Innholdsfortegnelse for February 2024 i Motor Sport Magazine

Our sport doesn’t half make life difficult for itself. After a mammoth Formula 1 season that culminated in a gruelling three-race schedule, where teams were sleepwalking through time zones, everyone could have done with some much-needed downtime. No such luck. No sooner had Max Verstappen and Red Bull celebrated a truly extraordinary title-winning year than the FIA announced it was launching a preliminary investigation into the conduct of two of racing’s most high-profile personalities – Mercedes boss Toto Wolff and his wife Susie Wolff, the longtime women-in-motor-sport campaigner and boss of the female-only F1 Academy. The inquiry hinged on a media report that the married couple had leaked confidential information to each other resulting in complaints from other F1 team bosses, the full details of which quickly became academic. Because…

If you thought the four Dakar events to have run in Saudi Arabia seemed tough, this year’s fifth edition in the desert kingdom aims to take things to a whole new level. Since the rally raid event moved to Saudi in 2020, it has evolved with every running, and the 2024 edition will continue that trend by featuring 778 competitors, a route in excess of 4800 miles that will take in 60% new territory, plus a gruelling 48-hour timed stage. Dakar 2024 will start from AlUla on January 5 and travel on a huge loop across the country before finishing at Yanbu on January 19. By far the toughest new addition is a two-day marathon through the desert of the Empty Quarter, which is exactly as it sounds. Crews must…

Rodin Cars’ radical new FZERO project is officially up and running, with the new hypercar completing its first track sessions at the brand’s development facility in New Zealand. Boasting a close-to-ridiculous power output of 1013bhp from its twin-turbo V10 and featuring bodywork that would put Batman to shame, the FZERO is a huge leap for the small company with big ambition. Founded by technology billionaire David Dicker, Rodin’s first effort was the openwheeled FZED, which came from the remains of the Lotus T125. The FZERO is built on a bespoke carbon chassis, weighing in at less than 700kg, some 100kg lighter than current Formula 1 cars. At its heart is a new 4-litre turbocharged V10 engine developed by Rodin called the RC.TEN. After the first engine models were built by…

Considering that some still regard it as a bit of a mongrel, Italy’s Iso Grifo has a pretty impressive pedigree. Its sleek, grand-tourer bodywork was penned by Giorgetto Giugiaro (whose CV also includes the Lotus Esprit and the Volkswagen Golf ); its mechanicals were designed by Giotto Bizzarrini (who was responsible for Ferrari’s celebrated 250 GTO); and its powerplant came from the Chevrolet Corvette. The brainchild of Iso founder Renzo Rivolta (whose industrialist forebears made a fortune from products as diverse as bubble cars and refrigerators), the sporting twoseater launched in 1965 was to be sold alongside the two-plus-two Iso Rivolta. The Grifo, named after the griffin, the half-lion, half-eagle mythical king of beasts, was intended to provide serious competition to the likes of Ferrari and Maserati by combining the…

It is possible you’ve never heard of BYD, let alone the Seal, the third of three curiously titled cars to be put on sale here – the others being the Dolphin and Atto 3. So here’s what you need to know: BYD – Build Your Dreams – is not some new start-up chancing its arm. It’s existed as a company for 20 years and last year sold 1.8 million cars, which isn’t far off Mercedes-Benz. Add in the buses, trucks and every other kind of vehicle it makes and that figure rises to 3.3 million. It is the best-selling car brand in China. So although the names might sound silly, this is a company you need to take seriously, as the following facts about the Seal I’ve been driving will…

Daytona International Speedway, Florida January 27-28 The 2009 F1 world champion Jenson Button is due to make his debut in the 2024 Daytona 24 Hours driving for Wayne Taylor Racing with Andretti. The Brit has a reasonable amount of experience in endurance racing, notably driving for the Garage 56 programme in last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours. He also took the wheel of a JDC-Miller MotorSport Porsche 963 for one round of the 2023 IMSA SportsCar Championship, at the end-of-theseason Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta. Button won’t be the only world-class driver to be making his debut in the GTP class at Daytona in January; Josef Newgarden will be appearing for Porsche Penske. Newgarden, who raced in the LMP2 class in 2022, will be joined by IndyCar stalwarts Scott…

