. It’s effectively a tunnel filled with Mate’s personal cars, which will eventually be displayed at the Campus. One that immediately catches my eye is a 1984 BMW E30. It’s belonged to Mate since 2009, and is essentially what inspired him to found Rimac. He raced it until the engine exploded, which he then replaced with electric motors from a forklift, working in his parents’ garage. Mate’s fellow trackday enthusiasts mocked him at first, but constant upgrades led to several FIA and Guinness World Records, and eventually his own car firm. He’s teased that he has big plans for the BMW, even toying with the idea of putting a Nevera powertrain into it. Mate’s collection also features a Bugatti Chiron, Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren, Ferrari F8 Tributo, Ferrari Roma and, interestingly, a Renault 4, plus four BMWs. He aims to take it even further by buying every supercar that he’s had a hand in developing. It makes for quite the line-up: Aston

‘Factory teems with intelligent people creating fascinating components’

Martin Valkyrie, Koenigsegg Gemera, Pininfarina Battista, Porsche 718 and, of course, the Nevera. “I think many of the brands are experiencing an existential crisis,” Mate says as I admire his cars. “They are thinking ‘what does the future look like without a combustion engine?’ Not that I’m disrespectful to big car companies. It’s exciting for me to work with BMW, Ferrari, Porsche and so on. I want us all to work together for the future of the industry.” With my tour over, Mate bids me farewell and rushes off to another meeting, while I’m ushered outside for my first experience of the Nevera. As I wait, I ponder the palpably ludicrous performance figures: 1888bhp, 1741lb ft of torque (nearly twice that of a Bugatti Veyron) and a €2m ($2.4m) list price. Exchange those figures for speed, and you get 0-62mph in 1.85 seconds and 0-186mph in 9.3 seconds. Crazy! And then, here it is. Finished in lustrous silver paint, the bodywork is smoother and more elegant than that of many hypercars, despite its purposeful vents, active rear wing and brooding headlights. It also proudly flaunts its heritage; the air inlets on its flanks are sculpted to resemble bow ties that were worn by 17th-century Croatian soldiers. Reaching into that bow-tie-shaped

crease, I find a hidden door handle. I press it, and the car’s dihedral door dramatically opens skywards, revealing a cocoon of bare carbon, Alcantara and milled aluminium, punctuated by Nevera and Rimac motifs. As with the rest of the car, the cabin is completely bespoke and hand-built, and the superb fit and finish belie the company’s short, 14year history as an auto manufacturer. I climb into the supportive, comfortable embrace of the Sabeltsupplied seats, and I’m greeted by a digital instrument display and a large screen above the centre console. Another screen is set into the dash in front of the passenger, which can display everything from power output to G readings and speed. Happily, I don’t need to swipe through endless menus to control the car’s major functions. Instead, they’re accessed via a bank of toggle switches and three milled rotary dials that sit proud of the dashboard. Sat-nav primed, I rotate the far-left dial to find Drive. It turns with a satisfying click reminiscent of the bezel on a luxury watch. Out on the open road, and with the car set to Comfort mode, there’s little to suggest such otherworldly performance lurking just a few inches beneath the sole of my right foot. The steering is light and the ride is

FROM ABOVE Rimac’s glimpse of the future has become a reality, setting a new standard for high-performance electric vehicles.

comfortable and compliant. The Nevera quietly meanders through Zagreb’s morning traffic with minimal fuss. If I ignore the smartphone paparazzi of my fellow motorists and the occasional pitch of that rear wing, I could be in a Porsche Taycan. Ominously, the morning fog has thickened significantly by the time I reach the test track. My sense of foreboding only increases as I withdraw to the passenger seat so that test driver Miroslav Zrnčević can show me the circuit layout and warm up the Michelin Pilot Sport 4 tyres on the cold, slippery asphalt. With the car in Sport mode and administering just 70 percent of its power, my body is subjected to breathless bursts of acceleration. My eyes dart to snapshots of the scenery, in a desperate attempt to pick out cones and braking markers as we sear myopically towards the next bend. After five laps I’m back in the driver’s seat, sheepishly heading out for my maiden lap. The track is almost comically short for such a powerful car, with only one straight punctuating a succession of sweeping corners and hairpin bends. With the car still in Sport mode, I complete a tentative few laps to learn the circuit layout and familiarise myself with the $2m missile I’ve been entrusted with. What happens next is surprising;

despite the terrible visibility, ice-cold surface and near-2000bhp at my disposal, I start to feel comfortable and push the car ever harder, lap after lap. The other good news is the noise. Far from being a sterile, uninspiring and muted soundtrack, the four electric motors emit an authentic banshee-like whine as I pick up speed, before conducting a spaceship-like groan as I hit the brakes. It soon becomes clear that, through engineering witchcraft, the Nevera is far less intimidating than cars I’ve driven with less than a quarter of the power. It’s all made possible by the onboard supercomputer, which is fed by nine cameras, LIDAR, radar, in-seat sensors and 12 ultrasonic sensors that produce up to 6TB of data per hour of driving. This allows the super-advanced Rimac AllWheel Torque Vectoring (R-AWTV) system to process 100 calculations per second. Not only does all this help prevent the driver from having

‘The Nevera’s acceleration is devastating, almost blurring my vision’

an undignified accident, but it also feels totally imperceptible and fools them into believing they are the next Ayrton Senna. Now feeling more confident, I’m encouraged to wind the right-hand dial into Track mode, which delivers 100 percent of the Nevera’s power. The acceleration is devastating, almost blurring my vision as I reach 180km/h on the longest straight before smashing the brake pedal and letting the huge six-piston front and rear Brembo calipers punishingly squeeze the carbon-ceramic discs. The brakes are perhaps the most unconventional part of the car in terms of feel. Its onboard computer continuously prioritises how much of the stopping power is administered by the regenerative forces from the electric motors or the hydraulic brakes, based on which is the most thermally limited. The feeling through the pedal is one of graininess, but it isn’t unnerving and it recedes into the background once I’m used to it. In the tight corners, the Nevera hides its 2150kg kerbweight superbly. This is aided by the ‘H’-shaped battery pack that provides a low centre of gravity, alongside the stiffest carbonfibre tub ever fitted to a road car. Combine this with the excellent adjustable dampers, and

body roll is imperceptible in Sport, Track and Drift modes. The Drift setting provides one of the most memorable parts of test driving a Nevera, and one that I wouldn’t have dreamed of daring to explore prior to climbing into the car. The drift course is a circle of asphalt with a lamp post in the middle, like a dart lodged in a bullseye. With Drift enabled, I simply crank the steering to the left, mash the throttle and transform my tyres into an acrid rooster tail of smoke while the computers do the rest. After driving the Nevera, I feel like I’ve had a genuine glimpse into the future. It’s a car that seems exempt from compromise: it’s sci-fi fast, exotic and well built, while being approachable, refined and comfortable. The only flaws to speak of are the high price, the bizarre omission of cruise control, and the display screens, which could be clearer for a car with so much power. But that’s nitpicking. The Rimac Nevera was named after the Croatian word for a mighty electrical storm that appears suddenly along the Adriatic coast. An apt moniker for a car that has both shocked the establishment and paves the way to a brighter future once its technology trickles down into more attainable models.

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World’s best Ferrari 250GTO?

David MacNeil bought 250GTO no. 4153GT for almost $80 million – and then he had

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it stripped back to bare metal for one of the most exacting restorations ever seen Words David Lillywhite

Photography Don Hudson III

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IT WAS PROBABLY AN UNNECESSARY question, but it had to be asked: “Was the goal always to buy a GTO at some point?” David MacNeil, owner of the world’s most expensive Ferrari, answers without a moment’s pause. “You know, I had always thought about it. The prices just kept going up and up and up. I thought that if I’m going to spend that kind of money, I want the very best GTO. I wasn’t willing to settle for one that had been crashed hard, or rolled, or that something equally bad had happened to.” David already owned several of the very best Ferraris in the world, including a 250GT SWB, courtesy of his hugely successful Weathertech car-accessories business. But he couldn’t stop thinking about owning the ultimate example. “I let David Gooding from Gooding & Co. auctions know [that I wanted one]; he knows people all over the world. And finally, he walked up to me at the Amelia Island Concours and he

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE After a lifetime of competition and several different liveries, 4153GT is back where it began, in 1963 Le Mans startline spec. The obsessive detailing goes as far as recreated scrutineering tags and seals, paint markings, stickers and transfers that were applied specifically for the famous 24 Hours race.

had this book by Keith Bluemel on GTO chassis no. 4153GT. It’s a big, thick book, and the whole thing is dedicated to this exact car. “He said: ‘It’s available!’ So I said: ‘Okay, what car, which GTO?’ He went: ‘No no, it’s this GTO,’ pointing to the one on the cover, and I said: ‘Ohhhh!’ It was a long ‘ohhhh’, because you don’t just wake up in the morning and think you’re going to spend that kind of money on a car. “The greatest thing was that the price was reported at $70 million. And that’s inaccurate. It was more! I’m under an NDA not to disclose the exact figure, but it was well more. It’s a few Bugattis away from the price that was reported. I think that’s hilarious. “So I jumped in my Gulfstream as the captain and flew to Switzerland, where the car was at the time, and amazingly I was allowed to drive it. I fell in love with it, and I wired a deposit the next day, paid for it shortly thereafter and flew it home. I have great pictures of it coming off the aeroplane in the dark in Chicago, which was just epic.” So David MacNeil had just become the owner of one of the very best 250GTOs in the world, and all he wanted to do at that point was to drive it – which he did. A lot. Before we go into that, and what happened next, it’s important to understand why this particular car is so special, even in GTO terms. Its appeal starts with its early history, but is also as much about how this example survived and how it’s been looked after since then. Chassis 4153GT is well documented, not just in the dedicated book already mentioned but also in Jess G Pourret’s classic Ferrari 250GT Competition Cars and in the more recent Porter Press two-volume Ultimate Ferrari 250GTO by James Page, as well as the online resource www.barchetta.cc. So we know it was sent to Scaglietti for bodywork on October 25, 1962, its engine was tested on December 10 that year (producing 305.7bhp), and it

BELOW AND OPPOSITE Fly screen, as fitted to the GTO for Le Mans, has been recreated. Inside, the rev counter, redlined at 8000rpm, dominates the instrument cluster. Note the hammered-gold paintwork, verified by colour period photography and several Ferrari historians, as well as the correct black corduroy seats.

was finally completed on December 11. GTOs by this point featured recessed front sidelights, the wider front air intake and circular brake-cooling ducts either side of that intake, along with the distinctive rear spoiler integrated into the bootlid – and 4153GT was no different. Its records show that it was sold on December 28, 1962 to French racer Pierre Dumay, finished in pale metallic grey with a Tricolore stripe running strikingly through the centre of the car, from nose to tail, and bearing the Modena registration MO 84265. It appears to have been entered into the May 1963 Nürburgring 1000km but didn’t start the race, so 4153GT’s first outing was in the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. This gives an idea of the level that both the GTO and Dumay were at. For this, Dumay’s second attempt at the 24 Hours, he partnered with Belgian Léon Dernier (known as ‘Eldé’) to compete under the Ecurie Francorchamps banner. Dumay had started out as a motorcycle racer but moved to cars in 1955, becoming a regular on the Tour de France. His first Le Mans was in 1960, when he finished fourth overall in a 250GT SWB while winning the GT class. Co-driver Dernier had finished third at Le Mans in both 1959 and ’62. The 1963 race is remembered for its high number of serious accidents and retirements, leaving just 14 finishers out of 49 starters. Dumay and Dernier in 4153GT did well to stay out of trouble – even escaping the worst of the disastrous oil spill from the Bruce McLaren and Innes Ireland Aston Martin DP214, which resulted in several cars going off, a very close escape for Roy Salvadori and the death of Christian ‘Bino’ Heins. As the race progressed, Ferraris began to dominate, particularly the three new midengined 250Ps, although the four 330 LMBs and four 250GTOs looked strong, too. Gradually, however, more dropped out, and when the John Surtees/Willy Mairesse car caught fire after 19 hours following a careless refuel, it left the Ludovico Scarfiotti/Lorenzo Bandini 250P in the lead – by ten laps. The 250P went on to win, with the Equipe Nationale Belge 250GTO of ‘Beurlys’ and Gérard Langlois van Ophem second, the 250P of Mike Parkes and Umberto Maglioli third, and Dumay and Dernier in 4153GT just one lap behind to take fourth place. Behind them, two more Ferraris, followed by Graham Hill and Richie Ginther in the Rover-BRM gas-turbine car. It was a remarkable result for the two GTOs – and was said to have been marked by driving the cars to a bar in Paris, then leaving them parked outside while celebrations ensued. Clearly no harm came of the excursion, because a mere three days later Dumay drove 4153GT to an event marking the opening of the Zolder circuit in Belgium, where it took

part in demonstration laps, still wearing its Le Mans race numbers. Two weeks after that, the car was out at Reims for the support race to the French Grand Prix. That was it for 1963, but the following year saw 4153GT – now under the ownership of Marquis Philippe de Montaigu – testing for Le Mans but not entering the race, despite posting the eighth-fastest time overall. All the same, the GTO continued to compete, and in the hands of Lucien Bianchi and Georges Berger it finished first in the prestigious Tour de France – an amazing result. Through 1965, 4153GT’s campaigns continued, with the likes of Bianchi, Mairesse and even Guy Ligier driving it at venues around Europe, including the Nürburgring, Spa, Reims and Mont Ventoux. It then went to Spain, where it was campaigned throughout the rest of the 1960s. Next it moved to France, only to lie unused in a lock-up for years until 1986, when it was bought by Henri Chambon. He drove it in several Tour de France Autos, before passing it to Nicolaus Springer, who continued to compete in the GTO. It was under his stewardship that it first appeared in the UK, at the Coys International Historic Festival and at the first Goodwood Revival, following restoration with UK specialist DK Engineering. It was bought in 2000 for a rumoured $6.5m by Charles Grohe, before moving onto racing driver Christian Gläsel in 2003. Christian and his family raced, track day’d and displayed the GTO, taking it to Pebble Beach in 2011. After 2012, though, it was rarely seen in public. When David MacNeil bought 4153GT in 2018, the internet, as the saying goes, lit up with talk of the rumoured $70m record price – which we now know to be an under-estimate. The price wasn’t a complete shock in GTO circles; there had been talk of private sales fetching well above $40m for some while. At the time, DK Engineering’s James Cottingham said: “If a sale has taken place, then the figures being mentioned seem realistic given that this is categorically one of the best GTOs in existence, with its Le Mans history and, of course, being the overall winner of the Tour de France in 1964.” Of course, David MacNeil feels the same: “It’s hard to describe driving this car, because it is truly a GT that you could drive to Le Mans, turn the key, race 24 hours, and then drive back home if you wanted to. “I spent over 1000 miles in it a couple of years ago, doing the Colorado Grand rally, running through the gears, driving it hard, enjoying it. I’ve never driven anything quite like it. The way it handles the power – the powerto-weight ratio is like a modern supercar’s – and the braking and handling, the ergonomics of it... There’s something magical about the

ABOVE The distinctive Kamm tail was reshaped by Motion Products following extensive study of 1963 Le Mans images. Protective mesh was fitted over the rear brakecooling ducts for Le Mans and replicated by Motion Products. Aerodynamic studies have since shown that these brake ducts weren’t particularly effective anyway.

World’s best Ferrari 250GTO?

ABOVE 4153GT stripped to bare metal. Despite minor accidents in period, most of the original bodywork was still intact.

ABOVE More evidence of 4153GT’s remarkable originality, with these stampings on the door window frames.

RIGHT Images from Le Mans showing the door open allowed the team to confirm the seat trim and the originality of the bulkhead.

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BELOW ‘4153’ serial number also appears on the bellhousing, transmission tunnel, trim parts, instrument pod and more.

ABOVE Onto the finishing touches, having been painted in-house. The original Le Mans V12, after five decades in another Ferrari.

BELOW Winning its class at Pebble Beach in 2022. Headlights are papered, just as they were at the start of the 1963 Le Mans.

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World’s best Ferrari 250GTO?

car, in the way it all comes together.” He continues: “I mean, I’m going over passes, pulling 7000rpm with it, and it’s still pulling hard. The car is just begging for more, errr… punishment? Or maybe enjoyment. Or maybe it’s just laughing at me and telling me ‘I’ve got more, let’s go!’ I’m not sure which. I have one of the best car collections in the world, and if I had to keep just one model it’d be the GTO.” There was something bugging David, though… 4153GT was in great condition. Really great. But it wasn’t perfect; it wasn’t exactly how he wanted it. He’d driven it hard, his son Cooper had raced it, everyone in the family had already had a go. What next for the GTO? He says: “During this whole time I was understanding and immersing myself in the car. And then I created a plan, with a lot of discussion with the great experts out there, to bring it back to absolutely original specification. By the time the Colorado Grand was over – and we really enjoyed the car – I thought, okay, it’s time to get the GTO ready for Pebble Beach. So David took a big decision. He decided to have it restored to exactly how it would have looked lined up for the start of the greatest race of its life, the 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours. “The car was in excellent condition when I bought it, but when you want to make a vehicle perfect – meaning, let’s say, 100 points [in concours terms] – then even if it is, say, 98 points, you have to go down to zero points to bring it back up to 100. “So that was when we sent it to Motion Products, in Wisconsin. When they stripped all the paint off the car and it was raw-metal naked, it was clear that the original body was still in excellent condition. We then took almost two years to restore it back to 1963 Le Mans 24 Hours starting-line condition.” “We typically will pick a point in time right away,” explains restorer Dustin Wetmore at Motion Products. “That way, when we start doing research, we can use that contact; with a lot of these cars, there are quite a few changes that occur. Sometimes those changes are very subtle. So picking that point in time right away is really important. “We broke the files up between photographs for scrutineering, then photographs for the starting line, and then the afternoon-to-night stint and the morning-to-afternoon stint. “We picked the start of the race; we’ve got some good shots of that point in time in the pit before the start. They’re close-up – the photographer was probably five or six feet away from the car – so they could give us some good pointers as far as where the paint breaks were, the shape of the white stripes that locate 90

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ABOVE Roughly applied stripes of white paint front and rear indicate the jacking positions; perfectly replicated scrutineers’ lead seals.

the jack points at the nose and the tail, and then certain colours in the interior, were there seatbelts or were there not seatbelts, etc.” With the GTO stripped back to a bare chassis and body, the team wheeled it outside on a kart to examine its metalwork in natural light. “We spent the afternoon looking at all the period photographs from Le Mans that we had,” continues Dustin. “And then, with a 55mm lens, I tried to replicate the angles as best I could, and get a sense with that aspect ratio to get the correct distance so we could evaluate all the shapes in the car. “ What’s interesting is that there was very little corrosion other than a few pinholes and a few spots where the alloy panels wrapped around steel, as is always the case. Once the overall shape was deemed correct, the next stage was to work out the details of the 1963 Le Mans specification. Here, a rare shot showing the interior of the GTO at La Sarthe,

taken from the passenger side, proved invaluable. The photograph was so sharp, the team could confirm that the seat material was black corduroy rather than the canvas so often seen in this period of Ferraris. “The corduroy was not totally a surprise, but it was a pleasant surprise. Scaglietti had sometimes used canvas, typically blue – or green in the instance of the David Piper GTO – so we’re typically putting blue canvas on all these cars now,” says Dustin. “We could even tell the direction of the lines in the corduroy, and where [the material sections] broke and where they were glued.” “We were also able to authenticate the firewall from that photo, both the left side and the right side. We were able to see where the portion of the firewall was shaped to accommodate the windshield-wiper system. Every one of those would have been a little bit different, because it would have been done by hand to each GTO. “Then we were just looking at locations of fasteners and a couple of flecks of the redoxide primer that was used in period. So that’s

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World’s best Ferrari 250GTO?

how good this photo was. It was a godsend!” This proved that the original firewalls had survived, which helped confirm the authenticity of the Ferrari. The research on 4153GT and earlier work on several GTOs had substantiated that while firewalls were typically painted black, the rest of the interior metalwork was often in a gold-hammered finish, as proven by numerous period photographs – and so, that’s how 4153GT was painted by Motion Products, too, with the blessing of several prominent Ferrari historians. British Pathé news films of the GTO at Le Mans in ’63 were found on YouTube. Screen captures were made of every useful frame, especially with the bonnet raised, revealing crucial engine-bay detailing, such as how the ignition leads, wiring and hoses were routed, and even the type of foam used between the bonnet panel and snorkel. The original build sheet was also acquired, which verified the type of exhaust fitted from new as well as the size of the wheels. It’s commonplace for GTOs to have their wider rear rims moved to the front, and still-wider replacements fitted to the rear. Indeed, this is how 4153GT arrived, and how David MacNeil will run the car on events. But for absolute adherence to the original specification, Dustin spent a year and a half sourcing original Borrani wheels of the correct size, and then had them rebuilt by their maker in Italy. Why not new Borranis? Because the profile of the rim is very slightly different, a little squarer. Some decisions were harder than others. At Le Mans, bent metal tags were used to seal the fuel filler and the oil-filler door, for example, which an official would then secure with wire and a stamped lead seal. “We had to drill holes permanently into the body [for the tags], because you can’t really fake that,” says Dustin. “I suppose you could glue them on, but the likelihood that you would damage the paint pulling them off is high.” The same went for the mesh over the rear side brake-cooling ducts, which was screwed on for Le Mans. The detail work kept getting deeper, such as when it was noted that at Le Mans scrutineering, 4153GT had trim rings around the headlights, underneath their Plexiglas covers, and twin windscreen wipers – but at some point during the race the headlight trims and the passenger-side wiper disappeared. For startline authenticity, the rings and the exact silkscreen printing on the headlight pockets have been reinstated – and then the headlight covers papered over for protection, exactly as they were for the start of the 24 Hours. It was 92

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ABOVE 4153GT leads the Jean Guichet and Pierre Noblet Ferrari 330LMB during the 1963 Le Mans, protective paper still over the lights.

with the paper in place that the GTO appeared at the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance last year, winning its class. With David driving 4153GT again, the paper is off and the detailing revealed. Dustin is confident the GTO will behave perfectly: “This car was dismantled, scrutinised and reassembled down to the last needle bearing. We treated it as a car that was going to be on track – we don’t prep any of our cars so that they’re only good for few hours at a show. We’re not happy with them until they’re 100 percent on the button and all the issues are worked out, all the kinks and all the bugs are gone. And we know Mr MacNeil drives his cars hard; he doesn’t baby anything.” It’s well known of chassis 4153GT that the original V12 powerplant was replaced by the unit from the 250GT SWB no. 2445GT in preparation for the 1964 Tour de France. The initial engine found its way into another GTO, chassis no. 4757GT, and it wasn’t until 2011 that the GTO’s then-owner Christian Gläsel was able to buy it back. When David bought 4153GT, it had the Tour de France-winning V12 in it, but the original

‘It responds like an Olympic athlete. It just keeps begging for more: push me harder, go faster’

engine was part of the purchase, along with a more recently built motor from Roelofs Engineering in the Netherlands. The Le Mans and Tour de France units were both rebuilt by Motion Products, and the former installed. Similarly, there’s a Roelofs transmission with the car, but the original magnesium-case gearbox has been fully rebuilt and fitted. “When we took apart the magnesium-case trans and I picked up the empty case, it was like picking up an empty cardboard box, it was that light,” says David. “It really is an epic experience to pick up a GTO’s magnesium trans case.” So what now for 4153GT, which has had so much effort lavished on it? “We are going to, as a family, use it judiciously and appropriately for the world’s most important motoring events,” says David. “We’re bringing it to Villa d’Este this year, and then we’ll see what’s next. As time goes on we may participate in some historic events in France – as an overall Tour de France winner, it would feel meaningful taking the car out and enjoying it there. “But it would be good to bring the Ferrari to some of the most prestigious concours events in the world before we really start driving it again. I have driven an awful lot of very sophisticated machinery, and the GTO stands alone at the pinnacle of historic sports cars. “It’s hard to really communicate what it’s like to go through the gears at 7000rpm, not holding back, driving it the way it was driven at Le Mans. The car responds like an Olympic athlete. It just keeps begging for more: push me harder into the next turn, go faster, go deeper. This car talks to you! “I’m just blessed to be a caretaker for the next generation of one of the most epic automobiles ever built.” Thanks to David MacNeil, www.weathertech.com, and Dustin Wetmore, www.mpi-ferrari.com.

