The Drivers Union - Issue 1

ISSUE #1

In this issue Ex Top Gear Presenter Steve Berry Lamborghini Countach McLaren 720s & 765LT Ferrari Racing Days at Silverstone Drivers Union Awards

The Miura Art Car An icon remastered

Editor

Thank you to

Syeed Ali

Georg

Contributors Shahzad Sheikh Jas Hayre Peter David David Ball Katherine Dart

Yusef Mamoojee Ed Eccles Gabriela Sobczuk Matt Honeysett BMW UK McLaren Automotive Jardine Ferrari Colchester

Photography

Furlonger Specialist Cars

David Pearce

and the

João Meneses

Drivers Union Members

Rob Smith Marc Hedge

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Welcome Welcome to the first issue of the Drivers Union magazine.

Having started the club in 2012 as a way to meet up and drive with friends, I never thought it would become quite so successful. Not only are we celebrating our 10th anniversary this year, but we recently welcomed our 1,000 member.

Our qualifying list may be very strict, but our membership fee is extremely reasonable at just £120 for up to two years with members receiving a beautifully packaged membership pack that includes lanyards and cards for both themselves and their guest. We also have an Associate Membership level where owners can join for free to see what the club is like.

Much of the money we receive gets invested back in the club for the benefit of members. For example, at Salon Prive on 4th September 2022, we are providing a free lunch for our Club members and their guest as well exclusive parking for over 150 of our member’s cars in the Great Courtyard at Bleinhem Palace.

Our special relationship with the London Concours saw us bring over 40 supercars to their recent event. The Drivers Union being the only car club partner of this prestigous event. A full feature will be in a future issue.

Lastly, thank you to the many people who have supported me and the Drivers Union over the years. Too many to mention, but you know who you are.

Syeed Ali Founder of the Drivers Union

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CONTENTS 08

What exactly is a supercar

11

The future is Electric...or is it

12

The Poseur Run

24

Ferrari F8 Drive Day

32

Meeting Your Hero - Countach

46

The Interview: Steve Berry

56

Ferrari Racing Days

68

Barbarian at the Gate -McLaren 720S

78

McLaren 765LT

88

Miura Art Car

104

Andy Warhol BMW M1 Art Car

115

Drivers Union Automotive Awards

168

Our chosen charity

171

Our Recent Events & Meets

200

Members Car: Ed’s McLaren 12C

203

Drivers Union club information

211

Final thoughts

12 32 46 56 68 88

What exactly is a ‘Supercar’?

L

Shahzad Sheikh attempts to define the undefinable

egend has it the term ‘supercar’ was coined by the late great doyen of motoring journalism; dresser of dapper attire; smoker of Sobranie Black Russian cigarettes (ciggys as slim as himself); keeper of magnificent old-testament beard; holder of fiercely insightful intellect and purveyorof masterful word smithery, L. J. K. Setright.

The automotive writer famously wrote for Car Magazine for over 30 years. It was whilst simultaneously being responsible for the genesis of the epic drive feature story, which the publication also became so renowned for, that he coined the fitting descriptor specifically for a Lamborghini Miura, driven 1000 miles from Sant’Agata Bolognese in Italy back to Blighty.

Whether this ‘Supercar’ origin story is entirely accurate or not, it’s the best one told. You really want to believe that such a sensational journey, in such an exquisite progenitor of the supercar genome, by such a charismatic story-teller as Setright, must indeed be the epochal moment, in which was created a term that has come to be widely used (perhaps over-used?) to categorise the most illustrious of all automobiles.

In any case Setright doesn’t appear to have left a comprehensive definition of the term behind – somewhat remiss of so fastidious a fellow. Even the dictionaries explicate only that it constitutes ‘a high-performance sports car’.

Hardly sufficient to encapsulate the ethos, the drama and the oft mind-bending abilities on

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road and track of the protagonists that exists in this exalted automotive realm.

So right here, right now, within these words and on these pages, join me dear reader, in an attempt to pin down once and for all the definitive response to the question: what exactly is a supercar?

Could we say it is a car that exceeds 200mph?

Well a four-door Bentley Flying Spur and even a Cadillac CTS-V can do that – superb cars, but not ‘supercars’. High speed is elemental, but like aspects to follow, it’s not unique to the hallowed halo worn by so-called ‘supercars’.

Perhaps it is an automobile singularly competent at violent face-rearranging acceleration? Well a four-cylinder Caterham Seven 620 can hit 60mph from rest in 2.79 seconds. To drive any Caterham is pure delirium, but it doesn’t qualify as a ‘supercar’. Nor does the electric Tesla Model S, which can blitz 0-60 in a shocking 2.3 seconds.

I’ll pause here to let you digest that – 2.3 seconds.

Back to the task – how about the engine then?

Is it a car endowed with a monumental motor that can be gazed at in awe through the little window on the rear deck? Possibly. Supercar engines do tend to sweep up the gongs in the higher categories at technical awards – in particular the current Ferrari 3.9-litre BiTurbo V8. But for sheer awesomeness they’re easily matched by something like the HEMI V8 in a Dodge Challenger Demon - a magnificent monstrosity of a machine capable of up to 840bhp.

Should it be said that a ‘supercar’ must be midengined i.e. that the powerplant is placed behind the seats? The Miura certainly followed this configuration. But so did a Fiat X1/9, Toyota MR2 and Pontiac Fiero – we need a ‘Computer Says No’ gif here. And what about front-engined deviants out there? Would you dare NOT call the formidable Ferrari 812 Superfast a ‘supercar’?

Of course it bloody is.

Sticking with Ferraris and gawping at the Sophia Loren of supercars – the Roma (where’s a cushion when you need one?) – we can surmise at least perhaps that supercars are sensual and sexy,with ‘stunning to behold’ being the minimum requirements in optics. That’s a strong contention, very nearly a winner, until you widen your gaze and encounter cars like the Jaguar F-Type, Lexus LC, Polestar 1, Alfa Romeo Giulia and well, I could go on.

Supercars are cool! That’s it, okay?They’re cool. ‘Supercars’ are the coolest cars on the planet, they’re the ones you want to be seen in the most. And, and, and you know what, in the modern twist to the old poster-on-the-wall scenario, they feature most on computer desktop wallpapers, right?

Well, hold your horses, or should I say ponies?

Because the car most featured across social media, movies and television is indisputably the Ford Mustang in all its many guises and generations. From Eleanor to Bullitt; featuring in ‘Need for Speed’ and ‘Drive’ the movies; as well as all Mustang’s various incarnations be it Shelby, Mach 1, Saleen or Roush; to classic looks/modern drivetrain restomods from the likes of Revology and Classic Recreations (Lewis Hamilton and Ashley Banjo drive these); iconic is a term easily owned by the effortlessly unchallenged King of Cool when it comes to the automotive fiefdom.

How about we flip it around? Propose instead that it is the drivers that are cool and by inference

bestow their motorised steeds with ‘supercar’ status. I see you nodding vigorously to that proposition. Exhibits presented in evidence to substantiate this include Thomas Magnum P.I., Don Johnson and could you resist Sharon Stone in a Lotus Esprit? I thought not. Or in the real world: James Dean, Steve McQueen, Peter Sellers etc. The trouble is, all the evidence presented thus far, is old skool. What about today? Well, er… you have Justin Bieber. And Instagrammers.

Plus nine year-olds doing donuts in the Prancing Horse’s finest on YouTube. Sheesh. Scrap that notion then.

Welcome dear readers as we now find ourselves stood at the bottom of a very deep barrel, and ponder with me how we might start to scrape the surface itself in our quest to define the undefinable – and wrestle with the quandry: what is a ‘supercar’?

Or maybe we’ve arrived at the only conclusion that remains: that it is indeed impossible to define exactly what a ‘supercar’ is other than it is, in fact, a ‘super’ car according to the comprehension of the beholder. It seems there are no finite parameters we can draw upon to objectivwely characterise the term, so we fall back then on the purely subjective – it’s a ‘supercar’ because we just know it is.

A supercar conforms to all the points expounded above. But it has something extra.

Call it the X-Factor, call it a special something, a ‘supercar’ has a certain ‘I don’t know what’. Or to put it in the French cliché, because it sounds better: a certain ‘je ne sais quoi’. A ‘supercar’ is a ‘supercar’ because you know it, I know it, and old L. J. K. Setright knew it. Mic drop.

Shahzad Sheikh, AKA the BrownCarGuy, has been a professional automotive journalist for over three decades.

He was previously Editor of Car Magazine in the Middle East and presented motoring shows on FOX MENA region TV channels and Dubai Eye radio.

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The future is electric..... or is it?

Darren Nash sees what the future holds for the petrolhead

M

any of you will have read with some sense of disbelief the recent announcement from the Government regarding the accelerated commitment of plans to ban carbon-emitting vehicles in the UK from 2030, meaning that we have less than a decade to enjoy new petrolpowered supercars.

Let’s take that in for a moment, with model change cycles on some cars stretching to anywhere between 6 and 10 years on average this could be your last chance to enjoy that factory fresh V8, V10, or V12 before Boris takes the fun away!

Registrations for pure EV in 2020 were up 130% on 2019 with over 200,000 now on our roads. A lot of this has been driven by the tax advantages for business users and this trend is set to continue in 2021, so what does this mean for us petrolheads?

This is not the same change and innovation as before, nowhere close to those of you that still lament the passing of the air-cooled 911 and didn’t see this as progress, or the Ferrari 458 becoming a 488 and gaining turbos. This is the real deal game-changing “new norma” for the automotive world and it takes a real change of mindset to accept that it has already started.

For those of us that are old enough to remember the 70’s and 80’s, our Heroes were 911 Turbos, Testarossas and Countachs emblazoned on our walls, but where are the EV heroes coming from? I honestly can`t see my teenage sons reaching for the Blutak to stick pictures of Teslas and Taycans on their walls. Iit is a new generation and complete change of mindset that is required from here on in.

I drive a Jaguar IPace as a daily driver, it’s fast, comfortable, and quiet, and that`s all I

can say really as it has no emotion outside of that description, but that`s the point I suppose.

It’s not meant to be exciting, and this has been creeping up on us for quite some time with the manufacturers dropping Halo Hybrid models like the Mclaren P1 and Ferrari La Ferrari on us, slowly getting us used to the idea of the Battery Motor with massive torque being the answer.

The newly launched Mclaren Artura being the latest example of how we can extract more performance from a Hybrid with a V6 rather than the previous petrol only V8, this will soon be followed by the new Rimac Supercar that will out-accelerate anything fossil powered that we can throw at it ( 0-60 1.5s) with ease and no emissions to boot, and by the way, Rimac has been acquired by a combination of KIA, Hyundai, and Porsche so watch that space.

Fear not, its not all doom and gloom. I’m sure we will not all disappear into a Mad Max or Demolition Man type demise, scratching around wastelands looking for fuel. It will be some years until we are forced into this quiet and ecofriendly path because there will still be lots of cars available for us to enjoy, and who knows quite a few of us might enjoy doing 0-100 in half a second whilst being driven by the car and eating a sandwich whilst reading your emails, The Drivers Union might even need a new category one day for the silent assassins of the road?

Darren has been the Director of Planet Leasing for 14 years, previously worked in the Retail motor trade for 16 years and was involved in the implementation of the Hybrid range with Lexus during that time.

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spe a t a ack b ok A lo

by M s o ot

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Syeed (Ferrari 348) This was the first car meet I ever organised. A few months earlier I had just picked up a Ferrari 348 and having done a couple of countryside runs with other Ferrari owners I thought it would be nice to do one nearer to home and at a much slower pace.

I persuaded Dem, who I had met at a previous meet to get involved, although I think his then girfriend, now wife Hayley did most of the work!! She came up with the idea of the Sanderson Hotel as the final destination point and Dem picked up the trophies.

The meet was posted on the Ferrarichat forum which many UK Ferrari owners used at the time. The list of attendees slowly grew and Dem and I didn’t actually think all of them would turn up.

I was the first to arrive that morning and I remember thinking that most people would still be in bed. It was October after all., but then the Ferrari’s started arriving and kept on coming. Parking now became an issue and they were double parking alongside each other. In the end we had well over 40 Ferraris turning up. I recall one owner driving down from from Birmingham to join us. He eventually got lost during the cruise.

The route was a big loop taking in some of the London’s landmarks. Hyde Park, Picadilly, Soho, Tottenham Court Road, Euston Road, Baker Street, Oxford Street and back to Hyde Park. It was such fun that we did the loop again.

The unforgetable moment for me was whilst leading the cars and waiting at the lights on the Baker Street/Oxford Street juction, I could hear a couple of Ferraris revving their engines and other Ferraris joining in and creating a symphony of noise echoing off the surrounding buildings. As the lights turned green and I turned right into Oxford Street to find countless pedestrians waiting for us to drive past drove past.

We did get a bit of criticism about the meet afterwards from fellow owners. One individual said that it was against the ‘ethos of Ferrari’, whatever that means. All I can say is that they didn’t understand what the meet was actually about. Yes, it was a bit of posing in London, but it was ultimatly what the Drivers Union is all about, a way to meet fellow enthusiasts.

I made a lot of friends that day, many of whom over, 15 years later, I’m still in touch with and often drive with. They are of course also Drivers Union members.

Dem (Ferrari 355 Spider) I don’t do early mornings. I especially, don’t do early mornings when there isn’t an obvious coffee stop along the route. However, I’d been persuaded by Sy that an early start was definitely the right thing, for

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what we expected to be, a reasonably well attended Ferrari meet and drive through the heart of London.

So, we settled at him getting to the Hyde Park meet point at 10am and me some time after that; after all, it was a long way from my house in North London.

The meet and drive was planned not long after we’d first met at a smaller Ferrari gathering I had organised in Epping (Essex) a few months earlier. It was a time when there was pretty much only one stand-out Ferrari themed internet forum, Ferrari Chat, so most events were organised there.

I’d dipped my toe in the water to organise a meet the previous year, not long after I’d bought my Ferrari 355, managing to attract a whole two other members to turn up at the pub. Neither of whom had brought their Ferrari. Hmmmmm….. Comforted by the fact that the choice of a North London pub as a meet point on a wet and windy weekday evening wasn’t the best, I came off the ropes swinging for round two; a sunny Sunday in the Essex countryside. Not only did this smash my personal best with a grand total of 6 cars, but it meant I met Sy for the first time With barely a pause between sarcastic jibes throughout that day, it was clear that we could work with each other.

So, fairly soon after, we began concocting a plan to organise something bigger and better; something that really captured the essence of Ferrari ownership; something that was absolutely nothing to do with exploiting the great speed or handling of these cars.

And so, the Poseur Run was born.

The concept was to bring together a decent enough number of Ferraris to the centre of London and drive them around so that a lot of people could see them.

See them, or see us driving them? Either way, we came up with the ‘Poseur Run’ moniker for the event. I remember Sy selecting that spelling as opposed to using ‘Poser’, believing that it might add a hint of classiness to what we were going to do. On reflection now, by definition (according to Google), “calling someone a poseur is an insult because it insinuates that the person is a liar, a sneak, or delusional. The word poseur is derived from the French, like the words raconteur and liqueur.”. Ah well, nobody who signed up for the meet seemed to notice.

Anyway, over a few weeks we had the framework for the event. A start point, a route map and a drinks / lunch venue. We even decided to prepare some awards for distribution after the drive at the final destination, The Sanderson Hotel in North Soho. Sy planned with the hotel to expect a rabble of noisy cars and people.

I made arrangements for trophies to be customised and ready for the day. We agreed that these should be awarded for the loudest exhaust, best car, most laps of a roundabout and the biggest Poseur.

Of course, it was all a very subjective and a bit silly, but then, so are me and Sy. So, with our plan fairly well sketched out and too eager to wait for the following

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summer, we decided on Sunday 5th October 2005 as the date for the event, positing this on the F-Chat forum.

From memory, there was a bit of debate on the forum around the concept of this meet and drive.

Probably as many people derided the idea of a ‘Poseur Run’ as supported it. You pays yer money, you takes yer choice!! As the date of the event drew closer, we were seeing an encouraging number of people signing up to attend. The weather forecast wasn’t looking too shabby and as there was a decent amount of parking at the start point in Hyde Park, the key ingredients for a well-attended meet were in place. Apart from a coffee shop. Anyway…………

I was definitely not one of the first to arrive at Hyde Park. Sy, of course, was already there well before me.

I was honestly shocked to see somewhere between fifteen and twenty Ferraris lined up on Hyde Park’s South Carriage Drive and they kept coming….. I can’t remember the full and final count, but it must have been approaching forty cars. We were also joined by a very articulate gentleman, who drove slowly past our parked cars in his new Ferrari 360 Spider with a big dog in the passenger seat. He stopped opposite me, so I asked “what’s your forum name?”. He eloquently responded “What the f**k is all this? I’m just taking the dog for a piss in the park”.

So, adhering to our strict code of conduct and event organisation rules, I said “Feel free to join us if you want”. “Great”, he said; “I’ll drop the dog home and be back in a bit”. It was that sort of event.

At around the 11:15am planned start time, we did our best to gather the group for a carefully prepared briefing. Or, Sy shouting something about us leaving soon and for everyone to take one of the printed route maps. We’d decided to keep the planned route a secret prior to the start of the drive; absolutely no idea why though.

As drivers and passengers started getting onto their cars, it was clear that we were probably going to have as much success with keeping that lot organised as we would pushing water with a fork. Or herding fog.

Certainly not sticking to a carefully prepared route.

So off we ventured. Our extensive experience of large motoring event organisation really came to the fore at the start. Maybe ten cars got through the traffic lights on green at the exit to the park. About five chanced it on the yellow. Maybe twenty or so just sneaked through on the red. Looked like we still had most of a convoy and anyway, we were guaranteed to all bunch up again soon enough. This wasn’t about driving fast. This was the Poseur Run! There were so many great memories from the hour or so that we spent on this drive around the busy touristy area of London; along Piccadilly, around Parliament Square, back through Hyde Park. That gorgeous noise from the absurdly pointless revving

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of engines, ricocheting off the buildings around us. Arriving at a junction and seeing a few Ferrari’s heading towards us; well that wasn’t the right route then! Interloper Ferraris suddenly appearing in the convoy, who definitely weren’t there at the start in Hyde Park; neither would they be there at the finish.

People on the pavement, clapping, shouting, taking photos, dancing even (no joke; it’s on video!); their reactions, every single one, positive.

As part of our ‘on the job’ training for managing a group of cars, we decided that continuing laps of Parliament Square might be a great way to bring the convoy back together. OK, so it pretty much clogged up the road outside Big Ben, but it looked fantastic; and that was from inside the car. From the outside, it must have looked like an official, formally organised Ferrari event. Only we knew the truth…….

Amazingly, everybody made it to the Sanderson Hotel underground car park. The only collision from the whole event happened there, with a wheel scraped against a high kerb. On the plus side, fixing that would seem cheap once they’d bought a drink in the hotel. I know Sy regrets buying me a portion of chips there, but at least we know what a tenner’s worth of fried spuds tasted like now!

The awards were handed out in the courtyard garden of the hotel. A light hearted and fun affair and a nice way to round off the event.

So, was it right or wrong to have done the ‘Poseur Run’? Did it give us a bad rep as Ferrari drivers?

As with everything in life, there will always be those for and those against. Most importantly, did it hurt anybody? No!!

Did it bring a memorable moment of excitement and wowness to a lot of people in London that day?

Yes. Absolutely, yes.

Marc Hedge (Ferrari 328 GTS) I vividly remember the first Poseur Run, back in October 2005. Meeting Sy and the famous clipboard, feeling epic in my ‘brand new’ 16 year old Ferrari 328 GTS, cruising alongside Ferrari’s classic and new, exchanging smiley-eyed glances with fellow pilots circling around Parliament Square and Piccadilly Circus, and enjoying the appreciation of Londoners and tourists waving and taking pictures of what must have seemed quite a spectacle.

One of the first meet-ups I attended, and an early realisation that Ferrari ownership was a real club, full of down to Earth people who shared a passion for cars, but also had a lot more in common. I was proud to be part of it and the day will always be a treasured memory.

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Jas (Ferrari 348 Spider) It’s hard to believe it’s been over 15 years since we did the inaugural Ferraris in Central London drive.

At the time, I posted online that Mayor Ken Livingstone should pay us to do this regularly as we must have boosted tourism in London that Sunday in October 2005. There were countless happy smiling faces, and hundreds of people photographing and filming us. Some of them stood in the middle of the road to photograph us and so many of them gave us a thumbs up en-route.

I have so many vivid memories of the day. These include the biker cop who called two more of his colleagues over which made us stop revving for a while. He made me nervous about my lack of front plate, so I closed the gap to the Ferrari in front to a few centimetres to avoid him seeing the front of my car.

