A collection of my automotive news pieces for DriveTribe, SR News or unpublished.
Future Classics for £275,000
I was recently approached by a contact of mine who had a predicament for me. He is a fairly wealthy man who I have come to know via the car showroom industry and he asked me the question, “What is the best classic car to buy for around £275,000 which will increase in value over the next five years”. Now, this intrigued me because he was essentially asking me to find an investment car for him to buy. That is a fairly big decision so I had to think very carefully about my options, whether to go for established classics, future classics or modern classics. After 48 hours of scrolling through Autotrader, Car and Classic and various other sites I came up with this list of what I believe to be the best investment cars currently on the market.
1987 Aston Martin V8 Volante – £195,000
The first car that made the list was a listing I spotted in Classic and Sports Car magazine but it brought me immediately to attention, despite it being surrounded by a Bentley Blower and Bugatti Veyron. That car is the 1987 Aston Martin V8 Volante which upon first glance does not seem like a £195,000 car but this car is a lot more than meets the eye. It was supplied new to Monaco and is therefore left hand drive but also features that have become more desirable as time has gone by such as the European spec chromed bumpers. This specific example was delivered new to the Hotel de Paris in Monte-Carlo to Mouna Ayoub, a French socialite associated with the principality’s Royal Family. As a Euro specced car, it is one of only 22 Series II V8 Volantes to be built, meaning this car has rarity on its side to increase its value. At £195,000 it is significantly below the budget specified but has the potential as current auction prices hold them at £250,000.
2009 Alfa Romeo 8C Competizione – £239,990
The next contender does swing significantly towards the modern classics division but for a car this glamorous, it is worth making an exception. This is a 2009 Alfa Romeo 8C and it is one of the prettiest Alfa Romeos ever built. It is based on the platform of the original Maserati Granturismo, sharing the same body layout and engine, with the 4.7 litre V8 and 456bhp. What is really unique about the 8C is the rarity of them, similarly to the rarity of the previous Vantage Volante. Being a one of only 500 car, it is limited series which holds the value of the car fairly high, as well as the low mileage at only 9,500 miles from new. But it is the beauty in which most of the price becomes worthwhile as the 8C has always been applauded for the styling and Italian charm laying within the body panels. This particular car does sit near the top of the price budget at just shy of £240,000, but monitoring recent auction prices could prove this car is a bargain. The last 8C to sell at auction went for just over £340,000 which is already an increase of at least £100,000 upon the original investment and that in itself says something as a future classic and future desirable car.
1956 Alfa Romeo 1900 CSS Touring Superleggera – £189,000
Sticking with the Alfa Romeo theme, the next car is a lot more vintage but provides a lot more of an interesting history. The 1900 CSS is a beautiful looking car, much like the previous 8C, with typical 50s Italian styling and coachbuilt by the legendary Touring Superleggera who also designed such cars as the original Alfa Romeo Disco Volante (around the same time as this) as well as the Aston Martin DB5 and the Lamborghini 350 GT. This car though used to belong to Jean Rondeau who’s self titled team won the 1980 24 Hours of Le Mans before Mr Rondeau was sadly killed in a road traffic accident in his other Alfa Romeo. This car was passed through different ownerships where it competed multiple times in the legendary Mille Miglia road rally, in which it recorded four finishes. It is also likely that this car was used in some light competition racing, as it had £15,000 worth of race conversion done to it. It is a bit hard to mark the pricing of this car as there have not been many examples come to auction or come to sale, but the similar era Alfa Romeo’s, especially the coachbuilt cars, are looking to be around $220,000 at the moment but that price will increase as time goes on.
1995 RUF BTR2 – £249,995
In terms of unique cars that I found during this job, I don’t think there is a more unique car on the list than this RUF BTR2. When the Porsche 993 Carrera launched in 1994, RUF were quick to create their adaptation of it, featuring RUF branded front and rear bumpers, the larger rear spoiler similar to the later 993 Turbo and the predecessor 964 Turbo and a K27 turbocharger which gave the car close to 420bhp at 5000rpm. The original BTR was designed to be like a road legal Group B Porsche and so the BTR2 does not share the same racing beauty as the original but is significantly rarer. It it believed that only 19 of these were made and only 3 were built with right hand drive, like this example. With a top speed of 191mph in 1995, it was one of the fastest cars in the world at the time. The value of RUF cars have often been overlooked besides the Carrera GT based CTR3 but in recent years, as more RUF cars have come up for sale, the prices have slowly been increasing. In the past only two BTR2s have been offered at auction, one of which sold for £600,000 as it was the prototype and the other, a left hand drive BTR2 which sold for £220,000. Given that this car is the rarer right hand drive specification, it is fairly easy to see the price will rise maybe even above the £275,000 already.
1990 BMW E30 M3 Sport Evolution – £189,995
A future classic to finish off the list accumulated, a homologation special. In the last few years, homologation limited series cars have significantly increased in value and has even led to cars such as the Audi S1 Quattro reaching prices over £1,000,000. Though this car will not be anywhere near that price anytime soon, the M3 Sport Evolution, in most people’s eyes, remains as the ultimate BMW M3 even surpassing the E46 M3 GTR. This particular M3 is one of the 50 UK delivered M3 Sport Evolutions, finished in either red or black and one of the 600 produced to homologate this generation of M3 for the Touring Car championship and DTM. This is also the fastest E30 M3 with a top speed of 154mph and a 0-60 time in just under 6 seconds, quicker than a lot of modern cars. After recording close to 154,000 miles, the car went through a full nut and bolt restoration but still retains its original parts as well as documentation from when this car was initially sold. At nearly £190,000 this is by far the most expensive M3 Sport Evo currently on the market but as a UK supplied car, that makes it exceptionally rare. As the much more common left hand drive variations of the M3 Sport Evo is getting close to £220,000 at auction plus the rising value of homologation cars, it can be predicted that this car will be a future investment for sure.
The conclusion of this story is that none of these cars were bought by my client, however we did agree on one and he recently picked it up. The winning car in this challenge for myself was a 1972 Ferrari 365 GTC/4, one of only 31 imported new into the UK and finished in a beautiful shade of silver. Upon viewing the advert for the car, it was listed at just shy of £200,000 but I believe he managed to haggle a bit of the price off the list price. Despite it not being one of the cars in this article, I am proud to have had a part in this purchase.
Ferrari – A History of Cease and Desists
There has been a news story dominate my car related Instagram feed this morning of news that Ferrari has sent a Cease and Desist letter to a small modification company about their design based upon a Ferrari car. This is not the first time that Ferrari have sent legal warnings to ‘clients’ for defacing the brand or creating a case of libel against the manufacturer. This article will cover some of the past cases of Cease and Desist as well as some of the arguments against the letters.
The first known case of the cease and desist letters that Ferrari sent to clients was aimed at American rapper DeadMau5 and his ‘Purrari’. The Ferrari in question was a 2014 458 Spider which he had customised with a sky blue wrap with a pixel art image of the internet character Nyan Cat, which was a video of a pixel art cat with the body of a pop tart and a rainbow trail coming from its tail. Although this wrap was distasteful and ruined the car, in my opinion, this is not what Ferrari were angry about, especially considering this wrap was used to take part in the Gumball 3000 rally, where all cars have to have stickers and wraps on them. The real issue came when pictures were shown of the floor mats and custom Ferrari logos on the car. This removed the traditional Ferrari logos and replaced them with an image of a jumping cat, rather than a prancing horse on the standard car. In the cease and desist letter, Ferrari stated that the changed logo defaced the company and designated legal action would be taken unless he removed the wrap and the custom logos. After a rant on his Twitter, DeadMau5 agreed and removed the wrap to reveal the all white 458. He later sold the car and bought a Lamborghini Huracan and Nissan GTR and did the same thing to those two. The second significant case came just last year involving German fashion designer Phillipp Plein and his green Ferrari 812 Superfast and a photo the designer put on his Instagram account. The image in question showed a pair of his trainers placed upon the rear quarter of his car. The picture seems to suggest that the shoes being placed just above the ‘ferrari’ logo on the car, that the Ferrari is being used for marketing purposes. This is the reason Ferrari sent the cease and desist letter as a quote from Ferrari: “tarnishes the reputation of Ferrari’s brands and causes Ferrari further material damage”. The latest case features 7X Design and their GTO Vision, a car I have seen and absolutely love. The basic principles are that it is a body kit based on the 488 GTB platform that culminates design elements from Ferrari’s past, as a sort of homage to the best models of Ferrari’s past. Featuring louvres that look similar to that of the F40, a glass engine cover similar to the F40/F50 and rims similar to the 288 GTO. However this is too much for Ferrari as they stated “coachbuilding its cars challenges their business and constitutes a trademark infringement” even if the design of the 7X Design is also trademarked. Since that, 7X Design have had to remove all images of the GTO on their social media as well as removing the actual body kit from the car. Since this, 7X Design has put out a statement attempting to revert the decision and save the GTO Vision from “being bullied out of existence by Ferrari”.
The thing is about these cease and desist letters is they do have a point to them. But there in the case of 7X, there are lots of problems with it. Ferrari are complaining that this body kit is offensive to the brand and the coach built car is worthy of a cease and desist, yet they’re not the first manufacturer to coach build a Ferrari. When looking at the list of Ferrari body kits, there are many of them, and some look better than others. To list a few of these body kit manufacturers there are: Novitec, Mansory, DMC, Liberty Walk, Hennessey, Ares Design, Misha Designs, Nimrod, Fabspeed and many many more, all featuring uniquely designed body kits and body modifications to many Ferrari models, yet only 7X Design are being targeted by this letter. This provides the first problem in that Ferrari cannot target one manufacturer of custom body kits without taking on all of them which Ferrari don’t have the full blown power to do. One counter argument that could be present in this is that some of these body kit manufacturers (certainly Novitec and Mansory), remove the Ferrari logos and use their own logos instead. But if they do that, the DeadMau5 argument is brought up in that the logos used on a Ferrari do not belong there as it tarnishes the reputation of Ferrari. It is evident then that there are some problems with these letters.
Some people may be asking, why do people make body kits to put on a Ferrari because surely if people want a good looking car, they buy a Ferrari and if they don’t like the way it looks, they can always sell it and buy a different supercar as there are plenty of other options. The main reason would be that they want to personalise it to their tastes and add their own personal touches to the car through body modification to make it truly theirs. People may also wonder why Ferrari can’t do this for them, which does beg the question as to why? The answer to this is simple. The only cars that Ferrari make custom for their clients are made because the client is either rich enough to buy their way into the brand, or they have bought every single previous model and is a friend of Ferrari themselves. Here are just a few examples of Ferrari’s Special Projects programme, created for one off designs for clients. The first one created was called the SP1 and was made for a client in Japan who wanted a Ferrari F430 but wanted it a little differently. So Ferrari brought in an independent coachbuilder who designed the car to the clients specification and was sold to the client for much higher than list price. Another significant one was the SP275 RW Competitzione which in essence was a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta with a few visual changes and a large price for the client. But this example is interesting as the name and the design itself is a homage to a previous car, being the 275 Competitzione, which is similar to what 7X Design are doing by creating a homage body kit. The most recent addition to the Special Projects gallery is called the Omologata and is based on the 812 Superfast, with a very similar body besides the sills on the rear window and a livery. But this car looks incredibly similar to the Touring Superleggera Aero 3 that was unveiled the same weekend. Based on a Ferrari F12, this car is a tribute to old 1930s Italian racing cars but Ferrari haven’t sent them a cease and desist for what they’re doing. So why have they sent one to 7X Design.
In conclusion, have Ferrari done wrong by sending out these letters? No they have not. They are protecting their integrity and their brand from being attacked or misused and they have their right to do that. Are they, however, taking it a little bit too far by threatening legal action upon a small body kit manufacturer? Yes I believe so because even back at the dawn of Ferrari, there were manufacturers taking their cars, making them a bit different and selling them as their own. These manufacturers include Pininfarina, Vignale, Touring, Zagato, Bertone and Frua, which to car enthusiasts such as myself, are known as some of the biggest names in the business for car design, each worth millions upon millions. So what if 7X are like those? What if Ferrari are stopping them from becoming the next Pininfarina or the next Bertone? The truth is, they may not become the new coachbuilder to go to, but Ferrari should not shut them down for trying.