920.725.4688

inFo@mpi-ferrari.com

mpi-ferrari.com

dream

5 e’s 23 y a h a l of the most lustrous kind, De

LIQUID

icksi lver

David Lillywhite

A qu

Words

n song for one of the last great Fren a w s e ch m th arqu was k i es h c t u o a S

MERCURY Photography

Evan Klein

Delahaye 235 Saoutchik

WHEN MERLE MULLIN TURNS UP IN AN AUTOMOBILE, you know it’s going to be special. Today, she’s driven this 1951 Delahaye 235 to Xanabu, a spectacular ranch in Malibu owned by her nephew, architect David Hertz, and his wife Laura. The car, so far from its Parisian homeland, glows in the California sun, rays sparkling off the chromework and silver paint. Merle smiles behind the huge steering wheel, enjoying every minute. The Delahaye is one of the many gems of the Mullin Automotive Museum founded by Merle’s husband Peter in 2010 to celebrate his extensive collection of some of the greatest French machines ever built. With Peter currently laid up, Merle has been showing the Mullin cars around the globe, and this 235 Saoutchik Roadster, chassis 818005, is the latest to receive her attention. It’s arguably the best existing example of Delahaye’s post-war masterpiece. Its genes are from an age of coachbuilding and elegance, but it was born into a world of mass production and new

thinking. Merle says she has a lot of affection for this car: “Two years ago at the Audrain Newport Concours, [Audrain Museum CEO and Jay Leno’s Garage TV host] Donald Osborne said to me: ‘That car reminds me of liquid mercury.’ I love that! Last year I showed it at the Wynn Las Vegas Concours, and it won Best of Show Post-War, which was kind of a surprise to me because there were some really, really nice cars there.” She continues: “It uses the 135M chassis, but dressed up as a more modern version. It has an important place in history, because it was Delahaye’s swan song. It was at that time, after about 1950, that people were no longer leaning toward carrosseries designing their automobiles, their one-offs – they were more interested in assembly-line models. It was that big transition, from owning a beautiful car to owning something that comes off the line that you can use as an everyday driver. “It’s also an important machine, because it was designed by Jacques Saoutchik. It has a really nice little history, and its own place in history is of interest.” Before World War Two, Delahaye had been one of the greats, building sports and racing cars for the cognoscenti, and famously working with coachbuilders such as Figoni & Falaschi, Saoutchik, Letourneur & Marchand, Pourtout, Frères Dubois, Franay, Chapron, Faget-Varnet and Antem to create one-off masterpieces. Think Delahaye, and most of us will home in on the exotically curved creations of the 1930s based on the 135M and 175. Post-war, with its finances decimated, Delahaye tried hard to move on. Its new 235 looked the part with its all-enveloping

ABOVE Elegant dashboard and steering wheel meld French chic with post-war American flamboyance.

ABOVE Pre-war, Delahaye was a grand European marque, but tragically it didn’t survive the 1950s.

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bodywork, prominent grille designed by Philippe Charbonneaux and touches of the American-style glitz that had begun to woo the top-end automobile buyers of the day. Under the contemporary bodywork, though, the 235 was all pre-war 135M, albeit tweaked a little. Delahaye’s 3.6-litre straightsix engine had gained more power (150bhp) through modified triple carburettors and camshafts, and with a weight of around 1100kg the typical 235 was capable of 105mph. The chassis was otherwise little different from the 135M’s – and that meant transverse-leaf front suspension, rear leaf springs, lever-arm dampers and – almost unbelievably – cable-operated brakes. A mere 84 examples were made, bodied by a variety of

coachbuilders – and the most exclusive of all were the four styled by Saoutchik. Of these, chassis 818005 – Merle’s car – was the first to be created, during what is often referred to as Saoutchik’s ‘second golden age’ of 1948-51. It was displayed on a rotating platform at the venerable Paris Motor Show in October 1951, as one of three cars exhibited on the Saoutchik stand. It attracted plenty of attention, and many referred to it as one of the big stars of the show – although with the caveat that it was eye-wateringly expensive. A contemporary French report sums up how the Delahaye was thought of at the time: “At Salon 1951, Saoutchik dazzles visitors to the Grand Palais once more with a very original creation. However, cleared of all its excesses of the late 1940s, the style of the house has an elegance and outstanding balance. Wings strongly curved, its pure lines and plunging back, make a car that exudes a great impression of race, luxury and de puissance.” Imposing, exclusive and stylish it may have been, but at twice the price of a Jaguar XK120 the 235 struggled for sales, regardless of bodywork. By this point, Delahaye was surviving on sales of its military vehicles, while at Saoutchik founder Jacques was under pressure from son Pierre to move away from automotive production and into car-care products. By 1955, Delahaye had merged with Hotchkiss and ceased car production,

ABOVE Jaeger clocks and dials, and hand-crafted controls, exemplify 235’s extraordinary attention to detail.

ABOVE Restoration by California’s Perfect Reflections reinstated the Delahaye’s original magnificence.

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Delahaye 235 Saoutchik

Jacques Saoutchik had passed away and his near-50-year-old coachbuilding company – by then under the management of Pierre – had gone out of business. It seems that chassis 818005 had been slow to sell, which couldn’t have helped. A full year after the Paris Salon, it appeared at a concours event in Paris, still wearing Jacques Saoutchik’s registration plates. However, in 1953 it was bought by Jean Escoubès of Évian, in the French Alps – a famous French Resistance fighter who is commemorated in his home town. In May 1954, Escoubès showed the car at Concours d’Elegance de la Rose d’Or in Geneva. Five years later, in 1959, he sold it to vehicle dealer France Auto of Bordeaux, but it wasn’t until 1961

‘Peter loves Delahaye. What appealed to him were the lines, because it’s very unadorned – not so much chrome’ 108

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that the Delahaye 235 was sold on, with 80,382km on the clock. The new owner kept the car for nearly 50 years in a private museum near Bergerac, France. He did show the 235 at a 1964 concours d’elegance in Bordeaux, but it was laid up soon after – and it didn’t reappear until 2006, when it was found by Swiss specialist Christoph Grohe. By this stage it had covered just 80,476km. The paint was flaking, the chromework rusty, the leather cracked and the carpets moth-eaten – but it was complete and original other than a repaint it had received some time before 1961. “The 235 was not owned by the owner of the museum,” explains Christoph. “I managed to trace the car’s actual owner, Adrien Junca, to a tiny house near Bordeaux, and I met him several times. He always said: ‘I’m not selling, nice to see you, hope to see you again.’ We sent each other Christmas cards every year. “Then, one year, I sent a card but I didn’t receive one from him. A few weeks later, I was driving with my trailer to Rétromobile and his son called me. He said there had been a fire at the house and his father had died. A lot had been burnt, but with some papers for the car was my business card. He said: ‘This is a sign!’ He agreed to sell the car to me; it’s one of my four greatest discoveries.” Christoph advertised the Delahaye, and subsequently sold it to Jacques ‘Frenchy’ Harguindeguy, a car collector in California, who exhibited it at the 2006 Pebble Beach in as-found condition. Sadly he passed away just a month later; this is when it was bought by Peter Mullin, who’s so renowned for his passion for French cars. “Peter loves Delahaye,” says Merle. “What appealed to him

Delahaye 235 Saoutchik

were the lines, because it’s very unadorned – not so much chrome. He was very happy to take it and get it back to what it was meant to be. It was in need of a little tender loving care. It didn’t look like liquid mercury, I can tell you!” Brian Hoyt of Perfect Reflections in Hayward, California, was commissioned to fully restore the Delahaye, with the choice made to paint it in silver rather than the garish blue that it had been changed to pre-early 1960s. The finished car went on display upon the museum’s opening in 2010 – but more recently Merle, who’s driven so many of the collection’s models, has taken it on rallies and to concours whenever possible. “At the Audrain Newport Concours two years ago it won the Founders’ Award, and I took it on the Tour d’Elegance around Newport and Rhode Island,” she recalls. “It was a beautiful drive and a beautiful day. People lined the streets for the whole fourhour rally, and every time I drove by, they would say: ‘Best in Show, Best in Show!’ They really thought it should win. In short, the car is popular and people respond to it, because even when it’s parked it looks like it’s moving. “I also drove it in Italy. I’m one of the founders of the It’s All About The Girls all-women’s rally every other year, and I drove the Delahaye to Tuscany on the event in 2017. It’s a really great driving machine, somewhere in between a vintage car, a racy sports car and a modern car. It blends all of those together – it feels much sportier than a Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster, for example, and it can go over 100mph. It really moves! The top

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‘The car is popular and people respond to it, because even when it’s parked it looks like it’s moving’ comes down very easily; you just dig into the back behind the seat and pull the brackets so that they slip down under.” She continues: The Cotal pre-selector ’box is very responsive; you can shift gears without putting in the clutch. But the brakes go almost all the way down to the floor before you really come to a good stop. You have to remember you’re not in a BMW.” Now Merle is figuring out where the Delahaye should go next; perhaps one of the concours more local to her and Peter’s home on the West Coast. One thing is for sure: she will take every chance she can to get behind the wheel. Thanks to Merle Mullin, www.mullinautomotivemuseum.com; Tony and Laura Hertz of the Xanabu ranch in Malibu, www.xanabu.com; and Christoph Grohe, www.christophgrohe.com.

Wednesday May 24 – Thursday May 25, 2023 www.concoursonsavilerow.com To offer your car for inclusion david@hothousemedia.co.uk

For sponsorship enquiries geoff@hothousemedia.co.uk

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Alfa Romeo is opening up the storage rooms at its museum in Milan, where some of its best artefacts, from styling models to famous cars, have been hidden away. We visited ahead of the opening to show you a few highlights

Words David Lillywhite

Photography Simon Thompson

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PREVIOUS SPREAD Italdesign’s Caimano was shown in 1971, based on a shortened Alfasud and with a combined windscreen and door canopy. RIGHT Nicola Romeo was making these tractors when he took over ALFA. It’s sat with a 1980s AR148 off-road vehicle. BELOW Not all the single-seaters are in the museum; this F1 177, Lola T9100 IndyCar and F3 car live in the store.

MUSEO ALFA ROMEO IN ARESE, MILAN, is beautifully laid out, with more than 70 cars over six floors. But behind the scenes is an attraction that is, for many, even better. The storage rooms, over two storeys, are where the museum overspill is kept: more than 150 cars and 100 engines, prototype mechanical parts, trophies and models. It’s cramped and haphazard, a far cry from the main museum displays. But it’s utterly fascinating. During the 2020 lockdown, the museum revealed the storerooms virtually via YouTube and social media. Now, tours are available every Saturday at 4pm for just €8 per person on top of the standard museum entry fee. Many of the cars are concepts, prototypes, one-offs and competition machines. They include the Alfetta Spider and the Eagle, designed by Pininfarina in the 1970s, the Alfa Centauri prototype and the 177 that marked Alfa Romeo’s return to Formula 1 in 1979. You will also find the Pope’s car, a 164 Pro Car, the Nürburgring record 4C and much more. Some of the models seem relatively run of the mill, but there’s always a reason they’ve been kept, whether it’s because they were the first, last or a unique specification. “We like to collect something normal that is not normal,” says museum curator Lorenzo Ardizio, as he points out a GTV in a special shade of red chosen to make it ‘pop’ for TV. If you are heading to Milan, don’t miss it. You need to book in advance by emailing collezione@museoalfaromeo.com.

ABOVE Of all the artefacts, it’s the oven that attracts most attention. Alfa Romeo built various utility items including ovens from 1944-46 to help it survive. We know from this one’s carderived chassis plate that it was the 63rd built, complete with two-burner hob, integrated kettle and electric oven. All were manufactured at the car factory.

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OPPOSITE The New York Taxi was a concept designed by Giugiaro at Italdesign in 1976 at the invitation of the New York Museum of Modern Art to create a cleaner, more efficient taxi. It featured flat floor space for wheelchairs, and sliding doors on both sides. It’s credited as a forerunner to the modern MPV. Next to it is Zagato’s 1983 Alfetta GTV6-based Zeta 6 concept. LEFT The 158 and 159 Alfetta race cars dominated Voiturette and F1 racing from 1938-53. This 159 is sat next to a 1900 Sport Spider. Bertone was commissioned to develop two road cars – a spider and a coupé – with two of each produced in 1954. BELOW Full-size clay for the 8C supercar.

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ABOVE These three are highly important: from left, we have the 1927 RL SS Mille Miglia that finished seventh overall and third in class in that year’s race; a 1939 6C 2500 Corsa; and a 1913 40/60HP similar to the one in which Enzo Ferrari made his Alfa racing debut. RIGHT The store is packed with styling and wind-tunnel models, many of which show interesting variations on designs that we now know so well. There are surprises, too – the Porsche 908 here, for example – along with Carlo Chiti’s fuel tank, the camera from the first Alfa Romeo crash test at Balocco test track, F1 bodywork, old measuring gear, wheels... it’s a true treasure trove.

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Museo Alfa Romeo

RIGHT A scruffy early 1750 Berlina prototype in the store wears Rover badges, added by the factory to disguise its origins. BELOW Alfa Romeo was trying out hybrid and electronic-control concepts in the 1970s, as these engines show. The result was the Alfa 33 Ibrida (hybrid), of which three were made. Behind is the SE 048SP Group C car, designed in secret to supersede Lancia’s LC2. Its 3.5-litre V10 was later replaced by a Ferrari V12. Sadly, it was never raced.

MORE MORE MORE MORE THAN JUST THANJUST JUST THAN THAN JUST CAR STORAGE CARSTORAGE STORAGE CAR CAR STORAGE The Clubhouse at Henry’s Car Barn TheClubhouse Clubhouseat atHenry’s Henry’sCar CarBarn Barn The The Clubhouse at Henry’s Car is a dedicated event space for is a dedicated event space for is a dedicated event space for Barn is a dedicated event space for luxury brands to curate exclusive luxury brandsto to curate exclusive luxury brands curate exclusive luxury brands tomoments curate exclusive events or launch moments in eventsor orlaunch launch moments in events in events or launch moments in the heart of the country. theheart heartof ofthe thecountry. country. the the of the country. Find out more on our website. Findheart outmore more on ourwebsite. website. Find out on our Find out more on our website.

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Words Doug Nye

Illustration Peter Allen

THE INCREDIBLE LIFE AND TIMES OF

SELWYN FRANCIS EDGE

1868

1940

A PIONEER OF BRITISH MOTOR SPORT AT THE DAWN OF THE AUTOMOTIVE AGE

GP LIBRARY

The incredible life of SF Edge

THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF TILFORD LIES on England’s Surrey/Hampshire border at the junction of two branches of the River Wey. Its steeply sloping local green is a famous venue for village cricket, and flanking that is the 17th-century Barley Mow pub. Back in the 1950s, that hostelry was one of the favourite haunts of Mike Hawthorn, Formula 1’s first-ever British World Champion driver. Local stories of his boisterous nature remain rife. But I very much doubt if he would ever have realised that the last resting place of one of his pioneering predecessors was less than 350 yards away, across that village green. For there, in the All Saints churchyard, a starkly rough-hewn granite headstone is inscribed: “In loving memory of Selwyn Francis Edge 12th February 1940 aged 71 and of his cousin Cecil Edge 27th July 1908 aged 28 also Myra Caroline Edge wife of SF Edge 18th March 1969 aged 82 years.” The stone offers no clue to the uninitiated who these Edge family members might have been. But the moment I unwittingly stumbled across this monument only ten or 15 years ago – despite having lived locally for over 50 years – I recognised their names: SF Edge – Britain’s greatest and most significant pioneer motor racer, the first ever to win an international event in a British-built car, no less – his cousin, riding mechanic and fellow racing driver Cecil, and SF’s long-supportive second wife Myra. Edge’s most prestigious win came in the 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup race, driving a Napier over a punishing 387 miles of public roads from Paris, France to Innsbruck, Austria. Last year marked the 120th anniversary of that much-publicised success. And SF then became one of the leading proponents for having the Brooklands Motor Course built at Weybridge, Surrey – the world’s first significant tailormade circuit for motor-vehicle testing and competition. What’s more, he then promoted

the brand-new venue’s opening by completing a record-breaking 24-hour drive there – again using a Napier – driving solo to complete 1581 miles 1310 yards in the day-long grind. That was an average of “65 miles 1594 yards” per hour in the prissily precise Edwardian style of the time. Somehow it’s little surprise that such a flinty, apparent iron man as SF was actually Australian born, in Concord, New South Wales on March 29, 1868. His parents Alexander Ernest Edge and Annie Charlotte Sharp were from the comfortably well-off merchant class. He was the first-born of their seven children, and in 1871 Alexander moved the family to England, settling in Upper Norwood, South London. SF was evidently a delicate child, strong neither physically nor academically, but he inherited his father’s shrewd merchant mindset and developed an interest in things mechanical. He was also headstrong and independent. He got into several boyhood scrapes – shooting prized birds with a catapult in Crystal Palace Park, and even setting off “an explosive device” in an elderly neighbour’s garden (case unproven, insufficient evidence). Being mentioned twice in the national press while still in his teens would lead his modern-day biographer Simon Fisher to suggest that “maybe this led to SF’s later addiction to seeing his name in print”. Both his father and uncle Arthur were keen cyclists through the 1880s. SF tried one, too, and thrilled to speed. In 1884 he bought a Sparkbrook tricycle and joined the local Anerley Bicycle Club. He was still considered sickly, but his innately competitive and rebellious nature regarded cycling, hard and fast, as a passport to fitness – and self-assertion. In August 1887 he won the Catford Cycling Club’s Westerham hillclimb. That October saw him and club-mate GL Morris pedal an Olympia tandem tricycle to a new 100-mile record, reaching the mark after 6hrs 57mins 32secs, more than nine minutes inside the

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ABOVE Edge (right, with Charles Jarrott and René de Knyff) – here at Athy, Ireland, in 1903 – contested the Gordon Bennett Cup several times.

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ABOVE SF set his first Brooklands 24-hour record in June 1907. His 60hp Napier completed over 1581 miles at an average of more than 65mph.

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previous mark. He cycled constantly, covering 7201 miles in 1887. He won on both road and track through 1888-89. Into 1890, one of cycling’s most celebrated challenges was to “go for a time” London-to-Brighton. SF went for it, riding a Marriott & Cooper safety bicycle to the south coast there, in 3hrs 18mins, then back again. He completed the entire distance in 7hrs 2mins 50secs – a new record by more than 16 minutes. That delicate kid had grown into a ferociously fit and focused athlete. Hatchet faced, dark complexioned, with a florid black moustache and great beetling eyebrows above “disturbingly penetrating” dark-brown eyes, SF became in every way a commanding figure. In May 1891 he made his Continental road-racing debut, finishing third in France’s 385-mile Bordeaux-Paris event. He earned his living as a commercial traveller, selling Marriott & Cooper bicycles, using his competition success as sales promotion. He again lowered the London-to-Brighton record in 1892, then the London-to-York – 197 miles. At a cycle race that year he met fellow competitor Montague Napier, heir to the D Napier & Son engineering business. He also met – and married – Eleanour Rose ‘Nellie’ Sharp, a near neighbour and herself a keen cyclist. Meanwhile, he’d taken a managerial job with a new cycle manufacturer based in Glasgow, Scotland. Nellie spent time with him there, and when cycling locally she lagged behind him and was accosted by four young men, one of whom tried to kiss her. Wondering where she had got to, SF rode back, and when he heard what had happened he tore after the boys, produced a revolver and threatened to shoot them – earning himself a £5 fine from the local magistrates’ court. Never pick on an Aussie’s girlfriend… Unimpressed by the Glasgow venture, SF quickly moved to join Rudge & Co in Coventry. There he met wealthy Harvey du Cros, promoter of Dunlop pneumatic tyres, who made him his

racing manager, based back in London. By 1895, SF was increasingly fascinated by the potential of the new-fangled ‘horseless carriage’. He saw it as a coming craze, as an indispensable means of transport and as creating a colossal new market for pneumatic tyres. A French acquaintance was fellow racing cyclist Fernand Charron, a kind of diminutive Alain Prost figure, who was running a Panhard, Peugeot and De Dion-Bouton agency in Paris. Edge visited, and Charron gave him his first ride on a motor car, a twin-cylinder 6hp Panhard. Back in England, SF immediately became involved with British motoring pioneers Sir David Salomons, Harry Lawson and the Hon Evelyn Ellis. Edge began working on imported cars for Lawson’s British Motor Syndicate in Euston Road, London. He was 27, and there met 18-year-old fellow enthusiast Charles Jarrott. Together they learned the new technology. When HM Government passed its new Locomotives on Highways Act on November 14, 1896, Lawson’s infant Motor Car Club organised its ‘Emancipation’ Run from London to Brighton to celebrate the new freedoms conferred. SF followed the cars – on his bike. In 1887 he talked Lawson into loaning him a powered De Dion-Bouton tricycle, which he drove to Canterbury and back. Highly impressed, he purchased one, plus a Bollée and a Motette – enjoying them so much, he wrote to new magazine The Autocar declaring: “It has almost made me give up cycling, as at present there is a good deal to be learnt in driving these cars. I have absolute faith that we shall see them running about in thousands in a few years’ time.” He became a founding member of the Automobile Club of Great Britain – forerunner of the RAC – in August 1897, and in 1898 he spectated at the Paris-Amsterdam road race for motor cars. He bought a four-wheeled Panhard, and competed in his first motorcycle race on November 14, 1898 – in an event at the

Sheen House track organised by the Motor Car Club. On an Ariel tricycle – having become a director of that company – he won two races, over a mile and two miles respectively, the first from his friend Jarrott. They both ordered 2¼hp De Dion-Bouton racing tricycles from the Parisian factory, and in May 1899 they contested the Paris-Bordeaux city-to-city race astride them, with little luck. Greater success followed in minor British events, while SF became disgruntled with the du Cros Dunlop business and spent time instead briefly involved with the Sunlight Incandescent Gas Mantle Company, while apparently studying the emergent British motor industry for a better berth. He had bought from Harry Lawson the 6hp Panhard & Levassor ‘No 8’, which had finished second in the 1896 Paris-Marseille race. Through a mutual friend he re-made contact with engineer Montague Napier, who had designed a motor-car engine of his own, which Edge promptly critiqued. He asked Napier to try to convert the Panhard’s primitive tiller steering to wheel, and loved the result. He made further requests for Napier to improve the car, and the engineer then asked Edge if he could build a complete new engine for it, not least using electric-spark ignition in place of its obsolete hot-tube arrangement. SF was delighted by the new unit, and talked Harvey du Cros into financing Napier in laying down a new range of production cars, promising to buy them all – in effect to become Napier’s sales associate. SF created the Motor Vehicle Company to promote and sell D Napier & Son’s new motor cars. When a Thousand Mile Trial routed through England and Scotland was organised for 1900, SF saw the ideal opportunity to promote his new venture. He drove his 9hp electric-ignition Napier from London to Edinburgh, then back to London – and won his class with the second-best performance

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overall. The first four-cylinder Napier followed, SF and his colleague Napier having discussed the possibility of building a vehicle capable of success in the international Gordon Bennett Cup team event due in 1901. Their prototype car was first entered by SF in the July 1900 Paris-Toulouse race, with none other than the Hon Charles Stewart Rolls of future Rolls-Royce fame as his riding mechanic. Sadly the new car cracked a water jacket and they had to retire. Back home in the 1900-01 winter, SF’s combative nature resurfaced when on a drive down to Brighton he was hit on the head by a chunk of ice, lobbed by a pedestrian “country yokel”. Leaping down from the car he pursued the man, forced him to strip off his clothes and promptly drove off with them until he saw a group of “similar fellows”, to whom he handed his trophies, to be returned to his then-shivering – and crestfallen – assailant. While the early legal requirement for motor cars on British roads to be preceded by a man carrying a red flag had been repealed, a national speed limit of 12mph still applied. Even in 1900 motor cars were capable – as today – of far exceeding the legal limit, as SF found in a police speed trap on the Brighton road in March 1901, which logged him driving at 22mph. Hiring an expensive lawyer won his case, plus £5 in costs. Napier built him a special 50hp racing car for that year’s Gordon Bennett Cup in France, but SF had to contest only the concurrent ParisBordeaux race instead. Montague Napier accompanied him, yet their race ended in clutch failure. SF drove the massive, tyrehungry 50hp Napier again in the following Paris-Berlin, being timed at 69mph over a flying kilometre before being unsighted by the dust plume from a car he was trying to pass and clouting a bridge parapet. But class wins in a pair of home hillclimbs then preceded a successful trip to the major straight-line Gaillon hillclimb in France, in which he and the

GP LIBRARY

The incredible life of SF Edge

Napier won their class, so humbling Panhard… For 1902, Napier designed a new 6½-litre, 933kg (2056lb) shaft-driven racing car to contest the Gordon Bennett Cup race, run that year on the Paris-Innsbruck section of the great Paris-Vienna city-to-city race. SF took his cousin Cecil Edge with him as riding mechanic. The car was not completed until just seven days before the race start on June 26. En route to the Folkestone-Boulogne ferry it overheated. SF found one of the cylinder heads had cracked. A replacement was rushed down by train to the ferry port, accompanied by two mechanics who fitted it during the sea voyage. In Paris, it was found that inadequately case-hardened second-gear teeth were bent. Overnight, Montague Napier and one of his mechanics repaired the damage at the Clément works. After scrutineering, Napier then realised that they had omitted to refit a gearbox spacer during the rebuild. The transmission had to be stripped and reworked, again overnight. Edge made it to the startline just in time. Now, much was made then – and has been ever since – about the ‘legendary’ Gordon Bennett Cup races. They were open to national teams of only three cars each from interested

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motor-manufacturing countries. The French industry, at that time by far the world’s most diverse, saw this as unacceptably restrictive, and consequently would work towards a more liberal pinnacle competition, open to all – their Grand Prix. In that 1902 Gordon Bennett Cup, Edge’s Napier and the Wolseleys of GrahamWhite and Callan for Great Britain faced a full French team of René de Knyff’s Panhard, Henri Fournier’s Mors and Léonce Girardot’s CGV. SF and Cecil happily found their new Napier running well on the opening stage, until a tyre punctured. After fitting a spare inner tube they were horrified to find their tyre pump not working to inflate it. SF flagged down the next car, Count Louis Zborowski’s Mercedes, to ask if he could borrow their pump. The Count simply gave it to them, selected first gear and tore off. They reached the initial night stop at Belfort, grabbing some much-needed sleep. The good news was that their Gordon Bennett Cup rivals Girardot and Fournier were out; the bad news that the last-remaining French contestant, de Knyff, was leading the main event overall. Further issues arose when they went to the car next morning to find all four tyres were flat, so new tubes had to be

FELIX

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T H E L A S T K N O W N 4 ½ L F R E E S T O N E & W E B B S ALOON

HA R RISON B OD IE D B E N TL EY

3 4½ SPEED WEYMANN

SOLD

fitted all round. For political reasons the following stage to Bregenz in Austria was neutralised, competition driving prohibited – so SF trundled the entire way in top gear. Waking up in Bregenz they found all four tyres flat again, so their restart was preceded by the heavy manual labour of fitting fresh tubes. The climb of the punishing Arlberg Pass followed, with SF more concerned about the descent, for the Napier’s brakes were tiring rapidly. He likened the descent to “a flight of stairs”, with level stretches (intended to give carriage horses some rest) punctuating the slope. He feared the Napier’s springs or chassis would break every time they hit a level, and when they reached the bottom he and Cecil stopped to double-check the car, only to find that its entire rear bodywork had fallen off, taking their tools, spares and inner tubes with it. But during the descent they had passed an abandoned Panhard. When Charles Jarrott and George du Cros, competing in the main race in the former’s Panhard, came by, they stopped with encouraging news. That abandoned Panhard had been de Knyff’s – their sole remaining Bennett Cup rival. If the Edge team could complete the 30 miles remaining to Innsbruck, victory would be theirs. While they had lost their auxiliary inner tubes, there were still spare tyres strapped to the Napier. SF opted to fit them as a precaution to protect the hard-used inner tubes. But with neither jack nor tyre levers available, they had to claw the worn rubber from the rims, rolling the car forward a couple of inches with each

RIGHT A motoring pioneer of the first degree, SF Edge was a champion of and driving force behind the Napier marque.

