The Ferrari 250 GTO Speaks for Itself Petrolicious 2026-09-21 | The Ferrari 250 GTO Speaks for Itself
Retro Rally Raid: The Story Of The First Dakar Classic Petrolicious 2021-09-07 | For four decades and counting, the Dakar Rally has been host to the widest variety of vehicles in any form of motorsport in the world. From VW Bugs to Porsche 959s, the BMW GS to the KTM 450 Rally, Mercedes Gs to jacked-up Peugeot 405s, and every type of buggy, truck, and tube-framed prototype in between, the infamously difficult rally raid has been the target of many a manufacturer and competitor. The modern version is still chock full of brave and talented nuts racing on bikes, trucks, cars, and buggies, but this year added even more variety, and marked a significant step in the rally’s history with the inclusion of the first-ever Classic category. The inaugural edition saw 24 teams take on the terrain of Saudi Arabia over a nearly two-week period of competition that ran in a parallel route to the main event that began and ended in Jeddah. Range Rovers, Unimogs, Land Cruisers, Mitsu Monteros, and more took on the desert in a live action display of Dakar history. Petrolicious caught up with Ignacio “Livingstone” Corcuera and Juan Roura to get some insight into what it was like to compete in the Dakar Classic, and to understand what made this event important to them on an individual level. Livingstone was instrumental in creating the event, which was spurred by his desire to race the route in one of the earliest Dakar class winners, the Volkswagen Iltis, while Roura had grown up watching the Dakar from its inception in the late 1970s, and found that the Classic offered a more affordable and more sentimental point of entry to a race he’s always wanted to attempt. “All my life, I’ve followed the Dakar closely on TV, at home … The Dakar Classic has opened up an opportunity because it’s more affordable. It has turned into the one option to experience the Dakar and race this rally that I’ve been so excited about. So, at 47 I’ve finally done it.” ---Find more films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
The Rookie & The Racer: The Story of Rebellion Racing at Dakar 2021, Pt.2 Petrolicious 2021-08-31 | For the 2021 edition of the Dakar Rally, we packed our camera kits and joined our friends at Rebellion Racing to witness the triumphs and tribulations of competing firsthand, and to capture and share with you the unique atmosphere of competing at the top level in one of the wildest places on the planet. Equipped with a pair of rear-wheel drive, Peugeot-derived Rebellion DXX buggies powered by 400-hp naturally aspirated Ford V8s, the efforts at the wheel were helmed by pedigreed professional and two-time overall Le Mans winner, Romain Dumas, and Rebellion team principal, Alex Pesci, a self-proclaimed novice who began his rallying career just last year (putting his mouth where his money is and making his debut at none other than the 2020 Dakar). The first of our three-part Dakar 2021 story followed Pesci’s experience, and in this episode, Romain Dumas shares his experience. The last time we went racing with Rebellion and Dumas was at Le Mans in 2020, but these two great tests of endurance are hardly similar. Both require brave, talented drivers, a deep bench of supporting staff in the garage (whether that garage be in pit lane or packed into the back of a support vehicle), strong mental and mechanical fortitude to even think about finishing, and huge amounts of behind the scenes logistics invisible to the outside view. With that said, one race takes place on a paved circuit over the course of a day, while the other involves nearly two weeks of navigating changing and challenging terrain over the course of almost 5,000 miles. That's not a knock on Le Mans, but the Dakar is its own breed of beast.Dumas was a key piece of the team's effort at the 24-hour race last year, and while the Rebellion R13 LMP1 car requires a different set of abilities than the Rebellion DXX buggy, there is a sizable middle section of the venn diagram. The contrast between the dunes of Saudi Arabia and the tree-lined straights of Le Mans is stark beyond just the aesthetics, but the mind and skill sets required to conquer them aren't entirely dissimilar.---Watch part one of our Dakar 2021 series here: youtu.be/FPzvee7_qDUFind more films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousDrive Tastefully®
The Rookie & The Racer: The Story of Rebellion Racing at Dakar 2021, Pt.1 Petrolicious 2021-08-24 | “It’s a human adventure, it’s a mechanical adventure, you go as far as you can… dance with the dunes, surf the waves.” For the 2021 edition of the Dakar Rally, we packed our camera kits and joined our friends at Rebellion Racing to witness the triumphs and tribulations of competing firsthand, and to capture and share with you the unique atmosphere of competing at the top level in one of the wildest places on the planet. Equipped with a pair of rear-wheel drive, Peugeot-derived Rebellion DXX buggies powered by 400-hp naturally aspirated Ford V8s, the efforts at the wheel were helmed by pedigreed professional and two-time overall Le Mans winner, Romain Dumas, and Rebellion team principal, Alex Pesci, a self-proclaimed novice who began his rallying career just last year (putting his mouth where his money is and making his debut at none other than the 2020 Dakar). The first of our three-part Dakar 2021 story follows Pesci’s experience, charting his triumphs and tribulations against the dizzyingly beautiful backdrop of the Saudi Arabian landscape. Next week’s installment will feature Dumas’ Dakar drive, which will be followed by our coverage of the first-ever Dakar Classic. No matter who is competing, no matter in or on top of what, this rally is one without peers, to the extent that Dakar “Rally” is almost a misnomer. It is a test of endurance and willpower that routinely chews up and spits out even the most talented drivers, riders, and navigators; this is not a challenge that caters in the slightest to motorsport tourists, and to even attempt the nearly two-week, 5,000-mile-long journey through Saudi Arabia’s most antagonistic—and breathtaking—terrain is a major feat unto itself. The route is a grueling one, with cruel turns of fate littering the way, but the rewards outweigh the costs, even if you don’t win—or finish, for that matter. The endless undulating dunes, psychedelic skies, and rock formations torn from sci-fi storyboards make up an incomparably surreal setting for a rally raid.