Then there was the long straight on the first run where five of us SCREAMED down the road, and the tourist at the bus stop whose jaw dropped as he shouted “F***!!” Priceless! And of course, The Tunnel. Try to imagine so many old school Ferraris screaming through there. Many of them with exhaust modifications, like my 348 Spider with its Tubi exhaust and no catalytic converters to dull the sound, and at least one 355 with a Capristo exhaust.

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There was also the Preacher on Oxford Street, preaching about “the sins of avarice and greed”. He was talking to the backs of about 50-100 people all gawping as 30 Ferraris drowned him out! Absolutely hilarious! He was shouting something at us along the lines of “You are slaves to your cars!”.

Then there was the European tourist in Parliament square who wanted me to take his wife/girlfriend for a few laps around the square.

A Ferrari owner jokingly informed an elderly tourist, “that’s the last 30 lottery winners mate”. It made his day. He arrived looking rather expressionless and left with a huge smile, which was nice to see.

I also vividly recall setting off the car alarms near Oxford Street as the vibration of 20 Ferraris revving set them off one after another.

It was great to hear all the different cars and sounds.

The 355 did sound very different to a 348. Both great, and both different. And the 360CS barks at you - very loudly!

We created a mobile red traffic jam wherever we went and it was a hugely exhilarating day with fantastic cars, sounds, crowds, scenery and so many wonderful memories. Sadly it’s also something that can’t be repeated these days thanks to the traffic calming measures, cameras and likely police attention.

Andy Gibbs (Ferrari 360CS) As I recall, it was a chilly October morning back in 2005, sixteen years ago as I write, and the sun was out and barely a cloud in the sky. With 425bhp of V8 sitting on the drive, it was going to be a good day!

Before we go into the events of one of the greatest ‘spontaneous’ Ferrari meetings of the decade, I feel I should start by reminding you this was 2005. These were different times. Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister for the third time, London was awarded the 2012 Olympics and MG/Rover went bankrupt. In these different times it was expected, even demanded, that children of all ages could and should play, have fun and make a lot of noise – even if they were over 25 or, in a lot of cases including yours truly, over 40!

And so it was, on Sunday October 2nd 2005 a meeting was arranged, a Sunday communion if you will, of like-minded Ferrari owners who simply wanted to get together and show their prides and joys to the world. We were fortunate that computers had recently been invented and chatter began on the early online forum of FerrariChat. The talk of a meeting in an ‘undisclosed’ location where all those – well, most of those – with a prancing horse or other exotica would be welcomed.

I was fortunate in the day to own a new Challenge

Stradale and having recently returned to the UK from Switzerland where I’d been living for a number of years, I was relishing the thought of meeting new friends and reacquainting myself with the streets and the traffic of London. The time was set and the location, Hyde Park.

The meeting was typically chaotic for such an unorganised, organised meet, but what a meeting it was. As I entered the park, there were Ferrari’s and other delicious cars everywhere. Every colour but mainly Rosso Corsa, it was a little boys and a grown adults dream. The contrast of the park in backdrop to tens and tens of gleaming dream cars was stunning and it wasn’t long, after brief introductions and hello’s, before the first cars thundered into life. The procession that was the Poseur Run had begun!

I can’t remember the exact route we took from the park, but I do recall passing many sights on more than one occasion as we circled and circled London Town.

I’m sure it was an awesome sight watching a train of red snaking its way along the streets, it was certainly magical to be part of it. The noise was incredible. It wasn’t what you could hear so much as what you could feel, and as we progressed you could tell that every passer-by and onlooker was feeling it too. The mix of V8’s and V12’s burbling and on brief occasions, within the law and traffic constraints of a very busy city, screaming, it’s one of those occasions that stays

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with you. Today it’s unfortunate we’d almost certainly be called anti-social for this event, but in this different time it was unique. It was a first and it was in the middle of the day in an already noisy and bustling centre. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

As we wound through the streets towards Knightsbridge the main group of cars dispersed and the mass was broken up into smaller groups of five to ten cars as we dealt with the traffic, crossings and lights. But all knew where we were going, there was a tunnel to be had and although the tunnel was in fact the Piccadilly underpass, it had to be experienced. While it is very short, more like a very long garage if we’re honest, it was oh so very sweet as we entered and every exhaust went into ‘loud’ mode. The Stradale is known for its extreme exhaust note but when enclosed and combined with half a dozen other raucous V8’s, it is nothing short of mind bending.

As we entered Piccadilly, 10 or so in our group, 10 ahead, many behind, the sense of occasion wasn’t lost.

Moving now at a glacial speed due to taxi’s, busses and pedestrians,we began to see the joy on people’s faces.

Dad’s pointing, kids squealing, mum’s looking on with wide eyes and wider grins. Old and young alike turned at the sound of something very different to be greeted by the visual splendour of Pininfarina’s finest creations.

As we rounded the city on our way back to Parliament Square for the first of what seemed many visits, I noticed that crowds gathering a crossing’s by traffic lights weren’t there to cross, they were there, mostly, to watch. As Ferraris’ three abreast and four or five deep, came to a stop at the red lights people gathered.

As lights turned from red to green, only a few moved.

Most though just stayed and stared. Pointed. Smiled.

Applauded. It was almost moving, like an impromptu Lord Mayor’s Parade.

Another new phenomenon was also visible, for me at least, for the first time. People were jumping into the path of the cars and taking photos. Almost putting their lives at risk for a better shot of a parade of spectacular cars. These were the original car bloggers/spotters before they had anything to blog about! Remember, these were different times and while many were using early digital cameras, most corner photographers were still using their faithful 35mm cameras. The iPhone wasn’t going to hit the streets for another 2years!

Onwards then to the spot where we would, inadvertently, reconvene. It wasn’t an arranged stop to join back together. In fact, it wasn’t a stop at all. It was Parliament Square. I remember as our group entered, we were soon joined by stragglers from behind. As cars and taxis and busses came onto the square and left, we just kept going around. Doing this meant that soon we’d encircled the entire square occupying all the lanes of the square as we joined together. With little room for London buses, taxis or other traffic, the square was a blaze of colour and noise all moving in

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unison to the tune of the traffic lights until we couldn’t move anymore. There were just too many Italian horses occupying the streets and we soon realised that it was more than the public that were taking an interest in what was happening. It was time to break together and head north – to the Marylebone Road and a route that would ultimately bring us back down Baker Street.

The run down Baker Street was one of the most memorable parts of the entire day. Not only had a lot of the group remained together but many that were lost on the way towards Oxford Street, were found. And there, at the red lights of Baker Street and Oxford Street, outside of Marks & Spencer, the orchestra began. It was naturally loud at idle anyway but as twenty to thirty cars began to simultaneously rev their eager engines; shop windows began to vibrate and soon parked car alarms were joining in the cacophony. The faces on those that witnessed this were striking. Open mouthed, many with fingers in their ears or protecting small children from the assault of noise, there was wonder and delight. Not a single complaint or jeer, just smiles and expressions of genuine joy. Some people were actually jumping and clapping as they were hit with a wall of noise – Ferrari noise! This, for me, was the icing!

After the run, most of us descended on the tremendously swanky Sanderson Hotel in Berners Street for a drink and a small ceremony to reward the biggest poseurs of the event. I can’t recall the winners that well other than to remember they were indeed fine, upstanding members of the group and if memory serves, one was a particularly handsome chap.

The main reason to gather was to share and recount the experience we’d just had as we all only saw things from our own perspective and much was missed while navigating priceless, to us, machinery through the bustling streets. And in the gathering it was clear that everyone, to a tee, recalled the faces of the onlookers we’d encountered and the joy that so many had seen.

Where we had stopped, there were no shortage of adults and children alike wanting to know more about the cars.

Where we passed, people waved and were entranced.

Sure everyone in London has seen a Ferrari or two, but the amount of cars we had that day was perhaps the first time people would have seen its like. Even when I think back all these years later, the impact of what we did would have been huge to a casual, unsuspecting onlooker.

Given the success of the day we naturally vowed to repeat the Poseur Run the next year, but it wasn’t to be.

Even though I called this a spontaneous event there was of course a huge amount of work behind the scenes by others to bring us all together and I remain forever grateful for the efforts that made it possible. It wasn’t until three years later that the smaller but similarly fun drive out called the ‘Scud-Run’ took place and while an incredible day as well, the Poseur Run of 2005 will always be the first – and the best!

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Dem filming Sy. Both a lot slimmer than today The Drivers Union

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Ferrari F8 Drive Day Jardine Ferrari Colchester invited our members to their Ferrari F8 Tributo Test drive Day Words by David Ball / Photos by Syeed Ali

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T

he 29th September arrived but just to make sure, I checked the diary to confirm. Yes, it was the 29th and today I was going to have a drive in the new Ferrari F8 Tributo. Two slices of toast and an expresso later the garage doors rolled up revealing my Honda Civic and the Ferrari 430 spider.

It had been raining so it was going to be the Civic.

I looked at the 430, and for some reason thought it looked sad, as if I were about to embark on an affair with another Ferrari. I patted the roof and put her mind at rest.Set the sat nav to Penshurst Place in Kent, fired up the Civic and I was on my way.

Arriving at the Tudor mansion that is Penshurst place I parked the Civic and walking through a stone gateway spotted the Tributo, or to be more accurate, twelve of them formed up in a semi-circle.

This gave me a chance to wander around and take a good look at the cars. My first impressions were what a beautiful car, but then are not all Ferraris beautiful.

So, I started to look closer and in more depth. It was still a beautiful car but perhaps if you look hard enough you can find fault, perhaps not fault but areas of design to address.

As an example, let’s look at my black 430. In my

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opinion and many would probably disagree, the profile of the tin top just doesn’t look right. The haunches and the roof line where they meet doesn’t look a natural blend, unlike the 360 which does. The 360 flows whereas the 430 is too abrupt.

However, without the roof the 430 spiders’ lines look more natural and flowing, hence my preference for the Spider. I felt this with the Tributo. the spider’s lines seemed cleaner. I also wasn’t keen on the rear view, again this may seem like nit picking but to paraphrase the TV program catchphrase. Say what you see.

“Great car and a good drive. The engineering is to be applauded” On a positive note you can see why the lines are where they are. This car is a very heavily face lifted

488GTB. I believe the only original bits that remain from the 488 are the doors and roof. This car was built for performance, but performance is not all about the engine and its 720Bhp. You could drop a 720Bhp engine in a London bus and you would most definitely have the quickest bus in London but at the end of the day its still a bus. So, this is where aerodynamics come into play. Every curve and scoop every bit of the car has been designed to cut through the air as cleanly as possible and I think it’s this that just detracts slightly from the overall look of the car.

Please allow me a weak analogy. As a teenager back in the 1960s I had a girlfriend who was quite a stunner. A beautiful girl. But she insisted on wearing huge spectacles. When I say huge, they were very big.

They didn’t suit her. I suggested she try not using them for a while which she agreed to do. But after walking into a few lamp posts she reverted to her old glasses.

I couldn’t even convince her to have a better pair (glasses I mean).

Another example would be if you think back few years to F1 cars. An example would be Schumacher’s car. There were so many bits stuck on the car, a winglet here a winglet there. Even a winglet on the mirrors.

All of this made the car slice through the air and hang onto the tarmac like chewing gum on your shoe. Did it look great. No, it did not. A friend of mine worked at McLaren F1 team at the time and they thought their car looked bloody awful, even though it did go very fast.

My point being that the F8 is not an ugly car it is a beautiful car but the quest for performance has not added to the beauty of the car After going through the various checks to confirm who I was and the fact that I can drive legally I was introduced to my co pilot Andy. A pleasant chat ensued as we walked towards the car. Being colour blind, I had to ask him what colour it was, charcoal was the reply.

Now a bit about me before we continue. I am fast approaching my 73rd year on this planet. I rise to a height of six feet and weigh quite a bit more than I should. Chubby would be a polite word to use.

My Ferrari world has been a 348, 360 and now 430.

I have not driven anything as powerful or valuable as the F8. I felt a burning excitement at the prospect of driving this 720bhp £200k car, although nearer £300k with options. (don’t get me started) So, first impressions on entering the cockpit.

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Being of the afore mention age and size, the car was extremely easy to slide into. Unlike a McLaren I had tried a few weeks earlier. Falling into the McLaren was easy. Getting out was a very different matter. The hire of a small crane was required together with a few levers to finally extricate me. But entry and exit to and from the F8 was a simple task.

The seat hugged me, and I felt comfortable and at peace with the world. Andy pointed out the instrument cluster and controls most of which were on the steering wheel including indicators. No stalks on this car.

I had a small chuckle when I mentioned to Andy my old dads 1937 Austin 7. Similar technology in as much as you Flicked a switch on top of the steering

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wheel and after a few seconds a red semaphore arm would slowly drag itself out of the door pillar to inform people behind that that we were about to make a manoeuvre. Sometimes it only came up halfway so my job as an eight-year-old was to put my hand out of the window and pull it up. Happy days So belted up, mirrors adjusted I was given the command to start engine. I nervously help my finger over the red start button, I had no idea what 720BHP was going to sound like. I asked Andy if Mission control in Houston Texas was aware of our take off.

I stabbed the button and grasped the steering wheel. I felt a slight tremor in the car. I checked the rev counter. That all seemed ok, but I couldn’t hear the

engine. Andy confirmed that we had fired up and that we could proceed. I pulled the paddle towards me and checked that the number one appeared on the Dash.

Didn’t feel it engage, so slightly disappointed I pointed the car at the stone arch and headed quietly along the mansion’s single lane tarmac road until we came to the main entrance/ exit. Turn left Andy instructed We were going on a pre set route which was mostly country lanes for about 45 minutes, but we ended up doing 30 minutes I think due to the weather. The roads were wet with added clumps of mud deposited by tractors to catch you out. The 720 Bhp was going to be of no use here so I looked forward to a pleasant

drive in the country I flicked up and down the gearbox. The changes were seamless. This was engineering to a supremely high level. A bit of a panic ensued when we went through some traffic-controlled road works. Apparently Red did not mean stop to the cars coming towards us. I was in the middle of about eight cars when I had to reverse.

I pointed out to Andy that this is where I needed a reversing camera. There is he replied [pointing to the right side of the Dash. To me that seemed a bit of an afterthought on Ferraris part but its one of those things that you adapt to after a while.

Arriving back at penshurst place I returned the car to its

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position in the semi-circle and turned the engine off.

A moments silence before Andy asked what I thought of the car. I replied beginning that he would have to understand that as I said earlier I have not driven anything with this power or of this value before and so my judgement was really based on expectation, while also appreciating that due to the weather I couldn’t give it the full beans as they say to get my adrenalin levels on a high. So, barring those parameters in mind, my thoughts were as follows.

Good looking car but not beautiful. If parked in a row of Ferraris it wouldn’t stand out from the crowd. Sitting in the car? Excellent. Comfortable, everything to hand. Build quality superb and great design job for the interior. Reversing camera in the wrong place if I was being picky.

Driving? The car starts which is always a bonus.

No wow factor. No noise, just a slight jolt and a purr from the engine. Perfect everyday car. Very quiet inside the car. It rode bumps without a thump or a spasm going up your spine. Gearchange was seamless.

No chance to exploit the car due to conditions.

Did I enjoy the experience, and did I like the car? Yes, and yes. Great car and a good drive. The engineering is to be applauded and congratulations to Ferrari.

There is always a BUT though isn’t there and this is my BUT. If this is the future of Ferrari, then it’s

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not the road I’m going to be travelling down. I know there is no comparison between the F8 and my 430.

However, in my opinion the 430 has more excitement and more of an experience. When I stab the start button, I just know the engine has fired up as do my neighbours. Pushing down on the throttle and grabbing third gear you feel that thump from behind you as the clutch engages. Run over a matchstick and you feel it.

I found the F8 to be bland. Yes, I know. Wash my mouth out for saying a Ferrari was bland. I think people will buy this because they can or probably always buy the latest model from Ferrari. That is not a criticism it is just my opinion and of course I could and probably am wrong.

In my modest opinion Ferrari have left two things out of the car. I know it is a cliché but the car lacks character and soul.

I asked myself the question, If I were in the financial position of buying the F8 would I go for it.

I think the answer is probably no. My choice would be a late 458. So, if anyone wants to test that theory and drop me £250k, (I will limit the options) I would be very happy to indulge.

Many thanks to Jardine Ferrari Colchester for the opportunity to drive the Ferrari F8 Tributo

What did our other members think of the Ferrari F8?

“On first sight, I was completely blown-away by the Tributo. It gave me the ‘shiny-eyed’ supermodel kind of impact, but I cannot help but agree with your earlier review of the event.

It was an exciting opportunity to be given the chance to drive this amazing supercar. However, the roads were wet and the chosen route did not allow the car to even begin to show its true driving capabilities or characteristics. Adjusting the Manettino switch was a no-no, and deselecting the Auto-transmission was only possible for the final 10mins. It was still a thrilling opportunity, but disappointed that the driving experience was dialled-down to such an extent, that it felt more like a driving lesson!

The F8 was breath-taking to look at from every angle. Truly beautiful in proportion and design, but… (and it is a big but), it did not give me the same raw experience that I was expecting; both in terms of sound and feel. I drive an Audi most days and my F430 on sunny weekend, the F8 refinement felt closer to my Audi that to my F430!.Don’t get me wrong, the Tributo was an amazing instrument; very comfortable, supersharp, well-built with an unbelievable transmission , however, regrettably, the legendary Ferrari soul just was not there on the day…”

Luciano “Unfortunately it was a rather wet day when we took the F8 Tributo for a test drive so driving was considerate, especially given that it was not my car. It is undoubtedly a technical tour de force, but seemed to lack something, a soul. Having also driven a 458 the same afternoon, I realised that if I were to be given one it would be the later. It felt like I was in command more, the auditory sensation eclipsed the F8 which to aids the excitement. Driving home in my 328, basic mathematics suggested that for the price of a medium specced F8 Tributo you could purchase a 328, 599 AND 458 for approximately the same money. Three

different Ferrari experiences for the price of one.

Given that the majority of owners will not have the required skill level to get close to the limits of the F8 Tributo’s capabilities, especially on the public roads, it seems to me that a three car garage would be more pleasing, space permitting.

Saying the above, given a dry day and a track, maybe the car would come to life and I would be hooked on the involvement.“ David Pearce “The F8 was a very impressive car - great acceleration and it felt tight in corners. I would certainly consider it going forward but having just bought a 458 there didn’t seem to me enough blue water between the two models to justify moving up the marque. If I was starting from scratch I would absolutely consider the F8.”

Member (Anonymous) The day out to test drive the F8 Tributo was, in a nutshell, excellent. Firstly – the history behind the location – walking through the gardens it was easy to imagine a young Henry VIII trying to woo Anne Boleyn right in front of you.. The organisation was faultless – really well thought out COVID safety precautions, cars wiped down immediately after use and so on. The team couldn’t have been more friendly and I’m especially grateful to Sean Hudspeth, Ferrari’s on hand pro driver, for chatting to my partner whilst I was out making a fool of myself, grinning ear to ear.

Next onto the cars – a great selection of F8s lined up outside in the sunshine – all spotless and enticing. And now that I’ve used the “F” word – what a generous drive alongside a great (and patient) instructor. All in all a superb day and one I would repeat in a heartbeat.

A big thanks to everyone who made it possible.

Nigel Glen

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COUNTACH! Meeting Your Hero Words by Syeed Ali Photos by David Pearce

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It’s the early 80’s and I’m standing in the local High Street staring as the first supercar I ever saw in the metal pulls to a stop in front of me. A red Lamborghini Countach 500S. The passenger door opens and the occupant slides out and walks across the road to the Newsagents whilst I remain motionless, wide eyed.

Fast forward 35 plus years and history is repeating itself. I’m once again staring at a another red Countach. A 25th Anniversary model. Only this time I will be driving it.

I‘m at Furlongers Sports Cars in Kent, where Matt Honeysett has kindly let me drive one of their two Countachs currently for sale. This one is £350,000 with a recent £50,000 refurbishment.

Another two are in their workshop having some work done to them so they know the cars extremely well I approach the car with excitement, tinged with trepidation. It was my bedroom wall companion for many years in my adolescence but the words “never meet your heroes” echo in my head.

I did not want the Countach to join the list of disappointments in my life. The Lotus Esprit Turbo, Sir Patrick Stewart, Santa Clause, marriage!

I slip in to the Countach. Easier to get into than I though, but harder to get out with dignity attached as I found out later. Matt drives the Countach first whilst I ride shotgun, giving me a chance to acclimatise to the cabin. More ‘cosy’ than spacious, the narrow seats hug my body post lockdown body. The seats are electric, needed a strong push to make the buttons work. Rob, a friend who owns an earlier 500QV model, warned me about the lack of headroom as the electric motors under the seat rob you of a few inches. At six foot, it wasn’t a problem, although wearing a helmet for a track day may be.

