Category: News & Stories

Some people like to make noise, be visible, create waves. Others prefer to blend into the background, do whatever needs to be done, move without attracting attention. Well, it’s not really easy not to attract attention while driving a two-tone Rolls-Royce, but simultaneously this car is the opposite of all those gaudy, noisy supercars which are the equivalent of a bunch of peacock feathers stuck into a Victorian hat. It can do things none of them can, too.

Contemplating a long-distance trip? Thinking of using your Rolls instead of suffering the hustle and bustle of airports, and the envious stares of foreign officials when boarding a private jet? Why not, indeed. Two people can travel aboard it in cosseting luxury, and four in astonishing comfort. This example, like any modern Rolls-Royce, is entirely bespoke, built to a unique order. With a total price, excluding taxes, of £284,025, it not only sports the two-tone finish of Black and Arctic White, but also an interior trimmed in fabulously supple Purple Silk leather. Extras? Yes, there are some, including 21-inch part-polished ten spoke wheels, a camera system and a Bespoke Rolls-Royce Audio system. The two latter ones are worth their weight in gold, especially the audio. The camera system helps when pulling ouf of blind junctions, where instead of guesswork and of suddenly blocking someone’s way with the bulk of the Rolls’ bodywork, you can look at a a screen (which can also display a NightVision image when driving in poor visibility) and see all the oncoming traffic. The sound system… Well, it is the best I have experienced in a motor vehicle. The clarity and faithfulness of the sound image are stunning, and nowhere do my opera and jazz CD’s sound so lifelike. It is a true audiophile-grade system, with no useless controls to distract the listener, and the purest sound of a cello outside of Yo-Yo Ma’s living room.

And it is no slouch, either. The new breed of supercar drivers, those who abhor corners and thrive on traffic light grands prix, perhaps would not be satisfied, but who cares. The very large Wraith is capable of the 0-100 km/h sprint in 4.6 seconds, and can keep accelerating, effortlessly, all the way until its artificially governed 250 km/h top speed. It is much more aerodynamic than it seems on a superficial level, but nevertheless aerodynamics mean little hen faced with a turbocharged V-12 engine, developing 632 horsepower and 820 Nm of torque, driving the rear wheels of the 2360 kg machine via a silky-smooth 8-speed automatic gearbox. The transmission is helped by data from the satellite navigation system, and is able to predict corners and instances when it is necessary to hold on to a given gear. And it really works. The only thing it can’t recognize is gradients, and the data is included in the stream from a GPS receiver, so I still hope Rolls-Royce engineers will find a way to integrate it in the future. In terms of performance it’s a true GT, capable of staying with the fastest cars on Earth on a lengthy trip across the continent. The people aboard the Wraith will arrive unruffled. In contrast, supercar passengers will end their journey exhausted, deafened, shaken and stirred, the opposite of traditional grand touring. The Starlight Headliner, with its 1,600 LEDs sewn by hand into the fabric, provides an added touch of true luxury: dimmed down, it provides a subtle ambient light which the eyes never tire of.

Does it go round corners? You bet it does. Not in the way of a 911, and with noticeably more body roll, but body roll is good: it tells you what the car is doing. The steering is light, but precise and linear, and gives the driver enough confidence to press on. If you don’t forget the considerable weight, the braking will also be sufficient: in reality it weighs the same as a fully equipped Porsche Cayenne! Don’t act rashly, and the Wraith will help you go very fast indeed. The only thing I don’t like is the lane-keeping assistance which, on crowned and strangely cambered roads, imparts the sensation of vagueness in the steering around the straight-ahead position. Once the assistance is switched off (for instances by picking the Traction mode of the DSC stability control), the sensation disappears. It is a minor point anyway.

In order to test the Rolls-Royce Wraith’s ability to cover long distances with ease, I decided to travel to a location where it could meet one if its spiritual ancestors, the Merlin aviation engine. It not only powered the legendary Supermarine Spitfire fighter plane, but also the sleek P-51 Mustang, the Avro Lancaster bomber and many other Allied aircraft. Aviation piston engines have always been more advanced than car engines in terms of their power-to-weight ratio, and the technical solutions used to produce power. Aircraft engines therefore used supercharging and exhaust gas turbocharging very widely, in order to improve the performance at high altitudes, much earlier than car engines started to utilize those means of forced induction.

