Magneto Magazine issue 16: Winter 2022

ISSUE

16 WINTER 2022

THE TORTUOUS BIRTH O F A S T O N ’ S V 8 Z A G AT O

B O N D C A R S : H O W 0 07 ’ S F I N E S T W E R E S AV E D

W H AT B E C A M E O F SPYKER’S SUPERCARS?

T O P 50 G R E AT E S T- E V E R FERRARI DRIVERS

C A R R O L L S H E L BY

Celebrating an

all-American hero

£10 | WINTER 2022

PRINTED IN THE UK

SOLD SOLD

SOLD SOLD

SOLD SOLD Some of our recent sales 1934 TRIUMPH 8C DOLOMITE

1 of 2 ever produced. Ex-Tony Rolt & Reg Parnell Sole factory built RHD example. Ex-Le Mans & Targa Florio

1965 SHELBY AC COBRA

1 of 2 important AC Cobras sold by Fiskens in 2022

1936 DELAHAYE 135 CS

Ex-French GP sports car, Monaco GP and Mille Miglia

1955 HWM JAGUAR

Ex-Mille Miglia and highly competitive historic racing car

1970 LAMBORGHINI MIURA P400S

One of just 338 P400 S examples built between 1968 and 1971

1929 BENTLEY 4½ LITRE SALOON BY MAYTHORN Sole surviving Maythorn Saloon. Fully documented history

SOLD

1966 BIZZARRINI COMPETITION LIGHTWEIGHT

TIME TO CONSIGN F

or the last few decades, the Fiskens stand at Retromobile has been a destination, a platform from which many of the greatest cars of all time have been displayed, advertised and ultimately sold. 2023 will mark our return to the show for the first time since 2020 and we are now seeking consignments to comprise our famous stand. Afer a year of record-breaking sales from our London mews showroom, race meetings and concours shows worldwide, we look to continue this run of success with our Retromobile collection.

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

If you’re interested in finding out how we can achieve the best result for your important historic automobile on or off our Retromobile stand, please get in touch for a confidential consultation. Our specialist team, bespoke targeted marketing, famous client relationships and 30 years of experience make Fiskens the place where the world’s greatest cars come to be sold. Will yours be next? +44 (0)20 7584 3503 or cars@fiskens.com

Why wait for the next sale?

24/7 Online Classic & Collectible Car Auctions themarket.bonhams.com

ENQUIRIES

UK Office +44 (0) 1865 521 088

EU Office +32 (0) 2 882 19 30

US Office +1 (0) 323 436 5400

Scan to view our listings

Catalogue Now Online Italy | 18 November 2022

ENQUIRIES

Milan office +39 02 4953 9020 Paris office +33 1 42 61 10 11 eurocars@bonhams.com bonhams.com/milano * For details of the charges payable in addition to the final hammer price, please visit bonhams.com/buyersguide

Download Bonhams app for iOS & Android

1969 ISO GRIFO S TARGA €650,000 - 750,000

HERE WE HUB H U B , T H E H O U S E O F H E R I TAG E .

Come and discover the multifunctional space where we preserve, take care of and enhance the heritage of our historic brands: the former Officina 81, in the Turin factory of Mirafiori, now houses over 300 classic cars from the Fiat, Lancia, Abarth and Alfa Romeo corporate collection. The suggestive selection of engines and interesting thematic routes will lead you to discover the history of Italian mobility. Visit Heritage HUB and organize your corporate event here. We are waiting for you in Turin, where it all started.

www.fcaheritage.com

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20 COMING SOON There’s plenty to look forward to over the winter months

25 S TA R T E R McLaren F1 at 30, Nuvolari’s Fiat, Schlumpf collection, Ferrari 250GTO, 1932 Ford, Aston LM10, Rodin, Hesketh bikes

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CARROLL SHELBY

ASTON MARTIN V 8 Z A G AT O

HOT RODS TO BONNEVILLE

S AV I N G BOND

Celebrating an allAmerican hero, 100 years after his birth – and why we’ll never see his likes again

How one of the most controversial Aston Martins from the Newport Pagnell era came about

An American adventure of unexpected storms, 90-year-old hot rods and other mostly true stories

Iconic vehicles from the 007 franchise are being preserved thanks to the commitment of The Ian Fleming Foundation

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THE STORY OF SPYKER

MADE I N I T A LY

A L FA R O M E O 6C 2500 DUO

TOP 50 FERRARI DRIVERS

From C8 to Preliator – the rise, fall and possible rise again of Holland’s great hypercar hope

Imagery from photographer Piotr Degler’s stunning new book packed with one-offs and rarities

Sport Berlinetta and 256 Super Sport exemplify legendary coachbuilder Touring’s finest pre-WW2 work

Presenting the very best of the Scuderia’s talented, brave and blisteringly quick racing stars

169 ACQUIRE Buying an Alfa SZ, Monterey auctions, watches, art, Ferrari presentation books, guitars and more

196 LEGAL: R E- R E G I S T E R I N G C A R S

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198 COLLECTIONS: A LWAY S S AY ‘ Y E S ’

200 HISTORIC RACING: GET INTO GOODWOOD

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202 BEHIND THE LEGEND: B E L L’ S F 1 A T L E M A N S

Editor’s welcome

16 Seeing and hearing big-name racing drivers at the Goodwood Revival is to be expected now, but I remember a shiver running down my spine in 1999 when, over the distorted tannoy, came the gravelly voices of both Carroll Shelby and Phil Hill.

It stopped me in my tracks, hearing these impossibly famous Americans chewing the fat from a commentary box just yards from where I was stood at the time. I’d spent the decade working on classic car publications, but Shelby and Hill still felt out of reach – and try as I might, I didn’t get to speak with either of them that weekend, although I caught a glimpse of Hill in his round spectacles and Shelby hamming it up in stripey overalls, denim overshirt and, of course, a Stetson.

Since then, I’ve got to know the Shelby American team, former Shelby racers, and members of the Shelby and Hill families, but it bugs me that I never met either Carroll or Phil, both now passed away.

Fortunately, we at Magneto know plenty of people who knew them well, and so it fell to author and expert Preston Lerner to document Carroll’s life for our cover feature, in time for what would have been Shelby’s 100th birthday (in January 2023) – not just his achievements, but his sometimes charming, often pigheaded personality.

Elsewhere, there are plenty more tales of triumph against adversity, in the stories on the development of the Aston V8 Zagato and Spyker supercars, along with hot rods driving across America and Bond fans rescuing famous movie cars. I hope you enjoy it.

David Lillywhite Editorial director

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RM 72-01 In-house skeletonised automatic winding calibre 50-hour power reserve (± 10%) Baseplate and bridges in grade 5 titanium Patented flyback chronograph Function indicator and date display Rotor in platinum Case in 5N red gold

Contributors PRESTON LERNER Preston has been writing about motor sport since the 1984 Dallas GP. He is the author of seven books; the latest, Shelby American: The Renegades Who Built the Cars, Won the Races, and Lived the Legend, re-examines the mythology surrounding Carroll Shelby and his Cobra-based empire.

N AT H A N C H A D W I C K Nathan’s two articles here lay bare the oft-tortuous process of building low-volume supercars. Whether it’s the culture shock between Aston and Zagato in the 1980s, or the inside tale of Spyker, the human stories behind the machines are often as eyepopping as the acceleration stats.

TIM SCOTT Not to be confused with the UK’s equally talented photographer of the same name, LA-based Tim’s passion for all things visual and story-telling has placed him as a creative director at NYC’s top agencies. His images in this issue document the Rolling Bones’ pilgrimage to Bonneville.

Surely the star of the issue, this genuine Stetson is a prized possession of Shelby American PR guru Scott Black. Copies of the Stetsons that Carroll was so famous for are still available to order, but this one has been on the very head of the great man – so it’s special. Thank you Scott!

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ILLUSTR AT IONS P ET ER A LLE N

S H E L BY ’ S H AT

MUNICH 2 6 N OV E M B E R 2 0 2 2

THE INAUGURAL MUNICH AUCTION MOTORWORLD MÜNCHEN, GERMANY

F E AT U R I N G T H E

BAVARIAN LEGENDS C O L L E C T I O N A COLLECTION OF SIGNIFICANT BMWS ALL OFFERED WITHOUT RESERVE

REGISTER TO BID

UK +44 (0) 20 7851 7070 GERMANY +49 (0) 800 000 7203 FRANCE +33 (0) 1 76 75 32 93 SWITZERLAND +41 (0) 79 801 80 23

Who to contact

Editorial director

Managing director

David Lillywhite

Geoff Love

Managing editor

Art director

Advertising sales

Sarah Bradley

Peter Allen

Sue Farrow, Rob Schulp

Staff writer

Designer

Accounts

Elliott Hughes

Debbie Nolan

Jonathan Ellis

West Coast US contributor

Lifestyle advertising

Winston Goodfellow

Sophie Kochan

Contributors in this issue Ben Barry, Nathan Beehl, Jonathon Burford, Michele P Casiraghi, Nathan Chadwick, Paul Chudecki, Robert Dean, Piotr Degler, Matthew Field, Rob Gould, Massimo Grandi, Sam Hancock, Richard Heseltine, Matt Howell, Dave Kinney, Preston Lerner, John Owen, Clive Robertson, Tim Scott (Scott Photo Co), Max Serra, John Simister, Ted7, Jay Ward, Rupert Whyte Single issues and subscriptions Please visit www.magnetomagazine.com or call +44 (0)208 068 6829

HOTHOUSE MEDIA Geoff Love, David Lillywhite, George Pilkington Castle Cottage, 25 High Street, Titchmarsh, Northants NN14 3DF, UK Printing Buxton Press, Palace Road, Buxton, Derbyshire SK17 6AE, UK Printed on Amadeus Silk supplied through Denmaur as a Carbon Balanced product.

Made from FSC® certified and traceable pulp sources Specialist newsstand distribution Pineapple Media, Select Publisher Services Who to contact Subscriptions and business geoff@hothousemedia.co.uk Accounts accounts@hothousemedia.co.uk Editorial david@hothousemedia.co.uk Advertising sue@flyingspace.co.uk or rob@flyingspace.co.uk Lifestyle advertising sophie.kochan2010@gmail.com

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

For full details, please visit www.magnetomagazine.com/privacy/

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

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

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

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

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

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Coming soon

C AVA L L I N O CLASSIC PA L M B E AC H January 26-29, 2023 The Cavallino Classic ‘world tour’ now visits the US, Europe and Middle East, and as with all editions of this exclusive Ferrari event, the Florida staging at Palm Beach’s Breakers resort never fails to impress. Among the usual displays of stunning cars, and luxury, social and further automotive activities, the four-day 2023 event will celebrate the centenary of the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Judged awards include those for the finest six-, eight- and 12-cylinder Ferraris, individual prizes for 250GTO, F40, 365 and Challenge, preservation prizes, plus accolades for supercars and competition cars. Among the honourary awards are those from the chairman, judge emeritus, honourary judges and patrons.

The Ferrari Spirit Award is given to the driver who best represents the spirit of track and concorso – and, of course, all entrants compete for the coveted Cavallino Best of Show. www.cavallino.com

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BELOW Slippery rally action on HERO-ERA’s Winter Challenge, which this year crosses France.

CLASSIC MOTOR SHOW, NEC

MOTORCAR CAVALCADE

November 11-13, 2022

January 14-15, 2023

The UK’s huge indoor gathering at the NEC, Birmingham. Practical demos, cars for sale, auction, concours, club stands, autojumble and even live music from Paul McCartney’s Wings tour bus. www.necclassicmotorshow.com

Glamorous gathering for cars of all ages in Miami. Florida, with classes for features rather than models – including lights, dashboards, doors and more. www.motorcarcavalcade.com

INTERCLASSICS BRUSSELS

RALLYE MONTE-CARLO HISTORIQUE

November 18-20, 2022

January 14-February 1, 2023

Indoor show at Brussels Expo, Belgium, including a celebration of the Ecurie Francorchamps race team and 75 years of Ferrari. www.interclassics.events

The 24th running of this famous winter rally sees the return of legs from further afield; this year Bad Homburg, Milan and Reims. www.acm.mc

CAVALLINO CLASSIC MIDDLE EAST November 18-20, 2022 The world-leading celebration of Ferrari heads to United Arab Emirates for the second time. www.cavallino.com

CAVALLINO CLASSIC PALM BEACH January 26-29, 2023 The greatest Ferraris converge on Palm Beach, Florida, with this year’s theme 100 years of Le Mans. www.cavallino.com

RÉTROMOBILE

MILANO AUTOCLASSICA

February 1-5, 2023

November 18-20, 2022

Everyone’s favourite indoor car show, at the Paris Expo, France.

Always eclectic and fun, with associated sales from Artcurial, RM Sotheby’s and Bonhams. www.retromobile.com

Classics and youngtimers at the indoor Fiera Milano, with auction, cars for sale and special displays. www.milanoautoclassica.com

GULF HISTORIC November 25-27, 2022 The second edition of the Dubai GP Revival promises 100 race cars in four classes: Formula 1 70s+; Sports Cars 80+; Formula 1 90s; and GT & Prototype 00s, at Dubai Autodrome. www.gulf-historic.com

CONCOURS IN THE HILLS

HERO WINTER CHALLENGE

PHILLIP ISLAND CLASSIC

February 5-9, 2023

March 9-12, 2023

HERO-ERA’s 22nd Winter Challenge to Monte-Carlo starts in Troyes in the north-east of France. www.heroevents.eu

Massive historic racing festival, 90 minutes from Melbourne. www.vhrr.com

RETRO CLASSICS STUTTGART

April 16-23, 2023

February 23-26, 2023 Huge indoor show adjacent to Stuttgart airport for maximum convenience. Well worth seeing. www.retro-classics.de

February 4, 2023

BOCA RATON CONCOURS

Just outside Scottsdale, Arizona, this ever-growing charity show of the best classic and modern collector cars takes place around the lake at Fountain Hills. www.phoenixchildrensfoundation.org

February 24-26, 2023 The popular three-day concours in Boca Raton, Florida this year celebrates pre-war Cadillac. https://bocaratonconcours.com

HSR CLASSIC 12 HOUR AND SEBRING HISTORICS 2022

SYDNEY HARBOUR CONCOURS

November 30-December 4, 2022

March 2-4, 2023

Season-ender at the famous Sebring track, Florida, US. www.hsrrace.com

Australia’s top-end concours (left), attracting the very best cars to The Swifts at Darling Point. www.sydneyharbourconcours.com.au

1000 MIGLIA EXPERIENCE UAE

THE AMELIA

December 5-8, 2022

March 2-5, 2023

Starting in Dubai, ending in Abu Dhabi. Classes for 1927-57 MM cars plus up to 1971 and hypercars. www.1000migliaexperience.ae

One of the best events in the US, at Amelia Island, Florida, with added auctions, forums and sideshows. www.ameliaconcours.com

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TOUR AUTO Legendary road and track event travels from Paris to Cannes. www.peterauto.fr

CALIFORNIA MILLE April 23-27, 2023 Long-running rally for pre-1958 classics, starting in Berkeley and heading into wine country. www.californiamille.com

RALLYE PÈRE-FILLE April 28-30, 2023 Rally from Monte-Carlo for father-and-daughter teams. www.happyfewracing.com

VINTAGE SHAMROCK May 8-11, 2023 Fourth running of this rally around Ireland’s south coast. www.rallytheglobe.com

THREE CASTLES June 6-9, 2023 Wonderfully relaxed and popular rally around North Wales, UK. www.three-castles.co.uk

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

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JANUARY 9–20 ONLINE ONLY BIDDING OPENS JANUARY 9 AT 9AM LOTS BEGIN CLOSING JANUARY 20

FRIDAY MARCH 3 LIVE AUCTION

1998 RUF TURBO R LIMITED SOLD for $2,040,000 World Record for the Marque at Auction Most Valuable RUF Sold at Auction Amelia Island Auction 2022

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30 years of McLaren F1 celebrated in style

Exciting new plans for Schlumpf Collection

Tackling Pikes Peak with triple winner Robin Shute

Six decades of the Ferrari 250GTO – the key events

The story of the exclusive, handbuilt Hesketh bike

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BELOW Stunning line-up of F1s gathered to mark the model’s 30th anniversary.

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography Classic Driver/Kiklo Spaces

McLaren F1 at 30 Exclusive event celebrated the legendary supercar’s anniversary in style A DOZEN CLASSIC McLAREN F1s, insights from those intimately involved in the project, and a host of memorabilia, sketches and designs – Kiklo Spaces played host to an evening of entertainment with this game-changing supercar at its heart.

At the event, which was hosted

by Classic Driver and Hagerty UK, a panel discussion revealed previously unheard F1 stories. On stage, the car’s designer Peter Stevens was joined by McLaren’s commercial director David Clark, Paul Lanzante – then team boss of the Le Mans 24 Hours-winning Kokusai Kaihatsu Racing – Derek Bell MBE, and Andrew Frankel, who was the first journalist to drive the F1.

Peter revealed that there wasn’t really a design brief for the car – and it could have been very different: “It was originally going to be a singleseater, which Ron Dennis liked the idea of,” he recalled. “Then someone said: ‘Just because you don’t have any mates, doesn’t mean we don’t.’”

However, Peter believes engineer Gordon Murray always had it in his mind to produce a three-seater, but the idea took a long time to prove itself: “It was only when we pushed the show car into the courtyard that it made good sense.”

Magazines around the world were clamouring for details, and it was Autocar’s Andrew Frankel who was the first journalist to get a passenger ride and, later, drive. He related how ABOVE F1 GTR driven in 1997 Le Mans by Bellm, Gilbert-Scott and Sekiya.

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the former involved pluck and luck in equal measure: “McLaren hired the new part of the Nürburgring to demonstrate the car to customers.

We had a tip-off that if somebody turned up, we might get a run around in the car, so I was sent to doorstep them. The first person I ran into was Ron, who wasn’t pleased to see me – and he wasn’t shy about saying so.”

Andrew continued: “Jonathan Palmer was there, and luckily he read Autocar. He knew who I was, and I’d gone out in a Porsche 968 Club Sport, which he really wanted to drive.”

Jonathan got to drive the 968, and Andrew had a sniff of an F1 passenger ride. However, the marshals were all having lunch, so the car couldn’t be driven there – and it had no licence plates, so it couldn’t be driven on the road. Simple solution? Take it to the old track, the Nordschleife.

“We got to the gates, and the guard said we couldn’t go out, because the F1 had no licence plate,” Andrew recalled. “We returned to the new circuit, took the normal plates off something, and went back.”

The pair were waved through, but there was an issue. “Jonathan said he hadn’t been around the old ’Ring for years, and it was wet,” Frankel remembered. “He was so dialled into it; he was driving around at speed,

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not recognising where he was: ‘I’m pretty sure it turns right here,’ he said. It is the most extraordinary experience I’ve ever had in a car, without actually driving it myself.”

The sales experience was also extraordinary. Such an exotic and expensive car brought commercial director David Clark into contact with celebrities and royalty, but his life was made easier by the F1’s unlikely 1995 Le Mans victory.

“It put the car on the map,” he explained – although it was already getting attention among collectors.

“There was a domino effect: ‘Well if he’s got one, I’ll have one.’

“We were very aware of the responsibility of making a car of that performance to be sold to people who weren’t experienced drivers,” added Peter. “During a meeting, an engineer said: ‘If you’re doing 200mph on the Autobahn, and a truck pulls out a

‘New supercars appear almost weekly, yet the F1 continues to have an impact’

ABOVE F1 GTR chassis 14R, raced then converted to road specification before being sold to Adrian Newey. kilometre ahead, you will hit it.’ We said, you can steer around it, but he replied: ‘It’s a truck overtaking another truck, like snail racing.’ We were then all aware of what we were giving to people. I said, these are very wealthy people, with very good lawyers.”

While many F1s have ended up hardly being used, that wasn’t the case with racer Thomas Bscher. “We had a simple system for downloading data via the telephone lines, and we found it was registering 200mph every day,” recalled Peter. “Thomas said: ‘Well, that’s what it is supposed to do.’”

Another German owner was more difficult. “Every day, this doctor would do acceleration tests against Autobahn markers,” said David.

“When the car didn’t perform as advertised, he’d threaten legal action.”

However, it is George Harrison’s car that was the most memorable.

“It’s probably the most personal out of all the cars that were built,” said Paul Lanzante. “So many quirky things; it had a real signature to it.”

It’s also David’s favourite: “He’d come to the factory two or three times a week. He had created this amazing relationship with us, and

when he came to pick it up, I asked: ‘Great day, George?’ And he said: “No, not really; I can’t come back.”

Harrison was delighted with the car, but David remembers the spec process well: “There aren’t many customers that ask you to buy aubergines in different greengrocers to help choose the colour of their car,” he said. “He found that if he bought them all from the same shop, they’d all be the same colour.”

Not everyone was happy with the final design, however. Peter revealed: “There was a customer who wanted a two-seater – the cost would have been absurd, because it would basically have been a new car due to the changes to the carbon tub. He also wanted it to have a different look – he was talking about essentially a different car. We were mystified; why not just have it as it was offered?”

New supercars appear almost weekly, yet the F1 continues to have an impact. “Ron’s idea was that McLaren should be a road-car brand, and that the project should start at the pinnacle of road cars. We did just that,” Peter said. “People still recall F1s when they think about new McLarens – hopefully favourably.”

Thanks to Classic Driver, Investec, Kiklo Spaces, Hagerty UK and Citi Private Bank.

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Words Elliott Hughes

Lotus links from 72 to Evija Fittipaldi “I DROVE MANY CARS DURING my career, but the Lotus 72 was the best,” says Emerson Fittipaldi. The legendary Brazilian driver is still wearing his white overalls, and his iconic blue-and-red helmet is sitting on the corner of the table. “The 72 talked to me, and we understood each other – it was consistently fast.”

Magneto is sitting opposite the two-time Formula 1 World Champion in a boardroom at Lotus’ factory in Hethel that overlooks the company’s test track. He has just returned from the cockpit of the Lotus Evija Fittipaldi – a special edition of the 2000bhp hypercar created to mark the 50th anniversary of his first F1 title. Soon, he will be reunited with his mythical black-and-gold JPSliveried Grand Prix car to take part in an historic demonstration of all eight Lotus 72s – including his 1972 season Championship winner – organised by Classic Team Lotus.

“I’d just finished the Formula 3 Championship in 1969, when I met

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Legendary driver Emerson on how Hethel’s latest hypercar builds on brand’s unique motor sport heritage

ABOVE Emerson personifies Lotus linearity from 72 to latest Evija.

Colin Chapman for the first time. I walked into his office here at Hethel, said, ‘good afternoon Mr Chapman,’ and sat down. ‘No, call me Colin,’ he replied, and my legs started shaking – I couldn’t believe I was sitting in front of him. It was like a dream.

When I left Brazil, I never expected to be a Grand Prix driver.”

Emerson would start his first Grand Prix for Lotus in 1970, at the British GP. He recalls: “In my first race at Brands Hatch, I qualified at the back of the grid in a Lotus 49, and then Graham Hill lined up in the car next to me. I was thinking: ‘I’m next to Graham Hill. This is a dream!

If I die on Monday, I’ll die happy.’

“The Lotus 49 was very easy to drive, because it had been around since Jim Clark’s time and so it was well developed. The 49 had a lot of suspension travel, and I could slide it around or make a mistake while braking.

“The Lotus 72 was much more precise, much more agile and less

forgiving. In Friday’s practice at Monza [Emerson’s first race in the 72], I destroyed one of them – it was brand new. I missed the braking point, and I went over the banking and into the trees. When I came back to the pits to see Colin, he asked me: ‘What happened?’ I just said: ‘I fucked up. I looked in the mirror and missed my braking point.’”

Emerson goes on: “The invention of slicks brought a big increase in grip, so we had to change the suspension, weight distribution and wing angles. Colin and [Lotus designer] Maurice Philippe were always trying to improve the car; we had a great engineering team.”

Emerson is keen to highlight how Lotus’ vast motor-racing experience has translated into the Evija Fittipaldi driving experience. “The Evija is so advanced, and it has so much downforce,” he enthuses. “I drove Kimi Räikkönen’s Lotus F1 car at Paul Ricard, and that’s much closer to the Evija than the 72.”

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Nuvolari’s Fiat rediscovered A long-lost car reveals a humble side to a racing icon – and original photographs add an extra dimension

Words Michele P Casiraghi

Photography Lopresto Collection

TAZIO NUVOLARI – A LEGEND, probably the most important racing driver of all time – owned a large number of cars. This may not sound like an unexpected statement, and indeed it isn’t. However, finding a vehicle owned by him – one that still survives – is less common. Sure, some of the cars he raced in the 1930s and ’40s are still around, but what about his daily drivers?

Research into the Mantua archives allows us to trace the many cars Nuvolari owned between 1927 (when Italy introduced a new registration system) and 1953, the year of his death. Lancia, Bianchi, Alfa Romeo and Fiat are the most common brands, but also Bugatti, Maserati, Packard and even Volkswagen. More than 35 vehicles can be linked to Tazio’s ownership in those 26 years.

Adding even more fascination to the story of Nuvolari is his passion for photography. During his life, he documented through his camera lens moments of everyday life, which now allows us to dig much deeper into his past. Not only races, but also family trips, holidays, boats, planes, people, places and, of course, cars.

Upon the discovery of a Fiat 508C said to have been owned by Nuvolari, leading collector Corrado Lopresto immediately started looking into it, searching through the files to clear any possible doubt as to such an important claim. But the history was very clear – and period photos were easily found in the Mantua archives.

Two of them were even published, in the book Quando Scatta Nuvolari dedicated to Tazio’s photo archive.

The 508C, also called the Balilla 1100, was unveiled in 1937 as a replacement for the 508 Balilla. It continued through further evolutions, and a name change to 1100, until 1953. The mid-level Fiat cost 19,500 lira, at the same time as its 500

FROM TOP Caught on camera, then and now: the Balilla 1100 bought new in 1937 by Tazio Nuvolari.

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stablemate was only half that price but offered a much smaller body and engine. Meanwhile, an Alfa 6C 2300B MM was 77,000 lira and the 8C 2900 started from 109,000 lira.

Nuvolari had bought his initial 508C in July 1937, soon after launch.

He sold that first Fiat in November the same year, only to buy another one on December 6. Registered MN-9206, that latter 508C is the one still existing, chassis no. 210406.

A set of Nuvolari photos show the entire family with the new car: his father Arturo, son Alberto and wife Carolina. His other son, Giorgio, had sadly died the same year.

The Fiat remained with the family for only a few months. On April 8, 1938 it was sold to an Arnaldo Bellini, and on December 19, 1938 it went to Luigi Ghirardi. The 508C left Mantua in December ’39, when it was bought

by Giovanni Zorzoli from Mortara for 9800 lira, half the price of the Fiat when new. The registration – which had to be changed when the car moved to Pavia, a different province – was PV-14886, and this remains with the 508C today, 85 years after it was first bought by Nuvolari himself.

After the war, the car remained for decades in the hands of Giovanni Matteoli, living near Pisa, and after his death in the 1980s it passed to his daughter Antonietta. Only in recent years was it bought by a collector from Florence, before being acquired by Corrado Lopresto.

Despite its age, the 508C still drives very well, and an easy partial restoration has made it more than perfect. Today only a handful of cars actually owned by Nuvolari are known: an Alfa 8C 2300 (no.

2211109), a Maserati 8CM (no. 3018) and this small Fiat. Maybe not as important as the other two cars, but a humble proof of a less famous side of the life of ‘The Flying Mantuan’.

INVITING CONSIGNMENTS Broad Arrow Auctions is pleased to announce that we have expanded our auction event calendar in 2023 as the official auction house of ‘The Amelia’. We invite you to consign your collector car or collection to The Amelia Auction, taking place this March at the Ritz-Carlton in Amelia Island, Florida. Please contact one of our team members to discuss selling options and stay tuned for more information about this exceptional collaboration.

+1 313 312 0780 ⊲ broadarrowauctions.com

Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography Schlumpf Collection

Schlumpf’s got over the slump France’s national auto museum looks to bring its legendary collection alive with renewed vigour and exciting plans

FOR ANY PUBLIC EVENTS space, let alone a museum, the past few years have been a rollercoaster of stress, false dawns and survival.

Even for the world-famous Schlumpf Collection – or the French National Automobile Museum – the figures were pretty stark. Director Guillaume Gasser could only open the doors for five months in 2020 and 2021, losing between 60 and 70 percent of annual visitors to the Mulhousebased museum, home to more than 450 cars from Volkswagen to Bugatti.

There’s also been an ownership change, which could have added to the uncertainty – but instead, it points a fresh way forwards for the museum, which involves a major exhibit renewal over the next three years.

“This would have been difficult to do with a private firm,” says Gasser; the radical change required may need the museum to close to get the work done – something a profit-driven concern would find hard to sanction.

The venue’s operation is in the hands of the National Automobile Museum Owners’ Association, and currently it is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a display dedicated to the many facets of the Schlumpf Collection that were hitherto hidden away.

Italian-born Swiss businessmen Hans and Fritz Schlumpf made their fortune in wool, and spent their cash acquiring a vast fleet of cars, plus almost anything with wheels and a lot of stuff without. However, Bugattis were their main love; they amassed more than 100, mostly in secret.

With the textile industry’s decline, the amount of cash lavished on their Bugatti habit became clear when the company became insolvent. In 1977, workers sacrificed an Austin 7, with the warning that hundreds more cars could go the same way. The Schlumpfs escaped to Switzerland, while their ex-employees occupied the factory for two years. In 1982, it was handed

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to the National Automobile Museum Association, which ran it until 1999.

Forty years from the start, the museum’s in rude health, with visitors back up to pre-pandemic levels, although with a slight twist: “We have fewer tourists, but more people from the local area,” says Gasser.

The next stage is creating a more immersive experience. As operations manager Sophie Mehl explains, it’s imperative to move away from a dated museum concept: “We have 420 cars, but you just see them – you can’t hear or experience them. We’d like to put the restoration garage in the museum, so visitors can see what we do with the cars, rather than the VIP-only zone it is today.”

She’d also like to see tech play more of a part: “We would like some experiences with ‘mapping’ – so you have an old car without the body, but with your smartphone you can see how it was when it was driving.”

These programmes take time, but Mehl knows that involving youngsters in the sounds and smells of old cars, rather than seeing a fixed exhibit, is important – as is building up the skills of the next generation of restorers. “It’s very important to give young people the chance to restore these cars and drive them, because they’re totally different to modern cars. Students are usually assigned to working in our team for a month.”

Seeing the cars in action is also a major part of the plan. “We’d like to make a connection with the track beside the museum,” Mehl says. “To

‘It’s very important to give young people the chance to restore and drive these cars’

take visitors directly to the track to see and hear the cars.”

The collection is unlikely to grow, although the museum works with partner organisations worldwide to display aspects of it. However, a host of events are planned for the next year, including an exhibition of the vehicles of actor Louis de Funès.

What’s clear is that the passion for the cars, and the museum, is still strong – although picking a favourite is a challenge. For Gasser, it’s a hard choice between the Bugatti Royale, Fritz Schlumpf’s personal MercedesBenz 300SL or the La Jamais Contente, an electric car that was the first road vehicle to go over 100km.

“We have too many cars; it’s very hard to choose just one,” he laughs.

No such issues for Mehl: “I know exactly which one I’d like to have: a small, blue-and-cream Bugatti 55.

It’s amazing; so cute and feminine.”

With such enthusiasm, the future certainly looks positive for the collection – and the best bit is that no Austin 7 will be put in harm’s way. www.musee-automobile.fr/en

ABOVE Just some of the cars accumulated by brothers Hans and Fritz Schlumpf.

Find Your Passion.

PASSION – This is ultimately the driving force behind who we are. We are more than a brand; we are a team of car enthusiasts with a desire to develop the best car care products possible while creating and fostering authentic connections with others who also share a love for cars.

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

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Words David Lillywhite

Photography Larry Chen Media

ABOVE The legendary Pikes Peak hillclimb, where Robin has claimed winner’s rights three times.

time to find, because you’re going so fast. And then you start having a few hairpins crop up here or there. That’s the first sector. The second sector is the most technical part, because there are a lot of long, mid-speed corners where a lot of time can be found.

That’s still in the tree line, so it still has this fast and flowing course.”

He continued: “Then you finish up the second sector and you go into the third sector, which is the W’s – and that’s really when you see you’re on the mountainside. It combines some very fast straights, and then also these hairpins – switchbacks – backwards and forwards up the other side of the mountain.

“At the end of the third sector is the Devil’s Playground and, again, the road changes in nature to being on the cliffside, with very rugged rock. It’s like a moonscape. And it’s again fast and flowing. You have to consider the wind, because it’s so exposed and the car is so reliant on the air going over the wing; headwind or tailwind is basically the difference between life and death.”

Next it’s into Boulder Park: “Here’s where the bumps start to kick in.

You have to pick your lines – I

Starter

How to win at Pikes Peak Three-time winner Robin Shute talks us through the fearsome 12.42-mile Colorado hillclimb

BRITISH ENGINEER AND RACER Robin Shute was awarded the Royal Automobile Club’s Segrave Trophy earlier this year, for his third win at the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in Colorado, US. This most recent victory took place at the wet and foggy 100th running of the event, achieving a time of 10min 9.525sec – 25sec ahead of Robin’s nearest competitor – in his 550bhp 2.1-litre Wolf TSC-FS. Now he’s planning an attempt at the record of 7min 57.158sec, set by Romain Dumas in the Volkswagen ID R. Even before he added this third win, Robin had been chosen to be the latest recipient of the trophy – which is awarded to a British subject who demonstrates ‘the spirit of adventure’. As the Club pointed out, “There are certainly few adventures in the motor sport world that can match the fearsome Colorado hillclimb, which is held on a 12.42mile course that climbs through 156 dramatic turns to an altitude of 14,115ft at the summit finish line.

There must be even fewer events for which the intrepid drivers need an oxygen supply.” Robin recently described how he does it to Magneto: “The start of the climb is very fast and flowing, with a lot of 110-120mph turns right from the get-go,” he explained. “It’s hard on race day to go into that cold. You don’t know where the car is at, and the first turn is blind – 110mph over a crest – so there are some big crashes at that first turn.

And then the next one is a 130mph turn, then 120mph, and then you slow down to the 90s – big g-force!

“At that speed, there’s not a lot of

always describe it as like riding a mountain bike through a rock garden. It’s that sort of skill.

“With the altitude now, the car is behaving very differently than it was at the bottom of the mountain, and it’s a case of surviving to the finish. There were a lot of accidents this year, breaking into a turn called Cog Cut, which is the one next to the railway line. It was all the ABS cars; the road was so rough that the ABS was getting confused and bleeding off the brake pressure. You were getting all these cars sailing through that braking zone and actually hitting the railroad tracks, which are quite a way off the road.

“I’m nowhere near flat-out through there. That’s one of the tricky things with trying to set a record; you have to make allowances for how rough the road is – and it’s got worse and worse. In 2018 when the ID R set the record, it was a much smoother road. So that’s an added challenge.

The mountain does decide where and what you’re going to go and do.”

Robin is now building a new car – rear-wheel drive and with a planned 1000bhp internal-combustion motor and sub-1000lb weight – for his next attempt at Pikes Peak.

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Words Nathan Chadwick

Main image Blair Blunting

BELOW AND RIGHT 3223 is revealed to the press in the factory courtyard; Hill and Gendebien at Sebring.

Six decades of the 250GTO The Ferrari icon celebrates its 60th birthday in 2022. It had a stunning rookie season – the car won the Division III section of the International Championship for GT Manufacturers with victory after victory. Here are the key events on the way to that remarkable result

1961

1961

N OV E M B E R 1961

L ATE 1961

F E B RUA RY 1962

CH AS SIS 3223 GT + C H AS SIS 3398 GT

O F F ICIA L UNV E IL ING

The first 250GTO test cars are trialled at the Aerautodromo di Modena and on the public highway to improve highspeed stability.