The windows in the Anniversary are now electric now, replacing the window winder of previous models. All the more faster to open the 5” windows I suppose.

Following us in a 430 spider are two Drivers Union members who are helping out on the day.

David Pearce who will be taking the photos and David Ball on driving duties. They get to hear the exhaust in all its thundering glory.

We pull over at an Indian restaurant where David P thinks would be a good setting for some

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photos. Whilst waiting I chat with Matt about the car.

This particular Countach is a 1989 model with just 12,100 miles on the odometer. The exterior colour exotically named as Rosso Siviglia. The original owner decided not to drive it and with values rising even in 1989, decided to put it into storage. Subsequently selling it 4 months later for double the purchase price. It spent another 7 years as a promotional display for a jeweller and rarely driven. The third owner drove it a little and the fourth owner put it in storage.

With such little use, it was decided that a sympathetic refurbishment was necessary which resulted in the engine being removed for a major service, as well as updating the A/C to modern specifications, new door, boot, bonnet rubbers and a host of other work.

Photos taken, it’s time for me to drive. Turn the key and the Countach erupts into life. I need to reverse and look down at the gearbox. It’s a dogleg gearbox, with the reverse protected by a metal safety gate. My previous Ferrari was also a dogleg so I’m hoping 12 years of memory muscle is still there. I wouldn’t want to put it into the wrong gear at the wrong time!

Clutch down. It’s a bit heavy. Into gear and the car slowly moves backwards. Fortunately I didn’t have to do the Countach reverse manoeuvre where the driver sits on the door sill looking backwards whilst stepping on the accelerator.

With my luck I would have fallen out of the car.

Back into neutral. Checking the mirrors again.

Time to drive!! To call the steering heavy would be an understatement. I struggle to turn it whilst Matt calls me various unflattering names about my manhood. But once on the move, it feels good. Connected in a while that modern cars can rarely match.

I’m about to pull into the road at a 45 degree angle. It should have been at 90 degrees at least then I could have seen oncoming traffic. The visibility out the side window is not very good, which is a bit like saying penguins are not very good at flying.. With a prayer and push of the throttle , I glide into the road. If I had to use one word to describe the first 10 minutes…. intimidating.

It feels big and it’s hard to place the front

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corners. Matt warned me about the not so good brakes, when he should have actually warned me about the lack of brakes!

As the minutes go by, the more comfortable it feels. Even the brakes don’t feel so bad anymore.

I’m enjoying this!! The exhaust pops and bangs behind me. The two David’s following are probably enjoying the noise.

Feeling more comfortable, I push on a bit harder. The ca+r felt much faster than what was indicated on the speedometer. The gearchange, solid but very smooth. Surprisingly the ride was actually quite comfortable riding on 225/50 ZR15 tyres. Yes, 15” wheels. Any smaller and

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they would be on a Corgi model.

My time in the drivers seat over, I swap places with David P and follow the Countach back to the Furlonger showroom, giving me a change to see the car in motion. It’s loud. Popping and roaring from the sports exhaust. But the looks!!

It’s a visual punch in the face. If Rocky Balboa was a car, he’d be a Countach! (Yes, I know he drove a Jalpa in Rocky IV) In 2020, there is still nothing like it on the road.

Even at standstill it looks like it’s doing 100mph.

Just imagine what the reaction was when it was first unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show in 1971. That’s 50 years ago and I can’t think of

another automobile that is sold today that looks as dramatic.

So did it live up to my expectations or was it a hero I should never have met? A hero left on my bedroom wall.

The Countach is a dinosaur. The T-Rex of dinosaurs, but still a dinosaur. Hard to drive, tiring after a long drive, not as fast as it looks and takes a Herculean effort to get the best out of it. But for me, that’s what makes it a supercar.

It’s a car that you won’t want to drive everyday, but every time you do, you will look forward to it and savour it. The looks alone are enough for

me, but the driving is so analogue. So real. Every gearchange a challenge, every braking manoeuvre to be celebrated.

The Countach was fabulous. Old school. A car that you can drive and enjoy without breaking the speed limit.

The Countach is still my hero!

Thank you to Matt Honeysett & Furlonger Specialist Cars www.simonfurlonger.co.uk

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Following a Legend David Ball goes behind the scenes of the Countach drive I am of course referring to the legend that is the Countach rather than the legend that is Sy. Although both legends in their own way.

So there we were David and I. David sitting next to me surrounded by various cameras and me readying myself to follow the Lamborghini driven by Matt Honeysett of Furlongers specialist cars in my Black 430 Spider. We waited while Sy attempted to gain entry into the countach. We applauded silently as he finally fell in at the third attempt.

I pushed the red button on the 430 and the engine fired up. Matt turned the key (that’s a quaint word, key) and the sound of my 430 became a murmur as all twelve cylinders of the countach fired up. David stood up in my car to take his first snap, immediately collapsing back in the seat as I moved the car forward.

David murmured “Bit of warning next time please”. Then we were off and when I say off we were really off. The Countach spitting fire burps and farts as we left Furlongers.

Soon the open road known to the locals as the A20 was before us. The Countach was now in its element . Hissing banging and popping and scaring the locals in the process. We passed the village of Charing before coming to a halt outside an Indian restaurant.

We left our cars. When I say we left our cars.

David ,myself and Matt left our cars, Sy fell out.

Many snaps were taken and we returned to our cars. David mentioned to me that Sy was getting in the wrong side of the car. We looked at each other in horror. Sy was going to drive. I decided not to fire up the 430 thinking that we could be sometime and couldn’t really afford to waste the fuel.

The silence was shattered by the lusty twelve

cylinders firing up and moments later a tranquil silence returned as the Countach lurched backwards and stopped. “He’s stalled it” David chuckled.

Eventually the car was pointing roughly in the direction it was supposed to go and we were off.

Slowly at first and after a few moments slower.

David and I suggested over the radio the we push on ahead and take some shots as the Countach passed. We overtook the Countach which to be fair wasn’t difficult. Not sure how fast the Countach goes in first gear.

So we parked in a layby on the A20 and awaited the Countach. we waited a bit more and decided we should wait a bit longer. A bit later the same day the Countach appeared. David’s camera fired off like a first world war machine gun.

Sy had spotted David so indicated to pull over into a side road next to where my 430 was parked.

Cars coming towards Sy caused a slight problem because he had to stop. Sy blipped the throttle as the car readied itself to cross the road. A gap appeared in the traffic, this was the moment.

More revs the clunk as first gear was selected.

A dab on the throttle and the car leapt forward and then stopped straddling the westbound carriageway of the A20.

Cars were approaching at speed. The Countach spluttered and farted and refused to start. I tried to restrain laughter but failed as did David still snapping away.

Eventually a slow moving tractor allowed the now restarted Countach to continue across the A20. Matt opened the passenger door and three or four gallons of sweat poured out although It may not all have been sweat. Matt re took the wheel and back to Furlongers we went.

On a serious note the car was fantastic, the sound, the experience and the fun.

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The Interview

Steve Berry DU Member #300 The former Top Gear presenter chats about his life on two and four wheels Interview by Syeed Ali Portrait photo be Paul Ripley

“I had a mixed upbringing in that my dad was very

working class and my grandfather was very middle class and so my dad had motorbikes, which is where my motorcycle obsession comes from”.

I’m sitting with Steve Berry in a London Hotel in Kensington chatting over drinks having met up earlier at the V & A Museum who were hosting a special exhibition on cars. An exhibition that Steve felt very much at home as he’d point out cars and wax lyrically about them.

However it was the two wheeled variant that was the focus of his youth. As a teenager he started off riding motorbikes but after watching the film Quadrophenia and watching The Jam play live, quickly swapped to scooters and the Mod lifestyle.

“Compared to a motorbike, it was rotten” he said describing his scooter experience. “….. it was unstable, it wobbled all over the place. It wasn’t very fast.”

He ended up as Editor of Scooter Magazine, which at that time was the sole Classic Scooter monthly magazine in the world and through which he subsequently met the man who changed his life, Jeremy Howlett.

“Jeremy built custom scooters on a scale that nobody had done before. I mean, mind blowing customs with tens of thousands of pounds invested in them, but he also liked motorbikes”. It

was while visiting Jeremy to photograph a scooter that Steve was given the opportunity to ride a new motorbike that Jeremy was getting delivered that very day. An FZR 1000 Yamaha.

“I’m like 19, 20 (years old) so I got on this big Yamaha thousand and let off down the road and I realized that it was faster in first than my scooter which was a super tuned 230cc Lambretta with a massive Weber carburettor on it and an expansion chamber and electronic ignition. So I upped it from 12bhp to like 30, but this Yamaha was faster in first gear then my libretto was flat out and I thought that’s it, can’t go back and I didn’t. That was it, motorbikes. I just went to motorbikes.”

His decision was later reinforced when his Editor at the magazine asked him to write an article about a Harley Davidson for one of their sister magazines. “So I went to Harley Davidson in Daventry on the Monday on the train and picked up a Harley Davidson Fatboy and I was riding back to Manchester, it was when Terminator 2 was out, and I thought this is something else man! And that was it. Off I went. Motorbikes.”

“I’ve still got a soft spot for scooters and I’ve always owned one. I’ve still got a Vespa but what I don’t try and do is make them go too fast because you soon realize there is the restriction that a 10” wheel puts on any vehicle.”

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It was an encounter with another motorcycle owner that again changed his life. The biker in question being the producer of a TV show called Top Gear who offered Steve the chance to try out for the show. A few weeks later and Steve found himself filming a review for a new BMW. “They were very sly in those days……. they get you on and they give you three or four tries and then if you were rubbish they quietly get rid of you. The number of people that had three or four go’s doing a Top Gear. Loads of journalists ended up doing that. Really good people. Great writers, but just rubbish on telly.”

“There was some great characters back then, like Russell Bulgin, Leonard Setright and George Bishop. Journalists who genuinely did not give a shit because back then you could afford not to give a shit because you could earn a decent salary and you could be absolutely honest. You could say exactly what you thought without worrying about advertising money and stuff like that.”

Tell me about your time at Top Gear and working with Jeremy Clarkson.

Well Jeremy’s like a brand isn’t he. He’s like Nike or Coca Cola and people say, is he like that in real life and I’m, not really no. What you see is an exaggerated version of what Jeremy is really like. We never really got on, if I’m honest. But Last time I saw him we had a pint. He said, come on let’s have a pint and freak people out because people know we don’t like each other Why didn’t you and Jeremy get on?

Because Jeremy is super competitive……he was all right with me at first, but then when I started getting more airtime and then when they shifted me from just bikes to cars and bikes he didn’t like that. He was what John and Dennis (the producers of Top Gear at the time) got right, which is that they employed working journalists instead of presenters. So we took all the ideas to them. I said I want to test ride this new Kawasaki and they were, there isn’t a new Kawasaki. I said, yeah there is, it’s only available in Japan but I know the first one that’s going to be in Europe so we need to go to Switzerland to ride it. That’s how they worked.

Another presenter you worked with was Andy Wilman He was briefly. He did an article about a nudist car show, I seem to remember, in which the power bulges and fenders and rear spoilers had to be carefully positioned for a half past eight on a

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Thursday evening on BBC Two. .......and he became a producer of Top Gear.

He’s like the fifth Beatle. He’s like the guiding hand behind Top Gear and the Grand Tour.

Why did you leave?

Got sacked. We all got sacked. End of ‘99. We all got sacked and I remember we never got told. I was in Bavaria on a motorway and my phone kept ringing and they were trying to get me to go to Donnington on the Saturday to do some sort of track testing. And it was like, right, yeah. Okay, I’ll be there. Stop calling me we’re trying to finish this feature.

So, I got back on the Friday and I was calling the office, no answer. But I’ve been there for nearly 10 years. I wasn’t, you know Wasn’t that concerned. But then I got a call from one of the other presenters and he went, can you get through to the office and I went, nobody’s answering the phone. And he went, yeah, nobody’s answering the phone to me either.

Were the ratings bad?

No, it was because they thought that we were all terrible, horrible, sexist, men. We were all horrible, straight white men. But it got to the point where the three bosses above us were all women. And they just went, right we need to stop this. So they brought it back with Kate Humble and Julia Bradbury and the main presenters.

Because it originally started with Angela Rippon Well, it started as a regional show just in Birmingham. I actually did 21 years of Top Gear, I actually did a program for what is now Dave, or what it was called before. With Noel Edmunds he’s a great guy, by the way. He was one of the original Top Gear presenters, a real car guy. Like when they did that rally show, and they said, oh, we’re gonna get these celebrities and then Noel was in it and I went, Noel will win that easy. And of course he did.

I’ll tell you something about the way television works. I got hired to do a bike show for ITV at the last minute, I mean, the real last minute. And later on, I asked the producer and I said, how come it was so last minute. He went, the guy that they hired for the show to present it was in a TV

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commercial, where he played a biker, but when he turned up on the set to present the TV show that he hired him for, he told them, he couldn’t ride a motorbike.

They hired him because he played a biker in a TV commercial and he looked like a biker, but in real life, he couldn’t ride a motorbike. So guess what?

They had to go, shit, let’s call Steve Berry. Steve can you come and ride the bikes? They didn’t tell me the other guy can’t ride a motorbike. I turned up and there he was looking like a biker.

What do you think of the New Top Gear?

It seems like it’s no longer the preserve of journalists and more about celebrity presenters. Apart from Chris Harris who is a journalist.

Is he? Has he ever made a living exclusively by writing?

He worked for Evo (magazine) for a while, he did that thing Drive and then Chris Harris On Cars. Somebody said to me, Oh, he can really drive and I think well, do you know what, I’ve got mates that could lap him within four blocks, but they have no personality. He’s a good driver for a journalist but he’s not a racer. If he was a Racer he would be racing.

I always felt that as a journalist, what you’re doing is you’re giving the ordinary person an idea of what it’s like. The problem with employing racing drivers to test cars is, they are all slow to them. I remember I interviewed Damon Hill and he turned up in a Renault Safrane Estate and I said to him, I thought you’d have something a bit quicker. He said, Steve, compared to the day job, everything that’s road legal feels like a school bus with flat tyres. And if you ever get in or near an F1 car you think, yeah, everything else is shit compared to this.

Do you watch the new Top Gear series?

I haven’t watched it, why would I watch it. I’m into cars. I watch the Motor Trend Channel, Jay Leno and old documentaries made in the 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s by people like the BBC. I’ve got no interest in watching a stand up comedian tell me how much lateral G he thinks a car has.

The thing is, Jeremy, Richard and James are all as obsessed as we are. I have conversations with each one of them about really geeky shit. I remember

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having a conversation with James My about the glove box in the Ford Capri. How well designed it was.

What about the other UK car shows?

Rubbish What’s wrong with them?

I don’t see anything I like. The only person I like or the only person that’s got any integrity is Mike Brewer and the way this thing is, people will slag Mike from here to eternity and they have no idea of what Mike actually knows. He’s a very knowledgeable guy. He’s probably as good a mechanic as Ed China, but he played a bloody part on that show.

The people don’t realise Mike was playing a role.

Ed and Mike were playing two roles on Wheeler Dealers. One was the Wheeler Dealer ‘Hello mate, I’m a Cockney Wheeler Dealer. That was Mike and Ed was like ‘oh, I’m more of the James May. Ed was playing James May. It’s a James May impression, isn’t it? The hair the attitude, the demeanour. It’s a James May impression. They were both happy to do those jobs and people go, oh, no, I don’t like that Mike Brewer guy. I like Ed because he can change brake pads.

I mean, what’s the hardest thing Ed ever actually did. You look at a guy like Allen Millyard, the guy that builds the one off bikes. Allen will build a motorcycle from scratch, make his own crank cases, make his own crankshaft, make his own connecting rods, make his own pistons. Now that is an engineer.

Changing brake pads, I can do that. You can do that. Mike Brewer can do that. I’ve got nothing against Ed, but Ed was playing a part, Mike was playing the part. But I’m not going to sit for an hour and watch somebody changing brake pads and then go, oh, look, we’ve restored this Porsche or whatever it is. You’re giving it a gentle wash and brush up.

There does seem to be a plethora of restoration shows.

Do you know why? Because it’s got a beginning, a middle and an end. People need a narrative arc they need for it to start with a challenge. Then they see you struggle. Then they see you overcome difficulty and succeed. That’s an hour of talent.

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Fine, but we don’t need 10 of them! You can’t have 10 different series doing the same thing. Where are the documentaries about a particular marque or a particular car?

The only thing people are interested in is repeating formats. They want something that can be done not just once or twice, but can be done for 10 years, Top gear, Bake Off, Strictly. It just goes again and again and again. There’s a beginning, a middle and an end, and you’ve got an hour of telly. Sorted.

Tell me about some of the cars you have owned.

I bought a Karman Ghia earlier this year, and I thought yeah I’m going to take this Karman Ghia to VW things with my son and then I drove it and I thought, oh, my God, this thing’s terrible. I put a picture on social media and people said, oh, my God, it’s such a beautiful that car. And somebody said, I have to have it and messaged me. So I drove that car onto the low loader out of the garage where it had been and that’s the only time I have ever drove it. I got a message that offered me what I had paid for it and half again on top. So I literally called the low loader guy and said keep going, go to Liverpool. I’ll text you the postcode.

How much are they worth now?

Well, I’ve seen one that was subject to a £70,000 restoration. So what’s it worth? Well to somebody it was worth £70,000 pounds plus the purchase price. About two months after I saw it and after I owned it for less than a day, I went see that movie Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and Brad Pitt drives a Karmann Ghia convertible in it, just like the one that I bought and sold.

We were in the cinema and my missus was saying is that the car that you bought and sold on the same day? And I said yes. She said it’s really beautiful.

Why did you sell it? I said, Well, I’ll tell you what it didn’t do. It didn’t drive like that one. Because in the movie, it’s scything through traffic. If you actually drive the Karmann Ghia convertible, the nought to 60 times is in excess of 20 seconds. It doesn’t really accelerate, it gains momentum. So it looks fabulous for a drive. And people say to me, yeah, but you could put a Porsche engine in it. And I say, I’ve been down that road of putting large powerful engines in cars that are dog slow. And all it did was make them dangerous. It made them faster, but it also made them horribly dangerous.

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I just drove an 812 Super Fast and the one thing that really impressed me with that car was how everything in that car worked with everything else.

It’s a beautifully balanced car. When you think it’s got a 800 horsepower, the way that the suspension and the brakes and the tyres and the steering and the gearbox work together, the only people that can do that are Ferrari because they’re the only people that built that car front engined V12, rear wheel drive naturally aspirated two seater car, a Ferrari. And they’ve been doing it since the late 50s and they’ve learnt everything that you need to know. And all the others Bentley, Aston Martin, Porsche …. they’re following behind, because of that heritage.

I had a 5.0 litre turbo Trans Am. Pearl white with the screaming eagle or the squawking budgie as we call them on the bonnet and a turned aluminum dashboard and the medium and a wine red draylon interior and get this from five litres and a turbo, 150 horsepower. It’s like you wonder how they managed to get such little power. It’s a five litre V8 and it’s got a turbo. What’s it generate? 150 horsepower. I’ve got a two litre Alfa 1971 Twin Cam on twin Weber’s 140 horsepower and nearly 10 years later they were getting 150 horse power from a V8, a five litre V8 with a turbo!! The turbo was so primitive and leaf springs at the back that when it kicked in, if it was wet, the thing would just change direction and it would just start going backwards. I mentioned it to a friend and he said just don’t drive it in the wet and I said, mate, I live in Manchester, how can I not drive it in the wet, it’s wet all the time.

What are you up to these days?

I make a radio show called Steve’s Speed Shop. It’s about enthusiasts. It’s about cars and motorbikes.

And it’s mainly people who have stories to tell.

So they’ve had a life. It’s generally older guys, because they’ve got more stories. And we fill an hour with it and it just reflects my interest, which is anything one off, anything exceptional and it tends to be people who have collections, people who have built one off cars, people who have a deep knowledge of not just a passing interest, but a deep knowledge of car culture. And that doesn’t mean super cars or cars of super high end value.

Although there are a lot of those people.

My guest next week is a guy who spent almost his whole life devoted to the original mini and he just has so many stories. He restored the Paul McCartney mini, the Ringo Starr mini for a very prominent person in the world of motor racing

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and then he said you do realise that the next time one of the Beatles minis comes up for sale, people are going to know.

Where can we listen to it?

It’s a podcast. It’s called Steve’s Speed Shop. You can get it on Spotify or iTunes or Google Play or any of the any of the platforms that you get your podcasts from I’ve got a few questions from some of our members. First, from Richard Davis, “does Steve think that Jeremy Vine (Radio & TV Presenter) is a Prat because of their arguments on Radio 2 about cyclists?

