Supercar Driver Magazine Issue 41 by Supercar Driver

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IN THIS EDITION

After 2020, we promised to make up for lost miles in 2021, and whilst it wasn’t quite the return to full normality we’d hoped for, we managed to squeeze in 80 events including overseas tours and our biggest and most ambitious event yet, the 2021 Michelin Secret Meet. In this issue, we immerse you back into that amazing event with 13 pages of epic imagery, SCD members’ cars and collections feature heavily as always including an Aston Martin DB5 Goldfinger and an old office block turned man cave, and we of course get behind the wheel ourselves, heading back to 1967 and stopping in 2003 on the way. We hope this issue brings back memories of the season whilst winter sets in, and whets the appetite for what’s to come next year. There’s a lot to look forward to!

Tim Harvey RPM Technik

V Engineering

service@v-engineering.co.uk

Matt Cowley Suspension Secrets

A reason to drive A reason to explore A reason to socialise A reason to visit ARTW

ORK C REATE

D BY:

info@suspensionsecrets.co.uk

Tom Jaconelli

roadra

cerally

prints.

com

Director at Romans International

Tom@romansinternational.com

Angus Frazer

Reporter for JBR Capital

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I N S I D E FEATURES: 18

20 22 24 28 32 41 74 101 102 104 107 124 142 162

The Return of the Premium Romans International

Building on Perfection - RPM Technik

The McLaren M838T Engine - V Engineering

Focus On: TOP 555

Racing Instinct - WillU FX

£200 Million & Counting - Collecting Cars MPG Man Maths

Class of 2003 - COVER FEATURE

The Praga Cup 2022

An Evening With Praga

Miles Lacey - Our Man in Praga Focus On: Tuthill Porsche

MEMBERS’ CARS: 44 Ferrari 812 Superfast 57 Porsche 992 GT3 66 Aston Martin Goldfinger DB5 Continuation 114 More Than Meets the Eye

144 154 170

Lamborghini Huracán STO

Noble M600

Ferrari 488 Pista & Ariel Atom

Power Couple - JBR

Pushing Porsche to New Limits

Gone in 1967 - Ferrari 275 GTB/4 & Shelby Mustang GT500

107

162

114

144

ON THE COVER:

EVENTS:

9 35 128

Wings of Speed - Supersonic Sunday 6 Years Clear

Michelin Secret Meet 2021

THREE OF THE BEST TRACKFOCUSED CARS OF ALL TIME GO HEAD TO HEAD

128

74 7

WAY MORE THAN JUST VEHICLE STORAGE. WWW.HENRYSCARBARN.CO.UK

Supersonic Sunday brought the 2021 SCD season to a magnificent close with an extraordinary dining experience and a celebration of record-breaking supercars held beneath the wings of a 1,354mph Concorde supersonic airliner. Written by: Angus Frazer for JBR Capital Photography: SCD & Wayne Goodman

It started with 200 supercars howling around a race circuit in a storm, and it ended with a collection of some of the finest examples of the breed parked static and silent in an aircraft hangar. And while not a single engine barked into life at Supersonic Sunday at Manchester Airport to culminate the SCD 2021 season, the event was just as effective at raising the hairs on the back of the neck as the track day at Goodwood that started the year.

Some 200 SCD members and their guests joined SCD partners JBR Capital, Berry’s Jewellers, Stratstone Manchester, Praga Cars and Rodin Cars in the Concorde Hangar at Manchester Airport for dinner and a celebration of speed. “As we opened the season at Goodwood in the South East, hosted our summer garden party at Grantley Hall in North Yorkshire and held our Michelin Secret Meet at Donington in the East Midlands, it was only proper that our last big event of the year should take place in the North West”, explained SCD Director, Adam Thorby.

UNIQUE DINING EXPERIENCE

Guests enjoyed the unique experience of dining underneath the magnificent delta wings of a British Airways liveried Concorde. In its pomp, Concorde flew from New York to London in two hours, 52 minutes and 59 seconds, cruising at 1,354mph. To make the evening even more unique, a collection of iconic supercars were interspersed around the tables, ranging from a Jaguar XK120, which reached 172.4mph with company test driver Norman Dewis at the wheel in 1953, to a Bugatti Veyron, which just over half a century later raised the bar to 253.8mph in 2005, having displaced the 241.1mph Koenigsegg CCR which was also present. Between courses, broadcaster Amanda Stretton teased high-speed tales from special guests RAF Squadron Leader Mike Bowden and racing and stunt driver Ben Collins, who wore the famous white suit of the Top Gear Stig. Despite his experience of an unprecedented five years with the Red Arrows — the standard term is three — and two tours of combat duty in Afghanistan, Bowden was in as much awe of Concorde as everyone in the room, perhaps even more so. "I'd give anything to have flown Concorde”, he admitted, "It goes over Mach Two. How cool is that? The RAF doesn't have anything that goes over Mach Two”.

BORN TO FLY

Bowden’s father, an RAF Engineer, took him to an air show at an early age. “I was that little boy who looked up and saw the Red Arrows and dropped his ice cream. That was it. My dream was set. When I eventually made it into the Red Arrows, it was incredible. Pointing at five other planes and passing through them at a closing speed of 1,200mph and then putting your plane on its backside to climb to 12,000ft in a few seconds — unbelievable!”.

Now an airline pilot, Bowden finished his RAF career in a Tornado, but before that, he flew a Harrier Jump Jet, which he described as a hairy experience. “I would say I lost eight of my nine lives flying a Harrier. You’ve got alarm bells pinging, and you’ve 15 seconds of hover time left, otherwise the thing is going to fall out of the sky. You’re in a fluster, and you know if you press the wrong one of the two levers, you won’t have time to recover the plane, but fortunately, that’s where the training and the drills come in”.

McLaren F1

Koenigsegg CCR

1998

2005

mph mph mph

250

mph

SSC Ultimate Aero TT

Bugatti Veyron SS WRE

Hennessey Venom GT

Koenigsegg Agera RS

Bugatti Chiron 300

253.8 256.1 267.8 270.4 277.8 304.7

Bugatti Veyron

Concorde take-off speed

Jaguar XJ220

217.1 240.1 241.1 1992

2005 2007 2010 2014 2017 2019

mph

OVERSTEERING IN SIXTH

James Bond driving-double Collins made diners wince with his tale of how 12 Aston Martin DBS models were destroyed during the filming of Quantum of Solace and went on to provide fascinating insights into many of the supercars assembled in the Hangar, beginning with the Koenigsegg.

“In my eight years as The Stig, I only crashed one car, that was the Koenigsegg. They wanted the record, and they brought the car to the Top Gear track, but it had no downforce and it was unbelievably skittish. It had so much power, and it was sliding around at all speeds. I was having to change gear while counter-steering with the other hand and ended up sticking it in a tyre wall”.

After ploughing across the grass, the battered supercar came to a halt with a tyre jammed ignominiously in the front air intake, which Collins and the film crew tried desperately to remove without any success. “The company CEO, Christian von Koenigsegg appeared, and it didn’t go down particularly well. But I did explain that the car could do with being lowered, needed a bit more downforce, and could do with a wing on the back. They duly did all these things, and bless them, they came back for a second shot, and it got to the top of the board. Since then, Christian has taken the company in an amazing direction, and they’ve got a wonderful array of cars”.

OLD SCHOOL RULES

Collins revealed a soft spot for the 240.1mph McLaren F1. The Gordon Murray-designed three-seater revolutionised the supercar genre in 1992 and is today valued in the region of $20m. “It might be old tech now, like Concorde, but it’s built in a simple, effective, efficient and beautiful way”. He went on to tell the diners that after he helped Top Gear carry out a drag race in the desert between a McLaren F1 and a Bugatti Veyron — “which the McLaren lost, with dignity” — he received a ticking-off in a telephone call from Ron Dennis. The former Stig’s favourite car on display, though, came not from Woking, Molsheim or Ängelholm, but Maranello, and of course, carried a prancing stallion on its nose. “The Ferrari F40 is the most primitive car I have ever driven, in a way”, smiled Collins, “The turbo lag is phenomenal, but I love it”.

Then, the sounds of twin-turbocharged V8 Ferrari engines and chattering wastegates were dispelled from diners’ minds and replaced by the gentle chink of coffee cups and saucers being placed on tables, but as Supersonic Sunday came to a close, so the countdown to the 2022 SCD season began, and come the spring, hundreds of supercar engines will howl back into life once again.

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The Return of the P R E M I U M Tom Jaconelli of Romans International talks premiums, and why even some fairly commonplace cars are now commanding more than their list price as demand outweighs supply. Written by: Tom Jaconelli

As new car shortages and rising used car values make their way into mainstream news, we like to think we are always slightly ahead of the curve in the supercar and luxury car sector, but what we have seen in the last few months has been nothing short of astounding. On a weekly basis, we have been finding ourselves in disbelief at what some cars are worth, especially when compared with just a year or so ago. With the lead times for ordering a new car at unprecedented levels and demand still incredibly high, this has led not just to rising used car values, but where new and nearly new cars are concerned, the return of the premium! The notion of the latest cars selling for over list price was becoming a dying trade in recent years but it’s certainly returned in full force this past year.

Whilst we all expected a car like the new 992 GT3 to sell for a decent premium, I don’t think anyone expected the premium to be quite as high as it is, but with restricted supply and huge demand, and when compared with what else you can buy for the same money, the new GT3 seems worth every penny of its premium in today’s market. Whilst the premium will likely come down a bit as more cars come online, what has perhaps been more surprising is the number of the slightly more mainstream models selling for sizeable premiums.

Porsche seems to lead the way, partly due to their relatively low base pricing, with cars like the 992 Turbo S still selling for over list despite some examples being almost two years old — this was unheard of with the 991 series.

The new Targa has skyrocketed above its original list price, and even the Cayenne and Taycan have been demanding premiums. Anyone lucky enough to have been allocated a GT4 RS is bound to have a tough time turning down the premiums that will be on offer, dare I say how much?!

Aston Martin, Bentley and McLaren, brands from which you would normally expect a sizeable discount when buying a new car or likely suffer heavy depreciation on, have been able to largely sell out their allocations without the need to discount, and their used cars have also been enjoying rising values. With so few new cars available at Lamborghini, we’ve seen the likes of the Huracán Performante surge in value, and whilst I would stop short of saying the new Ferrari production models have been selling for premiums, the F8, Roma and SF90 have perhaps unexpectedly been holding pretty firm, whilst any 488 or Portofino owner will certainly have enjoyed a bump in value over the last year.

Perhaps where most of the eyebrow-raising has occurred is with SUVs. It’s no secret that a luxury SUV has become commonplace in most supercar owners’ garages, but the scrap to actually find the one you want has become an increasingly expensive one. Whether it’s the new G63, Lamborghini Urus, Maybach GLS or the new V8 Defender, the manufacturers just cannot keep up with demand and people seem more than happy to pay £20-30k over list price to get their hands on a new one, and that’s despite the manufacturers increasing their prices year on year. It will be very interesting to see how Ferrari’s hotly-anticipated Purosangue SUV performs in the market, assuming it gets released in 2022 as planned.

The begging question I’ve had a lot recently is whether this little bubble is going to burst and if there will be a price correction. As we’ve headed into the colder months, naturally the demand for supercars has softened a touch and I believe we may have seen a short term peak in prices, at least for the more normal production models. We are starting to see an increasing amount of availability for these models which had been in such short supply during the summer months, so whilst there may be a slight correction, I believe the semiconductor crisis which is causing many of the delays is far from over and I think the overall strength of the market is set to continue well into 2022. In today’s world where we expect things instantly, very few people are willing to wait 12 months or more for the car they want, and when values are seemingly staying so high anyway, therefore minimising potential depreciation, it makes a lot of sense to just pay the premium and get the car you want straight away. With COP26 making it crystal clear that the end is nigh for combustion engine cars, I’m sure there will be SCD members who will be keen to start driving and enjoying many of the exciting new models that are coming out at the moment, and in this market, you certainly shouldn’t feel bad about paying the premium! @romansinternational

Building on Perfection

RPM Technik’s Darren Anderson answers some frequently asked questions about Manthey Racing and how they make the fastest Porsches even faster. Written by: Greig Daly - Sales & Marketing Director, RPM Technik

For those who’ve never come across an MR upgraded GT Porsche, the first barrage of questions from pit lane pundits usually includes, “What’s that mate?”, “It goes well doesn’t it?!”, “What sort of lap time?”, followed by some raised eyebrows.

To provide some context, Manthey, which up until 2021 was branded Manthey-Racing (MR), has been in the business of making the fastest Porsche models faster for over 30 years. The German firm, set up by Olaf Manthey (pronounced

man-tai), quickly established itself as one of the leading Porsche race teams at all levels, right up to WEC echelons. Eventually, garnering the attention of Porsche AG led to Porsche investing in Manthey, and Porsche now owns a 51% majority shareholding in the business. Manthey has been upgrading road-going GT Porsches alongside its racing efforts for many years, with the 996 GT3 MR being the first recognised upgrade, through to the 997 GT3 RS MR and more recently the 991 GT ‘MR’ and

Cayman GT ‘MR’ variants. At RPM Technik, we have been working with Manthey for over a decade, with some of our engineers experienced in the MR products since 1999.

Manthey sales manager, Michael Grassl, and RPM Technik founding Director, Ollie Preston, have had a long-standing friendship since Michael’s days working with Manthey suspension supplier KW Automotive on its test and development team. When Michael and Manthey looked

for UK specialists to proactively assist UK-based MR clients, it was a natural evolution for both businesses to work together. We invested in Manthey equipment and tooling, which is essential in order to build their ‘MR’ cars, and Manthey provided the equipmentspecific training by sending over two engineers with Michael in the summer of 2020. In doing so, the first two UK-built 991.2 GT3 RS ‘MR’ and 991.2 GT2 RS ‘MR’ examples were completed.

Back to that initial question then — What are they? The fundamental premise of the ‘MR’ conversion is that it allows the car to lap faster by making it more predictable to drive at, or more importantly, over the limit. This is achieved by providing better aerodynamic downforce without compromising straightline speed. Their aero designs were wind tunnel tested and have also undergone real-world testing, with 30,000km completed at the Nürburgring with Porsche factory test drivers.

The car also undergoes a comprehensive suspension upgrade to be able to cope with the increase in aero along with higher-grade braking hardware. Finally, and arguably most importantly, the ride height and geometry is adjusted to optimise the mechanical and aero improvements. The addition of Cup 2R tyres allows a more aggressive geometry setup and fully unlocks that extra cornering speed that is now available.

The sum of these modifications gives the driver greater precision when pushing for the ultimate lap time. Interestingly, the engine and gearbox are totally untouched. Importantly, this allows the car to continue to be covered by the Porsche extended warranty, just like any other used Porsche.

Another common question that often follows on from the above is, “Well, why wouldn’t you just buy a race car instead?”, which is a fair observation, however, it misses the point of the car. A 991.2 GT3 RS ‘MR’ can be daily driven, serviced at Porsche regular intervals of 24 months or 12,000 miles, owned with a Porsche warranty, taken on road trips, taken to car meets, and obviously driven on your favourite track all day long, only stopping for fuel. To run a Porsche race car of similar vintage on circuit would require a minimum of a truck and trailer, and an engineer plus tools, before even starting to consider that the race car will have an engine and gearbox that has a life measured

in hours. Needless to say, you won’t be taking your Cup car out for dinner or going for coffee at Caffeine & Machine in it. So, dusting off the ‘man maths’ calculator, it actually means that buying a GT3 or RS and completing the MR conversion will save you money! It is hard to get your head around a road car on road tyres matching the track pace of Ferrari Challenge cars on slicks!

On the continent, the popularity of the conversions has now got to a point where the upgrades can only be done at an Official Porsche Centre, underlining the quality and how seriously Porsche as a manufacturer is taking the whole project. Luckily for our business, we have been the most prevalent advocate of the conversions, and as such have completed five fully built cars in the last 15 months, with enquiries to build the same again. Our engineers are not only the most experienced in the UK at completing these conversions, but are also leading the way with the best understanding of

running and maintaining them. We have gathered superb data on suspension setup for UK circuits, and have shared intelligence with Manthey on what they find works best on European circuits such as Spa and the Nürburgring.

For that last question, “How fast?”, the data can do the talking: Silverstone GP 2:07 - 991.2 GT2 RS MR Nurburgring 6:40.33 - 991.2 GT2 RS MR Nurburgring 6:54.34 991.2 GT3 RS MR Portimao 1:49.50 - 991.2 GT2 RS MR

The MR conversions are currently available for 981 and 718 GT4s, both generations of 991 GT3 and GT3 RS and also 991.2 GT2 RS. For further information, please contact RPM Technik’s Ollie Preston directly on 01296 663 824. @rpmtechnik

V I E W P O I N T S THE DRIVER “The complete MR package comes closest to the experience of driving a Carrera Cup race car while still maintaining road legality and a Porsche warranty. I’ve never had more fun in a car with number plates!” Tim Harvey Carrera Cup & BTCC Champion

THE PROJEC T MANAGER

THE ENGINEER

“I’m not Lars Kern or Kevin Estre pushing for the last second, but at the same time, I’m close to Lars when the car gives such good feedback and is so drivable”

“The improvements that the Manthey Racing package provides to an already amazing GT product out of the box is quite simply astounding. Not just on track either, as realworld usability and compliance for UK road use and European touring make these packages the only upgrade you really need to do”

Christoph Breuer Project Manager for Street Cars at Manthey

Ollie Preston Technical Director for RPM Technik

early years for brand support, none were needed. Various platform updates were introduced in 2012 (for the whole car), one of which increased power (via a software flash) to take the engine to 620PS.

The McLaren M838T Engine Supercar servicing specialists V Engineering delve deep into the engine that has underpinned McLaren models for the last 10 years. Written by: V Engineering

Being proper petrolheads, we love engines, and none more so than the incredible M838T engine. Back in the late 2000s, the McLaren Automotive project was gathering pace. The chassis was already sorted (carbon fibre of course, albeit with a revolutionary production concept), but the engine remained a big question to solve. McLaren Automotive was moving away from the Mercedes involvement and the supercharged M113K from the SLR looked to be too big and heavy, so a new engine solution had to be found.

The spec being sought was demanding: lightweight, powerful, but at the same time, it had to be as clean as possible from an emissions standpoint. Six cylinders and twelve were out of the question, so a V8 looked like the logical solution. Enter Tom Walkinshaw Racing with a new engine designed for sports car racing, a twin-turbo V8 with figures of 600PS, 200kg in weight and low emissions — the design was the perfect solution. Capacity was 3.8 litres, and four valves per cylinder with variable camshaft timing working in conjunction with twin turbochargers ensured a very

powerful, clean engine, exactly what McLaren needed. McLaren took on the rights for the design, and production was granted to Ricardo, the famous engine and gearbox manufacturer. Ricardo had a proven history in designing and supplying various engine parts (cylinder heads and blocks) as well as gearboxes for various manufacturers.

The M838T was always going to be a big project, and would need to be the cornerstone of McLaren engine

solutions in various models over (at least) the next ten years. To solve this task, a completely new engine build production line was built in Shoreham in the UK, thereby keeping the McLaren Automotive project a largely British affair. Power output at the start of production was 600PS, and given the weight of the MP4-12C, performance was exceptional. Engine reliability was exceptional too; while every McLaren dealer held an engine in stock in those

Dry sump lubrication ensured a low centre of gravity, with the oil pump and water pump being driven off the crankshaft and being fitted either side of the V. The air conditioning compressor and alternator were driven by cushion drives off the back of both the oil and water pumps respectively, this meant there were no belts needed at the front of the engine.

