Magneto magazine issue 3: Autumn 2019

ISSUE

3 AUTUMN 2019

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The 50 greatest

concept cars ever

£ 8.00 |

+ THE ITALIAN JOB | BENTLEY’S LOST CORNICHE | NORBERT SINGER ON PORSCHE 917 | BUGATTI EB110S SC | NEW STRATOS

PRINTED IN THE UK

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EARLY HIGHLIGHT 1969 Lamborghini Miura P400 S Coachwork by Bertone Chassis no. 4245 Delivered new to Germany, this Miura P400 S was purchased by its second owner in 1974 and has remained with him ever since.

Presented in unrestored and highly original condition, this is undoubtedly one of the most exciting Miuras offered in recent memory.

LATE OCTOBER

LONDON

CONSIGNMENTS INVITED THROUGH MID-SEPTEMBER

NOW INVITING CONSIGNMENTS

RM SOTHEBY’S IN PARTNERSHIP WITH FORMULA 1® PRESENTS AN EARLY HIGHLIGHT FOR THE FIRST COLLABORATIVE AUCTION OF ITS KIND

2002 Ferrari F2002 Chassis no. 219 Michael Schumacher raises his fist in victory at FORMULA 1 GRAN PREMIO DI SAN MARINO 2002 Photo courtesy of Motorsport Images

FORMULA 1 ETIHAD AIRWAYS ABU DHABI G�AND PRIX

30 NOVEMBER

ABU DHABI

CONSIGNMENTS INVITED THROUGH 23 OCTOBER

HEADQUARTERS +1 519 352 4575 UK +44 (0) 20 7851 7070 FRANCE +33 (0) 1 76 75 32 93 ITALY +39 02 9475 3812 GERMANY +49 172 7151 251 The F1 FORMULA 1 logo, F1 logo, FORMULA 1, FORMULA ONE, F1, FIA FORMULA ONE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP, GRAND PRIX, PADDOCK CLUB and related marks are trademarks of Formula One Licensing BV, a Formula 1 company. Licensed by Formula One World Championship Limited, a Formula 1 company. All rights reserved.

A Sound Partnership.

Naim Audio is the British maker of some of the finest hi-fi systems in the world. Their mission is to bring you a deeper, more immersive sonic experience, taking you inside the music – as though you are with the artist as they perform.

Since 2008, Naim has held an exclusive partnership with Bentley Motors to deliver the world’s most advanced music systems – inside the world’s most prestigious road cars. Right from the beginning, it was a natural fit for both companies: a relentless quest for the purest sound, alongside a driving experience that is second to none.

To bring true Naim sound quality into this unique space Naim and Bentley engineers had to flatly reject traditional approaches, and re-write the rulebook of in-car music playback. The result? New worldwide benchmarks for in-cabin sound technology and incredible depth of music quality that has to be heard, to be believed.

naimaudio.com/naim-for-bentley

THE OFFICIAL AUTOMOTIVE MARKETPLACE OF THE PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE • RARE COLLECTIBLES • HISTORIC AUTOMOBILIA • PETROLIANA • BOOKS & LITERATURE • ORIGINAL POSTER ART • ORIGINAL PAINTINGS & SCULPTURE • PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS MERCHANDISE • LUXURY ITEMS FOR THE MOTORING LIFESTYLE

PEBBLE BEach

classic car forum presented by

THIS YEAR FEATURING PATRICK DEMPSEY, HURLEY HAYWOOD, JAY LENO, DONALD OSBORNE, ADAM CAROLLA, WAYNE CARINI AND PANELS DISCUSSING HISTORIC AND FUTURE IMPACTS ON THE COLLECTOR CAR WORLD. pebblebeachconcours.net/forum

Pebble Beach®, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance Logo®, Pebble Beach RetroAuto™, The Inn at Spanish Bay™ and their distinctive images are trademarks and service marks of Pebble Beach Company. All rights reserved. © 2019 Pebble Beach Company.

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18 COMING SOON Don’t miss these world-class collector car events taking place over the coming months

29 S TA R T E R Collector news including Citröen’s centenary, just-launched Lotus Evija, new Jim Clark Museum and interview with Italian design legend Marcello Gandini

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BENTLEY CORNICHE REVISITED

BENTLEY EXP 100GT POINTS TO FUTURE

50 YEARS OF T H E I TA L I A N JOB MOVIE

NORBERT SINGER EXCLUSIVE

STORY BEHIND T H E B U G AT T I EB110S SC

PEBBLE BEACH HOT ROD C O V E R S TA R S

Bentley has recreated the 1930s car to which the current Continental GT owes its styling cues; the long-lost Corniche prototype

New EXP 100 GT concept car shows how the venerable brand might adapt to changing tech and trends over the next two decades

World’s leading expert on iconic film explains how it came together – despite genuine danger and behind-the-scenes politics and fracas

Up close and personal in the Porsche Museum with the famed engineer who learned his trade on the 917

One man dreamed about resurrecting a legendary past marque to create the world’s first hyper GT. He achieved this – but at what cost?

Deuces and Duesenbergs duke it out on the lawn in Monterey as the spotlight is back on period magazine stars for 2019

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CUSTOM KING RICK DORE G E T S C R E AT I V E

OLD CARS, NEW TECH – AN I D E A L M AT C H ?

EVOKING THE SPIRIT OF T H E S T R AT O S

H O W T O S TA C K B O O K S H E LV E S T A S T E F U L LY

50 G R E AT E S T CONCEPT CARS EVER

Find out what you achieve by combining French design influence, American attitude and an imagination that knows no bounds

How fast-moving tech can aid classic parts replacement, reduce costs and improve safety.

Even Luddites will be impressed...

Entirely roadable, Ferrari-based homage to the legendary Lancia whisks the driver straight back to rallying’s golden era

Collecting motoring titles can become a deeply satisfying pastime. Here, Magneto guides you through the most desirable examples

We reflect on the glory days of concept cars; from Skoda to the Stratos, here’s our definitive list of the very best

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M A R K E T WAT C H : FERRARI F40

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M A R K E T A N A LY S I S : JAGUAR XK120

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HOW TO PREPARE FOR CONCOURS

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COLLECTIONS: AT T H E W H E E L

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LEGAL ADVICE: CARS AS ART

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HISTORIC RACING: TUITION

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BEHIND THE LEGEND: LOTUS 72 MAGNETO

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E DI TOR ’ S

W E LCOM E

Issue 3 Concept cars... whether they’re weird flights of fancy or clever predictions of an automotive future, one thing a concept should always do is grab your attention.

So we have 50 of them, from the utterly obscure and frankly rather ridiculous, to the true icons – many of them from the most celebrated of Italian design houses. If you knew them all already, then give yourself a pat on the back.

We also have Bentley’s brand-new centenary-celebrating 100 EXP GT concept. This was revealed a couple of weeks before this issue went to press, and was just about to head off to the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance, where it will feature on the Concept Lawn.

Ahead of the 100 EXP GT is a 1930s Bentley prototype that wasn’t far off being a concept car in its own right, either – except it skipped that stage and was headed straight for production, until a most unfortunate series of events put paid to that...

So we’ve given you plenty to read, and that’s without mentioning the first drive of the New Stratos, the interview with Norbert Singer – saviour of the Porsche 917 – and the wonderful piece on the behindthe-scenes goings-on during the filming of The Italian Job. Meanwhile, we’re starting on Issue 4 of Magneto, with stunning features from Doug Nye and Winston Goodfellow, among much more. I hope you’re enjoying reading Magneto as much we’re enjoying creating it – see you back here for the next one...

Click here to subscribe to in print

David Lillywhite Editorial director

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CALIBER CALIBER RM 11-03 RM 11-03

www.richardmille.com www.richardmille.com

Contributors M AT T H E W F I E L D From imaginary car chases behind the wheel of a Mini 1000 at age six, to befriending members of the cast and crew, Matthew Field has become the leading expert on The Italian Job. He’s also author of The Self Preservation Society – so on the 50th anniversary of the film, who better to document the behind-the-scenes action?

NORBERT SINGER The quiet genius of Porsche, Norbert Singer is the engineer credited with taming the wayward 917 with clever aerodynamic solutions. He went on to develop the 935, 956 and 962, then the WSC sports car and the 911 GT1-98.

In short, he’s been a major part of 16 outright Le Mans victories for Porsche.

ADOLFO ORSI Remember the days of over restoration and the wiping of all history from historic cars? OK, it still happens – but it’s far less common thanks to Adolfo Orsi. Working with FIVA he introduced preservation awards at Pebble Beach 20 years ago. In Magneto he explains why he did it, and why he continues to push for originality.

SAM CHICK The fantastic photography of Bentley’s long-lost Corniche is down to this man, Sam Chick. A former art director with Condé Naste, Sam crossed to the other side of the creative process in 2011 to indulge his passion for photography – and his clients now include Princess Yachts, Moët & Chandon and, of course, Magneto.

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P E B BL E BEAC H

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Auctions

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OFFICIAL AUCTION HOUSE OF THE PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE

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1988 PORSCHE 959 SPORT One of Only 29 US Sport Models Built Delivered New to Otis Chandler

1961 JAGUAR E-TYPE SERIES I 3.8-LITRE FIXED HEAD COUPE I One of Only 20 Left-Hand-Drive Outside-Latch Coupes I Multiple Award-Winning Restoration in Its Original Color Scheme I Chassis 885018

1955 MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SL GULLWING Desirable Factory Rudge-Wheel Example Superbly Restored in Striking Black over Black Color Scheme I Chassis 198.040.5500156

1961 ASTON MARTIN DB4 GT Pebble Beach Award-Winning Restoration Coachwork by Touring I Chassis DB4GT/0130/L

1953 ALFA ROMEO 6C 3000 CM SUPERFLOW IV Displayed at the Paris, Torino, and Geneva Motor Shows I First in Class Winner at the 2013 Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance® Best of Show at the 2017 Salon Privé Concours d’Elegance I One-Off Coachwork by Pinin Farina

G O O D I N G C O. C O M

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R EG I ST E R TO B I D

AUCTI ONS & PRI VATE B ROK ERAGE

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Editorial director

Managing director

David Lillywhite

Geoff Love

Art director

Advertising sales

Peter Allen

Sue Farrow, Rob Schulp

Production editor

Lifestyle advertising

Sarah Bradley

Sophie Kochan

West Coast USA contributor

Australian editor

European editor

Winston Goodfellow

James Nicholls

Johan Dillen

Contributors Sam Chick, Robert Dean, Lennen Descamps, Johan Dillen, Matthew Field, Rob Gould, Ken Gross, Sam Hancock, Richard Heseltine, Matthew Howell, Dirk de Jager, Evan Klein, Pete Lyons, John Mayhead, Tim McNair, Johann Petit, Andy Reid, Clive Robertson, Tim Scott, Matt Stone, John Tallodi, Oli Tennent, Patrick Tremblay How to subscribe Please visit www.magnetomagazine.com or call +44 (0)1371 851892 Single issue with P&P £10.50 (UK), €16.50 (Europe), $20 (USA), AUS $28 (Australia and New Zealand) Annual subscription £38 (UK), €52 (Europe), $60 (USA), AUS $80 (Australia and New Zealand) Subscriptions managed by ESco Business Services

HOTHOUSE MEDIA Geoff Love, David Lillywhite, George Pilkington The Hall, Thorpe Street, Raunds, Wellingborough, Northamptonshire NN9 6LT, UK Printing Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE, UK Printed on Finesse Silk from Denmaur Paper Specialist newsstand distribution Pineapple Media, Select Publisher Services Contact For subscriptions and business enquiries geoff@magnetomagazine.com For editorial enquiries david@magnetomagazine.com For advertising enquiries sue@flyingspace.co.uk or rob@flyingspace.co.uk

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

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Magneto [mag-nee-toh] noun, plural mag·ne·tos 1. Electrical generator that provides periodic high-voltage pulses to the spark-plugs of an internal-combustion engine, used mostly pre-World War One although still fitted for emergency back-up of aircraft ignition systems.

2. Fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

3. Great new quarterly magazine featuring the most important cars in the world.

ISSN Number 2631-9489. Magneto is published quarterly by Hothouse Publishing Ltd. Great care has been taken throughout the magazine to be accurate, but the publisher cannot accept any responsibility for any errors or omissions that might occur.

The editors and publishers of this magazine give no warranties, guarantees or assurances, and make no representations regarding any goods or services advertised in this edition.

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C O N T I N U E S

Personal demonstrations at London’s premier high-end audio specialist Audio Lounge hello@audiolounge.co.uk For more information, price and availability please contact us direct:

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C O M I N G S O O N SUMMER

WINTER

AU T U M N

SPRING

CONCOURS OF ELEGANCE

PHOTO BY TIM SCOTT

September 6-8, 2019 The gardens of Hampton Court Palace are the venue for the prestigious Concours of Elegance, which brings together a collection of the world’s rarest cars for one spectacular event every year.

Chief among the special features for 2019 will be a celebration of Aston Martin Zagatos, featuring a worldfirst display of one of every Zagato variant ever built by the iconic British marque.

A Bentley Centenary line-up will incorporate the first car to win Le Mans back-to-back – Speed Six ‘Old Number One’ – as well as a Speed Six Gurney Nutting Coupé, the model fabled for racing Le Train Bleu across France, piloted

by Woolf Barnato.

Meanwhile, four of the most historically significant Ferrari 166MM chassis ever built will be on display, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Barchetta’s race victories at Le Mans, Spa and the Mille Miglia in 1949.

There’s plenty more to see, too, so grab your glad-rags for a memorable weekend at this most royal of residences. www.concoursofelegance.co.uk

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2019 CLASSIC D AY T O N A & D AY T O N A HISTORICS November 13-17, 2019

PHOTO BY PATRICK TREMBLAY

The Daytona 24 Hours is more than a race, it’s an institution – and Historic Sportscar Racing’s equivalent for older cars is becoming the same, attracting huge crowds and top-level entries since its first running in 2014.

Cars go through the night at the Daytona International Speedway in Florida, US, but the action is broken up into separate races, just as it is for the Le Mans Classic.

For 2019 the featured marque will be Lola, celebrating 50 years since Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons co-drove the No. 6 Chevrolet-powered Sunoco Team Penske Lola T70 to victory. Competitors will race on the full nine-turn, 3.56-mile Daytona 24 Hour ‘roval’ (road-oval) circuit that includes the infield road course and the steeply banked 2.5-mile Daytona ‘tri-oval’.

Just as at Le Mans, Sebring, Nürburgring and Spa, seeing historic race cars driving through the night at such an evocative venue is spine tingling and a worthy event for the bucket list – whether you’re a driver or a spectator.

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21 GUN SALUTE CONCOURS D’ELEGANCE February 14-16, 2020 Asia’s premier international concours presents the finest vintage and classic automobiles in India, set against a showcase of the country’s centuries-old vast cultural diversity.

Next year will see the ninth 21 Gun Salute, which is organised in association with Heritage Motoring Club of India, and the Delhi extravaganza promises royal guests, grand sponsors, gala musical events and more.

In addition to dozens of magnificent Indian vintage and classic cars, incorporating a selection of prestigious Maharaja automobiles, will be handpicked invitees from the UK, mainland Europe and the US. There will be international motorcycles in attendance, too.

Following on from the concours, and new for 2020, will also be the Incredible India Rally – The Royal Expedition from February 17-March 10. It’s being billed as “India’s most luxurious and premium royal expedition”: you can read more on page 24. www.21gunsaluterally.com

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AU T U M N

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SPRING

C O M I N G S O O N

BELOW You’ll visit Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland during Warm Up USA.

AV D O L D T I M E R G P August 9-11, 2019 As an annual audience of 60,000plus will attest, the AdV Oldtimer Grand Prix held at Germany’s Nürburgring is one of the world’s most popular vintage motor sport festivals. Seven decades of automotive competition are celebrated, with a huge selection of racing machinery from 14 classes, including historic endurance, Formula 1 and sports car. Saturday’s night-time race is not to be missed, while new for 2019 is A Gentle Drivers’ Trophy. www.nuerburgring.de

SALON PRIVÉ September 5-8, 2019 What more beautiful setting could there be for a concours d’elegance than ‘Britain’s greatest palace’, Blenheim in Oxfordshire? Salon Privé is a prestigious garden party that presents a superb collection of rare classics along with a luxury retail village and wonderful cuisine. An extra element is the opportunity to test-drive models from the world’s most elite supercar and hypercar brands. www.salonpriveconcours.com

G O O DWO O D R E V I VA L September 13-15, 2019 Goodwood’s annual historic motor sport extravaganza promises to be more spectacular than ever for 2019. Alongside the usual worldclass trophy grids, with cars and bikes driven by private owners, professional racers and big-name celebs, there’ll be a celebration of 60 years of the Mini as well as D-Day commemorations complete with a breath-taking parachute drop from a Douglas C-47 Skytrain. There’s so much more, too – but order your ticket ASAP, as this event invariably sells out well in advance. Don’t forget the period dress code, either… www.grrc.goodwood.com

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BONNEVILLE WORLD FINALS October 1-4, 2019 Pay your respects to pioneers such as Sir Malcolm Campbell, Craig Breedlove and Art Arfons at the home of countless land-speed records, by visiting the legendary Bonneville Speedway in Utah for October’s World Finals. Smaller and more ‘do-able’ than August’s Speed Week, the World Finals are staged by the iconic Southern California Timing Association, and see hot rods, roadsters, belly tankers, lakesters, motorcycles, streamliners and every other conceivable type of vehicle ‘shoot the salt’ on the track’s ever-diminishing white crystalline surface. Just be prepared for potentially dodgy weather… www.scta-bni.org

THE RACE OF GENTLEMEN October 3-6, 2019 Now an established staple on America’s nostalgic hot-rodding and motorcycling calendar, The Race of Gentlemen – or TROG to its friends – returns to its spiritual home of Wildwood, New Jersey.

This year’s four-day event (below) incorporates a swap meet, parties, Customs by the Sea traditional custom car show and, of course, two days of beach-racing action on two wheels and four. See the best of America’s vintage-style hot rods and customs in all their glory, ripping it up on the sand. www.theraceofgentlemen.com

ZOUTE GRAND PRIX October 10-13, 2019 Knokke-Heist in Belgium is home to the prestigious Zoute Grand Prix classic car and lifestyle festival, which celebrates its tenth edition in 2019. Events include the Zoute Concours d’Elegance, Zoute Rally and Zoute GT Tour, as well as a Bonhams auction. Zoute Top Marques will see premium car brands exhibiting their latest models, too. It’s the jewel in the crown of the Low Countries’ classic and collector car calendar. www.zoutegrandprix.be

1000 MIGLIA WA R M U P U SA October 23-26, 2019 Reflecting the compelling sporting vibe of the 1000 Miglia, Warm Up USA sees 40 vintage cars take in four days and 800 miles of driving and time-trials. The route covers some of the most evocative areas of Virginia, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and culminates in a prize-giving gala at Washington DC’s Residenza Villa Firenze. www.1000miglia.it

HAPPY FEW PADRE-FIGLIO

INCREDIBLE INDIA R A L LY – T H E R O Y A L EXPEDITION

October 18-20, 2019

February 17-March 10, 2020

The ultimate father-son regularity run takes place in Provence, and is open to Ferraris of all periods – although no more than one example of any specific model can take part, which encourages early registration to ensure a slot. Spend special family time together, indulge in luxury accommodation and meals, and take in some of the best driving roads in France.

A must-do to encourage the next generation of collector car and driving enthusiasts. www.happyfewracing.com

“India’s most luxurious and premium royal expedition” will debut next year as a support to the 21 Gun Salute Concours d’Elegance.

The super-luxury, 23-day rally will travel through beautiful Rajasthan and Gujarat, and its 35 crews will experience bespoke hospitality including staying in Maharajas’ palaces. You’ll see everything the country’s vibrant cultural heritage has to offer during this 4000km rally, travelling on terrain never before covered by a classic event. www.incredibleindiarally.com

THE LE MANS 24 HOURS CLASS WINNING 1974 PORSCHE 911 CARRERA 3.0 RS One of just 52 examples built, raced from new with an impressive career boasting numerous podium positions both in race, rally and hill climb.

Winner of the Group 4 Class at Le Mans in 1976 in one of a staggering 4 visits from 1974-1978, finishing every time. Raced in the Tour De France in both 1974 and 1976, as well as the 1976 Giro d’Italia and the 1977 Monte Carlo Rally. Driven to victory in La Ronde Cevenole in 1976 by rally legend Jean-Claude Andruet. Featured in Walt Disney’s 1984 movie ‘Herbie goes to Monte Carlo’. With a complete history, 9034 has competed through most of its life and in more recent years has been raced at the Classic Daytona 24 and Peter Auto’s prestigious Le Mans Classic.

1924 VAUXHALL 30-98 VELOX TOURER The Vauxhall 30-98, arguably the finest British sporting car of the vintage period. A striking early example with a well-documented history, OE88 was registered FL 3544 in March 1924, the registration it retains to this day, and has enjoyed just 5 previous owners to date. Still retaining its original Velox coachwork, continuously maintained and accompanied by an extensive history file including factory documentation and correspondence dating back to September 1927. Well known in VSCC racing circles and active on the circuit through the ‘50s and ‘60s with Denis Aldridge, a veteran of the Pre-War Preservation class at Chantilly Arts & Elegance Concours and no stranger to a trial, circuit or hill climb, this car epitomises what a vintage sportscar should be all about.

T. +44 (0)1285 831 488 / E. cars@williamianson.com / www.williamianson.com

1982 ARROWS A4 FORMULA 1 Built by Arrows Grand Prix for the 1982 Formula 1 season, and proven to be an effective design with a selection of point-scoring finishes. After being sold by Arrows, this A4 was raced in historics by Ted Williams from 1989. In 1991, it changed hands twice, before entering a long-term collection where it would remain for 20 years. Having been unraced through that period, CGA Race Engineering were tasked with rebuilding it for then owner, Laurent Fort, in 2012. Raced just a few times since, this A4 remains in very tidy condition with limited miles and is a very accessible car for the FIA Masters Historic Formula 1 Championship.

THE EX-JOHN SURTEES 1962 LOLA MK4 FORMULA 1 The 1st Formula 1 car built by Lola, it debuted in early 1962 at the Brussels GP with John Surtees. Surtees also campaigned this car in the Lombank Trophy at Snetterton, and led the Lavant Cup at Goodwood. Following its contemporary career with the Bowmaker Racing Team, the Mk4 made its way into the famed Donington Collection, where it would stay until bought out of the collection in the 2000s. Subsequently restored and prepared for historic racing, powered by a Coventry Climax 1,500cc V8, it was a multiple winner in the hands of Mark Piercy, has been a regular of the Goodwood Revival and has also been a veteran of the Monaco Historic Grand Prix.

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S T A R T E R

35 200mph-plus Lotus Evija: introducing the first British all-electric hypercar

30 Citröen centenary | 32 Audrain’s Newport Concours & Motor Week | 34 Stirling Moss cars 35 Latest Lotus | 37 Enhanced concours judging | 38 Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar LM69 | 39 Jim Clark museum 40 Marcello Gandini Q&A | 43 Alvis continuation cars | 45 Auction analysis | 47 Adolfo Orsi, originality champ 48 Land Speed Record cars | 50 Collector car world’s latest products | 52 Bazin’s sculpture for Citröen

C I T RO Ë N L A F E RT É-V I DA M E

Beat that for a centenary!

In a big year for important automotive 100th birthday celebrations, Citroën’s huge gathering around its historic test track will be hard to top

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CITROËN HAD BILLED its 100th birthday event as ‘The Gathering Of The Century’, and it’s fair to say the brand went all out to produce exactly that. Around 5000 classic Citroëns and an estimated 20,000 visitors made for a spectacular occasion.

Having investigated former owner Michelin’s headquarters as a venue, Citroën instead decided on La FertéVidame in the Loire Valley. This is the test track on which the 2CV was trialled, and which is still used for current PSA Group car development.

La Ferté-Vidame is also home to the ruins of an historic chateau, and it was in the parkland around this that the majority of the event was

held – although Citroën owners were also able to drive around the usually top-secret test track, on which so many of their cars would have been first developed.

“We dreamed of this day for three years,” said a happy Xavier Crespin, managing director of L’Aventure Peugeot Citroën DS, which oversees the Conservatorie collection. “It’s reality now; it makes me feel dizzy!”

Many of the most important examples of the marque were on display, including three of the four known TPVs (Très Petite Voiture) in existence. These were the prototypes for the 2CV, of which around 250 were built just before World War Two.

S T A R T E R

LEFT Traction Avant and DS fields begin to fill; there were further fields for other model groupings. The track is in the forest beyond.

BELOW Parades on the test track, where PSA Group cars are still trialled on the pavé, high-speed sections, test hills and more.

ABOVE Significant cars from Citroën’s Conservatorie collection fronted the event displays.

LEFT The 1992 ZX Rallye Raid car, used on the first ParisMoscow-Peking rally.

Just one was known to have survived, along with a pick-up version, but in 1995 three TPVs were discovered hidden in the loft of a barn at La Ferté-Vidame. These were the three displayed at the event, along with Charles de Gaulle’s DS Chapron limousine, several concept cars, a line-up of ex-works rally cars and a display of the rotaryengined projects – the M35 prototype, GS Birotor and the RE-2 helicopter.

Out in the parkland, separate fields for each family of Citroën model saw the cars arranged in chevron formations. It’s likely that most visitors won’t ever have seen as many SMs, including a Chapron Opera, or

examples of DS Chapron, with every variety represented – even the rare Le Leman and Concorde coupés.

The V8-engined SM prototype was displayed with a selection of SM and DS rally cars, and in among the hundreds of Traction Avants were even a couple of hot rod versions.

In keeping with the celebration of Citroën’s heritage, Xavier Crespin revealed that the PSA Group has now extended its classic spares department with extra staff, to add to obsolete parts using 3D printing where necessary. It has also geared up its workshops to undertake more customer restorations, with 16 projects ongoing at the moment.

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THE EAST COAST’S ANSWER TO MONTEREY A new four-day event promises top-level cars, world-class concours and tours, fine dining and spectacular views on the US’s North Atlantic coast

THE AIM IS to become the US East Coast equivalent of Monterey Car Week – so there’s no hiding the ambition behind the inaugural Audrain’s Newport Concours & Motor Week, which is set to take place on October 3-6 in Newport, Rhode Island.

The area has historic motoring credentials; the first American car race, the Vanderbilt Cup, took place there on September 6, 1900, when Willie K Vanderbilt and a few close friends organised a race at the nearby horse track.

Rather more recently, in 2014, the Audrain Automobile Museum was opened. Small but perfectly formed, it has a pool of around 200 cars to choose from, of which it displays between 15 and 20 at a time on a regularly changed rota.

Next door to the museum is the International Tennis Hall of Fame, where the Concours Village will be based, hosting trade stands and seminars throughout the four days.

The show organisers, headed by Rick Schad, have appointed Jay Leno as event chairman, with his TV cohost and experienced judge Donald

Osborne as concours chairman.

The four-day programme really kicks off on the Friday, with The Gathering at Rough Point – a garden party with cars, of course – at the former home of heiress Doris Duke, overlooking the Atlantic ocean. That evening, none other than Grammy Award-winning John Legend is in concert at the Concours Village.

Saturday is the focus for the Tour d’Elegance, for any car taking part in the following day’s concours.

The tour route begins at 6am at the Jamestown end of the Claiborne Pell Newport Bridge, with a ribboncutting on the bridge accompanied by a vintage military aircraft flyover. It then continues through downtown Newport, stopping at Fort Adams State Park overlooking the harbour and Newport Bridge, before continuing along historic Ocean Drive. It ends on Bellevue Avenue, where the cars will park up on public display during lunch.

There’s a gala dinner on the Saturday evening, but that is already sold out. As for the concours itself, that takes place on the Sunday at The Breakers, the Vanderbilt family’s Newport summer home.

The concours will feature cars from the 1900s to 1970, with a theme of ‘history, sport and luxury’. Best of Show and class winners will be awarded with trophies designed by event founder Schad.

If you’re in any doubt of the intent of the Audrain’s Newport Concours & Motor Week, just consider the list of founding sponsors. They include Gooding & Company, Richard Mille, Aston Martin, AIG and Bugatti.

Entry to the concours starts at $175, with a full VIP package for the four days at $2750 – but entry to the Concours Village starts at $15 and the tour can be viewed for free.

TOP Concours trophy features Vanderbilt’s Red Devil Mercedes by sculptor Brian Life.

LEFT The Audrain Motor Museum is central to the event.

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S T AS R T A T R E R T E R

The The historic historic influences influences onon thethe new new Lotus Lotus Head of Head design of design Russell Russell Carr Carr talks us talks around us around the new the new Evija all-electric Evija all-electric hypercar hypercar

THETHE GREATEST GREATEST HITS HITS OF STIRLING OF STIRLING MOSS MOSS He drove He 84 drove different 84 different makesmakes of car during of car during his career his career – these–are these a few areofa our few of favourites, our favourites, showing showing the sheer thevariety sheer variety of his steeds of his steeds FRAZER NASH-BMW FRAZER NASH-BMW 328 328

MERCEDES-BENZ MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SLR300 SLR

Bestbyknown its race bynumber its race‘722’, number ‘722’, Stirling’s Stirling’s mother and mother father and had father both had bothBest known thiscar was inthe which car in Stirling whichwon Stirling won competedcompeted in motor in sport. motor The sport. ’NashThe ’Nash this was the the 1955 Mille the 1955 Miglia Mille – often Migliasaid – often to besaid to be belongedbelonged to his father, to his Alfred father, – itAlfred – it thesingle greatest day’s single drive day’s in motor drive in motor provided provided the youngthe Stirling youngwith Stirling his with his the greatest racing history. racing722 history. could722 well could be the well be the first tastefirst of competitive taste of competitive driving. driving. most valuable most car valuable in existence. car in existence.

COOPER COOPER 500 500

MG EX 181 MG EX 181 It was in the It was little in Cooper the littleinCooper 1948 that in 1948 that There several werespeed several record speed record Stirling’sStirling’s career began, career which began, ledwhich to led to There were attemptsattempts over the years, over the too, years, the best too, the best him attracting him attracting the attention the attention of works of works in this streamlined in this streamlined MG in 1957, MGwhich in 1957, which teams – and teams propelling – and propelling him into him into Classfive F records, Class Fachieving records, achieving Formula Formula 1. He’d had 1. He’d to persuade had to persuade his hisbroke fivebroke 245.64 at Bonneville. mph at Bonneville. father that father he wanted that hetowanted be a racing to be a racing 245.64 mph driver rather driver than rather a dentist than a –dentist and – and COOPER-CLIMAX T43 T43 use his winnings use his winnings from horse-riding from horse-riding COOPER-CLIMAX Stirling was Stirling an innovator, was an innovator, and neverand never competitions competitions to pay thetodeposit. pay the deposit. was this more was this obvious morethan obvious when than he when he drove thedrove rear-engined the rear-engined Cooper-Climax Cooper-Climax JAGUAR JAGUAR XK120 XK120 in a grid dominated by front-engined by front-engined Stirling’sStirling’s first major first win major wasn’t win inwasn’t in in a grid dominated F1 cars. He F1was cars.rewarded He was rewarded with a win with a win single-seaters single-seaters but in sports but in carsports racing, car racing, in the first inrace the first of the race 1958 of season. the 1958 season. driving adriving borrowed a borrowed XK120 inXK120 the 1950 in the 1950 RAC Tourist RACTrophy TouristatTrophy Dundrod. at Dundrod.

SUNBEAM SUNBEAM TALBOT 90 TALBOT 90

MASERATI MASERATI TIPO 420/M/58 TIPO 420/M/58

Better known Betterasknown the ‘Eldorado’ as the ‘Eldorado’ caritbecause was sponsored it was sponsored by the by the There was There evenwas some even rally some driving, rally driving, car because EldoradoEldorado Ice Cream Ice Company Cream Company – the – the and it was and successful, it was successful, too, particularly too, particularly first single-seater in EuropeintoEurope be to be in the Alpine in the Rally Alpine andRally in theand 1952 in the 1952 first single-seater sponsored sponsored by a non-racing by a non-racing brand. brand.

