SPORTS CAR CENTRE PRESENTS

The introduction of the XK120—designed by William “Mr. Jaguar” Lyons—took place at the 1948 London Motor Show. Those in attendance were flabbergasted by the car’s jaw-dropping beauty and the performance promised from its 160-horsepower, straight-six XK engine. (A heavily-modified XK120 did, in fact, set a speed record with a pair of 172-mph runs in 1953.)

“Design on that engine started during WWII, but it was built by Jaguar into the 1980s, so it’s obviously a pretty significant engine,” says Hagerty valuation auction editor Andrew Newton. “The XK120 is also special because it introduced the sports car to postwar America and was pivotal in the sport of road racing becoming popular in the U.S. in the 1940s and ’50s.”

Great GTs
During the 1950s a new bread of road car appeared; the Gran Turismo or GT. These were effectively, thinly disguised racing cars for the street. These high performance machines were often entrusted to specialist companies for fabulous coachwork. This era was celebrated in Class D, which featured seven GTs that covered the entire era. Among the earliest was the Ferrari 212 Export Vignale Cabriolet brought by Peter Kalikow. In true GT fashion, it combined a racing car chassis with a stunning custom body built by Vignale following a Giovanni Michelotti design. Undoubtedly rarely seen in Europe was the Scaglietti bodied 1959 Corvette. The brainchild of none other than Carroll Shelby, the striking machine was intended to be raced in the SCCA Championship. Unfortunately, the project was halted when General Motors realised it was not a good idea when a custom bodied Corvette would proof superior to their own version. No GT class is complete without a Ferrari 250 GT and the SWB example on display was a particularly interesting example, combining a steel body with numerous features from the competition cars.

80 Years of Automotive Archaeology
For many years, collectors really only saw one option of what to do with their cars: restore them to as-new condition. Often the work was done so thoroughly that they in fact were better than new and in the process all of the traces of the individual car’s history was lost. Fortunately, and undoubtedly as a result, preserved, original cars are now also highly sought after. This originality was celebrated in Class F. The oldest example entered was a 1913 SCAT entered by one of the key advocates of preservation Corrado Lopresto. Although he added the car to his collection only recently, Lopresto is only the second owner; the majestic machine was owned by the same family for 100 years. A lengthy ownership also helped preserve the Fiat 8V with a factory body brought by marque enthusiast Jan de Reu. This car was acquired during the 1950s by an American soldier stationed in Germany and shortly thereafter brought to the United States. He used the car in races early in its life and would go on to own it until 2013 when De Reu added it to his formidable stable. Italian enthusiast Luca Bertolero presented one of two Fiat 500 beach cars built for Gianni Agnelli. Many of the world’s rich and famous were driven around in the small machine while visiting Agnelli’s formidable La Leopalda villa on the French Cote d’Azur.

Hollywood on the Lake
One of the main themes of this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este was Hollywood on the Lake, for which Class G was reserved. This featured six cars that had either been owned by famous Hollywood stars or starred in movies themselves. Arguably the single most famous movie car is the Aston Martin DB5 that was used by James Bond in Goldfinger. The sole surviving example of the pair used during the movie was brought over from the United States especially by owner Harry Yeaggy. It still boasted all the gadgets like the bullet-proof shield, the extending spinners and the removable roof panel for the ejector seat. Also on show was the very BMW 507 that was gifted by Elvis Presley to his Fun in Acapulco co-star Ursula Andress. It has another Hollywood connection as it was later modified with the unusual bumper it still wears to this day by the legendary George Barris, who also created the original Batmobile. A legend in its own right, the right history of the spectacular Lancia Stratos Zero also includes an appearance in the music video for Michael Jackson’s song Moonwalker. Now in American hands, it was shown by the new owner most appropriately with singer Avril Lavigne in the passenger seat.

 

 

Grand Prix Cars
During its rich history, the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este has seen many unusual and spectacular creations on display in the Grand Hotel’s fabulous gardens. Until this year, however, Formula 1 Grand Prix cars were not among them. Not only were they shown as part of the concours d’elegance, each of the seven cars was also paraded under their own power in front of the hotel. Three decades of F1 racing was represented with the ever fabulous Maserati 250F as the earliest and the Alain Prost’s 1985 World Championship winning McLaren MP4/2B TAG Porsche as the most recent. The eclectic mix of F1 cars also featured a Tyrrell P34 six-wheeler, which famously became the only car to win a Grand Prix with more than four wheels. It was presented by former Italian F1 driver Pier Luigi Martini. Although each of the Grand Prix cars on display was interesting in its own right, it was somewhat strange that the line-up did not include a single Ferrari.