Jeremy is a genius. He has got the biggest share in British radio. He’s got seven and a half million people listen to that show. And I’m on there pretty regularly and I love doing that show. And I’ve met him and he’s just super switched on guy. He knows exactly what he’s doing. And if you think about it, he’s doing that show on Channel Five is going on his folding bicycle, is cycling like a maniac across London. He’s doing two hours on Radio Two every day. He’s a genius in his own way.

Jeremy Moore says “I was a big fan of Tope Gear back in the 90’s when it was a proper car show. Ask Steve if the original format could ever be recreated?

No and here’s the problem. I went to work as an advisor on an ITV answer to Top Gear that was conceived by some real successful high ups at ITV and I said to the execs ‘I’ve looked at the biggest spends in commercial TV advertising. So first, it’s breakfast cereal. Second is cars. I’ve looked at the top 10 spends and Ford, Renault and Nissan are in the top three. You’ve got a problem. If you take the new Ford, they said, No, it’s okay. We’re going to concentrate on supercars. I said, You’ve got a problem. Well, all the supercar factories are owned by the companies you just talked about.

Lamborghini is VW, Ferrari is FIAT Chrysler, Aston Martin at the time was Ford. I said they’re going to be as pissed off. If you say, Oh, this one’s clearly better than the others. It can’t work on commercial TV. Yusef Mamoojee asks your thoughts on whether bikes and superbikes will become electric powered like cars?

I’ve been writing and thinking and broadcasting about this quite a lot recently and talking to the

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guys that are building electric motorcycles, or electric two wheelers. One of the biggest issues is the torque sent through a gearbox. Because one of the ways that motorcyclists control the machine is to use the gearbox, even more so than in a performance car. I’m constantly thinking or looking which gear I’m in on a motorcycle because I’m using it to control the amount of torque that’s going to the back wheel.

So you think there’s never going to be electric motorcycles?

No, there’s ways of doing it. There’s ways of using regen or regen as engine braking. You are sending power back to the battery or whatever the energy storage source is and that replicates engine braking, but that’s just for old giffers like me. There’s probably a new generation coming who to them it’s not a problem. They’ll only know electric two wheelers so they’ll get on and go ‘what’s your problem Grandad. What’s engine braking!

If you could buy any car today, money no object, what would it be?

There are two cars that I’m actively looking for at the moment. One is a first year Porsche Boxter.

Why a first year Porsche Boxster?

Because that was the least messed about with Boxster The 2.5?

Yep. The original Boxster. I remember driving it when it was brand new and thinking, what a fantastic car. The people who slagged it didn’t understand what that cars for. It’s a car that you buy and you drive and you’re absolutely thrashed the knackers.

And the other one is a FIAT Coupe 20V Turbo. I remember I was doing a track test back in the day and it was less than three seconds off a touring car around Donnington a lap and there was a car you could drive to the shops and I mean, I just love that Chris Bangle design.

I mean if money no objects the car that I was most impressed me…. was the Mercedes McLaren SLR. What a car! And that car really surprised me. I was expecting something refined, sophisticated and what I what I found was a F****** hot rod. Just a raw hot rod that was like fantastically exciting to drive.

wwYou mentioned Chris Bangle, quick word about Chris Bangle. He was quite derided over the flame design. Looking back now what do you think?

I think people will look back at his time at BMW more kindly than they do now, but I do think that when it comes to car design, we have to go back to look for cars that are the vision of one man. You look at a McLaren F1, Gordon Murray.

Which other cars do you recall fondly or not so fondly?

The most underwhelming car I’ve driven was the Ferrari Dino GTS. I don’t care how much money they were, they’re disappointing to drive. And the most impressive car that I’ve driven, thinking it might not be that great was the Diablo SE. Oh, man alive! What a car!

It had so much drama, so much theatre. It was like meeting a rock star. I’ve met Jimmy Page, Pete Jones, Brian May, Billy Gibbons I’ve met all those rock stars because that was my day job for nearly 10 years. Driving a Diablo was like meeting one of the Gods of Rock.

Much more than Murcielago, a Gallardo or a Huracan or whatever came after.

Last question from Mark Wilson who asks, what’s Quentin Willson really like?

Great guy. Quentin’s funny. Quentin’s a lot of laughs. It’s that sort of semi serious Mr. Smithers from the Simpsons. Count Duckula… (laughs) It’s funny, about a year ago, I was at an event at the NEC and Quentin and Tiff were on stage and my mate said go up behind them.

So I came up from the back of the stage unannounced and went ‘hi everybody, it’s 1994 again’ and the pair of them were killing themselves laughing.

Here’s the thing about Quentin, he knows what he’s talking about. Listen to him. Think about what his predictions have been over the last sort of 20, 25 years as to what’s going to gain money, what’s going to lose money.

He’s on the money, isn’t he. If you look at Quentin’s predictions, where he said you need to buy one of these, these are gonna go up.

These are gonna go down. He knows what he’s talking about. But he’s a lot more fun than

he comes across.

The person who I met who was the least like their TV persona was Ainsley Harriett.

Because Ainsley is a real petrolhead. You should interview him. He knows his cars and he’s had everything.

Ainsley Harriet? The TV Chef ?

Yes, mate. So I’m with him at this event and he’s asking me all these questions and he really knows his stuff, he’s done his own work and he’s a Porsche man but he was talking about switching maybe for an Aston or a Ferrari.

So he’d be quizzing me about stuff and then a Punter would come up and he switched to Ainsley Mode.

(Steve attempts an impression of Ainsley at this point) “Hello, dear. Would you like a picture? Let’s get in a lovely picture. All right love” and then afterwards “so Steve, when you’re on the gas…..” He can switch to the telly guy straight away. And then he comes back to me as what he’s really like, which is quite a serious guy.

I’ll tell you the other person who I’ve met who was like that and knew what she was talking about, Rosemary Conley. The woman who used to do the hip & thigh diet. She sold millions of books. I’m on Richard and Judy, can’t remember why, and she’s there and she said, ‘oh yeah, your Top Gear. I’ve just bought a Bentley’ and she starts rattling off all these facts about this Bentley and she said, ‘but I don’t if it’s a good idea. I was going to get an M5.’ She’s really into talking about cars and she absolutely knows what she’s talking about.

And I thought, wow, this woman’s really up to speed. If you saw her on the TV, you’d never think that she’s a real car person.

Steve, thank you for your time.

You can listen to Steve’s Podcast Series “Steve’s Speedshop” on FAB Radio International.

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Ferrari Racing Days Photos by Syeed Ali Held at Silverstone track, the 2021 Ferrari Racing Days event brought together hundreds of Ferraris with owners, including many Drivers Union members, ,given a chance to take their automobiles on the track for display laps. Well done to Ferrari UK and the Ferrari Owners Club for another gtreat event.

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Photo courtesy of Ferrari UK The Drivers Union

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Barbarian at the Gate McLaren 720S Words & photos by Jas Hayre

Sun Tzu wrote “the enemy, for all his high ramparts and deep moat, cannot avoid engagement”. Is the 720S the British supercar that will take the crown from the Italians?

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There’s something very special about a true supercar, where every aspect of it is truly extraordinary.

From its performance, to its appearance, sound and feel. Something unquantifiable, which is why there are endless debates about the definition of what makes a car a true supercar.

Like virtually every petrolhead around, I didn’t start with supercars. My first car was an old Saab 96... long before they were retro and cool. It was special to me though. I graduated to hot hatches, then various heavily modified powerful Lotus’ and a Caterham Superlight R. Then my first supercar, which was a beautiful red Ferrari 348 Spider. I’ve owned or driven lots of electric and hybrid cars

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too, with the first one being the Tesla Roadster and I’ve been lucky enough to have driven a vast range of super and hyper cars over the years, on both road and track.

I have sold my 720S now, so as an ex-McLaren owner and now a Ferrari-only owner, I believe I can present a wholly unbiased view of the 720S and McLaren ownership experience. The reality is that of all the cars I’ve owned or driven there can only be one favourite from them all, and surprisingly that is no longer the 720S. Most people’s first reaction is to the space-ship looks of the car...and those eye sockets!

The aero channels and design are stunning. The

LMP style double-skin hollow doors take your breath away when you first open them. Overall, its design features are utterly stunning in the carbon.

The much talked about, and initially criticised eye sockets look futuristic and full of detail, especially when specified in carbon fibre.

Certain McLaren paints also come alive in bright direct sunlight. Azores Orange for example appears to have a flaming effect as your viewing perspective of the car changes in direct sunlight.

Photographs and even video absolutely do not do the 720S justice.

McLaren pioneered the use of carbon fibre in race cars in 1981 with the MP4/1 Formula 1 car.

Like every McLaren ever made since then, the 720S has a full carbon structure, which includes the roof like the F1 and P1, unlike other previous McLarens, which only have partial carbon tubs.

Ferrari by comparison continue to use bonded aluminium, and Lamborghini reserve their full carbon tub only for the Aventador. This of course makes the 720S light, and very stiff. But it also allows the 720S to have amazing vision out, thin A pillars, and glass C pillars. The seating position is perfect and very central and forward, unlike its competitors. As an example, Ferrari seats occupants closer to the doors, and further back in the car.

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Its carbon structure also allows the convertible Spider version to be uncompromised, unlike most competitors. In fact the Spider is so good, I wanted one myself after McLaren Hatfield loaned me theirs for a week.

The 720S coupe has a fighter jet look and feel inside it, due to its all-around glass canopy, especially if specified with gorilla glass roof panels in the doors. It feels like it accelerates and turns like a fighter jetThe race engine derived Ricardo 4L twin turbo is claimed to produce 720PS, but numerous independent tests have found it to be significantly higher.

Acceleration is utterly incredible, and unlike many supercars, the 720S just keeps pushing on and on. It is scary quick in fact, bordering on terrifying as speed increases far into triple digits and it does not let up, such that you feel you are

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only just hanging on to it! There is so much power in any gear that you can realistically only use 100% throttle for 2-3 seconds at most on road. It is simply that fast and powerful, combined with its very light weight and incredible traction.

The 720S is quiet inside the cabin at low RPM, yet it starts making lots of “interesting sounds” at higher RPM and when lifting off: turbo whistle, wastegate, and some popping in the sports exhaust.

The exhaust note is somewhat subdued inside the cabin though and is definitely its weakest aspect (the Spider addresses this however). The Huracan Performante by comparison sounds absolutely glorious and better than anything else in this category.

This is by far the fastest car I had ever driven (until the Brabham BT62 track car on slicks).

Not the most frightening though, as that honour

remains with the Michelotto race-engined Ferrari F40, and its massive turbo lag followed by a terrifying explosion of torque.

Launch control is incredibly quick and easy to enable and use at will, when moving off. It is also brutally quick, and on road you need to lift off after a few seconds, or things get very scary, very quickly indeed...particularly for your licence.

It does however have the side effect of leaving a stupidly wide grin on the drivers’ face!

The carbon ceramic brakes plus huge air brake, are utterly awesome and feels like dropping an anchor in the asphalt! The car has incredible stopping power with perfect stability and control.

It’s an impressive sight when the air brake blocks the rear view in your mirror. Again making the 720S reminiscent of piloting a fighter jet. In my experience these are some of the best brakes in

its class. The brake pedal requires firm pressure and reminds me of the feel in a non-servo old model Elise or Exige. I like that, a lot. The 720S is also perfectly set up for left foot braking, unlike so many supercars, and it is a joy to drive it this way.

The 720S offers precision handling and steering.

It is very easy to place, and is very precise. Scalpellike precision, rather than edgy and playful like a 458 or 488. The hydraulic steering also has great feel, unlike all its Italian competitors. Steering feels like a big S1 Exige, and is very direct and communicative. The 720S feels small to drive, yet huge, airy, bright and spacious on the inside - unlike all competitors, including Sports series McLarens.

The ride comfort is simply astonishing.

In Comfort/Comfort, the 720S rides more comfortably than my i8 in Comfort mode! Yet it

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corners flat. However, in Sport/Sport the 720S is much firmer than my i8 in Sport mode. In Track/ Track it is even firmer and much more aggressive in its responses.

Its suspension is the latest evolution of McLaren’s hydraulic cross-linked system. It offers incredible suppleness, with flat handling, and astonishing traction as it keeps the tyres in contact with the road so well. I’ve often described it as witchcraft, as it seems to read my mind. It really is magical.

The software controlling the suspension was developed as part of a PhD project at Cambridge University, and uses predictive algorithms to set the car up (for the next predicted state) within 2 milliseconds, based on what forces, attitudinal state and inputs it is experiencing at any point in time. The AI assesses data from 12 sensors - including 4 wheel accelerometers, 2 pressure sensors per damper, and multiple body sensors, to interpret and read the road ahead. It learns from previous scenarios to “predict” (calculate) what will happen next.

The 720S has too much power for its standard PZero tyres on anything other than a pool-table smooth surface. It will break traction in 3rd on a straight, with stability systems compensating albeit very well and unobtrusively. It is dramatically better on the optional Corsa tyres, in summer on dry roads. I opted for Corsa’s on mine.

The 720S is so far ahead of the old 12C (or its updated 650S facelift model) that it feels like it’s from a different manufacturer. The 12C feels unsettled at the limit, especially under braking and did not inspire confidence close to the limit. It also feels slightly “remote” on track and road. The 675LT is however more involving than any of these, including 720S, but it is of course a limited production track focused model. The 600LT is similarly very involving.

The interior is a significant improvement on all previous McLarens. It looks like it’s from a different manufacturer if you compare the 720S with what came before. All switches are milled from single blocks of aluminium for example, and you can feel the quality of interior fittings.

The 4 speaker sound system is awful. The optional 12 speaker Bowers & Wilkins system is very good indeed, albeit hampered by the car’s cabin acoustics with so much glass all around.

The moving dash is truly useful, and switching it to its folded track mode can be helpful when pressing on, as it eliminates unnecessary and potentially distracting information from the driver’s primary display. I had expected it to be just a gimmick. It’s especially useful as a night-mode, eliminating surplus light

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and distraction in the driver’s sight-line.

Comfort, Sport, and Track settings adjust separately for handling and power-train and are user friendly, and make a very noticeable difference. The 720S inspires confidence, even in Track/Track. I have tried the variable drift control settings, but only when playing around with settings, not whilst driving it - thanks to Covid cancelling 3 track events for me in 2020.

The Huracan Performante leads the pack for its amazing engine and ease of going very quickly in poor conditions with 4WD. However, it has big negative points for vision out, its non-Lambo doors and its limited steering feel. It has some, but limited, carbon construction. The “forged carbon” used for many parts also has a kitchen worktop appearance, and is structurally weaker, and heavier than normal woven laid carbon fibre.

Forged composite is however cheaper and simpler to manufacture, which is why it is used by some manufacturers (e.g. GR Yaris’ roof).

The 488 wins for its badge, 4 year warranty and 7 year servicing thrown in. It has a huge negative though for still using bonded aluminium construction. It is also the slowest by quite some margin, and has already been overshadowed by the F8 Tributo. The F8 appears to be Ferrari’s response to the 4 year old 720S, as it has the same nominal power output. Having driven the F8, I found it to be inferior to 720S in all significant respects.

I’ve owned more Ferraris than McLarens though and currently own a V12 Ferrari, so I really wanted to like it. After all, no one makes a screaming V12 engine as well as Ferrari do!

The 720S is however so far ahead of its competitors that there really is no valid comparison to make. In performance, it is comparable to hypercars.

I had my 720S for nearly 3 years, and nothing ever went wrong with it aside from a broken windscreen. Not so much as a warning light, glitch, noise, or false alarm. In fact I never saw a single error code during all the time I owned it.

The car never used a single drop of oil, as far as is measurable. During both its services it was also apparent that the car had never leaked so much as a drop of any fluid. Everything was pristine. The 720S is in fact the most reliable car I have ever owned to date.

My car did however arrive with numerous misaligned panels and missing tools, indicating better quality control is required at Woking. All these were rectified under warranty in one visit to my dealer, to complete perfection. It did take a couple of weeks’ work to perfect it though.

McLaren transported it there and back however,

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and it was done when I was travelling overseas, so it did not inconvenience me in the least.

Fuel economy can drop to single digits on track. The best I’ve managed is 30mpg on motorway, but it is typically 15-20mpg on a normal spirited drive.

Servicing has been surprisingly cheap, with the first service costing about £600. Insurance is around £550 for me, limited to 3,000 miles.

The second service was around £1,100.

Last but not least is that I have been very happy with my dealer (Hatfield), as they provided perfect customer service. McLaren HQ in Woking however have taken things to another level. I have been extremely impressed with their customer service, attitude, and the exceptionally warm welcome afforded to me and my family every time I have visited Woking, or their numerous events. It is no exaggeration to say that they treat you like family. It would be impossible to overstate how much they have impressed me.

The 720S does indeed take the crown from the Italians, and with ease. It offers Hypercar performance for Supercar money.

To drive, it is the ultimate evolution of the non-hybrid all-round supercar. A true stonecold modern classic and Supercar King.

So why is such an impressive supercar no longer my favourite car of all time? For that, you will need to read ahead about the astonishing machine it lost its crown to.

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765LT

The King is Dead, Long Live the King words by Jas Hayre photos by Mclaren Automotive

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The McLaren 765LT is the limited edition, even lighter, more powerful, track focused hardcore version of the already lightspeed quick Supercar King, the 720S. Making a quicker, or indeed lighter, car than the class leading 720S could not have been an easy feat, so was it a resounding success or did it fail to reach the incredibly high bar set by the 720S? All 765 cars are now sold out in advance with the UK receiving only 60 of them.

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for McLaren’s home market. This will be a very rare car.

I finally got some wheel time with the 765LT at the McLaren Technology Centre (MTC) in December. I wanted a road test, as over 95% of my usage will be on road, although I will be driving it on track at Silverstone this summer.

As it was forecast cold and wet on the day of my drive, I had requested that McLaren change the standard Trofeo R tyres to PZeros (which I dislike) just so I could get heat into the tyres, which they kindly did.

“Lion amongst the stallions”

I arrived early to find the stunning white pre-production car, equipped with full Senna brakes and I got straight on with the drive as it had been raining heavily all morning and it was forecast to get much worse. Ambient temperature was 9C, and Woking roads were wet and very slippery with leaves and dirt.

Strapping myself into the perfectly shaped Senna seat, I fired up the engine and performed my usual 720S start up routine (active on, aero on etc). The first thing I noticed was the sound and feel of the car as it roared into

life. It was noticeably more mechanical than a 720S, with some vibration and a lot more mechanical engine noise. Nothing harsh or excessive though, and in fact a lot less NVH (Noise, Vibration, Harshness) than I had expected. Rolling past the lake at MTC, it was immediately apparent that the 765LT was much stiffer sprung than a 720S. For those unfamiliar with Super Series McLarens, you can set the handling and drivetrain modes independently, as well as the aero. The DRS (Drag Reduction System) The Drivers Union

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activates automatically as required, as does the incredibly effective airbrake. Electronic Stability assistance levels can be fully on, dynamic, off, or set to virtually anywhere in between.

I initially tested the car in comfort/comfort, before switching to comfort Handling / sport Drivetrain. I spent about 5 minutes in these modes just getting comfortable with the car, before switching to Sport/Sport for about thirty minutes.

The PZero tyres reached temperature fairly quickly, which was a pleasant surprise given the conditions. Brake testing indicated there was minimal grip though, as ABS intervened and sliding was evident even with moderate braking.

The roads were very slippery indeed.

The 765LT however was astonishing in its driver feedback through the wheel and seat, and I felt extremely comfortable right from the very start. I gradually increased pace, testing the car on all types of road and surface. Most of my time was spent on some fantastic twisty fast roads. I concluded that I could comfortably use this car for a trip from Kent to Scotland, as the NVH was not overly harsh. A 720S would make the same journey far more comfortably and quietly though.

I then switched to Sport Handling / Track Drivetrain for around thirty minutes. This was a revelation, as the change was far more dramatic than in any previous McLaren I’ve driven, even the other LT models. Whilst the engine had some nice burbles on lifting off in Sport, it was now far more aggressive and was burbling a lot, as well as adding gunshots to the exhaust when driven hard.

This was no engineered-in drama like in Lamborghinis. The only way to generate gunshots was to drive it hard. Very hard! It sounded as good as previous LT models, but perhaps with more burbles. I then used Track/Track for the remaining twenty five minutes or so. The car was perfectly usable on Woking’s A and B roads, and silky smooth on the motorway. This mode felt perfectly usable on the road.