Camshaft timing was controlled by chains with hydraulic tensioners and variators on the ends of all four camshafts (again controlled hydraulically). Fuel supply was taken care of by Bosch fuel injection, with the Bosch ECU linking seamlessly into the chassis control ECU (called a PCCU). Installation in the MP4-12C was always going to be a tight package, but the carbon fibre tub with rear aluminium subframe allowed enough space for the solution to be beautifully executed. Key to the high power and low emissions performance would be the inlet charge cooling. Air-to-air intercoolers would compromise body design and increase drag, so water-cooled charge coolers placed near to the engine solved the problem. The charge coolers would also get their own radiators in the nose of the car. The main engine cooling radiators were incorporated either side of the engine installation, and turning vanes on the side of the car effectively managed the high temperatures.

Over the next 10 years, the M838T did its job very well, moving from the MP4-12C into the 650S, and also the final Project 11 variant, the 675LT. It also incorporated hybrid drive for the P1 in 2013 (raising its combustion power output up to a dizzy 750PS), and was also tuned down for the 540C and 570S models, then up again for the 600LT. Between 2011 and 2014, the M838T won the Engine of the Year prize three times.

The M838T engine proved to be a very durable, powerful, reliable solution, and a solution liked by the technicians who worked on them. The race car origins of the engine meant that a key part of the design was simplicity, given the need to be taken apart and re-assembled mid-race with little thought about the lengths of bolts and type of fixings. We love the M838T, but most of all, we love working on them!

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We catch up with TOP 555 co-founder and Managing Director Charles Freimuth to chat about cars, his history in the industry and the company’s fresh-faced new look.

How did you get into the car business?

I left school at 16 with no qualifications, but what I did have was a great love of cars. I just wanted to get out there, work and earn some money. I used to go to auctions and buy cars from the local papers with a friend then put them in the AutoTrader magazine to try and make a profit which we did most of the time. That’s where my interest started, then as soon as I turned 17, I took my driving test within the first week, got my licence and set up a small business cleaning cars in the local area where we are today in Rutland. So I went round to people’s houses who I knew had nice cars, and valeted their cars, I just loved being involved with cars.

Around that time, Frank Sytner moved into the neighbouring village. I knew who he was at the time, and going back some 27-plus years, he had probably the largest performance and luxury franchise dealer network in the UK, with most of the BMW, Mercedes, Land Rover, Porsche and Ferrari sites in his portfolio. So, I walked down his drive with my business cards in hand and knocked on his door, he answered and I introduced myself and said I’d like to offer my car cleaning services and anything else carorientated he may need. He pretty much told me to clear off and not just walk down his drive and I thought nothing more of it. Well, you’ve got nothing to lose at that age.

Then, two weeks later, Frank called me and asked if I’d be interested in doing some driving for him, so I said of course, anything to do with cars, and he told me to be there at six o’clock sharp that evening, in a suit, and I’d be driving him to London. So, at the age of 17, I jumped in a brand-new Alpina B12 on German plates and shot down to Covent Garden where I sat in the car all night watching tv, waiting for him to finish his meetings. Frank was a great mentor, because obviously, as I drove him, I was listening to him, how he was doing deals, talking to different dealerships, valuations on specific cars and so on, and it was just fascinating and invaluable to listen to day in day out. You just can’t buy that knowledge! It all kind of went from there. I worked exclusively for Frank and his family, driving and cleaning his personal cars for over a year. He then got me into one of his dealerships, Graypaul Ferrari in Loughborough as it was at the time, as a trainee salesman working under Mario Vignali who was the oracle on everything Ferrari. After a year of working for both Graypaul and Frank, I then spent five years as the youngest salesman at Graypaul gaining further experience and meeting great clients that I still deal with today, most of whom have now become great friends.

After those five years, I decided I wanted to do it for myself, and so TOP 555 was born from there as a family business. I still speak to Frank on a regular basis to this day. We’re very good friends and we bounce things off each other, but he was my mentor and I don’t believe there’s anyone better in the motor trade to have built my knowledge from.

Can you pick a few personal favourite cars you’ve sold?

The AC Cobra 302 MKIV we’ve sold a number of times over the last twelve years has to be one, and we’ve recently sold it again. Whenever we have it, it sells really quickly and we actually personally owned it for two years. It’s an amazing example with brilliant provenance, and I have a real soft spot for that car. Rod Leach of Nostalgia was the official AC distributor who sold the car new in 1987, and when we first bought the car 12 years ago, he knew it back to front and the history file was amazing.

Tell us about your new look.

The logo and much of the branding had been the same for the last 20 years and I felt with times moving on and the business growing, we needed to modernise everything and be out there with a fresh new look, for a more modern world. I felt our previous logo was a bit complicated, but it’s what we chose over 20 years ago, probably not realising the business would become what it is today.

We’ve gone for a cleaner look with the new logo and changed the exterior of the building, and it looks great. It is exactly what you’d expect of a showroom selling the cars that we do and keeps us on track for a fresher, modern approach looking forward.

How did the Holy Trinity come about?

We have a number of clients that have large collections of cars both modern and classic, two of whom own the Holy Trinity of hypercars. One customer in particular who I’ve dealt with for 15 years acquired the cars back in 2015 and they sat in his collection in a purpose-built glassfronted garage in his grounds, so he could look

at them and admire them. As you can see from the mileage on the 918, he never even drove it, he did a couple of hundred miles in the LaFerrari and the P1 has just over 650 miles, so he’s had a brief drive in them, but for the majority of the time over the last six years, they’ve sat and been more like pieces of art if you like.

He approached me earlier this year to discuss if we’d be interested in having the cars as he spends the majority of his time abroad, so that’s what we’ve been working on. We did a soft launch at the SCD Secret Meet at Donington and got a lot of hype going with that, before preparing the cars for sale. All the cars were fully serviced, the 918 at Porsche GB in Reading, the LaFerrari at Graypaul Nottingham and the P1 at McLaren Manchester with involvement from the factory in Woking. I guess the challenge of these cars over your more typical supercars is the preparation aspect in getting them ready, changing their tyres even though they haven’t done miles as it’s recommended they’re changed every six years regardless of mileage. The servicing isn’t in and out in a day or two either. The services can be clamshell off, take the cars apart jobs; it’s pretty labour intensive so can take a couple of weeks.

The Ferrari 458 Speciale in Avorio, which we just sold for the third time last week. Now that’s a truly unique example in a Ferrari Historical colour, and it has only ever been sold by ourselves after the original supplying dealer. It’s believed to be the only one produced in that colour! We actually just had a guy turn up in a 911 R to buy it as Matt did this interview with me but unfortunately it had already sold the night before in an out of hours deal. Saying that, an opportunity to buy a 911 R doesn’t come up very often so I wasn’t letting him leave without him agreeing to sell me his car, so a deal was struck and we now own the best example on the market with only 1,700 miles from new. The new Porsche 992 GT3 was one of my favourites this year and we had the very first car available advertised on the market.

Are there any cars you’ve never sold that you’d like to?

We’ve never sold a Bugatti or a Pagani so one of those would be incredible.

It would be the dream for one person to buy all three, and I think if there is somebody out there wanting to start a collection, what better way than with the Holy Trinity? These are fabulous low-mileage examples and we believe the best you could buy today, all from the same showroom. There are currently only two LaFerraris, two 918s and two P1s on the market in the UK, including the ones we have, and I don’t think there has ever been so few available. The unique selling points on our 918 are that it’s a one-owner, delivery mileage, UK car, with the 48,000 Euro special-order Liquid Metal Silver paintwork, and I’m not sure there’ll be another one anywhere like that. I’ve driven all three and it’s difficult to sum the cars up. In my opinion, your heart buys the LaFerrari, your head buys the 918 and the lunatic inside you buys the P1.

I’m Ferrari through and through, my career started at Ferrari, and if you walk into my office, everything is Ferrari, so I think if you asked me which I would buy, it would be the LaFerrari. I love the way it looks, I love the way it sounds, I love the way it drives, and there’s just something about that V12 engine.

Rebrand aside, what else have you been up to?

We have our professional photographer and videographer Nick Caro who came on board last November and does an amazing job with all the media side, and we’ve just had our new salesman Michael Mahon come on board. With his 15 years of experience in the motor trade, he is proving to be a great asset to the company and works alongside Dan Baines who I’m sure everybody knows now. Michael has been known to us for many years working in a different sector of the motor trade with Honda, and when we decided we needed someone else, he seemed the perfect person to join the team. We’re delighted with him, he’s doing a great job, selling lots of cars and getting great feedback from customers. We love the SCD events and the YouTube videos you do are great too. The one you guys did with the 812 Superfast actually helped us sell the car. As soon as the video went live, the phone melted on that car and we could have sold it four times! We try to host three to four events each year for SCD including the Summer Solstice one which we unfortunately couldn’t do this year, but we’re really looking forward to holding more events again as the turnout from members for the one we did in September was just fantastic with 50 cars in attendance.

How was your day at the SCD Secret Meet?

It was absolutely fantastic, probably the best car event to date. The turnout from the members and businesses was just amazing, I thought everybody put on a great show. It was the event of the year for me and it’s great that it was local too. I did the four parade laps in the LaFerrari, and incredibly rare cars like that, Bugattis, Paganis, there were two or three of each at the event, where could you go to see that normally? The value of the cars going around on the parade laps must have been circa one hundred million. I’ve done track days there before, but to drive around there in the LaFerrari at more sensible speeds with like-minded people soaking up the atmosphere was just immense.

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Racing Instinct We sit down with Will Stevens and Craig Copeland of WillU FX for a Q&A about their own motorsport journeys and their company’s involvement in the industry, with the hope of helping more young talent reach their potential.

Japanese GP 2015

Introduce yourselves and your involvement in racing.

CRAIG: I’m Craig Copeland and I’m one of the founding partners of the WillU Financial Group. My background is in karting which is how I met Will and consequently married his sister! I was a two-time junior British Karting Champion then won a scholarship from the BRDC to race in Formula Renault and came sixth in my first year. Funnily enough, I won the Super 1 Mini Max Championship in 2003, then Will won it the following year, then in 2004 I won the Super 1 JICA Championship, then Will won it the following year again.

I did a bit of testing and was going to move to America but sadly my father fell quite ill, the backbone of my funding for motorsport stopped and that was me pretty much done. I did try to chase it for a couple more years, but just couldn’t find the funding to continue.

Consequently, being a founding partner of the group, one of the great things now is that we’re able to utilise the connections we’ve made along the journey to be able to support the motorsport sector in the various parts of the business we have. And now Will is going to make my whole motorsport journey look absolutely disgusting!

WILL: I’m Will Stevens and my main background is in motorsport. I started karting when I was nine years old just as a bit of a hobby really, then I soon started taking it much more seriously, going out to Europe and racing in Italy mainly as part of the Tony Kart factory racing team. 2007 was my most successful year in karting, winning a few championships in Italy and across Europe.

I moved over to cars in 2009 and went through the normal single-seater routes really, so Formula Renault UK, then Formula Renault Eurocup, then World Series by Renault before finally getting to F1 in 2014 and 15, which is every driver’s dream growing up in motorsport. Obviously I’d have loved to have done it in a more competitive car, but it was an amazing experience to be a part of — to see it from inside after your perspective of it from outside was really cool. Moving on from Formula One, I went into sports car racing, and since 2016, I’ve been much more in the endurance world. I did some racing for Audi and WRT in GT3, and combined that with the World Endurance Championship in LMP2, which is what I’ve mainly focused on for the last few years. I raced at the Le Mans 24 Hours and finished second in LMP2 in 2016, and won in the GTE Am category the following year.

There’s a new category coming in WEC and IMSA called LMDh, and there’s a lot of interest from a lot of the big manufacturers like Audi and Porsche. A lot of guys are coming out of Formula E and looking to go into that, so it’s going to be huge and I’m hoping to be part of that in a manufacturer program. I’ve also been a development driver for the McLaren Formula One team for the last four years, mainly on the simulation side. Obviously, because Formula One teams are so heavily restricted in testing, the simulation world has become extremely advanced and is used to test and develop the cars.

As for my involvement with Craig in the business side of things, I’ve always been interested in and motivated by the business world, and the foreign exchange side of the business came after our experience in the motorsport world. Being involved first-hand with teams and manufacturers and the amount of overseas transactions, we could see there was a market for that, so when Craig and I had the opportunity, it seemed like a great thing to do.

Tell us about your involvement in the Super 1 Karting Series.

CRAIG: The guy who runs Super 1 is called John Hoyle, and he’s the guy who really paid for my racing when I won the Junior British Karting Championship. John supported me for two or three years and is still a very good family friend.

A lot of things have changed in the junior karting world and Super 1 no longer holds the British Karting Championships as such, the MSA have sort of taken that back in-house, but John has done some really great things with the series. Things like Honda Cadet, where they pool the engines together, you draw a token at the start of the weekend, you get an engine, you get one set of tyres, so it’s really high level but cost-effective racing to get people into the sport.

Craig in Junior British Karting - France Salbris European Championship ICA Photo: Chris Walker - Kartpix

Photo: Jakob Ebrey

This year, we were the title sponsor for the series with the aim of getting the brand out there and getting a feel for it all. It was a successful year, and we do already facilitate a lot of the teams in terms of their overseas exposure with international payments as a lot of the big teams are racing in Europe, so those transactions are important and of course form the basis of our partnership with SCD. We also work with the manufacturers who are importing parts, and these are all individual relationships Will and I have formed over the years.

Ultimately where we want to get to at some point, is to get the paddock utilising all the services of the WillU Financial Group and become a one-stop-shop for the motorsport teams. The idea is for the money from that to go back into the series, which then goes on to support and encourage young drivers to take that next level up. There’s a lot of talent out there, and a lot of it doesn’t get to the top, so one of my real focuses and dreams with the WillU Financial Group is to try and help young drivers reach their potential.

The nature of racing means that most teams have some form of overseas transactions on a regular basis, and even if you go into the management companies, in the junior categories, you have drivers paying teams, and then teams paying suppliers, so there are so many avenues of transactions.

That involvement in motorsport is what we used to get things moving in the early days. It remains a big part of our business to date and we now have a whole host of things to bring to the party for anyone who uses overseas transactions.

Finally, give us an update on your relationship with SCD and our members.

CRAIG: One of the most important things is that we do all the international payments for SCD themselves. It was previously a big unknown for the team with all the payments for hotels and so on for the tours, but it has now become really efficient. 2021 - ELMS Championship with Panis Racing

Tell us about some of the other motorsport organisations you work with.

CRAIG: An important relationship we have is with Rob Smedley’s Total Karting Zero series, which I think takes it back another level from Super 1. While Super 1 tries to be cost-effective and give everyone an equal chance, it’s still very expensive, so we reached out to Rob and his wife and formed quite a close relationship with them. They’re using our services with their associated businesses and the people who work with them, and from what they put over to us, we put a percentage back into Total Karting Zero to try and help more people try motorsport and build something from there. WILL: I raced for Jota Sport and Sam Hignett who runs them in the back end of 2016, and then again in the World Endurance Championship in LMP2 in from 2018 to 2020. I’ve always had

a good relationship with Sam, so when we were starting the business, he was one of the first guys we went to, to look mainly at their international payments. Obviously, being involved in the World Endurance Championship, there’s a lot of travel around the world and a lot of different manufacturers supplying things. We’ve been working with them ever since and Jota is one of our longest-standing customers in the foreign exchange side.

How did your involvement in racing shape the business?

WILL: The big thing for me being within motorsport for 20 years, those relationships you build and the contact base you have, those connections are so valuable when you start a business. A lot of what we do is about having a personal relationship with our customers, and it’s much easier to trust someone you know and have a relationship with.

JONTY - SCD TOURS: For a few years now, we’ve been dealing with European hotels for our driving tours, incurring bank charges and getting whichever rate is available at that time. With Brexit looming around this time last year and Covid adding to the uncertainty of the Pound against the Euro, having budgeted for a tour in the Autumn of 2020 that we wouldn’t be running for several months was quite a scary prospect, so having some sort of security with an agreed rate was a massive relief. Since then, we’ve built up a great relationship with Jack at WillU FX, and now, payments to hotels, restaurants and other venues couldn’t be easier. We now send on an invoice to him, pay the GBP and they take care of everything else! CRAIG: As for the members, obviously cars are being bought from all over the world. If there’s a car you really want, it can be in America, the south of France, anywhere, but with the large amount of money being spent on these cars, there’s a significant requirement for overseas payments, and it can really vary. On a million pound car, it could end up costing up to fifty grand just for using your bank, which could cover the fuel, insurance, tyres and whatever else for the whole time they have the car, so there’s a lot of money to be saved.

As members of SCD, we can give preferential rates on these overseas transactions, and whilst you might not be buying cars from overseas all that frequently, although it’d be nice, it doesn’t have to be cars. Holidays can obviously be pretty expensive and the transaction fees can really rack up when you’re doing it a few times a year. Obviously many SCD members are successful business owners too, so if you have a business that has a requirement to import a product or send overseas payments for an office in America or Australia or Europe, we want to give a risk management solution to whatever you’re doing within your organisation or personal life to add value and save you money. @willu_fx

Monaco GP 2015

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£200 MILLION & COUNTING We take a look at some of the record-breaking sales and best cars that have taken Collecting Cars on a two-year journey from startup to the fastest-growing online automotive marketplace. Written by: Collecting Cars

Launched in mid-2019, Collecting Cars has grown from a startup auction platform to become the leading global online marketplace for collectable cars, bikes, and automobilia. While UK-headquartered, the company has offices in the US, Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and Canada, and will soon be opening premises in the UAE. More than 5,000 lots have already been sold on the platform, with a total sales value of around £200 million. Collecting Cars also achieved the world record price for an online auction platform, selling a McLaren P1 for an incredible $1,600,888.

WATCH COLLECTING — part of The Collecting Group of companies established this year — also had a fantastic year in business, selling more than 500 watches with a sales total of nearly £8 million. It has broken numerous world records in the process, including £64,200 for an ultra-rare Rolex Submariner 16613 Lapis dial, £28,000 for a 2015 Omega Speedmaster Moonwatch ‘Snoopy’, and £82,500 for a ‘double-sealed’ Patek Philippe Nautilus 5711. It also hosted the world’s first auction of Patek Philippe’s 50th Anniversary Ellipse model.

The automotive platform’s success in 2021 is punctuated by significant collection sales of cars and bikes. In May 2021, Collecting Cars sold ‘The Leonard Collection’, 38 vehicles, including some

of the rarest Porsche RS models, all offered with no reserve. It was one of the most talked-about sales of the year, and more than 250,000 people watched Chris Harris introduce the vehicles with a walkaround tour. The result was £7.5 million in sales, and an average buyer’s premium of just 3.1%. Porsche is the best-selling brand on Collecting Cars, with more than 700 cars sold since launch, including more than 500 examples of the 911 from every generation. Furthermore, the team has sold five examples of the 911 Reimagined by Singer, including setting a world record for the bespoke sports car with a price of £800,000 ($1.075m).

Collecting Cars has generated more than £140 million in revenue for sellers in 2021 alone, giving the online marketplace an annual growth figure well in excess of 200%. Other major sales during the last year include a Porsche 918 Spyder

Weissach Package ($1,405,000), a Koenigsegg Agera S (£1,006,888), a Lexus LFA with just 177 miles from new ($781,800) and a Porsche Carrera GT formerly owned by F1 world champion, Jenson Button (€820,500). Founder and CEO, Edward Lovett, said, “Our results in 2021 show the game-changing power Collecting Cars now wields in the global market, with online-only auctions that are cost-free and hassle-free for the seller, and which represent outstanding value for the buyer”.

The Collecting Cars marketplace is now the global leader, with more than 65 full-time employees around the world working hard to deliver great results for sellers, and to curate some amazing consignments. If you have a car or bike to sell, no matter where you are around the globe, then the team is ready to help. @collectingcars

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6 Years Clear SCD member James welcomed 50 SCD members to Langton Hall in Leicestershire to celebrate six years clear of cancer and support a cause close to his heart. Written by: James Ralston

MY DIAGNOSIS:

I was diagnosed with cancer during my second year of university. The weird thing is I didn’t even spot the lump in my neck, a good friend of mine did. At first, I thought she was just mistaking it for my Adam’s apple. After various biopsies and so forth, I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer, and that’s when my entire life changed. I had a slow-growing tumour which was estimated to have been in my neck for a number of years. Following two separate operations and radiotherapy, the tumour was successfully removed along with my entire thyroid. Six years on, I am actually very grateful to have had cancer at such a young age. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, had a great saying that, “Every man has two lives, and the second starts when he realises he has just one”.

