Octane Magazine

IN HIS AS-EVER brilliant column this month, Jay Leno asks: ‘Do you have prejudices and perceptions about certain automobiles?’ Guilty as charged, m’lud. Scores, in fact, but probably top of the heap is an entire marque – Lamborghini. And I’m not even

The UK’s biggest New Year’s Day meet, with more than 1000 classic cars, live music and a barbecue. brooklandsmuseum.com Despite the name, this event in Stony Stratford attracts mid-century and modern classics as well as vintage cars and bikes. vintag

Star turn at the fourth annual Velocity Invitational at Sonoma Raceway was McLaren F1 ace Lando Norris. He was joined by CEO Zak Brown, as well as Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, David Malukas and Tony Kanaan from the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team, and NE

A field of 70 pre-2000 cars; an expertly plotted, 420km route through the Dolomites and part of Austria; and lots of snow. winterace.it Following a four-day visit to South Korea’s bustling capital, crews will journey east and then south to Busan, whe

The Cuban Government has given its blessing to this rally, which will see crews explore the whole country over two-and-a-bit weeks – but note that the authorities require all cars entered to be left-hand-drive. bespokerallies.com It’s impossible to s

A HUGE three-day Aston Martin gathering has taken place in Japan to celebrate the 110th anniversary of the British marque. Named Arcadia – a Greek mythological utopia in the same vein as the Norse Valhalla – the well-attended event attracted more tha

I WAS ABOUT four years old when dad acquired ‘Nellie’, so-called because she was large and grey, like the elephant in the song. She played a huge part in my childhood and, now that I’m her custodian, I use her a lot, too. She’s driven everywhere – I

I REALLY ENJOYED your article on the Land Rover Classic Trophy in Octane 245 and hope it won’t be the last off-road outing for these Works V8 Defenders. Sadly, a lot seem to end up under a cover in a collection. I have never liked to see things in ca

Truth be told, I’m not entirely sure who’s in control here. A deserted stretch of Welsh asphalt winds out ahead, a single-arm wiper struggles to clear water streaming over the Lamborghini Diablo’s arrowhead windscreen, and a mighty V12 sings brusquel

‘Non! Non! There is a huge Tiger tank on the other side of the bridge!’ shouts the Frenchman clutching a rifle, as he crouches on the side of an advancing Churchill. ‘Wow! Then I’m getting out of the way!’ yells back the British tank commander. A Jee

It’s a quietly jaw-dropping track-day here at Silverstone. A stroll along the pit lane, peering into the garages, reveals an abundance of amazing machinery, including a number of instantly recognisable historic race cars and some fantastic modern roa

Remember your impulse control, or rather that you have one. Yes, it’s a Group B car, and this is the perfect playground in which to enjoy it, but don’t come over all Stig of the Dump Valve straightaway – not that this car has a turbocharger, you unde

WE MEET RAY, now in his early 70s but looking far more youthful, slim and a fair stretch over 6ft tall, in a leafy corner of a Northamptonshire industrial estate. Most of the buildings bear the RML logo – the business began as Ray Mallock Atlantic Ra

I’m driving Tom Walkinshaw’s own car, and it’s a Renault. Maybe it’s an age thing but, for me, Tom Walkinshaw Racing, and the man who gave the company his name, will always form a mental association with the Jaguar brand: the Group A XJ-S, the Group

This could just be the story of a car; at 120 years old it certainly warrants it. But it is so much more than that: it’s a story of a daredevil first owner, an aristocratic woman who lived life her way; her ancestors, some of whom loved the car as sh

WHEN THE CLOCKS go back and UK roads start to turn a bit wintry, it’s generally a good time to park your classic in the garage, fit a trickle charger and leave it to hibernate until spring arrives. It’s what I’d advise doing, too, as cars built in th

IN MY LAST report (Octane 236) on the seemingly never-ending Carrera RS restoration, I promised to move on to the last refuge of its rust invasion: the ‘ducktail’ engine lid. While the major work on the bodyshell was underway, the engine lid had esca

IT SEEMED A good time to take the Jaguar down to Hampshire for its pre-winter service at Jaguar specialist Twyford Moors (jagxk.com). The XK had been running fine but it needed an inspection and good spanner check, the oil, filter and fluids changing