The Merlin is also a V-12 layout, like the engine of the Wraith, and it is turbocharged. The fuel supply to the cylinders is handled by carburetors in the Merlin, of course, and not a sophisticated fuel injection system with electronic engine management like in the Wraith, but a similarity, at least in spirit, exists. There is a considerable difference between them in terms of engine capacity, however, as the swept volume of a Merlin is around 27 liters, and the current Rolls engine is only 6.6 liters. The two companies are now totally unrelated, and only share a name, but back in time there was only one Rolls-Royce, and the name always stood for unparalleled excellence. Today, driving the Wraith to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden Aerodrome (www.shuttleworth.org) I could not help thinking that there was indeed such a thing as beautiful technology. Things which simply look right, and work well. Shuttleworth maintains one of the oldest fleets of fantastic historic aircraft in the world, and works very hard to preserve them (and a lot of cars!) for posterity. The Wraith, standing side by side with their 1941 Spitfire Mk.VC in the livery of the 310 Czech Squadron, reminds me of all the attributes of modernity we take for granted. Including peace and freedom.

Many thanks to the wonderful people at the Shuttleworth Collection for their help with the production of this feature.

Automotive designer and engineer, Professor Gordon Murray has been awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the Queen’s New Year Honours 2019. The award is in recognition of his ‘services to Motoring’ after a lifetime of devising and delivering creative and ground-breaking projects in the motorsport and automotive sectors.

Gordon Murray said: “It is extremely humbling to receive a CBE in the Queen’s New Year Honours. I’ve spent more than 50 years doing what I love, working with a wealth of highly-talented and creative people around the world, but primarily in the UK. From the competing during the heyday of Formula One, to designing the world’s fastest supercar, I’ve loved every minute. I’d like to dedicate this honour to all those I’ve worked with over the years and I look forward to an exciting new future for the Gordon Murray Group.”

Having designed his first car in 1967, Murray moved to the UK to join the Brabham Formula One Team as Technical Director winning two world championships (1981 and 1983), and then moved to McLaren International as Technical Director in 1988 where the team won three consecutive championships – 1988, 1989 and 1990.

After 50 Grand Prix wins in Formula One, he went on to establish a new company – McLaren Cars Limited. The Company’s first project was the renowned McLaren F1 Road Car. A racing version won two world sports car championships and the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1995. Murray guided several other successful projects at McLaren Cars, culminating with the Mercedes-Benz SLR McLaren programme.

In 2005 Murray formed a new British company for the design, engineering, prototyping and development of vehicles – Gordon Murray Design Limited. The Surrey-based company has a global reputation as one of the finest automotive design teams in the world and is responsible for an innovative and disruptive manufacturing technology: iStream®. More information: www.gordonmurraydesign.com

Many classic car collectors begin their racing adventures with a Jaguar XK. The reasons are multiple: it is user-friendly, parts are easy to come by, and there are specialists who have the necessary experience to prepare it. One of these is CKL Developments in East Sussex, UK, one of the world’s leading experts in Jaguar XK and E-type racing preparation. And I learned that inside one of their cavernous buildings they had a very special racing XK120 with a lot of history…

This LHD roadster, or OTS, as the British preferred to call it in period (the abbreviation stands for Open Two Seater), started its life in July, 1952, when it was manufactured and promptly shipped to the US of A. Actually more cars were made in LHD than in RHD form, as in the early 1950’s Jaguar, in order to survive and to secure rationed supplies of vital steel, had to export cars at all costs. Most of them went to the US, where the first production XK120 was delivered to Clark Gable, the world-famous movie actor. This one had been ordered by the Hornburg Jaguar dealership of Los Angeles: in fact the West Hollywood company started to sell Jaguars in 1947, and it still does! The sleek Jag was bought by one Mr. Stephen A. Bodensieck, a gunsmith who was also a car enthusiast, and loved to tinker with Jaguars and Ferraris. He enjoyed his British sports car, but his restless spirit probably made him move on to something else, and he sold the XK.

The second US owner was Mr. Dick Miladelaroca, who used the car the way its makers had intended: racing it on Sundays. He took part in a number of Vintage Auto Racing Association events. We don’t know how fast he was, but he must have kept the car in perfect shape, because records show that the XK120 had won a Jaguar Club concours d’elegance event while in the custody of Mr. Miladelaroca. Original photos of the car racing in the States exist, and it seems the British vehicle enjoyed itself away from its ancestral home. At some point CSK 303 (the car’s numberplate) was repatriated to the United Kingdom, and became a familiar sight at race events. Prepared by CKL Developments, it took part in HSCC meetings, and the JEC Jaguar XK Championship in the hands of a number of proficient drivers.

And now I am driving it. Much more slowly, of course. We are not at a racetrack, but on a public road in East Sussex. A twisty road, bordered with ditches, shrubbery, and unyielding trees. I am driving over 100,000 British pounds of historic racing car, and I am tempted to really put my foot down. The Jag has a freshly-built Sigma 3.8 engine, which started easily, but idled in an enchantingly lumpy way when warmed up, hinting at the competition-bred power within. As I wiggled my fat frame into the seat, I noticed some new instruments in the cockpit which otherwise had been left in a nicely patinated condition. This XK has been raced all its life, and it is ready to race now (eligible for the 2020 Jaguar Classic Challenge one-hour race, preceding the Le Mans Classic 24-hour event), albeit it carries a legal numberplate. The suspension is set up pretty low, and during my test drive I wince several times as the bottom of the rear muffler scrapes against the uneven tarmac, creating a modest shower of sparks.

