Magneto Issue 24 by Hothouse Media

WINTER 2024 £12.95 PRINTED IN THE UK

MAGNETO PRESENTS

THE GOLDFINGER DB5

S TA R R I N G A L L F O U R ORIGINAL CARS

MCLAREN M6GT & SOLUS

RENAULT 5 TURBO

TOP 50 SCANDALS

LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH #002

SOLD

SOLD SOLD

SOLD

Our recent sales

2006 Aston Martin DBR9 1978 McLaren M26-5 1954 HWM Jaguar 1955 Jaguar D-type ‘short nose’ 1969 Lola T70 MkIIIB 1931 Bentley 8 litre coupe 1970 Porsche 917 K 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C Figoni Spider 1951 Jaguar XK120 LT2

TIME TO CONSIGN

ver the past three decades, the Fiskens stand at Salon Retromobile has consistently been Where The World’s Greatest Cars Come To Be Sold. We opened our 2024 stand with the skirl of bagpipes which heralded the sale of the exalted Ecurie Ecosse collection and 13 other notable cars, many of which sold directly from our stand. Despite a year of global uncertainty, the Fiskens Team have attained the highest value of sales in our history and we are proud of the excellent results that we have achieved for our buyers and sellers alike. In February 2025, the world’s best collectors will once again descend on Paris and we are now working to curate another showstopping collection. To have a confidential conversation about consigning with the Fiskens Team, please get in touch below. A few coveted spaces remain! +44 (0)20 7584 3503 OR CARS@FISKENS.COM, OR VIA THE QR CODE BELOW

14 Queens Gate Place Mews, London SW7 5BQ www.fiskens.com SCAN

21 S TA R T E R LA’s junkyard sale, car awards, Eagle E-types, Jaguar C-X75, GT40, C 111, Vanquish V12 drive, Vintage Bentleys, MCXtrema and more

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ASTON MARTIN’S GOLDFINGER DB5

MCLAREN M6GT AND SOLUS GT

ROLL OUT THE LOWRIDERS

R E N A U LT 5 T U R B O : THE LITTLE BOMB

On 007 movie’s 60th anniversary, the full story of the automotive icon that turned the silver screen gold

A clear thread runs from Bruce’s firstever road machine to McLaren’s latest time-travel hypercar

A celebration of the craftsmanship and artistry behind this most outrageous of custom car cultures

How the friendly little French city car was transformed into a motor sport monster for the world rallying stage

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140

128

140

154

177

CADILLAC LE MONSTRE

T H E C O U N TA C H OF FIRSTS

TOP 50 MOTORING SCANDALS

Doug Nye reflects on Briggs Cunningham’s 1950 all-American Le Mans entry – and gets behind the wheel

1974 LP400 Periscopio no. 002 was the first car off Lamborghini’s new production line, and the first customer build

The lives, careers and corporate reputations ruined in the pursuit of pleasure, profit, power, speed and glory

ACQUIRE Buying an SS Jaguar 100, auction trends, collecting film posters, a visit to Tommy Town, Tim Layzell art, books, products and more

204 T H E L AW Y E R: DRIVERLESS CARS

178

206 T H E C U R AT O R : C H E AT C R A C K D O W N

208 THE DESIGNER: RARE AND OBSCURE

210

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THE INTERVIEW: JEAN-PIERRE PLOUÉ

THE LEGEND REBORN

BENTLEY SPEED SIX CONTINUATION COACHBUILT BY MULLINER To commission your bespoke Bentley, contact: mullinercoachbuilt@bentley.co.uk Scan the QR Code to discover Mulliner on the Bentley Motors Website *Model shown in a pre-production state

Editor’s welcome

Clearly I shouldn’t admit this, especially in the issue celebrating 60 years of Goldfinger, but I’ve never been a Bond obsessive. Sure, I enjoy the films and have fond memories of seeing The Spy Who Loved Me at the cinema with my dad. And yes, I’ve wanted an Esprit ever since. But that was it. Yet I was the one lucky enough to accompany photographer Sam Chick to Zurich to photograph Fritz Burkard’s Goldfinger DB5 for this issue. And seeing that car and the myriad Bond memorabilia with it, and listening to Fritz’s excitement about the entire 007 experience, has changed my opinion forever. If there was a single moment that cemented this new view, it was when Sam and I sat in the car to photograph the ‘radar’ screen in the centre console. It looked flat initially, but with the ignition switched on it flickered into life, the radar sweeping the map of the southern English counties in which both Sam and I grew up – Kent for him, Hertfordshire for me – and a little shiver went down my spine. The car felt magical. And so I have a new appreciation for Goldfinger, which of course I rewatched as soon as I returned home. And, thanks to Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury’s superb feature in this issue, I’ve now learned yet more about the four Goldfinger cars, despite having read many an article on them in the past. Appropriately, I’ll soon be wearing a tuxedo for our own International Historic Motoring Awards, although I don’t think anyone will mistake me for James Bond...

David Lillywhite Editorial director

Magneto

RM 65-01 McLaren W1 Skeletonised automatic winding calibre 60-hour power reserve (± 10%) Baseplate and bridges in grade 5 titanium Split-seconds chronograph Function selector and rapid winding mechanism Case in Carbon TPT® and titanium Limited edition

A Racing Machine On The Wrist

Contributors

Illustrations Peter Allen

M AG N U S WA L K E R Designer, car collector and cult Porsche figure Magnus has always been at pains to highlight that he loves the other cars from Stuttgart, too. He proved the point when he was able to drive the just-restored Mercedes-Benz Wankel-engined C 111 concept this year in Monterey, two years after driving the V8 C 111.

JUSTIN BELL Highly successful racing driver, TV presenter, Pebble Beach Concours host, son of five-times Le Mans winner Derek... and now Magneto contributor. Justin fulfilled a lifetime ambition driving Bruce McLaren’s 1970 M6GT alongside its spiritual successor the Solus GT for a superb feature in this issue.

M AT T H E W F I E L D It’s not often that this film producer and author has time to write for Magneto – but when he does, it’s epic. You might remember his superb feature on the making of The Italian Job. Now he’s back, fresh from co-writing Spy Octane: The Vehicles of James Bond, to tell the full story of the Goldfinger DB5s.

AUTUMN NYIRI After two decades in the curatorial field Autumn joined the Petersen Automotive Museum, where she found that the automobile was not the workaday machine she’d taken for granted but was, in fact, an art object, a technological marvel and a cultural icon. In this issue, she tells the story of lowrider culture.

Magneto

2022 Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport Sold for $4,047,500 at The Amelia Auction 2024

2020 McLaren Speedtail Sold for $2,067,500 at The Amelia Auction 2024

THE AMELIA AUCTION 7 - 8 MARCH 2025

1957 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadster Sold for $2,260,000 at The Amelia Auction 2024

Who to contact

Editorial director

Managing director

David Lillywhite

Geoff Love

Deputy editor

Creative director

Managing editor

Advertising sales

Wayne Batty

Peter Allen

Sarah Bradley

Sue Farrow, Rob Schulp

Staff writer

Designer

Accounts

Elliott Hughes

Debbie Nolan

Jonathan Ellis

Marketing manager

Marketing and events

Lifestyle advertising

Advertising production

Rochelle Harman

Jasmine Love

Sophie Kochan

Elaine Briggs

Contributors in this issue Mal Bailey, Justin Bell, Mathieu Bonnevie, Jonathon Burford, Nathan Chadwick, Sam Chick, Ajay Chowdhury, Emídio Copeto, Robert Dean, Simon de Burton, Massimo Delbò, Richard Dredge, Max Earey, Matthew Field, Jayson Fong, Martyn Goddard, Rob Gould, Robert Grubbs, Rick Guest, Peter Harholdt, Richard Heseltine, Ivan Ilagan, Fanny Johnstone Midson, Evan Klein, Luc Lacey, John Mayhead, Andy Morgan, Doug Nye, Autumn Nyiri, Clive Robertson, Dean Smith, Sharon Spurlin, Peter Stevens, Ted7, Joe Twyman, Magnus Walker, Rupert Whyte Single issues and subscriptions Please visit www.magnetomagazine.com or call +44 (0)208 068 6829

Geoff Love, David Lillywhite, George Pilkington Unit 16, Enterprise Centre, Michael Way, Warth Park Way, Raunds, Northants NN9 6GR, UK Printing Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE, UK. Printed on Amadeus Silk and Galerie Fine Silk supplied by Denmaur as a Carbon Balanced product. Made from Chain of Custody certified and traceable pulp sources

Who to contact Subscriptions rochelle@hothousemedia.co.uk Events jasmine@hothousemedia.co.uk 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 Advertising production adproduction@hothousemedia.co.uk Specialist newsstand distribution Pineapple Media, Select Publisher Services

The making of Magneto LICENSED TO THRILL?

RENAULT’S PHOTO-BOMBER

We wanted something special for 60 years of Goldfinger. So first we headed to Zurich to photograph Fritz Burkard’s DB5 late into the night (thank you Fritz, Dana and Simon). Then it was off to London for the cover shoot of model Laila Moccia (thanks to Base Models and to Annabelle Miller for hair and make-up). And we’ve topped it all off with a fifth-colour gold ink.

There we were, photographing the wonderful Renault 5 Turbo Europa racer on Montlhéry’s famous banked circuit, where it was originally first tested. And then what should sneak into the shot but the Turbo’s rather quieter grandson, the all-new R5 Turbo 3E electric drift car. Magneto deputy editor Wayne Batty witnessed the photo-bombing and was impressed.

© Hothouse Media. Magneto and associated logos are registered trademarks of Hothouse Media. 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. Hothouse Media 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. ISSN Number 2631-9489. Magneto is published quarterly by Hothouse Publishing Ltd. Registered office: Castle Cottage, 25 High Street, Titchmarsh, Northants NN14 3DF, UK. 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.

Magneto

1962 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB Sold 9 May 2024, The W Collection, Monaco

Consign now

RÉTROMOBILE 2025 The Official Sale Consignment deadline:

Auction:

Contact:

End of December 2024

7 February 2025

+33 (0)1 42 99 20 73 motorcars@artcurial.com

Rétromobile Show Paris Expo - Porte de Versailles 75015 Paris

artcurial.com/motorcars

More from Magneto

H I S T O R I C M O T O R I N G AWA R D S

THE CONCOURS YEAR 2024

You might just have received this issue ahead of the 2024 International Historic Motoring Awards, set for Friday November 22 at the prestigious new Peninsula London hotel. If not, be sure to visit the website to see this year’s triumphant award winners. www.historicmotoringawards.com

Pre-order the new edition, featuring 50 of the world’s best concours and detailing every Best of Show and class winner, beautifully presented in this largeformat hardback book. Standard Edition: £75.00. Publisher’s Edition (limited-edition, slipcase): £115.00. www.magnetomagazine.com/product/concours-year-2024

MAGNETO SLIPCASES

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Don’t miss out on any issues of Magneto. You can subscribe for one year for £54 including p&p (€62 or $68, plus postage), or two years for £94 including p&p (€108 or $120, plus postage). Magneto is delivered in strong cardboard packaging. www.magnetomagazine.com or +44 (0)208 068 6829

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BY APPOINTMENT TO HM QUEEN ELIZABETH II PHARMACIST & PHARMACY SUPPLIES LONDON

29 St. James’s Street, London, SW1A 1HD www.drharris.co.uk

BY APPOINTMENT TO HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES CHEMIST LONDON

Junkyard heaven at the Rudi Klein Collection sale

Ford GT40 highs and lows on its 60th anniversary

Magnus Walker drives the Mercedes C 111 concept car

David Gooding on Christie’s auctionhouse acquisition

Deep dive into the for-sale Rolex that’s visited the Titanic

Starter

Magneto

Starter

Words and photography Evan Klein

FROM BELOW 1957 Roadster sold for $1,075,000; ’59 356 A Carrera by Reutter, $885,000; ’68 and ’67 Miura P400s $1,325,000 and $610,000 respectively; and ’71 NSU Ro80 by Pininfarina, $461,500.

To live and die in LA Magneto contributor and Los Angeles local Evan Klein was one of the first to arrive at the RM Sotheby’s Rudi Klein junkyard sale. Here’s what he found

I HAVE LIVED IN LA FOR longer than I’d like to admit, but as I drove to the auction site in October I kept wondering where Google was taking me. Hidden in plain sight, deep in south Los Angeles, was Rudi Klein’s junkyard. Admittedly this was not the best of neighbourhoods. The street was blocked for participants, security was set up to watch our cars. Walking in before it was open to the public, I stood staring in total amazement; a silent graveyard filled with towers of precious old cars baking in the California sun. Rolls-Royces, Facel Vegas, Ferraris, Lamborghinis, BMWs, Mercedes-Benzes I had never seen before. And the Porsches... so many Porsches, stacked… I turned the corner to see three Lamborghinis, two Iso Grifos. Even the mundane was special. If I was rich, if I had a bodyshop, if I could save just one... I couldn’t help but wonder how all these cars ended up

Magneto

Starter

here. The stories each could tell. Pre-inspection started at 9:00am, and the auction kicked off promptly at 10:00am. It was a cool, dusty morning, not yet unbearably hot, and a light haze gave a warm flare to everything. RM Sotheby’s made it all feel quite civilised, with fresh-cut flowers, a coffee bar and a real bar serving real drinks. The junkyard filled with guys in jeans and flannel shirts. Each walking, scouring with their eye for a bargain. Experts, hoping to make educated purchases. I recognised a lot of familiar faces from our classic car realm. There were work sheds filled with rare parts; I saw rows of original Weber carburettors waiting to be restored. Years and years of hoarding had created this mass of rare spares. We all wandered around this photographer’s paradise. It was like a poker match, with no one showing their hand. Bidding took place in a large metal shed in the centre of the yard. The Mercedes Gullwing and Roadster flanked the entrance. Of course, these were the stars of the show. Sitting, getting attention today after years of neglect. They were beautiful. The shed was cleared, and rows of chairs faced the auctioneer and monitors. It felt familiar and civilised now. We took our seats, and the bidding began. The initial 238 lots were automobilia: Porsche motors, Ferrari grilles and seats, pieces of cars – remember, this was a junkyard. A Miura S engine in a basket with parts went for $216,000. Vehicles smashed, burned, crumpled, unrecognisable – more rust than car – fetching huge 24

Magneto

THIS PAGE Alloy Gullwing no. 26 was the star of the show in the unlikely but oh-soevocative setting of the unique junkyard sale.

sums in their last moments of glory, claiming lost dignity and honour. A few items caught my eye, such as NOS 356 body panels, and what appeared to be NOS Porsche mechanical fuelinjection units. All required work, sold as-is. Some of these bits, though, went for the price of a new car. When the Mercedes Roadster came up, things got a bit more serious; when we reached the Gullwing, it was business. How much would you pay? Alloy body, no. 26 of 29, original and unrestored aside from the silver paint, let’s start the bidding at $1 million. I saw bid cards raise, internet bidding, people with cell phones whispering. The bidding rose: $1m turned to $2m, to $3m, $4m, $5m, $6m, $7m – the whole world was bidding on this car. The tin shed was rich with excitement. Now we were at $8m, slowly rising to $8.5m, where the hammer fell. A gasp and applause. Who was it? Are they in the room? And now moving on to lot 291, a 1956 Facel Vega Cabriolet conversion... any bidders? A Maserati Bora sporting custom graffiti went for $25,200, and barely a rear clip, just the metal, from a 1966

Ferrari 275 GTS, $25,200. It seems the 1983 Audi Quattro at $5040 was a steal. It all sounds wonderful, until it winds up at home on the doorstep. The 1971 NSU Ro80 was a big surprise – a unique Pininfarina car, with motor, for $461,500; the 1968 green Miura brought $1,325,000, the orange ’67 Miura $610,000, while the ’69 P400 S saw $967,500. I think a highlight was the 1964 Iso Grifo Spider Prototype; a prototype in an LA junkyard? You know there’s only one, the actual show car, complete, for the right person a realistic restoration, $1,875,000. By the end of the sale the Maybachs, the 1939 Mercedes, the Horches were all gone. A lone 1956 Indian Fire Arrow 250 was the last to cross the block for $5100, to an empty room. Come 2:00pm the dust had settled, the field of dreams was over, reality had to set in. Every car sold was a project, labelled ‘for parts only’. The sun was out, it was hot, my sneakers were dirty and Google was now telling me it would take one hour and 37 minutes to get home. I love LA. For the full sale report, please visit www.magnetomagazine.com.

DUBAI | 1 DECEMBER 2024

HELD IN PARTNERSHIP WITH THE 1000 MIGLIA EXPERIENCE UAE

DUBAI +971 52 8971717 HEADQUARTERS +1 519 352 4575 UK +44 (0) 20 7851 7070 info@rmsothebys.com

2022 Aston Martin Valkyrie Coupé Estimate: $2,600,000 – $3,000,000 USD Single Ownership from New, with Only 109 Kilometres

Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

Floating cars: Does the idea hold water? The presence of the Peter Wheelerdesigned TVR Scamander amphibious prototype at the London Concours last summer prompted a thought: what if the restaurant was on the other side of the lake, and you were in a hurry? Here are a few solutions that might float your boat AMPHICAR

DUTTON

GIBBS AQUADA

WATERCAR

How did the idea get floated?

Launched at the 1961 New York Auto Show, the car was designed by controversial engineer Hans Trippel, more famous for his work on the 300 SL’s gullwing doors. Built by the Quandt Group, it used a Triumph engine on land and water.

Dutton returned to the kit car scene in 1995 with the Ford Fiesta-based Mariner, and Suzuki Samurai-based Commander. The Jimnybased Surf followed in 2005.

Alan Gibbs had conquered the business world via SKY TV New Zealand, and seeking a new challenge he set up Gibbs Amphibians based in Auckland, Detroit and Nuneaton. The Gibbs Aquada was launched in 2004, with a 2.5-litre Rover V6 engine.

Dave March decided he would like to see if he could build an amphibious car, for no loftier a reason than ‘just because’. He ended up creating a proper car and business – the Panther, powered by a 3.7-litre Honda engine.

Much wind in its sails?

Its 43bhp 1147cc engine meant it could hit seven knots on water and 70mph on land. Further honing almost doubled the power.

As kit cars, the performance largely depended on the donor models. Later Surfs could manage 5.4 knots in water, but precise figures on land weren’t available.

Journalist Paul Walton used one to sail into Monaco harbour in a bid to watch the Grand Prix for free. Sadly, the Aquada was too slow for him to catch any of the race.

The fastest amphibious car in the world, it can hit 127mph on land and 60mph on water. No wonder Prodrive chairman David Richards has one.

Richard Branson set a new record for crossing the English Channel in an amphibious vehicle, in one hour 40 minutes. Around 4000 have been sold.

The Crown Prince of Dubai is quite a fan – he has bought six of them.

Did it make a splash?

More than 3880 were built. US President Lyndon B Johnson owned one, and enjoyed pranking unknowing guests by saying the brakes didn’t work before plunging in...

With 270-plus built, production of amphibious Duttons wrapped up in 2023 – not helped when a judge condemned the creation as a “floating coffin” in a Cumbria Trading Standards case.

What might make you bail?

Not only was it slow compared with most boats and cars, but also the steering wheel made it hard to steer in water. In addition, every time it went into the drink you’d need to grease 13 points, which meant taking the rear seat out.

The ten-hour servicing time might be a little frustrating. Still, there is a merry band of enthusiasts out there who can help with maintenance.

Its replacement, the Humdinga, was supposed to offer 370bhp, 80mph on land and 30mph in water, plus a switchable jet-propulsion system. Not one has been sold...

Although 60mph on water sounds thrilling, following another Panther carrying a seasick passenger could have horrific consequences for your deck shoes.

I fancy sinking some funds in...

We found a couple for sale in the Netherlands, priced at €83,000 and up.

We tracked down a Dutton Mariner in France for a shade under €35,000.

The last one we saw for sale was retailing at $164,337.

You’ll need £122,000 to ferry over to www.watercar.com.

Entries now invited The Grand Palais Historique, Paris | 6 February 2025

ENQUIRIES +32 (0) 47 68 79 471� eurocars@bonhamscars.com bonhamscars.com/grandpalais

Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

1964 D ISA PPO INTING D E B UT The Ford ‘GT’ made its debut with chassis GT/101. Based on a Lola Mk6 chassis, it was further developed by Eric Broadley and Ford engineer Roy Lunn under the eye of ex-Aston Martin team manager John Wyer. Powered by the 4.7-litre HiPo K-Code engine, buying one would set you back £5200 – or £90,000 today. A promising first race at May’s Nürburgring 1000km saw the first GT40 run as high as second before suspension failure forced

The GT40 marks its 60th birthday this year. While its later successes made it a legend, in Henry Ford II’s drive to get back at Enzo Ferrari after a spurned takeover bid, and to win Le Mans at all costs, the route to victory was often painful and tragic

1967 FO CUSE D E F FO RT After watching Ferrari get its own back at the Daytona 24 Hours with a podium lockout, Ford was under pressure to deliver with the J Car, which had an innovative honeycomb construction and a long, streamlined shape. Behind the scenes, the Blue Oval had developed a test rig to simulate Le Mans laps. The J Car got off to a winning start, taking a

ABOVE The all-American J Car heads to victory at Le Mans, one of only two races it was entered into.

Magneto

retirement. At Le Mans the Blue Oval entered three cars (above), but none made it past 14 hours, leaving Ferrari to win again. However, a Fordpowered Shelby Daytona Cobra Coupe did finish fourth… After a three-car failure at Reims, Wyer was dismissed. Shelby took the reins for Nassau, with Phil Hill achieving third place in the preliminaries.

commanding victory at the Sebring 12 Hours with Mario Andretti and McLaren behind the wheel. Ford sat out the rest of the season to focus on Le Mans, and it paid off. Despite the car’s heavy weight, it was supremely fast – leading to driver concerns that it’d cook its brakes. Ford won again, with Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt making this the first and so far only all-US Le Mans win. That was it for the MkIV, although one was rebuilt as the G7 for Can-Am, with little in the way of success.

1968-1969 P68/P69

1968 MK II L IV ES AG AIN

The FIA changed the rules, imposing a 3.0-litre limit on the prototype class and a 5.0-litre limit on the sports car class. Ford of Europe funded the development of the P68 and P69, yet although quick, the car failed to finish any of the eight races it was entered into.

Several teams redeveloped the MkII for GT class competition, most notably John Wyer’s JW Automotive Engineering. While 1968 didn’t get off to a great start, with a brace of retirements in America, outright victories followed at Brands Hatch, Monza, Spa and Watkins Glen. The greatest result was saved to last, at the late-year running of the Le Mans 24 Hours – Pedro Rodríguez and Lucien Bianchi finished five laps ahead of their nearest challenger (left).

TIM SCOTT / PETERSEN MUSEUM / MOTORSPORT IMAGES / ALAMY

Ford GT40 and beyond

1965 FA L SE DAWN Victory at last as the Shelby American GT/103 of Ken Miles and Lloyd Ruby took first place at the Daytona 1000km. A month later, Miles and Bruce McLaren came second in the Sebring 12 Hours. However, the next few races proved disappointing, with a third place at Monza being a rare highlight. Le Mans again came up short: four cars were entered from various teams (left and right) but the Blue Oval challenge burst three hours in. Ferrari won its sixth Le Mans in a row. The rest of the season was fairly dismal, yet domestic results for Guy Ligier in France and Peter Sutcliffe in Africa showed the car could win.

1966 TRI U M P H A ND D ISASTE R A new NASCAR-spec Galaxie 7.0-litre engine and more robust Kar Kraft four-speed ’box gave the GT40, then known as the MkII, the minerals to succeed. It dominated the Daytona 24 Hours, with Ruby and Miles leading home a 1-2-3. However, Ford’s next victory came via the X-1 Roadster, built to contest

1969 T HE C LOS EST FI N I SH, T HE SWEET EST GOODBY E JWA continued on for another year, further refining the car. It would be a challenging season, with victory at Sebring the one highlight of the first part of the year. By now the GT40 was starting to show its age – Jacky Ickx referred to the car as “the old lady”, as it had won in 1968. The old lady certainly had gumption, though; aided by a little trickery from Ickx, it won Le Mans by a mere 120ft. However, Porsche had won the championship – and the team was just about to enter its first era of dominance…

the 1965 North American Pro series for McLaren’s team, driven by Chris Amon. After winning the tragedy-hit Sebring 12 Hours in 1966, it fell foul of US customs and was destroyed. Ferrari had struck back at Monza and Spa with wins for John Surtees and Mike Parkes, and Chaparral had taken the Nürburgring 1000km. Yet

Ford threw it all at Le Mans, with eight out of 15 entries allowed to run. Controversially, McLaren and Amon took the victory ahead of Miles and Denny Hulme, with another MkII in third (left). The nearest Ferrari came eighth… By this point, Ford had moved development in-house and back to the US, and had started work on the MkIV J Car in March 1966. Tragically, Ken Miles was killed during testing at Riverside.

LEFT Victory at Le Mans – by a mere 120ft – for Jacky Ickx.

Starter

Words David Lillywhite

BELOW Audi Tradition’s Auto Union Type 52 nominated for two awards at IHMA 2024.

CAR OF THE YEAR 1903 Mercedes-Simplex 60HP 1924 Mercedes Targa Florio 1934 Auto Union Type 52 ‘Schnellsportwagen’ 1934 Bugatti Type 59 Sports 1954 Lagonda DP115/2 and DP115/3 1964 Meyers Manx ‘Old Red’ 1970 Lancia Stratos HF Zero 1970 Plymouth Superbird No. 43 1984 Toleman TG183B-05 Hart (Senna) 2024 Tuthill GT ONE BESPOKE CAR (OCTANE MAGAZINE) V12 E-type Reimagined – Building the Legend Tuthill GT ONE – Tuthill Porsche Auto Union Type 52 – Audi Tradition Veloce12 – Touring Superleggera RUF Rodeo – RUF Automobile Midsummer – Morgan and Pininfarina BOOK (HORTONS BOOKS) The Last Eye Witness – Doug Nye Millanta on Ferrari 1947-1952 – Alessandro Silva Nash-Healey: A Grand Alliance – John Nikas and Hervé Chevalier JaguarSport XJR-15 – Peter Stevens Texas Legend: Jim Hall and his Chaparrals – George Levy Never Look Back – Derek Warwick BMW by Design – Steve Saxty

Awards shortlist revealed These are the entries that made it through to final voting for the collector car world’s only truly international awards

Magneto

IN OCTOBER, WE ANNOUNCED the shortlist for the 2024 International Historic Motoring Awards (IHMA) presented by Lockton, due to take place at a ceremony at the Peninsula London hotel on November 22. Launched in 2011, the International Historic Motoring Awards is now back in the ownership of two of its original founders, Geoff Love and David Lillywhite of Hothouse Media – the publishing house of Magneto and Octane magazines. Revamped for 2024, the IHMA received hundreds of nominations for this year’s prizes, from motoring experts, enthusiasts and personalities around the globe. The categories encompass everything from superb restorations and world-class events to outstanding individual achievements. A panel of international judges decides who wins, while the Car of the Year goes to a public vote, with many Magneto readers taking part. The Lifetime Achievement Award is determined by a panel of experts. If you missed the ceremony, the results will be on the official website, where there is also information on all the awards, the judges and much more. See www.historicmotoringawards.co.uk.

BREAKTHROUGH EVENT Concours of Elegance Germany International Women’s Day Hagerty Hangout ModaMiami The Oberoi Concours d’Elegance The Aurora – Scandinavian Concours CLUB (LOCKTON PERFORMANCE) Historic Sportscar Racing MG Car Club Team Jarrott Ferrari Club of America Porsche Club of America Vintage Sports-Car Club INDUSTRY SUPPORTER A. Lange & Söhne Motul Richard Mille Piston Foundation Historic & Classic Vehicles Alliance Mercedes-Benz Classic Hagerty Drivers Foundation OUTSTANDING USE OF MEDIA Richard Hammond’s Workshop Kidston SA Goodwood Road & Racing Audrain Museum Network The Late Brake Show Hagerty Media

RESTORATION (CLASSIC & SPORTS FINANCE) Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato (RS Williams) Mercedes Targa Florio (M-B Classic) Jaguar D-type XKD 526 (CKL Developments) Talbot Lago T26 Grand Sport (Chropynska) Lagonda DP115s (Benjamin & Thorpe) Ferrari 250 GTO (Tom Hartley Jnr) MOTORSPORT EVENT Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion Velocity Invitational Goodwood Revival meeting Silverstone Festival MOTORING EVENT (MAGNETO MAGAZINE) Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance InterClassics Brussels American Speed Festival The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering Rétromobile Salon Privé PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT Bruce Meyer Daman Thakore David Knight Frank Cassidy SPECIALIST Jim Stokes Workshops Coryton Fuels Eagle E-Types HK-Engineering CKL Developments Ashton Keynes Vintage Restorations RALLY OR TOUR RREC Tour of Norway – Classic Travelling Tour de Corse Historique – Classic Media Modena Cento Ore – Canossa Events 1000 Miglia Tour Auto – Peter Auto Peking to Paris Motor Challenge – HERO-ERA YOUNG ACHIEVER (PETERSEN MUSEUM) Mark Hastings James Barrett David Kibbey James Mabley William Garrett Tom Lee MUSEUM (POONAWALLA COLLECTION) Autoworld Brussels Petersen Automotive Museum Revs Institute Silverstone Museum

Un invito a Roma

You are invited to the inaugural Anantara Concorso Roma, a spettacolo of rare and significant automobili italiane in the heart of historical Rome. Please join us in April 2025 for a celebration of the very best in Roman hospitality, Italian cuisine and luxury style—La dolce vita delle automobili. To enter a car, or to book an all-inclusive visitor package, visit anantaraconcorsoroma.com 24-27 APRIL 2025

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Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography Dean Smith

THIS PAGE Cars such as the Spyder GT have been developed in every conceivable way, setting an early precedent for the restomod breed.

Where the Eagle soars We speak to Eagle E-types founder Henry Pearman about 30 years refining the breed – and why the Nissan Skyline GT-R played a key role 32

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“PEOPLE ALWAYS SAY IT WAS clever of me to choose the E-type, when actually the E-type chose me,” says founder of Eagle E-types, Henry Pearman – the man behind some of the most revered examples ever restored or reimagined. What began as straight restorations has morphed into a company producing cars such as the Speedster, Low Drag GT and Lightweight GT, each of which helped to define the restomod breed joined by Singer and Alfaholics decades later. Like many, Henry’s E-type gateway drug was as a child. “My first memory of the car was the four exhaust pipes on the V12 and a Cadbury Milk Tray TV advert. And then, when I went to visit my nan and take a trip to the beach, there was an E-type sitting in someone’s drive,” he recalls. “That’s all I needed to see, and I could have gone straight back home as a happy eight- or nine-year-old. The car has been my passion ever since.” Henry cannot eulogise about the E-type enough. “It was a generation ahead of everything else, and is the closest you could get to a race car on the road that’s civilised, too,” he says. “You have got a stiff monocoque body, independent rear suspension, a rack-and-pinion steering system, disc brakes all around…” Fast-forward to 1988, when Henry cemented his friendship with Eagle’s now managing director Paul Brace, when they separately competed in the inaugural Pirelli Classic Marathon. It was an event Henry went on to win outright in his own E-type the following year against the likes of Stirling Moss, Paddy Hopkirk, Timo Mäkinen, Roger Clark and Ove Andersson. Paul then joined Eagle in the summer of 1989. Henry spent that autumn enjoying the flowing roads of Europe in a Porsche 911 SC, which made quite the lasting impression on him. “I thought, wouldn’t it be great if you could make an E-type as confidence-inspiring as that 911, so the brakes – or indeed

the car itself – don’t overheat?” In 1991, a customer called John McLaren came down to see Henry and Paul with his Series 2 E-type Roadster that had been conventionally restored elsewhere. He stated that while he loved the idea of having a restored E-type, he couldn’t stand the fact that “every time I go out in it, it is more bank notes for the shredder. Everything is supposed to be restored, but there is always something that needs doing”. At the time, John had a new Nissan Skyline GT-R daily driver, which prompted a question: could Eagle restore an E-type to the point where everything is zero hours, zero mileage? “We told him we could, but it would probably be twice the time, so twice the price, of a normal restoration,” Henry recalls. “He said ‘let’s do it’, so we gave him a fixed price and he paid two-thirds up front, meaning we could fully concentrate on introducing reliability and peace of mind. That was Eagle number 1, delivered in 1994, and he still has it and loves it.” Since then Eagle has delivered almost 70 E-type restorations, as well as introducing more bespoke options, including the Spyder GT seen here. All of them focus on how the E-type might have developed, using inspiration from Jaguar’s own history – but what does the future hold for Eagle? “More of the same,” Henry says. “We’ll continue to evolve with an open mind, and continue to exploit emerging knowledge, materials and processes if it results in improvements.” He goes on: “We have particularly enjoyed discovering weight-saving measures over the past decade, because more owners appreciate the many virtues of driving lighter cars. We can restore E-types that can weigh less than 1000kg, provide 360lb ft of torque and give a highly rewarding and exciting driving experience, as well as a silky and compliant ride.” Read more at www.eaglegb.com.

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Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

IT’S BEEN QUITE A YEAR FOR CALLUM and the Jaguar C-X75 project. Earlier in 2024, the Ian Callum-led design and engineering consultancy revealed the first roadgoing C-X75, based on a James Bond stunt machine. While that model, as revealed in sister publication Octane, was developed for road use, it intentionally kept much of the James Bond provenance. The C-X75 you see here, dubbed Car 001, is very different. CALLUM worked with the owner of Car 001 to go far beyond the needs of meeting the UK’s Individual Vehicle Approval (IVA) certification. It reengineered the drivetrain, upgraded the aerodynamic package and trimmed the interior with a luxurious spec befitting a Jaguar hypercar. The key change to the drivetrain, compared with the Bond car, is the fitment of a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission rather than a race-spec sequential manual. CALLUM has deployed its own in-house-developed software and electronic systems to provide different drive modes: one for comfort, and one to give a more dynamic sporting set-up that sharpens

THIS PAGE Highspec cabin features leather trim, airconditioning and premium audio.

CALLUM’s C-X75 goes beyond Bond Reworked Jaguar hypercar is a road-going vehicle you’d actually want to drive – and as often as possible

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gearshifts, hones throttle response and enhances the supercharged V8’s roar. In addition there is a new active aerodynamic package, which above 60km/h (37mph) provides additional downforce, plus an air-brake system during hard deceleration. There is a hydraulic front lift system, too, for traversing urban streets in the usual way, rather than in the manner of a Bond villain around Rome, as seen in the 2015 Bond movie Spectre. The 20in and 21in wheels remain, but are now shod in Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tyres. Further exterior changes – which took more than 1000 hours of work – include a Willow Green paint finish, aluminium window surrounds, visual carbonfibre accents for the quarterlight intakes and diffuser, plus a bespoke fuel-filler cap. The inside of the car sees the largest departure from the stunt machine, with a fully furnished cockpit in dark green with cream sections, crafted from Bridge of Weir leather. It even boasts Apple CarPlay, an electronic parking brake, an immobiliser, central locking and three-point seatbelts, as well as much more. Adding this level

of comfort to a car that was really only originally built for stunt drivers to scream around in proved to be the biggest challenge, as CALLUM’s engineering boss Adam Donfrancesco explains: “Integrating features such as air-con and premium audio while also balancing the NVH, refinement and hygiene factors, like engineering the door seals to keep the elements out, all while ensuring it still sounded mega, was a formidable but thrilling challenge. The results speak for themselves.” Part of this process included the use of advanced additive manufacturing with the help of Stratasys, which was engaged to develop interior elements such as the sill trim, which accommodates the cup-holders. For Ian Callum, it brings the C-X75 project – for which he led the original Jaguar design team – full circle. “The C-X75 was ‘the one that got away’ – a car brimming with unfulfilled potential,” he says. “We’ve combined the customer’s wishes with carefully engineered solutions to bring the C-X75 to the thoroughly satisfying conclusion it always deserved.” More details at www.callumdesigns.com.

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Starter

Words Fanny Johnstone Midson

Photography Jayson Fong

THIS PAGE 1924 Le Mans revisited stayed true to the club’s ‘guts and glory’ ethos.