The SSC Top Speed Record Debacle
Over the last week and a half, there has been one motoring story that has grabbed more headlines than any other event. This being the SSC Tuatara’s land speed record attempt for a production car. Whenever a road legal car sets a new fastest speed, the motoring world usually stands still in awe at the speeds modern cars can reach and then move onto whatever can break that record. However, more than ever, this record attempt has come under fire from some of the biggest names of the motoring journalism industry, and therefore I felt it’s only right to give my opinion on the scenario.
Beginning with some background information, SSC is an American car manufacturer famous mostly for their land speed record back in 2007 with their car, the Ultimate Aero. It was built by Jerod Shelby as a “drivers car” as he said that he wanted to make the car a real drivers car, hence why it had no traction control, no anti lock brakes and no electronic driver aids. It was the first American car to hold the crown of fastest production car as it reached a top speed of 254mph in a single run, meaning it was not an official record as official records require a run both ways to get an average speed. Nevertheless, this was a ridiculously quick car, only beaten by the Bugatti Veyron SuperSport in 2010 with a top speed of 268mph. At the time it was also the most powerful production car with 1,180bhp from the engine used by Corvette in their C5-R endurance car, meaning it was always on the radar with car enthusiasts. But after this, they seemingly disappeared to work on the successor known as the Tuatara. The concept for this car was released in 2011 at Pebble Beach but after the concept nothing was heard from SSC until late 2019 when they announced a production version of the Tuatara was to be made, after 8 years of design. The first customer car was shown at the Philadelphia Motor Show in early 2020 where it was rumoured they would carry out a top speed run to attempt to defeat the Koenigsegg Agera RS at 278mph. Since this claim, the Bugatti Chiron Supersport clocked an insane speed of over 300mph meaning the Tuatara had a tall mountain to climb. On October 10, 2020, the SSC allegedly recorded a top speed of 331mph and an average over two runs of 316mph. This is where the problems begin.
Since the record run was published, many sources have claimed that a video published by SSC does not mathematically equate the speed at which they claimed the car managed to do. Popular YouTube personality and automotive journalist Shmee150 (real name Tim Burton) brought out a video a few days ago critiquing the video and the run itself in that it cannot have reached the speed that was claimed. Using a comparison between the Koenigsegg Agera RS top speed run and the SSCs run (as they used the same stretch of road), Tim discovered that given the speed at which the cars were travelling, it was an impossibility for the SSC to be doing the speed it was. The video showed an angle where a junction is visible out of the window, and Tim measured the length of time it took each car to reach the next junction, a distance of 1.13 miles. The Koenigsegg and SSC were put together and he measured the time it took each car to cover that 1.13 miles and at what speed. The videos showed that the Koenigsegg covered the distance the quickest, yet the SSC was allegedly moving at a faster speed. This is quite obviously a mathematical impossibility which has raised questions into the legitimacy of the run.
BBC Top Gear recently got into contact with Jerod Shelby who is not the CEO of SSC, to ask questions regarding the run. So far they have confirmed that the footage used does not coincide with the telemetry footage which shows why the timings did not correlate as Tim pointed out. They also came under fire for blurring the dashboard meaning no one could read the speed on the speedometer. The speedometer of the Tuatara can also only reach 300mph meaning any speed recorded above that is just shown as 300, which has led to some enquiry also. At this stage SSC have accepted the speed as it was done and stand by that their car achieved the speed it did, but an investigation is currently taking place to find out whether the speed was legitimate and whether it can stand or not. At the moment, I do not take any stance on this but as the Ultimate Aero is one of my favourite cars from the late 2000s, I really wish they are able to do it.
14th September 2020 – Car News
This week has been a highlight of recent weeks for car releases, announcements and news and therefore has prompted a news post on here for the first time since the pandemic hit the world. This week includes news of a new Nissan Z model, the first in over 10 years, the new Maserati supercar targeting itself against the Ferrari Roma and McLaren GT, a potential electrification of the world’s fastest manufacturer and much more.
The first piece of news actually comes from the end of last week, however moving into university delayed the publication of a full first look at this brand new, significant model from Italy and therefore it shall be mentioned here. It was teased a few months ago that Maserati, for the first time in 15 years, would be building a supercar and that its release would be upcoming. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, this release was delayed to last week but before the coverage of the release, this is what we knew beforehand. It would have the ‘MC’ nameplate as the model designator rather than a trim level such as the GranTurismo MC and therefore it would be the first car since the Ferrari Enzo-based MC12 to wear that badge. It was rumoured before that it would be taking on the Lamborghini Aventador SVJ and the Ferrari 812, though now we know that to be incorrect, as it aims for a lower bracket of supercar. Many critics of Maserati also believed that this ‘new’ car would simply be a rebodied Ferrari 488 or Portofino when in fact it’s Maserati’s first car they’ve built independently since Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) sold their stake in Ferrari four years ago. When it came to the release last Friday, people gathered in the former autodrome in Modena where a gathering of previous Maserati models surrounded the stage and awaited the covers coming off. When the covers came off, it is fair to say many people were shocked as to what Maserati had built. A two-seater, mid-engined supercar with a 0-60 time under 3 seconds and a 200mph top speed. The styling makes it look more like a GT car than a supercar as styling cues can be spotted resembling the McLaren GT, Ferrari Roma and even slightly the C8 Corvette. It uses a carbon fibre body which makes it extremely light and uses butterfly doors to create a look of exoticism but it doesn’t look crazy which is a good thing. Maserati has always been known as a less flashy but cooler alternative to Ferrari, with more soul than a McLaren or Porsche and without the dramatics of a Lamborghini, and therefore this design is a success. The MC20 will be powered by a 3.0 V6 nicknamed Nettuno as a homage to the statue of Neptune in Maserati’s founding city of Bologna. It is an extremely powerful engine for a V6 producing 621bhp and with the 200hp per litre ratio, this puts the car into V8 supercar territory. Price wise, the car will be available in the UK during the second quarter of 2021 with a price starting from £187,230 with the MC20 aiming to restore Maserati’s reputation for creating supercars, with a cabrio, electric and motorsports version on the cards for the following months.
In Motorsport news, this weekend is the 24 Heures Du Mans which is one of the many highlights of the motorsport calendar as a true test of endurance and skill. However the WEC (World Endurance Championship) as a whole has been struggling to keep fans interested as the GT3/GTE category gets thinner every year and manufacturers rarely participate in works teams as Porsche, Audi, BMW and Ferrari have all pulled out, leaving Toyota as the only high profile works team in the series. In order to combat this, the WEC announced a hypercar class to begin from 2021 which to most people is a return of the GT1 category of the late 1990s and early 2000s which allowed manufacturers to make a racing version of their latest top road car and race with little regulation. Already Aston Martin, Toyota, Rebellion and SCG have applied to put their hypercars in this class and now Peugeot have released images of their first entrant to the Hypercar class. It is developing the car as a hybrid alongside Total who Peugeot worked with for 25 years of motorsport activities including 3 wins at Le Mans with cars such as the 905 Evo and the 908 most recently in 2009. They have revealed the car will be all wheel drive and will have to have a combined power output of 670bhp and under due to the racing regulations. This may only be a concept at the moment as the £20 million price cap on development could stop this masterpiece being fully developed, according to the rules there are to be 25 road going versions of the hypercars featuring the same engine as in the racer, which would mean next year, Peugeot will release a supercar based on this for the public to buy.
Sticking with Le Mans news, Alpine have announced their bid to race an LMP1 prototype car at next year’s 24 Heures Du Mans. Alpine in recent weeks have made massive steps in their motorsport endeavours having previously only run LMP2 cars in their rebooted history. A few weeks ago, after a shuffle around of Renault’s management, Alpine Cars was put under the control of F1 team boss Cyril Abiteboul and he later announced Renault F1 would be known as Alpine F1 as of the 2021 season. This change also means Alpine are now one of the only manufacturers to run a team in two of the top motorsport classes, Formula One and WEC. Currently Alpine races as Signatech Alpine in LMP2 where it has been moderately successful with three class wins, two European championships and two World Championships but as of next year will run as Alpine Endurance using a chassis based on the existing Rebellion R-13 with the Oreca chassis and Gibson engine. It is also rumoured that Fernando Alonso will be given a seat in this car as he will be racing for the Alpine F1 team in the 2021 season. Previous to now and besides the LMP2 cars, Alpine have only run customer races using the Alpine A110 Cup, the A110 GT4 and the fascinating A110 Rally series so it will be interesting to see how they progress considering they only have a single model for sale as a manufacturer.
The Volkswagen Group is planning a mass overhaul of their ownership which would involve Bugatti being sold to new manufacturer Rimac in a shock move. Rimac is a manufacturer most famous for creating the Concept One that Richard Hammond crashed during a segment of the Grand Tour which left him seriously injured and the car written off, but despite this are in the development stage of creating a new electric hypercar with over 1800bhp and a 0-60mph time rumoured to be two seconds flat. They were formed in 2009 and therefore they do not have the funds themselves to buy Bugatti from VW. However, VW own Porsche and Porsche has a 15.5% stake in Rimac and therefore it is rumoured that VW will ask Porsche to boost the stake to almost 50% in order for the deal to be carried out. It is also rumoured that with this switch, Bugatti would switch from combustion engines to electric powertrains given Rimac’s knowledge into battery powered cars. This would mean the demise of the legendary 8.0l quad turbo W16 that is used to power the 1479bhp Bugatti Chiron as well as their more limited models such as the Divo, Centodieci, Pur Sport and the Chiron 300mph+. Bugatti sold 82 cars in 2019 which may not seem like much but when each model is priced at over £2million, it was a successful financial year, especially with the release of the 10 strong limited series, the Centodieci which has a price of £8million new, and the La Voiture Noire which was a one off costing £13million new. It is also rumoured Bentley, Lamborghini, Ducati and ItalDesign could be targeted next with the Volkswagen group wanting to move into electrification.
The next car in the legendary Nissan Z model range has been teased this week via a very bright concept car known as the Z Proto. This has been designed as both a look into the future of the Z car brand and a homage to past masters. The bright yellow paint is actually a tribute to the original model, the 240Z, from 1969 as well as the later 300ZX of the 1990s. There are more retro elements in that the side profile looks very similar to the 240Z and the modern 350Z at the same time, as well as the front lights resembling the Japan only 240ZG. However, the rectangular grill, LED lights and carbon fibre side skirts do show that this car isn’t just a retro show, as well as the new 19″ wheels. In terms of performance, the only figures that are known about it so far are that it will be powered by a twin-turbo V6 and will feature a manual gearbox, a rare thing for sports cars nowadays. This may sound like a brilliant car to drive along the NC500 or on a cruise through the Alps, but there is the slight issue that Nissan won’t sell you one. This is because Nissan have stated that due to a ‘shrinking European sports car market and specific regulations on emissions’ as therefore it is ‘unable to build a viable business case’. This more or less means the car will not be sold in Europe or the UK which is a massive shame because it looks to be a solid car.
This year commemorates the 25th anniversary of McLaren’s legendary Le Mans win in 1995 in their first attempt with a fleet of McLaren F1 GTRs. They ended up finishing 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th in their first attempt at Le Mans only being split in the top 5 by a Courage C34, in what was one of the most dominant Le Mans performances of all time. To celebrate this, McLaren has commissioned five Senna GTRs each wearing a retro livery reminiscent of the five liveries the cars wore in the 1995 Le Mans. McLaren Special Operations (MSO) have revealed each car took 800 hours to handpaint after they received rights to use logos such as Gulf and Harrods to recreate them on the new model. They also have five spoke OZ racing wheels which were worn by the original cars as well as gold accents on the interior to celebrate the gold plating of the original F1s engine bay. The liveries that have been recreated include the race-winning cars UenoClinic charcoal grey colour scheme and also includes special headlights to resemble the F1 GTRs spotlights. The yellow and green GTR resembles the famous ‘Harrods Car’ and the Gulf, Elf and Cesar Baldaccini liveries are also made to a tee. This subseries has been labelled as the Senna GTR LM, reminiscent of the F1 LM which was a road legal version of the original GTR, and are rumoured to have cost around £1.8million each as the standard Senna GTR is just over £1million.
