Cars

He'd have been better off arriving a few hours earlier, because by 6pm mater was invariably on her fourth brandy. I'll never forget the look of horror on the poor chap's face when she insisted on a test drive before signing for it, but he climbed aboard anyway while I scrambled, excitedly, onto the clear plastic of the back seat before mother settled in behind the wheel and inserted the small, square-ended ignition key (serial number FS911).

"I worry that 95 horsepower just isn't enough," she opined, selecting her customary second gear before pulling away down the drive.

We’ve already put Maranello’s first four-wheel-drive four-seater to the test in the Dolomite mountains in summer, and (alongside its namesake and spiritual progenitor, the Jensen FF) the snow-covered heights of the Engadine. Driving dynamics from the 660HP beast were a revelation (as you would expect from anything wearing the Prancing Horse badge), but never before had a Ferrari’s performance been so accessible.

“We don’t do any advertising, because our car sells itself. It’s the best car in the world,” says George Blankenship, vice president of worldwide sales and customer satisfaction at Tesla Motors in the United States. He’s talking about the Tesla Model S – a 2.1-ton saloon that provides enough power and space to ensure a permanent grin on the face of up to seven occupants, thanks to its 5+2 seating.

Volvo’s collaboration with Jensen – which should have resulted in the production of 10,000 cars – ended after just 6,000 had been built because of quality control problems. But this fact shouldn’t cause too much worry for the future owner of the 1961 Volvo P1800 pictured here, as the coupé has been completely restored. True, the Swedish restoration took place about 30 years ago, but according to the dealership Angels Sports & Classic Cars of Sweden, the car is in surprisingly good condition.

If you think the translation from competition machine to street car results in a severe watering-down, the majority of the time you’d be right. But that’s not the case with the Bowler EXR S; it’s quite the opposite, in fact. Due to competition rules which dictate performance ceilings, the competition-spec EXR has its performance limited to 300bhp.

Given the highly demanding series of special stages, combined with the barren terrain and bleakly beautiful landscape of Morocco, plus exceptionally long days and temperatures that occasionally exceeded 40° Centigrade, this is not an event for the casual fun-seeker, as our Classic Driver photo-gallery illustrates…
 

As you’d expect, a great many Astons from all eras of the marque appear in the Classic Driver Marketplace. Here, we’ve picked a few of our favourites.
 

1952 Aston Martin DB2

Optional aerodynamic addenda will also delight those wanting to draw upon every last drop of the 911’s performance.

By making tweaks to the ECU and developing special cylinder heads, different camshafts and a new sports exhaust, Porsche has given its customers the opportunity to create a quasi-GT3. The 0-62mph sprint can now be completed in 4.0 seconds (with a PDK gearbox in Sport+ mode), down from 4.3 seconds in the standard Carrera S. Maximum velocity is nudged up to 191mph – although you’ll need the novel 7-speed manual gearbox for that.

The formula has worked well over the years at Villa d’Este, and earlier this month an even more exclusive event took place at the stunning Lake Como hotel: a meeting of many of the immediately post-War Alfa Romeo coupés carrying the magical name, ‘Villa d’Este’.

First of all, a little history. In the aftermath of WW2, Touring of Milan produced an elegant coupé design on the shortest wheelbase chassis of the 6C 2500. When fitted with an ‘SS’, triple-Weber version of the Alfa Romeo straight-six it was, of course, a ‘6C 2500SS’.

The new Aston Martin, available as a ‘2+0’ as well as a 2+2, has already been shown to selected customers and will be revealed as an in-the-metal production car in early July.

Perhaps ‘in the metal’ is not entirely appropriate, as the latest Vanquish has all-carbonfibre bodywork – a first for the Gaydon company, the million-euro One-77 featuring hand-made aluminium panels on a composite chassis.