Car of the year
Voted for by Octane readers
WINNER 2017 JAGUAR XKSS CONTINUATION
In the mid-1950s Jaguar began work to convert 25 D-types into roadgoing sports cars, but on 12 February 1957 a fire ripped through the Browns Lane factory, destroying nine D-types yet to be given the XKSS treatment. Sixty years on, the missing nine XKSSs were finally built – and in some style. The meticulously crafted continuation cars that emerged from Jaguar Classic this year have inspired awe in enthusiasts around the world.
RUNNERS UP
The Williams FW14B in which Nigel Mansell claimed the 1992 F1 Drivers’ Championship turned 25 this year. It remains a marvel of engineering, with its active suspension and exemplary aerodynamics, and that iconic blue, yellow and white livery only gets better with age. In celebration of Williams’ 40th anniversary, the car was run on track for the first time since the ’92 season, to the delight of tens of thousands of fans who flocked to Silverstone for the occasion.
Alfa Romeo Tipo 6C 3000CM chassis 0128, as this concept car is almost never known, was presented in three different guises before Pinin Farina dressed it in the stunning ‘Superflow IV’ bodywork it still wears today. Carefully restored to 1960 Geneva Motor Show specification, Superflow IV has since been welcomed to some of the world’s top concours and was among the star attractions at this year’s Rétromobile and TechnoClassica Essen.
At the RM Sotheby’s Monterey sale in August, the first of five DBR1s built by Aston Martin became the most expensive British car sold at auction, fetching $22,550,000. The vast sum of money paid, however, matters less than the fact that the sale thrust back into the spotlight one of the finest and most beautiful sports racers ever made – a car driven by the likes of Stirling Moss, Jack Brabham and Carroll Shelby, and which helped Aston to clinch the 1959 World Sportscar Championship.
Acquired as a 21st birthday present, this wonderful 1937 Frazer Nash BMW 328 has been enjoyed by its one irrepressibly enthusiastic owner for 67 years – in hillclimbing, on international tours, and on the MCC’s three famous reliability trials. This lifelong relationship between man and machine captured the imagination of visitors to June’s inaugural City Concours, where the 328, fresh from a superb restoration by Thornley Kelham, won Best of Show.