Cars

Ercole Spada, the stylist of the 1960s DB4GT bodied by Zagato, has penned a roadster version for Icon, running on modern Aston Martin V12 mechanicals but with the lines of the original very much apparent.

The styling sketch you see here shows a car in the spirit of the first DB4GT with curving, lightweight Zagato bodywork. Making it a roadster is an added twist on a well-known shape, and for those who say that removing the roof from such an iconic design is blasphemy, well, the laid-back Californians at Icon probably don’t really care.

Today, the Porsche Carrera 2.7 RS is regarded as one of the ultimate sports cars of all time and is arguably the most important 911 ever built. With its classic rear ducktail spoiler, special livery and uniquely flared rear arches, it has often been replicated – so great is its popularity among Porsche fans. However, no one will ever mistake this black right-hand-drive model for anything but the real thing.

The uprated model is known as the SLS AMG GT, and aims to offer better driving dynamics and an even sportier experience behind the wheel. Aside from the increase in power and more rapid performance figures, the more extreme nature of the GT model is illustrated by the new AMG ‘Ride Control Performance’ suspension, which promises stiffer spring/damper tuning – and dispenses with the Comfort mode altogether.

There are, what, 50 or 60 cars here? “Je ne sais pas,” replies the merry Frenchman, who at first sight appears to be closely related to Rumpelstiltskin – and who is absolutely crazy about cars. Just outside his patch of Provence sits a Mercedes Stricht Acht coupé that was probably parked there sometime in the 1970s and, by the look of it, hasn’t moved since.

Having constantly worked on the same type of car for several years now, Singer has introduced several changes to the modifications it makes to its cars. While the first 911 by Singer was based upon a late-80s ‘G-series’, the most recent uses an early-90s 964 chassis: preferred for its rigidity benefits over that of the G-Series, whose design dates back to 1963.

Bloomberg also states that the buyer is Craig McCaw, the Seattle-based co-founder of McCaw Cellular, which was acquired by AT&T for $11.5 billion in 1993.

The pale green Ferrari was originally part of the UDT Laystall team and was to be Stirling Moss’s car for the 1962 racing season – the year he had his life-threatening crash at the Sussex circuit in a Formula One Lotus.

It was raced extensively by Ireland in 1962, who shared it with the bespectacled American Masten Gregory at Le Mans where it failed to finish.

In short, someone like Innes Ireland. Now, funnily enough, this DB6 was run as a daily driver by that very man when new. The one who gave Team Lotus its first win in Formula One was a works driver for Aston Martin, and truly personified everyone's idea of the British Sporting Gentleman.

Driving a Ferrari or Aston GT in the Tourist Trophy, he wore slacks, a polo shirt and slip-on shoes. If the original ‘Connery Bond’ had gone motor racing, it would surely have been in the mould of the determined Scot.