Editorial

Full details below, but let’s start with a few more words on yesterday’s Goodwood Press Day. It was my first opportunity to see a Bugatti Veyron in action, and for many people come July it will be their only chance to get up close to the supercar to end all supercars. Boy was it fast! Leaving the startline – clearly using all its four-wheel drive technology – it just went. An amazing machine that has to be seen to be believed.

Another triumph of craftsmanship and engineering of the highest order was Jim Stokes’ latest 1956 Lancia-Ferrari ‘re-creation’. Built as part of the series that we featured a few weeks ago, the ‘newest’ chassis was completed in sparkling paint and metalwork and then ‘distressed’ at the owner’s request to represent the sort of finish used at the time when driven by the Englishman Peter Collins – hence the green band on the nose. Fantastically noisy, it’s a testament both to the advanced design of the original cars and to today’s restoration techniques.

And driving back from the Sussex circuit I had the pleasure of following a personal all-time favourite: a competition Ferrari 250GT SWB. Finished in silver with a chequer-stripe around the grille, this has to be the sexiest thing on four wheels and in the perfect spec. One day.

Last week we left you with a foretaste of supercharged Mercedes motoring to come. You can read the test in full, but suffice it to say I did rather get used to having 700 Nm of torque at my disposal.

But, like the SWB, it’s the disposable that counts.

Steve Wakefield Managing Editor sw@classicdriver.com