Concours glamour and a riot of red on Excel’s catwalks
The London Classic Car Show may only be in its third year, but with a revised midfebruary date – and a herd of prancing horses cantering along its catwalk as part of the main feature display – it once again proved a storming success, with a record attendance.
FERRARI 212 INTER VIGNALE
A Vignale-bodied Ferrari 212 Inter, the only example of the breed never to have been restored or modified, surfaced at EXCEL after spending 30 years in private collections. Its extreme rarity and unusual design even managed to upstage the event’s own 70th anniversary Ferrari tribute.
It was first owned by Pennsylvania state senator Theodore Newall Wood, founder of the Brynfan Tyddyn Road Races, held on his land from 1952 to 1956. Newall Wood’s initials are incorporated in a radio speaker grille behind the passenger seat. He owned the car throughout the heyday of his racing career and into the late Sixties.
Samuel Laurence, who is selling the car for £1.4m, says no one has seen it in the UK before. After Wood’s ownership it was passed between a number of enthusiasts in Florida and California, and spent four years with Hans Thulin in Stockholm before returning to the US in 1994. ‘It marks the point where modern Ferrari road cars began,’ says Laurence. ‘It’s the 23rd of 26 made. Most have been upgraded with different brakes and engines, or rebodied, but this is the only one in completely original condition.’
ALFA ROMEO 6C TOURING
‘This Alfa had been going backwards and forwards between us and Vintage Cars in the New Forest for various bits of work for ten years before the owner found out it had the wrong body,’ says South Shore Coachworks restorer Tom Robbins.
The car first belonged to Italian dictator Benito Mussolini, and featured one of Carrozzeria Touring’s earliest Superleggera bodies. At some point early in its life it was crashed and rebodied, and the original shape was lost – until now.
‘The only original piece of bodywork is actually the roof, and in this mid-restoration state you can just about make out the join between the old and new panels,’ says Robbins. ‘The rest we’ve created using photos and Touring’s original methods.’
SPICE-HART SE86C
This recently unearthed Group C contender was on Duncan Hamilton’s Historic Motorsport International stand at EXCEL.
‘It was finished for the Chamberlain Engineering team, and was only the second Group C car built by Spice,’ says Hamilton’s Jack Tetley.
Unlike nearly all its C2-class rivals, rather than a Cosworth engine it used a four-cylinder Hart 420R block with a Holset turbocharger strapped to it, a unique specification in Group C producing 600bhp on conservative levels of boost. It qualified on C2 pole at Le Mans in 1988, beating several works C1 entries and won outright at Kyalami in 1989.
‘It was blindingly quick but was prone to blowing up,’ says Tetley. ‘With modern turbocharger knowledge and shorter classic Group C races, a modern owner could turn up the boost and win!’
BMW M3
This newly restored M3 on the Slowly Sideways stand was the most successful of the model’s rally career. It was built for Bernard Beguin to compete in the 1989-90 French Tarmac Championship season, winning the 1989 Rally Alpin France before being sold to a Russian privateer who crashed it and returned the wreckage to Prodrive.
Rebuilt and sold to Pat Waterman, it suffered severe accident damage at Epynt and needed reshelling. Prodrive rallying partner Francis Tuthill sourced a BMW Motorsport shell via Moseley Motorsport’s BTCC squad, and now the car has finally been restored to Beguin’s 1989 specification by Erik Wevers in the Netherlands.
JAGUAR E-TYPE ROADSTER
As if to underline the unstinting market appeal of barn-find E-types, this rotten car on CMC’S stand was advertised for £120,000 and sold at the show. Then again, it is one of the rarest.
‘It’s a 3.8 from August 1961, sold by Jaguar dealer Frank Cavey in Dublin,’ says CMC’S Steve Morris. It’s chassis 92, one of the first without the external bonnet latches. It had always been in Ireland, and had been sitting unused for 20 years.
‘It’s being sold as a project with the option of our restoration,’ says Morris. ‘We’ll save as much original panelwork as possible rather than using replacements – no two E-type bonnets are the same and this one is very special.’
DAIMLER DOUBLE SIX
This Daimler was, according to our sister title CAR, the best car in the world in September 1977, beating the Rolls-royce Silver Shadow to the accolade. It was on Jaguar’s press fleet, and when it was replaced by the Series III it was used by Bob Knight, later the company’s managing director.
‘He made sure this car was included in his retirement package in 1980,’ says CL Classics’ Les Ely. ‘He continued to develop it himself.’
Knight began his career in the drawing o£ce, and designed the C- and D-type chassis, Dunlop’s disc brakes and Jaguar’s rear suspension system.