 

 

Best of Show
Not only the Formula 1 cars but all entered vehicles were paraded in front of the Grand hotel on Saturday afternoon. The only entrant making a second appearance was the roaring Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 Stradale brought by Swiss collector Albert Spiess. The reason for this was simple: to collect the Coppa d’Oro Villa d’Este for the event’s best of show by public referendum. Designed by the brilliant Franco Scaglione, the Tipo 33 Stradale is generally considered one of the best looking cars ever built. What made Spies’ example even more special was that it had survived in completely original condition. It was far from a close vote as the Stradale reportedly received twice as many votes as the runner up.

On Sunday, it was announced that the Trofeo BMW Group Classic for the best of show by the jury was awarded to the Ferrari 335 S of Andreas Mohringer. Again it was hard to argue against the decision as the mighty Ferrari combined a beautiful design with fabulous underpinnings and was finished to a remarkable level by Paul Russel & Company.

 

 

The Duke of Richmond’s Favourite 25 Festival of Speed Moments.

To commemorate this year’s Festival of Speed presented by Mastercard’s Silver Jubilee, Goodwood Road and Racing is producing 25 videos, each highlighting a favourite personal memory of the Duke of Richmond from 25 years of the ultimate summer garden party.

 

 

Year One.

Only expecting a maximum of 3000 spectators through the gate, the Duke of Richmond and his team were incredibly nervous waking up on the morning of that sunny Saturday in June. The sight that greeted the Duke as he opened his bathroom window has since gone down in Goodwood folklore.

 

“Man, they were just pouring in,” reflects His Grace. “They were pouring up Cathedral Walk towards the House like a stampede. By which time, of course, they’d already broken the fence down… We didn’t have a proper fence around the site anyway and people had heard about it from all over the area and were just pouring in. We don’t really know how many were there but we suspect about 25,000 actually came that weekend.”

 

The Festival of Speed was attracting some of the most recognisable names and faces even in its debut year, with music legend George Harrison turning up completely unannounced, having paid his entry fee, and fly-parking within the Festival site – much to the dismay of an unexpecting Lord March!

Aston Martin Racing Festival Makes Le Mans Return.

• The hugely popular Michelin Aston Martin Racing Festival will return to Le Mans on 16 June, 2018 with a packed 38-car entry and a star-filled line-up that includes Sky F1TM commentator and former Le Mans winner Martin Brundle and his co-driver, the multiple Olympic gold medal winner, Sir Chris Hoy.

Photo: Drew Gibson

 

The 45-minute race takes place on the same day as the 24 Hours of Le Mans on the full circuit at La Sarthe, and will be filled with cars from all corners of the Aston Martin universe. And, for the first time ever, will include two of the awe-inspiring 7-litre, V12-powered Aston Martin Vulcans – entered by the newly-opened AMR Performance Centre, based at the Nürburgring in Germany.

 

“I’d never miss a chance to race on the full Le Mans circuit, I love that track,” said Brundle, whose Vantage GT4 will also be entered by the AMR Performance Centre. “This will be particularly special partnering Sir Chris Hoy in a beautiful Aston Martin Vantage GT4. Chris is a good friend and handy on the pedals in every respect.

 

 

The competition looks strong so I’ll be seeking plenty of advice from my son Alex who also races an iconic Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 around Europe.”

 

Included among the other GT4 celebrity drivers are Aston Martin CEO Andy Palmer, ‘Bake-Off’ television presenter Paul Hollywood, Prodrive chairman David Richards (who will race alongside Aston Martin customer team owner Andrew Howard in a Beachdean AMR-entered car), and Jamie Chadwick who became the youngest driver to contest the Nürburgring 24 Hours in May.

 

The race will feature a wide variety of Aston Martin machinery, including a number of examples of the company’s most successful racing car – the V12 Vantage GT3 – entered by, among others Jetstream Motorsport, TF Sport and Young Driver AMR, whose car will be driven by team owner Jan Struve and Aston Martin Racing Managing Director John Gaw. There are also older Vantage GT1s, GT2s and even the 2016 FIA-World Endurance Championship-winning #95 Danetrain V8 Vantage GTE driven by Marco Sørensen’s brother Lasse on the entry list.

