SPORTS CAR CENTRE PRESENTS
Motoring news from around the world - January 2020
As probably noticed by our regular readers, we didn't send out a news letter last month, December 2019, for the simple reason that there was not that much news to write about.
But here we go for a new, and hopefully very exiting year, with news about the collector car world and historic competition events from around the world.
Lancia Group B rally cars are tearing up the market
Lancia has made its way into the headlines a few times this year—for good reason. From RM Sotheby’s sale in Essen, Germany, to Gooding & Company’s Pebble Beach sale, some truly special Lancias have been up for grabs. And over the course of the summer, one thing has become apparent: Group B-era Lancias are going nuts.
The Group B years (1983–86) were those of raw, unrestrained power and had every major European manufacturer duking it out to have the most powerful cars to hit each stage. Lancia, a rally racing powerhouse from the 1960s–’70s, came out swinging and early on established a reputation as the marque to beat. It didn’t take long for Audi and Peugeot to catch up, making it an all-out arms race.
This golden age of rally racing has made all associated cars quite sought after today. As of late, Lancia has been leading the charge, with some truly astonishing prices being paid. Most astonishing is that Stradale variants made for homologation have been bringing even higher prices than cars with actual race history. Historically, cars with race history are eligible for special events, thus adding to their desirability and higher prices, so this recent trend is unusual.
Perhaps enthusiasts would rather have the drivable variants than event-eligible ones. Either way, these cars are incredibly cool and a major piece of rallying history.
Lancia entered the Group B era with the 037, the mid-engine successor to the successful Stratos. While rather humble by later standards, the 2.0-liter engine pushed out well over 300 horsepower. Combined with lightweight bodywork, this was enough to clinch the manufacturer championship for 1983, the only year Lancia would hold this title during the Group B days.
This 037 started life as a stradale but was promptly upgraded to Evo 2 specifications to compete on a privateer team. The astonishing part of the story is that this car was never crashed and remained in the collection of the original owner for 30 years. Offered last year October at Dorotheum’s sale in Salzburg, Austria, it brought a very strong €406,200 ($453,897), the most at public auction for a raced 037.
The new Group B regulations specified that 200 examples needed to be built to homologate the model for competition. These cars weren’t just mere representations of their rally counterparts either. All the technology had to be there, and while the engines weren’t set to “kill,” there wasn’t much separating them from the race cars.
In September 2019, the first 037 Stradale was offered for sale at BH Auction in Tokyo, Japan. With only 450km on the odometer, this 037, chassis number 00000001, was subject to a no-expense spared restoration to reverse the effects of sitting. The restoration, reported to have taken 18 years, focused on preserving the original parts. The final sale price came to a respectable ¥70.4 million ($724,296), still notably below the example sold by RM Sotheby’s in April for €770,000 ($867,117), which is a record price for any 037.
When Lancia introduced the Delta S4 for the 1985 rally season, it embodied everything that was bonkers about Group B. Most notable was the twincharged 1.8-liter engine estimated to make somewhere in the neighborhood of 500 horsepower. The theory behind this was that a supercharger would provide sufficient boost until the massive turbo could spool up and take over, thus eliminating lag. This enormous power, coupled with an all-new AWD system, meant that the Delta S4 could compete with the infamous Audi Quattro. In its first outing, the Delta S4 won the 1985 RAC rally.
It isn’t often that an actual rally Delta S4 is offered publicly. Last week, RM Sotheby’s sold this gorgeous example at its London sale. This car won the 1985 RAC rally and is one of only four Delta S4s to win a WRC event. It went for an astonishing £764,375 ($989,865).
In 1985, the regulations still stood that a minimum of 200 cars needed to be produced to homologate a model for competition in Group B. If you had a boat load of cash, you too could purchase your own road-going rally monster. Sadly for Lancia, many sat and took ages to sell. If you elected to purchase one, the urge to drive it in anger must have been overwhelming. That makes this 2200-km example baffling. The car is so good that it sold for €1,040,000 ($1,171,171) at RM Sotheby’s Essen sale in April 2019, making it the most expensive Lancia Delta ever sold publicly.