My family car as a child... A Ferrari Dino! My father was a Ferrari dealer in Guernsey and I still remember the day when he came home from work in this beautiful Dino. It was Ferrari red with cream upholstery and I just fell in love with that car. My first road car... A Suzuki jeep SJ410 but I soon upgraded that for something a lot faster, a Fiat Strada Abarth, inset, right, the hot hatch of its time, twin cam, twin carbs – a class leader in the mid-1980s. I was hooked on racing when... It was watching Formula 1 in the 1980s and ’90s and I became a huge fan of Nigel Mansell. I loved his lion heart – at Ferrari they called him Il Leone. I admired…

The Ferrari team received notification of only the first three positions at the Ravenna control, so that they did not realise that their only rivals were already out. The reactions to this monopoly were interesting, for Wolfgang von Trips eased up, Peter Collins was shaken to have the German leading at the first control, so went much faster, and Piero Taruffi, as always, really got into his stride down the fast leg of the Adriatic coast. Olivier Gendebien could know nothing of what was going on behind him, and just drove as hard as the car could stand. By the time Pescara was reached Collins and Taruffi had overtaken von Trips, and before they turned inland they realised the Maserati menace existed no longer, for Ferraris were still in the…

IndyCar Having lifted a breakthrough IndyCar title during his first full season back in 2021, how much better could Alex Palou get? A lot, so it turned out, as the 26-year-old Spaniard rampaged his way to a second championship this season aboard his Honda-powered Chip Ganassi Racing car. Despite the weight of contractual rows with McLaren away from the circuits, Palou showed no effects of that pressure on the track. An early podium in Texas was followed by a first win of the year on the Indy road course. That kick-started the Palou steamroller, and a mid-season hat-trick of wins (Detroit, Road America and Mid-Ohio) put him in the box seat. Only Scott Dixon could keep pace, but even he was powerless to prevent Palou’s coronation with a round to…

● A rare beast even in its heyday, the SUNBEAM HARRINGTON LE MANS was a high-end Alpine whose name capitalised on an Alpine Harrington that had scooped the Index of Thermal Efficiency at 1961’s Le Mans. This 1962 model, right, took part in the RAC in ’62 and had a rough time of it: DNF. Gloucester’s COUNTY CLASSICS said the car is in “very good condition”. Price: £39,999. ● Stockport’s stock is rising. Further evidence of this can be gleaned by HR OWEN LAMBORGHINI MANCHESTER being awarded LAMBORGHINI GLOBAL DEALER OF THE YEAR – just over a year since the refurbished showroom opened. And runner-up? HR Owen’s Lamborghini HATFIELD. ● A few M6 junctions south from Stocky, LOOKERS’ revamped BMW CREWE has opened after a one-year, £5.8m upgrade. It adheres…

And so we approach the tail-end of the season. Unlike circuit racing, late autumn still had two more trials to tackle, even if they would be the last trials until the new year. First up was the Lakeland Trial in Cumbria, which brought a different kind of challenge for me. Thanks to a last-minute decision to go I ended up taking a back seat as a ‘bouncer’ in a Ford Model A owned by Dougal Cawley (MD of Longstone Tyres). The Lakes has to be one of the most beautiful trials of the year, with the opportunity to drive and see places you’d never normally have access to. In true Cawley fashion, we had a relaxed approach with an obligatory lunch stop. The biggest accomplishment was (and always is at…

The most-famous ice-racing championship, the Andros Trophy, has begun its final campaign after 35 editions. Known for attracting some of motor sport’s biggest names to try door-to-door ice racing aboard highpowered four-wheel-drive superminis, the Andros Trophy has been a winter season highlight since its inception back in 1990. Its 35th season, which got underway at Val Thorens in the French Alps on December 9, will however be its last after series bosses opted to pull the plug due to a mounting number of organisational issues, including climate change, a loss of sponsorship and increasing difficulty in finding host venues. “Every event has its end, and we regret to announce that the 35th Trophée Andros will be the last,” said Max Mamers, championship president and co-founder, alongside Frédéric Gervoson. “The more…

The old saying goes that everything is bigger in Texas, and American constructor Hennessey is taking that literally by aiming to propel its new Venom F5 machine to become the first production car to officially record a top speed over 300mph. Sounds a bonkers claim, but Hennessey has form in this area, with its previous efforts both making significant waves in a straight line when the Venom GT clocked a then-record 270.49mph in 2014, and its Roadster variant holds the 265.5mph benchmark for a convertible model – set in 2016. Bugatti’s Chiron Super Sport 300+ sits unofficially at the top of the records, but its 304mph run in August 2019 in the hands of British driver Andy Wallace was only recorded one-way. Hennessey aims to change that, and has recruited…