 

Aston Martin Racing’s Head of Customer Racing Huw Tasker said: “I am very excited to welcome our AMR customers to Le Mans. What GT driver doesn’t aspire to be a part of the biggest racing event in motorsport? So to be able to make this happen for our customers is very special. We have AMR cars of all varieties, from different eras, showcasing the pedigree of the cars which AMR has designed, developed and raced over many years.

 

“We are also very grateful to Michelin for their support with this event, which following on from their renewed technical partnership of our FIA WEC race programmes underpins a vital relationship that we intend to build on moving forward.”

 

 

Andy Palmer, Aston Martin Chief Executive Officer, summed up: “Having taken part in this event in 2015, I can say first-hand it will be a tremendous experience. Moreover, this is a wonderful celebration of all that Aston Martin Racing has achieved since we returned to the sport as a manufacturer. To be able to display so many different iconic Aston Martin racing cars, as well as the stunning Vulcan, in front of 250,000 fans is a testament to the durability of our brand.”

Ferrari’s Turbo Charged V8 Is Voted The Best Engine Of the Last 20 Years.

The latest iteration of Ferrari’s turbo-charged V8 that equips, in various forms, all Ferrari’s V8-engined cars, has been nominated the best engine in the world for the third year running in the 2018 International Engine of the Year Awards.

 

 

 In this, the award’s 20^th anniversary edition, Ferrari took no fewer than six awards, the highest number for any manufacturer in any one year, bringing the total of Ferrari’s trophies up to 27, a record number of wins for any sports car company.

 

Along with the overall Engine of the Year honour, the 720-cv 3.9-litre V8 that powers the new 488 Pista also took the 3-litre to 4-litre class, the Performance Engine category and the special nomination for the ‘Best of the Best’, with the 68 international judges asked to vote for the top engine from among all the winners over the last 20 years.

 

“In the 488 GTB, the 3.9-litre eight-cylinder was a near-perfect example of a high-performance turbocharged engine, setting the bar so high that it swept aside rival powertrains,” said Dean Slavnich, co-chairman of the IEOTY Awards. “But redeveloped and tweaked for the 488 Pista, the best engine in the world just got better. Without doubt, we’re looking at an engineering masterclass from Ferrari. No turbo lag, beautiful delivery, raw emotion, a furious growl and so much power – this Ferrari V8 is a work of art.”

 

 

Crowning Ferrari’s record-breaking year, the naturally-aspirated 800-cv 6.5-litre V12 powering the 812 Superfast also won two awards: the Above 4-litre class and, due to it being comprehensively re-engineered from the 6.3-litre unit that equipped the F12berlinetta with 75% new components, the Best New Engine category. 

TR250 Triumphs in ERA’s Trans-America Challenge.

 

A 1968 Triumph TR250 driven by long time endurance rally campaigners David and Jo Roberts has won the Endurance Rally Association’s (ERA) Trans-America Challenge.

 

With around 35 crews entered, the top three cars battled it out from the start line in Charleston, North Carolina, to the finish in Seattle, Washington over 22 days, covering over 9,360kms.

 

Yorkshire husband and wife team David and Jo are veterans of the Peking to Paris, the Road to Mandalay and Saigon, the Flying Scotsman, the Classic Safari and every TransAmerica Challenge to date, never failing to finish a rally but never winning prior to this event.

 

David Roberts drew on his decade long experience of listening to others making their victory speech as he thanked Jo for her efforts over the last three weeks. He also thanked all the Porsches, Datsun 240zs and every other fast car which didn’t come to Charleston to start the rally. He also recounted his and Jo’s many discretionary awards picked up along the road to the overall win.

 

Second place in the Classics category went to Mike and Lorna Harrison in the 1963 Volvo PV544. Mike loved the route, loved the variety of landscapes and loved the competition.

 

Jim Gately and Tony Brooks in the 1937 Cadillac Convertible took home the Vintageant class win and third place overall against a field of newer cars which was a magnificent achievement.

 

As well as the overall and the class awards, discretionary awards were also presented with the Spirit of the Rally Award given to the two teams making up the http://www.drive4stageiv.com crew, fundraising for breast cancer awareness.