WATCHING SOMEONE drive off in your car is always a slightly strange feeling. Don’t worry, I haven’t sold the Honda, but rather lent it to our sister title evo for a recent ‘Icon’ feature. The Integra has long been a cult car, but is it really deservi

NEXEN AND VICTRA. Not tyre brands I’ve heard much about, to be honest, but as they weren’t so old and had life left in the tread, their replacement hadn’t been top of the Boxster’s ‘to do’ list. But you might recall the transformation brought about b

AT BROOKLANDS, Mercedes-Benz has gathered everything from an original 300SL Gullwing through to the latest 2023 AMG models. Is there really a common thread connecting 70 years of SLs? Only one way to find out. I start the day in the SL43, the current

THE WING. It’s all about the rear wing. OK, that’s a slight overstatement, but when the mighty Ferrari PR machine namechecks the legendary F50 (the last Ferrari to sport a fixed aero appendage) in its own press material you know there’s confidence in

ESTABLISHED OVER 30 years ago by Tim Fenna, Frontline Developments is already well-known for upgrading MGBs, not least the LE50 of ten years ago. With the LE60 it’s marking the MGB’s 60th anniversary, this time with V8 power instead of an MX-5 four-c

IT WAS DERIDED by the eminent ex-pat German architecture critic Sir Nicklaus Pevsner. Abhorring the proliferation of factories along the roads radiating out of London, he delared ‘perhaps the most offensive of these modernistic atrocities’ to be the

RELIEVING CAPTURED PRISONERS of war of their watches is something of a military tradition. After all, a watch – small, portable, valuable and useful – is an ideal spoil. Usually, the unfortunate prisoner doesn’t get much of a say in the process, so i

Bike builder J Laverack bills this as ‘the Aston Martin Valkyrie of bicycles’, and that’s not mere hot air: like the astonishing hypercar dreamt up by Adrian Newey, the .1R is more the result of an obsession than the product of a business plan. Each

AS A KID, I’d save up my pocket money for a bus fare, head into Bath on the local Windowlicker Special and haunt the watch shops, begging for out-of-date catalogues. In less target-driven, corporately controlled days, people were happy to hand over a

By Cult Scale Models Price £189 Material Resincast According to the unwritten law of automotive design, which states that the original is always the purest and least compromised, the Excel shouldn’t look as good as it does – after all, it had its gen

MARTIN ÜBELHER & PATRICK DASSE, Dingwort Verlag, £350, ISBN 978 3 87166 086 3 German publisher Dingwort blew us away five years ago when it simultaneously released not one but half-adozen hefty hardback picture books devoted to the 105-series Alfa Ro

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RM SOTHEBY’S HELD a dedicated sale to offer this very special Ferrari to the world, where it sold for $51.7m. While that’s some way off the $60m-plus presale expectation, that’s still a record auction price for a Ferrari, and the second most valuable

Italian businessman Romano Artioli revived the Bugatti brand in 1987, unveiling the 553bhp EB110 GT four years later, followed by a lighter, more powerful Super Sport (SS) version soon after. 114 production cars (84 GT and 30 SS) and around 25 protot

The auction listing goes into great detail about the correctness of this widebody supercar from the late 1980s, as well it should: documentation is everything on these cars. Both factory and aftermarket lookalike body kits could be purchased in this

RM SOTHEBY’S will kick-off its 2024 auction calendar in Arizona, which is always a real hotbed for American classics, as showcased by this exceptional trio of special Mustangs on offer. Instantly recognisable up front is the 1966 Shelby GT350 H, an e

SEEING A LIFELONG collection go under the hammer must be a bittersweet moment for owners and curators. That moment will arrive during the Monaco Historic Grand Prix for this vendor, when one of the most important European private collections will be

IS IT REALLY possible to improve on sports car perfection? As two-seater soft-tops go, the original Lotus Elan was dynamically pretty much spot-on, which is why it was benchmarked by Mazda when it created the original MX-5. But like most cars with th

MOTOR SHOW CONCEPT cars are often wild, boundary-pushing and would make little sense on the road. That’s why they rarely make their way to production, and even when they do they’re often watered down. That’s not an accusation you could level at the P

I’VE LIVED IN the Midlands all my life, but my family was not in the motor industry. My dad Robin was actually a bank manager, but he had a massive passion for cars and I grew up surrounded by TR6s and MGBs and then Porsches. And magazines. Lots of m