Adding a Watt’s linkage between the chassis and diff prevents lateral movement – something that plagues the Jaguar E-type of the time.

Chassis 3223 is used to release the car to the press. It follows the naming convention as simply 250GT. It’s believed that a missed hyphen during the typing up of the paperwork means that 250GT-O (for omologata) becomes 250GTO.

CHAS S I S 2643 GT

C H AS S I S 1791 GT

G RE AT WA LKOUT

The missing link between the 250GT SWB, this car features the latest lightweight Competizione engine, a Testa Rossa powerplant with dry-sump lubrication and six Weber carbs.

It boasts a special aluminium body

by Pininfarina, and runs at Le Mans in 1961. While not the prototype, it sets the scene for what is to come…

According to factory records, this is the prototype for the 250GTO. Various theories and cars will be mooted afterwards, but this is widely believed to be the gestation.

It is driven by Stirling Moss for its first Monza test, still in bare aluminium.

Dubbed ‘Il Mostro’, it previews the eventual 250GTO’s final look, and is again based on a 250GT SWB.

Incensed at perceived meddling from Enzo Ferrari’s wife into the firm’s affairs, commercial director Girolami Gardini issues a ‘me or her’ ultimatum. He is duly fired, but much of the 250GTO’s development crew – such as race-team manager Romolo Tavoni, admin manager Ermanno Della Casa, chief engineer Carlo Chiti and designer Giotto Bizzarrini – also follow him out. A young Mauro Forghieri is thrust into the deep end to complete the 250GTO project.

RIGHT Chassis 3387 GT, which won its class at Sebring in 1962 and also competed at Le Mans in the same year.

MA RC H 10, 1962

M ARC H 24, 1962

C H AS SIS 3387 GT

C L AS S VICTORY AT S EBRING

Enzo comes to Monza to see the car undergo final tests prior to its Sebring debut later in the month.

Different spring rates are trialled, plus aerodynamic tweaks tested – including a rear spoiler to add downforce.

Double victory for Ferrari at the Sebring 12 Hours.

Not only do Lucien Bianchi and Jo Bonnier score the overall win in a 250 TR/61, but Phil Hill and Olivier Gendebien take class victory in a NART-entered 250GTO on its first outing, in chassis 3387 GT.

GETTY IMAGES, REVS INSTITUTE

BELOW AND RIGHT 250GTOs make a bid for victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, and again during Trophée d’Auvergne.

MAY 6, 1962

J U NE 23-24, 1962

TA RGA FLOR I O

LE M A N S 24 H O U RS

Giorgio Scarlatti and Pietro Ferraro pilot chassis 3451 GT to first in class and fourth overall, despite a last-lap off that buckles a wheel, necessitating a rim swap.

Both 250GTOs entered into the 1000km Nürburgring fail to finish, but for Le Mans there is a six-strong showing.

Jean Guichet and Pierre Noblet finish second overall (to Hill and Gendebien in a Ferrari 330 TR/LM) and first in class in chassis 3705 GT, ahead of

Leon Dernier and Jean Blaton in chassis 3757 GT in third overall and second in class.

Another 250GTO, chassis 3387 GT, is piloted to 3-Litre Experimental class victory by Bob Grossman and Glenn Roberts.

Chassis 3769, 3445 and 3505 fail to finish.

JULY 15, 1962

AUGUST 18, 1962

SE PTE MB E R 16, 1962

OCTOBER 21, 1962

TRO PH É E D’AUV E RGNE, CH A R A D E

R AC TO UR IST TRO PH Y, GO O DWO O D

D O UB L E 400, B R ID GE H A MPTO N

PARIS 1000KM, M ONTLHÉRY

Carlo Maria Abate finishes first in class and overall in 3445 GT, with Guichet coming third in 3705 after a couple of late spins when the heavens open.

250GTOs fill four of the top five spots.

Innes Ireland takes victory in 3505, with Graham Hill close behind in 3729.

Michael Parkes fills out the podium with 3589, while David Piper brings home 3767 in fifth.

John Surtees’ charge in 3647 at the head of the pack comes to an end after a collision with Jim Clark’s DB4 GT Zagato.

Chassis 3223, the car used to announce the 250GTO to the world at Ferrari’s pre-season press conference, finishes second in class and third overall with Charlie Hayes and Ed Hugus behind the wheel. Bob Grossman goes one better, finishing second overall and first in class with chassis 3387.

Pedro and Ricardo Rodríguez head home a top six full of Ferraris, four of them GTOs. Chassis 3987 takes them to their second successive victory in the race, but also the last together. Parkes and Surtees finish in second place and a lap down in 3647, while Jean Guichet and Pierre Noblet take fourth in 3943, ahead of Lucien Bianchi and Willy Mairesse in fifth in 3527. Four other GTOs fail to finish: 3757, 3445, 3909 and 3809.

Pantone References

CMYK References

Pantone: 7622UP

C:0 M:96 Y:85 K:27

Pantone: 425C

C:0 M:0 Y:0 K:79

Pantone: 427C

C:17 M:12 Y:13 K:0

RGB References // Hex Codes R:183 G:28 B:38 // #b71c26

R:83 G:88 B90 // #53585a

R:208 G:211 B:213 // #d0d3d5

XK120 JAGUAR, RJH400 One of the only 2 surviving Works prepared and Works entered Alpine Rally Class winning XK120s from the total of 4 Alpine Class Winning XKs. •

Matching numbers throughout.

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1st in Class in the 1954 Alpine Rally.

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2nd in class in the 1954 Dutch Tulip Rally.

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1st in the unlimited class of the 1954 MCC – REDeX National Rally.

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Competed in the 1955 RAC International Rally.

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Winner of “XK120 Class International XK day” 1978.

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Competed in the RAC Golden 50 Rally of 1982 (along with NUB120)

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Mille Miglia, Classic Le Mans and Goodwood Eligible.

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A comprehensive strip and conservation of RJH 400 with detailed photographs was completed in 2001/05.

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Jaguar Daimler Heritage Trust Production Record Trace Certificate.

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The only original works international rally XK120 available to purchase.

£7 0 0 ,0 0 0 GB P

car-iconics.com

1932 ASTON MARTIN LM10 Pre-War Le Mans Works Team Aston Martin, for sale for the first time on the open market.

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1st in Class in 1932 Le Mans and finisher in1933 and 1934 and the only Aston Martin to have completed 3 consecutive Le Mans.

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Competed and finished 2nd in the Belgian AC Spa 10-hour race in 1935.

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Of the three 1932 Works Team cars and only LM10 retains its original body, chassis, engine, and gearbox.

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Post 1933 LM10 became the AM works development car and was used to trial parts for the AM Ulster and MK11 series.

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Competed 3 times in the Retro Mille Miglia, and in Classic Le Mans, where it came 1st in class in 2002.

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Subject of an award-winning book (LM10 and Aston Martin) written by Jonathan Wood with foreword by Marek Reichman.

Photos by johnowenphotography.co.uk

P OA

For more information about these iconic cars call: Daniel: +44(0)7891 010719 or Stephen: +44(0)7834 620589 or visit car-iconics.com to see our full range of cars.

Deuces on the loose On the iconic 1932 Ford’s 90th anniversary, Jay Ward – creative director of Pixar – picks his six hot-rodding milestones

Words Jay Ward

ASK ANY CHILD TO DRAW A hot rod, and more times than not they will sketch a rectangular shape with big rear wheels, no top and a large motor spewing flames. They’ve likely drawn the shape of the 1932 Ford roadster, and not even realised it.

Hot rods arrived in the 1930s as Model T and A roadsters hopped up to serve double duty; driven on LA’s streets during the week, and raced on dry lake beds on weekends. By the early ’40s, if you wanted to have a really competitive car at Muroc or El Mirage, the trick set-up was one of two options. First, the A-V8: a 1928-29 Model A roadster sat on ’32 frame rails and a Ford V8 ‘Flathead’.

Yet the ‘cat’s pyjamas’ was option two: a ’32 Model 18 roadster, stripped of fenders, running boards, lights and screen, running larger tyres in the back and a hot V8. But why the

’32? Well, its rudimentary transverseleaf, I-beam front suspension had an unplanned benefit to fledgling racers, for starters: it meant Fords could be easily stripped of their fenders and running boards (which saved weight), and yet still look dashing.

The ‘Deuce’ is also the last year that Ford didn’t integrate fenders into the bodywork. With the neat, creased frame rails, one might swear it was designed to be run in this naked form.

Additionally, the roadster was the simplest, lightest and least expensive of all the ’32 Ford models.

1932 was also the first year of the Ford Flathead, America’s first massproduced V8 in a low-cost car. With its infinite, easy ‘hop-up’ capabilities, the speed parts industry exploded in the late ’40s from this very engine.

Thanks to the 32 Ford Fever exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum, LA.

BIRTH OF A DYNASTY VIC EDELBROCK ROADSTER Edelbrock is synonymous with aftermarket speed parts – and it all started with this car, which founder Vic built to race in the late ’30s. He was unhappy with his Thickstun intake’s performance, so he decided to create his own. The ‘Slingshot’ manifold was born, and his roadster soon began raking in the trophies. Other racers took notice, and the Edelbrock Speed Shop legacy was born.

INNOVATIVE AND ELEGANT DOANE SPENCER ROADSTER From the deco speedboat windscreen to the central armrest with hidden radio and the custom tube front ‘nerf bar’, these graceful details look like they were created with the car. Spencer’s ’32 was both beautiful and fast, competing in reliability runs, land-speed time trails and the gruelling Carrera Panamericana. Doane fitted oversized Lincoln brakes with hand-made aluminium scoops, and even designed the exhaust to exit through the frame rails for greater ground clearance.

SAFETY FIRST RAY BROWN ROADSTER Another double-duty hot rod that was built in the late ’40s for competition and daily driving, Brown’s car stood out with its Buick green paint and unique bonnet louvres. It also featured something unheard of at the time: seatbelts. After seeing a number of his friends thrown from their roadsters in drylakes accidents, Ray fitted a pair of surplus wartime aircraft belts, and the idea soon caught on.

Within three years, Impact Auto Saf-Tee Belt became one of the world’s largest specialists.

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PETERSEN TED7 / RM SOTHEBY’S

Starter

THE MILESTONE ’32 BOB MCGEE ROADSTER One of the first street-driven cars to be featured on the cover of Hot Rod, in 1948, McGee’s red ride is considered to be the quintessential, iconic ’32 Ford.

Featuring shaved door hinges with internal mechanisms, a louvred three-piece bonnet and ’40 Ford steering wheel, it really created the post-war hot rod look. If there was any doubt of provenance, this roadster was chosen by the US Postal Service as one of two Hot Rod Classic stamps, and it was inducted by the National Historic Vehicle Register for its cultural significance in American hot rodding.

WOW FACTOR CLARENCE ‘CHILI’ CATALLO COUPE

BUILT FOR SPEED JIM KHOUGAZ ROADSTER

So how did a wild-looking three-window coupe get on this list of iconic roadsters? Built as the ‘Silver Sapphire’, the ’32 was chopped three inches and painted in Oriental Blue Pearl by the King of Kustoms, George Barris. First a Hot Rod cover car, the coupe reached legendary status when it appeared on the Beach Boys’ platinum-selling album cover for Little Deuce Coupe. You know the song; the rest is history.

Specifically built for dry-lakes racing just after the war, the Khougaz ’32 was beautifully designed for maximum speed, with many timing records to back it up. Signature elements by the owner included ‘channelling’ – in which the body is lowered over the frame for a better aerodynamic profile – and a full aluminium, louvred belly pan running the length of the car, which culminates with the ‘splitter’ below the grille.

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INTERVIEW

It’s all in the timing Karl-Friedrich Scheufele’s long relationship with the Mille Miglia is as special as that of his Chopard watch brand. Here’s why

Words David Lillywhite

Photography Chopard

CHOPARD PRESIDENT KARLFriedrich Scheufele has sponsored and competed in the Mille Miglia since the late ’80s, often driving with racing legend Jacky Ickx. With entries open for 2023, he describes its appeal.

What’s your best memory of it?

No doubt, the 1994 event in a 1929 Bentley, with my then wife to be. Just before we got married, Christine and I did it the classic way. We left from home in Switzerland and drove all the way back after the race.

Why do you love the Mille Miglia?

It is called ‘the most beautiful race in the world’ for good reason; it runs through some of Italy’s most breathtaking landscapes. The experience is hands-on, and this is what I enjoy; you can live the event inside out.

Driving a classic sports car is one of the last ways to experience freedom.

In a modern car, often you simply just have no idea of how it functions; everything’s managed by electronics.

But what makes the Mille Miglia so special and unique are the spectators lining the streets, cheering encouragement to the drivers.

And your worst memory?

Descending a mountain pass, with just the handbrake to slow my Bentley.

How’s the event changed since you first took part over 30 years ago?

In 1988, some 100 cars took part.

This year saw 404 from 63 different makers on the starting line. After 2021’s return to the anti-clockwise route often used in the original event, for 2022 competitors tackled the 1609km (1005 in Roman miles) route in a clockwise direction.

The race draws participants from all over the world, and attracts a lot of media attention, but I think the original spirit remains – a mix of sportsmanship and elegance that has become all too rare today.

What’s the link with Chopard?

Lovers of fine cars often have a weakness for fine mechanical timepieces, and vice versa. Extreme precision, performance and sporting elegance are important in both fields.

The initial connection born from my family passion for classics has been transformed into a relationship of almost 35 years. Chopard was one of the first brands to associate its name with the old car world. So, when precision sports timing meets timeless style, it’s a perfect showcase for our Mille Miglia watch collection, and offers inspiration each year for new interpretations.

Do you have a favourite edition of the Mille Miglia Chronograph?

It’s difficult to make a choice, but I think the 1998 edition, which was

LEFT Chopard’s Karl-Friedrich describes the Mille Miglia as “special and unique”.

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the first version to feature the Dunlop tyre-tread bracelet.

How’s the Mille Miglia Chronograph changed since 1988?

Since becoming official timekeeper and world sponsor in 1988, Chopard has launched a new Mille Miglia timepiece every year, with a special design and new features. Inspiration always comes to me when I look at classic cars: the colours, materials, style and combinations. Over the decades, our Mille Miglia watches have come to be highly sought-after collectors’ items, as much for their rarity as for all their other attributes.

What would your advice be to someone who is contemplating taking part in the Mille Miglia?

Be prepared! Although the race has a very aesthetic appeal, it is first of all an extremely demanding sporting event. The Mille Miglia is not a race anymore; one has to make sure not to get carried away. Drive safely, because there are (too) many car enthusiasts on the road. Most of all, enjoy the Italian countryside. It provides some exceptional moments that give you memories for a lifetime.

Is there a particular car you’d still like to drive in the Mille Miglia?

No doubt a 1930s Bugatti.

Jacky Ickx or your daughter as a Mille Miglia companion?

Driving this year for a second time with my daughter Caroline Marie enchanted me, because I could feel that the family passion for classic cars is shared by the next generation.

With Jacky as my faithful friend and Mille Miglia companion since my first personal participation in the race in 1989, I share countless and most precious memories. I have always been in awe of his expertise as a pilot and gentlemen driver.

1936 Bugatti 57 Atalante One of only four Atalante delivered with a sunroof 1938 Rallye des Alpes / 1938 Rallye de Monte Carlo / 1938 Liège - Rome – Liège

Consignements invited

RÉTROMOBILE 2023 The official sale

Consignment deadline

Auction

Contact

Mid-December 2022

Friday 3 February 2023

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

Rétromobile Show, Paris

Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography Jean-Marc Borel

it’s addictive,” he says. “Every toll booth I accelerated away from, I just thought this car was insane.”

That 50km blast ended up being a 1000km journey. Chris’s love for the car grew, and he started to produce a small book on the racing EB110s.

He knew Julius through a VW-era Bugatti connection, and asked him to come on board. “I looked at what he did; it was beautiful,” says Julius.

However, the package was a long way from being a fully formed book, so Julius reckoned the best plan would be to start from scratch, telling the whole story. Two French writers were assigned the job. “Pascal van Mele – the most anal enthusiast for the EB110,” chuckles Julius. The other author, Johann Petit, ran a website dedicated to the EB110. So,

the right people for the job? Yes, but…

“It was an amazing text, but nobody would read it because it was die-hard anal EB110 gang-bang porno,” Julius says. He and Chris spent three days trying to make sense of it, before enlisting Mark Hughes to edit it. “He said we needed to work on the story, because we had all the ingredients of a workshop manual.”

The turning point was getting JeanMarc Borel onboard, after showing Bugatti’s former head of public affairs a design layout. “We’d realised that we desperately needed pictures; we’d started this project the wrong way around,” says Chris. “It is similar to what Romano Artioli did, switching from an aluminium chassis to carbon after four prototypes.”

Borel’s input would be critical,

When art imitates life Almost as much pain and effort went into creating an in-depth new book on the EB110 as was spent building the Bugatti in the first place

“WE HAD AN UNLIMITED budget, and we blew it.” You’d expect those words to come from someone deep within the EB110 rollercoaster, but instead they come from Julius Kruta, Bugatti historian and copublisher of a lavish new book dedicated to the quad-turbo, fourwheel-drive mad missile. Much like the car itself, the production of this $900 limited tome is a tortuous tale of passion, dedication and ripping it all up and starting again… and again.

It all began when co-publisher Chris Hrabalek was looking for an automotive investment several years ago. The EB110 fitted the bill, with just 139 made. Within 50km of his first drive, a mere investment had turned into something else: “The way the turbos chirp sequentially;

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after Chris and Julius explained their need for imagery. “‘You haven’t got the inside pictures, the running of the first engine, the signing of the contract...’ he told us,” Julius recalls.

“We said: ‘Ah, we have the photo where Piëch buys the company.’”

Borel inquired as to how they got the image, and after being told it came from Mrs Piëch, he asked who took the shot. A random VW worker was suggested, but then… “Borel said: ‘Oh these are bad scans,’” Julius laughs. “‘I’ll give you the originals.’”

Borel had, it seems, photographed everything. While the book contains more than 700 images, most of which are previously unseen, there were enough pictures for five more volumes. Suitably armed with archive material, Julius and Chris redesigned

Words David Lillywhite

New Simon Diffey award Inaugural recipient Emilia Brown commended for heritage skills, enthusiasm, passion and commitment

the book from scratch again.

Although the project nearly broke Chris – “It’s my first book, and my last” – both are full of respect for what Artioli and his team achieved. “There’s a romance, a charm and a certain style that go beyond money making,” says Julius. “Romano lost millions, along with his Ferrari contract – he was the biggest Ferrari dealer in the world. He gave it all up for Bugatti.”

“We wanted to create a book that mirrors that vision,” Chris explains, although it ended up being in more ways than intended. “He lost money with every EB110 sold. Julius and I worked out the figures one day – we make a loss of €2000 on every book.”

Just 330 copies of the $900 EB110 and the Last Bugatti Racing Cars are available, www.hortonsbooks.co.uk.

FROM TOP New EB110 book includes previously unseen images from the model’s design and build.

WHEN THE INDOMITABLE Historic racer Simon Diffey died in a road accident in May 2022, he left a huge hole in the lives of the motor sport and classic car communities.

In his memory, his wife Sarah Jane Adams Diffey has created an award in his name to help support young people in the industry he was so passionate about. The annual Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award, which is presented in association with the Heritage Skills Academy (HSA), will be awarded to young apprentices who exemplify excellent engineering skills, passion, enthusiasm and commitment as a team player.

HSA apprentice employers are invited by Sarah and the HSA to nominate their star apprentices for the award – and the first winner is heritage engineering apprentice Emilia Brown, who is an employee and apprentice of Jim Stokes Workshops Ltd (JSWL).

The award was presented to Emilia by the Duke of Richmond at the Goodwood Revival. As part of the accolade, Emilia has secured a one-month secondment with

ABOVE Simon’s legacy lives on in important new apprentice award.

Classic Team Lotus, which includes attendance at an international race event. The award will also provide her with the opportunity to secure her own ARDS race licence, with kit provided by Alpinestars. Her licence pack will be supplied by MSUK, with training by top Historic racer Martin Stretton at Pembrey Circuit.

Emilia had first met Simon at Goodwood in 2021, when he invited HSA apprentices to assist with the Maserati 250F he was driving.

“I have very fond memories,” she says. “I can still imagine him calling us all around the car for a picture – he was a larger-than-life character.

Helping him with race support was something that I enjoyed massively.

It is the buzz – expecting the unexpected to happen, and having an opportunity to get stuck in.

Award patron Sarah says her late husband would “greatly approve of Emilia as the inaugural recipient of the award”, following their encounter at the Revival.

“These trainees are the future of our business,” says JSWL founder Jim Stokes. “We need their energy, their enthusiasm, their hunger and their keenness to absorb information. Emilia Brown has been fully committed to her apprenticeship; she encompasses all of the above, and more. This award is extremely well deserved.

We are incredibly proud.”

For info on the Simon Diffey Heritage Motorsport Apprentice Award, visit www.heritageskillsacademy.co.uk.

Magneto

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Words Sarah Bradley

Photography Matt Woods

TAKE A PAIR OF SURPLUS Delahaye 135M front wings, add a discarded LWB Riley 2½ Litre chassis, mix in generous helpings of inspiration, ingenuity and skill, and what do you get? Déjà – the latest creation from British automotive artist and custom king Andy Saunders.

Andy is the renowned architect of countless ground-breaking one-offs, from a chopped and coupéd 1937 Cord 812 Westchester Sedan called Tetanus, to a 1983 Bentley Mulsanne that more than lives up to its Mentally Insanne moniker. He built a full-size version of the X-2000, designed in 1958 by Alex Tremulis as a scalemodel styling exercise for the Ford Motor Company. He even tracked down and restored the controversial Aurora prototype, launched in 1957 as “the safest car in the world”.

But Déjà crowns them all – and it has its genesis in Andy’s fascination with the work of two masters of French coachbuilding: Giuseppe Figoni and Jacques Saoutchik. As he explains: “The styling came about from the amalgamated inspiration of Figoni et Falaschi’s elegant Type 165

and Saoutchik’s over-the-top 175S, integrating the two different Delahaye roadsters’ styles to bring forward what is in my opinion the best designs of both cars. Meanwhile, Déjà’s actual body came about by using several chunks of other old vehicles, my vast imagination and millions of hours of experience.”

The seeds were sown when Andy stumbled across those rusty wings for sale at the Beaulieu International Autojumble back in 2018. He recalls that he had not been planning any more Art Deco projects, when he found himself “scouring the fields for something I probably didn’t need” after visiting his three-monthlong Art of Kustom exhibition at the venue’s National Motor Museum.

He left the autojumble sparked and intrigued: “That evening, the possibility of building a car out of something so rare took hold of my senses. I spent the next few hours studying Delahaye on the internet.

“Many coachbuilders created their ideas on the marque’s chassis, but few designs caught my eye more than those from Saoutchik and

‘Custom king Andy is the renowned architect of countless groundbreaking one-offs’

BELOW Andy created the Déjà using parts from Delahaye, Riley and much more.

Déjà vu?

Not quite...

It may seem familiar, but this latest Andy Saunders creation is like nothing you’ve experienced before

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Figoni. There was nothing else more stunning to use as inspiration for something on which I’d be spending several thousand hours of my life.”

He returned to the autojumble the following day, made an offer on the panels… and the rest is history.

While Andy has revealed some of the ingredients that made up the fantastical feast for the eyes that is Déjà – including that Riley chassis – the master craftsman, dubbed the Automotive Alchemist, refuses to divulge his build secrets. Suffice to say, with its sweeping, seductive curves, at once restrained and flamboyant, this elegant creation exemplifies all the grace, femininity and bewitching guile that were the trademarks of the 20th century’s coachbuilding grandmasters. A handbuilt, steel-bodied Delahaye roadster, some 85 years late for its debut at the Paris Salon de l’Automobile.

A more in-depth story of Déjà features in Andy’s new book, The Automotive Alchemist (reviewed further on in this issue of Magneto). Click on www.andysaunders.net for more on his custom creations over the decades.

ANDY WILLSHEER

Starter

THE TRIPLE FOUR LIMITED-EDITION RACING CHRONOGRAPH Introducing a limited-edition luxury timepiece designed by Sir Terence

Conran and inspired by the heritage of the Brooklands Motor Circuit.

www.brooklandswatches.com

Starter

Once in a lifetime A rare opportunity has come up to buy the hugely important Aston Martin LM10 Works Team car and Le Mans class winner

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Words Ben Barry

Photography John Owen

EVEN SIMPLY ACCOUNTING FOR its 1930s Le Mans pedigree, LM10 would be a hugely important exWorks Aston Martin race car. Factor in originality, wider significance to its parent company along with a fascinating provenance spanning nine decades, and it really is unique.

No wonder its appearance on the open market for the first time in living memory – and possibly ever – has been rousing such interest.

LM10 represents a snapshot of Aston’s early involvement in motor sport, barely two decades after the company was founded. Under the stewardship of Augustus ‘Bert’ Bertelli and William Renwick, the marque had first entered Le Mans in 1928, and produced a series of 23 Works cars through to 1936, with chronological chassis numbers LM1 to LM23 identifying the run. A ladder-frame chassis, aluminium body and dry-sump four-cylinder overhead-cam engine are common to all, with most – including LM10

– having a capacity of 1.5 litres.

LM10’s construction at Feltham in 1932 marks a particularly pivotal year. Alongside LM8 and LM9, it was entered for Le Mans with distinctive new bodywork featuring a lower, V-shaped radiator and pointed ‘boat-tail’ rear end, making the trio arguably the most attractive LM models of all. LM10 enjoyed an especially successful outing on its Le Mans debut that year, with driver pairing Sammy Newsome and Henken Widengren achieving first in class and fifth overall.

Aston sold all three cars after the race to free up funds during a financially tumultuous time, but bought back LM10 less than a year later from the Squire Motor Company – ironically because it was more economically viable to do so than to develop a new car. ‘Bert’ Bertelli raced LM10 at Le Mans in 1933, finishing second in class with Sammy Davis. Upon its 1934 return, with Reggie Tongue and Maurice

Falkner sharing driving duties, the car placed fifth in class. Current owner Hugh Palmer notes that this makes LM10 the only Aston of any age to complete three successive Le Mans.

Its wider significance is similarly notable, because along with LM8 and LM9 it helped set the template for the Le Mans road cars – a model line that gave Aston Martin a muchneeded financial boost. It was also used as a development car for the Aston Mk2 and Ulster, explaining the fitment of a replacement front axle developed to improve roadholding, and used for Le Mans ’33 and ’34, although Palmer has the original LM10-stamped axle.

LM10’s post-Works history is as colourful as its earliest years.

Owners included Tony Gaze, the Australian Spitfire flying ace who informally raced the car around RAF Westhampnett, and ultimately influenced the Duke of Richmond to transform the airfield’s perimeter into Goodwood Motor Circuit. A

second Spitfire-pilot owner later sold LM10 to Winnie Lewis in 1948, who competed at both Silverstone and the Brighton Speed Trials.

Palmer’s ownership forms part of a continuous thread that weaves directly back to this period. He recalls first seeing LM10 at Silverstone’s St John Horsfall race in the 1970s.

It was being driven by Bill ElwellSmith, who’d married Lewis, and ultimately owned and campaigned LM10 from 1948 to 1992.

“I saw it lined up with the other cars, and thought it was absolutely fantastic,” recounts Palmer. “Bill loved it, and used to joke he married Winnie for the car. He almost agreed to exchange it for my Squire at one point, but was too emotionally attached. He eventually bequeathed it to his mechanic and close friend Rob Davies in 1992.”

Davies rebuilt LM10 during a period between 1993 and ’94, and continued racing the car – including a successful outing at the Le Mans

Classic in 2002. He then sold it to Palmer in 2009. The current owner has maintained the car meticulously, and – unlike so many Historic race machines – retained its periodcorrect mechanical specification.

During his custodianship, Palmer even commissioned author Jonathan Wood to detail both LM10’s entire history and the wider context of Aston’s early years, in the book Aston Martin & LM10, a four-year, 350-page endeavour. This makes for an exquisite companion to an already highly detailed history file, which includes FIA Historic identity documents, FIVA identity cards, previous DVLA documents and correspondence with Gaze detailing his personal recollections of the car.

LM10 is now available through Rutland, UK-based Car-Iconics. How fitting if this most significant of prewar Aston Martin racers could find its way to Le Mans in 2023 or ’24, and celebrate its three successive appearances 90 years ago.

FROM TOP LM10 won its class and came fifth overall at Le Mans in 1932, followed by two successive entries at La Sarthe. Its race history has continued into the modern age.

Magneto

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Starter

Words David Lillywhite

Photography Matt Howell

projects on a crate motor, because the marketing doesn’t work, but you can’t get the performance, either. The best crate motor, from a performance viewpoint, might be a supercharged Mustang or Dodge V8. Well, they weigh a lot more than 135kg [the FZero engine’s weight].”

He continues: “Another V8 issue is the 90º angle. It really hurts you on packaging. Then you have got that secondary vibration problem; if a V8 is bolted directly to the monocoque, there’s a lot of vibration going on. So you have to make your own engine.

“I’m not a massive fan of openwheel cars. You’d never have an open cockpit if you didn’t have to.

It’s the same as with wheels and tyres; you’re always going to fair those in if you can, because having them in the airstream is crazy.

“One issue is that you need to run a lot of downforce to optimise performance, and the tyres have to deal with that. We’ve had a long relationship with Avon, and I feel it’ll do whatever we need to get the tyre side working; it’s hugely important.”

He goes on to explain: “The real challenge is maintaining the ride height. You want to run the aero platform consistently at the same

‘On a car like this you’re not constrained by a rule-book, only by physics’

All the pull, and zero bull Looking for a fast track car? Rodin’s planned new FZero could give the big names in Formula 1 something to think about

AMID ALL THE ‘FASTEST-EVER track car’ noise from Aston Martin, Mercedes-Benz and Red Bull Racing, a small New Zealand-based firm is quietly aiming to create a car that’s faster than any current F1 contender.

The company is Rodin Cars, and the deep thinker behind it is David Dicker, an engineer, entrepreneur and racer, whose business success has allowed him to build not just a collection of classics and supercars, but also a full test track to drive them on, within his own valley in New Zealand’s Southern Alps.

Alongside is a high-tech factory, staffed by more than 30 engineers, plus a UK facility at Donington Park.

Rodin already builds the FZED, a 600kg evolution of the Lotus T125 project, and about as close as you can get to a usable F1 car. Its new FZero will be a closed-cockpit design, powered by a scratch-built 4.0-litre twin-turbo V10. So, what’s the idea, we asked David…

“It’s like George Mallory said [about Everest]: It’s there,” explains Dicker. “It has not always been possible to build a car quicker than an F1 machine, but it is possible now – so I wanted to do it.

“You can’t do these kinds of

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height, and obviously you can’t let the car roll in the turns. We use a conventional suspension – rockers, dampers and coils – but we have hydraulic cylinders in the bottom of the pushrods. Once you’ve got those, they can independently control the car’s height without any influence on the springs and dampers.

“The big advantage on a car like this is you’re not constrained by a rule-book, only by physics, so you can do a lot more things… Such as the brakes: we use an electric motor with a fan to cool these. We don’t have a duct out in the airstream, and that gives more consistency in the pedal, and less wear. There’s a lot of other small things, like there’s loads of printed titanium parts, and we also make our own bolts and PVD them.

Virtually everything is titanium.

“We’re going to build 30 cars, but that includes a few of the prototypes.

It will be 27 machines for the public, and I figure it’s going to be about £1.8m each. It’s early days, but if we sell the cars at that price, I’d be perfectly happy – because I know that we’re going to make money.”

For more, see www.rodin-cars.com.

You’ll find the full interview with David at www.magnetomagazine.com.

A MAJOR SALE OF 150 DESIRABLE AND VARIED CLASSIC & COLLECTOR CARS

THE WINTER CLASSIC

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Estimate: £75,000-£95,000

TH MERCEDES-BENZ WORLD, BROOKLANDS, UK. SATURDAY 26 NOVEMBER See the website for entries and to register to bid in-hall, by phone & online

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Starter

Words Nathan Chadwick

Beach buggy boogie Summer might be over, but if you’re reading this during your tropical retreat you might fancy some action on the sand. Which cars make life a beach, and which are as welcome as sunburn?

MEYERS MANX

MINI MOKE

FIAT 500 JOLLY

CITROËN MEHARI

VOLKSWAGEN 181

What’s the story?

Boat builder Bruce Meyers created a glassfibre dune buggy using VW Beetle and Chevrolet pick-up parts, and sold a few kits. The production version won the 1967 Mexican 1000 race, and as Beach Boys fever descended, it became a must-have for the surf crowd.

Mini-based machine couldn’t make it in the military due to low ground clearance and tiny wheels. It spent time on farms and light-commercial endeavours, until an appearance on The Prisoner shot it to fame. Its utilitarian build made it useful on tropical islands, too.

A small, fun car designed for Gianni Agnelli to carry on his yacht. Ghia strengthened the body, fitted wicker seats and replaced the roof with a canvas top. Just 400 were built, with Vignale carrying on production.

WW2 fighter pilot Roland de la Poype’s glassfibre body sat upon a Citroën A-series chassis. The two-wheel-drive car lasted for 20 years; the 4WD for four.

As with the Moke, the 181 – or ‘Thing’ – targeted military use. Its utilitarian theme found favour with surfers. Its detachable doors, screen and roof were practical for oddshaped items; its PVC seats made it easy for wiping down spilled ice cream.

Hot like the sun or cold like Cleethorpes?

VW Beetle-derived four-cylinder engines powered the car, but its light weight provided exceptional performance, even if it was two-wheel drive only.

British-made Mokes used the 848cc A-series. Australian and Portuguese-built Mokes went bigger...

Standard Fiat 500 running gear meant a 663cc inline fourcylinder that ran out of puff at 59mph.

Although why you’d want to do more than 30mph in one is a bigger question...

Worth putting a towel out at dawn for?

There were just 6000 original Manxes, yet c.250,000 copies have been built since Meyers lost a patent court case. He left the firm in 1972, but founded a new one in 2000. He sold it in 2020 and died months later. A 1960s Manx costs $33k-$40k.

Light weight, perky FWD handling and Mini handling nous have engendered a hardcore following, with 14,500 built in the UK and 50,000 in total. We found cars ranging from £15k-£30k.

Aftersun

New Meyers Manx 2.0 features electric power via two battery sizes. Its most potent offers 40kWh, 300 miles, 202bhp and 0-60mph in 4.5 seconds. No pricing has been released.

Recently, Moke International has built a fully electric model with a range of 120km from its 33kW battery. It’ll do 0-55km/h in 4.3 seconds, and costs £29,150.

Steve McQueen drove one in The Thomas Crown Affair. Not much is cooler than that...

Brigitte Bardot had one in her prime. Is that really a ringing endorsement these days?

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Produced across the world, the Citroën Mehari isn’t rare, which makes it a great option to both buy and run.

They’re currently generally going for €15k-€25k in Europe, although you should budget in excess of a third more for a rare 4WD version.

These rarely come to auction; the last one sold in New Zealand for NZ$48,875. A resto-mod in the UK was just under £20k.

In 2019 Garage Italia, run by Gianni Agnelli’s grandson Lapo Elkann, unveiled the 500 Jolly Icon-e EV for €50k.

With Bollore, Citroën built 1000 E-Meharis from 2016-19, for €25k plus battery lease.

Cassis Electric Mehari produced an EV from 2019, and Electric Eden now makes a €35k version.

