With stylish boutique stores in Brussels, Knokke, Luxembourg, Paris and Ibiza, Le Collection’Heure is one of the few true multi-national dealers in the watch world. It was founded in 2001 by Belgian Antoine Rauis, a former lawyer whose passion for horology grew so fierce that he gave up his day job and decided to pursue a new career avenue buying and selling collectable watches. It proved to be a life-affirming change.
The Porsche 911s ‘reimagined’ by Rob Dickinson’s Singer Vehicle Design outfit in Los Angeles have long been considered the ultimate expression of the ‘restomodded’ classic, inspiring young and old Neunelfer enthusiasts across the world. Despite having delivered north of 200 cars, the waiting list for Singer’s restorations remains lengthy.
It’s not what you know in life, it’s who you know. Take the original owner of this early Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS, for example, one Edmund Bauthier. A well-to-do Belgian industrialist who had more than a penchant for exotic cars, Bauthier was pally with Porsche’s racing chief and marketing guru Huschke von Hanstein.
The shark nosed GT40 you’re ogling is chassis GT/105. The last of the five factory prototypes built in Coventry in 1964, it played an instrumental role in Ford’s long and unrelenting research and development programme bidding to turn the car into a Ferrari-thrashing Le Mans winner.
Brrrr. On these frigid rural German roads, the rear wheels of the mysterious camouflaged Mercedes prototype scrabble at the greasy surface, desperate for grip. With even the gentlest dabs of the throttle, the wide and imposing body of what looks to be a 1980s SL on steroids is thrust out of shape, before being delicately balanced on the fringes of control for what feels like an age. It’s a hypnotic and mightily impressive sight, treading the line between brute force and finesse.
Two hundred and forty-eight miles per hour. That’s the extraordinary, bottom-clenching, cold sweat-inducing top speed the Sauber-Mercedes C9 of Mauro Baldi, Kenny Acheson and Gianfranco Brancatelli recorded on Les Hunaudiéres during qualifying for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1989.
In October of 1973, the American automotive magnate Roger Penske had 15 identical Porsche 911 Carrera 3.0 RSRs delivered directly from Zuffenhausen ahead of the inaugural International Race of Champions at Riverside in California. The series was devised to pit the finest drivers from a number of different disciplines against each other in identical cars at four events – three at Riverside and a ‘season’ finale at Daytona.
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