The rules are… 1924 rules To honour Bentley’s first Le Mans win, Benjafield’s ran a ‘24 hours’ to obscure century-old regulations

RACERS JOHN DUFF AND FRANK Clement claimed Bentley’s legendary first win at Le Mans in 1924. One hundred years later, Benjafield’s Racing Club (BRC) honoured their victory with a recreation of the 24-hour endurance race, at Portugal’s Portimão Formula 1-approved circuit. With top speeds of 120mph down the main straight, Benjafield’s members proved that their Vintage Bentleys have still got what it takes to set hearts on fire. It was Duff – the type of man who walks from China, through Russia and Europe, to fight in World War One – who persuaded WO Bentley that the latter’s magnificent engines could win at Le Mans. Despite Duff nearly losing his legs fighting at the Third Battle of Ypres, he qualified as a racing driver in 1920, proving himself with that astonishing 1924 Le Mans victory. Benjafield’s ethos is to help preserve the spirit of the camaraderie and sportsmanship of that era, and true to the club’s word its ‘guts and glory’ attitude generates world-class events. More than 150 Benjafield’s members and crew were on hand at Portimão to get the 25 old Bentleys through the gruelling day and night’s driving. Some

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WINNERS’ LIST SPIRIT OF THE EVENT: Car 5 – Bailey/de Montmorency LONGEST DRIVE: Car 99 – Ewen Getley INAUGURAL WINNER OF THE BIANNUAL RACE: Car 4 – Nick Swift THIRD PLACE: Car 17 – Nick Sleep SECOND PLACE: Car 4 – Joel Laub FIRST PLACE: Car 8 – Andreas Pohl

had even driven their cars from the UK to the Algarve first. Driver briefings urged safety above competitiveness, thanked owners for putting their cars on the line, and then drilled into the original 1924 rules, which were being enforced as tightly as possible. The first ten laps were to be hoodsup, and a Mean Target Distance (MTD) also had to be achieved, with engine size and weight differences equalised by handicaps and/or penalties. With MTDs due to be accomplished by some time Sunday morning, cars were subsequently up against a most-laps finish, with everyone then vulnerable to the mysterious ‘blocks of five laps’ that made up the rest of the race. A block of five could be knocked off your tally if pitstops or average laps weren’t perfectly timed and executed. Drivers also had to replenish fuel themselves. This all ensured that teams had to compete as strategically as possible – or blocks of five laps would disappear. The race began on Saturday, with the ACO representative dropping the flag at 4:00pm to signal an original Le Mans start, and drivers running across the track to erect tops. Hoodless cars had been positioned way down the

grid, but were soon off and flying before some had even undone their hood studs. Racers settled into the afternoon and evening, and the sun set as headlights glared and the engines’ delicious drone revved high. Of the five female pilots, three had only recently qualified as racing drivers. Charlotte de Montmorency (25) won the Generations Rally earlier this year alongside her aunt, Philippa Bailey: “My aunt’s been killing 3.31 lap times, and I’ve been getting 3.18s and 3.17s. My younger sister got 3.14s last time she was out, which I’m a bit annoyed about because now I need to be doing that. This family can be competitive.” The mechanics were out in force, and by morning the only real casualties were the blocks of five laps occasionally vanishing and thus damaging team scores. “It’s like black magic,” one driver was heard to say. Then it was all over. Dudley Benjafield’s old team car came in strong, and in usual BRC style no one really noticed who won. A cool-down lap, led by Old Mother Gun and flanked by the Pacey-Hassan, brought the centenary race to a close, signalling the start of some serious celebrations.

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Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

AS BENTLEY MULLINER’S SPEED Six Continuation series enters the production stage, we speak to the division’s special projects leader Ben Linde about the programme – and what the future holds. “I think it was for us to prove the naysayers wrong, and we have done that,” he says. “They said we were not going to produce true Continuation cars, and we have.” He is in a positive mood: the 12 Bentley Blowers have already been delivered, and Mulliner is halfway through the Speed Six project, which recreates the models raced at the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1930. “We’ve just delivered the first car, and we’ve got another five in production at different stages; we hope to have them all finished by the end of 2025.” The process has been exhaustive. While the company’s own Speed Six, GU 409, was used as a reference, the project also benefitted from having Old Number 3 loaned to Mulliner. That car was driven in 1930’s Le Mans race by Sammy Davis and Clive Dunfee – however, the research went much further than that. “I describe it as being a bit like the Jurassic Park DNA – you’re getting pieces from all over, and then we as engineers have to act as detectives to ensure we are creating authenticity,” Ben says. “We’ve got huge amounts of data in the WO Bentley Memorial Foundation, in terms of drawings as well as physical assets. We recognise that there’s been plenty of change over 90 years, and then we consult industry experts for their learnings over 50plus years restoring these cars. It’s all about piecing together the history.” While the original models provided the starting point for the 3D geometry, these were overlaid with the original drawings to analyse any concerns as the car was put together. Yet even this presented some challenges. “At the time, Bentley was creating drawings with very little money, and some were done in France because the labour was cheaper at the time, so we’ve had to become fluent in French,” Ben smiles

THIS PAGE Speed Six project helps bring new skills to the next generation.

Full Speed ahead at Mulliner From Blower to Speed Six, with more in store, Bentley’s Continuation project is going from strength to strength

Magneto

Photography Luc Lacey

– although that was only one of the early challenges. “We’ve got a lot of examples of where parts don’t fit together. They’ll have modified them at the time and not updated the drawing.” Where there have been changes to the original cars, it’s been down to usability: “Looking at the pedal-shaft assembly, if we took that from the original 1929 drawing, it’d be difficult for a modern customer to get their feet

on the pedals – so we’ve had to make subtle adjustments such as that.” Thoughts are now turning to what’s coming next. “We don’t want to stop the development of coachbuilding skills we’ve had over the past four or five years – but we want to make sure the next step is the right one,” Ben explains. “We don’t want to do a programme just for the sake of it.” Could the next project be something post-war? “We wanted to celebrate our history around Le Mans, and we have done that successfully – but I don’t want to restrict ourselves to prewar. The skills we’ve developed could apply to classics in general,” Ben says. These talents could see Mulliner refitting and retrimming more recent Bentleys, even up to ’90s Continentals and beyond: “I’d relish the chance to access that kind of car; there are a lot of things we could do to reimagine those models sympathetically.” Ben believes the programme has had a far-reaching impact beyond the cars – and Bentley itself. “There’s a lot of stuff where I think assumptions were made over the decades, with different tech and mechanisms,” he says. “The research and validation we’ve been able to do as part of these programmes are something we’re able to offer back into the industry.” He also sees the investment in the next generation of coachbuilding craft as a great legacy. Many of those involved in the Continuation projects are apprentices, learning coachbuilding skills from long-term experts dating back to the Rolls-Royce/Bentley days. “Looking through books, drawings and physical parts, as well as learning new ‘old’ skills, is something the apprentices have really enjoyed,” Ben says. “They’re getting their hands dirty, becoming fully involved with a car, rather than ‘just bolt this here please’ – this is what makes Mulliner unique.” More details at www.bentleymotors.com.

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Starter

Words Joe Twyman

The Object Senna’s broken rim A busted wheel is one way of stopping an F1 legend (and his McLaren MP4/5B) in his tracks 40

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Photography www.legacyandart.com

FOR THE THIRD RACE OF THE 1990 Formula 1 season at Imola in Italy, Ayrton Senna qualified his McLaren MP4/5B on pole position ahead of team-mate Gerhard Berger by more than half a second. With such dominance not only in qualifying, but also having won the opening round of the season, and with a clear lead in the Drivers’ Championship, Senna went into the race as the favourite. The Brazilian led

off the line and started to build a lead, but approaching the end of the fourth lap he carried straight on into the gravel at the Rivazza corner with a puncture on the back right wheel. Veteran F1 commentators Murray Walker and James Hunt immediately acknowledged the failure, and once Senna had climbed out of his stricken McLaren, period footage shows him inspecting the rim and pressing down with his foot on the flat tyre

ABOVE The Dymag magnesium rim cost Senna the race when it sheared at Imola, but its failure didn’t deter him from going on to win the World Championship.

that robbed him of a potential victory. Following diagnostic tests back at the McLaren factory, the Dymag magnesium rim was put in the ‘no longer needed’ pile. It was ultimately saved from the bin by a senior mechanic, who retained it until very recently, at which point it passed into a prominent memorabilia collection. Despite his let-down in Italy, Senna went on to win his second World Championship from Alain Prost. Magneto

Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

MCXtrema reactions AGAINST A GRANITE SKY, ITS arrival played out like the hatching of something alien; the red LEDs and matte blue paint attracting passing workers and grannies alike, all toting smartphones. Ascot, Berkshire might be a highly affluent area, and the location was a Maserati dealership, but the delivery of the UK’s only MCXtrema still had an awe about it. Largely because many of the members of dealer staff couldn’t breathe out until the car was safely off the truck… For Vincent Biard, the chief engineer of the MCXtrema project, it’s the result of two years’ hard work. Although the development of the model and the GT2 racing programme were not fully parallel, the concept of an ultraperformance track-day variant was on the cards from the get-go. He says: “We had four aces in our hands: the MC20’s lightweight carbonfibre monocoque; the Nettuno engine; Klaus Busse at the Maserati design centre; and test driver and FIA GT World Champion Andrea Bertolini.” The result is a 730bhp, 1300kg, track-only supercar, limited to a total of 62, all of which were sold before it was even announced 18 months ago. “The MCXtrema is a completely different car in terms of the bodywork, and the interior is one of a fighter jet 42

Magneto

Sole UK delivery of Maserati’s new ultraperformance track-day car causes quite a stir...

THIS PAGE State-of-the-art MCXtrema is as at home on the street as it is on the track.

rather than a race car,” Vincent says. “Not having to follow rules also meant we could unleash all of the power. Andrea races a GT3 car, and he says that’s boring to drive compared with this – he says this has proper power.” Despite that, Biard is clear that the MCXtrema is usable: “We call it a beast – not to generate fear, but the emotions. Everything is predictable, yet if you have an engineering team or you are used to going on track, you can play with the set-up. “It has four-way adjustable dampers (the GT2 racing car has two-way), and we can provide camber shims to define the set-up so that it adapts to your driving preferences. There is also an adjustable rear wing with many degrees of freedom you just don’t have on the GT2.” Maserati is offering a range of support services, from on-call tech support and documentation, to track set-up guides. “There are also opportunities for our drivers to join events dedicated to them, or other events,” Vincent says. With track-day sound limits becoming a problem, particularly in the UK, Maserati is also able to offer specific exhausts complete with mufflers to match the requirements of different circuits. Although the MCXtrema is highly

advanced in its set-up – the wheelmounted screen allows all sorts of adjustability – it eschews an E-diff for a mechanical item. “Our drivers wanted few controls around them, the correct feedback on their own inputs – we wanted this experience to be pure,” Vincent says. As such, the steering rack is an electric one, but it has four stages of calibration depending on the track layout. It is something the MCXtrema’s new UK owner is looking forward to trying out as soon as possible. A longterm Maserati customer, he also races an Alfa 4C GT4: “You can say the MCXtrema is a race car that can’t race – but that is a very purist view. For me it’s not about getting into GT3 racing, it’s about having something that’s rare and collectable, but also that I can take on track and use. The main thing is to get the car out and about, because as a piece of design it’s pretty crazy and deserves to be seen. Fair play to them for building something so different.” Different – but could there be more to come? Could the GT2/MCXtrema form the basis of an FIA Hypercar Le Mans entry? Vincent wouldn’t be drawn, with delivery of 62 MCXtremas the primary focus. However… “With the success of the GT2 racer, there is the appetite to do even more…”

CMY

Starter

Words and photography Martyn Goddard

Eye witness First test of F40 on road and track

THIS PAGE The then-new F40 in the hills above Maranello on Highway SP3 near Il Poggio, and on the Fiorano track.

On May 10, 1988, photographer Martyn Goddard was one of the first to sample the new F40 in the hands of a Ferrari test driver

THE COVER LINE ON THE AUGUST 1988 issue of Car and Driver magazine was ‘First drive: Ferrari’s fantastic F40!’. From that fanfare, it seemed that editor William Jeanes had enjoyed the invitation to test Maranello’s latest supercar on the Fiorano Circuit. I had flown in from London to join the small, exclusive group of North American journalists invited to get behind the wheel of the Ferrari. This was not the F40’s launch, because the car had already been revealed at the Maranello Civic Centre in July 1987, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Ferrari. The journalists had not been allowed to drive it on that occasion, however; it was strictly a static affair. Over an excellent dinner the night before our drive, the Ferrari suits and engineers briefed the scribes on the philosophy behind the latest model designed and built to the wishes of 44

Magneto

Il Commendatore. I gathered, by listening to conversations between the writers, that Ferrari was under a bit of pressure at that time. There had been no new offering since the 288 GTO, and the uber-technical Porsche 959 had recently come on the market. Ferrari’s answer was to design the F40, a stripped-down hot rod of a car that could be driven to the office in the week and raced at the weekend. In the morning, we met at the factory. The allotted driving times were staggered, with our session being allocated in the afternoon. We were treated to a factory tour, which made interesting viewing with the blue-overalled workers building F40s on the production line at full swing. Unsurprisingly, the $250,000 supercar was apparently sold out, with a waiting list of potential buyers. When the tour ended, I was asked

whether I would like to take a ride on one of the post-production test drives. At that time, all cars coming off the line were fitted with Prova plates and road tested. I was able to ride shotgun, because editor Jeanes wanted me to try to shoot a cover image in the Italian countryside to expand the ‘we drive’ story from a track-only test. I stored my camera bag under my legs in the spartan interior; no aircon, radio or power windows, just high-backed racing seats, which I strapped into tight. My driver spoke no English, and I had a five-word Italian vocabulary. No matter: with a 478bhp twin-turbo V8 behind us, there was little chance of conversation. The car was not fitted with test gear, just a clipboard in the driver’s door pocket. We turned left and sped up the Via Abetone. Once clear of Maranello my pilot got down to work,

accelerating, braking and taking corners at a speed that made me press my right foot into the floor. All this activity was undertaken in complete calm, and at the top of a twisting pass we pulled over for the driver to make notes. It was then when I was able to suggest a few photographs. I took a set of images of the F40 in the quintessential Italian landscape, just as the magazine editor had requested. I was delivered to Fiorano in good time to shoot Jeanes’ test drive. I took action shots from behind the Armco, and tracking shots from the back of our Fiat rental car. The various writers all drove the F40: some faster than others, some in Piloti racing shoes, but from my view none with the skill, speed or confidence of my road-test driver. I’d witnessed exactly Enzo’s wish for the F40: a drive in the country then a blast around the racetrack.

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Starter

Words Magnus Walker

Photography Mercedes-Benz Archive

LIFE IS OFTEN ABOUT BEING IN the right place at the right time. It’s not something a spreadsheet can help with. It’s more about fate, a meant-to-be type of thing, with maybe a little help of putting out the right type of frequency. So, there I was, on a cold, damp, foggy morning outside the Gooding & Co. auction tent at the start of the Pebble Beach Tour d’Elegance, watching classic and vintage cars line up while organisers frantically moved them into the correct starting places. This tour is open to all cars that will grace Sunday’s lawn at the concours d’elegance, to participate in the 70mile drive down the PCH to Big Sur and back. The aim is to prove their

roadworthiness – and show that even though they may have arrived at the event on a trailer, they’re not simply a bunch of trailer queens... Much to my surprise, I spotted my buddy Michael from the MercedesBenz Museum standing next to an orange C 111, right at the front of the starting line. I jokingly said to him: “I see you have my car ready.” I admit I wasn’t quite ready for his reply: “Do you want to ride in it on the tour? The original designated passenger has missed his flight.” In an instant my day had gone from “What am I going to do next?” to “How did this just happen?” All the pre-planning with PR people would

Preordained fate, or just ’winging it...? Fashion designer and car collector Magnus Walker on his experiences with the legendary MercedesBenz C 111 gullwing

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THIS SPREAD Magnus has experienced the C 111 in two of its various guises over the years at Pebble Beach.

never have got me here at this point in time. Only fate, luck, friendship and a love of cars could, plus being in the right place at the perfect moment. After all, seeing an empty seat in the C 111 just wouldn’t look right on the tour. Now, I’m mostly a Porsche guy, but I often joke that I drive all cars from Stuttgart. I first visited the MercedesBenz Museum there in 2018 after a random message arrived in my Instagram account, inviting me over. (I had posted a photo of my good friend Ray’s 1963 Mercedes-Benz 220; I later found out Michael had sent the message, and we became fast friends.) That invite led to my tour of the museum, where I first saw the 1970

C 111 on display. Later that year, I drove a 300 SL with museum backing in the Silvretta Classic Rally in Austria. The following year, I accepted an invite from the museum to drive the same car in the 2019 Mille Miglia. All of this eventually led to a 300km drive in the iconic 1954 W 194 for a film I was making, and yet another invite to drive the ‘Silberne Sau’ (‘Silver Pig’), the factory-built tribute to the ‘Rote Sau’ (‘Red Pig’) W 109. I was quickly learning that these Mercedes-Benz folk are quite generous with their cars. I didn’t realise at the time, but this was all leading up to my first encounter with the C 111. It’s the first Mercedes design to feature gullwing doors after

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the W194 race cars and W198/300 SL. These experimental development models were built between 1969 and 1979 in several bodystyle variations (I, II, III and IV), with III and IV being the final silver turbodiesel and V8 petrolpowered high-speed Nardò recordbreakers. Earlier cars had three- and four-rotor Wankel engines that were smaller, lighter and smoother with less vibration, due to the motor’s onedirectional rotation rather than a standard reciprocating unit. Mercedes also made at least one V8 C 111-II. All were wrapped in this 1970s wedge-like body with mid-engine supercar design. The C 111 was never planned as a series car. It was a testbed for new technologies such as propulsion forms and lightweight components. Today, 13 of the 15 C 111-IIs originally built are in the Mercedes-Benz collection. In 2022, I got a little seat time in what was then the only running C 111. It had been restored in 2014 as its 250bhp 3.5-litre V8 was deemed to be the most reliable and user-friendly version of the vehicle; the Wankels had proven to be somewhat delicate. It was only hours before the car was loaded into a trailer to be transported to the Pebble Beach Concours, so I felt the pressure to take proper care of it as I drove a short distance around the Long Beach Airport next to the Mercedes-Benz Classic Center. It was mid-August, and outside temperatures had peaked at 90º-plus that day. It felt like 200º inside the cabin. Much like a Berlin fetish club, the vinyl trim had its own unique aroma. The interior fit wasn’t great, and it felt cramped. Also, the doors were heavy and headroom was compromised. But none of that mattered. The V8 was smooth and torquey; the clutch was light and simple to engage; the dogleg five-speed gearbox shifted easily. I drove the car for 15 minutes, and then it was gone, off to the world-famous Pebble Beach lawn. I wanted more. Which takes me back to that foggy morning in August ’24, when Michael offered me a taste of the C 111 once again. I accepted the invite not knowing that the car had not been driven more than a few miles since 1975. This would be the first major outing for the only running four-rotor Wankel engine C 111 post its full factory restoration. Talk about a spot of good luck and being in the right place at the right 48

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time. Timing really is everything. With less than one minute before the 9:00am start, I slipped into the passenger seat, closed the door and instantly wished I’d taken off my jacket and jumper. My driver for the next 70 miles and two hours was Patrik from Mercedes. We followed the police escort at less than 30mph, with the 350bhp fourrotor powerplant rarely getting over 3000rpm. We never got anywhere close to the 8000rpm red line. The Wankel is high on revs and low on bottom-end torque. But none of this mattered as I rode shotgun across the famous arched concrete Bixby Bridge, lined with enthusiasts from all over the world looking to capture a glimpse of the cars as they roared by with the mist rolling in and out of frame. The C 111 piloted by Patrik didn’t miss a beat. It never ran hot and never stalled. I, on the other hand, was sweating to death with my multiple layers and jackets on. The rudimentary pivot windows could only provide inadequate ventilation. Timing had got me into the passenger seat on this memorable drive. Fate would get me behind the wheel the next day on the runway at Salinas Airport, where I got to

‘A glimpse of the retro-futuristic dream MercedesBenz had planned for us in the 1970s’

explore the upper limits of the rev band on old skinny tyres... Once the gullwings are opened, getting into the fixed-back, vinyl seats is straightforward, and familiar in a vintage way that no modern supercar can match. The standard-looking and rather large stock Mercedes steering wheel is surprisingly unsporty for such a futuristic car that still seems fresh, stylish and ground-breaking more than five decades later. The dogleg five-speed gearshift lever falls to hand in an ideal position. Legroom is good. Rear visibility is not so good. Closing the doors requires a strong pull of the vinyl strap and a sideways tilt of my head to avoid the panel closing down on my skull. This I learn quickly when my first rushed attempt results in a heavy knock on my noggin. For my first drive in this Wankel C 111, my co-pilot is a tech – let’s call him Fritz – who talks me through the driving procedure in a “don’t break it” German type of way. “Don’t slip the clutch, give it some gas but not too much, it’s easy to stall,” he says. With a quick turn of the key to happiness, the 2.4-litre mechanical fuel-injection rotary engine springs into life. A short dab of the throttle shows its revvy nature. The clutch is weighted nicely, and the travel is smooth and short up to the biting point. First gear on the dogleg is over to the left and down. Casually, I let out the clutch, give it some revs, and just like that we are underway drama-free, with no stalls, no slipping. Just nice ’n’ easy and surprisingly simple from a 1300kg

1970s supercar. Fritz doesn’t say a word. He just looks at me and smiles with a knowing look of approval. On my first run around the airfield, I get up to fourth gear with ease. Downshifts are easy, although the pedals and large steering wheel make heel ’n’ toe-ing them a rewarding challenge to execute correctly. On the next lap I’m up to fifth and enjoying pushing the car toward 7000rpm. I soon discover that power is best delivered with high-rev shifts. Short-shifting does you no favours because there’s not much low-down torque. Steering is light and direct. Brakes are firm and effective. Grip on the old rubber is not so good. After a few more laps and some time behind a camera car capturing footage for a film, it’s all over too soon. Having driven both the V8 and the Wankel C 111s on somewhat closed courses, it’s hard to tell the difference between them other than the fact that the V8 had more bottom-end torque. Both were comfortable, user-friendly, easy to drive and unintimidating. They provided just the right amount of entertainment, engagement and excitement that makes me long to take one on a proper drive on one of my favourite roads to get the full C 111 experience. Who knows if that opportunity will ever arise. I wish this car had made it into production. It would have been the perfect evolution of the thrill that the 300 SL gave us in the 1950s and the glimpse of the retro-futuristic dream Mercedes-Benz had planned for us in the 1970s. At least I’ll have the memories forever. And the photos.

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Words David Lillywhite

Christie’s has its HQ there, so we’re very much going to be present in the UK. Europe, the Middle East or Asia are also possibilities if it makes sense.

How a good deal signals a great future David Gooding on how his privately owned Gooding & Company auction house will be affected by Christie’s recent acquisition

What challenges do you expect? As ever, finding great products and ensuring they are priced accordingly. There is a lot of money and activity in the market, but people are still trying to figure out the pricing. We saw that at Pebble Beach; prices were changing a lot from where they were, but the noreserve cars performed particularly well. What works best is the noreserve collections, like our recent Mullin sales or the Thomas H Larsen, Santa Fe and Dr Theodore Waugh Collections we had at Pebble Beach. How did the deal with Christie’s and Gooding & Company come about? We have always had a friendly rapport with our colleagues at Christie’s, from the beginning. And you know, it is the company where I started. I think the ethos of our firm – integrity, trust, transparency, clear business practices – is very much aligned. I was taught that by Christie’s years ago, and it’s something we carried forward when we started Gooding & Company in 2003. The two companies fit beautifully. What’s in it for Christie’s? It very much wanted to be in the car market. It didn’t have a car department because it had gotten out of the business in 2007, and it realised that the classic car market is important and significant. Classic cars are now recognised as an asset class.

When did talks start? Christie’s approached us around a year and a half ago, and we began exploring the idea. Dawn [wife and co-founder] and I felt like it made a lot of sense. We don’t want to change, retire or slow down, but we want to continue growing, and we will now have the financial resources and global network to do so. Tell us more about the resources. We now have probably the greatest financial horsepower in the industry. Christie’s is a very strong company financially, and as strong as anybody in the business, and so we can expand. We want to be thoughtful and careful about our expansion, but we want to continue to compete on every level. So, more sales? We’ll certainly be looking at expanding into other venues. Our mantra has always been quality over quantity, and that will still be the case. We’re not going to be doing auctions all the time, where it diminishes our ability to service the clients properly and really have a great understanding of what we are offering. And that does get diluted if you have too many sales; we’re very mindful of that. We never want to compromise our quality. Will you do more globally? The US is where the most activity happens, so we may expand more there. But the UK is a hub for activity, the classic car brain of the world, and

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Is the market changing? It’s readjusting, certainly. You hear that people are losing interest in, say, pre-war cars or 1950s cars. And I think there are price adjustments, but it’s not like there is no market. We see exceptionally strong values in all those categories. If there’s something unusual and special, there’s usually a bidding war, and we see new record prices set. If you look at more contemporary cars, too, there are adjustments there as well. Are young people still buying? Yes! I think that new technology has been great at reaching a whole new category of collectors. I’m seeing more and more youth come into the industry, which is fantastic. Contrary to what a lot of people think, they’re not just buying contemporary cars and supercars. I also see them gravitating towards all kinds of different categories of cars. You go to an event such as the London to Brighton, and it’s amazing just how multi-generational it is. There is a lot of youth at some of these old-car events, which is great to see. Finally, will the acquisition change Gooding & Company? Of our entire team, no one’s changing. Everybody is staying here. But this move enables us to tap into Christie’s worldwide clientele base. Gooding & Co. is known globally, yet we’ll be able to leverage that to tremendous effect. It’s something we’re excited about.

Life is racing, everything else is just waiting 25th Anniversary - October 5 - 11, 2025

VALLELUNGA

MAGIONE

MUGELLO

MISANO

IMOLA

A special edition 5 days 5 circuits 10 special stages on closed roads 100 cars from 1919 until 1981

mco@canossa.com

From Rome to Modena On Italy’s most scenic roads Competition and Regularity sections Top-tier hospitality

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Words David Lillywhite

Photography Aston Martin

Yes, it’s a new V12 Aston... Just when you thought the V12 was dead, Aston Martin goes all-out on an all-new unit for its thirdgeneration Vanquish

THIS PAGE New rear end, extrawide front grille and high-spec interior distinguish the 2024 Vanquish.

WHILE THE REST OF THE CAR world is quietly edging away from the V12, trying to pretend it never happened, the less politically correct Aston Martin hasn’t given up on it yet. Two and a half years after releasing the last-ever V12 Vantage, and a year after launching the V8-only DB12, we have the new Vanquish – with an allnew, most-powerful-ever… V12! How powerful? We are talking 824bhp and 738lbft of torque, which just pips the new Ferrari 819bhp 12Cilindri. Those figures also make the model hierarchy clear: the DB12 develops 671bhp and the Vantage 656bhp. The wild but now-defunct V12 Vantage made 690bhp. So this third-generation Vanquish remains as the flagship production model, 23 years on from the first iteration, designed by Ian Callum. It’s a huge step on from the most recent Vanquish, and from the previous range-topping DBS Superleggera, too. Now, to the untrained eye there’s long been an issue of Astons looking

surfaces. The steering response is set to be quicker at low speeds, in part to disguise the longer wheelbase. It mostly succeeds, but the Vanquish doesn’t feel as sportily reactive as the Vantage (nor is it meant to). Its size can go against it, though. On often-narrow roads in Sardinia, where the first drives were held, it sometimes felt uncomfortably large, but it did come into its own on A-roads and fast dual-carriageways. Again, this is a super-GT – and a superb one at that. The quality of the cabin, the best equipped and most resolved of the new-generation Astons so far, simply underlines the new car’s refinement. If you’re expecting the squirmy hot rod that was the original V12 Vantage, you’ll be disappointed, because that’s not the idea of the Vanquish. If you want speed and civility, you’ll be fine. Above all, that we can even still buy a new V12 Aston – although at a price of £330,000 and limited to 1000 cars a year – is something to be happy about. There’s more on the new Vanquish at www.magnetomagazine.com.

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similar across the models, and that hasn’t changed – but the Vanquish does now sport the ‘shield’ rear end, as seen on the limited-production Valour. As with the Vantage and the DB12, the Vanquish is also wider than its predecessors, which has been part-driven by the need for enhanced cooling to cope with the extra power. Just look at the size of the grille... The wheelbase is longer than those of the Vantage and DB12, by 180mm and 80mm respectively, due to the size of the V12, and the car weighs 1774kg. So with all that, you’d hope that it is worth the gains in size and weight. And, yes, largely it is. The performance is suitably ballistic: 0-60mph in 3.2 seconds and a top speed of 214mph, the highest of any production Aston. More than that, though – because there’s only so much you can do with those figures – it’s the way the power

is delivered that reminds you just how good the best V12s are. And this is one of the best. The familiar twin-turbo, quad-cam unit has been reworked with a stronger cylinder block, lower-inertia turbos, higher-capacity fuel system and even a different firing order. The result is smooth, relentless power delivery right through the rev range, combined with an engine note that belies the usually muting effect of turbocharging. Combined with the recalibrated ZF eight-speed transaxle and fast-acting electronic differential (it goes from fully open to 100 percent locked in 135 milliseconds), the Vanquish feels supercar fast but GT civilised, which is how it should be. Similarly, the handling and ride are tamed by the Bilstein DTX active dampers and sophisticated traction control, although there’s still some thump from the rear over rough

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Words Simon de Burton

Photography Sotheby’s

The diving watch that made a splash in the movies

IF YOU’VE EVER WORN A DECENT watch while delving into an engine, you’ll sympathise with Al Giddings. The regular Pebble Beach Concours entrant and award-winning restorer – known for his collection of rare, pre-war Willys-Knights – is parting with the beloved Rolex Submariner he has worn for 50 years because, he says: “I’m often up to my elbows in parts and oil. Watches can take a lot of hits in that environment, so I’ve started to put mine away. They deserve to be worn and cherished by someone else.” But while any Submariner might be regarded as covetable and collectable, this and another Giddings is parting with are in a ‘league’ of their own. Why? Because he is also one of the movie world’s most celebrated underwater cinematographers who, since buying his steel Submariner in 1974, has used it for just the purpose for which it was designed – not least by wearing it on 17 descents to the wreck of the Titanic. The International Scuba Diving Hall of Famer, now 87, was the co-producer and underwater photography director on 1997’s multi-Oscar-winning movie about the ill-fated ship, and he also worked on the Bond films For Your Eyes Only and Never Say Never Again, as well as epics such as The Deep and The Abyss. And on every occasion, Giddings – himself a quadruple Emmy Award winner – had the trusty ‘Sub’ wrapped around his wrist. “With very few exceptions I wore that watch 24/7, often in challenging conditions from the North Pole to the tropics,” he told me from his home in San Francisco. “I chose it because it was the finest timepiece available worldwide – I used it as a daily diving tool, and it performed flawlessly for 50 years. It’s travelled with me more than nine million miles around the globe.” Giddings says the watch proved critical for timing scenes, monitoring battery life and co-ordinating multiple cameras during his Titanic dives, many of which took place in 1992 during the Cold War, when he assembled a Soviet-American scientific team to film the ship’s wreckage. Using one Mir submersible as a lighting rig, and another to carry a camera, the team lit and filmed the ship, bringing back extensive footage of parts that had not been seen since her sinking 80 years earlier. The resulting documentary, Titanic: Treasure of the Deep, inspired director

Concours entrant and celebrated underwater cinematographer Al Giddings is selling the hardest-working watch in showbiz, with a unique Titanic connection

THIS PAGE Al Giddings wore his ‘Sub’ during his career, including when he shot the Titanic footage.

James Cameron to embark on creating Titanic the movie – whose opening sequences feature Giddings’ voice. Although he’s owned the watch for five decades, Giddings says he was unaware that its value had soared – until he discovered that his Reference 1680 model is rarer than most because ‘Submariner’ is written in red. Rolex used such dials only from 1967-75 on a relatively small number of watches, before replacing the red text with white. “I had no idea until I recently took it to a reputable dealer, who informed me that the steel Submariner with red writing is really quite special.” The watch will cross Sotheby’s block in December, and has been modestly estimated to fetch $20,000-40,000. Giddings has also consigned a yellowgold Submariner Reference 1680/8 from 1984; estimated at $30k-60k, it is almost as storied as his steel version, having been used on Titanic dives and even appeared in the film. In the 1980s, Giddings was shooting a documentary about the revered marine biologist, oceanographer and explorer Dr Sylvia Earle (a longstanding Rolex ‘Testimonee’). He took some stills of Dr Earle, which Rolex later used in an advertising campaign for its dive watches. “I sent them off, and a Rolex employee called T Walker Lloyd asked me how much they owed me – but I said there was no charge, because I was happy to support Sylvia’s work. About a month went by, and a box arrived in the mail, along with a message that said: “Enjoy. T Walker Lloyd.” I opened it, and inside was this gold Rolex. I was in shock.” Giddings wore the watch sparingly – but while he was working as coproducer on Titanic, James Cameron decided the gold Submariner would be ideal for actor Bill Paxton to wear in his role as dive director Brock Lovett. Giddings played a cameo in the film (as a submersible operator communicating with Lovett), and he returned home once his work was done. “About ten months later I suddenly thought: ‘Whatever happened to my gold Rolex?’ I contacted Jim’s (Cameron’s) office, and a week or two later it came in the mail with a thankyou note from Fox Studios.” Sotheby’s Important Watches sale takes place on December 6 at 1334 York Avenue, New York, starting at 10:00am EST. Full details at www.sothebys.com.

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Words David Lillywhite

Photography Emídio Copeto

WHEN A FORMULA 1 TEAM BOSS and racer decides to share his spectacular collection of Historic race cars with one of the most successful and versatile drivers of all time, you know you’re in for something special. And that was exactly the case at Estoril in October, when Zak Brown and Tom Kristensen shared the former’s Sebring and Daytona-winning Porsche 935 and Capri RS3100. Despite rain before both races, the pair finished third on slicks in the Porsche, and were running third in the Capri before braking issues forced a retirement in the race– although not before treating spectators to some spirited driving. So, we asked, how did all this come about? TK: We have known each other from the time when [Zak’s team] United Autosports was going with Audi R8s; it was one of the first customers. But at Abu Dhabi last year I spoke to Zac about the [F1] race. He looked at me and asked: “When were you last in a modern F1 car?” and I said: “About 20 years ago.” He said: “We need to change that.” So that’s how I drove the MCL36 at the Red Bull Ring. It made my year. I

didn’t blink at all for two times [sessions] of five laps. Then I met Richard Dean [United Autosports CEO and Zak’s regular team-mate] at Imola, and he said: “You might do more races with Zak, because there’s Estoril and I will probably be busy.” I’d only walked a bit further down the paddock when I had a text to say that I was in. ZB: I’d been aware of Tom since he was in Japan in the early ’90s, because Richard – he’s my best mate – was out there at the same time, and Tom was the guy to beat. We’d see each other at Le Mans and talk cars, and bump into each other at the Autosport Awards. It was cool to put him in the F1 car; it was on the pace immediately. Tom’s also driven my Senna ’86 Lotus, and when we celebrated Andretti I brought out a couple of Mario cars. But we’d never driven together until Estoril. TK: The race was fantastic, although we had that teething problem with the Capri. But in the Porsche we had a lot of fun. The 935 is very special, with the engine just sitting on the axle, and you’re quite far back in the car. I thought it’d be a little bit more wild in terms of the power delivery, but still it’s

THIS PAGE Tom and Zak celebrate their podium finish in the Porsche 935, originally driven by the infamous Jean Paul.

Is this Historic racing’s most formidable new duo? Nine-time Le Mans victor Tom Kristensen and McLaren F1 boss Zak Brown have teamed up, with more races planned

a big task to drive it. It goes pretty fast. ZB: Tom took it very seriously. You can see the level of professionalism. And I was happy, because both races were very tricky. The starting conditions... well, I wouldn’t have been comfortable driving my own cars, let alone letting anyone else other than TK. I also learn a lot, you know; I know they’re all going to be faster than me, which I’m comfortable with. I don’t mind getting beaten by a nine-time Le Mans winner. TK: It’s nice to have a guy like Zak as a team-mate, because he loves the history of the sport. He knows it better than me, and that means a great deal. ZB: For me, Historic racing kind of brings back my youth. I’m so stuck in the racing now; I love it, but I’m in the business, and so the Historic cars make me feel ten, 13, 15 years old again, and just remind me how much I appreciate this awesome sport. To be able to drive past legend cars with current legend drivers is a pretty privileged position to be in. We want to do Daytona next; it’s something TK and I intend to do. If I can get one of my GTP cars, and the 935 and TK along, I think that would be really cool.