EV West built an electric conversion of the Volkswagen 181 way back in 2014, but tellingly, the German giant has hinted at bringing back the Thing in EV form itself.

The roster is a who’s who of ’60s glamour: Jackie Onassis, Yul Brynner, Grace Kelly, Elvis Presley et al...

The Mehari has a fan in Wes Anderson, finding fame with character Steve Zissou in The Life Aquatic.

Starred in 50 First Dates with Adam Sandler. We’d rather drive the Thing another 50 times.

With just 400 made, a Ghia 500 Jolly is rare; two recently went for $106,400 (Bonhams, Quail 2022) and $123,200 (Broad Arrow, Monterey 2022). There are various recreations.

MAGIC CAR PICS, RM SOTHEBY’S, HYMAN

Summing up

The 2CV6 602cc two-pot gave ample pep. While the body didn’t rust, the chassis did – but bits are easy to find.

Based on a mixture of the Beetle, Microbus and Karmann Ghia, the VW was hardy but hardly quick, with an air-cooled 1.5- or 1.6-litre engine available.

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I LIT

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Starter

IT MARKED A MAJOR MOMENT in the motorcycle world; the arrival of the first British ‘superbike’ in two decades. Not only was it this that drew the attention of the global press, it was also that this exclusive, hand-built machine was to be produced by no less than a peer of the realm. Not just any old peer, either, but one already famous – indeed, infamous – for his successful activities in the top echelon of the four-wheeled world of motor sport.

Lord Thomas Alexander FermorHesketh had formed the agreeably non-conformist Hesketh Racing Formula 1 team in 1973, at Easton Neston House, the 1702 Nicholas Hawksmoor-designed stately home set amidst a 3300-acre estate near Towcester, Northants. Known for his extravagance, eccentricity and hospitality, the just 22-year-old 3rd Baronet Hesketh financed the team solely from his personal fortune.

F1’s naysayers wrote off Hesketh Racing as the plaything of a bunch of party-loving toffs, but that attitude swiftly changed when the in-housedesigned Hesketh 308B-Cosworth beat Niki Lauda’s Ferrari 312T to 1975 Dutch Grand Prix victory. The team finished fourth in the World Championship, putting driver James Hunt on the road to F1 stardom.

Following Hesketh Racing’s 1976 withdrawal from F1, it continued with its well established engineering development and consultancy work for car and racing fraternities. It also ran a busy operation rebuilding many teams’ Cosworth DFV engines. To fill the F1 void, in late 1977 Alexander along with MD and business partner Anthony ‘Bubbles’ Horsley decided to create a new, entirely hand-built superbike, complete with an in-house engine and gearbox made by Weslake.

It was just the sort of fillip the home motorcycle industry needed –

Words Paul Chudecki

A grand adventure Could the exclusive, handbuilt Hesketh motorcycle turn around the UK’s ailing bike industry? No – but it made for a fantastic story...

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Photography David Montgomery/ Getty Images

a sentiment shared by Alexander.

Yet this aristocratic, two-wheeled roadster-cum-tourer would not be designed by motorcycle engineers, but by Hesketh F1 luminaries such as Frank Dernie and Nigel Stroud, while its glassfibre bodywork would be styled by John Mockett. And it would boast several notable features, including a rigid, Reynolds 531, nickel-plated frame with entirely straight tubes, a semi-stressed engine eliminating the need for tubes in front and below it, and sophisticated rear suspension coaxial with the ’box output sprocket to maintain constant chain tension.

Of his decision to build a twowheeler, Alexander – who has twice failed his motorcycle test – recalls from his Kensington home: “We sort of talked about it. I was never a biker, but Bubbs was; a lot of people at Hesketh Racing rode bikes. I’ve never really had much interest in motorcycles to be honest. They scare me.

“The closest we ever got to doing any market research was we bought a BMW, a Laverda, a Yamaha and a Ducati, to have a look at them. I don’t know why we wasted the time or money, because in principle we decided a traditional British bike must be a 90º, inline V-twin, in order to get as low vibration as you can.”

So it was no coincidence that Cosworth’s legendary F1 DFV V8 would provide key elements of the Hesketh’s quad-camshaft, eightvalve, all-alloy 992cc twin: “Basically, if you look at the cross-section of the engine it’s the end two cylinders of a DFV,” continues Alexander, who has a deep appreciation for excellent engineering as well as aesthetically appealing mechanical components.

“We went for that because we knew how much power we got out of the DFVs. The four-cam was there for marketing, because we had

OPPOSITE A young Lord Hesketh shows off his new machine, with Cosworth DFV-inspired V-twin. to have something that was exotic.

We thought: ‘We know what a DFV does, we know that DFVs are reliable, so why don’t we dimension it exactly like a DFV?’ Because that’s what it is.

It’s a V-twin DFV, to the extent that the prototype engines at Weslake had DFV pistons, because dimensionally it was identical. It also happens to do with the primary vibration problem, so all of that went in.”

Weslake’s contract had been to build, develop and deliver five preproduction engines and ’boxes, after which development continued at Easton Neston. The drivetrains were fitted into five prototype bikes; production machines would then be built at Hesketh’s Oldham factory.

The resultant V1000 model’s April 1980 press launch was a naturally extravagant affair, with a brass band, glamorous women and great quantities of Champagne.

It was all in keeping with both Alexander’s inimitable style and his exquisitely crafted and expensive motorcycle (£4500 – £1500 above BMW’s top RS100 model), and oh so British in character.

The strikingly handsome machine and its imposing V-twin drew gasps of approval. Its 90 percent British content was highlighted, including Astralite wheels (as seen on the F1 cars) with Avon rubber and Girling rear shocks. Only the Marzocchi forks, Brembo brakes, Dellorto carburettors and Nissan Denso instruments were sourced beyond home shores. Motorcycle legend Mike Hailwood demonstrated the bike on Easton Neston’s driveway.

But the V1000’s launch, at a time when the economy was on the back foot and Japanese bikes dominated,

Starter belied two major issues. The first was a lack of money to proceed, leading to a successful floatation in September.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Alexander explains. “I couldn’t afford to put it into production, so we had to raise money – and you can’t raise money unless the world is aware of it. The one thing that mucked us about was there was something wrong with the casting in the production bike; someone had tragically changed a drawing, and so there had to be a change on the cast. We had to raise another £400,000-£500,000.”

The second issue was impending engine and gearbox-selection troubles – specifically an overheating rear cylinder due to excessive crankcase pressure that reduced top-end lubrication, and also a design flaw that baulked first-gear engagement.

Shortly after February 1982’s first customer deliveries, these issues were overcome by the EN10 engine conversion, retrospectively fitted to the initial batch. Nonetheless, this did not help the V1000’s reputation, already tainted by early road tests the previous August that varied from praiseworthy to derogatory.

All riders, however, were impressed by the bike’s stable, nimble handling, which belied its hefty 500lb (227kg) weight, and the power and torque – 86bhp at 5000rpm and 72lb ft at 6750rpm – of its lusty, beautifully presented engine. Each unit was blueprinted to Cosworth spec, and the combination was akin to the punch and agility of a heavyweight pugilist, while the five-speed gearbox received a major revamp.

By August, however, when just 139 bikes had been produced, in the midst of a recession and with superbike sales falling through the floor, Hesketh Motorcycles Limited entered receivership. It simply lacked further finance. Following an auction of £250,000 of stock, including five unassembled bikes, the company reformed in December as Hesleydon Limited.

Back in 1978, highly experienced engineer and racer Mick Broom had been the first motorcyclist to join the engineering team – a mere two or three in those early days, based in Easton Neston’s stable-yard laundry, the unlikely former F1 team setting for the beating heart of development and testing of an exquisitely crafted motorcycle; later,

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FROM TOP Hesketh’s home at Easton Neston; Lord Hesketh and Mike Hailwood parade the new V1000 at its 1980 press reveal.

operations would overflow into the indoor tennis court.

After Hesketh’s floatation, the team – with Mick heading engine development and serving as one of three test riders – grew to seven or eight people. The man who has since done more to keep Heskeths on the road than any other, remembers that auction well.

He recalls: “Bubbles had a word with me, and said: ‘Look, if we do anything more, do we need anything from the factory?’ I said: ‘Well, the only thing that you wouldn’t be able to get round is the gearbox jig,’ so that’s the only thing I bid on. But then, these guys who had bought stuff, I’d go and buy it back off them, and so we got forks for a few quid.

They had got all the gearboxes, probably for two quid a time; I gave them £50, and we got the residue

‘V1000’s press launch was an extravagant affair, with great quantities of Champagne’

back. I finished up going round the North Yorkshire Moors pulling gearboxes out of chicken sheds.”

Alas, exacerbated by the market downturn and increased production costs, a severe lack of finance intervened again in September 1983; many staff redundancies ensued. By January, Hesleydon – which had sold some further 50 bikes, mostly the well received, £6500 Vampire, launched in February with Mockett’s stylish and effective full fairing – was reduced to fewer than a caretaker handful. These included Mick and engineer/test rider Pat Devlin. In 1984-85, Mick would take over the operation as Broom Development Engineering.

As Bubbles reflects: “We were able to use a lot of what had been bought from the receiver for what was a bargain price, so we were able to make a reasonable profit out of each bike. This gave us the money to have stores, basically support the owners and sell a few more bikes.

It was a plucky effort.”

Indeed, both Bubbles and Alexander remain good humoured about the experience. The ‘Good Lord’, as Hunt called him, remembers 1980’s flotation on the unlisted security market, having already invested his own £400,000.

“That’s very important, because there were four companies floated; one of the others became O2,” he says, bursting into laughter. “There were only four companies that went onto it, and it became the AIM market.

We disappeared into a scrapyard somewhere outside Milton Keynes.”

And as for Hesleydon finally making some money: “Well, we may have done, but it all got ploughed back in. I’ve never seen a penny,” he roars.

Mick Broom’s company, however, continued with limited production, steadily selling bikes to the most far-reaching worldwide destinations, with prices starting at £12,000. In 1985, the firm built the one-off, V1000-based Vortan, a strippeddown single-seat ‘streetfighter’.

And in 2012 – having moved from Easton Neston to Turweston in Bucks in 2005, when financial issues forced Alexander to sell his family home of 400 years – it announced a new, £20,000 V1200 Vulcan, with reengineered brakes, suspension, engine management and wire-spoke wheels.

“I came to an arrangement with

Alexander,” explains Mick. “I’d got enough bits, pieces and knowledge to do a batch of six. He wasn’t interested in getting involved, for understandable reasons.”

Cruelly, a major burglary deprived Mick of £40,000-worth of spares, kit and bikes, crushing his Vulcan production plans: “As a one-off sort of businessman, that killed the idea.”

Thereafter he retired – he would later complete the sole Vulcan for a customer – and sold his operation to Paul Sleeman. Having formed a new Hesketh Motorcycles Limited, in 2014 Sleeman launched the N24 (Hunt’s race number) with a 2000cc American S&S twin, followed four years later by a supercharged 2100cc Valiant and, last September, a 450cc Honda-engined model.

One of the V1000’s major points of appeal, of course, was its in-house engine. “That’s why it’ll last; that’s why it gets in the books,” says Alexander. “But the reality was that you’ve got to make the engine to get in the classification. Look at Vincent; it didn’t make many bikes, but people look at them like Cartier watches.

They are seen as works of art.”

In stark contrast to those heady Easton Neston days, the oncemaverick bon viveur who shook up F1’s establishment later became a Government minister, House of Lords chief whip, leading Conservative peer, UKIP fundraiser and keen Brexiteer.

Today, he retains many business interests; he’s been Hesketh Owners Club president since its 1982 inception.

And of what might have been? “To be perfectly honest, the only thing I got wrong – I mean, we got everything wrong, but everything right – the biggest mistake I think, we looked at two versions of the engine. One was using Weslake to do an air-cooled V-twin, and the other was to get Brian Hart to do a water-cooled V-twin.

“With the benefit of hindsight, I think the bike would still be in production if it had been water cooled, for a very bizarre reason. You could have put a turbocharger on it and gone berserk. Because of that, rather like Harley-Davidson, it would have got a following that would have ensured its survival.”

Now that really would have been something else.

Thanks to Lord Alexander Hesketh, Bubbles Horsley, Mick Broom, David Sharp and the Hesketh Owners Club.

The second running of our weekend rally for vintage and classic car crews from two generations, this time exploring the majestic North East of England.

RALLY

24 to 26 March 2023

The fourth running of this pre-war only event, four days weaving a fantastic route along Ireland’s scenic and traffic-free roads, enriched with wonderful Irish hospitality and charm.

8 to 11 May 2023

NEW!

to RtG

in partnership with

4 to 15 June 2023

The fourth in Rally the Globe’s popular ‘Carrera’ series of events will take in the array of scenic delights and perfect driving roads that France has to offer. Eleven days of river valleys, high mountains, rugged coastlines and enticing vineyards. Expect hotels oozing luxury and character, and plenty of convivial competition along the way.

Three countries and 38 lines of latitude in 30 days. An extraordinarily diverse 12,000km journey from the vast wilderness and striking landscapes of Alaska to the tropical beaches of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. An unforgettable journey.

MARATHON

27 Aug to 26 Sept 2023

Discovering the trails of South East Asia, this Marathon explores the stunning mountains and coastlines of Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Laos. The 8,500km route is packed full of gems including Angkor Wat, Chiang Mai, the Mekong River, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, Sa Pa, the Tram Ton Pass and Halong Bay.

27 Jan to 23 Feb 2024

Most events for cars of a specification produced before 1977, with separate classification for cars of a specification produced before 1946.

Sponsored by:

For full details see www.rallytheglobe.com or contact us on info@rallytheglobe.com or +44 113 360 8961

THE EX – BARRIE PRICE 1937 BUGATTI TYPE 57

THE EX – KEITH GREENE, IAN RABY 1962 GILBY FORMULA 1

THE MULTIPLE HISTORIC CHAMPIONSHIP WINNING 1964 SHELBY COBRA 289 T. +44 (0)1285 831 488 / E. cars@williamianson.com / www.williamianson.com

THE EX – DYSON RACING, 2ND IN THE ALMS, CURRENT OUTRIGHT LAP RECORD HOLDER ON THE SILVERSTONE HISTORIC GP CIRCUIT 2012 LOLA B12/60 MAZDA LMP1

THE EX – WORKS, DE ADAMICH, VACCARELLA, 4TH IN THE LE MANS 24 HOURS 1972 ALFA ROMEO TIPO 33/TT/3

AN EXACTING FIA TOOLROOM COPY BY CROSTHWAITE & GARDINER MASERATI TIPO 61 ‘BIRDCAGE’ /williamiansonltd

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Carroll Shelby

Celebrating an all-American hero, 100 years after his birth

Words Preston Lerner

MOTORSPORT IMAGES

‘Shelby realised that winning wasn’t the only thing.

Speed with style was his trademark’

Carroll Shelby

corporate radar, but Carroll himself. In terms of personality and experience, the two men could hardly have been more different. Yet the brash, ambitious Iacocca recognised in Shelby a kindred spirit. Against his better judgment, he decided to place a bet on the tall Texan.

“Give that son of a bitch $25,000 before he bites somebody,” he told Frey.

At least, that’s how Carroll remembered it, barking out a laugh as he delivered the punch line. As was often the case with his stories, if this wasn’t the most accurate version of events, it was the most entertaining. However, the sausage was ground; history records that Shelby secured Ford engines on the strength of AC Cars chassis that he didn’t have, and he drummed up AC chassis on the promise of Ford engines he didn’t own – a remarkable feat of alchemy, creating something out of nothing.

Thus, the Cobra, and with it a legend, was born.

Has the American motor sports world ever produced a more colourful or complicated character than Carroll Shelby? Blessed with an irresistible combination of smarts, enterprise and charisma, he amassed a vast collection of powerful friends, and was himself wrapped in a mythology that still makes it hard to separate fact from fiction. “Tall, skinny, wearing striped overalls, always with a pretty girl and always enjoying himself hugely, he was the very essence of what a race driver ought to be,” James T Crow wrote in Road & Track.

The son of a rural mail carrier in East Texas, Shelby was at various times a World War Two aviator, a concrete contractor, a bankrupt chicken farmer, the purveyor of consumer goods ranging from chili mix to men’s deodorant, and an automobile manufacturer who improbably managed to forge ties with Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. Along the

FROM TOP Shelby with actress Jan Harrison during the 1959 British GP – they ended up briefly married in 1962; on the pit wall at the 1959 Sebring 12 Hours, in which he shared the sole works Aston Martin DBR1 with Roy

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Salvadori against a legion of Porsche 718RSKs and new Ferrari 250TRs; winning the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hours in the DBR1.

PREVIOUS PAGES Le Mans 1964 with Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant.

MOTORSPORT IMAGES / GETTY IMAGES / REVS INSTITUTE

IN JANUARY 1962, CARROLL SHELBY flew to Dearborn, Michigan. His plan was to dazzle the Ford Motor Company executives who were central figures in his grand plan – at this point, merely a pipe dream – to launch a car brand of his own.

Shelby met first with Dave Evans, whom he’d befriended at the Pikes Peak Hill Climb a few months earlier. Evans introduced him to Don Frey, an enterprising engineer who’d risen to the number-two slot in the Ford Division hierarchy. They then squired Carroll into the office of their boss, Lee Iacocca, a marketing wizard who envisioned racing as a means of revamping the company’s stodgy image and goosing sales with younger buyers.

Handsome and lanky, radiating the charm that had captivated men and seduced women from Midland to Monte Carlo, Shelby delivered his pitch with a raspy drawl. He wanted to build an Anglo-American sports car that would eviscerate the Chevrolet Corvette. All he needed from Ford was a supply of the company’s brand-new, thin-wall V8 engines and a bit of seed money. Chicken feed, really – barely enough to qualify as petty cash.

The Ford execs weren’t sure what to make of Shelby. They vaguely recalled that he’d won Le Mans a few years earlier, and had even graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. And while Carroll obviously wasn’t one of the grey-flannel-suit types they were accustomed to dealing with, they thought – mistakenly – that he was somehow associated with the glittering wealth of the Texas oil ‘bidness’. But that still begged the question: Was he a player or was he a poseur?

Iacocca could have washed his hands of the entire affair. Yet something about Shelby piqued his curiosity – not just his proposal, which would generate barely a blip on the

GETTY IMAGES

Carroll Shelby

GETTY IMAGES / REVS INSTITUTE

FROM TOP Another race, another female consort, this time at the victorious 1965 Sebring Four Hours; the Dragonsnake Shelby Cobra quarter-mile drag car, of which eight were built, outside the most important

Shelby American dealership of the time, 1964; Shelby ponders over a makeshift camera in the rear of a Daytona Coupe at Sebring, 1965.

PREVIOUS PAGES Le Mans, 1965 saw Shelby cars retire.

way, he developed a reputation as a serial entrepreneur with a cavalier attitude toward money – other people’s money, that is. Friends called him ‘Billie Sol’, alluding to the Texas con man who infamously faked mortgages on non-existent agricultural ammonia tanks. As Frey once joked – or maybe that should be half-joked: “Whenever I walked out of his office after a meeting, I felt in my pockets to make sure everything was there.”

Yet no matter what particular role he happened to be inhabiting at the time, Shelby was a salesman for the ages. As his first wife (of seven) once said: “He could sell white blackbirds.”

Of course, it helped that he believed in the product he was selling – because what he was selling was himself. And without this bedrock conviction in his personal brand, there never would have been a Cobra, much less a Dodge Shelby Omni GLH-S or the movie Ford v Ferrari.

Ever since he was a kid, Shelby had been fascinated by automobiles, and he took to racing like a duck to water. In 1952, as a lark, he drove a friend’s MG-TC in a pissant sports car race in Norman, Oklahoma. After waxing the field in the small-bore race, he moved up in class and embarrassed drivers in much more powerful Jaguar XK120s. “It wasn’t much,” he said later. “I just stayed sideways all the time.”

But natural talent alone wouldn’t have gotten him very far. At the time, the Sports Car Club of America was the only game in town, and it was strictly a posh amateur proposition – no crowds and no crowding. Shelby didn’t have the money or social credentials to crash the scene. Yet he had the skill and courage to drive big, hairy sports cars the way they were supposed to be driven, and he had the charm and moxie to persuade the affluent sportsmen who could afford these imported extravagances to hire him.

He was paid under the table while he drove

Allards and Jags for Roy Cherryhomes, then a succession of exotic Ferraris and Maseratis for Allen Guiberson, Tony Parravano, Dick Hall (Jim’s brother), Jim Kimberly, Temple Buell, John Edgar, Lucky Casner and Frank Harrison.

“I drove cars professionally in an amateur sport,” he liked to say.

It didn’t take long for Shelby to head to Europe, because that’s where the money was. Enzo Ferrari offered him a Works deal similar to the one that Shelby’s great rival, Phil Hill, parlayed into three Le Mans wins and the Formula 1 World Championship in 1961. But Shelby chafed at the notion of being at Enzo’s beck and call, and he couldn’t make ends meet on $70 a month. “Instead,” he said, “I went to drive for John Wyer – and he let me make a living.”

In the States, Shelby was the man to beat in just about every race he entered. His record in international competition is harder to assess.

His only F1 races came in an obsolete Maserati 250F and the dead-on-arrival Aston Martin DBR4, while in endurance events he was running to Wyer’s strict orders regarding lap times and engine speeds. The gaudiest entry in his race log was the win at Le Mans in 1959, sharing a DBR1 with Roy Salvadori. Wyer, who was notoriously stingy with praise, called Shelby “one of the really great sports car drivers”.

But Shelby realised early on that winning wasn’t the only thing. From the beginning, speed with style was his trademark. Running late one sweltering afternoon, he hustled to the Eagle Mountain National Guard Base near Fort Worth in striped, farm-issue bib overalls, and wore them in a race. When he saw how much attention they garnered, he kept on wearing them. At Le Mans in 1959, he drove most of the race in a standard powder-blue driver’s suit, before donning his signature overalls before his last stint in the DBR1. “They wrote about a Magneto

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par excellence – was another early hire. So was Al Dowd, a retired Coast Guard warrant officer who kept the trains running on time. As with Shelby and Remington, Miles and Dowd were in their 40s and had been around the block.

Accomplished, driven and simpatico, this was the quartet that ruled the American sports car scene for the next five years.

Shelby American was the first genuinely professional road-racing motor sports team in the US. Attracted by the best wages and fastest cars, top fabricators, machinists and mechanics flocked to the shop not only from all parts of the world, but also from all sorts of disciplines – IndyCars, sprint cars, sports cars, stock cars, hot rods, even aerospace. “My feeling always has been that, at one point, Shelby had the greatest mechanics in America working there,” engine maven Ryan Falconer says.

Perhaps because he’d been a driver himself and knew how hard they worked, Shelby had a special affinity for race mechanics, and he cut them a lot of slack. He dutifully paid the bills when crewmen trashed rental cars and blew motel rooms to smithereens with what seemed to be an endless supply of cherry bombs and M-80 firecrackers, and he turned a blind eye when they occasionally indulged in boozy lunches at a nearby strip club.

Ron Butler, a premier mechanic with racedriving aspirations, pranged the front end of a 427 Cobra while trying too hard during testing at Riverside International Raceway. He trailered the car back to the shop, and immediately started working on it in the hopes of repairing the damage before any of the higher-ups noticed. At about 10pm, looking out from underneath the Cobra, he spotted a pair of cowboy boots, and he heard a voice drawl: “Where are you working next week, boy?”

But Shelby didn’t fire him, and Butler continued to work for him until the last of the race programmes dried up in 1969. When the shop equipment was being sold off, Butler was given first dibs. He picked out $12,000 worth of goodies that he planned to use to go into business for himself. Unfortunately, he had only $10,000 in cash. “Give me the $10,000 now, and pay me the other $2000 when you can,” Shelby told him. Butler smiles as he recalls Shelby’s generosity. “It took me two years to pay him back, but he never charged me any interest. I thought that was quite nice.”

Still, Shelby had his detractors – legions of them. Business deals gone bad were a common source of disgruntlement, and in later years he filed countless lawsuits to prevent other constructors from building replicas of the Cobra. Even within Ford, he faced critics who

OPPOSITE Racer and development driver Ken Miles was a mainstay behind the team – even if Shelby didn’t always give him his due. This is the pair at Sebring in 1964, where Miles drove the 427 Cobra.

REVS INSTITUTE

cowboy from Texas,” he said. “It was a lot of show business.” The ease with which he could manipulate the narrative amused him.

Shelby was catnip for the reporters who covered him. Besides making himself available rather than hiding behind a phalanx of publicrelations functionaries, he was always good for a lively quote – and he told stories that had the patina of truth even if they weren’t 100 percent true: “Back when I was still racing,” he remembered, “they used to ask me what I’d do when I finished. Sometimes, I would say I was a bat-guano distributor, just for the fun of it.

Nobody knew what a bat-guano distributor was, so they’d go ahead and print it. Later they’d come back to me and say, ‘You son of a bitch, you snuck that one in on me’.”

He wasn’t above manipulating the gentlemen of the press if the situation warranted it. In 1962, the first – and, at that point, only – streetlegal Cobra was repainted successively in several different colours so that magazine writers would assume the car was already in production. Even as reporters referred to him as ‘Ol’ Shel’, as if to suggest that they didn’t buy his bat guano, they happily burnished the Shelby legend. It’s fitting that the first story ever written about the Cobra, in MotoRacing, contained more whoppers than a Burger King franchise – and in years to come, Shelby benefitted mightily from friendly and credulous reporting.

Still, buzz is by definition ephemeral. Shelby knew he needed more than smoke and mirrors to develop the Cobra. An essential element of his genius was his ability to identify, hire and retain the best and the brightest, and he was smart enough not to second-guess or micromanage them. “Carroll wasn’t the type to sit around and wait for things to happen,” Shelby American race engineer Carroll Smith once said. “He made things happen, and he hired the kind of people who made things happen. That’s why we were so successful.”

After liberating enough money from Ford to move into the shop where Woolworth heir Lance Reventlow had built his Scarabs, Shelby enjoyed a piece of fabulously good fortune – superstar fabricator/mechanic/jack-of-alltrades Phil Remington stayed put and simply changed payrolls. By all accounts, Remington was the backbone of Shelby American, and Shelby deferred to him on all technical matters.

Remington himself was ambivalent about his boss. “He was kind of hot and cold,” he said.

“Sometimes, he was all for you. Other times, he’d just rant and rave. But all in all, it worked out pretty well.” Remington, it should be said, was a master of understatement.

Ken Miles – racer and development driver

Carroll Shelby

considered him a loose cannon, and there was a faction that continually tried to steer Shelby American’s racing contracts to the HolmanMoody stock car team. It was only the patronage of corporate heavies such as Iacocca and Frey that kept him in the company’s good graces.

Shelby’s ego could be a stumbling block.

Shortly before he got Ford’s blessing for the Cobra, he hatched a plan to open a highperformance driving school at Riverside with East Coast Mercedes-Benz 300SL hot shoe Paul O’Shea. The deal blew up when O’Shea realised that Carroll insisted on being the boss.

After O’Shea stormed off, an exasperated Shelby turned to Peter Brock, a car designer and aspiring racer who had lived next to the track. “I don’t have time to do this,” Shelby said. “Do you want to do it?”

Brock enthusiastically agreed to run the school. Later, he designed most of Shelby American’s memorable graphics, and achieved enduring fame as the principal creator of the Cobra Daytona Coupe. But he repeatedly got into knock-down, drag-out arguments with Shelby over aesthetic issues. “Carroll was a big-picture guy,” Brock says. “He had absolutely no taste at all.”

A perfect example was the emblem installed at Shelby American to replace the AC badge that came with the Cobras. Instead of commissioning Brock to design the logo, Shelby plucked a die-cast company at random out of the phone book. When Brock saw the crude badges, he confronted Shelby. “Carroll,” he said, “I can’t let you put these badges on the car. They’re just too ugly.” It was only after a shouting match that Shelby allowed Brock to redo the graphics. “Let’s face it,” says Andre Capella, the lead builder of the 427 Cobras.

“Carroll was cheap as hell.”

Shelby’s tight-fistedness was most likely a product of his upbringing during the Great

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‘At a press conference at the end of 1964, Shelby growled: “Next year, Ferrari’s ass is mine.” And it was’ Depression; he was born in early 1923. But it’s harder to justify the way he snubbed Ed Hugus, who was for many years expunged from quasiofficial Shelby American lore. A prominent dealer of imported cars and accomplished gentleman racer in Pittsburgh, Hugus graciously agreed to help finance the early development of the Cobra. In fact, contrary to most accounts, he was the first person to race the car, and six of the first seven production Cobras were built at his shop, European Cars. “Ed Hugus really saved our programme in the beginning, and we owe him a lot,” Joan Sherman, Shelby’s first employee, once said. Yet Shelby didn’t even mention Hugus’s name in his memoirs.

Then again, history is written by the winners.

Carroll understood that he wasn’t being paid to finish second. Decades after Enzo Ferrari snaked the 1964 GT World Championship away from him with a Machiavellian piece of political chicanery, Shelby was still indignant.

“He’d do anything to win races,” he said of Ferrari. “I admired him for that. But when he was doing it to me, that was a different thing.”

At a press conference at the end of the ’64 season, Shelby famously growled: “Next year, Ferrari’s ass is mine.” And it was.

Besides the World Championship scored by the Daytona Coupe in 1965, the Shelby American hit parade included various national championships earned by Cobras and GT350s,

big pro races won by the so-called King Cobras, the controversial 1-2-3 finish at Le Mans in 1966 in GT40 Mark IIBs and then the evenmore-impressive victory recorded by Dan Gurney and AJ Foyt in the Mark IV bearing bodywork fashioned by Phil Remington. Shelbybuilt Mustangs also delivered a TransAm manufacturers’ championship to Ford in 1967. It was all downhill after that, alas, and Shelby quit racing in favour of various street-car ventures.

But he never lost his competitive spirit.

In 1999, John Morton – who’d been hired at Shelby American as a janitor in 1962, before enjoying a long and highly decorated career as a racer – drove a Daytona Coupe for Shelby at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races as a warm-up for an anticipated appearance at the Goodwood Revival. While he was sitting in the car, Morton overheard a British Historic racer telling Shelby about all the illegal upgrades he could get away with in the UK. To which Shelby replied: “Oh, that’s a damn shame. This is not what Historic racing is supposed to be about.”

Ten minutes later, after the chagrined racer had slinked off, Morton says Shelby was gloating about all the cheats he planned to use at Goodwood. “It was perfect,” Morton recalls with a chuckle. Until the very end, Shelby was still Shelby.

The American automobile and racing industries have produced plenty of titans, from Henry Ford and Harry Miller at the turn of the 20th century, to Roger Penske and Elon Musk here in the 21st. But none of them could have accomplished what Shelby pulled off in the 1960s. It took a man wearing not only a black Stetson but also a unique combination of hats: salesman, wheeler-dealer, politician, gambler, proselytiser, dreamer, mercenary, Texas good ol’ boy and Gucci loafer-wearing bon vivant.

Love him or hate him, he was an all-American original, and we’ll never see his likes again.

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From the top

1952 Tojeiro Bristol.

1957 AC ACE Bristol. matching numbers with h/top, ex Tony Bancroft 1962 AC Cobra MK1 260 FIA/HTP papers. (off-market)

The V8 Vantage Zagato is one of the most controversial Aston Martins from the Newport Pagnell era. Here’s how it came about

GENERATION Z

Words Nathan Chadwick

Photography Sam Chick

Magneto

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84

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OPPOSITE The drop-top Volante boasted a 305bhp V8 with fuel injection, instead of the 410bhp Vantage-spec unit fed by four 50mm Weber 48 IDF/3 carburettors (opposite below).

BELOW Forever intertwined, as two revered automotive names came together once again to create a then-controversial but now-cherished design legend.

“YOU DON’T HAVE TO SWING HARD TO hit a home run,” said baseball star Yogi Berra.

“If you got the timing, it’ll go.”

Everything concerning the Aston Martin V8 Vantage project had plenty of ‘go’ about it.

From initial idea to the model’s announcement at the 1985 Geneva Motor Show took just a year. The car itself had plenty of go, too.

Powered by the gruntiest Tadek Marek V8 the marque had, yet weighing 400kg less than the standard Vantage, its angular nose could pierce the horizon at 186mph all-out, having kissed goodbye to 60mph after five seconds.

The genesis of the project came from a rather more sedate place – the calm before the 1984 Geneva Motor Show storm. Aston Martin found its stand near to that of Zagato, and given the famed previous association between the companies in the form of the DB4 Zagato back in the 1960s, conversation about another collaboration started in earnest between Aston’s Peter Livanos and Victor Gauntlett, and brothers Elio and Gianni Zagato.

The idea for a super-limited, highperformance creation was accelerated by developments at the same show – Livanos saw first-hand how the Porsche 959 and Ferrari 288GTO had no problem in finding deposits.

“Peter is a car man through and through, and it didn’t take him and Victor long to put an idea together,” chuckles Kingsley Riding-Felce, then Aston Martin’s UK sales manager and latterly board member. “The template was there from other manufacturers, yet Aston made it happen with a limited budget – it was remarkable. But there’s an old saying: when you get into bed with someone, you have to find out who’s going to be on top. Shortly after the [deal was signed], they realised what a financial mess Zagato was in.”

Gauntlett and Livanos were no strangers to Zagato. In 1983, the Milan-based carrozzeria showed its Alfa Romeo Zeta 6 concept, designed by Giuseppe Mittino. Gauntlett was so impressed, he bought one of the three examples made. However, Zagato’s fortunes were changing due to forces both inside and outside of Italy, and by the mid-1980s the feeling within the factory was becoming grim – as Andrea Zagato explains: “In the 1980s, the Japanese introduced flexible production lines, which allowed them to build special

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Aston Martin V8 Vantage Zagato

models on the same lines as the normal car.”

This meant the construction of special vehicles, which would have once been farmed out to the likes of Zagato or Pininfarina, could now be produced in-house. Zagato also had a contract to design and build the drop-top version of the Maserati Biturbo, and had invested in the factory accordingly – but then industrial politics played a hand.

“The unions at Innocenti [part of the De Tomaso empire, which owned Maserati at the time] were claiming that they didn’t have a job, and that they had to stay at home. But Zagato was full of jobs, because we were doing 7000 Biturbo Spyders for America,” Andrea says.

“They compelled De Tomaso to bring Spyder production to the Innocenti factory; we didn’t have anything to produce anymore.”

This left Zagato out in the cold financially.

By contrast, the feeling towards a Zagato/Aston Martin tie-up was warm within the British marque. “We were very positive as a company – Victor wasn’t a manager, he was a leader; there’s a big difference,” says Kingsley. He recalls when he was called into Gauntlett’s office to see the design for the first time. “There was a pill to swallow with the design – there’s no doubt about it – but everybody appreciated we had to work with the fixed points we had got. You can’t just move things about without spending considerable money on crash testing.”

The introduction to the engineering team wasn’t as simple, as David Eales – then head of Works Service – reveals. “A marketingdepartment Vantage had hit a tree; the insurance company wanted to write it off. I wanted the work for Works Service, so we bought the car and stripped it out.

“Then everything changed, which upset me a little because I realised we’d basically stripped the car down to send it to Zagato for a pre-production prototype. We rebuilt it as a driveable chassis, and off it went to Zagato – we didn’t see it for a year.”

In that time, Mittino crafted a shape unlike any Aston Martin before it. If the Towns Lagonda shocked, then the Zagato was outrageous, but its angular design is based on the same fundamentals as those of the DB4Z – lightness and aerodynamic efficiency.