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wrenching, draining effort. But ultimately the Edges restarted, drove gently into Innsbruck – and won for the Automobile Club of Great Britain and Ireland that still-prestigious international Gordon Bennett Cup. Since the ‘British parts only’ regulation of the Cup race was no longer relevant, SF then pressed on to the overall city-to-city race finish in Vienna, running French inner tubes – averaging 31.9mph for the entire distance, 15th overall and eighth in the Heavy Cars class. Edge biographer Simon Fisher explains the curiously profound significance of the Cup win: “It put Britain on the map as a serious manufacturer of motor vehicles, which otherwise had been the preserve of the French, it gave Napier excellent publicity, and it made SF a national celebrity.” This was something upon which Edge would build vigorously, competing on water as well as on land, and even flying a balloon to a claimed 35,000 feet from Berners Elms in Essex. In 1903 he drove in, and survived, the catastrophic Paris-Madrid race that saw cityto-city racing banned, and was part of the British team that lost its defence of the Gordon Bennett Cup at Athy, Ireland, to Camille Jenatzy’s Mercedes. He prevailed upon Montague Napier to build a six-cylinder engine, which proved notably smooth, and also raced Napier-engined power boats. With the 1904 Bennett Cup race contested in Germany, SF headed Napier’s challenge, only for his car to fail. He regarded the team’s race performance that day, being beaten by Wolseley

– never mind Léon Théry’s outright-winning Richard-Brasier – as ignominious. He made that circuit race his last, although he continued to contest occasional sprints in England. At the Bexhill Speed Trials of May 1907, five Napiers competed, SF setting a 73.77mph new course record while Cecil won another sprint in a 60hp Napier. Meanwhile, SF had been a friendly advisor upon construction of a custom ‘motor track’ on wealthy Hugh Locke King’s estate at Brooklands. Early on he declared an interest in booking the new course for an attempt to drive, solo, at 60mph “or better” for 24 hours. In retrospect, Locke King – heir to a hotel family fortune – was not so much a visionary car and motor-racing enthusiast, but more somewhat naïve, and easily led. Far from costing him £22,000 as first estimated (for a flat, unbanked motor speedway), the highbanked Brooklands Motor Course finally cost him some £150,000. It virtually bankrupted him. And very few of his macho, thrusting, encouraging (but fleeting) Edwardian friends, SF amongst them, who had exploited his willingness to provide a stage upon which they could strut, would want to know when he emerged as a victim – his frail health broken. Brooklands was opened on June 17, 1907, and SF booked it for his 24-hour record run on June 28. His strip-bodied two-seat 60hp Napier would be accompanied by two other co-driven Napiers – SF’s painted green, the two escorts red and white. Rudge-Whitworth knock-off centre-lock wheels would speed tyre changes, and Napier’s mechanics also used

GP LIBRARY

The incredible life of SF Edge

Ex-Works Ex-Works Ex-Works 19371937 Monte 1937 Monte Monte CarloCarlo Rally Carlo Rally &Rally & & 1937/38 1937/38 1937/38 MCCMCC Trials MCC Trials Entry Trials Entry Entry UK1952 registration UKJaguar registration UK ‘CDU registration 63’C-Type ‘CDU‘CDU 63’ 63’ Riley four-cylinder RileyRiley four-cylinder four-cylinder 1.5 litre engine 1.5 litre 1.5 litre engine engine Chassis #competition XKCcompetition 024 Extensive Extensive period Extensive competition period period history history history

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The incredible life of SF Edge

new quick-lift jacks. SF had followed a rigorous fitness regime, and before the start he claimed to have felt “very fit, as never before in my life”. And the run went swimmingly, more than 72 miles covered in the best single hour, still 61 miles in the worst. When SF and his riding mechanic – chauffeur Joseph Blackburn – had completed the 24-hour run, the record was resoundingly theirs, at over 1581 miles and more than 65mph average speed. Into 1908, SF continued to promote Napier cars through competition, but on July 27 cousin Cecil – who had contracted tuberculosis – died, aged only 28. Writing to The Times on September 28, SF announced withdrawal of Napier cars from all dangerous competitions, feeling that his objective had then been achieved and that “the British motor car now leads in type, design and workmanship”. In fact, his various businesses were faltering financially. He fell out progressively with early backers the du Cros family, and with Montague Napier. He developed an interest in aviation, and increasingly in farming, living first at Frensham near Farnham in Surrey, then at nearby Churt. In 1910 he bought Gallops Homestead near Ditchling, East Sussex, adding two neighbouring farms (and later more), a reputed 15,000 acres – vast by British standards – where he would develop intensive open-air pig farming. By 1912 he and wife Eleanour had separated. There was some talk of SF having had an affair with Napier’s star lady driver, Dorothy Levitt. After the split from Napier, SF pursued the life of a gentleman farmer, while continuing to write endless letters to the press and, in 1913, being elected president of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). He toyed briefly with a movie-making enterprise, the Cunard Film Co Ltd, but it closed in 1915. Estranged wife Eleanour had died in Australia in 1914. During the Great War, in 1915, SF’s continuing organisational and promotional

energies saw him made a member of the Metropolitan Munitions Committee and, in 1917, director of the Ministry of Munitions’ Agricultural Machinery Branch. He developed a new relationship with his secretary, Myra Caroline Martin, marrying her in March 1917, but meanwhile his relationship with government disintegrated as his lack of diplomacy struck sparks off his one-time customer Winston Churchill. In a classic case of flint cut flint, it was SF who had to resign, returning with his new wife to farming. A seven-year non-compete agreement with Napier ended in 1919, and SF began buying shares in Auto-Carriers (1911) Ltd, better known as AC Cars. Into 1921 he owned sufficient shares to be offered a seat on the board. He immediately sought to repeat his Napier success by promoting the AC brand through competition. JA Joyce set a new Double-12-Hour record at Brooklands, at 1709 miles 1234 yards – surpassing SF’s 1907 mark by 128 miles. Aged 54, SF determined to take the record back. Remarkably, he chose to do so not in an AC but in a Dutch Maybach-engined Spyker. He laid on a fleet of charabancs to bring the AC labour force from Thames Ditton to Brooklands to cheer him on. Mission accomplished: 1782 miles 1006 yards in the 24 hours, 74.27mph average. Edge ran not only AC Cars, living with Myra at The High House, Thames Ditton, but also his huge farm in Sussex and – from 1923 – Cubitts Engineering, planning to build cars in Aylesbury and to produce Anzani engines for AC. Yet his health was faltering, his long-over-stressed heart failing. His doctors urged him to ease his ferocious work rate. When import duties on foreign cars were removed in 1924, the home industry suffered badly: Cubitts closed. SF did all he could to keep AC afloat, at great personal expense. October 1929’s Wall Street stock-market crash finally killed the endeavour, the Hurlock brothers picking up the pieces in

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1930. But SF had taken a tremendous financial loss – probably exceeding £200,000, which by 2022 values would be just over £15 million. Having sold his farms, he, Myra and their two daughters had a new home – Dentdale at Hindhead – from 1930. His health had been frail during these years of unremitting tension. His letters-to-the-press habit remained strong, until a June 1938 missive to The Motor, reading: “I am sorry to tell you that I may not drive a car again, and this after driving for 42 years, from 1896, without an endorsement. My heart has given out and I am liable to faint, so it is not safe to drive. Hence, I stop.” After World War Two erupted in September 1939, the frail SF Edge – possibly seeking the supposed health benefits of sea air – and Myra took rooms in a hotel at Eastbourne on the Sussex coast. On February 11, 1940, they cut short their attendance at a concert in the town’s Winter Gardens. SF complained of chest pains. Once back in the hotel, he retired to bed. Half an hour after midnight, the porter heard a shattering crash. SF had either fallen – or had jumped – from the wide-open bedroom window down through the glass canopy sheltering the entrance steps. He sustained multiple injuries, including a fractured skull. Rushed to Eastbourne’s Princess Alice hospital, he died without regaining consciousness. The inquest coroner dismissed suspicion of suicide, and returned a verdict of death by misadventure. A cremation was conducted at the Brighton Crematorium on February 16, sparsely attended by old acquaintances. SF’s ashes were then interred in the Tilford churchyard, touchingly joining Cecil – and into the spring of 1969, after her death aged 82, Myra joined them both. To this day, that roughhewn monolith within sight of Formula 1 legend Mike Hawthorn’s favourite country pub reminds us of a similarly extraordinary – and ultimately unlucky – motor-sporting pioneer…

AWA R D W I N N I N G A S T O N M A R T I N R E S T O R AT I O N S

A M E M O R A B L E J O U R N E Y AWA I T S Y O U …

www.richardsofengland.com

+44 (0) 1522 685476

Richards of England, 1 Cedar Parc, Lincoln Road, Lincoln, LN6 4RR

Photography Matt Howell

LOST

Words Nathan Chadwick

PARADISE

It’s 12 years since Zagato launched its Sanction Lost Porsche programme. As it readies the next instalment in the Continuation story, we reflect on the

FOR MANY YEARS, THE NAME CLAUDE Storez largely lived in the public consciousness as a corner at France’s Nogaro, a circuit largely unbeloved by drivers and teams. According to one racing name, the track seemed only to exist on the 1988 European Touring Car Championship calendar as an end-of-year excuse to indulge in the exquisite local cuisine. Fast forward to 2011, and Storez was back in the spotlight. In honour of the 80th anniversary of Ferdinand Porsche’s first engineering and design company, US racer Herb Wetanson asked Zagato to build a recreation of Claude’s long-lost 356A Carrera Zagato Speedster. That set in motion a nine-year Sanction Lost programme that saw the arrival of nine more Continuation 356A Carrera Zagato Speedsters, plus nine 356B Carrera Zagato Coupés. As we enter 2023, the project moves forward again, with the 356 BTC Carrera Zagato, the Sanction Lost take on the 356 Abarth Carrera GT/L – a car that was supposed to have been built by the carrozzeria in 1959-60, before it was spirited away by Carlo Abarth. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves – this story really starts with Storez’s quest for ultimate speed. As with so many of his generation, Claude deserved to achieve more widespread acclaim before his untimely death at the age of 31. In his nine-year racing career, he developed a reputation as one of the most promising French talents of the 1950s. After so-so results with the Deutsch-Bonnet team, Storez’s career really began to accelerate when he started driving a Porsche 550 RS Spyder at the tail end of 1954. Following a first in class and second overall on the Tour de France alongside Herbert Linge, in 1955 podiums across North Africa were augmented by outright victory at the Circuit de Dieppe. From 1956 onwards, he switched to Porsche full time. Class 140

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victories at Reims followed in 1956, 1957 and 1958, and Storez also dipped his toe into touring cars and endurance racing. He teamed up with Robert Buchet in a 356A, and more success followed, most notably in the LiègeRome-Liège race; after finishing second (and winning their class), the duo returned a year later in 1956 to defeat Jo and Arnie Schlesser’s much more powerful Mercedes-Benz 300SL. In preparation for the 1959 season, Storez contacted Zagato to build a streamlined body for his 356 Carrera Speedster. The new aluminium body was far narrower than that of the 356 Speedster, with a much-reduced frontal area, faired headlamps, rear-hinged doors for easier entry, extra vents for the carburettors, and fins along the rear flanks for extra stability. The wraparound windscreen was originally deemed too low, so this was raised and a wiper added. The car was then sent to Porsche’s Zuffenhausen works in summer 1958 for mechanical tweaks and to be painted. Once finished, it didn’t get off to a great start – Storez asked his cousin, Michael Maniani, to collect the Speedster from Porsche and take it to Paris. Maniani drove the car just six miles before it was involved in an accident that required it to be sent back to Zagato to be fixed. The Carrera finally got its competitive debut in late 1958 on the Tour de France. Beaten only by eventual victor Olivier Gendebien on the Reims circuit stage, the Speedster demonstrated its potential even if it failed to finish. Therefore, hopes were high for the return to Reims in early 1959 for the Rallye des Routes du Nord. Preparations didn’t go well – on the way to the event, the car picked up damage to the front right. Although this was soon hammered out, it’s believed that Storez fitted larger tyres before the race for higher speeds on the straights. Starting on the front row alongside Pierre

Noblet’s 250GT, he soon got into the lead, but on the ascent toward Muizon Noblet’s superior power swept the Ferrari past the Porsche. To counter on the long downhill straight that followed, Storez buried the throttle deep to keep up with Noblet. He braked late and hard for the Thillois hairpin, but veered to the right at around 125mph, hit a bank and rolled multiple times. It’s believed the bigger tyres may have hit a part of the earlier, unresolved damage. Storez was thrown from the car, landing 100 metres away. His skull was broken, and his hip sustained huge injuries. Despite a swift helicopter airlift, he died half an hour later in hospital. The remains of his Zagato Speedster have never been found – it’s believed that it was destroyed not long after the race. When Wetanson got in touch with the idea of building a replica, with no physical original remaining, Zagato had to dig deep into cutting-edge technology to make the dream become real. “It was built thanks to a photometric process, selecting all the pictures of the original Claude Storez car and creating the mathematical model by computer measuring them,” explains Andrea Zagato. “One of the most important images was the one with the door open, which allowed us to measure the hinges. Using a milling machine, we built a 1:5-scale model first, then a 1:1-scale version.” Wetanson would retain chassis 00, and a further nine examples were built. However, the opportunity to finish off a historical ‘whatmight-have-been’ was something that Zagato simply couldn’t ignore. Porsche had seen the raw speed of the Storez Speedster, and contacted Zagato with a view to designing and building a closed racing car with a sub-700kg kerbweight. At the time, the 356 was beginning to struggle against newer, more focused machinery, so Zagato’s wind-cheating

ABOVE Claude Storez’s star shone brightly but briefly; he was killed during the 1959 Rallye des Routes du Nord after being thrown from his tumbling Zagato Speedster.

and weight-saving nous was deemed necessary. Ercole Spada’s team set to work with design sketches, but nothing came of it at the time. More than 50 years later, however, the dream became a reality, with the help of Porsche itself, as Andrea explains: “The design was derived from resources at the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart, and the images we found in our archive. It was virtually identical to the Speedster up to the beltline, and the roof reminds me of the Ferrari 250 and Lancia Appia.” Nine Coupés would end up being built between 2015 and 2017, but now there is yet another addition to the Sanction Lost programme, one based on what should have been a Zagato project but for the actions of Carlo Abarth – the GT/L. Abarth had got to know Ferry Porsche and Anton Piëch (Ferdinand Porsche’s son-in-law) through his friendship with Tazio Nuvolari during his pre-war racing days. After World War Two, he became Porsche’s Italian distributor, and he also acted as a consultant to Piero Dusio’s Cisitalia concern. By a quirk of fate, Abarth and Porsche’s futures would entwine. The enormous sum Dusio paid for Ferdinand Porsche’s 1939 design for a four-wheel-drive supercharged flat-12 Grand Prix car would bail the German out of a French jail, where he’d been for 18 months on charges related to his wartime activities, alongside Anton Piëch. Dusio never quite recovered from this financially, and to pay Carlo Abarth for his time, he gifted to him the cashless Cisitalia operation. Abarth – the company – was born. More than a decade later, the Porsche 356 was starting to struggle in the 1.5-litre class in endurance racing, with competition coming from Lotus Elites and Alfa Giuliettas. However, an FIA rule change for 1959 provided Stuttgart

with an opportunity to redress the balance. The new regulations stated that as long as the car weighed a certain percentage of the original model, the body could be modified – perfect for a concern such as Zagato, which had been making lighter and slipperier bodies for Alfa Romeo and Fiats for some time. Approaching the carrozzeria directly was out of the question for Porsche, because Zagato was building special bodies for its direct rivals. Instead, the auto manufacturer needed a go-between – and Porsche turned to Carlo Abarth to act as a trusted mediator, much like he had done with Cisitalia. At the time, Abarth was building Zagatobodied, rear-engined Fiat sports racers, but relations were becoming frosty with the Milan-based carrozzeria. Nevertheless, in September 1959 Abarth made his way to the Frankfurt Motor Show to meet with Ferry Porsche, head of sales Walter Schmidt and technical director Klaus von Rücker. Abarth wasn’t the only coachbuilder in the race – Nuccio Bertone and Carlo Dusio were also sounded out on the plans. In the Frankfurter Hof hotel, Abarth set out his plan – 20 356B Carreras with tooling, at a price of one million lire each, with the bodies to be built as light as possible. Ferry approved the plan, and set a deadline of late October for the initial designs, pricing and sales projections. In the meantime, Porsche supplied Abarth with a 356B and specific engineering requests, in particular with regard to locating the oil tank and providing enough ventilation for the engine bay. Ferry was particularly keen on using Abarth’s connections with Zagato to produce the car, having watched first-hand when a Fiat 8V Zagato took victory at Avus only a few years before. The Porsche engineer assigned to the Magneto

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Italian-German combination – and what comes next

ABOVE Zagato’s Sanction Lost 356 Carrera Coupé and Speedster, 19 of which have been built in total.

project, Franz Xaver Reimspiess, proudly declared that the bodies would be built by Zagato – but this is where the story starts to have two sides. On one hand, according to Rene Straud and Zagato, the cars were designed by Gianni Zagato, Luigi Fabiorati and Celestino Zoppi, with the first prototypes built by the carrozzeria. Carlo Abarth next awarded the production contract off to Viarenzo & Filliponi, and then to Rocco Motto. However, automotive historian and writer, and fellow Magneto contributor, Karl Ludvigsen believes the prototypes were designed by Franco Scaglione, with the first prototypes built by Viarenzo & Filliponi and Rocco Motto building the 20 production models, plus one more unofficial car on a 356B chassis for a Porsche dealer. Either way, Zagato was out of the picture for the production version. Whoever was responsible for the prototypes, the changes were dramatic – the body was variously 5.2in and 4.7in thinner; the frontal area was reduced by 15 percent. It scythed through the air much more smoothly, with a drag co-efficient of 0.365 with the engine cooling flap closed and 0.376 with it open, compared with the standard car’s 0.398. Thanks to an entirely aluminium body, it was 146

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substantially lighter than factory by some 45kg, yet it had also been significantly beefed up in the chassis. The new car would weigh 780kg – a featherweight, but still comfortably above the FIA’s minimum weight limit. Arriving three months late in February 1960, the first car delivered to Porsche was a disaster. The marque’s engineers found that not only was the oil tank in the wrong place and the engine far hotter than was optimal, but the roofline was so low there was insufficient room for even the titchiest Porsche driver. Worse still, when said pilots crow-barred themselves in, they felt the ‘outsides’ wanting to become ‘insides’ via an almighty roof leak. Critically, the wheel openings were so tight that the steering lock was significantly hindered – just what you want on a racing car… Much to Porsche’s relief, these issues were later fixed for the Motto-built, or rectified, production versions; the many slats in the rear bodywork did much to cure the overheating problems. The bodies often varied from car to car, with brake-light designs and side-window shapes usually the most obvious changes. A mere 20 were built, at a cost of 25,000 Deutschmarks – over 3500DM more than a Carrera bodied by Reutter. You certainly got the

performance, however – the GT/L could crack 100mph in less than 21 seconds, having kissed goodbye to 60mph in under nine, according to an Auto Motor und Sport test of the time. The car got off to a good start, firstly with class victory for Paul Ernst Strähle and Herbert Linge on the Targa Florio. Two weeks later, Linge and Sepp Greger took second overall and first in class in the Nürburgring 1000km, with a fastest lap time some 20 seconds quicker than the class record, thanks partly to the fitment of experimental disc brakes. Two other GT/Ls filled out the podium. The GT/L turned out to be highly successful, taking 49 class victories over six years, including three consecutive class triumphs at Le Mans. It also notched up 30 outright wins. Zagato has denied involvement with the GT/L project for many years, but the association stuck. Now the carrozzeria is building a Sanction Lost series of cars, fulfilling the original idea pitched to Porsche more than six decades ago, before Abarth took the construction elsewhere. “The idea came from when I read an American article on Gmund dated from 1980, and then a second one in Sports Car International dated February 1993,” explains

ABOVE The rear of the Coupé is remarkably similar to that of the Abarth GT/L, which is the next project.

Andrea Zagato, who further researched the story with the aid of the Porsche Museum’s celebrated Carrera book. “After superimposing the GT/L package over our 356B Zagato Coupé, we discovered that the positioning of the steering wheel and seats, and the front-tank design, were absolutely identical.” The new GT/Ls use the same mechanical underpinnings as the earlier Sanction Lost Zagato Coupés, but the body has been rebuilt using photometric measurements from the earliest pictures of the very first car, with design and mathematical input from Porsche’s archives. While Zagato can usually fulfil virtually every automotive request, however extravagant, the Sanction Lost cars are a different matter. “A contemporary project starts with 2D and 3D processes, and clients have some room for bespoke specifications,” Andrea explains. “However, with a Sanction Lost project, it starts with an historical reference, and in this scenario we limit this area of personalisation in favour of consistency with history.” Andrea finds that clients tend to understand and respect these restrictions. “For body colours, we recommend they stay with the original Porsche or Zagato configurations from the past,” he says. “One of the nine Zagato 148

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Coupés was finished in Bianco Gardenia from the 1958-60 Alfa Romeo SZ Zagato, while a Speedster was finished in Grigio Nürburgring from the Fiat 8VZ from the mid-1950s.” There’s a similar approach to the engines: “We stay with period technical specifications, from the 75bhp version of the standard BT5 and the 90bhp of the Super 90, right up to the Fuhrmann-specification Carrera motor.” Carrera powerplants made their way into only three of the earlier Sanction Lost projects – one Speedster and two Coupés. The options are the same for the new GT/L, and at least one has been specified with the full-fat Carrera engine. After initially being conceived in 2021, the first car was due to be delivered at the end of 2022 to an Italian fashion designer. Just 19 are expected, and each one takes eight months to be built in Italy; the Carrera engine, however, comes from a Danish specialist. Looking to the future, Andrea is keen to draw a distinction between Sanction Lost and Continuation cars. “The Porsches were all named Sanction Lost because the original cars don’t exist anymore, while the Continuation series is made on models that still exist,” he explains. “The Sanction Lost series is made on our own initiative, based on the intellectual

property rights and the original drawings in our archive. The Continuation cars are made together with the original manufacturer, sharing the intellectual property rights and using a Continuation number for the chassis that can only be provided by the manufacturer.” Pressed on what to do for the next Sanction Lost project, his mind turns immediately to Zagato’s most famous Milanese neighbour. “It could be the Alfa 8C 2300 Aerodinamica – probably the best body among all the ones made by Zagato on the 8C Monza, Mille Miglia and Le Mans chassis,” he says. “Another alternative could be the Alfa-Abarth 1000 of the late 1950s.” However, it is the Continuation series that could be the most tantalising yet. “The next Continuation could be the Alfa TZ2 that we have proposed to Alfa Romeo Heritage, having scanned the example in the marque’s museum.” In the meantime, Andrea and the rest of the Zagato team are working on the next batch of GT/L cars, hopefully with no roof leaks this time. Along the way, we trust that Claude Storez’s name will be remembered better as the man who kicked off a six-decade saga with his irrepressible quest for speed. Thanks to Andrea Zagato and everyone at Zagato, as well as Karl Ludvigsen.