14th Edition

21 - 24 August 2025

The battle of the prancing horses, but not only... For the first time ever, the host brand will be Porsche. We will feature 40 Italian brands, 40 Porsche and 40 Ferrari,

The battle of the prancing horses, but not only... all produced before 1985, along with selected lightning strikes at the organizer’s discretion.

For further information and registration: www.passione-engadina.ch For further information and registration: www.passione-engadina.ch

Xxxxxxxxx Xxxxxx

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A memorable villain, a steel-rimmed bowler hat-toting henchman, a suave secret

agent and a gadget-laden sports car; a recipe that turned the silver screen gold

Goldfinger DB5

Words Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury

Photography Sam Chick and Andy Morgan

SIXTY YEARS AGO, THE MOST ICONIC James Bond film ever was released. Goldfinger perfected the 007 formula – immortalised by Shirley Bassey’s spine-tingling title song as well as images such as Shirley Eaton covered in gold paint and henchman Oddjob clutching his deadly steel-rimmed bowler hat. The much-parodied torture scene of Bond spreadeagle while a laser beam inches ever-so-precariously northward was the perfect blend of suspense, humour, realism and fantasy. But more importantly, Goldfinger introduced the most successful and enduring product-placement partnership in motionpicture history, when Sean Connery drove the gadget-laden Aston Martin DB5 into battle. Goldfinger was only the third entry in the series. The DB5 contributed greatly to defining the Bondian language. While the car reflected the post-war technological age, it was the highly entertaining assortment of Q Branch extras that gave it such impact on screen. Scriptwriter Richard Maibaum: “We took into consideration the audience’s growing sophistication. We dared to do something seldom done in action pictures: we mixed what was funny with what was serious.” Following the brief appearance of Bond’s Bentley 4¼ Litre in From Russia With Love (1963), it seemed the filmmakers had planned to stick with 007’s preferred marque. However, producer Cubby Broccoli and production designer Ken

Goldfinger DB5

OPPOSITE Ram-ready overriders play second fiddle to twin 30-caliber Browning machine guns.

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Adam both considered Bentley rather old-hat. Should 007 drive the new Jaguar E-type, or an Alfa or Ferrari? Adam was a car connoisseur: “We all felt it would be nice to have the poshest English sports car, which at that time was the Aston.” The arsenal of weaponry was concocted by committee, although who suggested what has now blurred. For director Guy Hamilton, originality was essential: “I’d just been given a parking ticket. As I watched the smug meter maid walk away, I fantasied: revolving numberplates.” Adam, meanwhile, was frustrated that his E-type was frequently knocked outside his Knightsbridge home, and suggested the extended overriders. He advocated that he was the originator of the ejector seat following his experience as an RAF pilot, but Hamilton claimed it was instead the inspiration of his own 12-year-old stepson. The final Aston design featured front-mounted Browning machine guns concealed behind the side-lights, hydraulic overriders to be used as battering rams, and a bullet-proof steel shield to protect the rear window. To confound pursuers, the DB5 featured revolving plates valid in the UK (BMT 216A), France and Switzerland. Hidden in the rear lights were a high-powered oil jet and an ejector pipe for dispensing spiked caltrops. The exhaust also emitted a smokescreen, while a revolving tyre slasher emerged from the centre of one rear wheel. Inside, the cabin boasted a radio telephone

Goldfinger DB5

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Goldfinger DB5

OPPOSITE Trick tracking device’s 150-mile range meant Bond could “stop off for a quick one en route”.

concealed in the driver’s door panel, while a weapons tray sat underneath the seat containing a Mauser automatic, rifle stock, hand grenade and throwing knife. A radar display screen hidden behind the radio-speaker cover could track the enemy. All key gadgets were controlled by a console disguised in the central arm rest. The producers made an approach to Aston Martin’s recently appointed managing director Steve Heggie, and outlined their concept: “We had many such requests in those days from film producers – and in general it cost Aston more than it was worth.” In truth, the marque was struggling financially. Heggie informed Broccoli’s producing partner Harry Saltzman that the company was not in the lending business but would be happy to sell him a DB5 at retail price. “Harry practically choked. ‘Had I not seen From Russia With Love?’ ‘No.’ ‘Dr No?’ ‘No.’” Saltzman did not give up, and he returned to see Heggie with special-effects wiz John Stears, who described Aston Martin’s scepticism: “They said: ‘Well you won’t get any more equipment in this car, it’s absolutely loaded as it is.’ So I said: ‘Give me a break: let me prove to you I can do it.’” Heggie and his team politely declined. Disheartened, Stears and Ken Adam discussed alternatives. A Jensen perhaps? Even Chevrolet was mentioned. But it was the DB5 they were really after. Heggie finally softened: “It became

clear that the car was to be a star in the film. So we compromised. I agreed to loan them a DB5 that we’d been using in the R&D department.” DP/216/1 (DP meaning development project) was the prototype DB5, developed from the DB4 Series 5 and finished in Dubonnet Red. It’d already featured in Aston’s marketing materials, and had been displayed at 1963’s Earls Court Motor Show. It was delivered to Pinewood Studios ready for Stears to make into a reality. Cutting out the panel for the ejector seat was his first task: “Ever since I was little I’d wanted to own an Aston, and here I was drilling holes in the roof of my dream car.” Heggie visited to view the transformation: “At first, I couldn’t believe that the car in front of me was ours. There were panels everywhere, cables and pipes protruding from all angles. It looked a right bloody mess. I thought to myself: ‘Here’s four and a half thousand pounds’ worth of car in pieces. I pray they know how to put it back together again.’” With the engineering work complete, the DB5 required a final makeover. Bond would not be driving a red car. Aston Martin suggested Satin Bronze, before the filmmakers settled on Silver Birch. The marque also lent them a second DB5, FMP 7B. This car was not fitted with gadgets, but instead used for the driving sequences, leaving DP/216/1 to handle the demanding stunt work. In July 1964 both the Effects Car and Road Car began filming in the small village of Andermatt in

Goldfinger DB5

THIS SPREAD Sean Connery was the consummate film spy – and his Aston DB5 was the consummate film spy’s car.

Goldfinger DB5

THIS SPREAD Toolkit of Mauser automatic, hand grenade and throwing knife better at damage than repair.

the Swiss Alps’ Ursern Valley. The scene? Issued with the DB5 by Q Branch, Bond is investigating bullion dealer Auric Goldfinger. James tails Auric’s Rolls-Royce Phantom III driven by mute Korean Oddjob to the villain’s metallurgical plant. Harry Saltzman was a highly strung character at the best of times. John Stears’ assistant Joe Fitt remembered: “I’ll never forget his face when he came out of the trailer and saw that BMT 216A was missing. Here was a £25,000 one-off, and a crew member had borrowed it to collect his lunch. Christ, I thought Harry was gonna have a coronary. Boy was that young kid bawled out on his return.” The moment Bond engages the ejector seat, firing one of Goldfinger’s henchmen skyward, was filmed back in the confines of Pinewood Studios. Apparently the stunt was demonstrated using a big bag of sand, to several eager extras hoping to secure a cash bonus. Their excitement soon disappeared when they discovered a half-ripped sandbag still trapped in the car. From then on, they stuck to walk-on parts – or so the publicity story goes. In August 1964, after Goldfinger had wrapped production, Heggie visited Pinewood to assess the condition of the Effects Car: “It was laying in the corner of a workshop looking like a sick dog – dusty and dirty, hardly driveable. It would have been entirely in order for me to have the car stripped of its gadgets. The attitude of the

guys at EON Productions was that they were finished with the car, they had given us a lot of publicity by including it in the film, so from then on it was up to us to capitalise on it.” With the New York premiere of Goldfinger scheduled to take place on December 21, 1964, Aston Martin wanted the Effects Car to play a starring role. Heggie approached his trusted sales manager Mike Ashley to chaperone BMT 216A to the East Coast. Today Ashley is an 85-year-old British ex-patriot living in Miami Beach, full of energy and charm that would defeat men half his age. He and the DB5 docked in New York to great fanfare. The press was alerted ahead of time, and a host of TV crews were there to greet the car. “I demo’ed the gadgets and finished with the smokescreen. The camera teams were convulsed,” he laughs. “The smoke filled the quayside, choked everyone in the customs warehouse – and then drifted onto the West Side Highway bringing traffic to a standstill.” The smokescreen became Ashley’s party trick, entertaining crowds wherever he and the DB5 went. With Goldfinger smashing UK and US box-office records, Aston Martin was keen for the Bond car to be seen across Europe, too. It scheduled a tour of Germany, Italy, Switzerland and France. By now Ashley was adept at life on the road: “This car had no bootspace because that housed the bulletproof shield, oil spray and all the hydraulic junk

to make the gadgets work. All I had was the back seat, which was not very big. Crammed on there sat the spare wire wheel, on top of that were my overalls in case I had to work on the car, a toolkit, a box of Italian smoke cannisters, my suitcase and, most importantly, a tuxedo, which I needed for all the Goldfinger premieres across Europe.” The French opening coincided with production of the next Bond film Thunderball, which was shooting in Paris. Leaving Switzerland, time was not on Ashley’s side; he needed to put the Aston Martin through its paces to reach the city in time and collect Sean Connery, who was to drive the DB5 down the Champs-Élysées. “I came into a small town and raced through there at 90mph,” Ashley recalls. “I spotted a gendarme out the corner of my eye. I knew for a fact he had detected my speed. Forty kilometres further down the road, two police cars and two motorbikes were ready to halt traffic. I suddenly realised they’d radioed ahead and ordered them to pull in that British sports car, which they had identified from the UK numberplate. A brilliant thought crossed my mind; in a flash I flipped the BMT 216A plate to Swiss. I remember the guy saying into his radio as I stopped: ‘Non, c’est voiture Suisse non Anglais.’ I was on my way.” Aston Martin’s PR department was inundated with vast quantities of letters and enquiries from Bond fans and schoolboys around the world. It

Goldfinger DB5

was decided that a second car was needed to meet the increasing publicity requirements with Thunderball’s impending release. The Road Car was returned to Newport Pagnell and fitted with a matching set of weaponry. Ultimately, EON purchased two more DB5s, and had Aston adapt them to Bond spec as it had done with FMP 7B. Now there were four cars to cope with global publicity, all purporting to be the same vehicle. Steve Heggie noted that perhaps among the marque’s older clientele, the staggering promotion was not entirely seen as positive: “Even at the height of the Bond car exposure, I was told by our distribution that they were not being helped by the ‘Playboy image’. And I have to say in retrospect, it is hard to equate the enormous publicity to increased sales of Aston Martin cars.” It left Heggie asking himself: “Did the James Bond publicity help? Who knows?” When interest finally began to wane, all four DB5s were returned to Newport Pagnell. Tucked away at the back of the workshop sat a collection of the most exhibited cars in the world, which had deceived an unsuspecting public into believing that they were all one and the same. What Aston Martin did next was astonishing.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW? THE EFFECTS CAR: D P/2 1 6/ 1 B M T 216 A , L AT E R 6633 P P

With no further use for the Effects Car, Aston Martin stripped it of its 007 identity and removed all the gadgets. John Stears was aghast: “I will never understand Aston’s philosophy in trying to reconstitute the vehicle into a road-going car. After all the free publicity it had given the company, I would have thought it would have been put in a glass case and preserved forever.” Bond’s former DB5 was sold in August 1968 to businessman Gavin Keyzar: “I wanted a DB5, and I had a budget of around £3000. I called up Aston, which said it might have one. It turned out to be the former Bond car. I’d seen the films, but for me its past, at that time, was more of an interesting side note. Because of its life as the James Bond car and subsequent publicity duties, there were quite a few imperfections, which is why it was cheaper. It was advertised for £2250; I bought it there and then for £1800.” Keyzar used it as his daily runner: “It was absolutely no museum piece at all.” The car still

ABOVE Vintage Goldfinger footage captured on bulky but brilliant Mitchell BNC 35mm camera.

drew attention, however: “People would come up to me at the petrol pump and say ‘there’s the James Bond car’, because this was how DB5s were generally known. But, of course, they didn’t know that this DB5 was the actual Bond car.” Keyzar reinstalled a version of the Q Branch gadgetry in the hope it would raise the car’s value when he sold it in 1971. After interest from around the world, it was purchased by jeweller and American car collector Richard D Losee of Provo, Utah (pictured left). He used it to promote his business, even painting his company logo onto the bullet-proof shield. In 1986, following Losee’s retirement, he sold DP/216/1 for $275,000. The buyer was Anthony V Pugliese III, a real-estate developer based in Boca Raton, Florida. For the next decade, while in Pugliese’s ownership, the car was displayed across the US in high-profile museums. One tragic day in June 1997 changed all that. Pugliese was in North Carolina when he received the call: “My secretary Joyce says: ‘Anthony you are not going to believe this: someone broke in and stole the Bond car.’” Its disappearance from the storage hangar at Boca Raton Airport became an international news story. Pugliese’s narrative has been much maligned over the past 25 years. As such, he has naturally been cautious of speaking to journalists. However, he agreed to speak to us to correct the many misapprehensions that he feels have accrued. Pugliese thinks the car was a targeted rather than an opportunistic theft. Skid marks outside the hangar confirmed that the DB5 had been ignominiously dragged from its parking spot. “They either put it in a container and took it down to the port and got it onto a ship, or they had a plane come in at night. At Boca Raton Airport there was no tower, no cameras, no

lights, no security. The plane could have flown in, car loaded, then flown out.” Pugliese’s lawyer Greg Coleman explains further: “Back then, there was something called ‘blacklists’ – very expensive items that Colombian drug lords such as Pablo Escobar wanted to acquire for their personal enjoyment. On one of those lists, we have heard, was the Bond car. We think it was put on a container ship later that night, and is gathering dust in a garage in Colombia or the Middle East right now.” There was speculation that Pugliese had committed insurance fraud. The police received an anonymous voicemail, which indicated the car had been moved to Newark by Pugliese, where he owned warehouse space. There is no record these properties were ever searched. Pugliese was asked to take a polygraph check: “I had no problem taking a lie-detector test, but I said: ‘My in-house counsel is in the next room, and I am going to ask him right now what he thinks about it.’ He said no, because they are not accurate.” Ultimately, the Boca Raton Police made no significant breakthroughs. There was no evidence suggesting Pugliese was involved, and he was never charged for any crime in relation to this case. More than 25 years later the search for DP/216/1 continues. After paying the settlement, insurance company Chubb offered a reward of $100,000 for information leading to the safe recovery of the Aston Martin. The company engaged the services of Christopher Marinello, founder of Art Recovery International, a specialist practice providing due-diligence, dispute-resolution and art-recovery services for the art market and cultural-heritage sectors. Marinello divulges that the trail currently points towards one significant car collector in the Middle East. While countries such as the US and UK are strongly pro-victim, in other territories the law favours a good-faith buyer and

R.S.WILLIAMS LIMITED

64 YEAR WAIT FOR A DB4GT TO WIN AT GOODWOOD We are proud to have been entrusted with the preparation of the Stirling Moss Lightweight DB4GT - Chassis no: - 0124/R. Stirling won in this car’s 1st outing at Goodwood on Easter Monday 1960. We entered the Stirling Moss Memorial Trophy at the 2024 Goodwood Revival, the car’s first outing under new ownership. Dario Franchitti, 4 x Indy Champion & Jimmie Johnson, 7 x Nascar Champion piloted the car to an epic win against the Ferraris, Jaguars and Cobras.

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A HUGE THANK YOU to the owner, YJS Racing, Goodwood and all our superb engineers.

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protects their interests. “I have had information over the years that leads me to a very obstinate possessor, a car collector, who has so much money that he just doesn’t care or can’t get around to having his people contact me to resolve this situation. If he wants to write a cheque, we can sit down and talk about it. We are trying to put some pressure on this individual, let him know we are getting closer.” But what makes Marinello so sure he knows the location of the DB5? “We received a very important tip that the car had been seen and the chassis number had been identified. This was from an individual who has vast experience in dealing with Aston Martins.” Pugliese reflects: “I wish I still had the car. No question. I would pay back the money and take the DB5 back in a New York minute. Today they say it is worth $26-27 million. Maybe a lot of that is because of the hype about the theft and that it has disappeared. The truth is it is just a thing. It is not family, a good friend or someone you love. I can survive without it.”

RM SOTHEBY’S

THE ROAD CAR: D B 5/ 1 486/ R F M P 7 B

In September 1969, the front page of the Philadelphia Inquirer caught the attention of local commercial radio station owner Jerry Lee. A James Bond DB5 was up for sale in the UK. Disappointed to learn it was one of the replica publicity cars, he contacted Aston Martin directly to see whether the marque had retained one of the real screen-used DB5s. Lee was pleased to learn that the Road Car, FMP 7B, was still at the factory. He offered Aston $12,000, which was accepted. Arriving at Newport Pagnell to collect the DB5, he came down to earth with a thud. “It looked like a pile of junk from a wrecker’s yard – covered in dirt, with a tyre crammed on the grimy rear seat.” Lee’s assistant eyed the car curiously, took out his handkerchief and gently polished a small area, revealing the familiar gleaming Silver Birch finish. Lee eyed Steve Heggie, and asked why he was trying to dissuade him from buying the DB5. “Everything went silent. Finally, Heggie said: ‘Well, since you phoned this week, the word has got out that we are selling the car. We received three offers; the lowest was more than three times what we agreed.’ Being true British gentlemen, the guys at Aston Martin did not go back on their word. They polished up the car for me. I guess they can’t be blamed for 78

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ABOVE Radar display screen and ejector-seatsized sunroof aside, it’s regular DB5 fare in here.

their small attempt in trying to turn me off.” Throughout the 1970s Lee displayed FMP 7B across the US, before confining it to a dedicated climate-controlled James Bond-themed room in his home. “Anybody who was anybody in Philadelphia sat in that car, including the US Attorney General, senators, governors and mayors. People went crazy when they saw it.” Lee had been the custodian of FMP 7B for 40 years when he met Don Rose, a former musicindustry exec and an Aston Martin expert, who’d recently joined RM Sotheby’s as a senior car specialist. Asking Rose’s opinion on the market value, Lee perked up when he estimated that $3-5m would be reasonable – but added that if the car went to auction, anything could happen. Lee decided the time was right to part with FMP 7B, and entrusted the sale to Rose. A highprofile campaign kicked off with an exclusive on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. “We air freighted it around the globe. We displayed it in the atrium lobby at Sotheby’s HQ on the Upper East Side, after which we took it to Hong Kong, where Sotheby’s held its premier Asian event. This was the time when Chinese millionaires were becoming billionaires by the dozen.” FMP 7B was the star attraction of a major auction in London on October 27, 2010. Rose felt the car should reach $5m: “We never said it out loud, but some were quoting $10m, $20m. There was this big anticipation. The room was full of media crews. But it ended up being the weirdest fucking thing I’ve ever witnessed in my career.” The auctioneer was RM’s highly revered Max Girardo. Before he could suggest an opening figure, a voice from the back of the pavilion confidently yelled “£10m!” As the audience broke into uneasy laughter, the individual scarpered

and was seen running from the auction. Girardo says he felt: “That guy killed the room. He just did it to be famous for a millisecond; he was looking for a thrill. It’s a bit like when an accident happens, you can’t control it – it’s really an unfortunate set of circumstances.” Girardo took a serious bid of £2.5m before struggling to reignite the room, reluctantly slamming the hammer down at £2.6m. Rose was angry: “We never found out who it was – if it was intentional sabotage or just a drunk. There’d been so much interest. We had Russian oligarchs and Macao casino owners, but they just weren’t there. I learned that you can over-market something.” The successful buyer was Harry Yeaggy, a US banker who’s curated one of the world’s finest car collections. His private museum in Cincinnati, Ohio, is home to exactly 25 automobiles – when a new acquisition is made, another must make way. For Yeaggy it was a satisfying addition: “I have cars that are far superior, far more expensive. But when people visit my museum who know nothing about cars, they immediately identify the Bond Aston Martin. We have cars worth $70m, yet the kind of reactions generated by the DB5 makes you appreciate how important the 007 car is.”

P U B L I C I T Y C A R 1: D B 5/2 0 1 7/ R B M T 2 1 6 A ( S I N C E 19 68)

In January 1969, Danjaq, the Bond film copyright holder, decided there was no further use for the two publicity DB5s, and instructed Aston Martin

PRESERVE RESTORE ENHANCE

aston.co.uk

Goldfinger DB5

to sell them on its behalf. Anthony Bamford, owner of JCB Excavators, bought both cars for the incredibly cheap price of £750 a piece with gadgets still intact. Three months after his bargain purchase, Bamford received an offer he could not refuse. London-based businessman Kenneth Luscombe-Whyte offered to trade a 1964 Ferrari 250 GTO for one of the Bondmobiles. He later admitted trading the GTO was one of the silliest financial decisions of his life. Just four months later, Luscombe-Whyte sold Publicity Car 1 for Can$21,600 to Frank Baker, a flamboyant restaurateur in Vancouver. Baker sought the car to display outside his premises to attract passing trade: “My ego wanted it. The car would get me worldwide publicity.” For the next 13 years, he showed off the DB5 in a glass case outside his restaurant. The attraction worked, diners flocked and the Bond car soon became a local celebrity. Over time it essentially cooked under the glass. The leather seats became so brittle they crumbled, and the wiring melted. By 1982, Baker’s fortunes had changed, and he faced bankruptcy. He sold the DB5 to his righthand man Alf Spence. It then passed through a handful of owners in short succession. Some were disappointed to discover it had not been driven by Sean Connery, and moved it on quickly. In 1984, San Diego-based Le Mans champion Dick Barbour bought DB5/2017/R at auction: “I had to grab it, no matter what I had to pay for it. I remember keeping my hand up the entire time and never putting it down, to intimidate everybody else.” Barbour was forced to sell a year later when he divorced. “As it went away, I had tears in my eyes. How’s that for a grown man admitting something? I still have a dozen toy models of it, which remind me of my time with it.” Another custodian was Robert Pass, a vintage race car driver who used DB5/2017/R as a pace car: “I got a friend to get me a police light bar for

the roof. The back end was heavy because of the bullet-proof shield. On one pace lap I spun it, which was quite embarrassing.” The DB5 was eventually acquired by the Louwman Museum in the Netherlands, in October 1988. First opened in 1934, it currently displays 275 classic automobiles. All these years later, managing director Ronald Kooyman cites the Bond Aston as the museum’s most popular attraction: “Apart from appearing at selected shows and events, the car has been displayed exactly as we acquired it, first in Raamsdonksveer and now at our new facility in The Hague. We have never carried out any mechanical or restoration work. There is no need: the DB5 runs perfectly. It is by far the most important model in our collection, and we will never part with it.”

P U B L I C I T Y C A R 2: D B 5/200 8/ R Y R E 1 8 6 H

Anthony Bamford could not ignore the attention generated by the former Effects Car when Gavin Keyzar had put it up for sale in 1971. Keyzar had realised £8000, so Bamford knew his replica Publicity Car 2, complete with gadgets, would fetch way beyond the £750 he had paid. In ’71, he sold DB5/2008/R, to BH Atchley Jr, proprietor of Tennessee’s Smoky Mountain Car Museum, for an undisclosed sum. The attraction, BELOW Gadgetry’s clever hydraulics help the driver fulfil their ultimate evasive-superspy fantasies.

which displayed around 30 cars, had first opened in 1956 in Pigeon Forge, the gateway to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. For the next 35 years DB5/2008/R sat in the museum alongside other historic vehicles such as Al Capone’s bullet-proof Cadillac and Elvis Presley’s Mercedes-Benz. Next to the display was a rather misleading banner: “This is the James Bond Secret Agent 007 car used in the pictures Goldfinger and Thunderball driven by Sean Connery.” Another example of the replicas being passed off as genuine film cars. It sat inside a wire-mesh cage bolted to the floor. Atchley’s son says: “People just couldn’t keep their hands off; they’d reach through the window and play with the controls. It was very unfortunate that we had to display the car in this way using wrought iron and chicken wire.” DB5/2008/R remained on display until the museum refreshed its collection in 2005, several years after BH Atchley Jr’s death. It was sold at the annual classic car auction in Scottsdale, Arizona in January 2006. The Aston was bought by Swiss businessman and collector Thomas Straumann for $2,090,000. It was then meticulously restored by the highly respected Roos Engineering in Switzerland. The brief was to return the DB5 to concours condition as a road-legal vehicle that still retained all the original gadgets. In August 2019 Straumann sold DB5/2008/R, once again via RM Sotheby’s. It was one of the star vehicles at Monterey Car Week. The sale was handled by Barney Ruprecht: “Out of the remaining original Bond DB5s, this was the only one completely and fully restored. It is by far the best working car. It was built as a show car to demonstrate the gadgets, and not as a movie special effect: it totally worked. So, this was the one to have if you wanted a working toy.” It was purchased by another Swiss entrepreneur, Fritz Burkard, for $6,385,000. Burkard was amazed by the sensation the car caused as it was brought on stage: “Everyone stood up and was taking pictures. This happened to no other car. The bidding started, and I told my advisor who was with me: ‘In case I have a heart attack, leave me on the ground and keep bidding for me.’” In 2021, Burkard took DB5/2008/R to the International Concours of Elegance St Moritz (ICE). Sitting alongside him was one of Britain’s most renowned architects, Norman Foster. Recalls Fritz: “I had the gun from the weapons drawer in one hand, and I took my other hand off the wheel to fire the guns, and steering with my knees we drifted on the ice. Norman and I were like two little boys. It is the best boy’s toy in the world.” Thanks to Fritz Burkard of the Pearl Collection for the photoshoot. Read more about the cars of the 007 movies in Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury’s new book Spy Octane: The Vehicles of James Bond, available from www.porterpress.co.uk. See our review in Acquire, further on in this issue of Magneto.

ODD JOB WE’RE WELL KNOWN TO HAVE WORKED ON THE

Yes, in nearly 50 years of business, we’ve worked on quite a few “Odd Jobs”. In fact about 150 DB5’s have come through our workshop. Saloons, shooting brakes, convertibles and even racecar variants. We have serviced daily drivers, painted many in Silver Birch and done numerous full concours restorations. The more valuable the cars have become, sadly the less they seem to be driven.

Therefore imagine our delight to be asked to work on our latest DB5 project. Far from all show and no go, our client has asked us to retain the original patina of his 60 year old car, but incorporate 4.7 triple weber carburettors with a target of 400 bhp, just to keep up with the pace of life... Aha!... We take our hat off to him for this golden opportunity.

+44(0)113 284 3666 | +44(0)7973 472 595 | enquiries@adrian-johnson.co.uk

www.adrian-johnson.co.uk

1969 McLaren M6GT

If he could see us now!

2024 McLaren Solus GT

Words Justin Bell

Photography Robert Grubbs

A clear thread runs from Bruce McLaren’s first-ever road machine, via the F1 GTR, right through to McLaren Automotive’s latest timetravel hypercar. Without the M6GT, there would be no Solus GT. Without Bruce, there would be nothing 84

Magneto

GRAND PRIX PHOTO

THE MCLAREN F1 WAS A UNICORN OF THE 1990s. Perhaps the most outrageous road car ever built, it captured the hearts and minds of automotive enthusiasts around the world. For me as a young race driver, to be asked to be a part of a team racing one at Le Mans felt as great an opportunity as being offered a drive in Formula 1. The unique, three-seat cockpit design, (minimised in the race-going F1 GTR) with the BMW V12 engine, emboldened by the brilliance of Gordon Murray’s design, was something that changed the definition of a sports car. Two F1 GTRs in the top three overall at the world’s most iconic motor race, at the first attempt. Who does that? I remember at the time thinking: “If only Bruce McLaren could have seen us drive what was ostensibly a road car, a car with his name on it, to top honours.” I bet he wouldn’t believe it. The truth is that Bruce would have believed it. To develop road cars alongside his racing machines was a huge part of his vision. Which

THIS SPREAD Bruce drove OBH 500H to work, race meetings and the corner shop. Note finger holes for prototype’s manually operated lights.

M6GT and Solus GT

ABOVE Powerful Al Bartz-tuned Chevrolet V8 engine makes lightweight M6GT fast – and deafeningly loud in tunnels.

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LEFT Heavily reclined seats, harnesses and fuel-tank sills scream race car.

makes the opportunity I had at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas recently, a very powerful and emotive experience that brings my McLaren story full circle. The manufacturer invited me to a track day, ostensibly to test drive the outrageous Solus GT hypercar. Its level of performance is so stratospheric that McLaren personnel were extremely selective about who they could trust to drive it safely. More about that experience in a moment, because when I arrived at the track, they had perhaps an even more unique opportunity for me, one that gave everything context. In a beautifully Formula 1-style pit garage, alongside two of Ayrton Senna’s winning cars, sat a red vintage sports machine from another moment in history. The McLaren M6GT. Looking very much like a coupé version of the M6B Can-Am race car, it was the first road model McLaren ever made. Unlike the F1 that came later, the M6GT was designed as a race machine first. The car itself came about because Bruce was always pushing the limits, looking for ways to showcase his design innovations in the pinnacle arenas of circuit racing – Formula 1,

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M6GT and Solus GT

Can-Am and Indianapolis – and was preparing to take on the world of endurance racing. He’d already announced his intention to enter the International Championship of Makes, with the ultimate goal of winning the Le Mans 24 Hours. However, to compete in the Group 4 GT category – against heavyweights: Ferrari, Porsche and Alfa Romeo – required the building of 25 roadgoing units. This would have meant taking his company in an entirely new direction, but Bruce was clearly up for it. Unfortunately, motor sport governing body the FIA upped the number of required production units from 25 to 50, delaying Bruce’s Le Mans plan. He pressed ahead with the idea of a road car, though – one he fully intended would be the fastest in the world. Sometime in the second half of 1969, a prototype was assembled, fixing the first M6GT body to a stock M6B chassis powered by a 5.7-litre Chevrolet V8. It’s estimated that the low and light M6GT could accelerate from 0-100mph in around 8.0 seconds and top out at 165mph. He had already discussed a production run with

ABOVE Steering ‘wheel’ is modelled on McLaren’s latest F1 item.

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BELOW Honed aero package generates 1200kg of downforce.

LEFT The 18-inch forgedaluminium centre-lock wheels are shrouded in distinctive aerodynamic pods up front.

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McLaren’s race-car builder Peter Agg of Trojan, but only three cars were ever finished. Chassis number one – the development car, registered as OBH 500H – was also Bruce’s daily driver, and it was a regular sight around town. It must have blown people away, because it really is a noisy road-legal racing car, as I was about to find out. Climbing into the cockpit, I felt a definite sense of connecting to the past. So rudimentary, purposeful, with a bit of carpet passing for roadcar luxury. The curator of the museum that owns this historic vehicle hovered anxiously, explaining the basics to me before I drove off. “Watch this temperature, don’t grind the gears, look out for the clutch, and don’t hit anything.” Got it! As I followed the camera car out of the paddock at COTA, the M6GT behaved like any car of that period. Totally raw, unrefined, yet egging me on to open up the throttle and give some air to the Chevy engine, and let all

M6GT and Solus GT

370bhp loose. Sitting in the same seat as Bruce would have done, holding that thin steering wheel, watching the gauges attentively, hearing the noisy engine behind me as I gingerly selected ratios with the tiny, short gearstick, felt a real privilege. But this wasn’t meant to be a speedy encounter. Almost on cue the M6GT overheated. Which created an anxious moment as the cockpit filled with smoke from a leaking hose and I leapt out thinking I was going to be THE guy who burnt Bruce McLaren’s first road car to the ground. Not the reputation I was looking for. Sighing with as much disappointment as relief at the near miss, it was time to head to another garage to prepare for the Solus. All I could think was this; if the F1 was light years of development from that M6GT, then how on earth was I going to articulate driving the time-travel machine that I was about to encounter. The Solus GT. To give context to how fast the GT is, I used the Senna GTR as my warm-up car. Hot and sweaty from that exhilarating experience (I could write another story about it), I started to prepare to drive one of the rarest cars on the planet. I first saw the Solus GT at The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering two years ago, when I was asked to host the launch by McLaren. At the time, I was stunned by the sheer audacity of bringing this virtual car to actual life. But it still looked like a video-gamer’s wet dream to me, and I simply couldn’t imagine anyone buying it, let alone me getting to drive it. Standing there in the McLaren garages, my initial thought was how wrong I had been in

‘My brain struggled to keep pace with the Solus GT’s sensory overload. It was that rapid’

many ways. Seeing it afresh, it struck me that for this car to literally rise from the screen into reality must have taken stout corporate resolve, a liberating design approach and the combined forces of all the McLaren F1 and automotive talent. I gingerly climbed into the fighter jet-esque, single-seat cockpit, which was unique in that it felt partially like getting into a formula car with the confinement of a modern prototype, but with a canopy-style roof. The chief mechanic ran me through the complex steering-wheel controls and the gearbox options, and then pointed out the two emergency releases for the canopy – a new instruction for me, and hopefully one I wouldn’t need to remember. Futuristically, the canopy slid up and locked into place, and for a moment I fought off claustrophobia, exaggerated by the heat and sweat running into my eyes. As a former pro racing driver, I have come to realise that there are different levels of mental approach to driving various cars on track, and most of the time I am in auto-pilot mode, because roadcar limits are pretty easy to reach. However, before

I even hit the Solus GT’s start button, I knew I needed my full race-ready mode, no compromises. With no clutch, getting the car moving requires you to grab hold of it, throttle at 20 percent and quickly release your left foot off the brake, which propels the car into action. All drivers have their own style for an orientation lap, and to be honest I used the first half of the lap to feel out brake pressure and get more familiar with my surroundings. Then coming onto the long back straight, I hit the gas. Holy cow! The 829bhp-plus 5.2-litre V10 literally started to scream as I selected gear after gear, getting not even a fractional respite from the relentless acceleration. The noise was contagious. No sooner had I taken one ratio than the dash lit up like Christmas, demanding another one. I loved it so much, I wish the seven-speed sequential ’box could have had ten gears. My brain struggled to keep pace with the sensory overload. It was that rapid. Feedback from the steering on the bumpy pavement was wickedly precise, and it was almost with relief when I hit the brakes going into the left-hand corner. Any misgivings I had about driving with the canopy and the Halo in front of my eyes, dissipated as fast as the marker boards on the straight. The design of the cockpit allowed me this extraordinary level of spatial awareness and connection to the car. There aren’t too many race machines that you feel at home in this quickly. As the laps passed, I focused on speeding up my onboarding of all the information coming to me from the Solus GT. At the same time, slowing

LEFT Single-seat, canopy-doored, track-only Solus GT’s 5.2-litre V10 produces in excess of 829bhp, and is an integral part of the chassis.

HAND PICKED FROM OUR CURRENT STOCK OF EXCEPTIONAL CARS:

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1965 Aston Martin DB5

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1961 Aston Martin DB4 GT

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things down in terms of my inputs and letting the immense aerodynamic package do its work. COTA is the perfect track for a car such as this, because it has F1 levels of performance that are most appreciated in the medium- to high-speed turns. The fast-sweeping series of corners that look so impressive when watching the F1 cars felt even more so from inside the Solus. The threshold of grip was so far past where I was personally comfortable going, the phrase ‘leaving some on the table’ couldn’t have been more apt. Exploring and testing the limits was incredibly addictive. Engaging the DRS down the straights was a real buzz, imagining Lando hitting the same button to pass Max at Silverstone. I couldn’t see the wing main element open up in my mirrors, but I could sure feel the effect, especially when I released it simultaneously to hitting the brake pedal. There’s a violence to the braking that is intoxicating, because the massive carbon discs allow you to push as hard as you can with the perfect chassis balance. The engine’s raucous snap and crackle as I went down through the gears was a reminder that tech has removed the skill from that element of driving – but jeez, both hands on the wheel is a way better thing at these speeds. Corner turn-in was as precise as anything I’d ever experienced, although to feel a slight mid-corner push into the super-highspeed final right-hander was almost comforting, as a reminder that even this car has limits. I have no clue how fast my lap times were, and 96

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in the hands of a current driver I am sure mine would have been easily bettered. But I’ve been around enough to know that this level of performance is rare air indeed. The Solus GT is a race car without compromise. No homologations or regulations to adhere to, just an absolute showcase of the technical brilliance of McLaren. I may have been a bit overstimulated when I came into the pits for the last time, because the Solus GT had fired up every ounce of racer in me. It is unlikely I will ever drive a modern-day Formula 1 car, but I truly believe that this McLaren is as close as I will get. It can exist only because of the synergy between the racing- and road-car programme. For the lucky 25 people who are taking one home, they have an obligation to themselves to train hard as a driver, to at least get the most out of this mind-blowing driving experience that their respective talents will allow. Otherwise, it’ll be nothing short of a tragic waste. My day at COTA truly was one to remember

‘There is a sense of Bruce’s personality and vision that infiltrates everything McLaren does’

for many reasons, but principally because it connected me to the whole Bruce McLaren story. He lived a woefully short life, but damn, it was a good one. The New Zealander was a pioneering engineer, a great team manager and a man who understood the importance of aerodynamics before we had ways to measure it. As a driver he won four Formula 1 races, with 27 podiums out of 100 starts – a fantastic average. Then, as was appallingly common in the era, he died in a crash on the track, testing his Can-Am car at Goodwood, which robbed us of decades of his utter brilliance. I was about to say it makes me wonder what would he have achieved given a full lifetime. But we know, don’t we? The team bearing his name went on to win eight Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championships and 12 manufacturer titles. McLaren Automotive is responsible for creating some of the fastest road cars on the planet. And the story still has many more chapters to go. There is a sense of Bruce’s personality and vision that infiltrates everything McLaren does. You can feel it throughout the architectural masterpiece that is MTC in Woking. The iconic Kiwi logo leaves its mark in the most unusual places, like a secret brand. If you know, you know. So, I get you, Bruce. You wanted to create cars that no one else dared to do – and without the M6GT in which I started the day, there would have been no F1 GTR and certainly no Solus GT.