It needed to be – at the time, Aston’s engineers felt that there wasn’t much more they could get out of Marek’s two-valve 5.3-litre V8. A heady 437bhp had been achieved in a stripped-out standard Vantage, but simply upping the power wasn’t going to be enough to hit the performance targets – five seconds to 60mph and around 186mph all-out – the magic 300km/h.

The first step was to shorten the car to 88

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ABOVE Styling buck showed off a now-classic design, described by Kingsley Riding-Felce as being “a pill to swallow” upon its first reveal.

4390mm from 4670mm, although the standard car’s 2610mm wheelbase was retained. Final production engines were rated at 410bhp, fed by four 50mm Weber 48 IDF/3 carburettors – much to Zagato’s chagrin.

The original plan was to use fuel injection, but this wouldn’t provide the outright punch necessary. “Mittino designed a perfect line for the body, the car was super-flat – we were trying to do something futuristic, like the Lagonda was,” says Andrea. “At the last minute they asked for the bubble [for the carbs]; we said we’d do it, but we didn’t like it at all.”

As for the engine itself, this was built to 580X specification – the codename for Aston Works Service in-house performance package. Aside from the carburettors, it featured higher-lift camshafts, larger porting to the cylinder heads and a 10.2:1 compression ratio.

The rest of the body was largely as Mittino intended. Although Zagato had aimed for a drag co-efficient of 0.29, the result was a stillcommendable 0.32, thanks to work with the University of Southampton’s wind tunnel. This wind-cheating was achieved via the use of flush-fitting glass and headlamps, plus the smallest of window openings.

The performance lived up to the billing.

French magazine Sport-Auto infamously took a tweaked, lighter press car to 185.32mph on an autoroute while the gendarmerie were off having a baguette. If the car’s outright oomph was impressive, then the whole project – remember, it went from idea to announcement within a

‘Jaguar and Ford must have thought, “God almighty, Aston has done it to us again”.

It got us talked about’

year, and realisation in another 12 months – was done at light speed, and all in a time before the internet. It was all very exciting for the Brits...

“Going to Zagato for the first time was fantastic,” says Kingsley. “At the time, there was no corporate work-wear or anything like that, but suddenly Victor appeared that morning insisting senior managers all wore embroidered Aston Martin jackets. That trip out, my God! If that plane went down… Ford would never put more than three executives on one plane. Well, we had everybody – dealers, factory people and even some customers.”

Seeing the Zagato factory was also revelatory.

“It was all completely different to Newport Pagnell,” recalls Kingsley. “There was a lot of investment and automation. They had clamps that moved the bodies all the way around on a production rail – it was very impressive.”

Aston Martin’s PR effort at the 1986 Geneva Motor Show’s final model reveal had a similar impact, and is recalled fondly by Andrea. “The best memory I have was the presentation of one of the three prototypes on the entrance roof of the Hotel Beau Rivage,” he smiles.

“We were trying to make a statement,” says Kingsley. “When you think of the size of Jaguar and Ford, and there was little old Aston Martin that managed to draw so much press by putting the car on the roof – everyone at the motor show had to drive past it every day. They must have thought, ‘God almighty, Aston has done it to us again’. It certainly got us talked about.”

All 50 production cars had found homes within a few months of that initial 1985 announcement, secured with a £15,000 deposit, based on little more than a sketch and a specification sheet. “The [sketch] was made by a painter who was designing the Milano church,” remembers Andrea. Clearly the work was seen as divine, because the final price grew from £87,000 to £95,000 – customers were undeterred.

“In those days I used to think selling must be easy, but I’ve learned the hard way that it isn’t,” chuckles David. “They probably struggled to find homes for all of them, but there was a backbone of customers from the Middle East, Europe and the UK – guys who would have one of everything we produced.”

The chassis and drivetrain were built at Newport Pagnell, and then sent to Zagato for bodywork and trimming – but not before each car was given a quick blast around the yard.

“Our test driver, Peter Childs, used to disappear up the road looking like a Spitfire pilot with his goggles, driving around in these things on a wooden seat,” chuckles Kingsley.

Most of the body was hand-beaten in aluminium, although the nose and rear sections

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Aston Martin V8 Vantage Zagato

were made from glassfibre composite. It all contributed to that 400kg diet over a standard Vantage. However, the quality of the cars coming back from Italy was providing plenty of food for thought, and tasks for Works Service.

“There were plenty of issues. With every Zagato that came back to us, we’d find two or three pages of snags,” says David. “We set up a little department within a department, de-snagging them as the cars went out.”

The main problems were to do with panel fit and paint quality. “The paint was a bit ‘jammy’ – it was Ferrari level, as opposed to Aston level,” says Eales. “The leather they used was different to ours, too. There was a mark on one of the seats, and so I wiped it with a bit of water.

It scared me to death – the water soaked in and the leather went dark; I thought, ‘My God, what have I done?’ Their leather was porous; ours was surface-finished and sealed.”

Quality control would become a major bone of contention between Aston Martin and Zagato: “Victor put a lot of drive into the business; people found themselves motivated, driven – there was a clear target, there were achievements,” says Kingsley. “The Italians were always a little different, so we had to put Michael Bowler [Aston Martin engineering director] and Neil Hewlett over there, because things weren’t going the way we wanted them to.”

Kingsley says that while initially the issues were relatively minor, expectations were higher because customers were paying so much more over a normal Vantage: “Victor was so frustrated, he arranged to see Gianni. He went out there, and Zagato said, ‘We’ll have dinner…’ But Victor said, ‘No! I’m coming to see you in the morning, and we’re going to talk about this quality thing’.

“So Victor goes there in the morning, and Gianni instantly goes to a fridge in his office, and comes out with this big box of chocolates. ‘Before we start,’ he says, ‘try these beautiful chocolates…’

There was a lot of that type of thing.”

Bigger issues came after a year, Kingsley adds: “We had a bit of kickback on the window arrangements. We had screens de-laminating, and paint bubbles appearing in certain places because the aluminium was touching the steel superstructure, which it shouldn’t have been doing if the tape had been put on properly.”

Despite a love-it/hate-it response to the car’s looks, it certainly generated a lot of interest in the car, as well as celebrity purchases. “I remember Duran Duran visiting the factory,” says Andrea. “Simon Le Bon and Nick Rhodes both bought a Vantage Zagato – our company was literally under siege from fans.”

Aston Martin had committed to making 50 production examples, but there was a demand 90

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ABOVE The infamous reveal of the V8 Vantage Zagato prototype during the 1986 Geneva show, when it was displayed on a hotel entrance roof.

for more. Rather than upset those who had bought the coupé by producing additional cars, the idea of a drop-top Volante was mooted, and was approved for production in 1986. “It wasn’t part of the original plan,” says Andrea. “It was born from an idea from Zagato, and presented as a sketch during the building of the coupé.”

Production followed the same process as the coupé, with the rolling drivetrain and chassis sent to Zagato to be bodied – but this time with additional bracing to improve torsional rigidity.

However, the car itself was a very different animal; out went the Vantage-spec engine, in came a 305bhp V8 with fuel injection, hence the drop-top’s flat bonnet. While the headlamp ‘eyebrows’ provided a good deal of exoticism at the front, the Volante didn’t go down as well as its bubble-roofed stablemate.

“I understand why the convertible had to have the fuel-injected engine, because there were concerns about the hood at speed,” says Kingsley.

“If you saw this thing blatting down the Autobahn with the Vantage engine, the hood would be blown up like a hot-air balloon. However, if the car had been a little bit more intense, I think it would have done better – but you have to put it against what the market was doing at the time.”

By the time the car was ready, the global financial markets were beginning to soften, deflating the collector market at the vertiginous levels at which a Zagato-bodied Aston would find buyers. In the end, just 37 drop-tops were sold, including one to the Zagatos. “My father

‘The whole Zagato programme gave a halo to Aston Martin – lifted it at the time, made it different’

Elio and my uncle Gianni kept a V8 Volante for themselves, but it didn’t survive the next project with Aston, which was the rebirth of the Lagonda brand,” says Andrea. “As always, a new project always convinced my family not to keep the ‘old’ one in the company collection.”

Once the cars themselves were finished, Works Service’s next job was upgrading them.

“We started converting Volantes to Vantage specification; maybe six or eight,” remembers David. Several coupés and Volantes were also converted to 6.3- and 7.0-litre spec.

Despite the challenges in managing a project across two languages in an era long before email, all involved have fond memories of the model. “I personally thought they were monster cars – they drove really well,” David continues.

“They handled a lot better than the [normal] V8, and driveability was better, too.”

That performance made its mark on others as well, as Andrea recalls. “When Ulrich Bez became Aston Martin CEO, I read an article about his test drive of all the marque’s models,” he says. “He declared the V8 Zagato to be the best, and it was probably that what got him thinking about contacting me for the DB7 GTZ. We signed our deal at Pebble Beach, and we decided to make a short-wheelbase DB7 to improve driveability and fun.”

However, the Zagato project had a much more profound effect on Aston Martin as a whole, according to Kingsley. “It’s an important chapter in Aston’s history,” he says. “Was it painful? I think it was, certainly the relationship with Zagato, but we came through it – and some wonderful cars came out of it.

“If you meet a person who’s a character, it takes a while to get to know them. You understand why they’re a character, because there are so many facets to them – they’re not boring. They’ve got different bits and pieces – some you like, some you don’t – but it’s what makes that person a character. Aston Martin is a bit like that as a company. The whole Zagato programme gave a halo to the brand – lifted it at the time, made it different. This all weaves into the fabric that makes it a special company.”

Although the project didn’t run as smoothly as planned, getting the cars to market so soon remains a huge achievement, especially given the constraints both Aston and Zagato were under.

Another Yogi Berra quote could easily describe the V8 Zagato – the” overwhelming underdog”.

Thanks to Keith Riddington and all at Classicmobilia (www.classicmobilia.com) for the V8 Vantage Zagato, Caspar Eccles-Williams and all at Hexagon Classics for the Volante Zagato (www.hexagonclassics.com), Andrea and all at Zagato, David Eales and Kingsley Riding-Felce.

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Jaguar E-type survivor

Running away with the circus

Words and photography Scott Photo Co

An American adventure of unexpected storms, 90-yearold hot rods and other mostly true stories

Rolling Bones Circus

THEY CAME FROM ALL OVER THE world, this small band of misfits and speed freaks, to join in another adventure with the family known as the Rolling Bones Circus. For more than 20 years, this vagabond crew has been making an annual 4600-mile-plus round trip from upstate New York to the hallowed salt flats at Bonneville, at highway speeds nearing 100mph (or so the story goes) in their legendary hot rods.

In the early 2000s, the Rolling Bones shop was born in a cow barn in upstate New York, where it still resides. Conceived at a chance meeting of Ken Schmidt and Keith Cornell, the hot rod zealots joined forces and started building old, lakes-style cars. Artist and visionary Ken and master builder Keith, with the support of Matt Schmidt, created not only worldrenowned hot rods, but a close-knit family of dreamers affectionately called the Circus.

Each year this merry band, accompanied by a trailer pulling Keith’s land-speed car, make the pilgrimage from New York to Utah, and back. They pick up the hot rod troupe en route, who look forward to running away to join the proverbial circus for a couple of weeks.

As life often can, there were many curve balls thrown at this adventure for 2022. On the eve of Speed Week’s opening day, Mother Nature doused the salt with copious rain, leaving the normally dry lakebed beneath enough water that all events were cancelled for the rest of the year.

With an entire circus of hot rods and nothing else to do, plans for shenanigans quickly began to form. See, a hot rod is not just a car, and the Rolling Bones Circus is not just a group of people known for sitting around and talking about the ‘good ol’ days’. This group loves speed, good-natured competition and a lot of, shall we say, ‘mostly true’ stories.

Adventures are opportunities taken, and this unexpected exploit came to life when a two-lane dirt road was discovered only a couple of miles off the road to the salt flats. Good-natured jabs were thrown, challenges made and a makeshift course set up. Following a quick meeting to establish the rules, the flag was dropping and hot rods were flying down the road again and again – the smell of spent gasoline mixed with the dust and sounds of vintage flathead V8s.

Yes, there were winners and awards, but everyone who was there on that day was lucky enough to have an experience and memories for a lifetime of hot rods, speed, adventure and friends. This is the hot rod circus life.

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PREVIOUS SPREAD Roadster versus roadster. On a windswept dirt road in Utah, the Rolling Bones-built 232b gets the jump on Josh Weaver’s home-built ’29.

RIGHT Rolling Bones co-founder Ken Schmidt in hot rod heaven.

Rolling Bones Circus

PREVIOUS SPREAD Flag girl Holly Orel drops the flag as the Rolling Bones Hemi-powered 406 challenges the historic Omaha Coupe at the 2022christened Boner Flats Raceway.

BELOW A drivers’ meeting is called, and Ken lays down the rules. It was a very good day.

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OPPOSITE TOP Pass after pass, it was a step back in time as these beautiful, historic cars were whiteknuckled down the dusty road.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM Jon Suckling awaiting his next run.

Rolling Bones Circus

ABOVE Ken Schmidt and Ben Haag in the 575 – one of the very first Rolling Bones hot rod builds.

LEFT Drivers Justin Linares and Bill Cleyndert after their very close race.

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Rolling Bones Circus

RIGHT The full bracket to the final win for the Boner Flats races.

BELOW The Banger and V8 Class winner – a Rolling Bones-built, flathead-powered 1932 roadster owned and driven

by Jon Suckling.

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SAVING

Ian Fleming Foundation

BOND

ABOVE Octopussy’s Tuk Tuk taxi is proof that not all Bond-related cars are glamorous.

RIGHT Aston Martin DBS set the world record for barrel rolls in Casino Royale.

This car is owned by EON Productions.

PREVIOUS SPREAD Two water-borne icons: The Spy Who Loved Me’s Esprit and The World is Not Enough’s Q-boat.

Words Matthew Field

Photography Ted7

WHEN SEAN CONNERY DELIVERED THAT immortal line, “Bond…James Bond,” through a haze of cigarette smoke in the first 007 thriller, Dr No (1962), the world was introduced to a new kind of cinematic hero – an exciting, enthralling and glamorous figure who operated in a world that to most in the early 1960s was an impossible dream.

In Britain especially, James Bond has become a generational barometer. The baby-boomers grew up with Sean Connery and his gadgetladen Aston Martin DB5 as seen in Goldfinger (1964). For Gen X, it is Roger Moore’s campier 007, equipped with a Lotus Esprit S1 submersible in The Spy Who Loved Me (1977), that sets the bar. For me, an early Millennial, it was Pierce Brosnan in GoldenEye (1995), joyriding a 36-tonne tank through the streets of St Petersburg, that made me believe in Bond.

Bond is the longest-running film franchise in movie history. Now 60 years and 25 official films later, this bulletproof series shows no signs of waning. Daniel Craig’s tenure has raised 007’s prestige to even greater commercial and artistic heights. In the wake of his fifth and

final movie, No Time To Die (2021), audiences now wait to see how Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G Wilson at EON Productions, together with their new partners at Amazon, reinvent James Bond with a seventh incarnation for a new generation. As the series celebrates its 60th anniversary, it is clear – Ian Fleming’s hero has never been more popular.

However, to me, when I was growing up in the early 1990s, the future of the Bond movies was questionable. After Timothy Dalton’s brief turn in the role, there’d not be another film for six agonising years. I feverishly read the Ian Fleming novels, tirelessly re-watched the back catalogue on VHS tape, and developed a thirst to learn all there was to know about this character and his world. But it seemed I was the only Bond fan out there, and nobody else really cared about 007 in a post-modern world.

I soon discovered there was an independent group in the US, however, hard at work preserving the Bond legacy. The Ian Fleming Foundation (IFF) recognised that the world wasn’t quite ready to give up on the British spy.

Over the past three decades, the IFF has archived collections of important papers and artefacts relating to the character and his creator, and rescued and restored over 40 vehicles used

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OPPOSITE AND BELOW Now that’s a cockpit! Q-boat has all the gadgets a super-spy could want – unlike this Citroën 2CV6, which seems to be missing one or two vital components.

It was a camera vehicle for in-studio shots, used in For Your Eyes Only.

LEFT Bathosub was villain Blofeld’s would-be getaway craft in Diamonds Are Forever.

RIGHT Purchase of Neptune from For Your Eyes Only was the catalyst for the formation of the Foundation.

BELOW The Man With the Golden Gun was the first movie to feature a computerdesigned stunt, when its AMC Hornet performed a corkscrew spiral jump.

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Ian Fleming Foundation

in the making of the Bond movies. Co-founder John Cork reflects: “In 1992, the world of Bond was in limbo. The Cold War had ended with the fall of the old Soviet Empire. AIDS felt like a rebuke to the sexual revolution. The sales of Fleming’s novels were sagging dramatically.

The future of the cinematic 007 was mired in legal wrangling. For many, Bond seemed to be a figure of the past who was long past his sell-by date. It is exactly low points such as this in the natural lifespan of cultural phenomena where non-profits can do some real good, conducting interviews, and saving documents and artefacts that would otherwise be discarded. It was, I feel, an ideal time to start the IFF.” It was the brainchild of world-renowned Fleming and Bondiana collector Dr Mike VanBlaricum. In 1991 he received a call from Saul Cooper at EON Productions – the firm behind the 007 movies – asking if he would be interested in buying a submarine.

“It was the Neptune from For Your Eyes Only (1981),” he recounts. “At the time, this 23-foot working sub was sitting on a lower deck of the aircraft carrier Intrepid in New York Harbor. If EON could not find a good home for it, it was going to be sunk as something a local scuba club could dive to.” VanBlaricum called Cork

‘Fleming gave his secret agent a penchant for exotic and unusual transportation’

and fellow collector Doug Redenius with an idea to start a US non-profit corporation to preserve such historic pieces. “We bought the submarine and donated it to the IFF as the first vehicle. It cost $3000. Doug transported it to Illinois, and restored it to the exhibitionquality state it’s presently in.”

Beginning with his first Bond novel Casino Royale (1953), Fleming gave his secret agent a penchant for exotic and unusual transportation.

It stemmed from the author’s own passion for rebellious, high-powered, individualistic and sexy motor cars. When James Bond made the leap from the novels to the screen, an essential ingredient in the 007 cocktail became the spectacular and desirable range of vehicles,

which would propel Bond through each new adventure. Having acquired the Neptune, the newly formed Ian Fleming Foundation wondered how many more Bond vehicles lay discarded, rotting and awaiting incineration.

The IFF began acquiring, via fundraising and donations, every type of vehicle imaginable.

The prototype Wetbike as seen in The Spy Who Loved Me was gifted by engineer Nelson Tyler. It had been sitting in his workshop since filming had wrapped over 15 years earlier. One of the four Mercury Cougar XR7s used in the George Lazenby film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969) was purchased from a private owner in Sweden. A favourite in the collection is one of the Aston Martin V8 special-effects glassfibre shells used in The Living Daylights (1987), complete with protruding skis.

Not long after the IFF’s inception, the team rescued one of the most iconic Bond props of them all. There were rumours that a Lotus Esprit submersible shell from The Spy Who Loved Me had been spotted in the Bahamas, not far from where the movie had been filmed back in the mid-1970s. The moment 007’s Esprit S1 dived off a jetty and into the sea, before seamlessly converting into sub mode, became a key focus of the film’s marketing campaign. Special-effects

BELOW Q Branch pulled out all the stops for the Aston Martin V8 in The Living Daylights.

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Ian Fleming Foundation

BELOW Wetbike from The Spy Who Loved Me was the first jet-ski many movie fans would have ever seen.

wizard Derek Meddings made the entire transformation sequence possible by using a combination of Esprit shells and scale models.

Each shell performed a specific effect: one had wheels that could disappear inside the body; on another, fins would appear at all four corners – which, in fact, was achieved by divers pushing the fins out on broom handles.

Cork recounts: “Reports on the Lotus filtered back to the IFF through Florida. The Foundation heard mysterious tales. ‘The Lotus is hiding.’ ‘The Lotus is for sale.’ ‘The Lotus is a Christmas tree.’ ‘The Lotus can change your life.’ ‘Can we see a picture?’ we asked. ‘Not a good idea.’ ‘Can we speak to the owners?’ ‘We must approach them very carefully.’ ‘How carefully?’ we wondered.”

Redenius ventured down to Nassau to check out the rumours, and to determine if one of these shells really had survived. His enquiries led him to a scrap yard. “When we made the turn into the property, we drove right past the Lotus. The weeds had grown up and above the roof of the car. It was painted cherry red, and apparently each year it was draped in colourful Christmas-tree lights.”

Other collectors had attempted to buy the Lotus unsuccessfully. After several hours of negotiating, the proprietor agreed to sell it to 114

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the Foundation for $2000. “She liked the objectives of the IFF, and that the car would immediately be restored and go on tour for many to enjoy.” Following a $35,000 refurb by Perry Oceanographics in Miami, which had originally built the subs for the film, it has been on tour around the world ever since.

The Man With the Golden Gun (1974) was the first movie to feature a computer-designed stunt – Bond’s AMC Hornet hatchback performs a corkscrew spiral jump over the Mae Klong River in Thailand. Bond impresario Cubby Broccoli declared at the time that the stunt was so extraordinary, the gimmick had been copyrighted. The manoeuvre was performed for real, and became the film’s signature moment. While the stunt car remained in the hands of Jay Milligan, who had designed

‘The Lotus Esprit was painted cherry red, and apparently each year it was draped in Christmas-tree lights’

the sequence, the Foundation was able to track down to Iowa the car used for the road-chase scenes. Redenius recalls: “A zone manager at American Motors had bought the car upon its return from filming in Thailand. He gave it to his mother as a Christmas gift, and it eventually ended up in the hands of her grandson, who was driving it to college each day. The Bond connection meant little to him. It even had the scratches on the bumper where 007 had driven it through the window of the AMC dealership at the beginning of the sequence.”

The Foundation recently celebrated its 30th anniversary with a party at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, where the official Bond in Motion exhibit was being displayed. Many versions of the attraction have travelled internationally for more than a decade, proving just how popular the Bond cars are. Currently, 28 of the Foundation’s vehicles feature in the exhibit, alongside those belonging to EON Productions.

Seeing them in a venue as prestigious as the Petersen proves that the IFF’s perseverance and dedication to save them has been an important and valuable achievement. Without the IFF, there would be no such exhibit. The party was attended by many former Bond actors – allies and adversaries who have

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Ian Fleming Foundation

appeared in the 25 films – as well as behindthe-scenes talent who worked with these famous vehicles. This was the first time many of these Bond veterans had been reunited with them since filming their 007 adventures.

While the IFF is primarily known for procuring and restoring movie vehicles, it’s also endowed The Ian Fleming Foundation Collection at the Rare Book and Manuscript Library of the University of Illinois, where it has placed printed materials, art and books now preserved in perpetuity. The IFF has also endowed The Ian Fleming Foundation Scholarship in the College of Media at the University of Illinois, as part of the Roger Ebert Center for Film Studies.

Cork has, with the IFF’s help, created a filmrelated archive of scripts, production documents and press releases at the University of Southern California in the Cinematic Arts Library.

As the Foundation enters its fourth decade, there is still much to procure and preserve. It is vital these historical vehicles do not fall into private hands. By belonging to a non-profit, they can be enjoyed for generations to come while also remaining together as a collection.

Redenius, who leads the restoration projects, is keen to get to work on the Mustang Mach 1 seen in Diamonds Are Forever (1971). Found in

BELOW Lotus Esprit submersible was found in a scrap yard in the Bahamas, painted red and overgrown with weeds.

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‘The IFF will continue to work with the 007 copyright holders to collect, preserve and display iconic items’

Texas in 2003, the car featured in a high-speed, neon-lit chase through Las Vegas with Sean Connery at the wheel. “When I arrived in Howe, it was quite a shock to see how terrible it was.

The floor pans were rusted out, windows were broken and seats were ripped and rotten. The engine and transmission had been removed, but came with the car. Yet the IFF never shies away from a challenge. Twenty years later the Mustang remains in that same state, and we now want to focus our energies on getting it back to its former glory. But it all depends on much-needed funds.”

Little is known about Bond 26, and it is still at least two years away from production. However, the 007 legacy continues to be enjoyed worldwide.

Bond in Motion will soon leave the Petersen

and head to New York’s Saratoga Automobile Museum. The IFF will continue to work with the copyright holders to collect, preserve and display iconic items from the world of Fleming and 007. Nevertheless, as a public-benefit, nonprofit, US corporation, it is totally dependent on raising funds to store and restore these via donations from the public and corporations, and via the rental of vehicles for exhibitions.

There is so much that we can learn from the enduring popularity of Bond – some of which we can’t possibly see right now. Cork observes: “007 has survived because the character taps into something essential about the world we have lived in for the past 60 years – and 60 years from now, we hope future generations can look back on this era and in some way better understand it through some of the archives The Ian Fleming Foundation has helped to create.”

Concludes VanBlaricum: “The IFF’s work is important today because we can’t predict what is going to be important tomorrow. Thus, we can archive, restore and preserve as an end to itself.”

I myself became a director of The Ian Fleming Foundation in 2015, and remain extremely passionate about the work it continues to do.

To help support the IFF’s goals, please go to www.ianflemingfoundation.org.

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Spyked

pe ercar ho p y h s ’ d llan in of Ho a g a e s i le r d possib n a l l a f , The rise

s Word wick n Chad Natha

y graph Photo ell w o H Matt

THIS SPREAD For both the C8 Laviolette (left) and C8 LM85 (opposite), great attention to detail and a unique aesthetic mark out the Dutchborn, Britishbred supercars.

“VICTOR RUNS INTO A DEAD-END street and miraculously a door always opens for him, but he’s not a guy that will take you through with him – he would get through and I would crash into the wall.”

Since Maarten de Bruijn left Spyker – the company famous for building the cars he started designing in the 1990s – he has only been able to watch as former business partner Victor Muller has seemingly found his way out of several such cul-de-sacs, such as the implosion of Saab and even an ill-fated dalliance in Formula 1. However, at the time of writing, Spyker lays crashed against one such dead-end wall, in the hands of Dutch administrators.

Despite a Spyker news cycle that’s wobbled between weird and woeful in the time since de Bruijn left in 2004, the cars that he designed and engineered have garnered an ever-growing 124

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The Spyker story

THIS SPREAD Richard Gill’s C8 Laviolette, no. 186, gathered with stablemates at Brooklands to mark 100 years since SF Edge’s Double Twelve record-setting run in a C4.

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of Amsterdam, but I wasn’t having a good time.

I switched my course to city planning, yet at the same time I started planning my car.”

Maarten describes himself as an engineer by birth – his grandfather invented a can-opening device used by the Dutch army. His parents were artists and musicians; a different form of creativity, but one that shared the family ethos.

“If we couldn’t buy it, we made it,” he explains.

Of course, there’s a difference between painting a picture and building a supercar, as de Bruijn accepts. “I needed to have a whole car, a working car, in order to persuade people to invest,” he says. After graduating in 1996, he decamped to his parents’ home to work on the car’s tooling in an open shed surrounded by a forest, encouraged by his family.

“I’m probably the only city planner to be gifted a milling machine from his parents as a graduation gift,” he smiles. The leafy location would inspire the name of his creation, via a Latin translation – the Silvestris.

The prototype made its debut in the Dutch press in 1999, using a mid-mounted Audi V8 – an odd choice, perhaps, given that American V8s offered reliability straight out of the crate.

“At the time, those engines weren’t really high tech and most kit cars used them. I didn’t want to be seen as a kit-car builder,” de Bruijn reputation among collectors. We caught up with Maarten, and the enthusiasts in love with his cars, to pierce through to the real story.

This year marked the 100th anniversary of Selwyn Edge setting a new ‘Double Twelve’ average World Speed Record around Brooklands in a Spyker C4, when he covered 1782 miles at an average of 74.27mph over two 12-hour periods.

It was the perfect excuse to bring modern Spyker machinery to that same hallowed venue to pay tribute to Edge’s achievements, even if they didn’t do much to avoid the company’s eventual 1926 bankruptcy. That word is a theme whatever the century, when it comes to this brand.

Spyker’s assets are currently in the hands of the Dutch financial authorities, with Muller’s latest plans to restart production clobbered by geopolitics. The idea was to bring in two Russian financiers, but the war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions have halted that.

It’s all a far cry from the positivity of 2000, when de Bruijn’s Spyker C8 dropped jaws to the floor at the British Motor Show, bagging Maarten a top design award for a car like nothing else at the time. But then, his path to automotive designer was hardly conventional...

“It’s always been my life’s dream to design my own car and get it into production,” he says.

“I was studying economics at the University Magneto

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explains. “I wanted high-end beauty in everything – design, engineering, performance.

My father always drove Audis, and I loved their engineering, so as soon as the 32v aluminium V8 came out, that was the motor to have. I wanted a fully aluminium car – chassis, body and engine.”

It wasn’t quite that simple, however. “Audi had never supplied engines to a third party before, which was a pain. If you take a V8 out of an S8 and don’t have the correct mirror or steering sensors, the unit will go into limp-home mode,” Maarten explains. “It was a real nightmare, and I had to have someone tune the engines for me.”

Despite the Spyker’s German heart, much of the car was developed in Coventry. “It’s such a fruitful environment,” he says. The Netherlands wasn’t without its engineering firms at the time, but they were set up for production runs of 50,000 or more, not 500, let alone 50. They pointed de Bruijn in the direction of the UK. “I ended up with Coventry Prototype Panels (CPP). At the time, it was a small sheet-metal workshop with just five guys making aftermarket wings for MGs and Triumphs. They were very surprised that the car was running – I ended up renting an empty unit next door.”

Maarten engineered and designed the C8 Spyder, Laviolette and Double Twelve from that unheated unit: “That was my happy place; CPP was their company, but I was the initiator, and we grew together.”

Victor Muller was first approached in 1998.

He was a friend of de Bruijn’s cousin, CEO of Wijsmuller (Offshore) and part of the Emergo Fashion Group, which became McGregor.

Maarten says: “By 1998 I had the car running and registered in England – but I was short of money. I was also so involved in the technical part of producing a car, I needed someone to look for the money and sales. I thought Victor was a successful man, so I prepared a business plan and asked to see him.”

A keen collector, Muller was interested in a car for himself, but he wasn’t convinced by the business plans. De Bruijn recalls: “He told my cousin: ‘This’ll take 100 years and €100m – this was a stupid idea, but okay, I promise to help him.’ I didn’t know that until later on.”

Nevertheless, Victor committed to buying a C8 Spyder, and thus became the company’s

first customer. His interest grew when Maarten suggested buying the long-dormant Spyker name. Muller agreed, and Spyker Cars bv was formed in 2001, with a 50/50 split between the men. De Bruijn says: “He loaned me money, but it was still very much my own business. He didn’t want to be associated with the car publicly, but after the motor show and the design award, things changed.”

In 2001, Muller sold Wijsmuller and became Spyker’s CEO. Spyker opened an assembly factory in the Netherlands, but the cars were still engineered in England. The early days were full of positivity. “He was very enthusiastic, because everyone was slapping him on the back for what we were doing,” Maarten says.

“The problem was that he didn’t understand what goes on when developing a car.”

He provides an example: while on one day there would be a fully complete-looking car, with the body and chassis together and driveable, the next day it might not be, as part of ongoing development. This meant that when Victor brought people in to look at the vehicle and drive it, it was unavailable.

“I think that’s where he got frustrated – he was lending money and didn’t have control over what was happening,” de Bruijn explains.

“But we only had a few examples to engineer, to show, to drive and to do publicity with. We were fighting over cars constantly.”

Soon the factory and management team were divided into Team Maarten and Team Victor. “Because he had all the money, people were more inclined to listen to him,” de Bruijn reflects. “Whereas I was building a company for my kids and his kids as a family business for the future, he wanted to build value in a very short period – four models, 50 people in the factory, and then sell the whole thing for €400m.”

De Bruijn favoured a slower pace, having seen first-hand the pitfalls that could hit a lowvolume car manufacturer during his time in and around Coventry’s engineering community.

“Muller wanted a second model, then a third, and a race programme – we were running before we could walk. I had a programme ready with CPP to get the first car into tooling to make it more easily produced, because everything was basically a one-off and expensive,” Maarten

‘I wanted high-end beauty in everything – design, engineering, performance...’

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says. “But then I thought, well, I’ve asked him to join me for his commercial advice – if this is what he suggests, we can fill the gaps later.”

While in the early days there was an understanding, playing to each other’s strengths, it didn’t last: “I started to feel alienated. Victor was saying different things to different people, from me to the people on the workshop floor.

It was a sort of psychological warfare.”

It was around this time that bills were beginning to go unpaid. “CPP basically financed our whole enterprise, because no one in England wanted to build for Spyker, but they trusted CPP,” explains Maarten. “From 2004, bills were being lost. I was in England, relying on people who wanted to help me, but I couldn’t look at someone in the face, ask them to help me quickly, and then wait three or six months to pay.”

But that was what was happening, although there appeared to be money for exotic PR schemes. For one attempt at Le Mans, the car needed further testing, but Muller refused to provide the €40k required and instead funded a Spyker-branded hot-air balloon to float over the circuit; the race ended in retirement.

Everything came to a head for Maarten in 2004. He was deeply unhappy with some of the decisions being taken inside the factory, and his concerns were further amplified when Muller decided to take Spyker public with an IPO the same year. “We had a declaration of risks to potential investors, and there was a full page about Victor and civil proceedings regarding McGregor,” Maarten reflects. “I didn’t feel comfortable. I couldn’t convince anyone that things might not be as they should be. Everyone followed Muller: I left.”

Maarten owned the rights to the C8 Spyder plus the wide body; the C8 Laviolette plus wide body; and the C8 Double Twelve in both Spyder and Coupé form – this meant Spyker had to redesign the cars.

Following de Bruijn’s departure, a raft of new projects were announced, only to disappear again with just a prototype – usually non-functioning – built. However, C8 development did continue.

In 2008, the Laviolette LWB appeared at the Geneva show. It offered a 2675mm wheelbase for extra cabin space, compared to the 2575mm original. In 2009, the LM85 was launched as a

The Spyker story

‘Spyker people buy the cars for what they are and for themselves, rather than for status’ tribute to the GT2-R racing car, sporting a twotone Burnt Orange and Gun Metal finish.

Also in 2009 came the C8 Aileron to replace the Laviolette. Although it still had the old car’s 4.2-litre V8, it debuted a longer, wider body and the option of a ZF auto. A Spyder soon followed, and nine years later production was wrapped up with an LM85 special edition boasting a 525bhp supercharged version of the Audi V8.

The manufacturer itself, however, had varying fortunes. In 2007, it had a brief and unsuccessful dalliance in Formula 1 with the former Jordan/Midland F1 outfit, before selling it to Force India; now it is the Aston Martin team. Muller stepped down as Spyker CEO in May ’07, to be replaced by Dutch games designer Michiel Mol, but he returned to his position as the F1 programme was eventually split off, taking Mol with it.

Vladimir Antonov’s Bankas Snoras acquired 29.9 percent of Spyker in 2007. He would also acquire the sole C12 Zagato prototype. Antonov is perhaps best known for his brief period as the owner of Portsmouth Football Club. It would be his presence that would cause the first major derailment of Spyker’s plan to buy Saab from General Motors in 2009, due to FBI concerns over his past.

That saga deserves many more words than can be summarised here. Spyker, then operated with Saab under the Swedish Automotive umbrella company, was still in turmoil. After a failed proposal to team up with Karmann, production moved to CPP, but this soon fizzled out as the money ran out. In 2011, Spyker was put up for sale, with bids from Antonov and CPP. Both would pull out of the deal; later there was another bid from hedge fund North Street Capital, but that came to nothing, too.