TTHHIINN

EENNDD

OOFF TTHH EE

WEEDDGG W

Sbarro Challenge

Words Karl Ludvigsen

Illustration Ricardo Santos

In the mid-1980s, Swiss entrepreneur Franco Sbarro turned to Porsche power to underpin his most SINCE THE END OF THE 1960S, NO Geneva Salon has been complete without a dramatic launch of a spectacular new car – or several – from the Neuchâtel aerie of Franco Sbarro. Be it styling, mechanics or concept, Sbarro’s creations are sure to astonish with their imagination and impetuosity. The man himself is as subdued as his automobiles are audacious. Sbarro speaks quietly, conspiratorially about his ideas and inventions. But his cars betray a vivid imagination, a desire to exploit Switzerland’s famed neutrality among squabbling nations. More than one auto-brand executive has been startled to open his trade publication, to find that Sbarro has ripped off the design of one of his treasured classic icons. Ford, for example, learned in 1982 that Franco’s shop was turning out replicas of its iconic GT40, which Sbarro presented as the original item. At that year’s Geneva Salon, a Blue Oval executive (me) confronted the resourceful creator, telling him that it wasn’t kosher to pretend these were originals. “Oh, it’s all right,” Franco replied. “I have 152

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ABOVE Franco Sbarro – an expert in the creation of the adventurous, the outlandish and the enjoyable.

original chassis plates for the GT40s, and I just assign their numbers to the cars.” Swiss GT40 production subsided thereafter. Sbarro likes a challenge, which is why you see the car on these pages. He built it, he said, because he read a foreign review of the 1984 Geneva Salon that said there was “nothing new in Geneva”. For a month and a half thereafter, he worked day and night on the design of a model that no one could say resembled anything existing. This included his previous designs, which, as established, were usually modified production cars or imitations thereof. The result was an automobile that was neither ‘three-volume’ nor ‘two-volume’. It had to be considered ‘one-volume’, with its radical sloping nose blending into a low-slung cockpit and access via scissor-action doors. Sbarro made a one-fifth-sized model of his vision, and cadged time in Citroën’s wind tunnel to evaluate its drag. The result, said the French experts, was a Cd coefficient of 0.16 – as low as had been measured for any road car at the time. Sbarro reckons the complete car’s drag would be nearer

BELOW On display at its permanent home, the Louwman Museum in The Hague, Netherlands, the original Challenge flaunts its scissor doors and unusual rear-wheel fairings.

a Cd of 0.25 – still low by 1980s standards. This validated the shape of the car that he called Challenge, responding as it was to an external opinion that the Swiss show lacked novelty. “The lines of the Challenge are so personal that it does not resemble anything known,” said one press account. “It is a real tour de force, so unusual and yet so simple. It completely broke with the usual stereotypes of car production at the time.” The man who took up this ‘challenge’ was born Francesco Zefferino Sbarro on February 27, 1939 in the Apulian town of Presicce, situated in the province of Lecce at the very tip of the heel of Italy. Although of farming stock, he studied practical techniques in the province’s eponymous capital. Already obsessed by automobiles, in 1957 Sbarro headed north to exploit his fabrication skills and interest. He found a berth as a machinist at a Borgward dealer in Neuchâtel, before progressing as a technician to a BMW agency. His boss was the father of the man who was to become Lamborghini’s

largest shareholder: Georges-Henri Rossetti. “I then had an offer to join Scuderia Filipinetti,” Sbarro told automotive writer Richard Heseltine, “based at Georges Filipinetti’s Château de Grandson. This was more in line with what I wanted to do. I was the chief mechanic or – to put it another way – the only mechanic. I did everything from fabrication to driving the race transporter. All I learned with the team was valuable experience for when I went into business for myself. “While I was there, I built a couple of Volkswagen-based sports cars during the offseason, which Filipinetti helped sponsor, but that wasn’t enough. I needed to be my own boss. I loved motor racing. We had some success with Ferraris, GT40s, Cobras, Corvettes and so on. But I wanted to create cars of my own.” Sbarro built his first automobiles in a workshop in the courtyard of Filipinetti’s stately manor house at Grandson, ten miles from the French border on the southwestern tip of Lake Neuchâtel. His debut design was a twoseater coupé prototype with a tubular frame,

5.0-litre Ford engine and glassfibre bodywork. Making his break, in 1967 he bought a threestorey former cigarette factory in Les Tuileries near Grandson, where with four employees he began his activity as a car manufacturer. In April 1968, he founded ACA (Ateliers d’Études de Construction Automobiles Sàrl). After delivering a vehicle to England, Franco paid a call on Eric Broadley’s Lola racingcar manufactory. “Without really thinking it through,” he related, “I announced my idea to convert a T70 coupé for road use. Eric was receptive and instructed me to have something ready for the Racing Car Show, which was only a few months away. We made some alterations to the doors to make it easier to get into, and also added a larger rear screen. Inside, it was all done out in leather – very luxurious. The car looked great, and Eric and his American distributor Carl Haas thought there might be a market for a mad car, but nothing came of us collaborating jointly on a project.” On his own, Franco produced a dozen Lola-like coupés. Realising that he needed an emblem of his Magneto

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LOUWMAN MUSEUM / GETTY IMAGES

spectacular dream car – conceived to prove that Switzerland could innovate in automotive design

Sbarro Challenge

own as a car maker, after long cogitation Sbarro hit on a leaping African greyhound of ancient extraction as a fit mascot. His first speciality was production of replicas of classic models. “It wasn’t something I had ever really thought about doing,” he recalled. “I was still part of the world of motor sport. I built several racing cars, but they were not particularly successful. My customers tended to be ‘gentleman drivers’, so they were never likely to win. I started to lose interest.” He continued: “I was keen to do more road cars. In 1974, I was asked to make a copy of a BMW 328. Launched at Geneva that year, it became a money-spinner.” Franco made 138 of the roadsters using BMW 2002 components, plus 15 of more exotic design complete with wide bodies and turbochargers. “I stopped making the 328s while there was still demand,” he said. “For me, the interest has always been in coming up with an idea and working things through. By the time a car is finished, I am already thinking about the next one. I don’t mind being associated with replicas, but I’m more interested in original design.” Where original design is required, it would be difficult to surpass the unique profile of the Challenge. Car-styling expert Giancarlo Perini assessed its emergence in the following manner: “The Challenge provides possibly the first, and doubtless the most meaningful, expression of what the controversial Swiss constructor himself considers to be the ultimate in performance, technology, design, gadgetry and innovation. The best car in the world, in short, Sbarro style.” With his Challenge, Franco broke free from the requirements of clients. This was his creation, his idea. He underpinned the seminal 1985 version with his own chassis, using racing-style suspension front and rear from a frame that was further stiffened by elements of the drivetrain. Mounted just forward of the rear

ABOVE Geneva in 1986 was the venue for the appearance of the Porsche-powered 2+2 Challenge II. Accompanying it was the Baby Challenge, which boasted a Honda engine.

wheels, the engine drove via a Borg-Warner transfer case from a Jeep Cherokee that distributed torque to all four wheels. Differentials at both ends provided a 45 percent locking quotient. Sbarro kept the off-roader’s ultra-low gear: “The buyers of our cars don’t just use them on the Autobahn,” he explained. “They can have 6000rpm up to 80mph, which together with four-wheel drive gives exceptional acceleration.” Honouring a fellow Swiss entrepreneur, Sbarro fitted his creation with the ultra-wide 16in JJD wheels created by Jaroslav ‘Jerry’ Juhan, each of which carried two narrow tyres. The Czech émigré reckoned that this gave better grip in all weathers, as well as eliminated the need for a spare wheel because a blow-out would affect only one of a rim’s tyres. Integrated with a four-speed automatic gearbox, the Challenge’s power source was a 5.0-litre Mercedes-Benz V8 fed by two IHI turbochargers. Reaching half an atmosphere of

‘A tour de force, so unusual and yet so simple. It broke with the usual stereotypes of car production’ 154

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boost at 2500rpm, the twin turbos raised the V8’s power from 231bhp to some 350bhp. The Audi Quattro’s complete cooling system was adopted, with the radiator sited behind the engine. Thus powered, and covered by a fabric simulation of the final design, the 1100lb chassis of the first Sbarro Challenge took to the roads around Grandson for its shakedown in the autumn of 1984. Next came exacting work in the medium of glassfibre, with which Franco and his team were by now extremely competent. The Challenge’s unique design demanded fresh interpretations everywhere. Especially ‘challenging’ was the tail section, where fine horizontal ribbing not only concealed running lamps but also served to cool the V8. Split ducts in the body’s flanks delivered cooling air. Moreover, a Plexiglas panel was needed for a camera to provide rear vision to two screens in the cockpit. The system not only had zoom and focus functions, but could also screen VHS videos – in lands where that was permissible. To add to the complexity, two roof sections rose to provide added stability plus braking. An electro-pneumatic system could raise one 16.5in x 47in panel to a 20º angle, and the other

1966 FERRARI 275 GTB Chassis no. 08567

Six-carburetors, Torque Tube. Matching numbers, matching colors, Ferrari Classiche certified. General overhaul in 2019 by Bonini. Excellent running order. Beautiful original condition. Original mileage of 98,800 kms. Italian papers.

1958 FERRARI 250 GT CALIFORNIA SPYDER LWB Chassis no. 1077

Sold new in Milano - Italy. The 14th made of 50 LWB California Spyder examples. More than two decades with the same owner. Matching numbers. Color matched red hard-top.

gtc@guikasgtc.com

www.guikasgtc.com

+33442726199

Original tool roll. US-papers. EU taxes paid.

Sbarro Challenge

to 16º. These reacted automatically to application of the brakes. That 16º angle was enough to increase rear downforce by more than 800lb at 125mph for a car weighing 3100lb. The panels could also be switched on when required, in order to enhance stability, as in wet weather. Silentbloc attachments united chassis and body with foam-rubber cushioning. Meanwhile, encompassing the curved side windows, the Challenge’s swing-up doors needed and received good hinges. The subtly curved windscreen was 44in wide and 49in ‘high’. This was so steeply inclined that it could be mounted in tracks that allowed it to slide forward electrically almost 16in, enough to provide a welcome sunroof effect. Above the occupants, the tracks could also allow a tinted Plexiglas shade to slide nearly a yard forward, leaving only the forward vision unobscured. Stored out of view, the screen wiper was of a rotary design. Tubular structures in the nose of the Challenge served to give the necessary crashenergy absorption. Lifting the long lid revealed space for a normal spare wheel and the fuel tank. Plexiglas covers protected deeply sunken headlamps. Meanwhile, the driver used electric controls to tweak the distance of the pedal box, and the distance and height of the steering wheel. Seats were also adjustable, using the System Recaro to inject air into the cushions to give the desired softness and support. In such an exotic car, advanced in so many respects, observers weren’t surprised to note that it had digital instruments. These were housed in a binnacle viewable through the steering wheel. Below them were controls and rows of warning lamps. Atop a deep divider

RIGHT A front view of the 1985 Sbarro Challenge dramatised its lowness, its ‘one-box’ design that – yes – challenged all the norms of automotive styling.

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between the seats was the auto transmission controller, with its short travel. The white Challenge was handsomely complemented by Connolly-leather interior trim in caramel highlighted by burled walnut. At the 1985 Geneva Salon, Sbarro was coy about the price of such an exotic extravagance. He waved off the assumption that it had to be owned by an Arabian sheikh. “There are many Sbarros in Japan, in the US,” he said. About prices, he added: “I don’t know them myself. By this I mean that I know of course at what price they were invoiced, but I don’t know how much came back to me. For me to know that, I would have to have oversight of all the components and all the working hours. Ipso facto, my prices would rise by 15 percent. We would have to pay someone to take care of all that accounting.” Franco did say, however, that for a Challenge as equipped at Geneva, the price would be around $125,000. For the series of ten cars that he was planning, he thought it would be nearer $100,000. At the 1986 Salon, Sbarro unveiled his strategy. Although the model displayed looked externally identical to its predecessor, it had two seats squeezed in to make it a 2+2. His aim, he told the press, was to make ten such cars, which he called the Challenge II. Franco’s scheme was to power them in a completely different manner in order to make room for the extra seating. Changing his loyalty from one Stuttgart company to another, he turned to Porsche for an engine. In went a Type 930 turbocharged 3.3-litre six, complete with 300bhp at 5500rpm. But Sbarro wanted to preserve the abbreviated tail of his creation that endowed it with considerable character. He

came up with a typically ingenious solution. He shifted the engine-transaxle assembly a couple of feet forward from its usual position, thus clearing it away from the tail area. The halfshafts from the transaxle extended outward to the pivots of two fabricated cases, which contained sprockets to chains that drove the rear wheels. Swinging from bearings in the car’s frame, the cases also acted as the principal radius arms that suspended those back wheels. The flat-six nestled comfortably between the trailing arms. Impressing with its livery, which transitioned from metallic grey in front to crimson in back, the Challenge II had an all-red cabin and essentially Porsche instrumentation, compatible as it was with the powertrain, and a Porsche steering wheel. Roof changes to boost rear headroom eliminated a hinged spoiler, the remaining one controlled electrically from the cockpit. The Challenge II was the third car built by Franco in the genre, which continued to draw crowds at motor shows. The fourth was a pearlwhite Challenge II that featured on the Sbarro stand at Geneva in 1987, together with an allnew Challenge III. It was created to deal with the severe constraints on features that kept the existing model from being approved for use in Switzerland and Germany. The idea was to build a Challenge III on the chassis of an approved vehicle, the Porsche 911 Turbo Cabriolet. Adapting the Challenge concept to this more compact platform required exceptional skill. Instead of the 1985-86 variant’s 107in wheelbase, the spacing on the new version was 89.4in. Front track went from 61.0in to 56.4in, and the rear track from 65.0in to a mere 58.7in – these changes ruling out the

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Sbarro Challenge

original car’s ultra-wide wheels and tyres. Making the Challenge’s wheelbase shorter by 1.5ft was a test for Franco and his team – one to which they rose gallantly. Length was lost behind the doors, retaining but shortening the air-inlet scoops. The doors themselves were slightly shorter, and their windows extended to their forward edges. The nose was shorter, too, and the tail was extended to house the Porsche motor, now back in its usual outboard position. Overall, the resulting Challenge was a sleeker, smoother sports machine that lost little of its path-breaking charisma. It was altogether a more fully realised automobile – and it was virtually all Porsche. This had several benefits. The original instrument panel and minor controls could be left in position to be surrounded by more lavish accoutrements. The view under the front deck was also the same as in the donor car, with its spare wheel and tyre, fuel tank and some space for luggage. This definitive Porsche-based Challenge III rolled on super-wide Pirelli P7 tyres: 225/50 VR 15 on 10in aluminium wheels front, and 285/50 VR 15 on 12in rims rear. Although not accepted in Germany or Switzerland, the show car had Blaupunkt’s rear camera and cockpit monitor. The change to a glassfibre body meant less contribution to frame stiffness by the lower sheet metal, so Sbarro had to strengthen the platform along the sills. With additional features, this meant the Challenge III weighed 2980lb, some 300lb more than its donor Porsche and around 100lb less than the II. Smooth lines and less frontal area, thanks to a ten-inch lower

RIGHT In order to accommodate its Porsche engine, the tail of the Challenge III was lengthened. Otherwise, the daring concept transferred well to the 911 Turbo Cabriolet platform.

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height than the Porsche’s – although it added eight inches of width – contributed to the III’s 175mph top speed against the Turbo’s 160mph. Zero-to-60mph acceleration was in the sixsecond bracket using the car’s manual gearbox. Soon after 1987’s Geneva Salon, Germany’s Wolfgang Scholz had a chance to test drive the show car. Black, with black-and-white interior accents, it was liveried according to the taste of its owner, a Swiss discotheque proprietor. “Grumbling softly,” Scholz wrote, “the black wedge glides through the sleepy little town on the banks of Lac de Neuchâtel. A UFO seems to have landed amidst the old town houses. But scarcely any Swiss turns around. The residents of Grandson are used to it. Local dream-car designer Sbarro always tests his new creations like this. “The high side sills make getting in and out an acrobatic affair,” Scholz continued. “Then there is the unusual seating position and the very heavily tinted windows.Although occupants are comfortable in the standard Porsche seats, tall people almost touch the glass dome behind the back rests. The side windows extend exceptionally low. This allows traffic to be observed to some extent although the Plexiglas, bent almost at right angles, distorts the view somewhat. If you’re looking for more contact with the environment you have to open the doors, because the windows are fixed. “The Challenge III drives just like the complete Porsche 911 convertible concealed under its glassfibre body. It pulls along easily on narrow country roads with tight curves. Partly rain-soaked ground accounts for typical 911

behaviour. From neutral handling, the black wedge pushes moderately over the front wheels. But beware if the driver steps on the gas pedal too boldly. With little notice the tail of the vehicle thrusts outward. The steering helps – it’s light and pretty direct. “Porsche’s chassis tuning remains unchanged,” Scholz went on. “Although the Challenge looks sporty, it’s not uncomfortable. Short bumps show little harshness. After a period of getting used to it, this dream car can even be driven in narrow streets and reverse-parked if necessary.” While the most practical of the Challenge series, the III was destined not to be emulated in its original form. One more Challenge II was completed in 1991 on a 911 Turbo chassis stretched to a 96.2in wheelbase, the result of a concentrated two-year effort by a duo in Sbarro’s team. It was the seventh and last of the line. The cars were dispersed as far as Japan, America, Singapore, Spain and France, with at least one at home in Switzerland. When queried about the Challenge in the 21st century, Franco was dismissive. “It was a great concept,” he avowed, “but the Challenge didn’t turn out how I had imagined it.” Having lost money on the seven he completed, he swore not to continue their production. Although the Sbarro saga has many high points, the Challenge is one of the highest. It brought Franco and Switzerland worldwide publicity, and established him as an expert in the creation of the adventurous, the outlandish and the enjoyable in the way of vehicles. It convincingly met its challenge.

5 Words

Richard Heseltine

When the going gets tough, the world’s toughest rally machines get going. Here are our top 50 all-time favourite stage stars

Top 50 rally cars

Jeep Wagoneer REMEMBER when Audi became the ‘first’ marque to win a rally with four-wheel drive? Well, history has forgotten that Gene Henderson and Ken Pogue prevailed on the 1972 Press-onRegardless in a Jeep Wagoneer. This wasn’t a provincial meeting, either; it was a round of the

International Championship for Manufacturers (the WRC didn’t arrive until 1973). Another Jeep finished third, sandwiching a Datsun 240Z. A year later, the Sno’Drift Rally – a round of the SCCA’s series – was won by Wagoneer pedallers Erhard Dahm and John Campbell. Henderson and Pogue made it a Jeep 1-2 finish.

Hillman Hunter THIS one is bound to irk more than a few Magneto readers, but please bear with us… The Hillman Hunter wasn’t a phenomenally successful competition tool, it must be said. It didn’t win a lot of events. It was the Works weapon of choice on only one occasion

Citroën SM IF you had to think of one of the most improbable cars ever to go rallying, this Maseratiengined GT must be up there. The factory competition department’s circumstances were somewhat reduced by the time the Citroën Racing Team descended on the Morocco

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Ford Sierra Sapphire Cosworth 4x4 WHILE a winner at national level, the Sapphire’s finest moment in the WRC occurred during the 1991 Monte Carlo Rally. François Delecour electrified aboard his work car, taking the lead from Toyota’s Carlos Sainz on the third day and driving away from

Nissan Silvia 240RS IN essence, this box-arched coupé was a Group B-ised version of the Violet GTS. It was near identical beneath the skin

– but it came out on top in what may well have been the most gruelling rally of them all: the 1968 London to Sydney Marathon. Even then, star driver Andrew Cowan wasn’t assured of victory until misfortune befell likelier candidates with fewer than 100 miles to go. In order to finish, first you need to finish, and all that...

Rally in April 1971. It was eager to record a third successive win, the previous two having been accrued by the DS21. The event proved so gruelling that only nine of the 59 entries went the distance, the SM coming out on top upon its debut. The company pressed ahead with the short-tail Group 5 SM ‘Camionette’ (left) thereafter.

the reigning World Champion thereafter. He appeared on track to claim an upset win, only to lose five minutes on the final night with suspension ‘issues’. The French star finished third, as he would on the San Remo and Catalunya events. Miki Biasion placed third in Portugal a year on for Ford, with Delecour third on the Tour de Corse.

(so a naturally aspirated ‘four’ and rear-wheel drive) – the problem being that it was generally uncompetitive against the four-wheel-drive onslaught. Even so, it was robust and

reliable, Timo Salonen guiding his Works machine to second place on the 1983 Rally of New Zealand, which was its best-ever WRC finish. Salonen went on to record a strong run of top-ten placings a year later, too. Welsh star David Llewellin was a winner in the British Rally Championship in 1984, in a Works 240RS.

Skoda 130 LR

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Opel Manta B 400 VARIATIONS of this Everyman coupé appeared in rallying, yet the ultimate (in every sense) version never quite made it at the highest level. The partially Kevlar-skinned B 400 was homologated for Group B, but it was outclassed during its maiden season in the WRC. The

just one car isn’t the work of a moment, but we opted for this, the replacement for the 130 RS. The LR was built to Group B

high point of 1983 was third place on the RAC Rally of Great Britain for Scottish star Jimmy McRae in his Rothmans-liveried example. A year later Rauno Aaltonen claimed second place on the Safari Rally, but the Opel was outclassed elsewhere in the WRC. Even so, it showed well at national level, not least in the hands of Russell Brookes.

BMW M3 THE original E30-generation M3 was a brilliant track weapon, claiming just about every touring car title imaginable. What tends to be forgotten is that it also enjoyed a rallying career, even if it wasn’t a full-blown Works account. BMW had enjoyed some success before, not least

Triumph TR7 V8 WHILE it didn’t sweep all before it, the TR7 in V8-engined form created a legion of fans during the late 1970s. Although early experiments with 16-valve four-cylinder units proved underwhelming (Works driver Brian Culcheth didn’t like this variant at all…), the insertion

Ford Sierra RS Cosworth REAR-wheel-drive cars were considered passé by the time the ‘Cossie’ set about scorching special stages. Even so, this flame-belching wild child was capable of claiming an upset win on asphalt at international level. Major scalps included Didier Auriol’s outright victory

regs, and continued Skoda’s winning ways. It even bagged an improbable outright victory, on the 1986 Marlboro Günaydin Turkish Rally under Gerhard Kalnay and Günter Tazreiter.

with variations of the 02-series, but it never fully committed. Not content with running Worksbacked M3s in the British Touring Car Championship, Prodrive also built rally variants. Victories included the 1987 Tour de Corse. Titles were bagged in Belgium and France, too, the Banbury squad’s success attracting the attention of Subaru…

of the Rover V8 at least gave it plenty of grunt. British hero Tony Pond, along with Per Eklund and Simo Lampinen, put on a show, the former claiming outright honours on the Manx Rally and Ypres 24 Hours in 1978 among other accolades. In the US, John Buffum bagged SCCA ProRally titles with his Works-supported effort.

on the 1988 Tour de Corse (the only time that the Works Lancias were beaten in a straight fight that year). Auriol also won the French Rally Championship in 1988, to go with the one he had accrued in a Sierra a year earlier. Veteran Jimmy McRae claimed British series titles in 1987-88, while Carlos Sainz took the Spanish crown in 1987.

Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC MERC had form in 1960s rallying, most memorably with Eugen Böhringer at the helm. However, it was relatively slim pickings

until Erich Waxenberger set about transforming the C107 coupé into a rally weapon, with the V8/automatic-box behemoth proving a natural in longdistance events. It claimed a debut win on 1978’s 20,000-mile Vuelta a la América del Sud, and future triumphs included the 1979 Ivory Coast event – the marque’s first WRC victory.

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SKODA has a long and rich history in rallying at all levels. Prior to Volkswagen’s ownership, its rear-engined models were consistent class winners (they virtually owned the sub-1.3-litre category of the RAC Rally of Great Britain for decades). As such, trying to pick

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Ford Lotus Cortina PAT Moss and Jenny Nadin guided a twin-cam-engined Cortina on the 1963 Midnight Sun Rally, and were alarmed by its willingness to break. Scroll forward to the 1965 Coupe des Alpes, and Vic Elford and David Stone were three minutes clear of their pursuers having

Datsun 240Z FOR a marque that made its first, faltering steps into rallying back in 1958, it was with the 240Z that Datsun (Nissan) took on the elite – and sometimes bested them. Edgar Herrmann and Hans Schüller won the 1971 East African Safari (albeit only after Björn Waldegård’s Porsche and Hannu Mikkola’s Ford Escort had retired), leading home the sister car of Shekhar Mehta and Mike Doughty. Two years later it was Mehta’s turn (second place going to the Datsun 1800 SSS saloon of Harry Källström), while Tony Fall won the 1971 Welsh Rally. Rauno Aaltonen and Jean Todt also finished third on the 1972 Monte Carlo Rally.

Triumph TR3 IT’S easy to forget that the Triumph TRs were every bit as ubiquitous on British rallies in the 1950s as the Ford Escort was in the 1970s. They were everywhere, with Ron Gouldbourn and future BMC Competitions Department chief Stuart Turner winning the first

Mitsubishi Lancer 1600 GSR MITSUBISHI and rallying were once intertwined. However, long before the Evo and Tommi Mäkinen entered into sporting folklore, the firstgeneration Lancer proved itself in long-distance events. In 1976, Joginder Singh and David Doig won the Safari Rally (it marked

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British Rally Championship in 1958 aboard a TR3A. TRs bagged umpteen classes internationally, too, not least on the Alpine Rally and Liège-Rome-Liège in 1956, and the Monte Carlo classic in 1957. This is but a thumbnail sketch of what the model won, the sad part being that Standard-Triumph failed to retain its edge into the 1960s.

the former’s third victory on the endurance classic). Mitsubishi claimed the first three positions plus sixth place, although joy was tempered by the death of the chief mechanic during the event after an accident involving the service car. The 1600 GSR went on to win the event again two years later, also bagging the Southern Cross Rally in 1973-76.

Peugeot 504 PEUGEOT and rallies held in sandier climes seem to go hand in hand. The 504 picked up the baton from its predecessor, the 404, and bagged numerous wins off-piste. Victories in events such as the Ethiopian Highland Rally in 1969 paved the way for repeat success for the local

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managed to remain penalty free – until they were around 20km away from the finish. Then the car died (they coasted home in 21st place). The theme was consistent: the Cortina was quick until it failed. However, a year later Bo Söderström and Gunnar Palm managed to win the RAC Rally of Great Britain in a Works entry.

Mamaligas-Nadir squad, which helped cement Peugeot’s standing in emerging markets. The Works team made its presence felt from the mid-1970s on, Ove Andersson claiming 1975 honours in a 504 saloon, with Jean-Pierre Nicolas winning in 1976 aboard a V6 coupé. Then there was the Group B 504 pick-up…

MAGIC CAR PICS

Top 50 rally cars

VOLVOS once enjoyed a reputation for being unkillable, and the ‘hunchbacked’ PV544 helped forge that standing. Rallying played its part, major scalps including Gunnar Andersson’s 1959 victory in the 2870-mile Gran Premio de Argentina, and Tom Trana’s

RAC Rally wins in 1963-64. Then there was Joginder Singh’s victory on the 1965 East African Safari in the ex-Works/ex-Trana car (which he bought via a Hire Purchase agreement). He and wingman Jaswant Singh scored a famous victory. The Amazon continued from where the PV544 left off, but perhaps didn’t make quite the same impact.

