Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 7 i RETROMOTIVE

Lane’s passion for cars was instilled when she was growing up in the car-centric city of Los Angeles. As a child, she would drive her toy Barbie Jeep Wrangler up and down her driveway until the wheels literally fell off. The first real car Lane drove was her mum’s BMW 330Ci when she was in sixth grade. ‘I didn’t grow up thinking of us as a “car family”, but now looking back we did have a lot of BMWs… California loves BMWs, and so did my parents!' Her dad also owned a ’69 Porsche 911S in which she got driven to school on special occasions. Growing up in LA perhaps you could be forgiven for thinking your family owning BMWs and Porsches was normal. But regardless of whether it was…

The Countach is the House of the Raging Bull’s masterpiece from the pen and genius of the great design master Marcello Gandini. This fascinating, unconventional car with its outstanding performance represents the quintessence of Lamborghini legend. The Countach is everything a supercar should be: otherworldly, impractical, inaccessible and prime bedroom-wall poster material. But what of the name, Countach? In August 2018 Gandini said: When we made cars for the car shows, we would always work late into the night and we were all tired, so we would joke around to keep our morale up. There was this fabricator working with us who made the locks. He was two metres tall and had enormous hands. He spoke only in a Piedmontese dialect and lacked proper Italian. Piedmontese is different from Italian and…

The idea of the ‘Great American Road Trip’ is heavily ingrained in the psyche of many people around the world. Referenced and romanticised in pop culture from film to TV and music, the road trip embodies ideas of freedom, discovery, exploration and escape from the monotony of day to day life. When we were faced with a cross-country American move, the key advice we received was to avoid flying with our dog Harvey due to the stress this would put him under. What better excuse to get out and see the country; and having a fondness for classic cars, why not do it in the ultimately romanticised way – hitting the road with your dog in a vintage 4x4. We had a year in LA and knew we would be…

Peter Constantinou has a squadron of original Jeeps, racked and stacked in an overflowing shed of vehicles and parts and bits and pieces and lawnmowers and stuff. He’s just a collector, he says. And been that way since childhood days discovering old wartime materials in Papua New Guinea then buying his first Jeep as a teenager. Today Peter has 24 complete original Willys and Ford Jeeps plus enough deconstructed pieces tucked away for another 15. Or maybe more, says the signboard specialist. Maybe 20? Then there’s a rare amphibious model tucked into a corner and, up in a second shed, a very rare cut-away Jeep, body and all internals cut open so that mechanics could better understand the workings of these 1940s machines. That may be one of only two…

Once a Ford man, always a Ford man. A thirty-year hiatus from the madness of automotive collection and restoration did nothing to dampen Michael Uri’s allegiance to the Blue Oval. With a garage full of meticulously maintained American muscle, it’s the big brute dominating the driveway that brings me out today. ‘It’s been Fords my whole life. Well, I did have a Valiant and a Holden before I seen the light.’ It’s one of those ubiquitous vehicles that transcends allegiance though. My inner bogan exhaled a very drawn out ‘cooool’ when I first spotted Michael’s Econoline at a local car show. It would be hard to think of another vehicle that has undergone such a transformation in functionality and desirability over the decades. A sports car has always been a…

When it comes to vintage Heuer Autavia chronographs from the late ’60s and early ’70s, none are more sought-after than the white-dialled Ref 1163T – affectionately known amongst collectors as the ‘Siffert’. The original Heuer Autavia, launched in 1933, was designed as a dashboard timer for automotive racing and flying – the name derived from an amalgam of two words, Auto and Aviation. The Autavia wristwatch then followed in 1962, designed as the ultimate racing chronograph, which became an instant classic for CEO Jack Heuer and the brand. In 1969, Heuer launched the first automatic chronograph movement in the world: the Calibre 11, and the Autavia 1163 collection was born. There were numerous designs of the Autavia, with different coloured dials, hands and bezel combinations. The Siffert was recognisable from…

