[ ADS ON TEST ]

Alan Anderson has found a car with rare and technically interesting French cool for a fraction of Citroën DS money

Needs detailing, but good condition

This is a delightful Dauphine. It’s keenly priced compared with others on the market, both here and overseas. It’d sell on its impressive condition and originality regardless, but this particular car has something that makes it more unusual than most Dauphines – a Ferlec clutchless transmission. This might put some buyers off, but it lends it a degree of Citroën-style high-tech French cool.

The Ferlec electromagnetic clutch was a short-lived Fifties option. Made under Ferodo patents by Ducellier, it’s actuated by a small button on the gear lever and as far as we could ascertain, it works properly, if abruptly when selecting reverse. It certainly needs acclimatisation, something not helped on British roads by this car also being left-hand drive, but the transmission itself seems in good health.

The engine starts instantly and while performance is only on a par with a 2CV, it trundles sweetly and is content at 50mph. Five new period BF Goodrich crossply tyres were fitted in 2006 (£843), and while Dauphines aren’t famed for handling, it drives okay within its limits. But replacing those tyres should be a priority.

Striking interior looks original

While there are no restoration bills in the service history file, localised piecemeal renovation has been carried out over the years with possibly a colour change. The body is free from rot and dents, although the paint could do with a polish to get a nice consistent shine. The original chromework, while understandably tarnished and pitted in places, is dent-free, especially the dinner plate hubcaps on presentable off-white wheels with whitewall tyres.

As well as being extremely stylish, the outstanding interior could be original, given its gentle patina. Save from a minor slit to the otherwise excellent rubber flooring on the driver’s side and some scuffing to the black metal footwells, there’s virtually no deterioration to either the two-tone seats, doors trims or the lovely pure white headlining. The painted dashboard is also in beautiful condition and the similar-coloured switchgear and steering wheel are unworn. The gear lever is taped up though, perhaps to help secure the clutch switch.

Ferlac transmission adds curiosity value

The engine bay is not scruffy but could do with some detailing work. The engine itself is leak-free, the inner wings are solid and the clutch control box undamaged. The V5C shows five owners since the car was imported from Malaga in Spain in the Seventies, and while the registration wears a 1963 A-plate, it’s actually a 1961 model. There’s a good history file that includes original Spanish documentation and a comprehensive service folder, some dating back to the Sixties with a mix of overseas and UK routine service receipts.

Apart from the original handbook, other welcome manuals include a vital Ferlec transmission repair book, transmission diagram, and an Olyslager service manual, all contained in a neat Dauphine folder. When you bear in mind that you get all this and it’s still a good £1500 shy of the best dealer-sold Dauphines, it looks like a bargain as well as a technical curio.

1961 Renault Dauphine

• Price £6995

• Contact Justin Banks, Tunbridge Wells, Kent (07794 576886, justinbanks.com)

• Engine 845cc four-cylinder, ohv, carburettor

• Power 27bhp @ 4200rpm

• Torque 48lb ft @ 2000rpm

• Top speed 67mph

• 0-60mph 45.7sec

• Fuel consumption 39-44mpg

• Length 3837mm

• Width 1524mm

CHOOSE YOUR RENAULT DAUPHINE

▶ Released in 1956 and initially known unofficially as the 5CV, the Renault Dauphine was designed to replace the 4CV and counter the VW Beetle. The engine was derived from the 4CV’s, increased in size from 760 to 845cc. Only sold as rear-engined, four-door saloon.

▶ Ferlac clutchless transmission from 1957.

▶ Luxury Ondine from 1961, with four-speed gearbox in place of standard three-speed.

▶ Racing homologation 1093 model was built 1962-63, with twin-carburettor 55bhp engine, finished in white with blue stripes. 2140 built.

▶ Gordini-tuned version available from 1964, with four-wheel disc brakes, 37bhp engine, Ondine gearbox and optional Ondine interior.

▶ Replaced by the new Renault 6 hatchback in 1968, although Dauphine production continued in Argentina until 1970.

Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get FREE UK delivery, instant digital access and so much more!

[ CHASING CARS ] Nigel Boothman’s market headliner

Carrol Shelby’s own example becomes the most expensive American car ever sold

Eclipsing the previous record for the most expensive Amercian car ever sold at auction by $20m, the ex-Carroll Shelby Daytona beat its estimate by an equally brutish $17m IMAGE: Mathieu Heurtault/Gooding & Company, LLC

On the evening of Friday 14 August at Pebble Beach, Charlie Ross of Gooding Christie’s brought his gavel down on a bid of $39m and Shelby Cobra Daytona chassis CSX2300 became the most expensive American car ever sold at auction. With fees, the total price paid was $42.9m. It shattered its $25m estimate and the previous record, the ex-Gary Cooper Duesenberg SSJ that took $22m in 2018. More significantly, it surpassed this year’s record for all cars sold at auction, beating the $38.5m paid for the Ferrari 250GTO at Mecum’s Kissimmee sale in January.

While there were 36 250GTOs, there were only ever six Cobra Daytona coupés. Peter Brock was commissioned by Carroll Shelby to create a more streamlined body for the Cobra, because the car’s immense competition potential was eroded on faster circuits by the drag it created.

The first prototype was bodied in October 1963 in California, but subsequent chassis were bodied by Carrozzeria Gransport in Modena, Italy. Weight and acceleration differed little from other racing 289-engined Cobras, though top speed rose from 150mph to almost 190mph. Ferrari narrowly beat Shelby’s cars to the 1964 FIA GT Championship, but in 1965 Shelby thoroughly outscored Ferrari.

‘Rather than suffering from over-exposure, this Cobra’s chain of use appears to have contributed to its fame and perceived value’

CSX2300 was the third car completed and won the opening two stages of its first race, the 1964 Tour de France, before mechanical failure. In 1965 it contributed to the team’s Championship-winning points total but then migrated to Japan where it continued racing until 1968. Amazingly, it was then driven on the street until it was tracked down and returned to the USA in 1975 when it was acquired by Carroll Shelby.