GET A-HEAD

My surgeon, Mr John Watkinson who operated on me, founded the charity Get A-Head, a charitable trust that focuses on fighting all head and neck diseases. Once I found out about the charity, I felt inspired to give back, but I didn’t want to do the stereotypical marathon or skydive.

...As a kid, I grew up watching the Fast & Furious movies and playing games such as Need for Speed, so, I was extremely keen to put my passion for cars and bikes together to create an event for all members to enjoy.

SCD

Having been a member of SCD with my dad (Dr Duncan Ralston) for a number of years, I invited Adam over to our new family home, Langton Hall, to see if a meet of some sort was possible. As a kid, I grew up watching the Fast & Furious movies and playing games such as Need for Speed, so I was extremely keen to put my passion for cars and bikes together to create an event for all members to enjoy.

CAR ICONICS AND BIKE ICONICS

Stephen and Dan from Car Iconics were kind enough to support the event with a Jaguar C-Type FIA-Certified recreation and one of the lowest mileage Ferrari F430 Spiders on the market. Ollie from Bike Iconics brought along a Ducati 748R and MV Agusta Superveloce Serie Oro accompanied by our 1299 Panigale R Final Edition and Panigale V4 Speciale ‘XXXX’, which all took the main stage outside the south wing along with Roland and James Duce’s Alfa Romeo 8C and Tom Chapman’s Aston Martin DB5.

£3,081 RAISED FOR GET A-HEAD

We hosted 50 SCD members, who were all fed and watered by Grasmere Farm and Langton Brewery, and entertained by Dexters Events. We also had Thistle Loo Hire there for anyone who needed to spend a penny! Thanks to everyone’s kindness and generosity, we managed to raise £3,081 for the Get A-Head charity, which will directly help improve the quality of life for those patients who suffer from head and neck diseases.

ACCELERATING OUR WAY TO NET-ZERO BY ROB GARDNER, DIRECTOR OF INVESTMENT, ST. JAMES’S PLACE WEALTH MANAGEMENT

HIGH-PERFORMANCE INVESTMENT IS CHANGING LANES – WHY SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENT IN PLANES, CRANES AND AUTOMOBILES IS ACCELERATING THE CHANGE TO A NET-ZERO FUTURE.

reuse, remake – all while keeping economic growth – which can be done. What’s most exciting though, is that by actively engaging with and investing in planes, cranes, and automobiles – some of the biggest culprits in greenhouse gas emissions – rather than divesting or boycotting those industries, we can accelerate the transition to net zero.

2021 showed us what happens when nature bites back, waking the world up to the immediate need to reassess and rectify our relationship with planet earth. If you’re reading this and thinking petrol-heads need not apply, well – having just come back from COP26 and witnessing the likes of BMW, Rolls Royce and the steel industry set the tone for automobiles and its supply chain – think again.

My life’s work has been focused on harnessing the flow of money to make money a force for good and I’m fortunate that my role with St. James’s Place affords me a certain scale and influence when it comes to these values. For example, as a business St. James’s Place has committed to a net-zero way of investing and operating; on track to achieve our target of reducing the carbon emissions in our circa £150 billion investment portfolio by 25% in 2025, and our ambition of 50% by 2030.

These industries are doing all they can to transition to net zero, and it’s time to participate in the action. BMW’s i4 M50 has proven its rapid electric power on the Salzburg ring and Rolls Royce has built what they claim is the world’s fastest all-electric aircraft, the ‘Spirit of Innovation,’ eclipsing the current record speed. Porsche has invested heavily in the development of “e-fuels,” a climate-neutral fuel to replace gasoline in vehicles with traditional engines; JCB is investing heavily in hydrogen engines, and ‘green steel’ is high on the agenda. If the last decade was the decade of digitalisation, then this will be the decade of decarbonisation. Marking the start of human behaviour change on a global scale, individuals, businesses, industries, and government now understand that we are all accountable for reversing the damage we have done to the earth’s climate. It’s clear following COP26 that we need to move away from a take, make, waste model to a circular economy of recycle,

Now, this doesn’t mean that we’re no longer investing in airlines, oil, and gas because that doesn’t help solve the problem. Instead, St. James’s Place fund managers are actively engaging with the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to incentives these businesses to make the necessary steps to transition to net zero as quickly as possible. This is where we use our size and scale to work with Climate Action 100+, investing in and engaging with those businesses to do better, which is the most effective way to decarbonise on a global scale. If you consider that: A. The United Kingdom, Canada, Germany, India, and the UAE have pledged to purchase only net-zero steel by 2050; with governments around the world pumping money into infrastructure projects for buildings, bridges, ports, flood protection and public transit using net-zero steel.

You can see that long-term investment in the automobile sector and its supply chain is paving the way for a prosperous future for both the planet and the people living on it. DIRECTOR OF INVESTMENT, ST. JAMES’S PLACE WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Rob Gardner B. Six major automakers — including Ford, Mercedes-Benz, General Motors and Volvo — and 30 national governments pledged to phase out sales of new gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 worldwide.

able for £7 trillion in assets, which they then invest in £70 trillion worth of companies, bonds and properties. This is how we use our size and scale to influence the change needed to drive businesses and industries to be better ancestors to the planet and the people who live on it. Collectively the money is being used by companies and industries to keep innovating, expanding, hiring, and prospering. The actions these companies and industries take now will have a huge impact on environmental issues, far more than we can ourselves: Getting one person to drive an electric car is good, getting one global automobile company to reduce CO2 emissions over the entire life cycle of their vehicle production, towards a net-zero way of working, is a whole different ball game. So, you see, investing your money in some of the most innovative players across all industries, be it the automobiles and its supply chain, aviation, steel, oil or gas has the potential to be the fastest catalyst for climate change, which is why it is the St. James’s Place goal to invest this way in every industry sector. In fact, ensuring that your pension contribution is being invested responsibly is 27 times* more impactful than flying less, eating less red meat, and driving and electric car – though we should all try to do those things as well. * Sustainable finance at Nordea, November 2019

C. Tesla is now worth more than Volkswagen, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, GM, Ford, Honda, Fiat Chrysler and Peugeot combined. You can see that long-term investment in the automobile sector and its supply chain is paving the way for a prosperous future for both the planet and the people living on it. You may not realise it, but everyone can take a spin behind the sustainable investment wheel, and we all have far more influence with where we invest our money than where we vote at the ballot station – thanks to our pension. Regardless as to how you’re topping up your pension, once it leaves your account you probably haven’t engaged with where that money is going and how its invested. Just because you can’t ‘spend’ your pension today, doesn’t mean it’s not being used on your behalf at this very moment. However, until you engage with where that money is going, fund managers are deciding which companies and industries should receive that investment from you, by buying shares and bonds in those companies to grow your money. The money in UK pensions is worth trillions of pounds, and your pension provider will have billions per year to invest – a huge amount of money. For example, St. James’s Place engages with its fund managers all over the world, account-

TO FIND OUT HOW YOU CAN START INVESTING RESPONSIBLY, CONTACT JANINE EDWARDS:

01676 530606 07785 295341 janine.edwards@sjpp.co.uk www.janineedwards.co.uk

COP26 declaration from UK Presidency of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, Green Procurement Deal, 9 November 2021

Declaration from UK Presidency of the UN Climate Conference in Glasgow, 100% zero emission cars and vans, 10 November 2021

Tesla’s market cap tops the 9 largest automakers combined, cbnc.com, 14 December 2020

Janine Edwards Wealth Management Ltd is an Appointed Representative of and represents only St. James’s Place Wealth Management plc (which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority) for the purpose of advising solely on the group’s wealth management products and services, more details of which are set out on the group’s website www.sjp.co.uk/products. The ‘St. James’s Place Partnership’ and the titles ‘Partner’ and ‘Partner Practice’ are marketing terms used to describe St. James’s Place representatives.

OFFICIAL FERRARI DEALER GRAYPAUL NOTTINGHAM

Official Ferrari Dealer Graypaul Nottingham invites you to make an appointment to visit our prestigious showroom. Discover the Ferrari Roma, the all new mid-front-engined 2+ coupé that combines the unparalleled performance and handling synonymous with the Prancing Horse. Every new Ferrari purchased includes a 4 year manufacturer warranty and a 7 year servicing plan, offering ultimate peace of mind and ownership satisfaction. We look forward to welcoming you soon.

Graypaul Nottingham Lenton Lane Nottingham, NG7 2NR Telephone: 0115 837 7508 nottingham.ferraridealers.com

ferrari.com

Fuel economy and CO2 results for the Ferrari Roma in mpg (l/100km) combined: 29.1 (9.7) to 15.9 (17.8). CO2 emissions: 220 - 404 g/km. Figures shown are for comparability purposes; only compare fuel

consumption and CO2 figures with other cars tested to the same technical procedures. These figures may not reflect real life driving results, which will depend upon a number of factors including the accessories fitted (post-registration), variations in weather, driving styles and vehicle load.

BTCC champion Tim Harvey discusses why fuel efficiency doesn’t impact your wallet as much as you might think, and why diesels and EVs aren’t the way forward for us car enthusiasts. Written by: Tim Harvey

So, you know when a car enthusiast gleefully regales to you how his daily BMW 530 does 40 miles to the gallon? Well, I tell you this, he’s not a car enthusiast! I often find myself chatting cars to people and the biggest attraction they seem to have to their cars is the fact it returns them great fuel economy, not what it’s like to drive, look at or own. I never concern myself with mpg figures when looking at cars to buy, be they daily drives, or more obviously, supercars, and here’s why.

Long ago, I had one of these discussions, went back to my office and did some maths, not one of my strong points I grant you, but not bad when it comes to money! Even I could work out that, given an average of say 12,000 miles per year, the fuel costs of running any gas-guzzler doing an average of say 20mpg meant an additional £950, and that’s at today’s petrol prices. Add in a few more miles or an even thirstier car and maybe the extra cost could be £1,500 per year.

Given the hours of fun driving an interesting car gives you over a mundane runabout which gives no pleasure other than the financial return on fuel, ask yourself this: Would you pay the extra £950 to £1,500 to drive a car that gives you pleasure all of the time or would you rather drive something that gives you no pleasure just to save that amount? If the answer is the latter, then you’re not a car enthusiast.

I grant you this sum may be significant to some people, but they are the same ones paying extra for business class seats, holidays, golf clubs, expensive meals and wines. Those other indulgences give but fleeting moments of pleasure whilst driving a nice car gives all-year-round satisfaction. I do have to admit, however, to looking at fuel price variables and not paying ridiculous motorway forecourt prices — at least Dick Turpin wore a mask! My actual mpg figure though? I’ve easily reconciled my extra

yearly spend to drive what I like, so the number is irrelevant. Long ago, Enzo Ferrari famously said that, when you buy one of his cars, you only really buy the engine, the rest of the car he gives you for free! Enzo knew that the heart and soul of a car comes from its power source. I would venture to suggest it gives a car its character, dynamics and personality too. There are so many wonderful engines out there, so why spend the majority of your driving time behind the wheel of a diesel?

Oh, and don’t get me started on EVs. Fast, yes, but totally lacking in soul and simply a way of getting from A to B. I’ve yet to experience one I’d want to drive regularly let alone own. Besides that, Volvo themselves recently did a survey on the total carbon footprint of two of their own XC40 cars, one petrol and one EV. Guess what, the EV only became more carbon-friendly once it had done 68,000 miles!

So much for saving the planet and saving money. Who does 68,000 miles in an EV anyway? They get replaced long before that and the cycle starts again. In any case, driving a nice daily can still be quite efficient. On a recent trip back from working at a British Touring Car race meeting, my Porsche 911.2 GTS returned the quite incredible numbers of 195 miles travelled at an average speed of 68mph and an average fuel consumption of 37mpg — who says you can’t have your cake and eat it? Granted, this is not my normal mpg figure as it was almost all motorway driving, but nevertheless, at least I was enjoying the journey without the death rattle of a diesel!

So, my fellow SCD members, next time you hear someone espousing the mpg merits of their car, make sure you question their love of driving and please don’t mention mpg numbers to me, ever!

V12 After being part of SCD’s earliest days with an E60 BMW M5, member Tom is back with a bang. We catch up to find out about his journey and the Ferrari 812 Superfast he owns today.

MEMBER’S CAR: FERRARI 812 SUPERFAST

Cars like this probably won’t be around much longer so I wanted to experience it now.

What are your earliest memories of cars?

When I was little, my grandma would get me a Countach 5000S birthday card and I had a black Countach 5000S on my wall alongside an F40, so it was a bit like we all were as kids, Ferrari or Lamborghini?

My dad took me to my first car show at Sheffield Arena when the fourth-generation Supra first came out. I remember vividly it was black with cream leather, it looked class and I was like woah! That started something off and I ended up badgering my dad to go to more car shows. We did the London Motor Show when the first Audi TT came out and I remember thinking wow at that too. My first experience of being in something fast was when I was 15 or 16 and my dad paid for me to have a couple of laps around Donington in an Ultima GTR. I remember the grip, the noise and the smell of fuel, and that really gave me a taste for fast cars.

When I started driving, my mum put me on the insurance for her Mondeo Zetec 2.0 which I thought was really fast back then. I was into my twenties when I bought my first car which was a 1997 P reg BMW 328i with full M3 Evo body, alloys and Evo six-speed manual gearbox from the factory. Looking at it, it would be really rare now! It was like a midnight blue over Silverstone leather with the M3 Evo seats, and I tricked it out and had a couple of bits done to it like uprated brake pads, coilovers and a carbon airbox.

When did you first join SCD?

I don’t really remember how I came across SCD, but I joined when it first started over 10 years ago. We used to meet at Tesco on Ecclesall Road in Sheffield then have a run out in the Peak District and that was it. I had an E60 M5 V10 at the time and I still love the Estate version of that car.

I got rid of the M5 and I left as I didn’t have anything suitable, and there was a lot of hard work and taking chances to get things to work out, then I finally came back in 2018 with a Lamborghini Huracán Performante. I loved that car — the drivability and capability of it was great. I went on some drives like the Peak District and Sherwood Shuffle and I’ve loved being back, maybe even more so than before! I’ve always been into cars so I love being part of something where everyone has a shared passion.

What made you want an 812?

For me, it was the yearning for a naturallyaspirated V12. Cars like this probably won’t be around much longer so I wanted to experience it now. Doing all the homework as we do, watching YouTube reviews, chatting to friends who have cars, I was looking at the 812 and the SVJ. The guy who got me the allocation for the Perf at Lamborghini has since retired but we’ve become good friends. I rang him and he said, “Forget the money, if you’re choosing between an SVJ and an 812, pick the 812”. The relationship between the engine and the double-clutch gearbox was a draw over the older technology with the single-clutch in the SVJ, plus the seven years free servicing, and at the time the SVJs were about £100,000 more as well.

I was browsing and didn’t want the typical Rosso Corsa over Crema so I did take plenty of time looking for the right one. I spotted this one at Charles Hurst Ferrari in Belfast, in Grigio Silverstone, and what really did it for me was the interior. It was an 18-month-old car with 1,200 miles and it represented great value at over £100,000 under list. They used it as their demo car for 900 miles, then they sold it to a customer who put 300 miles on before trading it in for an F12 TDF. So, I bought the car and Charles Hurst was a great dealer. Because it was during Covid, it got delivered to my house on a truck from Ireland, and I had never driven or even been in an 812 before I took delivery.

I still have the video of when I took delivery. I was just there rubbing my face like oh my god. I had only seen one in the flesh and it just looks so much more aggressive than I expected. When you see one up close, you appreciate all the angles and details and it was just fascinating. When it arrived and he started it up to pull off the truck, it was like Christmas Day.

Tell us about the spec.

Richard and the guys at Charles Hurst specced the car originally and they did an amazing job. They loved the car and had so many comments about the wheels and the paintwork. It’s Grigio Silverstone with the matte gold wheels and Cuoio interior, and that contrast is amazing. It has pretty much all the exterior carbon apart from the front bumper insert, so it has the under sills, exhaust surrounds, splitter and centre caps. It’s similar inside with the carbon racing seats, carbon driver zone, central tunnel and door handles.

What is it like to drive?

After the Perf, the bonnet feels long to start with and you have to be a lot more cautious with it after the four-wheel drive. It was early April when I took delivery so the roads were still a bit cold and damp, and I probably lived with it for a couple of weeks before I really got used to it. It’s always in Race, Sport is just for tootling, although I even have it in Race going slow

sometimes just to play with the downshifts. The dealer said that, pushing on in Race, you really want your tyre temps at 30 degrees c, and if they aren’t, the back end will go in second and third very easily. In terms of power delivery, you do need a lot more respect for it, but once everything is up to temp, the grip is phenomenal. You can go flat in second and it just hooks up. It doesn’t drive like a GT car; I was really surprised but it feels, dare I say, sharper than the

Perf did. The way it digs in with the four-wheel steering almost feels like you’re digging parallel skiing — it’s really sharp. The roads in the Peak District have lots of undulations and bumpy road mode is phenomenal at smoothing them out, but I actually kind of like it bumpy as it’s more dramatic. The engine is obviously a big reason why I went for the 812, and the relationship between that engine and the gearbox, there’s just nothing like it. It absolutely screams under acceleration and it just barks on the downshifts. When you’re hard on the brakes, if you hold the left paddle, it will downshift three times in a second, way faster than you could do it yourself. It has so many cool features you learn over time. I like to really drive my cars, and one funny story when I was out driving is that I heard a beeping noise and saw a little light on the dash, so I called the dealer to ask about it and he laughed and said, “You were flat then?”, and I said, “Well yeah!”, and it was the DRS system where a couple of flaps drop to help the airflow and reduce drag at speed which I thought was really cool! Cars all have their own personalities and I love getting to understand them. The 812’s personality is, “I can chin you, I can knock you out, but we’re all good just having a chat over a beer aren’t we?”, so you just make sure it’s up to temperature and give it some respect. Some people like slower cars with manual gearboxes, an analogue experience. This is totally different, it’s so visceral. The speed at which everything happens is so full-on, you wouldn’t be able to cope if it was analogue.

What has it been like to live with?

I’ve had a niggle or two but they’ve been dealt with really quickly and easily under warranty. It’s a GT car, so it’s very usable too. The SVJ would have been really dramatic with that single-clutch, but I wanted something I could live with as well. If it’s a nice day I’ll happily take it to work and I even get enjoyment not using it as intended, just being in it, because to me, it feels like a special car, then I’ll take the long way home through the Peaks.

Anything you don’t like about it?

There isn’t actually anything I dislike about it. Genuinely, I don’t think I can fault it.

What have you done with the car so far?

My daughter is just turning one year old this month so I can’t spare every single weekend as they’re mostly dictated with family time, but I get out in the car when I can, and with SCD, I’ve done the Sherwood Shuffle and Peaks drive again, and also the Tom Hartley BBQ.

I’ll be going to Silverstone for Passione Ferrari at the weekend, staying over and convoying down with a few other cars, plus I’ll be doing a couple of track sessions to really enjoy the car. I keep my eye on the SCD calendar every week to see what’s coming up and what I have in terms of availability, and I’m keen to get a few things done before the season comes to a close. I want to get as much use out of the car as I can while the weather is ok, because come winter, it’s just not drivable, it’s just pointless because the pleasure is in the driving for me.

...I really don’t know where you go from here. To me, a naturally-aspirated Ferrari V 12 feels like the pinnacle.

Do you plan on keeping it?