That said, the chassis composure is truly reassuring and the steering feels taut and precise, making me long for a track session at the Silverstone Grand Prix circuit. In the meantime, however, I revel in the low-end grunt of the engine which seems to keep pulling whatever the rev level. The gearshift requires some getting used to, but the modified brakes feel fantastic, strong and positive. They are not the original drums of the year 1952, and the car does not comply with the strict FIA rules, but can nevertheless be raced in a number of race series. At the same time it is an ideal proposition for beginner race drivers, especially those with no previous experience of early cars, those requiring more skill. Once they have mastered this XK120, it will have given them a lot of confidence, as it is expertly set up to be fast, but not treacherous. I feel completely at ease in it, and, once I am used to the gearshift action, I can go faster and enjoy an almost total lack of the expected understeer. This is one composed sports car, certainly much better than when it was new.

Just a few minutes of driving this great XK immerses me in some sort of a daydream, in which I push the Jaguar to the limit, accelerating out of Tertre Rouge onto the long Hunaudières straight at Le Mans. And daydreams usually end abruptly… so does this one, when I have to slow down and direct the Jaguar’s long nose into the gate, and later into the workshop. As it cools down, making all kinds of minute noises, I reflect on what a perfect tool it is for a classic car enthusiast who started off in something like an MGB, and is ready to graduate to something more serious and much faster. Out of my reach, unfortunately. Nothing like a reality check to end an otherwise perfect day…

Our thanks to Rupert Manwaring and the helpful staff at CKL Developments (ckl.co.uk) for their invaluable help in producing this feature.

For me, a real Gran Turismo car must have a huge, normally-aspirated engine which permits it to accelerate without apparent effort. Without effort, without breaking a sweat, in an unruffled, suave manner. Other means of propulsion, including turbocharged engines, compared to a big atmospheric engine always seem so plebeian. In their pursuit of absolute, clumsy power they all lose any residual subtlety in the way they react to minute movements of the accelerator pedal. Can’t help it, that’ what I think. Italian cars which created the GT genre after World War II were all like that: able to cover lots of miles without running out of breath, without hysterically rapid gearchanging, without all the things which annoy people able to appreciate the quality of a Brioni suit and Salvatore Ferragamo’s Gancini Bit Driver loafers.

I believe the Maserati GranTurismo did not need to be visually refreshed for 2018, but apparently its maker thought otherwise: Sport and MC versions are available, as well as the SportLine pack. The car looks just as good as when it was first launched, a rare occurrence nowadays. It is heavy, agreed, but so what if I see echoes of the A6GCS in its shape? It looks fantastic, and the bulging fenders over the front wheels, very much like the teardrop shapes behind the headlights of the Porsche 911, help the driver place the car accurately in a corner. Granted, it’s not exactly small, but, driving it fast, I search for the expected understeer, in vain. In the dry, and at reasonable speeds, I search for it in vain.

It has an efficient navigation system and a very sophisticated stability control system (called MSPII) and other wonders of modernity. None of these features, however, are able to obscure the simple beauty of every drive in this very special car. The electronic devices are not there to mask engineering mistakes or calibration errors, they are simply a bonus. The GranTurismo is a bit like the crocodile. An animal which should have died out alongside the dinosaurs, but cared not a whit about the pressure of history and lives to this day without a care in the world. For me it’s one of the most pleasant cars built today with just one pair of doors. It’s like a date with an eternally young Sophia Loren, it’s like sharing a bottle of prosecco at a bar in Rome with an eternally young Marcello Mastroianni, it’s like watching Michelangelo paint something on the ceiling of a church. It’s a work of art. Get one while you still can.

The Maserati coupe is not a car for the computer game crowd, not at all. Not for the aficionado of the DSG gearbox in a company Volkswagen, nor for quarter mile racers. It is simply the last analog, neutral, so natural sports car on the market today. Never does it feel outdated or obsolete. Quite the opposite: it communicates with its driver with a zeal not found today in automobiles pretending to be sports cars. The 4.7-liter V8 with its Ferrari DNA produces 460 hp and 520 Nm of torque, but the numbers don’t tell the story. Its flexibility, its lazy and restrained power and the engine note do. After driving it, the fake engine sounds produced by BMW and Audi loudspeakers will just make you sick.