In its 30-year history, Petersen Automotive Museum’s multiple lowrider

Words Autumn Nyiri

exhibitions

have proven hugely popular. With this

much artistry and craftsmanship on display, it’s easy to see why

Photography Ivan Ilagan

Lowriders

Bobby Garza’s Double Trouble displays a stratospheric level of craftsmanship. Custom bodywork, layers of flaked-out candy paint, pinstriping, silver leafing and life-like airbrushed murals of the owner’s two sons are all high art. Every visible metal part, from front overriders to rear axles, is exquisitely hand-engraved. The chic white leather and suede cabin is washed in blue lighting. Mechanical highlights include a twin-turbo Chevy LSX 454ci V8 and bespoke four-pump hydraulic system. No wonder it’s been voted Lowrider of the Year three times.

l Air let Be hevro 1957 C

le Troub Double

THE ORIGINS OF LOWRIDERS CAN BE traced to the rise of car customising that began largely with hot rods in the 1930s. Hot rods, typically Fords, were modified for speed and often characterised by an aggressive, forward-leaning stance. In the years around World War Two, pachucos (a Mexican American counterculture) began lowering the back end of their Chevrolets in an ‘aesthetic opposition’ to hot rods, creating a vehicle that was ‘low and slow’. Chevys – the car of choice for lowriders both past and present – were typically cheaper than Fords, and comparatively easy to repair. Lowriders and lowrider car clubs created a distinct identity and a sense of community for Mexican American males in the automotive sphere. No longer merely lowered, the lowrider aesthetic has grown to encompass body modifications including chopped tops and suicide doors, wire wheels, extravagant paint jobs, chromed and engraved elements, and lavish interiors. Many cars have sophisticated hydraulic systems that allow them to ride low or raise up, ‘hop’ and even ‘dance’. Advances in customisation techniques have shaped the modern lowrider image and allowed builders to craft vehicles of exceptional artistry. Initially the cars were built to make an impression on the street, but California legislation against lowered vehicles in the 1950s, and anticruising bans in the 1980s, limited their presence on the boulevards; local car shows provided an opportunity for vehicles to gather, and awards were given to those that excelled in certain aspects of customisation. Such events continue to thrive in lowrider communities nationally. The biggest show on the US circuit is the Lowrider Super Show in Las Vegas, which awards the coveted Lowrider of the Year title. Several models in the exhibition have earned this accolade; many are three-time champions (the maximum a vehicle can win). A section of the current Lowrider Icons of the Street and Show at LA’s Petersen Automotive Museum is dedicated to award winners, and it reveals the vast array of specialist shows held across the US. It also notes the increasing inclusion of lowriders in other types of car shows, from SEMA to the Grand National Roadster Show and, recently, even at Monterey Car Week events. Although the movement was born on the streets of Southern California and the Southwest, lowriding has spread around the globe and encompasses a broader fan and participant base than at any time in its history. As with the machines themselves, lowriding as a cultural phenomenon is patently worthy of exhibition.

Lowriders

Highly respected custom car builders the Tovar family are known for their pristine and minimalist builds with a clear focus on bodywork, great wheels and an impeccable paint job. The real Tovar trademark, though, is a ground-hugging stance. For the award-winning Wanted 37, the Tovars took two inches out of the front crossmember c-notch, raised the back of the floor to cover the c-notched rear, lifted the floorboard to enable them to bring the driveshaft higher, and took inches off the seats to keep the vehicle’s profile long and low.

1937 Ch evrolet Conver tible

Wante d 37

1958 C hevro let Im pala Dead Presid ents

Newly built by Albert De Alba and his son Albert Jr of Pomona in California, Dead Presidents continues the family’s tradition of legendary builds that includes the 1963 Impala El Rey, often called the “pinnacle of modern lowrider culture”. Dead Presidents features shaved door handles and mirrors, custom glassfibre work, a hand-built front grille and a completely revamped interior. Albert Jr’s intricate paintwork is stellar – the vehicle is fully striped and patterned with candy and metalflake paint in shades of green.

La Charra started life as a standard black Harley-Davidson Road King before owner Robert Trevino and his son Robert Jr started a three-year customisation project that left no component on the bike untouched. Apart from the rich autumnal paint tones, finest pinstriping and embossed leather, modifications include extensive engraving and plating of the frame, headlight bezels, swing arms, forks, wheels and engine, while bespoke parts such as the trigger-equipped pistol shifter enhance this two-time winner of the Lowrider Motorcycle of the Year award.

Lowriders

06 20

n Road vidso y-Da e l r Ha

harra King La C

1954 Chevrolet 210 Sphinx

Lowriders

Built by Hisashi Ushida, the passionate owner of one of Japan’s most renowned lowrider garages, Cholo’s Custom in Ama City, Sphinx combines elements from 1940s and ’50s ‘bombs’ – American cars that were simply made to cruise. It boasts a ruched-velvet interior and a radical exterior coated in myriad layers of silver, gold and deep purple metalflake paint. Although Sphinx is clearly a show-worthy masterpiece, the vehicle still sees plenty of use on the streets. The car has been a 20-year project for Ushida, which he says “will never be done”.

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Subject to change

Open to cars of pre-1977 specification, with a separate classification for pre-1946 specification cars.

Images: K-Design

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1964 Chevrolet Impala Gypsy Rose

Gypsy Rose, named after burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee, was the brainchild of Jesse Valadez. Completed in 1974 and adorned with more than 100 roses painted by Walt Prey, it developed a huge fan base appearing in the opening sequence of TV comedy Chico and the Man (1974-78). The exquisite interior features crushed velvet trim, decorative light fixtures and a cocktail bar. Immediate popularity, amplified by its bold aesthetic traits, helped solidify the car as the quintessential lowrider, one that still inspires the custom community today.

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Lowriders

LA’s Tina L BlankenshipEarly is known as the First Lady of the Super Naturals, because she was the first woman to join the car club. She was also the first female to be inducted into the National Lowrider Hall of Fame (2012), and the first elected to Lowrider magazine’s own Hall of Fame (2023). She bought this Chevy Caprice in 2003 and spent years transforming it into Game Killa. It gets used on the boulevard, but is also a top-tier show car that has garnered dozens of awards over the years. It was featured in the epic 2015 NWA biopic Straight Outta Compton.

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Lowrider Icons of the Street and Show at the Petersen Automotive Museum is a celebration of a vibrant and hugely consequential car culture. The exhibition showcases the artistry and craftsmanship that transform vehicles into jaw-dropping works of rolling art. From the most iconic lowriders to those

newer to the scene, all feature outstanding customisation and creativity. In all, nearly 40 cars, motorcycles and bicycles have been brought together, two from as far afield as Japan, in a stunning display of the high art of custom fabrication that is so evident in modern lowriders.

SMALLSELECTION SELECTIONFROM FROMOUR OURLARGE LARGEAND ANDVARIED VARIEDSHOWROOM SHOWROOM AAAASMALL SMALL SELECTION FROM OUR LARGE AND VARIED SHOWROOM SMALL SELECTION FROM OUR LARGE AND VARIED SHOWROOM

1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL GULLWING (LHD) 1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL GULLWING (LHD) 1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL GULLWING (LHD) 1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL GULLWING (LHD) 1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL GULLWING (LHD) A TRULY OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE! ATRULY TRULY OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE! AAATRULY OUTSTANDING OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE! TRULY OUTSTANDING EXAMPLE! POA EXAMPLE! POA POA POA POA

1956 BENTLEY S1 CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (LHD) 1956 BENTLEY S1 CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (LHD) 1956 BENTLEY S1 CONTINENTAL FASTBACK 1956 BENTLEY S1 CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (LHD) 1956 BENTLEY S1 CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (LHD) ONE OF ONLY 22 LHD EXAMPLES EVER(LHD) BUILT ONE OF ONLY 22 LHD EXAMPLES EVER BUILT ONE OF ONLY 22 LHD EXAMPLES EVER BUILT ONE OF ONLY 22 LHD EXAMPLES EVER BUILT ONE OF ONLY 22 LHD EXAMPLES EVER BUILT POA POA POA POA POA

1965 JAGUAR E-TYPE SERIES I 4.2 ROADSTER (RHD) 1965 JAGUAR E-TYPE SERIES I 4.2 4.2 ROADSTER (RHD) 1965 E-TYPE SERIES I I4.2 ROADSTER (RHD) 1965 JAGUAR E-TYPE SERIES ROADSTER (RHD) 1965 JAGUAR E-TYPE SERIES I4.2 ROADSTER (RHD) NUT &JAGUAR BOLT CONCOURS RESTORATION JUST COMPLETED NUT BOLT CONCOURS RESTORATION JUST COMPLETED NUT BOLT CONCOURS RESTORATION JUST COMPLETED NUT BOLT CONCOURS RESTORATION JUST COMPLETED NUT&&&& BOLT CONCOURS RESTORATION JUST COMPLETED POA POA POA POA POA

2004 FERRARIENZO (LHD) 2004 FERRARIENZO (LHD) MILES FROM NEW 2004 FERRARIENZO 2004 FERRARIENZO (LHD) 2004 FERRARIENZO (LHD) JUST ONE OWNER FROM NEW, ONLY(LHD) 18,900 JUST ONE OWNER FROM NEW, ONLY 18,900 MILES FROM NEW JUST ONE OWNER FROM NEW, ONLY 18,900 MILES FROM NEW JUST ONE OWNER FROM NEW, ONLY 18,900 MILES FROM NEW JUST ONE OWNER FROM NEW, ONLY 18,900 MILES FROM NEW POA POA POA POA POA

1963 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL ROADSTER (LHD) 1963 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL ROADSTER (LHD) 1963 300SL ROADSTER (LHD) 1963 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL ROADSTER (LHD) 1963 MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL ROADSTER (LHD) ONEMERCEDES-BENZ OF ONLY 26 FINAL-YEAR 300SL ROADSTERS ONE OF ONLY 26 FINAL-YEAR 300SL ROADSTERS ONE OF ONLY 26 FINAL-YEAR ROADSTERS ONE OF ONLY 26 FINAL-YEAR 300SL ROADSTERS ONE OF ONLY 26 FINAL-YEAR 300SL ROADSTERS POA 300SL POA POA POA POA

1962 JAGUAR E-TYPE LINDNER-NÖCKER LOW DRAG LIGHTWEIGHT (RHD) 1954 BENTLEY R-TYPE CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (RHD) 1962 JAGUAR E-TYPE LINDNER-NÖCKER LOW DRAG LIGHTWEIGHT (RHD) 1954 1954 BENTLEY R-TYPE CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (RHD) 1962 JAGUAR E-TYPE LINDNER-NÖCKER LOW DRAG LIGHTWEIGHT (RHD) BENTLEY R-TYPE CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (RHD) 1962 JAGUAR E-TYPE LINDNER-NÖCKER LOW DRAG LIGHTWEIGHT (RHD) 1954 BENTLEY R-TYPE CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (RHD) 1962 JAGUAR E-TYPE LINDNER-NÖCKER LOW DRAG LIGHTWEIGHT (RHD) 1954 BENTLEY R-TYPE CONTINENTAL FASTBACK (RHD) A STUNNING RECREATION BUILT BY LYNX THE BEST AVAILABLE EXAMPLE STUNNING RECREATION BUILT BY LYNX THE BEST AVAILABLE EXAMPLE AAAA STUNNING RECREATION BY LYNX THE BEST AVAILABLE STUNNING RECREATION BUILT BY LYNX THE BEST AVAILABLE EXAMPLE STUNNING RECREATION BUILT BY LYNX THE BEST AVAILABLE EXAMPLE POA BUILT POA EXAMPLE POA POA POA POA POA POA POA POA

1968 ISO GRIFFO GL300 (RHD) 1968 ISO GRIFFO GL300 (RHD) 1968 ISO GRIFFO GL300 (RHD) 1968 ISO GRIFFO GL300 (RHD) 1968 ISO GRIFFO GL300 (RHD) COMPLETE OWNERSHIP HISTORY DOCUMENTED FROM NEW COMPLETE OWNERSHIP HISTORY DOCUMENTED FROM NEW COMPLETE DOCUMENTED FROM NEW COMPLETE OWNERSHIP HISTORY DOCUMENTED FROM NEW COMPLETEOWNERSHIP OWNERSHIPHISTORY HISTORY DOCUMENTED FROM NEW POA POA POA POA POA

1987 ASTON MARTIN V8 VANTAGE X-PACK (RHD) 1987 ASTON MARTIN V8 VANTAGE X-PACK (RHD) 1987 ASTON MARTIN V8 VANTAGE X-PACK (RHD) 1987 ASTON MARTIN V8 VANTAGE X-PACK (RHD) 1987 ASTON MARTIN V8 VANTAGE X-PACK (RHD) ONE OF JUST 131 X-PACKS COUPES EVER BUILT ONE OF JUST 131 X-PACKS COUPES EVER BUILT ONE JUST 131 X-PACKS COUPES EVER BUILT ONE OF JUST 131 X-PACKS COUPES EVER BUILT ONEOF OF JUST 131 X-PACKS COUPES EVER BUILT POA POA POA POA POA

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Renault’s grand idea to transform its littlest, most friendly city car into a motor sport monster fit to tackle the giants of world rallying was in equal parts mad and genius

IN THE HISTORY OF EXPLOSIVELY WILD automotive ideas, few if any have had less volatile origins than the Renault 5 Turbo aka the Little Bomb. In its 1972 launch guise, the cute-as-a-button, 36bhp French 5 was about as harmless as a toothless gerbil. Zany marketing and fashion-first paint-colour options targeted the full spectrum of younger drivers. Its utilitarian Renault 4 underpinnings notwithstanding, the otherwise distinctly modern R5 featured monocoque construction, Michel Boué’s seminal polished-pebble styling and innovative glassfibre and polyester-resin bumpers that were a neat foil to ‘creative’ Parisian parking techniques. It was the epitome of an egalitarian urban runabout. You’d have to be a little unhinged to think of one as the basis of a menacing motor sport weapon. But that’s exactly what transpired. At the beginning of 1976, Lancia had just

BELOW ‘Stacked pods’ instrument panel is pure late-1970s Bertone concept-car fare. Two-piece Gottis almost as iconic.

Renault 5 Turbo

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ABOVE Blistered arches dominate from every view. A mid-engined marvel born for the rally stage, but equally at home on the racetrack.

claimed its second of three consecutive World Rally Championship titles with the outrageous Gandini-designed Stratos, soundly beating the Alpine-Renault A110s in the process. The Alpine competition department, soon to be absorbed within the newly formed Renault Sport, probably knew it would take an even wilder idea to properly compete with the sensational Lancia. Simultaneously, the little R5 hatchback had already been around for four years, and while sales were still stellar, plans were unfolding to keep them that way. The emerging hot-hatch genre was considered the ‘next big thing’, and Renault’s initial response was the R5 Alpine (badged Gordini in the UK), a far sportier version developed and manufactured at the Alpine factory in Dieppe. Powered by a 1.4-litre engine producing 92bhp – around 50 percent more than any previous series R5 – it would launch just prior to Volkswagen’s 1976 Golf GTI. Sporty yes, but by no means wild, and patently not the basis

PHOTOTEQUE RENAULT

THIS PAGE Back at Montlhéry, the site of the initial shakedown tests for the car developed in the workshops of Dieppe and Viry-Châtillon.

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of a challenger to the purpose-built mid-engined Stratos. Right? Jean Terramorsi, a senior manager in Renault’s department for small-scale production models, and colleague Henry Lherm, both clearly motor sport enthusiasts, thought otherwise. In casual conversation after work one evening, the pair conceived of a very special R5 with a mid-mounted engine driving the rear wheels and set within a lightweight, wide-tracked and muscular body that retained a strong visual connection to the popular hatchback. It would be a ‘halo’ car, one bursting with boost and purpose. Boost? Because crucially the Terramorsi/Lherm concept would be turbocharged – the then relatively unknown forced-induction tech that Renault-Alpine had tested in 1975 with the A441 T race car, campaigned in ’76 with the A442 and was secretly applying to a new 1.5-litre Formula 1 engine for a 1977 British Grand Prix debut. Purpose? Because what better way to promote the Renault 5 as a model, the brand’s technical nous as a whole, and provide a potentially wild new rally-ready machine to boot? Recognising the upsides, Terramorsi’s superior, and future Renault chairman and CEO, Bernard Hanon didn’t need much convincing. Project 822 was born. Sadly, Terramorsi died in late August 1976 during the early development stages, but his vision of a mid-engined bombshell lived on. Newly appointed Renault Sport competition manager Gérard Larousse and Bernard Dudot,

Renault 5 Turbo

BELOW Highcontrast Bertone seats were not universally liked at first, but are now appreciated as iconic design pieces in their own right.

the engineer responsible for Renault’s turbo programme, were assigned to oversee the project. By all accounts it was a small team with a limited budget, but Project 822 would deliver for the marque a motor sport icon and France’s first mass-produced turbocharged car. Former Ligier and Autodelta race-car designer Michel Têtu was brought in by Larousse to lead the engineering team at Renault-Alpine’s Bureau D’Etudes et de Recherches Exploratoires (Berex) in Dieppe, tasked with both developing the technical package and producing initial prototypes. To transform the front-drive city car into a raging rally monster, Têtu retained the front double-wishbone suspension and steering components from the Renault 5 Alpine, but swapped that car’s trailing-arm rear set-up for the Alpine A310’s double wishbones. Several engine options were considered including the PRV V6, before the team settled on the small, cheap and light 1397cc four-cylinder motor from the Renault 5 Alpine, which they reckoned could be easily boosted to 160bhp and well beyond. The increased power – courtesy of an intercooled Garrett T3 turbo running at 0.85 bar and Bosch K-Jetronic fuel injection – necessitated a few mods including a beefier oil pump, cylinder head and gasket, plus revised crankpins, valves and crankshaft. Once fully developed, the turbocharged engine produced 158bhp at 6000rpm in standard guise. Power was sent to the rear wheels through a fivespeed manual transmission adapted from the unit used in the Renault 30 TX. The exterior design of the 5 Turbo has often 122

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‘Monte-Carlo victory was just reward for the courage Renault had shown in building the car’ been erroneously attributed wholesale to Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, when sketch and scale-model evidence clearly shows that Renault Style’s Marc Deschamps (initial design proposal), and Yves Legal (final design refinement) of Berex, should take much of the credit. Bertone was certainly involved, though, with Gandini responsible for subtle exterior tweaks and for the car’s inventive interior design – one that still creates passionate love/hate responses in equal measure. It was the mocked-up concept car finalised by Bertone and unveiled at the 1978 Paris Motor Show that first fired the public’s imagination. Grenadine Red paint with deliberately lighterhued bumpers and side skirts, oil-tanker-wide rear – rudely nicknamed ‘culo gordo’ (fat bottom) by some – roll cage and radical cabin were all startling. Still, it was the ‘Turbo’ script on the doors and the engine’s proposed location that generated most of the column inches. While the engine-less Bertone show car was a purely static display, the public did not have to wait very long to see the first Dieppe-built prototype in action. Just one month after the

Paris expo, a black Renault 5 Turbo was revealed to the press in a dynamic demonstration at the Lédenon race circuit. Several prototypes were built, with no. 822-04 driven by Guy Fréquelin making its competition debut in Group 4 specification at the 1979 Giro d’Italia Automobilistico – an event that allowed non-FISA-homologated entries. Engine problems forced an early retirement, but Renault’s new rally toy showed serious potential. Much of that was down to test driver Alain Serpaggi, who racked up thousands of kilometres in the various prototypes, pre-production units and competition versions of the car, fine tuning the dynamics, ironing out the early reliability problems and preparing the newcomer for public consumption. A step-by-step process that was not without its challenges, as Serpaggi recalls... “Our target with the first prototype was just to make a rally car. Then Renault decided to build a small series to sell to the public. It’s quite easy to build a car just for competition, because you only have to focus on performance. It’s much more difficult to do a regular model that you sell to customers, because it must also be comfortable in terms of heating, ventilation and seating. It has to be easy to drive for almost everybody, too; not all customers are professional drivers.” The biggest challenge when developing the 5 Turbo? “Thermal problems,” says Serpaggi. “The temperatures in the cabin and the engine bay were super high because of the turbo. That is something our suppliers were not used to. Many parts, such as small plastic pipes, would just melt. Step by step, we fixed the problems

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TESTS:

Renault 5 Turbo

and solved the insulation and the cooling. With turbochargers you have to have the coolest air possible. If not, it’s not reliable.” Much of Alain’s time testing the first prototypes was on closed rally routes in Corsica. “These were a great test for the chassis, because the roads were in a very bad shape at that time,” he says. “They quickly revealed the areas we needed to improve: suspension, engine- and gearboxmounting points... Our philosophy was that it’s better to start with a very light car and then to reinforce the weak points. If you do the contrary, you start from a heavy car that is reliable, but you don’t know where you can afford to lose weight.” Serpaggi remembers the time he drove the first prototype, “the black one”, with Bernard Hanon in the passenger seat. “We were on the highway on a bitterly cold winter’s night, but it was 50°C inside the cabin,” he says, smiling broadly. “I was not going very fast, because the suspension was not yet optimised and the car was not so stable. It didn’t inspire much confidence. After about 20km, with clear doubt in his tone, Bernard turned to me and asked sincerely: ‘Do you really think we can sell this?’” “‘Yes, no problem, don’t worry,’ I said. And when they [Renault executives] saw the final car and the public’s reaction to it three years later, they realised it would be a success. It was a great business card for Renault.” First and foremost, though, the Renault 5 Turbo was a rally machine designed according to Group 4 regulations. To meet FISA homologation rules, at least 400 road-going units would have to be built in one year. A successful September 24 test session at Montlhéry, followed immediately by that promising ’79 Giro d’Italia outing and a well received 1980 Brussels Motor Show debut for the finished car, were enough to convince Renault to press ahead with production, which officially began on May 20, 1980. Initially, only two paint colours would be 124

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offered: Olympic Blue or Grenadine Red, with blue cars featuring a red interior, and vice versa. Sounds simple, but there was nothing simple about the production process. Bare bodyshells were trucked from Flins to coachbuilder Heuliez in Cerizay, which lengthened each one by 5cm, modified the rear wheelarches, fitted aluminium doors and tailgate, installed a front strut base, added a firewall and replaced the steel roof with an aluminium panel. These were then shipped to Dieppe for final assembly, which included the fitting of new front and rear wings and bonnet – all made from polyester – the application of paint and the installation of the turbocharged engine, fivespeed gearbox and unique interior components. Each car was then taken for a test drive around the Normandy countryside, and then finally inspected before being sent to dealers. The convoluted process wasn’t cheap. For reference, prospective owners would have to pay 115,000 French francs for one, when an Alpine A310 cost 105,000 francs, and 131,500 francs put a Porsche 924 Turbo on your driveway. Renault reports that a total of 802 R5 Turbos were built in 1980, before a few subtle changes – more powerful intercooler, steel doors and new bodywork colours – were made for the next run of 888 cars. At the Paris Motor Show in 1982, Renault, perhaps in response to criticism of the car’s high price and its divisive interior design, launched the less costly, but mechanically

‘This little tyke is loud, eager, raw and darty – and that’s just from the passenger seat’

unchanged Renault 5 Turbo 2. Sadly for some, the sophisticated Bertone-styled modular dash, asymmetrically spoked steering wheel, contrastcolour trim and concept-car seats had made way for the far more sober-suited interior of the Renault 5 Alpine Turbo. A 13,000 franc price drop for a 30kg weight gain was obviously deemed an acceptable trade-off, as nearly 3200 Turbo 2s found buyers between 1982 and 1986. With the R5 Turbo fully homologated for Group 4, Renault Sport sent one car to the 1980 Tour de France Automobile. Driven by Jean ‘Jeannot’ Ragnotti with Jean-Marc Andrié as co-driver, its very strong initial showing was prematurely brought to an end by a small fire. A second retirement followed several stage victories in the Tour de Corse one month later – a failed alternator belt to blame this time. Those disappointments were quickly forgotten as the pairing finished second overall in the Critérium des Cévennes, their final outing for the year. Renault Sport marked this initial podium success by naming its first Group 4 competition-client evolution model Cévennes, of which 20 were built. 1981 began with a bang for the RagnottiAndrié duo as they claimed a famous victory at the Rallye Monte-Carlo in January. It was just reward for the courage Renault had shown in building the car, and for the years of development efforts from all involved. The combination of ‘the acrobat’ Ragnotti’s skilful and entertaining driving style, and the sheer spectacle of the mad mid-engined ‘city car’, made everyone in the rally world take notice. But the Little Bomb was about to see its fanbase undergo rapid expansion in the form of a marketing coup called the Renault 5 Turbo Europa Cup. One-make racing was nothing new in 1981. Renault had itself been running a one-make series for mildly tweaked regular 5 hatchbacks for years – but this was to be the first-ever single-make series for turbocharged cars. Not

PHOTOTEQUE RENAULT

RIGHT Ragnotti builds a gap to the chasing Europa Cup pack. Three victories in the 1981 season proved not quite sufficient to take the title.

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only that, the 12-event calendar included dates at Europe’s finest race tracks: Hockenheim, Nürburgring, Monaco, Monza and Imola among others, many as support races to Formula 1. Round five would even delight the massive crowd gathered to watch the start of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The idea was to pit promising amateur drivers against professional racers in identical R5 Turbos that, bar the necessary addition of a roll cage, competition seatbelts, fire extinguisher, upgraded brakes plus racier wheels and tyres, were unchanged from the production vehicles. This kept the costs low, racing close and grids full. The first Renault 5 Turbo Elf Europa Cup event took place at Hockenheim in 1981, as a Formula 1 support race in front of a crowd of around 100,000. The series was an immediate success, lasting four years and featuring, at various points, drivers Ragnotti, Walter Röhrl, Joachim Winkelhock, Peter Oberndorfer and future endurance-racing legend Jan Lammers. From that inaugural race to the 1984 finale at Le Castellet, spectators witnessed fields roughly 40-strong constantly jostling for position, bumpdrafting and sliding through the corners. This frenzied action offered plenty of thrills and spills – absolutely worth a YouTube search. Ragnotti finished runner-up to Wolfgang Schütz in the 1981 season, recording victories at the Nürburgring, Monaco and Dijon, and he stood on the podium at several other races, too. He would win twice the following season, finishing third behind Joël Gouhier and Massimo Sigala. 1983 saw the entrance of the Turbo 2 with Jan Lammers taking the title, which he would also retain the following year. The car filling these pages, photographed at the intimidating Autodrome de Linas-Montlhéry, the site of the final R5 Turbo prototype’s 1979 shakedown test, is Ragnotti’s firecracker from the 1981 and ’82 seasons. Even in the harsh light of a searing French summer’s day, the appeal is instant. Nearly 45 years on, this thing still looks perfectly bonkers and crazily kinetic, like a lifesize ripcord gyro racer. It is best viewed from the rear three-quarter position, where the 220mmwider bodywork emphasises its bottom-heavy, planted stance. No matter which area you try to focus on, it’s the rear wheelarches that dominate and define the design. These are not merely blistered arches: they’re positively blimped. Force your eyes elsewhere, and you’ll find other great details to savour on this Europa Cup racer. The slanted tricolore-striped bumper that’s repeated so dramatically up front. The single NACA duct on the left rear haunch that feeds air directly to the intercooler. The fuel-filler cap on the opposite side. The riveted-on tailgate buckles and leather straps. The epically cool Gotti wheels. It’s loaded with feel-good factor; even the sadly sagging front grille slats make you smile. Settling into the Bertone designer seat – no 126

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racing buckets here – the cabin seems tight, as 1980s claustrophobic as you’d imagine. It’s not helped by the pitted, bronze-hued roll cage, but the feeling is relieved somewhat by the era’s comparatively upright windscreen and spindly A- and B-pillars. Now faded to a shade of exotic mud, once-red carpeting floods the cabin from the engine cover forward, tumbling over the firewall and through to the footwell. A plaque, affixed to the dash, reveals this is Renault 5 Turbo no. 97 – one from the first batch produced. As we head out on the disturbingly bumpy and intimidatingly tall banked circuit for what is a necessarily sedate photoshoot, it’s immediately apparent that this little tyke is loud, eager, raw and darty – and that’s just from the passenger seat. Immersed in the closeness of the cockpit with the blown motor little more than a foot from your cheeks (either set), I can only imagine what it must have felt like bombing around Europe’s finest circuits, heart rates and tachos hitting their limiters in front of 100,000 enthusiasts with 40 other turbo tots trying to climb on board. With Group 4 being superseded by the almost unlimited power regulations of Group B, Renault launched the 237bhp, R5 Turbo Tour de Corse customer competition version, named in honour of Ragnotti’s 1982 victory there. Approved in January 1983, it met Group B criteria, but its competitiveness was hampered by the narrower tyres prescribed for cars up to 2000cc. Driven

‘Nothing cooler than a radically overpowered, rear-wheel-drive, two-seat city car’

primarily by the need for wider rubber on its competition cars, the 822 chassis number prefix became 8221 in 1984. Just 200 road-going units were built, all with the development and approval of the 1985 Renault 5 Maxi Turbo in mind. These models featured larger-capacity engines, increased to 1432cc in order to push them above 2.0 litres when multiplied by 1.4, the Federation’s ‘turbo factor’. The Maxi used a 1526cc version of the motor, producing in excess of 350bhp. Lighter, with more power and torque than ever before, and with one-inch-wider rubber, it would be the final and most explosive iteration of the rallyspec Renault 5 Turbos. Although still no match for four-wheel-drive opposition on loose surfaces, the Maxi Bomb shone on Tarmac, winning the ’85 Tour de Corse, again with Ragnotti at the wheel. Renault Sport halted its WRC programme at the end of 1985, and while there were various special projects – such as the spectacular 410bhp Renault 5 Turbo 2 Production circuit racer that netted a French Supertourisme championship for Works driver Érik Comas in ’87 – the competition powder had pretty much run dry. It was left to the almost 5000 road cars to carry the little 5 Turbo’s torch forward, something they have done with aplomb. To a far greater degree than with any other model in Renault’s long history, the brand seems intrinsically bound to the 5 in general and the Turbo especially. It’s already inspired a string of series-production Clio-based reinventions, the 2013 Twin’Run concept, and the infinitely insane R5 Turbo 3E drift car that photo-bombed our shoot. More proof that there’s nothing cooler than a radically overpowered, mid-engined, rear-wheel-drive, two-seat city car. Today these puffy-cheeked, sting-in-the-tail motoring icons still delight long-time admirers, make new fans just as easily and have also begun to light the fuses for many collectors – the epitome of loveable, tiny, investment-grade TNT.

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Le Monstre

Words Doug Nye

Photography Peter Harholdt

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ABOVE Briggs Cunningham’s team faced various issues at Le Mans – but overcame adversity with quick thinking.

AMONG NUMEROUS CANDIDATES WITHIN motor-racing history, two gentleman private owners truly stand out; Rob Walker representing Great Britain, and – from the US – the even more frenetically active owner, driver, constructor and team principal Briggs Swift Cunningham II. Both are recalled today with great respect and affection. Both were engaging, gregarious and enthusiastic sportsmen, but their areas of engagement differed; Rob within Formulas 1 and 2 apart from brief Ferrari 250GT engagement, while Briggs concentrated essentially upon sports car racing – his ultimate ambition having been to win the Le Mans 24 Hours for America. His attempts to shine there began in 1950, and ever since the late 1980s, when I first saw the Cunningham team’s weird-looking allAmerican Le Mans challenger, I have loved both the car and its background story… Briggs Cunningham was born into a wealthy Cincinnati family in 1907. His grandfather had owned river boats before building a meat-packing business with his son, Briggs Sr. As it flourished, he also created the Citizens National Bank, became a director of the Pennsylvania Railroad and a backer of soap company Procter & Gamble. Sadly Briggs Sr died when his son Briggs II was only five years old. The kid grew into being a considerable sportsman; at Yale University he even became brakeman of the US Olympic bobsleigh team. In 1929 he married into even greater wealth, wife Lucie Bedford’s grandfather having founded

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Briggs Cunningham’s aviationinspired, Cadillac-based beast was the first-ever all-American Le Mans entry, back in 1950. Doug Nye tells Le Monstre’s story – and climbs behind the wheel

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ABOVE Spartan cabin boasts an aeronautical feel, with bucket seats, basic dials and – yes – a column shift.

Standard Oil – Esso no less. In 1929-30 their lengthy European honeymoon included a lifeshaping attendance at the Monaco Grand Prix. From childhood Briggs had just loved fine, fast cars. He longed to go racing, but his mother vetoed it. Instead he adopted his future father-inlaw’s passion for yacht racing, and growing skill matched money. He’d win six world championship titles in six-metre yachts, crewed on the Fastnet race-winning boat in 1931, and 27 years later – in 1958 – would win the America’s Cup for the US on his largely self-funded 12-metre yacht Columbia. Meanwhile he had also become America’s most prominent and successful road-racing team owner, constructor and entrant – and a most capable endurance driver. Back in the early ’30s, with equally well heeled university friends Miles and Sam Collier, he had helped form the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA). While mainstream US motor racing was speedway based, these East Coast boys were entranced followers of European-style road racing. The Colliers provided one venue in their Sleepy Hollow Ring, on their advertising mogul father Barron Collier’s Overlook estate in Pocantico, NY. In all, ARCA ran on 11 chosen road circuits, plus a hillclimb course and four rallies. The exclusive club comprised a patrician group of like-minded, moneyed car and road-race fans. It became the forerunner of the post-war Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). These well funded young sportsmen enjoyed themselves by emulating the European road-racing superstars about whom they read in such imported English magazines as The Autocar and The Motor. While American mainstream track racers took national prominence, looking inward within the US, the ARCA/SCCA road-racing minority looked outward, towards Europe – both for their example, and for the

cars they imported and campaigned. In 1935 Miles Collier bought an ex-Le Mans George Eyston-team MG with its engine uprated from 847cc PA to 939cc PB spec, plus a new Marshall supercharger. He named it ‘Leonidis’ in a nod to the Spartan king of legend. After a 1937 collision with a New York taxi, he commissioned French-born specialist John Oliveau to design and fit sleek new panelling, and in 1938 Collier drove this light, nimble good-looker to win ARCA’s round-the-houses race at Alexandria Bay. Miles was elated, and in 1939 he entered Leonidis in the Le Mans 24 Hours, becoming the first American in a decade to run there. After eight hours, with 63 laps completed, he and co-driver Lewis Welch were leading their class when Leonidis split its fuel tank. Race over. Ten years and a world war would pass before, in 1949, the Le Mans 24 Hours was next run. It fell to Paris-based Italian driver/technician/wheelerdealer Luigi Chinetti – his third win there after those scored in 1932 and ’34 in Alfa Romeos he had also race prepared. But this time he was driving a new V12-engined Ferrari, and this was the great marque’s legend-founding first Le Mans win… Back in 1940, Chinetti had been commissioned by Lucy O’Reilly Schell to run the wealthy, USborn entrant’s two big Maserati 8CTF cars in the Indianapolis 500, driven by René Dreyfus and René Le Bègue. Chinetti put one car on the starting grid, and the French pair drove it home tenth. During that adventure, Italy entered World War Two as Nazi Germany’s ally – so Chinetti opted to remain in America from 1946, building a flourishing reputation as the go-to man for any wealthy enthusiast seeking an exotic European car. He split his time between the US and Europe, persuaded Enzo Ferrari of the American sports car market’s vast potential,

and raced and won for the marque at Spa, Montlhéry and – of course – Le Mans. Back in the US, Chinetti imported the nation’s first Ferrari for millionaire Tommy Lee, and then its second… for Briggs Cunningham, who’d been toying with the notion of building a new team to follow in Collier’s wheeltracks and actually to win Le Mans for the US. Chinetti’s 1949 Le Mans victory finally persuaded Briggs to make an allAmerican two-car team entry at La Sarthe for ’50. His initial intention was to run a pair of Cadillac V8-engined Fords – ‘Fordillacs’ – recently introduced by Frick-Tappett Motors of Freeport. Bill Frick was a talented practical engineer. His business partner Phil Walters was a slightly built wartime glider pilot, a veteran of the ill-fated 1944 Arnhem operation in which he’d lost a lung and a kidney. But as a PoW he’d been nursed by German medics – one of whom had spent time in America pre-war, and had seen Walters winning speedway races in Frick-prepared midget cars and jalopies under his pseudonym ‘Ted Tappett’. Back then he had been a muscular, all-action racer. Back from the war with the Air Medal, a Purple Heart and seven Bronze Stars to his name, he never regained such physical power. Instead he found that a smoother, tender-touch driving style returned even quicker lap times, and on the speedways in 1949 he won 14 feature races. His new, polished driving style earned a lifelong fan in a young would-be racer named Dan Gurney… In the Fordillacs, meanwhile, Frick replaced the Ford chassis’s original flathead V8s with more advanced, 160bhp 5.4-litre Cadillac OHV units. Some 200 Fordillacs would be sold. As an early customer, Briggs raced his with some success. Further encouraged by Collier, Chinetti and another friend – the soon-to-be Sebring 12-Hour race organiser – Alec Ulmann, he approached

LEFT The French crowd adored this spaceship on wheels the one time it ran in the Le Mans 24 Hours, in 1950.