Vauxhall Chevette HS/HSR A MUCH-loved rally staple in the UK during the late 1970s, the Chevette in its various guises provided a stern challenge to the hitherto-dominant Ford Escorts. The Bill Blydensteintended Dealer Team Vauxhalls with their 2.3- or 2.6-litre fourbangers were quick, even if they

Toyota Celica Twin Cam Turbo TOYOTA occasionally excelled in endurance events, even in this angular Group B weapon that was adapted to fit rather than purpose built. Toyota Team Europe created a car that was rugged and reliable, producing as much as 380bhp with the boost dialled all the way up (330bhp

ran headlong into the thicket of officialdom early on (there was a major homologation fudge…). Even so, they went on to enjoy great success in the UK, and were campaigned by a roll-call of stars: Tony Pond, Jimmy McRae, Terry Kaby and Pentti Airikkala. The last of these claimed the 1979 British title in the evolutionary HSR.

was the norm). While not a contender in a straight fight with mid-engined machinery, the Twin Cam Turbo claimed three Ivory Coast Rally wins and as many Safari Rally victories from 1983-86. As such, it was referred to as the ‘King of Africa’. Sadly, its proposed MR2based Group S replacement never got to compete.

Nissan Violet SOMETHING of a forgotten rally superstar, the secondgeneration Nissan Violet in 160J and GT form was also the marque’s most successful in the WRC. It was as tough as old boots, as evinced by its success on the Safari Rally. It won four times in a row from 1979 to 1982, initially with OHC ‘four’ and later twin-cam units. All four victories were accrued by Shekhar Mehta – other successes including the 1980 Rally of New Zealand and the following year’s Ivory Coast Rally (both with Timo Salonen driving). The car’s record on the Safari wouldn’t be eclipsed for another two decades.

Fiat 124 Abarth Sport FIAT’S involvement in motor sport has been rather staccato, but a concerted 1970s attack on rallying saw the 124 Abarth Sport ultimately pave the way for the 131 Rally. Project SE026 debuted on the 1972 Rally of Portugal, Alcide Paganelli and ‘Ninni’ Russo coming home in fifth

place. A year later, Jean Todt and Achim Warmbold opened the 124’s WRC account with a Rally of Poland win in the championship’s first year. It faced Ford, Alpine and two formidable stablemates: Lancia’s aging Fulvia and then the Stratos. The 124 won umpteen events, but only two further WRC rounds. Its last Works outing was the 1976 Monte Carlo.

MOTORSPORT IMAGES

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Volvo PV544

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BY definition, Group B cars were built on the principle of purpose first, looks second. The Ford RS200 was the exception to the rule, in that a degree of artistry was involved in its creation. The thing is, this Group B pin-up was nothing of the sort, although the Blue Oval’s attempt at building a WRC winner for the 1980s could have been very different had team principal Stuart Turner not had his way. Ford had sunk two years’ development into the Escort RS1700T, but Turner

Opel Ascona B 400 THIS hottest of Asconas enjoyed only a brief spell in the spotlight, but it was glorious while it lasted. Depending on whose estimates you credit, the B 400 was conceived by Dealer Opel Team principal Tony Fall as a rival to the Ford Escort RS1800 and Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally. It was a homologation special, with Cosworth hired to rework the proven Kadett GT/E engine (which it did to the point of being virtually a new unit). Irmscher, meanwhile, was tasked with the physical makeover. However,

BELOW With its mid-mounted 3.0litre 90º V6 and four-wheel drive, how could the MG Metro 6R4 possibly fail?

opined that rear-wheel drive would render it uncompetitive. Tony Southgate, whose resume includes Indy 500 and Le Mans winners, landed the gig in early 1983 to design this brave new world, with John Wheeler charged with developing project B200 (Group B/200 cars required for homologation purposes). The model placed third overall on its maiden WRC start on the 1986 International Swedish Rally with Kalle Grundel/Terry Harryman. That was as good as it got. For various reasons, it never bothered the podium again at this level.

with Group B rules being belatedly announced in 1981, the B 400 soon made way for a Group B-ised Manta. That wasn’t before marque returnee Walter Röhrl claimed his second World Championship, though. He did so despite his Rothmans-liveried car being outpaced by the Audi Quattro, especially in the hands of Michèle Mouton. He claimed two rounds that year (Monte Carlo and Ivory Coast), and clung on to take victory through consistency. As such, he became the last driver to win the WRC in a rear-wheel-drive car.

MG Metro 6R4 CHILDHOOD nostalgia isn’t the best lens through which to view anything, yet to a legion of British rally fans of a certain age, the 6R4 continues to hold a magnetic pull. Sadly, it never lived up to the billing at the highest level, but it won rallies – championships even – elsewhere. British Leyland Motorsport (later Austin Rover Motorsport) turned to Williams Grand Prix Engineering in order to produce the beast. Initial plans to create a V8 Metro with the engine in the front were soon rejected,

though, the result being a hatch with a 3.0-litre 90º ‘V64V’ V6 where the rear seat and shopping would normally sit. That, and a four-wheel-drive set-up. Unfortunately, the British challenger had a terrible WRC finishing record. Nevertheless, the model triumphed at national level, with Didier Auriol claiming the 1986 French title with his R-E-D-prepared car. As with the Ford RS200, the Metro also enjoyed a secondary career in Rallycross, this time with ‘Whitstable Will’ Gollop claiming the 1992 FIA European Championship drivers’ title.

MAGIC CAR PICS

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Ford RS200

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Citroën DS SURPRISED to see the DS so far up the list? It’s easy to forget that this most French of saloon cars excelled on certain events. It claimed class honours first time out on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1956, and an ID19 took outright victory three years later. Then there was a win for the DS21 on the season-opener in 1966 (but only after the exclusion of all the cars that preceded it…). The DS won again in 1967. There were several additional significant successes, not least in 1961’s gruelling Liège-Sofia-Liège. René

Trautmann won that year’s European Rally Trophy, too. In 1963, Citroën took the Constructors’ Cup, having won the Rallye Lyon-Charbonnières, Liège-Sofia-Liège marathon, Coupe des Alpes, Routes du Nord, Tour de Corse, Rallye du Mont Blanc and… Lucien Bianchi was crowned Belgian Rally Champion, while Trautmann won the French crown. Fast-forward to 1968, and Bianchi was the moral victor of the London to Sydney Marathon, his Works Citroën being struck by a Mini on a closed stage with barely 30 miles to go.

Renault 5 Turbo THIS barking device foretold the Frankensteinian mash-ups that typified the Group B era. The parts-bin special was conceived in 1977 as a retort to the Lancia Stratos, with rear suspension derived from the Alpine-Renault A310, a 30 TX gearbox… You get the idea. Power, meanwhile, was provided by a mid-mounted 1397cc four-banger fed by Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection, and equipped with a Garrett AiResearch T3 turbo. It was created during a period when

Toyota Corolla WRC TOYOTA enjoyed great rallying success during the early 1990s with variations of the Celica GT-Four, only for the Works team to take a brief hiatus. It returned to the fray midway through the ’97 season with the Corolla WRC, the car’s fourwheel-drive set-up being taken from the GT-Four ST205. Didier Auriol and Marcus Grönholm drove the car on its maiden event, that year’s Rally Finland, while Carlos Sainz gave the Corolla its first win on the following year’s Monte Carlo. The

forced induction in rallying – in motor sport – was still a novelty. Renault pioneered the movement in a variety of disciplines. Initially homologated for Group 3 and Group 4 categories, it won first time out in the WRC, Jean Ragnotti taking the 1981 Monte Carlo Rally. He also triumphed on the Tour de Corse in 1982 and ’85, by which time the Renault was generally outgunned by four-wheel-drive rivals. The Cinq claimed a final WRC win in 1986, although Joaquim Moutinho’s privateer success in Portugal was secured only after all the Works teams withdrew.

Spaniard also took Rally of New Zealand honours, bookending Auriol’s San Remo victory. The French ace claimed Toyota’s sole 1999 WRC win, on Rally China. He finished third in the drivers’ standings, but such was Toyota’s consistency over the course of the campaign that it narrowly edged out Subaru to take manufacturers’ honours. The firm then closed its rallying operations to concentrate on its egregiously budgeted but winless tilt at Formula 1. More recently, it has returned to off-piste competition with great success, fielding bespoke Yaris variants.

Ford Escort RS Cosworth SAVE for the aborted RS 1700T and variations of Gartracconverted, rear-wheel-drive, third-gen editions, pickings were largely slim for the Escort until this bewinged variant arrived. Based on the fifth-series Escort, the RS Cosworth was in build before the production car had even been launched, such was the Blue Oval’s desire to return to prominence in rallying. It was created with the sole purpose of taking the WRC. It failed, which isn’t to say it didn’t enjoy success. It almost won

first time out on the 1993 Monte Carlo, and went on to claim victory in five rounds that season (including a privateer win on the San Remo Rally). There were three more successes in 1994, but the Cosworth’s star soon waned. The Works squad was finally shuttered in 1994, with responsibilities passing to the Belgian SAS team. Some argue that a concurrent rule change that meant the Escort had to run with a smaller turbo restrictor blunted its chances thereafter. There was a blank sheet in 1995, a single victory a year later, and two more in 1997.

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Peugeot 206 WRC HAVING dominated rallying for a spell during the Group B era, starred in rally-raids and won in sports-prototypes at Le Mans, Peugeot then stumbled. It made a half-hearted stab at F1 as an engine supplier, and the marque of the lion only roared again once it returned to rallying. In 1999, Peugeot Sport introduced the 206 WRC, Gilles Panizzi putting on a show before the

BELOW 206 WRC burned briefly but brightly for Peugeot, claiming three makers’ titles in a row.

team and Marcus Grönholm bagged both WRC titles in 2000. ‘Magic Marcus’ wasn’t so fortunate a year on, although Peugeot claimed repeat honours. He was paired with defending champ, Subaru exile Richard Burns, for 2002, and took another drivers’ title. Peugeot also made it three

makers’ gongs in a row, but it helped that rival marques experienced teething troubles with new cars. The 206 WRC was on the back-foot in 2003 against the Impreza WRC and Citroën Xsara WRC. As such, its replacement, the 207 WRC, was ushered in before the season was over.

Saab 92-96

finishes on the ultra-tough Liège-Sofia-Liège in 1963-64. It wasn’t all small-capacity two-strokes, either. V4-engined Saabs also starred, with Carlsson coming out of retirement to contest the Baja 1000 in 1969-70 (he was third in the first year, having led until a universal joint broke). Meanwhile, Simo Lampinen won the RAC Rally in 1968 in his 96, and Stig Blomqvist claimed Saab’s fifth (and final) victory in this historic event three years later. Saab took its final WRC win in 1976, when Per Eklund triumphed on the International Swedish Rally.

SO much of Saab’s success was based on one man’s talent. Erik Carlsson’s class win on the 1958 Tulip Rally provided a huge promotional boost for the nascent marque on the international stage. Big wins followed, not least on the Monte Carlo Rally in 1962-63. Then there was the RAC Rally of Great Britain hat-trick from 1960-62, and… The little Saabs punched above their weight time and again, Carlsson for his part being prouder of his second-place

Lancia Fulvia GIVEN what Lancia achieved with the Stratos, the 037 and beyond, it’s easy to overlook the car that blazed the trail. The Fulvia marked the return of Lancia to full-blown Works competitions after a lengthy hiatus. In 1965, the firm took over HF Squadra Corse to create the factory-run squad. Run under the direction of sometime competitor Cesare Fiorio, its successes came in thick and fast – starting with eighth place on that year’s Tour de Corse (in Zagato form). Many

variations of Fulvias followed, Harry Källström claiming the European Rally title in 1969 aboard a 1.6 Coupé HF, the same year that he won the RAC Rally of GB for Lancia. ‘Sputnik’ bagged repeated honours in ’70. Other titles included the International Championship for Manufacturers in 1972, Sandro Munari having won that year’s Monte Carlo Rally along the way. Munari took the European Rally Championship in 1973, too. The ageing Fulvia soldiered on as a Works weapon into the 1974 season, before it finally made way for the Stratos.

Austin-Healey 3000 FEW cars evoke early 1960s rallying quite like a Big Healey. It didn’t take long for the BMC Competitions Department to get its mitts on the 3000, either, having already dipped its toe with the 100/6. It was an instant success: Pat Moss was second on the 1959 German Rally, runner-up on the 1960 Alpine and outright victor on that year’s punishing Rome-Liège-Rome. Incidentally, future team boss Stuart Turner viewed Moss’s success on the latter as being just as heroic as her brother

Lancia 037 THE 037 was the first car built explicitly to Group B regulations. Abarth was responsible for its design and construction but, contrary to popular belief, the 037 owes little to the Montecarlo production car save for the midengined layout and the centre section. For starters, its ironblock, twin-cam ‘four’ with its 16v head was turned through 90º from a transverse placing to a longitudinal position, and allied to a ZF five-speed transaxle. A supercharger was chosen over a turbo to eliminate

Toyota Celica GT-Four IT is easy to forget that before Subaru and Mitsubishi owned the WRC, Toyota had blazed a trail for Japanese marques with the shapely all-wheel-drive GT-Four. Strictly speaking there were three iterations, all fielded by Toyota Team Europe, which operated out of Cologne. The model made its WRC debut in ST165 form on the 1988 Tour de Corse, and claimed its initial victory during the following year’s Rally Australia with the brilliant Juha Kankkunen at the helm. A year

Stirling’s on the 1955 Mille Miglia. It is also worth recalling Don and Erle Morley’s domination of the Tulip Rally from 1962-65, even if outright victory proved elusive due to the handicapping system. Then there was the duo’s triumphs on the Coupe des Alpes in 1961-62. Meanwhile, Rauno Aaltonen’s win on the 1964 Spa-Sofia-Liège was a lesson in sheer grit. One win that evaded the Big Healey was the RAC Rally of Great Britain. The 3000 wasn’t suited to forest stages, but it still recorded four secondplace finishes between 1961-65.

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CONCEIVED by Des O’Dell, and flowering after the PSA Group acquired Chrysler Europe and created Talbot, this Lotusengined, rear-wheel-drive hot hatch nevertheless didn’t show well initially. With Tony Pond doing much of the development in the UK, and likewise JeanPierre Nicolas in France, it had a lousy finishing rate in 1979, but a better one in ’80 (Ford having withdrawn as a Works outfit). The undoubted bright spot was an extraordinary – and unexpected – 1-3-4 finish on

that year’s RAC Rally of Great Britain. At 24, Henri Toivonen became the youngest-ever WRCround winner, his progress thereafter being stratospheric. Underfunded and underresourced relative to Renault and Audi, Talbot nevertheless claimed the Manufacturers’ Championship in 1980, with Guy Fréquelin placing second to Walter Röhrl in the drivers’ standings. Yet the car’s time in the spotlight was soon over. Attempts with a mid-engined, Lotuspowered Talbot Horizon ended early, PSA forging ahead with the Peugeot 205 T16 instead.

lag and improve response. Its quoted 265bhp jumped to 300bhp in Evolution 1 trim and 325bhp in Evolution 2 spec. Independent double-wishbone suspension featured front and rear, along with dual Bilstein gas dampers out back, while steel subframes were used fore and aft of the centre section. The bodywork was mostly Kevlar. The 037 was bloodied in competition on the 1982 Rally Costa Smeralda, and Lancia went on to claim the 1983 WRC manufacturers’ title. However, the arrival of Peugeot’s 205 T16 blunted its challenge thereafter.

later Works man Carlos Sainz was crowned World Champion, the first-series model claiming 13 WRC victories into 1994. That same season saw the arrival of the ST185, which steamrollered its way to makers’ titles in 1993-94 and drivers’ crowns for Sainz (1992), Kankkunen (1993) and Didier Auriol (1994). It claimed 16 WRC wins, the ST205 opening its account on the 1995 Tour de Corse only to have it closed shortly thereafter amid a cheating scandal. Toyota was stripped of its points, as were its drivers, and banned from the WRC for 1996.

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Lancia Delta S4

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Citroën Xsara WRC CITROËN’S return to frontline competition witnessed a period of dominance, most of it for one man: Sébastien Loeb. The French ace made the four-wheel-drive hatchback his own, and lost out on the 2003 drivers’ title by one point to Subaru’s Petter Solberg. He made amends a year later, claiming his first crown before repeating the feat in 2005 and again in ’06. Such was his dominance in 2004, he won six rounds and bagged as many second-place finishes to beat Solberg to the prize by a

Alpine-Renault A110 SCROLL back to 1967, when Renault’s diamond-shaped badge first appeared on the A110’s nose. Alpine founder Jean Rédélé negotiated a deal whereby Renault would sell and support the marque through its dealer network. Bit by bit the

bumper/spoiler. Underpinning the S4 was a tubular spaceframe complete with double-wishbone suspension all round. The S4 was an instant winner at the end of 1985, and claimed

three WRC victories into ’86 (Monte Carlo, Argentina and Olympus Rally). Fabrizio Tabaton also sealed the 1986 European Championship drivers’ title in an S4. Sadly, the

car is perhaps remembered more for the crash on the Tour de Corse that claimed the lives of Henri Toivonen and Sergio Cresto. The passing of Group B nixed the S4’s Group S ECV1 successor.

BELOW The A110 went from a minnow to a rally giant, thanks to its association with Renault.

European rally title was merely the opening salvo, the A110 entering into legend following a 1-2-3 finish on the 1971 Monte Carlo classic. Alpine repeated the feat two years later, with Andruet/‘Biche’ coming out on top in the first round of the new World Rally Championship. Alpeeeeen beat Porsche and Lancia to take the 1973 title, just as Renault bought a 55 percent stake. At home, it was a foregone conclusion that an A110 would win the French title, with JeanPierre Nicolas, Bernard Darniche and Jean-Luc Thérier taking respective victories in 1971-73.

whopping 26 points. All told, Loeb claimed 28 WRC victories aboard the Xsara. It wasn’t all about Loeb, though, with Jesús Puras, Carlos Sainz and François Duval also making their presence felt. Citroën also sealed three consecutive constructors’ titles (2003-05), the marque then picking up from where it left off with the DS3 WRC. As a footnote to the story, it also worth mentioning that Philippe Bugalski won the 1999 Catalunya Rally and Tour de Corse with the rear-wheeldrive Xsara F2 category Kit Car.

automotive giant increased its backing, helping to finance the Dieppe concern’s competition bids while basking in the reflective glow of rallying success. Wins were routinely trumpeted in splashy ads, the Renault badge being entirely out of proportion to that of Alpine. Jean-Claude Andruet’s 1969

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LANCIA Rally Team began work on the project known internally as SE038 in January 1983. While notionally related to the Delta hatch, it was a different beast entirely due to a mid-mounted DOHC 1759cc ‘four’ that boasted a turbo and a supercharger. Lancia may have insisted that the S4 resembled a production car, but the bodywork comprised carbonfibre front and rear panels and doors made of Kevlar. There were also numerous aerodynamic aids including a front splitter and winglets incorporated into the

ANOTHER crushingly effective car fielded by Citroën, this turbocharged 2.0-litre machine isn’t generally talked of with the sort of misty-eyed reverence reserved for, say, Subaru, Lancia or Mitsubishi WRC legends. That may be because it was derived from the humble C4, but perhaps more because it dominated against relatively limited competition. Replacing the Xsara WRC, it was first campaigned on the 2007 Monte Carlo Rally; Sébastien Loeb led throughout to win at a

canter, team-mate Dani Sordo following him home. They were fastest on nine of the 15 stages. And so it continued. The remarkable Loeb went on to accrue seven of the further 15 rounds to win yet another WRC title, with Ford’s Marcus Grönholm his nearest challenger. He then won it again in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Citroën, for its part, won the manufacturers’ silverware from 2008-10, claiming 36 wins and 87 podium positions in doing so. As an aside, future WRC superstar Sébastien Ogier made his debut at this level in a privateer C4.

Ford Focus RS WRC WHEN discussing the Focus in rallying, the obvious first question is ‘which version’? As with its spiritual ancestor, the Escort, there were umpteen iterations of the nameplate, and success generally begat success. This Ford Europe/M-Sport co-production made an instant impression on its debut event, the 1999 Monte Carlo Rally. Colin McRae was fastest on several stages, only to be excluded along with his teammate Simon Jean-Joseph over a water pump-related technical

Mitsubishi Lancer/ Carisma Evo AS with so many cars featured herein, there were umpteen variations of this four-wheeldrive brute. Officially, there were ten distinct model designations, but also various subspecies and market-specific editions. Not all of them were campaigned, but those that were left an indelible impression on rallying. Never more so than when steered by Finnish superstar Tommi Mäkinen. The Ralliart Mitsubishi versus Prodrive Subaru battle was a mid-

infringement. Two events later, the Scot opened the car’s account with a crushing Safari Rally display. His margin of victory was 15 minutes-plus over Didier Auriol’s second-placed Toyota. McRae’s name is inextricably linked with Subaru, but it’s worth remembering that he won nine rounds of the WRC to 2002 with the Blue Oval. Scroll forward to ’06, and Ford claimed the makers’ title for the first time in 25 years. By 2011, when the Fiesta RS WRC arrived, the Focus in its various guises had won 44 times from 173 WRC events. Oh, and claimed 142 podium placings.

to late-1990s high point, with Mäkinen holding sway in the drivers’ standings: he claimed four titles from 1996-99 aboard Evos III, IV, V, and VI. However, the brand took only one makers’ crown (in 1998, with Richard Burns bolstering the campaign). Mitsubishi never quite found a foothold after it switched to running a WRC car (as opposed to an adapted Group A weapon). There were slim pickings in 2001, a sabbatical in ’02 and then it was lights out at the end of ’05. As an aside, Mäkinen scored his final WRC win in 2002 aboard… a Subaru Impreza.

ALAMY

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Citroën C4 WRC

Porsche 911 PORSCHE’S tilt at the 1965 Monte Carlo Rally with the new 911 was as low key as it got. Fastforward to the end of the next year, when Vic Elford and David Stone finished third on the Tour de Corse; Porsche was suddenly interested. In 1968, the duo claimed a famous win on the Monte, Elford having been seemingly oblivious to the ice on the Col de la Couillole stage. This victory with a 911T was but a mere opening salvo. In second place, in a 911S, was Pauli Toivonen, who went on to

be crowned European Rally Champ by dint of his victories on the San Remo, East German, West German, Geneva, Danube and Spanish Rallies, to go with his third place on the Acropolis. And let’s not forget Björn Waldegård’s success on the ’68 Swedish Rally, ‘Walle’ going on to win the 1969 Monte ahead of 911 convert Gérard Larrousse. The duo also finished 1-2 on the same event in 1970. Rallying took a back stage thereafter, but the Alméras Frères team conquered the Monte in 1978, plus the 1980 European Rally Championship, with 911s.

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Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally

well elsewhere, only for Fiat’s marketing people to suggest that the team campaign a saloon instead. Abarth had already built a 131-based car, the

experimental V6-engined SE031. The new rally 131 wouldn’t be so-powered for various reasons, not least Fiat management’s insistence that the Abarth-ised version be broadly identifiable with the mass-produced 131. The resultant car claimed honours first time out on April 1976’s Elba Rally, driven by Markku Alén. Later that year, the Finn won the 1000 Lakes (he’d do so again for Fiat in 1979 and ’80), this successful partial season flowering into a sustained attack on the WRC for 1977, which it owned. As it did in 1978… Fiat bagged a third makers’ title in ’80.

to resemble the standard 205 production model. A turbocharged 1775cc four-cylinder engine was created out of an XU diesel unit, but with a 16v DOHC head to run on petrol. Under the FIA’s

equivalency regulations, whereby displacement was multiplied by a factor of 1.4 for forced-induction set-ups, the end capacity became 2485cc. The T16 went on to dominate the second half of the 1984 World Rally Championship. It continued to be developed thereafter, a six-speed ’box and a fully spaceframed rear end being added along the way. It became the most successful car of the Group B era, with 16 wins and two WRC titles to its credit. What’s more, it also formed the basis for successful Pikes Peak and Paris-Dakar rally-raid bids.

ONE of the great standouts of 1970s rallying, the 131 was nevertheless not the original choice as a replacement for the 124 Abarth Sport. Plans called for the Works to field a car based on the X1/9. The prototype made its debut on March 1974’s Giro di Sicilia, but retired with transmission failure. It showed

Peugeot 205 T16 FEW manufacturers expended more energy and money into winning the WRC during the Group B era than Peugeot. This wasn’t just a competition

Subaru Impreza SUBARU made its maiden international WRC appearance on the 1980 Safari Rally with a Leone DL. Third place on the 1987 Rally of New Zealand with an RX Turbo was a high point, until Prodrive created the Group A Legacy. Results came in thick and fast: Colin McRae and Derek Ringer won the British Rally Championship in 1991-92, and claimed the marque’s first WRC victory on the 1993 Rally of New Zealand. This also marked the final showing for the Legacy:

programme; it was a rebranding exercise with the mighty Turbo 16 to the fore. Peugeot’s budget was of the eye-watering variety, and nothing was off-limits save for the need for the new four-wheel-drive supercar

its replacement debuted at the proceeding round, Rally Finland. In no time, the mighty Impreza in blue ‘555’ livery with gold wheels became intertwined with ‘McRae’ in the mind’s eye (in the same way as ‘Jim Clark’ instantly conjures images of a green-andyellow Lotus). The Scot emerged victorious on the 1995 RAC Rally of Great Britain to claim the WRC title. Team-mates Carlos Sainz and future superstar Richard Burns followed him home. All told, the Impreza in its many guises accrued three drivers’ crowns and as many makers’ titles, plus 46 WRC victories.