The ultimate dream for me is this car but hardcore, so the 812 Competizione. The Pista is great, it’s an amazing car but it just doesn’t sound the same. The 812 Competizione, being a hardcore variant of a naturally-aspirated V12, I don’t think you can get better than that. Alcantara, racing feel, harnesses, all that is a bit of me, so that’s the only thing I’d say is missing that I’d like with the 812.

Other than that, I really don’t know where you go from here. To me, a naturally-aspirated Ferrari V12 feels like the pinnacle.

OFFICIAL FERRARI DEALER GRAYPAUL NOTTINGHAM

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Graypaul Nottingham Lenton Lane, Nottingham Nottinghamshire, NG7 2NR Tel. 0115 672 7459 nottingham.ferraridealers.com

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MEMBER’S CAR: PORSCHE 992 GT3

THE DRIVE OF MY LIFE

From his first fateful drive in a 911 over 30 years ago to his very own 992 GT3, SCD member Roger Bailey tells us his story of Porsche addiction. Written by: Roger Bailey

1978 was the year my life of addiction started, the year Porsche's 911 SC got its 3.0-litre engine and the same year this impressionable young man secured the drive of his life in that new, shining black 911. This was the year my life of longing for a Porsche was cemented. To this day, my memory of that rasping exhaust combined with surreal whooshing fan sounds remains clear. I can recall that catapult acceleration and steering so responsive it consigned all other cars thereafter as being

agricultural. Not until 30 years had passed did I have sufficient means to realise the dream of owning my very own 997 Carrera S, also in shining black.

Fast forward to today, via owning a few more 911s along the way, and I may have just reached my peak with this Shark Blue 992 GT3. Car reviewers have eulogised about this car all year and it's hard not to agree with them. I can only add to all the positive sentiments by saying this is simply the best car I have driven.

It is simply the finest blend of road and race car I personally have ever come across at this price level...

Faith in those Zuffenhausen designers was necessary when I requested a new car order from Porsche Centre Chester as few had even seen the 992 GT3 at that time and the market was unpredictable thanks to world events, yet my Porsche lust overcame any doubts and my letter of buying intent was hurriedly written and submitted.

To my complete surprise, that hallowed phone call from my dealer principal actually happened. I could scarcely believe I’d been selected to be an owner of this super-rare, limited-run supercar, yet this was real, my allocation was set in place and now that Porsche online car configurator got serious. Easy specification choices were this launch colour Shark Blue and a PDK gearbox. The German manual gearboxes are of course a tactile delight, in fact I specified one for my other Porsche, a 718 Spyder which I still have, but I was convinced the high revving nature of the GT3 engine and the prospective speed things happen at when pressing on in a car with this amount of performance called for that class-leading paddleshifter.

Collection day came along just three months later when Porsche Chester generously put on a memorable occasion for us, a day which is recorded for posterity on my YouTube channel. My wife was given flowers, there were thoughtful gifts for me, followed up by a convivial gathering of Chester’s team in the car handover room as the cover was pulled off to reveal the striking new form. It seemed the only possible absence during our send-off drive away was a blizzard of confetti. Looking at these photographs, you will see I chose Neodyme coloured wheels, ceramic brakes with black calipers, carbon bucket seats and blue contrast stitching for the internal trim. Less obvious are essential options such as the front axle lifter and reversing camera. While I am pleased with all my internet-made choices, I’ve realised that in a car with this amount of effortless velocity, the speed limit indicator in the instrument display might have been a helpful addition!

Once the first 1,000 careful running in miles were completed, the door to 9,000rpm was unlocked and Anglesey Circuit heard the sounds of the dry-sumped, titanium con rod engine on full song, and witnessed those super grippy P Zero Corsa tyres relentlessly hanging onto the tarmac. The highlight of this car however is not the downforce-aided grip, nor is it even that magnificent engine, the highlight is in fact the feel and handling. Such are the responses, you find yourself driving very quickly and smoothly with huge confidence. The stability is so reassuring that you can really commit to corners and you know that the shifts from the PDK gearbox are so smooth they won't unsettle the car.

As you might have sensed, I quite like this Porsche. This is a car that flatters yet challenges you at the same time, drives like a modern racer on track and canters fast and comfortably along B roads, it’s a car that puts the driver’s experiences front and centre of everything.

SCD have created some great opportunities for my wife, Jill and I to enjoy quality time with this GT3. Opportunities like organised drives across the picturesque roads of Snowdonia, exclusive track days, socialising with like-minded car enthusiasts and even a drive up the hill at CarFest. These have been just some of our experiences so far and we look forward to many more SCD adventures. And so, for me, my Porsche 992 GT3 is a perfect ticket to having fun. It is simply the finest blend of road and race car I personally have ever come across at this price level, and one that will take a huge effort from Porsche, or any other manufacturer for that matter, before I could even begin to think about a replacement for this, the latest drive of my life. @roger_bailey1361

DO YOU E XPEC T ME TO TALK? NO, I E XPEC T YOU

MEMBER’S CAR: ASTON MARTIN GOLDFINGER DB5 CONTINUATION

We join SCD member Mark at Aston Martin Works for the collection of his very own, real-life Bond car. Written by: Matt Parker

ver since Sean Connery first hit screens as James Bond in 1964, the Aston Martin DB5 has been the most famous and recognisable movie car. Many more have come and gone over the last fifty-odd years; we’ve had The General Lee, KITT, a time-travelling DeLorean, and Mr Bond himself has had countless other cars, even an amphibious submersible Lotus Esprit, but nothing has ever quite surpassed the DB5.

Original DB5s are few and far between these days, and whilst they’re effortlessly beautiful and hugely valuable classics, they’re missing something — they don’t have any guns or gadgets! Now though, Aston Martin Works at Newport Pagnell have decided to celebrate the brand’s longstanding relationship with Mr Bond by recreating the man himself’s iconic DB5, gadgets, guns and all, how cool is that?

The name is pretty cool too, the Aston Martin Works DB5 Goldfinger Continuation, after the film which made the car famous. Cooler still, Aston Martin Works resides on the site of Aston Martin’s original factory, so the Goldfinger cars are being built in the very spot the original DB5s were nearly 60 years ago.

To mark the release of the 25th Bond movie, No Time to Die, just 25 cars will be produced, all of which will, of course, be finished in Bond-spec Silver Birch. We’ll dive further into the nerdy details later, but first, let’s rewind to a few days before Riad’s photographs you see on these pages were taken. It was one of those moments we’ve spoken about before where we were just going about our day when a message dropped in from SCD member Mark, saying he would be collecting his DB5 Goldfinger from Aston Martin Works in a few days time, would we like to go along and cover it? You know the rest.

We know Mark for owning a magnificent collection of the latest and greatest so I this isn’t what I expected to be joining his fleet. Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen him at events and on tours in things like a Bugatti Chiron, LaFerrari, Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren Senna and Speedtail, so the Goldfinger is definitely something a bit different, but even more exclusive than anything I’ve just mentioned, and some might say it’s the coolest of them all.

Collection day came and the car sat undercover at Aston Martin Works. So far, so normal. Then though, your typical handover went out of the window, and things became more like a briefing from MI6 gadget master Q himself. I’m not sure the collection of any multimillion-pound car would turn you into a big kid at Christmas quite like pretending to be 007! So, whilst the guy over in the showroom collecting a new Vantage is still in a very enviable position, but whilst he was being shown how the sat-nav works, how to connect his phone and check the trip computer, Mark was being shown his revolving number plates and machine guns, to name but a couple.

Development of the Goldfinger’s gadgets was led by Chris Carbould, who has worked on special effects for every Bond film since Octopussy in 1983. Starting on the outside and possibly the favourite of those of us with heavy right feet, the revolving number plates should keep those pesky speed cameras at bay, something 007 didn’t have to contend with in 1964! Should things get a little spicier, the front indicators hide machine guns, albeit with simulated firing since health and safety is a little keener than it was fifty-odd years ago.

...like a briefing from MI6 gadget master Q himself.

Around the back, there’s a rear screen, should your mate be chasing you in his DB5 Goldfinger, guns blazing on the commute. A smokescreen from the rear lights should help keep him at bay too, but should he get alongside, extending hub caps will come in handy to slash his tyres.

The interior perfectly replicates the movie car too. At first glance, it’s a classic cabin beautifully finished in leather with a traditional wood-rimmed steering wheel. Beneath the surface though, you can release your inner spy once more by flipping the armrest open to reveal much of the gadget switchgear. There’s also a simulated radar screen, an underseat weapons tray in case you need more firepower than those front-mounted machine guns, and even a wonderfully old-fashioned, corded phone like you used to have in your house as a kid. Oh, and just like in the film, the tip of the gear knob flips up to reveal an ominous red button. Ok, it doesn’t actually fire an ejector seat, but a panel can be removed from the roof to represent where your passenger would be sent flying through when they’ve outstayed their welcome.

The Goldfinger is powered by the same engine as the original DB5, a four-litre, naturally-aspirated straight-six which sends 290bhp to the rear wheels through a fivespeed ZF manual gearbox and a mechanical limited-slip differential. All in all, the craftspeople at Aston Martin Works put 4,500 painstaking hours into each and every Goldfinger, and I’m sure you’ll agree the result is a fabulous celebration of the most iconic movie car of all time. Now, nothing’s perfect, and there are a few downsides. It carries a price tag of over £3 million, and even if you have that, all 25 are already spoken for, and even if you’re one of the 25, you can’t just take it for an achingly cool spin to the pub because the car isn’t road legal, so I imagine most of these will be the centrepiece of some pretty special collections, and can you imagine a more spectacular talking point in a garage than this? I’m not sure I can!

Actually, that should have read that 24 of them aren’t road legal, but Mark’s is, and since taking delivery, he’s already had the car out in Monaco as the centre of attention in Casino Square for the premiere of the latest Bond movie, No Time to Die. Here’s hoping we’ll get the chance to turn into big kids if he brings it to an SCD event sometime.

We head back to 2003 to experience the dawn of the track-focused sports and supercars with three of the most iconic and exciting models of all time.

Written by: Matt Parker

003 doesn’t seem all that long ago until you scroll through some facts that make you feel rather old. 21-yearold Britney Spears became the youngest singer to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, 16-yearold Lionel Messi made his debut for FC Barcelona and the last of the old-style VW Beetles rolled off the production line in Mexico. Oh, and petrol was 76p per litre! Facts aside though, 2003 was a standout year for cars. Bentley took a giant leap into the 21st century with the Continental GT, just as Aston Martin did with the DB9 and Lamborghini did with its new ‘baby’ Gallardo, and of course there was the hypercar ‘holy trinity’ of the day — the Ferrari Enzo, Porsche Carrera GT and MercedesBenz SLR McLaren. There were another three cars, though, which starred in two Top Gear episodes I still vividly remember watching as a kid. First, there was Clarkson's trip to the Isle of Man in the BMW M3 CSL, quite possibly the most hardcore BMW road car ever made, although as I mentioned when I compared a manual CSL to a C63 Black Series last year, it doesn’t actually have a cardboard boot floor contrary to Clarkson's comments! Fun fact, that was the first Top Gear episode to feature the white-suited Stig portrayed by Ben Collins.

The other episode actually aired in 2004, bringing together the Ferrari 360 Challenge Stradale and the Porsche 996 GT3 RS for a head to head at the Top Gear test track. Fun fact for this episode, both cars recorded exactly the same lap time of 1:22.30. These are some of our favourite cars from one of our favourite eras, so we brought all three of them together for a three-way celebration of 2003. This was an era where power, handling and braking performance were on the rise, but gimmicks, electrical nannies and amenities were still very few and far between in trackfocused cars, that is apart from the early efforts at single-clutch paddleshift gearboxes which two of these three have.

Aside from those fancy-for-thetime gearboxes though, all three cars are very much back to basics. You sit in cloth or Alcantara-clad bucket seats which slide forwards or backwards, there are no buttons on the steering wheels bar the single track button on that of the CSL, there are no big screens, there’s barely a barely a carpet to be seen and there’s carbon everywhere. Now, I’m not talking about aesthetic splashes of carbon you tick on the options list and end up adding a hundred grand to the price. No, these cars had carbon for the sole purpose of lightness, and you pretty much got what you were given. There was no paint to sample; the BMW was available in grey or black, and the Porsche in nothing but white, only allowing you to choose the colour of your wheels and decals. The interiors had no frills and no options to add them. They weren’t made to impress passers-by or pop to the shops, they were just made to be driven.

They were bought by people to do just that as well. This was before you had to make best pals with your dealer to get a special model, before people bought to flip or for bragging rights. They weren’t rare because they were strictly limited or because supply was deliberately restricted, they were rare because you only bought one if you were a through and through petrolhead who didn’t care about anything but driving thrills. If you know me, it will come as no surprise that I was assigned the Porsche, and equally predictable was Jonty being thrown the keys to the Ferrari. For the BMW, we roped in 'our man in Praga', racing driver Miles Lacey. We each grab them by the scruff on the twisties of North Wales and delve into why we love them so much in the video launching on YouTube on Christmas Day, so be sure to go and check that out. First though, being familiar with all three cars (I know, I’ve been told before that I have a terrible job), allow me to take you on a whistle-stop tour of these three very different but equally special characters.

FERRARI 360 CHALLENGE STRADALE I’ll start with the car I drove first. It’s been a few years now since I first got acquainted with a 360 Challenge Stradale, and it’ll come as no surprise that it’s the noise that has never left me! Just like the other two, you have an oldfashioned radio, heater controls and very little else. In the carbon centre console, there’s a very fighter jet starter button and a few others with very little thought to ergonomics. You can turn off the very basic traction control, activate launch control if you fancy halving the life of your clutch, or engage Race mode to liven up the throttle and shift times — very fancy for its day!

On the move, you feel every bump in the road since there are no adaptive dampers and bumpy road mode like we’ve come to expect in modern Ferraris. Even on a smooth road, the engine vibrates through your spine, and once the valves in the exhaust open, I’m not sure any other road car sounds quite so obnoxious out of the box — it’s intoxicating! It’s so light and alive in your hands down a country road, and the point we miss in modern supercars, you won’t lose your licence if you go above half throttle and its limits aren’t so high that you can’t have a blast at double-digit speeds. The gearbox is acceptable, but it’s definitely a weak point which leads me to my affection for its successor, the 430 Scuderia. That said though, when it comes to pure, ear-piercing thrills, this is the one.

BMW M3 CSL My first experience of a CSL, as mentioned earlier, was in a twin test with the wholly different Mercedes C63 Black Series last year. That car had the SMG paddleshift ‘box swapped for a manual along with a shorter ratio diff, so my judgement was a little skewed from the original product, but I was absolutely smitten and likened it to a 997 GT3 — I can’t stress what high praise that is! The induction noise is overwhelming even if the standard exhaust note is a little raspy, but I just love how back to basics and single-minded it is.

Since then, I’ve driven SCD’s very own CSL that we’re featuring today with the standard diff and SMG gearbox, so I can draw a fair conclusion of the car out of the box. That conclusion is that, if it was mine, I’d put a manual and the shorter diff in! Like in the Ferrari, the gearbox is the weak link as manufacturers were only just getting their head around this newfangled tech at the time, but whilst the changes are a little laboured, it’s involving as you adjust the throttle to smooth it out, and it far from spoils the whole experience. I’m not sure if you agree, but I also think that the CSL is just one of the most understated but purposeful and photogenic cars I’ve laid eyes on!

PORSCHE 996 GT3 RS You didn’t expect me to mention this one last, did you? The list of Porsches I’ve found myself behind the wheel of is getting silly, including every generation and sub-generation of GT3 RS since the 997, but I had never experienced the one that first used the now hallowed badge (or should that be sticker?) until now. The GT3 RS is the most basic of the three cars, with three pedals and a manual ‘box and no traction control in sight. As you might expect, it’s therefore the lightest, even if the Ferrari packs significantly more power, and it really does feel light when you get up it along a twisty road. The feel through the steering and the way it wants to nibble and follow every ripple in the road makes it feel so alive and keeps you on your toes as a driver too, plus using that manual gearbox is an absolute joy. It’s nothing like as loud as the other two, as this was from a time when Porsche didn’t do anything just for the sake of it; if it didn’t make it lighter or faster, forget about it. Just like the other two, it’s wonderfully laserfocused on its purpose as a track special, it doesn’t care about being comfortable or easy to live with, and it’s all the more exciting for it.

CONCLUSION This might get thrown around a bit much, but put simply, they don’t make ‘em like this anymore, and frankly, I don’t think buyers would accept ‘em like this anymore! These days, we want everything, all the time. We want our SUV to sound like a hot rod and show a hot hatch who’s boss over a twisty road, just like we want our track-focused special to be comfortable on a trip from Sheffield to Goodwood, to help us pull off the perfect drift with electronic trickery and respond to our commands like Alexa. I admit I’m guilty of this as a bit of an Apple CarPlay snob, but when you go back to 2003, you realise what we’re missing these days. I’ll also admit that it’s hard to make an objective argument for any one of these cars over their modern-day counterparts. They’ve all become far faster, more capable, more comfortable, more usable and much safer, but think subjectively and the old dogs show the most charming tricks. There’s a reason I remember those Top Gear episodes and probably always will, because these are three extremely special cars which you could call the first of their kind, and driving the three of them, meeting my heroes if you will, has firmly cemented the class of 2003 in my highlight reel. To see three men having a rather good day at work and see these three epic machines in action, scan the QR code below to watch our video on 25th December.

T H E B I T S Y O U D O N ’ T S E E

A look behind the scenes on location from SCD Director Adam.

This video has been one we've wanted to film for some time and we hope you tune in to SCD-TV on Christmas morning to watch the video.

What you don't see though, is behind the scenes on our video shoots, what goes into them and the team required to make them happen. We are all about maximising the quality of our films; the cars are the stars but it is all about the location and the roads, and Snowdonia National Park has the very best on offer.

Our media team Dan, Riad and Tim work tirelessly for three days filming and maximising their creativity, supported by Jake, Luke and myself with driving duties, extra camera angles and driving the SCD crew van. Our presenters Jonty, Matt and Miles have a massive responsibility to do the cars justice on screen with how they are being driven, but also knowing their facts and figures and being able

to portray the visceral experience of driving the cars to the camera.

It has to also be said though, without the generosity and trust from the SCD members who lend us their cars, these films wouldn't be possible, so a massive thank you to Brian and Lee who loaned us their cars, not once, but twice!

Scan me to view our stock

Ferrari

£439,995 68mi

2021 (21) SF90 Stradale

Aston Martin

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2016 (16) Aventador SV 1 of 600, Nero Nemesis Satin w/ PPF

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2018 (18) 911 GT3 Touring

£239,995 18,300mi

2016 (16) Aventador SV

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1986 (D) (D) 911 911 Turbo Turbo SE SE 930 930 1986

11,902mi

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Mercedes-Benz 2019 (69) AMG GT-R

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2015 (15) 650s Le Mans Edition

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2019 (69) 911 GT3 RS Front Axle Lift, Bose, Sports Buckets

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2,691mi

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7,415mi

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10,300mi

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MURCIELAGO LP670-4 SV 2010 - 5,000 miles

AVENTADOR S LP740-4 2017 - 11,000 miles

£229,990

FERRARI F430 SCUDERIA 2016 - 7,000 miles

£204,990

LAMBORGHINI URUS V8

£399,990

2021 - 11,000 miles

HURACAN EVO LP640-4 2020 - 5,700 miles

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MCLAREN 720S 2019 - 7,500 miles

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Murcielago 6.5 LP640 Roadster Mileage: 15,842 mi Year: 2007

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991 Turbo S Coupe Mileage: 20,600 mi

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600LT 3.8T V8 Spider Mileage: 1,951 mi

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991 3.0 Carrera GTS Mileage: 13,903 mi

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991 Targa 4S Mileage: 22,907 mi

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AMG GT R V8 Roadster Mileage: 4,640 mi

McLaren

GT Mileage: 9,920 mi

Aston Martin

V8 4.0 Vantage Mileage: 15,585 mi

Land Rover

2.0 P300 X-Dynamic HSE Mileage: 212 mi

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currently for sale

2007/57 BUGATTI VEYRON 16.4 Single Tone Black Metallic with Cream Leather

2015/15 PORSCHE 918 SPYDER Basalt Black Metallic with Onyx Black Leather

2016/16 FERRARI F12 TDF Grigio Ferro with Cioccolato Alcantara

2010/60 FERRARI 599 GTO Rosso Formula 1 2007 with Charcoal Alcantara & Grigio 3D Fabric

2021/21 FERRARI SF90 STRADALE ASSETTO FIORANO Grigio Ferro Metallic with Nero Leather

2021/71 MASERATI MC20 Bianco Audace with Nero/Blu Cielo Leather & Nero Alcantara

2019 (19) FERRARI 812 SUPERFAST Rosso Formula 1 2007 with Charcoal Leather & Alcantara

2017/17 MCLAREN 675LT SPIDER MSO Ceramic Grey with Carbon Black Alcantara

2020/20 PORSCHE 911 (992) TURBO S GT Silver Metallic with Black Leather

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1985 Ferrari Testarossa ‘Monospecchio’

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1960 Aston Martin DB4 GT Recreated

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SCD’s Official Racing Partner goes up a gear in 2022 with its first one-make race series: The Praga Cup. In March 2022, Praga will mark another historic milestone in the company’s 115th year with the launch of the Praga Cup, its first one-make championship, which will run in partnership with Britcar and the all-new British Endurance Championship, featuring a grid of at least 16 Praga R1s competing across six rounds at some of the UK’s most popular circuits.