Aston Martin Cloverleaf Returns to Aston Hill
It was 95 years ago that the Aston Martin which came to be known as ‘Cloverleaf’, XR 1981, lined up at the bottom of Aston Hill. One of eight customer cars built in late 1923, this early Aston Martin was competing against two Bugattis and two other Aston Martins — one of which had been entered by the company’s founder, Lionel Martin, who won the trophy on the day.
This four-cylinder 1,486 cc side-valve engined 1923 long-chassis ‘Cloverleaf’-bodied tourer came second at the event, and remains one of two Bamford and Martin-built Aston Martins from that meeting in 1924 still in existence today.
To mark the anniversary of its first competitive outing ‘Cloverleaf’ returned to Aston Hill to be driven by Aston Martin Racing driver and three time Le Mans class winner Darren Turner, followed closely by a Bugatti, to recreate as accurately as possible the events of almost a century ago. The car was prepared for its hillclimb return by specialists Ecurie Bertelli, the Midlands-based firm which currently manages the vehicle on behalf of its owner.
Aston Hill is the inspiration behind the name of the company — Aston Martin — which combines the name of this famous hillclimb with the surname of one of the business’s founders. Far more than just a namesake, though, Aston Hill was the venue for many defining moments in the early years of the brand with Lionel Martin driving his home-tuned Singer specials and later cars of his own design up the hill, cementing a lasting ethos of sporting performance for the British brand.
Built in late 1923, chassis 1926 is one of the oldest road-going Aston Martins still in existence and had an open body design known as a Cloverleaf, because the two front seats and one rear seat behind created the shape of a three-leaf clover.
Built at Aston Martin’s second home, 53 Abingdon Road, Kensington, this car, now known simply as ‘Cloverleaf’, is an example of the earliest Aston Martins and continued in active competition until the late 1960s. Featuring front wheel brakes, a rare feature in the 1920s, and a top speed guaranteed to be in excess of 72 mph Cloverleaf’s 38 bhp power peak is channelled to the driven wheels via a four-speed gearbox.
Paul Spires, President of Aston Martin Works, said: “There are not many brands that are fortunate enough to have as many iconic milestones as Aston Martin. Cloverleaf is a perfect example of how, even from the brand’s inauguration, we were racing and competing at the highest level in terms of design and innovation.”
Cloverleaf ran up Aston Hill and came second in the Herts Automobile and Aero Club Hillclimb in 1924. The model was one of a team of three Aston Martins competing on the day.
Armored ’37 Cord couldn’t prevent assassination of U.S. senator
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No, Al Capone did not own this 1937 Cord 812 Custom Beverly, nor did any other member of organized crime, although the car—with its coffin nose, mafioso profile, and armor-plated body—certainly fits the part.
Who, then, felt the need to commission an armored car from the Indiana luxury automaker? Clearly someone who felt the need to be protected. Was that person controversial Louisiana politician Huey Long? It makes for a good story, even if the dates seem a bit off.
Driving’s Alyn Edwards provided some answers in a March 2017 interview with the Cord’s Canadian owner, Gary Morgan. According to Edwards, in 1964 a New Brunswick car dealer accepted the Cord, which hadn’t run since 1943, in trade toward the purchase of a new Oldsmobile. Two decades later, after receiving a tip from a friend, Morgan made a deal to buy the Cord and four other cars, and he had them shipped more than 3000 miles to his home in Chilliwack, British Columbia, near Vancouver. After Morgan nearly injured himself trying to remove the car’s heavy doors for restoration, he knew this was no ordinary Cord. But who was its original owner? And why did he feel the need for extra protection?
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Morgan had to wait more than 30 years to find out. By then, he had spent $15,000 in parts, as well as countless hours tinkering, before health problems and the loss of his workshop conspired to keep the Cord off the road. Morgan had a decision to make: sell the car or pay someone to finish the job. He chose the latter, hiring 360 Fabrication in nearby Abbotsford.
Cord’s low-slung 810/812 offered more than a dozen industry firsts—including front-wheel drive, independent front suspension, reverse-mounted 125-horsepower V-8, and electrically selected semi-automatic four-speed transmission. But Morgan’s Cord was special beyond those attributes and, of course, its unique armored plating. It had side-mounted spare wheels in the front fenders, an extra louvre in the grille (indicating the car was taller than production models), a unique bustle back trunk, and a 132-inch wheelbase instead of the usual 128-inch wheelbase. As 360 Fabrication’s Daryl Francoeur was quick to point out, Morgan’s Cord was unlike any other.