---Find more films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Coachbuilt Rünge Cars Petrolicious 2021-07-27 | Rünge Cars (pronounced “run-ghee”) started as Chris Runge’s idea to build a car from the ground up, some basic tools, and a few books. He had a fascination with early aluminum-bodied sports cars and the coachbuilt one-offs commissioned by post-war privateer racers, and credits being exposed to many such cars from the book “Porsche: Excellence was Expected” in particular for planting the seeds. Building something similar to those cars stayed in the back of his mind for years, until 2010, when he found a 1967 Porsche 912 for sale in North Dakota. It was listed by an elderly woman, and when she and Chris got to talking about the car, the conversation eventually led to her late husband’s collection of tools that he’d kept in the garage with the Porsche. There was an English wheel and some other basic metalworking bits gathering dust, and she was happy to sell them all to Chris, if he’d make good use of them. Coupled with his longtime fascination with post-war coachbuilt sports racers from the likes of Zagato and Touring, Chris couldn’t shake the urge to finally embark on the project that had become part of his long-term memory. The car’s first physical manifestation came in the form of a seat frame the following year, followed by steady progress as Chris built body panels, creating a new shell for the car on an autodidactic adventure with aluminum. Along with the tools, his Porsche’s previous owner had also collected a solid library of books on metalworking and coachbuilding, which Chris buried himself in whenever he wasn’t putting what he was learning into practice. Along with his old Porsche books as a consistent reference point, he completed his first coachbuilt car in 2012. It came out as he’d hoped, but back then he had no intention of having customers, or even really showing the car off. It was just for him, the way he’d wanted it. And not just in the sense of the finished product, but also the process. Chris loves the fact that traditional metalworking techniques are more challenging to master, and the results have a special feeling to them that would otherwise be lost by using more modern techniques. As with anything that brings someone a great deal of satisfaction and happiness, Chris continued to pursue his coachbuilding work, and has found another layer of inspiration for his work in his likeminded customers, who appreciate and value the same things. Each creation has a mixture of its owner’s soul, its creator’s, and a piece all its own. Building by hand, out of aluminum, long hours of effort, and a drive to continuously improve, Chris Runge’s small operation in Minnesota has earned him so well-deserved attention from around the world for these soul made masterpieces.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Bernard Testemale Photography Petrolicious 2021-07-20 | It sounds like a recipe for a satire of hipsterdom; a room full of modified old motorcycles, someone un-ironically wearing an alligator-print vest, and a photographer whose quest for authenticity has led him beyond film and into the mostly forgotten world of wet plates. But unlike the feckless and fickle hangers-on, Bernard Testemale doesn’t seem to care if anyone else thinks he’s cool. Photography is not a replacement for his personality, but it is an obsession.The kind of wet plate collodion photography that Bernard is talking about in this episode of Soul Made is an increasingly niche way to capture an image. First drawn into film as a means of a more honest way of doing things compared to digital, Bernard’s passion for his craft led him to one of the earliest methods, but the impracticalities of this style only seem to make Bernard more enthralled by its rewards. We don’t share the same disdain for digital photography—lest we forget that every photo is a manipulation of a moment in time—but we do share his appreciation for the historical techniques and the unique images produced by using them.A photography snob might be the type to hoard away a collection of vintage lenses and other equipment, a trove to be admired by rarely if ever used again as originally intended. Bernard uses his gear, keeps it alive, and could seemingly care less how much it might be worth today or in the future. That’s a sign of someone who’s truly passionate about something, and not just interested in coming off as such. Agree with him or not, Bernard is genuine.