In addition to offering a gripping spectacle of the mini-LMP racers going toe-to-toe, and a new level of competitive racing for participating teams and drivers, the new championship also hopes to open the door for novice and first-time racers making the step-up from supercar tours and track days.

Mark Harrison, Managing Director at Praga Cars UK, talks us through what we can expect from the Praga Cup 2022, who can get involved, and the incredible prizes on offer.

Miles Lacey on track

How did the idea of the Praga Cup come about?

What can you tell us about the Praga Cup prizes?

Praga has always had a vision to go racing with a one-make race series, but it’s really hard to pull off. We had targeted 2023, but our partnership with SCD has been pivotal in us accelerating to launching 12 months early. 2021 has been an important year for Praga; our success within Britcar Endurance has led to increased interest from drivers and teams. That demand has been matched at our Czech HQ and we will also contribute factory cars to ensure a full grid, which is key to all interested competitors. No one wants to see 10 cars on a grid, 16 will be the very minimum we expect. Drivers will be competing for great prizes in dramatic-looking cars, driven on the edge and committed to the corners with their aero grip and downforce. Affordable, accessible, and allaction aero racing en-masse over a full season has not been seen in the UK for years, and the time feels right now for drivers and teams.

It’s not just the prizes that are appealing. The total prize pot will be unique at this level of UK motor racing at well over £200,000, and seeing already who will be racing next season, it will be a very open championship. The owner, team or individual of the winning R1 will receive a 2021 or 2022 factory R1 at the end of the season, a prize that is tempting racers in from the worlds of GT3 and F3. Meanwhile, the two winning drivers will win seats at an end-of-season endurance race, with entry into the 2023 season and Praga karts also up for grabs. For race teams, the potential commercial returns on an R1 are also proving attractive given the car is relatively low cost to run, we have huge demand from paying drivers who want to race with us, and the R1 should retain high residual values.

How can novice racing drivers or supercar drivers get involved in something like the Praga Cup?

Mark Harrison

The Praga Supercar Race Academy exists for this very purpose, and the 2021 Praga Guest Driver programme has proved it works. It was unforgettable to witness first-hand the progression and achievements of our total novice Guest Drivers, like Jimmy Broadbent and Jay Morton who went from never having raced to taking the chequered flag.

For a one-off fee, the academy provides an off-the-shelf solution that could see participants racing an R1 in a matter of weeks, with both mental and physical coaching, help with securing a racing license, and finding a team to race with. Anyone who is keen to race with us next year should contact us now given the first round on the Silverstone GP circuit will be in midMarch, and what a place to start your first race! Jimmy Broadbent

Jay Morton

Find out more about the Praga Cup 2022 at pragacup.com

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AN EVENING WITH

The stars come out as Romain Grosjean, Jodie Kidd and Frank Stephenson join SCD members for an evening at Praga’s new global HQ.

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s part of Praga’s end-ofseason celebrations, SCD was among an exclusive guestlist invited to attend An Evening with Praga. Some of the world’s most famous racing and automotive faces gathered at the Czech company’s new global headquarters and showroom in rural Cheshire.

The private VIP event was hosted by friend of SCD, Jodie Kidd, who interviewed a unique lineup of special guests talking about their most exciting and challenging career and life experiences. Long-time Praga friend, Romain Grosjean, returned to the UK for the first time since the 2020 British Grand Prix and was joined by world-famous car designer Frank Stephenson and Praga’s racewinning 2021 Guest Drivers Jimmy Broadbent and Jay Morton.

Topics of the evening included Frank Stephenson’s inspirations in supercar design and his plans for a car race on the moon, and YouTube star Jimmy Broadbent’s reflections on taking the step from the sim racing world to competing, and winning, in a Praga R1 in the Praga category of the Britcar Endurance Championship. Guests also heard ex-SAS soldier, two-time Everest summiteer and star of TV show SAS: Who Dares Wins, Jay Morton, talk about the similarities and differences of mindset and physical training for survival and performance when serving for his country, climbing Everest or competing in motorsport.

To end the night, Romain Grosjean joined Jodie on stage to talk about his new blossoming career in IndyCar in the USA, his career highlights in Formula 1 and, of course, how he survived one of the most horrific racing incidents of recent times, as well as his ongoing recovery.

Those in attendance had the chance to meet all the guests, look over the Praga R1 race cars and Praga karts up close, and compete in an R1 at Oulton Park on Praga’s simulator. Alongside Jodie and Romain, the star of the show was arguably another ‘Frank’, the sonamed Frank Stephenson-liveried Praga R1 that was raced this year by SCD’s own Miles Lacey as part of Praga’s 2021 Official Racing Partner status — a successful relationship that both SCD and Praga expect to continue in 2022.

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SAVING THE BEST UNTIL LAST

After a challenging season with Praga in the Britcar Endurance Championship, Miles Lacey takes one last shot to step onto the podium in a thrilling final round.

race on my own, but that at least allowed me more seat time before race day. The pace is good, the car is good, the team is happy and I’m very happy.

Here it is, race day! It’s bloody freezing and windy as hell, the team fit new brake pads and I head out in FP1 to bed them in, nothing more. I’m immediately aware that the car’s balance doesn’t feel the same as it did yesterday. I speak to my engineer, Sean Hurley and he doesn’t sound surprised, “Massive

Sector one, green, sector two, green, sector three, green. “Come on!”, I’m thinking, “you’re on a f***ing flyer here Lacey!”, then as I’m coming out of the hairpin for the final two turns, the worst sight I can think of lay ahead of me — red flag! That’s it, and I have to abort the lap and settle for P5. Rolling into my grid position, I’m acutely aware I have close to ten million pounds worth of racing cars surrounding me including an actual Aston Martin Vulcan in the

Written by: Miles Lacey Photography: Jared Barnes

It all came down to this. It seems only five minutes ago we were gearing for the race season ahead with the three-day test at Anglesey back in March. The journey ahead resulted in something I genuinely don’t think any of us were ready for.

Arriving at Donington Park for the final round of the season in October, having navigated our way through an extremely challenging and competitive year, we all felt quietly confident about our ability, firstly to put on a show for the spectators, but to also take a clean fight to our fellow competitors we’d all grown to know throughout the year. I was sadly still feeling the effects of being ill earlier in the week which stole a lot of my energy needed to drive the car to its potential, but there was not a single chance I’d let it beat me. Running on an overdose of vitamin C, Lemsip and Paracetamol in the days leading up to the race, I got myself well enough to at least try and drive the car in testing. It goes well, the car feels fast and I’m totally in tune with how it’s handling. My teammate James had elected to bow out of this round, so I was doing the entire endurance

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The safety car is deployed and we spend the next 10 minutes or so under safety car conditions whilst the aftermath of the disastrous start to the race is cleared up by the marshals. As we’re circulating, we see a handful of cars limping their way back to the pits like wounded soldiers, not willing to give up just yet.

The race restarts and I make a few choice moves but lose progress as racing with a very bunched up grid slows me down. I find clean air, make a few brave moves to get past the GT3 cars again and drag ‘Frank’ and I up to P1. It feels incredible but I’m also aware I need to box and take advantage of the situation. It doesn’t quite work out and another safety car is called just after my pit stop. Nothing I could avoid, I just had to keep pushing. I start to show a couple of signs of fatigue at the 50-minute mark, but I said before I started the race that the only way I don’t finish this race is if my arms come out their sockets. The clock strikes 60 minutes, the chequered flag is waved and I cross the line P2 overall. I can see my entire family and friends going berserk in the stands; I’ve never felt anything like it.

wind direction change today mate, we’ll do what we can but you’re going to have to drive around it”. Right, who doesn’t like a challenge? I go out in qualifying and sit P1 for the first 15 minutes of the session, but I’m struggling to switch the front tyres on and I know it’s costing me significant time. I come in, one final tyre pressure change, head out to find a gap and push harder than I have ever before.

invitation class. And yes, before you ask, it sounded ungodly! The lights go green and we’re away, all hurtling in to turn one looking for the same piece of tarmac. I raise my vision to reveal absolute carnage already, two cars spin and are subsequently collected by the rest of the grid coming through. In a bid for freedom, I dive to the inside on the grass and somehow come out of it unscathed in P2!

The target at the start of the season was to get a podium finish. I only had to wait until the final round to achieve it but I couldn’t have asked for anything more. The feeling of elation, knowing all the hard work you and your team have put in all season is finally realised with a deserving result. Now I understand why this motor racing malarkey is so bloody addictive! There’s only one thing for it now and that’s to upgrade it to a top step finish. Anyone fancy a go next year?! @mileslacey

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We catch up with Richard Tuthill, known for his highly regarded bespoke builds to find out about how he got into the business, tales of Safari rallying and his involvement in the Singer ACS.

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...those Rothmans cars are what really grabbed my attention and they’re still iconic today.

How did you become so passionate about Porsche?

My earliest memory is probably the SCRS Rothmans stuff that was kicking about in ‘84ish, and that’s where our Porsche involvement started, through DR Autosport which later became Prodrive.

Up until then, we were predominantly VW. My dad was running all sorts of stuff from Beetles to Ford Escorts and he was working on Porsche road cars, but those Rothmans cars are what really grabbed my attention and they’re still iconic today.

The first Porsche I had a real personal involvement with was around 1997. I had won the British Junior Rally Championship, I was driving a Honda Civic but we sort of ran out of budget and opportunity didn’t quite appear as I wanted it to. So, I set about building a 2.0-litre 911 from the shell up which we went on to drive in what was the semi beginning of historic rallying — that was a great thing to be involved in.

When did that passion turn into a business?

The story with the business is that my old man founded it in the early ‘70s as a service workshop. The Rothmans thing happened when dad had a car David Richards wanted to buy, a Rothmans show car which David presented to the board of Rothmans in Milton Keynes. That led to years of shell preparation and accident repair for Prodrive including 911 SCRS, M3, Metro 6R4, and we repaired every single McRae accident in Legacy and Impreza, of which there were a few! We did that until the dawn of WRC. My involvement really started after building that one Porsche for myself. I had carried on driving modern cars in the American Rallying Championship, then I came back to help dad in 2002. I came for one rally and the deal was that I would train up the client, a chap called Stuart Rolt who became chairman of the BRDC and is now a great friend who lives locally, and I would co-drive for him on the Safari Rally, and then I would carry on with my life, but I never left.

I’d say our first real effort at a road car was Chris Harris' green 911 ST which was a cool thing and is still owned by a client today. Honestly, I still get an enquiry which mentions that car every month. That was Chris and me saying let’s have a go at something, taking everything we’d learned from rallying and putting it into a road car, and with hindsight, we were onto something which has become huge around the world.

How have things evolved since?

I think the key way this business has evolved is managing clients’ cars in the sense where they never leave our building unless they’re going to

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be used. When I built my first Porsche, we’d build a car for a client, they’d pick it up, and we might see it every now and then, but otherwise they’d disappear and do whatever they wanted with it. Now we build your car, we manage your car, we manage your events, you just have to jump on a flight and we will be there ready to support you. There is continual communication and continual relationship building throughout. Inevitably, historic rallying and racing attracts a certain type of client, and really from day one when I was getting involved here, I realised that, if we were to employ the best people and if we were to attract the best clients, however nice we were or however good we were at doing what we were doing, we needed to be in an environment that reflects what we do. We were always known for building brilliant cars, but I was trying to employ brilliant people to come and work with us, and the charm of working in a cold and damp shed was quite a difficult one to overcome.

The building sort of felt like when I bought my first easy up gazebo for the British Rallying Championship. We’d be winning events and doing great things with clients but we were just stuck in the middle of a car park with a groundsheet. Then I bought an easy up, and all of a sudden, we became that bit more professional, like these guys must be a serious bunch because they’ve got an easy up! Although the building is a pretty extreme easy up, the effect has been the same. It has really given us a wonderful working environment and a wonderful atmosphere for clients to come and see their cars being built, and where we are today is enjoying many brilliant projects across a whole load of different areas. We’re just an honest bunch of guys who love doing what we’re doing, and we’re all about creating cars that people want to go out and use.

How does it work if I want to order a car?

What I like about what we do is, if you walk in today, as we’re expecting a guy to later, there’s nothing I can sell you here right now. So, we find out what you think you want, the type of driving you’re going to do and have a really open chat about what is possible. It’s completely freestyle, and it takes a little while to unwind everything.

Today, I’m probably going to drive five or six cars with this guy, and we'll get to know each other, it’s a learning experience. I don’t Google anyone who is going to come here to work out who they are and I’m not on social media, I just like to take people at face value get to know them and come up with a plan from there. They might not even decide to go ahead with anything now, but may decide to come back in a couple of years, there’s no pressure involved.

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Have you been involved in the Dakar Rally?

We’ve repaired a few Dakar 959s. Aside from that, obviously Dakar moved to South America and now it’s in Saudi Arabia, but there was an interim period where Jean Louis Schlesser, who is a famous racing driver and a bit of a Dakar legend, essentially continued to run Paris-Dakar. We did that with a client in one of our historic cars, and that’s really our only experience of Dakar, however I have long since aspired to be involved and I’m on an absolute mission that we will do it. There’s the Dakar Classic which will be run for its second year in January. It’s led by Yves Loubet who’s an extraordinary man, and we’ve done many of his events in Morocco, so whilst we’re not involved yet simply because of our Safari Rally commitment, I have aspirations for the Classic and I also want to get involved in a modern effort as well. I’m always looking for new challenges, and I must say I look at the scenery these guys are driving through, the challenge and the nature of the event, and it’s something that’s really interesting, so I have a plan up my sleeve and it’s something that’s definitely in the mix.

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How did your involvement in the Singer ACS come about?

A great client of Singer's dropped off a couple of 964s unannounced and said can you build me some rally cars? They said we don’t do that, but we know a guy who does, so they gave me a call, and loosely based around the regs for the Baja 1000 which is an event I competed in with a Buggy around 10 years ago, we set about building the ultimate off-road Porsche.

The Baja regs are wonderful because there are no regs, so you’ve got carte blanche to create whatever it is you want. Given my love for rallying and our history with two-wheel-drive cars, the idea of building an ultimate four-wheeldrive car is a challenge I would never shy away from. It was extraordinary to work with Singer, and by the time we got onto that project, I had already been helping them to set up their UK

facility and been involved in the DLS project, assisting wherever I could. So we had a working relationship outside of what became the ACS, and I must say I feel hugely privileged to have had the opportunity to build that car. If you look at everything from my first memory of the Rothmans SCRS through to the Rothmans 959s we’ve had in our workshop, to then create something inspired by all of that lot, it’s just dream come true stuff.

How did you get to know SCD?

It was a bit of a lockdown thing. I was in touch with Adam and we struck up a conversation about cars, and his level of interest in cars and his passion must be about unparalleled. We had some really nice chats about what we do and our relationship developed from there. The first thing we did was a live tour over Instagram during lockdown, then we hosted a proper visit when we were able to and I’d love to do more, to give more people the opportunity to get into our world. The stuff that you guys are doing and the cars you bring out are potentially a little outside our remit, however the passion and interest is shared, and whether members own older stuff or will own it at some point, there’s massive synergy. My perception of what SCD is doing is giving brilliant people with brilliant cars and a real passion a reason to use them and do stuff together. We all need excuses to use this stuff, and if you look at what we do, whilst it’s very different, from our racing to our rallying, if we don’t give our clients reasons to use their cars, we don’t exist, we don’t have an ongoing business.

I have a lot of conversations with people and sometimes question myself, where we’re taking to pieces perfectly good cars. Some people say that’s sacrilege, what the hell are you doing? Why are you going to Safari with a 1973 car? Why are you cutting up a perfectly good 993? I’m pretty clear on why we’re doing it. We’re doing it because there are plenty of these cars in the world, but there are far too many that people aren’t using. Porsche didn’t build cars to sit in people's garages; I’d rather see these cars out being used and see these people having amazing times creating great memories. I just want a car to be used, and I think you guys are doing a brilliant job of that.

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What are your personal favourite cars for a Sunday drive, road tour, racing, rallying and daily driving?

Firstly, that’s an impossible question because everybody needs about 10 Porsches in their life! There’s a bit of a theme here because I’m not interested in a bag-load of power, I want to have to work for my enjoyment and wring its neck. If I want to go for a weekend rive, it would be a 356 Roadster, because with the speed the Roadster goes at, you just chill out and enjoy the drive and you can have the roof down if you get some nice weather.

If I was to do a road trip to the south of France, I’m building a car for exactly that purpose. There isn’t a car I would take yet, and I want a car I could convince my wife Ruth to jump in and spend however long it takes to get down to the south of France, and I don’t think anyone in the restomod market has built that car yet. So far we have eight orders, and the first should be finished in March, at which point we can chat about it more openly. As for racing, I’m not very experienced in racing as I’ve come to it quite late, but through our involvement in the 2.0L cup, I did an 85-minute stint at Silverstone in a 2.0-litre Cup car. I challenge anyone to find a car that can give you that experience, so I think an early shortwheelbase 911 has to be in anybody's collection, be it race, road or rally. Whilst I’m tempted to say the ACS would be the rally car, I still have to say it would be a two-wheel-drive Safari rally car, but it’s tough because our 997 Cup car on gravel is absolutely extraordinary. So for rallying, I can’t choose just one, I need all three of them!

What do I drive every day? This is going to be really disappointing, but I walk to work, because I can see my house from where I’m sitting, and generally I drive a Golf GTD every day. The first car I had the use of when I was 17 was a little Mk1 8v Golf GTI. I still believe the Golf is perhaps the best road car in the world if it’s not a Porsche, but I spend most of my time testing cars that aren’t mine!

Every day I come to work, there are probably 150 cars on site ranging from a 991 Turbo to a nice 356, so I’m always driving other people's cars. It’s quite funny, because a client once asked me why his car had done more miles than it had ever done before whilst being looked after by someone. I said because I drive your car, and the reason I drive everyone's cars is that I genuinely believe I can improve the way they work, and that’s only possible by driving them. So, if I’ve got to go and pick up one of my kids from school, if I can do 20 minutes there and 20 minutes back in a client's car, I’ll gain a real understanding of either how it can be improved, or ascertain any problems is with it.

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What does the future hold for Tuthill Porsche?

We're growing as a business very rapidly, so we’ve go to be careful as change has got to be managed. I’m still at the heart of the business, and I have the attention span of a newt, so I’m continually looking for things to excite me. Thankfully, we’ve built a bit of a track record and, generally, if I dream up something and think it’s a good idea, at least someone else in the world should think it’s a good idea and want to buy it.