Concours D’Elegance Hampton – New Cars
Today marks the beginning of one of the first major car events in the UK since the lifting of lockdown restrictions being the Hampton Court Palace Concours event. Featuring a selection of the world’s latest and greatest cars, this event features 60 cars spread around the beautiful Hampton Court Palace as well as trade stands featuring the latest cars from the most prestige car manufacturers. Although, at the time of writing this, it is only the first day of the event yet there are a few cars that have been unveiled which have changed the face of the performance and rare car industry.
2020 saw the introduction of the new Land Rover Defender which was a bold move by Land Rover as the old face Defender was one of the most iconic and superb cars ever made and therefore a restyle was always going to be a controversial move and was always going to be met with criticism. However, when the Discovery inspired styling launched with the same, if not better, off-road performance than the previous generation, it was greeted with praise and massive success. It is estimated that over a million people configured a Defender on Land Rover’s website in the first week, and although the base list price is just over £40,000, it seems to be a commercial success for JLR. However, what do you do if you prefer the old shape Defender and still want a new car? Well Ineos have come to your rescue. With their new car, the Ineos Grenadier it looks exactly like a 1990 Land Rover Defender. In fact, Ineos have taken the basic shape of the old Defender but made a brand new car with state of the art powertrain and components. The design also takes certain cues from other classic off-road cars such as the Mercedes G Class, Toyota FJ40 Land Cruiser, Ford Bronco and the Nissan Patrol. Interestingly this car does not follow the convention of other retromod car manufacturers. Taking Singer 911s and Eagle E-Types as an example, to commission one of those has to require some deep pockets with the cheapest variant of either car being a Singer 911 as prices start at £475,000. Whereas with the Ineos, the list price for commission is £40,000 which is near identical to the current Defender generation. The example shown at Concours seems to be based on the Defender 110 with the long wheelbase 5 door layout and being parked alongside an original Defender 110, the Ineos seems to be wider and taller than the original and the rear of the car is similar to the rear of a Mercedes G55 AMG with the square rear window, showing the influence of other 4x4s. CEO Sir Jim Ratcliffe came up with the idea of the Ineos Grenadier after he failed to acquire to designs and tools from Jaguar Land Rover in order to continue the production of the Defender and he plans to begin production in a few years to target 25,000 units per year.
The next debut comes from Alpine who have excelled since their rebirth with their fantastic A110 sports car, with a new edition of the A110. This release comes on the same day as Renault’s restructure that has left Alpine in the hands of F1 team owner Cyril Abiteboul. The Alpine A110 was first introduced in 2017 in homage to the original Alpine A110 from the 1960s and 70s. Although the car only uses a 1.8 litre turbocharged engine, it has been praised as being one of the most fascinating engines and one of the best engines of the last few years. Automotive journalist and Grand Tour star James May owns an Alpine and stated he enjoys the fact it is so small and due to this it has supercar power with sports car looks. It came as the runner up to the Jaguar I Pace at the 2019 European Car of the Year awards too which for a sports car, is a hard to come by achievement. The latest version of the Alpine is called the Legende GT and with only 400 units to be made and a list price over £10,000 more than the base A110, is it worth the extra spend? Well, it has 249bhp which is the same as the base car, accelerates to 60mph in 4.5 seconds which is the same as the base car and a top speed of 156mph which somehow is an increase of 1mph over the standard A110. So far there doesn’t seem to be much worth it for the Legende GT but it could be a limited edition similar to Aston Martin’s Carbon Black editions in that only visual elements are different. This may be the case with the Legende GT as it features gold badging, 18in wheels and amber coloured interior to resemble the interiors of the vintage Alpine A110 rally car. It can be specced in three different colours being Deep Black and Blue Abyss which can be specced on the standard car and a new colour being the spec it launched in at Concours being Mercury Silver. Although it has little variation from the base car, the fact that this will be rarer than a Lamborghini Aventador SV could make it a future classic.
Aston Martin have a history of creating bespoke one offs such as the crazy Cygnet microcar with the 4.7l V8 from the Aston Martin V8 Vantage and the Aston Martin GT12 Roadster and now they have announced a new one created for an unnamed Belgian customer. The Q Division of Aston Martin, named after the character Q from James Bond, is responsible for all these one off models and the latest one is certainly one of the best looking cars of the year so far. It’s called the Victor, named after Victor Gauntlett who was responsible for the rebirth of Aston Martins cars in the 1980s. It has also been unveiled to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Vantage nameplate and due to that a lot of the styling cues are taken from Aston Martin Vantage models. The body is finished in carbon fibre and has most of its styling taken from the one off Aston Martin RHAM/1 which was a touring car based on the 1977 V8 Vantage. Due to this the Victor seems very wide and also very very low to the ground to make it as aerodynamic as possible along with the duck tail spoiler. The grill is also from the previous generation Vantage. But the main talking point of this car is what the platform is. It comes from an Aston Martin One-77 prototype body which can be seen in the sleek roofline and the classic Aston Martin silver side intake but the engine is truly masterful. The 7.3 litre V12 from the One-77 was stripped out of the car and taken to Cosworth to be completely rebuilt. This raises the 750bhp power output to a scary 836bhp and this was then attached to a six speed manual gearbox, but some would say the handling platform is even better. The Victor is in fact a One-77 on a Vulcan handling platform, the Vulcan being the 24 only track only Aston Martin, and incorporates elements from the Vantage GT3 race car and the new Valhalla. Before today it was not known about so much that Aston Martin say the Pentland Green paint finished drying mere hours before its public debut. This is certainly a car that will either be highlighted as a masterpiece of automotive design or it will be hidden away in some underground car collection to never see the light of day again, and everyone not at Hampton Court is hoping for the former most likely.
The extraordinary story of McLaren
McLaren Automotive have become a household name in recent times for their sports/supercar range that seems to get larger and larger by the year. What is truly remarkable is that this growth has come over the span of around 9 years, from a range having a single model to the multi-stranded model range they have today. People often wonder how on earth they managed this almost instant success taking on the likes of Ferrari and Lamborghini, but their car development began much earlier than people might think.
In 1992, Gordon Murray came up with the concept of a McLaren road car that would blow the top speed record out of the water, and after Ron Dennis backed the project, the McLaren F1 was born. Built around the 6.5l BMW V12, the famous XP5 prototype with no rev limiter did exactly what they wanted it to do as it hit a top speed of 240.1mph, destroying the previous record held by the Jaguar XJ220 at 217mph. Due to the notable success of the F1 and the rarity of it (106 cars total), it has widely been regarded as one of the greatest cars of all time with owners such as George Harrison, Elon Musk, Rowan Atkinson and the Sultan of Brunei who acquired 10 of the 106 F1s. In order to buy a good road F1 now will cost upwards of £10million as its legacy has shot up the value from the original price of £540,000. The F1 legacy was not just made up of road cars as the GTR programme was an incredible motorsport success. By request of many motorsport teams, McLaren made 28 F1 GTRs to race in a multitude of racing series including the 24h of Le Mans which it won in 1995 with cars amazingly finishing 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 13th among a class of purpose built racing cars. Many F1 GTRs have now been converted to road use including the LARK GTR. Due to the success at Le Mans, McLaren created five special editions of the F1 known as the LM which included the UenoClinic winning car, and it was used as a road legal version of the GTR. This was followed by the F1 HDK which was a high downforce kit that owners could put on their F1 to replicate the visual elements of the F1 GTR, only two cars are known to have the HDK kit and one of which sold at auction for £19.85m. The final incarnation of the F1 was the F1 GT which was built as a homologation special for the GT1 category, which was a longtail version of the regular F1. The F1 GTR Longtail is suggested to be the greatest looking car of all time to race, especially in liveries such as Parabolica, Lark and FINA. Due to GT1 rules at the time, a certain number of road legal versions of race cars have to be produced in order for the car to be allowed to race in the series which is where we get such cars as the Mercedes CLK GTR, the Porsche 911 GT1 and the Nissan R390. McLaren built only three F1 GTs, one of which resides at McLaren in Woking, another in the Sultan of Brunei’s collection of 10 and the other in a hidden collection in Japan. The F1 really was the genesis of McLaren cars but another car didn’t emerge from McLaren for another 11 years.
In 2011, McLaren decided to finally mass produce a new supercar to succeed the F1. They produced the MP4-12C which later just became known as the 12C, which focused on McLaren’s obsession with weight saving, much like Colin Chapman’s approach at Lotus. The design was carried out entirely in house which led to the car having a beautiful styled body made of some of the lightest materials such as magnesium beams in the car and the chassis being made of carbon fibre making the whole underpinning of the car weigh only 80kg. Powered by a 3.8l twin turbo V8, the 12C took the supercar game by storm taking on the Ferrari 458 and the Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera, accelerating to 60mph in 2.9 seconds which is 0.4 seconds faster than the 458 and 0.5 seconds faster than the Lamborghini. The top speed was on top as well, with a speed of 205mph compared to 202mph for both the 458 and the Gallardo. McLaren originally aimed to build around 700 coupes and later created an extra 600 convertible variants. The list price of it was around £170k which was a similar price to the rivals but provided a massive dent to the supercar market.
In 2013, McLaren had a small cult following and made its mark on the hypercar market, much like the F1 twenty years prior. Around this time, Ferrari and Porsche were launching their hybrid hypercars and McLaren decided they wanted to create a car to outshine the two greatest sports car manufacturers of all time. It was called the P1 and was the first of the three to make production and set a new standard for performance and handling. It used the same 3.8l twin turbo V8 as the 12C however somehow they managed to get 727bhp from it, as well as adding a 176bhp electric motor to bring the total to a staggering 903bhp. The 0-60 time was around 2.7 seconds and the top speed was electronically limited to 217mph though McLaren claimed it could reach 250mph if the restrictor was removed. It really made an impact on the hypercar world that the later released Ferrari LaFerrari and Porsche 918 had a fierce challenger, and this car was the car that put McLaren back on the market. Since the original launch, there have been some iterations of the 375 original P1s such as the GTR which was a track only version of the P1 with only 40 examples. There has also been the LM created by Lanzante, who road legalise F1 GTRs and P1 GTRs, which is based on 5 P1 GTR chassis but with the exception of standard road legality. In 2018 there was a single P1 GT created which was a longtail version of the standard P1 also created by Lanzante. There is no doubt however that the P1 was the cornerstone of the rebirth of McLaren.
At this stage in development, McLaren had two series for their cars being the super series and the ultimate series which separated the 12C and the P1 from each other. Since the creation of these two series, McLaren finally replaced the P1 and in 2014 gave the motoring world the 650S. Combining design elements of both the P1 and the 12C, this allowed for a better handling car as well as a faster car with the top speed rising to 207mph. This was later followed by a Spider version which was seen to be a bit fatter and heavier which affected the handling capabilities but was still a great success for McLaren. The 650S was also the car that gave McLaren possibly their best handling road car of all time, the 675LT. This was essentially a track focused version of the 650 but a road legal one meaning it was McLarens most driver oriented car around. The LT also refers to the F1 GTR LT as mentioned prior to show its prowess on the track. Limited to 500 coupes and 500 spiders and with a £60k price increase over the 650S it could have been considered overpriced. However winning multiple car of the year awards and staggering performance figures have reinforced the idea that this is was the best McLaren ever made at the time. The 650S also provided other limited series cars with the introduction of the 650S Can-Am created to celebrate 50 years since McLaren’s first Can-Am race, limited to 50 units, the 650S Le Mans which was finished in the same grey as the 1995 Le Mans winning F1 GTR also limited to 50 units and the MSO HS which was a completely bespoke product created for 25 lucky individuals that featured many unique visual elements such as a fixed rear wing and fixed splitters.