Monte Carlo, Monte in which Carlo, in Stirling whichfinished Stirling finished second driving secondthe driving Sunbeam the Sunbeam Talbot. Talbot.

MASERATI MASERATI 250F 250F

LOTUS 18/21 LOTUS 18/21

The car that Theended car that it all, ended withitthe all, awful with the awful crash 1962 at Goodwood the 1962 Goodwood Easter Easter For classic For Moss, classic think Moss, of the think 250F of the 250F crash at the Monday meeting. race meeting.

News of the News of the drifting gracefully, drifting gracefully, Stirling looking Stirling looking Monday race accident interrupted TV broadcasts TV broadcasts as relaxedasasrelaxed ever behind as everthe behind wheel. the wheel.accident interrupted – unheard – of unheard at the time of at – the and time crowds – and crowds It was Mercedes It was Mercedes race manager race manager Alfred Alfred of well-wishers waited for waited news for outside news outside NeubauerNeubauer who had who suggested had suggested that that of well-wishers the as hospital he lay in as ahecoma. lay in a coma.

Stirling should Stirling buy should the Maserati buy the Maserati for the for the the hospital 1954 season 1954 toseason show what to show he could what do. he could do.

MERCEDES-BENZ MERCEDES-BENZ W196 W196

PORSCHEPORSCHE RS61 RS61

Sir Stirling’s Sir Stirling’s regular forays regular into forays into historic have racing seenhave himseen driving him driving SuccessesSuccesses led to Stirling led tojoining Stirlingthe joining the historic racing many, cars, many but cars, he also butdrove he also hisdrove his revered Mercedes-Benz revered Mercedes-Benz team. It was team. It wasmany, many including cars, including an OSCAan and OSCA the and the in the works in the W196 works that W196 he famously that he famouslyown cars,own It was following It was following the 2011 Le the 2011 Le won the 1955 won British the 1955 Grand British Prix Grand at Prix at Porsche. Porsche.

MansinClassic the Porsche in thethat Porsche he that he Aintree, ahead Aintree, of ahead fellow of Mercedes fellow Mercedes Mans Classic decided to decided retire from to retire historics. from historics. greats Fangio, greatsKling Fangio, andKling Taruffi. and Taruffi.

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JUST ADD JUST ADD LIGHTNESS...

LIGHTNESS...

We’re thinking We’re thinking about weight aboutall weight all the time.the Even time. theEven the central ‘T’ central of the‘T’ of the Lotus badge Lotusdoubles badge doubles up as theup reversing as the reversing light! The light! car The is car is all carbonfibre, all carbonfibre, and it weighs and it weighs 1680kg or 1680kg 1000kg or 1000kg without without batteries.batteries.

S T A R T E R YOU’LL HAVE SEEN the headlines.

A new all-electric hypercar from Lotus is big news, even as a concept, and with the backing of the Chinese giant Geely there’s a very good chance it will go into production in 2020.

We talked to head of design Russell Carr on what sets the Evija apart as a true Lotus, and some of his comments are below. This might be the most forward-looking Lotus of all time, but there are still nods to the marque’s history throughout.

If Lotus achieves the target power output of 1972bhp, the Evija will become the world’s most powerful series production road car, with a

JET-FIGHTER AFTERBURNERS We’ve used aircraft references all over the place – we had pictures in the studio of fighter planes with reheat on, showing the afterburners.

0-62mph time of less than three seconds, top speed of over 200mph and a range of 250 miles.

Vehicle architect Louis Kerr also talked us through the spec: four electric motors, enabling torquevectoring between all four wheels, ground-breaking aerodynamics made possible by the shape of the electric powerplant, and hitherto unseen levels of downforce for a road car.

The projected price of the Evija is between £1.5m and £2m before taxes.

Build slots for the 130 cars to be built can be secured with a £250,000 refundable deposit, and production is expected to start in early 2020.

AERODYNAMICS The rear intakes aren’t filled with radiators, they’re completely open. Air passes through the wheelarch and is evacuated behind the wheel, which keeps air moving through the car.

It also vents the pressure in the wheelarch, which reduces lift.

LOTUS TYPE 30INSPIRED SHAPE A connection back to some of the sports prototypes we did in the 1960s is how the cabin sits relatively low in the body, with prominent front and rear haunches.

That make it look as though it’s really planted on the road.

MODERN TECH Lotus has always tried the latest technology. We’ve used it to inspire us to do different things, like the rear lights and cameras that deploy on the sides of the car instead of mirrors to reduce drag. The headlights, are laser units; the DRLs are shaped like airliner wing-tips.

HISTORIC RACE CAR INTERIORS I’m a big fan of classic race cars where you see the structure of the vehicle through the screen. This is the modern equivalent; you get a lot of light through the car because of it.

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How are concours judged consistently?

At the top end of the show-circuit spectrum, it’s good to know guidelines are in place to ensure fairness across the board. Here’s how it works

EARLIER THIS YEAR, the UK’s prestigious Salon Privé concours announced that it’s ramping up “towards full implementation of the judging process established by the International Chief Judge Advisory Group (ICJAG)”. But what exactly is this and how does it differ from previous judging, or judging at other concours?

It will not have escaped your notice that concours events vary in formality. Some are judged simply on the attractiveness and condition of a car, others follow specific rules set out by the organisers.

Many popular concours use peer-to-peer judging, which involves fellow owners voting on cars in other classes, or they might have celebrity

or guest judges making the decisions.

Meanwhile many – but not all – of the most serious concours work to guidelines set by the ICJAG. The aim of the ICJAG is to ensure fairness and consistency, and so one of its 20 or so approved chief judges will oversee the process, and all judges will work to the same criteria, using the same forms, regardless of where in the world the event is held.

Also, the ICJAG promotes proper preservation and correct restoration for the benefit of future generations.

Class judging focused on originality and authenticity helps achieve this, while recognising that cars are meant to be driven and motorcycles are meant to be ridden.

The ICJAG’s guidelines cover conflict of interest, field manner, dress code (blue blazer and khaki or grey slacks or skirt, in case you were wondering), and special criteria for preservation cars (or motorcycles) and motor sport vehicles. In addition to giving advice for event organisers, the organisation suggests classes for judging and how to assemble teams of experts, and also provides training on how to be a judge.

ICJAG members are now serving over 50 concours around the world, including Pebble Beach, La Jolla, Sydney, New Delhi 21 Gun Salute,

Atlanta, Melbourne Motorclassica, Las Vegas and San Marino. All use the standard forms and guidelines, and do full ICJAG judging.

The multi-marque ICJAG judging process was derived from the IAC/ PFA (International Advisory Council for the Preservation of the Ferrari Automobile) judging, as used by Cavallino Classic among others.

Using the ICJAG guidelines is the first step; an experienced chief judge and knowledgeable class judges are also required. It’s only when the ICJAG board of directors is satisfied with all aspects of the judging that a concours will be referred to as using ICJAG judging.

All this said, some world-class events deliberately shy away from ICJAG guidelines in order to allow a more informal atmosphere, although still working with expert judges across the classes. Amelia Island, Hampton Court and The Quail, A Motorsport Gathering, for example, all work to their own guidelines.

But at least now, when you see ICJAG chairman Ed Gilbertson and fellow ICJAG chief judge Adolfo Orsi (plus Derek Bell MBE as chief honorary judge) presiding over proceedings at Salon Privé when the event takes place on September 5-8, you’ll know why...

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PHOTO BY GREG GUGGENHEIM

‘ICJAG guidelines include conflict of interest, field manner, dress code and preservation’

IF ECURIE IF ECURIE ECOSSE ECOSSE HADHAD RUNRUN A JAGUAR A JAGUAR XJ13...

XJ13... ...then this ...then is how thisitismight how ithave might looked havehad looked history had history been kinder beento kinder both the to both teamthe and team to Jaguar’s and to Jaguar’s intendedintended Le MansLecontender Mans contender back in the back late in the 1960s late 1960s

THE STORY THE OF STORY the Jaguar OF the XJ13 Jaguar XJ13 is well known is well – developed known – developed on a on a tight budget, tight delayed budget,and delayed then and then deemed obsolete deemedby obsolete the time by the time it was ready it was for Le ready Mans. for Le Mans.

From thisFrom point,this we point, need to we need to imagine an imagine alternative an alternative reality in reality in which, perhaps, which,the perhaps, Ecuriethe Ecosse Ecurie Ecosse team tookteam a visit took to Jaguar’s a visit to Jaguar’s Browns Lane Browns factory Lane and factory caught and caught a glimpse aofglimpse the mothballed of the mothballed race car –race and car then – decided and thentodecided to redevelopredevelop it to go head-to-head it to go head-to-head with the Ford withGT40, the Ford Porsche GT40,917, Porsche 917, Ferrari 312P Ferrari and Lola 312PT70 and in Lola theT70 in the ABOVE The ABOVE LM69The features LM69the features the 1969 Le Mans 196924 LeHours.

Mans 24 Hours. underpinnings underpinnings and quad-cam and quad-cam V12 V12 This, then, This, is what then, might is what have might have of the XJ16, of with the XJ16, added with extras... added extras... been. It’s named been. It’s thenamed LM69,the andLM69, and it’s based it’s on the based superb on the XJ13 superb XJ13 recreations recreations producedproduced

by Building

by Building Incredibly,Incredibly, it’s not just a not track it’s just a track the Legend the – Legend but with–restyled but with restyled toy, it’s fully legal.road Onlylegal. Only toy,road it’s fully bodyworkbodywork to reflect the to reflect the 25 will be 25 produced, which is which is will be produced, progression progression from 1966from to ’69.

1966 to ’69. in keepinginwith the 1969 keeping withFIA the 1969 FIA It does, ofItcourse, does, of retain course, theretain thehomologation requirements. homologation requirements. quad-camquad-cam V12 that was V12always that was always As for Ecurie Ecosse, it Ecosse, it As for Ecurie the heart of thethe heart XJ13, of the but XJ13, it’s been but it’s been disbandeddisbanded in 1972 but inreturned 1972 but returned upgradedupgraded within thewithin regulations the regulations ten years later headed byheaded Hugh by Hugh ten years later and available and technology available technology of 1969 of 1969 McCaig – McCaig and continues today – and continues today – as has the – as rest has ofthe therest car,of which the car, which under theunder management of Hugh’s of Hugh’s the management features composite features composite materials materials son Alasdair, is fully involved son who Alasdair, who is fully involved and experimental and experimental aerodynamic aerodynamic with the LM69 project. with the LM69 project. devices, plus devices, widerplus wheels wider and wheels and The LM69The willLM69 makewill its public make its public tyres. In short, tyres.it’s In short, lighter,it’s more lighter, more debut at the Concours of Elegance debut at the Concours of Elegance powerful powerful and also better and also handling better handling at Hampton Court, September 6-8. at Hampton Court, September 6-8. than the original than theXJ13. original XJ13.

More at www.ecuriecars.com.

More at www.ecuriecars.com.

P L A C E S PTLOA CG EOS T O G O

JimJim Clark Clark Motorsport Motorsport Museum Museum Newly expanded Newly expanded collection collection in the Scottish in the Scottish BordersBorders commemorates commemorates the life the life and career andof career region’s of region’s favourite favourite racing son racing son

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S T A R T E R

ADMIRERS OF ONE of Britain’s greatest-ever racing drivers will be thrilled to read that the eponymous and ever-popular Jim Clark Memorial Room, which was established in Duns, Scotland in 1969, has recently been expanded to become the Jim Clark Motorsport Museum. The Borders-based collection promises a bigger – much bigger – selection of memorabilia and cars dedicated to the life and career of Clark, who was a cherished son of the local farming community.

With a grand public opening back in July, and an official dedication event featuring Sir Jackie Stewart planned for August 29, the £1.6m project was funded by The Jim Clark Trust – whose supporters helped raise over £300,000 – along with the Scottish Borders Council, National Lottery Heritage Fund and Museums Galleries Scotland. It was developed with additional support from the Live Borders charity.

From the project’s inception to completion has taken more than

seven years, along with a lot of hard work, commitment and passion.

The enhanced exhibition space showcases memorabilia from all through Clark’s inspirational racing career, which started in June 1956 when he drove a DKW Sonderklasse at the Crimond Raceway, and finished upon his untimely death in a Lotus 48 at West Germany’s Hockenheimring in April 1968.

A unique collection of trophies features Clark’s historic Formula 1 World Championship cups from 1963 and 1965, and the Indianapolis 500 clock trophy from ’65, when he became the first driver to ‘do the double’ of winning both the Indy 500 and the F1 series. He remains the only driver to take the two titles in the same year.

The exhibits also include the overalls in which Clark raced, along with two of his competition cars, new image galleries, film footage, interactive displays, technology and education zones. Fans shouldn’t miss the chance to peruse the

Visitors’ Book, either, as this includes signatures and evocative messages from many of Clark’s peers as well as more recent drivers such as the late, great Ayrton Senna.

The Jim Clark Memorial Room has already received more than 300,000 visitors over the past 50 years – with regular attendees including Club Lotus and the Jim Clark Rally – and the newly expanded museum hopes to welcome many more in coming decades.

As an added attraction, imminent plans include the launch of a Jim Clark Trail for tourists, car clubs and racing fans. This will combine the scenic beauty of the Scottish Borders with the area’s motor sport heritage incorporating the historic local racetracks of Winfield and Charterhall. It will also take in further locations associated with Clark including, most poignantly, his grave at Chirnside Church. The Jim Clark Motorsport Museum is a wonderful tribute to a racing legend, and is a stop-off not to be missed.

D E TA I L S WHERE IS IT? 42 Newtown Street, Duns, Berwickshire, Scotland TD11 3AU WHEN IS IT OPEN? March-November: Mon-Sat 10am-4.30pm (closed Wed) Sun 1-4.30pm HIGHLIGHTS Trophy collection, competition cars, interactive displays, image galleries, Visitors’ Book, Jim Clark Trail HOW MUCH TO ENTER? Adult £5, concessions £4.50, children £3, under-fives go free, family £14 WEBSITE www.jimclarktrust.com

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INTERVIEW

DESIGN LEGEND MARCELLO GANDINI The Italian designer behind the Lancia Stratos and Lamborghini Miura is still creating innovative designs today. Just don’t ask him to play the piano...

How did you start out in automotive design?

I am the son of a composer and orchestra conductor. Since children never want to do what their parents did, they always try to take different roads – I, too... I dedicated myself to cars and design, and this caused my father some grief. When I was four I started playing the piano, and I had to exercise for years all the time at the instrument, but I did not like it at all. So, it’s important for me because of my parents and my memories, but I am not a musician, I am a designer.

Was there a particular designer you really admired?

The designer who made the greatest impression in my life, and I also got to know him later, was Mr Bertoni, who designed the Citroën DS. What was so special about the Citroën DS for you?

I particularly like the fact that the DS is one of the few cars that has been constructed freely, not at all worrying about marketing, or product placement, no worries about technicians involved – or indeed the costs. As a matter of fact, the DS almost caused Citroën to go bankrupt because of all the problems the company had to face in the production of this car. But what is exceptional about this model is the fact that, for once, the designer was really able to do exactly what he had in mind without any constraints.

That is very important… isn’t it?

Of your own automotive designs, do you have a favourite?

I don’t like to say which is the favourite of my designs. Is it the Miura or the Countach, the Carabo

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or the Marzal? I don’t even ask myself what I prefer of my old designs, because I don’t like to look back. I always say that my favourite is the next one that I will do, as even at my age I’m still a designer and continually working on various projects.

Do you still enjoy designing cars?

I still do draw cars, but my job has changed a lot in the past 20 years – even a bit more – because now there are loads of stylists, thousands of stylists, all brands have 500 stylists.

And I, by choice and also because it was something I had to do, dedicated my research to the most technical part, to design cars with innovations starting from a blank sheet of paper, up to building a prototype able to run. This is what I like doing most – and I hope I will be able to continue for a long time yet.

What else do you design?

Many things. For sure, there is a connection of some sort between cars and architecture, but I like the design of moving things, not of still things. Having said that, I have also designed many houses, but there is a different feeling from a car, an aeroplane, a helicopter, a motorcycle... because movement modifies, it enhances and gives value to the design and the sensations.

So, do you enjoy designing houses as much as you enjoy designing automobiles?

I like houses, especially the beautiful ones. I’ve designed a lot of houses and I really do love them, but as I say, there’s not the same spirit as in a moving piece of architecture. The moving object has a life of its own, whereas a house can only have a life if someone lives in it. It’s different – it’s a different feeling and sensation.

The movement of people in a house gives it soul and spirit – without people it’s only an object. But a car has a life of its own.

INTERVIEW BY JAMES NICHOLLS, PHOTO BY BMW

How are you, signor Gandini?

Well, I am 80 years old and still working. I am not moving as well as I would like as I have a bad back at the moment, which is slowing me down a little.

• 3,600 kilometres of driving • 14 days of driving and 5 activity/safari days • Regularity sections and tests • For pre-1976 vintage and classic cars

15 February to 5 March 2020

E

xplore some of the world’s more exclusive game reserves on Rally the

Globe’s East African expedition. Rally Director, Fred Gallagher, has planned a route that avoids the crowds for our second event, the Southern Cross Safari, in 2020. Exhilarating drives, amazing views of snow-capped mountains, including Kilimanjaro, wildlife-rich plains and grasslands where we can expect to see elephants, giraffes, cape buffalo, lions and hippos.

Tests and regularity sections ensure a competitive edge, but the rally pace ensures there is time to enjoy all that Africa has to offer. Top notch safari lodges and luxury hotels on an adventure for both amateur and experienced crews.

First rally outside Europe? Hakuna Matata (Swahili for “No Problem”).

La few st e rem ntries aini ng

For more information and to enter see: www.rallytheglobe.com +44 113 360 8961 clair.clarke@rallytheglobe.com Sponsored by:

S T A R T E R

ALVIS LIVES...

WITH NEW MODELS Production may have ended in 1967, but the company lived on and has produced continuation models since 2009. Now more variations have been introduced

WHEN YOU THINK ‘continuation car’ you might not think Alvis... But take a look at these pictures, which are indeed brand-new continuations that are fully road legal.

The models are from the Alvis Car Company, which started building continuations back in 2010 – but the news here is that it has extended its range to include two chassis and six body options with post-war derivatives assembled using original chassis and engine blocks unused since production stopped in 1967.

The pre-war option is based around the 4.3-litre engine, while the post-war uses the 3-litre straight-six.

Each has been developed from the original designs but, thanks to

fuel injection and modern engine management, meets legislation in a number of markets including Japan, where five cars have already been sold and a distributor appointed.

Each derivative takes between 4000-5000 hours to build. The bodywork styles now available are based on those created by the coachbuilders of the times: 3-litre Park Ward Drop Head, 3-litre Graber Super Coupé, 3-litre Graber Super Cabriolet, 4.3-litre Vanden Plas Tourer, 4.3-litre Bertelli Coupé and 4.3-litre Lancefield Concealed Hood.

The Alvis company started out in Coventry in 1920, and by 1925 it had become the first car manufacturer in the world to design and race a frontwheel-drive model. A year later, an Alvis front-wheel-drive grand prix racing car lapped Brooklands at 121mph, and in 1928 Alvis frontwheel-drive models finished first and second in class at Le Mans.

Alec Issigonis joined the company after World War Two to design a prototype 3500cc V8 engine. It

never made production, and the company was taken over by Rover in 1965, which itself became part of British Leyland. The last Alvis was produced in 1967, and that could have been the end of the marque.

Instead, a year later in 1968 there was a management buy-out of the passenger-car division, which moved to Kenilworth with all the spares plus 50,000 works drawings, technical data sheets and correspondence files, under the name of Red Triangle. The company continued to manufacture parts, service and restore Alvis cars for existing customers worldwide – and then managed to negotiate the rights to the Alvis name in 2009. By 2010 the company had developed the first of its continuation cars, which the new models build upon.

ABOVE & BELOW Graber-bodied 3-litre; pre-war 4.3-litre and some of the 50,000 documents rescued in 1968 by Red Triangle that the continuations are based on.

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A U C T I O N WAT C H

Predictions for the Peninsula Monterey Car Week promises exciting sales of unique classics – and some record prices as well, reckons Andy Reid

THE AUCTIONS HELD during Monterey Car Week are probably the most important events for determining the current value of significant collector cars and the state of the market in general. The Peninsula is where some of the most desirable and valuable vehicles are offered up for sale.

With a total of six auctions taking place during the week, you get enough data points to paint a pretty complete picture of the overall health of the market. In addition, Monterey is well known for setting record prices – and this year is likely to see more of the same. If you’re reading this post-Monterey, see how close the predictions were.

In addition to the continuing trend towards feeding a market hungry for excellent examples of important and rare but more modern exotica and supercars, Monterey will this year represent two marques particularly well: Aston Martin and Porsche. In both cases, there are some seriously significant models on offer.

RM Sotheby’s has added a day to its sale, and on Thursday it will be staging an all-Aston event. Entitled An Evening With Aston Martin, it’ll feature a number of cars from the storied British brand. The star is 1965 DB5 chassis number DB5/2008/R. This model was used for PR duties to promote the film Thunderball. All 13 Bond options function correctly, and since the car was last sold by RM in Arizona in 2006 it’s been restored. It sold in ’06 for $2,090,000, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see it change hands for around $6m.

In addition to this star DB5, RM has Aston models that cover the

entire David Brown era onwards.

Interestingly, there are a number of excellent DB7s available. I can see this helping to boost values of these under-appreciated models.

The other serious star of the RM Sotheby’s sale, and likely the most expensive single sale we’re likely to see at all the Monterey auctions, is the 1939 Type 64. This car is sure to set the record for the most expensive Porsche ever sold. This Type 64 was retained by the Porsche family for years, and was driven regularly by both Ferdinand and his son Ferry.

As this model was the genesis of every Porsche that came afterwards, it can only be viewed as one of the world’s most important sports cars.

I wouldn’t be surprised if this spectacular piece of history sold for up to $20m. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the enthusiast.

Finally, RM Sotheby’s is offering the Ming Collection, a group of seven red Ferrari road cars including an F40 and FXX. All are not only low mileage but have been meticulously maintained. If you want a collection of modern, mid-engined Ferraris, you can buy it in one night.

Moving on to Gooding & Company, it seems to have taken a different tack with its auction. It has the usual modern Porsches and Ferraris, including a 959 Sport and F50, but it also has a strong offering of Pebble Beach-eligible full classics ranging from two stunning Bugatti 57s to a Minerva and a Duesenberg.

Gooding is also offering a pair of early 356 coupés – a 1951 and 1953 – which might end up as consolation prizes for the under-bidders of the Type 64 at RM. Personally, I’d be happy with either of these cars.

Smartly piggybacking on the RM Aston Martin sale, Gooding is also offering a 1960 DB4 GT as well as three other Astons so far. It would be no surprise if we see more.

Finally on to Bonhams, which seems to be playing somewhere in

the middle. Its star car for me is the 1959 Porsche 718 RSK ‘Centre Seat’ Spyder. This car has extensive competition history and should sell for somewhere in excess of $4m. Bonhams is also celebrating Bentley’s 100-year anniversary with three WO-period cars – the most significant being the 1922 3.0 Litre, said to be one of the oldest surviving.

As with RM and Gooding, Bonhams also has an Aston; do you detect a trend here? Its example is a 1965 DB5 with a fresh Kevin Kay restoration, that’s also a left-hooker.

So, what’s likely to happen during the week? If I were a betting man, I’d expect to see some serious prices for Astons of all types. In addition, I think the prices for special Ferrari and Porsche road cars will continue to climb, but possibly at a slower rate.

In addition, the market for significant Ferrari road cars – such as the 250GT TDF and 212 offered at Gooding, and RM’s 196SP and 250SWB California Spider – will continue to see growth and interest.

My guess as to what the weaker spots of the market will be include production post-war British sports cars such as E-types, Healeys and the like. Other possible weak segments could be the 300SL, and the pre-war full classic cars that seem to be on the market quite a bit of late. While these prices seem to be on the down-swing, this could also make for some good buying opportunities.

The overlying trend likely to continue is that only exceptional cars are going to bring top dollar.

The days of selling a driver-level Ferrari 330 or Mercedes 300SL for serious money are over. To be honest, this is as it should be; not every car on offer is going to be truly exceptional, and lesser-quality examples should sell for less money.

Of all these cars, which would I most want to take home? Well, who wouldn’t want chassis number DB5/2008/R in their garage?

LEFT What Aston Martin fan wouldn’t want to own the Thunderball DB5/2008/R? Well, now’s your chance...

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The Supreme Fifteen

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S T A R T E R

THE CHAMPION OF ORIGINALITY Twenty years after he helped establish Pebble Beach’s Preservation Class, Adolfo Orsi reflects on how the radical step has influenced the classic car movement

IT ALL STARTED because I was restoring important cars, especially one-off models and prototypes, for customers. Naturally I’d be searching for as many original photos as possible to understand how the car looked when it was first built.

Therefore I started to appreciate their preservation very, very much, because you can’t work out the paint – especially if the photos are black and white. Sometimes you see dark colours in these shots, but that turns out to be misleading. And then there’s the materials, like the upholstery...

It’s especially difficult when you are looking at chromed parts; their reflections make it a nightmare, because it’s often impossible to understand exactly how, say, the bumper was manufactured.

Then, in 1997, I was invited to judge at Pebble Beach in the normal classes. I was surprised by the quality of the American restorations.

There were a lot of over-restored cars because, at the time, no one was taking much care to follow the original specification.

I judged these classes for a couple of years. Then I was speaking with the president of FIVA – a Ferrari and Bugatti collector. FIVA had many representatives around the world, but no one in the US, so it was interested in introducing itself in the States. I suggested that, in order to promote FIVA, it should establish a prize for the best-preserved car on the field.

At the time, if you had a preserved car you had no chance of getting on the ramp; all those cars were restored. We spoke with FIVA’s technical director and the Pebble Beach chairman, and they thought it was a great idea – so in 1999 we had the first FIVA Preservation Class. If I remember rightly, we had six

preserved cars on the field. And then it became eight, ten, 12, 15... And then Pebble Beach itself introduced the first Pre-war Preservation Class, and after many years the Post-war Preservation Class. Now it’s possible to see 25 preserved cars on the field, which means a minimum of ten or 15 percent are preserved vehicles.

I’m very proud to have started this – and also because we’ve saved a lot of cars from unnecessary restoration.

In some ways we’ve instigated a change of approach, because if you are a restorer or collector on the field, and you see a restored car on one side and a preserved one on the other side, you may be influenced not to over restore the cars.

We have observed that, starting from that point, the price of a preserved model is sometimes higher than the price of a restored example, because the car is original only once. The patina, the smell of the leather, the wiring... it’s impossible to replicate.

What we would like to avoid – and we strongly recommend not to do – is the artificial patina that in previous years became a kind of fashion. If you restore a car, in about ten years it will start to create its own patina, so there’s no need to create an artificial one.

At the beginning, the people in my team found that, naturally, they were taken to see Pebble Beach cars that had been produced then stored in a museum. These were not used. FIVA is representing the collectors, and FIVA pushes for the use of the vehicle. If we have a car that’s been stored in a museum and one that’s been used, we give preference to the one that’s been used. Cars are made to be driven, not to be trailerqueened around.

‘The original patina, the smell of the leather, the wiring... it’s impossible to replicate’

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THE NEED FOR SPEED HEADS FOR 1000MPH With Bloodhound SSC apparently back on track, we look at some of the milestones of Land Speed Records since the very first two-way timed runs

BENZ NO 3, LYDSTON HORNSTED, JUNE 1914, 124.09MPH

THE FIRST LAND Speed Records date back to 1898, but competition really hotted up during the 1920s and ’30s, with records set and broken every few months.

Until 1906 the record-setting cars were a mix of electric, steam and internal-combustion power, but after a 127mph record set by a Stanley steam car, the internal-combustion engine took over.

After World War Two, record breaking took a back seat for a while, but by the 1960s it was back, with hotter competition than ever before, dominated by jet and rocket power.

Now comes the news that the Bloodhound SSC project is back on track, with plans for a 500mph run at Hakskeen Pan in South Africa in October 2019 to test the RollsRoyce jet engine and the high-speed aerodynamics. This will be its first outing since its 200mph test in 2017.

SUNBEAM 350HP, MALCOLM CAMPBELL, JULY 1925, 150.87MPH

SUNBEAM 1000HP, HENRY SEGRAVE, MARCH 1927, 203.793MPH

GOLDEN ARROW, HENRY SEGRAVE, MARCH 1929, 231.362 MPH

BLUEBIRD V, MALCOLM CAMPBELL, SEPTEMBER 1935, 301.129MPH

THUNDERBOLT, GEORGE EYSTON, AUGUST 1939, 369.70MPH

RAILTON MOBIL SPECIAL, JOHN COBB, SEPTEMBER 1947, 393.827MPH

BLUEBIRD CN7, DONALD CAMPBELL, JULY 1964, 403.135MPH

SPIRIT OF AMERICA, CRAIG BREEDLOVE, OCTOBER 1964, 526.277MPH

GREEN MONSTER, ART ARFONS, NOVEMBER 1965, 576.533MPH

SPIRIT OF AMERICA SONIC 1, CRAIG BREEDLOVE, NOVEMBER 1965, 600.601MPH

BLUE FLAME, GARY GABELICH, OCTOBER 1970, 622.407MPH

THRUST 2, RICHARD NOBLE, OCTOBER 1983, 633.468MPH

THRUST SSC, ANDY GREEN, OCTOBER 1997, 763.035MPH

BLOODHOUND, ANDY GREEN, EST 2020, TARGET 1000MPH 4 8

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DRIVING HERITAGE

S T A R T E R

Seal of approval

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Some of the best of the collector car world’s new products, from two of our favourite books to period Martini wear

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What a publication!

Two volumes in a slip case, the first covering the racing exploits of HWM, the second on the 19 cars and their drivers. HWM, formed by John Heath and George Abecassis, started in single-seaters with Stirling Moss before moving into sports cars, often beating Jaguar and Aston Martin.

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The gilet shown is €89 plus shipping.

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It probably hasn’t escaped you that the coachbuilding house of Zagato is celebrating its centenary this year... Well, this is Chopard’s limited-edition tribute, named the Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph Zagato 100th Anniversary Edition. It has a self-winding mechanical movement, 42mm stainless-steel case and leather strap.

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The frames of these sunglasses are machined from the Jabroc wood used on the underside ‘plank’ of Formula 1 cars since 1994. Different styles and lens colours are available, including limited editions by F1 artist Paul Oz. There’s a 20 percent discount for Magneto readers on the website, using code MAGNETO20.

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It seems incredible now that the Lotus 72 competed in six seasons of F1 racing, starting in 1970, and won 20 GPs, two Drivers’ titles and three Constructors’ titles.

Actually, it was incredible even back then, as veteran Autosport writer Pete Lyons explains in this superb 304-page book on the 72.

1926 Bugatti T35A Grand Prix Chassis # 4746 Tamagawa Speedway race, 7 June 1936 Japanese history until mid-1950s Current ownership since 2001. Fully restored

1959 Lister Costin Chassis # BHL 132. Well documented history from new Currently fitted with 327ci Hillborn fuel injection Chevrolet V8 Offered with spare engine. Ready to race!

1961 Mercedes-Benz 300SL Roadster Chassis Number # 002756 is 1 of only 5 Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Roadsters which were originally supplied in Fantasiegelb color code DB 653, Fantasy Yellow.

Tastefully restored to show condition and now with a dark green leather interior, matching two-piece luggage, black hard top and upgraded with Rudge wheels.

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S T A R T E R

On Citroën’s centenary, a special range of arts commemorates the legendary Croisière Noire expedition – and the woman who captivated the marque’s founder

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ABOVE Citröen commissioned Bazin to make a sculpture of Nobosudru; the artist went on to create HispanoSuiza’s La Cigogne stork mascot, too. planes used Hispano-Suiza engines – which is how he later came to create the company’s La Cigogne stork mascot. This was followed by many other iconic Art Deco auto mascots, including the The Centaur of Unic cars and The Elephant of Latil.