 

Crew member Pam King had to withdraw from the event at the midway point as her own battle with cancer worsened and as the car crossed the finish line, she sadly lost her battle and passed away.

 

The Against all Odds trophy was presented to Mick and Grace De Haas who battled back to rejoin the Rally in Aspen after a fuel pump fiasco in Santa Fe on their 1966 Mercedes Benz 230SL.

 

Rally Director Fred Gallagher said: “Our crews have embraced all weathers and terrains over the past three weeks as we have journeyed through around a dozen states and enjoyed fabulous tests and competition throughout.

 

The next ERA events take place in September with the inaugural Himalayan Challenge and the Alpine Trial. To find out more about the ERA’s events, visit www.endurorally.com.

Happy Birthday BMW M1.

In 1981, the death knoll tolled for BMW’s most ambitious project to date. After 30 months of production, in which fewer than 450 road-going versions were built, the M1 was dead. For decades, there would be nothing else like it. No other mid-engine BMW would appear until the wizardry of the electrified i8.

 

 

The M1 was pragmatic, yet valuable; exotic, yet effortless to drive. Now, 40 years on from its debut in 1978, the M1 represents both what might have been, and the first tentative steps towards the future of BMW and M performance we know today.

 

Two years later, after a fantastic showing at Monaco Grand Prix, BMW’s F1 contributions delivered on the promise of the single-make M1 Procar series, with turbocharged four-cylinder engines provided to Brabham making staggering power in qualifying trim. Just how much power was up for debate—when asked to quantify the output by Swiss F1 driver Mark Surer, BMW race engineer Paul Rosche famously answered that the engine probably made more than 1300 horsepower, “but I don’t know how much more. That’s as high as our dyno goes.” The team from Bavaria rightly took its place among the best engineering outfits in the world.

 

While the M1’s characteristic wedge design is pure Giugiaro, its roots can be traced further back. In 1972, Paul Bracq led BMW’s in-house styling division to create the Turbo, a forward-looking concept built on the bones of a 2002 sedan. Fitted with gullwing doors, spats, and a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine producing just under 280 hp, the Turbo was revealed at the Olympic games in Munich—one year before the borderline anti-social BMW 2002 Turbo went into production.

 

Unfortunately, 1973 also marked the first of the two fuel crises that would cut short the horsepower-fuelled optimism of the 1960s. BMW decided to cool its jets on launching a supercar.

 

In the following years, a host of wins in IMSA and European Touring Car racing had proved BMW could turn its big inline-six engines into world beaters. At the same time, the Bavarians were in the junior leagues when it came to endurance racing. Porsche Group 5 efforts like the 935 were turbocharged monsters, and BMW wanted a proper sports car that could challenge Stuttgart. Its motorsport division, M, was headed by Jochen Neerspach, a former racing driver who had won the 1968 24 Hours of Daytona in a Porsche 907. Under Neerspach’s direction, the M1 began to take shape.

 

Having limited resources to pursue an in-house R&D program on a production mid-engined car, BMW turned to Lamborghini for design and assembly. In order to satisfy homologation rules, some 400 road cars would have to be made, with the racing machines adapted from that basis.

 

 

Gianpaolo Dallara worked up the chassis, and Giorgetto Giugiaro penned the styling; the former had helped created the Lamborghini Miura, the latter had sculpted the Lotus Esprit and the Maserati Merak. Soon, wedge-shaped prototypes were testing and being developed on Italian roads.

However, Lamborghini’s financial outlook in the late 1970s was sinking faster than a lead anchor tossed overboard, and the Italians had only managed seven prototypes by early 1978. Rather than be dragged under the waves, BMW hurried to re-frame the M1’s production. The tubular space frame would be produced by Marchesi of Modena, while the bodywork was moulded by Italian composite company TIR (Trasformazione Italiana Resina). Initial assembly took place at Giugiaro’s Ital Design, and then the partially-built cars were shipped to Baur, a Stuttgart-based coachbuilder mostly known for building BMW convertibles.

 

Following Baur installing the drivetrains and assembling the interior, the M1s were then sent to Munch for final inspection. Theoretically, this last piece of the puzzle should have just been an alignment and road test, but the number of hands involved in assembly meant that M division had plenty of extra work finishing each car.