He had the car restored to 1965 specification and kept it until 1998, after which it moved between collectors until its latest keeper took over in 2005. Instead of disappearing into storage, CSX2300 appeared at historic events including, most latterly, the 2026 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Rather than suffering from over-exposure, this use and maintenance in running condition appears to have contributed to its fame – and perceived value.

The Daytona’s scarcity, combined with this record result, would appear to have major implications for the values of the other five. They have rarely appeared at public sale, though the first of the two 1965-season cars, chassis CSX2601, made headlines when it sold for $7.3m at Mecum’s Monterey sale in 2009.

Depending on the level of originality, ownership trail and specific competition history, each of the others must now be considered in the rarified price bracket that once contained only its period rival, the 250GTO. More interestingly – and with one of the five factory-built Corvette Grand Sport racers taking $18.7m at RM the same weekend – it opens the door to other top-flight US competition cars. If two of the most-storied Ford GT40s hit $12.3m and $13.2m in 2026 and 2025 respectively, where next?

Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get FREE UK delivery, instant digital access and so much more!

[ Epic Restoration ]

Restoring any ultra-rare car like a Gordon-Keeble is tricky, but when it’s the prototype, it’s a unique challenge

Words NIGEL BOOTHMAN Photography STUART COLLINS

I knew the cars by then,’ says John Tilley, talking about when he decided to take on the restoration of a uniquely special British Sixties grand tourer. ‘And anyway, it had already received an extensive restoration in the Nineties so I knew that it would be structurally sound.’

John owned and ran two Gordon-Keebles before he felt brave enough to take the plunge with the third – or rather, the first and only Gordon GT. This car is the prototype that later became the Gordon-Keeble, the short-lived British car marque that constructed just 100 of these handsome, Chevrolet V8-engined grand tourers during a three-year production run. It was built in steel by Bertone in Turin to a design by the young Giorgetto Giugiaro and was completed in time for the Geneva Motor Show in March 1960.

Although the Gordon GT was well-received, it took nearly four years to raise the backing for production and in that time, the specification changed. The later production Gordon-Keeble would be bodied in glass-fibre and the arrangement of trim, dashboard, wiring and numerous detail items would change.

Taking on a car like the prototype was a risk, then, but it was one that John Tilley felt that he could manage. Having bought the car in 2020, John’s instinct was proved right. Because the car was structurally sound, he was able to simply recommission it and attend a few shows, and he was due to attend the Gordon-Keeble Owners’ Club weekend in 2023 when fate intervened.

‘The car had been popping and spitting a bit, not really running as it should,’ he remembers. ‘I’d picked it up from storage and was driving it home, and I smelled smoke – I thought a farmer must be burning off a field. Then I saw flames and realised the air cleaner was on fire. I was only 100 yards from our house, so I pulled over and opened the bonnet. I ran home for a fire extinguisher, and a neighbour called the fire brigade. By the time I got back, it was well alight, though I managed to quench some of the flames. Then the fire engine turned up, and they soaked it in foam.’

It could have been so much worse. Some Gordon-Keebles have been lost to fire over the years, the glassfibre burning up entirely, but at least the steel body of this Bertone-built car wasn’t flammable. However, the engine bay was toasted, and there was severe damage to paint and even some to the interior, where smoke and heat had penetrated.

John discovered that the fire-retardant foam used by the fire brigade was corrosive, and some had undoubtedly entered the engine compartment. From show condition to a project in just a few fiery minutes – and with little more than memory to suggest how it should go back together.

Where it started – air cleaner above triple Rochesters

Low point

‘After the fire was out, and the shock had passed – realising what damage had been done to a beautifully restored car, and the concern that it might never be the same again’

John Tilley

Scraping off the soot

John selected Classic Performance Engineering in Silverstone, Northamptonshire to take on the repairs. Martin Greaves, director and owner at CPE, remembers the day they went to fetch the car. ‘The engine blaze started as a fuel fire. It was obvious where most of the damage was, in the engine bay and the bonnet area, and inside the front end of the car, extending through the bulkhead into the cabin. Fortunately, the interior hadn’t caught light but there was quite extensive heat and smoke damage that we’d have to investigate.’

Martin’s team began to strip the affected areas and assess the damage, including the key worry over the engine. This turned out to be worth investigating for a second reason on top of the original concern about corrosive fire retardant. ‘When checking through the initial extent of the damage, we noticed the spark plugs were very oily and burned,’ says Martin. ‘So, we took the cylinder heads off and found the bores were heavily glazed, which would have made the engine smoke, even without any fire. So that necessitated some engine work.’

Slider and cable controls had suffered damage

Enter Mick Hanlon, CPE’s engine builder. Mick patiently washed out all the powder or dried foam he encountered in the inlet manifold, heads and cylinders, stripping the rest of the engine to inspect for damage elsewhere. What he found was generally healthy. ‘The engine received a sympathetic rebuild,’ he says. ‘Everything was checked and measured but only a few items needed replacing. The big end bearings were worn, so I renewed them, but the crankshaft, conrods and pistons were fine.’

The bores had gained a shiny, glazed appearance and along with worn piston rings, compression and oil control was suffering. Mick renewed the rings and used a hone – a tool like a giant bottle brush with abrasive tips to the bristles, usually driven by a power drill – to remove the glazing. ‘It provides a nice scratchy finish to cylinder wall to allow the rings the bed in and form a good seal.’ It also helps oil cling to the cylinder bores. I also lapped in the valves again and of course all the seals and gaskets were new when I built up the engine.’

Extreme heat melted many components, including fans

Back into harness

As auto-electrician Derek Wiltshire points out, this car was not only a prototype with a one-off wiring loom, but it had also been restored once before. Who could say how it should really be?

‘The engine fire took out all of the main loom,’ says Derek, ‘and a lot of components under the bonnet were just dripping plastic – the fan for instance. The insulation was gone or melted together on every section of harness, into the bulkhead and beyond, where the fire had travelled up the loom. Every circuit from the bulkhead forward was a melted mess. My job was to work out what had gone where and start again.’

With no circuits to go on, there was only one approach Derek could take – obtain a wiring diagram from a later Gordon-Keeble, blend it with a bit of common sense and create something from scratch. Needless to say, what Derek found – or the remainder of it – did not match the circuit diagram. And the deeper he dug, the more he suspected that the original wiring had survived the car’s first restoration.