According to Edwards, extensive research revealed that the Cord Custom Beverly was originally delivered to the State of Louisiana, presumably on behalf of Long, an outspoken U.S. senator and the state’s former governor. Long’s push to centralize Louisiana’s executive power and raise taxes on the rich had resulted in death threats. Regardless, the Democrat—nicknamed “The Kingfish”—was planning to run for president in 1936, taking on Franklin Roosevelt in the process.
Nevertheless, Morgan says, the bulletproof Cord was completed and delivered to Louisiana, and it eventually served the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, transporting admirals and other top-ranking wartime dignitaries Stateside. It was later sold to a member of the USCG, who was killed overseas in 1943. His widow stored the Cord in a Connecticut garage for 20 years before trading it in for that ’64 Oldsmobile.
Fully restored and stunning in its original silver-gray paint, the one-of-a-kind 1937 Cord should receive plenty of attention in Scottsdale in January. Of course, that’s no surprise. Morgan realized as soon as the restoration was complete that he couldn’t hold onto the Cord much longer, since his health was declining and he couldn’t drive anyway. As he told Edwards two years ago, “It’s priceless and should go to someone who will preserve it.”
The only question is, was the Cord built for the Kingfish, or is its alleged background just a fish story?
The car sold $132,000.00 at the January Barrett Jackson auction.
Aston Martin Brough Motorcycle – AMB001
Now here’s something that is quite exciting. Those talented design folk at Aston Martin have put pen to paper and designed a rather beautiful looking race bike – which is to carry the legendary British motorcycle manufacturer name of Brough Superior. (If you have seen any of Brough’s other recent offerings – you’ll know why we are all cheering for Aston Martin and saying Thank Gawd for that!)
The track racing AMB 001 is the first time the Aston Martin name has appeared on a motorcycle, designed with no-expense-spared state of the art engineering and performance. The AMB 001 boasts a turbocharged, stressed-member v-twin engine making 180 horsepower into a lightweight carbon fibre frame for a total weight of just under 180 kilos. The aerodynamic bodywork features styling cues from the Aston Martin Valkyrie, including a strake across the tank that also separates the digital gauge display. A double-wishbone front fork is a departure from the traditional telescoping units, and every part is specific to this bike, down to the CNC’d monoblock brake calipers. Limited to 100 examples, costing only €102,000 ( $163,000 Cnd dollars )the first few AMB 001 models will roll of production late 2020.
Aston Martin Executive Vice President and Chief Creative Officer, Marek Reichman said: “This is what we believe a cutting-edge motorcycle should be and we are very proud to see the Aston Martin wings on a motorcycle for the first time. In addition to applying the skills we have developed for cars such as the ground breaking Aston Martin Valkyrie we have also been able to bring our special expertise in the traditional craft techniques to this project. The finished product is a truly beautiful motorcycle; a design and engineering work of art.”
“Aston Martin may be 106 years-old but the forward momentum of this company is inspiring, for every area of the business but for Design in particular,” continued Reichman. “The same people who work on the design of our cars have worked on the AMB 001. These people are absolute experts and have delivered many of the special project cars that we have designed. Unlike at other car companies, our designers have the full breadth of experience and I think this is showcased in this aspirational bike.”
The AMB 001 is due to be be built and hand-assembled in the Brough Superior factory in Toulouse, France.
Jaguar Classic Tool Kit
Original E-Type toolkits can still be found here and there, but Jaguar have decided to release a reproduction of the original kit for those owners who want a mint condition tool kit to go with a their classic E-type. The 20-piece kit has every tool required to keep a classic E-Type running, reproduced using the original specifications, it includes a wide selection of spanners, including a plug spanner, tyre pressure gauges, an adjustable wrench, pliers, and screwdriver, and a grease gun all wrapped up in a leatherette-covered canvas roll looking just as it should have 50 years ago when the car was brand new!
The owner’s toolkit was originally offered with Series 1 and Series 2 E-types and hasn’t been available since the final Series 2 was produced in 1971, some originals can be found on eBay and mint condition ones often pop up in auctions.