British automotive adventurer Ben Coombs has begun his latest borderhopping expedition – celebrating the 60th anniversary of the Mini Cooper by driving a Mini 1000 to an unprecedented 6000m (19,685ft) above sea level. Coombs, from Devon, has form in longdistance motoring adventures. His previous efforts have included driving from Britain to Cape Town in a Porsche 944, crossing Asia in a Corvette and navigating the length of the Americas in a TVR Chimaera to visit both the northernmost and southernmost pubs on the planet in an epic 27,000-mile trip termed Pub2Pub. Coombs’ latest trek, Mini 6000, takes him to South America in search of roads that are high enough, with his 1974 Mini being shipped to Uruguay in early December before tackling gruelling climbs over the Andes in Chile and…

There are some amazing statistics in the spec of this car: a 2-litre engine producing 416bhp, a sub- 4sec 0-62mph time and a 168mph top speed to name but three. But all pale beside the big one: this is a hot hatchback that costs £63,285. Put another way, a Porsche Cayman and more than 10 grand spare in your back pocket. Put a third way, almost exactly twice the price of the entry level A-class from which it is derived. It’s a shame. Because this is one of those cars I really shouldn’t like. It’s so far from the simple, lightweight, affordable formula that created the genre it feels like it doesn’t belong. But it’s brilliant. The engine and gearbox are superb, the former not just powerful, but responsive and…

Planning a book covering this significant century can’t have been easy, but this quadrupleauthored book takes a bold approach, dividing into multiple short sections livened by bold graphics and diagrams. Visually dull it isn’t. You’d expect sections on the drivers and manufacturers, but here you also get individual cars including the wacky ones, technological experiments and advances and much information about the structure of the event – changing regulations, circuit alterations, race organisation – and of course in among all that are the actual results and records. It’s a big book but not unwieldy, and the varied graphics make it very tempting to dip into. On one page there is a discussion about pole positions (only since 1963); on another the “curiosities” – smallest engine to enter (Simca, 1937), Nardi’s…

Type R is Honda’s performance label and in these two large volumes Lionel Lucas takes us through the whole story of a Japanese firm’s search for speed from efficient road cars and its first tentative dabble in lukewarm performance waters to the great year when Honda engines propelled Ayrton Senna and Alan Prost to 15 wins out of 16 races. It’s a massive collection of pictures and facts, partly because it’s a duallanguage edition with main text in French and shorter translations into English, often in grey type and not so readable. I’d forgotten how many variations of model the Japanese giant has offered over the years until flicking through this avalanche of images, diagrams and many magazine covers and articles. Unfortunately the effect of so many short text blocks…

The Monte Carlo Rally caught my imagination in 1956 when Ronnie Adams hefted a Jaguar Mark VII (manual, no overdrive or power steering) from Glasgow to Monaco, the textile manufacturer from Northern Ireland accompanied by two co-drivers. The fever really took hold in January 1964 when the Belfast Telegraph was plastered back and front with the story of Paddy Hopkirk’s magnificent victory in the Mini Cooper S. Two decades later, there was never any doubt about persuading my sports editor that we really needed to cover this motor sport classic. The first trip, paid for by Austin Rover in 1986, came close to disaster when the Metro 6R4s of Tony Pond and Malcolm Wilson failed to reach Monte Carlo on the concentration run from Paris and a beleaguered bloke from…

When Marino Franchitti jumped on a call with Michael Mann, the director of Ferrari, the Scot thought that any potential role he might have in the making of the movie would be limited to a bit of driving. What he hadn’t expected was for Mann to pitch him into an acting role – as dashing Italian racing hero Eugenio Castellotti. “My first thought was ‘God no!’” smiles Franchitti. “But Michael is persuasive. Then you think, ‘How much would I regret not saying yes to that? Working with Michael Mann on a Hollywood movie…’ I thought I was just going to drive the Maserati 250F, which I race regularly and is owned by my father-inlaw Nick Mason, as a double for Jean Behra. I told him I’d never acted, but he said,…