New loom was created with correct Lucas wiring colours

‘It was wired up in a “get it done” way, as though someone knew they had to get it out the door – I found old bell wire in places, wrapped together with sticky tape, just a hasty bodge from 65 years ago. What’s more, the whole car has only two fuses! We retained this for originality but it’s a delicate decision, and it meant everything else had to be as safe as it could be. Mind you, a box of six modern blade fuses would spoil the look.’

Not retrimmed, just cleaned and refitted

For that reason, Derek took care to keep an original appearance for the loom throughout the car. By ‘original’, he chose what was period correct for the UK, rather than an authentically Italian hand-built approach. ‘It’s standard on old Ferraris, for instance, for the wiring loom to be totally different from the diagram, with a live wire starting off one colour and spliced into another colour further along. I chose to stick with Sixties Lucas colours.’

Dummy wiring into the regulator is a nice touch

Carpets washed, vacuumed and put straight back in

Derek established the loom’s architecture as a mock-up of each circuit based on what was needed point-to-point and then had to offer up or measure each circuit path to the car to find cable lengths. This is more critical than you might think in some areas, such are the restrictions of space. ‘It’s very tight behind the dash,’ says Derek. ‘Also, there needed to be a thick, high-current cable behind there to make the ammeter functional, and the cable itself isn’t very flexible, so everything had to be closely measured, cut and fitted.’

New-for-1960 Gordon chassis tight for engine and gearbox refitting

The aim for a convincing early-Sixties appearance in the engine bay led to Derek sending dummy wires to the old Bakelite regulator box, even though the car now runs an alternator hidden in the old dynamo housing, which includes its own regulator. Replacing the toasted wiper motor was a nod to originality, too. ‘It’s a DR3 double-park motor of the type used on some E-types,’ explains Derek. ‘The six-wire supply to it was melted, so that took some understanding. It’s an unusual mechanism – it parks the wipers by winding them all the way forward to define the position and then goes back.’

Derek’s work spanned several stages of the restoration, starting with the sooty stripdown and being completed when the car came back from the paint shop. Martin Greaves’ choice for this crucial work was Paint-Tec Refinishing in Roade near Northampton.

Reinvention of the GT’s wiring loom by Derek Wiltshire (left) was painstaking

New fans replace the remains of previous pair

Meet Pete the Paint

Pete Hammond, known by those at CPE as Pete the Paint, found that the fire damage to the Gordon GT extended across every panel at the front of the car, inside and outside the engine bay, but also up to the roof. This meant any repair would have to be blended from both front wings into both doors, and from the roof down both C-pillars, or rear quarters. Thanks to the way Bertone had handmade the body in sweeping curves of steel, with panel joins welded and hidden, in the end, only the bootlid would remain untouched by the process.

‘If you get the paint match right, blends can look good for a few years,’ says Pete. ‘But eventually the blending solvent used to soften the edge of the old finish and the new one gets removed by washing or polishing and the blend lines reappear. I knew John was keeping the car, so that wasn’t good enough.’

Martin Greaves (right) recounts the efforts needed to save scorched brightwork

Luckily, the experienced assessor from John’s insurance company saw it the same way, and the full repaint was given the go-ahead. Pete’s team stripped the paint off the front of the car and took it back to bare metal, where they were pleasantly surprised to find how well the car had been restored in the Nineties, with no great layers of filler, and how little damage the heat had done to the panel shape. If Bertone had used aluminium, though…

‘We prepared the bare steel with 180-grit abrasives and then used an epoxy primer that we’ve come to like. Etch primers don’t really etch any more – the acids that made them work have been removed for health and environmental reasons – so if you find an epoxy that works, stick with it,’ Pete explains. ‘That was then covered with fillerprimer and flatted back with a finer grade before we then used a two-pack direct gloss, a PPG paint mixed up to match a scan we had taken of the undamaged paint.’

Steel Bertone ’shell taken back to bare metal for repaint

The parts of the car untouched by the fire were keyed with a 500-grit orbital disc and then filler-primed with a two-pack product before the same colour coat was applied. To produce the astonishing finish the car now wears, Pete’s team went several steps beyond what used to be expected.

‘We used to finish with 2000-grit, wet flatted, then polished up,’ says Pete. ‘Now, customers’ expectations have been changed by an industry of detailers selling paint correction services, so we bought all the kit and developed the skills we used on the Gordon – 2000 wet-flat, then 3000, 5000 and 8000-grit 3M Trizact discs, then three graded polishing compounds.’

Epoxy and filler primers plus two-pack direct gloss coats give flawless finish

High Point

‘A week or two after the photoshoot, I was able to drive the Gordon GT on a proper test run for the first time. The standard of work had exceeded my expectations, and it really is better than ever’

John Tilley

Cleaning, fitting, finishing

CPE’s James Waddington had removed most of the Gordon GT’s interior as one of the first tasks after the car arrived. There was smoke staining to the seats and headlining, and the smell of smoke was persistent. ‘A trimmer recommended a vinyl and leather cleaner, and that took off the soot and got rid of most of the smell, if not all,’ says James. ‘It was then just elbow grease to get it back to the right colour. The carpet set looked good after I removed it, vacuumed it and washed it. That went back in with proper felt underlay.’

Back from painting, interior reassembly could finally begin

Headlining had to come out for replacement late in the build

More serious was the potential damage behind the dashboard and centre console. Derek Wiltshire had seen to the wiring, but James discovered that all of the slider and cable controls had suffered, and he had to assume it was the same with the dash instruments, which were removed for inspection and testing, and if need be, rebuilding.

Instruments stripped and rebuilt with a lot of patience

When the car arrived back from paint, it was further dismantled than when it had left – the painters had removed the side glass as the extent of the respray changed, and the fuel tanks – one each side of the boot – were removed because their filler-neck areas also had to be painted. Add in items like door, bonnet and boot hinges, plus door seals and window rubbers, and the rebuilding task was significant. ‘The door windows are frameless on the Gordon GT,’ says James. ‘Later Gordon-Keebles used frames and different door rubbers. We had to get special tooling made up to create the right cross-section for the rubbers, with a minimum order of 30 metres – enough for four cars!’

