IT'S NOT A PROMISING start. 'What was my first watch? When I was young, you mean? Jesus, I don't know.'
I'm talking to past F1 ace Jody Scheckter in his office at Laverstoke Park. Starting with McLaren in 1972, moving to Tyrrell and its remarkable six-wheeled P34, then on to Wolf and finally Ferrari, he notched up ten Grand Prix wins and took the Drivers' Championship in 1979. Since then he's started, run and sold a multi-million-dollar firearms training company in the USA, commentated on F1, and run an award-winning organic farm on his estate. One gets the sense this man doesn't sit still for long.
Today, racing trophies and photos on the shelves rub up alongside the estate's awards for prize lamb, cheese and wine. Scheckter's desk is strewn with pens, power adapters and papers, and there's a lined A4 pad covered in angular, incised doodles and quick calculations. And a faded box, slightly smaller than a shoebox, with 'Breguet' on it. Perhaps things are looking up after all.
'I don't wear a watch,' he says, dashing my hopes, 'but when I used to, it would be a Casio or a Nike or something practical.
To be fair, Scheckter did warn me. Before we met he emailed to say: 'I'm not a watch buff. I have about six watches and I think only two are connected to racing directly.
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2022 من Octane.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة October 2022 من Octane.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
Will China Change Everything? - China is tearing up modern motor manufacture but is yet to make more than a ripple in the classic car world. That could be about to change dramatically
China now dominates the automotive world in a way even Detroit in its heyday would have struggled to comprehend.Helped by Government incentives, the new car world is dominated by China's industries: whether full cars that undercut Western models by huge amounts, ownership of storied European brands such as Lotus and Volvo, or ownership and access to the vast majority of raw materials that go into EV cars, its influence is far-reaching and deep. However, this automotive enlightenment hasn't manifested itself in the classic world in any meaningful way - until now.
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