Saab, meanwhile, was eventually offloaded to Chinese-Swedish investment group NEVS. Spyker continued to show new cars; the V6-engined, Artega GT-based B6 Venator was announced at the Geneva Motor Show, but a year later the money ran out and the firm was bankrupt, a situation that lasted a year. Fresh with enthusiasm, a new car was announced to replace the Aileron – the Preliator. The original plan was to use a Koenigsegg V8, but this didn’t happen, and a supercharged Audi engine was 130

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announced two years later. It’s unclear how many, if any, production versions were built. Fast forward to 2021, and Spyker was bankrupt again.

In the meantime, however, the cars de Bruijn crafted have a reputation for their engineering integrity, performance and individualistic design.

As Peter Read, the owner of the 2008 C8 Spyder seen here, says, the fact very few know what it is provides a major plus. “I did a Pagani tour in 2013, and an owner turned up in his Spyker when his Pagani had broken,” he recalls.

“It stuck in my mind. Years later, I partexchanged an Aventador for this car, and it’s a keeper. I like that it’s quite light to drive, yet seriously quick – it’s also a proper manual.”

Richard Gill owns this 2009 C8 Laviolette, and fell in love with Spykers after catching them on Top Gear in 2002. “I never thought I’d see one, let alone own one,” he laughs. “It has aged well.

The driving experience is the opposite of the McLaren I had before – no driver aids, pretty raw, but it’s a well balanced, well engineered car.”

It’s this desire to be different that marks out Spyker enthusiasts, says James Huntley of niche supercar dealer SuperVettura, whose LM85 is also pictured: “For the people who buy Spykers, they’re not their first or only supercar. Spyker people buy the cars for what they are and for themselves, rather than for status – 90 percent of people won’t know what it is. You don’t get rude hand gestures while driving a Spyker.

“We’ve found that European markets are trading higher than the UK, with one orange car going for €300,000, while in the US one went for $450,000. Prices are increasing.”

Any exotic can be a challenge when things go wrong. But what to do when the firm no longer exists and each car is pretty much unique?

“Usually when I do something, it escalates,” Jasper from www.spykerenthusiast.com laughs.

“I needed a steering wheel; I said, why make just one, when I can make 60? It escalated from there to making parts for all the Spykers, then restoring a car, then a second, then a third…”

The automotive-development engineer first saw a Spyker at a Ferrari dealer seven years ago. He then bought chassis 13, the first widebody Spyker – but soon ran into spares issues.

After all, little more than 200 were made, and each car is rarely the same as another – but he

saw an opportunity, and set up Spyker Enthusiast to provide parts, sales brokerage, upgrades and restoration services. “I appreciate just how well engineered they are, like proper racing cars,” he explains. “They’re also art – that combination makes them cool to work on.”

Jasper has restored around 14 Spykers so far, and serviced 95. He recently completed the first-ever C8 Double Twelve restoration. He is also working on the only C8 Laviolette prototype, but he’s also bringing to life some of the more outlandish prototypes announced after de Bruijn left, such as the Peking To Paris SUV. Although based on a VW Touran, and said to have a W12 engine, it was nowhere near production ready. “Nothing was functional – everything was plastic,” he says. “We needed to start from scratch and engineer everything ourselves – it’s now driveable.”

He is also working on making the B6 Venator a reality: “Legally, I can make one on a current chassis, then I can make a replica. After that, I need to wait to see what happens with the brand rights; all in all, the aftersales is covered so that owners can enjoy their Spyker cars.”

Maarten de Bruijn also hasn’t given up on his automotive dream. After Spyker, he moved into boatbuilding and urban-mobility projects, but the pull was too much: “My biggest love is cars, so I thought, why don’t I try to make a new car and see what comes of it?”

Maarten has spent the past decade on the project, and you can expect it to be suitably artistic; it will be revealed in the New Year. “A lot of auto design is fixated on aggressive styling because the car is aggressive and powerful, but I don’t believe in being aggressive,” he says. “I believe in being impressive. You can be small and be impressive, with clean design and nice details. You can go overboard, like you can with cooking. However, if you’re a good cook, you just need a bit of salt and pepper, and that’s it.”

Such simplicity can be contrasted with the Spyker story, but even if the name currently lies crashed against a dead-end wall, the efforts of Jasper and Maarten, and the sheer enthusiasm of the owners, mean the cars certainly have an open road ahead. And as for Victor Muller? As Jasper says: “It’s very difficult to understand where he is going. Nobody knows…”

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The Teesdale RHD 911 SWB LJJ 10D was supplied in early 1966 in the desirable specification of Slate Grey Metallic with Red/ Black interior delivered to Mr Michael Tee the owner & publisher of the renowned magazine “Motor Sport”.

LJJ10D was his personal car for many years and was used to travel all over Europe following the F1 circus plus many more race events. The car was tested by both Bill Body & Denis Jenkinson in period and also featured in the 1970 January edition of Motorsport magazine with a long term 50,000 mile write up.

This car is extremely rare and one of only 12 cars supplied to the U.K. in that year.

In 2020 we completed a full bare metal nut & bolt restoration. The car has been finished to FIA appendix K and also our latest 2.0L cup championship winning specifications. Since the restoration the car has completed a number of test days and is ready to race.

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With the 60 Year Anniversary of the 911 happening in 2023 there will be a host of extremely special events unfolding and this car would be eligible for these plus many more prolific events.

Such as Le Mans Classic, Peter Auto 2.0L Cup, Modena Cento Ore, Tour Auto and of course Goodwood.

Spyker at Brooklands

SF EDGE IS ONE OF THE CHARACTERS in automobiles for whom the phrase ‘living out loud’ probably doesn’t cut it.

His role in popularising motoring – let alone motor sport – is oft-overlooked. That’s being redressed in a new book by Simon Fisher, SF Edge: Maker of Motoring History (reviewed in this issue of Magneto), but one of his more arduous achievements celebrates its century this year – in 1922, Selwyn Edge wrested back the record for the Brooklands Double Twelve.

The event was Brooklands’ novel way of getting around a local ban on night-time racing.

The car would be driven on two successive days for 12 hours, with the vehicle locked up in parc fermé conditions between each stint.

At the time, Edge was the governing director of AC Cars, and stunts and promotion were very much his kind of thing. Although he’d set a 24-hour record in 1907, he encouraged AC Cars and its drivers to beat it. The first attempt, in 1921, ended in failure after 1192 miles, with a broken conrod and seized piston. In May 1922, a driver pairing by the name of Joyce and Day 132

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made an attempt with an Anzani-engined AC. While the car failed to proceed after one day, 11 hours and 20 minutes, this was still enough to set a new record of 1709 miles and 1234 yards.

Ever the showman, Edge decided he wanted to reclaim the title for himself – at the age of 54. It wouldn’t be behind the wheel of an AC, however. Instead, he’d choose a Spyker fitted with a six-cylinder Maybach engine – and tackle the feat as the sole driver.

Edge said he wanted to drive a smallercapacity six-pot than the Napier, although the frailty of the AC Cars was a likely reason. Spyker had just been plucked from bankruptcy by its British distributor. As Fisher records in his book: “SF may have had a financial interest in the British agency for Spyker – but he definitely knew the manager of it, Colonel Sam Janson.”

Regardless of some teasing in The Motor – which agreed to Edge’s suggestion that it would give him a small copper medal if he won, and he’d cough up a £100 donation to the Motor Trade Benevolent Fund if he didn’t – the attempt went smoothly. Despite two tyre changes due

to punctures, Edge achieved 1782 miles and 1006 yards at an average speed of 74.27mph.

The second stage of the attempt was notable for an experiment in sending wireless messages to the pits while the car was hurtling along at 80mph. Fisher again: “The wireless aerial was allowed to trail behind the car, with the result that it wore away and the experiment had to be abandoned. The rest of the time, messages were passed by the mechanic writing notes on paper that he screwed up in a ball and dropped on the track as the car sped past the depot.”

Edge would make one more personal attempt at the title, this time in a 40bhp Lanchester. However, steering failure at high speed, in which he narrowly avoided an horrific crash, signalled the end of his record-breaking endeavours at Brooklands, although he still encouraged AC Cars to do so.

As for Spyker, the publicity was welcome, but it did little to halt the company’s decline – by 1926, the funds ran dry and it was all over.

Thank you to Brooklands for the use of its legendary banking for our Spyker photoshoot.

GETTY

Life on the Edge 100 years ago, SF Edge took the Double Twelve record in a Spyker

Made in Italy Words David Lillywhite

Photography Piotr Degler

Photographer Piotr Degler’s stunning new book is packed with one-offs and rarities, complemented by insights from legendary Italian car designers

Made In Italy

PREVIOUS SPREAD F40 needs no intro; Pininfarina’s 1969 Sigma was a Ferrari 312based prototype inspired by the need for higher safety standards in Formula 1.

OPPOSITE TOP 2010 2uettottanta concept was built to mark the 80th anniversary of Pininfarina and centenary of Alfa.

OPPOSITE BOTTOM In 2006, Stola created this full-size model from a 1950s design penned by architect, acrobat and photographer Carlo Mollino.

ABOVE Lancia S4 Stradale is thought to be the first built, with some differences from later cars.

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Made In Italy

ABOVE Pages from the Made In Italy book show Gandini, EB110 in the Artioli-era Bugatti factory, Moto Guzzi Nibbio 2 and Alfa Romeo 159.

THIS IS ONE OF THOSE PASSION projects that might have made little sense financially, but that the automotive world is most certainly much richer for.

Spanish-born photographer Piotr Degler, still in his mid-30s, has spent more than €135,000 (including print costs) and ten years travelling the world to document 100 of the greatest Italian cars of all time. Many are oneoffs and prototypes; all are extremely special.

He visited museums, car manufacturers, design centres and collectors on his quest to find the most important examples.

Now he’s released a book, Made In Italy, of the images – 80 percent of which have never previously been seen. Although mostly photography based, the volume starts with a section on ‘The Maestros’, portraying 11 automotive legends and their thoughts.

They include arguably the greatest designer of all time, Giorgetto Giugiaro, whose thoughts include this fascinating statement: “In my experimental prototypes, I always dared and moved forward, trying to anticipate styles and

tastes, attempting to be original. And, even in the most hedonistic projects, I never overlooked their production feasibility.”

The other ten designers are of a similar level, all beautifully photographed – Giampaolo Dallara, Leonardo Fioravanti, Marcello Gandini, Flavio Manzoni, Paolo Martin, Horacio Pagani, Paolo Pininfarina, Ercole Spada, Alfredo Stola and Andrea Zagato – and each one tells his story, with text in both English and Italian.

This is close to Piotr’s heart, because he started out as a car designer. Having grown up in Spain, in a family of musicians and architects, he moved to Turin after graduation to study auto design, ending up at Bertone. It was there that he began to combine his daily job as a designer with his passion for photography.

He went on to concentrate on photography full time, setting up Degler Studio, and becoming one of the most respected photographers in the industry.

For more details on the Made in Italy book, visit www.madeinitalybook.com.

Lopresto Collection Alfa 6Cs

Words Michele P Casiraghi

Photography Max Serra

The Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Sport Berlinetta and 256 Super Sport exemplify Italian coachbuilder Touring’s finest pre-World War Two work. Here’s why

TWO OF A KIND

LEFT Unique Alfa pairing represents the most soughtafter cars of the days preceding the outbreak of World War Two.

Lopresto Collection Alfa 6Cs

HEIR TO A GLORIOUS LINEAGE OF SIXcylinder models, the 6C 2500 was presented in 1939 as the latest evolution of the legendary model designed by Vittorio Jano more than ten years previously. The car was available in Turismo and Sport versions, but soon a third alternative had to be created. The new model was in fact designed without any racing ambitions, because on the track Alfa Corse (formerly Scuderia Ferrari) could count on the powerful 8C and 12C models.

A sudden change in regulations forced the racing team to review all its plans, however; the supercharged machines were banned from Italian sports car racing, and thus the powerful 412 had to be replaced. The team ran for cover, and adapted the 6C 2500 for the new season.

In doing so, it created the Tipo 256.

According to the nomenclature adopted by the Scuderia Ferrari models, the car took its name from the displacement and number of

cylinders (2.5 litres and six cylinders), but the unofficial name of Super Sport was also used.

It would have become a real production version only from 1942, with the addition of a reinforcing crossmember on the frame.

As the flagship model of Italian automotive production, the 6C 2500 was the most expensive and sporty road car on the market.

The Sport version, bodied by Touring in Berlinetta and cabriolet shapes, was already a rare sight, but the Super Sport was a true unicorn. The first 256 chassis were pure racing cars: three for the Alfa Corse team and four for private customers, plus two older cars converted to the new specifications.

Of course, the success of the racing version led to the request for a road variant, specifically for wealthy clients looking for a more exclusive and sportier alternative to the 6C 2500 Sport. The 256, with its triple-carburetted engine, provided 110bhp against the Sport’s 95bhp, while the shorter wheelbase allowed for better handling.

Production thus continued with a handful of chassis set up as road cars, mostly bodied by Touring. By the year’s end, Tipo 256 production had reached around 20 units. A few more were built at the start of 1940, but the war soon stopped production at less than 30. The Super

Sport cost more than 90,000 lira – a huge amount when the era’s most popular car, the Fiat 500 Topolino, was 11,500 lira.

One of the very first road cars on this chassis was a cabriolet bodied by Touring for Benito Mussolini. The Italian dictator had a passion for Alfa Romeos, having owned many during the 1930s. Nevertheless, his car was not the first to be completed with road coachwork; this was chassis 915012, seen here, with Superleggera coupé coachwork also by Touring. The Super Sport chassis were produced by Alfa Corse, on the shortened platform with many modifications, and marked

ABOVE 256’s triple-carbed engine boasts 110bhp against the Sport model’s 95bhp.

ABOVE The elegance of design extends to every detail for this most refined of cars.

ABOVE Touring patented this early – and rather clever – system to adjust seating.

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‘This car’s elegant, aerodynamic lines would make it a milestone in Alfa and Touring design’

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Lopresto Collection Alfa 6Cs

with a dedicated number plate. Here, this is number 256/9, because it comes after the first eight racing cars. So should this be considered the first road car ever built by Enzo Ferrari?

Indeed, it was built inside the Ferrari workshop, and we would have to wait until 1948 to see road cars leave Ferrari’s factory again.

Two sister cars are known to have been made, with a similar design but a few differences, too, as is usual with hand-made coachwork. However, 915012 is the only one to have survived to the present day.

The first years of this car’s life are a mystery.

Rumours handed down by previous owners would even place it as Enzo Ferrari’s personal vehicle, but such a claim requires more proof. A similar car – perhaps the very same one – was raced in 1947 by a Baggio of Treviso.

The known history of 915012 begins with its arrival in the US, brought back by an Air Force officer returning home. The car was then left to a mechanic as payment for other repairs, and it was later bought by BV Ronco of Allentown, Pennsylvania – an engineer with a past at Mack Trucks. He put the car back on the road by fitting new headlights in compliance with American laws, plus he added bumpers and windows, and overhauled the mechanics.

After further changes of ownership, the car underwent a full restoration. This concluded in 2002 with the car’s presentation at the Louis

Vuitton Bagatelle Concours d’Elegance in Paris, at the time among the world’s most important concours, where it won Best in Show. In 2003 the Alfa participated in the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este, winning the first prize in its class, and then it disappeared from the public scene once again.

In recent years, having been acquired by the Lopresto Collection, it received many corrections to the line of the front end, bringing it back to the exact original shape. The 256 now shares its garage with a sister car: a 6C 2500 Sport Berlinetta by Touring.

Alfa completed the latter in October 1939, with the beautiful Touring body launched at the Berlin Motor Show earlier that year. This car’s elegant, aerodynamic lines would make it a milestone in Alfa and Touring design. The evolution of the model – a huge improvement on the 6C 2300B MM from the previous years – would continue after the war. In a continuous update that was always respectful of Alfa tradition, this eventually resulted in the creation of the famous Villa d’Este and the 1900 Sprint.

Chassis 915045 is the 21st Sport built, and the 13th with this body. Only a few more were crafted before war broke out. Production of the Sport Berlinetta in this first guise could be estimated at around 30-40 units, and only a dozen survive. This Berlinetta was sold new on December 5, 1939, to Camillo Caetani, Prince of Bassiano, for 79,500 lira. Son of Roffredo, Duke of Sermoneta, a nobleman and musician from Rome, and American-born publisher and patron Marguerite Gilbert Chapin, Camillo was only 25 years old when, on December 15, 1940, he was killed on the Albanian front.

His car passed to his sister Lelia, and in

January 1947 it was sold to a Luigi Moro, who sold it again in 1954 to Alfa Romeo dealer and racing driver Marcello Venturi. After a few further keepers, the car ended up in the 1980s in one of the most important Italian collections at the time, that of Gianni Bulgari.

The next owner was another collector from Rome, and in 2013 the Alfa was purchased by Corrado Lopresto, leaving the city for the first time. Still bearing its 1939 licence plate, 73460 Roma, the car had already been repainted, but the seats hid a surprise; the original leather was still present, behind a later cover. With careful work this cover was removed to reveal the 80-plus-year-old seats, complete with the original system to change the inclination and the backrest tension, as patented by Touring.

The two 6Cs form a unique pair, a perfect example of the most sought-after cars of the days preceding the outbreak of war. The timeless elegance of the Berlinetta and the extreme proportions of the Super Sport summarise Touring’s talent in shaping beauty on four wheels.

ABOVE 6C 2500 was heir to a glorious lineage of six-cylinder Alfa models.

ABOVE Cabin blends trackbred raciness with longdistance GT comfort.

ABOVE Shortwheelbase Super Sport gives superior handling on the road.

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8C 2900 B

A timeless design

8C 2900 B

The former director of the car design laboratory at the University of Florence on Alfa Romeo’s GTs Words and sketches Prof. Massimo Grandi

6C 2500 SS

6C 2500 SS

6C 2500 S

6C 2500 SS

6C 2500 S

1949 6C 2500 SS Villa d’Este

GENETICALLY, THE 256 Coupé is a fast and sporty car, albeit a ‘road’ version of the genre. Let’s not forget that the creator of the concept of powerful closed-top cars with numerous comfort features and elegant interiors – a style subsequently dubbed ‘Granturismo’ – was none other than Felice Anderloni.

‘GT’ has since assumed an increasingly broad meaning, often simply referring to twoseater coupé versions of saloons of the same name. Not all GTs are or were Granturismos, in the same way as many true Granturismos are or were not actually called GTs. In 1937, Touring patented the Superleggera system. This tubular cage fixed to a base frame made it possible to obtain more strongly convex surfaces, and so to create ovoid volumes far more aerodynamic and harmonious than those dictated by the previous systems.

A new world of possibilities opened up, allowing Anderloni to create a masterpiece; the 8C 2900B Berlinetta, shown in Milan in 1937. This marked the start of a rapidly evolving chapter of new language codes.

The culmination was perhaps the most prestigious, exclusive and refined model; the fast, comfortable and elegant twoseater 256 Coupé Touring.

While retaining the technical and mechanical characteristics of its racing counterparts, it had lines typically associated with road models. At the same time, it boasted several features that, betraying its competitive heritage, can only be described as purely aerodynamic choices, such as the front with a deeper and more rounded profile, and the lights that seem to sit in the wide, profiled section between the fairing and the wings.

With regard to the latter, the ‘pontoon’ look was discarded in favour of a frontal solution typical of the 1939-40 period – a wing with an ‘elongated’ upper profile connected with the running board by a rather pronounced ‘S’. This is seen in other cars from the period, too, namely the Fiat 2800 and Alfa’s 6C 2500 Torpedino Brescia – which became Ferrari’s first car, the 815 Auto Avio Costruzioni.

Looking at the 256 sideways on, the straight line formed by the bonnet and beltline as far as the edge of the roof merges seamlessly with the wide and harmonious curves of the wings and wheelarches. Its peculiar design becomes even more apparent when compared with the longer 2500 Sport.

The change and evolution of the interpretative key is immediately clear from the

design of the sides and the rear.

Paradoxically, even though the 256 derives from a race car, it immediately appears less ‘aggressive’, less racing oriented and more suitable for touring and social use. And this is despite the two models being designed by the same hand.

The Sport’s main lines are tauter, the angle formed by the bonnet and grille profiles is more angular, and the wing geometry is more oval, while the ‘S’ connecting with the running board is shorter and lower. Against that, the ogival pavilion covering that extends into a broad parabola descending into the tail, like the rear wing with fairing, are more in line with an overall vision that can be seen as a refined representation of speed, power and competitive aggression.

The lines, while still betraying a sporty soul, thus become gentler and more refined, with the design veering towards less accentuated and taut forms, in favour of a more fashionable and fun spirit. The showy chrome wheel covers also seem to be part of this movement along a path that will gradually lead us to the magical Villa d’Este season.

But there is another aspect that must also be considered in order to truly understand the nature of this car and how it fits in the spirit and evolution of the work of Anderloni and Touring: the interior.

The Superleggera’s invention made it possible to build much lighter cars – and some of this weight saved was recovered in the form of useful comfort and safety devices. Touring bodies were simple and linear, devoid of superfluous decorations, but by no means spartan when it came to the interior furnishings and accessories.

Even though they were not officially referred to with the acronym, they were in fact true GT cars, with superior equipment and finish.

All this is borne out by our car’s interior. It has no unnecessary frills or chrome parts, but everything is very carefully thought out, well designed and produced using top materials. In short, it is the cabin of a car of international renown; the two-door GT coupé – a central theme running through Touring’s design and production.

How fortunate we are to still have this car around today, perfectly restored and with its timeless beauty intact.

It represents a key stage in the history of the Touring Superleggera and of Alfa, and remains a living and powerful testimony to Italian design.

THE PEBBLE BEACH CONCOURS d’ELEGANCE ® and our Entrants, Judges, Sponsors, and Volunteers Congratulate our 2022 Best of Show Winner!

1932 DUESENBERG J FIGONI SPORTS TORPEDO Shown by Lee R. Anderson Sr. Future Dates AUGUST 20, 2023 | AUGUST 18, 2024 | AUGUST 17, 2025 ©2022 Pebble Beach Company. Pebble Beach®, Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance®, and their underlying images are trademarks, trade dress and service marks of Pebble Beach Company.

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50 TOP 50 FERRARI DRIVERS

TOP 50 CAR DESIGNS

A legendary racing team deserves legendary racing drivers – and Ferrari has more than fulfilled

Words Richard Heseltine

Photography Ferrari, Motorsport Images, Getty Images

its brief. Here are the very best of the Scuderia’s talented, brave and blisteringly quick stars

Top 50 Ferrari drivers

Ricardo Rodríguez RODRÍGUEZ was blisteringly quick, perhaps even more so than his elder brother Pedro.

The siblings had performed brilliantly to finish second overall in the 1960 Le Mans 24 Hours in a NART 250GT SWB. Ricardo subsequently drove an older variant of

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the 156 ‘Sharknose’ in the 1961 Italian Grand Prix, ahead of a full-time Works seat for 1962.

He was second in the non-points Pau GP and fourth at Spa. A Lotus 24 was then hired for the maiden non-points Mexican GP, Ferrari being unwilling to provide a car. Rodríguez crashed fatally during practice; he was just 20 years old.

RIGHT Rodríguez had a glittering career ahead of him when he crashed fatally at the age of 20.

Ignazio Giunti IN the late 1960s, this young Roman was touted as being a major talent. Giunti left Autodelta for Scuderia Ferrari in 1970, and was armed with the 512S; not the best car for competing in the International Championship for Makes.

Nevertheless, he claimed victory

Jean Behra TRAGEDY blankets the story behind the greatest French driver of his generation, the brevity of his time as a Works Ferrari driver being a cause of sadness for his many fans. The union may not have happened were it not for the loss of Mike Hawthorn, Peter Collins and

Alfonso de Portago ALFONSO Antonio Vicente Eduardo Angel Blas Francisco de Borja Cabeza de Vaca y Leighton Marquis de Portago is forever synonymous with a photo of him sat in a LanciaFerrari D50 while a team-mate with a long stick checks the car’s fuel level. ‘Fon’ has a

Luigi Musso. Ferrari was short of drivers; the fiery Behra impressed immediately. He won the 1959 BARC Aintree 200 in a Dino 246, before placing second to Stirling Moss at Reims. Then he punched his nemesis, team manager Romolo Tavoni. Behra was dismissed, joined Porsche, and crashed and died at AVUS in August of that year.

RIGHT A name marked by both greatness and tragedy, Jean Behra’s time with Ferrari was short.

cigarette in his mouth.

It has long since become visual shorthand for his air of aristocratic insouciance, and it perhaps sold him short.

As a Works driver in 1956, he won the Porto GP, and also the gruelling Tour de France alongside American Ed Nelson.

A year later, de Portago crashed fatally during the Mille Miglia.

RIGHT ‘Fon’ emanated aristocratic insouciance, but his was yet another life cut short too soon.

in the Sebring 12 Hours (alongside Nino Vaccarella and Mario Andretti). He and Vaccarella also placed an improbable third in the Targa Florio that year. Fourth place on his F1 debut in the 1970 Belgian GP was promising, but he perished in January 1971 after a controversial accident during the Buenos Aires 1000 Kilometres.

Arturo Merzario OFTEN seen clad in stonewash denim and rocking a trademark white Stetson, Arturo Merzario – also known as ‘Little Art’ – has cut a singular dash in motor racing for more than 60 years. In 1972, this mercurial driver won the Spa 1000 Kilometres aboard a 312PB shared with Brian Redman.

He also guided the sole Works Ferrari entered in the Targa Florio to victory alongside Sandro Munari. Merzario made his Formula 1 debut driving for The Reds in that year’s British Grand Prix at Brands Hatch, and finished sixth. He then placed second in the 1973 Le Mans 24 Hours in a 312PB shared with Carlos Pace, only to be chewed out by Enzo Ferrari for not winning…

Nino Vaccarella FOUR World Championship Grand Prix starts spanning five years may mark Vaccarella out as an also-ran, but statistics sold his talent short. He excelled elsewhere, not least in sports cars. Driving for Scuderia Ferrari, he claimed outright honours in the 1964 Le Mans

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Luigi Musso THIS Roman talent shared victory in the 1956 Argentine Grand Prix with Juan Manuel Fangio, but he suffered amid the Scuderia’s cut-throat atmosphere. Rivalry with countryman Eugenio Castellotti was actively encouraged (the latter died in a testing accident

24 Hours, sharing a 275P with Jean Guichet. He also won that year’s Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres in partnership with Ludovico Scarfiotti. In 1965 he bagged the Targa Florio for the first time, driving a 275 P2 with Lorenzo Bandini, and the 1970 Sebring 12 Hours in a 512S shared with Mario Andretti and Ignazio Giunti.

in March 1957), not to mention with other drivers. Musso was keen to establish himself as team leader, and in 1958 he placed second in the Argentine round, and again in the Buenos Aires GP. He was also runner-up at Monaco. However, while chasing team-mate Mike Hawthorn he struck a grass verge and rolled.

He died on arrival at hospital.

RIGHT Musso suffered from the Scuderia’s cut-throat atmosphere.

Another flame extinguished...

Giancarlo Baghetti WITH the exception of Giuseppe Farina, who took victory at the first-ever round of the F1 World Championship (because someone had to), only one other driver has won on their debut: Giancarlo Baghetti. The Milanese put in some solid performances in Formula Junior prior to being

Dan Gurney THE magnitude of his achievements as a driver and team principal belie Gurney’s lowly placing here. However, his time as a Works Ferrari driver didn’t last long. Having shone driving Prancing Horses for Frank Arciero at home, and also having caught the eye of North

Pietro Taruffi VARIOUSLY a motorcycle ace, racing driver, record breaker, team manager, inventor, author and so much more, this renaissance man dovetailed outings with Gilera and Ferrari in 1951, the highlight being second place to Juan Manuel Fangio in the Swiss

American Racing Team principal/Le Mans hero Luigi Chinetti, ‘Handsome Dan’ joined the Scuderia in 1959. In F1, he placed second in the German GP at AVUS, third in the Portuguese round at Monsanto Park and fourth at Monza. In sports cars, he co-authored victory in that year’s Sebring 12 Hours. He jumped ship to BRM for 1960.

RIGHT The Scuderia tenure of ‘Handsome Dan’ was short but sweet, with F1 and Sebring successes.

Grand Prix. Known as ‘The Silver Fox’, he further showcased his versatility by emerging victorious on the Carrera Panamericana alongside Luigi Chinetti. A year later, he won the Swiss GP (held to F2 rules). He retired from driving aged 50 after winning the 1957 Mille Miglia in his Works 315S. He drove solo…

RIGHT A solo drive to victory at the 1957 Mille Miglia rounded off ‘The Silver Fox’s’ driving career.

Richie Ginther AN excellent test and development driver, Ginther was another American whose abilities were exploited by Luigi Chinetti. This, in turn, led to him being appointed a Works Ferrari driver, and in 1960 he achieved strong results in uncompetitive machinery. In 1961, he was also

offered a drive in a factory Ferrari fielded by Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus. He won first time out in the non-points Syracuse GP. He followed that up with honours in the non-series Naples GP. He then competed in the French GP amid a galaxy of stars, and beat Dan Gurney to win by a hair’s breadth. A move to ATS for 1963 did for his career.

appointed chief development driver. Nevertheless, he failed to score a World Championship GP win during a year in which the Scuderia was the dominant force. He did, however, guide his 156 to second place at Monaco behind Stirling Moss’ Rob Walker Lotus. Ginther moved to BRM a year later, and belatedly won a GP in 1965 with Honda.

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Top 50 Ferrari drivers

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Willy Mairesse THIS coarse-mouthed Belgian enjoyed fabulous results in privateer Ferraris. He also had spectacular accidents, one wag insisting: “He was going places – often several places at once.”

Despite a reputation for bravery that bordered on recklessness, ‘Wild Willy’ was invited back

by the Scuderia time and again.

While his F1 hopes largely went unrealised, he shone in sports cars. Mairesse claimed the 1961 Targa Florio in a 246 SP shared with Ricardo Rodríguez, and also the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres alongside John Surtees in a 250 P. Sadly, depression gripped him later that decade, with the worst of outcomes.

RIGHT With a reputation for bravery that bordered on recklessness, Willy shone in sports cars.

Maurice Trintignant FEW drivers have ever enjoyed such a diverse career as Maurice Trintignant. He showed well initially in a Bugatti T35C – the same car in which his brother Louis had crashed fatally during practice for the 1933 Grand Prix de Picardie at Péronne – only for the hostilities of World War

Jean Alesi SOME might argue that the most Italian of Frenchmen should be higher up this list. However, he never quite delivered upon his considerable promise. The World Championship that once seemed preordained proved illusionary.

Giovanni ‘Jean’ Alesi raced with

Mike Parkes LARGELY overlooked now, this driver/engineer was perhaps overburdened with talent. The co-author of the Hillman Imp won the 1964 Sebring 12 Hours (with Ludovico Scarfiotti) and the 1965 Monza 1000 Kilometres (with Jean Guichet). He took a repeat win at the Italian venue

Ferrari from 1991 to 1995 after performing miracles at Tyrrell. This wasn’t a period of metronomic brilliance behind the scenes as typified by the Schumacher era, but still, he should have won more than just the 1995 Canadian GP. It was his sole F1 victory from 201 starts.

Even so, he remains a Tifosi hero.

RIGHT Alesi remains a hero with the Tifosi despite never fulfilling his considerable promise in F1.

two years later alongside John Surtees, whom he disliked intensely. Throw in second place at the ’66 French GP, and International Trophy honours a year later, and the stars appeared to be in alignment.

However, a subsequent smash at Spa all but annulled his racing career. Sadly, he perished in a road accident in 1977.

RIGHT The multi-talented Mike Parkes was a skilled racing driver as well as father of the Imp.

Two to end play. In peacetime, he then enjoyed a lengthy relationship with the Gordini team, and as a Scuderia Ferrari man ‘Le Pétoulet’ won the 1954 Le Mans 24 Hours in a 375 Plus alongside José Froilán González. He also bagged his maiden World Championship Grand Prix win at Monaco a year later in a 625 F1.

Patrick Tambay A DEFINITE candidate for the ‘nicest man ever to win a Grand Prix’ award, this charming former tennis prodigy joined Scuderia Ferrari at a particularly difficult time. He was handed a drive with the outfit for the 1982 Dutch Grand Prix in the aftermath of Gilles Villeneuve’s death during the final qualifying session for the Belgian Grand Prix at Zolder.

Tambay won the German Grand Prix that year from Renault’s Alain Prost. He regularly finished in the top four in 1983, with the undoubted highlight being victory in the San Remo Grand Prix. And then he was unceremoniously dropped.

Not that Tambay was bitter. If he was, he was far too gracious to ever show it publicly.

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Ludovico Scarfiotti ARGUABLY Italy’s standout all-rounder of the 1960s, Scarfiotti initially competed for fun. The Turinese could afford to, because his grandfather was a co-founder of Fiat. ‘Lulù’ was also Gianni Agnelli’s nephew. He won his first European Hillclimb Championship title in 1962 in a

factory-prepared 196 SP from Scuderia Sant’Ambroeus. He partnered John Surtees to win the 1963 Sebring 12 Hours in a 250 P, and also bagged the Le Mans 24 Hours alongside Lorenzo Bandini. Scarfiotti won the 1966 Italian GP, but later fell out with Ferrari. He died after crashing his Porsche at the Rossfield hillclimb in 1968.

RIGHT One of Fiat’s founding family, ‘Lulù’ could afford to race for fun – but he did excel on the track.

Eddie Irvine NEWS that Irvine was to leave Jordan and join Michael Schumacher at Ferrari for the 1996 season astounded many onlookers. The German finished third in that year’s final drivers’ points, his Northern Irish team-mate a lowly 11th (he retired from 11 of the 16 rounds). The oft-abrasive Irvine finally nailed his first Grand Prix win at Melbourne in 1999, only to unexpectedly became a title contender after Schuey broke his leg following a first-lap shunt during the British GP. He won three further rounds, but finished two points in arrears to McLaren’s Mika Häkkinen. He took Jaguar’s coin thereafter, and unfortunately never won again.

Gerhard Berger ANOTHER driver with a relatively lowly position in our Top 50, given his record. Berger was a gifted driver who enjoyed two stints at Ferrari, scoring five of his ten Grand Prix wins for the Maranello squad. On the right day he was superb; witness the 1994 German Grand Prix at

Hockenheim, when he claimed pole and led from start to finish.

There were, however, other races when he appeared less confident, almost invisible.

Then there was the 1989 season, when he was overshadowed by the incumbent Nigel Mansell, and also endured a frightening accident at Imola. Oh, and eight successive retirements.

RIGHT When Berger was great, he was fantastic. When he wasn’t, he was almost invisible...

Giuseppe Farina ‘NINO’ was variously skilful, entitled, experienced and dangerous. On the invite of Enzo Ferrari he drove Alfas from 1936, and post-war he was invited to try the 1.5-litre V12 Ferrari GP car, yet hopes of being the lead driver in 1949 were dashed after Enzo opted for Alberto Ascari

Didier Pironi CONVENTIONAL wisdom has it that Pironi was the black hat of F1. He famously shafted his Ferrari team-mate Gilles Villeneuve during the San Remo GP at Imola in 1982, by refusing to follow predetermined team orders and follow him home.

Instead, he jumped him to claim

victory. That is one version of history, and neither man is alive to argue their case. Villeneuve died that year, while titleaspirant Pironi had careerending injuries after crashing into Alain Prost’s unsighted Renault during the ’82 German GP. He subsequently took up offshore powerboat racing, only to crash fatally in 1987.

and Luigi Villoresi instead. In ’50 he raced for a resurgent Alfa in F1, next to Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. Farina claimed the title, but finished fourth a year later. He joined Ferrari for 1952, and placed second to Ascari in the final reckoning.

He claimed his final Grand Prix victory at the Nürburgring in 1953, at the age of 47.