Love triangles? Wedged Wonders unites a collection of era-defining concept cars from the famous carrozzeria, the Italian car body design houses synonymous with avant-garde vehicle styling. In the late 1960s, these carrozzeria, such as Bertone, Pininfarina and Italdesign, would go head to head during a period of outlandish one-upmanship that would see a trend for straight lines conquering the curve. The concept car or prototype is the definition of automotive artistry, a symbol of the direction and reputation of its creator. These show cars display new experiments in design, thinking and manufacturing, though they are often never mass-produced, remaining as one-offs, ultimately defined by their rarity. In a nation famed for its celebration of the aesthetic, the outlandish designs from the carrozzeria at the end of the 1960s and throughout…

Arguably the most famous Mustang to grace the silver screen was piloted by the great Steve McQueen in the 1968 film, Bullitt. It’s unlikely that another Mustang will come close to knocking that green ’68 Fastback off its perch, particularly now the car has resurfaced and is due to go under the hammer in 2020, without reserve. Running a close second though is Eleanor, the fabled 1967 Fastback Mustang brought to life by the 2000 action movie Gone in 60 Seconds, starring Nicolas Cage. As far as desirability and star power goes, Eleanor became an instant success and spawned a number of replicas and recreations. Interestingly, before the 2000 movie, the Shelby GT500 was never referred to as Eleanor. The 2000 movie is in fact a re-boot of the 1974…

The small French marque created a legend in a time when others failed and faded away into obscurity. The Alpine A110, produced from 1961 to 1977, is a vehicle universally adored by car enthusiasts. It’s light, powerful, agile and is simultaneously beautiful and aggressive. To see Alpine in perspective, consider the highly acclaimed new A110, which is a most evocative tribute. This beauty looks tiny and delicate – until you park it beside the earlier car. It’s not unlike comparing any of the BMW MINI’s with the Issigonis original; almost no new small car is small in the way of that Mini or, say, an NSU Prinz, or before them the Renault 4CV. The 2018 A110 is astonishingly light for a new millennium vehicle, weighing just 1080kg, which means its…

Les Siviour was 15 times an Australian off-road class champion. Outright champ in 1987. A dirt-spewing, bump-jumping daredevil in bog standard Nissan Patrols. He’d grown up on a farm outside Griffith in New South Wales, started driving a Model A Ford ute when he was six then moved to an ex-army Willys Jeep, left-hand-drive. And still recalls the time the fun began: I was watering a paddock up there, it was a hard paddock of paspalum, and there was water over the track and I turned sideways and did a great big slide across the paddock and thought ‘geez that was good fun’. It was just accidental but it was good, that’s where I got started. It was the fun of it having it go sideways and controlling it. When…

Growing up in the inner-city western Sydney suburb of Stanmore, Michael Polito caught some advice early on from a local car collector that stuck with him his entire life. ‘I must have been about seven at the time,’ he recalls. ‘My older brothers were all into cars and knew about a warehouse not too far from our place that was full of old cars.’ Michael and his older brother Rick tried their luck and knocked on the door. ‘We asked if we could have a look at his cars and he was so accommodating.’ The warehouse was full of cars draped with dust covers. Under them lived old Lotus racers, open-wheelers and various other exotica, but tucked away in the corner was a beautiful red Ferrari Dino that just drew…

A green HG Holden circles an old factory at walking pace, idling momentarily here and there before moving on. It completes three or four circuits before it pulls up beside me. The occupants have stopped to check out an HD Holden I’m shooting for Street Machine magazine. I’m at the old General Motors manufacturing plant in Acacia Ridge, Queensland. The first car the factory ever produced was the HD Holden, hence the location. ‘My father worked here for many years,’ says Joe as we chat. ‘It’s a very important part of my life.’ ‘I‘ve bought all of my kids out here to show them where their grandfather worked for so many years of his life.’ He introduces his partner Justine. ‘She hasn’t driven the HG before, so I thought this…