 

The production car was shown to the public in Paris in late 1978, with pricing set at 100,000DM. At the time, a Porsche 930 was about a third less expensive and, thanks to the updated 3.3-liter flat-six and intercooling, was slightly more powerful than the M1.

 

Further, the delay stemming from issues at Lamborghini had put BMW on its back foot—homologation requirements were changing and leaving the M1 with no racing series to compete in. Both as a road car and a racer, the timing was wrong.

 

Even so, the car itself was stunning to look at and offered excellent performance for its day. The M88 3.5-liter inline-six featured individual throttle bodies, twin cams, and four valves per cylinder. With Kugelfischer-Bosch fuel injection and Magneti-Marelli ignition, the road car made 273 hp and 239 lb-ft of twist.

 

The dogleg ZF five-speed manual gearbox combined with the six-cylinder for a pleasingly low-effort drive at low speeds, with decent forward visibility, and a comfortable ride. Double wishbones at each corner and Bilstein dampers did a good job of handling road imperfections, with the 16-inch Campagnalo wheels fitted with tall sidewalls: 205/55 Pirellis up front and 225/50 in the rear. (Remember when supercars didn’t come with rubber-band tires that rattle your fillings out?) Add in power windows and a air-conditioning, and the M1’s businesslike cockpit was relatively luxurious by period supercar standards.

 

 

Four-piston 11.8-in front disc brakes (11.7 in the rear) were more than up to the task of getting the M1 stopped in a hurry, and the net result was a chassis that could handle far more power than it was provided with in road-going trim. Far from a dull experience to drive, the M1 encouraged backroads shenanigans. 0–60 mph came in 5.5 seconds, with a top speed of 161 mph. The straight-six roared in the top of the rev-range while the unassisted steering provided a direct link to the driver’s lizard brain.

 

Without the intended Group 5 competition, Procar was intended as a stop-gap series for the M1. While short-lived, it gave the car a much-needed limelight. The M88 was re-tuned to approximately 470 hp, and, with its dry-sump oiling system, was more than up to handling the g-loads produced by sticky rubber under widened wheel arches. Approximately 54 M1s were built to competition standard.

 

Of these, a handful competed at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. None did better than the most famous M1 of them all, the “Art Car” personally painted by Andy Warhol. In 1979, the year Paul Newman co-drove a 935 to second overall and a class win, this M1 managed third place in class. Despite later turbocharged engines producing more than 800 hp, no other M1 did better.

 

The M1’s story began with turbocharging, and it very nearly continued thanks to forced induction. When factory production wound down, BMW approached Alpina, a close ally and respected racing expert, to see if continuation was possible. Alpina had turbocharged straight-sixes that could have put the M1 road cars back ahead of the Porsches—Alpina’s B7 Turbo S made a torque-rich 330 hp in period—but considerable modification for supporting cooling would have been needed.

Instead, the M1 died in 1981, and BMW turned back towards building the sedans and coupes it was known for. Happily, it had filled out its organ donor card, and the mighty M88 engine soon found its way under the hood of a BMW 5 Series in 1985. The M5 was born, and one year later the M3 joined the party. Ever since, the M badge has adorned the highest-performing cars BMW can build (and, more recently, a disturbingly large number of crossovers).

 

Today, at 40, the BMW M1 is rightly recognized as one of the best machines to ever bear the blue-and-white roundel on its nose, and the grandfather of all things M. It was the sharp end of the spear—BMW’s best effort at a German supercar. Timing and delays meant it didn’t quite hit the bullseye, but it was a razor-edged stab in the right direction.

Le Mans Classic 2018.

The number of historic racing cars that continues to increase event after event, drivers coming from all over the world plus more car clubs, exhibitors and activities all confirm the undeniable growth of Le Mans Classic since its creation in 2002.

 

This biennial event, an exceptional mega-sized retrospective of the history of the iconic 24-Hours race, jointly organised by Peter Auto and the Automobile Club de l’Ouest, has fired the enthusiasm of a growing number of collectors who come to take advantage of this unique opportunity to race on the big Le Mans circuit. And, of course, the same goes for the public who flocked to the event in even greater numbers than at previous Le Mans Classics as proved by a new attendance record of 135 000 spectators, all generations combined, present at this weekend’s races. This figure represents an increase of 10% compared to the 2016 retrospective!

 

See below a collection of photos from this event:

 

 

 

 

---