The new Jaguar Classic Tool kit costs £732.00 around $1,400.00 Cnd dollars when it is the boot of your car.
Massive 25,000-car Hot Wheels collection up for sale
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A for-sale post in a Hot Wheels Collector group on Facebook had many of our staff gossiping this week, as an enormous collection of more than 25,000 Hot Wheels cars was posted by Dawn Rose. Before you ask, no, you can’t go digging through to find that rare Bone Shaker variant that’s missing from your own collection, this one’s up for sale as a single lot.
According to a post in the Facebook thread listing the sale, the ballpark estimate for the price of the whole collection is $125,000. At first glance that seems like an “I know what I have” price. There are many actual, drivable cars that one could purchase with that kind of coin. However, once you consider the price of the displays, the time it took to assemble the collection, and the fact that many of the cars are not the one-dollar run-of-the-mill variety, it becomes apparent you’d spend a lot more trying to replicate a collection like this.
But isn’t the thrill of the hunt part of the appeal of Hot Wheels collecting?
With Hot Wheels’ HQ located in El Segundo, not far from the Petersen Automotive Museum, perhaps a museum display is in order. The museum did celebrate Hot Wheels with a lovely exhibit in the past, and it seems to us like a museum is one of the best places for a collection of this size. After all, who has space to properly display more than 25,000 Hot Wheels cars?
Celebrating Citroën’s divine ’50s creation, the DS
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It is said that during the development of the Citroën DS, engineers hung a quote on the door to the research department from the French novelist, playwright, and filmmaker Marcel Pagnol. Translated, it read: “Everyone thought it was impossible, except one idiot who did not know it, and did it.”
Is it possible for mere mortals to give birth to the immortal? Once upon a time, the “idiots” at French automaker S.A. André Citroën took their best shot and produced an astonishing vision of the divine. When it debuted at the 1955 Paris motor show, the DS (pronounced déesse, the French word for “goddess”) smashed every convention of automotive styling and quite a few of automotive engineering. It instantly made every other vehicle in existence look rustic, and it was still doing so when it ended production after two decades and 1.5 million examples produced.
As synonymous with French idiosyncrasy as escargots and a bisou (kiss) on each cheek, the Citroën DS routinely ranks at or near the top of every list of the most significant automobiles of the 20th century. Here, in 2019, as Citroën celebrates its 100th year as an automaker, let’s take a moment to acknowledge the company’s most dazzling product. Much has been written about the DS, and some of it is wrong, including the belief that it could drive on three wheels. Okay, it could drive on three as an emergency measure, but with the suspension at full extension, the angle of the driveshaft U-joints was so acute that anything above bicycle speed was strictly forbidden by the owner’s manual.
Yet the DS remains one of history’s most fascinating cars. Even the backstory is good, starting in the early 1900s with the manufacturing-minded son of a Dutch Jewish diamond merchant. André Citroën’s first business was the production of helical gearsets, a fact commemorated by the company’s inverted double-chevron logo, which Citroën himself designed. A munitions maker during the Great War, Citroën turned to carmaking in 1919 to survive the peace. He lived just long enough to see the DS’s illustrious front-wheel-drive predecessor, the Traction Avant, come to market in 1934 before he succumbed to cancer a year later.
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Although the Traction Avant remained in production for a quarter century, planning for its replacement began even before France once again plunged into war with Germany in 1939. By then the Great Depression had forced Citroën into the hands of its largest creditor, Michelin, which drew up a master plan for turning the company around. The centerpiece was the voiture de grand diffusion, or the “mass-market car.”
Despite the name, the VGD was always intended to be a somewhat luxurious traveler that provided its passengers with the best comfort possible over France’s generally decrepit routes nationales. The men most responsible for it were an aeronautical engineer and racing driver named André Lefèbvre, an Italian artist and architect named Flaminio Bertoni, and a young engineer known as “the Professor” to his colleagues, despite having joined Citroën at the age of 17 and without a formal education. Considered the father of the DS’s self-leveling hydropneumatic system, Paul Magès later claimed that, if he had gone to school, he never would have been able to come up with the idea.