Overall, the 765LT was not what I expected at all on road from the early track reviews I had read. I expected a terrifying ravenous beast of a car that would try its best to kill me, especially in these wintry, wet and very slippery conditions, and on relatively poor roads. In this weather I expected it to be borderline undrivable unless I took it very easy. After all, the car could not stop even moderately hard without ABS activating, indicating the low grip levels available on the day. However, the reality was so surprising that I commented on it many times to my McLaren

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passenger (Steve Harvey, who knew the best local routes). Despite its brutal power and performance, the 765LT was no hard-to-tame wild monster!

The 765LT inspired complete confidence from the moment I turned out of MTC, encouraging me to gradually push it more and more, and explore all its modes. The steering, and feedback through the seat and chassis were to thank for this. I knew what the car was doing every single second, and it felt like the car was actually looking after me. It sounds crazy, but that was how I felt driving it. Where a 720S insulates me from the feedback and speed so much more, the 765LT did none of that and therefore paradoxically allowed me to push it far harder than I would have dared in a 720S in these conditions. Astonishing, given the sheer brutal power and razor-sharp responsiveness of this car!

I tried launch control three times, on varying surfaces all of which were equally slippery, but varied in surface quality and camber. Each time the 765LT span its rears and kept them spinning through the gears, without any drama or nervousness, or tendency to spin or veer off the road. All of this whilst it rearranged my internal organs with its brutal power. It was incredible!

I would never dare try that in any other car, but the LT just made me feel safe as a result of its telepathic steering and wonderful chassis feedback. It felt like McLaren had engineered a Vulcan mind-meld capability into the 765LT. This car has the best steering this side of an unassisted Lotus Exige S1. There is no higher praise. It was the same with numerous full bore starts, with the rear wheels spinning through the gears, but the 765LT remaining straight and true.

This reminded me of my summer 2020 F8 Tributo drive. The F8 Tributo was incapable of moving off on full throttle on a poor Kent B road in the dry without skidding, thudding its suspension, and sliding its rear sideways. The F8 interior light and switch panel also fell off when I did that, hanging from its electric cabling. The Ferrari passenger became “rather animated”, telling me to slow down. The McLaren passenger by contrast, on a MUCH harder and faster drive, and in the wet, never once asked me even to slow down and told me he really enjoyed the drive.

To be fair (in 2021), my SF90 Ferrari passenger was perfectly happy for me to push the SF90 hard, and wasn’t concerned that I drove the entire time in 1,000hp Qualifying mode + Race mode with traction control off.

Back to the 765LT, and my McLaren passenger even messaged back to MTC asking them to have

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another 765LT waiting with different sized Senna seats when I asked. Needless to say, it was waiting outside the main entrance when we returned.

Attention to detail + McLaren go hand in hand.

Even more impressive was how the 765LT felt so stable in the bends, despite the low grip available.

McLaren have definitely moved the game on significantly even from the 720S in respect of their active suspension. Alien technology, or witchcraft?

You be the judge! Even in Sport Handling, the suspension soaked up potholes without any harsh shocks to the chassis.

The software controlling the suspension is an advanced version of the astonishingly responsive 720S and Senna system, and uses predictive algorithms to prepare the required damping force (for the next predicted state) within 2 milliseconds, based on what forces, attitudinal state and inputs it is experiencing at any point in time. The AI assesses data from 12 sensors - including 4 wheel

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accelerometers, 2 pressure sensors per damper, and multiple body sensors, to interpret and read the road ahead. It learns from previous scenarios to “predict” (calculate) what will happen next.

McLaren calls this Optimal Control Theory. I call it witchcraft!

Engine vibration through the seat is slight, and only becomes harsh at the red line under full throttle. This is a perfect balance, as it enhances your connection to the 765LT and its mechanical nature.

The Senna brakes have great feel and felt absolutely perfect, but I was unable to use them very hard due to the lack of mechanical grip to the road surface on the day. I have no doubts as to their capability though, as these brakes have a fearsome reputation for stopping power.

The huge airbrake was nevertheless a sight to behold as it popped up repeatedly under firm braking at speed, completely blocking my rearward vision. So very cool - the airbrake view simply

never gets old. The rear wing is in fact extremely active whilst driving, continuously adjusting its pitch to provide downforce, DRS or air-braking.

The 765LT is not in the least scary or difficult to drive on the road. In fact it’s paradoxically less scary and easier to drive fast than a 720S, thanks to the excellent driver feedback and enhanced traction and stability assistance, which is incredibly transparent and unobtrusive. This is quite simply the best road car I’ve ever driven. It’s so astonishing that any car can make the absurdly quick 720S seem slow, but the 765LT does just that. Not only because it’s lighter and more powerful, but also because it has 15% shorter gearing. This is the first LT or indeed Super or Ultimate Series car where McLaren have done this and I am sure it won’t be the last time they try this now.

The 765LT is claimed to have only 45hp more than the 720S, but it feels like at least 145hp more when driving it. The lighter weight and 15%

shorter gearing play a part in this of course, but the sheer brutality of its power delivery indicates it is making a LOT more power than claimed. McLaren evidently under-promise and over-deliver, and I’m certainly not complaining about that!

Some of us feel that hypercars and supercars are losing what really matters in the rush to ever greater power and straight line speed. Personally, I’m of the view that the Bugatti Veyron started the rot, but there are many other recent examples also chasing 1000-2000hp in the quest for headline records. The 765LT is a wonderful antidote to that.

The 765LT is truly all about the driver experience and enjoyment.

Everything about the 765LT is centred around what the driver senses. Whether that’s steering feel, chassis and engine vibration, the movement of the car through the rigid carbon seat, the many mechanical sounds, the excellent all-round vision out, or indeed the G-forces acting on the driver.

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It’s quite an assault on the senses.

The 765LT has less lag than the 675LT, but all three LT models are so different to each other, each offering a different experience so that no LT driver is short-changed in any way.

These cars are an abundance of riches in terms of driving pleasure and there is no bad choice amongst them. The 765LT is absolutely flawless on the road, delivering raw excitement and a stupidly wide grin even at relatively slow speeds.

A few technical points you might not find elsewhere. I learned that almost all of the 765LT is carbon fibre, even the front and rear bumpers, and also the large aero blades on the doors, which are composite on 720S. The fenders are aluminium, but with a no-cost option to switch to vented carbon fibre fenders with louvres.

That’s a no-brainer option, not that it matters now as all 765 cars are sold out.

The stated 80kg saving compares a standard 765LT to a standard 720S, so for example a 720S comfort edition with electric seats would be even heaver, and the weight saving greater. The standard 765LT carbon fibre P1 seats are 18kg lighter than the standard 720S seats, which are themselves 13kg lighter than the electric seats. The Senna seats option saves a further 7kg over the standard P1 carbon seats. There are also other optional weight savings available, so it’s possible to save far more than the claimed 80kg. It’s also possible to add weight of course, with certain options.

The great news is that unlike the F8 Tributo, the new McLaren still has no Gas Particulate Filter deadening the exhaust sound. Perhaps the 765LT Coupe and Spider will be the last such McLarens. Fortunately however, they won’t be the last cars with great steering feel, as McLaren

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will continue to use hydraulic steering, unlike all competitor cars I am aware of.

I absolutely loved the 765LT, and have thought of little else since driving it. The drive was around ninety minutes, but I was offered more seat time if I wanted. I didn’t, but only because after driving one, I wanted one and was eager to get on with specifying my own car. So we headed inside to do that, which took the rest of the day.

The 765LT is inhumanly capable. It’s a running joke amongst petrolheads that McLaren use alien technology to make their cars so fast and agile. Given that H.G. Wells set Woking as Ground Zero for the Martian invasion in his seminal War of the Worlds, I half expected NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover to beam back pictures of MTC (Martian Technology Centre) with 765LT’s rolling out!

It took another McLaren to take the supercar crown from the incredible 720S, but what is truly surprising is how overwhelming the improvements are in all areas (except reduced comfort). Given the direction of new models and global hybrid/EV/emissions/noise regulations, the 765LT could easily prove to be the greatest pure combustion road focused McLaren there will ever be. The 765LT reigns supremely as the proverbial King of its jungle - a Lion amongst stallions.

The 765LT is sheer sensory overload, and is a thrill to drive at any speed. Everything about the car is focused on engaging the driver’s senses, with no compromise in achieving that singular objective. It is easily my favourite road car I’ve ever driven.

Long live the new Supercar King!

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A Lamborghini Miura becomes a true work of art

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E

nter the words “Art Car” into Google and you will be shown an array of wrapped automobiles. So you would be forgiven for thinking, like I did on my first viewing, that the art work on this Lamborghini Miura P400 was also wrap. It isn’t.

What you see are layers of paint scraped away at varying depths to reveal over 53 years of paintwork. An artistic intimacy lacking in the wrapped cars and therefore may arguably be defined as a true Art Car. The Miura in question belongs to DU Member Georg, a collector of many fine things including automobiles of which he has over 30, some with an amazing history (more of that in future issues).

I caught up with Georg who relayed story of his Miura Art Car.

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“Decades ago, I was looking at adverts in magazines and came across a Miura. I had never heard the name Lamborghini Miura before. The Lamborghini Countach I knew, but the Miura I had never heard of and had never seen. So I researched and learnt there were several models of Miura and I had to make a decision of which one I should buy. The very first lightweight P400, the second, called the 400S or the third model, the 400 SV.” In 2000 he finally acquired an early P400. “It was built in June 1967 and they had started production only a few months earlier in April so it’s a very early example. It is number 35, which makes it a lightweight and the original colour was a red/ orange called Rosso Miura. These early versions weighed only 930 kilos with 350 horsepower so

for me this was enough. It’s like a bullet when you push the gas.”

Whilst the original colour from the factory was Rosso Miura, when Georg purchased the car it was a deep red and in 2014 he had it painted back to the original colour. Fast forward to April 2020 when it was sent off for a minor cosmetic paint repair at the front of the car.

“When we went to see the repair being done, we saw that they had scraped off the top colour and we saw several colours underneath and we started thinking. My wife Christal had the idea saying ‘why don’t we take off these colours as there are so many and we can see what is there.’

I was a bit hesitant at first as I didn’t know how it would look. It might look strange and then we can’t go back.”

Martin, who worked on the car to repair the 10cm by 10cm paint, didn’t want to scrape off the paint. He said ‘no, I will not do it’ and I asked him why, as we wanted to see how many colours were underneath. He replied ‘but now the car is perfect. I have done the work and now you destroy everything!’ and he walked away and I followed him and I said ‘we just want to see if it could you please do it for us.’ He finally agreed and used the sander on the highest setting on another panel of the car and there we saw so many colours underneath.

And we said ‘keep on going’ but he didn’t want to. ‘No’ he said ‘I can’t!’ ‘Yes,’ I said, ‘you can’ and he did it and we saw there were approximately 22 different colours. Not everywhere as some areas only had eight to nine colours. So in total, we

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have now a car with 22 colours.”

This was when the project really started. Georg and Christel decided to first have the top layer of paint removed as it was the thickest part. You can see remnants of it in the rear panels and the red stripe on the bonnet.

The task of the paint removal was given to Martin who did it in between other work. Once that layer was removed, revealing a yellow/green shade, George set about removing layers of paint himself.

“It was trial and error. I scratched a little bit here and there to see which colour came next. The

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objective was to show as many colours as possible that the Miura has had in its life.

I call it painting backwards and the risk was always when you go too fast from one colour to another. You can miss some colours, or they can disappear forever. There was no guide or anything on how to do it. Nobody could tell me to stop here or stop there.

When you touch the paint you can feel all these hills and valleys on the surface. What I have learned is that these old colours were not based on water like today’s paints but were synthethic resin paints.

So they are very powerful and very different from

modern colours. The green and the yellow for example, looks like the car is glowing in the dark.

When I finished, I realised that the combination of colours, were reminiscent of the Expressionism movement of the early 1900’s. I researched further into it and I found out there was a group in Germany called Der Blaue Reiter which included well known painters such as Vasily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Alexej von Jawlensky. I knew their paintings as we have been to museums where their paintings were displayed.

So I took screenshots of some of their paintings, and mixed them with photos of the Miura panels

and I was really shocked. From a distance I could not tell which image was from the car and which image from the artists because they were so similar.”

I asked him if he would drive the Miura on the street now. “No, no, you can’t drive it anymore.

It is a one off and if somebody hits it, then it is destroyed and you can never get it back. It’s something you can’t repeat.”

The Miura is now destined to become an art exhibit at the Technik Museum in Speyer, Germany where it will be placed on a turntable.

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“The Miura P400 was already a masterpiece when it rolled off the production line in 1967. The lines of Marcello Gandini are, in my opinion, are as beautiful as any piece in the Uffizi or Louvre. So to see this Miura with its 22 paint layers exposed only add to that fourth dimension - emotion - that only art can provoke.

The juxtaposed colours and shapes are reminiscent of the Psychedelic 60s graphic artists who’s designs were also to invoke movement in their forms.

It also appeals on another level as a technical illustrator my job is to expose the workings below the surface, taking a visual grinder to the object just as Georg did.

Also as a classic car car owner myself I know that we are merely custodians of these works and whilst we may not see this glorious machine on the road, to have it installed in a gallery is just as fitting.”w

John Lawson Automotive Artist

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“This car could have been painted by an artist. The entire vehicle conveys a striking abstract image and its various markings balance out from end to end. It’s as though a painter had wrapped a canvas around the body of the vehicle and proceeded to create a resonant image.

One could make a case that this is an artwork which happens to follow the shape of a Miura and that is how I see it. The fine arts (painting) trumps the applied arts (Gandini’s design). I note that this artwork will be on display and not driven on the streets.

That’s as it should be.

Also, I note a reference to Andy Warhol’s painted car. He was one of a number of artists who, over the years, have been commissioned by manufacturers to paint their vehicles. Usually this is not a successful exercise, because artist and manufacturer are talking past each other.

That’s what make this Miura so exciting.

The car provides the ground for a painting made by removing previous layers of colour, to startling effect. It has the spontaneity of abstract expressionism.”

Rene Gimpel Art Dealer & Collector Gimpel Fils

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“Whoa, what a fascinating idea and thoughtful statement. A Miura is one of the most beautiful cars ever designed. And with your presentation, it has taken on a whole new personality and the idea of deconstructive creation is indicative of how I work.

Once the basic photograph takes shape, I then go in and remove whatever I can so that my vision is better expressed. Of course, I have the advantage of seeing what I’m doing. Whereas you don’t know what is going to be revealed. That is truly taking the concept to its ultimate conclusion.”

Michael Furman Renowned Automotivc Photographer

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Range of colours from inside to outside, 1967 - 2021 (complete body painting in yellow text)

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Metallic aluminium 1967

2.

Dark grey

3.

Ochra

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Grey

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Red orange (Rosso Miura) 1967

6.

White

7.

Dark brown

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Blue grey

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Yellow (Giallo Midas) 1969

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Orange (Arancio Miura)

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Grey

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Green (Verde Aries)

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Blue

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Lime yellow (Verde Miura) 1971

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Grey blue

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Dark red

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Sepia

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Light grey

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Red (Rosso Corsa)

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Pink

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Dark grey

Opposite: Mixture of car panels and paintings showing the similarity to the Der Blaue Reiter painting style The Drivers Union

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Andy Warhol

Art Car

Words by Ulrich Lehmann Photos by Syeed Ali

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A

well-known quote from Andy Warhol goes: “Paintings are way too hard. The things I want to show are mechanical.

Machines have less problems. I’d like to be a machine, wouldn’t you?” As is habitual for the king of pop-obfuscations—both populist and popular—Warhol only tells half the truth here. Yes, painting might have appeared hard and laborious to him, as did many creative expressions after an initial stylistic idea, so he would venture to find a mechanical, often industrialized method of production, which would involve the least amount of concrete labor by the artist. But painting was also the primary form of producing a hallmark for the artist. This is why the majority of Warhol’s works have subjective brushstrokes incorporated into them. The direct, demonstrative traces of the act of painting are still needed by the artist as evidence of his actual involvement in the serial production of art.

Warhol did intend to show things that are mechanical, and this produced a significant dialectic for his artistic production: Things that indicated the organic, like portraits or accounts of accidents or death, were rendered mechanical through a serialization of motifs (100 Marilyns, 1962) or by graphically reducing them to the point of abstraction (Green Car Crash, 1963).

Whereas things that were mechanical like soup cans or Brillo boxes were subjectified through the rough-and-ready silkscreens that reproduced them: their surfaces turning from industrialized perfection to a quasi-organic individuality that subverts the superficial commodity. Like Marcel Duchamp before him, Warhol only claimed to have abandoned the personal production of art, of painting in particular, while his creative impulse and artistic aspirations actually guaranteed the continuation of new series of images on canvas that showed the artist’s hand. While the dominance of the mechanical as motif on canvas draws out the continuing significance of the organic basis (for art), the “organic” act of painting the canvas with a handheld brush is exposed as outdated for modern societies in which desire

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is best expressed through consuming industrially produced objects.

Within an economy that has to constantly produce new things and in which culture, too, is reduced to the ready availability of reproduc tions, machines appear indeed to offer a solution to the ever-increasing needs of consumers. So, after Warhol, it might be true that “machines have less problems.” But the very instant you anthropomorphize the machine, represent it as an organism that by virtue of replacing man becomes man-like itself (“I’d like to be a machine”), the problem arises as to how man can still recognize himself. How can he survive in a market that is saturated by industrialized artifacts? Warhol’s double bind was to proclaim the superiority of the mechanical surface and the industrialized contents while ensuring that everybody recognized his artistic output as “Warholian,” as imbued with the personal traits, personal gestures, and the creator’s signature, which ostensibly were all about portraying its very opposite, the machine.

The automobile is one machine that occupied Warhol from the very start of his work. His obsession with the emblematic potential of the car begins with drawings of models (fashion as well as automotive) in the 1950s (Female Fashion Figure (with 1959 Plymouth Sport Fury Convertible), 1959) and reverts to parts of the Disaster series from 1962, which depicted the manner in which the machine creates problems for man rather than solving them: ending lives through accidents, bombs, electric chairs, etc. But at the same time he experimented with depictions of US car brands (Pontiac, Eight Buicks, and Seven Cadillacs, all 1962). Here, again, the dramatic narrative and pictorial for malism of the industrial object come together in Warhol’s work.

The serialized and the individual meet significantly indeed in Warhol’s Art Car of 1979. Hervé Poulain, the instigator of the series of commissions, first received a proposal for a 320 touring car in 1978, which Warhol had decorated in flowery mauve wallpaper on a black background that covered even windows and headlights (see p. 73). Since the Art Car still had to be raced at that time during the 24 Hours of Le Mans, a

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blackout design would have been impossible. Poulain accordingly suggested to Warhol that he should work on a prototype that had been occupying BMW for the past couple of years. This design turned out to be the only bona fide “supercar” of the Bavarian manufacturer: the M1, a sportive GT-type with a 277 bhp engine centrally mounted in the back of the chassis.

This exceptional car, conceived by the BMW Motorsport GmbH that had been formed a few years previously, fused the latest technical developments with a design that was inspired by the BMW Turbo, which Paul Bracq (then head of design) had developed in 1972. BMW had collaborated with Giorgio Guigiaro and his company Italdesign on the look of the car,

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which was to be built in a small series by the Lamborghini factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese. Yet the Italian manufacturer went through a difficult patch at that time and it was decided to entrust Baur coachworks in Stuttgart with the production of some 460 cars of the series. The model suggested to Warhol and driven at Le Mans in June 1979, however, remained one of a kind, a 345 kW (= 470 bph) customized version for the endurance race.

Warhol’s first idea for the new M1 was a concept, which pre-figured a series of works, realized only just before his death: camouflage. For Warhol this met the challenge of finding something abstract that is not abstract, denoting an overall pattern that is still per-

ceived both as functional and representative. But this very representation posed a problem. A German motorcar company racing in France with a car denoted as military—nigh on impossible! With certain trepidation Poulain explained his dilemma. Warhol’s response was straightforward: “Oh well, send me plane tickets and I’ll come and paint the car in Munich directly.”

This act and action of painting brings us back to the contrast of the mechanical and subjective that animates Warhol’s art, underlying its frequently professed machine-aesthetic in focusing on industrial objects and commodities. The artist coveted the direct involvement with his hands, the immediate approach to

the surface and the concrete expression through paint and brush. But, of course, this worked only on a mechanical thing. On canvas, Warhol’s gestural, AbstractExpressionist painting style would have just appeared as rehashing the New York School of the 1950s, but on the synthetic coachwork of the M1 the smears and streaks of the Sikkens car finish fit perfectly with Warhol’s aim at pitching individualized surface treatment against industrially produced object. The car finish suggests also an estrangement from the habitual types of paint (oil, acrylic) used for canvases, as a gesture away from the traditional mode of the painter to that of the artist working with and within a technologically

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advanced society. The character of the polymer-based paint that disperses easily yet dries out rapidly and, thus, accommodates instant reworking generated for Warhol’s project a strong performative element. Him covering the M1 bordered on action painting, in the spirit of Georges Mathieu or Jackson Pollock, in which the very act of covering a surface in paint becomes part of the substance of the work.