McLaren had officially taken off at this stage, but as their cheapest car was the 650S at £195,000, McLaren felt they were missing out on a market being dominated by Porsche GT3s and Ferrari Californias and therefore in 2015 the sports series was created with the launch of the 570S. A smaller sports car, the 570S was slightly slower than the super series cars but at ‘only’ £143,000, the 570S was seen to be a perfect budget supercar. It features the nose of the P1 but an entirely new rear end design which creates a streamlined body for the car. It was greeted with more raving reviews which finally cemented McLaren as one of the best supercar manufacturers of the 2010s and indeed in the world. The 570S was later followed by the 570GT which featured a softer suspension, more storage space and an overall more practical feel to it as well as what was labelled as the ‘baby McLaren’ being the 540C. This used all of the technical features of the 570S but dropped the price down to £125,000 meaning it was the cheapest new McLaren ever launched and it rivalled the Aston Martin Vantage and Porsche 911 Turbo rather than the more high end supercars that the 570S rivalled. The 570S was later given the spider treatment as well as the limited series treatment with the MSO X. Created by taking 10 regular 570Ss and customising them to a similar spec as the 570S GT4 racing car, it remains to be one of the rarest bespoke McLarens ever made. Much like the 650S, the 570S has a longtail version of it known as the 600LT. This follows from its spiritual predecessor, the 675LT, brilliantly as once again it smashed all rivals out of the park. It also featured a first on modern cars being the top mounted exhausts which exited the car via two pipes above the engine which allowed for 50-50 weight distribution and for the car to be even more aerodynamic than the 675LT. Unlike the 675LT however this car is not limited in terms of production numbers so the coupe and the spider are still being produced now.
This is where the McLaren story begins to deplete as the test mules for the next two cars had similar issues that the exhaust residue would build up and eventually the car would catch fire. This created a negative outlook and suddenly it was a stereotype that all McLarens would catch fire if they were bought. All this negative press led to a slight decrease in sales but when the next models came around, that problem soon disappeared. The latest McLaren replaced the 650S after 3 years of production and was known as the 720S. The 720S was held up to be one of the most pivotal cars in McLaren’s very short history as the car was labelled to be 90% new compared to the outgoing 650S but they obviously didn’t change the way it performed on track. Clocking at 7m 08secs around the Nürburgring Nordschliefe, it was thrown into the deep end to have a very similar time to the AMG GTR Pro and the 488 Pista that it would rival. The design provided a new front end and a fairly new rear end that premiered the ‘Monocage II’ carbon tub chassis that would be used on later McLaren models, but the one element about the 720S that makes it what it is, is the way it feels. When at slow speeds it was comfortable and didn’t feel like a 720hp, 212mph track monster. But when it was opened up on a track, it handled like a GT3 car due to the incredible power to weight ratio that allows for a 0-60mph sprint of 2.9 seconds and it feels incredibly smooth through the corners. It is one of McLaren’s best cars yet, and with the Spider released around a year ago, McLaren managed to smash it out of the park yet again. Recently a longtail version of the 720S was announced to be called the 765LT which, when it releases, potentially could be even better than the 600/675LT.
Senna is a name, that when mentioned alongside McLaren, provides many people with memories of the greatest God-given talent ever to grace Formula One. Ayrton Senna was a true legend of the sport, winning three world championships with McLaren and always being the highlight of the field. From the Lap of the Gods that took him from 5th on the grid to 1st in the opening lap, a feat still unheard of, let alone in the wide and hard-to-drive 1990s Formula One cars. Senna was on his way to a fourth world championship in 1994 when the championship came to Imola, one of the hardest and fastest tracks in the world. After Roland Ratzenberger was tragically killed in a qualifying accident, Senna protested that the race should be cancelled but the race went ahead as planned. On lap 7, Senna’s Williams left the racing line on the Tamburello corner at 191mph and hit the concrete barrier wall. After Sid Watkins (FIA medical chief) extracted Senna from his car and took him to hospital, Senna tragically died in what Murray Walker described as the ‘darkest day’ he could remember. McLaren Automotive as a tribute to the great man, named their latest track beating ultimate series car the Senna. With controversial aesthetics, the Senna was faster than the McLaren P1 and even the GTR variant with epic downforce, 800bhp and a top speed of 211mph. This plus a 1200kg curb weight, makes the Senna one of the fastest cars of the 2010s. It will sprint to 60 in only 2.6 seconds making it the fastest accelerating McLaren of all time, only excluding racing cars. The price was fairly hefty at £750k but for all that performance and only 500 units to be made, the price may have been justified. McLaren later released the track only Senna GTR with 814bhp, 1000kg of downforce and only 75 made at a price of £1.3m each. McLaren stated that it was the fastest lapping McLaren of all time only being surpassed by Formula One cars.
Having made a massive mark on the supercar scene, McLaren decided to expand their range in order to appeal to a wider target market without having to build an SUV like Maserati and Lamborghini. The GT was launched to be what it said in the name, a grand tourer, and was built to rival the Bentley Continental GT, Mercedes AMG GT63S and the Ferrari GTC4 Lusso. Based on a 720S platform, the GT has rounded aesthetics and a four seat (only just) interior. But just because this is meant to be a practical car, doesn’t mean any of the performance has been lost. With 620hp it is not as powerful as the 720S but it was not meant to beat lap records, it was meant for late night coastal driving along the French Riviera. With a fairly reasonable £163k price tag compared to the £230k price of the Ferrari and the £170k price of the Bentley, it is certainly another class. This was the first of the new class of car that McLaren will be producing for the next 5 years or so.
The latest edition of the McLaren Ultimate Series will be a homage to the McLaren F1 and will be absolutely breath-taking. The car will be named the Speedtail and will be one of the most aerodynamically efficient cars ever built as it was built entirely for aerodynamics and speed, to achieve similar speeds to the F1. When taken to an airfield for testing, the Speedtail consistently hit 250mph ‘easily’ which shows the immense power and drive this car has. It will feature a hybrid powertrain with upwards of 1050bhp making it the most powerful McLaren of all time as well as the fastest. The car shows its true resemblance to the F1 as it features the same interior layout as the original with a central driving position and two passenger seats either side of the driver. It also will have 106 units made, the total of F1s made (including GTRs, GTs, LMs and LTs). All the cars have already been sold at £2m each but for all this heritage it will be worth it. I have only seen the prototype but it had so much of a presence that I know it will be a success.
The final car McLaren have on their horizons is the Elva. The Elva is McLaren’s entry into the Speedster market which has become a trend in the last year or so, to release a car with no roof to homage previous models. Aston Martin began with their Vanquish Zagato Speedster which was one of 28. Now Ferrari have their Monza SP1 and SP2, Bentley have their Bacalar, the Porsche 911 Speedster, Aston Martin’s V12 Speedster and the McLaren Elva. Built to tribute the Can-Am cars of the 1970s such as the McLaren M1A, M1B and M1C, the Elva has the front nose of the new Speedtail and features the same performance figures as the Senna, but with no roof or windscreen. Not many details have been released about the Elva as of yet but there will be 399 units and there has already been one shown to be in the orange livery of the 1967 McLaren M6A built by MSO.
The rise of McLaren has therefore been fairly instantaneous and the progress can only get faster and faster. They are beginning to regain their prowess in Formula One after many years of sorry performances, they have entered IndyCar with Fernando Alonso being one of their drivers, their GT3 programme is winning the most in its history with the 720S GT3 and their road cars are more incredible than ever. I can safely predict that McLaren will be a force to be reckoned with in the future much like they are now.
What is the best classic car in the world?
This is one of the most common questions to bounce around the car community as it changes based on trends and fashions. The title of the best classic car in the world is often put down to the best classic car of all time, a title which is often given to cars such as the Porsche 911, Jaguar E-Type and the Ferrari 250 GTO. However, this title is given by Peninsula Classics who are behind all eight Concours D’Elegance that take place worldwide each year, and the best classic car is given to the best of all of the ‘Best in Show’ cars. This article will cover the 8 nominees before announcing what is officially, the best classic car in the world.
The first nominee was the 1948 Talbot Lago T26 GS Fastback Coupe which won the Salon Prive Concours event held at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire. First displayed in 1947, this car is one of 12 made in the first production year of Talbot Lago and was one of the fastest cars at the time at 124mph. However, the Grand Sport (GS) was different to other Talbot cars as each model was built to the specification of the customer and therefore each of the bodies were built by a specialist coachbuilder. The coachbuilder for this chassis was Figoni et Falaschi, the same coachbuilder who would later commission the incredibly beautiful T150 ‘Teardrop’ Coupe, giving the car an elegant blue body. This car underwent a full restoration prior to the Concours event and beat a Rolls Royce Silver Ghost and an Alfa Romeo 6C Gran Sport to the prestigious ‘Best in Show’ award.
Next up is the winner of the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance which was the 1938 Mercedes-Benz 540K Autobahn-Kurier. This is rumoured to be one of only two produced on the very limited 540K production run. It was commissioned to be used on the newly opened Autobahn motor network. The car was bought by its original owners when they saw the car’s twin at the Paris Motor Show and toured from Spain to North Africa, travelling between Libya and Egypt before shipping to Greece and touring through Austria and Switzerland. It remained in the ownership of this family up until 2003 when it was bought by current owner Jim McManemon, who sent it for a full restoration. It has previously won Concours events but this is the first time it was awarded the ‘Best in Show’ award.
In Palm Beach, Florida there is a car show seemingly made for fans of the prancing horse of Ferrari. Some of the rarest and most prestigious Ferraris of all time from 250 SWBs to F40s and the final three 335s to exist. The show also featured the most expensive car to sell at auction in the form of the Ferrari 250 GTO and the only bronze coloured Ferrari 250 GT California Spider ever made. However, the car that won the ‘Best in Show’ award was the 1958 Ferrari (surprise) 335S Spyder. Being one of only three surviving models, this car is exceptionally rare and as pretty as it is rare. First raced in 1959 but sent back to Italy after a blown engine but it was too costly to fix, so was returned to its home in the US and stored in a warehouse for a year before being bought for only $900. After it was bought it was restored with an original engine, and driven at the Le Mans 50th Anniversary celebrations. It went to auction in 1990 but didn’t sell and was later sold for just over £5million. In a rare public appearance, it won the best in show award alongside the other two remaining 335Ss.
The next event was the Cartier Style et Luxe which was held at the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed and therefore was an event I attended. The field was scattered with the most pristine classics that included a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic, an Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, Bentley R Types and even an Aston Martin Lagonda. However, to my surprise, none of these won the ‘Best in Show’ and the actual title went to the subtle and fairly cute Abarth 205 Monza. I saw this car and did the typical thing to take a photo, have a little look around and then leave. However, I should have had a read of the plaque besides it as it turns out this little Italian coupe is one of only three produced and has very little information known about it, but the rarity and style speaks for itself. It is a shame because this car was not looked at as much as maybe it should have been and I for one, regret not spending more time looking at it.
I admit the final cars that won best in show, I know even less about than the previous cars. The only option is to simply list the cars and what shows they won their best in show award before getting to the answer of what is the best classic car in the world. At the 2019 Chantilly Arts & Elegance Richard Mille, the overall best in show went to the 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Foursome Coupe, the Hampton Court Palace best in show went to the 1919 Rolls Royce Silver Ghost Torpedo Skiff, the Pebble Beach Concours D’Elegance winner was the 1931 Bentley 8 Litre Dual Cowl Tourer and finally at The Quail, a Motorsports Gathering, the winner of best in show went to the 1931 Stutz DV32 Convertible Victoria.
So what is the best classic car in the world? Well the judges at Peninsula Classics decided that the best classic car to win a best in show award this year was the 1958 Ferrari 335S due to its rarity, exceptional quality and exorbitant price tag. It’ll be interesting to see what the Concours events of this year gives us to rival what is officially the best classic in the world.
6th-13th September 2019 – Car News
Last week it was Bugatti beating the record for the world’s fastest production car at 304.77mph and this week VW in their electric ID R have broken yet another record. After Pikes Peak, Goodwood Hillclimb and the Nurbrugring Nordschliefe, VW have taken a red ID R up the Tianman Shan Big Gate Road in China in a new record time of 7 mins 38.5 seconds. With 99 corners and a total distance of 6.776 miles and Romain Dumas again piloting the 670bhp electric beast, the current record set in a Range Rover Sport P400e of 9 mins 51 secs had no chance at all. VW have not indicated what their next test will be, I think getting around the M25 as quickly as possible. Whilst on the topic of electric cars, the Porsche Taycan is currently the fastest production electric car around the Nurburgring with a time of 7 mins 24 secs, but Elon Musk has challenged them to a duel. Next week, a Tesla Model S P100D will attempt a timed lap of the Nurburgring to knock Porsche off of their metatphorical ‘high horse’. The Taycan has been revealed in the last few days to have 700bhp so good luck to Tesla beating that.