LEFT Pironi clashed with Villeneuve at Imola in 1982; sadly, within five years both men were dead.

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LEFT Andretti’s driving skills saw the Montona native compete in a multitude of circuit disciplines.

Mario Andretti FEW drivers, if any, have excelled in such a wide variety of circuit disciplines as this Montona-born superstar. As he’s often want to say, his ambition as a boy was to become a racing driver like his hero Alberto Ascari, and to similarly drive for Ferrari. Having already become a champion on short ovals, claimed USAC titles, won the Indy 500 and more by the time he turned 30, Andretti was summoned to see Enzo Ferrari.

A drive was his for 1970, but ‘Il Commendatore’ wanted

Carlos Reutemann PERHAPS the most enigmatic F1 driver ever, ‘Lole’ was exceptional or mediocre depending on what weekend it was. The Argentinian was a model of inconsistency, driving for Scuderia Ferrari in ’73 when he dovetailed sports cars alongside F1 commitments with Brabham.

Reutemann bought his way out of his contract with the latter to ostensibly replace Niki Lauda at Ferrari midway through 1976 (someone forgot to tell Lauda…). He claimed the following year’s Brazilian GP

René Arnoux PHENOMENALLY fast on the way to Formula 1, Arnoux was already a Grands Prix winner by the time he arrived at Ferrari in 1983. He was often stellar in qualifying, the Frenchman claiming honours in Montreal, Hockenheim and Zandvoort en route to third place in that year’s Drivers’ Championship.

In 1984, he was… erratic. He finished a brilliant second to Keke Rosberg at Dallas after starting at the back of the grid, but for the most part results were patchy. Arnoux placed

Olivier Gendebien BORN into wealth in Brussels in January 1924, this ex-paratrooper joined Scuderia Ferrari in 1955.

A year later, he belied his lack of single-seater experience to finish fifth and claim a point on his World Championship GP debut in Argentina. He also furthered his reputation as a sports car star with second-place finishes in the Buenos Aires (with Phil Hill) and Nürburgring 1000 Kilometre races (with Alfonso de Portago), third at Le Mans (with Maurice Trintignant) and fourth in the Targa Florio (alongside Hans

fourth in the 1985 season opener in Brazil, and was then abruptly replaced by Stefan Johansson.

The reason behind his departure is a matter of conjecture. Those in the know, and those who claim to be in the know, have their theories.

We are not going to repeat them here because, well, they are just rumours and we don’t want to fall afoul of legal raptors.

Regardless of what transpired, Arnoux continued in F1 to the end of the decade, the often-brilliant driver of yore morphing into a belligerent backmarker along the way.

RIGHT From third place in the ’83 championship to backmarker by the end of the decade. What happened, René?

Hermann). He placed third in the Liège-Rome-Liège Rally and the Tour de France aboard Jacques Swaters’ 250GT, too.

In ’58 Gendebien claimed his first Targa Florio victory, sharing a Works 250TR with Luigi Musso.

He’d take repeat honours in a 246SP in 1962 alongside Willy Mairesse and Pedro Rodríguez.

Other major wins for Ferrari included the Sebring 12 Hours in ’59 (with Phil Hill, Dan Gurney and Chuck Daigh) and ’61 (with Hill), plus the Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres in 1962 (Hill again).

Not forgetting his four wins at Le Mans (1958, 1960-62).

RIGHT A truly comprehensive list of races and wins marks out Olivier Gendebien’s stellar career.

him to move to Maranello.

That wasn’t going to happen.

Andretti drove a March 701 for the STP Corporation instead, all the while dovetailing F1 with US commitments. A year later, Enzo got his way, but so did Andretti; he’d campaign Ferraris as and when he was available. He drove in seven rounds, winning in South Africa. He also won the Sebring 12 Hours. A year later, Andretti drove selected F1 races and won four sports car events alongside Jacky Ickx. And that was that until he acted as a sub in 1982, at 40-odd claiming pole and placing third at Monza.

and became the de facto team leader in 1978 after Lauda departed of his own volition.

Reutemann claimed repeated honours in Rio de Janeiro, before winning the US GP West, British GP and US GP to place third.

He then jumped ship for Team Lotus. A year later, he was with Williams, and virtually had one hand on the silverware at the start of the Caesars Palace season finale, only to inexplicably tumble down the order and gift the title to arch-rival Nelson Piquet. He abruptly quit F1 two races into the 1982 season for reasons he has yet to disclose.

Lorenzo Bandini

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TRAGEDY is woven into the Scuderia’s narrative, and the loss of Bandini in May 1967 was felt keenly within the outfit.

He started all bar seven of his World Championship GPs for Ferrari, having been overlooked in 1961 in favour of Giancarlo Baghetti despite strong showings in Formula Junior. The offer arrived in 1962, only for Bandini to be dropped in favour of Willy Mairesse a year later. The Belgian had a monstrous shunt at the Nürburgring in August 1963, after which Bandini was

Michele Alboreto HIS was a career of two halves: before and after Ferrari. This polished, tousle-haired driver won the 1980 Italian Formula 3 title. He was a victor in Formula 2 by the end of the following year, by which time he’d already made his Grand Prix debut.

Alboreto scored a brace of wins for Tyrrell before signing for Ferrari for the 1984 season. This was a period when the Scuderia showed flashes of promise amid pratfalls. Alboreto won at Zolder in his maiden year with Ferrari, and was on the podium

in Austria, Monza and the Nürburgring, before placing fourth in the drivers’ points.

There was every reason to expect he was going to be a title threat in his sophomore season, and he was – to begin with.

Alboreto won in Canada and Germany, and was second in Rio, Estoril, Monaco and Silverstone. It was between him and McLaren’s Alain Prost.

However, he retired from the last five rounds as Ferrari’s form evaporated. He finished 20 points behind the Frenchman in the 1985 title race, and never won another Grand Prix.

brought back into the fold.

The Libyan-born star enjoyed his day of days in 1964, when he claimed victory in the Austrian Grand Prix at the much-loathed Zeltweg Airfield circuit. The loss of John Surtees during the 1966 season saw Bandini thrust into the role of team leader, and he won the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours and Monza 1000 Kilometres with Chris Amon, only to crash out during that year’s Monaco GP. Bandini was trapped in his burning, upturned car, the emergency services taking an age to respond. He succumbed to his injuries three days later.

RIGHT Alboreto signed up with Ferrari for 1984, and made a strong start that was never to be followed up.

Nigel Mansell RARELY has a driver worn his heart on his sleeve more than Nigel Ernest James Mansell. As such, he was embraced by the Tifosi during his two-year stint at Ferrari in 1989-90, a period not lacking in drama. There was his debut win in Rio aboard the John Barnard-designed 640 with its revolutionary semiautomatic transmission. When the car held together – as it did six times in 15 races – he finished on the podium.

At the Hungaroring, a track that promotes processional GPs because it makes overtaking so difficult, Mansell created opportunities where there seemingly were none to win. Oh, and he was disqualified from the Portuguese Grand Prix for receiving outside assistance, and suspended from the Spanish Grand Prix a week later.

In 1990 there was more theatre, not least because Alain Prost had joined him as teammate before outmanoeuvring (and overshadowing) the moustachioed Brit. Mansell took just one win to the Frenchman’s five, and announced his retirement after dropping out of the British GP – only to ‘unretire’ shortly thereafter.

‘Il Leone’ was pure box office.

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Peter Collins THIS debonair Brit is remembered primarily for an act of sportsmanship that seems alien in the here and now.

There was a time when it was possible for a driver to take over a car from a team-mate during the race. This famously occurred during the 1956 Italian GP, when Collins relinquished his car to championship rival Juan Manuel Fangio. The Scuderia had already attempted to get Luigi Musso to surrender his, but he was having none of it in his home race. Collins, a two-time

winner that season, did so voluntarily, even if it meant giving up on his title aspirations.

The truth is that he was never likely to claim the spoils, but it was a spontaneous act and a noble one. It certainly sat well with his paymaster, who had been displeased with his young charge for marrying American actress Louise King following the briefest of courtships. Collins claimed his third World Championship win at Silverstone in 1958, only to crash out of that year’s German GP at the Nürburgring.

He never stood a chance.

RIGHT A generous midrace act towards team-mate Fangio exemplified this debonair Brit’s fine character.

Rubens Barrichello THERE was a time when Barrichello was talked up as being a future World Champion.

You could argue that time spent at Ferrari changed that – not least the perception of his worth back home in Brazil, where the media coverage was often savage. He had shone on occasion with Jordan – even if he was sometimes psyched out by his team-mate Eddie Irvine – and also at Stewart GP, prior to him signing to drive alongside Michael Schumacher.

The long-awaited first win came

Felipe Massa AT certain points, some quarters of the media wondered whether Massa would ever be able to harness his natural speed. He was a prolific winner in the junior categories, but he was erratic during his first year of Formula 1 with Sauber in 2001.

He became a test driver for the Scuderia thereafter, only to drive a Ferrari-powered Sauber again in 2004-05, before replacing Rubens Barrichello as Michael Schumacher’s watercarrier. He claimed two wins in 2006, and with Kimi

Kimi Räikkönen ONE of the great mysteries for some religious F1 followers is how Ferrari could employ Räikkönen, only to then pay him a fortune to leave early.

Oh, and to then hire him back to race alongside the man who had hitherto superseded him. Superb on the right day, undetectable on others, ‘The Iceman’ made the leap from karting to F1 with only one year of Formula Renault in between. He was that good.

Even so, despite having achieved a great deal in motor racing, there still lingers a sense

Räikkönen as his team-mate for 2007 he didn’t disappoint.

Yes, he helped the Finn, but he was often the better driver.

That became obvious to all during the 2008 season, when he eclipsed the reigning World Champion. He won in Bahrain, Turkey, France, Valencia, Spa and Brazil. He only lost the title to McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton by one point in the dying seconds of the Interlagos finale. He showed remarkable dignity in defeat, too.

Sadly, Massa was never quite the same driver following the head injury incurred during the following year’s Hungarian GP.

of what-might-have-been.

Räikkönen joined the Scuderia in 2007, and won a long-overdue World Championship by one point from McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton. A year later, Ferrari’s team leader played second fiddle to stablemate Felipe Massa, and finished third in the final standings. He scored Ferrari’s sole Grand Prix win of 2009 at Spa (and his first in 25 races), only to be replaced

by Fernando Alonso with a year still to run on his contract.

Then, in 2014, he re-joined – becoming a master of the one-year extension to 2018.

RIGHT ‘The Iceman’ got into a hire-fire-re-hire cycle with Ferrari for some years. No one knows what really went on...

at the 2000 German Grand Prix. He would go on to claim eight further victories with the Scuderia, and also finish second in the World Championship to Schumacher in 2002 and again in 2004.

However, for all the success, he was very much the numbertwo driver. Rarely was that made more apparent publicly than during the May 2002 Austrian Grand Prix. Barrichello led from pole, only to cede the place to his team-mate on the last lap under orders from his boss. It wasn’t as though the German needed the points…

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Clay Regazzoni THE romance surrounding Ferrari was rarely exemplified more than by Gianclaudio ‘Clay’ Regazzoni. The Swiss was hard as coffin nails, sometimes straying beyond the line into the territory of ‘dirty driving’ (assuming he knew where the line was located). He was also incredibly loyal to Ferrari, despite that devotion being a one-way street, plus he was unbelievably cool in a macho, early-1970s sort of way. He was what a racing driver should look like in the mind’s eye.

He won on occasion, too. He had a brief dalliance with Ferrari in 1969 in Formula 2, before becoming an occasional driver in the F1 team a year later. He won the 1970 Italian GP in front of the Tifosi, this being the same meeting in which Jochen Rindt perished during practice.

Regazzoni would remain with the Scuderia to 1976, save for a gap year in 1973 when he drove for BRM in F1 and Alfa Romeo in sports cars. He was good enough to finish second in the World Championship to McLaren’s Emerson Fittipaldi in 1974, and won four pointspaying Grands Prix for the Scuderia from 73 starts.

Wolfgang von Trips WOLFGANG Alexander Albert Eduard Maximilian Reichsgraf Berghe von Trips (‘Taffy’) was a scion of Rhineland nobility. He showed flashes of form in 1957 with Ferrari, claiming third in the Italian GP. He and Mike Hawthorn also placed third in the Targa Florio. He was second a year later in the French GP, but was not a consistent frontrunner. In 1959 he drove regularly for Porsche in a season of peaks and troughs, prior to rejoining the Scuderia for 1960.

The team was still fielding

Sebastian Vettel HIS record speaks volumes: Vettel claimed 51 wins in F1, 122 podium positions and four consecutive world titles. Even so, you could argue that his career went off the rails during his six-year stint at Ferrari, and it never recovered. Having been the dominant player at Red Bull – positively ruthless when the mood struck him – there seemed every reason to believe that he might even eclipse Schuey’s tally by the time he retired (Michael expected as much).

Vettel paid tribute to his hero

the front-engined Dinos, which were no match for the mid/rearengined cars made by the Brit garagistas. Nevertheless, he claimed points in the Dutch, Argentinian, Portuguese and British rounds. A year later, he took his first points-paying GP win at Zandvoort. He was second at Spa, won at Aintree and was runner-up at the Nürburgring.

He led the World Championship going into Monza, but he made a poor start, his Ferrari colliding with Jim Clark’s Lotus. Von Trips veered off-track, was flung clear and died instantly; 14 spectators also perished.

after winning the Malaysian Grand Prix in 2015, his second start with the Scuderia. It marked his first victory in a year (and the first in two years for the team), and he said that he had dreamed of emulating Schumacher and winning in a Ferrari ever since he was a boy. Vettel ended the year with three wins and seven podium placings, yet his sophomore season was winless. He led the following points in 2017 until the Italian GP, but lost out at season’s end to Lewis Hamilton.

He was second again in 2018, fifth in 2019 and 13th in 2020.

RIGHT Fourtime F1 World Champion Vettel’s track record speaks volumes about his driving skills.

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Top 50 Ferrari drivers

Chris Amon

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AS we all know, Amon never won a World Championship GP. He was famously dubbed the “unluckiest man in motor sport”, the Kiwi being quick to disabuse anyone of the notion. The truth is, his talent was never in any doubt. He was viewed by such luminaries as Jackie Stewart as being among the very best. And he did win two non-points GPs, the Le Mans 24 Hours and... As with Dan Gurney, though, he also had a habit of moving between teams at the wrong time.

Amon joined Ferrari in 1967,

Tony Brooks ALWAYS a polished performer, Brooks’ time with the Scuderia was brief but memorable. Having placed third in the ’58 F1 season after claiming three victories for Vanwall, he signed for Ferrari.

1959 was when Cooper became a threat with its mid/rear-engined cars, which soon rendered frontpowered rivals obsolete. Even so, Brooks was in contention.

He kicked off with second to Cooper’s Jack Brabham at Monaco despite being sick in the cockpit from fumes. He won the French and German rounds

and made an instant impression for his near-supernatural ‘feel’ for a car in testing. He won the Daytona 24 Hours and Monza 1000 Kilometres next to Lorenzo Bandini, the latter’s death casting a pall over the Scuderia. With Ludovico Scarfiotti departing for pastures new, and Mike Parkes recuperating from his leg-breaking shunt at Spa, the young star suddenly found himself carrying a heavy burden.

He responded magnificently; his mounts conspicuously less so. He departed for a nightmare season with the Works March squad in 1970, just as Ferrari came good…

(the latter being run in heats).

Ferrari sat out the British round at Aintree due to a metalworkers’ strike (allegedly), Vandervell providing Brooks with a revised Vanwall (he retired early on). He was out at Monza with a broken clutch and, as such, he went into the Sebring season finale requiring good luck if he was to better Brabham. None was to be found; Brooks’ 246 Dino was biffed by the sister car of Wolfgang von Trips, which necessitated a visit to the pits for a check-over.

Brooks finished third in the race, and lost the title by four points.

RIGHT Brooks spent a brief but memorable time with the Scuderia, but he lost the 1959 title race by four points.

Jacky Ickx THIS ultra-stylish Belgian won the Le Mans 24 Hours six times, a CanAm title, the Paris-Dakar Rally, the Bathurst 1000, the…

Well, you get the idea. He was also sublime in the Formula 1 championship, at least to begin with. Ickx made the leap from saloon cars to Formula 2, and somehow qualified third for the 1967 Belgian Grand Prix in an F2 Matra.

He was the driver that every team manager in the business tried to entice, and Ferrari landed him for 1968. The Scuderia also allowed him to drive sports cars for John Wyer.

Ickx claimed his maiden F1 win in the wet at Rouen, and finished on the podium at Spa, Brands Hatch and Monza.

Wyer and Gulf Oils were so keen to have Ickx racing for, rather than against, them that they arranged a Brabham drive for 1969. However, he was back with Ferrari for the start of the new decade. He was a contender for the World Championship to the end in 1970, only to lose out to the posthumously awarded Jochen Rindt. Ickx would claim six GP wins with Ferrari, not to mention umpteen sports car wins, but he failed to mount a title bid thereafter.

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Alain Prost ONE of the greatest drivers ever to steer an F1 car, ‘The Professor’ netted four World Championship titles. None was in a Ferrari... Sick of the turf war with Ayrton Senna at McLaren, he moved over to The Reds in 1990 and instantly unsettled team-mate Nigel Mansell; even more so after he won second time out in Brazil. He claimed four more wins that year to become a serious title threat.

And then it all went wrong.

The 1990 season finale at Suzuka marked a new low in

Juan Manuel Fangio WE can positively taste the derision. Fangio, arguably the greatest GP driver of them all, barely scraping into the top ten?

The Argentine was a driving deity, but he was a Scuderia driver for only one season.

Even then, it was a marriage of convenience – and not a happy one. Fangio had little love for the boss, and the feeling was mutual.

He won his titles with four different manufacturers, and him driving for ‘Il Commendatore’ was a means to an end; he had few options after Mercedes-Benz

Jody Scheckter HIS was a career that was bookended by catastrophes. In between, Scheckter was often toweringly impressive. Joining McLaren for the 1972 season finale at Watkins Glen, the South African drove occasionally a year later in between CanAm commitments. In only his third start in F1, the British GP, he triggered a shunt that wiped out almost half the field. However, during time at Tyrrell and Wolf he channelled his colossal speed and competitive urges, achieving a second place in the 1977 title

Fernando Alonso LUCA di Montezemolo labelled Alonso one of the “…three best drivers I have ever seen in the Ferrari team”. The other two were Niki Lauda and Michael Schumacher. Even those who disagreed with him couldn’t deny the two-time World Champion was a brilliant driver. He was also not above leaving a trail of devastation in his wake (just ask McLaren), but for a while at least it looked as though Alonso was going to rack up more titles driving for the Scuderia.

Alonso joined Ferrari from

withdrew from the GP in 1955.

Fangio added three more World Championship wins in ’56 to claim his fourth title from Stirling Moss (he overtook Luigi Musso’s car in Argentina, and Peter Collins’ at Monza). In sports cars, he won at Sebring alongside Eugenio Castellotti; they also came second at the Nürburgring and third in the Supercortemaggiore GP. Fangio found the feudal atmosphere at Ferrari cloying, though. He was also unimpressed at not being seen as the de facto team leader, and returned to his spiritual home, Maserati, for 1957.

driving standards, title-aspirant Senna qualifying on pole, only to demand that he be moved over to the position where second should be; the cleaner part of the track. He didn’t get his way. Cue an epic strop.

Come the start, Prost made the better start from second, and Senna used his McLaren as a battering ram and claimed the title in the gravel trap at the first corner. Prost didn’t win a single race in 1991. When he made the mistake of openly opining that his Tipo 642 was a bit rubbish, he was fired from the Scuderia before the final round.

RIGHT Of course Fangio was one of the sporting greats – but most of his successes didn’t come with Ferrari.

race to Ferrari’s Niki Lauda. Two years later, he was driving for the Scuderia with Gilles Villeneuve.

Many opined that Scheckter’s ‘frank’ demeanour would be incompatible with the ‘theatrical’ style of team management.

Instead, he shone alongside his friend, to the point that they finished first and second in the World Championship (Scheckter on 51 points, the FrenchCanadian on 47). A year later, the 312 T5 was arguably the worst car Ferrari ever fielded, Scheckter accruing just two points for fifth place at Long Beach. No wonder he hung up his helmet.

Renault, and he outperformed his machinery. He clawed back a 47-point deficit, and then topped the tables after winning in South Korea. However, a fluffed call by the team in the season finale in Abu Dhabi saw him deposited behind Vitaly Petrov’s Renault, which was quicker on the straight.

Alonso came home seventh; Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel won and nabbed the title. Two years later, Alonso lost out again, thanks to rotten luck. He remained to the end of 2014, but his confidence in the team had long since evaporated.

RIGHT Alonso was described by di Montezemolo as one of the three best drivers the Ferrari team ever had.

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John Surtees THE seven-time motorcycle World Champion joined the Scuderia in 1963, and made an instant impact. Having already conquered the Nürburgring with MV Agusta, ‘Il Grande John’ followed through with victory in the 1000 Kilometres alongside Willy Mairesse in a Ferrari 250 P. Shortly thereafter, he claimed his maiden F1 victory on the Nordschleife, finishing 1min 17.5sec ahead of a misfire-blighted Jim Clark (in Ferrari’s first F1 win since the Italian GP two years prior). He

Mike Hawthorn HE was motor racing’s blue-eyed boy, the debonair blond whose meteoric rise was mirrored by a precipitous – and tragic – fall. Hawthorn was at the vanguard of a new wave of young British stars who made their mark in GP racing during the 1950s. His title-winning 1958 season was a masterclass in consistency, the Yorkshireborn ace steering his 246 Dino to eight points finishes from ten races to beat Stirling Moss for honours. He may have won only one World Championship GP

that year, but he placed second in six rounds and third in another.

He paced himself brilliantly, only to retire from motor racing at the end of the season.

He’d been deeply troubled by the death of his great friend and team-mate Peter Collins during the 1958 German GP, and was now engaged to be married. He’d also taken over responsibilities for running the family garage.

Tragically, he died in a road smash in early ’59. Hawthorn’s star shone only briefly, but the image of this quintessentially British hero aboard a Ferrari remains indelible.

José Froilán González AS wide of girth as he was big in stature, González is a legend in Ferrari lore – and with good reason. Despite his bulk, he was quite the sportsman in his youth.

And, as with compatriot Fangio, he shone in the arduous South American road races before following his friend to Europe.

Dubbed ‘The Pampas Bull’ by the English-speaking media, or less kindly ‘El Cabezón’ (‘Fat Head’) at home, he became a Ferrari driver in 1951 but was very much the understudy; he was lying second in the French

Phil Hill RARELY has a Formula 1 World Champion been so poorly served by history. Phil Hill is among the least celebrated of this rarest of species, and even now he is often talked of as being more of a sports car specialist than a single-seater ace. Given that his CV included three wins in the Le Mans 24 Hours, as well as many in the Sebring 12 Hours, it’s an easy assumption to make. Even Enzo viewed him as being effective in this role. He didn’t seriously consider Hill a GP driver until

claimed repeat honours in 1964, the year that saw him crowned World Champion.

Surtees was assured of the title – by one point – with only moments to spare. It was an incredible feat, but sadly relations soon soured. He famously left partway through 1966 following one too many disagreements with team boss Eugenio Dragoni.

There was a rapprochement with Ferrari, though. In 1970, Surtees returned to drive a 512S in three rounds of the International Championship for Makes. He placed on the podium in each of them.

he ultimately relented because, well, needs must.

Hill was a Works F1 pilot from the tail end of the 1958 season to 1962. He won three World Championship Grand Prix victories, his 1961 title in the 156 ‘Sharknose’ being assured in the worst way possible after his team-mate and rival Wolfgang von Trips was killed at Monza. Sadly, the famous ‘Palace Coup’ saw the Ferrari brains trust sacked thereafter.

As such, 1962 proved a washout, at least in F1 – Hill’s subsequent move to ATS proving an unmitigated disaster.

GP when he was obliged to give his car to Alberto Ascari.

At the British Grand Prix, he was locked in a duel for the lead with Fangio, although it soon became obvious that the latter’s Alfa was wilting. González didn’t pit until two-thirds distance, and was fully expecting to hand over his car to Ascari, whose own had a broken gearbox.

Instead, he was waved away and scored the Scuderia’s first World Championship win. He triumphed again at Silverstone in 1954, the same year that he claimed Le Mans honours alongside Maurice Trintignant.

LEFT Legendary, yes, but Phil Hill rarely get the recognition he deserves for his Formula 1 achievements.

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Top 50 Ferrari drivers

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Michael Schumacher THE statistics beggar belief: Schumacher claimed 72 Grand Prix wins for Ferrari from 179 starts between 1996 and 2016.

He also bagged five drivers’ titles to go with the two previously racked up at Benetton. The German moulded the Scuderia in his own image, securing the services of Rory Byrne and Ross Brawn. Having them in his corner, and with Jean Todt running the show, the trickle of wins accrued with the lacklustre F310 in 1996 became a flood. A year later, Schuey only narrowly missed out on the drivers’ title after he chose to drive into Williams’ Jacques Villeneuve during the Jerez decider.

Moving forward in the narrative, Schumacher claimed the first of his consecutive titles

in 2000. He made the most of his superior machinery (and tyres), but also had the advantage of subservient team-mates.

That, and self-belief that often strayed into delinquency. And therein lies the rub. So much of the Ferrari mythology is based upon romanticism, and for all his undoubted genius, there was nothing romantic about the way Schumacher raced.

LEFT Extreme self-belief and extraordinary talent created the legend that is Michael Schumacher.

Alberto Ascari TO some extent, this remarkable driver’s life and career was overshadowed by that of his father, Antonio. Ascari Sr was a stand-out driver in the 1920s; an Alfa Works man who was killed at Montlhéry in 1925.

Alberto raced a Ferrari in all but name – the Auto Avio Tipo 815 – in the 1940 Mille Miglia. He led his class until his mount waned. The relationship with Enzo would blossom later, and only after Ascari had enjoyed a dalliance with Maserati.

He joined the Scuderia during 1949, winning the Swiss GP at Bremgarten, the International Trophy at Silverstone and the Italian GP at Monza. However, Alfa returned to the GP arena for 1950, the inaugural year of the World Championship, and

the supercharged 158 was in a class of one. Alfa maintained its dominance until Ferrari’s José Froilán González broke its stranglehold at Silverstone in July 1951. Nevertheless, it was Ascari who followed through, and won the German and Italian

GPs. With Alfa’s subsequent withdrawal, it soon became apparent that there would be no serious threat to Ferrari going into 1952, the year the World Championship switched to Formula 2 regulations.

Ascari dominated. He would

have won every round had he not decided to skip the Swiss GP to prepare for an Indy 500 bid.

He continued from where he left off in ’53. His victory in the Swiss GP was his last, though, if only at World Championship level.

A move to Lancia the next year was hampered by the lack of a race-ready car. He retired from the first two rounds of the 1955 season, but had taken the lead at Monaco from Stirling Moss when his brakes locked up and his car plunged into the drink.

He bobbed to the surface, only to perish in an accident at Monza four days later. He went along to see Eugenio Castellotti test a Works Ferrari, and decided on the spur of the moment to also take to the wheel. His smash at Curva Vialone remains unexplained.

He was just 36, the same age as his father when he died.

Niki Lauda

leave hospital – fewer still that he would ever race again – yet he returned to competition barely 40 days later. He finished fourth in the 1976 Italian GP while in excruciating pain.

Lauda had overcome family objections to become a racing driver. A ‘pay driver’ with March and BRM in 1972-73, he nevertheless attracted the attention of Ferrari, thanks in no small part to Clay Regazzoni putting in a good word. Lauda won three rounds in 1974, before taking his first title a year later. In 1977 he claimed his second crown before moving to Brabham, which was then employing Alfa Romeo engines.

He retired partway through the 1979 season to establish Lauda Air, only to be tempted back by McLaren after two years away. He won his third

title in 1984, and retired again a year later, his legendary status already assured.

Ironically, for a man who hated gushy sentimentalism, ‘The Rat’ is so high up our list because he was the living embodiment of the right stuff.

He was a racer to the core, and one who symbolised triumph and tragedy, the yin and yang of the Ferrari narrative. His battle with McLaren’s James Hunt during the 1976 season is the stuff of legend – a story that was further burnished by the Hollywood-ised version in Rush.

Truth is, the film wasn’t lacking in bovine excrement – not least the central tenet that there was enmity between Lauda and Hunt – but the gist was clear; Lauda made Scuderia Ferrari his own, and he did so by sheer force of will.

FOR all his many achievements, the Austrian is primarily remembered for his strength of character following that fiery accident during the 1976 German Grand Prix at the Nürburgring. The reigning title-holder was on course to seal repeat honours with Scuderia Ferrari, only for the shunt to almost claim his life.

He suffered third-degree burns to his head and face. His lungs were also seared, which led to him receiving last rites.

Few thought he would ever

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1 Top 50 Ferrari drivers

Gilles Villeneuve

HE was always going to be up here. Statistically, Villeneuve wasn’t the greatest driver ever to sit in a Ferrari Grand Prix car. Nevertheless, this FrenchCanadian’s name is intertwined with that of Ferrari’s like no other. Villeneuve was a latterday Tazio Nuvolari, a man who made the impossible possible.

He was the Earl of Oversteer, who could teeter a car on a knife-edge between control and the other thing. He was the guileless legend in his own lifetime who was every bit as expressive as the Tifosi who adored him.

And, as with Ferrari, myth and reality tended to overlap.

Niki Lauda once labelled the former snowmobile racer “…the craziest devil I ever came across in Formula 1”. The great engineer/designer Mauro Forghieri described him as having “a rage to win” like no other driver that he ever worked with. Even Enzo Ferrari, who was atypically simpatico with his young charge, labelled him “…the high priest of destruction”.

Conversely, there are others who insist that once you scrape away the popular belief that he was the thinking man’s lunatic, and analyse the full picture, he was anything but a madman.

He was more (prancing) horse

whisperer than bronco buster.

Villeneuve tried drag racing before moving into Formula Ford, and graduated to Formula Atlantic. He starred nationally, too, but perhaps wouldn’t have appeared on the world stage were it not for James Hunt. In 1976, the superstar Brit was paid a lot of money to contest the grandiosely titled Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, as were fellow F1 drivers Alan Jones and Vittorio Brambilla. If the ‘imports’ expected an easy ride against the locals, they were in for a rude awakening. The race for Atlantic cars was won at a canter by Villeneuve.

Hunt returned home raving about the guy who made him look ordinary. So much so, the people at McLaren took a punt, but decided after one memorable test and a lone Grand Prix that Villeneuve wasn’t for them. They couldn’t afford the likely repair bills. Ferrari was more receptive, and Villeneuve contested the final two rounds of 1977 prior to his first full season. And yes, there were crashes throughout 1978, but he claimed his first GP win in Canada before the year was out. He did so by adopting a compound of tyre so soft that its supplier said they’d never last.

Each of Villeneuve’s six wins belied his reputation as a wild

man; witness his victory at Jarama in 1981, when he was pursued by a train of faster cars for virtually the entire distance, just two seconds blanketing the top five as the flag descended.

There weren’t even trace elements of a mistake from start to finish. But it wasn’t just the wins that made Villeneuve a man apart. There was him setting fastest time in practice at a sodden Watkins Glen in 1979 by 8.5sec; there was the 1980 Monaco Grand Prix, where he was 5sec faster than anyone following in a late downpour – and that was in the execrable 312 T5, a car that was more asthmatic pit pony than thoroughbred. And so on.

Villeneuve’s life was extinguished during final qualifying at Zolder in May 1982. His loss was a tragedy – another being the fact that he raced second-rate cars for much of his time in F1. Rarely, if ever, has a driver done more with less. The last word must go to his former team-mate Jody Scheckter. He said at Villeneuve’s memorial service: “I will miss Gilles for two reasons. First, he was the most genuine man I have ever known. Second, he was the fastest driver in the history of motor racing.”

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Market Watch: Alfa Romeo SZ – a rare Italian oddity

Watches and art: Chopard and Peter Hearsey

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Alfa Romeo SZ Quirky, rare and rapidly ascending in price, this Italian oddity rekindled Alfa’s notion of a low-volume, exotic model as a ‘cuore sportivo’ flagship. Does ownership live up to the promise?

AN ITALIAN SELLER ON A European classifieds website has an Alfa Romeo SZ for sale at an asking price of €150,000. Is it a zero-miles timewarp, yet to see the open road? Not at all: it has covered 36,000km, yet it does look in very nice condition. But €150k? Really?

Although this car is a very highpriced exception, it does seem that the days of the £20,000 pre-owned SZ are long gone. This muchmisunderstood Alfa, adored by some on its 1989 launch, yet leaving many more perplexed, shocked or simply cold, is finally settling into prosperous middle age. But it certainly hasn’t got any less weird on the way.

That weirdness didn’t arise from the ‘Z’ part of its moniker, however, even though the Z stands – as it did when Alfa used the SZ name the first time round, in the late 1950s and early 1960s – for Zagato. This second SZ was entirely an in-house brand conception, and Zagato merely built it on a modified Alfa 75 platform. And so to the obvious question: why does it look so odd?

The head of the advanced design section of Fiat’s styling centre, which also developed new ideas for Alfa Romeo, was Frenchman Robert Opron. He had history as a creator of intriguingly unconventional shapes; Citroën’s GS, SM, CX and the Ami facelift were his, and having moved to Renault he shaped the Fuego, plus influenced the 25 and – reined in by the need not to frighten the fleet managers – the deliberately uncontroversial 9 and 11.

And for Alfa’s planned assault on the high-end sporting domain occupied by the Porsche 911 and the Lotus Esprit, while rekindling the notion of a low-volume, exotic model as a flagship for the ‘cuore sportivo’ idea, Opron went rogue.

Perhaps it was the thrill of shaping a car driven by its rear wheels rather than the fronts.

Perhaps he felt a need to include some past flavour of Zagato madness. Perhaps those wilfully misshapen flanks and windscreen pillars really were, as some have suggested, the result of the SZ’s misfortune to be the first car to be

ABOVE Two deep, heavily sculpted seats are trimmed in tan leather and complemented by a Momo wheel. styled entirely on CAD (computeraided design, still a touch clunky in the late 1980s). Or maybe it was simply that Alfa Romeo wanted, and needed, the SZ to be talked about. Much better than not being talked about, after all...

And it was, often being referred to as Il Mostro (The Monster).

Its artful oddness immediately divided opinion, but enough car nuts of a maverick disposition found themselves wanting an SZ for Alfa Romeo to sell 1036 of them, followed by a further 278 RZ roadster versions.

Helping project ES30, as the SZ was known within the Fiat group, go from idea to production in just 18 months was its basis on the existing 75 platform. Power came from the final 210bhp 3.0-litre version of Alfa’s lovely V6, whose fuel injection and management was by then Bosch Motronic controlled.

However, for its new role, the 75’s underpinnings gained some significant mechanical changes masterminded by Giorgio Pianta, chief of the Fiat and Lancia competitions department.

Most radical of these was to replace the front suspension’s torsion bars, a feature of that platform’s design right from its beginnings in the Alfetta models,

with Koni coil-over spring/damper units. These appeared on the de Dion rear suspension, too, which also gained – as at the front – bigger wheel bearings and a dose of negative camber.

Other front-end enhancements were bigger brakes, a lower roll centre through the geometry changes, and balljoints instead of rubber bushes at the ends of the tie bars. All of this came from the IMSA 75s that Pianta had developed to race in the US, although sadly that programme ultimately came to nought.

Given the low planned build volume – intended to be 1000 cars, so that final total of 1036 surely marks the SZ as a sales success – it would have been uneconomic to create presses for metal body panels. Hand fabrication would have been similarly cost ineffective.