Lancia Delta HF 4WD/Integrale WHEN introduced in 1979, there were few pointers to the Delta becoming a performance icon. Rooted in the Fiat Strada, this hatch was anything but hot for all its virtues. Sure, it was voted Car of the Year the next year, yet competition work seemed improbable. But that was then. With 165bhp from its 2.0-litre twin-cam turbo ‘four’ and an advanced all-wheel-drive system, the new HF 4WD – aka the Abarth SE030 – took the 1987 World Championship of Makes

title at a canter. It also won the first two rounds of the following year’s series before the Integrale took over. This new strain of Delta dominated in 1988, sealing manufacturer honours well before the end of the campaign. And so it continued. There was no time for laurel resting, though. For the next year, Lancia introduced a 16v variation to be run alongside the existing eight-valver. It made a successful debut in the San Remo Rally and so on… Works involvement in rallying ended in 1992 after Lancia had taken its sixth consecutive makers’ crown.

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Top 50 rally cars

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Mini Cooper IN many ways, the Cooper entered into legend as much for how motor sport gave the Mini an image overhaul as for what it achieved in terms of results. And never more so than on the event with which its name is intertwined: the Monte Carlo. In 1964, Paddy Hopkirk and Henry Liddon steered their Cooper S to victory over the Ford Falcon of Bo Ljungfeldt and Fergus Sager to win outright. It was front-page news, Hopkirk, Liddon and their car even appearing on stage during

Sunday Night at the London Palladium, which was compulsory viewing in the UK at a time when there were only three TV stations. The die was cast. The Cooper in various guises would triumph on the event in 1965 and ’67, the year that it didn’t win serving only to burnish its legend. Minis blanketed the podium positions in ’66, only to be excluded (along with the Ford Lotus Cortina in fourth place) on spurious grounds. This allowed Citroën to claim honours. It all caused a media furore, which further bolstered the Mini name.

Audi Quattro AUDI ushered four-wheel drive and forced induction into top-flight rallying with the Quattro. Hannu Mikkola claimed maiden honours on the 1981 International Swedish Rally, with Audi taking further scalps a year later. The A1 and A2 variants continued to be frontrunners in 1983-84. Nevertheless, drivers petitioned for a purpose-built machine. Audi’s board, however, insisted that it would only campaign a machine that closely resembled a production car. The

Ford Escort WE agonised over whether second place was too lowly a position for the car that defined rallying for a generation of fans. Also, we know that we could probably have picked just one iteration and it would have been a worthy candidate for a high ranking. And therein lies the reason why the Escort mattered. There were so many different versions, and so many of them won major events. What’s more, they were driven by a seemingly never-ending list of legends. Perhaps more than that, the

Ford is idolised because it represented a lost time when competing didn’t require you to spend millions. It introduced more hot-shoes to rallying than can ever be quantified – before you factor in other disciplines of motor sport. The beauty here was that even if you couldn’t stretch to an RS1600, you could probably afford a Mexico. By fitting little more than a roll-cage and some harnesses, you could get stuck in. The Escort represented rallying’s training wheels. Big successes? Where to start? Its first motor sport appearances were in Rallycross. It made an

BELOW A true legend, the Ford Escort defined rallying for a generation of motor sport fans.

Quattro S1 was the response. While visually similar to the outgoing model, albeit with 320mm removed from its wheelbase, this new strain was significantly different. However, the 1985 season witnessed only one WRC win, Walter Röhrl claiming honours on the San Remo Rally. What’s more, it was with an evolutionary variant; one that in many ways defined the craziness of the Group B era. With its papercut-sharp bodywork, the S1 E2 looked every inch the iron fist inside a titanium glove.

instant impression in circuit racing, too, but really came to prominence on roads less travelled after Hannu Mikkola won the 1970 World Cup Rally. Closer to home, latterly revered homologation specials came to own the RAC Rally of Great Britain. Timo Mäkinen won in 1973-74 aboard a Mk1 RS1600 before making it a hattrick in a second-series RS1800 in 1975. The model would carry on winning until 1979. Then there was the last hurrah on the international stage. While Ford withdrew its Works team at the end of the 1970s, the Escort’s wins didn’t stop. Ari Vatanen was crowned World Champ in 1981, having bagged three rounds of the WRC in a Rothmans Rally Team RS1800. It marked the first time a privateer entry won the drivers’ title. That the Escort was still a contender spoke volumes.

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Lancia Stratos

OUR choice for the top spot is bound to be controversial. It shouldn’t be. The Stratos was a rally phenomenon, but it also transcended the sport for which it was conceived. All of which seems remarkable given that the origins of the species was so far removed from a competition tool. Stile Bertone’s Stratos Zero concept car prompted jaws to slacken when unveiled at the 1970 Turin Motor Show. Here was a wedge-shaped device that had only one door, which doubled as the windscreen... There were some onlookers for whom it was more than just a grounded flight of fantasy. Lancia’s competition department boss Cesare Fiorio was chief among their number. However, merely pitching the idea of a small-series homologation special wasn’t without its headaches, but he found an ally in Lancia principal Pierugo Gobbato, who managed to sway a sceptical Fiat board. Scroll forward to the 1971 Turin show, and the Stratos as we know it was revealed on the Bertone stand in mock-up form. In February 1972, a test mule was put through its paces, with Giampaolo Dallara contributing to its development. In November of that year, the Stratos was bloodied, showing well in Sandro Munari’s hands on the Tour de Corse while it held together. The following April the Stratos took its first victory, on the Spanish Firestone Rally. Before the car was strictly legal in terms of homologation, it had already claimed six major scalps including the Targa Florio. The following season saw factory driver Munari seal the first of three consecutive Monte Carlo Rally wins, the Stratos racking up further victories thanks to stars such as Bernard Darniche, Björn Waldegård and Markku Alén. However, despite accruing umpteen wins, the

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car’s time on the frontline ebbed in the second half of 1977 as a Works challenger. Fiat’s marketers had been petitioning for something Fiat-shaped to be the weapon of choice. They got what they wanted. The Lancia and Fiat competition departments were brought under one roof, and emphasis was now placed on the Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally. Not that the Stratos was done just yet. Works entries were sporadic, due as much to homologation requirements that insisted on the use of 12v engines rather than 24v units as it was to corporate interference. Alén took the final WRC victory for a factory Stratos on the San Remo Rally in October 1978, Darniche’s upset win on the following January’s Monte Carlo classic with a privateer example proving the car still had legs. In October 1979, Antonio Fassina drove his Jolly Club car to victory on the San Remo Rally to claim the model’s final WRC win. However, it was still in with a shout as late as 1982, when Fabrizio Tabaton prevailed on the Elba Rally, which was a round of the European Rally Championship. The Stratos would in time pave the way for the 037 and Delta S4. The thing is, for all their brilliance, neither car was blessed with such crowd-pleasing magnetism as the templatesetting original. Even now, few cars have the power to stop you in your tracks quite like a Stratos.

‘The Stratos transcended the sport for which it was conceived’

Market Watch: All about the Maserati Ghibli

Watches and art: Speedmaster and Bryan de Grineau

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Collecting: Whisky market; to sip or to tip?

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M A R K E T WAT C H

Words John Simister Photography Magic Car Pics

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Maserati Ghibli Viable and less demanding than its Ferrari rivals, plaything to the stars in period and rare enough to be truly desirable today, this V8 Italian is said to be the most precious of the attainable Mistral-onwards Maseratis

WHAT DOES ‘GHIBLI’ MEAN to you? Probably some sort of Maserati; maybe the current underwhelming saloon that people don’t buy instead of a BMW, or a dimly remembered but rather hot variant of the Biturbo family that was Maserati’s last gasp at survival before falling into the arms of Fiat. Or – cue the relief and the fond recognition – the car seen here: the original Ghibli, unveiled at the 1966 Turin Motor Show. It was the viable and less demanding Ferrari alternative, the plaything of Sammy Davis Jr, Frank Sinatra, Peter Sellers and suchlike – rather wonderful, but largely forgotten outside the minds of the cognoscenti. With around 1274 made up to 1973, it was never exactly commonplace. Or maybe ‘Ghibli’, to many, just means a particular desert wind encountered in the north of Africa. This got its name long before any cars did, as did other such blasts labelling fellow Maseratis. That said, we automotive enthusiasts tend to know of these winds only via their application to car models. That’s certainly how I discovered, via the motoring press, what a Ghibli originally was. Some measure of the emotive value placed upon the title by its automotive custodian is that only one other past Maserati name has been re-used for later models: Quattroporte, for the saloons (nowadays, the larger ones). But another of the marque’s monikers reappeared elsewhere a while ago, on a saloon version of Volkswagen’s Mk4 Golf known as the Bora. That’s a digression too far from the subject of this guide, so let’s meet the angular but sleek coupé that was shaped by Giorgetto Giugiaro while he was working, post-Bertone, for Ghia. Notionally the Ghibli replaced the Mistral, a Frua design, but it turned out that the two cars occupied the same price lists right up to 1970 as Maserati continued its custom of offering more models at a given time than the market really needed. This habit led to the Orsi family, owners of the Maserati company since 1937, selling out to Citroën in 1968. (De Tomaso would be the

ABOVE Sporting luxury was the theme for the Ghibli’s cabin, which went through various evolutions. next custodian; then, finally, Fiat.) Beneath their various designhouse clothes, however, the Maseratis that bookended the first Ghibli era were quite similar. The model’s chassis was of much the same oval-tube construction as found under a 3500 Sebring, a Mistral, or the Khamsin that supplanted the Ghibli, and the running gear – suspension, steering, brakes, rear axle – was standard British-sourced fare of the time. The engine, however, was a step beyond the 250F-related straight-six that powered the Ghibli’s antecedents. It was an aluminium-block V8 with twin-cam aluminium heads, and it shared some genes with both the racing 450S unit and that of the super-scarce 5000 GT (34 cars, bodied by seven different carrozzerie). However, much of it was re-engineered for its new, more worldly role, and it gained dry-sump lubrication for a low bonnet line. As launched, the engine was of 4719cc and generated 310bhp. Two years later, in 1969, a longer-stroke but still oversquare unit with 4930cc, 335bhp and a hefty torque increase powered the new Ghibli SS, known internally as AM115/49 instead of plain AM115. That same year the notionally 2+2 coupé was

joined by a Spyder, a far rarer car of which a mere 125 were made compared with 1149 coupés. It was offered with both engine options. Also optional, in both body shapes, was a three-speed BorgWarner Type 35 auto transmission in place of the usual five-ratio ZF manual. More usefully, a powerassisted ZF steering box could be specified instead of the standard unassisted Burman one, while airconditioning was standard but could be deleted. And, if you insisted, you could have wire wheels in place of the standard magnesium alloy Campagnolo ones. Few did. Early rims of both types were splined knock-ons, later ones were bolt-on. Whatever the specificational nuances, though, the rakishly handsome, plushly furnished and enticingly rapid Ghibli is a bit of a star among the slightly bewildering array of 1960s and ’70s Maseratis. But how feasible, or sensible, is having one in your garage? And is it really as exotic as it looks? That’s what we’re about to find out.

T H E VA L U E P R O P O S I T I O N The notion that the Ghibli is the most precious of the attainable Mistral-onwards Maseratis of the Orsi and Citroën eras – the ‘wind’ cars, if you like – is bolstered by the values recorded for them today. The older-school Mistral itself lags just behind in market worth, and so

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does even the ultra-cool midengined Bora, with similar V8 power to the Ghibli’s. As for the Khamsin, Indy, Kyalami, Quattroportes and V6-powered Merak, they are much less valuable than our covetable subject’s. That’s just in the Ghibli’s coupé guise. A Spyder is typically worth three times as much as an otherwise similarly specced, similar-condition coupé, making its chips the bluest of all. And what is also clear from the Hagerty Price Guide is that the year of the Ghibli is immaterial; it’s the condition, the engine size and the bodystyle that matter. So, what are the numbers? A 4.7-litre coupé typically starts at around £173,000 for a ‘fair’ one, rising to £190,000 if ‘good’, £203,000 if ‘excellent’ and £230,000 – not a huge leap – for a ‘concours’ example. A 4.9-litre SS is going to be proportionally more expensive the further up the condition scale we go: £190,000

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ABOVE Angular yet sleek coupé was shaped by Giugiaro while he was working for Ghia.

‘Year doesn’t affect values, and there’s no concrete data on the effect of various options’

‘fair’, £215,000 ‘good’, £248,000 ‘excellent’ and £289,000 for the best. These are valuable cars, then, but not crazily so by comparison with, say, a Ferrari Daytona, which is an obvious competitor. For the Spyder, though, the air is altogether more rarefied. Even a needy 4.7 will require an outlay of around £524,000, rising to £664,000 for a near-perfect one at home on a concours lawn, while a Spyder SS could demand up to £730,000 in a similar state of gorgeousness. Even a tatty one, if such a thing exists, isn’t far off £600,000 in value. All that said, Ghiblis – as with many covetable classics – are a little down on where they were at their peak. In the US, that peak occurred as 2018 shifted into 2019, at which point the best coupés hit $320,000: Spyders, $912,000. That is 560 percent of 2006 values for the coupé and 460 percent for the Spyder. Be aware, though, that some coupés – expert Andy Heywood,

who’ll be imparting his wisdom to us shortly, reckons 15-20 examples – were converted to Spyders, at least six of them in the UK by Vale Cottage Motors. In Italy the conversions were via Campana, and in the US a kit of required parts was available. Coupés have even chassis numbers and Spyders odd ones, which can give a clue to a prospective Spyder’s provenance. We’ve said that the model year doesn’t affect values, and there’s also no concrete data on the effect of various options. An auto ’box is likely to make a car less attractive to the average enthusiast buyer, however, while power steering could be a plus for any prospective owner needing to manoeuvre the Maserati in and out of parking spaces. There were minor cosmetic changes over the years, too. One of the first was to the bootlid, the only aluminium panel on an otherwise steel car. The initial few Ghiblis had a ‘long’ ’lid, whose

TIMELINE

VA LU E S F R O M H AG E RT Y P R I C E G U I D E Maserati Ghibli condition 1/concours (UK)

Maserati Ghibli condition 1/concours (US)

£700,000

$900,000

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Coupé’s most successful year, with 276 built.

$700,000 £500,000

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Ghibli SS – with /49 added to AM115 Ghibli designation to denote engine stroked by 4mm to raise capacity from 4.7 to 4.9 litres – launched as extra model. As well as increase from 310bhp to 335bhp, torque rises from 290lb ft to 354lb ft. New Spyder has both engine options.

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$500,000

COUPÉ

Ghibli coupé revealed on Ghia stand at Turin Motor Show in November, with no mention of 2+2 layout.

Deliveries begin in March, with optional rear cushions to merit 2+2 capability of sorts.

£600,000

£400,000

1966

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£300,000 $300,000 £200,000

1970

£100,000

Just under half (62) of total Spyder production of 125 built this year.

$100,000

£0

$0 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

vertical part extended down nearly to the bumper. However, the promise of easy loading was but an illusion, because a fixed vertical strengthening panel was revealed on opening the boot, over which bags had to be lifted. The bootlid was soon redesigned to terminate above the level of the rear lights. These, originally taken from Alfa’s 105-series Giulia, later changed to larger items from the 1750 Berlina. The rest of the exterior barely altered over the run apart from the bumper overriders, originally an option. Later rear ones are chunkier. Things evolved a bit more inside. There are three subtly different dash variations, first with a row of toggle switches under the central minor dials, then with the toggles moved above the dials, and finally with rockers under the dials again. Later left-hand-drive cars have three stalks on a height-adjustable steering column, but all right-handdrive models have the earlier single

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stalk and fixed-height column. Instruments changed from early Smiths to later Veglia, the cabin door handles moved from the bottom of the panel to the middle, and later US-spec cars got a leather steering wheel (instead of a wooden rim) with a bigger centre boss.

T H E D E S I R A B I L I T Y FA C T O R The main attraction is obvious enough. This is one good-looking grand tourer, from its low, chromeoutlined nose with pop-up lights, past its long, curvy bonnet and rearset cabin, to the fastback, choppedoff tail. The beginnings of Giugiaro’s ‘origami’ look are here, but fleshed out with convex curves and some subtle surface twists to catch out body restorers a few decades later. The Ghibli’s shape oozes discreet muscularity without the need for attention-grabbing spoilers and vents; just quadruple horizontal slots behind the front wheelarches and recessed air extractors atop

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the rear haunches behind the upwardly angled side windows. Now lower yourself into the Ghibli’s leather-clad, seemingly almost ground-level driving seat, peering over the Alcantara-topped dashboard and the bonnet falling away into the distance. I’m sitting in a delicious lefthand-drive 1969 Ghibli SS in light metallic blue, on offer at [Bill] McGrath Maserati (now owned by Andy Heywood) for £195,000. From our value analysis here, it’s surely worth more; maybe it’s the LHD factor in a RHD market – but then, only 14 RHD SS models came to the UK in period, four of them Spyders. And 13 4.7s, incidentally – all of them coupés. To my right in this middle-era dash is that row of toggle switches above the five minor dials, all rakishly pointing not up but towards me. A hefty, precisely acting gearlever with the dog-leg gate typical of an early ZF five-speeder

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Production ends in this energy-crisis year, during which no Spyders and only five coupés are built.

pokes out of a wide centre tunnel. The pedals are huge. Meaningful inputs are expected here. Behind me, the two-plus-two bit is a truth-stretcher. There’s no rear backrest, just an open space back into the boot, and the two cushions are rare options. There is further storage beneath the carpeted board on which the cushions sit. The V8’s crankshaft gives 90degree firing intervals, so its voice is a rat-a-tat beat rather than the scream of a flat-crank Ferrari V8. It’s a busy blatter at lower engine speeds, and a chopped blare when revved with vigour; the SS’s peak power arrives at 5500rpm, the peak torque of 355lb ft at 4000rpm. These outputs lead to a claimed 160mph top speed, 60mph having been passed six seconds after a full-bore standing start. The 4.7 is only a little less rapid all-out, but a second or so slower to 60mph. In other words, the SS was one of the quickest cars of its era. Not

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the wieldiest, though, despite being quite light by modern standards at 1350kg. With its leaf-sprung live rear axle and old-school steering box, a Ghibli is never going to be an instrument of instant precision, but it will give plenty of pleasure. “It feels quite old fashioned,” says Heywood, “but it’s fast and you don’t have to rev it hard. It handles really well on a smooth road, yet the rear hops a bit on a bumpy bend. It’s one of those cars that you ‘set up for a corner’. And yes, it feels lighter to drive than a Daytona.”

T H E N U T S A N D B O LT S First, the obvious question when an old Italian car is involved: how scared should we be of corrosion? Perhaps surprisingly, the answer is not very. The Ghibli’s separate chassis, in which rot is rare, has the body welded to it. It’s in this body that the problems might lie. Andy Heywood cites the sills, floorpans, door bottoms, arches and double skin at the front of the bonnet as potential troublespots, which all sounds quite normal. “On a bad one there could be rot where the floor joins the rear valance,” he adds, “and maybe electrolytic corrosion between steel and aluminium in the bootlid. Spyders fill up with water, too.” It’s a tough body to restore well, with all those seemingly straight lines that actually aren’t. Where the flank dihedral meets the rear wheelarch swage is particularly difficult to get right; if the dihedral goes right to the vertical arch edge, it’s wrong. There’s also a subtle hump to the tops of the front wings. History gives some wriggle room, though: “We see more variance in the shape of Ghiblis than in other Maseratis,” Heywood observes. Early bodies were built at Ghia, later ones by other carrozzerie – Maggiora? Vignale? Records are unclear – to the original Ghia design. The V8 – handsome, powerful and expensive looking as it is – has proven tough and very reliable as long as it has had regular oil and coolant changes. “It runs at a high oil pressure,” says Heywood. “It should be 80psi when hot, with idling pressure at least 20psi. The

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T H E D E TA I L S 1967-73 MASERATI GHIBLI V8, 4OHC 16V, 4719CC ENGINE (SS 4930CC)

POWER TOP SPEED 0-60MPH

310BHP (SS 335BHP) 155MPH (SS 160MPH) 6.8SEC (SS 6.0SEC)

electric pressure gauge is unreliable, so it’s best to check the figures with a mechanical gauge. If the pressure drops as you drive off, it could be due to a blocked oil tank. “The cylinder liners are an interference fit in the block, but there could be head-gasket issues through corrosion if the antifreeze hasn’t been changed regularly. The engines like to be used regularly; we do more motor rebuilds through inactivity than over-activity.” Very early Ghiblis had dummy holes for an absent second spark plug above each cylinder before the head castings were changed, a legacy from the V8 ancestors’ twinplug combustion chambers. They also used a quartet of Weber 40 DCNL carburettors, changed to 42 DCNFs in late 1968 in time for the SS’s arrival. Simple electronic

‘V8 – handsome, powerful and expensive looking as it is – has proven tough and reliable’

ignition was standard in all cars, keeping the contact-breaker points. A Marelli system was later replaced by a Bosch capacitive-discharge one. “They run better on points,” contends Heywood. “Many cars have been converted to contactless systems over the years, but now that the Bosch boxes are available again, we’ve been changing them back.” Early cars had a “very heavy” twin-plate clutch and solid front brake discs gripped by twin calipers, but most have now been converted to the later single-plate clutch, ventilated discs and single calipers. Electrics, which are generally reliable, are mostly Italian with smatterings of Lucas, while also from Britain come the rear axle (Salisbury), the non-PAS steering box (Burman) and the front suspension (Alford and Alder, mostly Jaguar derived). The weak point here is the lower balljoint, a Jaguar Mk1 item used from the 3500 Sebring right through to the Khamsin. Jaguar, having discovered the component’s rapid rate of wear and the resultant loud rattling, uprated the design for its 1959 Mk2. Maserati stuck with the original. “They are supposed to be greased every 1500km,” says Heywood, “but obviously that doesn’t happen.” So, listen for those rattles. Finally, take a look at the waterpump drive, if only to marvel at its strangeness. The air-con pump is mounted on the front of the engine. The water pump sits in front of it, but there’s a gap between

the two. Drive to the water pump is by a tangential tension cable between the pair, with a safety peg to create a reserve connection if the cable breaks – which it will if the two pumps aren’t perfectly concentric. No air-con? There will be a simple shaft instead, but the cable drive remains.

THE FINAL DECISION There is something subversively and deliciously under the radar about a Maserati Ghibli. Anyone can see it looks fabulous, fewer know exactly what it is, yet fewer have driven one. Given the low production numbers, it’s a very rare delight today. So, should you succumb? The doubts as to the Ghibli’s true exoticism centre around its unsophisticated and utterly conventional chassis componentry, but then the same is true of some 1960s Ferraris. The aluminium V8 motor, the pace, the jet-set cabin design and, most of all, those looks put a hefty opposite voltage into the desirometer. If you can find a really good example – and they very much do exist – then buy it and love the way it makes you feel. A coupé is both purer in concept and less expensive, and we certainly prefer its fastback looks. And best to go for an SS if you can, for extra pace with no downside. A Maserati Ghibli. In a world of sensibility, you know it makes sense. Thanks to Andy Heywood, McGrath Maserati: call +44 (0)1438 832161 or visit www.mcgrathmaserati.co.uk.

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Questions answered and trends analysed

M A R K E T A N A LY S I S

The changing use of auction reserve prices, and the coming end of the Baby Boomers’ market dominance

Words Dave Kinney

THE LARGEST NUMBER OF questions that I get from friends and acquaintances are about car auctions. I’ve never been in the business, but I have both bought and sold automobiles – and bought car-related things such as signs, photos and books – at auction. I have written about collector car auctions, and attended hundreds of them – starting with my first, way back in the 1970s. As with a festival, county fair or magic show, auctions – including collector car sales – don’t like to give away all their secrets. As an event, auctions are fun and generally make for inexpensive entertainment. They can also be confusing for those who are new to the scene, or those who are buying or selling for the first time. The main auction question I get asked is about setting a reserve price or, conversely, why would one wish to sell their car at no reserve. Just in case you don’t know, setting a reserve on your car

means that you have told the auction company the minimum amount that will buy your item for sale. In a no-reserve sale, the item will sell for the highest bid, no matter the amount. Selling at no reserve signals to potential buyers that, barring unforeseen incidents, the last bidder who has their hand (or paddle, or cursor) active will go home with the car. In essence, selling at no reserve is a gutsier option, and signals that you have belief that your car will bring a price that will satisfy your needs. If you are selling with a reserve, there

‘Auctions are fun and generally make for inexpensive entertainment. They can also be confusing’

R E S E R V E S AT A U C T I O N The share of sub-$250k vehicles auctioned with a reserve has trended up since 2011

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is always a possibility that the car will return home with you. A recent article by John Wiley, manager of valuation analytics at collector car insurer Hagerty, took a deep dive into the numbers. John is looking to see if a decrease in cars offered with reserves valued at more than $250,000 signals an impending weakness in the market. “In practice, reserve prices are more likely for some vehicles and less likely for others. Cars worth less than, say, $100,000 often don’t warrant a reserve because there’s an ample supply of vehicles in that price range. This means the auction firm has more leverage. At that number, there are also usually enough bidders participating, so a fair price is more likely. “At higher values, fewer vehicles mean the seller has more leverage, but fewer bidders make a fair price less certain. As supply and demand change over time, reserves may become more or less common (more reserves could improve diminished supply; fewer reserves might help with low demand).” Will the decrease in reserves at the $250,000 mark signal the possibility of slightly lower values at auctions in the future? The conventional wisdom of late is that 2023 will be a down year in the auction marketplace, for a number of reasons, including inflation. At time of writing, the numbers are yet to be written for 2022, but perhaps this will be a correlation to watch. On another point, is it time for Baby Boomers to move over? In the collector car world, we Boomers did a lot of stuff. We didn’t invent

the hobby, but we certainly did make changes. The hobby we inherited was smaller, with littleto-no interconnection with newer cars. We went to autojumbles and swap meets. And we collected. Boy, did we collect. Everything... Brochures, paint chips, old tin cans, movies, signs, road maps, advertising; pretty much everything you could find in a vintage petrol station. And for some, that wasn’t enough, so they collected or recreated actual petrol stations at their home. American diners from the 1950s? No problem. Many of us have been to a collection so big, and so grand, that it is an afternoon destination in and of itself. But the demographics, like the times, are a changin’. As this graph from Hagerty (opposite) illustrates, the intersection between new

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H A G E R T Y I N S U R A N C E P O L I C Y Q U O T E S BY G E N E R AT I O N Millennials and Gen Z are fastest-growing groups, but Gen X is near peak earning years. 61% of quotes were Gen X and younger in 2022

insurance quotes for customers born in the Gen X demographic is quickly catching up with that for Boomers. So should Boomers be worried? Actually, not at all. First and foremost, these are new Hagerty clients, not existing ones. Boomers still rule the roost when it comes to collector car ownership. As you might expect, 20-somethings with growing families and workplace obligations do not always have the time or money to enjoy old cars, even if they are inclined toward ownership. To be sure, those under 30 do own collector cars, and do represent a significant population of collectors. However, older enthusiasts tend to have more, and more expensive, vehicles – including motorcycles and, in North America, the ever-present pick-up trucks of all ages. Gen X buyers – to the surprise of absolutely no one who has been paying attention – are purchasing cars from their early years, the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. The Boomers ‘bonded’ with, and usually bought, cars of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Boomers’ cars will, eventually, become rather less desirable in the marketplace, with exceptions for models that appeal across the generations, that are historically important or that are eligible for events such as rallies, historic drives and second uses such as wedding hire. It is precisely the same thing that is happening to cars from the generation before the Boomers. Worthless, no – but worth less, yes.

