The typically indecisive English weather once again played a significant role at the Silverstone Classic, which this year celebrated its silver jubilee by welcoming more than 100,000 visitors – the first time it has drawn a six-figure audience.
The rarity of the Shelby Daytona Coupe has led to its becoming one of the most sought-after and desirable historic race cars in the world. “Worth millions of dollars each, ownership of one is almost impossible,” according to Shelby American.
A few weeks ago, we looked at the 1965 Bentley S3 Continental that gained fame as Rolling Stone Keith Richards’ drug express to Marrakech, soon to be sold by Bonhams. Refusing to be outdone, RM and Gooding have both consigned their own Continentals with important historical celebrity provenance – albeit the earlier, R-Type flag-carriers of the sobriquet.
According to a factory worker quoted in the Birmingham Post, production of the Land Rover Defender will be extended through February 2016 (and possibly into April) in a response to heightened demand for the outgoing icon. Last year, 17,781 examples were sold in total – but the company has already sold 11,511 in the first half of 2015, an increase of almost 30%.
The car in question is the very first New 500 to roll off the production line, a convertible in ‘Bossa Nova White’ with a 1.2-litre 69HP engine, and personalised by the Umbrian master craftsman Stefano Conticelli. He has given the little car honey-gold, calfskin exterior adornments, a tailgate-mounted picnic basket in the same material, along with mirror domes covered in mahogany. In, apparently, a tribute to Riva yachts.