Getting it to fit was a challenge, too. For the quarterlights, the glass rests in the frame, a seal goes in place, then aluminium trim is screwed over it. Repeat until it’s an adequate result. James says it has to be better than a hastily finished show car.

James Waddington (seated) did heaps to the GT, including a ‘light touch’ interior trim rescue

CPE’s team refitted the engine and gearbox separately, with a lot of patience required to wiggle the engine into place and mate it with the bellhousing. It’s tight – the Gordon GT’s chassis was a new design, and there is evidence of on-the-fly adjustment back in 1960, such as the chassis tube relieved with a hammer to give enough clearance to fit the steering column.

Despite fire foam damage, Chevy V8 just needed a sympathetic rebuild

Mick Hanlon was then able to set up those three Rochester carburettors. The Gordon GT has a unique arrangement, replaced by a single four-barrel carburettor on Gordon-Keebles. Of the three twin-choke downdraught Rochesters, only the centre one operates at idle or part throttle, with the outer pair kicking in at full throttle to provide a thrilling power surge. The carburettors had been rebuilt by a specialist but Mick found the car was reluctant to idle at first, when he discovered some warping in the baseplates that allowed air past the gasket – whether due to the fire, or just 65 years on top of a hot Chevy V8 is unclear. With the bases made flat, all was well and the docile hooligan under the bonnet behaved as it should.

Evidence of smoke stains and odour now vanished

James Waddington wore the prints off his fingers polishing up the scorched front grille, moving on to the bumpers, boot prop and interior and exterior door handles. Their origins are mixed and mysterious – Alfa Romeo? Lancia? With the car nearing completion, James inspected the sun visors. Behind one of them, never before folded down, was a hole in the headlining melted by a stray lick of flame. ‘Should we have spotted it before? Well, maybe,’ says James, ‘but luckily Harry Fraser Vehicle Upholsterers at Bicester Heritage was able to make and fit a new headlining for around £800, and the car’s completion date didn’t slip too much.’

Years on from the fire, this unique piece of motoring history looks and works better than ever. What could have been lost is secured for long-term survival, and yes, there will be a fire extinguisher in the car from now on!

Ready for grand-touring duties once again

MY FAVOURITE TOOL

Power Probe

‘This is probably the tool I reach for most often,’ says Derek Wiltshire, ‘and I certainly did while trying to make sense of the wiring in the Gordon GT. It’s helpful for a situation like that when you’ve got some parts of the harness destroyed and some intact, and none of it resembling the conventional colour chart.

‘The probe can test for continuity with an audible beep, it can measure voltage and look for a bad earth or a short circuit. Because it hooks up to the battery, it can also bring power to a component so you can test the component in situ, which can be a huge time-saver.’

Epic Restoration of the Year

This Gordon GT is one of 12 Epic Restorations you’ll be able to vote for in 2026, with the chance to win fabulous prizes of premium workshop gear from Machine Mart, including this *Clarke CTT3E 3-Tier Service Trolley with a steel frame and a 60kg load capacity. classiccarsmagazine.co.uk/EpicRestoOfTheYear. T&Cs apply.

*Prizes subject to change. They will be confirmed by the May 2027 issue.

Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get FREE UK delivery, instant digital access and so much more!

Whether you love classic cars or supercars - there is something for everyone with our limited-edition bookazines.

Inside the November issue, an international panel of six industry experts help you outsmart the market ups and downs, naming the Hot 30 classics to buy in 2027 across a range of price brackets; and we drive the Lotus Elite prototype once owned by jazz musician Chris Barber.

In this month’s List feature, a Classic Cars reader and long-time admirer of the Lancia Delta HF Integrale finally gets behind the wheel of his dream drive; we find out what made the restoration of a fire-ravaged Gordon-Keeble prototype a unique challenge; and discover the life story of a Ford Capri 1.6LS that has been in the same family for more than 40 years.

All that, plus columnists Julian Thomson and Alex Riley, market news, event highlights, the highs and lows of owning our classics, cars for sale tested and an XK150-generation Jaguar XK buying guide make your latest issue unmissable.

CLICK HERE to see where you can buy this issue of Classic Cars

Never want to miss an issue? Subscribe today and choose a Print+ subscription to get the next available issue delivered straight to your door with FREE UK delivery.
PLUS, you can access all of the past issues on the Classic Cars app.

CLICK HERE TO FIND OUR LATEST SUBSCRIPTION OFFERS

[ THE INSIDERS ]

In the wake of the Eighties performance car party, we had to navigate a sobering world filled with warm hatches. But there was still some fun to be had

Alex landed his first television job in 1998, working behind the scenes on Top Gear. He’s made several classic car TV series since, and currently writes and presents The Car Years on ITV4. PHOTO: JOHN LAKEY

In the early Nineties I had a friend with a Sierra Sapphire Cosworth. One morning as he tried to pull away, the revs spiked but the car didn’t move. Only when he got out did he realise the wheels were missing, and it was on bricks. In that period, if people weren’t nicking your wheels they were stealing your stereo, or even your bumpers. Add in joyriding and ram-raiding and there was a sense that if you had any kind of fast car there was a target on your back. After a while the insurance industry had had enough. Premiums shot up and certain cars like the Sierra Cosworth became almost impossible to insure.

The same thing had happened in America in the early Seventies. The insurance industry had noticed that thefts, accidents and repair costs were way higher on muscle cars. Given a lot of them came with nine or ten-inch drum brakes and similarly primitive suspension, it’s not surprising that quite a few got totalled.

The insurance industry then decided to act and actually stated that ‘standard-powered cars’ were perfectly adequate and ‘No-one really needs to accelerate from 0 to 60 in under 12 seconds, except on a drag strip.’ It slapped a 30 percent surcharge on anything with a power to weight ratio of 10.5 or less – pounds in weight divided by gross horsepower – and even added a 15 percent surcharge on imported sports cars.

The upshot was that a muscle car costing less than $4000 could attract an annual insurance premium of over $1000. Add in a hefty surcharge on drivers under 25 and a large part of the market disappeared overnight.

