Can there be any time of year better than this for the enthusiast? As this issue of SCM is being put to bed, we are preparing our 1962 Ferrari 330 America for its vintage event debut on the Monte Shelton Northwest Classic Rally, and, simultaneously, the SCM staff is packing all of the requisite paraphernalia for our annual sojourn to Monterey. Both events will provide an opportunity to renew old friendships in the collector car community and make new ones.This is the 12th year for the Northwest Classic Rally, and coincidentally, it was twelve years ago that Sports Car Market Magazine […]
Can there be any time of year better than this for the enthusiast? As this issue of SCM is being put to bed, we are preparing our 1962 Ferrari 330 America for its vintage event debut on the Monte Shelton Northwest Classic Rally, and, simultaneously, the SCM staff is packing all of the requisite paraphernalia for our annual sojourn to Monterey. Both events will provide an opportunity to renew old friendships in the collector car community and make new ones.
This is the 12th year for the Northwest Classic Rally, and coincidentally, it was twelve years ago that Sports Car Market Magazine began life, as an eight-page, photocopied publication. Printed on blue paper, it was called “The Alfa Romeo Market Letter.” From the very first issue, in which we reported on the Alfas offered at Al Guggisberg’s Sports Car Auction in Geneva, Switzerland, our goals have been to be a fresh and entertaining source of information, offering an informed perspective to the collector car hobby. Telling a good car from a bad one, finding out what a fair market price is, and describing cars in some detail, with chassis numbers a required part of the report, have been our hallmark features. We’d like to once again thank all of you, valued subscribers and advertisers alike, for supporting us as we have continued to develop SCM.
Our 23-year-old son, McKean, and his friend, Anne Marie, will be joining us on the rally, driving the SCM 38,000- mile, 1972 Datsun 240Z. Ms. Banzer and I have provided them with a first-timer’s TSD rally survival kit, consisting of a list of phrases that may come in handy, including, “my speedometer is in kilometers,” “we accidentally reset our stopwatch at lunch,” “we were reading the rally book upside down,” and, “you mean all those little numbers on the side of the page actually mean something?”
The Rally, a benefit for the March of Dimes, provides a mix of scenic cruising and competitive time-speed-distance legs. We have all our tools at hand, including pocket calculators, mileage conversion sheets and a multitude of stopwatches (plus a case of oil in the trunk). But I expect that somewhere in the middle of the first day, Ms. Banzer and I will abandon the chase for an elusive top-ten finish and spend three days just enjoying the sound of the V12 as we pass through the forests.
FROM THE MILLE TO MEADOW BROOK
We visited with friends recently at the 22nd annual Meadow Brook Hall Concours, held just outside Detroit in Rochester. In an era of disposables, there is something refreshing about an event held on the grounds of the Dodge estate, a monument from the beginning of the era of automobile mass-production in America. Among the many cars on display were AutoWeek Publisher Leon Mandel’s Series I 4.2-liter Jaguar XKE roadster. Having covered just 9,000 original miles when Mandel purchased it last year, he put another 1,000 miles on the car while participating in the Copper State 1000. It was resplendent in its ice-blue paint over a handsome, dark blue original leather interior.
SCM subscribers Gary and Kathy Bartlett of Muncie, Indiana, had their 13,000-mile XK-SS (XKS-728) in the same row of cars. We first met Gary this May at the Locanda del Lupo Hotel in Soragna, Italy, where he was staying while preparing to drive his D-type (XKD-530) in the Mille Miglia Storica. (He had driven the XK-SS the year before.) In an arena typified by over-restored cars that are rarely driven, it was refreshing to see two classic Jaguars that were still racking up miles on their odometers. After all, cars were meant to be driven: there may be no better way to relive the sweet, and sometimes bittersweet, memories of times past than to be behind the wheel of a vintage car, on a winding road, surrounded by other enthusiasts in their mobile time machines.
We’ll have a photo essay on the Meadow Brook weekend next issue, along with a full report on the successful RM Auction held on the same grounds (45 of 73 lots sold, $5.6M block total).
ON THE COVER
It’s a Porsche 959 factory team car, in a composition by English artist Nicholas Watts, on the way to victory in the 1986 Paris-Dakar rally that graces this month’s cover. The route of the tortuous Paris-Dakar event covers 8,000 miles, beginning in Paris, crossing northern Africa and ending in Dakar on the continent’s western coast. In 1986, at the conclusion of the three-week event, only 127 cars out of the 282 that started finished the rally.
The Porsche pictured here, sponsored by Rothmans, was driven by Rene Metge, winner of the 1986 race. His co-driver was Dominique Lernoyne. The same two drivers also won the 1984 Paris-Dakar event, driving a Porsche 911 Carrera modified to four-wheel-drive.
In 1986, Porsche 959s finished in first and second place, with Ickx and Brasseur driving the second-place car. The twin turbocharged engines were slightly detuned to accommodate the lesser quality fuel to be found in Africa, but still produced over 400 hp. A showcase of Porsche technology, the 959s featured four-wheel drive, liquid-cooled cylinder heads, a six-speed transmission, and four shock absorbers per wheel.
Nicholas Watts, born in 1947, was an engineering draftsman at Vauxhall Motors, then joined the RAF. He currently lives three hours north of London, and is among the most well-known of contemporary automotive artists. Prints, 27 x 20 inches in size, and signed by the artist and by driver Metge, are available for $150 each. Contact Jacques Vaucher at l’art et l’automobile in East Hampton, New York. 631/329-8580, fax 631/329-8589.