The Tête de Femme Mangbetu sculpture made for André Citroën became one of Bazin’s most famous sculptures. It’s still sought after today, and to mark Citroën’s centenary Bazin’s granddaughter, Julie, is working with some of the most famous French foundries to produce limited-edition Croisière Noire pieces and jewellery based on the original creation. You’ll find them at www.fbazin.com.

PHOTO BY STEFFI SAUTER

André Citroën and Nobosudru

IT PROBABLY HASN’T escaped you that 2019 marks the centenary of Citroën, and you might have seen mention of one of the company’s greatest early achievements; the 20,000km Croisière Noire expedition across Africa in Kégresse half-tracks.

André Citroën’s aim was to achieve publicity for the marque and to demonstrate the capability of the half-tracks, while also opening up new routes across the continent. A previous expedition in 1922-23 had seen Citroën half-tracks cross the Sahara, but the Croisière Noire was even more ambitious. It would cross Africa from north to south, starting in Colomb-Béchar on the Mediterranean coast and finishing in Cape Town on the Indian Ocean.

The vehicle train left on 28 October, 1924, carrying ethnologists, geologists, meteorologists, zoologists, anthropologists, cartographers, geographers and more, all intent on unravelling the mysteries of what was then a largely unexplored continent.

Eight months later, on June 26, 1925, the expedition arrived in Cape Town, having been filmed and photographed from start to finish.

On the way, one of those photographers fell in love with a very beautiful woman from the Mangbetu tribe in Central Africa.

Her name was Nobosudru, and she was said to be the favourite wife of the tribe’s chief. The photographer took many pictures of Nobosudru, and on his return to Paris showed them to André Citroën.

Citroën was so struck by Nobosudru’s beauty that he decided to have a sculpture of her made to commemorate the expedition. He chose one of the era’s great French sculptors, François Bazin.

Bazin was born in Paris in 1897 to a family of copper engravers, but he grew up in Chile, where his parents taught at an art school in Santiago.

He returned to Paris in 1913 to study at the school of Arts Décoratifs and at Ecole Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, but in 1918 he joined the French fighterpilot squadron SPAD 164, whose

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The

Even Even today’s today’s Bentleys Bentleys owe their owe styling their styling to a couple to a couple of 1930s of 1930s one-offs: one-offs: the famous the famous Embiricos Embiricos

link

WOR D S DAV I D L I L LY W H I T E PHOTOGRAPHY SA M C H IC K

and this, the Corniche, which has been completed in-house by the factory’s Mulliner division

B E N T L EY COR N IC H E

‘By mid-1940 the car had been largely destroyed through a series of misfortunes’

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B BENTLEY HAS A secret; it’s been a significant but largely forgotten part of the marque’s history since the late 1930s, never deliberately hidden but never actively publicised since things went disastrously wrong 80 years ago.

This is the Corniche, truly the missing link between vintage Bentleys of yore and the R Type Continental of the 1950s, which inspired the Continental GTs of today. Work on the prototype started in early 1939, but by mid-1940 the car had been largely destroyed through a series of misfortunes that you really couldn’t have made up.

Enough parts from the Corniche programme survived to inspire its resurrection, though. And it just so happened that the very first test drive of the recreated Corniche that you see here took place on July 10, 2019 – the 100th birthday of the Bentley marque.

We’ll return to this in a moment; you need the back story first...

The Corniche was born in a time when any Bentley sold in the UK absolutely had to be of the ‘English’ style – that is, with an upright radiator and huge headlights – despite that style seriously limiting top speed.

Meanwhile, there were a few crafty chaps who were less reverential, producing distinctly untraditional streamlined bodies.

Dash them all! The most successful of these was the rakish 4¼ built for André Embiricos by the French Carrosserie Pourtout, to a design by Georges Paulin.

The Embiricos Bentley had been encouraged by renegade engineers at the marque keen to show the capabilities of their cars. It gained a creeping admiration from the more daring Bentley managers, nudged on by customer demand for faster, more sporting variants.

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‘A few invaluable drawings and technical specifications were sourced, and the few pictures existing of the car were forensically examined’

However, it was uncomfortable

by Bentley standards, and was based on a defunct model.

Bentley, having been rescued by Rolls-Royce and moved to that marque’s Derby factory in 1931, was set to introduce its new ‘rationalised range’ MkV saloon in late 1939. A proposal was made to also produce a lighter, more powerful version of the MkV, to be named the Corniche. Paulin was contracted to design a rakish, aerodynamic body, while the Bentley Experimental Department commissioned a thinner-gauge (0.092in instead of 0.128in) MkV chassis and higher-power engine.

By May 1939 Paulin’s design had been completed by French coachbuilder Vanvooren, and was shipped to England, arriving at

the Experimental Department on June 7. Testing started within days, and at Brooklands on June 26 the Corniche achieved creditable 109mph and 111mph times on the flying mile.

It was then returned to France for high-speed testing from the company’s depot at Chateauroux, from where it was driven hard on French autoroutes and Italian autostradas. Initial faults logged included poor water sealing around the doors, inadequate cabin ventilation and a tendency for the engine to run hot – though not overheat – at high speed.

But in July, while being driven on the road by engineer Ivan Waller, the one-off Corniche was clipped by a bus.

It was returned immediately to

Vanvooren for repairs, and quickly collected again on August 8 by experienced test driver Percy Rose. Then, on the way back to Chateauroux, disaster struck!

With the roads wet from a recent rainfall, a local driver pulled out in front of the Corniche. Rose swerved to miss the car, went off the road, hit a tree and rolled over.

Body and chassis were badly damaged, although Rose got away with minor injuries (and a subsequent telling-off for driving too fast); a telegram was quickly sent to Derby to advise that the car’s testing was over for the foreseeable future.

Back at the factory, it had been planned that the Corniche would feature at the imminent Earls Court and Paris motor shows,

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ABOVE The style of the cabin was worked up with the Bentley design team.

Most of the interior parts, right down to the custom-cast door handles, are unique to the Corniche, and all the wood trim was created inhouse from scratch.

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B E N TBLEENYT L CE OY R NC IOCRHNEI C H E

‘Many ‘Many of the of the necessary necessary coachbuilding coachbuilding skills skills were were already already a a major major part part of Mulliner’ of Mulliner’

alongside alongside a standard-bodied a standard-bodied MkV. MkV.And that Andwas thatthewas Corniche the Corniche A replacement A replacement chassis was chassis quickly was quickly gone. Within gone. two Within years, twothe years, great the great ordered,ordered, and theand Corniche’s the Corniche’s body body talent oftalent Georges of Georges Paulin was Paulin lost,was lost, removedremoved from the from damaged the damaged too, when too,hewhen was he executed was executed along along chassis chassis to be repaired to be repaired locally in locallywith in master withcoachbuilder master coachbuilder JacquesJacques Chateauroux Chateauroux rather than rather wait than forwait Kellner for Kellner for working for working with the with the Vanvooren.

Vanvooren.

The chassis The chassis was was French French resistance. resistance.

The war The also war also transported transported back to backDerby, to Derby, spelt thespelt end the of the endMkV of the Bentley, MkV Bentley, arrivingarriving at the factory at the factory on August on August with justwith 14 completed. just 14 completed.

16, where 16,itwhere was toitbe was stripped to be stripped and and rebuilt onto rebuilt its onto replacement. its replacement. Eighty years Eightyon, years andon, 100and years 100 years But on But September on September 3, war was 3, war was since WO sinceBentley WO Bentley formed formed the the declared. declared.

Within Within a day all a day car all car company, company, the Corniche the Corniche is back,is back, production production at Bentley at Bentley had ceased, had ceased, using ausing mix of a mix original of original and re-and reand anyand works anyinworks progress in progress moved moved made components. made components.

That it That existsit exists into storage. into storage.

At the Chateauroux At the Chateauroux again atagain all is thanks at all isto thanks remarkable to remarkable body shop, body repair shop,work repair continued work continued work bywork the Rolls-Royce by the Rolls-Royce HeritageHeritage slowly, and slowly, it wasn’t and it until wasn’t March until March Trust, Trust, coachbuilder coachbuilder Ashley Ashley & & 1940 that 1940 thethat bodythe was body completed was completed James, James, and theand staff theacross staff across all all and shipped and shipped to Dieppe, to Dieppe, where where departments departments of Bentley of Bentley Motors,Motors, cross-channel cross-channel ferries ferries were still were still particularly particularly the Mulliner the Mulliner division.division. operating operating despite the despite war.the war.

And, of And, course, of the course, project the started project started Except, Except, when the when repaired the repaired body body with a with chance a chance conversation, conversation, as as arrived at arrived Dieppe, at Dieppe, the RACthe official RAC official these things theseso things oftenso do.often do. responsible responsible for export for export duties dutiesFormer Former Bentley Bentley director,director, now now insistedinsisted that as the thatCorniche as the Corniche had had automotive automotive historian, historian, Ken Lea Ken Lea passed passed throughthrough customscustoms the the takes up takes the up story: the “Sir story:Ralph “Sir Ralph previousprevious year, then year,thethen repaired the repaired Robins Robins [then Rolls-Royce [then Rolls-Royce CEO] CEO] body constituted body constituted a second a second car, car, had a Derby had aBentley Derby Bentley that he raced, that he raced, and must and bemust taxedbe astaxed such.as such. and which andIwhich helpedI look helped after. lookInafter. In Bentley Bentley refused refused to pay, to rightly pay, rightly 2001 he2001 had he a blown had a engine; blown engine; he he pointingpointing out thatout only that theonly chassis the chassis found afound replacement a replacement but phoned but phoned had been hadshipped been shipped in 1939.inIn1939. a Inme a to me say to it didn’t say it fit. didn’t I said: fit. I said: CaptainCaptain Mainwaring-like Mainwaring-like reply, reply, ‘What’s‘What’s the engine the number?’ engine number?’ and and the RACthe claimed RAC claimed that: “Our that: men “Our men realisedrealised it wasn’t it awasn’t standard a standard 4¼ 4¼ cannot cannot have missed have missed that there that there [Derby Bentley], [Derby Bentley], it was a MkV it wasunit. a MkV unit. was no body, was no sobody, thereso was!” there While was!” While“That got “That us talking got us about talkingthe about the the dispute the dispute rumbledrumbled on, the body on, the body Corniche, Corniche, and he was andthe he was one the whoone who was stored was stored in a warehouse in a warehouse at at persuaded persuaded the Rolls-Royce the Rolls-Royce board board the Dieppe the docks.

Dieppe docks. that wethat should we should build a build running a running The story Thegets story worse. gets At worse. someAt some chassis.chassis.

I knewI of knew a private of a private point during point during the evacuation the evacuation of of individual individual with awith lightweight a lightweight Dunkirk, Dunkirk, in late May in late or early May or June early June chassis chassis – it had–been it had standing been standing for for 1940, the 1940, Corniche the Corniche was destroyed was destroyed years inyears tall grass in tall sograss one side so one wasside was in a bombing in a bombing raid. A raid. memo A to memo badly to corroded.” badly corroded.”

Bentley Bentley management management from an from anThere were Therethree were lightweight three lightweight RAC official RAC asked officialwhere askedthe where keysthe keys chassis chassis made. made.

One was One the was the for the for car the should car should be sent.beThe sent. The Corniche Corniche chassis chassis damaged damaged in the in the reply was reply apparently was apparently “robust”… “robust”…crash incrash France, in France, and another and another was was M A G NMEATGON /E T6 O 3

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its intended its replacement. intended replacement.

Bentley Bentley halfway halfway through, through, the workthe work Experimental Experimental Department Department chassis chassis continued continued whenever possible whenever over possible over never received neverserial received numbers, serial so numbers, the so following theeight following years.eight years. there’s little there’s way little to know waywhich to know which “I cannot “I over cannot emphasise over emphasise the the one it is –one butitKen is –isbut convinced Ken is convinced contributions contributions Ashley & Ashley James & James that this was that the this original was the Corniche original Corniche made to this made project,” to thissays project,” Ken. says Ken. chassis. It chassis. appearedIt to appeared have been to have been Back in February Back in 2018, February Adrian 2018, Adrian stripped and stripped used and for used testing, for testing, Hallmark Hallmark joined Bentley joined as Bentley as before being before soldbeing off by sold Rollsoff by RollsCEO, the CEO, successor the successor to Wolfgang to Wolfgang Royce in 1971, Royceasinwere 1971,soasmany were so Dürheimer. many Dürheimer.

He’d returned He’d returned to to spares at the spares time,atincluding the time,many including Bentley many after Bentley 13 years, afterand 13 years, withinand within MkV and Corniche MkV andparts Corniche that had parts that hadof arrival days daysquizzed of arrival Robin quizzed PeelRobin Peel been madebeen ready made for production. ready for production. on projects on that projects his that Heritage his Heritage So the project So thewas project off the was offdepartment the department was involved waswith. involved with. ground, based ground, at the based Rolls-Royce at the Rolls-Royce “Adrian made “Adrian it clear made that it clear the that the Heritage Trust Heritage in Derby.

Trust in A Derby. few ACorniche few was Corniche to come wastotoCrewe,” come to Crewe,” invaluable invaluable drawings and drawings technical and technical remembersremembers Robin. “He Robin. saw the “He saw the specifications specifications of the Corniche of the Corniche significance significance of the car of and thewhat car and what were sourced wereby sourced the SirbyHenry the Sir Henry Bentley involvement Bentley involvement would addwould to add to Royce Memorial Royce Memorial Foundation Foundation and it.”and But where it.” But would where the would Corniche the Corniche the Paulinthe family, Paulinand family, the few and thebefew housed? beAhoused? meetingAwas meeting held was held pictures existing picturesofexisting the car of were the carbetween were departments, between departments, with one ofwith one of forensicallyforensically examined.examined. the attendees the attendees being Glynbeing Davies, Glyn Davies, An engineAn was engine rebuilt was to rebuilt the to the projects special special leader projectsof leader the of the Corniche specification, Corniche specification, with high-withMulliner high- bespoke Mullinerdivision. bespoke division. compression compression pistons and pistons largerand larger “I had no“Iidea hadwhat no idea this what car this car carburettors carburettors and inlet and manifold, inlet manifold, was,” sayswas,” Glyn,says “butGlyn, it sounded “but it sounded and the chassis and the was chassis slowlywas built slowlyright built up Mulliner’s right up Mulliner’s street, so street, I so I up, as rare up,MkV as rare and MkV Corniche and Corniche stuck my hand stuckup myand hand said up‘we’ll and said ‘we’ll spares were spares further were sourced. further sourced.take it’, and take I’ve it’,stayed and I’ve with stayed the with the The team The of team Rolls-Royce of Rolls-Royce project ever project since.”ever since.”

Heritage Trust Heritage volunteers, Trust volunteers, headed headed It helpedIt that helpedGlynthathadGlyn had

by Ken, progressed

by Ken, progressed steadily with steadilypreviously with previously worked with worked Ken Lea with Ken Lea the project,the with project, the Supermarine with the Supermarine in the oldinBentley the oldExperimental Bentley Experimental Spitfire team Spitfire at the team Trust at joining the Trust joining Department Department during the during late 1980s. the late 1980s. in to createina to new create bulkhead a newfrom bulkhead a from He aknewHethat knew many thatof many the of the single sheet single of metal. sheetHowever, of metal.by However, by necessary necessary coachbuilding coachbuilding skills skills 2008 Rolls-Royce 2008 Rolls-Royce funding was fundingwere was already were a already major part a major of part of drying up,drying so Bentley up, so stepped Bentley stepped Mulliner, which Mulliner, creates which bespoke creates bespoke in to help.inAtodecision help. Awas decision then wasBentleys then toBentleys special order. to special order. made to start madeonto the start bodywork on the bodywork It was decided It was that decided the Corniche that the Corniche alongside the alongside chassis, the rather chassis, thanratherwouldn’t than have wouldn’t an overall have an project overall project waiting for waiting the chassis for the tochassis be to be butleader, leader, that itbut would that be it would run be run completedcompleted – a decision – athat decision Ken thatbyKen Robin, Glyn,

by Robin, Ken Glyn, and Mulliner Ken and Mulliner says savedsays the project. saved the project. operationsoperations manager Ian manager Broomhall.

Ian Broomhall.

Responsibility Responsibility for the ashfor frame the ash frame They would They meet would everymeet Tuesday every Tuesday and bodywork and bodywork was handed was tohanded to toevening evening assess progress. to assess progress. coachbuilder coachbuilder Ashley & James, Ashley of & James,“My of first “My impression first impression was the was the Lymington,Lymington, Hampshire.

Hampshire.

Ken Ken worked with worked it towith establish it to the establish the OPPOSITEOPPOSITE Paulin’s remarkable Paulin’s remarkable structure of structure the body, of the of which body, of which design for the design Corniche for thespecified Corniche specified there wasthere no documentation was no documentation – – complicated complicated curves, particularly curves, particularly and even though and even funds though dried funds up dried up thearound around front wings. the front wings.

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‘We’ll ‘We’ll useuse it asitan as an important important piece piece of our of our history; history; it will it will travel travel thethe world’ world’

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ABOVE The Corniche runs a modestly tuned version of the MkV’s new 4¼-litre inline six-cylinder engine, built to the original production specs – higher compression and larger carburettors and intake manifold.

RIGHT The team replicated Vanvooren’s typical style for the seats, and even managed to create a Vanvooren-type interior light and a rear window blind.

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‘Team would traipse the length of the factory in the cold, wet and dark to work on the car’

time-scale,” recalls Ian. “How the hell were we going to do this! But it provided a fantastic opportunity for Mulliner to show the skills that we have here.”

The Corniche arrived in September 2018 on the assembled rolling chassis. After examination, it was moved from Mulliner to the Mulsanne build area at the top of the factory, where the body-inwhite craftsmen would work on it in their spare time. By now it was autumn, and the team – including Adrian Hallmark – would traipse the length of the factory in the cold, wet and dark to work on the car or to receive weekly updates.

They’d often end up gathered around the front of the car, examining old pictures of the grille. This would prove to be the most challenging part of the project for Mulliner; work was needed on the amount of cooling air through the grille, plus it was clear from the pictures that, as a prototype, there were uneven gaps between the vanes of the Corniche’s grille. Adrian Hallmark made it very clear that the recreated item would need to be to a higher standard.

“We scanned the vehicle’s nose and apertures in the body, and did a bit of reverse engineering in

CAD,” says Glyn. “Then we would cross reference with the original photo, comparing it with the CAD model. The styling department’s modellers supported the project by producing a pair of vane-assembly tools in their own time, machined in Ureol, to help create each vane and its positioning. Each one was individually designed in CAD, computer analysed for airflow, then painstakingly hand formed in three planes. The car was with Mulliner for six months, and the vanes were only screwed into place on the last day.”

Meanwhile, work on the bodywork continued, particularly on devising better sealing for the doors. Working alongside Ken, Mulliner coachbuilders Nick Chandler, Kev Foster and Ian Williams completed the finishing touches for the body.

Then the question came up of paint choice. The body colour was well documented as French Garnet, but as for the side strip…

“The reports said ‘pinky grey’; we really couldn’t understand that,” says Ken. “But we also knew that the Corniche had a West of England cloth headliner, and when we found a roll of that we realised it had a pink tinge.”

“It still took three months, and

dozens and dozens of varying paint samples, to get right,” recalls Glyn. “Sample after sample was rejected by the steering group, but the Bentley paint team, led by Rob Thompson, stuck with us, using spectral analysis to analyse the colour and finally formulate the new Heather Grey, which looks exactly right. The red formulation was named as Imperial Maroon.”

In parallel with the trials and tribulations of the bodywork and paint, there was also the interior to finish. Trouble was, there were no full pictures of the interior.

So, what to do?

Bentley head of interior design Darren Day, and his team Louise McCallum and Frederic Dams, worked with Ken to translate his research into 2D styling images.

Ken had examined Vanvooren styles, descriptions from Corniche documentation and the glimpses of interior visible through the windows in exterior photos. The resultant artwork helped Mulliner’s coachbuilders to visualise what they needed to create.

Rolls-Royce specialist The Real Car Co. in Wales had donated many Vanvooren parts early on in the project’s life, including original Vanvooren seats. In their spare time, the design team used all this

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to design upholstery patterns that are thought to be as close to the original as is possible.

Jonathan Connolly visited from Connolly Leather, and he helped specify the authentic Connolly Vaumol hide in a colour that worked with the exterior. The seats themselves had to be made first, though, adapting a MkVI rear cushion and the donated Vanvooren parts. The first step was to strip down the tatty Vanvooren rear seat to examine its construction.

“It was a like a cartoon,” laughs Robin. “As the sackcloth came off the springs burst out, and the horsehair went everywhere!” The trim-development department managed to source horsehair and the correct style of sackcloth and twine, and the Mulliner team had the springs remade.

The dashboard was assembled using the correct Bentley MkV instrumentation and switchgear.

The door handles and window winders had been cast specifically for the Corniche, in Vanvooren style, by Ashley & James.

Then there were the wooden window surrounds to create…

These were the job of Mulliner

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master carpenter Gary Bedson, who created a steam box to bend the wood to the curves of the windows (and note just how curved the rear edges of the rear door windows are). It was a slow process, with Gary sometimes disappearing in a cloud of steam for an hour for just one degree more of curve, but the end result is quite remarkable.

An important aspect of the project was that apprentices were involved, too, as part of the programme of passing down coachbuilding schemes to a new generation. A tool tray, carrying genuine tools collected by Ken, was created by Nathan Betteley to sit in the boot; Brad Horton assisted Dave Latham on the electrics; Dominic Grimshaw was involved with the sheet metalwork; Jack Edwards made use of his coachbuilding skills and Terry Feeley helped with trim.

One of the few parts that there were no drawings for was the exhaust. A picture had been taken of the car post accident, when it tipped on its side, giving a clear view of the original exhaust layout. Of course, there’s an argument that if there hadn’t been

an accident, there wouldn’t have been any need to recreate the Corniche, but…

Anyway, yet more tricky bits; the headlamp assemblies were unique, and the originals were never, ever tracked down. The headlamp cans had been hand formed in brass by Ashley & James, and the Mulliner team had them silvered in the Birmingham jewellery quarter. After weeks of research, a glass maker was persuaded to produce the lenses.

Thankfully the window glass was easier, made from plywood patterns by GKN Aerospace – formerly Pilkington and before that Triplex, who had produced the original glass.

The original Corniche had never quite been completely finished, so the pictures of the car in testing show crude bumpers and different rear lights from those specified by Paulin. It was decided to complete the car to its

‘We all stood back at the end of it; we couldn’t quite believe we’d done it!’

intended production specification, going by Paulin’s design sketches – and that’s how you see it on these pages, ready for a new life on the Bentley Heritage fleet.

“We’ll use it as an important piece of our history; it will travel the world,” Robin confirms. “It will be used in the appropriate fashion at events and rallies, relevant to the Bentley marque.”

How appropriate, then, was that centenary day first drive – and equally appropriate that it should be Ken behind the wheel, giving other members of the team passenger rides.

“It was a delight to drive,” he says, “but Mk5s are a delight because they ride so well on their long wheelbase. The vision is stunning, it doesn’t give a pillbox effect from inside, and the engine and gearbox were even better than expected. We all stood back at the end of it; we couldn’t quite believe we’d done it!”

The Corniche is likely to appear first at a UK event in September.

As for the Mulliner team, can we expect more classic Bentley projects from the crew in the future after the success of the Corniche?

Don’t rule anything out...

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Years later

Just as the Corniche was Bentley’s 1930s prediction of its own future, so the EXP 100 GT concept attempts to show how the company might adapt over the next two decades WOR D S DAV I D L I L LY W H I T E PHOTOGRAPHY OLI TENNENT

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APPY BIRTHDAY BENTLEY. My, how you’ve grown. And how very sensible to present yourself with the ultimate gift: the future.

This is the EXP 100 GT, revealed on July 10, 2019 – Bentley’s 100th birthday. It looks forward to a time roughly 15 to 20 years from now. That would place it in the 2030s, which also happens to be around 100 years on from the Corniche that you’ve seen on the previous pages.

Neither Corniche nor EXP 100 GT is beautiful. But both are impactful, unusual and imposingly large, and the new car continues styling cues established by much earlier models, including the Corniche. The most obvious are the haunches over the rear wheels and the large headlights that overlap the grille.

Without World War Two, the Corniche might have become Bentley’s next grand tourer, yet no one is trying to claim that the EXP 100 GT is an accurate representation of how a Bentley will look the 2030s. However, some of its features, technological trickery and sustainability absolutely will play a part in future models.

You can see immediately that it’s radical, but the sheer size of the EXP 100 GT isn’t clear

‘Some of EXP 100 GT’s features absolutely will play a part in future Bentley models’ from pictures. In fact, it’s 5.8 metres long and nearly 2.4 metres wide. That’s even longer than WO Bentley’s personal 8 Litre, which was 5m long, or the current Continental GT at 4.8m.

Thankfully, the EXP 100 GT is said to weigh much less than the 8 Litre’s 2500kg or even the Continental GT’s 2244kg. It’s reckoned to be 1900kg, which isn’t bad given its size.

Perhaps that’s because it’s been built mostly in aluminium and carbon fibre, although there is also a full glass roof, which will add to the weight. That roof is embedded with a lattice of prisms that collect light and transfer it into the cabin via fibre optics. Why? Because they can – and because it makes the light inside the cabin more controllable for greater passenger well-being, a phrase that comes up a lot.

ABOVE The alloy body panels feature a super-sharp crease that makes the car appear smaller but more muscular.

LEFT Entry to luxurious interior is via high-tech pivoting doors.

The lattice shape of the prisms echoes what are arguably the car’s most divisive features; the illuminated matrix grille and matching headlights. The grille, headlamps, central bonnet strip and Flying B bonnet mascot pulse with light as the car is approached. At the rear, the horseshoe-shaped section is a 3D OLED that can be used to produce special lighting effects.

But this is mere showmanship. The real pointers to the future are the interior and the powertrain. Of course, the latter is battery electric, with talk of a battery and fuel-cell hybrid possible as well. The prediction is that the batteries will weigh five times less for the same amount of power as today’s units. It’s said that the EXP 100 GT will have a 435-mile range, and will recharge to 80 percent capacity in 15 minutes – and that it will deliver a maximum torque figure of 1100lb ft. That’s nearly double the total of a current W12 Continental GT. Four motors make for four-wheel drive, torque vectored for maximum traction and the most responsive cornering, moving the power delivery between each wheel as necessary. It’s predicted that the 0-60mph sprint time will be 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of 186mph.

Again, this still isn’t really the point. From our mostly-comfy-but-conventional current new cars, it’s difficult to judge whether the interior features of the EXP 100 GT are true pointers of the way forward or sci-fi nonsense. If you

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believe that autonomy is on the way, then it makes more sense; the reformatable cabin that allows two, three or four very generously spaced seats is perfectly viable, the front chairs swivelling around to face the rears in autonomous mode. The air-con vents that undulate to give the subtle impression of the car breathing sound curiously appealing, and note that there’s an air-purification unit in the boot and CO2 monitors in the cabin. Ultimate luxury or a sinister nod to our future?

How about the reactive seats, that monitor your position and automatically adjust to keep you comfy? Again, seems reasonable given that luxury cars have long had massage functions.

And then the tech gets a bit wilder, which you can blame on the Bentley Personal Assistant; an artificial-intelligence unit controlled via hand movements from the Cumbria Crystalfaced centre console. It learns passengers’ behaviour and preferences, and monitors the cabin environment using biometric sensors set around the interior. These analyse temperature and passenger position, but also track eye and head movements, and even blood pressure.

The watchword is well-being, and the Bentley Personal Assistant enables this via specific modes: Enhance, Cocoon, Capture, Re-Live and Customise. It gets a bit sci-fi here…

Enhance is said to offer a “holistic grand tour”, harvesting light, sound, smell and air quality, to give the feeling of open-top motoring – while still protected by the glass canopy.

Cocoon is the opposite, darkening the glass and enabling the air-purification unit to do its thing, closing occupants off from the world outside the car. Capture records experiences from both inside and outside the car, and saves them to become part of the vehicle’s history

‘Real pointers to the future are interior and powertrain... battery electric, with talk of a battery and fuel-cell hybrid, too’

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ABOVE Cabin melds luxury appointments with sustainable materials. BELOW Concept can be driven manually or autonomously.

(we’ll allow you a brief smirk at how this might work out), and Re-Live replays highlights of the car’s drives. Customise simply combines whichever elements of the other modes as required to personalise the car. A front entertainment screen displays films, live video and other media when the car is in autonomous mode, and hand gestures around the cabin allow information on the outside environment.

Will this high-tech hocus pocus take a hold?

There’s actually little reason why it shouldn’t.

Much of the technology is already with us, and well-being is set to become one of the hottest subjects of the modern world.

Hand in hand with that is sustainability, and the EXP 100 GT features exterior paint

pigment created from recycled rice-husk ash, a bi-product of the rice industry, and copper trim pieces created from recycled wiring.

Its interior still features wood and leather, but the wood is Riverwood, rescued from the bog into which it fell around 5000 years ago, and the leather is only lightly sprayed with organic Aniline and sits alongside a leatherlook material created as a bi-product of wine production. Carpets are of British-farmed wool, and other interior surfaces are embroidered cotton. Plastics don’t get much of a look in.

You want more tech? How about the Active Aero Wheels, which dynamically adjust in size for efficiency or maximum grip, complemented by Intelligent Tyres that adapt their contact patches based on weather conditions or simply how the car is being driven. You may well have heard it here first, folks… and can you imagine what the creators of the Corniche would have made of it?

The Ex-Conte Goffredo “Freddie” Zehender, Gino Rovere & Omobono Tenni, Maserati Works Team, Monaco & Nurburgring

1 935 Mas erati ti po 4CM Vettu r etta

info@robertglover-ltd.com

ROBERT GLOVER LTD.

+ 4 4 ( 0 ) 18 69 2 4 4 2 5 5

www.robertglover-ltd.com

located at:

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W O R D S M AT T H E W F I E L D

On the 50th anniversary of The Italian Job, the world’s leading expert on the film explains how it came together – despite genuine danger, fracas with the police and behind-the-scenes politics and disputes M AG NETO

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T

THE ROOFTOPS OF Turin are laid out like a carpet below.

Five storeys above ground, I emerge onto a race circuit, leading a trio of red, white and blue Mini Cooper Mk1s, pursued hotly by an Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti police car. We hug the high banks at each end, weaving in and out of each other.

Above the induction howl of the highly tuned 1275cc engines, my passenger shouts: “As you go round, look for that bloody exit. We can’t go around here all night!”

Actually, I have a confession to make. I am in fact clutching the wheel of my grandmother’s 1978 Russet Brown Mini 1000 automatic. Neither am I hurtling around Fiat’s Lingotto test track, I am stationary on the driveway of our family home in Bournemouth. I am not one of Charlie Croker’s chinless wonders, just a six-year-old schoolboy playing out his Italian Job fantasy.

Loaded with 1960s swagger and some of the coolest performance cars of the decade, The Italian Job is now celebrating its 50th anniversary. Famed for its endlessly quotable dialogue and one of the most impressive car chases in movie history, the film stars Michael Caine as cockney wide boy Charlie Croker, who leads a band of lovable British rogues who pull off a daring gold heist before escaping across the gridlocked city of Turin in three Mini Coopers. It is the ultimate celebration of ‘cool Britannia’.

The Italian Job is more than just a film to me. It was the first movie I ever watched – the first motion picture to enter my consciousness. I saw it sometime in 1985, when I was four years old. My father showed me the 15-minute chase and I immediately fell in love. I replayed the Betamax cassette over and over until I wore out the videotape. Back then the film was not in vogue, but by the time I hit my adolescent years in the mid-1990s suddenly everybody was MAGN ETO

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discovering ‘my’ film. The arrival of Britpop meant that everything 1960s and British was cool again, and the classic Mini symbolised it all. Michael Caine himself was also enjoying an iconic rebirth; his career had a major resurgence and he had also found a new fan base with the Loaded generation.