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WAT C H E S

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Something for everyone

Words Jonathon Burford

Why the Speedmaster Ref 145.022 could be the only vintage watch you may ever need or want

MARCH 2022’S OMEGA X Swatch MoonSwatch launch was something of a phenomenon. By combining the historic Speedmaster chronograph aesthetic with the Swatch brand’s affordability and playfulness, all for around $260, it created unprecedented demand. The world’s 110 Swatch-brand boutiques were mobbed for the opportunity to buy one. This caused an immediate opportunity for those lucky enough to acquire one, with watches being re-advertised by dealers and flippers in the secondary market at many multiples of the original cost. For a short time, you could even buy a vintage Speedmaster at an almost comparable price point. Initially powered by one of the best manual-wound movements, the calibre 321, the Speedmaster is among the most storied, historic and evocative watches of the postwar period. It has been in continual production since 1957, when it was introduced as the Ref CK2915 (alongside the original Seamaster 300 Ref CK2913 and Railmaster Ref CK2914) with its iconic threeregister black dial, broad-arrow hands, steel bezel and curved lugs. The first model that introduced the classic Speedmaster aesthetic still recognised today was the Ref 2998, with its slightly enlarged case size, black acrylic bezel and updated Alpha-style hands. Of course, the watch really hit popular consciousness when NASA chose it to be worn by the Apollo 11 astronauts, with Lyre (twisted) lugs and an asymmetrical case design incorporating crown guards. The Professional watches have been the

backbone of Omega for 50 years, with the Lemania-based calibre 861 still providing the base for today’s Moonwatch as calibre 1861. Given the number produced, there really is a Speedy for everyone – and at every price point. While my favourite is the early Ref 2998-1, it’s the Ref 145.022 that gives the most varied choice. In production from 1968-83, its twisted lugs, black dial/bezel and the like make it probably the most recognisable and classic-looking Speedmaster. As with all things Omega, the many variations and editions can seem impenetrable, but these details are important when buying. The earlier versions had a suffix -XX indicator (eg 145.022-68), although this didn’t signal the production year, which is discoverable only via the serial on the movement. From 1968-74, the dials displayed a ‘step’ between the main centre dial and the outer track of the dial, similar to those found on the calibre 321-powered predecessor. The bezels are black acrylic, with the most desirable being the Dot Over Ninety ‘DON’ variants from the Ref 145.022-68 Transitional and the 145.022-69 only. There are also case-back variations, such as the straight text of ‘First Watch Worn on the Moon’ (145.022-69, 1970-73) and Omega Seahorse engraving and ‘Speedmaster’ written (145.022-68/69). There was a gold version, too; 1014 were produced, with No 1 and 2 being offered to (and declined by) President Nixon and VP Spiro Agnew. The next 19 were given to astronauts at a commemorative banquet on November 25, 1969,

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RIGHT Vintage Speedmaster was available in numerous variations and editions – and even in gold.

with the remainder being delivered to Omega managers and retailers and, finally, the public. These had burgundy bezels and onyx hour markers, with the astronaut versions boasting a Ken Mattingly quote engraved on the case back: “To mark man’s conquest of space with time, through time, on time.” Good places to start navigating the Speedmaster maze are Gégoire Rossier and Anthony Marquié’s Moonwatch Only or the Fratello website, but here are a few things to keep in mind. Condition is everything, yet it’s rare to find a pristine or NOS vintage example, so ensure all elements look and feel the same age (intangible but important). Avoid anything with service dials, hands or bezels, as original parts are becoming hard to acquire and often prohibitively expensive. Also, don’t overpay for tropical (brown/tobacco) dials. Unusually, Omega has extensive records and a co-operative museum, and its Extract From the Archives service is still relatively cheap, extensive and efficient, so original papers are less imperative. Boxes are desirable but no deal-breaker. Given the large number of watches made, don’t compromise on quality; it’s always worth waiting for the best your budget can stretch to. The 145.022 is one of the great egalitarian vintage watches; there’s one for everyone, from the causal fan through to the super-nerd. In many ways, it’s the only vintage watch you may ever need or want. Writer Jonathon Burford is SVP and specialist at Sotheby’s watch department. For its ongoing Watches sales, see www.sothebys.com.

MOTORING ART

Changing names

Words Rupert Whyte

Bryan de Grineau’s artwork was produced under many pseudonyms, but there’s no denying its singular appeal

ANYONE FAMILIAR WITH The Motor magazine will be well aware of the illustrative artwork of Bryan de Grineau, the contemporary rival of Autocar’s Frederick Gordon Crosby. Charles William Grineau, born May 1883 in Hornsey, Middlesex, UK, was the son of illustrator and caricaturist Charles Grineau (185299), aka Alfred Bryan. Grineau Jnr started to draw in his father’s studio, and became a pupil and assistant to Thomas R Downey, who’d been a pupil of Charles Snr. Shortly afterwards, in July 1908, drawings by him appeared in the The Motor, signed John A Bryan, which in 1909 he shortened to John Bryan and continued to use until 1914. This early work followed on from traditions established in the 1890s, using a tight linear drawing technique. World War One saw Grineau serve as a captain in the Royal Field Artillery. He contributed his first drawing signed John de G Bryan to the Illustrated London News of January 30, 1915 – one of a series depicting incidents on the front line. Further drawings published on September 7, 1918 were signed CW de Grineau or

Charles de Grineau. Following the publication’s policy, his initial war drawings were based on information provided or on eyewitness accounts, and employed a much freer style than those for The Motor. Grineau’s first post-war work for that title in 1919 was still being signed John Bryan, but by 1920 he had finally settled on Bryan de Grineau. Most of the interest in his illustrations has been generated by his depictions of motor racing and social commentary on the automotive world for The Motor. These drawings returned to his pre-war style, only slowly employing the freer expression evident in his war work for the incidents and duels of the race track. He made much use of mark making to generate the sensation of speed and danger, although some have said that a visual awkwardness between cars and landscape nullified these efforts. His coloured illustrations for GET Eyston’s Flat Out (1933) nevertheless received much acclaim, and other colour works were used on race programmes. Some of his best paintings were a series commissioned pre-World

War Two by Giovanni ‘Johnny’ Lurani of his racing exploits. Several of these changed hands at the 1990 Christies Monaco sale. Following his 1936 break with The Motor, de Grineau produced illustrations for Modern Wonder magazine and the Hornby Book of Trains, published in 1937, the same year as posters of the Coronation Scot for London, Midland and Scottish Railway, and of George VI making his way to Greenwich on the Thames for the Power Boat Company. He became an accredited war artist for the Illustrated London News, for which he followed the allied invasion of Europe in 1944-45. Post-war, he continued to work for the Illustrated London News, supplying topical and travel subjects as well as drawings of schools and universities. He died in May 1957. His motoring art is still very sought after, his colour work being the most eye catching and valuable. In the auction room, however, his pieces still lag behind those of compatriot Crosby. With thanks to Tony Clark. Writer Rupert Whyte runs Historic Car Art, www.historiccarart.net, selling original works and posters.

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AUTOMOBILIA

Words and photography Germany Greer

Connecticut’s world-class Clock & Watch Museum tells the tale of automotive timepieces

THE AMERICAN CLOCK & Watch Museum is dedicated to horology – the history and science of timekeeping. Located in Bristol, Connecticut, its broad collection ranges from watches to automobile clocks, and everything in between. It was founded in 1952 and opened to the public in 1954, and is one of the few museums in the US dedicated solely to the study of horology. As such, it has one of the largest displays of American-made timepieces on the planet. In the early 1800s, Eli Terry – an entrepreneurial engineer – introduced the art of mass production to clockmaking. This process revolutionised the way clocks were manufactured in the US. Not only did it change horology, but it also established Connecticut as the clockmaking centre of the entire world. In 1952, Bristol’s designation as such a global leader led local businessman, clockmaker and inventor Edward Ingraham to put together a town committee to establish the museum. The facility is partially housed in an historic home that was built in 1801 on more than 10,000 square feet of grounds. It boasts eight galleries and over 1500 timepieces on display – including an exceptional collection

FROM TOP The 1913 Belmont eight-day automobile clock, a timepiece from a 1953 Chevrolet and the 1930s 30-hour Mansfield.

‘The museum boasts eight galleries and over 1500 timepieces on display’

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of automobile clocks, many of which date back to the early 1900s. All these historic timepieces require the talents of the museum’s ‘Old Cranks’ – volunteers who wind 60 clocks every other Friday. The collection is as distinct as it is large. Many on display have been an intrinsic part of the gorgeous automobiles of the past. These include the extraordinary steeringpost clocks; mass-production vehicle timepieces for Ford; a 1953 Chevrolet dash clock; and one from a Hudson Super Six, to name a few. The museum is also home to many pieces of literature about early automotive dash-clock manufacturing, adverts and more. Most notably, there are several rear-view mirror clocks. I was especially thrilled to see the collection’s original Micronta digital electronic quartz automotive clock from 1982; it was one of the first digital electronic quartz clocks in the US, and a precursor to the units of today. Learning about the creation of unique and mass-produced clocks is particularly enlightening. Many of the ideas we use today trace their origins in some way, shape, form or fashion to the pieces displayed in this dedicated museum. The next time you’re in Connecticut, make sure to stop by and see where the clock in your car began. www.clockandwatchmuseum.org. Thanks to Automobilia Resource, www.automobiliaresource.com.

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COLLECTING

Words Nathan Chadwick

While certain brands dominate the whisky market, collectability is spread much further and wider

THE POST-FESTIVE PERIOD might be an unfortunate time to think about whisky – even with ‘dry January’, your liver may flinch at the mere mention of the word ‘malt’. But as the collective hangover fades, why not pop a paracetamol and focus on the collectable whisky market? There’s been a sea change in demand over the past year, says Sotheby’s head of whisky, Jonny Fowle: “We used to sell 80 percent to Asia. The swing is coming back to the West. America is starting to play a bigger role, and we’re seeing more European bidders.” According to him, the profile of collectors is somewhat different to what you might imagine: “A lot of people think of whisky as being drunk by an old man with a beard, or a suave, dapper type. Sixty percent of our bidders are in their 40s and under, and the biggest uptake in new bidders is from people in their 30s and under.” While the sands are shifting in terms of buying power, there are some constants – and one brand dominates the market: Macallan. “Prices aren’t always on the up,” Jonny says. “But it’s the most actively traded distillery by some margin – we traded 700 bottles last month – and it’s the main thing

that drives the secondary market.” He puts this popularity down to the firm’s use of sherry maturation. “This gives a dark colour and rich flavour,” he explains. “Macallan generally doesn’t use peaty malt, so it’s not smoky, which makes the flavour of the whisky generally more approachable.” Jonny defines the secondary market as the collectable market – driven by high quality, low supply and thus high demand – compared with the primary market, which is determined by new limited editions. While the wine market works off vintages determined by the weather, for the secondary whisky market the value is tied to history or production milestones. “During World War Two, there wasn’t much whisky produced, so they’re quite rare,” he says. “In the 1960s-70s, whiskies were produced with sherry barrels as being the old style of sherry maturation, reflecting the legislative changes in shipping barrels of sherry. It’s what we describe as ‘old-style’ whisky.” In terms of ‘new’ whisky – the primary market – Jonny makes a key distinction: “There are limited releases and Limited Releases,” he smiles. It is something car manufacturers have latched on to. “Bowmore has got a partnership with Aston Martin. The DB5 edition uses a piston from the car, remodelled into a bottle that holds the final edition of its 1964 whisky release.” You’ll pay £150k-£200k for one of those – but what about a more palatable way to enter the whisky-collecting world? “Good value is becoming a tricky thing, because the market has gone up so much,” Jonny says. “My top

‘Sixty percent of bidders are in their 40s and under; the biggest new uptake is from people in their 30s and under’

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To sip or to tip?

Magneto

ABOVE Bowmore’s Aston Martin DB5 whisky has an actual piston head incorporated into the bottle. recommendation is Glendronach – it’s the best heavily ‘sherried’ whisky at the moment. It’s a similar style to some of Macallan’s more valuable bottlings, but at a fraction of the price. Glengoyne, similarly, does a very good job.” For those with a taste for more peaty flavour, try Kilchoman: “It’s Scotland’s most underrated whisky. It’s remarkably cheap; high-proof,

limited bottlings are £100, but I think they should be £400-£600.” However, Jonny has a word of warning before committing to anything: “Find out a bit about what you like, then bid based on your own preferences. Whether you’re bidding on a bottle to drink, collect or speculate on, you want to like it. If there’s no passion behind the project, you’re not going to be as invested as your money may make you think you are.” Now that’s something to raise a glass to. www.sothebys.com

1952 MERCEDES BENZ 300B CABRIOLET D 1952 MERCEDES BENZ 1952 MERCEDES BENZ 1952 MERCEDES BENZ On 300B Behalf of The Trustees in Bankruptcy 300B CABRIOLET DDD CABRIOLET 300B CABRIOLET Wyles Hardy & Co are delighted to bring to the market this beautiful Mercedes Benz. On On Behalf of The Trustees in in Bankruptcy Behalf ofof The Trustees Bankruptcy On Behalf The Trustees in Bankruptcy Wyles Hardy & Co are delighted to bring tototo Wyles Hardy & Co are delighted to bring Wyles Hardy & Co are delighted to bring The subject of an extensive refurbishment the market this beautiful Mercedes Benz. the market this beautiful Mercedes Benz. the market this beautiful Mercedes Benz. by Mercedes Benz, Stuttgart during 1994 it is in wonderful condition having cream subject ofof an extensive refurbishment The subject an extensive refurbishment TheThe subject of an extensive refurbishment coachwork with matching convertible byby Mercedes Benz, Stuttgart during 1994 Mercedes Benz, Stuttgart during 1994 by Mercedes Benz, Stuttgart during 1994 hood and red leather upholstered interior, it is in wonderful condition having cream is in wonderful condition having cream it is init wonderful condition having cream wood trim andwith matching red convertible carpeting. The coachwork matching coachwork with matching convertible coachwork with matching convertible odometer shows only 17,093 km recorded. hood red leather upholstered interior, hood and red leather upholstered interior, hood andand red leather upholstered interior, wood and matching red carpeting. The wood trim and matching red carpeting. The wood trimtrim and matching red carpeting. The An exceptional car which would grace any odometer shows only 17,093 km recorded. odometer shows only 17,093 km recorded. odometer collection. shows only 17,093 km recorded. An exceptional which would grace any An exceptional car which would grace any An carcar which would grace any Oﬀexceptional ers are sought for this rare collection. collection. collection.

and impressive example. Off ers Off ersare aresought soughtfor forthis thisrare rare Offers are sought for this rare and andimpressive impressiveexample. example. and impressive example.

Interested parties should contact David Fletcher on Interested should Interested parties shouldcontact contactDavid DavidFletcher Fletcheronon 01442 832234parties or via david.fl etcher@wyleshardy.co.uk 01442 etcher@wyleshardy.co.uk 01442832234 832234ororvia viadavid.fl david.fl etcher@wyleshardy.co.uk to arrange parties viewingshould or to obtain further Interested contact Davidinformation. Fletcher on totoarrange arrangeviewing viewingorortotoobtain obtainfurther furtherinformation. information. 01442 832234 or via david.fletcher@wyleshardy.co.uk

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DIVERSIONS

Compiled by Nathan Chadwick and Sophie Kochan

GOODWOOL CAR COVERS Goodwool approaches car-cover construction from a fresh angle – its indoor covers use pure Merino wool. Each shell is bespoke to an individual car, because it replicates every precise part due to a 3D digital-layering programme. Merino wool is lightweight, super soft and breathable – it keeps the humidity value between 40 and 60 percent inside the car, regardless of outside temperature. The outer layer uses a blend of polyurethane and elastane to provide a snug yet adaptable fit, as well as water resistance. The price is entirely dependent on your requests. www.goodwool.it

FRANCK MULLER WATCH Franck Muller’s latest iteration of its popular Vanguard series takes the model line into automotive-inspired territory. The handapplied indexes and numbers are influenced by motor sport aesthetics, while the Racing Collection watches’ rubber strap is integrated into the case with two unseen screws. The movement is automatic, and the models are available in 18k rose gold or stainless steel, with a chronograph or classic hours, minutes and seconds. A variety of colours are available, and prices begin at £2700. www.franckmuller.com www.frostoflondon.co.uk

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CALLUM LOUNGE CHAIR Aston Martin and Jaguar designer Ian Callum CBE’s take on a Lounge Chair and Ottoman is limited to 50 pieces. It features a carbonfibre structure and a moulded plywood shell that’s covered in a smoked-eucalyptus veneer. The starshaped base is crafted from aluminium, and finished by hand to complement the carbonfibre spine’s colour. Callum has put together ten leather options – this one is Bridge of Weir Delta Blue – but colour choice is infinite beyond this palette. Prices start at £8500. www.callumdesigns.com

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DIVERSIONS

AMALGAM FERRARI 250GTO SCULPTURE This 1:4-scale replica is hand hammered from an aluminium sheet, and measures 42.5in long. The buck for the body has been produced from the digital scans of real 250GTOs. The body is mounted on a walnut-wood trestle, although wall mounting is also possible. It costs £52,730 and is the first in a line of sculptures that is set to include the 250 Testa Rossa, 275GTB/4 and more. www.amalgamcollection.com

WOLF ROCKET Say hello to the world’s smallest travel watch winder. The product of two years of research and development, it measures 94mm x 88mm x 157.8mm, and offers 900 bi-directional turns per day, with 180 turns per cycle (up to five per day). It’s charged via a USB Type-C port and has a 45-day battery life. It costs £599. www.wolf1834.com

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BROOKLANDS TRIPLE-FOUR RACING CHRONOGRAPH The late Sir Terence Conran got the inspiration for this limited-edition watch from not only his father’s trips to Brooklands to watch races many decades ago, but the recordholding Napier-Railton, too. The hands evoke those of the Brooklands Chronograph Villa clock, while the perimeter of the outer face is banked at the same angle as the track itself. Crafted in Switzerland and using an SW500 calibre and a Conran Blue strap, it costs £5754 and is limited to 500 pieces. www.brooklands watches.com

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BOOK REVIEWS

Review Nathan Chadwick

MOST BOOKS OVERSELL THE word ‘definitive’, but as this threevolume, 1400-page labour of love proves, sometimes the word can be somewhat understated. The Porsche 962’s effect on endurance racing is something that should not be understated, either. Although the marque’s 956 began the winning streak in the Group C era, the evolutionary leap to the 962 was even more remarkable, given that Norbert Singer had just three months to build a successor to the 956 to fulfil IMSA’s demands. This story, plus the oftenrancorous discussions between Porsche and IMSA, is extensively detailed in the first volume, which covers the official Works years, 1984-87. Serge Vanbockryck had unprecedented access to the letters, faxes and characters involved. Although the 962’s competitive debut with the Andretti clan at the wheel didn’t end with a victory, it’d soon be pretty much the default choice for Group C privateers. It debuted in the World Sportscar Championship in 1985, in which Porsche won the overall title while Hans-Joachim Stuck and Derek Bell took the drivers’ title. It was, however, a bruising year for the marque. Several members of the

‘With extensive archive imagery and bespoke photography, this is a must for any Group C aficionado’

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Ultimate Works Porsche 962: The Definitive History This impressive tome on Porsche’s legendary endurance-racing machine delivers in-depth writing and stunning imagery in a three-volume set

Works team were severely injured in a pitlane fire at Hockenheim, and Manfred Winkelhock perished when his Kremer 962 crashed at Mosport Park, Canada – and then there was the Spa 1000km. The fatal collision between Stefan Bellof’s 956 and Jacky Ickx’s Works 962 is detailed with frame-by-frame photography. Yet it is the written testimony, in particular that of Massimo Sigala, that proves most haunting. The following year was far more challenging – although the Works team took the opening round at Monza and won overall at Le Mans, the competition was heating up. Porsche was also competing in IndyCar and Formula 1, and following victory at Le Mans ’87, it officially pulled out of sportscar racing. It fell to Joest to fight the flag in a semi-Works capacity; the subject of volume two. The postWSC wilderness presented one last chance for 962 success, via a road-car loophole. The result was the Dauer 962, which gave Porsche its 13th Le Mans victory, in 1994. Finally, the third volume profiles the Works drivers and cars. For the latter, the profile goes deep – in some cases, lap-by-lap reports, diff settings and more. Yet this is no dry, technical slog for the ardent 962 enthusiast only. Vanbockryck’s description of each race weekend reads with the pace of a gutsy fiction title, while the human sides of motor racing are never far away. Add in the extensive archive imagery and bespoke photography, and this limited-to-962 edition is a must for any Group C aficionado. Prices start at £850. www.porterpress.co.uk

Screen time Sometimes the best way to connect is to disconnect. And what better way to disconnect than getting behind the wheel? At Hagerty, everything we do - insurance, car values, entertainment - is focused on making it easier for you to enjoy buying, owning, driving and dreaming about the cars you love. Call our team of knowledgeable enthusiasts for exceptional service, fully comprehensive insurance options and more.