For Warhol’s M1, this is documented not simply by tracing the strokes, the fingerprints, or scratches with brush handles across the coachwork, but also by the way in which he moved around the car while painting it. Poulain, who witnessed the process, spoke of “exaggerated movements like a dancer,”3 something quite unexpected for the normally so reserved and physically awkward Warhol. The artist’s uncharacteristically quick movements became a match for the M1 with its top speed of almost 200 miles per hour (over 300 km/h).

Indeed, Warhol was so much caught up in the act of painting as performance around the designed object that he finished within half an hour, before the film crew that was meant to document the painting process could arrive. Always the consummate professional, Warhol posed for some takes after the actual performance—thus simply reproducing the event, in the spirit of his dedication to disposable consumer culture.

And talking of the impact of speed: once the carbon

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rear spoiler was fitted to the car and it had been tested, the M1 recorded one of the most impressive performances of any Art Car across the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Driven through repeated downpours by Hervé Poulain, Manfred Winckelhock, and Marcel Mignot, it managed to come in sixth with 284 laps and a completed distance of 3,875 kilometers at an average speed of 161.45 km/h— a mere twenty-three laps behind the eventual winner. In its class (IMSA 2.5+, the group of the most powerful sports car prototypes), it posted second place, beaten only by the car with a certain Paul Newman at the wheel.

For Warhol, the car design marked a very significant exception to his body of work, showing a subjective, spontaneous, and performative side of the artist who had hidden himself habitually behind cameras, studio assistants, or screens: a liberation in movement and a coming together of industrial culture and contemporary, popular art.

w Thank you to Ulrich Lehmann and BMW UK for their assistance with this article. Andy Warhol photos copyright of BMW.

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Making th Making th

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Automotive Awards 2021 All award categories apart from the three member awards were voted for by the club membership.

The members were asked to submit nominations in each category and the top five were selected as the finalists. The members were then sent the list of finalists to vote for their favourites.

Many thanks to Shahzad Sheikh, former editor of Car Magazine in the Middle East and an automotive journalist for over 30 years who oversaw the awards to ensure it’s integrity.

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Supercar of the Year

Ferrari F8 Tributo Finalists Bugatti Chiron Ferrari F8 Tributo Ferrari Roma Lamborghini Huracan EVO McLaren 765LT Words by XXO Photo by João Meneses

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riginally introduced in 1975 with the 308 GTB, this model is now in its 9th generation and the F8 Tributo “pays homage to the most powerful V8 in Ferrari history” according to Ferrari’s press release at launch.

H.R. Owen Ferrari kindly offered an extended drive in their demonstrator to experience what that means.

The design is stunning and traditional Ferrari: elegant and tasteful, while sporty and exotic at the same time. The lines flow from front to back and the car looks particularly good from the front side view as well as looking over the back from the driver’s door. The interior is clean, simple

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and traditional. The view through the rear mirror needs a bit of getting used to, given the cuts in the engine cover. But then with 710 bhp, one doesn’t look back very often.

The power delivery is significantly improved vs the 488. There is basically no turbo lag, the performance is straight-lined from the start, there is a bit of a kicker at around 6k rpm, however it is a pleasant add-on bonus rather than a necessity.

The Ferrari V8 has now won “engine of the year” four consecutive times and it’s easy to see why.

Call it good or bad, the F8 never scares you.

The chassis is very confidence inspiring, even under full load on bumpy B-roads the car remains

very stable. Similarly, coming out of slow corners with the back slipping a bit, it never feels that one oversteps a line. The car is playful in a friendly manner. The steering has a nice weight to it and the car can be placed very accurately, feeling like it’s on rails through twisty corners. At the same time in bumpy road mode the car is compliant and comfortable.

Despite GPF and turbos the car sounds good on the inside thanks to the hot tube and on cold start sounds assertive from the outside too, although it then quietens down. The drive modes could provide a bit more variability, the difference between Sport and Race mode is a smaller jump than in the 812.

So is the F8 just a rebodied 488? All in all design, driving dynamics as well as performance delivery create a harmonic unity. Some of the media commentary that it’s just a rebodied 488 is not relatable. The fact that it shares the roof and the doors with the predecessor is irrelevant.

Having previously driven the 488, the F8 feels like a significant evolution on all wthree accounts.

Hence, it is not surprising that the members of the Driver’s Union have voted the Ferrari F8 the ‘Supercar of the Year 2021’.

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“It is a great honour to receive this award for the Ferrari F8 Tributo from the Driver’s Union. The car was named in celebration of one of the greatest engines of all time, as voted for by automotive journalists all around the world. But it is even better when clients and fans of the brand also recognise the incredible performance offered by this amazing engine, and fantastic mid-engined V8 Ferrari sports car. From all the team in Maranello, as well as the UK, we would a ll like to say a very special ‘Thank You’ to all the members who nominated the F8 Tributo for this award”.

Francesco Balli, Regional Manager, Ferrari North Europe

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Best McLaren Dealer McLaren London

Runners-up McLaren Birmingham McLaren Hatfield McLaren New Forest

“All of us at McLaren London are thrilled to have been awarded the Drivers Union Best McLaren Dealer of 2021. It is a great achievement, especially as we have just re-opened our doors and are able to welcome clients for COVID-secure onsite appointments, as well as continue to support them virtually and digitally in whatever way is comfortable and convenient for them.

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do and we’re always on hand to provide the highest levels of service. We look forward to future collaborations with Drivers Union and meeting more members.”

Barney Singh General Manager McLaren London

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Best Ferrari Dealer Jardine Ferrari Colchester

“We’ve known and worked alongside Syeed and The Drivers Union for almost 8 years now, and in that time we’ve built a great relationship and enjoyed being a part of their club.

Runners-up

We’re incredibly proud to have won this award. We always want to offer our clients the very best experience and this award is made even more special that it’s been voted for by the Drivers Union members who have visited our showroom.

Dick Lovett Swindon H.R. Owen London Maranello Sales Meridien Modena

We are all looking forward to our coffee morning on 22nd May and attending more Drivers Union events across the summer months.”

Adam Nardone Sales Manager Jardine Ferrari Colchester

“We are very proud to receive the Drivers Union Best Dealer awards for our McLaren London and Ferrari Colchester dealerships.

Our customers are at the heart of everything we do each and every day, and as customer expectations continue to grow, so too do our services. Over recent months we have introduced new innovative ways to continue to engage our customers and support their needs.

From educating them on the latest EV developments via our “Bright Sparks” initiative to working with our manufacturer partners to introduce the latest models as well as offering the convenience of online contactless purchase from the comfort of their own home through our innovative digital platforms. We’re on hand to provide the highest levels of service and build long lasting relationships to support every element of the ownership journey.

This award is recognition of our passion and dedication to these prestigious brands and our customers, and our teams take great pride in engaging the family of supercar owners and sharing that passion with them. We are very much looking forward to further future collaborations and serving our customers.”

Paul Westaway Brand Director Jardine Motors Group

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Best Lamborghini Dealer Lamborghini London

Runners-up Lamborghini Pangbourne Lamborghini Hatfield Lamborghini Tunbridge Wells

“Lamborghini London are delighted to win the award for Best Lamborghini Dealer. It’s a pleasure to know that the Drivers Union members independently voted for us – thank you!”

Lamborghini London

Best Specialist Servicing Bell Sport & Classic

“The whole team at Bell Sport & Classic would like to thank Sy and the Driver Union members for voting for us this year and awarding us for both the sales and service expertise we provide.

We are very proud to win and look forward to seeing the members out and about and at Bell this summer.”

Bell Sport & Classic

Runners-up AV Engineering Bob Houghton Ltd GTO Engineering Litchfield Motors

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Best Specialist Dealer Bell Sport & Classic

Runners-up Barkaways DK Engineering Romans international

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Best YouTube Channel Harry’s Garage

Runners-up Tyrrell’s Classic Workshop Shmee150 Carfection Seen Through Glass

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Automotive Personality 2021

Best Instagram

Winner

Winner

Lewis Hamilton

Mr JWW

Runners-Up

Runners-Up

Chris Harris Gordon Murray Harry Metcalfe Lando Norris

Shmee150 Supercar Blondie Charlie Photography Supercar Nigel

Best Magazine

Winner EVO Runners-Up Octane Motor Sport Top Gear Classic & Sportscar

The Arctic Award Stephen Stevens

It’s Salon Prive Club Day and I’ve arrived at Blenheim Palace at 7:30am.

It’s cold. very cold and waiting to get in front of me is is Steve in his Cobra. You know, the one with no roof and the heater that is as warm as a fridge freezer. He had just spent nearly 2 hours driving 78 miles with no hat, scarf or glasses. Although he did wear gloves.

For battling the elements and not getting frost bite, the Arctic Award goes to Stephen Stevens.

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Best Automotive Event

Concours of Elegance at Hampton Court Palace Photos by Joao Meneses

hose that have visited the Concours of T Elegance at Hampton Court over the years will know that it is a worthy winner in

our best automotive event of 2020 category.

In 2021 it will be celebrating it’s 10th Anniversary and I took the opportunity to chat with one of the Directors of the event and fellow Union Member Andrew Evans.

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Andrew, firstly, congratulations on being voted the best automotive event of 2020 Sy, everyone at Thorough Events is thrilled to receive this award. In a year when the event industry was decimated, we managed to run two UK shows and to be acknowledged for doing a great job by your club and members makes it all the more rewarding. Thank you so much.

How did the Concours of Elegance begin?

I can’t lay any claim to being part of it at the start as I wasn’t one of the founders . There were three founding directors who all came together from different professions, united by a love of all things automotive and as the story goes, it was a meeting that took place over a pint in a pub in Battersea (London). The guys discussed why it was that having such a heritage in motoring and manufacturing, the UK did not have an automotive spectacle such as Pebble Beach or Villa d’Este. There was no place to celebrate fantastic cars from the UK. That’s why the Concours was born, to make it special, and it would have to be special, to compete with all of the other much more established events; they figured that we would have to provide experiences owners of cars Wordsforby Syeed Alithat they couldn’t get anywhere else and that was the essence of Photography

by João the creation of the Meneses Concours of Elegance.

It wasn’t called the Concours d’Elegance?

It’s the Concours of Elegance because we’re British, not French, although we recognise it emanates from France. But it was with the Queen’s permission that the first event took place in 2012 and therefore what that availed the owners ultimately were experiences with an element of royalty that they would not get anywhere else.

How did you become involved in the Concours of Elegance?

Five years ago, I was running an event company for a public limited company. About 170 events we were running a year and it felt quite anonymous for me. I decided that I’m of an age where I need to enjoy my life and so I decided to go out on my own and stumbled across this business called Thorough Events who were launching the London Concours (as it was to become) and they asked me if I would come in and give them some help, some advice and ultimately to pick the tools up and launch the event.

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How did the royal connection come about?

I don’t want to misrepresent the truth so I can’t say within any honesty that I know the detail of the story but my understanding was that Prince Michael of Kent (the Patron of the event) is a car enthusiast, a car nut with a genuine passion. He has to be one because as patron he regards the event as his concours, which is just a wonderful place to be. But the simple answer to the question is I believe that through various protocols, Her Majesty the Queen was approached and asked, if we were to celebrate something in this field, would she support it. It would be showcasing the United Kingdom and also become a major charitable contributor.

How much has the event raised for charity?

Since its launch the business has raised just under £1.5 million of contributions to charity That’s an incredible amount. The event itself has also moved around the UK not really having a permanent base until now.

You’ll be aware that initially, the Concours was peripatetic. It’s been held at Windsor Castle, St James’s Palace, Holyrood House and Hampton Court Palace and that peripatetic nature gave owners a unparalleled experiences that to be honest with you, they couldn’t buy their way into.

So, if you put your mindset around an owner, say an owner of a large collection of wonderful historic cars based in California, who will receive almost every week, an invitation to take a car to a concours event, we had to stand-out. And the stand-out proposition from us was come to the UK and experience this agenda that you could not buy your way into. Do so with like-minded and lovely people and it sounds a bit odd, but consider this to be a holiday with your car, your partner, and bring some friends. I suppose that’s the undertone of the promise of the event. It’s a social gathering and the car is a great leveller.

So it matters, not what you do in life. The people that come and compete are all united in their love for classic cars.

Do you have a waiting list of people who wish to attend?

We have a really robust curation process and we are fortunate in that a large number of people submit their cars for consideration. Each year, we aim to curate 60 cars in the main concours and where possible, we curate in era’s. The

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Concours is famed for pre-war activity, but as you well know, we go from post war, right the way through to modern day and a number of applications are received each year. The vast majority, I’m sorry to say just don’t make the mark. We also have a selection committee that are made up of industry specialists, the wise men and ladies of the automotive world, and they decide whether the car has provenance and authenticity, is it special and of course, in what condition is it in. Ultimately, there might be 200 to 300 cars that are put before the committee to distil down to an ultimate line-up of 60.

Is there a car that you’ve managed to get that you are very proud of getting.

I think it would be wrong to highlight any one car because it would be to the detriment of the other 59 entrants.

So what’s special for me, might not be special for someone who is visiting the show. So it would be wrong to highlight one, but it’s fair to say that what we’re doing here is curating some of the rarest cars in the world. I mean, they really are the rarest cars in the world and our promise to our visitors is that in coming to our event, you will see an assembly of cars at the Concours of Elegance that you’ve never seen before.

Furthermore, and we don’t publish this or publicize it widely, those cars cannot come back for a further 10 years. So each year there is something new to see and these cars are brought in from all over the world. Typically, a third of them come from North America, a third from mainland Europe, we have some Asian and Australian entrants as well. Then of course, there are a number of really, really exceptional cars in the UK. But it rotates every year and that’s the beauty of it.

How did COVID19 affect the Concours of Elegance?

I was getting last minute cancellations so in 2020, we had a roller coaster of a year. Applications and vetting cancellations, many of which were caused by the government under government legislation on who’s allowed to travel to the UK. And of course, if you’re considering bringing your car from a fair distance, you have to know that you’re doing this at least three months out.

We were working on almost daily updates, as

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opposed to quarterly updates. And so yes, last year has been extraordinary. That said, we’re told that we produced one of the best if not the best curation of cars, that’s been in the events history.

I don’t know if that’s because it’s true, or if it’s because people’s expectations were so limited, that whatever we brought together was going to be good. But I prefer to think it’s the former.

The Drivers Union was there on the Saturday and we had 24 cars on display and I know our members really enjoyed it. So much so that we’ve already filled our display area for this year. Personally, I’ve always found the Concours of Elegance very laid back and elegant and of course in a fantastic location.

That’s great to hear. We are primarily event organizers and so our primary consideration is the visitor experience. What we want is where you’ve touched on, but we also want an environment that feels immensely special, that feels like it has a serenity attached to it. That feels like it’s overwhelmed with quality and by that I mean, starting with the quality of the cars, but also the quality of the partners and the sponsors that are with us, and ultimately, the audience.

And what we really want is an indulgent and wonderful afternoon or day out.

What we’re not about is building an event that celebrates huge numbers of attendees, huge numbers of sponsors, just so that the commercial output is good. When that’s not our driver.

How many guests did you have in 2020?

It was around 9,700 in total which was driven entirely by COVID restriction. We were given a capacity from the Palace as to how many people we were allowed to have safely in the gardens.

Typically, the Concours is circa 13,000 people over three days.

So just over 3,000 down.

Yes, but that’s not a problem for us, because the vast majority of people that come to our event are invited guests. They are not paying to attend.

If you want to come because a guest or a partner / sponsor hasn’t invited you, then we think it’s accessible at £40. It’s more than that on the opening day, because that’s the owner preview day.

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But look, the whole point of it is to celebrate extraordinary cars. It’s not about us making money through gate attendance.

A third of the guests that come, pay to come, the rest are invited by our partners and our sponsors and that’s a filter, I suppose around the audience quality.

We sit in 60 acres of gardens at Hampton Court Palace, so there is an abundance of space. It’s all stunning and beautiful and I like to think that we enhance the venue for the three days. We could fit 100,000 people across that footprint over three days and it still wouldn’t feel mobbed but we don’t want that. We want serene, we want indulgent, we want people to have, hopefully, a wonderful experience with the sunshine in the late summer, maybe a picnic, certainly a glass of Champagne. And to get to engage with the owners is what we think of as being one of the real treats for people who want to know more about the cars, more about the provenance and the owners are, on the whole, really happy to indulge our guests with everything around their cars.

Now apart from the 60 Concour cars, you also have additional cars from various clubs and the event is run on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

We have the 60 cars that are competing, but we probably have a further 250 cars that will be coming in and rotating each day because they’re visiting guests from car clubs. The car clubs tend to think very carefully about which members cars they choose to invite, so it feels to me a bit like Olympic heats.

So what that does is for us and for our visitors, is it adds content to the show which changes every day; I rather like that moving dynamic.

As an organiser, do you get a chance to enjoy the event?

I get so consumed with running the event and there’s so much to do, that there’s no time to stop and absorb and take in the content in the way that a visitor would. So, when I go through the photography and the videos after the show, I often look and say where was that car? I don’t remember seeing that car at the event. Yet, I know it was there and so there is a sort of rather odd juxtaposition. I’m running an event in a subject matter that I love and don’t get to witness all of it in the way that our visitors do, but nonetheless, it’s a whole lot of fun pulling together these events.

The Concours of Elegance will be held at Hampton Court Palace from the 2nd to 54h of September 2022.

For further details and tickets, please visit www.concoursofelegance.co.uk The Drivers Union will be attending on Saturday 3rd & Sunday 4th of September 2022.

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All photos on this page by Tim Scott www.fluidimages.co.uk

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Photo by Patrick White 140

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I first saw the Icon 917K when its owner David Eaton brought it to a Drivers Union club lunch in Essex. To see this machine driven on the road is mesmerising, getting more looks and thumbs up than any Ferarri or Lamborghini. Just imagine, a 1970 Le Mans race car being driven on the road and filling up with petrol down the local High Street. When you add in the fact that it took Dave his good friend John Hartland of John Hartland motorsposrt over eight years to build, well, the trophy was effectively engraved with their names.

So here it is. The ICON 917K, winner of the best members car. A vehicle built by Dave and

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John in tribute to the glorious 1970’s winning Porsches at Le Mans. This is the story of how it came to be.

Dave’s interest in the 917k goes back to 1970 when he watched Pedro Rodriguez in a Porsche 917 win the 1,000km race at a rain soaked Brands Hatch by five laps. It was at that point that he decided he wanted one, but as the years passed by the price of the 917’s got out of reach, but it didn’t stop him wanting one.

In August 2011 Dave saw an advert on the Pistonheads website for a set of Porsche 917 body panels. “I rang the seller on a Thursday morn-

Best Member’s Car

ICON 917K Words by Syeed Ali Photos by David Pearce

ing,” he says “went to see it on a Sunday and paid him a grand over what he had it on eBay because it was actually for sale on eBay as well. Wrote a cheque there and then. It was the key to reverse engineering the whole thing” Other companies have created 917K replicas, but Dave thought they didn’t look quite right.

“There’s a company in Australia that I went to see about a year before this body shell came up for sale and that looked good, but in design terms it looked too heavy. I can’t really explain it. It just didn’t look right. It looked too heavy and to replicate the curves of the originals is impossible re-

ally and this body shell set that I purchased came from David Piper’s car.” David Piper being the racer who drove the 917 at Le Mans as well as owning number one since 1969.

“Graham Turner, the chap I purchased the bodyshell from, worked with David Piper in the early seventies, so he knew David and David had a spare flat 12 engine and gearbox with which he built a replica of his car. So as not to confuse it with the originals which are numbered like #21, #31, #13, he called the new one the 5LTR. But to complete the replica he had two chassis built and he needed a set of body panels. So he made

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moulds from his original 917 and the body shell I purchased was one of two that Graham had made.

So with the body shell purchased, his first call was to John Hartland who remembers the conversation. “Dave calls me up and I haven’t heard from him for a while and he says ‘John, it’s Dave. Guess what…… I’ve got a full set of body clips for a 917’ and I sort of just sat there for what sounded like an eternity, but my mind went into fast forward and I just said, I know what you’re going to do. You’re going build one aren’t you? I want one!

And that was it. So that was where the collaboration started on the project.”

“Dave wanted to do an absolute reverse engineered and I must admit, at the beginning, I thought, maybe just do some mods and modernise it a bit. But he did in

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the end convince me that going to original was probably the best way and I was totally convinced by it, because Porsche was so dominant with that car. It was such a quick race car that they got it right.