Soon, homages to the film were popping up everywhere, and the Welsh band Stereophonics even spoofed The Italian Job with the promo video for its single Pick a Part That’s New. Meanwhile, the movie became a firm favourite in the ad world. The Sun Alliance insurance company ran a campaign that featured an image of the Minis racing down steps, with the copy line “Regrettably some drivers won’t qualify”.

Bacardi-Martini produced a TV commercial involving a highspeed getaway in three Mini Coopers. And, rather appropriately, the music track The Self Preservation Society was blasted around the Longbridge plant as the last classic Mini was driven off the production line in 2000.

With the nation’s new-found interest in The Italian Job, the story behind the film remained something of a mystery. For most people, loving a movie is enough – but not me. By the time I graduated from high school, I was so intrigued by The Italian Job that I decided to write my first book about it. Fast-forward 20 years to June 2019, and my second volume on the subject, The Self Preservation Society: 50 Years of The Italian Job, has just been published – a more in-depth and mature examination of how the movie made its way to the silver screen.

My journey began with producer Michael Deeley who, when we first met, had recently retired from film-making. Deeley immediately showed a producer’s faith in my ambition and became the greatest advocate for my book. One day I received a call asking me to ring Sir Michael Caine at the Ritz in Paris.

Deeley had orchestrated the star’s participation, and soon Sir Michael granted me an in-depth interview, full of anecdotes that only a raconteur such as he can deliver with such hilarity.

By the age of 35, Deeley had cut his teeth on a number of B-movies, and had just completed his first major film, Robbery.

The tale of the great mail train heist of 1964 opened with a terrific car chase across London. Paramount had seen an early cut, and Deeley was well versed in what was required for The Italian Job. He saw the film less as a political satire but more a comedy caper. It was Deeley’s idea to cast the subsidiary parts with the likes of Irene Handl, Fred Emney and Benny Hill. The latter in particular frustrated the writer Troy Kennedy Martin, who felt such comedians brought a pantomime quality to what he saw as a harder-edged crime thriller.

Peter Collinson was of particular interest to me. The man who had directed The Italian Job remained something of an enigma.

Unless you are a cinephile, the chances are you have never heard of him. Collinson died from cancer in 1980 at the age of

PHOTOS BY PARAMOUNT PICTURES

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ABOVE Director Peter Collinson, writer Troy Kennedy Martin and producer Michael Deeley were among brightest moviemaking stars of their generation; they collectively made The Italian Job right at start of their incredible careers.

44, and had never seen the movie earn cult status. I found his widow, Hazel, teaching musical theatre at a west London drama school, and she painted an intimate picture of a complicated man; a tragic yet successful life cut desperately short.

“Peter liked to live life on the edge, that was what kept him going. Back in the 1960s we were driving home one night and he said: ‘Gosh, you don’t know how lucky you are to be driven home by a film director in a Rolls-Royce… right to your door!’

I said: ‘Well as a matter of fact, you don’t drive me to the door darling, just to the edge of the lawn.’ He said: ‘Well, we can change that.’ And he drove over the lawn, through the front window and parked in the front room on a green Chinese carpet, which never looked the same again.”

I soon discovered that everyone who knew or worked with Peter Collinson had a tale to tell. Growing up in the Actor’s Orphanage after being abandoned by his parents cast a psychological shadow over the rest of his life. He once said: “I’m used to being kicked, and God help anyone who kicks me, because I kick very hard back.” Noël Coward had been a patron of the orphanage, and had assisted Collinson in securing his first job in the entertainment business. It was with great pride that Collinson repaid the favour by casting Coward in The Italian Job, as the respected crime kingpin Mr Bridger who controlled London’s underworld from the confines of his prison cell.

The Italian Job was the brainchild of the late, ex-BBC writer, Kennedy Martin, who’d made his name following the hit police drama Z-Cars: “I was looking for a vehicle that’d allow me to move into films. I wanted to do a caper that would, in some way, incorporate the spirit of individualism, confidence and cockiness, which existed in London in the 1960s.” I met Kennedy Martin in his Ladbroke Grove writing den – always piled high with scripts and research notes. At the time he was working on an Enzo Ferrari biopic, which to this day is still in development.

Troy was slightly embarrassed by The Italian Job, considering it not up to the intellectual standard of his latter, more prestigious work. However, he took great delight in the cult

OPPOSITE Clockwise from top left: Mini gets a hand out of Turin subway; Michael Caine publicity shot; Benny Hill takes a comfort break; ‘Mafia’ arrives; Caine, future Mrs Bianca Jagger and Deeley relaxing; smashing up Jaguar E-type.

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RIGHT Apprehension while preparing for Mini rooftop sequences resulted in “moments of great emotion”...

BELOW ...but spectacular results on film were worth extreme stress.

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status the film now enjoys. He admitted: “I really loved cars,” remembering that at the time he wrote the screenplay he drove an Alfa Romeo Giulia Spider.

Michael Caine remembered it was on this premise that Kennedy Martin first pitched him the movie, recalling him saying: “‘Let us destroy all these symbols of wealth, like cars.

If you destroy a person on screen people go: “Oh terrible.” If you destroy a Lamborghini, they all burst into tears.’ He thought that destroying luxury machines would be more powerful than actually killing people.” Kennedy Martin’s script carefully detailed each car, and it’s interesting to note that, originally, he had chosen an Iso Grifo rather than a Lamborghini Miura for the now-famous opening sequence.

The underlying vibe of Kennedy Martin’s story was a reaction to Britain joining the Common Market – a hot topic of conversation in the late 1960s. He said: “I had a hazy notion that somehow the adversaries – on one hand the English robbers, and on the other the Mafia – could play out a role that paralleled the big corporations that were squaring up within a united Europe.” The fact that, 50 years later, the UK is still conflicted with its place in the European Union has made The Italian Job ironically contemporary.

From day one, Kennedy Martin had built the concept of a getaway in Minis into the heart of his script. “I decided to use the Mini because it was ‘the’ icon, it really was what made the 1960s the ’60s. They [were] egalitarian – a prince or a student could own one.” However, for the Hollywood film moguls who were bank-rolling the movie, ‘Mini’ was a foreign word. Robert Evans, then Paramount Pictures’ head of production, said: “I knew what miniskirts were, but I didn’t know about Mini cars.”

‘The rooftop jump was an edge of bravery, of courage.

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‘Fiat offered me cars, $50,000 cash and a Ferrari as a personal gift. I had to decline’

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LEFT Frenchman Rémy Julienne directed Mini stunt sequences.

RIGHT “Police went apeshit,” recalled Kennedy Martin of Palazzo delle Mostre roof scene.

Kennedy Martin had approached British Motor Corporation when he was writing the screenplay, but found it to be “totally fucking useless”. Later, when the film was in pre-production, Deeley hoped he could persuade BMC to see the commercial value in the movie. It eventually, and rather reluctantly, lent the production six cars. “What a dumb load of bastards they were,” reflected Caine. “That’s why the company no longer exists. No foresight. We hated British Leyland. Still do – except you can’t hate something that is not there.”

A city was needed in which to stage the huge traffic-jam sequences and the fast-paced getaway – both vital elements of the story. Rome and Naples proved impossible, and Milan was just too chaotic. Deeley happened to relate his difficulties to a close friend who suggested he investigate Turin, the hometown of Fiat, as the friend knew Gianni Agnelli, the brand’s celebrated proprietor. “It was clear that Signor Agnelli could make any number of things happen, were he so inclined.”

As Deeley’s relationship with Agnelli developed, the Italian capitalist hit the producer with a proposition. “Effectively, Fiat told us: ‘Listen, we can be very helpful here if you switch the Minis to become Fiats.’ They were prepared to offer me as many Fiats as I needed to crash and smash, trained stunt drivers to pilot the vehicles, a $50,000 cash bonus and the current top-of-the-range Ferrari as a personal gift. I had to decline. The whole point of the movie was very clear in my mind; it was the theme of ‘us against them’. It had to be Minis.”

On June 24, 1968, filming began in Italy. There was a feeling that Peter Collinson had a fetish for danger. Kennedy Martin recalled: “It led to a discipline and strength because it gave the whole production a kind of unity that they were going to take real risks. There were a lot of dicey moments in it, and he wasn’t prepared to dodge any of them, either by faking shots or lessening their potential for accidents. You had to be brave to be on this production.”

Footage captured on location by a BBC documentary crew demonstrates Collinson’s tenacity; on the streets of Turin, horns

ABOVE One wrong move and Mini sequence across weir on Turin’s River Po could easily have ended in tragedy.

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blare loudly in a crowded square choked with traffic. “Give me chaos!” screams Collinson, standing on a platform overlooking the gridlock. He later recalled: “They were sat there like bloody lumps that time. Foreground action was bloody awful. Nothing happened. I’ve never seen anything so bad in all my life!”

Instead, the jams were created for real. Collinson instructed a skeleton crew to set up cameras where nobody could spot them from ground level. The canteen, camera and lighting vans were used to block the exits to the city as traffic poured in.

Deeley remembered the liberties they were taking. “If these frustrated citizens had seen the cameras and realised the scenario of which they were an unwilling part, we would have had a riot on our hands. As it transpired, I think they assumed it was some dreadful and entirely accidental mess.” Meanwhile, Gianni Agnelli told the police to look away for a few hours.

Collinson played the getaway through the palazzos and piazzas and across the rooftops of Turin for laughs as much as for thrills. The suspense is all but over, and the escape is a celebration of an English job well done. He gave the sequence a patriotic, theatrical quality. Ironically, however jingoistic it is, it was designed by a Frenchman, Rémy Julienne, who, along with his talented team, could hardly utter a word of English.

The chase begins with the Minis descending two large stone staircases entering a galleria, before speeding past coffee shops and restaurants. The aforementioned behind-the-scenes footage shows Collinson in his element, thriving on nervous energy, perched over Julienne’s shoulder in the back of a Mini Moke camera tracking vehicle. He raps Rémy on the back and they roar down a crowded colonnade, extras jumping out of their path. What makes The Italian Job so heart-poundingly brilliant is that there isn’t a CGI shot in sight. Everything was performed for real and involved hazards at the highest level.

The most audacious stunt involved the Minis making a daring leap from a rooftop over a street, and landing on a

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similar building on the other side. “The rooftop jump was emblematic of what Collinson was looking for,” suggested Kennedy Martin. “An edge of bravery, of courage. If it didn’t work, people were going to die.”

Deeley had his own concerns: “I was told that, as the person in charge of the enterprise, I would be the one held liable if there was an accident. I would immediately be nabbed and thrown into a Turin jail if something went wrong. Thus, we arranged that there would be a getaway car by the side door of the factory, and a plane fuelled and ready at the airport. If the worst happened, I could argue my case from outside the country rather than from inside an Italian cell.”

Julienne described the apprehension as the cars were lifted by crane onto the Fiat factory roof: “Workers all said goodbye to us and touched their necks. They must have [had] Virgin Marys or gold medallions. There were moments of great emotion. One Italian cameraman had a nervous breakdown – he ran off in tears. We found him two hours later. Peter Collinson said: ‘If it all goes well, I will come up onto the roof with some whisky.’ I said: ‘Well, I don’t like whisky, I only drink Champagne.’”

The Minis crossing the River Po is a deceptively pretty sight. Deceiving, because it was potentially one of the most dangerous stunts to shoot. Julienne recalled that once the three Minis set off across the weir, they had to keep the momentum up. If they had stopped, the cars could have been washed away by the swift current and drowned the drivers.

Collinson took advantage of the city’s benevolence when he sent the Minis up a rickety scaffold ramp onto the dome roof of the Palazzo delle Mostre. The police were frightened the roof was going to collapse. Collinson wanted to get the shot, so he hid from the authorities and kept out the way until the scene was finished. Kennedy Martin recalled: “The police went apeshit. Collinson came over with a beam, obviously

RIGHT Director Collinson bravely – or foolishly – hung out back of Harrington Legionnaire as Minis hurtled up moving ramps.

BELOW Coach sequence was yet another stunt scene that was planned with utmost care and precision.

‘Not only could Peter’s presence have distracted the drivers – he breached our insurance conditions’

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LEFT Pure gold: this is team that conducted most perfect heist in movie history.

ABOVE Sir Michael Caine wrote foreword to Matthew Field’s book, The Self Preservation Society – 50 Years of The Italian Job. It’s available now from www. porterpress.co.uk.

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enjoying the whole confrontation, and said: ‘What do you think about this for anarchy?’”

Collinson put his own life at risk by hanging out the back of the coach as the Minis came hurtling up the makeshift ramps and into the belly of the moving Harrington Legionnaire.

Deeley was furious: “Not only could Peter’s presence have distracted the drivers, but also he completely breached our insurance conditions with this hazardous behaviour. I reminded Peter that one more escapade of this sort could result in our insurance being cancelled, and probably in his replacement as director.” Julienne remembered [the crew] shouting: “‘He’s crazy!’ and it’s true, he was a bit crazy, because that was very dangerous.”

The boundaries were eventually pushed too far. A short sequence involving the Minis flying down a flight of steps and skidding around a fountain on gravel left the young camera assistant, David Wynn-Jones, in the hospital fighting for his life after he was crushed against a wall. “I broke my legs and pelvis, and shattered my arm in 16 places. Unbeknown to us [Julienne] had refused to do it because the camera position was dangerous. If you brake on loose gravel, you haven’t got a hope – the car just keeps going.” Production was halted for two days. It was a serious blow to crew morale. A lot of confidence rebuilding had to be done, and tempers needed to cool down.

The movie’s ending did not come easily. The film-makers deliberated for months as to how the film should be brought to a close. Various scenarios were written by Kennedy Martin, and then rejected. Now, of course, the literal cliff-hanger finale, of the coach see-sawing over a mountain precipice, has become as iconic as the Mini Coopers themselves.

Towards the end of the Italian location work, Deeley flew out to Hollywood to update Paramount on the film’s progress, selfishly thinking of the pleasure he would get from shooting a

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sequel. He devised an ending that would become one of the most famous in movie history. “I think the ending of The Italian Job was very good,” reflected Kennedy Martin. “But it had to be something that had been invented by a senior executive. If a writer had come up with that, they would have laughed, torn it up and thrown it in the bin.”

Again, the crew came close to disaster. As the coach was being carefully put into position, it began to sway slightly in the wind. The camera helicopter was hovering above and the downdraught lifted the coach into the air. The crew grabbed the landward bumper – which at this point was about six feet in the air – and hauled it back into position. Special-effects technician Ken Morris remembered Deeley was ready to faint: “He came over and gave me a bottle of brandy for us to have a drink… He said he needed one, so we must have needed one!”

Half a century on, The Italian Job has become one of Britain’s favourite motion pictures. Sometimes creative forces collide at precisely the right moment and lightning is bottled. In 1969, The Italian Job was seen as just another heist movie, but with hindsight we can appreciate that it was made by a talented group of bright young men, right at the start of their incredible careers.

Peter Collinson remained in demand as a director right up until his untimely death. Producer Michael Deeley went to Hollywood and won an Oscar. Writer Troy Kennedy Martin became one of the most ground-breaking TV writers of his generation.

Michael Caine remains Britain’s most famous movie icon.

And let us not forget the real star of the show – the Mini Cooper. Today it is, without question, one of the most successful motoring brands in operation. Sir Michael Caine has graciously written the foreword to my new book. He sums up the film’s place in history: “The Italian Job is a snapshot of the 1960s and perfectly encapsulated the decade; the cars, the fashion, the fun and the optimistic attitude that was in the air.”

1959 Aston Martin DB MKIII Drophead Coupe

Subject to a no expense spared ground up rebuild to the very highest standard by ourselves completed in November 2015. Fitted with overdrive from new and finished in elusive blue with white gold Connolly luxan leather.

Fitted with steel crankshaft and conrods complete with alloy cylinder head.

It is rare to find a car of this age with such traceable history that offers a new owner or collector the opportunity to own a unique car that has been restored to our personal high standards.

Possibly the very best in existence today. POA.

1964 Aston Martin DB5

Subject to a total body off restoration by ourselves over 3 years with a no expense spared approach. Engine to 4.2 litre specification with steel conrods etc. Finished in its original Dubbonet metallic and fawn vaumol hides by Connolly.

A full photographic record accompanies the car and ready for immediate delivery. Completed 2018. POA.

Adrian Johnson Limited Pool Business Park, Pool Road, Pool in Wharfedale, Leeds, UK LS21 1FD

Enquiries +44 (0)113 284 3666 Mobile +44 (0)7973 472595 Email enquiries@adrian-johnson.co.uk Web www.adrian-johnson.co.uk

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The man who tamed the monster

After-hours at the Porsche

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museum, it’s just us and the man who learned his trade on the 917: Norbert Singer. This will be a wonderful evening

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HE 917 HAD a reputation at first, but it wasn’t a bad car. We just had to sort some things out, and then it became a great car.” Norbert Singer is taking us through the story of the racer that officially kick-started Porsche’s dominance at Le Mans. After it was finished at La Sarthe, it ended the interminable supremacy of McLaren in Can-Am. In order to do that, it was turbocharged up to 1000bhp, leaving the competition with no chance.

And after that, the 917 was gone – written out of the rules in Europe and in the US. It was dominant for only four years (1970-73), but it transformed Porsche from a redoubtable competitor into a winning giant; no longer just respected by its competitors, but feared. “It was the biggest risk of my life,” is what Ferdinand Piëch said of starting the project for building 25 917s in 1969, under new sports car regulations that allowed for a 4.5-litre 12-cylinder engine. It was Porsche’s biggest-ever powerplant, yet it had a troubled start. The unit had the muscle, but drivers were hesitant to drive the new monster race car… or they even flat-out refused to get behind the wheel.

The process to fine-tune the 917 was in full swing when a new, young engineer was hired, fresh from school. Norbert Singer was involved in 16 of Porsche’s 19 victories at Le Mans, but when he first walked into the Porsche competitions department in 1970, he knew little or nothing of how racing worked. His first job; to help find more speed for the 917.

“It was only recently, for a documentary on 50 years of the 917, that I started to dig a little deeper into what had happened at the time. Why did drivers refuse to drive the 917?

So I looked up the top speeds at Le Mans in the ACO listings.

In 1969, the fastest the 917 went on the Hunaudières straight in practice was 320kph (200mph). In the race, it was 2kph faster. Only, it was supposed to do 380kph (237.5mph).

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“I looked at drag and power numbers, and there was no doubt the car could do better. The only explanation was that the drivers lifted. Why would they do that? Because the car was unstable on the straight. The 917 was moving around a lot, especially with other cars around you. The air influence from them was pushing the 917 away. If you have an unstable car, you lift. It’s natural. I wouldn’t say the 917 was the dangerous monster it was called later on, but it needed sorting.”

Singer continues: “At the time I got on board, a lot of the problems were already fixed. The infamous test at Zeltweg in late 1969 had already taken place, with the Porsche works team and John Wyer trying the cars. I found a report about it here in the archives, in which both Porsche and John Horsman from JWA were doing everything to stay very diplomatic.

Much of it has been made up afterwards, but I think the only fair assessment is that we all started realising at the same time what was wrong with the car.

“The Porsche guys put the flaps in the maximum-downforce position because it improved the handling on this track, and it was Horsman who noticed that only the top of these flaps was covered with flies, indicating that the airflow didn’t touch the bottom of the flaps. For me, it was clear they both came to the same conclusion at the same time; we needed more downforce.”

The short-butted, but high-tailed, 917KH was born. It would storm to victory in the 1970 Le Mans 24 Hours, with the Porsche Team Salzburg entry driven by Hans Hermann and Richard Attwood. Why did it take Porsche so long to come to that conclusion? History, Singer says: “Prior to the 917, Porsche had always come to Le Mans with smaller engines, looking for the lowest of drag coefficients to create maximum speed on the Hunaudières straight – as proven with the 906 and 908. The 917 was basically just a big 908. Ferdinand Piëch

‘917 was unstable

on the straight. I wouldn’t say it was the dangerous monster it was called later, but it needed sorting’

ABOVE Norbert Singer and the legendary 917 – the car that transformed Porsche from a redoubtable competitor into a winning giant.

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LEFT Reflecting on the glory years. BELOW Singer and Eugen Kolb attend to the 1971 Le Mans-winning 917.

BOTTOM The Pink Pig 917/20 outside the Teloché workshop the same year.

‘I showed them the wind-tunnel numbers, and how the fins helped with the drag. My bosses were quick to agree’

was very much an engine guy; speed to him came from low drag. The preoccupation at Porsche at the time was always top speed. Only this time, Porsche had calculated that the 917 should hit 380kph, but in reality it was 60kph shy of that mark.

The 917 made clear that downforce was essential as well.”

One of the improvements Singer came up with for 1971 were the high tail fins. “It was something I’d worked on in the wind tunnel. When I came back to the office, my bosses asked: ‘What’s with the fins? If there is no wing in between, we won’t run it.’ But then I showed them the numbers from the wind tunnel, and how the fins helped with the drag.

My bosses were quick to agree.

“At the same time, John Wyer had come up with a different tail, and Ferdinand Piëch had given the green light to the SERA company in France to experiment with the 917/20.

They had promised Piëch ‘the drag of a long tail and the downforce of a short tail’. When we saw it, it was clear what they had done. To get rid of all the vortexes around the car, they had made it as round as possible. Which is, of course, when Tony Lapine from the Porsche design department started his little joke with the Pink Pig. But when we tried it in the wind tunnel, it was clear the car did have the downforce of a short tail, but the drag was also similar to that of a short tail.

In the end, it didn’t leave much of a mark from a racing point of view. I think Reinhold Joest crashed it in the race in 1971.”

In 1971, all these different 917s were defending the title at Le Mans: the Martini cars, the Gulf brigade from John Wyer, the Pink Pig. In the end, Gijs van Lennep and Helmut Marko put in a record 397 laps in the Martini 917KH with the tail fins, totalling 5335km (3334 miles) with an average of 94

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222.3kph (138.9mph). This distance record stood for 39 years.

Singer says: “But it was also clear at the time that the 917 was finished at Le Mans. I won’t say it was written out of the rules, but what had happened with these sports car rules?

Only two companies, Ferrari and Porsche, were able to come up with the necessary 25 cars… and even in the case of Ferrari there were rumours that it never built 25 cars. It was clear no one else could follow the sports car rules. So the FIA decided to go back to the prototypes, with a 3.0-litre engine. It was obvious the 917 was done at Le Mans, but fortunately it was not yet ready for retirement.”

LEFT Singer honed his skills on the 917, and went on to a long and illustrious career with Porsche Motorsport.

‘With luck, a win was possible against the McLarens. But then you needed to be sure you had at least 700bhp...’

This started a second chapter for the car, with the Interseries on the European continent and, more importantly, Can-Am in the United States. Says Singer: “We’d seen the potential for the 917 in Can-Am with a couple of outings for Jo Siffert in the normally aspirated machine. Maybe the car wasn’t the best tool in the box, but Jo was capable of scoring third and fourth places with it. With luck, a win was possible against the McLarens. But then you needed to be sure you had at least 700bhp to beat the McLarens.”

Before Porsche turned to turbocharging for the 917, another route was explored. “Since there were no rules limiting us, we thought: ‘Why not use a 16-cylinder engine instead of 12-cylinder to get the power?’ So work got underway – but parallel to that, the development on the turbo got going and that grabbed everybody’s attention. Yet we had the 16-cylinder running on the dyno and it showed good power.

I believe that it hit about 700bhp.

“So Mr Bott, who was in charge of development, said: ‘That’s great, put it in a car and take it to the Weissach test track.’ So I went down to the guys in the workshop. They just looked at me: ‘Do you know how much work is involved? We have to cut up the chassis and extend it 30-40cm to make the engine fit. What about driver safety?’ All I could say was: ‘Well, this is what Mr Bott asked me.’

“I went back to my desk, where the telephone was already ringing: ‘Come back, let’s try to make this work.’ When we finally got a car ready for Weissach, it was clear the 16-cylinder was way too heavy and was never going to race. We thought: ‘Let’s do a couple of laps before we take it to the museum.’

After testing, I went back to Mr Bott: ‘This is it, we tested the car but it’s not very stiff. It’s done.’ ‘What’s the laptime?’ he asked me. So I gave him the times and he said: ‘That’s it? With 9 6

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that much power you should have broken the lap record.’

“He insisted, so I had to call Willi Kauhsen, who had just driven back home to Aachen. He wasn’t too happy about it: ‘Why? Why with that car?’ In the end, Willi came back to Weissach. We made a lot of set-ups for Weissach specifically, and finally Willi broke the lap record; one-tenth faster.

Instantly, I went to Mr Bott to tell him the news. His reaction?

‘Excellent… Now put it in the museum.’”

Singer goes on: “For Can-Am, it was clear that the turbo was the way to go. The trouble was getting it to work properly.

Turbocharging existed, but in most cars when the turbo kicked in, the straight was over. It took us some time to get it working properly. It wasn’t perfect, but it was driveable… and good enough to beat the McLarens. In the end, we managed to get 1000bhp for qualifying. But with the 917-30, we also had our aerodynamic work cut out. Once again, it became clear that we were lacking on top speed. During testing at Paul Ricard, we fabricated our own ‘long tail’. We cut the frame, welded some tubes in it, cut some aluminium pieces and put some glassfibre on, and continued testing… with better results.

Today, everybody thinks we were crazy.”

However, even for the Americans 1000bhp was a bit much, and for 1973 the 917 was banned after dominating the 1972 championship with Mark Donohue and the Penske squad. For Norbert Singer, this was just the beginning of a long career at Porsche Motorsport. “For me, at Le Mans I always wanted to know: ‘How is the car feeling at the kink before Mulsanne?’ At first with the 917, it was clear it was difficult. As the 917 improved, I was happy to hear Jackie Oliver say it was flat. Later on, when we debuted the 956 at Le Mans, I asked the same question to Jochen Mass. He looked at me and said: ‘What kink?’”

Thanks to The Porsche Museum, Stuttgart.

00.1.831.430.9940 C A N E PA . C O M

“You Can’t Drive Money” - Jerry Seinfeld

Want to learn more?

To find more pictures and information on our inventory above and to see the rest of our collector vehicles for sale, please visit our website at canepa.com or give us a call at 00.1.831.430.9940.

4900 Scotts Valley Drive, Scotts Valley, CA 95066

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Bugatti’s last works racing car One man dreamed about resurrecting a legendary past marque to create the world’s first hyper GT. He achieved his goal – but putting Bugatti back at the top in motor sport would prove a fantasy too far WOR D S JOH A N N P E T I T PHOTOGRAPHY DERDEHMEL A N D P M I M AG E

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“Something we thought crucial for a marque like Bugatti was racing. It was decided to enter endurance events in the US. These are the races from which a brand can benefit by building better and better cars.” So said Romano Artioli , the former president of Bugatti.

The name Bugatti is inherently linked with motor sport, and Artioli fully understood the importance of racing to the image – and the technical development – of a modern supercar from the brand. But first let’s rewind, back to one of the most remarkable tales in automotive history, that of Bugatti Automobili SpA. It was October 14, 1987 when the sleeping Bugatti marque finally awoke, and it was northern Italian businessman Artioli who became the main investor, visionary and driving force behind the project. His dream? To create the world’s first ‘hyper GT’ – a Bugatti worthy of its name – and to establish a new niche far beyond the characteristics of any supercar then available. The first Bugatti of the post-war period was to be called EB110; named in honour of founder Ettore Bugatti and what would have been his 110th birthday.

Artioli set ambitious benchmarks, and successively motivated his very talented team of professionals to aim even beyond those. The result? A ‘blank-sheet’ state-of-theart engine force fed by four turbochargers, coupled to a 4WD drivetrain and positioned within a carbon-fibre monocoque.

These three DNA strands are still evident in all Bugattis today, from Veyron to Chiron, and Divo to La Voiture Noire.

While it’s widely known that between 1991-95 Bugatti Automobili SpA built 130-odd cars, that seven-times Formula 1 World Champion Michael Schumacher was one of the few

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lucky owners and that Bugatti is today owned by the Volkswagen Group, few are aware of the factory competition programme, which spawned the marque’s last racing cars.

Test driver and developer Loris Bicocchi uses emotional terms (and a wide smile) to describe Bugatti’s plans to tackle some of the world’s most competitive races: “It was amazing.

We were already excited about the road cars, and everything was ambitious, strange, almost crazy – but then the story of Bugatti was crazy from the start, so it sort of made sense.”

What seems strangest of all is that the story of the racing EB110Ss has remained largely undocumented, even though the Bugatti factory played a crucial role in the development of the competition cars – from the 1994 EB110S Le Mans (LM) to the final 1995 EB110S Sport Competizione (SC).

But let’s start at the beginning. The EB110 competition project dates back to 1993, when architect and designer Giampaolo Benedini, himself a keen racer at clubsport level, had a flash of inspiration. He saw an exciting way to enhance the EB110’s desirability and further promote the Bugatti brand – by turning the model into a racing car.

The obstacles were substantial, to say the least. First of all, ABOVE Oh what could have been, had Bugatti’s competition programme continued. OPPOSITE TOP Among the competition accoutrements, race car boasts few vestiges of the EB110’s original luxurious interior. OPPOSITE BOTTOM Quad-turbocharged V12 engine teamed with four-wheel drive sits within Supersport chassis VIN 044.

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the EB110 was – similar to the McLaren F1 – conceived purely as a road car, a hypercar of compact dimensions with a DNA based firmly around safety, driving pleasure and ease of use. It was hardly an ideal starting point for the challenge of transformation into a thoroughbred competition automobile.

In the words of technician Vittorio Filippini (described as being “so in love with his work that it’s almost poetic”): “The race car was an even bigger challenge. Creating a road car with this level of performance was hard enough, but on the track was an entirely new challenge. In some ways we were unprepared, but we didn’t lack enthusiasm and determination.”

What’s more, competitive motor sport on any level requires massive financial funds – the sort of investment the Bugatti factory could ill afford after the astronomical sums already invested in the creation of the EB110 road car. To top it all, a lack of in-house competition experience would demand close partnerships with external suppliers.

Ultimately, Artioli and Benedini took the courageous decision to launch the project anyway, regardless of the difficulties, but to look for powerful partners from the start – partners who could offer both financial and technical support.

In this way, they brought to life yet another chapter of their impossibly daring automotive fairytale.

Michel Hommell, a French media mogul, was keen to enter a Bugatti in the new GT1 category at Le Mans in 1994. Bugatti’s challenge was to complete an EB110 race car in time to contest the legendary 24-hour race, in celebration of the 55th MAGNETO

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anniversary of the last outright Bugatti victory at La Sarthe when, in 1939, drivers Wimille and Veyron swept past the chequered flag in a Type 57C ‘Tank’.

In a remarkable feat, Bugatti – together with two technical partners, Synergie Automobile, led by Lucien Monté, and Meca Système, headed up by Philippe Beloo – managed to take the covers off the 1994 EB110S Le Mans less than 100 days after the project’s inception.

Although that Le Mans 24 Hours race ultimately ended in retirement for the EB110S LM, the whole adventure was hugely positive, demonstrating yet again the sheer romance of the brave Bugatti dream. Having qualified 17th and run as high as sixth, the factory race car made it through to the 23rd hour.

As Bicocchi puts it: “To see the car racing for 23-and-a-half hours was a victory in itself. Even if it stopped half an hour from the finish because of an accident, it was still a victory.”

The development work done in creating a racing EB110 proved the base car’s huge potential. After Le Mans, Bugatti’s Reparto Esperienze put down on paper the vision for an even more competitive racing version of the EB110S, to be named Sport Competizione – the very car on these pages.

In the second half of 1994, entrepreneur Gildo Pallanca Pastor – heir to the wealth of a family of Monégasque property developers – contacted the Bugatti factory. The young man was also a gentleman driver, and had set up his own racing venture, the Monaco Racing Team (MRT).

His plans were ambitious; he wanted to run a GT in the American IMSA Championship (GTS1 Supreme Class), in

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the Global BPR Championship and in the Le Mans 24 Hours, with two cars and the possible option of a third reserve car.