Working secretly in Nazi-occupied Paris, Magès hit on the idea of applying the principles of hydraulic braking systems to a suspension. Rather than conventional steel springs, he envisioned hydraulic fluid pressurized by an engine-driven pump and piped out to rams at all four corners to hold up the car. Since liquid doesn’t compress, his hydraulic suspension needed a gas component to give it the requisite sponginess. Thus, spheres mounted to the top of the hydraulic struts were filled at the top with nitrogen, and a flexible diaphragm separated the gas from the pressurized hydraulic fluid below. As the car rolled down the road, the hydraulic rams transmitted bump energy through the diaphragm to the highly compressible nitrogen. During braking or acceleration, or with the trunk loaded, the suspension automatically compensated to keep the body flat. The driver could raise or lower the car with a floor lever.
When the war ended, work on the VGD accelerated, but it still took the company 10 more years to produce the DS. That’s because the novelty of the new car didn’t end with the suspension. The hydraulic system was harnessed to power the steering and brakes as well as the gearchange mechanism in the semiautomatic transmission. Famously, the brake pedal disappeared (it returned in some later versions), replaced by a floor button that released pressure to the front inboard disc brakes and rear drums.
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The vessel in which Magès’s engineering marvel was placed was no less incomparable, being a slippery, forward-looking arrowhead that defied every styling trope in the book. Since the dawn of the automotive age, luxury and power had been defined by massive grilles, long hoods, low rooflines, and big wheels. In contrast, the DS pretty much had no grille, just some gills below the bumper. It also had relatively tiny wheels, a tall roof seemingly perched on 40 acres of fishbowl glass, and a droopy butt. Yet the car remains stunning and improbably voluptuous 64 years after its introduction.
More than 80,000 orders flooded in within a week of the DS19’s debut at the 42nd Salon de l’Automobile—journalists quipped that the show was better called the Salon de Citroën. The British newspaper the Guardian headlined its coverage “Oh! How Humdrum She Makes Our Models Look!”
Automotive paradise is Germany’s Klassikstadt museum, dealership, and garage
lassikstadt, on the outskirts of Frankfurt, is the sort of place you might dream up on a lazy Sunday afternoon. If you had, say, $60 million in cash gathering dust, you might look at this grand old factory building and think, yes, why not turn it into a slice of paradise for car obsessives and collectors everywhere?
Located on the outskirts of Frankfurt, Klassikstadt—which is German for “classic city”—is a multifaceted car haven. This enormous brick building is a kind of living museum and classic car storage facility that’s open to the public. It also houses new and classic car dealerships, mechanics and restoration facilities, a restaurant, and a model shop for all your toy-car needs.
Going for a tour is as simple as walking in the front door; it’s free for visitors. On weekends you might find car clubs gathering in the parking lot. The season-opening and -closing events in spring and fall bring in as many as 3000 guests.
At the on-site restaurant you can perhaps watch through windows as technicians wrench on a 964 Porsche 911 cabriolet while scarf down a massive plate of schnitzel. Wander down the expansive white hallway—even the floors are meticulously clean—and you’ll find a restoration shop for Mercedes classics. A very original W123 wagon is up on the lift. There’s a C3 Corvette just sitting in the hallway for no apparent reason. At the other end of the building are the local McLaren and Lamborghini dealerships. Alpine is upstairs and Bugatti is in an adjoining building.
The 172,000-square-foot brick building was built in 1910 as a factory for agricultural machinery. Since then, it’s had a colorful history, surviving both World Wars only to be used as a storage depot, a printing plant for 50 Deutsche Mark bills and, at some point, a Hell’s Angels clubhouse. After a two-year, $55 million restoration, Klassikstadt opened in 2010.
Wander upstairs and you’re greeted by a Jaguar E-type parked next to an original Fiat 500, which looks to be roughly the size of the Jag’s prodigious hood. There’s also a perfect-looking 1985 Alpina B7, offered for sale at €59,500 (roughly $66,000). It’s a tough choice between that or the 1992 Mercedes 500 E, priced at €38,500 ($42,750).
Both über-sedans are being sold by Pyritz, one of the classic car dealerships that calls Klassikstadt home.