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the ACO Le Mans organiser to enter two Fordillac team cars at La Sarthe in 1950, but the French refused to accept such hot-rod hybrids. They made clear, however, that either Ford or Cadillac production models – both chassis and engine from the same source – would be welcomed. Cunningham liked the cutting-edge overheadvalve Cadillac V8, and so he promptly advanced on two fronts. He decided to create his own company to build so-engined sports cars for road and racing use, aiming to field a team of them at Le Mans come 1951. He learned that a pilot foray there for 1950 would guarantee repeat entries that following season. So to qualify, he promptly commissioned Bill Frick to prep two 122in-wheelbase (10ft 2in) Cadillac Series 61 Coupe de Villes – whose ’50 Le Mans entries the ACO instantly accepted. Thus Cunningham seemed stuck fielding a pair of essentially stock or standard-production cars – which Frick-Tappett Motors began race-preparing in its modest shop at 95 Bennington Avenue, Freeport, Long Island, 20 miles east of downtown New York city. One car was prepped in near-factory trim, adding a twin-carburettor installation developed by Frank Burrell of Cadillac, welded-on brakecooling scoops and an extra fuel tank for better range. It was to be driven by Miles and Sam Collier. The other became Cunningham’s prime entry, which Briggs himself would co-drive with Phil Walters – and it became a product of careful reading of the ACO’s technical regulations. While they required production-model chassis and engines, body design was free – largely to enable French-made GP cars from Talbot-Lago to tackle the 24 Hours merely rigged with cycle mudguards and a regulation excuse for a passenger seat. Frick and Cunningham dived straight into this yawning gap. Neither was by nature an effete, dabbling, amateur racer. Their competitive natures considered the challenge posed by the eight-mile

‘At Le Mans, the ACO’s scrutineers could not believe the audacity of the Americans’ circuit, and particularly its famed three-mile Mulsanne Straight. And while the Colliers’ car was to race near-stock, the second would be rebodied in streamlined open-roadster form for high maximum speed along ‘The Muldoon’… They checked their plan with the ACO, which confirmed alternative bodywork would be accepted. Only 20 miles further east from Freeport lay the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation factory. Frick had sold a Fordillac to one of its aerodynamicists, Howard Weinman, and Briggs commissioned him to design new roadster bodywork to clothe the second Series 61 Cadillac chassis/engine. First Weinman completed wooden wind-tunnel models, which he tested at Grumman. Very quickly a sleek – if uncompromisingly practical – low-drag shape was chosen. This stark, spartan – and smooth – new body was attached to the stock chassis via a frame of welded chrome-molybdenum steel tube, with flat steel-sheet stiffening. In fighter-aircraft style, frame tubes rose high behind the driver’s head to provide roll-over protection – hidden within a neat headrest fairing. Detachable aluminium panels were then attached by dozens of aviationstyle press-down-and-twist Dzus fasteners. A dozen or so Grumman fabricators moon-lighted on the car each evening at Frick-Tappett. The result was startlingly un-pretty but, in BELOW The roadster reveals its simple but effective construction. Note the five carburettors.

period, breathtaking. The roadster looked huge in proportion – like a cross between a 1960s hovercraft and an aircraft carrier – but intensely futuristic. Despite its appearance of great width, it was actually three inches narrower than the standard Coupe de Ville. Experimentally, a Fred M Link two-way radio was fitted for pits-to-driver communication, using a circular loudspeaker set into the passenger-side dash panel. While the sedan’s V8 was running that twincarburettor set-up, Burrell produced a five-carb system for the roadster; just the centre unit was deployed at slow speeds, with the surrounding four chiming in on throttle demand. The sedan ran a standard 3.77:1 rear axle for its three-speed manual transmission – a recently discontinued Caddy option – and the roadster used a specially made 2.9:1 ratio with similar manual ’box. While the standard sedan weighed 3897lb, the roadster tipped the scales at 3705lb. Within weeks, during Le Mans practice, it would prove to be 13mph faster on the Mulsanne Straight than its ‘big’ sister. The cars, plus a standard 1949 Series 61 for Briggs’ and the team’s personal transport, were shipped to France from New York on the RMS Mauretania. Briggs, Walters, Ulmann and friends Bill Spear, Hemp Oliver and the invaluable French-speaking John Oliveau followed. On June 18, 1950 – one week before race day in France – a bus carried Miles and Sam Collier to Idlewild Airport, for their TWA flight to Orly, Paris. After landing two hours early, at 4:00am next day, they caught the 9:00am train to Le Mans where they joined their pre-established team-mates. There the ACO’s scrutineers just could not believe the audacity of the Americans – but as hard as they tried, they found the roadster’s Cadillac chassis to be absolutely stock. They blinked at the twin carbs on the sedan, and gasped at the roadster’s quin arrangement, yet there was no regulation demanding otherwise. John Oliveau proved decisive in encouraging acceptance with his impeccable locally accented French, since he hailed from the Le Mans area. It was less than six years since the city had been liberated from German occupation by the US 79th and 90th Infantry divisions, in an operation so swift it had caused little serious property damage. Americans were truly welcome and popular – and thus the Cunningham team was warmly received. The members stayed in the Hotel Continental, where Miles had lodged back in 1939 and whose owner Mme Bonnet had centred her clandestine wartime resistance work despite the building also serving as the local Gestapo HQ… But before the Collier boys had arrived in town, the Cunningham équipe had suffered a major setback. Briggs had been driving his road Cadillac round the circuit, closely followed by Walters in the roadster, with ACO secretary Raymond Acat’s daughter as passenger. Just leaving Arnage Corner, Briggs was shocked by a local farmer

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ABOVE Stark, smooth new body was attached to the stock Cadillac chassis via a frame of steel tube.

Monstre, and rejoined with its left-front bodywork caved in and a damaged headlight. Fortunately the team had rigged a perfectly effective centre lamp that – as dusk fell – would perform well. Later Briggs spun 180º at the Indianapolis turn, and Le Monstre proved so long he simply reversed it in race direction the few hundred yards down to the escape road at Arnage, then rejoined the race, left-handed, from there. The blue-and-white American cars, looking so different yet both bawling such brash, thrilling, thunderous V8 sounds, while squealing their Firestone tyres in the tighter turns, became huge favourites with the French crowd. Practice had revealed issues with the hard-compound rubber treads cracking. Dunlop had helpfully provided stand-by spares, but the Americans raced on the Firestones regardless, and survived. At around half-distance, perhaps in protest at its treatment during Briggs’ spin, Le Monstre’s gearbox lost both first and second ratios. He and Walters soldiered on, stuck in top. Around dawn both Cadillacs rumbled on through cloying mist, especially on the White House circuit section. An apparent short-circuit caused by Briggs’ secondlap sandbox manoeuvre left Le Monstre’s battery damaged, both adequate lighting and re-starting after pitstops causing anxiety. Each car’s fuel consumption barely bettered 6mpg. And then it was over, the father-and-son team of Louis and Jean-Louis Rosier joyfully winning

‘The cars, brash and thunderous, became huge favourites with the French crowd’

for France in their disguised GP Talbot-Lago, with a sister car second and the Anglo-American Allard-Cadillac J2 and Nash-Healey of Syd Allard/ Tom Cole and Tony Rolt/Duncan Hamilton third and fourth respectively. For the Cunningham team, the Collier brothers brought their clumsy puppy home tenth overall with 233 laps completed, and Briggs/Walters came in 11th, one lap behind… Both were warmly received by the French crowd. Many years later, Briggs’ friend Al Bochroch would write: “Even though Le Monstre was built for, and ran, only one event, and was not a prototype for anything, it was significant in bringing fame and attention to American entries at this historic 24-hour race. The car was big, noisy and, in the traditional American white with blue trim racing colours, it portrayed the brash American spirit that Europeans expected. They weren’t disappointed.” Before the end of that year, the first prototype Cunningham-Cadillac C1 roadster rolled out of the infant Cunningham Car Company’s new West Palm Beach, Florida workshop – and the next chapter in this all-American bid to win Le Mans, more than a decade before the Ford Motor Company’s ultimately successful quest was even conceived, had begun. But that’s another story.

PILOTING LE MONSTRE – ONE TRUE BRIT’S BIG FRIENDLY GIANT There’s a decidedly nautical air about Le Monstre; more precisely, marine aviation. Its aircraft-style Dzus fastener panel fixings were considered very aeronautical in 1950, but conventional door openings are so much more convenient. Thumb the push button on the driver’s side rolled-top door, the latch pops out – with a finger heave, the door swings open. Before you lies the expanse of a red-trimmed cockpit offering more space than most five-star hotel balconies. It’s dominated by the two deep leather-trimmed bucket seats and a simply vast four-spoke steering wheel. If the latter had hand-grasps

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abruptly turning his horse-drawn wagon clean across the Cadillac’s path. Briggs braked hard, and Walters, distracted perhaps by the girl alongside, dodged too late and slammed into the wagon, crushing the rebodied car’s new nose. Briggs would recall: “We needed someone who could work and weld aluminium. The best guy we knew of was Bob Blake. We called him in Virginia, but found he was visiting his wife’s parents in England. We managed to find him there and flew him right into Le Mans. We only had two days, but found a French garageman to help him and they worked right through. The car passed inspection OK.” Blake would soon join the Cunningham Car Company, becoming an invaluable fixture there until Briggs closed operations. He then re-settled with his wife in Coventry, England working for Jaguar. During practice, the French crowd simply adored the heeling, squealing cornering of the hefty, soft-suspended Cadillac sedan, while the repaired open-cockpit aerodyne just amazed them – a spaceship on wheels. The sedan they and the press nicknamed ‘Le Petit Pataud’ – meaning in effect the clumsy puppy – while the roadster, inevitably, became ‘Le Monstre’ – the monster. Both tags stuck. In practice, while Sam Collier in the sedan saw 4700rpm in top gear on the straight – 117mph – Phil Walters in the roadster ran nearer 130mph. The streamliner lapped slower, however, since it couldn’t accelerate from the corners as fast. Its original axle gearset was reinstalled, but it was found that the V8’s hydraulic lifters would pump up and hold the valves open if revs exceeded 4400. The French regulation petrol claimed to be 80 octane was probably no better than 70. Both cars experienced severe detonation unless the drivers accelerated just gingerly. Running out of time, Briggs and Phil accepted that as their mandatory rev limit. The Cadillac headlights proved inadequate and were replaced by more powerful French Marchals – oh, and the experimental Link radio proved inaudible, so was ditched. Both cars were fitted with harder brake linings, with a temperature sensor on each drum wired to what was really a cylinder-head temperature gauge on the dash. While Le Monstre ran out of brakes on every practice lap, that was fixed by air-intake trunking from the nose inlets feeding scoops added to each front drum. Miles had suggested each car should carry a folding shovel, just in case poor braking should send either one into Le Mans’ notorious sand traps on the tighter turns. Briggs thought that unnecessary – but on race Saturday, halfway round only his second lap, he sailed clean off at Mulsanne Corner, straight into the sand. As Sam careened by several times in Le Petit Pataud, he’d see poor Briggs kneeling thighdeep in the yellow sand, sweating the aerodyne out with his bare hands. After losing a half-hour, Cunningham finally succeeded in retrieving Le

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THREE G ENERATIONS OF ONE FAMILY OWNERSHIP

Le Monstre

radiating beyond its rim, it could have come straight from a fair-sized racing yacht. Step up, stride in – and it’s a full pace to the driver’s seat. Park yourself within, legs straight out to the pedals, wheel in your chest, and study the broad panorama of that expansive dash panel. There’s the small, chromed starter button to the left, then high-mounted ammeter, water- and oiltemperature gauge left of the steering column, oil pressure to the right. Low down, just beyond, is the fuel-pressure read-out, with fuel gauge just right of it. Above that is the speedometer complete with odometer. Far right, slung beneath the dash on an auxiliary panel, is a pair of vertical quadrant displays combined in one decidedly aeronauticallooking dial, presenting cylinder-head temps, conceivably B-25 Mitchell bomber-style. But these are the brake-temp warnings. And right before your eyes, above the steering column, is the 0-6000rpm tachometer, with a very informative speeds-in-gears quadrant plate above. Enfolded there in the high-sided seat, you get the sense that there might just be plenty of time to study those figures once you rumble out of Tertre Rouge corner at Le Mans – and on to the long, long Mulsanne Straight. Projecting right from the steering column is the gearchange lever with its understated little ivory-plastic gearknob. That’s right – instead of a four-on-the-floor shift, Le Monstre offers the entirely period delight of ‘three on the tree’. And more than a foot away on the facia is the blankedoff mount that during 1950 practice at Le Mans housed the loudspeaker for Le Monstre’s innovative two-way radio link, driver-to-pits, pits-to-driver – absolutely ship-to-shore. Settle into that deep seat and pick up the broad rough-webbing lapbelt halves, latch them together with hefty cast-metal clasp – clack! – and you are repeating the action that countless US fighter pilots made in wartime. It’s all matching kit. Suddenly you truly feel like Godfrey in a Grumman, or Pilot Officer Prune. Just to give a sense of scale, you are now seated some two feet inboard from – beyond your left elbow – the great car’s vertical side panel. Stretch out your right arm as far as you can towards the opposite side, and you can just about touch the inner edge of the passenger door. Straight ahead is a starkly simple flat-pane aero screen, matching that on the passenger side. Thanks to the curve on the scuttle top these screens look peculiarly splayed apart, bandy-legged. And beyond – well beyond – lies the open prairie of Le Monstre’s vast bonnet, or fo’c’sle deck. All it lacks are handrails, maybe even bollards and a winch. The car’s right-front corner seems some yards beyond that, your sightline picking up no adjacent ground less than maybe 20-25 feet away. OK, ignition on with key, just left of the lock, 138

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ABOVE Ship’s commander Doug Nye pilots the vast Le Monstre at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

and fuel pump switch on – whether or not it’s working is too far away to hear. Two jabs of throttle. Check the old lady’s column shift is in neutral. Right of ignition lock, jab the starter button and – wha-hay! – the 5.4-litre Cadillac V8 rumbles into cheery life. It has a pleasing, reassuring note – neither sharp-edged nor at all threatening – just warm but still muscular. It’s like firing up a boat’s diesel somewhere way below deck. Find first gear – it’s back towards you and down. Straight up is reverse, so (remember!) second is up, forward, up again. Then in that plane, third (top), straight down. The quite light but long-travel clutch takes up drive way down deep. Right-hand that onearmed-bandit lever into first, ease clutch (cast off moorings?) and we’re easing out of the paddock shelter to grumble through the crowds down into the Goodwood Festival of Speed assembly area. Careful of the port and starboard bows, check rear quarters. Good-oh – we haven’t yet run down a dinghy or canoe… Out onto the hillclimb course, right-hand down towards the start. A 180 turn-around, and back into the startline queue. Glance in mirror. Oh-oh – that’s Tom Kristensen right behind us, in one of his Le Mans Audi rocketships. Oh my – I hope the startline marshals give me a minute start, I really don’t want to hinder Tom’s run. He’ll surely catch me before the summit. I say as much to the BARC officials. “No worries,” they reply. “We’ll give you a gap.” (They didn’t.) Then nudge up to the startline light beam, burble, rumble, pause when directed. Watch the traffic-light start signal – it blinks from red to green, rev as appropriate considering Le Monstre’s age and status, ease the clutch home and with the most ladylike chirrup from the rear tyres she’s off the line. The transom squats, the horizon lowers as her bow rises, and I’ve got a pause for thought before it’s appropriate to lift the lever – up-forward-up – into second. More power, load her up into the double right-hander before Goodwood House. The stern runs wide then loads up that contralto left-rear tyre, and I concentrate on decent acceleration through the tighter second

apex and past the stands towards the footbridge. And – wait for it – clack, into third – that’s top by the way – and right-foot flat once more. We sail left-handed past the paddock, over the blind brow, slight right then brake and downshift for the tight left-hander at Molecomb. “Lee-oh!” the sailors cry – roll and pitch left-handed, now the right-rear tyre is singing, then hard uphill past ochre bales and spectators towards the blind essbend at The Wall. I imagine she’ll fit? Rumble, grumble – sway in on port lock and you’re actually heeling starboard, away from the daunting sharpedged flints. Short rumble to the right-hander, she rolls to port, then power again to the next left-hander with the summit finish arch beyond. But half a cable short of that last turn there’s a flicker of red in my mirror, a sense of tone-change in my ears – another note above my V8’s creamy burble. Dammit – Tom’s right under my tail in the Audi, grinning at me just above Le Monstre’s flat flight-deck tail. On the narrow road there’s nothing I can do to clear his path. Under the arch, down the long run towards the top paddock, and as we reach the narrow straw-baled gateway I check the mirror again, Tom’s backed right off, then through the gate and round as the marshals beckon me to park there, behind the growing run-done pack. The first time I drove Le Monstre at Goodwood some years before, as I swung round into place I heard a friendly cry of “Don’t worry Douggie – we’re sending tugs!” Damn cheek. Switch off, disembark. I stroll over to Tom to apologise for baulking him, and to explain I had asked the startline guys to leave a longer time cushion to avoid that. Sixty years’ difference in Le Mans car performance is one helluva margin. The Audi star just laughs and shrugs it off. But then he says: “You know you hit the bales coming through the gate? You showered me with straw.” Aaaagh! I’d been totally unaware of any impact. With a knotted tummy I rush back to Le Monstre. Horrified, I indeed find scratches on its starboard bow, although they look dark… old. But the first body joint wears accusing straw stems. OMG, as they say. Then I remember my camera lying on the passenger seat. I’d photographed this (to me) weirdly fascinating old beauty the previous day. Anxiously scrolling back through the digital images, there is the great car’s right-front corner and… those scratches had been there already. The massive duty-of-care soars from my shoulders. Such a relief – and the moment the mechanics’ bus pulls in behind us I confess to the Revs Institute’s Pedro Vela my misdemeanour. Lovely bloke – he laughs it off. For a moment there I had a vivid insight into what Briggs Cunningham most likely felt when he sand-banked this great car on just the second lap at Le Mans – with only some 23hr 40min still to run. It can be, indeed, a tough life at the top. Especially for any ship’s commander.

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19 LP19774 LP4 4 L 4000 Laam 0 Co mbbo Cou org unnta rghhin tach ini ch n i noo. . 000 022

Despite its 002 chassis number, this 1974 LP400 Periscopio represents several revolutionary ‘firsts’: it was the first Countach ever to roll off Lamborghini’s dedicated new production line, and the first example to be built for a customer. On its 50th anniversary, we find out more

OPPOSITE No. 002 was the March 1974 Geneva Motor Show car.

GENEVA, SWITZERLAND, MARCH 11, 1971. A yellow car displayed on the Carrozzeria Bertone stand vies with Lamborghini’s debuting Miura SV and the previously revealed Lancia Stratos Zero one-off for the motor show visitors’ attention. The Lamborghini LP500 Countach concept is being shown to gauge public reaction. Captivating the public and press alike, it passes the test with flying colours, with several potential customers willing to buy it on the spot. For many, the Countach means the future has just landed in Geneva. This first car – which is not formally a Lamborghini, because it is stamped as a Bertone with the serial number *C*120001 – has a secret, as will be revealed 50 years later by its creator and head of Bertone styling, the late car designer Marcello Gandini. Before his death in 2024, he reflected: “I always wanted my cars to be functional, because this forces the stylist to respect the mechanical needs. As always happens with the preparation of show cars, we were very late indeed, and the last work was being finalised when the car was already on the transporter ready to be shipped to Geneva.” The strict timeframe was confirmed by then Bertone PR boss Gianbeppe Panicco, who recalled how he was given a truck and two hours – not a

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minute more – to get the show car to a decent location for a photoshoot for the press release. Back to Gandini: “When we arrived in Geneva, and I had to drive the car from the unloading area to the Bertone stand, I was happy it even started. But despite all my efforts first gear would not engage, so I had to drive in second.” Amazingly, those were the Countach’s first few metres under its own power. Nevertheless, before the show had ended Lamborghini and Bertone’s people met and decided to move on with the project; the one-off would become a production car – and it had to do so in the shortest-possible time. “Ferruccio Lamborghini was brave indeed,” remembered Gandini. “A similar, square-shaped futuristic car I designed, the Alfa Romeo Carabo, was shown at the 1968 Paris Motor Show, and that remained a one-off. Ferruccio had guts to take the risk and manufacture the Countach. He deserved respect for that, along with all the success the model brought to his company.” Transforming a prototype into a roadregistered car is not easy, because temporary, sometimes merely aesthetic, solutions need to be revised. The Lamborghini technical team, led by engineers Giampaolo Dallara and Paolo Stanzani, was perfect for such a task, because they had the necessary competence paired with a deep love and passion for their work. New Zealand-born test driver Bob Wallace was ready, too, and only days after the Countach had arrived back from the Geneva Motor Show he was behind the wheel. It is amazing to think that a one-off prototype could be used in this way. Usually cars of this kind are virtually all mock-ups, with wooden and resin parts, and not meant to be driven for anything more than a slow-speed photoshoot. Indeed, the LP500 Countach would sustain the most, and hardest, aspects of the Countach model development. As a test mule, it was used and modified day after day for the next three years, and driven at high speeds under the most difficult conditions. First removed, and never missed, was the futuristic electronic dashboard installed for the show, while the original 5.0-litre engine, which required much more development, was quickly replaced with a more reliable 4.0 unit. The bigger motor wouldn’t return – albeit with a slightly different cubic capacity – until 1982, with the 5000 S. Next it was the turn of the air intakes, which needed to be repositioned and resized to achieve optimum efficiency, and so on… Only in March 1973 was a new Countach – the second (and final) prototype – ready, beginning with being shown at Geneva. Called the LP400, it was much closer to what would be the final production model, but it differed in several ways, in the body (with variations to the front bumper and side glass), finishes and cabin. Yet this was a fundamental step in the Countach’s development, because this car, painted in red with a black interior, sported a tubular fullspaceframe chassis. This was 17kg lighter than

OPPOSITE It was “like purchasing an amazing piece of art” says the current custodian.

ABOVE LP400 is considered the purest of all Countachs, not least due to its higher tyres and narrower body than later cars.

Lamborghini Countach

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Lamborghini Countach

the previous incarnation, and it would go on to be used for the production model. The chassis was given a Lamborghini number: 112 (the internal code for the Countach project) 0001 – formally making the LP400 the first Lamborghini Countach ever built. In mid-1973, Bob Wallace, with co-driver and Car editor Mel Nichols, piloted the Countach from Monte Carlo, where it had been displayed during the Formula 1 weekend, back to Sant’Agata Bolognese. During this journey Nichols would take a series of photographs – some proving the car reached speeds of 280km/h – which would appear in a dedicated magazine feature. At that point the Lamborghini ‘disappeared’, being replaced by a Verde Medio (Medium Green) version for the 1973 Paris, Frankfurt and London Motor Shows. For years everybody thought the red car had been lost, until it was discovered in a Swiss barn in 2004, at which point the green and the red examples were certified as being one and the same. This was the very hand-assembled prototype used as a reference to create the master model so necessary to producing all subsequent Countachs. Indeed, in productionising the Countach, Lamborghini was planning quite the revolution, linked not only with a more efficient production line, but because of the intent to manufacture the body in-house. This was a first for the marque, because up to that point bodies had been created by external coachbuilders, such as Carrozzeria Touring (for the 350/400GT), Marazzi (for the Islero) and Bertone (for virtually everything else). The decision to manufacture the panels internally put

‘In productionising the Countach, Lamborghini was planning quite the revolution’

Lamborghini in a more independent position, plus gave more direct quality control and set a standard operational process that is still used today. And now we come to the car shown on these pages – 1974’s LP400, chassis no. 1120002. It was the second Countach manufactured, and the very first to use Lamborghini’s new production line, as well as the first to be built for a customer. Technically, however, 1120002 was not the first model delivered, because only days before, when prototype no. 001 had finished its duties, that car would be shipped to its first private owner – a rather special one, because he was one of the proprietors of Lamborghini at the time. After appearing at the March 1974 Geneva Motor Show, the Giallo Fly over Pelle Naturale 1120002 was delivered on April 13, 1974, to Achilli Motors of Milan. The official Lamborghini agent was among the marque’s best customers, selling a significant number of cars and shipping them around the world, including to the Middle East. Achilli Motors would become still more important in later years when, almost destroyed

by a sudden financial crisis, Lamborghini required help. Together with only two other dealerships, Achilli lent financial stability, de facto shielding the factory from the insolvency court. Official documentation released by the Italian DMV shows that 1120002 received its factory homologation papers on April 11, and was registered with number plate MI U46819 on June 21. The declaration of sale is dated April 26, and was registered in Cento (Ferrara) on May 6, in the name of Achilli Motors owned by brothers Pietro, Giulio and Claudio Achilli SAS, based in Milan in Via Bergamo 11-15, for the amount of 17,281,100 Italian lira. It is not known who Mr Corti Albino, registered by Lamborghini as the person who ordered the car, was. Today, the name doesn’t sound familiar to anybody involved with the marque in period. This is odd, because he would have been fairly powerful – considering that Countach chassis no. 006, delivered in May, was for Walter Wolf, and no. 010, delivered on July 5 as always through Achilli Motors, went to Gianfranco Innocenti. And when, a few years ago, I had the opportunity to speak with one of the Achilli brothers, he had no memory of this name, either. The only other DMV note is dated October 29, 1987, when the car, still registered to Achilli Motors, was officially declared withdrawn from circulation, apparently because it was destroyed. Luckily, this proved not to be true... There were many reasons for this ‘fake’ declaration, which is not unusual in Italian carregistration circles and is usually linked with tax reasons, and most of the time with the

LEFT Countach’s new analogue dashboard superseded the original prototype’s futuristic electronic design.

LEFT A very special Countach: 1120002 was showcased during the marque’s 2013 50th anniversary celebrations, and was also displayed in the factory museum to mark the model’s 50th year in 2021.

exportation of a vehicle. In this case, if the memory of the Achilli I spoke to is correct, the reason could well be the fact that the brothers had to change the legal status of the company, thus paying taxes on every owned vehicle. This forced them to clear up the documentation for several vehicles that, while sold abroad, were never de-registered in Italy. It is not clear where no. 002 went immediately after being formally registered to Achilli, but in the late 1970s it turned up in Germany. The car is quite easy to identify because – as often happens with very early production models – it has some details that are different from later examples. According to the current custodian, a passionate young collector from northern Europe: “This car and no. 004 were made side by side, and they have several differences from all the others. From what we know, the first ten units all had some differences among them, but these two are really similar. Just as an example, the seats came from a different manufacturer and don’t have the side support. Also, the two air outlets on the roof have six slots on each side, whereas later cars had only five, while the Bertone badge on the wing is positioned much lower and the Lamborghini logo on the rear panel is different. Some parts on the first ten examples are made from magnesium, whereas they are aluminium on the later models.” The car was test driven for Swedish magazine Teknikens Värld in August 14, 1974, and in 1978, by now in Germany, it sported Mercedes tail-lights and a three-pointed star on the bonnet – but these seem to have been short-lived modifications. The current owner recalls: “When I bought the Countach in February 2006, it came from 152

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long-term ownership in Germany and was in very good condition. I remember that I received a phone call from my father. My dad is usually the coolest guy on earth and always very relaxed. That day, he definitely wasn’t. He only had to ask ‘where are you?’ for me to know something was wrong, and I felt the urge to ask who had died, before answering that I was at home. “He was amazingly nervous when he told me that he’d received a phone call from the AutoKremer dealership, a place he’d known well for many years, which had been asked by the owner of LP400 ‘Periscopio’ no. 002 to help sell the car. The sole request was that the new owner should be a serious and passionate Lamborghini collector – and so Kremer made the first call to my dad.” He continues: “He went on to tell me I should buy the car, because it was like purchasing an amazing piece of art – and, since my father already owned an early Periscopio (no. 012), this could be my opportunity. My dad, as formally he was the one who’d been contacted, quickly went to Kremer to look at the car, check the numbers and sign the contract. He told me that, minutes

‘Most of the time, I’m told it looks like I’m arriving behind the steering wheel of a spaceship’

later, he met a gentleman in the showroom who was there to buy the car. When the man discovered that I’d just bought it, he simply asked how much money I’d want to sell it. My father replied that the car was no longer for sale – and that it wouldn’t be for, hopefully, a very long time.” The Countach LP400 – LP stands for Longitudinale Posteriore, referring to the longitudinal rear positioning of the 4.0-litre V12 – is considered the purest of all Countachs, still featuring the narrow body and higher tyres. It is trademarked as, and nicknamed, Periscopio (periscope in Italian) because of the roof recess made to provide visibility to the internal rear-view mirror. It is a ‘leftover’ from the LP500 show car, which was equipped with a prismatic mirror, as in a submarine, to look to the rear through the roof. The mirror was discarded, but the specifically shaped roof remained – at least until the end of the LP400 and for a very few early LP400 S models. “To be in the LP400 is like sitting in a fighter jet,” says the owner. “You sit very low, surrounded by the car. I have to admit that driving around in a yellow Periscopio means you can’t pass by unnoticed, because everybody is usually staring at you. Most of the time, I’m told it looks like I’m arriving behind the steering wheel of a spaceship.” To further underline 1120002’s position in Lamborghini history, it is worth remembering it was showcased in Sant’Agata Bolognese during the marque’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 2013, and was also displayed in the factory museum to mark the Countach’s 50th year in 2021. It’s a very special car indeed. Thanks to Jason Kremer and the team at AutoKremer in Bonn (www.auto-kremer.com).

1974 Williams FW03—Ford DFV Built by Williams for the 1974 Grand Prix season, Arturo Mezario finished 4th in this car at the Italian GP which at the time was the best result for the fledgling Williams team, offered with spares package, and recently rebuilt including fresh Richardson DFV engine, the car is offered complete with fresh crack test and fuel cell certificates. Finished in the iconic Marlboro livery is a competitive car for the early Monaco Historic GP grid and a great car for Masters Historic F1.

SPEEDMASTER SPECIALIST IN HISTORIC AUTOMOBILES Tel: +44 (0)1937 220 360 or +44 (0)7768 800 773 info@speedmastercars.com www.speedmastercars.com

MOTORING

SCANDALS

THE TOP 50

Words Richard Heseltine

The individual lives, careers and corporate reputations ruined in the pursuit of pleasure, profit, power, speed and glory

Top 50 motoring scandals

Indy shenanigans

Out to grass

Do not pass go

Loose moorings

I fought the law

Winner Josef Newgarden and third-place man Scott McLaughlin were excluded from the 2024 IndyCar Series opener at St Petersburg, the Penske drivers having illegally employed a ‘push to pass’ function. The decision was announced 45 days after the race. Penske’s third driver, Will Power, didn’t use the device, but was docked points. Newgarden, who won Indy 500 in 2023, claimed he thought the rules had changed so he was allowed to use the system, which prompted derision. So Team Penske was fined by IndyCar Series owner Penske Entertainment. “Just moves from savings to checking,” rival driver Colton Herta quipped.

The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GTP series soared during the 1980s. This was also the decade where the acronym became known colloquially as the International Marijuana Smugglers’ Association. A lot of big-name racer/entrants were at it, 1984 champion Randy Lanier among them. When things got too hot, he initially fled to South America, only to make a deal with the authorities that would have resulted in a light sentence. Then he reneged, refusing to testify against his business partner. As such, in 1988 he received life without parole under new statutes. He was granted leniency after serving 27 years of his sentence.

Marque revivals tend to add little lustre to the original brand. That was certainly the case with De Tomaso, which was reanimated by former Lancia CEO Gian Mario Rossignolo, with the new Deauville crossover vehicle emerging at the 2011 Geneva Motor Show. He was arrested a year later and charged with having misappropriated funds from the Italian Government. The octogenarian was later found guilty of fraud and embezzlement, and sentenced to five and a half years’ imprisonment. The most recent De Tomaso revival has also been mired in claim and counter-claim.

In 1969, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) became aware of a problem with the failure of engine mounts on certain Chevrolet models. It approached the General Motors division and, incredibly, it disclosed that it had received 172 reports of failures – 63 of which resulted in accidents and 18 in injuries. Yet GM didn’t announce a recall until December 1971. It transpired that the same mounts had been employed since 1958. Increases in power and torque over more than a decade meant that an engine could shift on its mounts. This movement could lead to the throttle being opened, with unintended consequences.

It was a scandal that had a major impact on the lives of two racing drivers. Luxembourg-born Bertrand Gachot was enjoying a solid 1991 season. He won that year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, and was impressing in Formula 1 with Jordan Grand Prix. Then he was involved in a road-rage incident with a London cabbie, spraying him with CS gas. Expecting a smacked wrist, he instead received an 18-month prison sentence (this became two months on appeal). Gachot’s enforced absence saw German rookie Michael Schumacher take his place for the Belgian Grand Prix – and thus, a star was born.

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An obvious ‘off’

A career ruined

Mitsubishi lies

History doesn’t repeat

During the late 1980s and early ’90s, it wasn’t uncommon for Works Lancia Delta rally cars to boast four fire extinguishers. They were replaced at each service stop. In reality, they contained nitrous oxide. However, there was no official sanction. One cheat that did cause a furore, albeit of the localised variety, occurred much earlier, when Tony Fall was looking to claim a repeat win on the 1969 TAP Rally in Portugal in his HFS Squadra Fulvia. However, it became clear that the car he finished in wasn’t the one he’d started with. The event’s organiser César Torres wasn’t amused.

Michael Schumacher was on imperious form for much of the early 2000s, but the seven-time World Champion faced serious competition in 2006. The Ferrari team that had been moulded in his image was no longer preordained to win titles, which made him desperate. This became all too obvious to an audience of millions during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix. He set provisional pole, only to inexplicably run wide and stop on track, thus preventing arch-rival Fernando Alonso from setting a faster time in his Renault. Schuey somehow escaped a ban, being merely sent to the back of the grid.

Before it took a turn for the corporate, NASCAR and controversy went hand in hand. The sport was rooted in moonshine running after all. There had been relatively few scandals in stock cars for some time, and then, in May 2009, Jeremy Mayfield tested positive during a random drug test. A five-time winner in the premier Cup Series, he claimed he had taken nothing stronger than an allergy medication and Adderall. Both were discovered – but so was methamphetamine. An indefinite ban ensued, as did a downward spiral that included several drug-related run-ins with the law.

Mitsubishi diligently met stringent fuel-mileage goals for home-market cars. It did so for 25 years by the expedient means of making stuff up and employing spurious methods of testing and falsified data. It would probably have persevered with its chicanery had rival Nissan not become suspicious and passed its findings on to the authorities in 2016. The upshot was that Mitsubishi was found out and its share value plummeted. Nissan came out the victor on many levels. Aside from anything else, it aggressively bought up the now bargainbasement stock and claimed a controlling interest.

