Editorial

Grey car, grey day; but pure Technicolor performance from the rally-prepared Aston Martin Racing V8 Vantage I had the opportunity to ride in this week. It was an awesome display of driving from a highly talented driver, in a very well-developed version of one of our favourite cars. I hope you enjoy the report below.

Other news of import today must be Porsche’s facelift of its snouty Cayenne SUV, a car that divides motoring opinion like no other, and the long-awaited announcement that Maserati will have a torque converter transmission as an option on its luscious Quattroporte, a car that never fails to get the juices flowing whenever I see one.

The best comment I heard this week was referring to values of pre-war ‘blue-chip’ collectibles as performing like the cars themselves “They don’t go very fast - and neither do they stop suddenly”. That was made at the launch of this year’s Catalogo Bolaffi 2005 - 2006, the masterwork that charts prices at auction for Italian makes as well as giving a more general overview of the market.

We’ve a review of the book before Christmas, as well as a general treatise on what’s been another buoyant year for traders, auction houses and collectors from one of the word’s leading authorities.

Steve Wakefield Managing Editor sw@classicdriver.com