These days, most customers are genuine enthusiasts. “The investment boys are not here anymore,” says Rainer Dschüdow, who co-owns the dealership with his wife. “Five years ago, all the people were asking me what car to invest their money in. That came to the end because everyone learned a car costs money even if you don’t drive it: you need a garage, you need to service it, et cetera. Now, at the moment, the really classic driver customers, the enthusiasts, are back.”
The shop certainly has a good stock of cars that fit that bill. A navy blue 1966 Maserati Mexico for €159,000 ($176,200) is dreamy but sadly out of my price range. So is a maroon Alfa Romeo Montreal. The ugly-duckling €5900 ($6500) Citroen AX Sport rally car on steelies is more realistic.
On the upper floors, most cars stored here by private collectors are kept behind large sliding glass doors; owners need not worry about visitors getting greasy fingerprints on or carelessly scratching their prized possessions. There are 350 cars here, with 100 behind glass. You’ll see a staggering variety of machinery, including everything from a 1970 Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GT, an original Alpine A110, a restored Ford Capri RS2600, an Audi Ur-Quattro, countless 911s of every vintage and variety, a 1969 Maserati Mistral, a Ferrari F40 and FXX, a banana-colored BMW E30 M3 and 3.0 CSL Batmobile, a Lotus Cortina and what looks like Martin Brundle’s 1987 Zakspeed Formula 1 car. The list goes on.
At any time, you may hear a 12-cylinder Ferrari or an air-cooled flat-six roar to life as an owner takes their car out for a drive. The noise echoes around the old brick building, drawing onlookers from every corner.
Klassikstadt is too great of an idea to be a one-off. There are similar facilities in Berlin and Dusseldorf called Classic Remise, and another in Stuttgart called Motorworld.
If anyone has $60-odd million lying around, we’d love to see a Klassikstadt open up in New York, or Toronto, or Los Angeles... or really anywhere else on this side of the Atlantic. Just make sure to budget for a quality steak chef to complete the experience.
The Self Preservation Society - 50 Years of The Italian Job
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the British cult classic movie The Italian Job. Loaded with sixties swagger, and famed for its endlessly quotable dialogue and one of the most impressive car chases in movie history, The Italian Job is the ultimate celebration of ‘cool Britannia’.
Based on more than 50 in-depth interviews with the cast and crew, and lavishly illustrated with hundreds of never-before-seen photographs and production documents, this new book takes a fascinating, behind-the-scenes look at how the film made its way to our screens.
Awarded the prestigious Motoring Book of the Year by the Royal Automobile Club. Judge Mick Walsh from Classic & Sports Car said “A remarkable celebration of this cult movie classic that author Matthew Field has researched passionately since his teenage years. Bloody brilliant!”.
For sale by Porter Press for 45.00 pound sterling.
The 600+ mph daily routine of the Bloodhound LSR team
y now, having achieved its 2019 goal of 600+ mph in South Africa’s Kalahari desert two months ago, the team behind the Bloodhound LSR project and the jet car itself are back in England. Yet before packing up to get some well-deserved winter rest and start preparing for even higher speeds in the coming year(s), the Bloodhound team also took a video of its daily routine to show us what is necessary for everything to go as smoothly as its simulations suggested.
Reaching 628 mph in a straight line is no walk in the park, and to get there, the Bloodhound team needs to run a car weighing seven tons and pushing out the equivalent of 54,000 horsepower consistently. When the weather forecast and local data shows minimal crosswinds, everybody needs to be in place for driver Andy Green to make his move.
The checklist begins with a morning briefing, during which speed targets and the location of rescue and recovery teams get laid out. The Bloodhound gets towed from the garage, steered by a staff member behind a pickup truck. Positioned on that thin white line at the zero mark, Andy Green then does his final visual inspections, during which the starter engine arrives on a separate trolley.
Once the marshals take their positions, and radio and data connection with race control is confirmed, the jet is fired up and Andy waits for the green light. After he blasts away, support vehicles follow him as closely as they can without jet power. At the finish point and with the parachutes deployed, Mr. Green needs to shut off the engine before support cars can park up next to him, the parachutes can be detached, and the Bloodhound driven back to base.
This may sound like a standard motorsport schedule overall, but on sand in a desert at 628 mph, attention to detail has to go above and beyond the norm. Cheers to an even more successful 2020 for the Bloodhound LSR!