Given that the championship had been wrapped up almost two months earlier, there was little tension around the Abu Dhabi season finale. But there was a second place in the constructors’ championship to be decided between Mercedes and Ferrari. They arrived here separated by four points, with a potential 44 up for grabs. But those 44 points (26 for a win and fastest lap, 18 for second) were very much in the reaches of fantasy for either team, given the seasonal dominance of Red Bull and Max Verstappen. The combined totals of the points scored by Mercedes and Ferrari were less than half those scored by the champion team. Verstappen’s score alone was over 150 points ahead of either of the rival constructors. This contest was always likely to be…

Race car of the CENTURY 1924-2024 IN ASSOCIATION WITH RICHARD MILLE 1 1920s BENTLEY SPEED SIX Even the name is mighty – Speed Six. Perhaps it’s the glamour of those wild-living, free-spending ‘Bentley Boys’ who raced them, or maybe our devotion to Le Mans that gives a 1920s Bentley such resonance on these shores. After all, on the continent at that time there was true road racing, with Delage, Fiat and Alfa Romeo forging a path towards the pure grand prix car. Britain, though, hampered by a ban on road racing, was focused on the artificiality of Brooklands’ speed bowl, by now a racing cul-de-sac fostering thundering monsters at the expense of agility. Yet there was one area where Britain would develop a perfect fit for the niche, high-performance touring…

1991 VAUXHALL LOTUS CARLTON SOLD BY HISTORICS, £111,524 If prices for fast Fords can hit six-figures, why shouldn’t it be the same for (very) fast Vauxhalls? This well-preserved Lotus Carlton shows that some collectors will pay whatever it takes to own the best of anything, and the completely original, 177mph Q-ship with a mere 17,823 miles on the clock was probably the finest example of its type. Just 950 were built, with 3.6-litre straight six engines. All were finished in Imperial Green and, as well as holding the title of ‘world’s fastest four-door saloon’, the Lotus Carlton also had the distinction of being the subject of a Daily Mail campaign to ban it. 1993 PORSCHE 911 RSR SOLD BY BONHAMS, £1.7M People with a passion for perfect Porsches might be…

The evenings may have been drawing in, but the new Motoring Literary & Art Festival, hosted by Porter Press in early December, confirmed there’s still plenty of mileage in events across the winter. Held at Silverstone, the festival showcased all that is great and good about the motoring-based written word and fine art. There were also talks from luminaries such as former McLaren and Brabham race ace John Watson, world championship-winning F1 designer Pat Symonds, and James Hunt’s first GP team boss Lord Hesketh. In recognition of its 60th anniversary, BRM had its cult favourite V16 reproduction on display in the main hall of the Silverstone Wing, while drivers Jackie Oliver, Howden Ganley, designer Tony Southgate and engineer Mike Pilbeam reminisced about the team and its long-time boss Louis Stanley.…

If you’re in need of a winter warmer early in the New Year, the latest movie adaptation of a motoring rivalry is due to land early in January in the form of rallying film Race for Glory: Audi vs Lancia. The film focuses on the legendary Group B battle between Audi and Lancia during the category’s early days when the Ingolstadt marque seriously upped the ante by introducing its four-wheel-drive Quattro. In the 1983 WRC the Martini and Audi teams won 10 of the 12 events. The Stefano Mordini-directed film has attracted some familiar names, with Riccardo Scamarcio (John Wick: Chapter 2) playing Lancia team chief Cesare Fiorio, Daniel Brühl (Rush) as Audi head Roland Gumpert while Walter Röhrl is played by Volker Bruch (The Reader). Whether racing scenes will…

Many MotoGP fans were dubious about Marc Márquez’s switch from factory Honda rider to independent-team Ducati rider for 2024. The sixtimes MotoGP king hasn’t won the title since 2019, struggling through the last four seasons with a right-arm injury sustained at the start of the 2020 MotoGP championship. He’s past his best, said the doubters. Four operations followed, including a humeral osteotomy, which involved surgeons cutting the humerus in two, rotating the lower part 30 degrees and plating it back together. Surely Márquez was done? Surely even his fiery determination would be quenched by something as gruesome as that? And yet no one in the MotoGP paddock had any doubts. Those in the know don’t judge riders entirely by results. They see the struggles they’re going through – on and…