Michael Schumacher was the most gifted F1 driver of his generation. He was also the least sporting. Having famously crashed out of the title-deciding Australian Grand Prix in 1994, he steered his damaged car in the direction of Damon Hill. Both retired, and Schumacher became champion. Memories of this incident came flooding back at Jerez in 1997, as the Ferrari man led Williams driver Jacques Villeneuve by a point. Schuey turned in on him as the Canadian dived for the lead, but the move failed. Villeneuve was crowned, while Schumacher was found to have crashed deliberately. He was excluded from the 1997 standings.

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ALAMY

Lancia cheats

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Liegate

Swinging the lead

Opel tarnished

F1 shambles

Volkswagen wins but loses

Toyota’s Jarno Trulli finished third in the 2009 Australian GP, only to receive a post-race 25sec penalty for overtaking McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton during a late safety-car period. The Italian insisted that Hamilton had abruptly slowed and pulled to the side of the road to the point that there was little he could do other than pass him. Hamilton benefited from this, being promoted from fourth to third. An investigation by the FIA later found that McLaren had engineered the situation and lied consistently. It stripped the team of all points from the race, and handed the outfit a three-race suspended ban.

Formula 1 and exploiting loopholes go hand in hand. In 1984, Tyrrell was the only team using normally aspirated engines. The FIA organising body made a provision whereby it reduced the power available to turbo runners relative to non-turbo cars. Tyrrell sought to further tip the scales by running cars underweight during races. The water-injection supply tanks would be topped up during the final pitstops, lead shot being mixed into the H2O to make sure they made the weight limit during post-race inspections. The ruse was exposed after the Detroit Grand Prix, and Tyrrell was excluded from that year’s World Championship.

Back in 1995, Opel was mired in scandal when it emerged that employees and executives had received bribes from suppliers. These were in the form of cash or gifts, their generous benefactors in turn receiving lucrative contracts. The firm’s production chief Peter Enderle resigned, as did two other senior managers. If Opel’s board hoped the story would end there, they were to be disappointed. Instead, matters snowballed; 65 employees were involved, not to mention 40 suppliers. Just to rub salt into the wounds, some of these contractors had billed their costs back to Opel via bogus invoices.

Ralf Schumacher’s tyrerelated crash during the run-up to the 2006 US GP had major ramifications. Part of the Indianapolis course had become more abrasive since F1’s previous visit. Bridgestone was aware of the partial resurfacing and had made changes accordingly. Michelin was in the dark, and suddenly there were concerns of further blow-outs. The inclusion of a chicane would have alleviated tyre stress, but FIA president Max Mosley – at home in Monaco – wouldn’t countenance it. And thus, the 14 Michelin-shod cars completed the formation lap before peeling off. The other six ‘raced’. The damage to F1 in the US was seismic.

José Ignacio López de Arriortúa was an authority on cutting costs, hence his nickname ‘The Squeezer’. In 1993, the Spaniard and three other General Motors purchasing executives were poached by Volkswagen. This would have caused nothing but a ripple within the industry had he not also taken with him 10,000 files belonging to his former employer; ones encompassing everything from GM’s future model range to details of its production systems. Attempts to extradite him to the US to face federal racketeering charges failed. VW did, however, pay GM $100m in damages, and also purchased parts totalling $1bn.

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A bigger bang

Mosley spanks newspaper

MG Rover goes pop

Safety last

In 2005, it emerged that Volkswagen executive Peter Hartz had authorised large payments to union officials. They sat on the firm’s supervisory board, and he bought their support for management policies. These bribes were in the form of money, holidays and prostitutes (complete with complimentary Viagra, as signed off by the company’s doctors). It didn’t end there. There were also kickbacks to managers from property firms involved in land deals with VW (the firm’s Skoda subsidiary was also implicated). Hartz resigned and was later handed a prison term of two years, while union leader Klaus Volkert received a three-year sentence.

In December 2021, former F1 driver Jean Alesi was arrested and charged with “…damaging the property of others by means of an explosive device”. His son, Giuliano, was also collared. It transpired that Alesi Sr was angry with Rudy Flament, whose relationship with his sister had not ended well. Father and son decided to drive to Flament’s architectural practice after dark, the former placing an illegal mortar-shell firework against the front door. He lit it before the pair sped off, with Giuliano at the wheel. There then followed a loud bang, property damage and police cordons. The Alesis went on trial in 2003 and were acquitted.

Max Mosley, the son of notorious fascist Sir Oswald Mosley, was at certain points the co-founder of the March racing car constructor and a polarising Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) president. On March 30, 2008, his name was splashed across the front page of the News of the World. The headline read: “F1 boss has sick Nazi orgy with five hookers.” It was followed by the subhead: “Son of Hitler-loving fascist in sex shame.” The inference was that there had been an element of concentration camp-themed roleplay. There hadn’t – and Mosley won damages.

BMW offloaded the MG Rover Group in 2000 having been a mediocre custodian. The buyers were the Phoenix Four: John Towers, Peter Beale, Nick Stephenson and John Edwards. They contributed £2.50 each. They promised much, but the firm lurched into bankruptcy in 2015, by which time it owed £1.3bn to creditors. The quartet had pocketed £36m in salary and pensions before the crash that cost 6300 jobs. A £16m government investigation discovered that data-deletion software had been installed on Beale’s computer, while a friend of Stephenson’s had been paid £1.69m in ‘consultancy fees’. Directorship bans ensued by way of reprimands.

News emerged in 2008 that people had been killed by airbags made by Japanese firm Takata. It transpired that moisture could get into the airbags’ propellant, causing them to inflate with too much force in an accident. In extreme cases, the airbag’s metal housing would shatter, leading to occupants being peppered with shrapnel. Ten car manufacturers were affected. Takata had become aware of the problem in 2004, the same year that Honda also cottoned on. Both kept quiet. Recalls were inevitable, and millions of cars made from 1995 had their airbags replaced. Honda, for its part, received a fine of $70m for dragging its feet.

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Fraud de France

Rover and out

Speed ace incarcerated

The French Grand Prix is an institution, regardless of venue. However, the decision not to stage a race in 2023 went beyond Formula 1’s recent propensity to be swayed by big-money offers from sandier climes. It transpired that the demise of the GIP Grand Prix de France at Circuit Paul Ricard was due to systematic fraud. According to BusinessF1, $28.8m had disappeared from the accounts. This only came to light following a request from the public-interest group that steered the already heavily subsidised event for an injection of $5m: would the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, mind shoring up its finances? Estrosi received a letter from a whistleblower shortly thereafter. The fraud had been perpetuated over a six-year period, although the circuit itself was – and remains – a profitable business. Jean Alesi was subsequently hired as its president and general manager, the former racer being tasked with getting the race back on track. The French Grand Prix remains conspicuously absent from the F1 calendar.

In the words of a former driver, Tom Walkinshaw couldn’t “lay straight in bed”. The Scot’s cars were often described as “bent” because he interpreted the rules differently to everyone else. The furore surrounding the 1985 British Saloon Car Championship dominated the motor-racing weeklies for aeons. TWR (Tom Walkinshaw Racing) entered three Works Rovers SD1s, and the problems starting during the seventh of the 11 rounds when his cars were protested. Why were the rear wheels – and arches – wider than standard? Walkinshaw claimed Rover sold the SD1 that way in certain developing countries to help them cope with difficult terrain. Overnight, the TWR transporter was daubed with graffiti that read ‘TWR equals Third World Racing’. Even so, driver Steve Soper was later crowned champion, only to be excluded during the second half of the 1986 season following an inquiry. Thus Alfa Romeo driver Andy Rouse was promoted to champion. He won the 1986 title, too, and received the silverware for both campaigns during the same weekend.

Kaye Don was one of the original speed kings. He was an aviator, a Brooklands hero and Water Speed Record holder. He was a man of action who was rarely out of the headlines, but he came unstuck on May 28, 1934 during the run up to the Mannin Moar race on the Isle of Man. He’d been complaining of problems with the brakes on his Works-tended MG K3 Magnette. Late that evening, mechanic Francis Taylor informed him that the car had been fettled. Shortly after 10:00pm, Don decided to take the MG out for a further test accompanied by Taylor. The car had no lights or insurance, and a glancing blow to a taxi resulted in the Magnette losing a wheel and overturning. Both occupants were taken to hospital, Taylor succumbing to his injuries the following morning. Kaye was found to have been negligent and was sentenced to four months’ imprisonment for manslaughter. He was released early on medical grounds.

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A different backstory

Ford gets lucky

A pioneer falters

Audi is set up

Failing the Elk Test

He was the media magnate who became the president of the Commission Sportive Internationale (CSI). JeanMarie Balestre transformed it into the La Fédération Internationale du Sport Automobile (FISA). By 1986, he was also president of the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA). As such, he wielded great power, much of his time being spent battling Bernie Ecclestone over who owned the commercial rights to Formula 1. Balestre was pompous and shouty, but also someone who got things done. The proud Frenchman said he’d been a Resistance fighter during WW2, and he received the Légion d’Honneur in 1968. However, photos emerged at the end of the following decade that showed the former proprietor of Le Figaro wearing a German SS uniform. He did everything he could to suppress their publication. He claimed he’d been arrested by the occupiers and sent to Dachau in 1944. Others insisted he arrived at Dachau a year later, after it had become an Allied detention centre. The mud stuck, but he wasn’t ousted until 1991.

In 1980, the NHTSA wrapped up a three-year investigation into a fault with automatic transmissions employed on Ford passenger vehicles. It found that they could slip from park into reverse, causing cars to roll away on an incline. By the time the NHTSA got involved, these faulty ’boxes had led directly to 777 accidents, 259 injuries and 23 deaths (this figure later jumped to an estimated 77). These transmissions had been employed as far back as 1966, and Ford had become aware of the problem in 1972. Dealing with the issue promptly would have equated to a cost of three cents per vehicle. By 1983-84, the Blue Oval faced the prospect of recalling 23 million cars, which would have bankrupted the firm. As such, it lobbied President Reagan to go easy on the sanctions. He did, too. Ford was obliged to send out 23m stickers to be placed on dashboards. These reminded owners to engage Park to fully activate the parking brake before switching the engine off.

The arrival of the automobile attracted a number of ne’er-dowells. Some have argued that Henry John ‘Harry’ Lawson was merely unlucky rather than a scoundrel. He had an entrepreneurial streak a mile wide, and conceived the Safety Bicycle before vacuuming up every patent he could relating to the new-fangled horseless carriage. He reasoned that he would soon be raking in the royalties. He established the British Motor Syndicate in 1895, and a year later registered the Daimler Motor Company Ltd, of which he was chairman. When the Locomotives on Highways Act was announced in August 1896, Lawson spied a chance to promote his sprawling automotive empire by means of celebrating the freedoms that would follow in November of that year. On the 13th of the month, the 4mph speed limit would be replaced by one of 14mph. And thus the Emancipation Run was born. However, Lawson soon came a cropper amid bankruptcies and lawsuits from aggrieved shareholders. In 1904, he was incarcerated in West London’s Wormwood Scrubs prison after being convicted of fraud.

Audi was among dozens of manufacturers investigated by the NHTSA during the early 1980s due to alleged ‘surges of acceleration’. In period, six parties who had been involved in accidents involving Audis sued the manufacturer. None made headlines, and the firm was selling 75,000 cars in the US by the middle of the decade. Then CBS’s 60 Minutes ran a feature dubbed Out of Control, which centred on the 5000 saloon (the 100/200 elsewhere). The show claimed the car had a tendency to accelerate suddenly without warning. It broadcast footage of an Audi surging forward of its own accord. This was explosive stuff. It was also complete fiction. The ‘test’ car had been rigged by means of a canister of compressed air, some tubing and a few holes drilled into the transmission to provide the socalled ‘unintended acceleration’. Not only that, the person who did the rigging had been an ‘expert’ acting against Audi in a lawsuit. It didn’t matter a jot. Audi’s reputation was shot.

In October 1997, journalist Robert Collin was testing a Mercedes-Benz A-Class for Teknikens Värld magazine. This new model with its ‘twin-chassis design’ had been much anticipated. The occupants sat relatively high up, with the running gear below packaged in such a way that nothing should pierce the passenger cell in an accident. That said, this did result in a car that was high-sided. Nevertheless, the magazine had historically put every conceivable vehicle through the Elk Test – a Trabant and a Reliant Rialto trike among them. None had flunked. The test was a simulated lastminute avoidance manoeuvre; the A-Class ended up on its roof. Given that M-B had invested billions developing this bold new baby, it was loath to take the Swedish title’s finding seriously. And then suddenly it did. The A-Class had only just gone on sale, and 2600 were recalled, while a further 17,000 in the supply chain were taken back and equipped with an ESP system (hitherto an option) and a different tyre design.

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The car swap

The fix that wasn’t

Audi flies high

Corrosive fallout

No prize for ingenuity

The 1980s witnessed umpteen scandals in rallying, one of the biggest surrounding Audi’s 1985 Ivory Coast Rally campaign. Michèle Mouton’s Quattro Sport suffered what appeared to be a blown head gasket, and seemingly vanished following a stage near the Ghanian border. Weirdly, so did the chase car being driven by Audi Sport engineer Franz Braun and service planner Arwed Fischer. Both vehicles reappeared an hour and 20 minutes later, by which time Mouton’s car was back on song – whereas the sister model was anything but. However, some observers noticed one or two differences. Why did Mouton’s Audi suddenly have a towing eye? What had happened to some of the front spotlights? Why was the livery slightly dissimilar? Where was the roof number? And so on. Motor Sport magazine reported: “If they had switched cars, they had certainly done it in a clumsy manner, ignoring the fact that there were certain basic differences between the two. Just as a liar needs to have a good memory, so a cheat needs to know his game backwards.”

Umpteen texts paint it as having been one of biggest scandals in the history of motor racing. The outcome of the 1933 Tripoli GP was rigged. The Libyan Government had sold 12m lottery tickets during the run-up to the event and, after taking its cut, the rest of the money raised was doled out to the Automobile Club di Tripoli, to the entrants in the form of start money, and to the victorious ticketholders. Tickets were drawn eight days prior, each being allocated to a corresponding car/driver. Prizes topped out at 3m lire. Achille Varzi, Tazio Nuvolari and Baconin Borzacchini conspired with their respective ticketholders to fix the results. Except they didn’t. It was a myth perpetuated by Alfred Neubauer in his 1958 book Speed Was My Life. In reality, the three drivers and their respective ticketholders agreed to pool the prize money from the lottery. It would then be split equally between the six of them, should one of the three drivers win the race.

Audi was much garlanded after the TT entered production in 1998. The company was known for its technical daring, yet its products had hitherto been soberly designed. The TT was something else entirely, but it was the styling that was the problem. In Germany, where the autobahns are unrestricted in certain places, TT owners discovered that their cars became a mite floaty at high speed. Some even became airborne. No fewer than 22 crashed shortly after the model was introduced, one resulting in a fatality. It later transpired that Audi’s engineers had been concerned about the TT’s rounded rump, in particular its compromised aerodynamics, and had wanted a spoiler to aid stability. The designers didn’t want to upset the styling purity, and so they held firm. A ‘fix’ was adopted whereby the front suspension was reworked and ESP (Electronic Stability Programme) installed. Oh, and a discreet lip spoiler was added.

As we all know by rote, Lancias once rusted. Think back to the 1970s, and the brand’s cars were not alone in this. BMWs erupted in pox – and that is before you factor in Japanese offerings of the day. There were inherent design flaws with Lancias, though, and customers weren’t best pleased to spend a lot of money on a car only to discover it ventilated by rust. By 1980 they were becoming vocal about Betas failing MoTs because of corrosion, so the firm offered to take the models back in partexchange against a new Fiat or Lancia. Given that some of these cars were now six years old, you could argue that the company was being generous. The Daily Mirror thought otherwise. It ran an ‘exposé’ that was selective when it came to the facts. Lancia responded by introducing a class-leading anti-corrosion warranty, but the rot had set in. Further hyperbolic claims levelled against Lancia on TV show That’s Life! further heaped on the misery. The reputational fallout was cataclysmic.

Scroll back to 1995, and Toyota Team Europe was chasing a third consecutive World Rally Championship with its latest Celica GT-Four. However, the car proved too big and too heavy. And then, during the Langley Park Super Special Stage of September’s Rally Australia, it suddenly came good. A bit too good. The pace of the three Works Celicas was electrifying. Toyota’s rivals badgered the FIA to investigate, and during the following round in Spain the authority found the regulation 34mm turbo air restrictor on each Celica had been tampered with to allow a valuable boost of power. Motor Sport reported: “It worked like this: with the use of a special tool, the entire restrictor could be slid forward 5mm against strong springs, and locked, allowing extra air around the sides. Dismantling for scrutineering automatically released the catches, letting the restrictor spring back into legal position and concealing its own ingenious hardware.” Toyota was banned for 12 months.

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Cocaine fuelled

Unintended acceleration

There was a time when Ford in the US lurched from one scandal to another. Still, it retained a loyal customer base. The Explorer SUV in particular was one of the best-selling cars of the 1990s, only for its popularity to grind to a juddering halt in 2000. The NHTSA had become aware of a disproportionate number of tyre failures, which resulted in Explorers rolling over. What followed was a huge and very public spat between Ford and Firestone, the Blue Oval and the tyre maker having been partners for nearly a century. Explorers were soon rechristened ‘Exploders’ by comedians amateur and professional. Given that hundreds of people lost their lives aboard these SUVs, this wasn’t even mordantly amusing. Ford blamed Firestone for making substandard tyres, Firestone in turn accusing Ford of making rubbish cars. Both companies ended up shelling out huge sums by way of compensation. In the final analysis, it was concluded that the real problem lay with incorrect tyre pressures.

Brit Vic Lee was a charismatic racer-turned-entrant who was well liked in the pitlane. He also had a Works BMW contract and plenty of sponsorship, victory in 1991 British Touring Car Championship ensuring as much. He had the world at his feet, with the 1992 season being a rerun of the previous year. Lead driver Tim Harvey was the class of the field. Vic Lee Racing was the team that the others needed to beat – the only question mark being why, precisely, did Lee insist on testing at Zandvoort in the Netherlands rather than on circuits closer to home? Lee was a drug smuggler. He was arrested with cocaine worth £6m secreted in his race transporter, and in 1993 he received a 12-year sentence (among his cohorts was touring car racer Jerry Mahony, who got 11 years). Lee was paroled in 1998 and returned to tin-tops, only to be collared in 2005 with £1.7m of Class A drugs in the boot of his car. He was sent down for 12 years. Again.

It was a scandal that dominated news coverage in the US to the point that one congressman implored Americans to stop driving Toyota products with immediate effect. In 2009, audio recordings were released of traffic cop Mark Saylor talking to the emergency services as he sped along a stretch of highway in San Diego aboard a loaned Lexus ES 350. It was harrowing stuff, Saylor stating that the car’s accelerator was stuck and he had no brakes. The recording then ended abruptly. The Lexus left the road travelling at 125mph. Its four occupants didn’t stand a chance. There then followed a tsunami of bad publicity, some of it by design via those with vested interests, some amplified by Toyota itself. The Japanese giant claimed the incident was down to driver error. Then it changed tack and said poorly shored floormats were to blame. Then it emerged that Toyota had been sitting on documents for three years that outlined ‘issues’ with the pedal design. US authorities levied a fine of $1.2 billion.

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Ford vs Firestone

But it was wartime

Ignition off

Fight or flight

Louis Renault was a visionary, an industrialist and a son of France; one who was awarded the Légion d’honneur after World War 1. To others, he was a ruthless paranoic: the ‘Ogre of Billancourt’ according to those he employed. However, there was a single, incendiary word levelled against him after France was liberated in 1944: collaborator. Renault insisted that he had been obliged to keep his factories open by whatever means were at his disposal, even if it meant working for the occupiers. “It is better to give them the butter than let them take the cows,” he was quoted as saying. One version of history posits that his equipment and workforce would have been shipped to Germany had he refused to acquiesce. Renault was already frail by the time he was incarcerated soon after the war ended. He died in October 1944 in mysterious circumstances. The state then nabbed his business, itself something of a legal grey area, the irony being that his will stated that it should be entrusted to his 40,0000 employees.

Following the launch of the Chevrolet Cobalt in 2004, it soon became apparent that the car’s ignition system could fail while in motion. Power would be cut and safety systems deactivated. Two years later General Motors decided it should probably act, so it introduced a new ignition switch; one that retained the same part number so that the redesign wouldn’t be obvious. This subterfuge didn’t work. Fast-forward to 2013, and GM accepted that its malfunctioning ignitions had been directly responsible for 13 deaths. It then attempted a filthy trick: its lawyers claimed that GM was a new firm following the financial crisis of 2008 and the corresponding bailouts. As such, it couldn’t be held accountable for the failings of its predecessor. The ploy didn’t work. The death toll ultimately stood at 124, and GM paid out on each one of them. It also handed over $900m to the US Government as part of a Deferred Prosecution Agreement.

Carlos Ghosn was one of the most feted CEOs in the world. The Lebanese-Brazilian turned around Nissan’s flagging fortunes by sheer force of will, and he did the same with Renault with which Nissan was closely aligned. Then, on November 19, 2018, he was arrested. What followed was a deluge of accusation and counter-accusation, Japanese prosecutors and Nissan’s higher-ups claiming that Ghosn had misused the firm’s assets. It had unwittingly paid for the maintenance of his many residences, as well as for family holidays, among other improprieties. Ghosn said he was being victimised because some Nissan board members were against the marque being further integrated with Renault and Mitsubishi. They wanted him gone by fair means or foul. Ghosn was incarcerated, and later bailed at vast expense. He was placed under house arrest with no access to his wife and family. On December 29, 2019, he fled the country in a manner akin to something out of a spy novel (he concealed himself in hi-fi equipment for starters).

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A grim reality

Benetton cheats (part one)

Benetton cheats (part two)

Tucker’s luck

It was a scandal that originated at a photocopying shop in Woking. A woman had requested a 780-page technical manual be scanned. It later transpired that she was married to senior McLaren engineer Mike Coughlan, the manual having originated at Ferrari. The manager notified the Maranello squad after Mrs Coughlan left – cue the 2007 Spygate saga. It emerged that embittered Ferrari engineer Nigel Stepney had given Mike Coughlan the file, but the FIA cleared McLaren chief Ron Dennis and the team of having been aware of these actions. Then star signing Fernando Alonso and test driver Pedro de la Rosa dobbed them in (the former was aggrieved that he wasn’t the de facto number one that year). They contacted FIA president Max Mosley directly. Forensic investigators found that Ferrari’s intellectual property had been accessed repeatedly, and by more than one rogue employee. McLaren was fined $100m. Three years earlier, Toyota’s F1 team had been found to possess masses of appropriated Ferrari data. Barely an eyebrow was raised.

This would be the scandal to end all scandals were it not for the fact that it took place during World War Two, and under the murderous watch of the Third Reich. German industry ‘employed’ hundreds of thousands of prisoners. Around 10,000 concentration camp inmates of primarily East European and Jewish extraction laboured in Volkswagen’s Wolfsburg factory alone. Auto Union exploited 20,000, while BMW used 50,000. Daimler-Benz, for its part, forced 40,000 prisoners to work across various facilities. Life was so intolerable that VW compelled female labourers to leave their babies in the keep of a special children’s home. In February 1945 alone, 26 babies died. A month later, 28 perished. The doctor who administered their ‘care’ was later tried and executed. The head nurse received a death sentence that was later commuted. She served eight years before returning to VW’s employ as a social worker. The spotlight was shone on this and other atrocities by the German media several decades ago, the story then circulating worldwide.

The 1994 Formula 1 season has long since entered into notoriety. It was the year that three-time World Champion Ayrton Senna perished at Imola (Roland Ratzenberger having died there the previous day). It was also the year that Benetton’s Michael Schumacher beat Williams driver Damon Hill to the drivers’ title in the Australia GP by using his car as a battering ram. The German got away with it, bagging the prize by one point. Schuey’s inaugural championship victory has long been tainted by the small matter of Benetton having cheated every which way. For starters, traction control had been banned, but it later transpired that the system could be enabled or disabled here by means of a certain sequence of button pushes on the steering wheel. Benetton subsequently came clean: yes, an activation code existed, but traction control hadn’t been used in a race. The same was true of the illegal launch control that was also discovered. The FIA couldn’t disprove this version, but the truth has since emerged.

Aside from the hooky software, Benetton embraced cheating by dint of an illegal ‘skid block’ beneath the car. To use F1 parlance, ‘the plank’ was meant to be 9mm thick. The one under Schuey’s car was 7.4mm, thus giving an aerodynamic edge. That wasn’t the standout fiddle, though. Refuelling had returned to F1 following an 11-year absence, and the FIA mandated identical rigs be used. By removing the filter from the nozzle, Benetton discovered that fuel could be pumped into the car more quickly. This cheat became public after Jos Verstappen’s Benetton caught fire during that year’s German GP. The nozzle would not enter the car properly, and fuel spilled out before igniting. Verstappen and a mechanic suffered minor burns. A subsequent examination by its maker revealed that the filter designed to eliminate the risk of fire had somehow ‘evaporated’. The FIA World Council concluded that it would be “inappropriate to impose a penalty”.

Preston Tucker was a visionary impacted by outside forces pushing in. Either that, or a huckster. It rather depended on which side of the courtroom you were sitting. Having had stabs at building racing cars with Harry Miller, and aiding the war effort via various prototypes, he followed through with a production car – the Tucker 48. However, he soon found himself in the crosshairs of the US Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC was still smarting after the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation had been given a lot of money in the form of grants, only for the cash to be squandered. It then set its sights on other independents, the small matter of Tucker not having taken money from the federal government being of little consequence. The issue here was that the car was late to market, and Tucker had sold dealerships before it was in production. This is but a thumbnail sketch of what was levelled at him, the upshot being that he was ultimately found not guilty of financial impropriety.

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Spygate

Speed thrills

A scandal explodes

Dieselgate

Testing racing cars on the road was hardly a new thing when Jack Sears famously reached 185mph on the M1 on June 11, 1964. After all, there was no test track in the UK on which a car such as his ‘A98’ AC Cobra fastback could reach its straight-line top speed in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours. The Works team met up at the Blue Boar Services at 4:00am, ‘Gentleman Jack’ setting off 15 minutes later. What’s more, two policemen sauntered over after he was done, having been all too aware of what was going on. They just wanted to have a look. There were no speed limits at the time, so Sears and the team hadn’t broken the law. However, the nephew of AC’s MD Derek Hurlock happened to discuss the run in a bar frequented by Fleet Street types. Then all hell broke loose, ‘irresponsible’ AC becoming front-page news for all the wrong reasons. Sears was subsequently blamed for the imposition of the 70mph speed limit. It was already in the pipeline, however, and didn’t become reality until 1967.

The Ford Pinto (pictured right) was a huge success following its launch in 1971. It may have been a parts-bin special, but it worked. Its instigator Lee Iacocca – father of the Ford Mustang – had another winner on his hands. Around 800,000 Pintos were sold in just two years, but then it all went horribly wrong. People started dying in accidents that shouldn’t have proven fatal. The Pinto’s fuel tank was sited behind the rear axle. When hit from behind, the tank would be propelled into the back axle, bolts from the diff housing in turn piercing the tank. Not only that, the fuelfiller neck would snap off. Aside from the threat of fire following even a light tap, the Pinto’s structure was hopeless at absorbing impacts: the floorpan would buckle, the body twist and the doors jam shut. This was less than ideal when you were trying to escape an inferno. Ford was aware of the problem, but the story surrounding the conclusion that it would hypothetically rather spend $50m in lawsuits than $140m fixing the problem is a myth.

It was the scandal that kickstarted myriad other emissions-related to-dos. Dieselgate began with a lie, which was ultimately uncovered by the United States Environmental Protection Agency. In September 2015, its legal raptors descended on the Volkswagen Group, having uncovered a plot whereby VW had intentionally installed software to its diesel and turbo direct-injection engines that, upon activation, would meet US emissions regulations when tested. The units didn’t comply in the real world – not even close. This software had been knowingly employed in 11 million vehicles worldwide, half a million or so in the US

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alone, between 2009 and 2015. VW chose to incriminate certain employees. It then tried blaming the likes of Bosch and other suppliers. When nothing else worked, it metaphorically put its hands up and was found guilty of fraud and conspiracy. The scandal has thus far cost the company $33.3bn in fines, settlements and buybacks. It is still unravelling, with the firm’s former boss Martin Winterkorn remaining a fugitive of justice in the US. A criminal trial is pending in Germany.

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GM’s smear campaign

Winning by crashing

Contrary to popular belief, Ralph Nader’s Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile didn’t single out the Chevrolet Corvair for criticism. The crusading lawyer laid into umpteen different marques in his best-seller – and in some instances for good reason. The Corvair did, however, receive a chapter of its own, but the hullabaloo would probably have died down had General Motors chosen not to smear Nader. That the biggest of Detroit’s Big Three proved so inept at rubbishing the consumer advocate created a whole new world of scandal, and one that became very public. Investigators spoke to everyone Nader knew, looking for dirt. They traded in gossip and innuendo about his political (and sexual) leanings, followed his every move, tapped his phones, made harassing calls and attempted to lure him into compromising positions (women would accost Nadar, a telephoto lens never being far away). This approach backfired spectacularly, to the point that GM president James Roche was obliged to appear before a US Senate subcommittee and apologise for the harassment. Nader later sued for invasion of privacy, and won.

No team in Formula 1 history ever cheated as blatantly as Renault. The Oxfordshire squad in its prior Benetton guise hadn’t been averse to probing the limits of what was possible. That, and what was permissible. The team was having a miserable year in 2008, and the higher-ups were concerned that the Renault board was going to pull its funding. Then it suddenly came good, with Renault winning by crashing. On lap 14 of the Singapore Grand Prix, Nelson Piquet Jr connected with the wall at Turn 17, the only corner where a stricken car couldn’t be craned to safety. As such, the safety car was deployed. Unaccountably, the Renault R28 of Piquet’s team-mate, Fernando Alonso, had been given an extremely light fuel load at the start. The Spaniard came in for a perfectly timed pitstop before the safety car emerged. He rejoined just as a bunfight ensued as everyone else pitted under safety-car conditions. As such, he vaulted his rivals. He won, too, the main loser being Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, who had been leading before the safety-car period, only for a botched stop to drop him out of contention. He lost the title at the end of the year by one point. Alonso was elated to have won in Singapore, having

qualified 15th, but there was much murmuring in the pitlane. The following year Piquet was sacked, and he and his father – three-time World Champion Nelson Piquet Sr – were incensed. They went to the FIA and claimed that the crash had been orchestrated. The instruction came from director of engineering Pat Symonds. Team boss Flavio Briatore learned of the fix after the fact, but helped cover it up. Symonds received a five-year ban from motor sport, Briatore one of the lifetime variety – although he successfully appealed this sanction.

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DeLorean’s dream sours

John DeLorean was a ‘car guy’ at a time when that wasn’t necessarily considered a good thing within the halls of power at GM. He acted as midwife to the Pontiac GTO, which ushered in the muscle-car movement. As such, his name carried a certain cachet, which in many ways was rooted in a myth of his own and others’ creation. By the dawn of the 1970s, he had undergone something of a film-star makeover that could be attributed to suture rather than nature. He exuded wealth, glamour and success. He was someone who did things by instinct, not by the book. Becoming a motor mogul was the next logical step for a man

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with steel-plated self-belief. The first prototype to bear his name appeared in October 1976. It was fashioned by fellow Pontiac alumnus William T Collins, this being very much a ‘fake it ’till you make it’ proof of concept. Initially, what in time became known as the DMC-12 was to have featured a mid-mounted Wankel rotary engine. Thereafter, the Ford ‘Cologne’ V6 was mooted before DeLorean finally settled on the PRV ‘Douvrin’ unit. What’s more, the chassis for this brave new world was to be made from a new and unproven manufacturing process called ERM (Elastic Reservoir Moulding). DeLorean just

happened to own the patent, but this was found to be unsuitable for volume manufacture. If things seemed to be made up on the fly, so be it. The details could be ironed out later. Skipping forward, the car ultimately ended up being re-engineered by Lotus, bodied in stainless steel and styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro. In Lotus’ talismanic leader Colin Chapman, DeLorean found someone who was similarly a rule-breaker and a risktaker with scant regard for convention. Chapman, for his part, was enthralled by the man Giugiaro called ‘Mr Hollywood’. And the money rolled in. In 1978, the British

Government sunk £53m into the scheme (almost as much as Chrysler UK had received for a controversial ‘rescue’ plan). A manufacturing and test facility was created from scratch in Dunmurry, Northern Ireland at the height of The Troubles, with series manufacture starting in January 1981 after various factions united to make it happen. By December of the following year, after around 8500 cars had been made, it was all over. John DeLorean had been arrested on drugs charges only a few months earlier, but was ultimately acquitted. His lawyers claimed that the Feds had entrapped him. He hadn’t

planned on actually profiting from the sale of ‘nasal party favours’. The jury believed his take on events. It later transpired that a great deal of taxpayers’ money had disappeared into a wormhole, with Group Lotus’ finance director Fred Bushell being the only insider ever to serve time. Some say he took the fall for Colin Chapman, who had died in December 1982, and he carried his friend’s secrets with him to the grave. Others point out that this is something of an oversimplification given their collective financial malfeasance. Whichever side you cleave to, this was one hell of a scandal.

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Majestic India

www.theoberoiconcours.com

at its best

The Oberoi Concours d’Elegance burst onto the classic car scene with a world-class debut

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INDIA IS A COUNTRY STEEPED IN ANCIENT culture, spirituality and craft. Its undeniable allure includes magnificent palaces, striking temples, charming people and delicious cuisine. A lesser known fact is that India has enjoyed an historic love affair with motor cars for over 100 years. This enthusiasm dates back to the 1920s and ’30s, when Indian royalty and their Maharajas crucially kept both Rolls-Royce and specialist coachtrimmers in business by purchasing limousines and landaulettes, as well as shooting brakes and open-topped tiger hunters. Grand vintage cars and classic motorbikes are as much a part of Indian culture as the ubiquitous three-wheeled auto rickshaws and definitive Hindustan Ambassadors that scuttle through the busy cities and towns. Some of the most ornate and exquisite motor cars built around the globe – including Rolls-Royce, Cadillac, Packard, Mercedes-Benz and Delahaye – have found their way to India over the decades. The love and interest shown by Indian collectors, restorers and enthusiasts for these wonderful machines uniquely places India as a perfect destination for a concours d’elegance. The inaugural Oberoi Concours d’Elegance, held earlier this year and celebrating the 90th anniversary of the founding of Oberoi Hotels & Resorts, proved to be an outstanding world-class celebration. The Oberoi Concours d’Elegance showcased many of the finest and historically most significant motor cars from India’s rich and vibrant past – a concours for the world, yet uniquely representative of India. The Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur provided a dramatic backdrop to an extraordinary display of automotive heritage and luxury lifestyle. And what a stunning location for the concours. The Oberoi Udaivilas sits on magical Lake Pichola, with unobstructed views of the City Palace and two 17th century island palaces of the Mewar Dynasty. The Oberoi Concours put on show a staggering 81 motor cars and 30 motorcycles presented by Indian royalty and private collectors

– an automotive treasure trove rarely seen on the international stage. BMW showcased its iconic 328, the most successful sports car on the 1930s racing scene. This classic symbolises the brand’s rich automotive heritage and enhanced the diverse collection of vehicles at the Oberoi Concours. This event was born from the shared passion of Arjun Oberoi, the Oberoi Group chairman, and Manvendra Singh Barwani, concours curator and automobile historian. The judging panel was comprised of internationally renowned experts Chris Bock, Richard Charlesworth, Nigel Matthews and Peter Stevens, plus automotive connoisseur Chip Connor alongside multiple world motorcycle champion Giacomo Agostini, Le Mans legend Jacky Ickx, and classic car patron HRH Prince Michael of Kent. The distinguished panel was headed by chief judge Sandra Button, chairperson of the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, with Simon Kidston acting as convenor. The judges had their work cut out, because the Oberoi Concours consisted of a substantial selection of vehicles across 16 classes. The magnificent setting of the Oberoi Udaivilas, with its vast expanses of water bodies, sympathetic architecture, palatial courtyard and lush flowering gardens, showcased an impressive selection of cars. The Oberoi Concours represents rich and vibrant India at its best, and entrants, judges and guests were all impressed

with the finesse and grandeur of the occasion. The judges proceeded with evaluating the topdrawer motor cars and motorcycles, which ranged from bespoke cars of five Indian royal garages to early antiques, post-war sports cars and current prototypes. Classes ranged from Dawn of the Jet Age – Cadillacs via Cars of the Maharajahs to Rolls-Royce Limousines – Mysore, as well as motor cars built for India’s royal ladies. An original and important inclusion was the class for Motoring for the Masses – India. Affordable people-movers such as the modest Maruti 800 and Tata Nano were given a unique platform to show the democratisation of motor cars; think of Italy’s Fiat 500 that set so many people free. From 1955 to 1984 there were only three car manufacturers in India: Hindustan Motors, Premier Automobile and Standard Motor Company. The cars of this generation are generally regarded with affection but, with the liberalisation of importation restrictions, Indians are starting to bring classic and performance cars in from all over the world, helping to build the appreciation of fine automobiles in one of the most important and fastest-growing economies. No lifestyle event is complete without a dash of heritage, luxury, craft and exclusive design. With this in mind, exquisite art, gastronomy and style were brought together at Oberoi. Leading fashion designer Sabyasachi Mukherjee showcased

‘Many of the finest motor cars from India’s rich and vibrant past – a concours for the world’

THIS SPREAD Beautiful surroundings, exquisite luxury and style, plus, of course, stunning classic cars... the Oberoi Concours offers it all.

clothing and jewellery, luxury brands including IWC and Stefano Ricci displayed stunning collections, and leading Michelin-star chef Vineet Bhatia and master chefs from various Oberoi Hotels & Resorts served up a memorable feast. The Oberoi Concours is a meaningful representation of the new India, where the elegant tradition of the Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur hosts the nation’s automotive past alongside the fast-paced dynamic growth of this exciting subcontinent. As Sandra Button observed: “To see this new event at the very beginning is so exciting, because you are making history with your own decisions about the Oberoi Concours d’Elegance.” Jacky Ickx added: “To do the first Oberoi Concours d’Elegance… putting all these cars and motorcycles together, having views of the palace of the king… it is just a privilege.” With more than 40 trophies awarded to the wonderful array of winners, the Best of Show went to Nishant Dossa’s superb 1939 Lagonda V12 Drophead Coupé, while Madan Mohan took the Best of Show in the Motorcycle Class for his exceptional 1925 New Hudson 499cc. The inaugural Oberoi Concours d’Elegance at the beautiful Oberoi Udaivilas, Udaipur proved to be a first-class event, and it has quickly established itself alongside the planet’s best concours celebrations. So it comes as no surprise that the Oberoi Concours d’Elegance has been nominated for the International Historic Motoring Awards to be held in London later this year. A fabulous and exciting new event to add to the international world of historic car celebration, the next Oberoi Concours is scheduled for February 20-22, 2026.

