Octane Magazine4 min read
Blithe Spirit
EVERY SO OFTEN the hapless automotive PR copywriter, desperately trying to find a hook to plug a new car, will come across something that causes them to shout ‘YESSS!!!’ and punch the air. When publicising the new Spectre, a quote by Rolls-Royce co-f
Octane Magazine3 min read
Atomium
‘IN A NOTE DATED 3 June 1954, the Belgian Ambassador in London conveyed an invitation to Her Majesty’s Government of Great Britain: an invitation to take part in a new World’s Fair, which the Belgians were calling the “Exposition Universelle et Inter
Octane Magazine3 min read
MAN & MACHINE Mongolian madness
OH MY WORD! Central accelerator pedal, crash gearbox – learning to drive a vintage Bentley, my first ‘proper’ old car, was certainly a challenge. I’d had a lesson with an expert after buying the Bentley but it and its two sister cars were due to be s
Octane Magazine7 min read
Winning Ways
‘The 250F was without a doubt the finest-handling front-engine F1 car I think built by anybody. My best race, I suppose, was probably winning Monaco in 1956. The reason was, the car handled so well. It was not as fast as the Ferraris but the balance
Octane Magazine1 min read
The Lowdown
Condition and history will always have more bearing on the value of a Pagoda than just the age and engine. As a rough guide, a 230 will cost somewhere between £38k for a reasonable ‘driver’ to £100k for a minter; the range for a 280 starts a little h
Octane Magazine1 min read
Auction Diary
Bonhams, Amelia Island, USA Gooding & Company, Amelia Island, USA DVCA, online Broad Arrow Auctions, Amelia Island, USA RM Sotheby’s, Miami, USA Historics, Ascot, UK Mecum, Glendale, USA Barons, Southampton, UK RM Sotheby’s, Dubai, UAE Aguttes, Paris
Octane Magazine4 min read
Lucy O’Reilly Schell
OCTANE READERS are likely to be aware of Harry Schell, the first American to participate in the modern Grand Prix era (although he was born in France and lived most of his life there – see Octane 62) but few will know much, if anything, of his spirit
Octane Magazine9 min read
Our Man In Japan
Suddenly it doesn’t feel like tourist Japan anymore. We are far from the dominant shadow of Mount Fuji, well away from the constraints of Tokyo and its head-rule-heart Expressways, and chasing car designer Ken Okuyama’s pokey little hardtop racing Fr
Octane Magazine2 min read
Gear
Collectors of Guy Allen’s work will soon need to find a load more room on their walls, because the British artist has just completed a second set of drawings for his ongoing Kinetic project. Featured this time are the Alfa Romeo Alfetta, the Lotus 25
Octane Magazine5 min read
Nathalie McGloin
TITLES DON’T EXCITE me, the things that make me feel amazing are what drive me, and racing makes me feel invincible. I suppose it’s cool that I’m the world’s first female tetraplegic racing driver, and it was nice to get a Guinness World Record for i
Octane Magazine1 min read
Nick Baldwin b.1945
One of the original doyens of classic motoring journalism passed away on 10 January at the age of 78. For many years Nick Baldwin was omnipresent in the classic car world, editing Old Motor magazine, which morphed into Classic & Sportscar, as well as
Octane Magazine1 min read
The Fast Show
RECORD-BREAKING cars are always something to be celebrated, but the story of this 1904 Napier Samson L48 is particularly special. The L48 was the first car to break the 100mph barrier on US soil, achieving a speed of 104.651mph on 25 January 1905 at
Octane Magazine3 min read
Stephen Bayley
Lst Sunday was the first sunny Sunday of the year. And, as usual, I was ambling along Chelsea’s King’s Road. What you might call ‘car ecology’ has always fascinated me, the relationship between certain cars and certain environments. Sometimes these r
Octane Magazine3 min read
Model T Goes To The Movies
SUPPORTED BY SO THERE I WAS, on set with George Clooney… Of course, as a humble ‘extra’ (I can’t get used to the modern term ‘supporting artist’) I didn’t dare speak to the great man, but it was still one of the more surreal experiences of my life. E
Octane Magazine10 min read
Back Again For More
The legendary Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 is regarded by drivers, collectors, engineers, historians and enthusiasts as being one of the best sports cars of all time. Created by great Ingegnere Vittorio Jano, the Alfa’s superb chassis was clothed by the leadin
Octane Magazine2 min read
250GT SWB Tops Paris Auctions
THE SEASON-OPENING auctions in Scottsdale and Paris act as a barometer for the general mood of the market on both sides of the Atlantic. The somewhat subdued Rétromobile-week bidding peaked with the 1960 Ferrari 250GT SWB Berlinetta Competizione sold
Octane Magazine1 min read
1959 Buick
by Gama Nineteen fifty-nine marked the peak of the craze for tailfins on American cars and, while the ’59 Cadillac may have had the tallest fins, those of the Buick were equally dramatic with their daring V-pattern, echoed in its frontal appearance.
