• design
• profile

Road & Track profile the lost and dark art of mechanical fuel injection.

Wes Ingram and his business partner, Herb Sanborn, collaborate on rebuilding and modifying mechanical injection pumps for vintage Alfa Romeos… We visited them in their Washington shop, Ingram Enterprises, because it’s one of the only centers for such work. Also because SPICA injection—found on every U.S.-market Alfa from 1969 to 1981 is widely maligned. And thus a good way to illustrate the tech’s darkness and light.

Loads more info on their website, Ingram Enterprises.

• motorsport
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• vale

In streaming rain on Bathurst’s 190mph Conrod Straight, the yellow BMW M3 appeared to aquaplane gently onto the grass verge. It glanced the wall and crossed the track, still clearly under control, to be braked safely to a halt.

It was October 4, 1992, on the 33rd lap of the Bathurst 1000. At the wheel was the 1967 F1 World Champion, Denny Hulme. The 56-year-old had suffered a fatal heart attack.

Twelve months earlier, Hulme had driven a similar BMW M3 to fourth at the mountain classic. The following day, he and I travelled to Tasmania to tour the route of the inaugural Targa Tasmania road rally.

Michael Stahl reflects on time spent with 1967 F1 World Champion, Denny Hulme, in this 2013 profile for Motor Sport Magazine.

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eGarage profile Buz Ras, owner of renowned vintage instrument restorer Seattle Speedometer.

I get to do something that there aren’t really a lot of people left that even know how to do. I want to be the one that … keeps it going.

Brilliant.

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Petrolicious catches up with Dennis Varni, owner of a 1970 Lamborghini Miura P400 S since 1979.

Varni tells the story of falling in love with the Miura at first sight back in the late ’60s:

These things were $19,000 new in those days, and I’d just bought a house with my wife for $11,000 in 1966, and I said, ‘I’ll never be able to own one of these’.

Though buy one he did. Rather seems to enjoy driving it too.

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After spending 42 years idle in the underground carpark of the Athens Hilton, this metallic brown on tan leather ‘69 Miura was wheeled out and put on the auction block by Coys back in 2012.

It’s a car with quite a story. A gift from one Aristotle Onassis to rally-driving singer and fellow countryman, Stamatis Kokotas. The car is said to have broken down sometime in the mid ’70s, then simply parked and left at the Hilton. It wasn’t until 2003 that renovation works to the hotel ahead of the 2004 Athens Olympics forced it be moved and ‘rediscovered’.

Bidding reportedly topped out at just over US$480,000 though failed to meet the seller’s reserve. Ever since, the details and whereabouts of this wonderfully original and unique car seem to have gone cold.

• profile

Dan Trent for PistonHeads takes a nostalgic look back at one very special Subaru Impreza.

The JDM production run of 400 apparently sold out in 24 hours nonetheless, 16 additional cars being built for the UK market, another five for Australia and three ‘#000’ prototypes originally owned by Colin McRae, Nicky Grist and Prodrive’s David Lapworth.

In a TV interview McRae described it as one of his favourite cars, while admitting “it gets you into bother” by virtue of its character. Mind boggles at what qualifies as ‘bother’ to a man of McRae’s talents and given what he did for the brand you’d have thought Subaru would have been happy to gift him one. But, no, he had to pay for it. “I got a good price but that really hurt, being Scottish!” he said at the time.

• builders
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Stanceworks profile Daniel Schaefer’s immaculatly restored and uprated Agablau ‘66 912.

• marques
• motorsport
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Speedhunter’s profile the new headquarters for Nissan’s motorsport offshoot, NISMO.

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Classic Driver’s Jan Baedeker profiles Lamborghini’s former and 40-year veteran test-driver:

Valentino does his job with the casual attitude of a postman on his rounds – the only difference being that we overtook a truck at 230km/h. On the wrong side of the road. In a bend.

“Mister Lamborghini” indeed.

• motorsport
• profile

Mark Oastler for Shannons Club:

From the moment its entry was proposed late in 1978, the little rotary-powered sports coupe from Japan challenged traditional thinking on what an outright contender in 1980s touring car racing could be. And that was enough to trigger a farcical political stoush over its acceptance, which played out from late December 1979 to January 1981.

The fascinating story of Mazda’s foray into the Australian Touring Car Championship.

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My Life at Speed tours Paul Chaleyer’s ‘Historic and Vintage Restorations’, as they restore an eclectic mix of motors ranging from an Aston Martin DB4, various MGs, a number of tweaked Alfa Romeos, and an incredible Maserati 450S recreation.

via @Build_Threads

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• collections

Some insight into Webber’s collection of contemporary Porsches, soon be joined by some classics from the sound of it.

Perhaps unsurprisingly:

“Probably my biggest prize possession is the 997 GT3 RS 4.0-litre…”

Webber is one of many F1 drivers known, as this article confirms, or rumoured to have a 997 GT2 RS lurking in their garages.

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Dieter Landenberger, Chief of Archive Porsche Museum, back again to profile the very first 911 Turbo, built as a present for Louise Piëch, Ferry Porsche’s sister, back in 1973.

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Dieter Landenberger, Chief of Archive Porsche Museum, profiles a 1984 aerodynamic study based on the 911, another member of Porsche’s vast archive of special cars held in their museum.