The Frankfurt Motor Show is this week and this means there are a lot of new models shown for the first time. The Lamborghini Sian which I talked about last week has received a new name in the Sian FKP 37 which tributes the late Ferdinand K Piech, born in 1937. This name will be on the nameplate of the car, however it will be known as a Sian. BMW have shown to the public for the first time the new BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe which, like every 8 Series, looks absolutely stunning. It will go on sale in the UK this September with the choice of either a straight six or a V8. Sticking with BMW, to an extent, we have the new Alpina B3 Biturbo Touring which is Alpina’s vision of what would happen if BMW made an M3 estate, fitted with the 6 cylinder engine and adding a twin turbocharged set up to produce 463bhp and Alpina say it will be good for 186mph which would make it one of the fastest estate cars on the market. Alpina will begin taking orders in early 2020. BMW have confirmed that they will be working on making a successor to the now 41-year old BMW M1 as signature designs of the M1 were found in the new M Next Vision concept. The M1 signature double rear shield feature is shown to be in the design as well as the rear engine cover which is similar to the original car. However due to the radical and beautiful design of the concept, BMW will likely never put it into production as they tend not to make the beautiful concepts, more rather they would hide them in their museum. Mercedes, in another collaboration with luxury manufacturer Maybach, have come to the show with a luxury edition of their GLS SUV. At a price of £150,000, it will be produced to rival the Bentley Bentayga, Range Rover Vogue SV Autobiography and the Rolls Royce Cullinan. And at half the price of the Cullinan and all of the luxury, I know my choice. The Frankfurt Motor Show in conclusion provided a lot of interesting, important and unique cars for the future of motoring, some of which I hope to see in the near future.
Porsche have had a habit of taking it’s hardest charging models and giving them the prestigious ‘RS’ badge. RS, standing for RennSport, has been a pinnacle of Porsche since the 2.7 Carrera RS of 1973 first wore the RS badge for road cars. Since then there have been many cars to wear the RS badge, and all of them were 911s. There’s been the 993, 996, 997 and 991 generation of GT3 that have worn the badge as well as the 993, 996, 997 and 991 generation of GT2. These have been the only cars that have worn the RS badge, until now. Spotted at the Nürburgring last week was a modified version of the new 718 Cayman GT4 featuring the bonnet air intakes of the 991 GT2 RS, a lowered stance and a strange looking rear wing. Porsche have not yet ruled out an RS version of this generation GT4 and as the Clubsport has already been released so this could be the RS we’ve been waiting for. If it is, it has been predicted to have 500hp there or thereabouts and with the 4.0 flat 6 from the Porsche 911 GT3, it could be one of the fastest track day cars around.
30th August – 5th September 2019 – Car News
The main key news this week is due to the sad passing of Anthoine Hubert, a French Formula 2 driver who was killed at the weekend at Spa-Francorchamps. In the feature Formula 2 race after Formula One qualifying on Saturday, all the drivers came to climb the dangerous Eau Rouge/Raidillon corner. The corner itself has been a feature of Spa since its opening in 1926 and is described as one of the most dangerous corners in motorsport. After La Source, the hairpin first corner of the circuit, the drivers accelerate down the shallow incline to be met with an incredibly steep left turn which curves right up the hill only to be met with a second left hander to lead to the Kemmel straight. The speed at which cars can go up Eau Rouge varies as touring cars can go up this corner at maximum 110mph, whereas F1 cars can go up at 185mph due to the increased downforce and grip of the cars. Back to the tragic events of this weekend, the formula two cars were racing up the hill when Hubert pushed too hard causing his car to spin. As it spun, it hit the right side barriers and rolled back out onto the track, where he was hit a second time at 100mph. His car, or what was left of it, dragged upside down along the track only being saved by the carbon fibre halo. After the race was red flagged, Hubert and the other car involved, Correa, were safely taken out of their cars and taken to hospital. Hubert died due to his injuries and Correa is still in intensive care. The news was incredibly hard hitting for the F1 drivers who stopped interviews and sprinted up to the crash location. Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc were most affected due to growing up racing each other. Leclerc went on to win the Formula One race the next day, dedicating the win to his friend. It has been thought that he’d have died on impact if the halo safety precaution wasn’t in place but it stands as a reminder of the dangers these drivers face every single day. Legendary endurance racer Stefan Bellof also was killed at Spa in 1985 after his Porsche 956 came into contact with Jacky Ickx’s 956C at Eau Rouge and speared into a wall. The safety at Spa has always been a concern but given all the similar concerns at other racing circuits, these incidents are always declared as racing incidents.
Bugatti have always been known for creating some fairly fast cars and some legendary models. Ettore Bugatti created originally the Type 35C to be one of the worlds fastest racing cars with a top speed of 135mph in 1926, which was ridiculous. However due to many financial issues and the sad death of Ettore Bugatti in 1947, Bugatti was no more. Until the 1990s when Bugatti was revived by the late Ferdinand Piech and released the EB110 which became the world’s fastest car in 1991 with a top speed of 218mph, soon to be eclipsed by the McLaren F1’s 240mph in 1994. That record was only broken by the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 in 2005 with a top speed of 253mph. After multiple editions came and went, Bugatti cemented their top speed at 268mph with their SuperSport model. Since then, Koenigsegg set a top speed record in the Agera RS at 278mph which is the current record. However, footage has been released by Bugatti recently which shows a Bugatti Chiron with added aero parts reaching the magical 300mph. This has been the first road legal car to reach this number, in what has been dubbed the Chiron Supersport 300 prototype. 300 miles per hour is a motoring myth that for decades people thought was impossible for a road car. SSC (Shelby Super Cars) had a go in the US in their Ultimate Aero TT but only managed 256mph, Hennessey tried in the Venom GT managed 270mph and the rare 9FF GT9 Vmax with 1400hp managed 272mph. 300mph has always been the target, only achieved once before in a very highly modified Mk2 Ford GT. The Chiron smashed it, maxing out at 304.77mph under the control of Andy Wallace, who set the record with the McLaren F1 and the Jaguar XJ220. Koenigsegg have all eyes on them now as the new Jesko has an estimated top speed of ‘above 300mph’ and the up and coming Hennessey Venom F5 and SSC Tuatara from the USA, the top speed game is going up a level.
In the next week is the Frankfurt Motor Show 2019 which tends to be one of the smaller of the international motor shows in comparison to, say, Geneva, New York and London. However, given the preview of this year’s show, it should be classed as one of the big shows. The main event is the debut of the Lamborghini Sian, a new limited series Lamborghini with a revolutionary new feature that could change the way Lamborghini make cars in the future. This new model features the engine from the SVJ but with an upgraded supercapacitor meaning it is slightly hybridised. Although only 63 examples will be made, it is a glimpse into the future of Lamborghini and the future of their V12 engines. Audi will be debuting their new RS6 which will facelift the previous model and feature the very popular 4.0 Twin-Turbo V8 which has just under 600bhp and will rival the new Mercedes AMG E63S and BMW M5. They are also rumoured to be announcing their new RS7 Sportback which will definitely have over 600bhp and will be the new hero car for the Audi RS range. BMW will show their Vision M Next concept which shows a modern interpretation of the 1978 BMW M1 which will most likely not make production like many other BMW concepts but for this one I have hope. A surprise attraction will be Hyundai with the new i30N Project C which has been under cover of camo at the Nürburgring featuring race spec alloy wheels and a suspension drop. Limited to 600 units with none expected to come to the UK unfortunately we will miss out on this exciting project. As mentioned last week, the Land Rover Defender will make an appearance for the first time without a camo wrap which will be a crucial release. Porsche released today the new Taycan. I have seen the Taycan prototype at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed driven by Mark Webber. This model was under camo though so didn’t see the proper body shape. However, Porsche have now revealed two trims being the Turbo and Turbo S. The name confuses me as it is a fully electric Porsche, so how can it be turbocharged? Besides this, the car looks absolutely stunning with many cues being taken from the Panamera, 718 Cayman GTS and the Sport Turismo and should be a perfect addition to the Porsche family. The Mercedes AMG GLB has been announced as a rival to the Audi RSQ3 and will pack a punch of 416bhp from a 2.0 turbocharged 4-cylinder engine featured in the A35 AMG. As a small rumour, Ferrari have apparently shown an exclusive look at two new models which will be joining the current range. The Ferrari 812 Spider has been more or less confirmed at this stage with some leaked images and scale models showing the beautiful styling that Ferrari are famous for. The second car goes under the alias of ‘V8 Spider’. There are a few options as to what it could be, possibly an update to the Pista Aperta, possibly an F8 Tributo Spider but that would be strange seeing as though there are no customer owned F8s in the world yet. Another option is the SF90 Stradale Aperta which has the same issue as the F8. This ‘V8 Spider’ may go completely unknown until its launch.
22nd-29th August 2019 – Car News
Starting over the last seven days, I have been compiling a number of different car-related news stories which are major or just interesting in order to increase the journalistic style of my writing.
One of the biggest stories that is circulating the internet a lot recently is the apparent leak of the new Land Rover Defender, a car that has been anticipated for over 2 years. The Land Rover Defender was in production from 1963-2016 and was the pinnacle in 4X4s for all of those years. Since early 2017, Jaguar Land Rover has teased that there will be another version of the Defender to be released in 2020 with snapshots of certain body panels, a camo car rallying through the deserts of Abu Dhabi and even an unofficial debut at this years Goodwood Festival of Speed under its camo wrap with the #best4x4xfar hashtag smeared all over it. However, a few days ago, an image leaked of the Defender appearing to be on the set of the new James Bond film ‘No Time to Die’. The image seems to suggest a lot of styling cues from the current Range Rover Sport and Land Rover Discovery, however the leak source is not a reliable one so this may be a render or maybe even if it is the car, certain sections may be edited.
Bugatti have announced today that they will not make any one off special edition cars for clients that pay them enough for it. This comes after the announcement of the £7.4m Centodieci at Monterey Car Week, a Chiron Sport bodied car with styling elements harking back to the first Bugatti hypercar, the EB110. The Centodieci features similar styled side ventilation as the EB110 as well as a bumper that looks fairly similar and a massive carbon rear wing that slightly subverts the EB110 design. The engine is the same 8.0 V16 as the Bugatti Divo and produces a ridiculous 1577bhp which is over 100 horsepower up from the regular Chiron. Only 10 will be produced in another limited series Bugatti car. However they have said they won’t go down the same path as Ferrari’s Special Project series and will not create bespoke one off models for clients. This means a Kuwaiti billionaire cannot walk into Molsheim, home of Bugatti, with a briefcase full of money and drive out in a Chiron prepped for the Monte Carlo Rally in a Shooting Brake format. Bugatti have a very passionate fanbase and an even more loyal clientele who often buy the special editions of Bugatti cars without driving them or sometimes even seeing them in advance. It is amazing that Bugatti have already sold out of the Centodieci, as all 10 examples were sold before the car’s debut. It is thought that the average Bugatti owner has 30 cars, a very exclusive and niche market for their cars yet they all manage to sell. All of the Bugatti Divo’s had sold before the debut of it at Geneva which added to the Centodieci numbers is 50 limited series cars sold before public reveal. The only one off that Bugatti has completed was La Voiture Noire, created as an homage to Jean Bugatti’s Type 57 and built as a gift to an unknown client, rumoured to be the late Ferdinand Piech or Stephen Winkleman, and was the most expensive new car commissioned at £16.7m. Bugatti has not ruled out special projects such as the Divo and Centodieci as they believe coachbuilding to be a key element in their history, but have ruled out one off models.
Lamborghini has released a press image of what may be the new Aventador model to grace the world ready for a debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show. The image shows a darkened room with two star shaped head lamps lighting towards to camera. The general body shape of the car seems a lot wider than the standard car and a lot taller than the standard car, with potential relation to the Terzo Millenio EV concept. Due to this relation it is predicted to have a hybrid V12 engine, which does mean the Aventador replacement will still have the traditional Lamborghini V12 scream. The stance of the car also, to me, has some elements of other Lamborghini special editions such as the Veneno, Centenario and the SC18 Alston, which shows that due to the Audi ownership, the Germans will have most likely built the engine, drivetrain and hybrid system with the Italians doing the styling. The car is expected to debut at the Frankfurt Motor Show on the 10th of September and finishing on a good note, Lamborghini has confirmed it will remain naturally-aspirated and will not have to fall back on turbocharged engines.