Octane Magazine3 min read
The Casio DBC-62
WHEN I STARTED work in an ad agency, we still marked up colour press ads on large boards rather than a screen and faxed the proofs to clients. If they wanted changes (and they always did), you had to literally cut and paste strips of new copy onto th
Octane Magazine1 min read
Showroom Briefs
Although diesel cars never really took off in the US, these indestructible W123 models are fondly remembered. This one has had only two owners, and is barely run-in with just 127,000 miles. carcaveusa.com (US) Built around 18 years ago, this special
Octane Magazine1 min read
Next Month
Schuppan 962CR in the wild – plus other roadgoing race greats Issue 251 on sale 27 March Hot rodding around Beverly Hills Glas 3000GT, Frua-bodied forerunner of BMW’s most elegant coupés How Bentley redefined itself: the prescient MkVI sports saloon
Octane Magazine2 min read
Mercedes-Benz 250SL Pagoda
YOU MIGHT THINK we’ve chosen the 250SL simply because it fits with our Issue 250 theme, but it’s a car we’ve been pondering for quite some time. The W113 ‘Pagoda’ is an undisputed all-time great, of course, and there’s a disparity in price between th
Octane Magazine2 min read
Tiny Giant
Motorcycle-loving Octane readers who grew up in the UK during the 1970s and early ’80s might remember those heady days when any 17-year-old could legally jump aboard a 250cc motorcycle and blast off into the sunset with L-plates blowing in the breeze
Octane Magazine3 min read
News Feed
The long-running legal wrangle over the future of Bluebird K7 has been resolved, with Donald Campbell’s record-breaking jet hydroplane set to return to the Ruskin Museum, Coniston. There it will go back on display alongside its original engine in the
Octane Magazine1 min read
Magneto
Sign up today to experience the in-depth writing, stunning imagery and award winning design on the cars, people and stories that really matter WWW.MAGNETOMAGAZINE.COM/SUBSCRIBE/ Magneto - the quarterly magazine for those with a serious passion for cl
Octane Magazine8 min read
Micky Pople
THE FILES, NOW EMPTY, have covered the table. Precious correspondence, photographs, books, trophies and medals from Micky Pople’s racing years now form a large moving collage. ‘So much rubbish,’ chuckles Micky as he sifts through everything. Every no
Octane Magazine2 min read
250 Not Out
WELCOME TO THIS special 250th issue of Octane. To mark such an auspicious occasion we have a superb selection of 250-themed articles, ranging from a unicorn Ferrari to a brace of more recent, more affordable powerbrokers, via what is to my mind the g
Octane Magazine2 min readIndustries
1965 Gordon-Keeble
AS WAS OFTEN the case during the late 1950s, the Gordon-Keeble story began with an idea sparked by a private individual’s desire to shoehorn a large American engine into a British car. In this case Rick Nielsen, a US fighter pilot based at RAF Bentwa
Octane Magazine6 min read
Phone Call Of A Lifetime
IT WAS A PLEASANT surprise to find the story of Aston Martin DB2 ‘VMF 65’ in Octane 245. It took me back more than 20 years to when my friend Jerry [above, on right], who lives in Los Angeles, phoned me in New Zealand and asked if I was interested in
Octane Magazine8 min read
Forward Planning
Just as the original Mille Miglia inspired today’s regularity race, the regularity race inspired this US event. The route for 2024 runs from La Jolla to Westlake Village. californiamille.com One of the great driving events, starting in Paris and fini
Octane Magazine8 min read
Power To The People
If you, like me, watched the World Rally Championship during the 1990s, there are few sights more rousing in your rear-view mirror than a stickered-up Mitsubishi Evo Tommi Mäkinen Edition at maximum attack. Especially when it’s framed by the blue win
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