His ideas sparked immediate interest at Bugatti Automobili SpA, where the decision-makers were keen to take competition-car development entirely in-house. Given the arrangements that worked well for the ’94 Le Mans venture, Bugatti commissioned Synergie – this time purely as a subcontractor – for a project known internally as ‘the IMSA’.

A key battle was to reduce the base EB110’s weight. Every component had to be pared to the minimum, from the drivetrain to the mirrors, with each big item of expenditure forwarded to MRT for approval. By January 1995, engineers were also working on the running gear to correct the lack of stability witnessed on the EB110S LM, especially during highspeed braking. The factory was also in discussion with Michelin to determine the tyres’ optimal characteristics.

Sadly, the economic situation at Bugatti Automobili SpA had been deteriorating, and its relationship with various sub-contractors was getting critical. Order intakes were well below target and Bugatti was struggling to maintain cashflow and pay invoices, while the pressure exerted on suppliers by the marque’s competitors resulted in a parts shortage. This tense situation soon disrupted the IMSA project, as Bugatti was confronted with suppliers declining orders or demanding upfront payment. There was no choice but to gradually scale down the Sport Competizione programme.

June 14, 1995 saw the final assembly of the EB110S Sport Competizione, using Supersport chassis VIN 044. The

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PHOTO BY BRUCE B MILLER PHOTO BY DEREK HILL

ABOVE Daytona 1996 saw the EB110S perform well – especially when conditions turned wet.

RIGHT Derek Hill, Olivier Grouillard and Pallanca Pastor had been running sixth overall until technical issues forced MRT’s retirement.

mission had been completed. The EB110S SC was finally ready and weighed in at 1390kg, fully functional, with all fluids and an engine in full race specification equipped with four 27.4mm intake restrictors. It was ready to compete in the American IMSA Championship, and so was immediately shipped to the US for its very first race.

The EB110S SC was entered in the GTS1 (Grand Touring Supreme) class of the Watkins Glen Three Hours at the Lysol 200 Busch NASCAR meeting. It was allocated race #01, while Goodyear tyres replaced the Michelins. The drivers, Pallanca Pastor and ex-Ferrari F1 pilot Patrick Tambay, achieved the 25th-fastest lap in practice, with a time of 2min 01.749sec.

The EB110S SC finished in a strong 19th position overall, but an even more encouraging fifth place in the GTS1 category.

A great performance for a car completed so recently and with significant restraints to both timing and budget. As Tambay would recall many years later: “It was a very, very exciting experience. During the race some drizzle came down, and with our four-wheel drive, it meant the tide turned in our favour. We started to overtake the other cars.”

After that appearance in New York state, the EB110S SC and its protagonists enjoyed a change of scenery at California’s Sears Point Raceway. The event had a short format (only 1hr 45min), so Pallanca Pastor drove alone. He qualified in 22nd at 1min 43.786sec. In the race, despite a puncture, the EB110S SC still finished in a strong sixth in GTS1, and 16th overall.

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qualifying in 2min 09.560sec. Unfortunately, the EB110S SC was retired after 104 laps, following a gearbox issue.

The car was shipped to the factory for repair on September 15, 1995, but a few days later disaster struck. A court-appointed administrator declared Bugatti Automobili SpA bankrupt and, from then on, access to the Campogalliano factory was prohibited and the car temporarily sequestrated. Although action was immediately taken to recover the car, inevitable delays marked the end of the 1995 season for the EB110S SC. For MRT, the IMSA season began again on January 8, 1996, with testing at the Daytona circuit in Florida. The EB110S SC once again had an IMSA-spec engine, and the Bugatti recorded the 16th-fastest time of the day plus – more importantly – the second-fastest time of the GTS1 class. The lap time of 1min 53.247sec missed class pole position by just 0.04sec.

On February 3, the car – bearing race #05 – was driven in the Daytona 24 Hours by Pallanca Pastor, Derek John Hill (son of 1961 F1 World Champion Phil Hill) and Olivier Grouillard. Qualifying went well and the car set a time of 1min 52.611sec, putting it 21st on the grid. As the race began, the tarmac was dry but conditions rapidly turned wet, once again giving the EB110S an advantage as its four-wheel drive propelled it swiftly towards the front of the pack.

By the second hour of the race, the EB110S SC had risen to a startling sixth place overall. Unfortunately, technical (gearbox-related) and electronic problems forced retirement in the seventh hour, after 153 flawless laps.

After Daytona, the car once again returned to Europe, and as Bugatti Automobili SpA had now shut down, work took place at MRT’s Monaco workshops. The Sport Competizione was registered for the 4 Ore GT di Monza BPR Championship round on March 24, 1996, but the car failed to appear. It’s possible that the team was focusing its limited resources on Le Mans, working to prepare for the required pre-qualifying.

For Le Mans, the EB110S SC wore race #62 and the drivers were Pallanca Pastor and Patrick Tambay. The car had evolved aerodynamically, with an even larger rear wing and oversized ducts on the top of the front wings to extract hot air. Mini rear-view mirrors once again gave way to standard EB110 units, and the headlamps were simplified with a single light.

But in Le Mans pre-qualifying, disaster struck. Tambay was gunning it on a timed lap, when the EB110S SC dramatically left the circuit. “It was my mistake,” he would later explain with disarming honesty. “I was surprised by a blue flag, and lifted off too rapidly. The car spun off and hit the tyre wall.”

The French driver was uninjured, but the car was seriously damaged. Even the Bugatti’s super-strong carbon-fibre tub was affected and couldn’t be repaired in time, as MRT didn’t have the necessary parts and the factory was no longer in operation. There was no choice but for the team to withdraw; it was a crushing disappointment.

“The EB110 Supersport could have become a great racing car,” Tambay would say with conviction, many years later. “Its weight was an issue, as was the reliability of the differentials, but with development the results would have been very interesting. I found the car neutral, extremely efficient in terms of its handling, with plenty of power. It was a shame that as a private team, Monaco Racing didn’t have the funds to carry on – but Bugatti was a big adventure for everyone.”

SYDNEY AUSTRALIA

CURRENTLY AVAILABLE: ASTON MARTIN V8 VANTAGE V600 LE MANS ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT8 ASTON MARTIN DB4 BUGATTI VEYRON FERRARI 365 GT4 BB FERRARI 599 GTB FIORANO MERCEDES-BENZ 300 SE CABRIOLET PORSCHE 993 TURBO PORSCHE 996 GT3 RS

SUPPLYING THE WORLD’S FINEST CLASSIC CARS

Rebels at Pebble!

Deuces and Duesenbergs duke it out on the lawn at Pebble Beach Concours WOR D S K E N G RO S S

FOR 69 YEARS, the posh Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance has catered to high-roller owners and highend classics – and many of that crowd looked down their aquiline noses at hot rods. Seen as mongrelised old Fords with transplanted engines, no matter what their provenance, these stripped-down racers were simply not welcome. But after a determined group of Pebble regulars campaigned for an historic hot rod class, at long last, for 1997, Lorin Tryon agreed.

The first class winner was Bruce Meyer’s Doane Spencer 1932 Ford, and – presented in alternate years – old rods have been a hit ever since. This has encouraged collectors to seek out and restore iconic cars. On the lawn, nestled amidst Bugattis and Delahayes, middle-aged fans can drool over the feisty chop jobs that rang their teenage chimes.

The 2019 class? Cover Cars. Here’s why. Although young men were racing on the Californian dry lakes in the 1930s, the sport really took off after the January 1948 arrival of Robert E Petersen’s Hot Rod, the first successful dedicated monthly mag. He understood that this fast-growing sport was more than a haven for thrill-seeking World War Two vets and reckless kids in stripped-down, souped-up Fords, streaking across dry lakes and racing on LA streets.

While ‘hot rod’ was then a pejorative term, the new National Hot Rod Association sanctioned drag strips while organised racing at Bonneville soon made rodding respectable. Magazines sprang up US-wide alongside later Petersen titles such as Rod & Custom and Car Craft. Some of the best rods and customs ever have been the cover cars. To this day, owners will practically kill to be featured on a cover.

Now, historic rods also fetch big money; the unrestored Kookie Kar sold last year for $484,000.

The idea that an old rod can sell for as much as a primo classic is sweet revenge for all those years in the shade. For 2019, Pebble’s Historic Hot Rods Class R spans nearly 50 years; trendsetters, technical marvels and B-movie stars, they all exemplify American auto ingenuity. Hang onto your hats; here’s the Pebble Beach Concours Class of ’19...

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1922 FORD ‘THE KOOKIE KAR’ R O A D S T E R P I C K- U P

1925 FORD ‘TV TOMMY’ IVO R O A D S T E R P I C K- U P

1927 FORD ‘T H E O U T L AW’ ROADSTER

77 Sunset Strip was a popular American TV series in the mid-1950s.

Edd Byrnes played a handsome, jive-talking car jockey named Gerald Lloyd ‘Kookie’ Kookson III, and he drove this radically modified, flame-painted Ford Model T roadster pickup. Boys and girls all over America (I was one of them!), tuned in to watch Kookie vault into the cockpit and peel out with a shriek of rubber and a roar from his car’s four-carb Cadillac V8.

Norm Grabowski, who built the car, starred in a few hot rod B-movies himself, while the iconic Kookie T was featured on the cover of Car Craft in April 1957. Hidden away for 50 years, it’s now been freshly restored at the South San Francisco shop of Roy Brizio – who also builds rods for the likes of Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck. The roadster pick-up is owned by Ross Myers of Boyertown, Pennsylvania, who told me he was one of those kids who wouldn’t miss an episode of that famous TV show.

Tommy Ivo was a car-crazy LA kid who was totally captivated by powerful Buick ‘Nailhead’ V8s and the radical roadster owned

by Norm Grabowski.

Tommy crept into Norm’s driveway on several occasions to take measurements and check out details on the Kookie Kar so he could build his very own version. Ivo’s fuel-injected Buick made his T-bucket a top drag-racing contender – the two cars competed head-to-head many times back in the day.

‘TV Tommy’ went on to star in numerous movies, and parlayed his driving skills into a top-performing career in Buick-powered dragsters.

Ivo also gave Don ‘The Snake’ Prudhomme his start. Concours attendees would see these famous T-buckets reunited after more than 60 years. Ivo’s sassy red roadster graced the cover of Hot Rod magazine in August 1957.

The owner is Jack Rosen, of Riverside, California.

Talented pin-striper, skilled fabricator, consummate showman and occasional clown, Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth marched to the beat of his own zany drum.

He started building conventional hot rods, and then used plaster of Paris, glassfibre and other unusual carconstruction materials to create four-wheeled flights of fancy that were never equalled. When The Outlaw appeared on the cover of Car Craft in January 1960, it was called the Excaliber (sic), and the editors said it was “futuristic yet traditional”.

Some people absolutely loved it; I didn’t get it. It took me years before I began to understand Roth’s artistic approach to hot rodding. His many feature cars, such as the Beatnik Bandit in the National Automobile Museum in Reno, challenged onlookers to dig his creative vision.

The Outlaw is owned by the Petersen Automotive Museum, LA.

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1929 FORD MODEL A ‘EDDIE DYE’ ROADSTER

1932 FORD ‘PHIL COOL/GIL N I C K E L’ R O A D S T E R

1932 FORD ‘THE NICKEL CAR’ ROADSTER

1932 FORD ‘TWEETY BIRD’ ROADSTER

1932 FORD ‘BOB WEINBERG’ ROADSTER

Eddie Dye, who was a successful San Diego construction contractor, commissioned well known East LA customisers Gil and Al Ayala to build a showwinning roadster in 1950.

Much of this lovely car’s painstaking aluminium fabrication work was the work of the legendary Whitey Clayton, still acclaimed as one of the best-ever metal craftsmen. With its moulded panels, track nose, low stance and hot Mercury engine (built by Earl Evans in Whittier), the Eddie Dye roadster was a Hop Up magazine cover car in March 1952.

Over the years, its key components were separated and made into two different roadsters.

It’s been beautifully restored by Circle City Hot Rods, Orange, California, with all the original pieces reunited.

The owners are Thomas and Jim Bobowski, Pompano Beach, Florida.

By the late 1970s, show hot rods were becoming somewhat fantastic, departing from the more traditional-looking cars in a way that alienated many people. So when Phil Cool (love that name!) showed up at the Grand National Roadster Show in Oakland in 1978 with a ’32 Ford highboy, powered by a massive 6-71-supercharged Chevrolet 427, the judges went back to their roots and awarded it the coveted America’s Most Beautiful Roadster nine-foot-tall trophy.

‘Sanity’ had returned to the hot rod world.

The late Gil Nickel (Far Niente Winery) bought the July 1978 Hot Rod magazine cover car and kept it for years before John Mozart acquired it. Quint Meland, from Soquel, California, owns it now, and is showing it in memory of his late wife, Shirley.

When Bob Morris couldn’t buy the legendary Doane Spencer ’32 Ford roadster – the car that won the first historic hot rod class at Pebble Beach in 1997 – he commissioned Don Thelen and an all-star cast of hot rod craftsmen, such as Steve Davis, Ron Covell, Ron Mangus and Pete Eastwood (to name a few), to build a modern-day version of the Spencer Deuce.

Many of the Spencer car’s elegant styling cues were utilised, including a George DuVall-style split windscreen, hairpin wishbones, hand-formed removable hardtop, rolled rear pan and Halibrand knock-off magnesium wheels.

The engine is a full-race Gurney-Weslake Eagle Racing 302ci V8.

All the plating is done in brushed nickel, like a 1920s-era race car, hence the car’s nickname. After a Rod & Custom cover appearance in April 1993, Morris sold the rod to TV personality Tim Allen.

Bruce Meyer, Beverly Hills, California, is the present owner.

This chopped and channelled car was initially built by Jim Govro, of Austin, Texas in the 1950s – and it’s still owned by Govro. He was just 17 when he started this dual-purpose street and drag-racing roadster, and when he was 24 it made the August 1959 cover of Rodding & Re-styling. Its brightyellow finish earned this car the name Tweety Bird after a popular cartoon character in its era. The magazine said “it looks like a canary, but it flies like a hawk”.

Jim didn’t keep his car all those years, but when he had the chance to buy it back, he installed a Cadillac V8 as it had been so-equipped in its heyday. He was assisted in the car’s restoration by the generous work of Keith Tardel of Rex Rod & Chassis, in Johnson City, Texas, and several other hot rod shops.

Racer ‘Big Bill’ Edwards, enlisted famed Indy craftsmen Lujie Lesovsky and Emil Diedt to build a radical lakester for Bob Weinberg, who had campaigned the 1940s Indy 500-winning Blue Crown Specials. This sleek roadster has a streamlined, handcrafted alloy body on a modified 1932 chassis.

For a low silhouette, the supercharger for the fullrace flathead V8, fed by a trio of side-draft Winfield carbs, is located behind the engine, with a series of gears, chains and shafts for the blower drive.

It appeared on the Southern California Timing Association (SCTA) program cover in October 1948, and is now owned and was completely restored by Matt Jones of Goodrich, Texas. Matt owns Re-Originals, Inc., a supplier of parts for Italian exotics.

These eight Historic Hot Rod Cover Cars are the latest chapter in Pebble Beach’s carefully curated hot rod series. Author Ken Gross has been an integral part of this, as has Bruce Meyer, owner of the Nickel Car here.

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‘Just let Dore loose...’

As a top customiser, Rick Dore combines French coachbuilding influence with American attitude – and his clients willingly give free rein to an imagination that knows no bounds

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“I GREW UP in New York city, and in the area I lived there really wasn’t much of an auto scene at all,” recalls pre-eminent custom car builder Rick Dore. “My early connection with cars was through the pages of Hot Rod and Rod & Custom, and when I was a kid I used to cut out the photos of Ed ‘Big Daddy’ Roth and his cars, and Rat Fink, and all that stuff.

“I’m not a trained designer. In fact, I’m not really trained at much of anything,” adds the tallish, ruggedly handsome, deeply tattooed, moustachioed and well spoken early-60sish Dore. He recounts one particular moment that really lit up the whole custom car thing for him: “It was one episode as a young buck. I was driving down Bell Road in Phoenix, 1 1 2

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ABOVE AND OPPOSITE Extreme attention to detail from the mind of master designer and RD Kustoms boss Dore results in exquisite custom builds.

Arizona, when I saw the bitchinest ’50 or ’51 Mercury. It was painted pearl white and was being driven by an Elvislooking kind of guy with the biggest pompadour hairdo I’ve ever seen. He could’ve lowered the sunvisors without using his hands, only just the tip of his huge hair.

“The car was simple and clean, with no flames or

otherwise crazy paint, except it had the word ‘Memories’ lettered on the rear quarter. And something major really clicked for me right then. I followed the guy through several stoplights, waving at him like mad trying to get him to stop so I could talk to him and get a deeper look at that Merc. But he never pulled over – either too busy to mess with some kid trying to waste his time, or thought I was a crazy stalker.”

Over time, Dore has done a lot that ultimately led him to his place as one of the world’s most noted, and in-demand, custom car builders. “I grew up in the 1960s, and came to Berkeley, California, in ’71.” He even put in his time as a truck salesman in order to put beans on the proverbial

‘I’m not into chromed statues that need to be pushed around the garage or a show floor’ table. It wasn’t until the early ’80s that Dore really got into cars: “Initially only for the love of the game. I never guessed or intended for it to be my livelihood.”

In the early 1980s, his first mild custom was a ’56 Buick.

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car meet, in ’85. I don’t think George Barris was there, but Ed Roth, Gene Winfield and Joe Bailon were, and John d’Agostino and Frank De Rosa, too, with fabulous new custom builds – you know, the high priests of custom car building were there just walking around, and those guys, the cars and the scene just knocked me out.”

Dore continues: “I became friends with a lot of those guys, and that’s how I really got started. In 1990 I bought a ’57 Buick and redid it as much as I could. A friend helped me finish it. It was a really radical custom, and we called it Lavender Persuasion [since then, all of Dore’s builds are named]. In 1992 I entered it in the original Oakland Roadster Show, and I was just blown away when they gave me a spot 1 14

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inside the arena with all the big-name cars and builders.” Two years later Dore built another automobile, and by the late ’90s it was two or three at a time. It had become a business.

As mentioned, Dore has no formal design or automotivetechnology training, lamenting that when he was in high school there was no metal-shop class or music programme, or much in the way of vocational education. “But I guess I had a pretty good eye,” which means the boss of RD Kustoms is very much an ‘intuitive designer’. Early in his car-building career he pretty much did it all, including “all kinds of hot rods, Model As, and the ’32, ’34, and ’36 Fords.”

Taking nods from those “high priests of custom car building”, he began to develop his own style. Looking at

ABOVE AND OPPOSITE Dore works with top craftsmen in custom industry to create bespoke panel work, luxury interiors and trade mark touches.

‘Besides the great carrosseries, Dore gives much credit to the American Art Deco designers’

today’s high-concept, high-dollar “from the tyres up” Dore custom builds, it’s easy to recognise his influences. “No question that the great French coachbuilders, because of their sense of line, curve, style and proportion, deeply influence a lot of what I do. But mine are not copies – each has an American attitude about them. And every car we build is a driver. A few of them have high-performance powertrains, but all of them at least run and drive easily and comfortably. I’m not into chromed statues that need to be pushed around the garage or a show floor.”

Besides the great carrosseries such as Figoni et Falaschi, Franay and others like them, Dore also gives much credit to the American Art Deco-era designs and designers. He has great appreciation for the shapes of cars such as the Lincoln Zephyr, Chrysler Airflow and this or that Duesenberg.

He’s no longer chopping the roofs off old Buicks or hot rodding original ’36 Fords, in that nearly every masterpiece that rolls out of RD Kustoms is done on commission, and from the ground up. His clientele, as you’d guess, comprises serious and wealthy types, and prior to one piece of metal being cut or shaped, a considerable amount of discussion and ideation goes on to get a feel for what the client wants.

Some have specific ideas about what their car should be, others are more than content to just “let Dore loose” on the job. He works with a designer, based in Florida, who does the actual drawing to Rick’s spec and philosophy. As the design is being finalised, every car is ultimately sketched onto huge full-scale drawings so they can “see the car full size on the wall, and stand back and stare at it”. This is how MAGNETO

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so many great American concept cars and prototypes were done in the days before computer-aided design.

Dore is happy to create closed or open cars, many of the latter with elegantly styled removable hardtops.

The wheelbases are often long, to help stretch out the proportions and give that elegant, classic look. Once the wheelbase and other body/chassis hardpoints are finalised, Dore and his team commission a chassis from Art Morrison Enterprises, one of the world’s best and most experienced custom chassis producers. Morrison provides a structurally rigid, heavy-duty, all-steel chassis custom fabricated to Dore’s exact measurements and needs, each fully equipped with modern suspension, brakes and steering.

How similar are Rick Dore customs to the great cars of the coachbuilt era? Philosophically, far more than one might guess. “Think about it,” Dore explains. “Back in the day, you went to Delahaye or Bugatti or Duesenberg, and bought a chassis that came with a complete engine and drivetrain, floors, a grille – which established the frontal aspect of the car – a firewall and pedals. Then your designer and coachbuilder of choice built the rest to your taste.

We do the same.” He’s not wrong. And the quality is superlative; these creations are absolutely jewel like in terms of paint, materials and finish.

For the custom body builds, Dore turned initially to the late Marcel De Lay, whose son has since taken over the business. “Marcel was the best body builder ever. No matter how complicated the design, Marcel could make it work, and do so while other guys were still standing around with a pencil and a tape measure.” Besides exceptionally highquality body and panel work, something that makes De Lay creations so unique is that panels are hand formed around metal bucks, which are welded up primarily of boxed-steel tubing – this is old-school custom car building at its very highest levels. Aluminium has become the most common metal used for these bespoke machines, although some still rely on varying amounts of steel for certain panels.

What you won’t find in a Dore creation is a wheezy old flathead inline-six for power. Part of the American attitude in each one is a modern, Yankee V8 powertrain. Some of the cars run small-block Fords, while most of the more recent builds are powered by computer-controlled General Motors 5.7, 6.0 and 6.2-litre all-aluminium OHV V8s with modern fuel injection, backed by a four, five or six-speed automatic transmission. “These new motors run so great, put out plenty of power and are easy to tune,” says Dore. “Our cars aren’t thinly disguised drag racers like so many customs and rods, and we want them to drive easily and smoothly for the owner, with respectable street power.”

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ABOVE Stunning silver Aquarius cabriolet was built for Metallica’s James Hetfield, who owns a half-dozen or so RD Kustoms creations.

Window frames and metal trim are hand formed, usually of copper or brass, and then plated or polished. Nearly every other bit of jewellery you see is bespoke, and cast or individually machined for each build. All instrumentation is equally bespoke. And the interior materials are hand stitched, using the very richest carpeting and butteriest leather you can imagine.

Dore has become friends with most of his wealthy clients, and doesn’t like to bandy their names about. However, one particularly high-profile customer/friend is Metallica front man and guitarist James Hetfield, who owns the Bugattiesque coupé, Black Pearl, and the fabulous Aquarius silver cabriolet in our photos. These cars were specifically built for Hetfield, who counts them among another half-dozen or so Dore creations. Dore has also built cars for the late John O’Quinn, an attorney and mega-collector from Texas.

Rick Dore is highly intelligent, articulate, a dedicated artist and a serious businessman. At the same time, he’s equally passionate about cars, his craft, his clients, his family and the custom car world. He’s also friendly and engaging, happy to sit around and talk cars with young kids or the old masters of car building and hot rodding.

Bespoke elegance and beauty seldom come cheap; Dore estimates that über-high-end builds as featured here will cost around $475,000 for the next client who walks in his door and asks him to build one “just for them”. Carefully examine any of these cars, with magnifying glass, microscope or your gentle touch, and you’ll see and feel where every penny has been invested.

If you must have a custom of your very own, you can follow up with Rick directly at www.redleylamar.com.

At the famous Newport Pagnell factory, we have unsurpassed expertise to service, repair and restore Aston Martins. The same knowledge and passion lives on through our sales showrooms – including newly-opened 8 Dover Street in London’s Mayfair.

1954 DB2/4 SALOON

1964 DB5 SALOON

1968 DB6 VANTAGE SALOON

1974 AMV8 SALOON

One owner from January 1955 to May 2006. Acquired by Aston Martin Lagonda in 2006 and showcased at our Headquarters in Gaydon. Re-trimmed by Aston Martin Works in 2018. Supplied with a one-year warranty.

Silver Birch with Black interior. Over £100,000 has been recently invested on a major overhaul which includes engine components, interior re-trim, a respray, new wheels and tyres and more.

Supplied with a one-year warranty.

Olive Green with Natural leather.

Factory RHD Vantage and demonstrator when new. Exceptional history file and original colours. Only five owners with the last for nearly 40 years. Supplied with a one-year warranty.

Cornish Gold with Fawn leather. Original colours and RHD steering. Boasts a comprehensive history file containing copies of many maintenance invoices from 1976 and most MOT certificates from 1988. Supplied with a one-year warranty.

£295,000

£795,000

£495,000

£129,950

1978 AMV8 SALOON

1979 AMV8 VOLANTE

1995 V8 VANTAGE V550

2000 V8 VANTAGE V600 LE MANS

Original colours of Madagascar Brown and Fawn leather. Accompanied by a superlative history file including original service books, most MOT certificates, copies of V5 registration documents and maintenance invoices. Supplied with a one-year warranty.

Windsor Red with Magnolia leather.

Original colours and RHD steering. Very good history file to support just 47,500 miles.

New roof recently fitted by Aston Martin Works. Only six owners, the last for 24 years.

Supplied with a one-year warranty.

Brewster Green with Fawn leather. Original colours and RHD steering. Only 16,000 miles from new with just three owners.

Comprehensive Aston Martin Works service history. Supplied with a one-year warranty.

Bowland Black with Cream and Black piping interior. Chassis 37 of 40. A beautiful example befitting the meticulous care of previous owners. Extensive and detailed service history. 5-speed manual.

Supplied with a one-year warranty.

£155,000

£225,000

£245,000

£495,000

RESTORATION

TRIM

SALES

SERVICE

BODY WORK

PARTS

Tickford Street, Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire MK16 9AN | 8 Dover Street, Mayfair, London W1S 4LF Tel: +44 (0)1908 610 620 | Email: enquiry@astonmartin.com | www.astonmartinworks.com

D I G I TA L T EC H

AS THE PLANET goes digital, should we simply take refuge in our analogue world of classic cars, stubbornly savouring delicious thoughts of carburettor tweaks, oilstained Haynes manuals and the English wheel? Or should we embrace the changes and harness the power of digital to solve analogue problems?

What sort of problems are we talking? Most obviously, there’s the accurate, affordable creation of obsolete parts, from minor engine components to entire bodies. But there’s also digital archiving, to record the form of a valuable car or individual components in case of future accident damage, and the computer analysis of an engine that’s always been known for, say, overheating or blowing head gaskets.

In the same vein, aerodynamic modelling of an historic race car might reveal why it’s prone to leaving the track at high speed, or could simply aid a team or amateur driver learning how to set up such a machine without resorting to potentially dangerous experimentation on the track.

Welcome to the world of digital engineering, a huge boon for every age of car and for every genre of preparation and restoration. Its use in the historic auto world is a long way from being widespread, but we talked to one of the leaders in the field, KW Special Projects. The founders of this Bicester Heritage-based UK company started using digital engineering in early-1990s BTCC touring-car development, and the firm has since worked with Le Mans and Formula 1 cars, winter Olympics teams, cyclist Chris Boardman and even top-flight artists. More recently, its KW Heritage division has been applying the same expertise to historic cars.

D I G I TA L A R C H I V I N G Let’s begin here, because it’s the centre point for all digitalengineering jobs and, as KW Special Projects co-founder Kieron Salter says: “By definition, digital assets don’t exist for classic cars.” In fact, until the mid-1990s, all engineering drawings were two-dimensional, either committed to paper or, from the 1980s-on, sometimes created using 2D computer-aided design (CAD).

Basic 3D CAD systems emerged in the car world in the mid1990s, although it took a few years for such modelling to become prevalent. Trouble is, the original file formats of those early systems are generally no longer accessible, so a part of the work that, say, KW does is to work with old file formats, and

WOR D S DAV I D L I L LY W H I T E

also to ensure that more recent files are regularly updated and converted to contemporary formats, otherwise they’ll become useless. “You can’t keep a file for ten years then expect to use it, unfortunately,” says Kieron. “The information is still valid, but you have to keep opening it and updating it.”

What about creating these digital assets in the first place, though, given that there never will have been a 3D CAD model of, say, a Blower Bentley’s supercharger housing, an Alfa TZ1 headlamp nacelle or a Porsche 917 suspension hub? That’s where scanning comes in…

3D SCANNING Imagine a 3D image of your car, or a part of your car, that can be turned around to any angle on the computer screen.

To achieve it, the vehicle or part in question is scanned by specialist equipment. This costs thousands – KW’s top-level hand-held scanner is around £50,000, for example, and there are also purpose-made car bodywork scanners available.

Using a hand-held unit for a smaller item, the surface being scanned has to be covered with adhesive dots. These are each set around 150mm apart on relatively flat surfaces, closer on more complicated shapes. From this, the scanner is used to take multiple ‘pictures’, ensuring that at least three of the dots are visible in every take, ideally in a triangular shape. For an entire car, this process takes a few hours. It’s accurate to 0.01mm over a square metre, or 0.04mm over a cubic metre.

Using specialist software, these pictures are stitched together, the dots being used to create reference points to map the positions of each picture. The resultant information creates a Tron-style mesh file of the scanned item, which looks impressive but is actually quite useless without considerable further manipulation.

So now comes the interesting part: the process of creating a workable shape from the data produced. It’s worth noting that this process isn’t required until there’s a need to create a physical part from the data or to analyse the component in question – so the data could remain in this early form as a record of the car or component until further work is required, an insurance policy if you like.

If it is needed, the 3D data captured this far is digitally surfaced, to create a meaningful CAD model of the vehicle or component. This is a skilled operation, the first stage of which is auto-surfacing, which interprets the scan data and allows

OLD CARS, NEW TECH

Technology moves ever faster, but rather than being a threat to the world of historic cars, it can aid parts replacement, reduce costs and improve safety

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‘Digital engineering is a huge boon for every age of car and for every genre of preparation and restoration’

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the engineer to create an accurate 1:1 scale 3D model of a high-enough quality for, say, a suspension arm but not necessarily for a curved body panel. From that point, there are mathematical tools to progress towards what is known as A-class surfacing, but human intervention is still needed to create a digital model that appears realistic. The trick, particularly with bodywork models, is to translate the data into something that captures the light in the same way that the human eye sees it.

Within this art form, though, common sense and deep engineering know-how are also required. The scan may have picked up the edges of old decals or minor damage to a panel, so these need to be smoothed out. But what if the component is more badly damaged? How should it have looked? And can it still be produced in the form it was originally made?

Edward Smith, who heads the KW Heritage division, cites the case of a damaged engine cover, which incorporates a bearing and oil seal. The engineer working with the 3D model needs to research how the cover looked before it was damaged, and work out whether there are direct replacements available for the bearing and seal. Even if there are, should they be replaced with modern, reliable equivalents? And should the case itself be made stronger to prevent a repeat of the damage that had destroyed the original? Even for a simple part, deep engineering knowledge is needed.

An external scan of bodywork might not show the underside or ‘B surfaces’, either, such as any interfaces, the internal strengthening or the hinges. More work is needed to establish those. For a component, are there internal galleries that can’t be scanned externally? In some cases X-rays and CT scans, like those used in the medical world, may be required. They’re more specialist skills but might reveal crucial information.

V I R T UA L M O D E L L I N G Once that 3D CAD model is produced, there’s much that it can be used for. Two of the most useful tools that can be applied are Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Sorry about all the acronyms, by the way...

Finite Element Analysis allows the computer to take the 3D virtual model and analyse how it would react to real-world forces such as those encountered when cornering or braking, or the effects of fatigue through vibration. Imagine using that to work out why a component is failing, or if a replacement part you’re about to create will be strong enough.