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BOOK REVIEWS

200

Restomods: Better Faster Cooler

Reviews Nathan Chadwick

A colourful deep dive into the sometimes contentious world of improving upon what the factory provided

AS OEM HYPERCARS BECOME unusably fast and other modern performance machines are lost or homogenised into EV SUVs, the growth of the restomod scene has become foremost in people’s minds. It’s about time for a deep dive into the subject, then – and that’s what Bart Lenaerts’ colourful 252page book sets out to do. Firstly, he defines what a restomod isn’t, before selecting 13 of the leading proponents of the genre. Some are more obvious than others, such as Eagle’s E-types, Alfaholics’ takes on the 105 Series and Kimera; Singer is notable by its absence. However, there’s much to enjoy in the stories of restomods that perhaps don’t have quite such

a large following, such as the MZR Roadsports 240Z and the Citroën SM2 by Gallet Automobiles. Each chapter relates the history of each restomod, its builder and their often-twisty route to the finish. The Automobili Maggiore Project M is, for legal reasons, a Ferrari 308 that cannot be presented to the world in that way. Although a memorandum of understanding was signed allowing the project to continue, one poor chap still had his car locked away for 20 days because a policeman thought it was a replica. Then there’s the 911 by Sander Automotive, the result of a 30,000ft hungover brainstorming session by founder Dirk Lührmann. It’s these kinds of stories, plus

Lenaerts’ breezy, irreverent prose, that reflect the somewhat different thinking that goes into each build, as well as the different thinkers who create them. There’s a refreshing sense of freedom to have a take on the high-end classic car market that doesn’t necessarily involve counting the number of rivets to be held in high esteem. Of course, there are readers for whom such concerns do matter; if you consider restomods to be an aberration, this book is not for you. But even if you’ve no interest in buying a restomod, you can’t help but be impressed by the dedication and passion that go into each one. There is a theme behind several of the projects – the builders didn’t

have to do them, they just loved the idea and ran with it, and the business element was formed around it. We rather appreciate that… The only real negative is the choice of matte paper for the pages of our review copy. While it feels nice to the touch and works well with the cool illustrations, it makes the excellent photography dull and lacking in sparkle; a shame given that the cars and characters featured within the book are anything but. Nevertheless, the words more than make up for this, and for €60 for the standard version and €180 for the special edition you’ll derive much pleasure from the book – and feel your wallet start to twitch… www.waft.be

NORDSCHLEIFE AND SÜDSCHLEIFE 1960-1969: NÜRBURGRING ALBUM

FERRARI 1960-1965: THE HALLOWED YEARS

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THE ULTIMATE BOOK OF THE PORSCHE 356

The Nürburgring is much more than a race track – it’s a point of pilgrimage for those with fuel in their veins and an ambiguous relationship to their own mortality, whether racer or enthusiast. It is, after all, a public road. This beautifully produced 256-page, €59 book charts the history of The Green Hell, deploying evocative, rarely seen images as it treats each section of the circuit like chapters of a novel. Even if you’ve never driven around the track, and the many YouTube ‘video nasties’ have put you off ever wanting to, it’s an enjoyable, engaging read. www.rallyandracing.com

Although the legend of Ferrari encompasses many decades, it’s arguable that the nexus point for the legendary tales are concentrated in the early 1960s. Success, scandal, death and glory, 1960 to 1965 had it all. Author William Huon, who was lucky enough to see the action unfold while he was a boy, focuses his efforts on the Scuderia’s efforts in Formula 1 and endurance racing, providing a detailed review of each year’s races and notable moments. Exquisite period imagery from Bernard Cahier adds extra allure to this 358-page, £75 book. www.evropublishing.com

Magneto

Produced by the team behind Magneto magazine, the fourth edition of this celebration of the finest concours d’elegance around the world features some of the most exquisite cars on the planet. More than 50 concours are covered in depth, and there are also intriguing insights from scene luminaries such as Bruce Meyer, Lois Hunt and Paul Sable. This 272-page hardback book costs £75 for the case-bound standard edition, and £115 for the Publisher’s edition, which features a silk-printed cover along with a limited-edition slipcase. www.magnetomagazine.com

Any book with ‘ultimate’ in the title has to be pretty sure of itself, particularly with cars where history can become contentious. The 356 is one such model, but Brian Long is well known for his authoritative tomes. This 256-page, limited-to356 special edition tracks the history model by model, year by year. While there is no new photography, there are evocative historic images and original brochures and press materials, which are mini artworks in themselves. It’s £356, and well worth having for a hardcore 356 fan. www.veloce.co.uk

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BOOK REVIEWS

202

Brun Motorsport

Reviews Nathan Chadwick

The man, the machines and the moustache – the rise, fall and rise again of the privateer who beat Porsche

FEW TEAMS CAN CLAIM TO have defeated a Works racing outfit within just a year of setting up shop, but Walter Brun – or Walti as he is better known – did just that. With 964 pages, this expansive, €450, three-volume set chronicles the life and works of Walti between 1966 and 2009 – but it is Brun Motorsport’s rise and fall from 1983 to 1991 that anchors the tale. Yet to focus on this era is to diminish the talents of one of Switzerland’s most driven performers. By the end of the 1960s he’d come to prominence in circuit racing and hillclimbing, winning a European title in the latter in 1971, the same year as his Le Mans class victory in a Porsche 907. After a

decade of privateer racing in BMW Procars, DRM and endurance events, Walti moved into team management, and having bought the assets of the GS-Sport team, he purchased a Porsche 956. This brought Walti’s first Interserie win, and much more competitive showings in sportscar events. The second volume runs from 1984-87, and covers a tumultuous period. Successes soon followed, with Brun’s first World Sportscar Championship victories and a DRM title for Stefan Bellof, but it would be marked by tragedy. Bellof’s death at Spa in 1985 in a Brun car is still a great source of pain for Walti, as revealed in his foreword. However, it spurred the

team on to greater success in 1986. Brun won the WSC, beating the Works Porsche team, Jaguar and Mercedes-Benz, and would be highly competitive around the globe. That would be the high point, however – from 1988, there was a disastrous foray into Formula 1 (as EuroBrun), and a brave but doomed attempt to build the team’s own endurance racer. By the end of 1991, it was all over. As covered in volume three, Walti stepped away from the limelight, taking the rest of the 1990s to pay off his debts. But the passion never went away, and in 2000 he returned to the track for sporadic GT racing efforts up to 2009. This is all captured in sumptuous

archive photography, printed on quality paper. It’s a shame there isn’t space for Thomas Nehlert, Eckhard Schimpf and Peter Wyss to relay more tales of Walti’s unconventional antics. You do get fleeting hints of this character, with rare images of Brun gatecrashing Fiorano with a Porsche 959 for a magazine twin test with Gerhard Berger in a Ferrari F40 – the two swapping places mid-track, much to the chagrin of the Ferrari PR team. This is only a minor gripe, as this lovingly produced book, instigated by Brun’s son Sascha, is a delight for avowed Group C fans. Just 350 copies are being printed, and it comes highly recommended. www.sportfahrer-zentrale.com

CLASSIC CAR AUCTION YEARBOOK 2021-2022

DRIVEN TO CRIME: TRUE STORIES OF WRONGDOING IN MOTOR RACING

MOTOR SHOW CONCEPTS & RARITIES

BMW M: 50 YEARS OF THE ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINES

Now in full colour throughout, Adolfo Orsi’s annual guide to global market moves also covers the emerging world of online-only auctions, too. There is plenty of granular detail on overall trends, plus comments and results on 8431 cars. This includes pre-sale estimates, which are easy to contrast with the actual results – often omitted come result time. There’s also some amusing oddities – particularly in how the Uhlenhaut Coupé sale skewed the usual market make-up. This €90, 416-page book is an essential reference for buyers and sellers. www.hortonsbooks.co.uk

With true-crime TV documentaries becoming irrepressibly popular, Crispian Besley’s 480-page, £40 book is a timely read. However, while many docs can seem exploitative and some crime tomes glamorise criminality, it’s not the case here. The tales are gripping and exciting, but in the most part it’s clear the wrongdoers end up with a bitter pill after the sweetness of hollow successes – although some could easily translate to TV or film. While the seriousness of the crimes and the effects on the victims aren’t flinched from, it’s still a page-turner. www.evropublishing.com

Lewis Mitchell’s book might not carry the weight of a large publisher behind it, but what it lacks in ultimate polish it makes up for in memory-stimulating photographs of some of the weirdest and most wonderful creations to grace motor shows. Largely drawing on his own archive material, the showgoer’s-eye view of this £17.99, 84-page book is a potent reminder of peering across event stands in a distant, pre-web era. Not one for image-quality nerds, but for summoning forth an ambience, a feeling, it’s oddly very effective. www.motorshowphotos.co.uk

Tony Lewin’s £35, 224-page book is as bold and colourful as the cars it depicts – and there’s no doubting the quality of the printing and imagery. However, although this tome provides a good overview of the BMW M story for someone fairly new to the subject, aficionados will find little they won’t have seen or read elsewhere. While interviews with the likes of Markus Flasch and Marcus Syring give a flavour of M’s present and future, it’s disappointing not to hear more tales from an illustrious past only hinted at in Jochen Neerpasch’s foreword. www.quartoknows.com

Magneto

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The Lawyer Clive Robertson

www.healys.com +44 (0)7768 997439

Two similar classic car legal cases highlight the differences between UK and US consumer law

IT’S 9:30AM. I AM IN A SITTING room in Chiddingfold, Surrey, UK, when the phone rings; a call from Australia, then a call from New Zealand. I am now motivated to pay the asking price of £24,000, having barely looked at the car under discussion. Provenance and matching numbers don’t really hold sway in 1999. Subsequent research shows that AC Ace chassis no. AE 36 appears to be noteworthy, having been a Works team car campaigned by Ken Rudd in the 1955 RAC Rally. Fast-forward some 17 years, when a friend calls to tell me VPG 600 is now in the JD Classics showroom in Mayfair, London. Apart from the registration, all but nothing remains of my long-sold AC. The car on display is quite simply magnificent – as it should be at something over £500,000. In November 2022, a 1950 XK120 is put up for auction, the car having been raced extensively by Le Mans hero Duncan Hamilton. The brochure states that the Jaguar had been sold in 2014 by JD Classics for £1,250,000. Clearly by the mid-2010s, JD Classics had claimed a pre-eminent place in the market, for both the quality of its work and the sale values achieved. The AC and the Jaguar figures were each well in excess of twice the market norm. JD Classics had achieved the pinnacle, reaching those buyers who would pay for perfection at any price. Much of what happened next has been reported, but in essence one Michael Tuke introduced himself to Derek Hood, then principal and sole owner of JD Classics (it is now under new ownership). So trusting was Tuke of Hood’s reputation that he invested many millions upon a handshake. Tuke had assumed that Hood was acting on his behalf. However, it turned out that Hood was acquiring vehicles for himself, then selling them on to Tuke – thereby deceitfully achieving an

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undisclosed profit. Tuke subsequently issued a claim against Hood, which was successful to the tune of £4.2m for actual losses and a further £9m for loss of investment opportunity. In making the award, the Court looked at how it could put Tuke back in a position as if he had never even met Hood in the first place. English law only allows loss of actual damages. By comparison, the US can and does award punitive damages. Then Hood, instead of retreating to obscurity, appealed the level of damages. The Court did not find his arguments ‘appealing’, however, describing him as a “mendacious witness” who had endeavoured to mislead by fabricating evidence. Law scholars will say that it’s rare to find comparable, contemporary cases in different jurisdictions, although fate can intervene. Earlier this year, Magneto’s website reported a story about the US case of Bill Oesterle vs The Healey Werks Corp. The facts of this case bore a striking resemblance to the Hood situation. Bill bought a 1960s Maserati Ghibli for $16k, which he asked Healey Werks boss Craig Hillinger to restore. The work was scheduled to take up to 24 months and cost $200k. In fact, four years expired, with a $1m-plus bill. The claim also cited the purchase of a rare Austin-Healey 100M, which Hillinger had suggested should be a joint project with Oesterle at a cost of $50k, with a further $10k required for assembly. On release in 2021, it

‘It seems the US legislature is more inclined to disincentivise the would-be fraudster than that in the UK’

transpired that the car wasn’t a 100M. A final $130k bill was then presented; the car was never assembled. Oesterle also funded the purchase of a Healey Silverstone at $160k. Minor works were needed, following which the Healey would be sold and the profit shared. Hillinger sold the car without consent and pocketed $160k. When the matter was heard in the Iowa Third Circuit, the judge found in favour of Oesterle and ordered The Healey Werks Corp to pay $7.2m in damages, plus attorney’s fees and court costs. The judge tripled the actual losses of $2.4 because the defendant “wilfully and wantonly” violated Oesterle’s rights. So while Hood had committed transgressions to the tune of £13.2m, Hillinger was somewhat less diligent in his actions, ‘only’ defrauding his customer of a relatively minor sum. It seems the US legislature is more inclined to disincentivise the wouldbe fraudster than that in the UK. Why – given the Hood case and the funds invested in the historic car industry worldwide – is the issue of regime change, in terms of punitive damage, not on the agenda in Great Britain? Contract law in the US also looks

to protect the consumer at the point of contact with the particular workshop or repair facility. The jauntily named Iowa Motor Vehicle Services Trade Practices Act states, inter alia, that the customer must authorise repairs and servicing requirements, in writing, before the commencement of works, as well as being provided with a written or oral estimate for repairs or estimates with a value in excess of $50. Most notably, the bill delivered must not exceed the estimate by more than ten percent. In the UK, the individual must rely upon general consumer or contract legislation. Work for the UK specialist trade and lobby groups? The last word from Bill Oesterle: “It is a difficult process to find authentic parts and materials, and to find credible people with the expertise to properly restore these beautiful machines. Often that means you have to trust people across the country, or even the world, on what they say they have and what they can do. I would hate to know other collectors have been treated this way.” Clive is a solicitor and consultant with London law firm Healys LLP. Contact clive.robertson@healys.com.

ALAMY

BELOW Hood was found to be a “mendacious witness” during proceedings against his firm JD Classics.

1938 ASTON-MARTIN 15/98 DROPHEAD COUPE D8/840/SC | £199,950 Aston-Martin 15/98 D8/840/SC is rare even by pre-war Aston-Martin standards. Only 24 were made, with only 11 known to remain intact. The 15/98 model was the last of the pre-war cars and was very advanced for the time with synchromesh provided by the Moss gearbox, a powerful wet sump 2-litre engine, Girling rod brakes and Aston-Martin patented adjustable front axle. In-depth owner records chronicle this car’s history from its first test in 1937 before being clothed in the drophead coupé bodywork by Abbott, through its re-commissions and a significant restoration in its time. Recently re-commissioned by Ecurie Bertelli, D8/840/SC is now presented with the benefit of wind-up side windows and is equipped with a black hood and envelope. The Abbott coachwork provides snug weatherproof motoring with the dickey seat offering 2+2 seating or ample luggage storage. D8/840/SC is a rare, quick and stylish pre-war thoroughbred with a Swansea V5C registration document, various maintenance invoices and copies of factory records. This car is ideal for serious continental touring, rallying or Concours. Contact Robert to arrange a test drive.

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27/10/2022 10:48

The Curator Robert Dean Top larks and heartstopping moments on the Argentina Mille Millas with F1 legend Clay Regazzoni

BACK IN THE MID-2000S I WAS asked by a Dutch friend, Donald Cok, whether I’d like to do the Argentina Mille Millas with him, because he’d been invited along by Pur Sang. I accepted straight away. Our journey to South America was an adventure in itself, but once we got to Buenos Aires I discovered that Pur Sang had partnered me with Clay Regazzoni. The ex-Formula 1 star was driving his Argentinian Torino rally car, which had been adapted with hand controls because of his damaged legs. The controls were quite neat: a steel, spring-loaded ring in the steering wheel for throttle, a lever mounted under the column attached to the brake pedal, and a trigger on the gearlever which controlled a motor that pulled a cable attached to the clutch pedal. A rheostat meant you could feather the clutch for hillstarts. The rally started and finished each day at the hotel, and rather than do the reliability sections, Clay just drove at his own pace and enjoyed the trip. He was such fun, and we spent the whole time telling each other stories about my boss Bernie Ecclestone, F1 racing and all manner of other things. When I got in the car, I commented that there were no seatbelts. When Clay asked if I wanted some, I replied: “Are you going to crash?” “I don’t think so,” was his response. “Then let’s get on with it,” I said, and we never did put them in – although there was a point when I wished we had. While driving fast down a mountain road in Chile, there was a scrabbling noise of gravel on the car’s underside. I looked up to see Clay in a full opposite-lock slide on the outside of a bend into a parking area. He collected it all together, and I said: “Well held! We have to turn left at the bottom of the hill.” We continued on our way, and later on I discovered that he had nodded off and just caught it in time. On another steep, fast road, there

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BELOW “The best co-driver!” High praise indeed from Formula 1 racing maestro Clay Regazzoni. was a clunk and a bang, and the entire linkage fell off the brake pedal. “Ah, we appear to have no brakes Clay,” I gasped. “It’s not a problem,” he replied, and lifted his leg onto the brake pedal and pushed his knee when we needed to slow down. At the bottom of the mountain road, we stopped at a café. I went round the back and pulled a stake out of a fence, found a piece of wire and wired the stake to the brake pedal. This then sat in his lap. One day we stopped for a coffee in a lovely square, and I asked if I could have a go in his car. He said I wouldn’t be able to work the hand controls, so I bet him a bottle of Champagne. “Don’t crash it!” he said. I managed quite well, with only a few bunny hops, and soon I was driving round the square with ease. I stopped next to him so he could get in. “No one has been able to drive this; you’re the first,” he said. “Ah, but I’ve had a good teacher. I’ve been watching how you do it,” I replied. He later honoured our bet with a very nice bottle of Champagne. We spent our time laughing, and we got on so well that the days flew past. Too soon, it was all over. At the gala dinner, Clay bought me an album of all the shots the rally photographer had taken of our car. He signed it, and added: “The best co-driver!” This was quite an accolade to have from him. The year after, in 2006, I was at the Circuit Des Remparts in Angoulême. I came round a corner, and there, sitting in his wheelchair in

‘Clay was in a full opposite-lock slide on the outside of a bend into a parking area. He had nodded off’

the square, was Clay. He greeted me with great kindness and enthusiasm. He told me he was thinking of doing the event, and so had come to take a look. I asked him if he’d been into the paddock, but he said he didn’t have a ticket. “You’re in the company of a master blagger,” said I, as I pushed him over to the paddock gate. Now I had a ticket, but the guard wouldn’t allow Clay in. How rude! I noticed a small Ferrari badge on the guard’s tunic, so I took him aside and said: “Do you know who this is?” He shook his head. “It’s Clay Regazzoni.” It was like he had an electric shock; suddenly he couldn’t do enough for us. Clay had a picture taken with him and signed the guard’s programme, and they had a nice chat. After that,

Clay was allowed to come and go as he pleased. In the paddock, my friend Martin Edgar had his Lenham Sprite. Clay was most taken with it; he’d started his career in one exactly like it. By the end of that year, Clay had been killed in a road accident, which was a great sadness. I did the Mille Millas again in 2007, with Pur Sang’s chief engineer in a Type 35. We had much fun driving the wheels off it, trying to keep up with the big Bentleys and other faster cars. In fact, we used a full set of tyres in four days… what larks! If I win the Lottery, I’ll do that event again and think of Clay. It’ll be a blast! Be part of the machinery. Former Ecclestone Collection manager Robert now runs Curated Vehicle Management. See www.c-v-m.co.uk.

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LANCIA Flaminia Sport Zagato 2,5 3C, 1963

ALVIS TE21 Graber Super Coupé, 1965

LANCIA Lambda Berlina, 1929

CITROEN DS19, 1956

LINCOLN Continental V12, Cabriolet, 1947

FIAT 1400 Cabriolet Bertone, 1951

PANHARD-LEVASSOR 20CV Sport, 1930

HONDA S800 Coupé, 1967

ROLLS-ROYCE Phantom II Coupé de Ville, 1932

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The Racer Sam Hancock All signs are – for drivers, collectors and Historic racing fans alike – GT1 cars are the new 1960s GTs

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the prototype-based homologation specials were phased out at the head of the field by the latest LMP cars in the new millennium, the ACO’s redefined class for true, productionbased GT1 cars thrived, resulting in some of the most celebrated battles in sportscar-racing history. In parallel, the restructured FIA GT championship regained its own inertia with a Balance of Performance process that enabled titanic duels between cars of distinctly differing architecture. However, it too became a victim of its own success when it transpired in 2011 that manufacturers were simply unwilling to spend the

‘Most GT1 cars are now into seven- or even eight-digit territory, and there are no signs of the market slowing’

money required to replace the aging GT1 cars, instead preferring to elevate more cost-effective GT3 machinery to the top class. Similarly, the ACO abandoned GT1 at Le Mans, and thus the chapter closed on a set of regulations that produced some of the sport’s most lust-worthy models ever. While the McLarens broke free of the ‘redundant race car’ stigma almost immediately to trade at stratospheric levels, it has taken some time for the British brand’s former rivals to garner the attention of the wider market and begin to close the gap. Naturally, two Endurance Legends series, from Peter Auto and Masters Historic, has helped enormously, giving owners somewhere to race these cars. Yet it’s only in the past couple of years that the GT1 market has really begun to rally. And what a rally it’s been. With few exceptions, most GT1 cars are now firmly into seven- or – for super-rare homologation specials – even eightdigit territory, and there are no signs of the market slowing. It seems the magic formula that drove values from

the golden era of 1960s GT racing is at play once again: gorgeous, yet recognisable cars from familiar and prestigious marques; illustrious competition histories with worldclass teams and drivers contesting the greatest races; eligibility for today’s best Historic events; extreme rarity; exciting yet manageable driving characteristics; reasonable maintenance requirements; even, in some cases, the potential for road use. Sadly for us fans, the McLaren – much like the 250GTO – has become too valuable to race, and its presence is sorely missed from any of the Historic categories for which it would be eligible. Fortunately, the rest of this sector seems populated (for now at least) by truly passionate owner/ drivers whose purchasing decisions are driven largely by the prospect of actually racing the cars they buy, more than by any financial speculations. As such, this season’s entry lists are starting to look very spicy indeed. Sam is a professional racing driver, coach and dealer in significant competition cars. See www.samhancock.com.

WOUTER MELISSEN

SOMETHING INTERESTING IS happening in the upper echelons of the Historic race car market. As the world faces a major economic wobble, one category in particular is enjoying a surge in demand from buyers whose appetite for acquiring expensive racing machinery seems undimmed. Owners you’d normally associate with blue-chip, Goodwood TT-ready competition cars – short-wheelbase Ferraris, Jaguar Lightweight E-types, Cobras etc – are turning their attentions to significantly younger machinery; specifically, GT1 models. For the uninitiated, a quick history lesson: between 1994 and 2011, GT1 (in its various guises) produced some of the most exotic and evocative production-derived racers ever: think McLaren F1 GTR, Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR, Maserati MC12, Porsche 911 (993) GT1, Aston Martin DBR9, Ferrari 550 Maranello Prodrive, Lamborghini Murciélago, and Corvette C5-R and C6.R to name but a few. A truly golden modern era without a doubt, and – given the rapid advance of electrification – perhaps one unlikely to be repeated. What started as a privateer series called BPR Global GT was soon taken over by the FIA, and before long it became dominated by manufacturer teams with near-limitless budgets. The competition was so fierce that Mercedes, Porsche and even McLaren (with its long-tail F1 GT) built ‘homologation specials’ that flew squarely against the spirit of the rules. Untethered by the FIA, the series shone brightly throughout the 1990s until briefly burning itself out when, so emphatic was Mercedes’ dominance in 1998, its rivals refused to show up the following year, causing the category to be restructured. Fortunately, the ACO had been providing an alternative playground for the cars, both at Le Mans and in its associated series, thus maintaining momentum. And once

BELOW Friendlier to drive than you might expect, GT1 cars are well suited to experienced amateur racers.

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My Hero Jochen Mass on looking up to Sir Jackie Stewart I GREW UP OUTSIDE RACING, but I watched people such as Count Wolfgang von Trips, a few of the famous Italians and, of course, the Argentinian wonder man, Fangio. I admired them – although admiring is not the same as hanging onto their personalities and saying how glorious they are. Later, when I’d got into racing, it was people such as Jackie Stewart who I really got to know. I thought Jackie was – and is – one of the greatest for the simple reason that he’s a very modest man. He was very focused on what he was doing. I mean, he won three championships – that was fantastic. I drove against him in Formula 1 a little bit in the beginning. He was in a different league from me, in different cars. We also drove together with the Ford Capri at the Nürburgring, and he was very quick. He was a good driver, and he said to me: “You know, my car is a bit funny. Can you drive mine and I

drive yours just to see the difference?” So we did, and it was very quick, but I was a bit quicker than him still in his car. So he jumped out of his car and he said: “It must be me then!” and he tried harder and he went quicker – but I still had him a little bit. It was most remarkable how this man jumped into any car and was very quick, whatever he drove. I really felt “that’s a great man!”. He was not glamour seeking in motor racing. He was just delivering, you know, and that was just wonderful. And, of course, he had Helen, his lovely wife, who I liked a lot. There were quite a few things that I found remarkable. The way he talked about setting up a car at Monaco, for example. Jackie said that it’s better to drive only with a fourspeed gearbox set-up at Monaco, because every time you change gear you lose a little bit of time. Not so much, but it adds up. He said if you use the torque, it’s always smoother

applying the power; going through the corner early on the power and you could stay on it, you don’t have to back off, and things like that. When you look at the cars in those days, they were quite high off the ground, but when you look at the times Jackie was doing at Monaco, they are remarkably close to today’s times. Of course, there were other guys I admired, too. It was a privilege to drive with them and against them, and to see how good they were and how they handled their lives and

‘Jackie was – and is – one of the greatest for the simple reason that he’s a very modest man’

how focused they were. It was a good time to get into racing, because it was getting a little bit safer – and that was really because of the various attempts of Jackie Stewart and some other guys. We all wanted to survive. There were some, such as Jacky Ickx, who didn’t like it [the safety campaigns]. He felt that you race because it’s dangerous, because it shapes your character – and if you take all this out of racing, then racing is losing something. That was something I could follow – but on the other hand, we lost too many guys. We lost good drivers, and we lost them for safety reasons. Jackie, you know, he sort of put his finger into the open wounds of tracks and cars and things like that. It was really remarkable. He was very outspoken and he was very intelligent, the way he put it to people – and they always associated him as a spokesman for all that. Simply wonderful!

Magneto (ISSN No: 2631-9489, USPS number 22830) is published four times a year – in February, May, August and November – by Hothouse Publishing Ltd, UK. Magneto is distributed in the US by RRD/Spatial, 1250 Valley Brook Ave, Lyndhurst NJ 07071. Periodicals postage paid at South Hackensack NJ and other additional entry offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Magneto c/o RRD, 1250 Valley Brook Ave, Lyndhurst NJ 07071.

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MOTORSPORT IMAGES

ABOVE “That’s a great man!” Mass and Stewart – here at Monza in 1973 – had a great friendship on and off track.

THE CLASSIC

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Magneto Magazine issue 17: Spring 2023

Articles inside

My

The Racer Sam Hancock

The Curator Robert Dean

The Lawyer

Brun Motorsport

Restomods: Better Faster Cooler

Ultimate Works Porsche 962: The Definitive History

DIVERSIONS

To sip or to tip?

Time for a history lesson

Something for everyone

Questions answered and trends analysed

Maserati Ghibli

OF THE OFTHE END END THIN THIN WEDGE WEDGE

LOST

Ex-Works 1937 Monte Carlo Rally & 1937/38 MCC Trials Entry Ex-Works 1937 Monte Carlo Rally & 1937/38 MCC Trials Entry

ALFAS

The Simeone after Fred

Meeting the man behind the monster

The many lives of VNKy

Scooter stars of the swinging ’60s

HISTORICS LONDON CLASSIC CAR SHOW SALE

Romain Grosjean on the new Praga Bohema

The Interview Lee McKenzie

Concours on Savile Row is back for 2023

The first Le Mans Bentley

24-hour party people get ready

Bentleys to race again at Le Mans

THE BONMON T SA LE

CONCORSO D’ELEGANZA VILLA D’ESTE

Contributors

2023 LE MANS Centenary Collection 2023 LE MANS Centenary Collection