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• marques

M8, E46 M3 Touring, an early X5M concept, and an M3 Compact for starters.

We’d love to read more about each of these one-off proof of concepts.

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• profile

Dieter Landenberger, Chief of Archive Porsche Museum, profiles the lightly-modified 911 SC that was entered into the 1978 East African Safari Rally.

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Being essentially a Lamborghini boat, it is appropriately and wonderfully overengined. Power comes from a pair of 4.0-litre V12s, similar to those found in the 350GT.

Sounds like our kind of boat.

• design
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Mike Burroughs picks a favourite at this year’s Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este:

With a 180-degree pillarless cockpit, retracting headlights, a glass engine canopy, and an open tail end allowing for voyeuristic automotive upskirting, the Abarth 2000 is one of a kind.

Perfect.

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• profile

Petrolicious profile BMW’s one and only supercar, the straight-six M88/1-powered M1.

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• motorsport

Mark Oastler recounts Peter Brock’s battle to homologate parts for the VH Commodore to race at Bathurst.

As “Peter Perfect” put it himself:

“It’s a police car without a siren!”

(via Motorsport Retro)

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Over on Petrolicious, Markus Haub recounts his childhood visit to the Ferrari factory:

In the fall, shortly after Enzo’s passing, of 1988 I was on a vacation with my parents in Austria, and one rainy day I convinced them to drive to Italy. Not just any part of Italy… Maranello! It was my wish to see where all the cars from my dreams were created.

• motorsport
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Drive visit the hallowed workshop of UK motorsport legends Prodrive and home of Aston Martin Racing.

Shot just three weeks prior to their 2013 Le Mans campaign, a race forever remembered for the tragic accident that claimed the life of Aston Martin Racing driver Allan Simonsen behind the wheel of his #95 GTE-AM Vantage.

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Chris Harris bids farewell to the Mercedes-AMG M156 V8 engine by ragging a C63 Edition 507 estate around the track like only he can.

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• motorsport

The Dakar rally is probably the most gruelling and dangerous motor race in the world. Motorcycles, cars, quad bikes and trucks compete, not so much with each other, but with the race itself, to survive each year’s course. Competitors slog through each mile in danger of serious injury and death.

In 1980 a French team of 4 riders, put together by Jean-Francois Piot, decided that this all sounded wonderful and that they would enter the race. On their Vespas.

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Car and Driver:

The best early ’70s Porsche 911 that never existed.

Related article.

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Nice long video review by Jay Leno interviewing Singer Vehicle Design’s Rob Dickinson and pouring over every detail of their “Dubai” car.

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• motorsport

Peter Windsor:

“…here, in Mark’s own words, are some pen-portraits of some of the key figures from his career.”

We’ll miss cheering on MW when F1 rolls around next year, though the prospect of him returning to the grid at Le Mans in a factory Porsche is epic.

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Bob Sirna has taken his 1955 Mercedes-Benz 300SL to the salt-flats of Bonneville every year for the past 12 years.

A profile by Petrolicious.

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Beautiful.

(See also)

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Chris Harris thrashes two of Ferrari’s best analog supercars around the beautiful Anglesey Circuit in Wales.

Why? Because:

Who wants to watch a small brown man driving a supercar slowly?

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Back in Jay Leno’s Garage, this time for a profile of his newly acquired 356 Carrera ‘four-cam’.

• builders
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Speedhunters profiles Magnus Opsahl’s insane LS1 swapped Volvo 240 wagon.

Because Gatebil.

• builders
• video
• profile

Jay Leno takes a good look at a ’50s Chrysler Town & Country fitted with the front-end from a 1952 DeSoto and modern Chrysler SRT-8 running gear. Built by ICON.

We like.

• video
• profile

Luke Huxham, Maiham Media:

The Group C Porsche 962 is an iconic race car to say the least. In the 80’s it won countless Le Mans races and to this day holds a very special place in car enthusiasts hearts. One particular Japanese car enthusiast loves this car so much that he can’t keep this race car restricted to circuit duties only. He feels the overwhelming need to spend much more time with it, on the streets!

With plates and a full-fat Rothmans livery? Badass.

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Petrolicious:

Everybody has their “thing”. For John Willhoit, it’s certainly a German thing. For the past 37 years, he and his custom 1971 Porsche 911T have been Stuttgart’s outpost in Los Angeles County. Whether in his shop restoring classic 356s and 911s or on the road thrashing his own rear-engined machine, Wilholt’s German thing is a good thing indeed.

• marques
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• profile

/DRIVE tours Aston Martin’s newly opened Heritage workshop in Newport Pagnell, where AM will restore, rebuild and upgrade your new or old Aston.

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• profile

To replace a leaking VANOS unit. In his shop.

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evo magazine’s Harry Metcalfe documents a drive back to the UK from the South of France in his 1970 Espada S2.

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• builders
• profile

“everything is important”

Enough said.

• builders
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Speedhunters’ Ben Chandler profiles the minty Rotiform 964:

“Some people walk the walk, whilst others talk the talk. Brian Henderson definitely falls into the aforementioned category – when it comes to cars, there’s not a great deal of talking and more a whole load of doing. In fact, with Brian, it almost seems like there’s no point in talking about what’s going to happen at all. There’s simply no time for it.”