With that in mind, one of the projects we’re currently on with that I can talk about is a 1972 car, and I really think that is going to be something very special with a bespoke engine from scratch. There’s a bit of carbon involved, but it’s still a very early car, and it’s all about blowing your mind, rather than competing with anything that’s already there. In the meantime, we still do everything. We still service and MOT old 911s, although we are

moving more modern as well after the success of our 997 RGT, and I am working on a 992 project which I can’t talk about, but it’s important that we keep moving and keep working on cool stuff. The pandemic hasn’t helped, but I am actively working on our own series of events which will be my interpretation of rallying, as I think it can be delivered in a better way for the type of clients we have. They will be competition based, but there is also a huge market for non-competitive events with proper driving, so I want to take people to all corners of the world, probably without a stopwatch too. Once again, just like you guys, it’s finding reasons to go somewhere, do something and be with great people, so we’re developing that as you experience some extraordinary sights and make some incredible memories on rallies, and we'll obviously create cars that will suit those events. @tuthillporsche

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MEMBER’S GARAGE

Starting life as a run-down old office block, SCD member Nilesh might have the most unsuspecting home and garage we’ve seen to date. We paid him a visit to find out more. How did you get into cars?

I don’t think I was really into cars from the start, but I remember this scene in a Cannonball Run film with a Countach, two hot women in bodysuits and a 300SL Gullwing. After that scene, it all just happened. Cars, women, that was it! Lamborghini and Mercedes became my main passion, and I think I’ve had about 35 or 40 Mercs since then.

Tell us about your car history.

When I passed my test at 17 in ’93 or ‘94, that was the era where insurance was just ridiculous because everything was getting nicked. Things like XR2s and all the hot cars because they were just so easy to steal back then, so something like a £1,000 Fiesta cost £2,000 to insure. We used to do textiles as a small family business, and between 17 and 21, I only drove vans for work. When I was 21, the first car I bought was an E30 BMW 325i Convertible, which I had modified with a body kit, wheels and had all the interior redone. After that came a Mercedes-Benz 300CE-24V which I still have today. My first what I would call a supercar, although I know it’s debatable, but it had supercar performance at the time in 2004, was a Mercedes SL55 AMG F1 Pace Car. The performance and handling for that era was amazing.

Standout cars for me are of course things like the first Porsche, first Ferrari and first Lamborghini. My first Ferrari was a 550 Maranello. I always wanted a Lamborghini, but when the Murcielago was released in 2002, that was just like wow, this is it, and that was my first Lamborghini.

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Tell us about the cars in your garage today. LAMBORGHINI AVENTADOR SVJ

I’ve had it for around a year and it’s actually my second SVJ. I had a red one when they first came out a couple of years ago, one of the very first from Lamborghini London but I sold that in summer 2019. It’s an amazing car. As much as I love the Huracáns, there’s just something about the V12, and it’s just that big bull animal. The Huracáns are quite forgiving, the Aventadors aren’t and they don’t have double-clutch, so they do take a lot more effort to drive. I love it and there are no plans to sell it.

MERCEDES-BENZ S500 BUSINESS EDITION (W140)

I’ve had this for a couple of years, but I had wanted the Business Edition model for a long time. It needed some TLC so has been restored. It has the electric table in the back, drinks holders, that sort of thing, and I think this was probably the last of the overengineered Mercs. Everything is really heavy and old-school, when they made things without compromise. I love that it’s the last of the oldschool square body style too before everything became more curvy.

MERCEDES-BENZ 300CE-24V (W124)

This is the car I bought when I was 21. I couldn’t afford it, but someone I know had a car garage, and when I drove by it one day, it was there and I just fell in love with it. I think it was about £20,000 in 1997 when it was six years old, and I think you could buy a terraced house in Nottinghamshire for about the same price. I did what I could to get it; I part-exchanged my 325i and took out a bank loan, and I really shouldn’t have, but I pushed myself, and it’s still here today. I will definitely never sell this one, and I think it’s the car I enjoy the most. Don’t get me wrong, I love the cars I have now, but it’s never the same as it is when you’re in your 20s, it’s a different buzz!

AUDI RS6 (C7)

I just love the RS6. It’s the complete all-rounder, it has comfort, power, space, looks cool. The paint is a factory matte grey. I use it a lot although most of the time I’m in my van for work!

LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN STO

I only picked the STO up a few days ago and took it straight to the Tom Hartley Jnr event at the weekend. I obviously haven’t driven it much yet, but I can tell already it’s a fantastic thing.

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Where did the inspiration for your garage come from?

I always wanted to have sort of a factory living space. That was my dream rather than a big house in the country because I like to do something different. This building came up for sale, and it was an old office block which was fairly old and run down on the outside, so it needed a lot of TLC.

The building was purpose-built in the late ‘60s by a guy who was into textiles, had brand-new Rolls Royces and his own plane, so he didn’t skimp on the build costs. At the top, he had a penthouse, and in there it was like something out of a James Bond film, just really cool and retro, and I thought wow, it must have been so far forward at the time, a bit like the Countach was when it came out.

Tell us about the project.

Everyone thought I was mad when I said I was buying it as a house, but I’ve been here for 11 years now and it’s since been in magazines and all sorts. I love that it’s something different, totally unique and unsuspecting from the outside.

It took about 20 months all in all, but over the years I’ve changed little bits and bobs. I get bored and like to do a lot of the things myself which keeps me busy when I have some free time. That’s like my relaxing time, in the man cave doing something or building something out of tyres. It was challenging because everything has had to be adapted or purpose-built. It has concrete floors so that brings a lot of obstacles over wooden ones which you can feed cables through. There was a lot of stress with it, but I love it and I would do it again if I had the opportunity.

The whole downstairs is a big man cave, with the garage, cinema room, whisky room and bar, which has come in quite handy over the last year!

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I’ve always been a bit of a collector or organised hoarder, and probably started gathering bits around 25 years ago.

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You have so much memorabilia, tell us about that.

I’m a big football and have been since I was three or four years old in Liverpool, and then of course cars came in. I’ve always been a bit of a collector or organised hoarder, and probably started gathering bits around 25 years ago. I usually don’t know what I’m looking for, but as soon as I see it, I know that’s it. I’d hate to keep searching and searching for something specific. As I got more space, I kept collecting more things, then when I got to this house, I thought that was it, I didn’t know what I was going to do with all this space, but now I’ve filled the whole thing and haven’t got room to put anything else — I’m going to have to start using the ceilings soon!

There are a lot of random eBay purchases, things from specialists, or sometimes people give me things they’ve seen and thought I’d like. Some of my favourite pieces are pictures of people I’ve met personally or had signed personally, like Kenny Dalglish and Steven Gerrard, they’re my heroes, John Barnes, Ian Rush, even people like Hugh Hefner, Robert De Niro and Mike Tyson.

The racing car against the wall was an old simulator that wasn’t working. It didn’t look anything like it does now, but a friend who is a spray artist, who does graffiti work with spray cans, tidied it up and sprayed it as Hamilton’s car. It took up a lot of garage space and I didn’t want to sacrifice a car to have it in there, so we built a frame to try and have it up there on the wall, but making it happen without damaging anything was a real challenge for me and a load of mates!

Are there any other cars joining the garage in the foreseeable future?

Nothing any time soon, but whenever the Aventador replacement comes along, that’s something I’ll probably go for. Sometimes it just happens out of the blue though; you come across something for sale or somebody wants to buy yours and you think why not? I have a lot of friends in the car game so it usually happens by accident!

How has your SCD membership been so far?

I went to an event with a friend of mine first, then joined up a couple of years ago when I had the red SVJ. Because last year left us a bit deprived, this year I’ve done quite a few events. I did the Tartan Florio which was great, I’ve done both Tom Hartley and Tom Hartley Jnr, the Grantley Hall weekend, DK Engineering, 6 Years Clear and of course the Secret Meet at Donington which is only a few miles from my house. That one was just incredible, there was so much going on that you just couldn’t take it all in. Even in the general car park, there were so many amazing things, before you got to what was in the pits and on the track. I’ve done a lot more things in the UK this past year since you couldn’t just jump on a plane to Italy or wherever it is and do a tour there, so it’s been nice to see places in the UK I don’t usually see.

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FUND YOUR PASSION SERIES

Meet Rob and Molly Taylor, a couple with a serious addiction to all things Porsche.

Written by: Angus Frazer for JBR Capital Photos: Rich Pearce

It’s raining hard and the surface of Shelsley Walsh looks greasy and decidedly uninviting. It’s the sort of morning where you could damage your ego and worse still, write off your supercar. On this SCD track day, no one wants to go first up the hill, and who could blame them? Then, a blue Porsche 911 GT3 RS rolls up to the start line, and when the lights turn green, the driver guns Stuttgart’s finest forward, up the hill and away. A few minutes later, the Porsche returns to the paddock, bodywork covered in grime. The driver’s window glides down and that’s the first time we meet Molly, half of the Rob and Molly double-act. You have to be quick to keep up with these guys, whether it’s on the track, on the road or just when they are talking about their passion for all things Porsche, which is most of the time. Perhaps it is because they were both widowed that they seem to have a better understanding

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than most that life is not the practice session, it’s the race. And when you spend some time in Rob and Molly Taylor’s company, you realise they are very happy to grab the steering wheel and apply a bit of opposite lock when life throws them a curveball.

The pair met through working in the motor trade, and while they are true blue Porsche fans now, it wasn’t always that way as Rob recounts, “When the opportunity came along to buy my first ‘proper’ car, my father told me to get a Jaguar, as that was the marque he had always driven. I didn’t quite follow out his orders though and ended up with an Aston Martin”. The couple worked their way through three new Aston Martins, and while they had some fun times, the last one was ‘a bit of a nightmare’, which is why Rob found himself wandering around the Porsche Centre in

Tewkesbury shortly after the Porsche 991 GT3 had been unveiled. “The cars were supposedly all sold out”, recalls Rob, “but I asked the sales manager anyway, and he said that, as they were a new dealership, there might be a chance. The next day he called me and said, ‘Rob, I’ve got a build slot for a new GT3, but I need £10,000 now. What do you want to do?’. Well, we went for it, and that’s how we kicked off our relationship with Porsche”.

...we've had three Aston Martins and six Porsche GT models. This car is easily the best we've had...

THE START OF A BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY

Cutting a long story short and accelerating through the years, the pair have given garage space to no less than six Porsche GT models; including a generation one GT3, a GT3 RS, a GT4, a generation two GT3, a generation two GT3 RS and now a generation two GT3 RS with a Weissach Package, which, with features such as a carbon fibre roof, reduces the car’s weight by 29kg. If you’re thinking Rob and Molly play it safe and only put a few hundred miles on each model before upgrading, you couldn’t be more wrong. “We do around 9,000 miles a year, which is way too much of course”, admits Molly, “But we are not into garage queens. Our cars are for driving”.

Rob and Molly have taken their Porsches on lots of adventures. Some memories burn even brighter than others, such as the time they were running in their secondgeneration GT3 in Scotland. “We wanted to get to 1,000 miles before we really let rip”, recalls Molly, “I was driving that morning and Rob was in the passenger seat nursing a major hangover. When the moment came to pass the magic 1,000-mile mark, I finally got to floor the throttle. Hearing that engine hit 9,000 rpm for the first time, I think I just joined in and screamed with it!”.

Enjoying the company of like-minded enthusiasts is why Rob and Molly are members of SCD. “We have been on some great trips with them. They organise some brilliant events and drives and it’s a great opportunity to meet old friends and make new ones”, says Molly. Track days, at venues such as Shelsley Walsh, near to their home in Herefordshire, and further afield at Anglesey and Donington hold great appeal too. “I love track days”, continues Molly, “I like to learn, and I always want to improve my driving”. Rob enjoys the track days too, but it would seem that he isn’t quite as good as Molly when it comes to embracing tuition, “Ah well, the trouble is that’s the difference between males and females”, he sighs, “Women listen to instructions, but men have too much testosterone to do that”.

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“This involved eight coats of sprayon paint protection film followed by grey primer, then the Ferrari Blu Corsa paint plus Ceramic Pro, which means the paintwork is sealed and doesn’t require polishing. In the unlikely event that we should ever wish to restore the car back to silver, the blue paint is removable to reveal the totally unblemished silver paintwork underneath, complete with its original decals. We are delighted by the results and would recommend it to anyone fancying a change”.

NEVER SAY NEVER

WHO’S THE BEST DRIVER?

All this, then, begs the question. Who is the better driver, Molly or Rob? “Molly”, says Rob, “at least when it comes to parking. When we pull up somewhere, I always jump out and let her take over”. This admission generates a laugh from Molly. “That’s true, Rob does do that, but if we are going to be trying to keep up with someone fast on the road, then I let him take over”. Whichever one of them is at the wheel, it takes something special to outrun their current GT3 RS, which is, perhaps surprisingly, finished in Ferrari Blu Corsa paint. “We’ve had Lava Orange, Lizard Green, Miami Blue and Guards Red before. We always like bright colours for our cars”, explains Molly. “We loved the original Porsche GT Silver paint the car came with, but we fancied something a bit more striking, so we spoke to Iain Litchfield at Litchfield Motors and we went for their liquid wrap process.

While Rob and Molly may have strayed from the official Porsche palette, that’s as far as it goes. Other manufacturers have tried to woo them, with Audi lending an R8, Lamborghini trying to tempt them into a Performante and Ferrari providing seat time in a Roma and an F8 Tributo, but all to no avail.

“They were all very nice cars and very fast of course, but they just left us a bit cold”, explains Rob, “Our GT3 RS feels like it is up on its toes all of the time. It always wants to go. When I put the keys in the lock of the garage door, I still get the shakes with excitement at the thought of driving the car. Driving a Porsche is like an addiction, and it never, ever wears off”.

So, with their current 911 GT3 RS, have Rob and Molly reached their personal pinnacle of Porsche ownership? “As you can tell, we really love this car and we don't have any reason to change it”, says Molly firmly. “Having said that...”, interjects Rob. The pair look at each other and eventually Molly caves in and admits, “OK, so it’s fair to say we often debate the alternatives”. Apparently, there’s not a day passes that Rob doesn’t check GT stock in the Porsche dealer network, but when he gets restless and talks about chopping their current car in, Molly reminds him how lucky they are to own it. “It’s true”, says Rob, “Over the last ten years, we've had three Aston Martins and six Porsche GT models. This car is easily the best we've had and the one we've kept longest. It won't be with us forever though”.

“We’re fortunate to have a Toyota GR Yaris as my daily driver”, reveals Molly. “With the GT3 RS, it makes for the perfect combination, doesn’t it Rob?”. From Rob though, there comes no reply. He’s off to check on Collecting Cars to see what else might be for sale, because, never say never! Follow Rob and Molly on Instagram @robertrobbietaylor and @mollygt3

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IT’S

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SHOWTIME

Matt does his best to recall this year’s Michelin Secret Meet, SCD’s biggest and most ambitious event to date.

Photography: Alex Penfold, Tom Kahler, Paul Haliwell, Rob Overy & Freddie Atkins

Written by: Matt Parker

After every year’s Secret Meet, an overwhelmingly reoccurring question people ask is, “How on earth are you going to top that next year?”. I’ve asked that same question, and really did wonder how, but every year without fail, Adam and the team’s tireless hours produce something ever more spectacular. This year SCD and Michelin came together again, and I had the privilege of taking a step back and enjoying the event from the perspective of a member. It’s amazing how much you miss when you’re dashing around like Adam, in the ticket booth like Debbie, on the gate like Luke and Jake, going around interviewing drivers for the live stream like Jonty, or doing all you can to capture the best bits for photographs and video like Riad and Dan, and there are many more people involved who I’ve missed. So whilst I felt a little bad for the team, mooching about at my own pace and soaking everything up with no to-do list means I can all the better relay to you readers what must be one of the best automotive events of them all.

It isn’t just on the day itself you’ll see the team running around either. For the full day prior, they were getting in thousands of steps around the Donington paddock putting up fences, signs and banners as well as getting the early arrivals in place before rewarding themselves with a tower of pizzas as the last of the summer daylight faded.

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Until I arrived at the circuit on the morning of the event, all I had seen were snippets from the team on Snapchat, but the buzz of what was to come was immediately apparent with the queue of exotica from the road to the gate, not to mention the car spotters lining the sides of the road with their jaws on the floor. I even felt like a spotter myself, trying to peer in my mirrors and up ahead to see what was arriving, just about making out my poster hero in the distance, the Porsche Carrera GT.

Once inside the paddock, wow, the scale was a definite step up from previous years before we even talk about the calibre of cars. Just to get to my parking area, I drove past a lineup the likes of which you’re unlikely to see outside a museum or the collection of Arab royalty: multiple Ferrari F40s, F50, Enzo, F12 TDF, 599 GTO, Pagani Huayra and Zonda, Koenigsegg One:1 and Regera, Bugatti Divo, and perhaps rarest of them all, the Porsche 911 GT1. The Garage 39 cafe was marked with a giant Michelin man with a smattering of Lamborghini Diablos at his feet — five SVs and a 6.0.

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Dealers and sponsors certainly didn’t hold back with displays packed with the latest and greatest supercars and hypercars. This year brought an extra dimension with manufacturers and lifestyle brands having a presence to satisfy that love so many of us have for all things mechanical or shiny. An aspect I particularly enjoyed was finally seeing the stunning artwork of Paul Oz up close and personal, and there was so much of it scattered around the paddock as well as in the hospitality areas. His lifesize Ayrton Senna statue even sat next to the very JPS Lotus 97T the man himself piloted in 1985, how cool is that?

That was just one piece of the fascinating Ignition GP display too, which showcased a few of the Formula 1 cars I remember watching when I was a kid, like the Rothman’s liveried Williams FW18 from 1997 and the 1999 Ferrari F399, as driven by Michael Schumacher until he broke his leg at Silverstone, putting him out for the rest of the season. Another standout for me was the Williams FW15C wearing Damon Hill’s number 0, a true icon of the early ‘90s with its technical innovations, many of which were banned the following season.

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While I was so absorbed by the cars on static display, more historic Formula 1 cars took to the track for the Ignition GP demo, reminding us all what racing should sound like! They were followed by the LMP and GT demo, a rare opportunity to see the likes of historic Le Mans cars on track alongside the latest and greatest GT racers and of course the Praga R1T. Still having barely dipped my toe into the event, I headed towards the pit lane to the soundtrack of the cars still out on track, and I was just in awe of the variety and sheer number of cars, some of which you might call unicorns. I’m not suggesting you’d call a LaFerrari common, but I never thought you’d see so many in one place outside Maranello. More dealer displays resided by the pit garages as well as McLaren Automotive who brought a very nice lineup including a 765LT spider, Speedtail and the spectacular 720S GT3X which blitzed the competition in this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed Timed Shootout. Bugatti were also present once more with their show-stopping Chiron Pur Sport driven by test driver and Le Mans legend Andy Wallace. Speaking of famous racing names, Dario Franchitti showed us all how it’s done by rocking up in a Ferrari Daytona Spyder to drive the Aston Martin DBR9 on track.

Now, the great thing about the Michelin Secret Meet is that it isn’t just about watching, and before I’d traversed the whole event, it was time for me to take to the track in one of the member sessions, in my humble BMW M2 I might add! I sat in the pits somewhat nervous at what would be filling my mirrors, bookended by racing cars and track-focused supercars. Frankly, I was wondering what on earth I’d gotten myself into! I needn’t have worried, the racers got off on their way, and I ended up in a rather unlikely matchup with Joe Macari’s stunning Ferrari 250 SWB. The

M2 had the brakes and outright grip, the 250 just had the legs down the straights. Rarity, value and occasion to drive? I’m not sure I can compete there!

