Ups, downs and a hillclimb

FROM THE EDITOR

Ignition

EVENTS + NEWS + OPINION

Dates for your diary

Concours d’Elegance Suisse, 21-22 June Image: Amy Shore

Now’s the time to nominate your historic heroes!

Help the stars of the classic car world receive the honours they deserve in London this November

Salon Privé’s 20th anniversary is gearing up to be its best ever show

WITH preparations for the huge 20th anniversary edition

TRAGIC BLAZE AT BICESTER MOTION

As Octane was going to press, news broke

First motor show revived

OCTANE HAS PARTNERED with The Royal Tunbridge Wells

Jay Leno

Taking a pragmatic view in a divided world

Derek Bell

Lamenting the loss of a unique rally co-driver

Stephen Bayley

The next level of personal transportation questions its very necessity

Robert Coucher

Moving with the times, yet still enjoying past glories

Why miles bring smiles

Letter of the month READING THE HAGI

French revolutions

The trials and tribulations of the cars we live with

OCTANE’S FLEET

These are the cars – and ’bikes –

Octane Cars

ANDREW RALSTON Contributor • 1955 Ford Prefect •

On the dilemma of a horn

1968 Jaguar 240

Current situation

1965 Triumph 2.5 PI

Getting rid of the rumble

1989 BMW 320i Convertible

OTHER NEWS

‘I’m not yet able to enjoy the Alfa

Soft-top but no soft option

Other interesting cars we’ve been driving

Twin Cam for the 21st Century

2025 Frontline MGA Factory Edition

Hal Needham

Stuntman turned cult car-movie director, with modesty to match

Josh Sadler

The lifelong 911 enthusiast and founder of Autofarm reveals what’s important to him

The Wiener Riesenrad

No longer the biggest of the big wheels, but certainly one of the most widely seen

The Great Escapement

A radical move for the usually conservative Rolex

Rolex Oysterquartz

As its name suggests, the Rolex of the quartz world

The Aston Martin Project GT Racing Cars

Book of the month Yes, the price

Original illustration for Shell by Reginald Mount

Whether they knew his name or not, whole

1956 Austin-Healey Streamliner by AutoCult

A 1:43-scale model of the car in which

SunGod x Oscar Piastri ‘Renegades’ sunglasses

At the time of writing, Oscar Piastri has

TaylorMade ‘Rors Proto’ irons

After struggling for a decade to get over

Parmigiani Tonda PF GMT Rattrapante Verzasca

The only new thing here is the colour

The Mustang ’65 print by Alban Lerailler

Car designer Alban Lerailler, who recently moved from

Hot Wheels Ferrari 250 GTO & Fiat 642 RN2 Transporter

Sure, the GTO is nice and all, but

Linn Majik DSM network music player

The fifth generation of Linn’s ‘entry-level’ streamer is

The Unexpected by John Ketchell

Painter John Ketchell tips his cap to Tazio

Squale Corallo NOS

If this 37mm diver looks to you like

Lal Katana

In 2021, Canadian company Lal Bikes introduced an

‘Mondrian Goes Cycling’ shirt by t-lab

Inspired by the geometric paintings made by Piet

‘Yellowbird’ leads $15.3m Air/Water sale

Broad Arrow’s Porsche-themed auction headlined by $4.68m 1989 Ruf CTR

TOP 10 P R I C E S APRIL 2025

£3,515,148 ($4,680,000) 1989 Ruf CTR ‘Yellowbird’ Broad Arrow

Buy the best you can… or don’t

Buyers are pickier than ever, but that can present an opportunity for the more hands-on enthusiasts

A lucky lot

RM Sotheby’s, Monterey, USA 15-16 August

Box fresh

H&H Classics, Beds, UK 25 June

1975 Ford Escort Monte Carlo, Coachwork by Frua

Bonhams, Chéserex, Switzerland

1994 BMW 850Ci Historics, Datchet, UK

19 July, historics.co.uk Not only is this

1928 Citroën 12/24 Saloon Iconic Auctioneers, Bicester, UK

1 June, iconicauctioneers.com Believed to be one

1997 VW Golf VR6 Highline ACA, King’s Lynn, UK

14 June, angliacarauctions.co.uk The idea of a

Also Look Out For…

Tom Sage Sr began collecting model trains in

AUCTION DIARY

28 May – 4 June RM Sotheby’s, online

Willys Jeep

One of the world’s most recognisable vehicles, with an anniversary to celebrate

Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona

You could argue forever about whether the Daytona

1989 Ferrari F40

POA from DK Engineering, Hertfordshire, UK

The Insider

HOW’S BUSINESS ? 2024 was tough, but people

SHOWROOM BRIEFS

1970 Lotus Seven S3 £24,995 The Seven

FRACTIONAL OFFERS

Porsche 996 GT3 RS £5000 per syndicate allocation

BMW Isetta

Proof that something designed with economy in mind can also be huge fun

THE LOWDOWN

WHAT TO PAY For such a small

Sébastien Loeb

The most successful rally driver of all time

OUT OF THE SHADOWS

As the Ferrari F50 hits a significant anniversary, James Elliott pits the Fanny Mendelssohn of motoring against its Felix

THE ‘WHAT IF’ VERSIONS

Though the F40 and F50 were resolutely developed as road cars, there were also racing plans

F40 OR F50?

AN OWNER DECIDES

THE MASERATI FOR LEARNER DRIVERS

This remarkably well-preserved 1956 Maserati 200 S starred with Toulo de Graffenried on the track before a career at Scuderia Centro S ud’s racing school. Massimo Delbò charts its extraordinary history

SUSPENSION OF DISBELIEF

It’s 70 years since Citroën’s long-awaited ‘Voiture à Grande Diffusion’ debuted an innovative suspension system – setting a standard for the three generations that followed

THE OTHER HYDRO CITROËNS

Those luxury saloons didn’t have the monopoly on ride comfort – or weirdness

TO MONGOLIA THE HARD WAY

You have three months to travel nearly 20,000km and cross a little-known Asian wilderness. A pair of Soviet military amphibious vehicles should do the trick

PLAYTIME IS OVER!

A road-legal 85%-scale electric ‘Blower’ Bentley has hit the streets…

7 PARTY

As Jaguar prepares for a bold step into the future, Octane celebrates the F-type Project 7, a thrilling sports car that draws on the marque’s Le Mans heritage

EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING

This official continuation actually improves on the greatest Ford Escort ever made. Both their stories are as unlikely as they are fascinating

Pete Brock

This engineer, designer and racer is best known for the Shelby Daytona Coupe but there is so much more to his life and career – from hot rods to hang gliders

Age of Innocenti

For a brief spell in the 1960s, an Italian company built a distinctly Continental-looking coupé based on unlikely British underpinnings. Glen Waddington discovers the Innocenti C