Cars

"This is where the greatest cars come to be sold" - Gregor Fisken

While many classic car dealers specialise in the products of a particular marque or country, the diverse array of machinery offered at Fiskens’ mews showrooms rather suggests a focus on the highest quality cars, regardless of origin. Pre-War Bentleys and Invictas mingle with more modern heroes, such as a Porsche 959 and a Bugatti EB110SS; and a strikingly beautiful Bizzarrini completes the eclectic scene.

The successful W123 series still proves exceptionally popular today, especially in classic car circles. Introduced at the 1977 Frankfurt Motor Show, the Touring model – Mercedes’ first station wagon – played a pioneering role in defining the ‘lifestyle’ segment that has become so vital to the European car industry. 

The ‘T’ in the name stood for Touring and Travel

During the 1920s, Meo Costantini headed the Bugatti race team and was a close friend of Ettore Bugatti. He also had no small success behind the wheel, twice winning the gruelling Targa Florio piloting a Bugatti Type 35. The unique blue paintwork on this special-edition Veyron commemorates that classic French racing car. Other exclusive details include contrasting polished aluminium body panels, and laser engravings of Costantini’s signature on the fuel/oil filler caps and the legendary Targa Florio race route adorning the rear spoiler. 

According to Jaguar, the production-ready F-type Coupé is almost unchanged from the C-X16 Concept which was introduced at Frankfurt in 2011 – although it’s unlikely that its hybrid drive system will be available at launch in spring next year. Further details about the car have been held back, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out what makes it “the most dynamically capable, performance-focused, production Jaguar ever.”

Photo: Jaguar

Polanski chose Rosso Chiaro paintwork and sophisticated black leather upholstery for his Ferrari, which was originally to be a ‘standard’ GTB, although he later re-ordered it as a GTB/4 (with the highly desirable four camshafts). We particularly like the fact that under the ‘accessories’ section on the original order form, he casually added a Mini Cooper S 1275cc. Sadly, this useful little add-on was dropped on his final order.

Of course, ‘Daytona’ is merely a nickname – but it seems unlikely that Mr Rea would have sung about the car, had it always been known by its correct factory title. Just imagine him struggling to fit ‘365 GTB/4’ into the chorus (365 for the capacity of each cylinder, B for berlinetta and 4 for the number of camshafts).

Fortunately, in honour of Ferrari’s fabulous one-two-three finish in the 1967 Daytona 24 Hours (in Ferrari P series prototypes), the car became universally known by the nickname ‘Daytona’. But does the car deserve its legendary status?

"J.M. reportedly loved bullfights, getting himself chauffeured to the arena every Sunday"

The Horizon Blue Mercedes 190c shown here, better known as the ‘Fintail’, was exported from Germany in 1965 to its last owner, who resided in sunny Spain. His initials, J.M., adorn the driver’s door and he reportedly loved bullfights, getting himself chauffeured to the arena every Sunday. For the rest of its days, though, the ‘Fintail’ lingered in a small garage, untouched and unloved, despite being in miraculously good condition. 

This video captures Walker talking lyrical about his lifelong ‘turbo fever’ – in other words, his love for the turbocharged Porsche. To quote one viewer, “Come for the cars, stay for the beard…”

Video: XCar

This glorious Ferrari 275 GTB, predecessor of the legendary Daytona, was thoroughly restored (down to the smallest screw) at the Martini Garage in Heilbronn. It is now for sale at the German dealership Axel Schuette.