Telephone Telephone 01753 01753 644599 644599

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2019 2019 Aston Aston Martin Martin Vanquish Vanquish Zagato Zagato Shooting Shooting Brake Brake

Finished in very rare Lava Red with a beautifully sculptured black hide interior with pronounced triple ZZZ pattern in red stitching to Finished in very rare Lava Red with a beautifully sculptured black hide interior with pronounced triple ZZZ pattern in red stitching to the ultra-comfortable sports seats. Built to launch specification which includes the Black and Gold Road wheel finish and a considerable the ultra-comfortable sports seats. Built to launch specification which includes the Black and Gold Road wheel finish and a considerable amount of additional carbon finish to both interior and exterior, including the floor of the boot space. This car is number 32 of the limited amount of additional carbon finish to both interior and exterior, including the floor of the boot space. This car is number 32 of the limited production run of just 99 cars built. It has covered a mere 2,745 with a complete service record. This totally unmarked example was first production run of just 99 cars built. It has covered a mere 2,745 with a complete service record. This totally unmarked example was first registered 15/03/19 and is truly stunning on the eye as well as being a fabulous car to drive. registered 15/03/19 and is truly stunning on the eye as well as being a fabulous car to drive. Competitively priced to sell at £395,000 Competitively priced to sell at £395,000

1963 1963 Aston Aston Martin Martin DP214 DP214 Project Project Car Car

(Perfect Tool Room Copy) (Perfect Tool Room Copy) The original four Project Cars were built in 1962 & 63 specifically to endeavour to repeat the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour Win. This highly The original four Project Cars were built in 1962 & 63 specifically to endeavour to repeat the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour Win. This highly detailed and perfect copy was originally laid down in the late eighties but not finished until 2004. Correct throughout with DB4 GT 12 plug detailed and perfect copy was originally laid down in the late eighties but not finished until 2004. Correct throughout with DB4 GT 12 plug cylinder Head and original bespoke interior. Will be supplied with new FIA/HTTP Papers. Owned by us for the past 19 years. Raced cylinder Head and original bespoke interior. Will be supplied with new FIA/HTTP Papers. Owned by us for the past 19 years. Raced extensively throughout the UK and Europe including events at Goodwood, Le Mans, Spa Francorchamps and with various podium finishes. extensively throughout the UK and Europe including events at Goodwood, Le Mans, Spa Francorchamps and with various podium finishes. Also raced in California at Laguna Seca in 2011 winning both races entered and the Rolex Award of Excellence. The car will come with acres Also raced in California at Laguna Seca in 2011 winning both races entered and the Rolex Award of Excellence. The car will come with acres of history showing diligent maintenance over the whole period of our ownership including recent considerable expenditure. Spares will of history showing diligent maintenance over the whole period of our ownership including recent considerable expenditure. Spares will include 2 sets of Borrani wheels and 2 further sets of race wheels. Eligible for numerous high-profile events throughout the UK and Europe. include 2 sets of Borrani wheels and 2 further sets of race wheels. Eligible for numerous high-profile events throughout the UK and Europe. Please enquire ££ Please enquire ££

Email: martinrunnymedemotorcompany.com | www.runnymedemotorcompany.com Email: martinrunnymedemotorcompany.com | www.runnymedemotorcompany.com

Market Watch: SS Jaguar 100 is a pre-war star

Watches and art: Richard Mille and Tim Layzell

Automobilia: The retro delights of Tommy Town

Collecting: Film posters are in high demand

Books and products: Latest must-reads and luxury goods

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M A R K E T WAT C H

SS Jaguar 100

By Richard Dredge

This beautiful and iconic pre-war car holds an important place in British motoring history, and a shift in values could entice a whole new audience

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minutiae, these are discussed in Allan Crouch’s massively detailed book SS & Jaguar Cars, which is published by Herridge & Sons. It’s a must-read for any SS100 owner. Chris Wainwright is the sales director of DD Classics, and in recent times he has sold a couple of SS100s. He is a big fan of them, pointing out: “The first car was sold new to Prince Michael of Romania, and many of these cars were sold to very wealthy and important people who could have bought a Bentley instead, but chose the Jaguar for its style and performance. All these decades on, the SS100 is accepted in the highest-level events, whether that’s concours or racing.” He continues: “Whereas many more modern collector cars are traded like football cards, it’s not unusual for an SS100 to be in the same ownership for decades. That is for many reasons, including the model’s heritage, its usability and also its motor sport history. From the outset these cars were successfully campaigned in all sorts of top-flight events, as well as at club level. “The SS100 was very competitive in motor sport, with victories notched up in races, rallies and

‘The 3.5-litre cars command a significant premium over an equivalent 2.5’

trials – all of which bolstered the car’s reputation for performance and durability. Wins included the 1936 Alpine Trial, the 1937 and 1938 RAC Rallies, along with the Welsh Rally in 1937. “The experiences of wealthy American Paul Marx encapsulates what the SS100 can do. He enjoyed 9000 trouble-free miles in his 3.5litre SS100. In all that distance he didn’t have to lay a spanner on his car – but what makes it even more incredible is that those miles were racked up competing in the Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA) championship. The SS100 is one tough classic.”

T H E VA L U E P R O P O S I T I O N There’s a Facebook group dedicated to all SS and Jaguar cars made up to 1951. When Magneto posted in there that we were putting together this buying guide, one wag wrote that all we had to write was: “Be rich. The end.” That isn’t necessarily true, because there are some superb replicas out there that are more affordable, look authentic and are well made as well as good to drive. They fall outside the scope of this guide, but if your pockets aren’t deep enough to stretch to a genuine SS Jaguar 100, or you can’t find anything suitable for sale, it’s worth looking at a Suffolk SS100, or maybe even a Panther J72. Stick to the genuine article, and you’ll get more for your money if you buy a 2.5-litre version. John Mayhead, who tracks SS100 values for Hagerty, comments: “Values of 2.5- and 3.5-litre cars have dropped

PENDINE HISTORIC CARS

IN THE POST-WAR WORLD, trying to sell a car wearing SS badges would have been a tough gig. Even before the outbreak of World War Two, however, SS Cars Ltd had added the model name Jaguar – and it was the SS100 that introduced this new moniker. The Swallow Sidecar Company had been formed by William Lyons and William Walmsley in Blackpool in 1922, but by 1928 it had moved to Coventry. Initially Swallow made bodies for other companies’ chassis, mainly Austin, Fiat, Swift and Standard, and it was the latter relationship that in 1931 led to Lyons striking a deal with Standard boss Sir John Black, to supply SS with its own version of the company’s four- and six-cylinder chassis for the SS1 and SS2 respectively. With SS launched as a standalone marque in 1931, the next step came in 1934 with the construction of a bespoke two-seater sports car for William Walmsley. Another two of these specials were made, each different in detail, with the third example providing the template for SS’s first production two-seat sports model, the SS90. Based on an SS1 chassis shortened by 15 inches, it had a folding frame for the canvas roof, side screens and rear-hinged cut-away doors. Fitted with a sidevalve 2663cc straight-six fed by twin RAG carburettors, the SS90 produced about 70bhp, which was enough for a claimed 90mph, hence the name. But Lyons wanted more, so Harry Weslake was brought in to turn the sidevalve engine into an overheadvalve unit, which could produce 100bhp when fitted with twin SUs. In September 1935 the SS100 was launched with a 2.5-litre engine. It went on sale in 1936 with a £395 price tag; a 3.5-litre model followed in 1937, at just £50 more. Both cars remained in production until hostilities started in September 1939. Compare this with the BMW 328 at £695, the £429 AC 16/80, the British Salmson at £645 or the Squire at £1095, and the SS100 was clearly something of a bargain. Optional extras included Ace wheel discs, fog or driving lights, headlamp stone guards, chromeplated badge bars, spring gaiters and Andre Hartford tele-control shock absorbers. As with all SS100

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in real terms over the past four years, and although we saw a post-Covid rise in values in the US, that wasn’t replicated in the UK. However, on both sides of the Atlantic the 3.5-litre models command a significant premium over an equivalent 2.5-litre car.” Chris Wainwright says: “These are historically important cars that have appealed to collectors for decades, thanks to the gorgeous design, that imposing grille, louvred bonnet and large Lucas headlamps. You would think the SS100 is a product of Crewe, not Coventry. “Handsome, strong and reliable, the SS Jaguar 100 is still extremely desirable, yet values are going down rather than up. A decade ago you would have to pay upwards of £650,000 for a superb 3.5-litre example, but now you can secure the same car for around half as much. The drop in values is because the SS100 has fallen off the radar of many buyers. In my view this

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THIS PAGE Nothing about this low-volume, hand-made car will faze a decent pre-war restoration firm.

‘Thanks to the gorgeous design, you’d think it’s a product of Crewe, not Coventry’

lack of visibility is completely undeserved, not least of all because these cars are so usable.” Over the past year, Russ Swift has bought not one but two SS100s; one with the 2.5-litre engine, and the other a 3.5-litre edition. He has scrutinised the market like a gambling addict studies form, and he has learned plenty along the way. He says: “High-profile auctions tend to realise relatively high prices; find a lower-profile sale and you will probably pay significantly less. Also, take any dealer’s asking price with a pinch of salt; there are a few 3.5-litre cars for sale at the moment with £400,000 price tags. But show a serious interest, and with some light haggling you can usually shave £50,000-plus off the asking price.” He continues: “I have spent months scouring auction websites and logging sales data. Back in 2013 Bonhams sold a 3.5-litre SS100 for £631,000, and the next year another was sold by Sotheby’s

for £662,000. They were concours examples, but they wouldn’t realise nearly that much now; the problem for some buyers is that they paid too much a few years ago, and they can’t stomach the necessary loss to sell at current market rates. “One SS100 was sold in 2015 for £390,000, and that car is now up for sale for £400,000. I know the seller will accept closer to £350,000 to move it on. In short, after studying several years’ worth of sale prices around the world, and speaking to dealers as well as specialists, the best 2.5-litre SS100s are currently worth £350,000, while 3.5-litre models top out at somewhere between £400,000 and £425,000.” Hagerty’s John Mayhead adds: “Our data suggests that usable 2.5-litre SS100s which will need some tidying are priced from around £200,000. An equivalent 3.5-litre car carries a premium of £35,000 or so. What we term a good car will cost you £300,000,

TIMELINE

1935

SS90 is revealed in March, and takes part in RAC Rally later that month. Fitted with cable brakes, sidevalve engine and fourspeed Moss gearbox, model is 12ft 6in long, 5ft 2in wide and has an 8ft 8in wheelbase. It has a beam axle up front, live axle at back, both suspended by semi-elliptic springs, with Andre Hartford tele-control shock absorbers. A mere 24 SS90s are built.

1935

SS100 is announced in September. As with SS90, although it is actually fitted with a 2663cc engine it’s marketed as a 2.5-litre unit. There are now Girling rod-operated brakes, along with overhead valves.

VA LU E S F R O M H AG E RT Y P R I C E G U I D E SS Jaguar 100 condition 2 (Excellent) values, 2020-2024 3.5-LITRE US PRICES 3.5-LITRE UK PRICES 2.5-LITRE US PRICES

£500,000

3.5-LITRE UK PRICES

£480,000 £460,000 £440,000 £420,000 £400,000 £380,000 £360,000 £340,000 £320,000 £300,000 2020

2021

2022

2023

2024

1937

From autumn this year, SS100 is available with a 3.5-litre engine to sell alongside existing 2.5 unit. Details such as gearbox and diff ratios, carburettors, exhaust and clutch are all different.

1938

A one-off 3.5-litre SS100 fixed-head coupé is shown at Earls Court Motor Show. Mechanically it’s pure SS100 roadster, but its bodywork and interior are quite different. Registered EHP 111 and with chassis number 39088, it carries a £150 premium over roadster, but demand isn’t there for model to go into production. This unique SS100 survives to this day.

or £340,000 in 3.5-litre form, while excellent 2.5-litre SS100s command £400,000, or £450,000 for a 3.5litre car. The very best 2.5-litre cars can fetch as much as £460,000, and the best 3.5-litre examples can go for up to £535,000. “The SS100 has been selling relatively well at live auction, with 68 percent of cars over the past five years selling, although prices have fallen. The last one sold for more than £600,000 was in 2018, and no SS100s have sold for in excess of £500,000 since then.”

T H E N U T S A N D B O LT S For the sake of completeness we’re going to acknowledge the SS90, but the chances of you finding one for sale are slim; the 24 examples made carried chassis numbers 249476 to 249498 inclusive, with the three one-offs numbered 247564, 248015 and 248436. The last of these was the SS90 prototype, which evolved to become the SS100. That car

survives along with 247564, but the whereabouts of 248015 is unknown. Although the SS100’s bodywork was all unique to that marque, most of the mechanicals were shared with other low-volume car makers. However, while the engine was supplied by Standard, it was made to SS’s unique specification. The rear axle, brakes, suspension and steering were all shared with other companies, and even the chassis was similar to the one supplied to AC for its 16/80 and later 16/90. All of the body panels, including the dashboard, were made of aluminium. This was draped over an ash frame, with some steel reinforcement here and there for extra rigidity. As it was a lowvolume hand-made bespoke car you won’t find any second-hand panels, so it’s a question of having anything made specially. Nothing about it will faze a decent restoration firm that specialises in pre-war cars, however. As Jaguar Drivers’ Club

SS expert Nic Drukker points out, though, many of the people and companies that have specialised in these cars for decades are now retiring or closing down, with some of the most knowledgeable people no longer with us. Projects rarely change hands on the open market, although there are some out there, most of which are currently being restored by enthusiastic owners. If you do take on a project it’s worth investing in a copy of the John Clucas book 39080: A Guide to SS100 Restoration, which is available only direct from its author via jclucas@topspin.com.au. Nic says: “The 3.5 is a different engine from the 2.5, with only most ancillaries shared; they look similar but nothing was carried over including the internals, block and head. Head-gasket failures are common on the 3.5, things often not helped by incorrect fitting. Composite gaskets are sometimes used, but a shim gasket made of

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Acquire thin copper should be installed. These are reliable unless the engine is allowed to overheat.” Unsurprisingly it is the detail parts such as chrome fittings, instruments or bits of trim that tend to be the hardest items to track down when restoring an SS100. John Clucas comments: “Many parts from the immediate postwar saloons can be used as replacements, but someone who really knows their SS100s will notice that these are not the original parts. For this reason, if you’re a purist who is looking for a car that’s exactly to original spec, these are the things you need to focus on before buying.” When it comes to fake examples, Russ Swift notes: “These are rare because the genuine ones are so well documented. There are quite a few cars that started out as SS saloons, but they’re usually not passed off as the real thing because all of the SS90s and SS100s made are listed on www.ssjaguardata.com, which has been collated over many years. Just click on ‘browse’ in the navigation and you can then narrow things down further. By using this website you can discover any known history of the car and also see photographs, potentially going back quite a few years.” Serial SS collector Brian Beni is more cautious, though. He says: “Fake SS90s and SS100s are out there, with chassis and engine re-stamping being more common than you might think. So before committing to purchase, be sure to enlist the help of a reputable expert, and invest in a set of Classic Jaguar Association (CJA) bulletins starting in 1961. These are an invaluable source of information on many of the surviving cars.”

THE FINAL DECISION If you’ve set your heart on an SS100, there’s an element of settling for whatever you can find and bringing it up to condition if it needs work. When new, a mere 49 SS100s were exported, but over time many more have found their way overseas, and nowadays there are only a handful in the UK. Globally just a few SS100s change hands on the open market each year, although some are sold behind closed doors, which is why it’s worth joining one of the

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THIS PAGE The SS100 retains its legendary status, but the model has seen a shift in market value in recent times.

T H E D E TA I L S 1935-1936 SS90 ENGINE:

NORMALLY ASPIRATED STRAIGHT-SIX, 12 VALVES, SIDEVALVE, 2663CC

POWER:

70BHP

TOP SPEED: 90MPH 0-62MPH:

15.8SEC

1935-1939 SS100 2.5-LITRE ENGINE:

NORMALLY ASPIRATED STRAIGHT-SIX, 12 VALVES, OHV, 2663CC

POWER:

102BHP

TOP SPEED: 94MPH 0-62MPH:

12.8SEC

1937-1939 SS100 3.5-LITRE ENGINE:

NORMALLY ASPIRATED STRAIGHT-SIX, 12 VALVES, OHV, 3485CC

POWER:

125BHP

TOP SPEED: 101MPH 0-60MPH:

10.2SEC

big Jaguar clubs and getting to know some of the existing owners. Only 198 2.5-litre SS100s were made and a mere 116 3.5-litre cars, of which around 250 are thought to have survived. It’s the 3.5-litre models that seem to come to market the most frequently. Having bought an SS100 2.5, Russ Swift was then offered a 3.5-litre car that had been in the hands of the same owner for nearly 60 years, so he snapped it up. He says: “The 2.5 is great fun to drive, but the 3.5 is something else. It’s noticeably faster, although there are rumours that my engine is tweaked. Either way, the SS100 is very rewarding to drive, and I am glad I achieved my life-long dream of ownership. It’s just a shame that so few of these cars are ever driven anywhere; they deserve a better fate than being stored away as investments.” If you’re thinking of buying as a

long-term investment you may have already missed the boat, as John Mayhead explains: “These appeal largely to an older demographic than average. Globally, across all of our insurance policies, only 35.8 percent of Hagerty’s clients are aged 60 or more, but that figure jumps to 88 percent for SS100 owners. “This is a beautiful and iconic prewar car that holds a very important place in British motoring history. That and the model’s rarity have ensured high values over time. “Recent drops in real-term value are probably due to the model’s lack of visibility compared to later Jaguars, as well as to competition from other, rather more affordable marques. XK-series Jags are eligible for a lot more events, and are always seen at the Mille Miglia, Goodwood and Le Mans Classic.” Thanks to Pendine Historic Cars for the photography. www.pendine.com.

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M A R K E T A N A LY S I S By John Mayhead, Hagerty

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The times they are a-changin’ As the passing of time means enthusiasts for specific cars dwindle, Hagerty is on the trail of what it might mean for older models

A GREAT DEAL IS WRITTEN about the people coming into the classic and collector car market. The power of Generation X and Millennial buyers, and the cars they tend to be interested in and buy, has been tracked, analysed and explained many times. The other end of the demographic spectrum has not been subject to the same scrutiny. Time is obviously affecting the eldest demographic group, and as the years pass, their numbers drop. Nevertheless, Baby Boomer owners born between 1946 and 1964, and those even older, still account for more than one third of all classic cars insured by Hagerty. Just as Generation X buyers have superpowered the recent 1990s and 2000s classic market, it’s interesting to identify the models that are most dear to older owners, and what this might mean for those cars as their enthusiasts dwindle over time. Hagerty analysts made a list of those cars the company insures worldwide that had a very senior ownership demographic. The line was drawn at models with more than 90 percent of owners born before 1965, and types with fewer than ten examples were excluded to avoid any oddities. The result was understandably fascinating. As you may expect, the cars were generally old and generally expensive. The average value of the 46 models that met the criteria was a shade over $1.2 million (£920,000), the median age of first manufacture 1954, and the newest car first built in 1981. The range of models was otherwise wide, but

there were some apparent trends. Some of the cars on the list are extremely valuable, such as the Ferrari 400 Superamerica and 250 Tour de France, the Alfa Romeo TZ1/TZ2 and the Fiat 8V. These are machines that, once bought, people don’t part with easily; the reason many of the owners are relatively old may just be that the younger generations haven’t yet been given the opportunity to buy. But these models may also lack some of the versatility that other, equally valuable cars of the same period offer: they tend to be either one or the other – a pure racing car or a beautiful grand tourer. Others on the list may be there for different reasons. The Apollo 3500GT, Studebaker Avanti and Arnolt-Bristol Bolide are models that would be unfamiliar to many ardent enthusiasts, and the five most modern cars on the list are all retrostyled models: the Panther Kallista and Lima, Clenet Series I and II, and Duesenberg II. Such vehicles tend to have a very dedicated, but relatively small, body of enthusiasts who fully appreciate them. Yet there is a large group of cars that are, or at least once were, more

‘Cars that are competent and unusual classics could become more affordable’

THIS SPREAD Audience, appeal and collectability of cars such as the Maserati Mistral are changing.

mainstream: models from the immediate post-war period that would have resonated with a youngster of the time. The MG Magnette and YT, Talbot-Lago T26, Riley 2.5, Jaguar MkV and Triumph 1800/2000 Roadsters were never the most exciting of models from their manufacturers, and it’s easy to understand how their appeal has not passed on to younger buyers. Even the few racing cars on the Hagerty list fit this billing: the Lotus II and Ginetta G4 may be better known, but they probably don’t create the same emotion in a younger audience as, say, a raceprepared Jaguar XK120. The most interesting and, for me, unexpected cars on the list are a group of three 1960s Maseratis: the Indy, Mistral and Sebring. They are unexpected because of another piece of analysis that Hagerty has been working on, a collectability algorithm that forecasts the level of potential demand from collectors. This takes into consideration a wide range of factors including power, design, manufacturer, total number made and even whether the car appears on Hagerty’s Power List of celebrity ownership. The factors are then weighted, and a number out of 1000 awarded to each, with the top car – currently the McLaren F1 LM – achieving a score of 824. The Indy and the Mistral both register at around the

500-point mark, dependent on bodystyle and engine size, with the Sebring back at 460 points. To put that in perspective, that places them in the 77th percentile of the 2875 cars in the UK Hagerty Price Guide, a list that by its nature includes the most popular classics. That means they are collectable, but why are they not more desired by a younger demographic? I believe that it may be a combination of the factors listed above: they’re relatively obscure models that are still worth a lot of money – and if you want something for longdistance touring in comfort, the job they were designed to do, there are many alternatives that are cheaper and much better suited to the role. As with many models on this list, you’ve got to really want one – and if you’re a Gen X’er, you probably won’t have a cultural reference that draws you to any of them. As a result, the outlook for the cars on the list is pretty difficult to predict. The most valuable will undoubtedly continue to be so, even when their older owners eventually decide to part with them. Post-war models, including racing cars, will continue to struggle to find a new group of enthusiast buyers unless they are suddenly thrust into the limelight through movie stardom, Historic racing success or megacelebrity ownership. That may mean some very good cars that are competent, quirky and unusual classics could become more affordable, making that one thing which is always attractive to buyers: a bargain.

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WAT C H E S By Jonathon Burford

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It’s all in the detail Richard Mille – pusher of boundaries, pursuer of exotic materials and master of ultra performance

RICHARD MILLE IS STILL A very young brand, yet while in the broader context of the horological world it’s barely taken its first steps, it’s already pushed huge boundaries. As a result, its watches, their extraordinary prices and the awed collector community around them can seem impenetrable to outsiders. When Richard Mille’s first watch arrived in 2001, the industry had seen nothing like it. Richard himself had been around for 30-plus years, most recently heading up the watch department for Parisian jeweller Mauboussin. In 1999, however, he wanted to flex his creative muscles, and so he founded Richard Mille SA. Neither he nor Dominique Guenat, his co-founder, were classic founder/ watchmakers like Philippe Dufour or FP Journe. A visionary designer and inspirational leader, Mille built a team of partners to help him push the boundaries in this traditional industry. His number-one technical partnership was with Audemars Piguet Renaud & Papi (APRP), expert in complicated movements. In his desire to show all parts of the movement, every element had to be perfect – but this caused issues when allied with his weight-saving demands. His teams experimented with German silver baseplates, then super-light but easily damaged PVDcoated titanium. These led to a more extreme material, something no one had ever considered using for a watch before: carbon nanofiber. The only supplier was the US Air Force, who used it on stealth planes. Equally, the torque screws used to tension the three-part case had to be designed from scratch, entailed 20 manufacturing operations at NASA levels of tolerances and cost circa $2 million for 1kg of screws. Mille’s 2001 debut, the RM 001, caused a huge stir. Probably the most audacious watch since Gérald Genta’s 1970s Royal Oak, it’s the brand’s bedrock. With only 17 made, it is the most desirable and rare Richard Mille watch – essentially a proof of concept, used to demonstrate the design principles, performance and extreme shock resistance that have always been Mille’s stated aims. One innovation, taken from his motor sport history, was the crown set function selector (or ‘gearlever’) to govern Winding, Neutral and Handsetting. Additionally, leaning

into his car-days knowledge of shock resistance and power delivery, he added a torque indicator to the dial, as well as a power-reserve indicator (to measure the mainspring’s power quality), plus an F1 suspension-armbased tourbillon bridge. It’s no shock that many early clients had a detailfocused motor sport background. Mille challenged conventions, such as the belief in delicate complications and that weight should signify quality. His dedication to weight removal, as well as to robustness and shock tolerances, led him to essentially create a fresh category of watches that appealed to a new breed of collectors. Richard Mille’s design language remains remarkably consistent, with a certain continuity from case shapes to the smallest details. Today the RM 001’s successors – the RM 002 (shown left) and RM 003 – seem relatively small, with an ergonomic curve to fit the wrist. This created extra issues in getting the correct case and sapphire-crystal angles and tolerances to prevent cracking. All are now highly collectable. Two other early watches to note are the RM 006 – the first Felipe Massa Tourbillon from 2004 – and the RM 009. Mille has been at the forefront of partnering with sport stars, to demonstrate his watches’ extreme tolerances as used in testing arenas such as F1. With the RM 009, Mille used ALUSIC, previously seen only in satellite construction for its light weight yet ultra hardness. The final watch weighs just 28g, yet feels incredibly robust and strong. It all helps explain why Richard Mille watches are so costly, especially when they generally do not use traditional precious metals. Before the RM 001, the idea of an ultralight, ultra-expensive and highly complicated wristwatch just didn’t exist. Mille has created this niche, and is the absolute master of it. While the RM 001 and RM 009 are generally out of the reach of even the most committed collector, the RM 002 and RM 003 remain available, even undervalued. Seek unpolished cases and a recent service for a genuinely groundbreaking watch with a continued potential long-term financial upside. Jonathon Burford is SVP and specialist at Sotheby’s watch department. For its watch sales, see www.sothebys.com.

MOTORING ART By Rupert Whyte

TIM LAYZELL WON THE BRITISH Racing Drivers’ Club young artist award in 1995 aged 13, and he has painted ever since. His first ambition was to be a car designer, but he soon realised at school that although his art talent was prodigious, he would need science and probably maths to pursue this career – neither of which subjects he enjoyed. As a result, the career path into which he fell while in education soon became a full-time profession once he left school. From then on, having all day, every day to create artwork, Layzell slowly started to build a client base and following, which today is as great as that of any current automotive artist. Influenced by well known senior automotive artists Dexter Brown, Michael Turner and the late Barry Rowe on the one hand, and by the futurism movement, Géo Ham, 1930s railway-poster artists and Roy Lichtenstein on the other, Tim developed two very distinctive styles. One almost photorealistic, the other pop art. It’s the pop art for which he is most well known now, but he enjoys both painting styles equally. According to Layzell, the pop art takes much longer to plan and execute, although it looks as though it would be quicker. In fact, the paintings are all about impact, and proportion and perspective are key. Also, the finished paintings have to be neat – and when you are doing everything by hand, that takes time. Tim has been producing artwork for Pebble Beach posters since 2009. He has drafted the poster for RetroAuto every year since then, and in 2020 he produced all of the event posters including two for the concours d’elegance itself. This has continued through to 2024. The compositions he engages for the Pebble Beach posters are an amalgamation of his two styles. Block colour, as with his pop art,

Start ’em young A top prize and clear direction at school set out Tim Layzell’s career path – and he’s never looked back

ABOVE Need for Speed: this pop art aesthetic introduces movement into Layzell’s work.

but more detailed as with his photorealistic work. “I was always trying to push the organisers into letting me introduce more movement into the posters, and in 2019 my Bugatti artwork did just that,” Layzell says. “They liked it, and more followed.” Since working on the Pebble Beach posters, most of Tim’s work

goes abroad – usually to the US. His work is mainly set in the ‘black and white’ era, and bringing this period to life with colour and producing an image that nobody has ever seen before in terms of tone, composition or viewpoint are really what his art is about. It’s true to say that Layzell’s original paintings are highly sought after, and with prices for a small-sized sketch starting at around £700 they are still just within reach of many collectors. Writer Rupert Whyte runs Historic Car Art, www.historiccarart.net, selling original works and posters.

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AUTOMOBILIA Sharon Spurlin

“I HAVE ALWAYS BEEN A collector at heart,” says Tommy Engel, “from my childhood with sports cards, to vintage American flags, firearms and classic cars, to name a few. I’ve been collecting petroliana for roughly five years. “It all started when I decided to decorate the walls where I store some of my classic cars. My first sign was a six-foot Gulf, dog-eared. Once I hung it, I was hooked. One reason I love petroliana is that 100 people could have the same collection and you’ll see it displayed 100 different ways. I see it as a way to express myself and a form of art.” From this point, Tommy, who lives on a 25-acre plot near Lewes, Delaware, has created ‘Tommy Town’ on a five-acre area just behind his house. He’s been buying up old buildings from nearby towns, just as Henry Ford did on a larger scale more than 90 years ago to create Greenfield Village. “In 2022, I jumped on a chance to obtain the actual Ellendale post office, and moved it ten miles to Tommy Town,” says Tommy. “Once it arrived I gave the building a second life as a Sinclair Gas Station. This was the first building, and the inspiration to create a town.” At that stage it didn’t have a name, but later a friend came by and said: “What are you building; your own town out here?” The friend called it Tommy Town, and it stuck. Next, Tommy is preparing to break ground for a 1950s barber shop, having acquired the complete contents of an Illinois barber’s premises. That will be followed by a hardware store and a Quillen Signs shop in honour of his uncle Pat, who ran a business of the same name in Milton, Delaware for many

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Welcome to Tommy Town Tommy Engel started out simply collecting signs, but his hobby has spiralled to the point that he’s created his own ‘town’ in Delaware, US

years. Tommy has kept the original signage from that shop. “I’m also creating parts of the town for my buddies, who are constantly helping me out back,” explains Tommy. “Because Mark loves buying and flipping old cars, he’s getting a Mark’s OK Used Cars building with a car lot. Rob collects marine-outboard cans and signs, and Jay collects gunpowder and oil cans and signs, so they are

THIS PAGE Tommy has erected over 50 pole signs; the gas station started life as a local post office.

getting a hunting and fishing shop.” He continues: “I created Tommy Town as a place for friends and family to come hang out and use for family functions, but it’s reached a point where I’m getting calls from people wanting personal tours, and it feels selfish to keep it to ourselves. I recently opened the door for the first time to host a charitable event; all the proceeds went to Camp Hope, which is a collaboration of multiple churches in our area that joined together to run summer camps for underprivileged kids. “I’m planning on doing a couple of charitable events per year – and I’m thinking once the town is done, I may start opening up for weddings. I’m already envisioning the parking lot will double as my personal drive-in movie theatre.” Readers can follow Tommy on Facebook and message him to find out availability of private tours. Visit tinyurl.com/TommyTown. Thanks to Automobilia Resource, www.automobiliaresource.com.

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COLLECTING By Nathan Chadwick

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO HAVE AN art history education – you can just like the film, and connect with the poster,” explains Bonhams’ head of pop culture, Claire Tole-Moir. Movie posters have always been popular, but with cinemas on the decline, and the rise of streaming, do they still have a resonance – and a market? “Pre-1970s posters are still hot – there is a huge market; there always has been,” says Claire. “We’re seeing massive films from the 1980s really increasing in price, too. That’s purely down to the demographic who saw them as children and might have disposable income now.” Yet with prices for 1980s and ’90s films still largely measured in the £100s, Bonhams’ main focus is the more valuable pre-1970s era. “The silent era, golden Hollywood – whenever they come to market, they are sought after,” Claire says. “Not all posters from those eras still exist – you’ve got to look after them, manage them. When it’s 100 years old, it’s a different level of management.” 007 always garners attention. “The original Dr No poster has seen a significant rise since Sean Connery’s passing,” she says. “As the first Bond film it was always very collectable, but it went from £5k-£10k to £60k just after he passed, although posters have come down to around £15k-£20k now.” She also points out that it was an original UK ‘quad print’ – it is these details that matter. “The loose rule of thumb is that if it’s a British film, you want the ‘quad’ [horizontal] poster, because that’s what they would have made and distributed,” she says. “If you like a US title, then you want a ‘US one sheet’ which is how they printed their posters.” The persistence of the Bond

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Movie magic Despite the decline of traditional cinema and the rise of streaming platforms, film posters are still in high demand

franchise makes it a good one for collecting, although directors such as Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick, and actors such as Audrey Hepburn and Marilyn Monroe, hold similar appeal – and loftier prices in the thousands. “It’s not just the actors – it’s how they were depicted in the golden Hollywood era. The painted posters were extremely beautiful,” Claire explains. “There are also a lot of early horror collectors out there – we’re looking at the 1930s and ’40s, and films such as King Kong, The Invisible Man and Creature from the Black Lagoon,” she says. “All of these influenced cinema as a whole, and the posters are still very collectable – I think that trend has trickled into the sci-fi and horror films of the 1970s and ’80s, such as Blade Runner and Star Wars.” Certain designers have their own following, too: “Saul Bass (Vertigo) is an obvious one, but also Drew Struzan (Star Trek), Richard Amsel (Indiana Jones) and Bob Peak, who did Apocalypse Now.” Although film choices are largely universal at the higher levels Claire deals in, the method of preservation can differ. “US collectors like their posters to be linen-backed, whereas European collectors prefer posters in their original form,” she says. It’s also worth keeping an eye out for misprints or special versions. “A Pulp Fiction poster featured Lucky Strikes, but the film company didn’t get approval from the cigarette firm, so they had to be recalled and reprinted without. The Lucky Strike posters that survived are now worth around £1200; a normal one is £200,” Claire explains. She cites another example – a Russian Star Wars poster from its belated release there in 1990. While the poster can

ABOVE Classics such as Dr No have always been desirable, while the Russian Star Wars poster has gained in value.

sell for £500, the original artwork sold for £19,000 via Bonhams. The growth for 1980s and ’90s films continues to grow, but what about beyond that? “Harry Potter is a good title to be buying – they’re remaking it with a new cast, so give it another 20 years and an originalfranchise poster for £200 now could be worth £2000,” she says. Whatever your entry point, Claire is clear on posters’ benefits. “They are light, easy to move and mount – and something really special that will only increase in value.” See www.bonhams.com for more.