Honestly, those 20 minutes on track left me on such a high. Driving flat out alongside a classic Ferrari worth millions, occasionally getting out of the way of a GT3 car or BAC Mono (those things come out of nowhere!), was utterly surreal. I kept asking myself, “Did that really just happen?”, and it’s something I will never forget!

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To bring myself back down to earth, or as close as you could get at this event, I took a walk over to the other end of the paddock where the members’ cars were parked. An endless array of Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and everything else you can think of, including some particularly rare and interesting treats like one of 333 Audi R8 GTs, a yellow-over-cream Ferrari Testarossa, a 1951 Ferrari 212 Export Vignale Barchetta, one of just 27 worth a good few million, and a couple of my favourites, the ex-Chris Harris Porsche 997 GT3 RS 4.0 and the brutally wonderful 997 GT2 RS. There were hundreds more and I spent ages walking through them all.

An endless array of Ferraris, Porsches, Lamborghinis and everything else you can think of...

The track action was non-stop all day, even throughout the lunch break thanks to the mind-boggling hypercar parade. I blagged my way onto the grid where a gathering of unfathomable value stretched four-abreast all the way from the start-finish line right back to the final hairpin. There can’t have been far off 100 cars with a seven-figure average value, capped off with those who took part in the two-day Secret Meet Road Tour prior to the event. As we all huddled at the front of the grid to stay out of the way of Riad’s photos, I got a tap on the shoulder and a big camera in my face with live stream host Jonty trying to extract my thoughts. Once the camera work was done, it was time for the cars to head out for the ‘parade’. Adam told me to jump in something if I could find a spare seat, so I went down the lineup with my thumb in the air trying to hitch a ride. I ended up right at the back and almost gave up as so many seats had been snapped up by people quicker than me, but then, there it was — a silver Porsche Carrera GT with a driver and no one else. After a polite plead, in I jumped and off we went, to the immediate realisation that this was a straight-piped Carrera GT — oh lord!

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Now, I said ‘parade’, because you know how it works; you bunch up around the bends and leave plenty of room to give it a bootful down the straights, partially for yourself, partially for the crowd with their cameras hanging over the pit wall. If my track session was surreal, this was up there too. The Carrera GT’s V10 wailing behind my ears with two Le Mans legends — Norwood P4 and Ford GT40 — up front, I mean where does that happen?! Back on foot again, more member track sessions followed before the McMurtry Spéirling demo, which was only the car’s second ever public outing after it debuted at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed. It’s a tiny, strange and fascinating electric machine with an active downforce fan. It weighs under a tonne and aims to explore what the future of racing could be like while hunting a few records along the way, and it was a real treat to see the way it catapulted out of the Melbourne hairpin.

We’d already seen the hypercars on track for the ‘parade’, but later in the day, some of them came back for more in the proper track session, joined by a few racing cars for good measure. Seeing the likes of the 911 GT1 being pushed alongside what you might consider its modern-day rival, the McLaren Senna GTR, was pretty special, although the absolute hero in the 1930s Maserati Tipo 6CM topped the lot for me, and seemingly everyone else around me, as he single-handedly drifted around the Melbourne hairpin, waving with his other hand and with a pipe in his mouth — ah, the good old days!

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The day was absolutely packed with action and there was just so much to see on and off the track, and what made it so special for me was that nothing was off limits. None of the multimillion-pound cars were roped off, none of the drivers retreated to fancy trailers and no one told you, “You can’t go there mate”. Being able to get so involved in an event like this, to get so close to such machinery, whether it’s the latest hypercars or the racing cars you watched as a youngster, to talk to your racing heroes, I don’t need to tell you how cool that is. A particular hero for me was British Touring Car Champion Tim Harvey, who I grew up watching

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wheel-to-wheel in the in the Peugeot 406 at this very circuit, and today, twenty-odd years later, he was giving flat-out rides with RPM Technik in his Manthey Racing Porsche 991.2 GT3 RS. McLaren were also giving rides in the 620R and the very 765LT I recently reviewed, although I didn’t quite drive it like these guys who exemplified sending it with plumes of tyre smoke following them out of every corner — what a sight! It’s no surprise given what was happening, but everyone was in such good spirits. I caught up with familiar faces, met some new ones, and

the event was so big that I didn’t even see quite a lot of people who I know were there. The common theme was people telling me how much they loved the day and saying well done to the team, which I must echo because once again, they excelled themselves. So, here we are again, once again asking how on earth you top that next year. Adam is ever confident that he and the team are up to the task, and I wish them the best, because some task it will be.

DON’T LET WINTER STOP YOU, EVER.

CHOOSE TYRES TAILORED TO YOUR NEED

PUSHING PORSCHE TO

NEW LIMITS

Suspension Secrets delve into the wizardry of making a Porsche 911 GT3 RS even faster, even more stable and even more precise on track. Written by: Matthew Cowley

In our last SCD article, we explained the adjustment possibilities of Porsche’s GT series cars. These motorsport-inspired Porsches come with suspension components that offer far more adjustability than those found on non-GT variants — the ride height, anti-roll bars, camber and toe angles are all fully adjustable. These parts give owners the opportunity to explore different setup options, and to understand how small changes here and there can have large impacts on the handling and overall dynamics of the vehicle. The limitations of this adjustability start to become apparent when you begin to reach the maximum levels of adjustment required for some more aggressive setups. In response to this, we made the decision to design a line of bolt-on upgrades to improve the already impressive levels of adjustability.

The first stage in this process was to analyse and deconstruct the existing Porsche equipment. We equipped a 911 GT3 RS belonging to Leyton Clarke of RMA Track Days with data logging equipment to gather preliminary driving data. Throughout an intensive testing and data logging process which saw high-speed driving

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data collected at both Donington Park and Silverstone, some chinks in the GT3 RS’ armour began to appear as the data revealed some areas that could be improved. The main two areas of improvement were the car’s behaviour under braking and on initial corner turn-in. During heavy braking, the GT3 RS was found to nosedive heavily, creating instability across the rear axle. The final area of improvement was on corner entry, where the GT3 RS struggled with vagueness and a lack of precision. We then stripped down the car’s suspension, which was then 3D scanned. With the 3D data in hand, we were able to CAD model the entire suspension system in order to discover any deficiencies or areas of improvement.

After some analysis, the first area of improvement that became apparent was the front top mounts or camber plates. As standard, even a GT-spec Porsche has rather conservative suspension geometry, and both the camber and caster could be improved. To resolve this, we designed a billet aluminium replacement top mount that offers far more camber and caster. This increase in caster not only improves steering feedback but also increases the camber at the

front wheels as the wheels are turning. This means that less static camber can be installed which increases braking traction and high-speed stability.

The data logging of the GT3 RS revealed that, during heavy braking, the rear axle became worryingly light, even with the engine behind the rear axle. To counteract this, we calculated a new spring rate for the front spring. The stiffer front spring prevents the nose from dipping too heavily under the brakes and adds crucial stability during the turn-in phase of a corner.

Lowering the nose is a key element of improving a GT3 RS on circuit, but lowering it too far compromises the damper piston’s ability to travel. This can cause the damper to bottom out, and after it has reached the end of its travel, any further compression can cause the assembly to impact the chassis turret, potentially cracking the chassis and causing severe damage. To solve this issue, we designed spring cups that alter the location of the piston inside the damper. This is known as the bump-to-droop ratio. The spring cup essentially allows the front ride height to be lowered without compromising the damper travel.

A lowered ride height does come with a drawback — bump steer. As the Porsche is lowered, so is the steering rack, which creates an unfavourable arm angle leading to bump steer. We designed adjustable bump steer tie rod ends to return the steering rack to its original position, curing the problem. With the parts CAD designed and 3D printed in house, we were able to test-fit our prototypes and check that the changes we intended within the design would work on the car within the space provided, and also make sure that they work effectively with the remaining standard components.

Once test-fitting was signed off and a few more tweaks were made to the design to ensure fitment was perfect, we sent our files over to our machining partners in West Yorkshire to have all of our components machined to the absolute highest of standards from aircraft-grade billet aluminium.

We then tested them over a six month period to ensure they were up to the job of helping a Porsche go faster on circuit. We tested at both Donington and Silverstone to ensure the improvements brought on by the upgrades were tangible across a variety of circuits. With our testing and shakedown complete, we wanted to see just how fast a GT Porsche equipped with our parts could go around a circuit. With this in mind, we set Leyton’s car up one last time and let him loose on the UK’s circuits. The effects were immediate as Leyton commented positively on improved stability and cornering feel, whilst the higher cornering speeds spoke for themselves at Donington Park.

Leyton, behind the wheel of his Porsche 911 GT3 RS Weissach fitted with our finished components, and our ‘cup car’ option lower front spring, claimed the unofficial road car lap record at Donington GP with a staggering time of 1:34.2, one tenth of a second faster than the existing lap

record which was set by a McLaren Senna, of all things.

The lap proved that analysing an issue and making some smart and well-judged decisions can really transform how a car performs on circuit. This is always a good philosophy to apply when trying to modify a car. Work out what the car’s strengths and weaknesses are, and then work to transform the weaknesses until they are as positive as the car’s strengths, and the whole package will work harmoniously.

Increased driver engagement and cornering performance were significant objectives we wanted to achieve when initially conceiving the idea of the Circuit Handling Pack. There is no denying we achieved this, but what we are most pleased with is that a car can be so much more competent around a track, and on the drive home too.

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MEMBER’S CAR: LAMBORGHINI HURACÁN STO

We head into Wales with SCD member Brian to find out how his new Lamborghini Huracán STO compares to his beloved Performante.

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oday, we’re back in Wales with SCD member Brian who we’ve featured in past issues with his Lamborghini Aventador SVJ as well as his incredible garage which is bigger than his house. This time, we’re focusing on his latest acquisition from his favourite brand, an early Lamborghini Huracán STO.

Like so many of us, Brian’s passion for Lamborghini started on his bedroom wall and grew from there until he finally purchased his first Lamborghini, a Gallardo, in 2007. When I asked Brian how it felt, he simply said, “Like a dream come true!”. He owned that car for five years and has had another seven Lamborghinis since, even taking the nickname @lamborghini_maddog on Instagram.

His favourite Lambo he’s owned to date is the Huracán Performante which we’ve seen him use on so many SCD drives and tours, so it’ll be interesting to see how the STO stacks up.

So, how did Brian’s STO come about?

“I placed my order in 2019, a year before they announced it”, he tells us, “I anticipated they would do a Huracán Super Trofeo of some description because they did it with the Gallardo. When it was finally announced, I was impressed but a little disappointed at the same time that it didn’t have more power than the Performante”.

Where did the inspiration come from?

If you’re on social media, you’ll have seen by now how well the STO can carry bold specs, and Brian’s is no exception, so we asked where the inspiration came from. “I saw an Aventador S in Blu Nila some years ago. I always loved it and thought it would work well on this car”, he recalls, “I did the parts which are usually in a contrasting colour like the skirts and bumpers in Blu Nila as well, with Ad Personam black painted roof and a silver painted pinstripe to match the silver wheels. I’ve always liked silver wheels because they showcase the style of the wheels better. They’ve been out of trend for a while but seem to be making a comeback”.

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Overall, it feels lighter than the Perf and steers better. Is it a better all-round car? I’m not convinced...

What about options?

“I had the STO logo embroidered in the Italian flag colours on the seats, and just went for the full exterior carbon as well as the usual musthave options like the front nose lift”, Brian explains,

The Italian flag details are a nice nod towards the STO’s homeland, so we asked if these were done at the factory or afterwards. “I wanted the factory to paint these on the front and back but they won’t paint over carbon. I guess they’ve had issues with it before, so I got the Invisifilm graphics department to add them when they did the PPF.

“I locked my spec down in March 2021 and the car turned up in September 2021. It’s always hard to spec a new model because you haven’t physically seen one in the colour you’re choosing, but I’m really happy with the result. I love it”, Brian tells us.

I mentioned specs on social media earlier, and perhaps one of the most famous is a car owned by a particularly well-known YouTuber in a particularly out-there spec. We ask Brian what he thinks of the purple and yellow combo. “Car spec is all about individual taste”, he starts diplomatically, “I liked Shmee’s car before he added the yellow contrast, but in my opinion, bright colours don’t work so well on contrasting two-tone cars. The factory put a lot of effort into their launch cars and I think the only reason their launch spec works so well in bright colours is because that combo is recognised as the Gulf racing colours”.

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What is the STO like from behind the wheel?

Anyway, that’s enough spec chat. We’re all about driving and Brian very much shares that mantra, so let’s find out what the STO is like from behind the wheel from a man who has done many thousand hard miles in its predecessor. “I’ve only done a few hundred miles so far as I haven’t had it for long, but there are already plenty of comparisons with the Perf. “The engine is very similar but it feels more instant due to the weight loss and lack of all-wheel drive, and the gearbox is exactly the same as the Perf which I adore. The car feels more hardcore and the steering is a massive improvement. So far, rear-wheel-drive grip level seems good, but I haven’t had a spirited drive in the wet yet. The brakes are better than the Perf too, which I didn’t think could be possible as I’ve never had any complaints about them. I think they would really come into their own on a track just like a GT3 RS because they have been taken straight off a Super Trofeo racing car. “Overall, it feels lighter than the Perf and steers better. Is it a better all-round car? I’m not convinced, because if you were on a tour in Scotland for example, and it rained the whole time which it does on a regular basis there, you would wish you were in a Perf as the four-wheel drive and Michelin Pilot Sport 4S mean it goes through standing water like a Range Rover”.

Is there anything he doesn’t like about it?

So it seems Brian is rather impressed with the STO if it can beat his beloved Perf in all but usability. Is there anything he doesn’t like about it? “Rear mirror visibility is zero, and the Apple CarPlay screen has been moved to the centre console. It comes up in the virtual dash right in front of you in the Perf which is handy for seeing what hairpins are coming up on Euro trips”.

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Will we be seeing the STO in place of the Perf on any tours?

I’d say that’s a fairly solid effort from Lamborghini if that’s all there is to grumble about, so to finish off, we want to know if we’ll be seeing the STO in place of the Perf on any tours, and of course if it’s here to stay. “Yes, I’ve got a few Euro trips booked with SCD for next year so hopefully we’ll have some more miles and smiles in it”, he tells us, “I think it is a keeper, because once I get used to it, I think it will be a better driver’s car than the Perf. The Perf is staying for now and the STO has big boots to fill, so we’ll see if that changes in time. As for other cars, there’s nothing else on my radar for now apart from the Urus Sport when they are released next year”.

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LAMBORGHINI LEICESTER Authorised Dealer

Lamborghini Leicester Watermead Business Park Leicester, LE7 1PF Phone 0116 319 39 69 leicester.lamborghini

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MEMBER’S CAR: NOBLE M600

In a world of high-tech supercars, SCD member James prefers a more basic approach, so we catch up with him to find out if his Noble M600 is the ultimate blend of supercar speed and old-school thrills.

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Once you start moving into the early 2000s, cars started to lose the design flair of the older cars and they also lost the amazing sound of the older cars due to EU noise levels and emissions regulations. New cars now have too many safety aids and they are made so well that they have lost the character of the older cars for me.

I like cars that are rare in numbers, have good power and outstanding designs that people just stand and stare at when you drive past. If you can think of a lottery winner from the ‘90s buying their dream garage, that’s me, but now the cars are 30 years old and broken in some way, making them a little cheaper.

What inspired you to buy the cars you currently own?

I never thought that I would own any sports or supercars in my life to be honest. The Ferrari 456 GT was over £150,000 back in the ‘90s, which was about 15 times more than my dad’s Golf GTI at the time, but working seven days a week and making some good choices over the years has thankfully paid off in the last 10 years, allowing me to build a collection of broken dream cars. All my cars have totally different characters. Some just look cool while driving past shop windows and seeing them reflect back at you, while others give you the shakes after a fast B road drive.

The Lotus Carlton was the stuff of legend when I was a teenager. That was the first keeper car I bought about 11 years ago, and I call it the death ship due to it trying to kill me on nearly every drive I take it on. It can still keep up with the modern cars on an SCD drive, but it’s hard work keeping it on the road and not in a field upside down. The Lamborghini Diablo SV is another keeper due to its iconic looks and the noise it makes above 4,000 rpm. It’s like driving a Le Mans Group C race car on the road, it’s just so special and I love it.

The Ferrari 456 GT is a beautiful design inside and out, and has to be one of the best GT cars from the 90’s, so I had to have one of them just in case I need to get across Europe fast. The Mercedes SL60 AMG is perfect for driving around France with the top down and it makes you feel like you might own a yacht and a jet from the ‘90s. They should really come as a package deal, buy an SL and get a free Learjet.

What was the bedroom wall poster car as a child?

My first poster car was the Tamiya Fox RC car followed by the Porsche 959 and Ferrari F40 from the computer game Test Drive II. Then, I saw The Cannonball Run movie and I discovered the Lamborghini Countach, so I had to have a poster of that car, and I also went on to get a Diablo poster next.

What are your earliest memories of cars?

My mum said my first word was car, followed by bun which started two addictions for me, buying broken dream cars from the ‘90s and eating far too many buns and other sugary products! As a

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kid, I just played with cars, dreaming of the cars I saw on Top Gear that I would never be able to afford. Once I was old enough to drive, I became that 17-year-old boy racer driving around town centres with a Janspeed exhaust, playing rave music all night, getting into races and being chased by the police, and mainly getting away with it.

What era of cars are you most into?

To me, the cars from the ’80s and ‘90s are the best looking, with pop-up headlights and crazy designs compared to the new stuff. They didn’t have to comply with loads of health and safety regulations, so the designs of the cars stand out, but they still have loads of power and the mod cons like air-con and electric windows, unlike the older cars.

Every well-to-do ‘90s gent would have a classic Range Rover Vogue SE V8, so I bought one about 10 years ago for towing a race car around. That was a Tony Pond replica TR7 V8 rally car, and they just looked the part together at the race track.

The Renault Alpine A610 Turbo is another oddball car I saw Jeremy Clarkson driving on a Top Gear episode with a Venturi, saying these are the best French supercars, so I ended up with a bright yellow A610 and two Venturi Turbos. I have sold both Venturis, but I will be keeping the A610 Turbo and hope to buy a Venturi 400 GT one day. This year, I bought a Lotus Carlton Estate, just because you never know when you might need to move a chest of drawers fast, and it makes a perfect couple when parked next to the saloon.

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When did you first hear about the M600?

I first saw the M600 on Top Gear when Jeremy Clarkson was driving it around the airfield, talking about how much fun it was compared to all the rest of the supercars at the time. Then, a year or so later when Richard Hammond took one to Italy, you could see how much fun he was having in it, until the clutch let go. Noble then sent another M600 out to him which is the car I bought. Watching him trying to beat The Stig’s time around the track and seeing him working so hard in it, looking petrified made me want one — I always like the underdog.

When did you decide to buy one?

After going out on the SCD drives, I wanted a car that was a little faster and had better brakes and handling than the Lotus Carlton and the Diablo, but whatever it was would need to be a car that still needed 100% commitment from the driver to keep it on the road, and the M600 fit the bill perfectly. I did consider other options like Porsche GT3s or McLaren 675LT, but the M600 is just different. I actually came across it for sale while looking for a Diablo. It was priced around the same, but I decided to get the dream car, the Diablo SV, instead. The M600 was still on my mind most days, then a year later it dropped in price, so I finally went for it.

Tell us about the car.

There are conflicting numbers of 23 to 26 cars produced worldwide with just 11 UK cars. It has a Yamaha 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 with 650bhp and 604lb-ft of torque. It weighs just 1,250kg so power-to-weight is 520bhp per tonne — more than an original Bugatti Veyron. It has a six-speed manual gearbox, rear-wheel drive and top speed is 225mph. This car is Jazz Blue with grey and blue leather and Alcantara interior with 19” wheels on the front and 20” on the rear with 335 section tyres.

What have you done with the car so far?