CFD, meanwhile, is the computer modelling of airflow, heat or fluid flow around or through an object. It can even be used

ABOVE Alfa 33 was scanned and digitally surfaced to create a 3D CAD model as security in case it’s damaged while racing.

to model how molten metal will flow through a mould during the casting process, to ensure that the metal will be evenly distributed – and hence uniformly strong.

Once again, CFD is an incredibly useful tool, and Kieron has used it in the past to analyse why F1 and, particularly, Le Mans cars have been prone to flip up into the air, such as the infamous Mercedes incidents during the 1999 24 Hours.

Want to know why they do? Through CFD, it was found that with many cars, the problem came when they got out of shape, sliding sideways at high speed. With sloping sides and a flat floor, the shape the sideways-sliding vehicle presented into the airflow was that of an aerofoil or wing, so the car would generate unwanted lift as it slid further out of control…

Through CFD, the solution was to specify a stepped floor into the regulations, in order to break up that crude wing shape.

As for the flying Mercedes, it was all about excessive suspension movement allowing the nose to lift over a peak in the track. This then created ever-increasing aerodynamic lift as the front gained ever-more height – until so much of the underside was exposed that the force of the air on the floor flipped the car right over.

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1981 Williams FW07-D16 Cosworth DFV The penultimate FW07 built, and driven to Victory at Caesar’s Palace by Alan Jones as well as finishing on the podium on another 3 occasions when driven by Jones or Carlos Reuterman. In addition this is the only Williams that was raced by Mario Andretti when he drove the car in a one off appearance at Long Beach in 1982. This car was also used

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D I G I TA L T EC H

For historic race machines, the 3D model can be manipulated to model the suspension height and spoiler adjustments that the cars allow in the real world. In their day, the teams would have been able to experiment with these settings, sometimes in a wind tunnel. However, there will be less chance to do so now, and less accumulated knowledge on how the car will react to changes – and what might cause it to become unstable. “Getting the set-up wrong can be a massive issue,” maintains Kieron.

For road cars, particularly those that have been modified, CFD can aid performance and stability – and you only have to look at Singer’s work with its Design and Lightweighting Study of the classic 911 to see the advantages that aerodynamic optimisation can bring. But CFD can also be used to analyse engine cooling by looking at the flow of air through the engine bay, or the cooling of other components such as the brakes, clutch or further transmission parts.

C R E AT I N G PA R T S So all this goes towards the end product; making the required parts. This might be done by directly 3D printing (which is sometimes referred to as ‘additive manufacturing’) the required components, but more traditional manufacturing techniques can benefit from digital engineering as well.

3D printing is the technology of building three-dimensional objects layer by layer. There are a number of different methods: Fused Deposition Modelling builds parts layer by layer by melting plastic and extruding it; binder jetting uses ink-jet technology to deposit a binder fluid onto a layer of powder and building it up; Metal Laser Sintering or Selective Laser Bed Fusion uses a laser to melt a layer of metal powder to build up components.

It’s an incredibly useful tool to directly create one-off or low-volume parts without having to produce moulds, or to engage a foundry or injection-moulding specialist – but it’s also invaluable in making moulds that can then be used to create a product by more traditional methods.

Consider an engine part that was originally cast alloy. It might well have been sand-cast – that is, creating a pattern of the shape required, using that to make a mould in sand and then pouring molten metal into the sand. But how about 3D printing the sand mould itself, direct from the CAD data of the component required? That’s now entirely possible, and saves a couple of labour-intensive steps in the process. If the shape of the component needs to be altered slightly, it’s much less work to alter or reprint the mould. The beauty is that the

ABOVE Hand-held scanner can scan anything from an engine part to a full body. Engine cover was created from a CAD model.

component will look the same as the original, because it will still be sand-cast in the same material.

Or think of those awkward hollow shapes, such as ducting or fluid pipes, that would normally have needed to be made in two pieces then joined, because the internal mould would otherwise be permanently stuck inside the object being produced. Now a male mould can be 3D printed in dissolvable material, allowing the component to be laid up in carbonfibre or glassfibre in one piece – stronger, less labour intensive – and then washed out of the component once it’s cured.

So this isn’t a way of replacing traditional manufacturing skills; it’s more about making those skills more accessible and affordable. This counts for panel making, too, because jigs and bucks can be more easily produced through 3D printing, and scan data can be used to ensure that the shapes produced are correct. There’s a real satisfaction in seeing high tech being used to enhance the use of the English wheel, for example – and that’s proving a great incentive for apprentices to get more involved with these traditional skills.

But, of course, 3D CAD models can also be fed into computercontrolled CNC lathes, milling machines and the like for more automated production of higher-volume components – once again improving accuracy and decreasing costs.

So the message is, don’t fear the new technology. We’ve not even mentioned the scanning of potentially weakened carbonfibre or the adaptation of obsolete engine-management systems – more of that coming soon – but it’s clear that if you harness digital engineering in the right ways, then cars that might have been left laid up through lack of parts or, worse, driven in unsafe states, can now be made usable and safe.

Embrace the new!

Thanks to KW Special Projects, www.kwspecialprojects.com.

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Main PHOTOGRAPH: RéMI dargegen

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F I NE C A RS / / r es to r ati on // r ac e prepa r ati on // R A RE pa rts

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WOR D S JOHAN DILLEN PHOTOGRAPHY D I R K D E JAG E R

By evoking the spirit of the Stratos with an entirely roadable, Ferrari-based homage

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to the legendary Lancia, Italy’s Manifattura Automobili Torino whisks the driver

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straight back to the golden era of rallying. It’s a journey you’ll never want to end...

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imagine what it was like to have competed for two days, had just two hours of sleep then change to a fresh set of overalls, only to jump into a car stinking like shit for another two days and a night?” Piero Sodano, one of Sandro Munari’s codrivers in the Lancia Stratos, paints a raw picture of how rallying used to be in the ‘glorious’ 1970s. Driving day and night, testing the endurance of both car and crew.

“Maybe that’s how rallying really should be,” I think, as a long day in the company of the New Stratos draws to a close.

We finish off at night in the magnificent Forte di Fenestrelle, a former fortress outside Turin that guards the border between Italy and France. The scenery is reminiscent of the Sintra night stages in the old TAP rally in Portugal. During the day, we’ve encountered all the conditions of a typical Monte Carlo event. Even though it’s mid-April and spring is just around the corner, the mountains have given us snow and ice. All I long for is driving, driving and more driving.

“That is pretty much why I’m in this game,” the New Stratos’ creator Paolo Garella tells me from behind the wheel. “I want to make the cars I want to drive.” Which is also what Ferry Porsche said when he started his eponymous brand, I comment. “And it goes for others as well,” l’Ingegnere Garella replies with the faintest of smiles.

Garella isn’t a designer, and he’s definitely not a marketing man. He’s a guy driven by a desire to make his mark and leave a legacy behind. Definitely from a vintage mould – but what else would you expect from a man born and raised in Turin, with a degree in mechanical engineering to boot? Garella now heads up his own company, Manifattura Automobili Torino (MAT), after stints at Pininfarina and with Jim Glickenhaus.

He was responsible for the P4/5 while at Pininfarina, and for the production of the Glickenhaus SCG003 with MAT. While still at Pininfarina, Garella also oversaw the recreation of the Lancia New Stratos on behalf of German enthusiast Michael Stoschek. Starting in 2008, this project was based around a Ferrari F430 Scuderia. Stoschek – a Stratos fan and owner – always wanted a limited production run for this car, but somehow it never happened. Just one black New Stratos was delivered to Stoschek in 2010, and that was that… for then.

“We had a great run with Jim,” Garella recounts. “With the P4/5 Competizione we ended up 12th in the Nürburgring 24 Hours – still the best result for a hybrid in that race. In 2013, we started SCG [Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus] with 1 26

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ABOVE Barrelling through snow-covered wastes towards Italy’s 2178-metre Colle delle Finestre, New Stratos evokes memories of the Monte rally.

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‘THE SPIRIT OF THE NEW P R O J E C T WA S T O R E P L I C AT E THE FEELING YO U GE T F ROM T H E O R I G I N A L’

‘ YO U CA N P L AC E I T TO THE MILLIMETRE. IT’S INCREDIBLE HOW CLOSE Y O U C A N S H AV E T O T H E APEX IN THE CORNERS’

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ABOVE Riding on Bilstein suspension, New Stratos feels nimble and well balanced. Huge tyres give all the grip you need, but steering is light and precise.

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MAT. If you consider the fact that we started from scratch, we got incredible results. We got pole position for the Nürburgring 24 Hours, for instance. Jim meanwhile decided to bring the next chapter of SCG to the United States. We got on with a new project for Apollo, but then we came to a crossroads for MAT; find a new business or close the shop. At that time – December 4, 2017 – the New Stratos came back into my mind.

So I returned to Michael Stoschek. He was very happy to hear from me, and we jump-started the old project again. Michael owns the rights to the Stratos name, and he licenced us the rights to build 25 production cars and three prototypes.”

Garella continues: “The New Stratos is the right project to show what we are capable of. The Stratos is so strong, it’s a brand in its own right. That is why you don’t see any MAT badges on the finished models. We wanted to create a car for the road, not for the track. L’anima dell’progetto – the spirit of the new project – was to replicate the feeling you get from the original Stratos. More than recreating the look, we wanted to make you understand what the Stratos was when it came out.

It was an avant-garde project at the time. The car looks outrageous for rallying, but if you study it more closely you see it evolved around a buggy concept; mid-engined and with big wheels. Actually, everyone involved in the creation of the Stratos became a legend in the industry.”

Just as with the 2010 car, a Ferrari F430 (preferably from the final series) or F430 Scuderia needs to be sacrificed in order to create a New Stratos. To get the original proportions right, MAT cuts 20cm out of the wheelbase before the reassembly is carried out with all the new carbon body parts.

All the work is done by hand, of course, with the full transformation taking between three and five months.

“We use a steel structure on the chassis that is bonded between the interior and the body,” Garella explains. “A roll cage is integrated, which is visible in the back but not in the interior, where it stays out of view behind a carbon structure. We have done a full homologation process for the New Stratos, including new virtual crash tests for German and Swiss authorities. The roll cage means our model is 30 percent stiffer than an F430.

The car also weighs some 100kg less, at about 1300kg.”

He continues: “Through remapping, the 4.3 V8 puts out close to 500bhp. In combination with a different exhaust, we can provide 540bhp… but then you are not welcome in some countries. We concentrated on getting more torque at lower revs, in order to have a more driveable car. The New Stratos is not about top speed, it’s about driving. We have changed the air intake completely, and ended up with ten percent more torque. The suspension is changed to a Bilstein system, which is different from the Sachs set-up that was used for Michael’s example. It has a lift system that raises the front by 3cm.”

The car you see here is the first prototype, based around an F430 with an automated six-speed single-clutch ‘flappypaddle’ gearshift. At March’s Geneva Motor Show, MAT MAGNETO

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LEFT AND BELOW Remapping the Ferrari V8 extracts 500bhp and ten percent more torque than standard.

MAT’s Paolo Garella shows what the New Stratos is capable of.

‘TO GET THE ORIGINAL P R O P O R T I O N S R I G H T, M AT C U T 2 0 C M O U T O F THE WHEELBASE BEFORE R E A S S E M B LY W I T H A L L N E W C A R B O N B O D Y PA R T S ’

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showed the second prototype; a blue model with a six-speed manual gearshift destined for the US. The first finished car, an Alitalia-liveried model for a German client, was also on display. MAT now has two right-hand-drive F430s coming in for transformation. “And we have some ten serious leads since Geneva, next to the six contracts that were already signed.”

For prices, you are looking at around €550,000 for the transformation, excluding taxes… and the F430.

Just by looking at the New Stratos, your pulse rate starts climbing. It has all the characteristics of the original, despite the newcomer being wider and longer. Inside, it boasts a bespoke dash, even though you can still recognise the F430 layout. The steering wheel remains the same, with the characteristic manettino already pre-set in race mode. Together with the helmet pockets in the doors and four-point Sparco harnesses in the carbon bucket seats, this is a sign of things to come.

Garella is driving, and already I want to shout pace notes to him. Through the big windscreen, you look down on the two wheel covers sticking out. The small side windows limit your view of the door mirrors. This car is fully forward focused.

Fast forward even. Garella has just returned from doing the San Remo rally in this car, and he’s still smiling at the memories: “You can place it to the millimetre. It’s incredible how close you can shave to the apex in the corners.”

We have Colle delle Finestre (2178 metres) set as our destination, leaving MAT’s Rivalta di Torino base in sunny, spring conditions. But as we draw nearer the top, conditions become more Monte Carlo-like; tight and twisty, with white flocks appearing near the side of the road. The temperature drops to freezing point, and the white flocks become solid snow heaps. The higher we climb, the more I start to doubt whether the Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres are the right choice.

I’m driving now, and confidence comes quickly. The New

A collection of significant

Lancia Works Rally Cars Coming soon

T E L : 01249 76 0 6 8 6 • T H E H A I R P I N C O M PA N Y.C O. U K T H E H A I R P I N C O M PA N Y C O M P TO N B A S S E T T W I LT S H I R E S N11 8 R H

LEFT AND BELOW Forte di Fenestrelle is a dramatic backdrop.

Cabin is bespoke but F430 steering wheel gives the game away.

‘IT’S EASY TO GET C A R R I E D A WA Y B Y T H I S N E W S T R AT O S . I T ’ S S I M P L E T O P I L O T, B U T R E M A I N S R E WA R D I N G F O R A PA S S I O N AT E D R I V E R ’

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Stratos makes clear that it’s ready and willing to play from the start. A deep bass echoes through the cabin at low revs, a typical carbon airbox overlaying the engine noise. Only at 4000rpm does a mechanical sound become more prominent in the back. This symphony urges you on to make more use of what’s available. Its 5000rpm becomes 8500rpm before play stops. It’s wild, it’s wicked and, above all, it’s entirely driveable.

Much more than an F430, this New Stratos feels nimble and so well balanced. With 265/30 19-inch tyres up front and huge 305/30 20-inchers at the back, it has all the grip you need. The steering is light and precise, and once you’re committed to a line, the car follows. You can fully concentrate on the road. I’m in driver heaven.

It’s easy to get carried away by this New Stratos. It’s simple to pilot, but remains rewarding for a passionate driver. Thanks to the carbon stoppers you can brake deep into the corners.

With tyres this size, the car needs real provocation in order to become unsettled. The only downside are the slower gearshifts, the one area where this project shows its age. I’d definitely prefer the purity of a manual. The F430 Scuderia offers the benefit of faster changes, but it requires a bigger investment.

The snow heaps are becoming even deeper. Even though the road has been cleared, we decide to approach the final part of the route with a bit more care. We don’t want to register a DNF here, and anyhow, a ‘chiuso’ – ‘closed’ – sign ends play close to the summit. I bring the car to a stop, with the next stage already on my mind. So I turn it around, and point it down the long road back to base. Go! I want to guide it down through the night, into the next stage, and the next. Where are the campfires, and the spectators throwing snow on the road?

And more importantly, where’s my co-driver calling my notes?

Thank you to Forte di Fenestrelle (www.fortedifenestrelle.it) for opening up after hours.

How to stack shelves tastefully Collecting motoring books can become a deeply satisfying pastime in its own right. Here we guide you through the most desirable examples W O R D S DAV I D L I L LY W H I T E P H O T O G R A P H Y M AT T H O W E L L

THE BOOKS PICTURED

here range in value from £135 to £25,000, but unless you really know your stuff, it would be nigh on impossible to assign values to each one.

Which title here would count as one of the holy grails of book collecting? It’s far from obvious until you really know.

And actually, value isn’t what book collecting is about. It’s for finding out more on the subjects you’re passionate about, and it’s also for the thrill of the chase and the joy of tracking down or discovering a book you’d heard of but never before seen.

A comprehensive library can be built up in the space that it takes to store a single car. An iconic book can be bought for under £100. Hunting grounds are everywhere, from motoring book specialists to charity shops.

All the books here are straight off the shelves at Hortons Books (www.hortonsbooks.co.uk), which was established in 1997.

An example of just about every really special motoring book will have passed through the company at some point, and many specialist libraries have been compiled by the team.

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MOTORING

LEFT These books from Hortons’ shelves represent spreads of era, condition, price and rarity that make motoring books collectible. Some go in and out of fashion, yet there are some classics that are almost a must for every collector. Signed copies are great, but only if the

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signature is relevant – and ideally added in period. The presence of the original dust wrapper is often just as important – and relatively recent books such as Bentley Eight Litre can be as desirable as a 1930s publication for the quality and the limited numbers printed.

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OPPOSITE AND ABOVE The Boys’ Life of Sir Henry Segrave, by Malcolm Campbell and Wentworth Day, 1930s. As with many early books there’s no date of publication in this edition, but what makes it stand out is that the dust wrapper is still intact – a rarity on a book that is otherwise not too difficult to find. It was published after racer and record breaker Segrave had died, aged 33, in June 1930, and this one is signed by Segrave’s wife and dedicated to his schoolmaster at Eton. As such, it’s worth around £225.

ABOVE Nuvolari, by Renato Tassinari, 1930. The first-ever book written about Tazio Nuvolari, when he was best known for motorcycle racing. The year of publication was his first full year of racing cars (he won the Tourist Trophy and the Mille Miglia).

The pages are rough cut and very delicate, but it’s a gem of a book, worth around £350.

RIGHT Piloti, Che Gente..., by Enzo Ferrari, 1989. This is the fifth edition of Ferrari’s recollections of drivers he knew. Normally it would be worth £200 or less, but this particular example was signed by 28 top-level drivers, including four world champions; there’s Lauda, Berger, Arnoux, Tambay, Surtees, Ickx, Phil Hill, Stewart, Gonzalez, Redman and many more – and so it’s worth £1000s.

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LEFT Rapiditas Volume 5, 1923. There were nine editions of Rapiditas, documenting the Targa Florio from 1906 to 1930.

Volumes 1, 2 and 3 are rare, but it’s volumes 4, 5 and 9 that are the most difficult to find, and hence worth tens of thousands each; volume 5 costs £25,000 alone. Why? For the subject matter, but also production quality; they’re superbly printed, with huge fold-out tables of results. All nine make for one of the most desirable sets of auto books ever, worth £100k-plus.

Early Ferrari yearbooks have a similar appeal.

RIGHT AND OPPOSITE Autocourse 1962/63. The only periodical that has run since the beginning of Formula 1. The first was published in 1951, and continued initially as a quarterly, with text in English, French, German and Italian. From 1959 it went to annual, and to a hardback from the 1961/62 edition. From 1963, the year’s world champion would write the foreword, a tradition that continues to this day. Values vary, but this edition with Barry Rowe cover is worth £750.

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LEFT Aston Martin: The Story of a Sports Car, by Dudley Coram, 1957. There was a time when this cult book was nigh on impossible to find, because no one ever let go of it. Now a few come up, usually through their owners passing away.

It’s one of the first books on Aston Martin, and a great read, absolutely of its time. The colourful dust wrapper tends to fade badly – this one is unusually good, and hence worth around £135.

LEFT The Cobra Story,

by Carroll Shelby and Lyle Kenyon Engel, 1965. The first of so very many books published on the Shelby Cobra. There was a later version of this book, published by Motorbooks International, but this early edition is more desirable, not least because of its striking dustwrapper design. This example has been signed

by Shelby, giving it a value of around £450. Unsigned, it would be more like £175.

ABOVE Liebe Zu Ihm,

by Hermann Lapper, 1960.

‘Love for the Porsche’ was the first book to be published by the Porsche factory. It covers the period from 1950-60 (the early Zuffenhausen years), with text in five languages: German, English, French, Italian and Spanish. It’s the phenomenal photography that has given the book its

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cult appeal, though, documenting the 356 in a uniquely period and rather unusual style – and almost all in superbly reproduced colour. Why was a 356 photographed with a young lady and a fluffy bunny? Who knows!

But it’s fun. Of course, being Porsche, Liebe Zu Ihm is highly collectible, and likely to be worth around £2500.

LEFT Der Kraftfahrsport Im Neuen Deutschland,

by Adolf Meurer, 1935. As with anything connected with 1930s Germany, it can be hard to separate the good from the truly evil. It’s no different with Der Kraftfahrsport, which perfectly documents the Nazi-funded Auto Union and Mercedes-Benz Silver Arrows in grand prix racing, as well as the motorcycle racing of the time. With its rare dust wrapper, it’s worth £1250.

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ABOVE Full Throttle,

by Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin, 1933. It’s a true classic, Full Throttle; one of those books – like Duncan Hamilton’s Touch Wood or Innes Ireland’s All Arms and Elbows – that describes a long-lost era of motor racing. Bentley Boy Birkin was as gung-ho as you’d expect, but observant

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and thoughtful with it.

His description of the Nürburgring, right down to the habits of spectators there, is brilliant. This second edition (published after Birkin’s death), is rare in still having its evocative original cover.

It’s priced at £225, but you’ll find less collectible copies for under £100.

BELOW 24 Heures du Le Mans 1922-1992, by Moity, Teissèdre and Bienvenu, 1992. Even putting the excellent content aside for a moment, these are superbly produced books – two volumes, beautifully bound in hide, in a highquality slipcase. Leatherbound editions aren’t always worth the additional

outlay, but when they’re this good it’s definitely worthwhile paying extra.

In the case of these books every Le Mans fan should have them, because they document every single car to have raced each year.

This pair is £1500, yet standard editions are significantly cheaper (but not as satisfyingly lovely).

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In an era when eco and safety concerns – not to mention the dreaded ‘design by committee’ – all too often strangle true creativity in the auto-styling world, we reflect on the glory days of concept cars.

From Skoda to the Stratos, here’s our definitive list of the very best

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M A Z D A R X- 5 0 0 The early 1970s witnessed a raft of concepts from Japan, but few were as memorable as Mazda’s 1970 Tokyo Motor Show thriller. The styling was pure sci-fi whimsy, not least the use of butterfly doors, but this was a fully functional supercar capable of a claimed 150mph. Beneath the glassfibre skin sat the obligatory Wankel twin-rotor engine. The car’s signature feature was the bank of multi-coloured rear lights.

Under acceleration they glowed green, then amber at cruising speeds, and red when braking. Contrary to popular belief, only one car was made.

It was merely repainted between show appearances.

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MAZDA FURAI The fifth and final model in Mazda’s Nagare line of concept cars was the boldest of them all. The Furai (which means Sound of the Wind) boasted a Courage sportsprototype monocoque and a 450bhp triple-rotor Wankel engine. Revealed in late 2007, the styling from the pen of Laurens van den Acker heralded the marque’s forthcoming trends (wonky lines and random creases, mostly), and there was even talk of a limited production run. This, we suggest, was PR guff, but it was a tantalising prospect. Sadly, the prototype was burned to a crisp during a Top Gear shoot in 2008.

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MORGAN LIFECAR (AKA LIFEcar) There was a time when Morgan made cars along antediluvian lines. Then, in 2009, the Malvern firm took a turn for the retro-futuristic with this full-cell-equipped electric concept. Designed by Mark Reeves and styled by Matthew Humphries, it looked as though it had escaped from a Fritz Lang opus, but it was a serious project with input from the likes of British defence tech firm QinetiQ and F1 safety crusader Cranfield University.

Sadly, despite much fanfare, the LIghtweight Fuel Efficient Car never amounted to much – and more’s the pity.

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A L FA R O M E O 2 U E T T O T TA N TA One of the great ‘please build it!’ concepts of the past two decades, Pininfarina’s homage to the Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider was a work of great beauty. The styling, penned under Lowie Vermeersch, borrowed styling cues from the landmark roadster without the end product appearing clichéd. However, despite considerable hype in the motoring media when the car was first seen at the 2010 Geneva Motor Show, there was no talk of it entering production. As for the appalling name, the first letter of the name isn’t a ‘2’ but a ‘D’, as it was written during The Renaissance.

Of course. Naturally.

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Z A G AT O FERRARI FZ93 The line between concept car and coachbuilt one-off is a little blurred here, but this Zagato show-stopper was highly influential. Built in 1992-93 at the behest of Roberto Tonali, and based on a Testarossa, this radical makeover was the work of Ercole Spada, who conceived something where: “It was not necessary to have all that mass; we wanted to make the body tight, form fitting.”

He did just that, the donor car’s signature side strakes being among the casualties.

Up front, the new strain borrowed heavily from contemporary F1 design language. Just look at this car’s nose and then consider the Ferrari Enzo…

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P I N I N FA R I N A JAGUAR XJ SPIDER In the late 1970s, Pininfarina was contracted by Jaguar to facelift the XJ6/12. This car, however, wasn’t built at Jag’s behest, but Pininfarina took a flyer anyway in the hope that it’d be adopted for production.

Jag went so far as to donate an XJ-S development hack, which was shipped to Turin and comprehensively filleted until all that remained was the bare floorpan. Under the direction of Lorenzo Ramaciotti, the new body was formed from metal and aluminium. Unveiled at the 1978 British Motor Show, the XJ Spider captivated.

Nevertheless, it remained unique, tragically.

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IAD VENUS

It’s hard to believe that beneath this extra-terrestrial exterior lay the foundations of a Lotus Esprit. The team that built it at Worthing’s International Automotive Design – artiste Michael Ani (pronounced Arni), engineer Charles Nurse and lead clay modeller Steve Manko – created the initial 1:1-scale mock-up in time for the November 1989 Tokyo Motor Show. A functional ‘runner’ was completed just three months later. For obvious reasons, there was never any talk of the Venus entering even limited production.

“I would be kidding if I were to say it might,” studio chief Alan Jackson admitted. “It’s simply a concept to show what we can do here.”

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MERCER COBRA One of the many marque revivals initiated by the legendary ex-Chrysler design chief, Virgil Exner, the Mercer Cobra was inspired by Copper Development Association president George Hartley. He wanted to produce a concept car that made extensive use of copper, bronze and brass components, the intention being to make the wider automotive industry aware of their potential applications.

Exner roped in Sibona-Basano of Turin to fashion the body on a Shelby Cobra platform that had been lengthened by 15in. The finished article took its public bow in December 1964, and it garnered plenty of column inches in the mainstream press.

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HOLDEN HURRICANE To European eyes, Australia might not seem like a hotbed of concept-car action, but the Hurricane was – and remains – one of the most outré of the breed. Standing just 39in off the deck, and powered by a 4.2-litre V8 sited amidships, this 1969 show-stealer didn’t have anything so conventional as doors. Instead, the entire central canopy swung forwards over the front wheels for access. The seats also rose up and tilted forwards. Then there was the Pathfinder set-up, which read magnetic signals situated along the road to help guide the driver (this was a car of the future, after all…).

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FFF100

The FFF100 was built in 1973 by GKN/Vandervell, ostensibly to test the performance and durability of its specialist components including the Ferguson four-wheel-drive system.

Basis for this brawny GT was a stiffened Jensen FF chassis, clothed in a glassfibre, William Towns-styled body. The donor car’s 7.0-litre Chrysler V8 was tuned by Stateside drag-racing legend Keith Black, and produced a whopping 620bhp.

Accordingly, the FFF100 could accelerate to 100mph from a standstill in just 6.5 seconds. Packing Maxaret ABS brakes, the stylish coupé could also do 0-100-0mph in just 11.5 seconds.

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45 OGLE SOTHEBY SPECIAL

It wasn’t until early 1971 that Ogle chairman John Ogier found a backer willing to fund a new styling study that had first been mooted in the late 1960s. Tobacco company WD & HO Wills picked up the tab, reasoning that the Sotheby Special (named after its brand of cigarettes) would be the perfect promotional tool. With further sponsorship from Aston Martin, Triplex, Lucas and others, the prototype went on to be displayed within an all-British showcase at the 1972 Montreal Motor Show.

Stylist Tom Karen really let rip, with the car’s more unusual features including a chaise longue in the back and 22 taillights. Two examples were made, plus a spare bodyshell/mock-up.

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39 FERRARI PININ

This Ferrari super-saloon was conceived by Sergio Pininfarina. The secondgeneration studio head pushed Ferrari to create a rival to the (Giugiaropenned) Maserati Quattroporte III and Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9, with this prototype being based on a modified 400GT platform. The Pinin was styled by Leonardo Fioravanti (with input from the widely uncredited Diego Ottina), and its A- and B-pillars were concealed behind smoked glass, giving the impression of it having a ‘floating’ roof.

Revealed at the 1980 Turin Motor Show, it subsequently went on a year-long tour of exhibitions and dealer clinics in order to gain feedback.

Ultimately, Ferrari deemed there to be insufficient demand, so the scheme was quietly terminated.

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38 G K N 47 D

This remarkable machine was based on the Lotus Europa’s racing cousin, the 47, albeit with a specially widened bodyshell and lengthened chassis. Powered by a 3.5-litre Rover V8 allied to a five-speed ZF gearbox, it was intended to showcase GKN’s various automotive wares to the motor industry and wider public. Formula 3 hot-shoe Mike Warner demonstrated the car at various race meetings in 1969-70, and in 1972 it received an enginedisplacement hike to 4.4 litres. That, and a quartet of Weber 45DCOE carbs.

In September 1975, Autocar tested the car and recorded a 0-100mph time of 11.1sec.

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PEUGEOT PEUGETTE

Pininfarina and Peugeot were once a marriage made in heaven; witness such landmark design classics as the 504 Coupé and Cabriolet.

This fabulous little roadster was never going to make the leap from concept car to production reality, but it had so much going for it. The styling, by Diego Ottina, was distinctive, that’s for sure.

The front and rear bodywork was perfectly symmetrical, with the roll-over hoop and fly-screen adding all the necessary racer reference points. Based on a Peugeot 104ZS platform, complete with a 66bhp 1124cc four-banger, it had a top speed of only 96mph – but we so would…

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LAGONDA VIGNALE

This Brit super-saloon was a huge hit when the sheets were lifted at the 1993 Geneva Motor Show. Styled by Moray Callum, brother of Ian Callum, the Vignale was constructed to gauge interest in a four-door Aston Martin. Ford’s Ghia studio constructed two prototypes based on, shudder, Lincoln Town Car platforms, with the mooted production model set to use a V12. Sadly, parent firm Ford concluded that the Lagonda name no longer resonated, so it canned the project. Still, a third car with significant styling alterations – and a V12 – was later built by the Works Service department.

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I TA L D E S I G N NAZCA C2

Italdesign didn’t make cars in series, unlike rival Italian design houses. The sole exception was the BMW M1 – even if most of its manufacture was subcontracted. Styling great Giorgetto Giugiaro tried to tempt the German marque into sponsoring a new breed of supercar in the early 1990s, the Nazca C2 featuring a 5.0litre 300bhp V12 from the 850i coupé. Unusually, this carbon composite-bodied supercar had conventional doors but with gullwing glass. The bonnet and rear deck, meanwhile, were moulded in one piece. It was aerodynamic, too, boasting a drag coefficient of just 0.26Cd. Several prototypes were made, but BMW got cold feet.

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VAUX H A L L S RV Given that Vauxhall isn’t exactly renowned for creating concept cars, it’s remarkable that the Styling Research Vehicle was made at all. Even more improbable is that this mid-engined device was – cue disbelief – a four-seater saloon. Yes, really. Styled by Wayne Cherry and Chris Fields, and first seen at the 1970 Earls Court Motor Show, the SRV stood just 41in off the deck but was 200in long. Power, theoretically at least, came from a 2.3-litre slant-four, while the SRV also boasted electrically adjustable suspension. A particularly groovy feature was the instrument panel, part of which was fixed to a pod that hinged in unison with the driver’s door.

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Before the Esprit came The Silver Lotus. Giugiaro designed this beautiful device with only limited input from Hethel. Lotus provided a lengthened Europa platform and dummy Type 907 engine, but no funding. This wedgeshaped show car may have been inspired by the Italdesign boss’s Maserati Boomerang, but it owed rather more to his Porsche Tapiro from 1970.

Seen at the 1972 Turin Motor Show, it was adopted by Colin Chapman as a production car, with in-house designer Oliver Winterbottom acting as intermediary. It marked the start of a beautiful, if occasionally strained, working relationship between Lotus and Italdesign.