Finally ending with some sad news of the passing of Dr. Ferdinand Piech at the age of 82. The German automotive designer had a large catalogue to his name and leaves a legacy behind with him. Most notably in his career was his lead on the VW group and his racing development that led to some of the greatest cars the world has ever seen. Some of his masterpieces include the Porsche 917 which he designed to win Le Mans and succeeding in creating one of the most overpowered racing cars of all time that forced a rule change to stop its domination in the motoring world. After the 917 he moved to Audi where he pioneered the legendary Audi Quattro and Quattro S1, using four wheel drive systems to beat Lancia in the 1980s World Rally Championships. Then he made the move to the VW group, helping Bugatti out of administration as without him, there would be no Veyron or no Bugatti at all. When Audi took over Lamborghini, everyone thought it would flop and the legends of the Miura and the Countach would sink. However the Gallardo is one of the best, the interesting concepts of the Estoque and Asterion made people wonder and the Murcielago/Aventador was a pinnacle supercar. With Porsche, he helped the creation of the Carrera GT and their rebirth into motorsport with disciplines such as the Porsche Carrera Cup, LMP racing, GT3 racing and WRC. Piech designed cars won 14 of 15 Le Mans 24 Hour races they entered and with the return of Porsche, Audi were allowed to race alongside them before both teams withdrew. He also designed a future with the VW XL1 which found production as an electric VW sports car. His ownership, leadership and design skills led to Piech being a well respected man in the auto industry and a leader who will be sorely missed.
Monterrey Car Week 2019 Review
This last weekend has been the end of Monterey Car week in Carmel, California which some would say is the greatest car event in the world. Spanning a week and covering many factors such as the Concours D’Elegance, Quail and general Cars and Coffee events. The Concours D’Elegance was held at Pebble Beach and visitors were witness to some of the best restored classic cars in the world such as the ‘Best in Show’ Bentley 8 Litre Gurney Nutting, the 1936 Mercedes 540K Cabriolet and the stunning 1955 Ferrari 750 Monza Scaglietti Spider. Another key event was the Tour D’Elegance which was simply the drive to the concours event through the Californian country. With over 175 cars in the tour including some very rare Lamborghini Miura SVs, a Ferrari 250 GT TDF, an Aston Martin DB4GT Zagato, Ferrari 250 Testarossa and even a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlante. Another event was the reunion at WeatherTech Laguna Seca raceway which played host to BMW 3.0 CSLs, M1 Procar’s, Singer Porsche 911s and even Keke Rosberg’s Williams F1 car.
Quail, however, is the area of Monterey Car Week that most people talk about as it has many of the best and most up to date hypercars and supercars in one place at once. An example is the US debut of the De Tomaso P72 and the all-new electric Lotus Evija. Pagani were once again at the big car shows and this time debuted their new Pagani Huayra Roadster BC, a one of 20 roadster version of the 2016 Pagani Huayra BC. I feel the best way to show that this show is one of the greatest in the world is to simply list the supercars and hypercars that were in attendance : Bugatti EB110SS, Bugatti EB110GT, 2 Porsche 918 Spyders, Ford GT, Ford GT Heritage Edition, Lamborghini Countach 25th, Ford GT MK2, 10 McLaren Sennas, 2 Mercedes-McLaren SLR 722S Roadsters, Porsche Carrera GT, Lamborghini 350GT, the actual ‘Back to the Future’ DeLorean, 2 Koenigsegg Agera RS Final Editions, Koenigsegg Regera, Koenigsegg Jesko, Koenigsegg CCX-R Trevita, Koenigsegg Agera R, Koenigsegg CCX, Koenigsegg CCXR, Singer DLS, Porsche 911 ‘Rallye’, RUF CTR Yellowbird, Pagani Zonda C12, Pagani Zonda R, Pagani Zonda Cinque, Pagani Huayra Roadster, Pagani Zonda F, Lamborghini Diablo SV, McLaren GT, Audi R8 LMS GT2, the new Drako GTE, Aston Martin Valhalla, Hennessey Venom GT, Ferrari P80/C, McLaren F1 LM, McLaren F1 HDK, McLaren F1 GTR Longtail, the first look at the SSC Tuatara, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ Roadster, Lamborghini Reventon, Pininfarina Battista, Ferrari 290MM, Ferrari 250 GTO, Ferrari 250 GT SWB, Ferrari F50 GT, Ferrari 288 GTO Evoluzione, Ferrari F40 GTE, Ferrari 275 GTB Alloy, Saleen S7 Twin Turbo, Bugatti Chiron, Bugatti Divo, Rimac C-Two, W Motors Fenyr SuperSport, Bentley EXP1000 Concept just to name a few. See why it’s one of the best car shows now?
Auctions are also a key sector of Car Week as it is a very affluent area so there is a lot of money thrown around at the auction block. There are 4 main auction houses that have an auction at Monterey being Mecum Auctions, Bonhams, Gooding and Co. and RM Sotheby’s. Beginning with Mecum, they had a very successful auction with a very high percentage of lots selling with some of the more expensive lots selling for just over $2,000,000 like the Ferrari 275 GTB/4, Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 918 Weissech and Ferrari 275 GTS. Bonhams auction in comparison with the other two auction houses had a fairly standard auction with not many extremely expensive cars. However of these few expensive cars, not too many of them sold such as the Porsche 718 RSK, Bentley 4 1/2 Litre, Delahaye 135M, Porsche 918 Weissech and Ferrari F40. Of those that did sell, Bonhams successfully sold the Ferrari 340 America for $3,635,000, the Fiat 8V Supersonic for $1,625,000 and the Shelby Cobra for $1,380,000. Gooding had a very successful auction with 17 cars selling above $1million, some including some very expensive classics such as the Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spider which sold for $9,905,000, the Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 for $6,800,000, the ex-Niki Lauda Ferrari 312T for $6,000,000, the Ferrari 250 GT TdF for $5,100,000, the Aston Martin DB4 GT for $3,600,000 and the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 3.8 for $1,710,000. Although these cars sold for insane prices and Gooding had around a 73% sell rate, there were a lot of special cars that did not sell such as the Ferrari F50, Ferrari LaFerrari, Porsche 959 Sport, Ferrari F40, Ferrari Sergio and even an Aston Martin Vulcan.
For the Sotheby’s auction, I will need a separate paragraph for all the cars mainly due to the auction being what I proclaimed to be the greatest auction of all time. The Sotheby’s auction also took place over three days with the first day being known as ‘An Evening with Aston Martin’ which very clearly focused on Aston Martin sales. Some significant sales from that day would be the Aston Martin DB5 Shooting Brake which sold for $1,765,000, the Aston Martin DBAR1 Zagato which sold for $296,500, an Aston Martin DB5 ‘Bond Car’ used in actual filming in ‘Thunderball’ and ‘Goldfinger’ for $6,385,000, an Aston Martin DB5 Volante for $1,325,000 and an interesting Aston Martin V8 Vantage GT4 for only $81,200. Obviously there were some Astons that didn’t sell such as the DB3S Works, two variants of the Aston Martin Vanquish Zagato and an Aston Martin DB4 GT. The other days featured a lot of high end exotica going across the block including a few collections. The BMW Motorsports Collection sold a 3.0CSL, 3.5CSL IMSA, 320i IMSA Turbo and an M3 DTM for a combined $3,141,000 but this wasn’t even the highest sale of those days. A Bugatti Veyron 16.4 sold for $1,050,000, a one off Porsche Carrera GT for $1,193,000, a one off Ford GT for $1,242,500, a Ferrari 250 GT Series 1 for $1,517,500, Ferrari F40 for $1,682,500, a Pagani Huayra Tempesta for $2,040,000, a Ferrari 365 GTS for $2,205,000, a Ferrari LaFerrari for $2,947,500, Ferrari F50 for $3,000,000, a Ferrari FXX from the Ming Collection for $3,520,000, a Porsche 718 RS 60 Werks for $5,100,000, a Ford GT40 Roadster Prototype for $7,650,000, a Ferrari 250 GT SWB for $8,145,000 and finally a one of two McLaren F1 LM for $19,805,000. With $107,000,000 from the 74% sale rate of the auction, it would seem to be an auction that Sotheby’s would remember for all the right reasons. However in a small error, the Sotheby’s auction was left embarrassed by the car community. In selling the 1939 Porsche Type 64, the first car to ever wear the Porsche crest and therefore the most important Porsche in history, there was an error in the price of the car shown upon screen that was met with amusement for the audience. The renowned Dutch auctioneer who was selling the car appeared to begin the bidding at $30,000,000. The Porsche did not carry an estimate so the audience went along with it until the screen displayed $70,000,000 which would make this the most expensive car sale at auction of all time. However the auctioneer stepped up to correct that the start bid was actually $13,000,000 and therefore the bid was only up to $17,000,000. With the audience in confusion and the price corrected, there was no further bids due to a disgruntled audience who believed themselves to have been tricked. In the end there was no sale of the Type 64 and therefore it remains at the Porsche Museum where it was originally selling from.
Overall Monterey Car Week has been shown to be an ultimate haven for supercars and hypercars and one of the ultimate car shows to attend alongside the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Top Marques Monaco.
Aston Martin vintage electrification programme launches at Beamish
A Beamish car restorer is following a trend first pioneered by Prince Harry with the electrification of a classic motor.
The Aston Workshop have created this program, featuring a recently restored Aston Martin DB6, to fit their heritage models with 400V rapid charging electric motors with a 200-mile range.
The workshop manager of Aston Workshop, Neil Calvert said: “More customers have contacted us about converting their Aston Martin into electric power. We are very excited to be able to offer our customers a brilliant alternative to the internal combustion engine”.
Dave Cummings, Consultant Manager Co-Ordinator, said: “Conversion costs of a typical heritage Aston model are upwards of £120,000 + VAT.
“The conversion process is six months if applied to a new restoration or eight months to a good unrestored donor car”.”
This project is the latest in a global market of electrifying classic cars and follows the likes of Lunaz, who create electric conversions for classic Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Jaguar cars at a cost of £350,000.
However, the first well-known electric conversion of a classic came during the Royal Wedding when Prince Harry and the Dutchess of Sussex used an electric Jaguar E-Type to leave their wedding precession.
There is, however, a debate that the electric conversion of classic cars, such as Aston Martins and Jaguars, does not merit the heritage and ruins the history of that specific car. Though Dave Cummings suggests: “We do not anticipate that values would decrease due to an EV powerplant”.
As quoted by Jack Phillips writing for Classic and Sports Car: “When an owner removes their car’s original engine and drops in something bigger or smaller or different, is it also no longer a classic”.
The Aston Workshop is looking to open the first slot for electrification next year in 2021.
How to Buy a Car at Auction
Your heart is racing among the sea of people in the audience waiting for the right time to raise your hand. Everyone else is doing it, so why won’t you? Just lift your arm and bid for a new pride and joy, a new toy, a new project that can only be obtained by scarily attending a car auction.
Whether you are at a big auction for the more exclusive models or you’re attending a local auction with some old bangers and some cheap classics, the atmosphere of the car auction is a scary one with 30+ people bidding on a car you want, with scare tactics, overconfidence and general ignorance of your presence. It is a skill to buy a car at auction and there are a few tips and tricks how to do it properly.
- The first tip is to always do background research on the auction house before you attend the auction. If it is established such as Bonhams, Sotheby’s or Gooding, it should be fine though if it’s a smaller, less known house or even a new house, the risks could begin as they could be selling non road worthy cars, pretending to be road worthy.
- When you make it to the auction and find something in the catalogue that takes your fancy, always see it in the flesh before putting even £1 on it. It always helps to see the car in person beforehand to make sure the pictures match the product and that there’s no visual damages not mentioned in the brochure. At an established auction house this won’t be a problem.
- Always read up on previous auction prices on the model you are interested in buying. By comparing it to previous sales, it will give you a rough estimate at the top price that it is worth paying for a car. This will help to avoid spending £10,000 on a car worth only £6,000 and know when it is time to stop bidding on a car. This can be especially difficult when in a bidding war with another bidder but it’s crucial not to forget this step.
- When the lot enters the room for the sale that you are interested in, always listen to the auctioneer’s description of the car. Though this may be hard in a packed room of buyers, it’s always better to do so because he could mention the car not being MOT’d or taxed or having a larger auction premium on it that would cost you more money than you need to spend. This would usually say in the catalogue also but sometimes it can be slipped in at the end.
