Cars

The theme for the Festival of Speed, to be held from 28 June to 1 July, will be ‘Young Guns – Born To Win’. This will encompass all disciplines of the sport (racing, rallying and motorcycling) as well as recognising the precocious talent of youthful engineers, too – anyone, in fact, who exhibits an “insatiable thirst for speed”.

Sebastian Vettel, the youngest-ever double World Champion, is a confirmed entry for the Festival, to be held a week before the British Grand Prix, thus ensuring the event's usual high turnout of F1 teams.

Now the Boxster has undergone a similar remake, writes John Simister. It's a predictable event, but one more significant than it first appears.

Of course, the Boxster has nothing like the historical baggage of a 911. Porschophiles of the old school might still regard it as the upstart, the slightly effeminate sports car propping up the bottom of the range and not to be taken very seriously (except, perhaps, for the slightly bonkers Spyder version at the end of the old model's life).

The idea of building a special version of the Lancia integrale came from the Dutch classic car dealer and restorer Paul Koot.

Coming from the pen of Zagato designer Marco Pedracini, the project had been commissioned in 1990 and was launched to the public at the January 1992 Brussels Motor Show. The styling immediately says ‘Zagato’ and recalls both the SZ Alfas and Lancia’s own, early 70s Fulvia Sport Zagato.

It proved once again that the sometimes controversial coachbuilder is at its best with small, compact designs.
 

Now, Texas-based company GWA has produced this reinterpretation of the classic sports car, which combines the sumptuous curves of the original with modern creature comforts.

Using the recently replaced Porsche Boxster (i.e. the 987, on sale from 2005-2011) as a basis, Arturo Alonso and his company have created a contemporary tribute to the legendary 904 GTS, of which few more than 100 road-going examples were built to satisfy homologation rules.

Mr. van Braeckel, are you fully satisfied with the concept, and how long have you been working on it?

Like its ceiled stablemate, the drophead version of the XKR-S provides no opportunity to confuse it with tamer members of the XK family. Derived from the fastest car Jaguar has ever made, by default it’s the firm’s fastest ever convertible – and it has styling to leave little doubt of that fact.

For many years, ‘retro’ has been a buzzword not only in the car industry, but throughout society. Often, it’s the result of a marketing department capitalising on the memories of yesteryear. Indeed, some efforts have been so successful, there’s no need even to name them.

Louis, can you please tell us a bit about the original Disco Volante and what importance it had for Touring, and automotive design in general?

The original car was made in 1952 and the focus of the briefing was clearly on aerodynamics. It was the first car that had enclosed wheels both at the back and the front. And also, there were no spoilers to break the clean lines of the design.

While the drip, drip of carefully planned leaks and pre-Geneva announcements inevitably serve to dull the impact of a new car’s debut, actually seeing something in the metal is still to be savoured.

Not obviously apparent in the studio shots released on 29 February, for example, were the wonderfully executed aerodynamic sail panels that topped the F12berlinetta’s wings, channelling air across the bonnet and around the windscreen.