So the panels, aluminium roof excepted, were made from Modar, an injection-moulded mix of chopped-strand glassfibre and polyester resin. Modar was the invention of now-defunct brand Carplast, which was owned by the son of engineering legend Giotto Bizzarrini.

Modar could have been a great innovation; quicker and easier to use than the other two main advances over hand-laid glassfibre (Lotus’s vacuum-assisted resin injection, and the one now most commonly used, pre-cut stamped

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composite panels pre-impregnated with resin then usually cured in an oven). But it had two main snags.

The random nature of the fibres’ orientation didn’t impart strength in the directions required, so a lot of Modar was needed to make the panels strong enough. This made the panels heavier than steel – let alone aluminium – equivalents, and almost ludicrously thick in places.

And there was no smooth, resincovered outer surface, just the matt roughness of thousands of fibre ends ready to soak up moisture.

Which it did, to the severe detriment of paintwork as we shall see.

Not that these issues were either evident or anticipated as the SZ was released into a startled world.

Instead we were taking in the nose (with six tiny headlights), the tail (chopped off, with a small boot containing just a space-saver spare wheel and the pump for raising and lowering the suspension), the carbonfibre rear spoiler, the sheer

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ABOVE Distinctive body lines hide panel-material issues that require specific treatment.

collision of chunkiness and curves in the shape. And that doublecurved windscreen, taken from Zagato’s limited-run Lancia Hyena.

All bar one of the 1036 cars were painted red with a metallic-grey roof. And that non-red SZ? It was black, and built for Andrea Zagato.

T H E VA L U E P R O P O S I T I O N

‘Buy the best you can, or one that’s already had a lot of money spent on it in the right way’

It was Adrian Jardine, proprietor of UK SZ epicentre Alfa Aid and inexhaustible repository of wisdom willingly shared with Magneto for this story, who alerted us to that mega-priced car for sale in Italy.

It was on the pan-European AutoScout24 site, along with 18 others at the time of writing, of which the cheapest was a Dutch one just sold for €65,000. “They’re generally dearer in Europe,” says Jardine. “Due to Brexit, they are no longer moving back and forth between there and here like they did.

“So there aren’t many for sale in the UK. If you find one for about

£50k you can drive it and enjoy it, but if you want to make it lovely it will end up a lot more expensive. If you find one offered for less than £40k it will be, to be blunt, a pile of crap. A mint example could now be £100k, while I guarantee that one bought for £75k will need a good £10k-worth of work. Last year I did £18k of work on an SZ that the owner had just bought for £66k.

“My advice is to buy the best you possibly can, or one that has already had a lot of money spent on it in the right way. If the seller says, ‘I’ve never had to spend anything on it,’ its well-being will be hanging by a thread.”

This makes an interesting comparison with the data collected

by Hagerty in its UK valuation tool – a correlation that may well apply to other markets. Hagerty values an SZ in ‘fair’ condition, which Jardine would classify as in need of major help, at £31,170. A ‘good’ one averages £41,290, with £57,380

TIMELINE

VA LU E S F R O M H AG E RT Y P R I C E G U I D E Alfa Romeo SZ UK prices

Alfa Romeo SZ US prices

£100,000

$125,000

$10,000 £75,000

1987

Following Fiat’s acquisition of Alfa Romeo, Robert Opron – newly arrived at company’s Centro Stile – devises a radical sports coupé based on Alfa 75 model’s platform and mechanicals. Project is dubbed ES30, standing for Experimental Sportscar 3.0 litres, and is honed to a productionready design by stylist Antonio Castellana.

1989

$75,000

Result is launched at Geneva Motor Show, and enters production at Zagato.

£50,000 $50,000

1991

£25,000

CONDITION 1

Production ends after 1036 cars, to make way for RZ roadster version.

$25,000

CONDITION 2 CONDITION 3

1994

CONDITION 4

£0

$0 2016

2017

2018

2019

needed for an ‘excellent’ example and £82,280 for a ‘concours’ one.

Such values appear instinctively plausible, but it seems that new market trends are overtaking them.

Occasionally an SZ comes up for sale that was originally supplied to, or has spent time in, Japan.

“They’re often lovely underneath,” Jardine says, “but they’re also likely to have been ‘got at’. They often lack the original seats, or there might be bonnet pins or holes drilled in the dash, or the original suspension has been thrown away. All of this will be costly to return to standard.”

What they won’t be is right-hand drive, because no SZs were so made.

There are no variations to muddle the ownership prospect, unless you count the very rare RZ roadster whose Hagerty-rated values are much the same as for the SZ. As for Alfa’s desire to compete with the 911 and its ilk, it seems that, three decades on, the SZ’s value yearfor-year has trumped them all.

2020

2021

2022

2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022

T H E D E S I R A B I L I T Y FA C T O R Why would you desire an SZ? Rarity, the Zagato connection, the famous Giuseppe Busso-designed V6 engine, the fact that the car will always be a potent conversation piece… All of these combine to guarantee that ownership of an SZ will always be interesting.

There is the styling, too, of course. In profile the SZ looks as if it is sucking itself onto the road, its waistline seemingly emanating from the centre of the front wheel.

The strip of smoked lightware across the tail has shades of the concurrent Alfa 164, while the huge panel gaps suggest a race-flavoured functionality if you choose to think of them that way. Or they could be deliberate style elements to celebrate the SZ as an assemblage of parts as much as a contiguous whole. Or they could just be there to allow the panels to expand, which is actually the main reason.

Inside we find just two seats,

even though the SZ’s wheelbase is unchanged from the four-door, fiveseater 75’s. Upholstered in light tan leather, these are extravagantly winged and bolstered. The left front corner of the passenger’s one has a looped grab handle, just in case the driver tries to generate excessive g-force on a left-hand bend. A pleasing Momo steering wheel, much like a Mk1 Mazda MX-5’s, fronts a facia entirely unlike an Alfa 75’s apart from the rotary heater controls. The blackrimmed dials are all separate, proprietary-looking items, which adds to the low-volume vibe.

The view over that facia and low nose is surprisingly panoramic, and bounded by those curious twisting windscreen pillars that seem at once convex and concave.

Behind the passengers is a roomy load area for which fitted, colourmatched luggage was originally available – but you’ll be hoisting those bags past the front seats, as

RZ production ends after 278 have been made – rather fewer than 350 that were planned.

the rear window doesn’t open.

To drive, an SZ is really rather good. Its suspension is a touch soft by modern sports car standards, but don’t think of that as a disadvantage. On the contrary, it helps the SZ driver to feel exactly what is going on, instead of springing a sudden surprise.

It’s taut and responsive enough to feel lithe and agile, even though it weighs a bit more than its 75 basis (blame the mass of the Modar). And it rides well enough to look after you as you streak across Europe, if only in your dreams in this speed-limited, cameraenforced world. It’s certainly a lot sharper in its dynamics than a 75, helped by that negative camber and the added ‘bite’ it gives.

And, of course, it sounds fantastic, as any Busso V6-engined car can’t help doing. It’s plenty rapid enough, too; claims at the time were for 152mph and 0-62mph in seven seconds. Shifting ratios in

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the rear-mounted transaxle is a pleasingly involving process, even if the gearlever’s action isn’t the last word in precision, while anyone who’s pinched the palm of a hand in the release mechanism of the 75’s weird U-shaped handbrake will be glad to know that the SZ’s lever is entirely conventional.

T H E N U T S A N D B O LT S The body panels, and what lies immediately beneath them, are the big worry. Even when your SZ looks perfect, it seems there’s no guarantee it’ll stay that way unaided.

“You must never leave it out in the frost,” warns Adrian Jardine, “even after a top-quality repaint.”

When a Modar panel was made, air and moisture were inevitably incorporated into the fibre-andresin mix. Cycles of hot and cold weather, and maybe some freezing, cause bubbles to form in the moisture that gradually migrate to the surface. With no outer resin coat to contain them, the bubbles’ next stop is the paint layer, which blisters. “To deal with this, we need to take the paint off,” Jardine explains. “But the paint is tougher than the Modar substrate. So as soon as the paint is rubbed through with an orbital sander, the Modar is rubbed away. It’s as soft as dust.

“So instead we rub it down by hand with an abrasive block. It takes many hours, so it’s expensive.

Once the paint is off, there are several cycles of warming up the panel to get the moisture out. Then we seal the surface, prime it and paint it. It’s hard to find bodyshops that understand the Modar issues, so don’t be surprised if these recur on a car that has been repainted.

We have to charge over £20,000 to do an entire car properly, even if there’s no rust to fix first.”

Yes, rust. Places to check include the jacking points, the body above the exit point for the fuel tank’s pipes, where a foam filler pad soaks up water, the sills where they meet the wheelarches, and the bottom of the windscreen pillars and the adjacent scuttle under the screen. Ultimately, the expanding steel seams can cause leaks into the fuse box, and delamination,

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T H E D E TA I L S 1989-91 ALFA ROMEO SZ ENGINE

V6, 2959CC, 12V

POWER

210BHP

TOP SPEED

152MPH

0-60MPH

7.0 SECONDS

followed by cracking, of the glass.

Jardine has had new windscreens made, a two-year project with Pilkington Classics that was unusually difficult owing to the screen’s compound curves.

More rust can afflict the base of the rear roof pillars and the steel to which they are attached, caused mostly by water getting into the spoiler’s mountings. (The spoiler itself is prone to delamination, too, but can be repaired.) Fixing this involves removing the rear wings, which are bonded to the steel inner structure with a bead of sealer.

There’s plenty more such sealer elsewhere, including where the tops of the front wings are attached within the engine bay. An untidy join there doesn’t point to a poor past repair: “That’s how they are from new,” Jardine observes.

The bonnet is a monstrously heavy thing, unfeasibly thick along its edges to give strength. The

‘An intriguing artwork that’s great fun to drive and surprisingly usable on a regular basis’

second variant, of three, was thinner there, but gained extra bonded-on bracing to stop the first version’s tendency to lift once past 100mph. Bonnet number three incorporated the bracing in the moulding. Jardine’s replacements are made from hand-laid glassfibre, and are much lighter: “We make them too big, so they can be shaped to fit properly. The originals were all shaped to fit a particular car once the other panels were bonded on.”

All the original movable panels were marked on the inside by felt pen with the last digits of the car’s chassis number before painting, and sometimes the numbers are still visible. The same few digits are also stamped into the fuel-filler flap’s hinge, and the complete VIN can be found in the boot by the suspension pump (check it works – it powers the ability to raise the suspension over speed humps and the like), and on the front slam panel.

An SZ will also have a build number, recorded on a plaque and, if the dealer did its job correctly, on a build certificate that comes as part of a leather-bound book pack.

This doesn’t necessarily relate to the VIN, but it marks the order in which the cars left the production line. Ideally, there will also be a matching parts book. Also included should be a bag for the spare wheel – useful for covering a punctured road rim when it has to be carried inside the cabin because it won’t fit in the boot – and a car cover. Reproduction items are available, as with the luggage.

Jardine warns never to use the

SZ’s unique jack, based on the 75’s item but with an extended lifting bar to cope with wider sills. The bar bends, causing the jack to tilt and gouge the body as it’s lowered.

Another warning concerns the wraparound rear lights, whose angled fixing studs require the lens to be removed at a matching angle.

The plastic is easily cracked, and new lenses are £800 each.

Alfa Aid has developed various fixes for SZ ills, including a modified cambelt-and-tensioner system to stop tooth-jumping, a correct water pump that doesn’t interfere with the oil cooler’s pipework as the notional factory replacement does, an improved upper sump gasket to fix a common leak whose remedy involves taking the engine out, and stainless power-steering pipes to replace the often-rusted originals.

“No one else makes these pipes,” Jardine says with justified pride.

He has also created a new, freerbreathing exhaust system in stainless steel – one whose deep, mellifluous note is free of annoying resonance periods.

THE FINAL DECISION It’s easy! If an SZ passes the many checks outlined above, and you’re prepared to pay the hefty price such a car now commands, then why not? You and it will be the talk of any auto gathering, and you’ll own an intriguing artwork that’s also great fun to drive and surprisingly usable on a regular basis. Just don’t leave it out in the frost.

Thanks to Adrian Jardine at Alfa Aid. Visit www.alfaaid.co.uk or telephone +44 (0)1628 788887.

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FOR INFORMATION CONTACT UK +44 (0) 20 7851 7070 HEADQUARTERS +1 519 352 4575 FINANCING@RMSOTHEBYS.COM

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

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What we learned at Monterey in 2022

Words Dave Kinney

Interesting new trends were set in a fantastic return to post-Covid glory for auction companies and sellers alike

SPOILER ALERT: THE EVENT of the year did NOT happen at Pebble Beach. But some notable things certainly did.

After so many Covid delays and no-shows, the events surrounding this year’s Monterey auctions finally felt as if everything was back to normal. The caveat is, of course, whatever ‘normal’ is in the collector car world is still up in the air.

For the uninitiated, this North American mecca of cars, car folk and car events remains a life-list must-see. The views, landscapes and roads in the area are nothing short of remarkable, the natives are generally friendly, and this gathering of like-minded souls brings a tonne of money into the far-from-depressed local economy.

Hotels are stupid expensive, restaurant tables are fully booked and paying for a hire car (rental to us Yanks) for the week rivals the cost of a weekend break in London.

Everything you want to see is within a remarkably few square miles, yet the unending gift of backed-up traffic makes getting from point A to point B at times the impossible dream.

The cars, however, are what make it all worthwhile. Parked on the street, on show stands, on the show fields or at the auctions, being driven or simply as a static display, you are likely to see hundreds of automobiles you have never before witnessed in person.

I’m an auction guy, and that is where you are most likely to find me. The houses represented in Monterey in 2022 were Bonhams, RM Sotheby’s, Mecum, Gooding &

Company, and newcomer Broad Arrow, which is owned by Hagerty.

Missing, some of you might note, is Russo and Steele. Without going into details, let’s just say the entertainment and people-watching value of attending a Russo and Steele event will be missed by many. Worldwide Auctions, which has had a California presence in the past, instead concentrated on its Auburn, Indiana hometown venue, held just two weeks after Monterey.

There were few if any missteps visible at the auctions this year, and the money was flowing. Just to recap, the sales total one day after the auctions ended, according to Hagerty, was just a few dollars shy of $470,000,000, which bested the 2015 record of $394,500,000 by a hefty $75,500,000.

But wait! There’s more... With the benefit of a bit of extra time, including adding in all the aftersales reported by the five auction houses, according to market watcher Rick Carey the total was an eye-opening $491,722,351. And while four hundred and ninety-one mil is a lot of money, a lot of inflation has happened in the past seven years,

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‘It finally felt as if everything was back to normal – whatever “normal” is in the collector car world now’

so $394,500,000 from 2015 is equal to about $464,005,000 in 2022. Any way you slice it, the $27,717,351 difference is a lot of money. With 806 cars sold of the 1026 on offer, a 78.5 percent sales rate was observed. The final numbers are in, and 2022 was a fantastic year for auction companies and sellers in Monterey.

Let’s not forget the dollars brought in by those who do more looking than buying or selling. The often-used estimate of the number of people that Car Week brings into the greater Monterey area is 85,000, and ask me how I know that few would get out for less than $300 per day. If the average stay was just three days, that equates to $76,500,000 for the local economy – or approximately three dozen Mercedes-Benz 300SL Gullwings.

The numbers are one thing, but watching the trends is where some of us love to see the numbers.

Back to Hagerty again for some additional information from John Wiley, valuation analytics manager: “Tastes – and demographics – are changing. The fastest movers in the Hagerty Price Guide are modern sports cars, and those sold exceptionally well in Monterey.

Nearly every analogue supercar offered set a world-record price.

“Hagerty has noted for years that the younger collectors are transforming the market, and that transition has only accelerated during the pandemic. The most valuable F50 ever added to a Hagerty insurance policy occurred in 2022, and it was done so by the youngest person to ever add an

RM SOTHEBY’S

LEFT Ferrari 410 Sport Spider was Monterey’s top seller, going under the hammer for $22,005,000.

F50 to their insurance. The secondyoungest person to ever add an F40 to a policy was also in 2022.”

John goes on to say that demographic shift does not mean older cars are being forgotten, noting that the 1955 Ferrari 410 Sport Spider at RM Sotheby’s was the top seller of the week, at $22,005,000. Not to forget that a handful of pre-war cars hit the top-ten biggest-sellers list, including Gooding & Company’s 1937 Type 57 Bugatti that brought home a cool $10,345,000.

On a personal note, I was convinced that any week with a dozen Mercedes-Benz 500K and 540K cars on offer was a bad idea.

Well, words, meet mouth. Ten of the 12 sold – and they all seem to have been bought at or near a market-correct price.

And the event of the year 2022?

It’s actually not too early to predict, even though there are a few months left before the stroke of midnight on December 31. If you haven’t figured it out by now, it was, is and will continue to be the sale, by RM Sotheby’s, of the 1955 Mercedes-Benz Uhlenhaut Coupé at a reported €135,000,000. This sale will continue to resonate for decades to come. The title of the Most Expensive Car in the World is just a part of the equation. Like it or not, the era of cars as fine art is upon us. For the owners and followers of the classics, ignore this at your own risk.

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WAT C H E S

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A thing of beauty

Words Jonathon Burford

Chopard’s boldly unique caliber 1.96 is as exquisite as you’d expect from a revered jewellery brand

I RECENTLY WROTE ABOUT what I consider to be the greatest vintage automatic movement, the caliber 12-600AT by Patek Philippe in the Reference 2526. Someone then asked what I thought was the best modern automatic movement.

Several movements are worthy of consideration, but my two stand-outs are not from the holy trinity (Patek, Vacheron and Audemars), or a small, revered independent watchmaker. The first is the highly finished caliber L021 by A. Lange & Söhne, which powers the Lange 1 Daymatic. The other is one of the most surprising, simple and beautiful movements, a blank-sheet design from a name previously best known for its jewellery and jewelled watches.

Louis-Ulysse Chopard’s brand stayed in family hands from its founding in the 1860s until 1963, when it was sold to the German Scheufele family. In the mid-1980s Karl-Friedrich Scheufele assumed control towards the back end of the ‘quartz crisis’, a make-or-break moment for Swiss watchmakers.

His ambitions for Chopard were high, and so he contracted the help of master watchmaker Michel Parmigiani as well as opened a facility in Fleurier, 40 miles from Chopard’s home in Sonvilier.

Given the cost and complexity of designing and manufacturing an automatic movement from scratch, it is little surprise that even the most revered brands have utilised and developed competitors’ base movements to save money. Clear examples are Rolex’s use of a Zenith movement in the Daytona Ref 16500, Patek’s work with Lemania,

plus Patek and Audemars Piguet’s use and development of the Jaeger-LeCoultre caliber 920 for the Nautilus and Royal Oak respectively. This gives you some idea of the scale of the ambition at Chopard to create its own new and exceptional automatic movement.

The process was overseen by Karl-Friedrich and manager JeanFrédéric Dufour (now Rolex CEO).

A desire for a slim (3.3mm), elegant movement saw the pair utilise a ball-bearing-mounted micro rotor, meaning that at no point would a full winding rotor obscure this beautiful movement. Karl-Friedrich wanted a power reserve of at least 70 hours, so required two stacked mainspring barrels that operated in sequence one after the other.

To help with accuracy, a 4Hz vibrational speed was desired.

As a nod to history, Chopard incorporated a Breguet Overcoil for its hairspring, and a swan-neck regulator (an intricate but ultimately unnecessary flamboyance). To create the visual equal of any peer, the 22k micro rotor was hand guillochéd, and all the plates and bridges were exquisitely finished by hand with Geneva stripes and anglage. The overall effect was stunning. As a sign of the quality and accuracy of the movement, it was sent to COSC for certification, and was awarded a Geneva Seal (Poinçon de Genève) certifying its craftsmanship and finishing.

The first 20 were produced in December 1995, but it was in early 1996 that Chopard put the caliber 1.96 (apropos the launch year) into production in the LUC 1860, named after the founder and the year of

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ABOVE Karl-Friedrich Scheufele and Jean-Frédéric Dufour oversaw the creation of the elegant LUC 1860 watch.

‘This magical movement was a bold move

by Scheufele – a statement of intent’

founding. Given the brand’s history as a jeweller, every element of the watch that housed the 1.96 was made from precious metal (case, dial and indexes included), with Chopard mixing its own alloys and casting. For the dial it used Metalem, which went on to produce the dials for Philippe Dufour and his revered Simplicity watches, renowned for their high-quality finishing and elegant designs. It is one of the most beautiful dress watches ever.

Released to universal industry acclaim, the 1997-2002 LUC 1860 was named Watch of the Year by Montres Passion and Timezone. It was made in three series; the first, Ref 16/1860/2, had a sapphire (exhibition) case back, with 1860 examples made across the four precious metals and four dial colours (silver, black, blue and salmon). The second and third were made with officer-style case backs, in 100 examples in each metal type.

Examples of the first series are

MOTORING ART

the most desirable – the purest expression of an automatic dress watch. My preference is for examples with cursive ‘Chopard’ engraved on the rotor (later replaced by block LUC), and in white metal with either blue or salmon dials. Custom-order variants with diamond indexes are rare.

These early watches have a cult following among collectors.

This magical movement was released at a time of rebirth in the industry, with the relaunch of A. Lange & Söhne two years prior, and just before the independent watchmaking boom. It was a bold move by Scheufele, a statement of intent taking Chopard into the new millennium with the confidence as a haute horology watchmaker, and setting the standard for what the brand has achieved since.

Writer Jonathon Burford is SVP and specialist at Sotheby’s watch department. For its ongoing Watches sales, see www.sothebys.com.

Goodwood’s poster boy

Words Rupert Whyte

A chance encounter with Lord March led to Peter Hearsey’s 22-year involvement with the Festival of Speed

ARTIST PETER HEARSEY IS synonymous with the Goodwood Festival of Speed, creating the poster artwork every year from the event’s inception in 1993 (although the ’93 piece was actually a retrospective poster produced in 1994) through to 2014, when he decided it was time to hand over the reins.

As with many artists of his generation, Peter started his career in advertising in the 1960s, having finished two years of fine art and two years of graphic design at art school. Realising that an office-based ad job was boring to him, and not what he wanted to do, and despite landing a position in one of London’s biggest agencies, he walked out.

Working as a freelance designer in the 1970s, Peter kept up with his passion for painting – the subjects were invariably cars, boats, aeroplanes and figurative work. He sold his pieces through a gallery on Cork Street in London.

Two decades later, he was living and working in the Isle of Man, and had gained full membership of the AFAS (Automotive Fine Arts Society) in the US. There, between 1991 and

1994, he and his wife Anne spent up to six months of the year exhibiting at major events.

It was while the then-Earl of March (now the 11th Duke of Richmond), Festival of Speed founder, was visiting the US in 1993 that he purchased a print of Peter’s from a local gallery, featuring René Dreyfus in his Alfa Romeo P3. He was very taken with what he saw, and when he returned to the UK he tracked Peter down and commissioned him to produce a poster for that year’s FoS. “Lord March had assumed I was an American artist, so was quite surprised when he found out I was British,” says Peter.

Hearsey’s produced artworks numbering in the thousands, but he cites a Goodwood poster as a personal favourite: 2009’s image of the Le Mans-winning Audi (right). He explains: “I worked on it for a long time and couldn’t get it to come together, so one morning I went into the studio and mixed up a load of paints, took a big brush and attacked it.

Then, for some reason, the whole thing came together; to this day, I still don’t know why.” Maybe it

was the freedom of expression that comes with not thinking too hard about something…

For an artist of such standing on both sides of the Atlantic, Peter’s work is very good value, with etchings starting from £125 and original paintings from £450.

While the early FoS posters can fetch £100, more recent examples are still available from £20.

Rupert Whyte runs Historic Car Art, www.historiccarart.net, selling original works and posters.

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AUTOMOBILIA

Words and photography Nathan Beehl

What could be more desirable to Ferrari fans than a book written and gifted by Enzo himself?

IN THE CONTEXT OF FERRARI, ‘presentation books’ describes volumes produced by Ferrari, and written by Enzo, to be given away by him personally, such as Le Mie Gioie Terribili and Piloti, Che Gente...

In these autobiographical, mainly Italian books, Enzo ‘presented’ his version of his life story.

Cork covers bind Enzo’s comments about 53 noted Italian journalists.

Il Flobert was a dart gun, and Enzo fires his barbs and asks: “You won’t use your artillery against me, will you?” He was sensitive to criticism, and often replied to the media that had a go at him. $750-$900.

Le Mie Gioie Terribili (My Terrible Joys)

1st ed: Nov. 1979, plain cover, no DJ, 230 pages (1000 copies) 2nd ed: Dec. 1980 (3000 copies) 3rd ed: Dec. 1981 (2500 copies) 2nd and 3rd editions, hard cover, with Enzo image, no DJ. 242 pages.

Rare 1st edition, $400-$500. Others are more common, $150-$250.

1st edition: Nov. 1962, Bologna, published by Marabout 2nd ed: Dec. 1962, with dust jacket 3rd ed: June 1963, with DJ Note: 1964-onwards, also editions in French, English etc, but these were commercially available.

Le Mie Gioie Terribili, Due Anni Dopo (My Terrible Joys, Two Years Later) 4th ed: Dec. 1964, with DJ 5th ed: Nov. 1965 6th ed: Nov. 1966 $100-$200, but it is easy to find copies without a DJ, while many of those wearing a DJ are tatty.

Le Briglie del Successo (The Bridle of Success) 1st ed: Mar. 1970, red boards with yellow DJ, 268 pages, 8.5in x 11.75in 2nd ed: Nov. 1970, yellow hard cover, no DJ $400-$600, more with signature.

Ferrari (aka The Big Red Book) Nov. 1974, 253 pages $400-$500 Note: Has a printed – NOT handsigned – Enzo Ferrari signature on the top of the title page.

Il Flobert Nov. 1976, Officine Grafiche Modena, c.120 unnumbered pages

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Ferrari presentation books

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Ferrari 80

Piloti, Che Gente…

(Drivers, What People...)

‘PCG’ presents Ferrari’s comments on drivers from 1908-on, when he attended his first race aged ten.

1st ed: Nov. 1983, grey-beige cover, no DJ, 359 pages (2500 copies) 2nd ed: Sept. 1984 (English), greybeige cover, no DJ. Industrie Grafiche Arbe, 1984. 360 pages. c.2500, but it’s believed more were published, and that this number was copied from the 1st edition.

3rd ed: Dec. 1985, red cover with painting of red car, no DJ. Conte Editore, Bologne, Italy, 479 pages.

4th ed: Dec. 1987, blue cover, no DJ. Available for eight months, then withdrawn on Enzo’s death in Aug. 1988. Rare, especially when signed.

5th ed: Nov. 1989, blue cover, no DJ, with Piero Ferrari preface. The 4th and 5th edition covers are visibly the same, except for the ‘Quinta Edition’ splash on the latter.

There was also a commercial edition in various languages: June 1987, Cartier Foundation, English,

French and German, red with a DJ. It says ‘First English Edition 1985’ inside, but was actually produced for the Cartier Hommage à Ferrari exhibition in ’87. The last page says ‘Printing finished in June 1987’.

Price in good condition should be $100-$250, except for the rarer 4th edition, which will be much more expensive. Don’t confuse this book with an Autosprint-published booklet of the same name.

If a book has an Enzo Ferrari business card stapled inside, it may command $50-$100 more. Beware!

There’s been a recent proliferation of tomes offered with such cards, but these are not stapled in. This is very unusual. These cards are obviously easy to replicate, so stay wary. Although books with Enzo business cards are naturally more attractive for the collector, you should exercise due diligence.

Also, watch out for Ferrari compliments slips. If these are loose, then be suspicious. They are mostly stapled inside, and while not always signed, they usually have some greeting in Italian in the

famous purple ink. Vendors will sometimes use the addition of a card or slip to justify a premium price, but in fact you’re just buying a book and a card that, if purchased separately, would be a lot less.

Of course, books signed by Ferrari fetch a premium. But don’t forget that the signature is easy to copy, so provenance is important.

It pays to buy from a reputable seller, not just someone who turns up on eBay with a deal too good to miss. As always, caveat emptor.

Thanks to Automobilia Resource, www.automobiliaresource.com.

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ALLEMANO AND THE ‘SHARKNOSE’ IT’S QUITE A LEAP FROM THE origins of the Allemano company, making steam-powered road rollers in the 1850s, to one of the most distinctive and successful Formula 1 cars ever, Ferrari’s 156 F1 ‘Sharknose’ – but there’s a traceable link through that 100-plus year timeline.

It all started with the need for instrumentation on the steampowered machinery produced by Giuseppe Allemano. The company’s expertise grew in the manufacture of gauges to measure steam pressure and temperature, at the same time as the automotive industry was starting out, with the result that both Fiat and the Italian military called upon Allemano for its new products.

The first of Fiat’s production cars, the 501 Torpedo, was fitted with an Allemano gauge. Other instrumentation, including oilpressure gauges, followed – and it was one of these that was fitted to the first car badged as a Ferrari, the 125S. The association between Allemano and Ferrari continued, with a high point being the fitment of gauges to the 1961 156 F1 Grand Prix race car designed by Carlo Chiti and Mauro Forghieri. This was nicknamed ‘Sharknose’ for its distinctive front

Italian-made Allemano watches derive from the gauges used in historic cars, including the all-conquering Ferrari 156 F1

radiator scoops and chiselled nose, developed in the wind tunnel.

The 156 F1 was a result of new Formula 1 regulations which stated that the maximum size of engine should be 1.5 litres, rather than the previous 2.5-litre limit. Fortuitously, Ferrari’s Formula 2 car at the time was the 1.5-litre 156 F2, which was essentially the same as its successful 2.5 Formula 1 car, the 256 F1. This

meant adapting to the brand-new regulations was much easier for Ferrari than for many of its rivals.

The new car for 1961 built on the knowledge gained in both F1 and F2, and its rear-mounted, 120-degree V6, five-speed transmission, Dunlop ABOVE AND BELOW Allemano pays tribute to the Ferrari 156 F1 with its 1919 range of watches.

disc brakes on all four wheels and independent suspension complete with telescopic shocks proved a dominant combination, often more than 10mph faster than its rivals.

At the Belgian Grand Prix, the third race of the 1961 season, Phil Hill’s 156 F1 took pole by six seconds.

This set the scene for the rest of the season, to the point that by the penultimate race at Monza, the Drivers’ Championship had become a simple one-two affair between Ferrari team drivers Phil Hill and Wolfgang von Trips, both in 156 F1s.

Tragically, von Trips crashed on the second lap, killing both himself and 15 spectators. As a mark of respect, Ferrari withdrew from the final race, and so the dominating run of the 156 F1 was over. It proved less competitive in 1962, and so, in 1963, Enzo Ferrari ordered for all examples to be scrapped.

The 156 F1 had been one of the most dominant F1 cars of all time, and it was inevitable that replicas have since been made – including one for musician Chris Rea for his La Passione film tribute to von Trips. Now, Allemano also pays tribute to the 165 F1 with its 1919 range of watches.

For more, see www.allemanotime.it/en

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Words Nathan Chadwick

An answer to your teenage dreams AND a sound investment; the appeal of collecting vintage guitars

GUITARS OF ALL SHAPES, sizes and creeds hang from the ceiling and crawl up from the floor like stringed stalactites and stalagmites. All around me, teenage dreams await their next home.

Meanwhile, shop talk is about why Blur were better than Oasis.

Such conversation has played out in London’s Denmark Street Guitars – known as Hank’s – since its mid-1980s opening. There is comfort in knowing some things don’t change. The same applies to what’s desirable in collectable vintage guitars, reckons Hank’s Shane Gilliver – but the prices have definitely changed.

“Fender Stratocasters from the mid-1950s have gone crazy,” he says. “Even really early ’70s stuff has started to command high prices.

Not in the same way as the 1960s and ’50s guitars – but they were never a thing, and now they are.”

1950s Gibsons are also popular, but certain years hold more allure.

“1959 is the Holy Grail,” Shane explains. “You can’t find this stuff, there’s not much out there – from 1958-60, Gibson made around 1800 guitars. These appeal to people who aren’t musicians – those who want a sound investment.”

The display side of the hobby

has always been a part of it, but even those who initially buy guitars to play may question themselves, muses Shane. “It becomes an issue when you buy something, and then ten years later it’s worth £30,000.

Are you really going to play it?”

Some guitars will always garner attention. He points out a Fiesta Red 1962 Stratocaster in a glass cabinet.

“It’s a rare custom colour, with the Hank Marvin connotations; it’s probably the most famous colour,” he explains, before pointing out the £55,000 tag. “But a 1954 Stratocaster is close to £100,000 now,” he adds.

While clean, original guitars – rather than those with refinished pick-ups – drive collectability, the highest prices are elevated by celebrity connections. In one corner there’s an ex-Pete Townshend red Stratocaster with a tantalising £Ask label, while an ex-Noel Gallagher Epiphone ES wears a £15,999 tag.

“Guitars associated with people will always be a thing,” says Shane.

“Johnny Marr is probably the last big guitarist where he’s got his own model, which was really successful and ran for 11 years. The one from U2’s The Edge lasted two years.”

The vintage market really took off during Covid: “People were buying stuff to counterbalance their misery.” Its strength has persisted as lockdowns have retreated, but only for vintage and secondhand electric guitars.

“The new stuff has fallen off a cliff,” he laments. Acoustics are also experiencing weak demand.

“If you had walked in here five years ago, you’d probably see five electric guitars downstairs. Now it’s all electric, with five acoustic.”

Yet ‘unpopular’ electric guitars

‘A 1958 Gibson Explorer was the most expensive guitar I’ve ever sold. They go for over a million...’

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LEFT A 1959 example is the Holy Grail of vintage Gibson electric guitars.

might still have their day, because those that were poorly regarded are now held in high esteem. “An original 1958 Gibson Explorer was the most expensive guitar I’ve ever sold,” Shane says. “There’s around eight left in the world, because nobody wanted them – they go for over a million dollars now.”

However, if you’re looking to see the value in the market, he advises considering the 1980s and early ’90s. “Fenders from this era are really undervalued; you can buy

them for £800, and they’re great,” he says. “They’re a solid investment if you look in the long term.”

As I turn to leave, I catch sight of George Harrison’s 1968 Rosewood Telecaster in a cabinet. It’s not for sale, but it sparks another debate.

“There are very few new guitar heroes or guitar bands,” Shane sighs.

“It’s really just Marr and Graham Coxon,” says shop assistant Steve.

“At a push…” Shane fires back – and thus the song begins again. http://hanksguitarshop.com

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Classics - Supercars - Collections Classic car loans for approved High Net Worth Individuals (not regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority)* Classic and Supercar insurance solutions through Hagerty and approved specialists Access to secure in-house insurance approved storage facilities contact us at privateclient@portcullisinsurance.co.uk Portcullis Private Client is a trading name of Portcullis Insurance Brokers Limited Portcullis Insurance Brokers Limited’s insurance business is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority *Loans arranged are exempt credit agreements under Article 60H Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 (Regulated Activities) Order 2001 Pictured: 1995 911 turbo for which finance, insurance and storage were arranged by Portcullis Private Client

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DIVERSIONS

Compiled by Nathan Chadwick and Sophie Kochan

JACK WOLFSKIN KOENIGSBAU PARKA This mid-length, lightweight and super-comfortable parka offers excellent heat retention, and guards you from wind and rain. It’s made from recycled polyester, is available in sizes S to 3XL and comes in either Night Blue or Chestnut.

It costs £270. www.jackwolfskin.co.uk

TUMI TEGRA LITE LUGGAGE Tumi’s Tegra Lite luggage uses Tegris, a durable, lightweight material featured in NASCAR. Available in carry-on and checkedbaggage sizes, each has a zipper expansion system for an extra 5cm of packing space.

