Valve Bounce

Brooklands Double Twelve 2011

There were two really quite special reasons for being at the Brooklands Double Twelve this week. The first is this extraordinary Bertone-bodied 1942 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500SS Coupe owned by Corrado Lopresto that has been cleaning up all the major Concours trophies this year (both the Villa d’Este Concours in Italy and its class at Pebble Beach). It might look like a XK120 with a snow plough attachment in some photos but in the flesh it really is quite beautiful. The restoration work is exquisite with flawless black paint work and a really quite gorgeous engine bay.

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The second was this monster Bentley-Napier (like a surrogate son of John Cobb’s Napier Railton). It's eccentric in a quite uniquely English sort of way. Turn the volume up loud.

 

The Double Twelve is a hugely enjoyable event, the enthusiastic crowd year was about the right size this year and the organisers made very good use of the venue including the the Mercedes World test track next door. It has a slightly old school and quite approach which is a great contrast to the Goodwood juggernaut. The key must be the reputation of the venue and the ability to attract some of the most sought after cars in the world. Long may it continue.

Build your own James Bond 007 Aston Martin DB5 - £600

This TV ad has been doing the rounds recently for a 1:8 scale model of the 'Most Famous Car In The World' (TM) the 007 Aston Martin DB5...

I'm not going to buy one myself and I can't really imagine that it is really going to be very good value at around £600 (£6.99 x 85 magazines) for the full model.  The proportions don't seem right in this video, the roof line too low, the body too wide - but that may be the rendering on YouTube. What exactly are they going to fill 85 magazines with?

When we went to the RM Auction in London late last year and saw the car in the flesh and this is what it looked like...

 
Have a look at the on line dossier that the auction house produced; it really is fabulous. It has some great background information and fabulous period pictures, more than you'd ever really need to know about this car (and totally in keeping with the £2.9m price tag).

Here are some of the pictures I took while crawling all over the car, well you don't get the opportunity very often do you!

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Whitwebbs Museum Autojumble

I actually left the house yesterday and headed up to Enfield to visit the annual Whitwebbs Museum of Transport autojumble. I spent a happy couple of hours rummaging through a greasy bunch of old car and bike stuff. I can't say I bought much, or saw anything I really needed, but it's a great place and the buildings are looking great since they've been refurbished. Plus the freash air was very welcome...

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A Mini Transporter

A wonderful way of moving your body shells around from Garage De La Choletterie at the Goodwood Revival in 2009.

RM Auctions sell James Bond's 007 Aston Martin DB5

RM Auctions really have taken classic car buying to the next level. If you want bling, drama and exclusivity then look no further. Their latest event in Battersea Park, London on October 27 courted huge publicity for the sale of the self-appointed ‘World’s Most Famous Car’; James Bond's exquisite Aston Martin DB5.

There was a Sean Connery look alike, a BBC News crew, a beautiful dossier on the car to read, and Martinis at the bar. They were all building the air of anticipation.

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The car its self has a very nice patina, certainly not the over restored condition I was expecting, the interior had nicely worn leather, you just could imagine what excitement it had seen. The real treat was seeing all the factory fitted Bond ‘gadgets’. Anybody, like me, who owned the Corgi toy as a child will be able to tell you all about these; Machine guns, bullet proof shield, 1960’s GPS-like tracking device, removable roof panel for ejector seat (OK so that doesn’t actually work), oil slick sprayer, nail spreader, smoke screen and (of course) revolving number plates, all controlled from the central console. Compare and contrast...

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The Car sold for a well publicised £2.9m after only a couple of bids, I think that could be a very good buy. It was great to see the new owner take it for a night drive around London after the event.

The room was packed with a few other stunning cars and a few took my fancy; Talbot-Lago T23 Teardrop Coupe (£1.8m), A copper bodied Rolls Royce Phantom II by Brockman (£114k), Facel Vega HK500 Coupe (£61k) (recently voted best drivers car by Sir Stirling Moss), Lancia Aurelia B20 GT (£52k) decked out for historic rallies, Gold plated Pierce-Arrow Model 48 2/3 Passenger Coupe (£89k), and of course the icing on the cake Pussy Galore’s Helicopter (£160k). Unfortunately I could only just afford the catalogue (£50).

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Chelsea Auto Legends 2010

The first Chelsea Auto Legends event was held on Sunday 5 September at the Royal Hospital  Chelsea. It was a delightfully relaxed and pleasant way to spend the day with a collection of great cars in beautiful surroundings and a friendly bunch of people. At last a decent old car event in the heart of London.