My first proper drive in the car was on the SCD Forest of Bowland drive, and after about 10 minutes I could feel the car starting to move around at the rear. I wasn’t sure if it was me not being used to the car or if the suspension had started to fail or a tyre losing pressure, but it still felt okayish, so I kept going until a right-hand bend where the car let go. Thankfully I caught it, and it turned out to be the driver’s rear tyre that had been going down slowly until that 90-degree bend, then the sidewall ripped apart to leave a three-to-four-inch hole. The worst part was that it then took six hours to get home! Since then though, I’ve done about 3,000 miles in four months including the SCD Wales tour, RAF Leeming charity day and a few early Sunday morning drives.

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...there is no other modern-ish car like it that has a manual ‘box, rear-wheel drive, light weight , no driver aids and that drives and sounds as good...

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What is it like to drive?

Chris Harris compared it to an F40 and the Millennium Falcon. It’s so driver-focused, it keeps you on your toes and is so much fun at the same time. If you can deal with the speed and survive without coming off the road, it’s seriously capable.

Having three power mode settings that you can switch between is great. The 450 mode is perfect for rain and city driving and will keep up with something like a GT3 all day. The 550 mode just ups the boost and response which is enough at first until you are ready for the 650 mode. Initially, the 650 mode scared the s**t out of me when the boost came in, but now I’m addicted to the boost, aka warp-drive. The handling and steering are spot on. There’s loads of grip and feedback and the steering is initially very light but does have enough weight through the bends and is very communicative. The gearbox is perfect with a very precise action and the ratios are spot on. The Sound is one of the reasons why I bought the car though. It sounds like a proper brutish old-school V8 and you also get the turbo noises on top of it. The overall experience is amazing in every way. It has no driver aids and I think you have to have a screw loose to want to own and drive cars like this. Having 650bhp on tap on a damp B road chasing 911 GT3s and other modern supercars on a drive is nerve-racking, but it’s so very rewarding to make it to the end of the drive.

What is it like to live with?

So far, it’s been reliable on the whole. While on the SCD Wales trip, the brake light switch failed which cost £28, and I can’t blame the car for the flat tyre on the Forest of Bowland drive!

It’s had the major service done and new front Alcon brake discs and pads plus a few more bits at Jetstream Motorsport which added up to £2,500. Servicing is really easy, but I decided to use Jetstream as Matt knows the car inside out due to working on them and being involved in the testing of M600 at the beginning with Noble.

Anything you don’t like about it?

No, I love everything about it!

Any plans with the car going forward?

I’m considering a remap and new exhaust system which should give it in the region of 750 to 800bhp.

As for events, I would like to do a few track days and also carry on with as many early morning drives as I can and the odd long weekend away with SCD.

Is it a keeper?

Yes, because there is no other modern-ish car like it that has a manual ‘box, rear-wheel drive, light weight, no driver aids and that drives and sounds as good, plus this car’s history of being the factory prototype car that was on the tv and in magazines. I would like to add a Ferrari 512 TR and a Venturi 400 GT to the collection, and hopefully I might stop then!

When did you join SCD?

Last year, a photographer took some pictures of my Diablo SV and shared them on his Instagram, and I believe someone at SCD saw them and asked him to invite me to join the club. My first event was the second Pre-95 Drive in 2020. I went in the Lotus Carlton which was fun racing against an Escort Cosworth and a couple of Ferraris. I made a very good friend on that trip who also has a Diablo SV and only lives a couple of miles away from me.

I really like the Pre-95 events because they sometimes start and finish at interesting locations and the driving is great since all the cars are of the same era, but the standout event overall has to be the Secret Meet at Donington where I took part in the parade in the Diablo SV.

I have been in lots of car clubs and none of them has come close to SCD. The whole team at SCD have been really awesome on every drive and event. I have been made to feel that every driver and car is important to the club, and I have become friends with some really nice people coming from all different backgrounds, plus with so many events happening, it gives me the chance to use all my broken dream cars a lot more than I was doing before.

James has a YouTube channel talking about his Noble as well as his other cars.

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We go back in time to 1967 to drive two very different cars with a close and overlooked link. Written by: Jonty Wydell

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When it comes to dream days, it really doesn’t get much better than this one for me! 1967 was rather a good year for cars and motorsport, and here we’ve managed to pull together possibly the best of that year. They’re two cars which take two totally different approaches to roughly the same goal, and two cars which are actually closely related, more so than many would realise. But first, since getting hold of either car to drive, especially back to back, is almost impossible, I feel I should let you know what they’re actually like. First up, possibly one of the prettiest cars ever to emerge from the gates of Maranello, the Ferrari 275 GTB/4. These days, a good example will set you back over £2 million because the beauty of this car is not just skin deep. The 275 is considered to be one of the finest road-going front-engined Ferraris ever built. The 3.3-litre Columbo V12 sits up front and the gearbox at the back giving an almost perfect 50/50 weight distribution.

This particular car, owned by SCD member Roland, had recently returned from DK Engineering where it received a fairly substantial overhaul of its mechanical components, so from the moment of stepping inside, it felt as though it had only just left the factory. I was lucky enough to have a quick drive of this very car a few years prior and was aware it was a fine example, and as ever it was nice to chat with Roland about his cars and the story behind them, so when discussing how well his 275 drove, he told me Nick Mason, Pink Floyd drummer and car collector, had also driven it and had said it drove even better than his Number 22 Ferrari 250 GTO! Whenever I drive Ferraris from the ’60s, I’m always surprised by how well built and well balanced they are, and the 275 is a prime example of this. The V12 purrs so smoothly as soon as it’s up to temperature and the throttle is very responsive. With 300bhp, there’s plenty of power to give you a noticeable strain on your neck under heavy acceleration, but the brakes are unexpectedly powerful and the steering is pinpoint accurate when rolling into a corner. The suspension is obviously much softer than anything modern as you would expect, though this clearly suits the whole setup of the car.

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There really is so much more to this car than that pretty body, and let’s face it, we all remember the scene from the Ferrari garage in the well-known to petrolhead’s film, Gone in Sixty Seconds, speaking about this car in comparison to the common sight of modern Ferraris. “Now if I were driving a 1967 275 GTB/4?”, “You wouldn’t be a selfindulgent wiener sir, you’d be a connoisseur”. And then there was the star of that very same film, the Shelby Mustang GT500, also known as Eleanor! This really is a case of going from the sublime to the ridiculous. Whereas the 275 is very much a delicate and meticulous approach to overall performance using a blend of power and wellbalanced engineering to give outstanding handling for its day, the American way was, “Let’s just give it a bigger engine and more power!”. That’s why Carroll Shelby shoved a race-bred seven-litre V8 engine into a Fastback Mustang. This unit produced around 355bhp in a car weighing just under 1,500kg, and that was about it! Now if you want a car with character, then this certainly fits the bill, as it does with noise. When this engine bursts into life, you know about it, as does anyone in the area

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operating sensitive equipment or seismographs! The rumble is addictive, as is the ensuing thunder as soon as you squeeze the loud pedal. It’s true that the only car that ever sounds like it does in a movie car chase is a Mustang — it’s everything you expect a big V8 to be.

Now for the bits we can only describe as Eleanor having what we would usually call ‘character’. It may go, but it doesn’t stop! I think it has brakes, but in comparison to the Ferrari, they just don’t really work. It is bags of fun, and let’s face it, a Mustang isn’t necessarily built to be thrashed around the Peak District on a summer’s evening, it’s designed to be raced from the lights in the middle of Detroit! Having said that, handling wise, it is much better than you might expect, but certainly demands a lot of respect, and you’d really have to know what you’re doing in order to exploit it on the track or road. It’s no surprise then that this very car belongs to Le Mans racer and hairstyle model, Oliver Webb. Whereas the Ferrari is the epitome of class, the GT500 is possibly one of the coolest and most famous cars in recent film history. It may be far from perfect in terms of handling, but would I have one? Damn right I would!

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So they both featured in a film, big deal, but there is a much bigger link between these two cars which has been overlooked and that I can’t see any evidence on the web of anyone realising before. Going back a year from when these cars were on the scene, there was one of the most famous battles in the history of racing at the Le Mans 24 Hours between Ford and Ferrari. I’m sure by now you know the story, Ford tried to buy Ferrari and Ferrari pulled out so Ford decided

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to beat Ferrari at one of the most prestigious races in the calendar. After a few years of trying, they did just that. During that time, both manufacturers were looking at ways of increasing the performance of their cars, and that filtered down to their road cars. The Ford GT40s were running a seven-litre V8 engine developed by Carroll Shelby, and although plenty of internals were changed between the race

cars and the one in the Mustang, there were plenty of components that remained identical for the GT500. Meanwhile, the Ferrari 275’s V12 engine had only been available with double camshafts, but the 330 P4s which Ferrari ran at Le Mans had quad-cam V12s, a setup which was introduced to the 275 in October 1966 at the Paris Motor Show, hence GTB/4. Visually, the GTB and GTB/4 are only distinguishable by the slight bonnet bulge.

So, there you have it, two cars with a link which absolutely required me to drive them around in the Peak District on a sunny summer’s evening in order for me to tell you all about. A huge thank you to both owners for entrusting them to me; it’s not every day you get an offer to drive two legendary and extremely valuable cars such as these back to back!

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MEMBER’S CARS: FERRARI 488 PISTA & ARIEL ATOM

WHATADFIFERENCE THREEDAYSMAKES. We catch up with SCD member Mat about his two ends of the performance car spectrum — the back to basics thriller Ariel Atom and the technical masterpiece Ferrari 488 Pista. How did you get into cars?

I have always been into cars since a young age and some of my earliest memories of cars came from my father’s sports cars back then — a Colt Galant Turbo and a Citroen BX GTi, but regretfully not the 16V model. After turning 17 years old, I passed my driving test in just three weeks (the number three becomes important in my life), and my first car was a Vauxhall Nova 1.2 Antibes. The most embarrassing car I’ve owned was while I was setting up my business. I had a 911 which was expensive to run and I could only just afford it, so at the time I had a Yaris which I purchased from my father for £50, including around £30 worth of fuel. It looked £50 too, but it did me for 15,000 miles battered and bruised while I needed it — good old Toyota!

When did you join SCD?

I joined about five years ago after being recommended by a friend in Sheffield who had a Noble. I also had a Noble which got me in and also a bright yellow tuned GT-R which wasn’t on the list, but I guess Sheffield lads look after each other.

For my first event, we met for a drive out from Donington. I arrived early as I didn’t want to be late, and car after car, so many glorious cars came to the meeting point at the services. I remember speaking to one member, sheepish as I was new, who arrived in a Ferrari, a 458 from memory, and after a chat about the car, he said he wasn’t sure which car to bring that day, the Ferrari or the Mclaren. I smiled kindly thinking what a lovely decision, my only decision that day was what colour socks to wear!

Since then I’ve owned a few cars including an R8 V8, R8 V10, 911s, Aventador, RS6 and M5 Competition, and my favourite event was 100% Father’s Day at Belvoir Castle. It was an amazing day with amazing weather in an amazing setting, and the video on YouTube is well worth a watch if you haven’t seen it. I will be keeping my eye out for the next track days with the Atom. I attended the RAF Leeming event which was incredible, but I went in the Aventador and immediately wished I had taken the Atom, but the fighter jets stole the show on that one!

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What drew you to the Atom?

Like many others, I first heard about the Atom on Top Gear with Clarkson’s face-bending drive. I have a history with motorbikes and enjoy the outdoors, the feeling of differing temperature pockets, the smells as you go through the air, the visibility so you literally notice everything — all these things you don’t get in a regular car, not even a convertible. The Atom provides all of that with the power, fun, sense of travel and the sensory elements too.

I considered a Caterham for a second, but for me, the Atom is just another level and there are fewer about. I only decided I was going to buy one three days before I actually bought this one! I am quite impulsive, but always for the right reasons, or so I like to convince myself.

Tell us about your particular Atom.

There are a few about but I wanted one which had been looked after, and I was referred to a local sale through a member of SCD. These recommendations go a long way and I feel you get a more honest car bought privately where possible. It was the spec I wanted with the full aero kit, mileage a little higher but I would prefer miles added from trips to the south of France rather than low mileage but 90% track. It had 23,000 miles at 11 years but it had 12 services, and I came to the conclusion that a Honda service every 2,000 miles was a no brainer. In the five months I have had it, I have done 6,000 miles. Any excuse! Eggs my love? No problem, I will nip out and get them. No milk though, it’d be warm by the time I got back, as needless to say, I have to go the long way around! My car is running the K20 Honda Type R engine with a supercharger giving 310bhp. At 500kg, that’s 620bhp per tonne — Bugatti power! It has uprated adjustable suspension, full aero kit, uprated brakes, sports exhaust, lightweight wheels, fire extinguisher and a 12v power outlet as an option.

What is it like to drive?

One word, incredible! You just can’t get the sensation from another car with the sense of travel whether at 30mph or 70mph (officer). Twice this year I have taken my Ducati out on a warm evening, rode five miles, stopped, turned around, came back, leathers off, Atom out. It’s to such an extreme I am no longer the owner of two-wheeled transportation. The wind blowing through your hair, the sun on your face, the scenery passing by, all in the middle of Derbyshire, what’s better? The performance is mind-blowing. Acceleration is as fast as you can change gear; passengers think I’m short shifting, but it’s just the speed it goes through the gears. “Corner, slow down, Mat slow down, Mat you need to slow down. F*****g Jesus how did you go round that and it didn’t move?”, common comments from passengers with a sweat covered back, but with a huge smile, struggling to understand how the Atom defies any physical understanding. As you are part of the car, you can hear, see and smell everything, it gives you confidence that the lightweight agility can only get better. What are the limits? My crown jewels aren’t big enough to find out!

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I started on Yokohama A048 which were good but struggled to get the power down, so I spoke with Ariel about it. “What’s the best tyre to put on the Atom Mr Ariel parts man?”, “Do you want performance or life?”, “The best you’ve got, I’m not bothered how long they last as long as they keep me on the black stuff!”, “A052s sir”. Ordered, received and my god, once warm it just sticks and goes. 1,000 miles is all you get from the back tyres, and with a new tread level of 5mm rather than 8mm, I argued that Ariel should sell them at half price as they represent partworns! It’s 1,000 miles of smiles though! With just 500kg to stop, uprated brakes and better performing tyres, braking isn’t a problem on any single piece of tarmac you wish to stop on. Sound isn’t the greatest having a small engine, but that supercharger whine can be heard from a distance, and when it’s shouting in your left ear as you drive along, it only increases the sensation of driving it.

What is it like to live with?

Services are pretty standard at £300 for a full service and brakes will hardly wear as there’s no weight to stop. The real expense comes from tyres as I mentioned above. £500 for a pair of rears is not OTT, but at 1,000 miles a time it adds up! It’s reliable though being a Honda engine. Start her up, get her warm, do as you require, shut her down, repeat without concern. It’s probably one of the least practical cars you can buy, they say, however, after some long persuasion which included a few bottles of wine and a promise of a shopping trip, my partner Sarah agreed to go camping in the Lakes with it — great! So, as we wandered over to the BMW, passed it and opened the garage to the Atom, “What are you doing Mat?”, “Come on, what better car to take?”.

Long story short, 500 miles, three days camping, sleeping bags, tent, mattress, clothes (not many), toothbrush, half a tube of toothpaste and we were off! At the sites, other happy campers looked in disbelief as, just like Paul Daniels, the equipment kept coming out, but what a great time! Every square centimetre was taken up with military precision and we successfully went camping for three days in the Lakes in an Ariel Atom. The best bit, it put a smile on the face of everyone who saw us, like they sensed the fun we were having when we drove by and made their day.

We were supposed to be shooting your Aventador Roadster with the Atom, then all of a sudden you have a Pista. What happened?

The Aventador was my long time car. It lasted a year. When I bought the car, I was told you will either love the experience or hate it, no middle ground, and I loved it. The single-clutch ‘box and the lack of visibility making it impossible to reverse without doing a meerkat impression, it all makes driving an Aventador a real experience. The straight-through exhaust sounded immense (my neighbours may disagree), and its supercar looks are unrivalled for the price too. As for the Pista, there’s a common theme, I decided I wanted one three days before I bought one! I was also looking at an Aventador SV, after a very kind SCD member took me for a ride out in one, but the Pista came through as it was a totally different direction from my Aventador. The 458, lovely, 488 lovely, both nice cars, but the Pista always piqued my interest at meets. The styling, the front scoop, the aggressive rear, the design — it’s a true work of art.

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Tell us about your particular Pista.

I came across this one after hours on Auto Trader, and a few more hours on Auto Trader — what a great pastime. I looked at a few but saw this one at Ferrari Manchester. The spec sold it to me, having everything apart from the carbon wheels (which would scare me to death due to potential damage). Being my first Ferrari, the colour had to be Rosso Corsa, and the stripes down the side just emphasise the elegant shape of the car — a winner for me. It’s dripping in carbon, and I particularly like the matte interior carbon so it’s not too in your face while driving. It has the aluminium rev counter, red accent line on the steering wheel, and on the outside carbon centre caps, red brake calipers to match the car and the Italian flag on the back. Everywhere you look, there is a personal touch. Well done and thank you to whoever bought it from new, they had great taste.

What is it like to drive?

Foot down, Instant, no lag, so linear, what an experience! The engine really makes this car, and it’s very easy to tell its race-derived. In normal driving, the gearbox is smooth, easy, perfect. In Race, bang, bang, bang through the gears with such precision and speed I can only think that’s as close to what a racing car feels like in a road car. It makes my M5 Competition ‘box feel very lazy and slow. The brakes are sharp and responsive, and fill you with confidence, with the added benefit of no brake dust from the ceramics, so less cleaning!

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The Cup 2s need to be warm and Ferrari kindly provide an indicator showing when you can “GO”. As it is new to me I haven’t pushed too much, however initial thoughts are that in Race mode, it feels as agile as the Atom, and in my wildest dreams I never thought I would say that! On the other side, the bumpy road button is brilliant. It does what it says on the tin and does it very well. It’s a little dated inside, but who cares when the engine starts and the wheels are screaming for traction in first, second, third and fourth, yet seamlessly it makes you feel like a professional driver, all thanks to what Ferrari have packed under that bonnet. Sat behind the prancing horse with the front wings encroaching your view is amazing, it’s super special. Not everyone knows what it is; people shout Ferrari, but those who know, the word Pista comes out of their mouths in a very different way.

I do miss the V12 noise without a doubt. The howl, the bangs and crackles on the overrun. If you put that sound into the Pista it would be the perfect car, but I would not replace that V8 engine, the sound yes, but as far as performance goes, the engine is just a masterpiece.

What is it like to live with?

On a 500-mile Lake District tour, I managed 30mpg as the whole tour was with my friend who I followed in a Frogeye Sprite. I just enjoyed the Ferrari, no need for speed on that one, just appreciation, and I did it in as much comfort as any other car I have had with no problems whatsoever.

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Are they both keepers?

Yes. The Atom is total freedom, reliability, power, and outrageous looks. What other car gives you that? Answers on a postcard please.

..MyIdealgaragewouldbeaPista, AtomandAventadorSVThey’ . re allbeautifulintheirownway andleadersoftheirbrands.

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The Pista, for me, is Ferrari’s flagship. I challenge anyone to find a bad review of this masterpiece. Unless my six numbers come up to allow me to enter the hypercar league, I’m not sure where I can go after this.

My Ideal garage would be a Pista, Atom and Aventador SV. They’re all beautiful in their own way and leaders of their brands. Would I go back to an Aventador? Yes. In place of the Pista? No, it would have to be an addition. Maybe next year, although a lot can happen in three days, but please don’t send a copy of this feature to my partner! I’ve also just picked up a Porsche Taycan Turbo as my new daily. There’s a huge company and personal tax benefit so it was a no brainer, and it’s an astonishing car. It accelerates faster than anything else I have been in, the power is just instant and incredible. It was another three day decision too, deciding to buy on Wednesday and picking it up on Saturday — I need to stop doing that!

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