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VAUX H A L L X V R

The eXperimental Vehicle Research prototype – Vauxhall’s first concept in the accepted sense – was as out there as the firm’s production cars were humdrum. Designed under David Jones, with input from Wayne Cherry, Leo Pruneau and others, the dramatic styling was inspired

by Chevrolet’s Mako Shark II, with a split screen, gullwing doors and pop-up headlights.

Three XVRs were made – the sole functional prototype, with a 2.0-litre slant-four, being displayed at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show. Sadly, this car plus one glassfibre mock-up were then destroyed, but one of the ‘hacks’ still survives.

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MINISSIMA

The Minissima couldn’t have looked more disparate from the car displayed alongside it on the British Leyland stand at the 1973 Earls Court Motor Show – Austin’s new Allegro.

It was conceived by William Towns, the independent designer whose résumé included the Rover-BRM Le Mans car and Aston Martin DBS. BL then acquired this aluminium-panelled take on a replacement for the aging Mini, which went on to appear on the cover of several magazines, but the car remained unique for all the positive ink. Nonetheless, the design wasn’t wasted: it was later put into production via GKN as the somewhat larger Elswick Envoy.

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FORD PROBE

Concept cars, by definition, are meant to foretell future design trends. They also serve a purpose in getting potential punters accustomed to what will be hitting showrooms in future years.

That was undeniably the intention of this aerodynamic styling study. The Ford Sierra was already signed off, and this Uwe Bahnsen/Patrick le Quément co-production featured extensively in the Blue Oval’s advertising after it was unveiled at the September 1981 Frankfurt Motor Show. Boasting a drag coefficient of just 0.22Cd, it wowed punters and the media alike.

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FORD INDIGO

In the mid-1990s, Ford was a major supporter of IndyCar racing, not least as an engine supplier. It celebrated this association with a concept; a road-going manifestation of an Indy 500 racer. Jaws slackened when the end product was unveiled at the 1996 Detroit Auto Show, and with good reason. Styled by Claude Lobo, the Indigo used a Reynard Motorsport carbon-fibre and aluminium honeycomb monocoque. The brochure stated: “The rigid construction of the chassis cocoons the driver and passenger in a cell-like structure, with the wide air intake ducts located in the deep rocker panels providing an exceptional level of sideimpact protection...” This scissor-doored flight of fantasy also had a quad-cam, 6.0-litre V12 amidships. It remained unique. Shock.

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ort Skoda 110 Super Sp e th t, ra lived on as Fe cult va mpire car

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28 CHRYSLER TURBOFLITE

The Turboflite was the final Chrysler show model created under Virgil Exner, but it was actually styled by Jack Kenitz.

It looked unlike any other car.

For starters, it had an aircraftlike, green-tinted canopy, and a huge rear wing. This was supported on a pair of fins, each housing a stop light with ‘day and night’ intensity settings. Between the fins, a ‘deceleration air-flap’ pivoted up when the brakes were applied, boosting drag and thus lessening the load on the conventional brakes.

The cabin boasted four satin-finish, aluminiumframed buckets, trimmed in blue fabric and green leather.

Electroluminescent doorpanel inserts provided a soft blue-green glow. The dash, meanwhile, had something equally far-out; a 50,000rpm rev counter, power coming from an experimental CR2A gas-turbine unit that put out 140bhp at 39,000rpm.

It never ran, mind…

The 1970s witnessed its fair share of styling fads – the angular ‘origami’ look chief among them. Then there was the rise of the safety vehicle, with manufacturers vying to create the most crashresistant concept. And let’s not forget the many aerodynamic styling studies.

In many ways, the car seen here was an amalgam of all three prevailing trends, with the pros and cons that infers.

The Pininfarina Cr 25 broke cover at the October 1974 Turin Motor Show; its dramatic outline has more recently been attributed to ex-Cisitalia man Aldo Brovarone, whose bulging résumé also includes the Lancia Gamma Coupé and the Ferrari 365P Berlinetta Speciale.

It was the first car to be developed in the Turin company’s newly built full-size wind tunnel, and it was allegedly powered by a Ferrari flat-12 engine.

Renowned Road & Track correspondent Paul Frère reported that: “The car itself is a quite large four-seater for which the lowest-possible drag, coupled to some slight down-thrust to enhance the stability at speed, was aimed at. The result is a drag coefficient of 0.256Cd.”

ami’ Cr 25 combined ‘orig ies ud styling, safety st inciples and aerodynamic pr

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SKODA 110 SUPER S P O R T/ F E R A T

When we think of vehicles made behind the Iron Curtain, they tend not to be concept car-ish. Skoda, however, wasn’t immune to such bourgeois decadence.

During the 1960s and early ’70s, it touted everything from two-seater roadsters to beach buggies. The 110 Super Sport was something else entirely, though. Unveiled at the 1972 Brussels Motor Show, it boasted all the genre staples – lift-up, one-piece canopy, pop-up headlights et al – but it would probably be forgotten by history were it not for what happened next.

After appearing in the 1977 sci-fi flick Tomorrow I’ll Wake Up And Scald Myself With Tea, it went on to appear in another, even more cultish film – 1981’s Ferat Vampire. It was at this juncture that the car was given a makeover by Academy Award-winning artist and costumer designer, Theodor Pištěk, with a new fixed front-light set-up and oh-so-period BBS alloy wheels. Dubbed ‘Ferat’ in the movie (a play on Nosferatu), the car had an insatiable desire for human blood, and… well, that’s about it.

This vehicle is legendary in certain parts of Europe…

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P I N I N FA R I N A A L FA R O M E O 2600 COUPÉ SPECIALE/ CABRIOLET SPECIALE

This beauty broke cover at the 1962 Turin Motor Show as the Cabriolet Speciale.

Based on an Alfa 2600 Spider platform, there was little mention of ‘prototipo 621’ in the Turin firm’s press bumf.

Quattroroute, by contrast, gushed over its: “Balanced mass, harmonious curves with design by the hand of the master.” Following further appearances and what passed for an ‘interim’ restyle, the car re-emerged for the 1963 Brussels Motor Show.

It appeared suitably different, largely due to the addition of a roof and metallicgreen paint; alterations that rendered the newly reminted Coupé Speciale even more striking. Style Auto patently thought so. It waxed not entirely coherently: “There exist problems of style, the way the shape is put together which must be harmoniously resolved. All these points Pininfarina has concluded with exceptional mastery.

The roof, which starts with the double-curvature ’screen, presents a particularly aerodynamic profile – you can define it as a ‘light profile’…

Everything is positive.” Quite.

The editors of Switzerland’s Automobil Revue initiated the Sigma project as a means of showcasing ideas of how to build a safer racing car. Roping in a cadre of respected experts such as Professor Ernst Fiala (later VW engineering chief) and Dr Michael Henderson (an Australian structural design expert), their biggest coup was tapping Enzo Ferrari for the supply of a 1967 312 F1 weapon to use as a donor car. Pininfarina would build the Sigma with Paolo Martin interpreting the ideas into an attractive whole. Respected journalist and former Le Mans winner Paul Frère was on board to offer a driver’s point of view.

Designed with the principal parameter that an accident is highly likely, a rigid safety cell was created with crumple zones front and rear to absorb forces on impact.

Pontoons were added to the flanks to dissipate energy in the event of being hit sideon, while a quick-release mechanism between the crash helmet and headrest reduced the risk of neck injuries. Of course, many of the ideas promoted on the Sigma were never applied in motor sport, while others arrived in altered form in later decades. Ultimately, it was a safety crusade led by racing legend Jackie Stewart that brought about the painfully slow realisation that drivers weren’t expendable.

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Z A G AT O Z E TA 6

When an artist’s impression of Zagato’s AZ6 Sperimentale project appeared in the motoring weeklies in early 1979, the sketch promised something that went against the popular ‘folded-paper’ wedge ideal. Alfa Romeo was impressed enough to fund the project through to the prototype stage. However, it hedged its bets, bankrolling Bertone to come up with its own take on the theme, with Zagato’s offering being based on a GTV6 platform and its rival on the larger Alfa 6 saloon. Fast forward to March 1983, and the styling houses revealed their respective wares at the Geneva Motor Show.

Bertone’s Marc Deschampspenned Delfino wasn’t unattractive but it wouldn’t have looked out of place on the same stand five years earlier. By comparison, the Zagato car, now known as Zeta 6, was met with acclaim.

Just how close Alfa came to putting it into production is open to debate, but it was allegedly touted at board level as a potential ‘halo’ car. Sadly, only two models were made plus an incomplete bodyshell.

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A L FA R O M E O NUVOLA

Another ‘if only’ tale from Alfa’s storied past, this 1996 show car broke with tradition by not being created by an outside design house. Instead, it came from the Centro Stile Alfa Romeo design team under Walter de Silva. Nuvola – literal translation is ‘cloud’, but there are clear ‘Nuvolari’ connotations – employed a twin-turbo 2.5-litre V6 mounted in a tubular-steel spaceframe chassis.

Alfa claimed it also packed 4WD and could do 174mph and 0-60mph in five seconds, but it was the outer drama that dazzled. It was one of the most beautiful concepts of its era, with LEDs and fully integrated bumpers. What’s more, Alfa claimed more than once that it intended offering the same chassis/platform to outside coachbuilders for further concepts and possibly limited-run exotica including convertibles and shooting brakes. Sadly for everyone, that never happened.

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ine Corvette-based Rond d ne eventually spaw the Fiat 124 Spider

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JAGUAR XK180 Although never intended as a production car, this alluring design study from 1998 served as a reminder that Jaguar was capable of creating objects of real beauty. Styled by Keith Helfet, the prototype was mostly hand-made in Jag’s Special Vehicle Operations department. A production XKR (supercharged version of the XK8) donor car was disassembled and its chassis shortened by five inches, before it was re-clothed with a new aluminium bodyshell

‘A reminder that Jaguar was capable of creating objects of real beauty’

formed at Abbey Panels in Coventry. Mechanically, it was pure XKR, although its V8 engine was tuned to produce 450bhp. Created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the legendary XK120, the XK180’s numerical designation was similarly intended to signify its top speed in miles per hour, although no independent figures verified the performance claims.

A second example, this time in left-hand-drive configuration, was unveiled at the following year’s Detroit Auto Show. It was, if anything, sexier still, with subtle alterations to the lower body sections and new 20indiameter wheels. Tragically, the XK180 was to remain just a tease, although it was arguably the most attractive concept car of the decade.

Considering the opposition, that’s some accolade.

20 P I N I N FA R I N A CHEVROLET RONDINE

Still polarising opinion today, the Rondine – Ron-din-ay – was built by Pininfarina for the 1963 Paris Motor Show. It couldn’t have looked further removed from the car that bore it, Chevrolet’s C2-series Corvette. While not conceived with mass manufacture in mind, it eventually spawned a mainstream production car – the Fiat 124 Spider.

Who, precisely, dreamed up the Rondine is lost in time, but the man responsible for shaping this bold coupé was the late, great Tom Tjaarda, who produced a dramatic outline with a long overhang.

The dramatically raked roof initially comprised an inwardslanting rear screen with the roof ‘chopped’ behind the B-pillar. It wore this controversial treatment in Paris, but was then reworked to include a more conventional wraparound rear glasshouse.

Who actually bodied the car is also mired in conjecture.

It’s widely assumed that Pininfarina built it internally, but some insiders insist the Rondine was actually shaped

by Ferrari’s chosen metalbasher, Sergio Scaglietti.

tease, XK180 remained a ably ar s although it wa gu ncept co e era's most attractiv

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P I N I N FA R I N A FERRARI 512S SPECIALE Pininfarina’s 1969 Turin Motor Show star married sports-prototype racing tech with radical styling flair. If the gushing press release was to be believed, it was built as: “An exploration of new aerodynamic solutions, in close collaboration with the Polytechnic of Turin.”

Beneath the dart-like outline lay a Ferrari 512S platform, the donor car having been damaged in a fire before being used for other applications.

It was handed over to Pininfarina once the Scuderia had no more use for it.

The magic markerwielding aces didn’t hold back. Unencumbered by a radiator, the front end boasted a low nose, the huge one-piece plastic windscreen sweeping near horizontally to the rear engine deck, replete with three rows of lateral cooling louvres. At a mere 98.2cm (38.6in) from top to bottom, and almost twice as wide, the car’s most extreme aspect was the one-piece flip-up canopy in place of conventional doors. It required reserves of physical dexterity to get into, but you looked good once inside. And with this starry-eyed slice of futurism, looking good was the important bit.

P I N I N FA R I N A B M C 1300/1800 BERLINA AERODINAMICA Styling colossus Leonardo Fioravanti mapped out the Aerodinamica shortly after joining Pininfarina in 1964. He said in 2009: “I was concerned with not only the looks but also efficiency. Some of those ideas went into my later ones.

A car was made with BMC [using an 1800 platform] and presented at the 1967 Turin Salon, and another, smaller version [with 1100 running gear] followed. The British didn’t want them, though.”

The complexity of making such cars counted against it, but there may also have been a not-invented-here enmity on BMC’s part. Instead, Citroën cut ’n’ pasted Fioravanti’s outlines for its GS and CX. The peeved designer attended the GS’s Swiss launch and parked his Aerodinamica close to the French cars if only to make a point. It wouldn’t be the last time outsiders would magpie his creations.

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FERRARI DINO 206 B E R L I N E T TA S P E C I A L E

If a car is successful, or well received by the media, designers invariably claim authorship. If a car is a dud, rather less so; it was someone else’s work. When it comes to the Ferrari-made Dino 206GT, however, it’s a different story.

The Berlinetta Speciale, shaped by Aldo Brovarone, was the inspiration for the production car, with Leonardo

‘Brovarone and Fioravanti share credit for timedefying 206GT. Always have’

Dino Berlinetta Speciale – the ultimate result of stylistic teamwork

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even Alfa insiders didn’t 's 180mph ro ia acknowledge Giug neva reveal Scighera upon its Ge

Fioravanti responsible for transforming the one-off into the time-defying classic we all know and love. They share the credit. Always have.

Brovarone said in 2013: “In 1965, I did the one-off Dino Berlinetta Speciale, which in turn led to the production car. I wanted a more wedge-shaped profile, which is how I designed it, but it was later changed by Leonardo who remains a dear friend. When I first came up with the design, I thought it was going to be a Ferrari, so I gave it recognisable aspects you would expect such as an oval grille and so on. I didn’t know that it would become a separate brand. Even though my design was altered, it is perhaps my greatest achievement.”

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I TA L D E S I G N A L FA ROMEO SCIGHERA

After BMW nixed his idea of producing the Nazca C2, Giorgetto Giugiaro decided that another maker might be more amenable. The result was the Scighera (pronounced Shig-eera). Based in part on the Nazca, under its dramatic skin sat a mid-mounted 164 3.0-litre V6, two turbos plus a supercharger. A six-speed sequential ’box transmitted power to the Lancia-based 4WD, and this fully functional prototype’s top speed was said to be around 180mph.

With a largely carbonfibre body and aluminium skeleton, features included a lift-out window arrangement that turned the coupé into a T-roof semi-convertible. The pedals were electronically movable, as the Connolly leather-trimmed seats were adjustable only for rake and height. PR bumf talked of the Scighera possibly reaching production. Alfa’s response?

When Giugiaro unveiled the car at the 1997 Geneva Motor Show, brand insiders didn’t even acknowledge it. The prototype was subsequently handed over to his son Fabrizio for personal road use.

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ASTON MARTIN BULLDOG

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ker, unlike Turbo was a good loo elated some other safety-r era concept cars of the

BMW TURBO

Before the M1 came the BMW Turbo. Former Mercedes designer Paul Bracq was nothing if not persuasive.

He managed to sweet talk the BMW board into letting him build a prototype ahead of the 1972 show season. This brave new world would have two central tenets: promotion of forced induction, and also safety. Power would come from the enduring iron-block 1990cc ‘four’, complete with turbocharger, which foretold the 2002 Turbo. As for safety, Bracq’s design incorporated deformable structures, a collapsible steering column and a roll cage. There were also ABS anti-lock brakes.

However, while umpteen rival companies were also attempting to build safetyrelated concept cars, the difference here was palpable; the Turbo was attractive rather

than tank like. That said, quite how gullwing doors fitted in with the safety-first mantra is lost on us, but this junior supercar with its graduated paint-job as popularised by the BMW R90S motorcycle remains a masterpiece.

Another car, complete with rear-wheel spats, was constructed later. Both prototypes were made

by Giovanni Michelotti’s carrozzeria rather than

by BMW itself, mind.

‘Turbo had two central tenets: promotion of forced induction, and also safety’

The gravy train had long since pulled out of the station by the time Aston Martin unleashed the Bulldog in 1980. Launching a midengined supercar barely five years after the receivers had been called in represented not so much a shot in the arm for the marque as full-on defibrillation. In many ways, the Bulldog continued from where the firm’s AM Lagonda had left off. Both were styled

by William Towns, with the British freelancer pushing the ‘folded-paper’ envelope for all it was worth. The Bulldog was undeniably wild looking, but beneath the ally skin it featured the firm’s proven 5.3-litre V8, complete with twin turbos. Power output was said to be in the region of 650bhp.

The three-years-in-themaking prototype managed a verified 192mph during its sole official high-speed test at the MIRA proving ground.

As for the car’s name, it was christened after the Scottish Aviation Bulldog aeroplane by the then-managing director, Alan Curtis. Inside the factory, however, it was referred to as K9 after Dr Who’s robotic dog. The prototype was later sold to a Middle Eastern prince for £130,000.

BERTONE CARABO

The brainchild of Nuccio Bertone and stylist Marcello Gandini, the Carabo was created in just ten weeks ahead of the 1968 Paris Motor Show. Predicting aerodynamic principles that were soon to be prevalent in F1, it was a wedge with a taut, largely uninterrupted profile and a small(ish) frontal area. This being an era of highlighter-pen hues, the Carabo’s lime green with semi-reflective nose and tail delineations appeared almost subdued. Its party trick was its means of access; the doors opened vertically like a beetle’s wings via a hydropneumatic strut system, hence the name Carabo (a species of greeny-gold coleopteron, apparently).

Bertone recalled: “I wanted to produce a car which would be best suited for the high-speed superhighways of Europe. I think the car represents the best compromise yet developed between interior space and comfort, aerodynamics, aesthetics and marketability.”

Styling icons such as the Lancia Stratos Zero and the original, unsullied Lamborghini Countach were built on the revolution the Carabo ignited.

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BERTONE TESTUDO In many ways, the Testudo was among the most important concept cars to emerge during the 1960s, even if it isn’t particularly well known. Based upon a shortened Chevrolet Corvair platform, it marked the emergence of Giorgetto Giugiaro as a trendsetter.

The name of the car, a literal translation being ‘turtle’, was chosen to symbolise the design theme; a sharp crease ran down each flank, dividing the body, while the ‘bubble roof’ canopy hinged forward for access to the cabin. The build commenced in January 1963 and it was completed in time for March’s Geneva Motor Show. Giugiaro drove it from Turin to Switzerland for its big reveal, and he later used it as his wedding car.

While no replicas would be forthcoming, many cues were transposed intact onto the Lamborghini Miura.

Anatole Lapine, meanwhile, has since admitted to being influenced by the car when he mapped out the Porsche 928. After leaving Bertone for Ghia in late 1965, Giugiaro’s attempts to buy the car were rebuffed. He finally acquired it in 2011, paying €336,000 for the privilege.

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CHRYSLER D’ELEGANCE

Long before the word Ghia became shorthand for a gussied-up Ford or Mercury, it was a proud coachbuilder; one that enjoyed a mutually beneficial relationship with Chrysler. The Turin carrozzeria, which dug itself out of the rubble following World War Two, became the unofficial skunkworks for Chrysler’s styling studio under the talismanic Virgil Exner. The first collaboration, the K-310, led to the car pictured here, which broke cover at the 1953 Paris Motor Show. Styled

by Exner at his home in Westwood Avenue, Detroit, the three-seater d’Elegance featured a number of his signature flourishes, not least the flowing roofline and long rear deck, complete with embossed spare-wheel cover.

The result lost nothing in translation from scale model to 1:1-scale reality.

Despite talk of 25 replicas being made, Exner admitted at the time that it was intended only as a show car.

That didn’t stop the design from being ‘borrowed’ for the VW Karmann Ghia…

Far from being upset, Exner was reputedly pleased at this appropriation – especially after he was gifted the first such Veedub to land on the East Coast.

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LAMBORGHINI MARZAL

Famously graced by Princess Grace for a lap prior to the 1967 Monaco Grand Prix, immortalised in rainbow hues by Matchbox, and sold in 2011 for $1.52m, this one-off styling study was nonetheless not well liked by marque founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini. Even so, the Bertone masterpiece foretold the Espada via Marcello Gandini’s near-concurrent Jaguar-based Pirana show car. The Marzal was a true four-seater, one that featured an expansive glasshouse with much of the glazing being found in its gullwing doors.

LJK Setright declared in CAR: “It is perhaps the most extravagant piece of virtuoso styling to have come out of Europe since the war.”

Power was courtesy of a 175bhp 2.0-litre ‘six’, which was in essence half a Lamborghini V12. Ironically, for such a well publicised concept car, the Marzal was rarely seen in public in period; following its Monaco outing, it wasn’t displayed outside the Bertone factory museum until 1996, when it was shown at Concorso Italiano in Monterey, California. More recently, it acted as course car during the 2018 Grand Prix de Monaco Historique meeting.

In the grand scheme of things, this not altogether attractive concept car isn’t well remembered, but it was influential. Styling great Giorgetto Giugiaro unleashed this distinctive, V12-engined saloon in 1990, and various physical design cues were subsequently transposed onto several production cars; just not those wearing Jaguar badges. The Italdesign co-founder attempted to move the marque’s design language forward, the prototype emerging with a higher roofline than the Jaguar Sovereign donor car and a longer front overhang.

First seen in mock-up form at that year’s Geneva Motor Show, a fully functional prototype was displayed at the Birmingham Motor Show six months later.

The most controversial part of the Kensington was the high-sited rear threequarter treatment. This shallow rear screen and high-boot look has since become commonplace, and several designers nowadays freely admit to having been inspired by this one-off, but Jaguar – which didn’t sanction the build or assist in its creation – was unimpressed. Never one to let anything go to waste, Giugiaro subsequently reworked the outline for several Italdesign-shaped cars – wearing Lexus and Daewoo nameplates among others.

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tablished Giugiaro's “folly” es onto many cues later transposed eations more mainstream cr

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Although Giorgetto Giugiaro is nowadays dismissive of this Bora-based projectile, labelling it “a bit of a folly”, the car established design cues that were later transposed onto many of the maestro’s more mainstream creations.

First shown at the 1971 Turin Motor Show as an engine-less ‘roller’, it ran under its own power by the time the following year’s Geneva Motor Show came around.

Power was courtesy of a mid-mounted, 310bhp 4.7-litre V8 driving the rear wheels via a five-speed gearbox, with much of the running gear being lifted from the Maserati

Bora production car. Inside, the cabin boasted a number of left-field flourishes, not least the steering-wheel arrangement that borrowed from prior Giugiaro designs.

The instruments were clustered into a circular ‘dashboard’ which, in turn, was encircled by the steering wheel. The Boomerang continued to make show appearances as late as 1974, the colour being changed from silver to orange and back again prior to its purchase by a wealthy Spaniard. It was sold at auction in 2005 for $1,007,005.

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Jet-inspired Firebird I used a Whirlfire Turbo Power GT gas turbine

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GENERAL MOTORS FIREBIRDS

Design legend Harley Earl and his starry-eyed futurists went for broke with Firebird I, which took off at 1953’s Detroit Motorama. Inspired by jetfighter aircraft, and powered by a Whirlfire Turbo Power GT gas turbine, Project XP-21, Shop Order 1921 (in GM speak) was tested at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway by multiple Indy 500 winner Mauri Rose. In true aircraft style, its ailerons were fully functional and could be used as an air brake. Still, the prototype was egregiously thirsty, noisy and incapable of running for long periods.

No matter, there was always Firebird II, the turbine family car controlled electronically “for direction, speed and spacing intervals”. The biggest of Detroit’s Big Three then followed through with arguably the most radical variant of them all – Firebird III. Beneath the glassfibre skin

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sat a regenerative GT-305 turbine. That, and a 10bhp twincylinder engine that powered the electrical and hydraulic steering, brakes, brake flaps, air-suspension and air-con.

Earl, who departed GM as styling chief in 1958, described it as being: “An entirely different type of car, which a person may drive to the launching site of a rocket to the moon.”

The future was clearly much more fun in the past.

‘Harley Earl and his starry-eyed futurists went for broke with Firebird I’

06 CHEVROLET MAKO SHARK II

There have been so many Corvette concept cars over the past half-a-century or more, it’s hard to pick just one for inclusion. We chose this particular show-stealer because it’s so redolent of its era. That, and because so many styling features filtered down into production variants over the next decade-and-a-half. The first Mako Shark, aka XP-755, was inspired by the prior Stingray racer, and it foretold the forthcoming 1963-67 C2 Corvette. The sequel arrived at the 1965 New York International Auto Show, although two cars were built.

One, a non-runner, boasted square-section side pipes, a squared-off steering wheel and groovy aluminium wheels with knock-off spinners.

The running variant, by contrast, was equipped with an adjustable rear spoiler that could be tweaked from the driver’s seat. Both were painted in similar hues to the car that preceded them: graduated blue/grey over silver/white. GM wasn’t above rehashing its old concept cars, either, with the Mako Shark II later morphing into the Manta Ray, which looked even more like something that had escaped George Barris’ Kustom Kar emporium.

General Motor’s Harley Earl is widely cited as being the founding father of car design, if for no other reason than he established the first proper styling department.

He also ushered in the concept car as we know it via the Buick Y-Job, (even if some historians have lately taken to claiming that Auburn got there first with the 1929 Cabin Speedster). Designed in 1938 by George Snyder, and based on a Buick Super platform, the Y-Job boasted power-operated concealed headlights (which were replaced with fixed items, only to revert back to the original set-up), wraparound bumpers and flush-fitting exterior door handles.

Many styling cues were later transposed intact onto post-war production models, while the never-knowingly not-showy Earl using the car as his personal transport as late as 1951. As for the origins of the odd name, there are two competing theories.

Firstly, experimental cars generally boasted an ‘X’ prefix, so Earl bagged the next letter in the alphabet for this styling study. Alternatively, ‘Y’ was often used in the aviation industry to denote advanced prototypes, so he merely appropriated this.

04 GM LE SABRE

Harley Earl’s follow-up to the Y-Job remains one of the most celebrated concepts ever. The story began in 1946 after a brainstorming session with Buick division head Harold Curtice. Earl came away from the meeting with the brief to construct two new show cars: one, codenamed XP-8, became the one-off Buick XP-300; the sister XP-9 morphed into the Le Sabre. Built in tandem, the final cost was around $20m in today’s money – depending on whose version of history you believe.

The Le Sabre represented a mission statement; it prophesied GM’s future styling direction. Shaped

by Edward Glowacke, its dramatic outline represented a mash-up of Earl’s favoured design cues robbed from rockets and jet-fighter aircraft.

The protruding grille, for example, mimicked the turbine intake of the transonic North American F-86 Sabre.

In reality, it concealed the headlights, below which were a pair of ‘Dagmar’ bumpers that would become a Cadillac division staple. It also represented the first use of a stock-block 215ci V8 that would go on to become legendary when redeveloped

by Rover. It was packing a pair of blowers, too...

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B E R T O N E A L FA R O M E O B AT C A R S The striking Berlina Aerodinamica Technica Alfas – or BAT cars for short – were designed by Bertone’s nonpareil genius Franco Scaglione. But first came the one-off Abarth 1500 Biposto (aka the unofficial BAT 1) in 1952. At that point, the 30something Florentine had little in the way of a prior résumé, and the car was crafted by Bertone at its most cash strapped. That it was built at all was a miracle.

And let’s not forget that Abarth’s sanctification was still way off; the firm had been in existence for barely three years at this juncture.

It marked the jumping-off point for Scaglione. His keen interest in streamlining may have been apparent with the Abarth, but it shot into the stratosphere with the trio

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of design studies using Alfa Romeo running gear that followed. The series kicked off with the Alfa 1900-based BAT 5 which arrived at the 1953 Turin Motor Show. This striking one-off was no mere show queen. It was fully functional and boasted a drag coefficient of a still-remarkable 0.23Cd. By way of comparison, the ‘jelly mould’ Ford Sierra’s was 0.34Cd some three decades later (though measuring standards

‘All three Berlina Aerodinamica Technica Alfas represented kinetic sculpture’

varied). BAT 5 was followed by BAT 7 a year later. It was more aerodynamic still, with a drag coefficient of 0.19Cd. BAT 9 arrived in 1955 and was perhaps the most sober looking of the trio, with styling cues that were akin to those of future production Alfas.

While perhaps borrowing a little from Giovanni Savonuzzi’s earlier Cisitalia designs, all three BAT cars represented kinetic sculpture.

While too radical to enter production, they inspired the gorgeous, Scaglione-penned Giulietta Sprint Speciale, which did. Several decades down the line, they also moved an American collector to initiate construction of BAT 11 – purportedly based on an Alfa 8C Competizione chassis – which broke cover in 2008.

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B E R T O N E L A N C I A S T R AT O S Z E R O

Marcello Gandini was arguably the most inventive designer of his generation. His creativity was plain to see following the arrival of the Stratos Zero at the 1970 Turin Motor Show, even if it wasn’t well received at the time. What we now regard as being one of the greatest concept cars ever made was met with derision by the media. Road & Track’s correspondent Cyril Posthumus, for example, opined that: “The Stratos is beautifully executed – many feel its designer should be likewise!”

Unleashed during a period in which concept cars generally tended to feature gullwing or scissor doors – maybe even a one-piece canopy rising up on hydraulic rams – the Bertone’s one-upmanship stretched to a

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flip-up windscreen that lifted forward on hinges sited in the roof. The steering column tilted forward to enable access to the seats. Once in place, the driver simply had to pull back on the column to close the hatch. The Lancia nose badge, meanwhile, cunningly concealed the pivoting handle that opened the ‘door’. Once in situ, the driver saw nothing but the road ahead, with the bank

‘The Bertone’s one-upmanship even stretched to a flip-up windscreen’

of instruments offset to behind the front wheelarch.

Following its big reveal, Nuccio Bertone was asked by Lancia chairman Ugo Gobbato to bring the Fulvia V4-engined Zero to the factory. Bertone drove it personally to Via San Paolo, where a dumbfounded gatekeeper stared in disbelief at this strange new world.

Contrary to popular folklore, however, Bertone didn’t simply drive beneath the barrier.

Instead, he waited patiently for the gatekeeper to regain his composure, by which time a large crowd had assembled.

Bertone then inched forward, switched the engine off, and stepped out. Job done. Shortly thereafter, he landed the contract to produce the Stratos stradale – and rallying was never the same again.

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01 P I N I N FA R I N A F E R R A R I M O D U L O This may prove a controversial choice, but our pick as the greatest-ever concept car has to be the Pininfarina-built Ferrari 512S Modulo. Why? Where to start. It’s a car that not only resists easy categorisation, but defies easy description.

As well as being unorthodox, it’s utterly uncompromising – which would explain why it endured such a torturous gestation. You see, Pininfarina’s most famous concept almost didn’t happen. It was unwanted within the Turin styling house by all bar the man who shaped it. Paolo Martin had to fight to make it happen.

“The [Modulo] design itself dates back to the end of 1967,” Martin said in 2014. “I had an idea for a car that was almost perfectly symmetrical, front to rear, but something so radical wasn’t in Pininfarina’s DNA. There was no place for my

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ideas.” Nevertheless, Martin pressed ahead with the Modulo after-hours. Further sketches led to a scale model, Martin waiting until August 1968 when the studio closed for the traditional Italian holiday period to turn his vision into something approaching three-dimensional reality. The mock-up was completed in time for the end of the holidays but, if he’d hoped for acceptance of his ideas, he was to be disappointed. Sergio Pininfarina wasn’t at all happy.