To be continued

The BMW 507 was so perfectly resolved in terms of design that only two stylists attempted to improve on the Graf’s work. One was Raymond Loewy, in 1957, but his creation was so ugly it is but a curious footnote in the history of the iconic car. But there was another designer who tried it, and his work makes much more sense. Giovanni Michelotti, so well known in Britain for his work on various Triumphs, from the Herald to the Stag, was a prolific designer who always sought ways to entice new customers. Hoping to win a new contract with BMW (he was already consulting on the BMW 700) he started sketching a more modern skin for the BMW 507 chassis in 1957. Michelotti bought a chassis via the Italian BMW importer, Alessandro Paolini of Casa dell’ Automobili, in 1958, and contracted the body panel work to Scaglietti in Modena, the builder of so many fantastic Ferrari bodies, and the assembly was done at the workshop of Alfredo Vignale in Turin.

This prototype, acquired by BMW in 2006 after a complicated life, is now called “3200 Michelotti Vignale”, and was originally presented publicly in Turin in 1959. Unfortunately for both BMW and Michelotti, the talented Italian was unable to persuade BMW to continue the production of the 507 with an updated body, built in Italy at lower cost. The car looks a bit like a Maserati, and has a completely different air to that of a standard Von Goertz 507. It also has electric window lifters and a cockpit more cramped than the regular one.

Having driven both a normal 507 and the Michelotti prototype over the same roads, I must admit that the latter proved more stimulating, perhaps due to its unique nature and complicated provenance. It is in fact heavier, probably due to its prototype nature and the abundant use of lead filler by Vignale’s craftsmen. Still, due to a different, less relaxed driving position and a different windshield vista, the placement of the car in corners seems curiously easier, and I was tempted to push it harder. A different exhaust note, much harsher and louder, also lends the car a different flavor. A redesigned dashboard looks right. Do I like it more than the standard car? In terms of appearance, no, but in terms of rarity and history, I have to give it the nod.

While being road-tested in the heat of an Alpine spring it suffered from the same ailment which many 507’s suffer from, namely fuel starvation resulting probably from fuel evaporation from the twin carbs efficiently heated in the vee of the V8 engine. At full throttle the car would run smoothly, and when the pedal was lifted, the engine would die no matter what speed you were traveling at and what traffic predicament you would find yourself in. If the speed was high enough, you could declutch, and then drop the clutch and the engine would catch. If you were going slowly, the car would stall and the driver would inevitably end up red-faced.

It happened to me too during a photoshoot, running up an incline in a picturesque Swiss village, right in front of a group of jaded British journalists… Much to their surprise I engaged reverse, pressed the clutch pedal and sped away downhill, backwards, propelled by gravity, on a very twisty road with only the inside rearview mirror for guidance. When I felt the car was moving fast enough, I released the clutch, the engine caught and I could drive back up in first, keeping the revs high. A risky move, I admit, but nothing very new to someone taught to drive in Communist-era junk. Perhaps that incident is one of the reasons I feel endeared to the befinned BMW-based Michelotti prototype?

I am not exactly a fan of the 507 as an icon, and of the gushing style used to describe it usually, but I see its importance in the grand scheme of things, especially as an incentive to view past failures as victories, with the benefit of hindsight. BMW can do that extremely well.

For starters, it is really beautiful in the flesh. In 1956 it must have been stunning, unless it was parked next to a Gullwing. The proportions are ideal, the surfacing superb, and the details timelessly elegant. The engine starts well enough when cold (totally different when very hot) and the gearbox action instils confidence. There is no American-style V8 burble, just a technical, clean, Germanic engine note which never becomes intrusive. So far, so good. It doesn’t accelerate as well as one may expect, getting to 100 kph in about 12 seconds from standstill, and its top speed is around 200 kph, but I doubt many current owners have experienced that. Steering is heavy and vague, and while the car can be hustled along a mountain road, it requires skill and doesn’t flatter the driver. At least the suspension is supple and soaks up bumps pretty well. The controls are nicely weighted, but that only serves to emphasize other, more negative characteristics.

Stodgy, clumsy, not exactly conducive to spirited driving, the BMW 507 is not a driver’s car, but as a poseur’s car, a cruiser, a boulevardier, it is quite credible. Yeah, I know Hans Stuck raced one and won his class at a hillclimb in 1958, but Hans Stuck had won hillclimbs in the deadly V16 Auto Unions, and he could drive anything with wheels on it faster than anyone else. So his sole win means nothing for mere mortals.