‘The exterior was bland to the point of invisibility, and the cabin was like driving in the abyss’

In the UK the insurance squeeze led to a new breed of sporty cars with rather more modest looks and power outputs that would hopefully appeal less to thieves and be cheaper to insure.

In 1996 I landed a job that came with a modest company car allowance which was barely enough for a supermini. By adding in some of my own money I could afford something a bit more interesting, which meant one of the new insurance-friendly ‘warm hatches’.

The Honda Civic Coupé was well reviewed in the magazines, but it looked so pedestrian inside and out that it was probably for the best that the dealer ignored me. I briefly considered a non-turbo Subaru Impreza, but it was very slow and looked like a mini-cab.

A test drive in a Golf GTI MkIII was a major disappointment. It felt gutless – 0-62 arrived in 10.9 seconds – the black exterior and steel wheels were bland to the point of invisibility, and the cabin was so black and depressing it was like driving in the abyss. I’d really like to have tried a Citroën ZX Furio, which I’d read had an outstanding chassis, but the Citroën dealer didn’t have one so in the end I went for a Fiat Bravo 1.8 HLX.

I thought it looked gorgeous in black with 15in five-spoke alloy wheels, and the view in the door mirrors of the gently swelling rear haunches made every lane change a pleasure. It only had 113bhp and needed plenty of revs, but it still got to 60 in a little under ten seconds and was a lot of fun. As was the cassette lid, which glided upwards, then sat horizontally above the stereo. It was just a shame it was called HLX in the UK to keep the insurers happy – in the rest of Europe it was called the 1.8 GT which suited it much better.

I hated the job, but I loved the car, and undoubtedly the biggest downside of leaving to join Top Gear in 1998 was having to hand it back.

Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get FREE UK delivery, instant digital access and so much more!

[ MONTH IN CARS ] Events

Revived BRDC Classic refocuses on racing for 2026

Less music, more cars among the tweaks to Silverstone Classic

After a few years as the bloated Silverstone Festival, which attempted to combine a huge historic motorsport and classic club meeting with a full-scale music festival, the circuit’s management decided to split the event into two. While the music element will return as Car-Fest over the August bank holiday weekend, the revived Silverstone Classic returned to the recipe established back in 1990. The result was a purists’ delight, with early-Eighties Formula One a crowd favourite, while McLaren F1 CEO Zak Brown eschewed the Hungarian Grand Prix to race in the classic GT3 and Endurance categories – even as his driver Lando Norris claimed victory at the Hungaroring.

Shadow DN5

F1 DN5 developed Shadow’s sole F5000

‘This car only came back from a Canadian collection last year – this is its first time out in the UK since,’ said Jonathan Pomfrey of Mirage, looking after this unique Formula One prototype. ‘It was the very last DN5 to be built, and wasn’t actually raced. Instead, it was used to develop the DN6 throughout 1975. It travelled around with the team cars and was used in practice before the races, by both Shadow drivers at the time – Tom Pryce and Jean-Pierre Jarier.’

Curiously, the resulting DN6 wasn’t actually an F1 car, but rather a Formula 5000, the lower-cost formula popular in the early Seventies as a transatlantic alternative to Formula One. The DN6 was driven by Jackie Oliver, who won at the Road America round of the 1976 SCCA Continental Championship with it. The DN5, by contrast, was replaced by the radical Tony Southgate-designed DN8.

‘Shadow was British-based but American-funded, with a far greater presence in the US and Canada due to involvement in Can-Am,’ said Pomfrey. ‘After its testing duties were over, this car stayed in the US before ending up in Canada. This is its first time back at Silverstone since taking part in the 1975 British Grand Prix practice session.’

Jaguar Mk2 3.8

Ex-Salvadori Mk2 returned to site of ’60 win

This car has recently returned to the track after spending more than 50 years in storage in Scotland. One of four Mk2 3.8s run by the John Coombs Racing Team in the 1960 and 1961 seasons, it was driven by Roy Salvadori in the touring-car support race for the non-championship F1 1960 Silverstone International Trophy. Salvadori held off rival Mk2s driven by Sir Gawaine Bailey and Stirling Moss in order to win the race. Salvadori also won that year’s Kingsdown Trophy at Brands Hatch as part of the British Saloon Car Championship, again defeating the rival 3.8 Mk2s of Baillie and Jack Sears. The Coombs Mk2s were also driven by Graham Hill in 1960-1, and Lotus founder Colin Chapman, who still raced at the time, and who bought a Coombs-modified Mk2 to use as his own road car.

1960 was a strange year for the BSCC. Initially it pioneered a one-litre Formula Junior-specification small-car silhouette formula dubbed Supa Tura, before belatedly adding bigger-engined cars after early grids fell short of numbers. The following year saw a return to orthodoxy, with Salvadori finishing fifth in the Championship after wins at Aintree, Crystal Palace and Oulton Park.

Although Coombs Mk2s continued to race in 1962, Coombs himself was broadening his team’s activities, running E-types and preparing to branch into Formula 2. As a result, this car was forgotten about, ending up in long-term storage until serial Jaguar collector John Burton tracked it down and restored it, before fresh race preparation this year by Classic Autos Finburgh.

Minardi 185B

This 185 was Minardi’s first F1 attempt

‘This has raced at Monaco a few times, but this is its first time at Silverstone since the 1985 British Grand Prix,’ said Venture Engineering’s Dale Williams of this, the first Minardi F1 car. Minardi went on to be F1’s ultimate plucky underdog, scoring a total of just 38 points yet remaining in the sport for 20 years. In 1985, however, it was a successful F2/3 outfit making the leap to F1.

‘I was in an antiques shop a few weeks ago and found a copy of the programme from Silverstone in 1985 – it’s in there!’ said Williams. ‘Minardi only ran one car in its first year, for Pierluigi Martini. It’s the only Minardi chassis that contested both the 1985 and 1986 seasons, and the only car they had full stop in 1985. It retired from the British Grand Prix with transmission failure. It did the first couple of races of the season with a Cosworth DFV, but then they went for a turbocharged V6 from Motori Moderni. They hadn’t had any luck with the DFV, but the new turbo engine added even more reliability issues mid-season. It failed to finish its first eight races, but Martini did manage 11th at the Nürburgring, 12th at Spa-Francorchamps and eighth in Adelaide – the car’s best finish.

