CATEGORIES

WHY WE LOVE...Daily-driver classics

Yes, I'm afraid that's me in the picture on the right, with the superfluity of hair and the jeans that are too short. My excuse (for the hair, at least) is that it was 1990 and I was carrying out some lunchtime servicing on my recently acquired 1976 Plymouth Gran Fury.

MAN & MACHINE Going, going, and still going!

Auctioneer Duncan Kensington Moir has enjoyed his Jaguar XK120 for 21 years

Patrick Tambay b.1949

DESPITE RECORDING ONLY two wins in a nine-year, 123-race F1 career, the Frenchman (who died on 4 December) will be remembered as one of the most popular both on and off track.

BMW looks to the past for thrills

New limited edition echoes a '70s legend

The petrol supercar is not ready to die

Are exciting new launches a last hurrah or anew dawn for petrolheads?

Nigel Lempriere

Founder of Tecniq, leaders in automotive design and manufacture and classic racing and restoration, too -

Buick Roadmaster Wagon

This eight-seater, Corvette-engined wagon is an affordable cult classic

1969 Ferrari 365 GTC

$750,000 from Tom Hartley Jnr, Leicestershire, UK

Fresh from the museum

RM Sotheby's, Munich, Germany 26 November

Air of accuracy

Rare World War Two survivor seeks new owner - and there's a heroic tale behind it

The baseball

It's a simple, stitched, leather-covered and who has propelled it - matters a lot. So does the mud sphere, but what's inside -

Gone but not forgotten

Sir Roy Fedden, Celebrated aero engineer and workaholic who twice tried, and failed, to trigger a revolution in car design

OVERDRIVE

Other interesting cars we've been driving, Art of the estate

OCTANE CARS OWNING+ DRIVING + MAINTAINING

I HAVE FORM when it comes to Lotus Elans. The reason is simple. It is a sports car so good that it makes even a tepid shoe like me resemble a highly competent driver, and it’s the best of its generation by a country mile.

A class of its own

As insurance partner to Octane, Classic Insurance Services is delighted to be the headline sponsors of the Historic Motoring Awards, celebrating excellence throughout the classic and performance car sector.

FLIPPING ITS LID

The Ferrari 575M was a watershed modern-era Ferrari. But it was the Leonardo Fioravanti-developed Superamerica that really opened it up

Jenson Button

The 2009 Formula 1 season is the stuff of legend, and it certainly made one of Button. Time to look back at how it happened, and ahead to what's still in store

FLYING WITH MANTUANS

Is anything more idyllic than three days of spirited driving in Italy in a pre-war Aston Martin? That might depend on the weather, says James Elliott

DREAM INTO ACTION

For one entrepreneur, the lure of Italian beauty with American power was not enough: it needed German build quality, too. The result was the Bitter CD

DESERT RIDER

In 1986, one privateer tackled the Paris-Dakar in his own very special Range Rover Audi Quattro Proto. This is its story

Heat & light

The Maserati A6G/54 is a thinly disguised racer with just enough civility for the road - beautifully wrapped in ultra-lightweight Zagato bodywork. Peter Tomalin is treated to a rare thrill

The factor

2023 marks the 60th anniversary of the Mini Cooper S and this example is the oldest survivor. Mark Dixon tells the story of a Mini that has truly lived a life

The friendlier face of Ferrari

AN OLD MATE of mine, whose parents were Worcestershire farmers in a village just a few miles from where I live, tells a wonderful story from the early 1960s. Knowing him as I do, m absolutely certain it’s true.

ROBERT COUCHER The Driver

The expression giant killer’ has become hackneyed these days, but back in the mid-Sixties it certainly applied to John Cooper's reimagining’ of his friend Alec Issigonis’ revolutionary small car.

STEPHEN BAYLEY The Aesthete

Prometheus stole fire from the gods, who punished him for his creative impertinence.

DEREK BELL The Legend

Just so you know, this column is being lovingly crafted on my birthday.

JAY LENO The Collector

There’s nothing quite like opening the throttle of a steam-powered vehicle and feeling the massive torque pushing you forward, like the hand of God.

Alex Hornoff

Motul’s oil doctor by day, historic house renovator by night

Looking a proper Charlie

I WAS FASCINATED to read about the late Tony Dron and his marvellous Austin Seven above] in Octane 233.

MAN & MACHINE True Brit's American muscle

Meet John Hogan and his daily-driven V8 Jaguar XJ6