So I don’t really think there was a great deal of improvement to be made in chassis dynamics and suspension area given the package of the vehicle, the size and what you could and couldn’t get underneath the bodywork.

So I went with Dave totally, and bless him, he spent God knows how many thousands of hours, literally scaling up drawings, to real size from books and educated me on all the books that were available too and then I came in with my race tech and sought out suppliers for parts of the vehicle and also materials. The correct type

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of material for the tubing, and uprights, and so on and so forth. And the two of us working together is the result of what you see.”

How did Dave reverse engineered the 917?

“The first thing I did was to build a wooden frame and set the body shell up correctly on it and put 2,000 reflective dots all over it. Then a friend of mine who’s got a scanning business scanned the body shell, a set of sections every 25 millimetres.

So that was the first stage really, which took maybe a year to get the scan fully surfaced. By then I’d started to lay the chassis in CAD again, but using a lot of the small scale drawings that are available on the web and in books.”

“I worked from drawings really, there are lots of drawings that show the front and the rear suspension, the pedals and basically you just measure the wheelbase on the drawing with a Vernier. Then you work out a scale factor up to 2300 millimetres and use that scale factor to start positioning all the joints on the tubes and then you start to run all the tubes.”

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The chassis was bult using T-45 Steel which in the past was used in the Spitfire due to its stiffness and strength. However, for the engine and gearbox, Dave had to improvise as there were no affordable Flat 12 engines available and ended up using the Porsche 964 air cooled engine and gearbox from a 964 he purchased.

“I bought a 964 Cabriolet Carrera 2 from a chap maybe six or seven years ago for £7,500 and it had six months MOT left on it, but quite a few problems. So I thrashed it around for six months before taking the engine and gearbox out. Took the chassis numbers off it and sold the rolling chassis and a lot of the other bits, but kept the chassis and logbook in case we needed it to get the IVA.” The finally got through the IVA on 23rd July 2019.

Getting the exact wheels proved to be an issue, but resolved purely by chance when Dave on a working trip to Detroit attended a coffee morning at a Porsche 911 specialists where he bumped into an old friend. Being a Ford design engineer,

his friend asked to see Dave’s CAD models of the 917K. “So I fired up the laptop up and whilst showing the group of people I mentioned how I needed to find a 917 wheel so I could measure it and this nice nice chap, who’s got his own medical business worth a fortune said, ‘I’ve got one, I’m using it as a coffee table stand’. So he invited me back with a couple of other guys that were with me. He had two garages built into his house with about 11 or 12 Porsches in each one and we took all the pictures off the table, took the glass off and I measured the wheel up. Then I started to build the CAD model. But yes, the wheels were expensive. I wanted magnesium rims with centre locks and for that we went to a company called Creasey Castings in Sittingbourne.

Were there any arguments about the design of the car? “No not really” says John before Dave reminds him about the pedal box incident.

“Oh the pedal box!” John laughingly recalls, “purely and simply from a size fitting point of

view. I think my legs are slightly a little bit longer than Dave’s but height wise we are the same so I’ve always felt like I’d like an adjustable pedal box. But in truth, if you go to the purist point of view of driving the car, the pedals really should be where they are. I guess at the angle they are now, together with a steering wheel which is slightly offset and with Dave’s conjuring of dropping the seat a little bit and taking some tubes out from the internal frame it’s now actually really comfortable to sit in the car with the original pedal boss for a six foot guy. So that was just a bit anal really. He was very angry about it. Now that I can actually sit in the car, I’m convinced that I could go with a standard original pedal setup.”

If you had been to Goodwood in 2018, you may have seen the Icon 917K high above you. “I got a phone call in early 2018 from Jack Tetley”, says John. “He searches and finds vehicles for the Duke of Richmond for the Festival of Speed and they had a problem locating a 917 for the central display outside of Goodwood House. Nobody

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would lend them one because they’re too valuable.

Not even the Porsche Museum who’s Curator had sent a collection of other Porsche models for display at the event. The last 917 went for $17 million and that didn’t have a particularly great race record.”

Jack had shown the Porsche Curator photos of the Icon 917K who replied “that’s the one to have, because it’s got the correct body on it.”

“But then I had a major problem.....the door locks, rear body latches, rear wheel arches, windscreen, engine floor, Flat 12 fan cover and fan etc.

All these items either needed sourcing, or designing, then manufactured and finally fitted before delivering to Goodwood on Friday 22nd June!

We also needed to measure the track widths rim

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positions, so that the fabrication company could make the mounting plinth, as the car only had one chance to fit the plinth to meet the extremely tight timing plan for the assembly of the display. The project manager visited me to take measurements and discuss any other safety concerns, like no door latches, and an additional strap to clamp the rear body down to the chassis. So what followed the initial approach from the Goodwood team was six or seven weeks of flat-out preparation by myself.

Including at the request of Porsche to have the car wrapped in Gulf colours! So this is how our Icon 917K has changed from the Porsche prototype colour of Grand Prix white to Gulf colours.

In the end the Icon917K was up in the air for six weeks.

So what next for the Icon 917K ?

“Brands GP circuit on June 7th when I will drive 001 on the tack where I watched Pedro Rodriguez win the BOAC 1000Kms on April 12th 1970. But first a full check over, after 2 recent and rather bumpy drives, which have been a good test of 001’s durability. Then back to the rolling road to check and tweak the map before Brands as our prototype 001 now has over 1000 road and track miles so far no major problems. T Regards the project in general, very difficult to predict, as John has to build his track focused 917 which will be 002. And with the chassis and suspension being fully jigged, and having CAD models and moulds for every component, we can build and sell anything from a door or oil cooler cover

wall art through Icon Art, to a complete turnkey road or track Icon 917K evocation.

We also offer an SAS Icon 917K, where we supply approx 220 laser cut tubes and 300 laser cut brackets from our CAD models, a set of body panels and license the jigs to the client so he build his own 917 with our support.

John and I have discussed designing a modern Flat 12 engine evocation which we can lay down the designs with the help of our suppliers, but need to conjure-up another £250K plus for tooling!

For more information about the ICON 917K, please visit www.icon-engineering.co.uk.

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Dave Eaton

John Hartland

I started watching the motor racing, going to events in 1969, 1970. Always been into cars when I was a kid building Meccano cars with electric motors in and then after school I did A levels and went on a HND in mechanical engineering. Apprenticed with a gearbox manufacturer, down in Chadwell Heath, who are long gone now, Motor Gear. Always a petrolhead and that’s where I guess the impetus for starting the 917 was because I watched the race at Brands Hatch with Pedro Rodriguez in 1970. Famous race, the BOAC 1000 kilometres, and it was six and a half hours in the rain and this little Mexican guy won by five laps in a 917.

As a child I used to just take stuff apart and my dad used to sort of lose what hair he had left complaining about the fact that I’d take everything apart, but I did put it back together. A few bits didn’t work, but that’s part of the learning process.

It was around 1989 that I first met John. I saw an advert for an Alfa Romeo Montreal that I was quite interested in. I already had a Lamborghini Espada with the engine in bits at the time and basically rang John and went down to Sussex to look at this really nice black Montreal. Had a walk around it and thought, yep, I fancy this and did a deal on the car. As we were walking back to his house, we went through a barn which was his workshop where I saw lots of Lamborghini engines and I said to you ‘I think I need to have a chat with you about something else’. I said to him ‘I’ve got an Espada with the engine in bits’ and John said, ‘you idiot’. (laughs) But I had bought it on purpose with the engine in bits because I wanted to rebuild a 4 cam V12. I said to john, if I buy all my parts from you, will you help me with some inside knowledge on rebuilding the engine.

I ended up at technical college doing engineering and then did an HNC, came out, got a desk job in engineering, which I hated. Didn’t do that for very long and just started getting my hands a bit oily, and working on some very nice old vintage cars. Old Bentley’s, Lagonda, Jags all kinds you know, XKs. Even SS’s. I worked on a couple of SS’s and stuff like that and then just purely by chance one day I was looking for sparkplugs. I was doing a load of work on Bentley’s and I needed some NGK plugs and I happened upon this garage in Whyteleafe, Surrey called Berlinetta Italia and I thought I’d give them a try and they were at the time the Lamborghini agents for the UK. Guy called Roger Phillips started the whole ball rolling with Lamborghini in the UK, working out of telephone boxes and it was his sort of first real premises I guess. I just happened go up to the parts department and they had got in stock these very spark plugs that I was after and started chatting with one of the guys who asked me what I did. And he said ‘we could do with a guy like you, you have fairly good experience of engineering by the sound of things’.

So went to see the MD who was Roger and he said, ‘well look, if you want to change your job just come up and start work as soon as you like. We’re short of sort of technical people. So that was it. I started working on Lamborghini’s.

I’m semi retired now, but I’ve still been doing stuff over the years. I’ve also done quite a bit of race work and race engineering for many different sorts of outfits and greatly varying machinery, right through P2 cars, GT1, GT2, GT3 and the such like. This is all mechanical stuff in the main and also a lot of Lamborghini work, Ferrari work, Porsche’s. That’s my sort of forte, really, and various types of racecars.

For more information about the Icon 917K please visit www.icon-engineering.co.uk

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Porsche 91 David Ball reacquaints himself with the original Porsche 917 Photo by João Meneses

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n 1970 at the ripe old age of 21 I picked up my copy of Auto Sport. There on the front cover was a car, a car so stunning I had never seen a race car as beautiful. To say it took my breath away would be an understatement. To this day as I now approach my 73rd birthday it still remains the most beautiful race car ever produced. It does have competitors such as the Formula 1 Maserati 250f or the Birdcage Maserati or even the Ferrari P330.P3 or P4. All challengers for the Title but the Porsche still holds it.

The Porsche 917 was born in 1968. A change in the rules for the following year reduced engine capacities to 3 litres to slow the cars down. They were dangerously fast during this period. There was a caveat that it could increase to 5 litres if the manufacturer could produce and sell 25 cars. The car was developed and produced with the required 25 cars sold in ten months ready for the 1969 season.

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The driving position was unusual for such a long car. The driver sat towards the front of the car with his legs forward of the front axle and every effort was made to save weight. Even the gear knob was made of balsa wood. The numbers for the 917 were quite staggering for their day.

The original 917 came with a 4.500cc flat 12 engine. This was basically two 2.250cc engines from another series bolted together. The 4.5 engine produced 525 bhp while the 5 litre engined 917k eventually produced 630bhp. The tubular chassis was pressurised with gas to detect any fractures. So, if the pressure dropped you have a crack in your chassis.

For such a large car, it only weighed 800 kilograms.

0 to 60mph arrived in 2.3 seconds and 125mph arrived 3 seconds later at 5.3. The car topped out at 240mph although some drivers claimed more than 250mph if conditions were good.

There was a problem though. At high speed, the rear of the car would lift making the car almost undrivable. Drivers would comment that the horizon in the rear-view mirror would start to move. This moving horizon meant the rear of the car was lifting.

All cars entered in Le Mans of 1969 failed to finish either through breakdowns or crashes. The car was so dangerous, drivers preferred to race the older 908.

After Le Mans, they entered the cars in the Austrian 1,000kms where the 917 acheived its first victory. But there were lots of gnats about and Horsman (John Wyer’s team engineer) noticed that the front of the 917 was covered in them but none on the rear tail flaps. So they were in dirty air and not working. The following day at the Osterreichring, John Wyer’s mechanics made a new aluminium tail section which was taped onto the original long tail, and immediately the 917’s went 4 seconds faster!

Brian Redmans came into the pits after knocking 4 seconds off the lap time, and said “now we have a racing car!”

The car went into further development and in 1970 the 917k commonly known as the short tail was born. This was the car I had seen in Autosport It won Le Mans in 1970 covering a distance in the 24 hours which was only beaten in 2010 In 1971 the rear of the car was developed further by adding two vertical fins either side of the wing. This cleaned the air over the wing increasing downforce. Also, in 1971 the 917L was developed specifically for Le Mans. Although the long tail

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proved to be a successful car it was still beaten by the short tail at the Le Mans of that year. Later that year, the authorities decided to reinstate the 3-litre rule which instantly outlawed the 917 for sports car racing.

It was raced in the Can Am series as an open top 917/PA. Development ended in 1973 with the turbo charged 917/30 which produced an incredible 1100bhp.

Also, in 1969 another young man had seen the car. His name was David Piper and he purchased one of the required 25 cars.

David began his racing career in the 1950s in various formula’s but had a preference for sports cars. On seeing the 917 he set his heart on having one. He contacted Porsche who said he could have one at a cost of £16,000. He didn’t have the money.

He was £6000 short.

His current race car was worth about that sum, so he sold that to enable the purchase of the Porsche.

The car he sold was a Ferrari GTO. In 1970 he had a call from Steve McQueen. Would he like to be a driver in a movie he was going to make about Le Mans. David, after a long chat about fees, said yes.

McQueen would also enter as a driver in the Porsche 917k of Jo Siffert and Brian Redman.

Although McQueen had a licence he was not allowed to drive.

Filming was done during and after the race.

The camera car actually finished 9th overall. After the race they needed more race footage, so David Piper took the 917 out on track and followed the instructions he was given. Sadly, at Maison Blanche the car hit a damp patch and careered into the barriers ending up going through the barrier.

Trapped in the car with fuel all over the wreckage he waited for the track martials reach him. David was badly injured, and his leg was subsequently amputated.

The movie contains some of the best racing scenes from any movie but the film itself was poor.

There was no script and the actors just add libbed what McQueen wanted them to say.

If you were to look in David Pipers’ garage today you would see that 917k he paid £16,000 for over 50 years ago.

To put that sum into perspective I purchased my first property in 1971, a mid terraced three bed house for £4000.

If I had purchased four of those properties, they would be worth around a million in total today. A Porsche 917k is now around 40 million if you can get one.

2009 Ferrari 599 HGTE

£119,950

Aston Martin DB4 GT Recreated

£POA

2015 Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 Roadster Pirelli Edition

£189,950

1996 Porsche 993 C2S Coupe Manual

£89,950

2015 Porsche 991 Turbo Coupe

1995 GTD GT40

£92,950

£89,950

2009 Ferrari Scuderia Spider 16M

2003 Ferrari 575 Maranello F1

£275,000

£84,950

RESTORATION | SALES | SERVICE

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Spirit of the Union Awards

Pete Dietsch & Garry Atkins

The Spirit of the Union trophies are awarded to members who embody the ethos of the Drivers Union and this year we have three very worthy recipients. The first two recipients are Union members Peter Dietsch and Garry Atkins who fulfilled a bucket list for Simon who was recently diagnosed with terminal cancer. The third receipient is Darren Nash for helping fullfill the last wish of a terminally ill young boy.

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t was at a Shell petrol station that Garry first met Simon. They had both arrived in BMW’s and due to the pumps not working ended up having a chat about Garry’s modified and rather loud BMW M5.

Talk soon turned towards Ferrari’s and Garry’s long history with the Marque as well as Simons one year ownership of a Ferrari GT4 many years ago.

Telephone numbers were exchanged and Garry and Simon left the petrol station in the refueled cars. They kept in touch afterwards.

Simon’s love for Ferrari’s had started at an early age. “I had just left school and was working as a landscape gardener. It was a summer’s day and I heard a noise like thunder and I said to my friend, ‘what on earth is that?’ and he said, ‘oh, that’s Mrs. Webb in the Ferrari’ and I just dashed out to the front and there’s this lovely metallic blue Dino shooting up the road.”

Thirteen years ago Simon was diagnosed with throat cancer. “In 2008, I had a tumor on the on the left side of my tongue and I had what’s called a neck dissection, where they took out 26 lymph glands followed by six weeks of radiotherapy and chemotherapy which leaves you in a bit of a mess.

And quite frankly, it’s normally just a matter of time before it comes back again.

Last October (2020), I went to see the EMT specialist and had a biopsy and they told me the cancer had come back by my windpipe. There was at one point a possibility of doing an operation which takes the whole of the voice box out, but just recently they’ve said that there’s no chance that it can be done. The cancer has spread into my tongue and all around the back and the tissue is so damaged by the radiotherapy, they can’t suture it.

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So basically, it’s inoperable. So, you know, I’m just waiting……”

“When I got my diagnosis someone asked me about my bucket list, but I thought there really isn’t one. I’m happy with what I’ve done and I’ve had quite a lot of fun, but one thing I did miss was a Ferrari. Just having a Ferrari in the garage and getting into it, and driving it. There is no experience like it and I looked around to try and rent one recently but couldn’t find one. I saw a couple of people that were in the Ferrari world and I traced down a manual 355 but they had sold it. And I just happened to mention it to Garry…….”

“Simon calls me up one day” says Garry “and he was telling me his plans of going out to France because his girlfriend Sandrine lives there and then all of a sudden, out of the blue he tells me that he’s been diagnosed with throat cancer and he’s got months rather than years to live. He also told me about his bucket list and how he wanted to drive a manual Ferrari again. And I said to him, well, there’s some very nice people in the Drivers Union. I’ll put the feelers out, which is what I did.

I put a message in one of the clubs WhatsApp groups and I had quite a few people respond.”

One of the respondees was Pete. “I saw the post in the clubs WhatsApp group and I told my friend Piers about it. Piers is a massive petrolhead and a really nice guy, but very private. He offered his manual blue Ferrari 355. So I basically ended up liaising with both Garry and Simon.”

What Simon had thought was just a drive in a 355, turned out to be something else altogether.

Piers was actually going to lend Simon his 355 for a couple of days.

From left to right Simon, Gary & Pete

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It was a cold and wet friday when Simon picked up the 355. Garry had given him a drive in his Ferrari 599 earlier to whet his appetite and we waited for Pete to drive the 355 over from the other side of London.

Upon arrival, Pete showed Simon around the car, pointing out all the important things before accompanying Simon on a short drive. Simon recalls starting the 355 for the first time. “I must say when the engine started, that was a real shiver up my spine. There is nothing like starting up a Ferrari and that was one of the enormous highlights, just starting that engine. I mean, that is very different to my old GT4 with the carburettors, you have to coax it into life. That’s something I loved about the car, that sort of temperament. The temporary mentality of it, but this was just instant, and that sound was just such a thrill”.

However, an issue did crop of that nearly spoilt a perfect day for Simon. “I pulled into a garage to get some petrol and I couldn’t get the petrol cap open. I was pressing the button just by the gearstick and it wasn’t working and I got into a bit of a petrol panic as I may not have enough petrol to get home. I was fiddling about with the petrol filler lid and this guy walked out of the garage.

He walked right towards me and asked if I was having trouble. I said I can’t get this petrol cap open. He said ‘Oh, I know exactly what to do with that’ and he turned out to be a Ferrari mechanic.

I mean, what are the chances of that? He told me sometimes the solenoid sticks, so he opened up

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the engine compartment immediately and he said, there’s a little toggle switch here that you pull. I felt it and he said, ‘right, pull that, that’ll get you in’. And it did.

“I brought it back on the Sunday so I had a good long drive. I went along the country roads. I had to be careful the first day because there had been snow so I couldn’t go down all the little roads that I knew. It was just a lovely drive back. And then on Saturday, I washed it in the morning. First thing I did was clean it. And then I just went around all my local places. So I thought, should I go to North, I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but it wasn’t about going. It wasn’t about a destination. It was about just driving that car. So I drove around the roads up as far as Norwich, all the roads that I know and some dual carriageway, A roads, B roads.

It was a nice sunny day and the conditions were good. And it was just about driving that fabulous car. And then on Sunday again, getting up and washing it again.

I know that thrill of sitting by yourself in the Ferrari cabin when I had my GT4. It was just the same, if not more heightened with that beautiful blue 355. So that was just a magical moment, just sitting there by myself. And there I was on the open road in a beautiful Ferrari again, that was just a surreal moment. It was wonderful.”

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Spirit of the Union Awards

Gary Atkins & Pete Dietsch

For going out of their way to help a fellow petrolhead.

Congratulations Gary & Pete

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Spirit of the Union Awards

Darren Nash

The recipient of the Spirit of the Union Award goes to Darren Nash.

It was in August 2020 that Darren received a phone call from Lindy Hunt, Head of Community Engagement at Haven House Children’s Hospice. She had asked at a business networking group if anyone knew someone who owned a Ferrari and Darren’s name cropped up.

Haven House supports hundreds of families, looking after children and young people who have life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. One of the children, Kasper aged 13, had wished to sit in a Ferrari.

Lindy got in touch with Darren, who in turn posted in one of our club WhatsApp groups asking for other Ferrari owners to join him in a visit to the Hospice. The response as expected was huge, with offers from both Ferrari and non-Ferrari owners. However, as Kasper wanted to sit in and see Ferrari’s and with on-site parking limited, fonly ive Ferraris were chosen. Darren (458 Italia), Russell (430 Spider), Dr Ravi ( 488 Spider), Garry (599 GTB) and myself (360 Spider).

