Pebble Beach
The annual Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance sees the world's most original and extraordinary automobiles on display, and this year another priceless restoration joined the group. Edsel Bryant Ford’s 1934 Model 40 Special Speedster has been the subject of an extensive restoration which returned it to how it originally looked in 1940 after its final redesign by Ford and Ford's lead designer E. T. Gregorie. That a 77-year-old vehicle can have aged as gracefully as it has is testimony to the talent of those that built it. Read More
The US$950,000 Hennessey Venom GT produces 1200 horsepower and weighs twelve hundred kilos (2,685 lbs) WET! By comparison, it makes the 267 mph, 1184 bhp Bugatti Veyron GT look overweight. The Veyron GT is 50 percent heavier, tipping the scales at 1,888 kg (4,162 lbs). The 2012 Venom GT will make its first public outing in its homeland later today when it attends the McCall's Motorworks Revival, the traditional first event of the Monterey / Pebble Beach weekend. Read More
The Quail Lodge sale held during Pebble Beach Car Week in August each year, always attracts extraordinary automobiles, and this year, the most talked about lot at the auction is one of the most delightfully eccentric for many a year. It is a handmade 1925 Rolls-Royce New Phantom, commissioned by the Maharaja of Kotah to be specifically built for tiger hunting. The eight liter Roller has spotlights for night hunting, a mounted Howdah gun (double-barrel shotgun in pistol form), a rifle stand in the rear passenger compartment, a mountable Lantaka cannon, and a machine gun mounted on an attached, matching trailer. Just the thing for peak hour! Read More
It seems the world auction record for a motorcycle is expected to fall later this year when a 1954 AJS E95 Porcupine grand prix racer will go under the hammer. The only thing I can’t work out is “why all the fuss?” The 1949 E90 AJS Porcupine narrowly won the inaugural World 500cc championship, but by 1954 the design was obsolete and the subsequent unreliable E95 never won a race at world championship level in three seasons of trying. That’s not stopping Bonhams from talking it up (its claim that the bike is “arguably the most beautiful, graceful and innovative racing motorcycle ever built” is just plain ridiculous) and it is expecting a sale price in excess of US$750,000 which would put it on top of the list of the most expensive motorcycles sold at auction. Read More
Whether it be the world’s fastest car or the world’s strongest beer, the old maxim that “competition improves the breed” seems to hold true. Volkswagen spent an extraordinary amount of money, time and effort creating the 408 km/h (254 mph), 1001bhp Bugatti Veyron in 2005 – it knocked off the 387.37 km/h (240.7 mph) record set by Koenigsegg’s CCR to become the fastest, most powerful and most expensive car ever built. Then SSC came along with the Ultimate Aero TT to set a new world mark of 412.28 km/h (256.18 mph). Now Bugatti’s new 1200 bhp, completely re-engineered Veyron Super Sport has pushed the record to 431 km/h ... an identical top speed to the world's fastest production train. Read More