But the appeal of a sports car lies not in the fact that an extremely gifted professional driver can drive it fast, but that any buyer can feel like a hero while driving it. And in that respect the 507 is definitely underwhelming. The wooden brakes (all but the last few cars had four Alfin drum brakes) need a proper shove to decelerate the car, and at speed the chassis feels average for the period. Granted, it’s safer for an inexperienced wheelman than a Gullwing, but also because the Mercedes arrives at corners more quickly plus it overwhelms the senses with the abundance of stimuli. In comparison the 507 appears almost anaesthetized, and, to me at least, boring. Yes, the look over the hood and fenders compensates that to a degree, but it’s much worse to drive than to look at. Apologies if I shatter someone’s dream, but that is my opinion. A Gullwing, on the other hand, is much more challenging to drive, especially to drive fast, actually dangerous, but once you get into a groove in it, it feels better than the outlandish looks suggest. Haters, hate me all you want. (to be continued).

Most people today connect the iconic BMW 507 with Elvis Presley, who owned one, recently restored to its former glory, and with some unspecified golden age in the history of the Munich-based brand. In fact that beautiful car was a commercial disaster, wasn’t too good to drive and that period in the history of BMW was one burdened by doom and gloom…

During WWII BMW did not really build cars, as in those days a ministry told the industrialists what it wanted them to manufacture, sometimes making for very strange bedfellows (Mercedes built Opel Blitz trucks for a while). With its aviation engine production capacity growing (it acquired the Bramo company) it was told to develop and produce as many airplane motors as it could. While developing the arguably best radial engine of World War II, the BMW 801 of Focke-Wulf Fw-190 fame, it also worked on jet engines and managed to start the production of one, the 003, before hostilities ended. That engine did not contribute anything of importance to The Reich’s war effort, but captured engines taught the war winners a lot, especially the Soviets. BMW also produced its excellent motorbikes for military use, and that was that.

My personal favorite BMW product from the war era is the incredible BMW 803 piston engine, intended for heavy bomber aircraft, including the so-called Amerikabomber. It had four rows of seven cylinders each, 28 in total, driving twin counter-rotating propellers through a special gearbox. The engine’s capacity was a scarcely believable 83.5 liters, it had sodium-filled exhaust valves, direct fuel injection and supercharging, and developed almost 4000 hp with a dry weight of around 3 tons. In 1944. It never found practical use, and at that time jet and turboprop engines were already considered more future-proof. The only surviving example is on display at the Deutsche Flugwerft in Schleissheim near Munich, a branch of the Deutsches Museum (next to many other totally unique things to see), and is a monster of complex technology and lateral thinking, so typical of the German aviation industry in the 1940’s. Too complicated to succeed under war conditions, but beautiful as a concept.

Right after the war BMW almost ceased to exist. Its main carbuilding facility in Eisenach found itself under Soviet occupation, and the Soviets told their tame East Germans who had officially all been anti-Fascists (a statistical impossibility) to restart production. This they did, and, using the undamaged tooling and the stock of parts, began to turn out brand new cars like the 327. BMW was too weak for its protest to be heard, but after a while the Soviet masters told their GDR puppets to change the name to “EMW” so as not to cause further conflict with the West. In East Germany this was common practice, as factories were taken over, Horch vehicles were produced until the parts lasted, the Wartburg two-stroke car was created using 1930’s DKW technology, and the Robur truck was a mildly restyled Phänomen. Because the American occupying forces did not permit BMW to restart vehicle production, it resorted to making pots and pans, and thus contributed to the rebuilding of Germany and its subsequent economic miracle. The Munich facility, which used to make aircraft engines, was reduced to rubble and very little could be salvaged. Nevertheless the BMW management persevered, and kept begging the Americans for permission. In the changing political climate this was granted, and in 1948 the production of the R24 motorcycle commenced. BMW was back in the game.

It was alive, but only just, and had no car to build. One of the managers tried talking to Ford and Simca to produce their vehicles under license, which would pay for factory tooling, but the talks got nowhere. Germany was poor and BMW’s chief engineer, Alfred Böning, believed a cheap car was the answer: the motorcycle engine-powered 331 looked like a scaled-down prewar BMW model, but the board did not approve it for production. It was vetoed by the former banker and Opel plant manager, Herr Grewenig, who believed, correctly, that for a while BMW would not possess a large enough factory to efficiently produce a cheap car while making money on it, and he pushed for the creation of luxury automobiles which could be made in small numbers and with a more sizeable profit margin. He won in the end, and he had Böning design the BMW 501.