- Always make sure the bid starts at a price a lot lower than the budget you have as that will give you room to bid and never lose track of what price the bid is at if you are in love with a certain car you’re bidding on. This is so that you don’t unknowingly overspend on a car and then end up having to pay more than you have. If the price goes close to what you have, stop bidding. Even if you feel you are in love, stop bidding.
The final tip for car auctions is to have fun with what you do, enjoy being around like-minded individuals, enjoy the experience of not knowing what car you can leave with, don’t be pressured by the more experienced bidders if you’re new and all in all, just enjoy the cars and the pleasure of buying them.
Goodwood Festival of Speed 2019 Review – Paddocks
The Goodwood Festival of Speed occurred two and a half weeks ago and only now have I gotten over how amazing it was. Overall I would say it was better than last years event due to the variety and diversity of the cars scattered around the grounds. This review will be split down into different sections of the festival in order to make this review easier to break down.
One key element to the Festival is the race car paddocks as Goodwood is one of the only places to see some of the world’s greatest racing cars in one place. The race cars range across all pedigrees of motorsport from Formula One and Le Mans to Rally and Touring Cars, it is an extensive collection of motorsport gems. Some highlights that stood out to me in particular include the mass amount of Porsche 917s dotted about. This year celebrated 50 years of the Porsche 917 and therefore there were 11 in total including the legendary Gulf liveried 917s and a metallic silver road legal 917 which is allegedly daily driven in Sussex. With a value of £14,000,000 for each 917, to see 11 in a row is truly spectacular. In the same paddock as this was a line of all of Michael Schumacher’s ex-cars which was a sight to behold also: Bennettons, Jordans, Ferraris and a Mercedes to make up the illustrious career of one of the greatest drivers of all time. These two were incredible sights to see but to me, the best scenes in the paddock was of vintage Le Mans cars. My favourite era of cars are Le Mans from 1966-2008 and therefore there were some utter gems hidden. Bentley’s 2003 Speed 8 which took them to a victory at Le Sarthe, the 2002 Dallara SP1 in it’s iconic livery, the 1999 BMW V12 LMR which placed 1st in 1999 and the extensive line of modern and vintage Aston Martin racing cars were my highlights by far. Not forgetting to mention that in the Aston Martin section was a DBR1, worth up to £20m, a DB3S worth up to £8m, a DB4 GTZ worth up to £14m and the special project Aston Martins which are near to priceless. Paddocks overall was a little worse than last year as last year featured an MC12 GT1, Jag XJR12 and many other 90s Le Mans legends that unfortunately were not present this year.
Goodwood FOS 2019 Review – Cartier + Supercars
Every year at Goodwood, there are two sections that tend to get the most attention out of all the areas. These are the Cartier Style et Luxe and Supercar Paddocks. These tend to get a lot of attention as they feature the latest and greatest sports cars, the debuts of some superb vehicles and some of the most expensive cars around. I shall begin with the review of the Cartier Style et Luxe.
The Cartier Style et Luxe is a concours event of machines that represent the finest of their type and class in the world. The Cartier is always judged by a group of specially selected judges, that this year was made up of jockey Frankie Dettori, Lapo Elkann, the former marketing director of Fiat, and the Earl of Snowdon. The categories this year were ‘Cent Ans d’Avant Garde’ which celebrated the centenary of the creation of French luxury manufacturer Avoins Voisin, ‘A Sting in the Tail’ which celebrated the 70th anniversary of Abarth, ‘Like Father Like Son’ which is a celebration of the creative mind of Jean Bugatti, son of Ettore. The next category was ‘Continental Drift’ which was paired with the Bentley centenary celebration, to celebrate their R-Type model, ‘Tea for Two’ to present the Volkswagen vans over time, ‘Milanese Maestros’ to celebrate the centenary of Italian coachbuilders Zagato and finally ‘Aston-ishing’ to celebrate the Aston Martin V8 and its glamourous history. A few highlights of the Cartier show for me begin with the 1962 Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato, one of very few designed by Zagato, with luscious curves and a value of up to £14.3m. In fact, most of the Aston Martins at Cartier caught my eye such as the 1988 V8 Zagato, the 1971 DBS which was the first Aston to wear the, now legendary, DBS badge and the 1985 Aston Martin Lagonda which was seen to be one of the most luxury Aston Martins of all time. Another highlight was the Bugatti Type 57C Atlante which was entered by the Bugatti museum and is valued at up to £6m. The curves of this car was something else, as if sculpted by Leonardo Da Vinci himself. Finished in an original paint colour and having only undergone a restoration of a single body panel, it was one of the most original Type 57s around. Finally it is worth mentioning the best in show at the Cartier Style et Luxe which came as a surprise to me, in that it was not the DB4 GTZ or the Type 57C. But in fact the winner of best in show came from the ‘Sting in the Tail’ category and in the hands of the 1950 Abarth 205 Monza. There is very little known about this model anywhere, other than it is powered by a 1.1 litre inline-4 engine and is one of 3 ever made. It is thought that the one featured at Goodwood this year was the first Abarth car ever made by the manufacturer in 1950 and in the same year was entered into the vicious Mille Miglia race in Italy that covers nearly 1000 miles of Italian coastal road. This plus the gorgeous Italian styling makes it fairly plain as to why it won best in show. Overall the Cartier Style et Luxe gets better and better each year and always becomes more and more unique, a word perfect to describe the Concours event entirely.
The supercar paddock went over a few changes this year from last year, mainly the location closer to the start line to accommodate for the new Drift Arena but also due to the size of the paddock. It is estimated that the paddock in its entirety would produce 8000bhp, an insane statistic so lets get to the cars. First up is the Apollo IE which made its debut last year and made another appearance this year but in a different colour scheme. Last year it appeared in its, now iconic, livery of purple carbon with gold wheels, however this year it donned a metallic blue with the gold wheels. The Apollo doesn’t just look amazing but the 6.3l V12 mounted in the rear screams even when at low rpm. Next along is Aston Martin who really made a big show at their section of the paddock, debuting 2 new models as well as some fan favourites. One of these launches was of their Vantage AMR which is a standard V8 Vantage but with some enhancements by Aston Martin Racing (AMR) to amp up the power and improve the already beautiful design. Not the standout for me unfortunately as they also debuted the convertible version of their grand tourer, the DBS Superleggera. This Volante version allows for 715bhp to be heard even more by the driver and also is the fastest convertible Aston Martin ever made with a top speed of 211mph. Aston also brought their DB11 AMR and the Vulcan AMR Pro that they brought last year which would’ve been the centre of attention if a certain 4 Astons were not in attendance. The Lava Collection was present at Goodwood which is the full collection of Aston Martin Vanquish Zagatos, the Coupe, Volante, Speedster and Shooting Brake. Every detail of each car was sublime and most definitely the best looking area of the paddock. Adding that to the rarity of each car, 99 of each except the Speedster which has 28 examples, Aston absolutely smashed it. Bentley did not have such a presence in the Supercar Paddock as they were celebrating their centenary in the centre of the trade areas so only featured a Continental GT and GTC which unfortunately were simply looked past. BMW had their new M8 on display to give its debut to the Goodwood crowds. This was not any M8 though as it had the Performance package on it which added carbon fibre details and a little extra horsepower. Similarly to the M8 was the AC Schnitzer ACS8 which is the German bodykit manufacturers attempt at making a BMW M8 look more mean than it already did which was a success for them. Although it did not run, the AC Schnitzer and its £3,000 exhaust system would be a blast to watch. Brabham have become a fan favourite at Goodwood over recent years with their BT62 and this year was no different with two BT62s gracing the grounds of Goodwood and stunning audiences with the V8 roar and retro design to hark back to Brabhams former glories in Formula One. Dallara made its Goodwood debut this year with their critically acclaimed Stradale track car for the road. Probably didn’t get as much attention as it deserved, even with the bright yellow colour it was finished in. The next car we have is possibly the most beautiful car I have ever seen, the De Tomaso P72. Built to celebrate 60 years of the marque and designed to look like 1960s Le Mans legends such as the Ferrari 330 P4. It is just breath-taking and definitely worth the €750,000 price tag. It is now the turn of the Tifosi, Ferrari had a mixed bag of cars at this years FOS which needs some discussion. To start off positive, some of the cars they brought were spectacular. The one off P80/C track car was simply sublime, the Monza SP2 built to look like the 250TR was created by a genius and the one of 2 SP3JC based on an F12tdf chassis was almost too good to be true. However this is where the problems begin. First and foremost there was only one of the XX series cars being the FXXK EVO. That’s not a complaint because the FXXK is a ridiculous looking car but I’d have preferred to see the FXX or the 599XX if not as well as. It was not only that I felt Ferrari lacked in. The rest of their line up was their current range and at the time of the festival they had announced three new models months in advance being the F8 Tributo, 488 Pista Spider and the SF90 Stradale. However, they took it upon themselves to not bring any of those, not even the prototypes or test mules shown at Geneva. Instead they brought a 488 Pista Coupe, GTC4 Lusso, Portofino and an 812 Superfast. I’m not complaining as the Pista is an excellent sports car and the 812 sounds godly, all I’m saying is they had so much potential to do better and they didn’t take that opportunity. Hopefully next year they will learn from this. Ford debuted their new version of the Ford GT known as the MKII Track Edition which costs an extra £400,000 to current Ford GT customers to get a new one that cannot be taken on the road due to the enhancements from the GTLM used in GT3 racing. To the Ford, its a nice idea but I don’t think it will work as I doubt many will invest in it. Honda decided to create an entrance with a chrome orange NSX which looked hideous for such a good car which was a massive shame. Jaguar had an F Type SVR on their stand which is enough said as it is a good quality sports car but no wow factor. If wow factor is what’s needs then the obvious choice is Lamborghini. Not only did they have a Lamborghini Aventador SVJ in matte green which stunned crowds but they also had both versions of the new Lamborghini Huracan EVO, being the Coupe and the Spyder. The Huracan EVO is more or less the performance of the Huracan Performante without the aero modifications besides the double exit shotgun exhausts to make it the ultimate iteration of the Huracan platform. But this still wasn’t the biggest wow factor in the Lamborghini section as that accolade goes to the SC18 Alston, a car that the world did not know existed. The SC18 Alston is a creation by the Lamborghini Squadro Corse racing division and it shows with ultimate aerodynamics and the most aggressive styling you will ever see on a supercar. This one off car takes lots of styling influence such as the Lamborghini GT3 cars but also some previous limited series cars such as the Veneno, Sesto Elemento and Reventon. And as if it could not get any better, I overheard a Lamborghini representative state the commission cost of this car, which was €5million. Before I move on to Lexus, there was another manufacturer in the paddock that is not written into the programme which is Koenigsegg. They brought two cars with them this year, the first being the Agera RSN, a one off version of the Agera RS finished in a blue and white two-tone effect. The RSN is one of the Agera RS family that is made up of 25 official cars and a lot more custom versions made for customers. The Agera RS is also the current holder of the worlds fastest road car after last year it clocked a speed of 278mph over two runs on average, it peaked a 285mph speed. The second car they featured is the Regera. There happened to be one at FOS last year in carbon green, but the one this year was a lot more special as it was finished in purple carbon fibre and a gold stripe down the centre. It is rumoured that the gold stripe had actual gold leaf in it which is just ridiculous. Moving on to Lexus who debuted the convertible version of their already beautiful LC500 known as the LC C. Although the name may be a little drab, I can say the styling is perfect for Lexus for them to return to the top for luxury sports cars. If I could I would most definitely buy this car because it is near perfect. Lotus featured two of their newest versions of the Exige, the Sport 410, and the Evora, the GT 410 Sport. These two were trademark Lotus, very loud, very aggressive and, for me, very overpriced. I love Lotus and the things they stand for since Colin Chapman chose lightness over any other element. However these new models are close to £80,000 in price, which is second hand Lamborghini Gallardo money but if it is a track car you are wanting then the Lotus is most likely your best bet. If you’re just looking for a supercar, the Lotus is not the car for you. McLaren had a ridiculous Festival of Speed with the cars they provided. Starting off small with the 720S which is their top Super Series car at the moment but not too special in comparison to what else was there. Next along was the 600LT Spider, the convertible version of the ultimate McLaren supercar seen to be the best supercar on the market at this time next to the brand new McLaren GT which fills a gap in the McLaren brand of the grand tourer. The gold paint colour sold it for me as well as the sleek lines and the comparisons that can be drawn to the new Speedtail (also in attendance elsewhere). Here’s where the line gets really special with a certain hypercar trio beginning with the McLaren Senna, although the same as the one featured last year, it is always a sight to see one of these beasts. But it’s nowhere as beastly as the blue and chrome McLaren Senna GTR next to it. This is the first time the Senna GTR has been seen in the UK and heard in the UK too as it took to the hill across the weekend. Honestly it’s such a spectacle to even see this car in the flesh, let alone to see it burn rubber and speed up the hill at full throttle. McLaren finished off with a volcano yellow McLaren P1 which is one of the early press cars still owned by McLaren. Moving on from McLaren to Mercedes who brought two iterations of the AMG GTR, the Roadster and the Pro which I saw once and was excited once but then never went back as although they have presence and look insane, they didn’t stand out significantly enough to go back to them. The next car I did go back to, a lot. This is the Pagani Zonda R, the fastest Zonda ever made, the most track focused Zonda ever made and the most prolific Zonda ever made. Holding the Top Gear lap record for many years and the Nordschliefe lap record for many years, banned at many circuits with sound restrictions and only ever really driven at events or Italian circuits such as Monza or Imola. This was really a sight to see and to hear at FOS. Porsche put in a decent showing with the new 718 Cayman GT4, the production 911 Speedster after last years concept and the Porsche 935 built to celebrate the historic racing car. It was not Porsche who won the Porsche cars funnily enough, it was the modifiers of Porsches who won me over. First Lanzante who took a Porsche 911 930 from 1986 and fitted it with a McLaren Formula One engine, then there was TechArt who took a normal 991.2 GT3 RS and added lots of marble carbon to create the £350,000 GTStreet RS. Finally was Singer who had a 1989 and 1990 Porsche 911 with their restomod design to round off the Porsches. Finally of the paddock were two interesting supercars starting with the French Prato Orage based on a Corvette chassis with 800hp from a supercharged 8.1 litre V8. The final car is the W Motors Fenyr Supersport which has diamonds infused in the headlamps and just looks like the most ‘Dubai billionaire’ car I have ever seen.