‘It was upgraded to 185B specification for the 1986 season, when it was mainly driven by Andrea de Cesaris, but failed to finish a single Grand Prix.’ The mounting costs of running turbocharged engines prompted changes for 1987 which saw F1 run two classes within the grid, including one for smaller teams with normally-aspirated engines, although Minardi chose to remain in the top-tier Turbo class despite ending the season without a single point.

‘When it was finished with in 1986, it was obsolete and just got put away,’ said Williams. ‘Max Girardo tracked it down and bought it, but he’s only raced it in mainland Europe until now.’

BRM P126

Secretive ex-McLaren/Courage BRM

This car didn’t see the track at the Silverstone Classic, spending the event lurking in the pits, but it was a surprise for its owner, who saw it post-restoration for the first time.

It’s BRM P126 chassis number one, which was first fitted with a 2.5-litre engine in order to race in the 1968 pre-F1-season Tasman series, held in Australia and New Zealand. Despite having founded his own eponymous team in 1963, Bruce McLaren was still contracted to the Owen Racing Organisation in early 1968, as McLaren prepared for its debut F1 season. Although Jim Clark won the Tasman series, Bruce McLaren scored a win in this car at Teretonga. Refitted with a BRM 3.0 V12, it was sold to Reg Parnell, and contested the 1968 F1 season with Piers Courage at the wheel, with a best finish of fourth at Monza.

It continued to race in private hands into the early Seventies, carrying P133-style modifications. When its current owner bought it, having verified the chassis, the bodywork especially around the cockpit was found to be incorrect, and so was entrusted to F1 restoration specialist Hall & Hall in Bourne to return to its original appearance.

BRM P153

BRM P153 was Ganley’s 1971-season car

Owned by the same collector as P126 number 1, this P153 was making its Silverstone Classic debut, despite being owned for ten years since restoration, again by Hall & Hall.

This was Howden Ganley’s car. Together with Jo Siffert, he contested the 1971 season for BRM in the P153, while sister cars were variously driven by Pedro Rodriguez, Vic Elford, Helmut Marko, Peter Gethin, George Eaton and John Cannon. Unlike most of the grid, which was embracing the Cosworth DFV, BRM persisted with its bespoke yet unreliable V12. Ganley’s best finish in the car was fourth at the season-ending United States Grand Prix. He used the car for the first few races of the 1972 season too, with little success, while the radical Tony Southgate-designed P160 was prepared.

Other P153s fared better. Siffert won the 1971 Austrian Grand Prix, and Gethin won in Italy. In 1972, a P153 driven by Jean-Pierre Beltoise won the Monaco Grand Prix – BRM’s last win.

Mosler MT900

Mosler took triple Adelaide crown in 2009

Racing for the first time at Silverstone since 2008, this Mosler has also come full-circle, returning to the ownership of the person who sold it originally ahead of a racing life on the other side of the world.

‘It is the most original surviving Mosler MT900,’ said Jacob Partridge of Marksman Motorsport. ‘It raced in the 2008 FIA GT Championship originally, before being kept in a collector’s air-conditioned unit in Australia for a number of years, essentially frozen in time. We took it on to restore it, but found that we only needed to put some new fuel tanks in it. We even found a perfectly preserved scrutineering tag from the Adelaide 500, where the GT Championship was a support race for the Australian V8 Supercars.

‘It was originally run by a team called Go To One Racing,’ said Partridge. This German team fielded drivers Kenneth Heyer and Štěpán Vojtěch, winning the G2 class at the 2008 RAC TT at Silverstone. It failed to finish at Monza, though scored another class win at Oschersleben. The team entered, but didn’t arrive at the Brno round, before the car was eventually sold on to New Zealander Chris Baird, who won all three rounds at Adelaide in 2009. He also took pole at that year’s Australian Grand Prix support race, though the car eventually finished 12th.

‘It’s now come back to Martin Short of Rollcentre Racing, who also owned Mosler Europe and sold the car to Go To One and Baird,’ added Partridge. ‘The opportunity came up for him to buy it back, so it’s come home! He’s raced it in the Netherlands, but this is its first time in British historics.’

Audi R8 405

2000 Le Mans pole-sitter made its mark on America

This Le Mans podium finisher was racing at Silverstone for the first time, after an inaugural historic season in Europe last year.

Following on from Audi’s experimental R8s first raced in 1999, chassis 405 was the third of three cars built for the 2000 season, run by Reinhold Joest. Its sister cars, chassis 403 and 404, scored 1-2 positions in both qualifying and on track at the 2000 Sebring 12 Hours, while chassis 405 joined them to form a three-car team at Le Mans.

Driven by Laurent Aiello, Allan McNish and Stephane Ortelli, chassis 405 took pole position at Le Mans thanks to McNish’s pace in qualifying. It led the race until a gearbox fault prompted a pit stop, although the Joest team was able to replace the entire unit in less than four minutes, costing the team less than a lap.

Gearbox repaired, McNish set the fastest lap, though the gearbox change meant the winning car of Frank Biela, Tom Kristensen and Emanuele Pirro recorded 369 laps to 405’s 368.

After Le Mans, Biela and Pirro switched to this car, finishing third at the Nürburgring, before bringing it to the US, winning at Texas and Las Vegas. The car was taken on by American privateer Champion Racing for 2001, with its team including Andy Wallace and Johnny Herbert taking podium finishes at Sebring, Portland and the Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta.

Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get FREE UK delivery, instant digital access and so much more!

[ Lister Le Mans ]

If you like brawny Jaguars, they don’t come much more exciting than the Lister Le Mans. So, just what does seven litres and 500bhp do to an XJ-S?

Words NIGEL BOOTHMAN Photography IAN SKELTON

With the Lister out of the garage and standing in the sunshine, we all stand back and stare. Ian, our photographer, considers it with a snapper’s eye, while dealer Charlie Metcalfe and I ponder it as petrolheads. We soon come to a shared view, though, which Charlie expresses first. ‘It’s quite a thing.’