This car, powered by a 6-cylinder engine, a development of a design before the war, was delayed, too heavy, underpowered, and cost as much as an average German earned in four years, not exactly a recipe for commercial success. The bodies were built at subcontractor Baur in Stuttgart, because of delays to in-house facilities, thus adding to the cost. The 501 was updated after a while, and in 1954 a parallel model was introduced, the 502, with a new, 2.6 liter V8 engine, designed by Bőning and Fiedler (the same Fiedler who was instrumental in the creation of the 328 before the war, and who earlier had gone away to work for Bristol Cars in England). Sales of the 501 and 502 were finally healthy, but insufficient for the company to develop. The next stage of BMW’s history involves Max Hoffman, the same former Austrian Rolls-Royce and Bentley dealer who sold cars on the East Coast of the United States, so important in the history of Mercedes and Porsche. In those days influential car importers could actually have a say in what car makers built, especially people like Max Hoffman and Luigi Chinetti, people with a strong track record in sales. People who made trends, not waited for them.

Max Hoffman, buoyed by the success he generated with the 300SL Gullwing and the 190SL Mercedes, suggested that BMW take advantage of the new trend for fashionable sports cars and produce a coupe based on the 502. He felt sure that if it cost 5000 dollars or below, he could easily shift thousands in the US. BMW decided to take the plunge, but the 503 coupe proposal, a four-seater using a lot of 502 carryover parts, was deemed by Hoffman not to be radical enough. He did not like what the factory was working on, so he suggested that his friend, Albrecht Graf von Goertz, a disciple of Raymond Loewy, submit his refreshingly different design. His work was approved for production as the 507, and both the 507 and 503 were introduced to the public in the same year 1955, the 507 in New York, and the conservative 503 in Frankfurt. Unfortunately for the beautiful 507, the expected US sales never materialized, as Hoffman, having learned the car cost twice as much as the initial estimate, more than the 300SL, withdrew his huge order. BMW produced only 252 (or 253, depending on who you ask) 507 roadsters between 1956 and 1959, and even such owners as Elvis Presley (whose car surfaced recently) would not persuade the buyers to part with their money. The car was practically handmade, hence very expensive, its 3.2 liter V8 engine only developed 150 horsepower, and its performance was inferior to that of British cars imported to the US. At the same time the demand for motorcycles, the staple of BMW income, tumbled, and the 500-series of sedans were no longer selling in numbers which would guarantee profit. 1959 was a year of huge losses, and of despair.

Today the BMW 507 is no longer associated with the worst year in the company’s post war history, and most people have no idea what BMW did before the X5 anyway. They just automatically assume it was always making piles of money on cars that sold like hot cakes. The 507, whose styling elements surfaced on the Z3 and the Z8, is now a fantastic investment, with cars reaching well over 1 million dollars at auctions, and recently exceeding 2 million. If you have one in your garage, it can only grow in value. If you don’t, it’s unlikely you will get a chance to try one, so let’s talk about how it drives. (to be continued)

H.R. Owen Lamborghini hosted a number of its customers for the road trip of a lifetime; a seven-day, 1400-mile tour of picture-perfect Italian countryside and coastline in a range of Lamborghini performance icons.The line-up of Aventadors, Huracans and even a Diablo were led throughout the tour by Lamborghini’s new Urus. On the final leg of the official Lamborghini Italian tour, cars gathered in the picturesque town of Saturnia, with the sound of the naturally aspirated Lamborghini engines echoing throughout the region’s vineyards. From there, they headed south along the stunning coastline towards Rome, and into the Lazio region. Built on top of Lamborghini’s four-day ‘Official Italian Tour’, the H.R. Owen extended experience included an additional four days and 900 miles of driving, taking in some breathtaking roads in Italy and France.

H.R. Owen began their Extended Tour by leading cars north for the Italian Alps, and the beautiful lakes and valleys of Piedmont, taking on some of the region’s most exhilarating mountain passes. Up into the mountains, the rumbling V10 and V12 engines of the Lamborghini cars bounced off the flint walls and into the valley, until the group reached more than 9,000 feet above sea level at Cime de la Bonette. To complete the trip, the unique convoy then tackled the final stretch of the epic journey, into the famous Gorges du Verdon and on the Descente Gréolières featured in the opening sequence of Goldeneye, before heading south to the French Cote d’Azur. 

Today both versions command high prices, and a number of Zagatos are always being offered for sale somewhere, be it at a dealership or at an auction. In order to learn more about their idiosyncrasies I turned to a true expert, Roger Bennington, former rally driver, racing driver, long time Aston Martin Lagonda dealer and owner of Stratton Motor Company Ltd. (strattonmotorcompany.com), who made a car available to us for photography. As he recalls, when the first deliveries of the Zagatos reached the eager customers, who had paid £97,000 each for their cars, other people tried to buy them immediately, offering up to £250,000! Cars started to change hands for stupid money, Bennington recalls, who has been an Aston Martin dealer since 1976, and they were being put into storage, which was a pity, as they were tremendously good to drive. As it happened, there were cars on the market with 7 owners in the paperwork and zero mileage. Before 1990, Zagato coupes reached a high of £600,000, and Volantes even £750,000. Exorbitant prices, and they didn’t last. They tumbled down, and at one point Volantes could be had for £50-60,000, coupes for £65,000. And nobody wanted them. 

