With ‘matching numbers’, the yellow car has been totally rebuilt and is ‘Price on Request’.
The first Dinos carried no Ferrari badging and the styling is subtly different from the later, more numerous 2.4-litre cars. Just over 150 aluminium cars were constructed between 1968 and 1969.
Photos: Peter Iversen Specialværksted Aps
Since 2004, when the Credit Suisse classic car programme started, the Swiss bank has supported events worldwide, forming a network of contacts across the globe, all involved at the highest level and quite rightly described as ‘friends’.
After the glitz and glamour of the Monaco Historics, focus turned west, to the Monterey Peninsula and the world-famous Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and other events held during ‘car week’.
Today, the judging criteria are often based on factors that have more to do with the condition and ‘accuracy’ of a car’s individual components, than with its overall visual appeal. To be a judge at a major international concours requires a detailed knowledge of the marque and individual models, as well as a very keen eye for accuracy and detail. In addition, the ability to place the car within its historical context, while comparing it with others of the period, is important at a concours d’élégance event.
The annual historic meeting at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is something of a treat to those of us coming from Europe. While cars such as 356 Carrera Abarths might have been made in Germany, they are not often seen on our side of the pond.
And, of course, the races for later GTs (Shelby Mustangs, Corvettes, etc.) plus the IMSA cars and the unique-to-the-US Trans Am American V8s are sights pretty well unseen at ‘our’ events: the Le Mans Classic, Goodwood Revival and so on.
McLaren is a name synonymous with racing glory and, given the calibre of competition that the company has been involved in for the last 50 years or so, it’s little wonder that there’s a winning aura which seems to swirl around the bright expanses of the Technology Centre. Staff coming to work each day are greeted not only by a sprawling wall of trophies, but also a collection of the most pivotal motor cars from McLaren’s history: a Senna MP4/4 here, a Le Mans-winning F1 GTR there, and perhaps most poignantly to us, Denny Hulme’s 1970 Can-Am M8D.
The flashbulb reflections on the X-1’s piano black paintwork might only just have dimmed after it spent its inaugural appearance as one of the star exhibits at Pebble – but the design process began almost three years ago. One of the anonymous owner’s stipulations was that a competition between a group of external designers and McLaren’s own should take place to decide a winning design. In the end, it was a Royal College of Art student who won the competition; simultaneously landing himself a job with the esteemed manufacturer.
Markets that will be offered the new AWD models, which are powered by Jaguar’s latest 3.0-litre V6 supercharged 340PS petrol engine, include continental Europe, North America, Russia and China but, because all-wheel-drive accounts for less than five per cent of the UK’s luxury saloon market, we won’t be getting them here. Jaguar believes that more than three-quarters of the AWD models produced at the Castle Bromwich factory in the UK from October will – at least in the early stages – be sold in the US, where demand for AWD is currently the highest in the world.
The reason for the party was to celebrate the North American premiere of the new Jaguar XJL Ultimate. But, despite numerous bunnies hopping around the luxury flagship, it was an ancient relative that snatched the limelight. Mad Men protagonist Don Draper summarised the starring 1963 E-type perfectly in an earlier episode of the retrospective series: “A man getting out of a Jaguar needs a cold shower…”
It might only be billed as a concept for now, but it’s likely that a good reception from the small pool of customers shown the prototype would ensure a production run. This would put the two-door, four-seat convertible in direct competition with the Phantom Drophead, also ensuring the continuation of a bloodline which includes the Corniche and, before that, the Park Ward S1 Drophead Coupé. The latter has apparently been used to influence the design process, as have ‘luxurious, high-performance power boats’, according to Bentley.