Octane

Octane is the authoritative guide to the best classic cars in the world.

End of an era at Hethel

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America is open…

COMING UP… • There’s light at the end of the tunnel but the sands are still shifting, so please be vigilant en route to Mixedmetaphorville

Australian War Memorial • Honouring Aussies at war on wheels and wings

COYS WHAT’S GOING ON? • The news that Coys is to be resuscitated (again) has prompted fury in the classic car world. But should it? Octane asked Nigel Adams, dispute resolution partner at specialist classic car law firm Goodman Derrick, to use his unrivalled knowledge of the saga to explain what has happened, what is now happening and where enthusiasts stand, particularly those who lost money in Coys’ 2020 collapse

Coys’ new owner answers Octane’s questions…

NEWS FEED • Porsche and The Queen honoured in the City and at Hampton Court; Privé days; Classic party; photo buy-out; Rodin in UK; Royale ladies; plus stores, stashes and diary clashes

Nominations have opened for the 2021 Historic Motoring Awards • Get your entries in now to make sure the outstanding people, cars and businesses in the classic car world receive the recognition they so richly deserve

Hannu Mikkola b.1942

Plastic fantastic • Former Goodwood track doctor Jonathan Botting’s Scimitar

Inherited tools

Steve Saxty • Product designer and marketing man at Ford, Porsche, Mazda and Jaguar, who recently authored the book ‘Secret Fords’

JAY LENO • The Collector

DEREK BELL • The Legend

STEPHEN BAYLEY • The Aesthete

ROBERT COUCHER • The Driver

California dreamin’

DEMANDING ATTENTION • After 20 years as Lotus’s most hardcore road car, the Exige is about to give way to a brand new range. Time to remind ourselves of what made these four generations all-time greats

WHAT NEXT FROM HETHEL?

YOU’VE GOT TO BE KIDDING • A Merlin-engined Rolls-Royce Phantom? Octane joins the USA’s king of comedy Jay Leno for a blast in his outrageous 27-litre aero-powered monster

A MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB • The Bernina Gran Turismo was one of only a handful of internationally recognised Historic competitions to take place during a 2020 season decimated by the pandemic. Octane travelled to the Alps to take part

Race relation • We all know about the 911 RS 2.7, but the 2.5 S/T? Without this ultra-rare racer, there’d have been no RS. Here’s why

SOUTHERN SPICE • It took the ingenuity of a South African engineer to transform Europe’s Ford Capri into a race-winning muscle car – one that could tempt a confirmed Aston man…

Nick Mason • We know him as the Pink Floyd drummer, car aficionado and former Octane columnist. But he also spent a saucerful of seasons competing at Le Mans, as Rob Widdows discovers

VINTAGE PORTO • Portugal isn’t exactly famous for its car industry, but a drive in the ultra-rare Edfor Grand Sport suggests that might be unfair

REPS AND LAPS • In period there were only ever four Ferrari 330 LMBs – but now a British company has fulfilled an enthusiast’s final wish by upping that number to five

Controlled fun

OCTANE’S FLEET • These are the cars – and motorbikes – run by the magazine’s staff and changed all those plastic parts into contributors

An a-tractor-ive proposition

All hands to the pump

A TT about town

Wearing it well

OTHER NEWS

When ‘old-school’ is no bad thing

Piston-packin’ Mazda

Black magic

Thomas Murray Jamieson • The blossoming career of this brilliant race engineer was cut short by a crash at Brooklands before World War Two

Nikon SP Rangefinder • With this...