That verdict isn’t as unhelpful as it might seem. It incorporates a few other thoughts, like, ‘it has presence’, ‘it’s miles from a standard XJS,’ and ‘I bet it goes like stink,’ but perhaps edges more towards respect than adoration. Is the Lister too aggressive to be beautiful? That’s something we’ll have time to consider when we get back. But first, we must find out what this highly developed, artisanal British supercar can do on the road.

Black, hex-headed screws through A-pillar trim is an odd slip-up in a cabin so beautifully trimmed

Here are standard XJ-S door handles in satin black, with sill panels coloured the same way, then a three-tone interior with extra leather on dash and door cards to reflect the luxury side of the Lister touch. The seats are, we think, the same Recaros as those used in the Aston-Martin V8 Vantage X-pack. They look great, but the squab is rather flat and firm, and taller drivers need to recline. The cabin itself has that faint scent of warm hide and unburned petrol, which together form the aftershave of hairy-chested British muscle.

There’s a Nineties tribute act next: you must perform a two-handed trick to turn the key halfway, blip the immobiliser button and then turn further to start, but after that, all your attention is taken by the boom and rumble from up front. Jaguar’s V12 was never less than smooth, even when enlarged by nearly 1.7-litres and tuned, but this one has a slightly sulky lope to the idle. That hint of drama combines with the firm suspension to resemble a racing car tiptoeing out of the paddock and onto the track.

Later stereo only deviation from standard

Our track for today is a nice network of Cotswold A- and B-roads, so we can’t let the red mist descend. Or not entirely. It is – I swear – impossible to resist burying your right foot in the Lister when the engine is up to temperature and there’s half a mile of straight, empty road in front of you. There’s ample torque everywhere and seamless power, so the car never comes violently ‘on cam’, as that racy idle might have suggested. It just pulls and pulls. There’s a complex, multi-toned song from the engine that combines mechanical thrash with exhaust and even intake roar, and it all comes together into a wonderful racetrack howl above 4000rpm. If adrenaline erodes good sense, you grab another gear, and another. Legal limits are too soon exceeded, so it’s better to find a slower, twistier section and squirt all 1.8 tons from one corner to the next.

‘There’s ample torque everywhere and seamless power from the engine, along with a multi-toned song’

Well-judged steering weight leaves you free to think about everything else

What happens in the bends is more remarkable still. Twitch the small Lister-badged wheel, and the front end almost darts in, apexing early until you re-adjust your brain from its normal XJ-S setting. There’s no body roll either, and if there are limits to the adhesion of these huge Pirelli P-Zeros 250/40/17 front, 335/35/17 rear – they’re so far away on dry Tarmac as to be irrelevant. The sheer size of the front contact patches makes the car follow the bumps and ridges in the road, and ride comfort is compromised on these rough British surfaces, with a fidgety feel that describes very firm springing, damping and bushing. But the payoffs I’m experiencing are startling. It doesn’t steer like an XJ-S, or go like one, or stop like one. The brakes are tremendous, with the rear discs mounted outboard, as Jaguar itself would adopt from 1993.

Figure-hugging leather seats look the part

Yet there is the ghost of an old car in this late-Eighties super-weapon. Partly it’s the ergonomics of a cabin whose size and shape reach back to the first half of the Seventies, so when you thank another driver with a cheery wave, your fingers thump into the windscreen. The pedals are rather cramped by modern standards and not set up to heel and toe, which is a pity with all that whirling engine and a somewhat slow-shifting manual gearbox – I’d like to try the six-speed BMW ’box Lister used for the final examples, in place of this five-speed Getrag.

It’s not a relaxed car, despite the high gearing, because of the stiff ride and the levels of engine and road noise, but I eventually twig that I’m basing everything on what a normal XJ-S feels like. And that comparison won’t work. Jaguar’s E-type replacement was never a sports car, or even close, and the remedial work needed to make it handle and perform like one was immense. So, what we’ve ended up with is not an XJ-S with a body kit and a massive engine, but a hand-built supercar with Jaguar underpinnings as a starting point. Which in turn reminds me of the old joke about asking directions in Ireland, ‘Well sir, if I were you, I wouldn’t start from here.’ So just how did Lister end up getting here by using the XJ-S as a starting point?

‘There is the ghost of an old car in this late-Eighties super-weapon’

Lister pulls off the trick of being a quiet GT, but only on the smoothest roads

We are lucky to have an ideal source for an answer. This car has been owned for the past few years by Peter Litchfield, who was involved with the company that became the reincarnated Lister from the very beginning, as he explains.

‘I got to know Warren Pearce from WP Automotive, and his son Laurence, around 1982 or 1983,’ says Peter. ‘They rebuilt a Jaguar I owned at the time and made it quicker, and I soon got involved in an eight-hour race at Donington with them. I got them to build me a proper racing XJ-S, which was very quick, and the idea of developing roadgoing cars grew. I bought 30 percent of the business and WPA did a deal with Brian Lister to use the name, so from 1986, Lister was making cars again.’

Over the next few years, WPA/Lister would offer various levels of upgrade not only to the XJ-S, but XJ saloons as well. At the top of the range was the Le Mans, a very heavily modified XJ-Sbodyshell with hardly an original panel left on it. The changes were neither purely for show nor just aerodynamic, but involved a revised fastback window line in place of the buttresses to create more headroom above the rear seats. Which is indeed present, but a four-seat limousine this is not. The rear glass, says Peter, is an MGB tailgate screen turned upside-down.

‘What Lister did to the engines is the most exciting aspect of the transformation’

New engine management system pushes output of V12 to around 500bhp

The Le Mans boxed-out arches look seven or eight inches wider than standard and that bonnet, sloping down over where the grille once was, seems sure to restrict airflow. That it did, apparently, but this car has recently had much attention from Jaguar guru Tom Lenthall, who has increased cooling efficiency so much that we barely see 80°C all day.