The carry-on costs £855 and the packing case is £1145. https://uk.tumi.com

BREGUET CLASSIQUE CALENDAR 7337 This is the latest version of the Classique collection introduced in 2009. It features open-tipped hands, a guilloché pattern and an offcentred dial which hark back to the company’s baroque styling that made it famous during its early days. This model, the 7337, contains one of Breguet’s thinnest movements – the calibre 502 is just 2.4mm thick, which slots into the 39mm white or rose-gold case beautifully. The white-gold version has a blue alligator leather strap, while a brown alligator strap comes with the rose-gold model. It costs £39,300. www.breguet.com

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MONTBLANC MEISTERSTÜCK GREAT MASTERS PIRELLI LIMITED EDITION 72 Montblanc has teamed up with Pirelli to celebrate the work of the craftsmen who hand-carve tyre patterns. Known as ‘sgorbiatori’, they take days to create a prototype. To mark 150 years of Pirelli, a graphical treatment of the firm’s logo has inspired the AU-750 white-gold rhodiumcoated skeletonised overlay on the cap, barrel and forepart.

The black-rubber surface contains small particles of used racing Pirelli tyres. It costs £32,000. www.montblanc.com

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The Vintage Watch Specialist We are qualified watchmakers with over 30 years of experience and source vintage watches that only meet the highest of standards.

Every watch we sell comes with the reassurance of a 24 month guarantee.

Buying, selling or need advice? www.watchesoflancashire.com Telephone 01254 873399

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DIVERSIONS

LAIRD UTILITY SICILIAN CAP This Sicilian-style flat cap is made from denim, with a suede peak and yellow top stitch. It’s also available in two other colours (with a corduroy peak), in head sizes ranging from 63/4 to 73/4. It costs £85. https://lairdutility.com

JAEGER TAILORED FIT PURE COTTON VELVET JACKET Classic styling with a twist. This jacket cut from premium cotton velvet cloth from Italian mill Pontoglio uses half-canvas construction for a lighter feel. Details include satin buttons, working cuffs, twin vents and jacquardweave lining. It’s £299. www.marks-andspencer.com

GUY ALLEN NOTEBOOKS Guy Allen has released a series of eight topquality notebooks developed with publisher Dingwort Verlag. Each screenprinted cover is reproduced from original artwork depicting cars such as Alfas, Lancias and Fiats. The covers are made from recycled leather, and measure A5 in size; each notebook contains 176 pages of 120g Munken paper from sustainably managed forests. They cost €39. www.dingwortverlag.de

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MAURICE LACROIX PONTOS S CHRONOGRAPH This new take on the Pontos S blends sporty vibes with a luxurious air.

Featuring a sandblasted dial that comes in either silvery-white or blue, it has two counters on the north-south axis, plus seconds, date and day displays. The doublestepped lugs and elongated pushpieces hint at classic Maurice Lacroix models. The ML112 calibre is visible through a sapphirecrystal pane, while there’s either a nylon and nubuck leather strap or a steel bracelet. It’s €3280. www.mauricelacroix. com/eu_en

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DIVERSIONS

HOT WHEELS CAR CULTURE TEAM TRANSPORT PORSCHE 962 AND SAKURA SPRINTER The Car Culture range appeals to collectors and kids alike.

This set recreates the Shell Porsche 962 driven by HansJoachim Stuck in the 1987 ADAC Würth Supercup. It’s £15.99. www.amazon.com

VICTORINOX LEXICON FRAMED SERIES LARGE HARDSIDE CASE This checked-luggage case is lightweight and strong thanks to its aluminium frame. It has patented moulding tech inside to get as much of your kit in as possible. It measures 31 x 50 x 75cm, holds 96 litres, costs £585 and is available in black or silver. www.victorinox.com

TUDOR BLACK BAY CHRONO S&G Motor sport and diving don’t usually combine, but this watch is the exception.

It celebrates Tudor’s long association with diving and motor sport watches, and features the brand’s Snowflake hands alongside pushers inspired by the very first Tudor chronographs. It measures 41mm in diameter and comes in two versions – matt black or a sunray satinfinish champagne.

It uses the MT5813 chronograph calibre, and has either a steel and gold bracelet, jacquard strap or bund. It costs £5760 as pictured here. www.tudorwatch.com

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DOXA ARMY

HANRO SMARTWEAR ROBE This robe features a soft, double-face jacquard and subtle diamond pattern, and is of 65 percent cotton, 26 percent polyester and nine percent polyamide construction. It boasts a belt tie, classic collar and front pockets, and is reversible. Available in S to XXL, it costs £243. www.hanro.co.uk

In 1968, Doxa made a tool watch for Swiss Army divers, simply called the Army. It has now brought the design up to date with a stainless-steel edition with a sand-beige dial.

For the first time, the bezel is available with bronze with a huntergreen ceramic insert, or steel with black.

It has a 42.5mm case and starts at €2050. https://doxa watches.com

LLANDUDNO

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BOOK REVIEWS

Review Clive Robertson

WHEN I FIRST HEARD THAT Paul Griffin was writing a book on the legitimacy of historic cars, I was most encouraged. So far as I am aware, no attention had been paid to dealing with this subject in a comprehensive and detailed manner. I know that Paul, as a City lawyer, functioned in the oil, gas and energy business for some 35 years, when he moved to the world of academia. More instructively, he is up to his elbows in Historic motor sport, having competed at Goodwood, Monaco, Le Mans and Silverstone. Ideal credentials, I would suggest, for the task.

I half suspected that The Past and the Spurious: The Case of Legitimacy in Historic Cars might be partly a romp through the drama and skulduggery of the high-end classic world. But perhaps not so; at 2.2kg, with a detailed index, it seemed that Paul had produced a weighty tome in all respects.A consideration of some of the chapters will give an insight into what can be expected of the work as a whole.

Tone-setting chapter one refers to cars as mere transport until the ’70s. Social and economic progress then saw historics morph into an identifiable asset class. Values accelerated, while in some cases

‘In the Lister Costin case, the judge sent the combatants away to settle over lunch and a bottle of claret’

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The Past and the Spurious An eminent lawyer has written a book about legitimacy in historic cars. Another lawyer reviews it

cars became art. The author rightly cites the three Alfa Romeo BAT coupés, pithily describing them as “more triptych than dipstick”.

The next chapter dives into the murky pool of identity and change.

For any car to have survived many decades unaltered marks the exception. Changes are wrought for many reasons: use and enjoyment, safety and comfort, accident of use… but sometimes for nefarious or less-than-honest purposes.

Chapter 13 discusses 16 separate cases; Lister Costin chassis BHL126, registered WTM 446, is just one.

There were two equally compelling claimants for title, and I recall the judge informing both litigants that the Court’s time was not to be spent on such matters, there being no justiciable issue to decide. He sent the combatants away to settle over lunch and a bottle of claret.

Another case cited is the one of CUT 7, a full-race E-type. In fact, there was a trio of successively quicker cars, bearing the same number. Paul states that all three can claim to be the original CUT 7, so that “questions of originality, authenticity and pedigree are unlikely to be clear-cut”. In fact, I disagree with his assertions. The history of each car is fully recorded, so the conclusion must be that there is no single CUT 7 identity.

Chapters 16 and 17 consider the competing principles of the methods employed in determining a car’s historical accuracy: original component and continuous history.

As to the former, an essential component is determined as being crucial – usually the chassis.

The second principle rests on the car in question having a continuous

history. In the Old No 1 Bentley case, while the front crossmember was the only original part remaining, the Court was persuaded this demonstrated a continuing history in all aspects of the car’s progressive development. Most lawyers favour the continuous-history principle, but on some occasions the facts demand the use of the originalcomponent approach.

Finally, a hugely compelling part of the book comprises a considerable number of photos and illustrations, the latter of which encompass many different artistic styles. These lift the tone of the volume, so deflecting the prospect of an overpowering weight of

material. Paul tells me that he thoroughly enjoyed the process of selecting the images – but, less so, the process of obtaining consent for their use from the owners.

So did the author craft a romp, or a weighty study? In answer, I turn to his own words, in part: “When I imagined this book, I had in mind a good read about historic cars, with the additional benefit of a reference work.”

I say Paul has royally succeeded in his objective. At £75-£250, it’s not an insignificant purchase – but I advise acquisition, sooner rather than later, so as to avoid waiting for the inevitable reprint. www.paulgriffinauthor.co.uk

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1930 1½L ASTON-MARTIN INTERNATIONAL JAMES YOUNG DROPHEAD COUPE £350,000 Very few pre-1940 Aston-Martin cars were bodied outside the Works’ Feltham factory. This International, bodied by James Young Coachbuilders, is one of these, making it truly unique. The International was the third production Aston Martin model from the Bertelli period. The Works racing Internationals were very successful and as such were highly regarded sports cars in their day.

This unique Aston-Martin has only ever been dismantled once, for its careful restoration, completed by Andy Bell at Ecurie Bertelli Ltd, and is completely original. Indeed, the dashboard with all its original gauges, switches and lamps has not been touched at all. Its first post-restoration appearance was to feature at the Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court in September 2022.

This is a car not to be missed. For further details or to arrange a viewing please contact Robert Blakemore.

+44 (0)1234 240024 | info@ecuriebertelli.com ecuriebertelli.com

| 53 Stilebrook Road, Olney, MK46 5EA, UK

RESTORATIONS

The Vintage Watch Specialist We are qualified watchmakers with over 30 years of experience and source vintage watches that only meet the highest of standards.

Every watch we sell comes with the reassurance of a 24 month guarantee.

Buying, selling or need advice? www.watchesoflancashire.com Telephone 01254 873399

KNOWLEDGE RESTORATION SERVICE REPAIR www.timwalkerrestorations.co.uk 01296 770596

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BOOK REVIEWS

Reviews Sarah Bradley and Nathan Chadwick

An in-depth look at the unique creations from British car customiser extraordinaire, Andy Saunders

“THE CONCEPT OF ‘CUSTOMS’ was the art and science of transforming ordinary cars into exotic machines from the mind of the creator.” So writes renowned journalist Karl Ludvigsen of mid20th century automotive trends, in his foreword for this comprehensive, autobiographical volume by the contemporary ‘Michelangelo of metal’ and British customiser extraordinaire, Andy Saunders.

Andy – whose portfolio so far spans some 60 wild one-offs, from the world’s lowest Mini, to a coupéd 1930s Cord and coachbuilt Delahaye, to recreations of the Lancia Stratos Zero and a 1950s American dream car – is the

nearest the modern world has to those masters of ingenuity from a long-gone age. His fertile imagination and sublime skills put him up there with Sam and George Barris, Gene Winfield and Harry Westergard, albeit working across a much broader array of machinery than his artistic predecessors had at their disposal back in the day.

The results have been lauded around the globe, having been displayed in every setting from international motor shows to prestigious concours.

Andy’s humorous, intimate and disarmingly honest writing style complement this 464-page book’s evocative design and 1000-plus

professional and personal images.

Some of these include period photographs of Ford’s space-age 1958 X-2000 scaled-down styling study, of which Andy has built a full-size replica. The original model came from the imagination of 1948 Tucker Torpedo designer, and father of the two-stage vertical take-off rocket, Alex Tremulis.

The book also boasts previously unseen photos of the astounding 1957 Juliano Aurora prototype, which had spent 30 years rotting in a field before being discovered and restored by Andy. In his quest to build the safest car in the world, the Aurora’s designer Father Alfred Juliano incorporated measures

that were years ahead of their time, including seatbelts, a collapsible steering column, puncture-proof tyres and side-impact protection.

The uncovered story of this car and its forward-thinking architect is simply fascinating.

The Automotive Alchemist book explains the passions, motivations and inspirations behind each of charismatic design genius Andy’s creations, along with his aesthetic and technical processes. This material, combined with sometimes heart-breaking stories of personal loss and trauma, means the $135 hardback makes for a compelling and endlessly enjoyable read. www.daltonwatson.com

RAOUL ‘SONNY’ BALCAEN

SF EDGE: MAKER OF MOTORING HISTORY

TRACKSIDE: FOUR DECADES OF MOTOR SPORT PHOTOGRAPHY

FERRARI F40

Certain figures in the British motoring industry are household names – Royce, Bentley and, more recently, Wheeler – but Selwyn Francis Edge played a part in so many key elements of not just British motoring history, but motoring history itself. He was an early advocate of the car, helped popularise motor sport, and played a key role in the development of Brooklands, Napier and AC Cars.

Simon Fisher’s £45, 192-page book is a fascinating insight into a man who achieved so very much, and who deserves wider recognition. www.evropublishing.com

Philip Newsome’s photography has taken him around the world, capturing motor sport at the highest level, whether in F1, endurance events or US open-wheel racing. However, this beautifully produced book’s power is in the contrast between the tight walls of Macau and the open expanses and retro themes of hot rods at Pendine Beach. Whether it’s for nostalgia for the 1980s and ’90s, or to sink into another delicious shot of four- or two-wheeled adventure, this £38, 192-page back has plenty to keep your focus again and again. www.blueflagpress.co.uk

While most teenagers were building box carts, Sonny Balcaen was crafting a Top Fuel dragster at home. He was always destined for great things, and his talents took him to the door of Lance Reventlow and Scarab. From there he became Jim Hall’s crew chief, embedded in Carroll Shelby’s team, before striking out on his own with IECO, tuning the Chevrolet Corvair, and later helping set up the Petersen Museum. In this refreshingly personal book (£30, 320 pages), Sonny’s love of motor sport and down-to-earth nature shine through – and that’s before you get to his other passion, wine. www.evropublishing.com

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It’s 35 years since Leonardo Fioravanti’s wedge broke the 200mph road car barrier, and Keith Bluemel’s £69, 240-page book provides a spectacularly detailed look at Enzo’s last personally approved project.

There’s also an extensive guide to the F40’s long-lived GT racing career, which saw the Maranello machine punch above its weight well into the ’90s and beyond. Bluemel’s masterful blend of technical prowess yet easy-to-read narrative means that it’s easy to find yourself absorbed by the car all over again – just like you were when you first clapped eyes on one. www.porterpress.co.uk

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BOOK REVIEWS

194

Marcel Pourtout: Carrossier

Reviews Nathan Chadwick

The story behind the coachbuilder is as dramatic as the gorgeous shapes it crafted in its 1930s glory era

CARROSSERIE POURTOUT grew from a tiny family concern to a world-leading provider of bodies in just a few years, spearheaded by company founder Marcel.

The firm – which is still going in Rueil-Malmaison in family hands – has seen tragedy and opportunity, and Jon Pressnell’s beautifully presented book reveals Marcel to be a dogged character with a strong sense of duty to his employees and the wider community.

Founded in 1925, Carrosserie Pourtout sailed close to the wind financially for much of the pre-war era, with two key turning points coming to define the company.

The first was teaming up with Parisian Peugeot dealer Émile

Darl’mat, which opened further doors to the likes of Ford, Lancia and Bugatti. Darl’mat would, however, also introduce Pourtout to Georges Paulin.

Paulin lived a busy but short life – he was a dentist, journalist and eventually a spy – but he came to Pourtout having devised an innovative retractable roof mechanism during his time making false teeth. Pourtout would eventually put this invention into production with a Peugeot, but Paulin would end up becoming the company’s chief stylist, and automotive designer du jour, with the likes of Bentley and Delage beating a path to his door.

This was a golden time for

Pourtout, but it didn’t last – World War Two closed down operations, and Paulin was shot for his work with the Parisian Resistance.

Pourtout never really recovered from the situation, just as coachbuilt cars started to fall away from popularity in the post-war years.

Manufacturing moved on to special bodies for industrial and advertising purposes, which while lacking the glamour of the 1930s, provided a steady stream of work, but the original company came to an end in 1994. The brand name, however, is still going today as an automotive bodyshop in Rueil, run

by Brieuc Pourtout.

Written with the involvement of family members who are still

active in the running of the firm, the book is the result of extensive research that has taken Pressnell deep into the archives, bringing forth many unseen photographs and stories. These are not just of the vehicles; there are touching family pictures – some highly poignant, such as those depicting an ill-fated attempted escape to Portugal at the start of the war. There is also a vast appendix detailing commission numbers, plus a section on the surviving pre-war cars.

This $150, 488-page book is a must for anyone with an interest in coachbuilding, and is a clear labour of love from the author.

Highly recommended. www.daltonwatson.com

50 FIRST VICTORIES: NASCAR DRIVERS’ BREAKTHROUGH WINS

LIME ROCK PARK: THE EARLY YEARS 1955-1975

JACKY ICKX: HIS AUTHORISED COMPETITION HISTORY

The first win is always the hardest, and as Al Pearce and Mike Hembree uncover in this illuminating 252page, £30 book, the path to the light of the victory lane is often shrouded in darkness. There’s luck and humour along the way, and sheer force of will – such as Mario Andretti defying team orders to see the black-andwhite flag first, or some father-son assistance in the Petty family, or Cale Yarborough sleeping in his car between rain-stopped race starts to take victory. Entertaining and heart-warming stuff. www.octanepress.com

The US’s oldest continuously operated road-racing track has had as much drama off the circuit as it has on the asphalt itself, with financial crises, legal wrangles and disputes with racing-series organisers. Tragedy and turmoil were also backed up with superb racing, and this 680-page, £170 book is brimming with stories and 900-plus images, many of which haven’t been given a public airing before. Terry O’Neil’s tribute to the ‘Road Racing Center of the East’ is filled with intrigue, and gives a great sense of Lime Rock’s early days. www.daltonwatson.com

SAINT CHRISTOPHE: DASHBOARD BADGES OF THE GOLDEN ERA OF MOTORING

Magneto

While keeping an image of St Christopher, the patron saint of travellers, about yourself or your carriage was nothing new, by the 1920s a steady trade in intricate coins and medallions to be affixed to dashboards sprung up. Maximiliano Garay’s exquisitely produced guide to the firms involved, such as Hermès, Lalique and Cartier, plus lovingly rendered imagery, make this 312-page, $90 book a fascinating read even for the non-religious among us.

Just 500 copies are being produced. https://artonwheels.com.ar

Few drivers have shown such ability to drift between motor sport disciplines as Jacky Ickx, switching from endurance racing to F1 and back again, before forging ahead with a new passion, the Paris-Dakar. Jon Saltinstall’s £95, 608-page book is more than a mere list of exploits, but it also touches on the lesser-known yet crucial and often poignant parts of Ickx’s life that formed the resolute character he displayed when racing against the odds. Excellent archive imagery, much of it previously unseen, adds to this absorbing read. www.evropublishing.com

Legal advice

Words Clive Robertson, solicitor, Healys LLP

On the wrong side of history Issues with re-registering classics in the UK are causing serious financial and legal consequences.

Is a solution in sight?

IN THE 2019 CASE OF SEDDON vs Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency, the High Court ruled that the Agency’s prime purpose was to maintain a register designed to raise Vehicle Excise Duty.

Mr Seddon had bought an AC Cobra 289 registered in the DVLA’s ‘Historic’ car class. Unbeknown to him, the Agency had come into possession of material from which it concluded that the Cobra had been improperly classed as Historic. The corrected registration certificate issued to Seddon resulted in a loss of £150,000. The Court held that the DVLA owed no duty of care to Seddon in relation to the car’s history. The Agency was only concerned to know that vehicles were taxed appropriately.

The Agency has issued guidance papers relating to the registration of classics, since apart from this it also deals with the amendment/correction of registered details, the registration of imported cars and the re-issue of historic registration numbers.

However, decisions being made at present would appear to indicate that the Agency is stepping outside the parameters of its prime duty.

A Land Rover enthusiast client recently purchased a 1951 Series One as a project. This had spent many years all but abandoned in a Scottish field, but was at least complete. It’d been registered by a previous owner in 2016 with an Historic number.

Having found that the DVLA held the plate assigned on first registration, my client was determined to see if that original registration could be re-attached to the Land Rover.

Much fact finding and historical research ensued. The application comprised documents evidencing the recorded history of the original registration, plus images depicting the chassis and engine numbers,

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together with photos from the early 1990s showing the dilapidated Land Rover in a rural setting, with corroded plates bearing the original number, screwed onto the body.

Such an application is required to be made via Form V765, by a club registrar recognised by the DVLA. In this case, the Land Rover Series One Club certified and supported the application. The DVLA declined to grant the original number. Given the comprehensive documentation and the approbation of the club’s officer, this decision seemed perverse.

An appeal is in contemplation.

I am also aware of another application that was made in relation to a classic bought in South Africa – a popular source of imports to the UK. However, there is an inherent trap in the buying process. The South African registration system does not provide for a car to be removed from use on public roads, so that road tax ceases to be paid, without the vehicle being treated as ‘abandoned’. For any subsequent re-registration, the

‘Any car that may otherwise be classed as a valuable asset becomes nigh on worthless’

vehicle must be recorded as ‘rebuilt’.

This Alfa’s buyer enlisted the help of the DVLA-nominated club officer, who stated that the car was original and exhibited no signs of having been rebuilt. Again this advice didn’t carry sufficient weight, and the application was refused. The owner then exhausted the DVLA complaints procedures, and is now considering other potential avenues of redress.

From my own knowledge and intelligence from colleagues, these cases are not isolated – but the real issue is the financial and legal consequences of these decisions.

In the great scheme of events, my Land Rover client’s legal costs aren’t of particular consequence. If the 1950s number isn’t released, he’ll still have the benefit of driving his restored vehicle, but no doubt the experience will be tainted with some regret that he couldn’t add that final piece of the puzzle. However, the would-be Alfa driver is in a far more parlous position. If provenance is questionable, then the DVLA will feel obliged to issue a Q plate, effectively acting as a warning to any prospective purchaser.

Disadvantages will ensue. The car will need an annual MoT. Road tax will be payable. At present, neither burden is imposed on a bona fide classic.

Insurance will be costly beyond the norm. The DVLA will issue a fresh VIN, which can be appealed within 12 months. Notwithstanding, the most damning consequence goes as to value. Any car that may otherwise

be classed as a valuable asset becomes nigh on worthless, leaving the owner the option of driving a visibly questionable vehicle, parking that car in the garage indefinitely or breaking it for spares.

It is likely that owners will be driven to consult their legal advisors, regarding what ought to be a simple administrative process with a fairly predictable outcome. There’s also an argument that the DVLA is functioning in breach of natural justice, which demands that justice be fair and equal for all to guard against arbitrary procedures and miscarriages of justice by the authorities.

This issue hasn’t gone unnoticed in the wider classic car world. October 7, 2021 saw the inaugural meeting of the Historic and Classic Vehicle User Group, comprising representatives from the DVLA and key membership groups, including the Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs, the Royal Automobile Club and the Historic and Classic Vehicles Alliance.

Garry Wilson, CEO of the lastnamed group, said: “We recognise the unprecedented challenges the DVLA faces, and also the frustrations of our members and the wider classic vehicle fraternity. It was a pleasure to see the collective will to deliver positive outcomes to these challenges and frustrations… These things take time, and while we will target some short-term positive outcomes, we urge patience…”

Group meetings have been held quarterly, where significant progress has been made to effect simple solutions, so as to move forward in a positive way. The next meeting will take place at the DVLA in Swansea as Magneto goes to press, following which a report will be released.

In the meanwhile, I am advising a prospective purchaser at an upcoming auction. The car was constructed in England some 50 years ago, was exported overseas and has now returned to these shores.

The sole document of title consists of a foreign certificate issued 20 years previously. There is no other meaningful history. Standard-type auction conditions place all risk on the buyer. Given the present regime, I can only advise my client not to bid.

ALAMY

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

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Collections

Words Robert Dean

The magic of saying ‘yes’ Why an open mind and a willingness to embrace new experiences can lead to all sorts of adventures

AS A YOUNG MAN, I REALISED that if you say “yes” to everything, you get to do some really interesting stuff.

Even if afterwards you think, “blimey, that was boring,” at least you know not to do it again. Also, eventually you’ll run into someone at a party who is interested in that thing, and so you’ll be able to start a conversation.

My dad used to tell me that everyone has a story, and even if they seem a bit dull it is up to you to find the interest and bring it out of them – because you never know how that person will affect your life.

In 1982, I was 18 years old and at a riotous party of a friend, where I met a motoring journalist (who shall remain unnamed). He was bemoaning the fact that he was planning to do the Mille Miglia, but his travelling partner had backed out. He was wondering how he was going to drive and take photos at the same time.

“I’ll go with you,” I volunteered, not really knowing what I was getting into. “Okay, if you want to,” he replied, and the deal was struck – quite a thing, since we had only just met at the party, even if we did get on.

When we met up, I discovered that Ford had given him a hatchback with a constant-velocity gearbox (similar to a DAF’s) to test to see whether it would work in the real world.

“You drive,” he said, and we left for the ferry to travel down to Brescia in Italy. I don’t remember anything of the journey, so it must have been fairly uneventful. However, I do recall arriving in the city with all the flags, cars and people. It was wonderful!

We hung out with the journalist’s friends, who were all as interesting as

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hell and very kind to me – a young man who was into motor sport and racing my MG Midget. Heady stuff!

The writer was complaining that he couldn’t get any good photos, and I suggested that we should try to get onto one of the big balconies on the buildings that surrounded the square. He retorted: “You won’t be able to do that; I tried for years.

They are all owned by banks and institutes.” Challenge accepted!

I picked my building, and waited for a pretty girl to exit the front door.

Fortunately she spoke English, and so I chatted away to her about the Mille Miglia. I finally asked whether we could take some photos from the balcony, and she said she’d ask. A few minutes later we were in. We climbed an impressive staircase to her office and emerged onto the balcony.

Everyone was so nice. I think being young, handsome and interesting (well, I thought so) made it much easier. I later bought the girl a drink in a bar in the square. It was all very cool.

The writer and I followed the cars out of town, and he told me which ones to track as he stood up through the sunroof and took photos. I recall him shouting at me to keep up with

‘Everyone was so nice. I think being young, handsome and interesting (well, I thought so) made it much easier’

ABOVE Italy’s Mille Miglia was the scene of one of Robert’s most exciting teenage car adventures. a Maserati 300S, the poor old Ford wailing away as the CVT ’box tried to make up its mind what to do.

After the Mille Miglia we drove to Monaco to watch the big three classic auctions. At dinner one evening, the writer grilled me about how the car drove, for his report.

He then said: “I have to go and do something else, so see you around.”

I responded: “How am I going to get back to England?”

“Don’t know! You will think of something,” he said, and left me at the table – with the bill for dinner.

I sat stunned, because I had no money left and no way of getting home. I figured I would just have to get on with things, so I asked around some of the people we’d been with to see whether I could blag a lift back. Unfortunately, they all seemed to be going elsewhere…

In the end, I went back to my little pension, packed up and made my way to the station. I had a credit card with no credit left on it, £3.80 and about ten francs, so I turned on the charm and attempted to buy a wagon-lit/ ferry ticket back to England.

Inevitably my card didn’t work, so in my awful French I told the young lady at the counter that the magnetic strip had been damaged – which she didn’t believe. In those days you could put the card in a roller with a carbon copy sheet, which you signed.

She took pity on me, and used the machine to let me buy the ticket.

On the wagon-lit, a nice guy about

my age had got on with no ticket.

When the conductor came round the chap was ten francs short, so I gave him my francs. It was a hungry and thirsty trip until we were on the ferry, where we pooled our English money to share a single meal serving.

Once back in England, I had no luck hitch-hiking to London.

Instead, I went to the train station and slept on the platform. As luck would have it, a goods train pulled in at 3am. I started chatting with the guard, because I enjoyed building model railways, and I explained my situation. He said that I could travel with him in the guard’s van. He even shared his hot coffee and a sandwich with me. What a gentleman!

He said that I couldn’t be seen climbing out of his van, because he’d get in trouble. I wouldn’t be able to get out of the station anyway, because it would be locked. However, he told me if I went to the end of the platform and down the embankment, I could get through the fence.

As we arrived at London’s Clapham Junction, I did just this, and then I had to walk home to Battersea. It took ages, and I was knackered by the time I got home at some awful hour in the morning. Mum answered the doorbell to a rather forlorn sight, and she made me a huge breakfast.

I then slept for about 24 hours.

Never underestimate the power of a good adventure to inform your outlook on the world. Always say yes to doing something new – and always keep notes. Be part of the machinery.

Former Ecclestone Collection manager Robert Dean now runs Curated Vehicle Management. See www.c-v-m.co.uk.

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Historic racing

Words Sam Hancock

The ultimate racing invite

WE’VE TALKED IN THE PAST about how to get into Historic racing, what cars and categories to consider, the costs involved and so on. But what if your ultimate motivation for doing so is to participate in the Revival, arguably the world’s premier Historic event? With entries granted by invitation only, this necessitates a more nuanced approach.

Unlike other Historic meetings, for the Revival you cannot simply fill out an online form, pay a fee and find yourself sharing a grid with the likes of Jenson Button, Derek Bell, Scott Dixon, Dario Franchitti et al. Instead, you have to navigate an undefined path onto the radar of Goodwood’s content team, and somehow stand out from the hundreds of other ‘potentials’ with similar ambitions.

With such high barriers to entry, how on earth might an amateur Historic racer make the transition from watching from the grandstands to lining up on the grid?

Primarily, you have simply got to have the right car; one that offers more than just fulfilling the eligibility criteria for one category or another. It needn’t be worth millions of dollars, but it does at least have to be of period origin and have good provenance.

While not essential, period racing history helps enormously, and if the car happens to be rare – or at least a little unusual in a way that will help imbue the grids with

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variety – that too will go a long way.

Take, for example, the St Mary’s Trophy – a race normally catering to 1950s and ’60s touring cars. While you might fancy that your best podium chances lie behind the wheel of an Alfa GTA or Ford Cortina Lotus, with so many suitable examples already vying for places, your hopes for an entry would be far better served with, say, a BMW 1800 TiSa, Ford Galaxie or Plymouth Barracuda.

Such cars are also evidence that you needn’t be a billionaire to join in.

If your pockets happen to be deep enough for a Lightweight E-type or a DB4 GT, by all means dive in – the selection team will certainly return your calls – but don’t feel priced out if your budget doesn’t accommodate quite so many zeros. Look closely at the grids, and you’ll find several peppered with interesting cars worth tens, not hundreds, of thousands (or indeed many, many millions).

A great car alone, however, is not

‘You’ll find several grids peppered with interesting cars worth tens, not hundreds, of thousands’

ABOVE Our man Sam en route to victory in the Freddie March Memorial Trophy at Revival 2022. enough. Goodwood needs to know that first-timers can be trusted to participate with the necessary respect and competence for the event, the circuit and their fellow competitors.

The traditional nature of the track and the high-profile coverage of the racing render accidents of even mild severity unfavourable at least. You needn’t have years of experience under your belt, or a trophy cabinet to rival Max Verstappen’s, but it will help if you are well established elsewhere as a reliable and respectful driver, who will prove a worthy addition to the Goodwood paddock, and not compromise the event with unruly behaviour on track.

Ideally, you will know someone familiar to the Goodwood team who can vouch for you and your capabilities, and thus facilitate an introduction. Once connected and added to the organisers’ database, rather than sit back and hope for the best, it makes sense to drop them a line once every few months just to reaffirm your desire to participate and your car’s readiness to do so should an invitation be extended. While I certainly don’t encourage you to become overly persistent, it’s worth being ready in the final days before the event – and letting Goodwood know that you are – should another entrant

be unable to compete for any reason.

If you happen to have a car suitable for the two-driver races (usually ’50s sports cars, and ’60s GT and touring cars), it’s useful to let the organisers know if you’re happy for them to appoint one of their ‘star drivers’ as your co-pilot. Not all owners are comfortable with this, so with a long list of big names to place in a limited number of seats, your willingness will be well received. Equally, if you’re not fussed about driving yourself, but really hope for your car to participate, consider making it clear that you’d be happy to step aside in favour of a suitably qualified celebrity driver.

For most, this just about covers it – but if you’re willing to go the extra mile, why not explore other ways to build a supportive relationship with Goodwood? Do you have an unusual car you’d be willing to run up the Festival of Speed hill? Could you justify hiring the circuit for exclusive testing or corporate entertainment?

Would any of the sponsorship and hospitality opportunities across any of Goodwood’s events make sense for your business? Not an exhaustive list, but all worthy considerations.

Sadly, none of the above can guarantee an entry, but believe me; when you’re sat on the grid among your motoring heroes, with Spitfires dancing across a golden sunset and not a seat to spare in the adjacent grandstands, it will all be worthwhile.

WOUTER MELISSEN

From the grandstand to the grid: how to obtain an entry at the world-famous Goodwood Revival

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Behind the legend

Words Nathan Chadwick

One last time, dad!

Derek Bell on the 1995 Father’s Day treat when he raced a McLaren F1 at Le Mans with his son Justin

“I GOT THIS FRANTIC PHONE call from Justin, my son, and Andy Wallace, saying: ‘Come on dad!

You’re going to have to do Le Mans.’”

For most people, the answer would be an instant yes. But when you’ve won Le Mans five times already, and are several years past your half century, there needs to be a good reason. For Derek Bell, this chance to drive a McLaren F1 in 1995 initially wasn’t enough – especially one with a patchy record in the BPR Global Endurance championship.

“The car just didn’t seem to want to last six hours,” he recalls during the McLaren F1 event at Kiklo Spaces (see this issue’s Starter pages). “I’d retired, and after 24 years of driving at Le Mans, I did not want to be scrabbling around and not finishing.”

His inquisitiveness over the F1 got the better of him, however. “If someone suggests driving a new car, you think, ‘how wonderful’. I also had a great respect for McLaren, since the days of Bruce. I drove in Formula 1 for him, so I said I’d love to do it.”

Derek would be driving for David Price Racing (DPR) under the Mach One Racing banner. There was just one stipulation – he didn’t want to drive at night. Given the BPR series result, he wasn’t betting on the car reaching sunset anyway.

“We were almost saying, ‘we’re not going to win, we’ll be back for dinner’. That was one of my favourite phrases as a driver – if we’re going to go out, let’s bugger off by 7:30pm so we can have dinner at the hotel,” Derek recalls. “But this time, we were leading by 10pm.”

They’d maintain that lead right up until two hours before the finish.

The clutch problems that would trouble all the McLarens in some

way dropped the team to third – but Derek is still proud of the result.

“To come third on Father’s Day, driving with my son, is pretty special,” he says – although the race itself was a lot less fun. Rather than have a lie-down after his stint, Derek was glued to the TV while Justin was in the car. “The track was fine in the dry, but it wasn’t dry for long. It was the most awful experience,” he adds.

One moment particularly sticks in his mind. “I was out at night, paddling around – it was like an ice rink,” he recalls. “At the end of a stint, most drivers pass on the message that there’s a flood at Arnage, etc. When Justin took over, all I could see was this young face looking up at me…

“He goes: ‘Tell me dad, what’s it like out there?’ I thought, ‘oh God – it would take me too long to tell him’. So I slammed the door shut, grinning. Then I realised I’d sent my son off into the bloody night in the pissing rain, and he didn’t know where he was going.”

Justin then had a massive spin.

“That freaked him out, and he was losing seconds a lap for the rest of his stint,” Derek remembers.

David Price put Justin on rest duties, and left it to Andy and Derek to take the car to daylight. However, the elder gentleman of the team may have been, well, elder, but he found himself double-stinting overnight – and then matching and beating JJ Lehto’s times in the eventually victorious McLaren F1.

“My two team-mates, who drove the car all the time, were having a tough time in the conditions,” Derek chuckles. “But I guess, after doing it 26 times in the end, I know my way around Le Mans.”

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

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MOTORSPORT IMAGES

LEFT Le Mans podium finish for Bells senior and junior, along with Andy Wallace.