 

The Royal Hospital Chelsea is famous as the home of the Chelsea Pensioners - soldiers that are unfit for further duty through old age or injury – and the annual Chelsea Flower Show since 1913. The Hospital stands by the side of the Thames it was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and completed in 1692. It’s a very special setting and the event lived up to it.

 

This was a celebration of Le Mans cars and drivers and there were a number of both in attendance. Being close to the King Road naturally it also attracted a couple of punks complete with pink mohicans and a flock of assorted minor celebrities.

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Sir Sterling Moss made a guest appearance and Derek Bell was on good form telling some great stories about working on the film Le Mans with Steve McQueen. I never knew he nearly got McQueen run over after finding him lying with middle of the track with his camera…

 

There were exotic cars in abundance with an almost embarrassing number of Ferarri 250 SWB Berlinettas (do they breed in Chelsea), a couple of curvy 250 Testa Rossas, an amazing Proteus recreation of a Mercedes-Benz 300SLR, a very funky Ferrari team car and exquisite Fiat 500. All tastes were caterer for.

 

On of my personal favourites was a stunning restoration of an early racing Napier which looked very rakish. It was also good to see a number of striking Invictas as I hold a tenuous link to the fact they were originally built in Finchley, my part of London.

 

There were a few niggles about the crowded parking areas but overall it was really great to have an event like this in London, I’m looking forward to next year.

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The Wonder of Speed Week at Bonneville

This is a fabulous celebration of Speed Week on the Salt from Josh Clason who has been making some wonderful old car videos recently.

I've got to get there one day...

The Ultimate Heuer Watch Auction at Bonhams

The Haslinger Collection of Fine and Rare Heuer Watches

Wednesday 15 December 2010

New Bond Street, London

If you love Heuer watches like me then you won't want to miss this.  Arno Haslinger is auctioning off his superb collection of watches from the 1960s and 1970s. It includes mint examples of all the iconic watches that were used for his fabulous book Heuer Chronographen; this is the only really serious attempt an recording these watches and shows the long association between Heuer,  motor sport and the great drivers of the period.

I was delighted to meet Arno at the Festival of Speed this year, and as you can see below he has a real passion and infectious enthusiasm for his collection. It looks like it's going to be a great event.

Part 1

Part 2

Goodwood Festival of Speed 2010 - Rock stars and their cars

Welcome to the Glastonbury for gearheads. This years FoS was bigger and more corporate than ever, but there was something for everyone.

I particularly enjoyed seeing the historic Carrera Panamericana cars get a run up the hill. But, away from the racing side of things, I loved seeing how rock dinosaurs spend their money; and mostly it was with some good taste. Nothing could outshine ZZTop’s Billy Gibbons’ truly astonishing 23ft CadZZilla, designed by Larry Erickson, it was definitely money well spent…the only car this year that had the hairs on the back of my neck standing to attention. It was based on a 1948 Cadillac Senanette but it has barely an ounce of the original sheet metal left. This was accompanied by Jeff Beck’s 1934 Ford Model B ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ which, to his great credit, was built by Jeff himself. He worked in a body shop before his music career started and has obviously has kept his hand in (mind the fingers with that angle grinder…). Other cars included James Hetfield’s rakish 1936 Auburn Boat Tail Speedster and Eric Clapton’s very understated and rather classy 1949 Ford 'Shoebox’.

Jeff Beck, Billy Gibbons and Jimmie Vaughan drove up to Goodwood house and played a quite ‘loose’ version of Jimi Hendrix’s Foxy Lady but it was great to see them playing together and giving the cars a run. It made a change from screaming F1 cars.

Some snaps here of various things that took my eye including a rather scrunched Alfa 308C that was doing rather well until something broke and sent it off into the bails.

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We popped in to the Bonhams auction on the Friday and I had my eye on this fabulous 'rat look' 1935 Riley 9hp Imp Sports which was laid up in 1963 and has only just seen the light of day again. You don’t see these extremely pretty mini Alfa Monzas very often and this one was in a wonderful state of disrepair; complete but dishevelled. Nothing a bit of T-Cut wouldn't put right. The estimate was £20-30k it went for £57k!  Oh well…

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Brooklands Double Twelve 2010

I'd almost forgotten about these photos... I enjoyed this event back in early June. There were some every unusual and interesting cars (apart from the lack of any Mercedes participation) and not much of a crowd.

Star billing went to the extraordinary Alfa Romeo 6C 2300 'Aerodinamica Spider' which was also at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this year.

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