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DIVERSIONS Compiled by Nathan Chadwick and Sophie Kochan

AUSTIN PEDAL CARS J40 CONTINUATION The exquisite new J40 Continuation brings the classic pedal car back to life. It has rackand-pinion steering, cable-operated reardisc handbrake, aluminium body, Smiths gauges, Moto-Lita three-spoke wheel, plus unlimited paint and trim options. £POA. www.austinpedalcars.com

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This single-cask, single-malt, peated Scotch whisky is the second of six created by CALLUM and Annandale Distillery. With layers of sweetness and nuttiness, cooked apple and syrup with a back note of sweet tobacco, it comes in a ceramic bottle and case designed by CALLUM. It’s £350 for 70cl. www.callumdesigns.com/whisky

The latest take on the Cap Camarat line is a selfwinding divers’ watch. Water resistant to 656ft, its 42mm stainless-steel case is coated with diamondlike carbon, accentuating the matt-black dial and its horizontal stamped pattern. The watch features a bidirectional rotating internal diving gauge, and provides 41 hours’ battery life. The price is £1170. www.herbelin.com

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DUNHILL MOTHER OF PEARL TURBO LIGHTER The Turbo lighter has been a fixture of Dunhill’s collection for more than a decade, but it has recently been re-engineered with a butane-powered, windresistant jet flame. This lighter echoes earlier designs with palladiumplated brass and handplaced mother-of-pearl marquetry. It costs £4500. www.dunhill.com

ARANYANI ARYA KESUDA LEVI’S X MCLAREN RACING JACKET This collaboration between Levi’s and McLaren Racing is inspired by vintage motor sport jackets, and is made from 100 percent cotton. A strictly limited edition, it has a cropped, boxy fit, a soft satin liner and twill taping details. It costs £330. www.levi.com

Crafted from calf nappa leather with an antique gold finish, this bag is handembroidered with more than 1000 stitches. Its name, Arya, weaves together the words ‘breeze’ and ‘melody’ in Arabic, and in Sanskrit means ‘Noble One’. It comes in four different leather colours. £POA. www.aranyani.com

PATEK PHILIPPE NAUTILUS QUARTZ This new version of the ladies’ Nautilus features a quartz movement and a 32mm rose-gold case and bracelet. This model – 7010/1R-013 – features a purple-lacquered dial, while the bezel is illuminated by a row of 46 brilliantcut diamonds (0.8ct). It costs £49,860. www.watches-of-switzerland.co.uk

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DIVERSIONS

NAIM AUDIO MU-SO The second generation of Naim’s Mu-so wireless music system offers 24-bit highres streaming, multi-room music with extra HDMI TV sound and much more from its all-new multicore digital signal processor. It comes with various coloured speaker grilles and supports Android and iOS. £POA. www.naimaudio.com

VACHERON CONSTANTIN FIFTY-SIX SELF-WINDING Inspired by watches of the 1950s, the 4600E/000RH101 blends a black dial with an 18ct 5K pink-gold case and an anthracite nubuck calfskin strap. The self-winding mechanical movement displays Côtes de Genève finishing and an oscillating weight in 22ct pink-gold, inspired by the Maltese cross. It has a diameter of 44mm and is 9.6mm thick. £POA. www.vacheronconstantin.com

CRÉMIEUX BOUCLE HOUNDSTOOTH JACKET This stylish Italian-made jacket is crafted from Ferla fabric, consisting of 68 percent wool, 25 percent baby alpaca, six percent polyamide and one percent lycra. It is available in sizes 46 to 58, and costs £1813. https://uk.cremieux.fr

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CZECH & SPEAKE OXFORD & CAMBRIDGE TRAVEL SHAVING SET Perfectly sized for all your travel needs, this £160 shaving set holds a dish and brush, Oxford & Cambridge-scented soap and an aftershave shaker. The scent blends English and French lavender, peppermint, rosemary and bergamot, giving way to a subtle base of warm oak moss. www.czechandspeake.com

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This Austin This Austin J40 Continuation J40 Continuation Holland Holland & Sherry & Sherry collaboration collaboration Owners Owners may may choose choose from from an almost an almost unlimited unlimited colourcolour bringsbrings together together two iconic two iconic brands brands to create to create the ultimate the ultimate palette, palette, have have the option the option of specifying of specifying bespoke bespoke elements elements combination combination of automotive of automotive design design and Savile and Savile Row style, Row style, such as such luggage as luggage racks racks or wing or wing mirrors mirrors and have and ahave choice a choice of of

This Austin J40 Continuation Holland & Sherry collaboration Owners may choose from an almost unlimited colour SherrySherry cloth.cloth. brings together two iconic brands to create the ultimate palette, have the option of specifying bespoke elements Each as J40 Each Continuation J40 Continuation is built is to built order, to order, with build-slots with abuild-slots nowofnow This exclusive This collaboration launches launches bespoke a bespoke combinationexclusive of collaboration automotive design andaSavile Rowdesign style,design such luggage racks or wing mirrors and have choice the the open open for reservation. for reservation. PleasePlease contact contact us tousdiscuss to discuss programme programme for the forJ40 theContinuation J40 Continuation whichwhich allowsallows owners owners creation of your new, bespoke, AustinAustin J40. J40. creation of brand your brand new, bespoke, the opportunity the opportunity to order to order a newaAustin new Austin J40 built J40 to built their to own their own Sherry cloth. This exclusive collaboration launches a bespoke design Each J40 Continuation is built to order, with build-slots now programme for the J40 Continuation which allows owners open for reservation. Please contact us to discuss the joy AAustin joy to pedal. tobuilt pedal. joy Aown joy to admire. to admire. A joy A joy tonew, own tobespoke, own Austin J40. creation of your brand the opportunity to order aAnew J40 toAtheir

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DIVERSIONS

ROCOCO – AN EXTRAVAGANCE OF CHOCOLATES A wonderful case of doing what it says on the tin – well, the beautifully presented two-level box – this 100-piece selection includes a variety of velvety truffles, silky caramels, ganaches and pralines. It’s £229. www.rococochocolates.com

LUMINOX PACIFIC DIVER AUTOMATIC MIDNIGHT MARINER Luminox has added its first automatics to its Pacific Diver collection. The three watches in the 3100 series pay tribute to the design’s 35-year history, yet have more features. Shown is the Midnight Mariner, with Super-LumiNova to make it the brightest Luminox yet. It measures 42mm and is water resistant to 200m. It’s £1340. www.uk.luminox.com

MONTBLANC MEISTERSTÜCK X OLYMPIC HERITAGE CHAMONIX 1924 DOUÉ CLASSIQUE ROLLERBALL AMALGAM MASERATI 250F This 1:8-scale model beautifully represents Juan Manuel Fangio’s Maserati 250F 1957 German Grand Prix victor. In this historic event he turned around a 50-second deficit to win both the race and his fifth world title. Developed over 4500 hours, each build takes 450 hours. Limited to 199 pieces, it’s £16,995. www.amalgamcollection.com

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Celebrating 100 years of both Montblanc and the Olympic Games Chamonix at the foot of Mont Blanc, this blue-grey pen features an engraving of Chamonix’s mountain landscape and the Olympic logo. It costs £790; a ballpoint is £690. www.montblanc.com

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BOOK REVIEWS By Nathan Chadwick

TOM WALKINSHAW CUTS A divisive figure. He was Britain’s Mr Motor Sport for much of the 1980s, but he’s now probably as famous for his ‘robust’ character and ‘innovative’ interpretation of motor sport rulebooks as for the successes he had with his cars. This magnificent 528-page, $130 book from Neil Smith encapsulates all elements of Tom’s character, and it doesn’t pull back from his sheer chutzpah. But then, without this singular force of will, it’s unlikely that the Jaguar Group C programme would have been anywhere near as successful as it was. An early example of this is the way that Bob Tullius, whose Group 44 IMSA project had done much to elevate Jaguar in the US in the early 1980s, was out-manoeuvred. Despite a clear, agreed plan to use Tulliusbuilt chassis in Europe, Walkinshaw wagered on building carbonfibre monocoques for rather more money without telling the suits. The gamble was, effectively, to agree to use TWR chassis or they’d be sold to BMW. It paid off, with Tom getting the nod as Tullius’s cars struggled. The stage was set for a massive effort to reach the top step of the Le Mans podium. This beautifully researched book really takes you into the nitty-gritty of ’80s motor sport politics. Jaguar’s wider, perilous background acts as the dynamic thrust behind why this was such an important project and was allowed to continue. The book also reveals insights into the politics at HQ, as well as at TWR. It all plays out with the narrative panache of a political thriller. Indeed, it’s that very story of Jaguar, from IPO to purchase and Ford (and beyond) that provides a refreshingly detailed level of context sadly left out of

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On the Prowl Described as the definitive history of the Walkinshaw Jaguar sports car team, this book certainly lives up to its billing

most books about motor sport. But it is the cars, drivers, designers and engineers that are the true stars, and Smith establishes a compelling cast to move the story along, most notably Tony Southgate. His skills with lightweight carbonfibre were critical in overcoming the heavy V12 that Jaguar mandated TWR to use. The book takes us through the seasons, of course, but it’s the level of extra detail that really astounds; from how the team kept details of Stefan Bellof’s death away from Mike Thackwell at Spa, to Tom’s premonitions of Win Percy’s death at Le Mans in 1987, which were it not for the carbon monocoque, could so easily have come true. With so many Porsche Group C books around, it is great to read such detail about another manufacturer. This highly recommended volume provides much wider context to one of motor sport’s closest-fought disciplines. It also goes into detail on each chassis’ life – and therein lies another set of controversial tales courtesy of a Mr Hood – although he’s not the only one… It’s important to note that this isn’t a hagiography for Walkinshaw – the full spectrum of his character is laid bare, in no uncertain terms. It is clear that his determination to win was unmatched, leading to some questionable behaviour – but there are many drivers and engineers for whom that will to win undeniably opened doors. If you’ve any interest in Group C racing and its political machinations (of which there were many...), this is an essential purchase. Beautifully written, exceptionally presented, it is one of the finest motor sport books of the decade. www.bullpublishing.com

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BOOK REVIEWS

Spy Octane: The Vehicles of James Bond While 007 takes a break, this new book fuels the fascination for Ian Fleming’s superspy icon

BOND MIGHT CURRENTLY BE on warhead-induced R&R, but the unbridled passion for Britain’s foremost sociopath, sorry, distinctly un-secret agent continues. Both Aston Martin and Rolls-Royce have marked 60 years with specialedition cars referencing Goldfinger, while Matthew Field and Ajay Chowdhury’s first instalment of a three-part series dedicated to 007 vehicles is well timed. It’s beautifully produced, too – the design and imagery are top notch. And although there have been plenty of Bond books that have looked amazing but come up short on substance, this 415-page, £99 book takes a pleasingly granular look not only at the vehicles but also at the people who turned them

into film stars in their own right. A good example of the level of detail comes early, with the tale of how the over-bouncy suspension of Bond’s Sunbeam in Dr No nearly left Sean Connery sans head during one stunt. The book, which spans from Dr No to Diamonds Are Forever, begins with a profile of Ian Fleming, investigating his deep love of cars. It turns out that although his most famous character rather looked down on American automobiles, the author was a noted fan of them. However, the most fascinating stories concern how the films were made – the decisions behind certain cars, and the perils of getting iconic sequences to work (and japes that ensued while waiting for the shoot). There’s a wealth of interviews with

production managers, set designers, stunt co-ordinators, producers and more – as well as the starring actors and actresses – that elevate this Bond book above others. Key people, such as production designer Ken Adam, receive special attention. Each movie is discussed from its conceptual stage to its release; the story of marketing Goldfinger all around the world is most entertaining (as you will find out in this issue of Magneto’s cover story). Equally fascinating are the fates of the vehicles depicted. While those of the cars are better known, the Thunderball Vulcan bomber was simply left in the sea in the Bahamas, to be used as a divingtour location and a Flipper bit part. The James Bond Aston Martin

DB5 is, of course, the star of the show. The story of its conversion, and the fates of the various cars involved, is highly detailed. It is also intriguing to learn even more about the Toyota 2000GT’s inclusion in You Only Live Twice. Entertaining, too – Toyota sent a back-up car to the UK, which was bought by art director Syd Cain. He kept the sporty coupé for only a matter of months, after receiving a driving ban for doing 140mph in it. The superb Spy Octane book is intensively researched, engagingly written and beautifully illustrated. It’s a must for Bond aficionados – and even for those whose 007 appreciation has withered over the years, it’s a great read. www.porterpress.co.uk

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AJ FOYT: SURVIVOR, CHAMPION, LEGEND

AGAINST ALL THE OTHERS: PORSCHE’S RACING HISTORY

AJ Foyt is one of American racing’s most successful drivers – and Art Garner’s £37, 606-page first volume dedicated to him makes the case for him being the greatest driver of them all. After all, he’s won the Indy 500 four times, the Daytona 24 Hours, the Le Mans 24 Hours and many more – and survived plenty of near-death experiences along the way. Although clearly in awe of its subject, the book doesn’t shy away from Foyt’s occasionally prickly personality. An engrossing read. www.octanepress.com

For all of Porsche’s motor sport success, its transition to legendary status was swift and dynamic – with 1968 being the key season. The first volume in a series of books focusing on such important years produced in association with the Porsche Museum, Randy Leffingwell’s 432-page tome acts as a diary taking in the Stuttgart marque’s efforts on rally stages, racetracks and beyond, with testimony from those who were there at the time. Well worth a look at $99. www.bullpublishing.com

Adolfo Orsi’s global overview of the past 12 months in auction land packs in the customary car-by-car, auctionby-auction guide. There’s also granular analysis of trends regarding certain cars over time, going back to 1993, but the real value of this 432page, €94.79 book is in tracking estimates vs results – something several auction houses conveniently forget in the aftermath of a sale. Recommended for frequent buyers and sellers, and fascinating for those with a passion for graphs and data. www.classiccarauctionyearbook.com

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Mid-Lancia Stratos pomp, Fiat decided its 131 needed some rallying prestige, emulating the Escort stage-to-showroom appeal. The Abarth team, aided by Marcello Gandini, crafted one of the sport’s most formidable weapons, with World Championship titles coming in 1977, 1978 and 1980. Franco Carmignani’s 144-page, €44 book features insights from key team players and drivers, and a wealth of stirring imagery. This is a fascinating tale of how an unlikely car became virtually unstoppable. www.giorgionadaeditore.it

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BOOK REVIEWS

Formula 2: The Glory Years, 1967-84 F1 stars battling it out with young guns on the move – it’s a feast for the eyes and mind

THE ROLL CALL OF FORMULA 2 drivers between 1967-84 reads like the higher echelons of motor sport throughout the next three decades. Although it was intended to be a feeder series for Formula 1, F2 was instead a fertile ground for emerging talent to battle it out with more established F1 names looking to keep themselves fresh. Jutta Fausel was there to document it all. Her photographs beautifully bring to life a race series that although well loved by those who took part, now seems to have been largely forgotten. That is despite such established names as Jackie Stewart, Graham Hill, Jack Brabham, Jochen Rindt and Bruce McLaren battling it out with the young talents of Jonathan Palmer, Jacky Ickx, Clay Regazzoni,

Jean-Pierre Beltoise, Jacques Laffite, Jean-Pierre Jarier, Geoff Lees, JeanPierre Jabouille and René Arnoux – all of whom took an F2 championship in this key period. Far more names competed – think of any star from endurance racing or F1, and it is likely they lined up at a windy Thruxton at some point. Of course, the elephant in the room with regards to F2’s legacy during this period is the horrific passing of Jim Clark at Hockenheim. Accidents were common, the mix of youngsters with a point to prove driving alongside more established racers providing some cause for concern. As with all motor sport of the era it was very dangerous, but again, most of those taking part accepted this and relished their

involvement. Ickx, the inaugural F2 champion in a Tyrrell-backed Matra, explains that away from the F1 circus, the paddock was more of a family affair, with great camaraderie. Among the 860 photographs, it’s refreshing to see such talents do battle on circuits away from the usual merry-go-round – the unique yet diverse challenges of Pau and the Nürburgring, for example. You also get to see a very young, almost unrecognisable Ron Dennis during his Rondel Racing days. The imagery is sumptuous, but it is backed up with the fine writing of Bob Constanduros, Peter Higham, Mark Hughes and Ian Phillips, who add great flavour and insight over the course of this 560-page, £95 book. Each season is profiled, and

the key talents who fought for victories pulled out and their careers assessed. However, the absolute joy is not only in the winners, but also in those who took part – it’s fascinating to see how such drivers fared, and how their careers developed. And, tragically, how some of them were cut short just as they were getting into their prime. This book is a beautifully puttogether tribute to a fascinating era in motor sport, which overlapped between the old-school privateer world of the 1960s and the bellsand-whistles, slicks-and-wings glitz and glamour of the 1980s. A highly recommended read for anyone with a strong interest in single-seater racing from this turbulent time. www.evropublishing.com

PRODRIVE: 40 YEARS OF SUCCESS

THE CARS YOU ALWAYS PROMISED YOURSELF

RESTOMODS 2: BETTER, FASTER, COOLER

SUPERCARS: FERRARI 288 GTO

Steve Saxty’s magnificent story of Ford of Europe’s design, engineering and marketing was a smash hit when it broke cover in 2019, and swiftly sold out. This remastered version is limited to 500 editions, and covers the Blue Oval’s best cars between 1970-90, plus those that didn’t reach showrooms. Packed with sketches, marketing materials and rare images, this 336-page, £89.95 book is a must for anyone who lusted after everything from a Fiesta to an RS500, and everything in between. www.stevesaxty.com

The first Restomods was as funky to behold as the often-mad stories behind the original builds. Of course, this arena is now a much bigger, more corporate world, but there’s still time for the irreverent wit we’ve come to expect from Bart Lenaerts. With new restomod projects appearing virtually weekly these days, this beautifully produced, 252-page, €60 volume is a marker of a fascinating time in automotive history, as we’ll ultimately come to see it. www.waft.be

When David Richards started out on his own prior to establishing Prodrive, he and strong ally Ian Parry had only one answerphone, in David’s house. How things change. Fast-forward 40 years, and Prodrive has won in pretty much every motor sport discipline, and its engineering consultancy is in demand around the world from OEMs and more besides. Ian Wagstaff’s 192-page book is full of insider insight and great photography, and is fantastic value to buy at just £39. www.porterpress.co.uk

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‘Iconic’ is often used as punctuation these days. Yet for Ferrari to come up with not only one car to befit the word in a year, but two, goes to underline why – if you were ever in doubt – the brand is so loved. This bilingual 168-page, €44 tome from Gaetano Derosa puts the 288 GTO in good historical context, with plenty of behind-the-scenes images. While not quite as granular in its analysis as other books on the subject, it will nonetheless have you dreaming of box arches and barking twinturbocharged V8 engines. www.giorgionadaeditore.it

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The Lawyer Clive Robertson

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Driverless cars will surely be a part of our driving landscape – perhaps sooner than we think

ZOMBIE VEHICLES, OTHERWISE known as driverless cars, were the subject of my column in Magneto 12, back in winter 2021. I thought it might be instructive to relate what progress has been made in the development of these machines in the interim. Rather than critically examining the points of debate then made, I will jump to the present to consider what has come to pass in the intervening three years. So far as UK legislation is concerned, Parliament passed the Automated Vehicles Act into law in May of this year, with a view to self-driving cars being on the road by 2026. The Act is intended to revolutionise travel, by increasing safety and giving opportunity to those currently unable to drive. As to safety, human error contributes to 88 percent of accidents, so improvements can be expected to be tangible, while increased mobility will give access to services, as well as connecting communities. Comprising 102 pages, the Act is intended as a framework to encourage investing stakeholders, by providing a flexible structure in which to function. Principles are set out, while allowing for execution of yet-to-be-decided detail to be dealt with by the Secretary of State and the mechanism of secondary legislation. The sections of the Act are drawn in clear, concise language by those responsible for parliamentary drafting – as witness the definition of “user in charge” for driver. The main provisions are summarised thus: The Act applies to all vehicles that can be “self-driving” without input for all or any period of driving. A vehicle will be required to pass the “self-driving test” if it is designed with a feature that will permit it to travel autonomously, both safely and legally. “Autonomously” means having the capability to travel without driver involvement, thereby relying solely upon the equipment of the vehicle. “Safely” is a concept that will be regulated by the Secretary of State, 204

Magneto

BELOW A mind of their own? Honking Waymo ‘robotaxis’ show that driverless tech still requires some perfecting.

who is charged with drafting a “statement of safety principles” consequent upon consultation with stakeholders. “Legally” in the context of the Act addresses the vexed question of the liability of the driver when the automated-driving functions are engaged. Parliament has decided that drivers will be granted immunity from prosecution where the vehicle is driven, when the driving features are functioning. Such liability will be assumed by the vehicle manufacturers. The Government has contributed its part to the driverless project. That said, the private sector has not been asleep. The lure of access to a new market promising very considerable financial reward has been the driver. It’ll come as no surprise to learn that Uber was an early entrant, setting up a research subsidiary. The advent of the pandemic required a refocus to the third-party partnership model. Last August, Wayve announced an eight-figure investment by Uber. Wayve was set up by two Cambridge graduates in 2017, to explore an alternative approach to developing driverless cars, based on

machine learning and computer vision. Previous research focused on creating rules for every eventuality. Wayve AI Driver software uses data and videos to equip vehicles with advanced ‘humanlike’ driving capabilities. Last May saw investment by SoftBank, Nvidia and Microsoft into Wayve, of $1 billion. Meanwhile, in the US, Waymo has stolen a march over its rivals, with its driverless cars having been on the roads in Phoenix since October 2022 and in San Francisco earlier this year. Waymo was first incorporated as the Google Self-Driving Car Project in 2009. As might be readily imagined, Waymo has encountered many setbacks in its pioneer role. In May this year the company issued a voluntary

‘Parliament has decided that drivers will be granted immunity from prosecution’

recall of its fleet of 672 Jaguar I-Pace ‘robotaxis’ in order to attend to a software update. It seems that a single vehicle collided with a telegraph pole. On a slightly lighter note, last month residents adjacent to a parking lot in South Bay, LA, which is being used by Waymo vehicles, complained that they were being kept awake at night by the cars beeping at each other. Apparently, a feature designed to avoid accidents triggered this mayhem. The Los Angeles Times reported that resident Randol White “at first found it really funny, these cars honking at each other”. Notwithstanding White’s nocturnal disturbance, he continued by stating that, being a long-time bike commuter, he was a supporter of Waymo because he found these cars to be a safer road companion. Apart from such an opinion being public-relations gold, that view gives the sense of where driverless cars are going; they’ll surely be a part of our driving landscape, perhaps sooner than we think. Clive is a solicitor and consultant with London law firm Healys LLP. Contact clive.robertson@healys.com.

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The Curator Robert Dean Goodwood is cracking down on regulation bending – but is it easier said than done?

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Magneto

the original cars did in period, so they have formed a life of their own. As the curator of a new and blossoming collection, I often talk with my principle about what we would have if money were no object. It is great fun to think about owning a collection of race cars solely comprising toolroom copies. Think about it: Ferrari Sharknose, 246 Dino, 250 SWB and GTO; Mercedes W 125 and Auto-Union with Streamliners in both; ERA; Cooper Bristol; Maserati 250F and Birdcage; McLaren M8; Lola T70 MkIII; any number of C-type and D-type Jaguars; Bugattis by the handful; a few Historic F1 cars… and all for less than the cost of one original Mercedes W 196. What a collection that would be! Strangely enough, toolroom copies mostly concern race cars, although there are a few new road cars where something original no longer exists or specials are made from the remains of something, and a lot of saloons are converted into tourers, too. No, what happens in road-car circles is out-and-out fakery. For instance, someone might have a dull standard saloon, and mock it up to be a much more sporting RS or GT. This is fine if

you are clear about what and why you are doing it (usually because the cost of the real thing is way out of reach of the everyday enthusiast). However, it’s not okay if you are trying to pass the thing off as a real RS or GT. The next hurdle to jump over is a thing called ‘continuous history’; in simple terms, for those who know what I am talking about, ‘Trigger’s broom’. This is where so many parts have been changed on a car for reasons of damage, wear and tear, or simple service maintenance, that hardly any of the original model is left. However, if you can prove a timeline of change for those parts, it keeps the vehicle honest. Continuous history is mainly a racecar thing, where parts are changed from meeting to meeting in rearengine machinery, but for front-engine cars usually the same motor, gearbox

‘He said cars would be scrutinised more closely, and banned if found to be badly wanting’

and bodywork are repaired, I suppose due to lower stress levels on the parts. This leads onto matching numbers, and is mostly a road-car thing, although Mr Ecclestone owns possibly the most original race machine on the planet, his McLaren M23/8-2. It was never raced after it was sold at the end of the season, and when McLaren later borrowed it to recommission it for an event, we found each part was stamped with a factory number. It was amazing to see as we stripped the car down. So, matching numbers make a huge difference to the value of a vehicle, because it means the car has the same engine, gearbox and axles with which it left the factory. This perfectly suits my OCD for originality, and when I restore something I like it to be as faithful to the authentic product as possible. It’s a nightmare really, but is tremendously rewarding when you get it right. I wish His Grace luck trying to police originality in any race car, but I am very glad someone has taken a stand against some of the clearly farcical bending of the regulations. Keep the machinery honest. Former Ecclestone Collection manager Robert now runs Curated Vehicle Management. See www.c-v-m.co.uk.

GOODWOOD

SO, AT THE TIME OF WRITING, another Goodwood Revival has been and gone – and a very splendid few days it was, too. I think I have only ever missed one. The racing and the cars are incredible – but some of the latter are not especially credible in terms of their ‘parentage’, if rumours are to be listened to. Just before the event, the Duke of Richmond gave a stern warning about cars that have been ‘too modified’ or are running ‘cheater’ engines and suspension. Well, that was the gist of his much-shared video message, in which he stated that cars would be scrutinised more closely in the future, and banned if found to be badly wanting. I have to say, the arms race for more power and better times has been going on for a long time, as Historics have become more prestigious. I remember back in the late 1980s/early ’90s when Cooper Bristols started outperforming 246 Dinos by quite a margin, and we all shook our heads and tutted to anyone who’d listen. Then, when the Historic Formula 1 and F5000 series started to gain traction, owners were turning up with miraculously powerful engines, modern dampers etc, and I have to say their full race transporters looked like conspicuous expenditure to me. But I suppose that doesn’t do any harm, and it keeps a lot of people employed. His Grace also raised the question of originality, and there I’d agree – but how do you police that particular area? Every race car started being modified from the moment it finished its first race. I heartily agree with replicas or toolroom copies, but only if they’ve been made to original spec and with original materials (where possible). When they first started to appear ‘way back when’, people had a few spare parts for a particular model, and built a new frame and body so they could race ‘one of those cars’. Some worried that it would affect the price of the original machinery, but I never believed that – and all those reproductions have now been racing longer than most of

BELOW The Duke of Richmond’s Goodwood Revival is spearheading the drive to clamp down on scrutineering in Historic racing.

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The Designer Peter Stevens New Magneto columnist ruminates on hardly exotic yet still meritorious and now seldom seen classics

WHEN DID I LAST SEE A…? IT’S A question I quite often ask myself during a long drive, particularly when a ‘landmark’ car comes to mind. I’m not talking Lamborghinis or Ferraris, but something more commonplace and manufactured in large numbers. We could start with a Renault 16, built from 1965 to 1980. Around 1.8 million were made, yet where are they now? Quite a few certainly went to those great, muddy breakers’ yards in the suburbs. My father bought a brandnew one not long after the model had been introduced. It failed its first MoT due to extensive rust underneath, but his local country garage patched it up sufficiently well to part-exchange it for a TX version. While driving that, he hit a speeding hare, which destroyed much of the car’s thin front brightwork. The Renault was replaced by a Lada Riva estate. My dad particularly loved the crudely worded owner’s manual, especially its wise advice to switch the headlights on for two minutes before attempting to start the engine when the outside temperature was below -10ºC. The idea was that this would lower the resistance in the battery. But back to the 16. Interestingly, it could be considered Renault’s first ‘modern’ car. While the firm had been making the rear-engined Dauphine, front-wheel-drive 4 and front-engine, rear-wheel-drive Frégate, this was something new at a time when rationalisation was needed. The 16 had its rather unexciting four-cylinder engine mounted behind the gearbox at the front of the car, very soft and well controlled torsion-bar suspension and a weight of just about 1000kg, and together these all gave the Renault remarkably fine roadholding. In addition, the seats could be described as being filled with marshmallow – comforting as much as comfortable. It was the first medium-sized car to have a hatchback design at the rear, although at that time the term had not yet been coined (is there a better word?). It was also the first French 208

Magneto

BELOW A design classic? Very few examples of Renault’s first ‘modern’ car lasted long enough to earn that accolade.

model to win the Car of the Year Award, which it did in 1965. Gaston Juchet was the man credited with the design, but his brief had been a difficult one; the car had to be seen as a truly modern design without in any way following the style of the alreadyten-year-old Citroën DS. Should Magneto readers ever see a Renault 16, they will surely consider it to be much more modern than contemporaries from Ford, Austin, Opel, Peugeot or Fiat, with their Italian or Americanderived forms. But unfortunately, a 1960s Peugeot or Opel station wagon now looks cool and funky in a way that a Renault 16 never does. As for seeing a Lada/AvtoVAZ-2121 Niva? I have a strange friend with over a dozen hidden behind his supercar workshop. He thinks they may be the only surviving ones in Britain. The Niva is a small and relatively light offroad 4x4 that AvtoVAZ built at Tolyatti, south of Moscow. The request for a strong, flexible vehicle for rural areas came from Soviet Union premier Alexei Kosygin in 1971. He understood that Soviet manufacturers, such as Moskvitch, built cars that weren’t suitable for the harsh conditions in the remote areas of the country. After a lengthy design period,

under the original direction of Valery Pavlovich – and no doubt ‘lengthy’ was not helped by Soviet bureaucracy – the car was finally launched in 1977, the name Niva being Russian for ‘field’. Production is said to have finally ended in 2023… The Niva was the first off-road vehicle to have been designed as a unibody construction, rather than with its contemporaries’ body-on-frame structure. At the time of the model’s design Fiat had a large interest in Lada, so the Riva was closely based on the Fiat 124 estate, and many parts used in the Niva came from both the 124 and the 127 hatchback. With coil springs all round, including independent front suspension, and excellent wheel travel, the car was exceptionally good in off-road conditions. A Russian expedition is said to have reached the Mount Everest Base Camp

‘My father bought a brand-new 16 – it failed its first MoT due to extensive rust underneath...’

at an altitude of 5200 metres in 1998. Meanwhile, also in ’98, a lengthened VAZ-2131 Niva was dropped by parachute onto the polar ice and successfully driven to the North Pole, becoming the first wheeled vehicle to do so. Temperatures were below -30ºC. In September 1999 a similar Niva, which belonged to the Saint Petersburg Extreme Expedition Team, reached an altitude of 5725 metres on a Tibetan mountain. Nivas were produced in countries as varied as Jordan, Egypt, Ukraine and Ethiopia. They were also built in Uruguay as the amusingly named Bognor Diva. You could still buy one in the UK as recently as 2021. Something like three million were built during the model’s 40-year-plus production life, 650,000 of them for export – but where are they all now? Is a Lada Niva an interesting car that deserves to be better known and appreciated? Two million original Land Rover Defenders were built. When did I last see one on the road? Well, three just today, probably all bought as ‘fashion items’, very clean, no dents beyond the typical, fairly poor panel surfaces, but revered by their owners. Nivas were marketed towards farmers as straightforward working tools, right up to their demise. It’s hard to spot the moment when Land Rovers stopped being the vehicle of choice for farmers, and instead became an urban accessory, while those original users started buying Toyota’s 4x4 pick-up instead. And not because of the infamous Top Gear story, but due to its comparatively low price and rugged build quality. The Defender has now become an expensive collectors’ car, deserving of five-figure restorations despite its notoriety for rust. Quite why this is so is one of those fascinating anomalies of the old-car world. Now, when did you last see an original Peugeot 404, designed by Pinin Farina? Peter is a past chief designer for Lotus, McLaren, MG-Rover, Mahindra and more. He’s now a consultant designer.

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The Interview Jean-Pierre Ploué

Words Nathan Chadwick

How do you juggle the styling needs of Stellantis’ nine European brands? We speak with its chief design officer on how history will play a role

How much emphasis is put on history in new car models? It is fundamental, it’s where our brands have their roots. However, until recently in my career I forbade myself the concept of ‘restomodding’, although with the Citroën Revolt/ Survolt and Peugeot e-Legend concepts we touched on this. I think the role of the designer is to prepare for the future, create new designs and make a living brand, while respecting the roots with design cues. Things are changing, though, and you have to know how to question yourself... Such as Renault’s new retro-themed 5 EV – why do you think it’s popular? Because it calls on the good things of the past, it’s more of a marketing approach than a pure creative one. Renault was looking for a new start. It was a similar case with the Fiat 500 of 2007, in which Luca De Meo [the current boss of Renault] participated [while he was at Fiat]. So you surf on the already established image of a known and iconic product. It is easy marketing; I like and respect this idea, but I am not obsessed with it. What’s behind the rise of restomods? The ‘revivals’ or restomods are a good way to fight against the attack of Chinese brands who lack heritage and roots. To respond, they buy the name of European brands as a Trojan horse; it’s the best way to market their brand. It’s also an emotional reminder for my generation, and perhaps for the younger ones. An iconic product, its fundamentals, are a good starting point to create a unique design, with a link with the history of our brands. It’s an easier way to sell without too much marketing, because it’s already known.

Can we expect this from Stellantis? We’re working on a few models. It’s not my obsession, nor that of Carlos [Tavares, CEO], but we are talking about it. The new big Panda is one such approach. It reminds the Italians of the Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed first-generation Panda, and they love it. How do you define ‘your’ brands? My strategy is to have a small but dedicated team for each brand. As soon as you have a single team for different brands, it doesn’t work in the right way. I was Citroën design director when I started at PSA. The group’s shareholder asked me to also take care of Peugeot design, because he wasn’t happy with its stylistic direction. I said yes but only for one year, because I knew the commitment it required to develop a design for a brand… You have to understand a brand, its history, its DNA, live it on a daily basis without sharing. How do your designers understand the ‘regionality’ of each brand? It is important to have dedicated studios in the brand’s country of origin. I’m not saying that only Italians should work for Alfa Romeo, for example, but designers must live and understand that country as a whole. With intelligent creative talents, there are no issues of overlap in style between our brands, even if common platforms can make things very difficult at times. Each brand has a manifesto, a ‘living’ design bible in constant evolution – composed of reference images, films, sketches, even music. Everything is defined in advance. It contains everything that helps define the brand’s future design. Exterior styling, interior, posture, surface treatments, colours and materials, down to show stands.

ABOVE Jean-Pierre understands the importance history plays in design and marketing, but he is excited for future opportunities, too.

almost 100 customers wanted a 33 Stradale. It’s a business model that works and builds our brand image. It’s magical [as a designer] because the space for freedom of expression is huge – it’d be a dream to design a new Lancia Stratos. It’d be about finding a new design that does justice to this icon of motor sport. It’s something we should have done with the Peugeot e-Legend – but it’s never too late.

What about Lancia and DS – brands known for luxury and innovation? One is Italian, the other French – the spirit and research of each team is very different. DS is synonymous with Paris, the arts, refinement and sophistication in the details, with a manufactured approach. Lancia is synonymous with Italian design and elegance, simple, pure, but radical, too, in a way that can be found in Italian architecture and furniture.

Are you optimistic for the future? We’re living in a very difficult and transitional period, but I’m optimistic because it’s a fantastic opportunity to reinvent ourselves in every way. Our brands, profession, tools, lifestyles, while protecting our planet. I’m happy to live this upcoming transformation. The automobile will reinvent itself. It will survive, because we need freedom of individual mobility. Sometimes we hear that the younger generations are not interested in automobiles. This isn’t true; from what I see, they still love cars. There’s something magical in the automobile as an object that means it will endure.

Given the success of Alfa’s Bottega project, the 33, will other brands have similar opportunities? Certainly! We were surprised that

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