However, as Bennington tells me, people who had driven them, loved them. “Once you’ve driven a Zagato, you know it’s phenomenal”, he says with a twinkle in his eye. “Light, responsive, and a lot quicker than a standard-bodied X-Pack.” The former Triumph works rally driver who still races GT cars knows what he is talking about. “The Zagatos should have been painted and trimmed at Newport Pagnell”, he insists. But he also tells me that a profit was made by Aston Martin on each Zagato produced. “Unique Astons are an exceptionally good investment, but they should not be bought with the heart; every car needs to be professionally looked at.”, says Roger Bennington. “Take the car to a specialist involved with those cars when they were new, so they can assess how much needs to be spent on it. There are half a dozen people in the UK who are capable of that.”

Since about two and a half years ago Zagato prices have been going steadily up, with cars with no special history reaching easily over £500,000. They are now liked, as they must have grown on a number of collectors. As Bennington remarks, speaking obviously from experience, “over time any Aston will appreciate. Their prices go down and up with the economy, but always displaying a slight constant increase”. Asked what to look for in a Zagato coming up for sale, Bennington immediately mentions the paintwork. It was not done in Italy to the same standard as in Newport Pagnell, and at this age it usually needs to be redone, however this must be budgeted for, as it does not come cheap: it requires at least 250 man-hours for the respray to AM standards plus at least 40 man-hours for rust improvements and sill repairs (sills go rusty underneath). The sum required is in the region of £25,000. As opposed to the paintwork and interior trim, all mechanical and electrical parts are by Aston, and pretty much bulletproof. 

The engine was the same as the one in the V8, in theory. The V8 had been fuel-injected between 1969 and 1973, but the system was unreliable, and prompted a return to carbs. The Vantage engine had bigger carburetors than the regular one, and at the time Aston did not publish official power output figures (Bennington estimates the power output of Vantage Zagatos at 425-430 hp, higher than what is usually quoted). In 1987 the excellent Weber-Marelli fuel injection system was introduced, and it enabled the bulge-free engine cover on most Zagato Volantes. All Zagato engines, like X-Pack Vantage engines, are incredibly reliable, but if one really needs a rebuild, possibly due to maintenance having been neglected, one must not take any shortcuts: a proper rebuild by one of several specialists has to cost around £30,000. The manual gearbox with a dogleg gear arrangement was a 5-speed by ZF and it came from a light commercial vehicle. Noisy but very strong, it was installed in the majority of Zagatos. The automatic transmission was a Chrysler TorqueFlite, basically the same as used on the Jensen Interceptor. A modification was found in the US in the form of a low-stall torque converter, and conversions were sold to clients by Aston dealers. This gearbox, properly maintained, is also very reliable. Brakes are not up to the rigors of consistent high-performance driving, and upgrades were often installed. On another Vantage Zagato, which in his hands had covered over 10,000 miles, Bennington installed different rims which permitted a better airflow around the brakes: the original Speedline wheel is very beautiful to look at, but miserably bad in that respect. 

My conversation with Roger has revealed that the car is fantastic to drive, much less fragile mechanically than one might expect, and a sound investment if properly assessed prior to purchase. My own conclusion is that it is that rare beast in the classic world, where it actually drives so well that at least some of the current value seems justified. And please allow me not to mention the cleverly disguised Citroen CX door mirrors…

The angular Aston Martin V8 Zagato is not a car which people point to when asked to identify their favorite supercar, most regular folk don’t know what it is, and Bond never drove one. Enough reasons to make it unpopular with the general public. There is, however, a sound reason why it’s growing more popular with collectors: over time it has become an exceedingly good investment.

It all started at the Geneva Motor Show in 1984, when by pure chance Aston Martin’s stand found itself next to Zagato’s. Victor Gauntlett started wondering if a limited run of Zagato-penned Astons would sell, and AML owner Peter Livanos walked over to the Ferrari stand to see the stampede of people trying to catch a glimpse of the limited-production 288 GTO. Another crowd gathered at the Porsche stand, where the 959 was being previewed for the second time (the first was at the previous year’s Frankfurt show). Another limited production run, potentially bringing in shovelfuls of cash to Zuffenhausen. The memory of the stunning DB4 GT Aston, a Zagato masterpiece, was still very much vivid, even though two and a half decades had passed. The AML chairman sat down with Elio and Gianni Zagato, and proceeded to discuss the possibility of building a visually fresh supercar on the existing V8 Vantage chassis. The mechanicals were by then getting a bit long in the tooth, and it was obvious to all the participants, in what must have been an epic discussion, that a lighter, more streamlined solution was required. Gauntlett remembered a special lightweight Vantage mule displaying some promising performance, but the engine seemed to be developed as far as it would go (with hindsight, the wrong conclusion…), and to get orders from people who could order any supercar in the world the new Aston had to be much faster. The Geneva show ended, and a preliminary agreement had been reached.