Overall these two sections of FOS were absolutely superb and I have no idea how it can get any better in all honesty.
Goodwood FOS 2019 Review – Other Areas
The next and final section of the Goodwood Festival of Speed review for this year is the First Glance Paddock and the smaller displays such as the Performance Parking and the independent stands. The First Glance paddock tends to do what it says on the tin, if you will, with many manufacturers debuting new models and occasionally the announcement of a car nobody knew existed
Firstly at the First Glance paddock was a new version of the Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio being the AR Racing edition. This was made to celebrate Alfa Romeo’s return to Formula One with the Alfa Romeo Sauber team. Many people will look at this and just think its a Giulia with a livery, when in fact the AR pack adds an Akrapovic titanium exhaust, many carbon fibre parts such as the rear diffuser and a more prominent rear wing and, most importantly, it gives the owner status. The reason for this is Alfa will only bring 10 of these special editions to the UK and only 3 of the Stelvio AR which is the AR version of their SUV. The next car is a very interesting Aston Martin being the prototype of the DBX. The DBX is set to be the first SUV made by Aston Martin which has now been confirmed for a December launch and it made an appearance under a camo livery in order to hide the body shape and the styling until a full launch. The camo car did look good unfortunately I did not love it like I do many other Aston Martins such as the next car. The Rapide has been at the forefront of luxury for Aston Martin and had gone through many facelifts and changes but none so dramatic as the new Rapide E. This fully electric version of the Rapide will be the first fully electric car built by Aston Martin. However it will not be mass produced with numbers limited at 155 examples which is a shame. But for a £250,000 price tag on each car, I doubt there will be many more buyers. Bentley had two new models debuting beginning with the Bentayga Speed which is an updated version of the original W12 model. This update features the darker grills and bumpers and an alternative hybrid V6 engine. If I’m honest, I believe this to just be an update for the sake of updating as the Bentayga was fine as is. The other model they were debuting was the new Flying Spur which for once didn’t look like a hideous monstrosity like it used to. Actually looks very clean, very luxury and incredibly Bentley. BMW debuted another hideous M version of one of their SUVs. The X4 is a car that is caught in limbo, it’s not luxury enough to fit into the family of the X7 and X5 but not small enough to be classed as a crossover like the X1 and X3. It fits into the worst section for BMWs which is the sports SUV which homes the X4 and the X6. The Competition version adds a little bit of extra horsepower, a few carbon bits and not much else. Citroen showed their new C5 Aircross SUV which was only really there to represent Citroen for their 100th anniversary and therefore did not get very much attention. Ford showed off the insane looking updated version of the GT500 Mustang which is set to be the most powerful Ford Mustang of all time. Although an official figure has not been released, Ford have said it has excess of 700bhp which is Ferrari 812 power. The green spec on it helped to make it look as if it were the vehicular incarnation of the Incredible Hulk which was incredible alongside the next car which is the Honda e. The Honda e is a cute little car made by Honda as their first entrant into the electric car market and it was the cutest thing at the whole show. It was so small and cutesy compared to all the massive SUVs and Crossovers and actually looks a fun and happy little car. Also it is unique as it does not have a 6000 mile range like many electric cars predict – may be a bit of an exaggeration but even so. Jaguar last year debuted their XE SV Project 8 which is a customer racing kind of car. Based on the XE saloon, the Project 8 is limited to 300 units with a top speed of 200mph to create an insane saloon car. With 0-60mph in 3.7 seconds it is one of the fastest four-door cars on the market. However the Project 8 at this years FOS was a little different, because Jaguar brought the new Touring package. The Touring package has identical statistics to the regular XE except with the reduction of the carbon fibre rear wing. The Touring package is limited to 15 examples and the price is expected to be above the £149,995 price of the regular Project 8. From what I saw at Goodwood, this car is one of the greatest saloons currently on the market and it 100% makes up for the very high price of the car. Jeep made their debut at Goodwood by bringing their ultimate hybrid. A hybrid between an SUV and powerful muscle car that is. The Jeep Cherokee Trackhawk features the 6.2 litre V8 used in the Dodge Challenger Hellcat and Demon, which produces 697bhp and can propel the Jeep to a 180mph top speed which is ridiculous for a 2.3 tonne 4×4. Lamborghini also brought their Urus for the first glance paddock which is not really a first glance but it’s always good to see a Urus. Lexus brought their new RCF Track Edition which took the already insane RCF and boosted the power, the aerodynamics and increased the carbon fibre usage by around 800%. This must be the ultimate form of the Lexus RCF as I don’t see how Lexus can do any better with the RCF. Next is the Lotus Evora GT4 which is a track version of the Evora for Lotus customers to buy and take to tracks much like the Ferrari XX programme or Aston Martin’s AMR programme. The Lotus sounded absolutely godly and one can only dream of the sound of 20 or more of these rocketing around a circuit. Maserati brought their new upgraded version of the Levante 4×4 with the V8 similar to the Quattroporte GTS and very similar to the Ferrari 488 GTB. Mercedes and Mini shared a similarity in that they both showed some new cars under camo being the new Mercedes A45 AMG and the electric Mini concept. Both of which went a little under my radar due to ‘better’ cars elsewhere. These better cars can include the new Polestar One which is a subseries of Volvo with their electric saloon which is the only electric car that I think I would go out and but because I was so impressed with it. Another of the wow factor cars is the Porsche Taycan which nobody knew existed yet. It is the Porsche electric car that has been teased for years but never seen. Granted it was shown under a camo that hid the body shape but it was still there and I was there for the world debut of the Porsche Taycan. Overall the First Glance paddock was very interesting and very good to see what will be gracing showrooms over the next year or so.
The final section of this review has to cover the multiple other displays at Goodwood which includes Performance Parking and the independent stands as well as random pop up displays. I’ll begin with the random pop up areas.
The main area of this was the Bentley centenary celebration in the centre of all the manufacturer stands on the green. This was a display of 30-40 cars that celebrated the 100 years of Bentley with some very special cars dotted around. I’m not very knowledgeable about the older Bentleys so the cars that stuck out to me were the modern ones such as the brand new Mulsanne Speed talked about prior. There was also a Bentley Continental GTZ on this green which is a regular 2006 Continental but with the body styled by Zagato. A very controversial design that I love and others hate but I found the signature Zagato ‘double-bubble’ on the roof line to be the feature that swayed the GTZ from hate to love. The other notable Bentley was the Continental GT3-R which is a one of 300 Bentley inspired by motorsport hence the British Racing Green touches and the carbon fibre spoiler that would be very strange on a regular Bentley. A second pop up area I was a large fan of was the Pagani area. On the day I attended the Pagani Raduno was supposed to attend with multiple one off Zondas and Huayra BCs and Huayras but they did not attend although they said they would. However there were some Zondas there. In a row of 5 cars there was Zonda 001 which was the first C12 chassis produced known as La Nona (grandmother) which had been restored to original status after going through multiple changes to other specifications. Next along was the Zonda F in red with black carbon accents which was my favourite of the 5 due to the simplistic beauty and presence that came with it. Next in the line up was a carbon blue bodied Pagani Zonda Revolucion which was the track only Zonda built for those to track day their Zondas. Next was one of the rarest Paganis in existence in the form of the Cinque. This one of 5 car was built as a farewell to the Zonda name with lots of carbon fibre elements in what we thought was the last iteration of the great car. Well 7 years after the release of the Cinque, Pagani came up with the HP Barchetta which is one of three which Pagani now say is the last Zonda. This example finished in carbon blue over regular black carbon with wheel shields much alike the old Jaguar Le Mans cars and a bespoke interior. This actual car is owned by Pagani founder, Horatio Pagani hence why it’s one of the prettiest cars around. Another interesting area was that of 4 cars down by the south performance car park. There were two cool cars and two amazing cars. The two cool cars were a Dodge Challenger SRT Demon which is an 840hp, £100,000 muscle car and a Miami Blue Porsche 911 GT2 RS which was only the 4th GT2 RS I had seen. But now the amazing cars begin with a McLaren P1 LM which is a one of 6, road legal version of the McLaren P1 GTR. When the P1 GTRs were being converted to a road legal, Lanzante Motorsport commissioned 6 P1 LMs for road use exclusively. It also held the lap record at the Nürburgring with 6m 43secs but it was disqualified as it did not hold a registration plate and therefore could not be recorded. However even with all these credentials, the McLaren was not the best car here. The best car was a really strange looking Aston Martin. It had the general body shape of the One-77 but had a large carbon rear wing, massive wide arches and a ridiculous front splitter. It turns out that this car was the test mule for the Aston Martin Vulcan based on an unused Aston Martin One-77 chassis, which explains all of the aerodynamic modifications. It is also apparently the first time that Aston Martin has shown this car in public.
The Performance Parking area is set up every year for owners to pay a certain fee to have their car parked inside the grounds at Goodwood to which some would say is a car show in itself. The South Performance Parking was a lot quieter than the main PP area but still had some hidden surprises. The one that caught my eye the most was obviously the blue Pagani Zonda C12 S with lots of carbon additions. The Pagani Raduno was supposed to be around on the Saturday but unfortunately this Zonda was the only example ,of over 20 on the Raduno, that was there. Even so I never complained. Along with this was a Ferrari 360CS, Lamborghini Diablo SV, Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0, Jaguar XE SV Project 8, two Ferrari 488 Pistas and a Liberty Walk Ford Mustang GT. This was only day one as well. Day 2 consisted of an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, a couple of new Aston Martin Vantages, a Ferrari 458 Speciale, another Ferrari 488 Pista, a 1989 Aston Martin Vantage Volante and a McLaren 600LT.
The main PP makes the south one look like a regular car park, which very clearly is difficult to do. The direction we entered the festival happened to be by the Performance Parking which was an added bonus. In this car park there was two Lamborghini Aventador SVJs, a brand new Lamborghini Huracan EVO, McLaren 675LT, lots of McLaren 600LTs and Ferrari 488 Pistas, a Porsche 918 Weissech, a Porsche 911 GT2 RS, another Porsche 918 Spyder, the Team Galag Batmobile Tumbler, a Ferrari F12 N-Largo S and a very rare Weissmann MF5. That list should state the obvious that this car park was so much better.
Cieran Boyne Journo 