However, Martin had an ally in Franco Martinengo. A talented designer in his own right, the veteran had helped hone the skills of many future Magic Marker-wielding legends. If he didn’t necessarily comprehend Martin’s ideas, he wasn’t dismissive of them, either. More importantly, he also had the ear of the boss. The

Modulo was finally given the green light in late 1969, the change of heart occurring in part because the March 1970 Geneva Motor Show wasn’t far off, and Pininfarina had yet to start work on a new concept.

Dusting off a design that was already partway there was a pragmatic decision. The Modulo was bodied in steel and finished on the eve of its big Swiss reveal, but only after a degree of internal interference. Even then, Signor Pininfarina was

‘It’s a car that not only resists easy categorisation, but defies easy description’

unconvinced by the finished car, and considered withdrawing the Modulo from the Geneva unveiling. His fears that it wouldn’t be taken seriously weren’t assuaged on its launch, either. Autocar described it as: “A dream – or nightmare – car.” Other titles were even more cruel.

What followed, however, was a sort of reverse backlash.

The car proved a huge hit with the wider public and, following its unveiling at Geneva, it went on display at Expo ’70 in Osaka before being exhibited at the Turin Motor Show. The Modulo went on to garner 22 design awards, and continued to earn its keep on the show circuit well into the 1980s. A legion of well known stylists often cite it as being an inspiration. What’s more, current owner Jim Glickenhaus has made the Modulo fully functional...

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WA T C H

Ferrari F40 As the ultimate 1980s’ status symbol, the F40 boasts outrageous styling and a raw, focused nature. Buy wisely and you’re guaranteed one of the greatest analogue sports cars ever W O R D S J O H N TA L L O D I P H O T O G R A P H Y M AG I C C A R P I C S

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M A R K E T WAT C H

INTRODUCED AT THE height of 1980s’ excess, the F40 was the most extreme road-going Ferrari ever – faster, more powerful and pricier than anything that had come before.

Launched in 1987 just in time for the marque’s 40th anniversary, it was also the last car to be personally approved by Enzo Ferrari himself.

Extreme it might have been, but it was not quite a clean-sheet design, as it shared much with the earlier 288GTO. While the GTO had been designed to go racing in the cancelled Group B series, it was actually a softer and more luxurious car in road-going form compared with the intense F40. The latter was fitted with a modified version of the 288GTO’s 2.85-litre twin-turbo V8, and made 478bhp and 426lb ft of torque – plenty considering the F40’s 1100kg dry weight – and acceleration was scintillating once the turbos had spooled up.

Ferrari made much of the fact that the F40 was the first production car to exceed 200mph – ousting the recently introduced Porsche 959 from the top spot – but its real strength lay in the way it handled.

While the Porsche was a technically complex machine, the F40 offered next to no creature comforts and was a pure racer for the road.

Although its Kevlar, carbon-fibre and aluminium construction was very advanced for the time, in most respects the Ferrari was a relatively straightforward design that focused purely on the driving experience.

Thanks to the timeless appeal of its Pininfarina-penned lines, and its raw and focused nature, the F40 has now become a highly desirable modern classic.

T H E VA L U E P R O P O S I T I O N With the initial production run of 400 cars being exceeded by almost 1000 units, the F40 is the most numerous of any of Ferrari’s ‘halo’ models. Early adopters were a bit miffed about this, and – aside from a few outliers – values remained relatively depressed for much of the 1990s and early 2000s.

However, those days of a mint F40 changing hands for as little as £140,000 are long gone, with prices for vehicles in concours condition peaking at a heady $1,750,000 in

ABOVE Interior trim doesn’t wear especially well, so factor retrimming costs into potential purchase price.

2016. They have since settled down somewhat, with most good-quality cars that are available hovering around the $1,000,000 mark.

The largely stable values over the past two years may be a precursor to another spike in prices, though.

While it could also swing the other way, the F40 is most likely to retain a strong following, especially seeing as it’s one of the greatest analogue sports cars ever built – something that’s unlikely to be repeated in today’s safety-regulated world.

T H E D E S I R A B I L I T Y FA C T O R The F40 remained largely the same throughout its six-year production run. All were left-hand drive (except for seven that Pininfarina converted to RHD for the Sultan of Brunei) and finished in Rosso Corsa red from the factory. There are some minor differences between model years, and cars built after 1991 were fitted with catalytic converters. Adjustable

‘Timeless appeal of its design and raw nature make F40 a highly desirable modern classic’

suspension systems were introduced the same year. Perspex sliding windows were also available, and US-specification cars got aluminium fuel tanks as opposed to the fuel bladders fitted to Euro-spec cars.

Ferrari dealer Talacrest has sold more top-end classic Ferraris than just about any other specialist, and company founder John Collins says that while most of his F40 clients prefer the earlier cars, all models are highly desirable these days. He also mentions that although the lowestmileage cars tend to go for the highest prices, they often require a lot of work to get right. There is greater value to be had in highermileage examples that have been well cared for and serviced regularly.

According to official Ferrari dealer Dick Lovett, the key thing to look for during any potential F40 purchase is the vehicle’s originality. Ferrari Classiche Certification is important, as it proves the car in question has been inspected by Ferrari and is true to the original build specification, such as the engine, gearbox and body numbers all matching.

T H E N U T S A N D B O LT S Thanks to its strong internals, the F40 has proven to be a largely reliable and trouble-free vehicle.

When taking one for a test drive, it should start easily, run smoothly and pull hard when on boost.

Service intervals are usually set at 3000 miles, but with so many cars

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covering extremely low mileages, Dick Lovett suggests an annual service including replacement of the brake fluid, while cambelts should be done every three years regardless of mileage. All parts are available from Ferrari SpA or Maranello Classic Parts, so restoring a tired car is entirely possible – although it’s best to get specialist advice to see how the work will affect overall values.

The 2.9-litre V8 itself is strong and unlikely to give too many problems, but look for oil residue around the cam covers as this is a weak spot. Clutches can last between 5000 and 20,000 miles depending on use, and replacement by agents costs £4500.

The turbochargers can also play up. Early signs are reduced power and smoking under acceleration, and while they are relatively easy to repair or replace, it’s a costly exercise. The electrical system is a weak point, and issues can be time consuming to rectify. Updated fuse boxes are available.

Fuel bladders as used in Eurospec cars require replacement every ten years, and can cost up to £30,000 from the official dealer or around half that at a specialist such as DK Engineering, one of the UK’s oldest. James Cottingham has been in the family business for decades, and he says that while there are conversion kits out there to replace the bladders with the US-type aluminium fuel tanks, you risk losing your Classiche Certification.

Considering the current values of these cars, this is best avoided.

Body paint can crack around the rear-quarter intakes, and if the car has previously been repainted you won’t see the carbon-fibre weave pattern along the body panels. This can be a sticking point for clients who are looking for total originality, but it can also indicate previously repaired accident damage.

Front splitters are prone to damage, and you should check the chassis tubes for any signs of

ABOVE When it comes to buying, Ferrari Classiche Certification will ensure you get a genuine example. cracking, too. Refurbished wheels can also be spotted easily, as they’ll have lost their laser-etched logos.

The interior is not particularly hard wearing, so look for loose seat material and sagging headlining.

Parts are once again available, but any refurb work should be factored into the potential purchase price.

THE FINAL DECISION The F40 has definitely secured its place among the all-time greats in Ferrari’s enviable back catalogue of already-impressive road cars. The steep rise in overall values in the past decade means that many are not being used as intended, but the

T H E D E TA I L S 1987-1992 FERRARI F40

PRICING

ENGINE POWER TOP SPEED 0-60MPH

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£650,000-750,000 £1,000,000-1,200,000 £1,300,000- 1,400,000 (LOW-MILEAGE PRE-1991 CARS)

likelihood of finding an uncaredfor example is also diminishing.

The earlier pre-cat, pre-adjustablesuspension cars enjoy a slight premium in pricing over the latter variants, but any good example is worth investigating.

Originality and a comprehensive service history are a must, confirmed by the existence of the Ferrari Classiche Certification. Ultra-lowmileage cars are very desirable for collectors, but generally require more attention from a mechanical standpoint. Parts availability is excellent, however, and restoring a car to as-new condition is entirely possible if not always financially viable. Whether you intend to use your F40 on the road, for track days or just as a piece of static art, it’s unlikely to disappoint.

TIMELINE

M A R K E T WAT C H

1987

Ferrari F40 introduced with planned production run of 400 units.

Available only in LHD with Rosso Corsa paintwork from factory, plus 478bhp 2.9-litre twin-turbo V8 mated to a five-speed manual transmission driving the rear wheels through an LSD. Air-conditioning and lightweight polycarbonate windows part of limited options package. US-spec cars receive aluminium petrol tanks as opposed to Eurospec fuel bladders.

1991

Catalytic converters made standard on all models due to US market requirements.

Adjustable suspension introduced, too.

1992

Final F40 is delivered to its customer, with 1311 cars produced in total.

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Why alloy XK is a solid investment PHOTO BY RM SOTHEBY’S

Seemingly immune to currently fluctuating markets, this early Jaguar sports car’s values have remained stable in recent times W O R D S DAV I D L I L LY W H I T E

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IN THE MADNESS of ever-rising prices, there’s been an iconic car that has remained predictable and stable for the past five years – one that is likely to stay this way for some time.

The Jaguar XK120 has long been overshadowed by the glamour (and rapidly rising values) of the E-type.

However, the XK was the model that started it all, setting out Jaguar’s stall as the maker of great-looking, high-performance sports cars at relatively affordable prices.

The first 242 XK120s built, from 1948 to early 1950, were all alloy bodied. These are now the most sought after, along with cars sporting period competition history.

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The prices illustrated above are for the alloy cars; later, steel-bodied XK120s – built until the model was replaced by the XK140 in 1954 – were heavier and mass produced.

They are still highly desirable, but without the ultimate collectability of the alloy examples.

Indeed, prices of steel XK120s can be less than half those of their alloy predecessors, which shows the importance of rarity. This also proves that a steel XK120, which doesn’t feel that different to drive, can represent great value for money.

You’ll see that prices of alloybodied XK120s peaked a little sooner in the US than in the UK, but

that across both markets (and around the world), values have levelled off, in accordance with the general market for collector cars.

The drop-off has been less severe than for more fashionable models – think certain 911s and supercars – and is further confirmation that

‘Prices of steelbodied XK120s can be less than half those of their alloy predecessors’

2017

2 EXCELLENT

2018 3 GOOD

2019 4 FAIR

an alloy-bodied XK120 is a sound investment, as well as being easy to look after and highly enjoyable to drive. Spares are more available and of higher quality than ever before – and don’t be surprised if the factory’s Jaguar Classic division starts to show a bigger interest in XK120s soon. Its ‘Reborn’ E-types have pushed up prices for Series 1s.

The broader availability of spares, including body panels, does come with a word of warning, though. It means early XK120s can be faked or over restored, leaving little of the original machine behind. Check provenance very carefully, especially for competition cars.

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HOW TO. . .

Getting set for the ultimate show ’n’ shine How ready are you to present your pride and joy at a premier concours? A leading preparation specialist shares his top tips WOR D S T I M MC NA I R , G P CONCO U R S

AFTER MANY HOURS and dollars of restoration, or years of ownership, at last your car has been accepted into a prestigious international concours d’elegance.

Finally made it!

Now what?

Well, once the transportation arrangements are made, the hotels booked, dinners planned and registration completed, it’s time to focus on you and your car.

The most important thing is to know your vehicle. Is the battery charged? Does it have enough (any) fuel? Take nothing for granted. If you are the one presenting the vehicle, be prepared to demonstrate anything. The best way is to go through a simple function test, especially for pre-war cars. Be able to open the bonnet, boot and doors, and start the car. Sounds easy, right?

But so many times the presenter floods the engine or can’t find the key for the boot. Don’t forget the little things, either; double-check all lights and gauges, as they are prone to failing without notice. Appearing angry or frustrated will leave the wrong impression for everyone involved. If something doesn’t work, you have 15-20 minutes for repair.

Recently, a vintage Ferrari on the Pebble Beach field sprung a fuel leak, but the handlers of the car

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were able to repair it and still present the vehicle. It made for plenty of thrashing and tool-flying anxiety, especially with the owners of the Ferrari – but this issue could have been very easily prevented.

The next step to prepare for judging is to detail the car properly, which can usually be accomplished with a simple wipe down. Any more polishing or issues should be handled the day before. If the vehicle has participated in a tour just prior to the event, check and address any oil leaks or scuffs present. Make sure any required ribbons or stickers related to the tour remain with the car at its debut.

One of the better presenting practices over the past few years has been to develop a binder or book showing documents related to the car. You can include anything from original sales receipts to colour chips, build sheets or reports from automotive historians – or even period pictures or those taken during the restoration (if applicable).

If the vehicle has been certified

by FIVA or HVA, also include that paperwork. In the event of a factory certification, such as Ferrari Classiche, those materials should be available for viewing. Mention these items to the chief judge after introductions have been made, and

ABOVE The judging panel will go over your car in extreme detail.

Make sure you’re ready for them...

they will determine exactly what is important to their findings.

Once the car is prepared, it’s time for the official judging. Typically, judges have a standard routine when it comes to inspecting the vehicle.

Most must adhere to a strict time limit, so some will use a stopwatch.

The best ones will discuss their plan with you and instruct each step.

Before they arrive, it’s best to make sure the car is closed up. They will ask you to open doors, bonnet and boot, and (hopefully) never attempt those functions themselves.

Many events require a safety check, in which case the judge will ask you to start the engine. I would advise performing the safety check the day before the event, in case you need to replace or repair an item. Usually, it’s

‘Perform the safety check the day before the event, in case you need to replace or repair an item’

a simple matter of testing all of the lights and horn. Practice your starting routine as necessary, learning the proper amount of choke and/or spark to allow the engine to fire smoothly.

You may be asked to present the tool kit. Become familiar with its contents, including the jack, and double-check that it’s in accordance with the owner’s or shop manual.

We’ve discussed the car, now what about you? You have a solid plan, know the vehicle and are ready to go. Dress appropriately; not necessarily formal, but not too casual, either. Some people like to wear period-correct clothing, or something similar, which is always a great idea. Just make sure it fits and is comfortable. A tweed coat may look perfect with the style of car, but on a hot day you may regret wearing it.

I should be the one to tell you that the ‘woodie’-print bowling shirt and your college flip-flops are good for cruise night, but not here. Remember, in today’s world you may be on camera or social media. Is that how you want to be immortalised?

Once you and the car are officially prepped, it’s time to relax and let the judges do their work. Go and enjoy the rest of the event; the judges or class host will inform you of the next step in your concours journey. Now, that wasn’t so bad after all, was it?

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COL L EC T IONS

Man and machine Driving the Brabham Fan Car, Ferrari 275GTB 4 and BRM V16 was all in a day’s work for the former curator of the Bernie Ecclestone collection WOR D S ROB E RT DE A N

ONE OF THE joys of looking after someone else’s collection is that you get to drive a wonderful selection of cars, bikes and race cars without having the means of owning them yourself. This isn’t the raison d’être of being a curator, but it is a superb perk.

Over the years I’ve driven some of the world’s iconic automobiles and race cars – too many to list. It’s hard work but I’ve forced myself, if you know what I mean. Once a race car’s been restored or overhauled, it has to be taken to a circuit and pedalled round to test everything works and ensure there are no leaks. This can be a bit fraught if it’s not going well.

Also, with a race car – especially a rear-engine Cosworth or a turbo – it can go wrong in the blink of an eye.

I well remember my chum Doug Hill from Beaulieu telling me about the Sunbeam LSR they pulled out into the courtyard and fired up very much as usual. It was idling happily away to itself when it suddenly stopped. No noise, no fuss, no terrible sounds of destruction; upon inspection, an oilway had become blocked and the engine had seized.

Of the race cars I’ve proudly driven, the Brabham Fan Car tops the list. Once Kerry Adams had restored it for us in 2001, Lord March – now the Duke of Richmond – asked if they could have it at Festival of Speed. He even asked me to open the course.

I met Niki Lauda in the breakfast queue: “I’m driving the Fan Car over

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the weekend.” He said: “Ah, come and tell me about it.” So I had breakfast with Mr L and discussed driving Formula 1 cars. It was very surreal. He was, of course, charming and instructive about how to drive it.

“Drive it with your foot flat,” was his advice – kind of like a frontwheel-drive car, because the more revs you have, the more it sticks to the road. Good advice, although I drove it quite sedately because Mr Ecclestone said to me with a twinkle in his eye: “If you crash it, don’t bother coming into work on Monday,” which is quite a statement.

The Fan Car is extraordinary to drive; yes, it does bob up and down when you rev it . You really can feel it gluing itself to the road. But when you’re sitting in it with a hot engine turned off, any breeze blows all the hot air back into the cockpit and you boil in your baby-grow outfit.

I drove the ex-Nick Mason BRM V16 for ten laps at Brands after its engine rebuild, and used 50 litres of methanol. Its rev limit was about 12,000rpm, but I only took it to 10k.

Afterwards in the paddock a lovely old gent came tottering up, and said that he heard it going round from his garden and had told his wife: “That’s the BRM V16.” She had told him not to be so silly, but he came round to check as it was his favourite car.

He’d watched it in-period and been a member of the fan club.

We made a big fuss of him and sat

ABOVE Getting up close to the BRM V16 made one elderly fan very happy; all part of the classic scene.

him in the car, his face shining with delight. I took a picture, which I later emailed to his family for them to print. This, too, is part of the classic scene, especially with the higher-end or more inaccessible cars. A simple act can change a person’s world.

Turbo F1 cars are something else to drive. Nelson Piquet told me to short-shift to start with, then change up later and later until I was used to the turbo spooling up. He was right, as it feels like the USS Enterprise going into hyperspace as it starts gathering speed, but the graph suddenly goes exponential and everything happens really bloody fast. It certainly clears the sinuses...

My favourite race cars are frontengine GP cars. Need a driver for one? I’m ya man. There’s something about having more power than the chassis and brakes can handle, and being able to balance the car on

‘There’s something about having more power than the chassis and brakes can handle’

tippy toes through the corner. When you get it just right, OMG you feel it through your whole body. You become part of the mechanism.

Of course, the greats could do that corner after corner. Mere mortals like us get it right a few times and are feeling pleased with ourselves, only to cock it up on the next corner and feel a bit ham fisted. “Pride before a fall,” as my gran used to say. When I was young, I never really understood, but a race car will explain it to you.

I could go on about race cars, but we had some very special road cars, and bikes, too. Of the road cars I’ve driven, the one that sticks in my mind is the sublime Ferrari 275GTB 4. It’s comfortable, benign really, but fast with no fuss. I always felt you could drive it as an everyday car but still do the odd race meeting if you fancied it.

I love early supercharged Mercs as well. The SSK is fabulous and brutish, and the 540K Special Roadster is one of the most stylish cars on the road.

If you ever get the chance to look at one from above, it looks like a speed boat with those big front wings being the bow wave. The supercharger doesn’t do much except make a high-pitched howl, as it’s a very heavy car and this makes driving it hard work. Lovely, nevertheless.

I’ll talk more about road cars and bikes next time, but for now try not to get modern-car-itis. Jump into or onto your classic, and enjoy being part of the machinery.

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L EGA L A DV IC E

What cost a work of art?

Ferrari’s 250GTO is now officially considered an artwork – in Italy, at least. But what are the wider implications of this landmark ruling?

W O R D S C L I V E R O B E R T S O N , H E A LY S L L P

IN THE SPRING issue of Magneto, I suggested that in the context of collector car values, “the top end of the market had become art”. Little did I expect the Italian commercial court of Bologna to endorse my view, while going even further by ruling that the Ferrari 250GTO was henceforth to be considered “a work of art”.

Between 1962-64, Ferrari built 36 cars that garnered the highest distinction in sports car races worldwide, consequently becoming the most valuable series of any type of car to be produced to date.

Among many definitions of a work of art, the Oxford English Dictionary references “the experience or application of known skill and imagination, typically in visual form... producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty”. A key word here is “primarily”.

THE PRECEDENTS Most commercial common and civil law jurisdictions can deal with claims based on copyright, trade marks and registered designs so as to ensure that the creation of originality is properly protected and rewarded. So far as auto design is concerned, a 2002 decision of the Massachusetts District Court proves to be instructive, in relation to the design of the Shelby Cobra. Interestingly, the styling genesis of this car developed out of the design of the early Ferrari 166, which took the form of a little boat, or “barchetta” in Italian.

Anglo-Portuguese engineer John Tojeiro built a prototype two-seat sports car with a body that closely resembled the barchetta. AC acquired a licence to use that design, which became the AC Ace, paying Tojeiro a

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royalty of £5 for each car sold. This essential design morphed into the AC Cobra, which was also marketed and sold by Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby in the US as the Shelby Cobra.

In 1996, South African company Superformance International began to sell a rolling chassis identical to the Cobra shape and often with Cobraemblem badges. Shelby filed a suit in 2000 claiming trade dress infringement and trade mark dilution.

In the event, the judge ruled that while Shelby appeared “to be the designer of the car in question”, he had not established the necessary “distinctiveness” of the design.

Consequently, Shelby’s claim failed and judgement was awarded in favour of Superformance. This begs the question of whether Carroll Shelby Licensing Inc. may have missed an opportunity. If the pre-history of the Cobra shape had been put in evidence to the Massachusetts court, then the test of distinctiveness may have been satisfied, thereby giving Shelby control of the Cobra shape, and the ability to determine the proliferation of replicas throughout the world.

When Ferrari discovered that a Modena-based company had plans to create a series of 250GTO replicas, it felt compelled to make an application to the Modena court to determine what, in effect, constituted “distinctiveness”, by asking for the design and intellectual property rights of the GTO to be officially recognised.

The tribunal found that the production, commercialisation and promotion of the model belonged solely to Ferrari, stating that “the customisation of the car’s lines and its aesthetic elements have made the 250GTO unique, a true automobile

ABOVE In the eyes of the law, Ferrari succeeded where Shelby failed. How far will fallout reach? icon”, while citing the “numerous awards” the GTO had received over the years as a reason to consider it as a work of art that was entirely original and should not be imitated or reproduced. The Modena court accepted that Ferrari had created a car that was entitled to be considered distinctive, while Shelby had not so convinced the Massachusetts court.

T H E I M P L I C AT I O N S This success will have implications in Italy. Any replica projects in build should be considered very carefully, but plans for any new builds should be abandoned forthwith. It remains to be seen how Ferrari will deal with existing replicas, but it seems evident that – if the rumours that the marque intends to build continuation chassis have any semblance of truth – replica owners should think very carefully how to distance their cars from the court’s jurisdiction. Looking at the EU outside of Italy, a test case may be needed to determine whether the Bologna decision will hold up.

Non-EU jurisdictions may well fall into step by granting Ferrari protection based on distinctiveness in the future, but permitting that

‘Any Ferrari GTO replica projects in build should now be considered very carefully’

protection to act retrospectively might be a step too far. Ferrari will need to pay heed to those wealthy individuals who support historic racing by contesting FIA-sanctioned replicas on the track. Owners are unlikely to commit their multi-million GTO originals to competition, with the consequence that the existence of historic races might be in jeopardy.

There may also be implications beyond Ferrari. Marques such as Aston, Jaguar, Porsche, Maserati et al, with past catalogues of icons, may see merit in following the Ferrari route. After all, the English brands mentioned have built continuation series of their iconic models, which have sold promptly and presumably to much financial advantage.

So the Bologna commercial court has decreed that the GTO is a work of art, and in a strict legal sense in Italy, this decision must be accepted – but does this proposition hold true in a wider sense? I think not, on account of at least two reasons.

Firstly, the dictionary definition mentioned earlier references the need for any creation to be considered a work of art, that it must have been created “primarily” for its beauty and emotional power. The 250GTO was primarily created for its horsepower as a race car.

Secondly, is it possible for a series of cars, or indeed of anything, to be considered a work of art in the singular? Is the first chassis to be designated the work of art, with the remaining 35 chassis being replicas?

Surely not. Notwithstanding whatever view may be taken of the Bologna decision, most would agree that the 250GTO stands at the pinnacle of automotive art in its widest sense.

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H I STOR IC

R AC I NG

PHOTO BY CANOSSA EVENTS

Personal service How better to hone your racing skills than with one-to-one tuition during a competitive event?

WOR D S SA M H A NCO C K

WHEN WE TALK about the importance of ‘seat time’ for an amateur driver’s development, what we actually mean is cornering time.

There’s not a lot to learn on the straights, after all.

So, do a quick sum with me: how many corners do you think you take at, or close to, racing speeds in a typical year? A few hundred? A thousand? Several thousand?

Naturally this completely depends on the type of driver you are, whether you compete, and how often. But using the clients I coach as a sample group, I reckon they each race an average of five weekends per year, at circuits with roughly 15 corners, each of which they could reasonably expect to negotiate up to 100 times during a typical historic race weekend.

Some drivers share the car, which obviously halves this amount, while others enter a second vehicle or squeeze in a test beforehand, which might double it. So leave the figures as they are and call it an average; 1500 corners x five events per year = 7500 corners negotiated at racing speeds.

But what if you could do this in a week? How about just a few days?

Imagine condensing a whole year of driving development into one, single, joyous event. One that features a genuine competition environment, where you can use your actual race car and, crucially, be coached every step of the way to

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hugely amplify your progress.

Welcome to the hitherto most under-appreciated driver-coaching environment I’ve ever experienced; the classic rally. In this case, the outstanding Modena Cento Ore, which I was lucky enough to contest last month at the wheel of an ex-Ecurie Francorchamps Group 4 Ferrari Daytona. I know...

Held annually over four days, the Modena Cento Ore features some of Italy’s finest driving terrain. This means, by the time your head hits an invariably luxurious pillow each night, you will have negotiated thousands of turns, comprised of spectacular, mountainous switchbacks, world-famous circuits, and closed-road special stages so exciting you’ll marvel at their legality.

You’ll lunch in medieval piazzas, party on the beach at sunset, dine on the actual stage of an opera house, quaff Tuscany’s finest vino – and wonder how on earth to downplay it sufficiently to your partner at home, whom you failed to invite along as navigator because you decided to take your driver coach instead.

Cynics among you will doubtless already be accusing me of using this column to perpetuate the ultimate blag. And if it weren’t for the fact that all of the clients I’ve accompanied on rallies share my thoughts, I’d struggle to argue with you.

But there is a serious side. Some of these roads can be exceptionally

ABOVE Modena Cento Ore; the ultimate opportunity for racingdriver training? We reckon so...

dangerous when driven at speed, particularly on the special stages, where accidents – some of them serious – do happen. Having a coach alongside you can dramatically reduce the risks, using the intercom to offer crystal-clear, live guidance from the passenger seat.

A good coach will not only help you select the right gears and lines, work on your mechanical sympathy and sort out your heel-and-toe technique, but they also observe your demeanour at the wheel. Are you getting a little too confident, braking perilously late – perhaps unwittingly close to disaster? Are you fatigued, making mistakes and in need of a break? Do you suddenly stiffen up and hold the car too tightly as soon as you pull on your helmet for a special stage?

Are you carrying too much speed on the mountain roads, turning into the hairpins a little early – which

‘A competition environment, where you can be coached every step of the way’

feels great on the way in, until the turn inevitably tightens more than expected, washing the front wide into the oncoming traffic or precipice? How’s your vision? Could you do with looking a little further down the road, imagining the potential shape of corner exits even when their entry is blind?

Along with the usual counsel, these are the kind of subtle but invaluable coaching observations multi-day rallies facilitate, that regular track days cannot. And the best thing is, you have a few thousand corners per day to work on it together; countless opportunities during the noncompetitive transit stages to observe and demonstrate, to discuss and explain at length before putting it all into action later that day on the race track or special stage.

And while your passenger must step out for the former, the latter offers a coach a rare opportunity to see and feel first-hand how their student responds to the intensity of competition. It’s a precious chance to focus on the raw principles of performance driving and confront fundamental habits that might be holding you back, rather than worrying about the perfect line for Eau Rouge or Parabolica braking point. If you spend enough time developing such fundamentals, all the corners on all the tracks in the world will become self explanatory.

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B E H I N D

T H E

L EG E N D

Emerson Fittipaldi on the Lotus 72 Of all the race cars he drove, this was always Emerson’s favourite – despite a disastrous first drive and a challenging end to his time with it

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I DROVE THE Lotus 72 for the first time at Monza [in 1970]. It was a brand-new chassis, number 5, that was going to be Jochen Rindt’s car for the Italian Grand Prix. I would drive his older car in the race.

It was Friday, practice. Colin Chapman said: “You run out this new car, go easy, just try the gearbox, the suspension, go easy.” I drove four or five laps, was not driving hard, and I missed the braking point into Parabolica. I was looking in the mirror because Jack Brabham was gaining, getting close to me. When I looked forward there was, right in front of me, Ignazio Giunti’s Ferrari.

I went through the back of the Ferrari, up in the air, over the dirt, then a little bank shot me into the trees. I went between two trees.

Very lucky. That was the first time I drove the 72. I said to Colin it was my fault. They fixed the chassis, and this is the car I drove at Watkins Glen – 1970, my first win, chassis 5.

In 1971 it was more difficult, because now we had the slick tyres.

They generated so much grip it was deflecting the suspension in the beginning. We made the suspension stronger through the season, and in the last race, the Brands Hatch nonchampionship race, it was the first time that my car was performing on a high-grip track, a very bumpy track. For the first time we were able to adjust the car, like changing springs and other settings, and the car was reacting. It was very good news for us. To me it was looking good for the 1972 season.

We won five Grands Prix in the

Lotus 72 in 1972 – after winning nothing in the year before. For sure, when we won the Italian Grand Prix in Monza and took the championship, that was one of the best memories.

In 1973 it was possible to win the championship again. This time I won in Argentina, and I will say that was the toughest victory I had. Then, in Interlagos, I won the Brazilian Grand Prix – I won my home country’s Grand Prix at my home circuit. That was very special.

When we arrived at Monza, mathematically I still had a chance to win the championship. Before the race we discussed it, Colin and Ronnie Peterson and me, and we agreed that if Ronnie was leading in the last part of the race, and no one else was a threat to us, we would change position with 15 laps to go. Colin would give the sign.

That is how we went to the starting grid for the race.

And then, 15 laps to go, Ronnie was ahead of me, but Colin never gave the sign. I waited, no sign. We knew if there was no signal from Colin then we had to race against each other. I was trying really hard, but so was Ronnie. I finished right on his gearbox, but I lost the race.

That was a tough one, I was very upset. It was at that point I said: “I am leaving Team Lotus.”

Some people say: “Chapman was favouring Peterson, Fittipaldi was jealous of him, was angry at him.” No! Ronnie was my best friend in Grand Prix racing, always, ever since our first days racing together in Europe.

But there was another strange

thing in my otherwise very good relationship with Colin. At the beginning of 1973, he said: “I don’t want to be close to you, because I’m afraid I’ll have to mourn you as well.”

Because the risk in those days was high, I understood that, but I have to say that was a big shock to me.

I went to McLaren. It was a very different place compared with Lotus, a different feeling. The team was better organised than Lotus.

The McLaren M23 was very fast, but also reliable and strong. In this way maybe it was a better car, an excellent car, and for sure I finished that first year, 1974, as World Champion again. But as I look back at both cars, the McLaren was maybe not quite as good to drive.

The M23 was a very fast car in fast corners, especially, but overall the Lotus 72 was more consistent in handling; better, easier to drive.

Colin Chapman was a genius. I believe that his background in aeronautics was a great help in making something extremely light so it could perform better. Colin was always trying to be on the limit of weight and resistance. And he also was a driver, so he understood what drivers were saying. Sometimes, if my car wasn’t good, what I might describe as “excited”, we would go to dinner and he would ask me what exactly the car was doing in the first corner, the second corner, every corner, all the way round the track.

And then he would go back to the garage and change the whole set-up.

Next day, the car would be incredible.

He was an incredible man.

THIS EXTRACT IS TAKEN FROM THE NEW BOOK FORMULA 1 GREATS, LOTUS 72, BY PETE LYONS, PUBLISHED BY EVRO

PHOTO BY CLASSIC TEAM LOTUS

Emerson Fittipaldi won nine GPs and a World Championship in his three-and-abit seasons with the Lotus 72.

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