In July an Italian delegation traveled to Newport Pagnell to present an early sketch and to discuss the economic side of things. Gianni Zagato was accompanied by Giuseppe Mittino, his chief stylist. The angular, sleek concept was approved in principle, and both AML and Zagato agreed that a production run of about 50 cars would strike a perfect balance between the initial investment, the necessary tooling costs, the “limited production effect” and profitability. Already in March the following year a finalized styling sketch was ready and it was made public. Prospective customers were invited to place deposits in order to secure their orders. They did so on the basis of Mittino’s styling sketch alone. No mockup was made, no full scale model, nothing but the sketch. All 50 cars sold easily by the end of August, 1985, but before that happened, Gauntlett chartered a plane which flew customers and dealers to Italy, so that they could see the first prototype being built. That kept them happy for many months.

Full-scale drawings of the car were made ready, and attachment points for the new body were engineered. The body was mounted on what was basically a standard V8 Vantage X-Pack chassis, preserving the same wheelbase, but the carburetor stack made its impossible to clear the low-slung engine cover, and a bulge was necessary. Some critics still today contend that it is unsightly, while I believe it actually made the car appear more muscular and more powerful. Most of the body panels were hand-formed out of aluminum on a wooden body buck, with the nose and the rear bumper fashioned out of a GRP/Kevlar composite with a polyurethane foam filling with steel reinforcements. The windows were all mounted flush with the body to improve aerodynamics, and only a small section of each side window could be lowered in order to hand in parking tickets and so on. The roof had a subtle double bubble shape, a Zagato signature styling cue, and there are various Zagato logos on the vehicle, including the front fenders behind the wheels, on doorhandles and a special Aston Martin Zagato badge on the trunk lid. The car had a stereo and air conditioning as standard, but the majority of the interior trim was designed by Zagato in such a way as to keep the weight down (the car’s kerb weight was 1650 kg).

Chassis were shipped from the UK to Zagato, where the bodies were built, painted and trimmed, and then the complete cars were shipped back. If anyone sees a similarity to the fate of the much later Cadillac Allante, no, this wasn’t a similar disaster, this process was well planned and actually still produced a profit. The car was powered by the 410-horsepower Vantage motor with quadruple Weber carbs, driving the rear wheels via a 5-speed ZF dogleg gearbox and an LSD. The customers were told the car would reach 300 kph (187 mph) and that it would run the 0-60 mph sprint in 4.7 seconds, although real-life performance tests never seemed to get quite the same figures (although they got close to them). The aerodynamics, however, were excellent, with a drag coefficient of 0.32 confirmed in the Southampton University wind tunnel (the rear spoiler was functional and resulted from the same research). Braking was handled by 273 mm vented discs at the front and 263 mm inboard discs at the rear. The elegant rims were made by Speedline and shod with Goodyear Eagle 255/50 ZR16 rubber. Two cars were prepared for competition and were raced, one of them by Rowan Atkinson. Both survive.

52 cars were built in total out of the planned 50, therefore resale value was not affected by the manufacturer diluting the breed and giving in to temptation to sell more units (the car retailed for £97,000). As customers were still asking to be permitted to order a car after the order book closed, the decision was taken in November, 1986, to produce a run of 25 convertible Zagatos with less powerful engines in order not to affect the value of the existing coupes. The car, which was to be offered at £125,000, was manufactured in precisely the same manner as the preceding coupe, with small differences: Newport Pagnell sent complete rolling chassis units to Zagato, where they received additional bracing under the waistline to compensate for the lack of the roof (allegedly the torsional stiffness was better than that of the coupe!), the body and interior trim was built up, and the complete cars returned to England for fuel system flushing and test drives, plus a valeting to prepare them for the handover to customers. They were powered by regular (not Vantage-spec) V8 engines, equipped with the Weber-Marelli injection system, hence no need for the engine cover bulge. The convertibles, called “Volantes” in Aston-speak, had a different nose with pop-up headlights, fully retractable side windows, a plastic rear window and a tonneau cover. Each weighed in at 1782 kg, and with the 305-hp engine their performance was more leisurely than that of the coupe: 0-60 mph in 5.5 seconds, and the top speed was equal to 249 kph (155 mph). In total 37 V8 Zagato Volantes were built, including two prototypes. Some cars later received the front of the coupe and the bulged engine cover, however, to keep marque archivists busy, plus bigger capacity engines, some were modified into Vantage Volantes by the Works Service at the additional charge of £30,000 each.