What Lister did to the engines is the most exciting aspect of the transformation. Starting with a standard V12 cylinder block, it re-sleeved for larger bores, added a steel billet crankshaft, Cosworth pistons, its own cylinder heads with large, polished ports, its own camshafts and Marelli digital fuel injection. The result was 496bhp at 6200rpm and around 500lb ft of torque all through the rev range. Not enough? You could eventually order twin superchargers to add another 100bhp. If geared at the usual 33mph per 1000rpm in top gear, the naturally-aspirated Le Mans would be travelling at more than 200mph at peak power.

Much road noise from huge tyres and stiff suspension

‘I did 180mph in one of these once, with no fuss,’ says Peter, and we won’t tell you where he managed that. ‘Of course, I had one of my own when they were new, but around 1990 my circumstances changed and I sold my share back to Laurence, and we stayed on good terms. Then, 30-odd years later I was sitting in Florida browsing the internet and I saw this one for sale in Luxembourg.’

Peter bought the car unseen and took delivery of it in the UK, little realising he was at the beginning of a significant project. ‘The paint wasn’t looking its best, so I sent it to Karl Gosney at Premier Paintwork & Restoration in Thatcham. Because these cars were built in steel, they would rot if water got into the foam beneath the body kit, so Karl ended up having to completely rebuild the ’shell.’

Lister overhaul makes XJ-Sa proper sporting drive with enough raw edge

This included an interesting but costly detour in which Peter had a set of scissor doors fitted, but which never quite rose and stayed up as intended. ‘My son said, “the bloody car’s ostentatious enough as it is!” so I got Karl to re-fit the standard doors,’ says Peter, ruefully. The car then went to Tom Lenthall for a full mechanical restoration, including a rebuild of the engine, gearbox and suspension, plus a swap from the original Marelli sparks to a modern ECU with coil packs and no distributor.

The end result is virtually a new car, and Peter knows little of its early history, beyond a sheaf of more recent bills in the folder. He thinks there were perhaps 25 Le Mans built from a total of around 90 Lister XJ-Ss and a few more saloons created before the entirely new Lister Storm was launched in 1993. Tilts at Le Mans and Daytona followed as Lister morphed into a motorsport team, eventually changing ownership in 2012.

Extravagant trimming extends to the deep but short boot

By then, the idea of re-engineering and re-styling XJ-Ss to compete in the Ferrari and Lamborghini market seemed utterly laughable. Was Lister ever offering a genuine alternative to the Italian exotics? In my door mirrors, there’s nothing much but the car’s huge, red hips – rather like driving a Testarossa. Here, the body kit is needed to cover those immense wheels, because Lister couldn’t start with a clean sheet of paper. So, it’s done what it was already good at, and turned a road car into a racing car, or at least employed those tactics. Hence, it’s been stiffened and given huge power with vast tyres placed as far apart as was possible. Ride quality – probably softer before the recent upgrades Peter procured from Tom Lenthall – was partly sacrificed while steering feel, weight and geometry have all been optimised.

The more you compare, the closer it seems to a front-engined Testarossa – a fully tricked-out Le Mans cost a whopping £121,000 back in 1989 when a Testarossa was around £6000 less, and the Lister has more room inside and a better boot. The Lister is both quicker and faster, if a little noisier and less compliant. Is it, as Fast Lane magazine once claimed, the XJ-Sthat Jaguar should have made? Well, selling 90 of these vastly expensive aftermarket specials should be seen as a very strong performance, when every one of those customers could have ordered a Porsche 911 Turbo or a Testarossa instead. But as factory Jaguars, they would not have made financial sense to develop and sell in small numbers, and the lack of the Lister identity might have reduced sales still further.

Aerodynamics – was any of it truly effective, or largely for show?

‘The Lister is both quicker and faster than a Testarossa, if a little noisier and less compliant’

The Lister does have features that Jaguar certainly should have built into the XJ-S, not least the turn-in and body control. Not long ago, I tried a standard Seventies XJ-S on these very same roads, and since driving the Lister I’ve concluded it seems disgraceful that Jaguar allowed the original to be such a pudding.

But it’s horses – or rather cats – for courses. It’s been an education to see what a few talented engineers could make of the XJ-S, but it was always too extreme – and far too expensive – for the mass-market buyer. In the end, how much you like what Lister achieved will be dictated by your tolerance of both late-Eighties bodykits and race car experiences on the road. That leather-lined cabin aside, it’s entirely separate from the standard Jaguar because instead of being insulated from the mechanical experience, you’re fully immersed in it. Which for anyone lucky enough to drive one of these cars, soon becomes the main reason to love it. Whatever your view, you must admit… it’s quite a thing.

Thanks to: Peter Litchfield and to Metcalfe Cars (metcalfecars.com), where this Lister was for sale.

1990 Lister Le Mans

• Engine 6995cc V12, ohc per bank, Marelli electronic fuel injection (standard model)

• Power and torque 496bhp @ 6200rpm, 500lb ft @ 3250rpm (standard model)

• Steering Rack-and-pinion, power-assisted

• Suspension Front: independent, double wishbones, coil springs, telescopic dampers. Rear: independent, upper and lower transverse links, trailing arms, torque reaction bar, coil springs, telescopic dampers, anti-roll bar

• Brakes Front and rear: vented, cross-drilled discs, four-pot alloy calipers, servo-assisted, ABS

• Performance Top speed (claimed): 200mph; 0-60mph (claimed): 4.4sec

• Weight 1800kg (3969lb)

• Fuel consumption 12mpg (estimated)

• Cost new £121,000 (1989)

• Value now £110,000-£130,000

LIVING WITH A LISTER LE MANS

‘It might look like a handful but it’s easy to drive, and in the time I’ve had it, it’s given no trouble and taken everything in its stride,’ says the owner of this car, Peter Litchfield.

‘Mind you, I know the car inside out and backwards after the restoration and my history with the company, but if you can get them mechanically fit, they’re not difficult to look after. They are a bit tricky to see out of, and in the days when I had my first one, I remember catching the front of it on the odd high kerb.

‘But they make wonderful long-journey cars and, unlike the original XJ-S, they’re even more fun on a twisty road. Just don’t expect much more than low teens when it comes to miles per gallon!’

Subscribe to Classic Cars today. Choose a Print+ Subscription and you'll get FREE UK delivery, instant digital access and so much more!