This is the most important new Volvo in years. Decades possibly.At least to Volvo. The EX30 is Volvo’s first crack at the compact crossover EV market, a sector that is likely to come to dominate the sales charts in years to come. More importantly still, if it gets this right the young professionals expected to buy it may stay with the brand for years. Decades possibly. You see the point I’m making: sell one now, sell 10 other Volvos later. First impressions count. I’m no greater judge of looks than you, but I think it looks great. Then the price: the range starts at £33,795, which is £1700 more than the very cheapest electric Vauxhall Corsa. Compared to the class benchmark Volkswagen ID.3, the base EX30 offers 272bhp as opposed…

Don Cochrane hit on an unusual marketing method when he decided to re-establish the historic British watchmaker Vertex a whole century after it was set up in 1916 by his great grandfather, Claude Lyons. Cochrane initially invited 60 specific individuals to become owners, giving them a purchase code that enabled them to buy the hand-wound M100 launch model through the firm’s website. Each buyer was then entitled to invite five further individuals, all of whom could invite one more person – beyond which only owners of original Vertex watches or military personnel could apply. It was odd, but it worked, establishing the foundation from which Cochrane has since been able to develop the modern-day Vertex into a well-regarded dial name specialising in interpretations of the type of military watches it…

Jimmy Vasser has been making headlines in American motor racing for more than 30 years and today he remains in the winner’s circle with his Lexus GT3 team in the IMSA sports car series. As a teenager he won America’s Formula Ford championship, graduating to Indy Lights in 1988 and CART/Champ Car in 1992 before getting his big break with Chip Ganassi in 1995 and winning the championship in ’96. Along the way he flirted with Formula 3000 in Europe, was thwarted in his dream of Formula 1, and returned to the States to build a career in CART and IndyCar that lasted until 2008. As a team co-owner with Kevin Kalkhoven he won the Indy 500 when Tony Kanaan claimed victory in 2013 by less than a second for…

Looking out towards Hong Kong’s famous Victoria Bay, a cloud suddenly appears. Is it mist coming in off the water, a depression bringing in one of the peninsula’s well-known volatile weather fronts? Ah no, it’s just dust off the aggregate. It is November and we’re in the eye of a World Rallycross storm as workers frenetically try to get the series’ first street race ready on time. The event sees WRX literally break new ground as it hits Hong Kong – a stunning new location for its season finale. With the backdrop looking like something out of Harrison Ford’s Blade Runner, the half-a-mile circuit – a mix of gravel and asphalt – will see cars slide, jump and battle door-to door in front of a vertigoinducing skyline on the edge…

Ishan’t forget the first time I clapped eyes on Aston Martin’s V8 Vantage in its 2005 launch year. It was at the Gaydon HQ and I was admiring one of the first production cars in the entrance atrium while awaiting the arrival of Aston’s eccentric but effective CEO, Dr Ulrich Bez. But when he burst onto the scene, it wasn’t the car he wanted to talk about – but cake. Royal wedding cake, to be precise, as dished out at the recent nuptials of Charles and Camilla. “This, money cannot buy,” said Bez with wild-eyed enthusiasm. “It is priceless,” he opined, prodding it with the arm of his lime-green spectacles. But while Bez was still basking in the glow of having been a royal wedding guest (the King’s an Aston…

Anew star of Formula 1 art Editor’s choice Fans of motor racing art, artefacts and ephemera will find a huge range, including these collectibles, at the Motor Sport shop – motorsportmagazine.com/shop JAMES STEVENS ART He may be one of the newer names on the motor sport art scene, but James Stevens’ star is on the rise. Since switching his focus away from a career in aviation and turning his considerable artistic talent to Formula 1 imagery in 2021, Stevens’ work has gone on to garner critical acclaim. He started out creating pitstop scenes, earning the nickname the ‘Pit Stop Painter’. It was a clever approach, and he’s since branched out into action paintings. We’re fortunate enough to have a selection of his works available, from embellished canvases showing pit scenes…

A visit to the Toy Collectors’ Fair at Sandown Park got me thinking: when does a model stop becoming a toy, and instead become a collectible? This thought was sparked by a discovery from German company Schuco, which has been around since 1912. While at Sandown I found a lovely die-cast model kit in 1:18-scale of Stirling Moss’s Mercedes W196 from Monaco 1955. It was a lovely thing, but it was wind-up, so you built it, gave it a crank and it would run around the floor. Great, but is it a collectible? The general rule in the collecting world is, no, because by that point you’ve opened the box, built the item and enjoyed it. But that does mean it’s unlikely to have any future increase in value. And…