Drive Cult Blogs

Grand Touring: Caught in the Classifieds: Mercedes SLC AMG

Matthew Lange — 2012-04-25T20:10:15+00:00

A modified Seventies Mercedes. But is it an AMG prototype or something else?

There are lots of stories on the internet that Mercedes has confirmed its AMG division will be building a new mid-sized sportscar to rival the Porsche 911. it also seems likely that the car will be badged the SLC, reviving a moniker last used in the Seventies on the longer wheelbase coupe version of the R107 series Mercedes SL.

It would also seem that if the advert on Car and Classic is to be believed, AMG were thinking about a fast SLC even then as this car is claimed to be a prototype for a projected AMG...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: Period Ferrari Daytona Video

Matthew Lange — 2012-04-22T20:51:39+00:00

Unearthing film of a Ferrari Daytona road test from when it was new

I'm a big fan of period footage of the cars that are today considered as classics, so I was rather excited when I stumbled across this film of a review of the Ferrari 365GTB4 Daytona, shot in Quebec in 1972 on the French Daily Motion video site.

The car being reviewed is a European specification car as shown by the plexiglass nose section and also fairly early production example judging by the lack of head rests on the seats. It has had some modifications on it's journey to North America though as the...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: Iso Grifo Restoration Update III

Matthew Lange — 2012-04-02T20:52:23+00:00

Progress on the Grifo is now getting faster and faster!

You wait a whole year for an update on the restoration of the Iso Grifo and then two updates come in little over a month!

As you can see from the photographs, the engine and transmission have been mated to the body again, as has the rear axle. As previously reported, the engine is the original unit rebuilt by Andy Frost of Penn Autos and Red Victor 3 fame. The Edelbrock carburettor mounted on top is new, however. The original wiring loom is also back in the car, having been cleaned and a few connections...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: Iso Grifo Restoration Update II

Matthew Lange — 2012-02-16T20:36:59+00:00

A long-awaited update on the progress of bringing this Italian GT back to life.

Looking back through my previous posts, I was surprised that the last update on progress with the restoration of my Dad's Iso Grifo was over the year ago. The reason for this is not lack of activity, but rather the body needing a lot more work than he first thought.

The ravages of rust had taken their toll on the car and there were rather more holes than Iso originally intended. Large sections of the floor of the car have had to be replaced, which meant that a lot of new fabrication was required. You can...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: The Fastest Lap

Matthew Lange — 2012-01-22T17:42:30+00:00

The fastest lap of all: paying tribute to a little-known motorsport record.

What's the fastest lap of a road course in motor racing? By road course I don't mean an oval, but a circuit with both left- and right-hand bends. I suspect many people will say the answer is Juan Pablo Montoya's lap of Monza during qualifying for the 2004 Italian Grand Prix. With nearly 1000 horsepower from the BMW V10 in his Williams FW26, Montoya lapped Monza at an average speed of 162.9mph in the pre-qualifying session.

Until a few months ago, I thought this was the fastest-ever lap of a road circuit,...

Published in: Classics, Racing, Ferrari, Grand Touring

Ratcliff Writes: The Comparable Car Conundrum

Chris Ratcliff — 2011-12-01T11:13:26+00:00

From Frankfurt to Tokyo to Detroit, the Subaru vs Toyota punch and counterpunch reveal of two very similar cars seems to raise more questions than it answers.

I feel a bit like I've lost the thread of a movie halfway through. Not in a good Inception-type way, but more like Vanilla Sky. Either I've missed a fact that everyone else saw, or no-one else has mentioned the plot failing, and the failing is this: why on earth are Subaru and Toyota making the same car?

I don't mean this in a small, they-look-a-bit-similar way either. The underlying platform engineered by Subaru is virtually identical for both cars, but with both cars officially announced this week after...

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Grand Touring: Top Ten Grand Touring Cars for £45,000

Matthew Lange — 2011-11-27T13:14:35+00:00

Add some glamour to your motoring for BMW 3 Series money.

In the dim and distant past before Grand Touring became part of Drive Cult, I wrote a blog post listing my top ten favourite grand touring cars. Looking back, I'm not sure quite how I came to pick some of the cars on the list, but for some reason the analytics showed it was by far and away the most popular article, with more hits than all of the other articles put together! It probably won't surprise you which car came first, but if you're not sure it's in Drive Cult's garage. With the holiday season almost...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: Ferrari Boxer - is it really undervalued?

Matthew Lange — 2011-11-06T21:33:43+00:00

Why is Ferrari's first mid-engined road car seemingly ignored by the classic car market?

The December 2011 edition of Classic and Sportscar Magazine features a comparison of the Ferrari Daytona and the car that replaced it in Ferrari's range, the 365GT4 Berlinetta Boxer. Rather like Drive Cult's own Daytona versus Ferrari 365GTC/4 comparison, the central theme of the article is whether the Boxer is undervalued in the current market compared to the Daytona. I'm not entirely sure the Daytona versus Boxer comparison is entirely valid since they're conceptually so different, but the general question...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: October auction prevews: RM in London

Matthew Lange — 2011-10-16T14:48:54+00:00

We find the best value cars at the RM October Auction.

RM returns to Battersea in London for its now-annual October Auction. Whilst the lot list doesn’t quite have the star power of the James Bond Aston Martin DB5 from last year's event, it's still an exciting list with a number of star lots. I’ve reviewed the list and picked what I think to be some of the best value lots. By value, I don’t mean cheap - quite the opposite, actually! - but cars that, within their peers, can be bought for less than you might expect.

All the comments here are in general terms; I...

Published in: Grand Touring

Grand Touring: October auction previews: Coys and Historics

Matthew Lange — 2011-10-02T11:55:55+00:00

Two classic car auctions turn up some very appealing Seventies coupes.

After the August Monterey madness, attention turns back to the UK for the classic car auction world. The big show is RM’s auction in London on 26th October, which I will cover separately, but providing slightly more affordable catalogue lists of cars, Coys are holding their annual Ascot Racecourse-based auction on 8th October, whilst Historics, a relatively new player in the auction world, will be holding a sale at Brooklands on 22nd October.

For no particular reason, I've followed a theme of cars from the...

Published in: Grand Touring