On the Sunday morning, we met up down the road from the hospice before convoying together the short distance and parking next to the main building.

As we were told Kasper wanted to sit in the cars, we were quite saddened to see Kasper wheeled out in a wheelchair with an oxygen tank attached. His par-

ents and cousin by his side. It was obvious that he was quite poorly and would not be able to sit in any of the cars. They did however take him around all the cars and it was great to see him and his family smiling in such a despairing time. Ravi and Darren took Kasper’s mother and cousin for a ride in the Ferrari’s which they enjoyed. We also gave Kasper a Ferrari Book that we had all signed as a souvenir.

As we departed, Kasper asked for us to rev our cars. How could we say no!! He loved it. As Darren said, “How happy he and his family were and it gave them a memory as well. Every parent wants to see a smile on their child’s face”.

For us it was a very moving and emotional encounter. I for one found it very sad and can only imagine how the family were feeling.

So that was our Sunday morning. The following morning, Darren received an email from Lindy thanking us for bringing our cars and for making Kasper’s wish come true. The following Wednesday, Darren received another email from Lindy. Kasper had sadly passed away……

The Drivers Union have set up a charity committee that will oversee all the clubs charity work and our first chosen charity will be Haven House Children’s Hospice, in memory of Kasper. More details in the following pages.

Congratulation Darren.

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“Haven House Children’s Hospice cares for seriously ill babies and children (up to the age of 18) by creating a loving and warm environment for them and their families while they go through the toughest of times.

medical needs. Many of our children need 24 hour care and supervision. We are a life line for these families supporting them through their child’s illness. We are here for the whole family including mums, dads, brothers, sisters and grandparents.

No family should have to face alone the difficulties of looking after a child with a serious illness. Although we cannot change their diagnosis, our specialist care team are here to provide support to parents and carers who have children with complex

Haven House provides round the clock care at our hospice, surrounded in beautiful grounds and woodland, in Woodford Green and through our outreach services in the home and local community. We provide; day care, over-night stays, end of

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life care, bereavement support, as well as House, I knew this was a place which would life enriching activities such as sensory play, give Malachi the very best care and look afmusic therapy and physiotherapy. ter him with dignity. The care is personalised, and the staff listen to you. They make sure he We provide care and support where and when gets all the things which can keep him well.” our families need us. Hospice care does not mean that a child is near to the end of their “Literally when we had nothing or nowhere life, we are here from the time a devastating to turn to as a family, Haven House were diagnosis is made to help our families have the ones that offered us more than a helping choice, quality of life and to make the most of hand. They are truly a lifeline to us, especially when we are at crisis point.” the precious time they have together.

Mum Sylvia said: “When I visited Haven

www.havenhouse.org.uk

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CL ASSIC & SUPERCAR

SUNDAY 4 SEPTEMBER 2022 • BLENHEIM PAL ACE

SEE THE LATEST AND GREATEST SUPERCARS!

E XC LUS IV E D R IV E RS U N I O N G R E AT COU RT PA D DOC K R A LLY CA RS • H Y PE RCA R D I S PL AYS • H I LL S PR I NT SU PE RCA R PA D DOC KS • LUXU RY S H O PPI N G V I LL AG E SA LO N PR IV É TI M E PAV I LI O N • FA M I LY FU N & M O R E B U Y YO U R TI C K E TS AT: SA LO N PR I V E CO N COU RS .CO M

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Our Recent Meets & Events The Drivers Union has access to some of the most exclusive events in the UK

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The Frinton Chip Run Over 100 supercars took part in a charity drive and raised £2,295 for Haven House Children’s Hospice

Aeriel photo by Russell Mandel

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O

ur third visit to Frinton-on-Sea to go and get some chips from the lovely people at the Pier One chip shop and it won’t be the last. The special thing about the Frinton-on-Sea chip run comes from three parts, the covoy, the chips and the parking.

The convoy to the Chip Run starts in Buckinghamshire, and snakes its way through Hertfordshire and Essex picking up people at pre agreed locations. Normally we pick up just one of two people at each place for a total less than 20 for the arrival into Frinton-on-Sea. But this year we went BIG. We went so big, that we caused traffic jams at every pick up point, and even had to split up into two groups at one point.

How many cars cause a traffic jam? Well last year we had twenty and this year thirty signed up 4

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weeks before the run, fifty 3 weeks in advance, at 2 weeks it was eighty, and on the day it was nearly one hundred supercar.

So with nearly ine hundred cars in a convoy it can get a little bit hectic., but it’s also the best way to travel. As far as you can see in either direction is just a line of supercars.

The chips are special at Pier One because they are bloody delicious. They are also important because they are given to you via your car window in a triple bag with little salt and viniger packets. This is done faster than any McDonalds and all pre arranged. The High Street fills with supercars and as we pass the resturant there is a table outside, packed with chips made moments earlier (we give them our live location to ensure perfect chips). We grab the chips and head off to

park up around the corner.

This year we had over 200 portions of chips handed out and I have to take my hat off to them and the efficiency and speed with which they can make them.

The parking at Frinton-on-Sea is what made me choose the location for our first drive (without chips) well over a year ago. It’s free, with wide bays, each bay is at an angle, and there are lots of them. It’s perfect for supercars. The section we like to park at is normally empty and fitting 30 cars together is an easy feat. However, as you may have just read it wasn’t 30 cars this year is was three times that many. So we parked mostly together and some on pavements.

The locals in the area are always very welcoming and come and say hello. One said that this year, seeing

us means it’s the start of summer again after what was a particular grey winter thanks to COVID19.

The members donated towards the clubs selected charity, Haven house Children’s Hospice and as I write this we have raised well over £1,000.

Frinton will now be an annual stop on the DU map for years to come.

Ed Eccles DU Essex Area Organiser

A total of 200 portions of chips were handed out, but Pier One only charged for 150 portions. The chips were paid for by the Drivers Union..

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Italian Car Day

at Brooklands Museum

The day started with a secret rendezvous near Brooklands for over 50 Feraris and lamborghinis before convoying together to enter the museum via a private entrance and parking in our special club area.

The Drivers Union also provides the Ferraris for the lunch time track parades across the road at the Mercedes Benz test circuit.

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WATCHES & JEWELLERY

N EW & PR E - OWN E D WATC H E S We also offer polishing, servicing & valuations for all watches.

"At Cirrus watch es we believe th at wh en purch asin g a tim epiece it’s m ore about th e tailored experien ce th an th e purch ase itsel f, It’s th e journ ey th at counts.

Brin gin g joy through tim e..."

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CO M E A N D VI S I T U S FO R YO U R N EXT PU R C H A S E

88-90 HAT TON GARDENS , SUITE 12 , EC 1N 8PN • WWW.CIRRUS-WATCHES .COM

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Christmas Breakfast Meet An end of year meet at Virginia Water organised by our Surrey area group members

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Ferrari Coffee Morning A breakfast visit to official Ferarri dealer Jardine Colchester, recipients also of our “best Ferrari Dealer” award.

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Ferrari 296GTB Launch An invitation from Maranello Sales in Egham for the Ferrari 296 GTB launch

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Festival Italia

Over 80 members joined us at Brands Hatch for Festival Italia

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Festival Italia Sheesh Lunch

Over 80 members joined us at Brands Our Hatch regular for Festival visit toItalia.

Sheesh for lunch

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Salon Prive We had 85 member’s cars in our display area on the day and four additional cars inside the event itself as part of a special display.

Plus members who parked with our friends the Ferrari Owners Club, McLaren Owners Club and the Lamborghini Owners Club.

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The Plough Our first visit to The Plough in Little Bentley, Essex

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The Cliveden Lunch Forty two members and their partners attended this spectacular venue in Berkshire. As in previous years, the cars were parked along teh main drive before members went off for lunch in one of the two restaurants booked for us.

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Sidelines to Supercar, Spectator to Spectacular Ed Eccles writes about his McLaren MP4-12C

Having grown up watching supercars, wanting a supercar, having the posters and toys and models, the reality of it all after that much hype is even better!

the easiest supercar to live with due to real world visibility I have to disagree and say the McLaren would be easier to park.

I have been an avid supercar spectator for my entire life. That kid who wanted nothing but to know about the next fastest car or more expensive material used.

When I could buy my own cars I used them to drive to shows and suddenly had access to all these car meets. Living in London I’d always be on the lookout for that next car around the corner.

Next to start the engine. McLaren give you a nice red glowing backlit button that goes well with a flurry of seeping dials and roar of cold start up. Fingers wrap around the wheel and touch the single metal piece gear shift paddle. Cold to the touch. As it’s a single rocker you can also be lazy and push the paddle to do the opposite of pulling. Allowing fully one handed manual gear changes up and down the box. Now to pull out of the drive and onto the road for some slow minutes as the car warms up.

Now I’m older and a little wiser. Depreciation is my best friend, and hated by most others in the car scene.

But without that cruel mistress ripping thousands out of the resale value of these beautiful cars as they lay in wait for their next owner. I couldn’t have afforded one. It’s no secret that the McLaren 12c is probably the cheapest supercar you can buy and that is in part due to an undeserved reputation of poor reliability.

A reputation I will do nothing to undo as although I think it’s wrong, it’s also the most important part in play for me being able to afford a 720s one day.

So keep spreading those false rumours and I may be able to afford one sooner.

Back to my 12c and how it feels own it. Bloody brilliant! It’s got billionaire doors baby! I look at it from a distance and still have to pinch myself it’s mine. I run my fingers over the carbon fibre key in my pocket and press twice. The lights flash on as the window rolls down a crack and the door unlocks. If I’m walking towards it from the back I get to peak through the rear glass engine bay cover at the engine before lifting the door open.

No door handle, just pull up. Yes UP. There will never be a day that I get bored with vertical doors.

They are simply the absolute essence of the supercar.

They did not need to go up, it’s easier if they designed them not to, buts it more enjoyable if they do; so they did. You step down into the seat and with a 6ft6 frame I’m hardly small but I still have inches of headroom. The cabin wraps around you with the high center console sweeping up to the dash and it’s not tight or constricting. The visibility from the wing mirrors is amazing and the view out the front is wide enough that I can see each corner of the car. Having driven an Audi R8 V10+ recently and being told it’s

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By the time your out of the little 30mph zone you live in and have round some twisty roads you are all ready to go. Lucky for us that McLaren suspension is some form of black magic. Silky smooth as you burble about town towards that monochrome roundal that declares the beginning of fun; national speed limit ahead. Press the active button and watch the rear spoiler push up into a more aggressive stance, click down a gear or two and pause at your slight disappointment in sound. Yes, the sound. It’s just not great, with an aftermarket system the exhaust will sound amazing and it’s on the list to get done but right now with the sports exhaust pack it that came from the factory it sounds “sporty”. In a hot hatch it would be mind blowing, in a sports salon it would be aggressive, but in a true supercar it fails to live up to expectations set by it’s Italian rivals. It’s made worse if you haven’t turned off the speakers trying to pipe it artificially into the cabin. A group of angry gremlins heavy breathing out the speakers.

Not McLaren’s best achievement.

The sounds surrounds you but doesn’t get the blood pumping and your have your moment of doubt. It was all going so well up to that moment. So you push your foot to the floor and holy fuck does that smile force its way all over your face. The rear grip is biblical, the entire car squats to absorb the power. The engine climbs the revs towards 9,000 rpm! Every rev is even more acceleration than the last thousand. You are pushed into the chair with the horizon getting sucked towards you, while passengers are unaware of their location as everything out of the side window is now

a blur. That boring engine note still lacks orchestral highs and deep brass bass you may have been yearning for initially but it’s a solo singer screaming towards its redline. The turbos whine and the intakes woosh as much air in as they can gulp. Half pull the shifts to prime the next gear and full pull when ready, the changes are instant. The car devowering the road ahead. Bends are taken at speed like it’s on rails and the seat holds you in place for the lateral Gs. Every single movement of the wheel is felt in the tyres and visa versa. Like watching the replay of a family go-karting adventure in 8x speed. Eventually and unfortunately you will run out of clear safe road and have to think about slowing down.

Left foot for the heavy brake pedal and squeeze on the anchors. If you doing over 70mph (and we definitely wouldn’t be doing that) the rear spoiler pops up to vertical so you have no clue what’s about to crash into the back of you as it takes up the entire rear view. This pushes the rear into the deck to stop a forward pitch of the cabin. The car then distracts you from that lack of rear visibility it grips onto the road like a kitten to curtains and throws your face towards the dash. The car itself doesn’t nose dive,

it just stops. It stops instantly. It stops dead. It stops in the sort of way that your first fast car you had accelerated. You immediately want to do it again and to get your friends in the passenger seat so you can show off how fast it stops. The car is a masterpiece to drive.

When you have finished for that day accelerating and stopping a lot and going around corners tighter than anybody else, you will need to interact with other road users and go to a destination even if it’s just for petrol. The Mclaren always get a great reception in this regard. It’s always let out of junctions and it’s waved at by the non-car folk. It gets pointed out by young children who dream about having one when they grow up as I did at that age. It has also allowed me access to places I couldn’t have gone before; such as supercar only shows. Perhaps most importantly it’s given me a new group of friends within this club.

It is super.

Ed is the Drivers Union Essex Area event organiser

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OFFICIAL FERRARI DEALER MARANELLO SALES

Ferrari 812 Superfast Year: 2019: Miles: 4,207 External colour: Grigio Titanio Internal colour: Rosso £239,000

Ferrari 488 Pista Year: 2019: Miles: 59 External colour: Rosso Corsa Internal colour: Nero £295,000

Ferrari California T Year: 2014: Miles: 14,141 External colour: Grigio Titanio Internal colour: Nero £105,000

Ferrari GTC4Lusso Year: 2019: Miles: 8,560 External colour: Rosso Fuoco Internal colour: Nero £199,000

Ferrari 488 Spider Year: 2019: Miles: 5,095 External colour: Rosso Fuoco Internal colour: Nero £215,000

Ferrari 458 Italia Year: 2013: Miles: 12,200 External colour: Rosso Corsa Internal colour: Nero £155,000

Ferrari Portofino Year: 2020: Miles: 1,882 External colour: Grigio Titanio Internal colour: Nero £179,000

Ferrari 488 GTB Year: 2018: Miles: 3,813 External colour: Canna Di Fucile Internal colour: Nero £185,000

Ferrari F430 Spider Year: 2007: Miles: 11,058 External colour: Nero Daytona Internal colour: Nero £95,000

All listings accurate at time of publication.

Tower Garage, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0AX Telephone: 01784 436431 london-maranello.ferraridealers.com

15899 Maranello approved FOC magazine advert 230x290.indd 1

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ferrariapproved.com

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The Drivers Union Find out more about the most exclusive supercar owners club in the UK

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Why Join the Union?

Established in 2012 but with a history going back to 2005, the Drivers Union is an exclusive club for supercar owners who wish to share a common passion.

With a very strict qualifying criteria, we are also one of the most friendly clubs around. Our lanyards/cards are a great ice breaker at events and has helped form countless lifelong friendships amongst the members who even wear them to major events like Goodwood. With a Drivers Union lanyard/card, you are never alone.

Membership benefits include: Joining over 1,000 supercar owners Dealer events & test drives Access to some of the UK’s finest events* Local and national meets Your personal Travel Concierge* Discounts on products ad services* Local area groups based around the UK Access to over 45 WhatsApp groups* Easy to use event sign up system Private Facebook group* and much more *Upgrade to Club Membership required Scan QR Code to join the Drivers Union

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Qualifying Cars The Drivers Union operates a very strict list of qualifying cars with membership currently only available for cars listed below

Aston Martin

Lotus

Vulcan / Valkyrie / One-77 / Vanquish / DB2 to DB6 / DBS / Zagato

Brabham

Esprit

Maserati

MC12 / MC20 / Merak / Bora / Khamsin

BT62

McLaren

Bugatti

All models

All models

De Tomaso

Mercedes Benz

SLR McLaren / CLK GTR / AMG GTR

Pantera / Mangusta / P72

Noble

Ferrari

M600

All Models

Pagani

Ford

All models

GT40 / GT

Pininfarina

Jaguar

Battista

XJ220 / XJR-15

Porsche

Koenigsegg All models

Carrera GT / 918 / 959 / Turbo GT2 / GT3 / RS / RUF / Singer

Lamborghini

Zenvo

All models (except Urus)

Any model

Founders Invitation

A personal invitation from the club founder for owners of cars not in the qualifying list

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Membership Membership is open to owners who own cars on our qualifying list and we have two membership options:

Associate Membership With access to most club events, this membership is for owners who would like to experience the club before upgrading to Club membership.

FREE

Club Membership Club Members support the running of the club and members receive a membership pack, priority or sole access to club events and access to discounts and benefits. £120 (Starts from joining date to 31st December 2023)

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Club Discounts & Benefits We have teamed up with companies who provide our members with discounts and benefits.

Companies include: HR Owen Ferrari - 20% off labour & 15% off parts Maranello Ferrari - 20% off labour & 15% off parts Jardine Ferrari Colchester - 15% off all work Jardine Ferrari Sevenoaks - 15% off all work Bell Sport & Classic - 15% off labour Lamborghini London - 15% off all work McLaren Guildford - 15% off labour & 10-15% off parts V-Engineering - 10% off labour SmarTrak - Up to 52% discount on their car trackers Planet Leasing - Reduced Admin fees and preferental rates Porter Press Books - 10% off books Classic Additions car covers - 10% off Auto Photo - Please contact for member discount Andre Noir Jewellery - Please contact for member discount For the latest list, please visit the Drivers Union website.

www.thedriversunion.com

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The Drivers Union is Sponsored by

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The Drivers Union

Final thoughts.....

T

oday my Audi Q7 decided to shed all it’s coolant and left me stranded in a Tesco car park. Not sure what the problem is, but I did pick up the car from Audi service in the morning as they had just replaced a faulty oil pump under warranty. Apparently, it’s a big job where the front parts of the engine have to be removed. So an uncomfortable conversation (for them) will be held on Monday morning with the dealership.

So there I am stranded amongst Saturday shoppers trying to phone RAC for recovery or a nice man in a van to come and check what the issue could be. Except you can’t.

You see, since COVID19, the world, you may have noticed, has gone a bit…. crap. We’ve had to adapt to new ways of doing things and one of them is now having to fill out an online form to the RAC website to request recovery.

No comforting operator to calm you down and to tell you everything will be ok. Unless you are broken down on the motorway or somewhere equally dangerous that is, then they will put you through to a human being who’s probably sitting under a palm tree in Bali. So if you are still living in the past and don’t have a smart phone, you are buggered!

The only communication I was receiving from the RAC was a text update every thirty minutes, informing me that they will be texting me in 30 minutes to update me. Two hours thirty minutes later, whilst moaning in one of the Drivers Union WhatsApp groups, someone asked me if I had called Audi Assist. Audi Assist???

Now I’m not exactly the macho/tough guy/ real man type of chap, but I am man enough not to read ‘manuals’. Apparently, there is a button above me that once pressed, connects to a real person and a very friendly person at that, who told me everything will be ok. Lo and behold, 60 minutes later, a recovery truck arrived courtesy of Audi Assist and still no sign of Mr RAC.

Whilst waiting for recovery and so frustrated with the Q7 and it’s faults that I called Darren Nash, our resident guru on car leasing deals and we chatted about which car I should lease next.

From a BMW M5, very tasty but expensive to various Mercedes 4x4’s and everything in between, but definitely not Audi. No way will I buy another Audi. We finally settled on a great deal on a Mercedes S350. With the added bonus that if this magazine lark doesn’t work out, I could always do a bit of upmarket Uber on the side.

The recovery drivers name was Don and he was from Lithuania and we got chatting. I told him what had happened and that I was going to replace the Q7 with Mercedes S Class. “No, No, No… they always break down. Very unreliable” he replied. “For every 1,000 Mercedes made, 500 break down. It’s always the electronics with Mercedes. Same with Land Rover, always breaking down. If there were no Mercedes and Land Rovers, I would have a lot less work”.

What about BMW I ask? He shakes his head slowly. “They are ok but driven by young men who drive them hard and break them. The most reliable is Japanese like the Prius. The only time I pick them up is when they have accidents or destroy their tyres”. Porsches? He shrugs. “They are ok, same with Ferrari and Lamborghini. It’s mostly coolant problems with them.” Rolls Royce? “I once picked up the same RR Wraith and driver three times in one year. He damaged his tyres all three times.

So apart from the Japanese brands, which marque would he buy from? “Audi for sure!.

They are very strong and much better than the Mercedes and BMW. I rarely pick up Audi’s.”

So there you have it. If you want to know which brands are the most reliable, ask your recovery driver next time he pick up your broken car. I’m now off to see what Audi deals Darren has.

Syeed Ali

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