Innholdsfortegnelse for Volume 14 i RETROMOTIVE

I am going to address the elephant in the room up-front. Citroën can make some pretty unusual, a little weird, “out there”, call them what you want, designs, and the Citroën DS is a classic example of this and is a strangely-popular vehicle. The DS model is the one you see driving around occasionally; you first look at the car – perhaps, no doubt with mixed emotions – then, look to the Driver and always wonder what they must know which you do not. Do not get me wrong, for me, it is not a like or dislike thing. Instead, as in the art world, where an artist has not conformed to the idea of trying to make something everyone will like: rather, they intend to evoke an emotion –…

The 1997 Subaru ‘McRae’ Impreza S3 you see in these stunning photos is a legendary rally car – and rightly so! It is the perfect combination of Subaru’s evolution of its rally versions paired with one of the greatest Rally Drivers of all time – giving Subaru victories in five rounds of the 1997 World Rally Championship. This was the greatest year for Colin McRae and Subaru; and, although, McCrae and Co-Driver Nicky Grist finished second outright in the championship, there was only one point separating them from Tommi Makinen after 14 rounds. Also, of significance for Subaru and their Prodrive 555 racing team was the dominant win of the manufacturers championship for this same year, in what was essentially a brand-new package. Subaru’s contribution to this successful partnership starts…

The collection of Milan-based Architect Corrado Lopresto ranks among the best in the world. The Key – an annual which ranks individuals based on the value and provenance of their collections – placed Lopresto at 22nd: more significant than Andreas Mohringer, but not quite so important as Ralph Lauren. Though, if you are like me and think a list is just another divisive tactic to get people arguing over something they might normally bond over, you can appreciate the life’s work of Corrado Lopresto for what it is: an immense and valuable tribute to Italian automotive design. Not that he would remember, but I had the privilege of sitting next to Lopresto at the first International Historic Motoring Awards in London, back in 2011. Positioned between me and fellow Collector…

It was to be America’s first supercar. Ford had been designing vehicles based on its ‘Aero’ language since the 1980s: when the original Taurus saved the company from the increasingly confident – and better built – competition. By the mid-1990s, Aero was standard-operating procedure at the Ford design department – if it “ain’t broke” The design team were readying the proposals for senior management at Dearborn. James Hope, a young Designer who had started at the Detroit Car Maker less than two years earlier, did not expect his model would make the cut. See, Hope had missed the Aero memo. Or, more so, ignored it. Instead, the young Designer was inspired by sharper designs – such as the F-117 stealth fighter: A radar-defying US-military secret until 1988, that saw acute…

It was the viral video for a generation. And it was a proper video, too: VHS. None of your instant-click YouTube spoon-feeding. It was a bootleg VHS, brought to my house by a fellow Car Enthusiast with those tell-tale teenage words: “You gotta see this!” “Faszination on the Nürburgring,” said the cover. Google it now, grab a cuppa, and set aside 20 minutes of your life. The rest of this article will make more sense once you have. For me, back in 1992, there was the familiar clunk as the tape loaded in the VCR: the reels started spinning, and the fuzzy color images appeared on my parents’ anvil of a 1980s television. “Sometimes we like to play with our cars,” it began. “Today, we’d like to invite you to…

“Classic cars”, “culture”, “color pop”. Those are the words which come to mind when scrolling through Ian Wood’s menagerie on Instagram. A stunning yellow Porsche 993 clashing with a purple background. Stark, but stunning. A red Ferrari – showing off its big ass – clashing with a yellow background. Stark, but stunning. A bare-bone Buick clashing with a Californian sunset. Stark, but – again – stunning. You could get lost for hours with these contrasting and crafty color combinations. Ian Wood is Andy Warhol reincarnated in automotive photography. When did it all start? Ian said: “Ever since I remember, I’ve always loved cars. I was able to pick out brands and models before stringing a sentence together.” His parents’ favorite childhood memory of Ian is all the diecast cars rolling…

Since Enzo’s passing, in 1988, the prancing horse had struggled to get out of the gate. Despite top-tier Drivers – including Mansell and Prost – Maranello was a different shade of red. Having not won a driver’s title since 1979, the Ferrari 642 went embarrassingly winless in 1991 – with Prost acrimoniously sacked. Then, both Mansell and Prost would claim the 1992 and 1993 drivers titles, respectively – for rival, Williams. The scarlet cars would not win a single race in that time. The problem was not the Drivers. The problem was Ferrari. Enter Luca di Montezemolo. In November, 1991, the charismatic Bolognian (Italian from the city of Bologna), who had been Enzo’s right-hand man, was appointed Ferrari CEO with the brief to reshape the entire organization: from road cars…

Restomods are an exciting development and modernization of classic cars. They have been around since the first hot rods appeared and have taken many forms being adopted by the aftermarket companies; as well as, some incredible one-offs being built in backyard sheds around the world. More recently, restomods have evolved further and emerged as, essentially, new vehicles in their own right. We only need to look at the largest car manufacturers and their adoption of the restomod concept for “new millennium” versions of their original classics. Best of those are undoubtably the 2005 Ford GT retro version of the original late 1960s GT40, Fiats’ 124 Spider, the Mini Cooper, and, more recently, Renaults’ Alpine A110 – just to name a few. The restomod recipe is simple – take a classic…

It was an act of rebellion. Nothing made in Australia could match the exotic, space-age-looking exterior of the Purvis Eureka shown at the 1974 Melbourne Motor Show. The Eureka name came from Founder Allan Purvis, a determined man who – the story goes – was told that it would never make it past Australian Design Rules. Like a red flag to a bull, Purvis took a chance on the fiber-glass sports car to show that a small local operation could overcome both the bureaucracy and critics of the kit-car industry with a truly desirable unique product. Amid the super-car age, sparked by Gandini’s Miura and resoundingly followed by the Countach reveal in 1971, who would have thought that a rear-engine rear-drive two-seat exotic could come out of Australia? What is…

Alone. Calm. No one has ever been here before. You are 30-odd feet down in crisp snow-melted water. There is nothing, but you, your thoughts, and pure stillness. There is little noise … but you must go. There is no oxygen tank on your back. You have to rise up to finish. The moment at the bottom is fleeting, unique, and magical – every dive is different; every immersion, a push into the unknown. Nick said: “A lot of times, there is nothing at the bottom of these lakes. So it is like being on another planet: Except you go down, instead of up.” Nick is an Alpine Free Diver and Porsche 944 owner. “It’s weird down there. Once you get to 20 feet, 30 feet, all of a sudden,…

From the original purchase of Geoff’s Mini Cooper S to registration took 31 years. While this clearly is a labor of love and dedication, it was also constantly interrupted by other “shiny” things. The long build time in itself is not that uncommon; though, what is unique is discovering, at the completion of the build, that his pride and joy was legally listed as stolen. Of course, there is more to this story which I will get to shortly; but, first, an introduction to Geoff and his “hot” Mini. Geoff grew up in the United Kingdom – very close to the famous Aintree and Oulton Park race circuits – and, from an early age, frequented them both. His hero is Stirling Moss, who won his first ever World Championship victory…