Octane

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

The number of the beast

FEATURING

Octane

IGNITION • EVENTS + NEWS + OPINION

COMING UP… • Spring and the traditional classic car season might be a little way off yet, but you’ll not want for things to do in the meantime

Restomods 2.0 – the next generation • 400bhp Maturo Stradale heads a barrage of cars taking the trend way beyond Porsche 911s

ALSO STARRING…

NEWS FEED • Free introduction to car design; rodding greats to be inducted; K7 maintenance deal; festival back on; Quail’s 2023 focus; endurance rallying winners; baby Bugatti; Swiss highlights

VSCC trials alkylate fuel • Club experiment succeeds on Winter Driving Tests

Postcards sent stellar • Early Maranello ephemera prices enter another realm

Obituaries

French for beginners • Former police officer Barry Wiseman’s Citroën 2CV

Ad hoc classic car meets

Max Girardo • Multilingual former classic car auctioneer now running his own dealership from state-of-the-art Oxfordshire premises

JAY LENO • The Collector

DEREK BELL • The Legend

STEPHEN BAYLEY • The Aesthete

ROBERT COUCHER • The Driver

Keeping it in the family

MAD WORLD • Bugatti celebrated its 110th anniversary in 2019 by announcing the 1600bhp Centodieci. Now it’s a reality, Stephen Archer has his warp-speed perceptions altered

BOOK ENDS • One man’s dedication to the marque led him to buy the Centodieci – but it’s far from his only Bugatti…

WHAT DAY OFF? • The boss of McLaren Racing, Zak Brown, relaxes away from Formula 1 by taking to the track in his Jaguar XJR-10

West Bromwich • The Jensen brothers of the West Midlands became famous for their GT cars, but the story began with the 1935 White Lady – newly restored to its former glory

THROUGH THE ROOF • In the early 1980s, a designer sought a calling card. With backing from The Observer newspaper, this unique glass-topped BMW 635CSi show-car was the result

Gavan Kershaw • How to engineer the perfect Lotus road car? Have a racing background and more than 30 years in the job, it turns out

GREEN AND MEAN • Rare in the USA, let alone the UK, this ultra-low-mileage performance Camaro has had notable racing driver owners – both then and now

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES • It’s 20 years since Porsche launched its first SUV, the Cayenne – to the dismay of purists. Time suggests that any controversy was unfounded

TWO DECADES ON… • From first to last, Porsche couldn’t help but enrich the recipe

RED HOT SILLY PEPPER • In 2003, evo pitted the Cayenne Turbo against the Mitsubishi Evo VIII at Bedford Autodrome. Richard Meaden was in the driving seat

The other famous XK 120 • Ian Appleyard’s ‘NUB 120’ scored all the column inches – but its sister car deserves just as much recognition, as Matthew Hayward discovers

Long-term relationship • 1969 ALFA ROMEO SPIDER VELOCE

OCTANE’S FLEET • These are the cars – and motorbikes – run by the magazine’s staff and contributors

Winter sports • 1999 PORSCHE BOXSTER

Joining the chain gang • 1927 FRAZER NASH TT REPLICA

Doris goes to Monte-Carlo • 1954 DAIMLER CONQUEST

Body beautiful • 2004 BMW Z4 3.0i SE

OTHER NEWS

French bliss • CITROËN 2CV, SM AND BX

That Phantom feeling • 2022 ROLLS-ROYCE PHANTOM Mk8 SERIES II

Milan gets muddy • 2022 ALFA ROMEO TONALE

Count Stanisław Czaykowski • War hero, aristocrat, and a brave racing driver who deserves more than a mere footnote in history

Tizio lamp • Created by an industrial designer to meet his...