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Stand 21 Racewear Petrolicious 2021-07-13 | Before Yves Morizot started Stand 21—one of the oldest and most impactful safety wear companies in the world of motorsport—he baked and sold bread out of a little storefront in Paris. And for a time he was content in that line of work, until a riotous offshoot of the city’s 1968 student protests tried to break into his shop and steal loaves of bread that were meant for a nearby hospital. Disheartened by the act, Morizot subsequently lost his taste for his trade.A longtime lover of racing, Morizot increasingly spent his free time hanging around the French motorsport scene, which back then meant spending weekends at improvised circuits, as he explains: “In those days we didn’t have as many purpose-built racetracks, so races were often held on military airfields, such as Longvic, near Dijon. In fact it was during a race there that Formula 3 driver Jean-Pierre Cassegrain’s car went off the track and caught fire. His burns covered his face and his hands. I helped pull him out of the car, and was profoundly affected by what I’d witnessed. It was horrible.”Sadly, such outcomes weren't uncommon in the late ’60s thanks to the sport’s state of safety equipment, but it was that particular moment that inspired Morizot to pursue the career that he’s stuck with for the past half century, and he started building race suits almost immediately after that firsthand demonstration of their necessity in Longvic.He never stopped, and later this year, Stand 21 will celebrate its 50th anniversary. But Morizot didn’t start off with the resources he has now, and his first race suits weren’t entirely in-house jobs. Recounting these early days, Morizot tells us that “I couldn’t make them all on my own, so I contracted a company in Paris that made suits for firemen and I started dressing drivers here and there. The business grew gradually as more people wore them. This was during what we now consider a golden era for French F1 drivers, with the likes of Jabouille, Lafitte, Depailler, and later Peroni and Prost.”More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
HS S01 EP11 mitsubishi lancer Petrolicious 2021-07-06 | At the beginning of the 1990s, the rallying world began the process of passing the torch. The European constructors that defined the 1980s during the Group B years were still dominating in the form of Lancia and its Delta Integrale, but by the 1993 season of the World Rally Championship, the Japanese teams made their presence known on the podium. First with Toyota, then with Subaru and Mitsubishi coming into their own too. On the streets and in pop culture, the battle was primarily played out by Subaru’s Impreza WRX and STI road models against Mitsubishi’s Lancer Evolutions. Both manufacturers were responsible for producing street legal variants of their WRC contenders, but unlike years prior, they didn’t build the bare minimum. Pushed even further into the collective consciousness by the latest generation of video games, cars like the Lancer Evolution took on reputations that transcended their origins in rallying. In that regard, the Lancer Evolution VI is the fulcrum. It was the last Mitsubishi that works driver Tommi Mäkinen won a world championship with (the final of four in a row from 1996 to 1999), and the last competitive effort that the company put towards the WRC before exiting to focus on the Dakar. After the VI, Evos VII-X became more well-known for their roles in movies and video games than stage wins.In this episode of Homologation Specials, our host Sam Hancock explores the legacy of Mitsubishi’s rallying heyday in the 1990s while weaving a properly modified example of the capstone of that era, the Evo VI, through its natural habitat of hairpins and other handbrake-inducing apexes.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Replicars Scale Models Petrolicious 2021-06-29 | It’s easy to find a company that makes a diecast of your car at the make and model level, but unless yours is spec’d just like the one in the dealer catalog, chances for a perfect match are slim. Not to worry though, for there’s a Frenchman named Steph with fine motor skills and a 3D printer who will work up an exacting replica for you.Steph grew up in a family well versed in vehicles, and his passion for models came on early in the form of a five-year-old Steph hanging around the shop and asking his father, who did body and paintwork, to respray his Majorette toys whenever they lost enough of their original coat. His father could only spend so much time away from his day job painting real cars to mask off the windows and wheels of his sons toys however, so young Steph took it upon himself to upgrade his fleet on his own.Steph will mix batches of paint to perfectly match OEM or Pantone colors, or if necessary, replicate full-car liveries. He’ll make a bucket seat the size of a field mouse and upholster it, too. If your gear lever is brushed aluminum, it will look like brushed aluminum in your model. If your car is right-hand drive but you can only find left-hand drive versions in miniature, Steph will swap that tiny dashboard and the pedal box around for you. Engine bay missing some details? Steph will add turbos, piping, and whatever else is needed to ape the real thing. The end result of all the hunting and tweezing of small bits of metal and plastic and textile is an object worthy of sentimental attachment—just like their full-size inspirations. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Schedoni Custom Leather Luggage Petrolicious 2021-06-22 | Mauro Schedoni represents the third generation of his family to work with leather, but more important than the subject matter is the philosophy. His father instilled him with a respect for high quality work, leading by example, always striving and honing. While he was mainly involved with shoes, Mauro would later forge a connection between Schedoni and another of Italy’s low-volume manufacturers. In the 1970s, Mauro’s brother in law approached him with a request for some custom luggage. Like many a Ferrari driver, he found that typical luggage sets didn’t fit properly in the car’s small storage compartment. Mauro, flushed with work orders, said he didn’t have the capacity to make a custom set, but for Christmas that year, he arrived bearing a set of leather suitcases designed to fit perfectly in the trunk of a 308 GTB. Ferrari’s commercial director happened to join them for Christmas lunch, and was impressed with the Schedoni craftsmanship and fit. Mauro was invited to Maranello just two weeks later on January 8th, 1977. Ever since then, Schedoni has been designing luggage specific to each model released by Ferrari. In addition to the luggage for production cars, Mauro also supplied the leather that Ferrari used on the seats of its F1 cars for many years, up until the early Michael Schumacher years when synthetics finally took over. Mauro jokes that these were some of the fastest pigs in the world, “because no other pig has gone as fast as 350km/h.”Besides the specific work, in a more general sense, Mauro’s chief source of pride comes from simply carrying on his father’s legacy, his commitment to producing the best. He’s also proud to be teaching the next generation that will eventually take on that responsibility.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL Petrolicious 2021-06-15 | In this episode of Homologation Specials, Alain de Cadenet spends an afternoon with BMW’s supremely beautiful bid for touring car supremacy in the 1970s, the 3.0 CSL. Conceived by a group of brilliant minds at Alpina and BMW Motorsport, the CSL more than measured up its task in the European Touring Car Championship, winning the manufacturers’ title in 1973, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, and ’79. Proving its endurance chops for good measure, it also won its class at Le Mans in 1973, and overall at the 1975 12 Hours of Sebring and the 1976 Daytona 24 Hours.“Dominant” is an understatement of the car’s abilities on the race track, but the road-going versions of the CSL are revered by enthusiasts for their own merits. By starting with the pretty looking, but also pretty big and heavy E9 platform, BMW’s then newly formed racing department—BMW Motorsport, conceived by Bob Lutz and Jochen Neerpasch—had the task of removing as much weight as possible from the big coupe while keeping the car street legal. Using Alpina’s earlier work on E9-based racing cars in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Neerpasch’s team of engineers and designers replaced the steel hood, trunk, and doors with aluminum, thinned the windshield and traded the rest of the greenhouse for Perspex, got rid of the carpets, ditched the chrome bumpers for fiberglass, and among other dieting techniques they even thinned the carpets and headliner.Later iterations of the CSL added back some creature comforts, swapped carbs for injection, and included an option for a wild aero kit that earned such equipped cars the “Batmobile” nickname. For this film, Alain is driving one of the more civilized city pack-equipped British market CSLs—while not the lightest nor the most radical of the bunch, there is no such thing as a boring example of this car. The CSL’s massive success on the track and in pop culture laid the foundation for what we now call BMW M, and to this day it is arguably the division’s greatest accomplishment.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Yoshi Kosaka and Garage Company Petrolicious 2021-06-08 | Growing up in Japan, Yoshinobu “Yoshi” Kosaka developed an affinity for motorcycles early on, scavenging abandoned bikes and playing around with their components until he started his career—which only resulted in him buying a bunch of new sports and racing machines to add to his collection. After moving to Los Angeles in the 1980s, Yoshi continued to amass specimens thanks in no small part to the fallout of the oil crises and the relative abundance of cheap, high-performance componentry to be had by the enthusiast community. When the trove of motorcycles and boxes inevitably outgrew their residential space, Yoshi’s wife Kyoko found a dedicated spot for them in Venice (which he has, unsurprisingly, also outgrown). Not intending to do anything other than organize and enjoy his trove, Yoshi soon found himself in nearly constant company from the curious likeminded people that found their way to the windows and eventually through the doors. Eventually, Yoshi’s hobby grew to also become his business, and made a name for Garage Company by offering restorations, modifications, race preparations, and a chance to find some truly rare and unique parts from his own accumulated finds. For someone as enthusiastic as Yoshi, it can be hard to let go of certain parts, or to part ways with bikes he’s worked on, but he maintains that some things will simply never be for sale. Turning a passion into a profession can be trickier than it seems, but there is no sign that Yoshi has become jaded or burnt out; if you ask him what he’d like to do in retirement, he says he’d still be in the shop all day, enjoying some whisky and playing around with his bikes.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Jarel-Built Slot Car Tracks Petrolicious 2021-06-01 | Racing is one of the most expensive and exclusive sports, but there are ways of democratizing the experience with a little bit of imagination and some space in the basement for a slot car track. In this episode of Soul Made, we sit down with Mark Jarel as he explains how (and more importantly, why) he became a custom slot car track builder. A longtime motorsport enthusiast, as well as a frequent participant—racing cars and motorcycles on circuits, lake beds, and drag strips—Mark was also introduced to woodworking and a general DIY attitude from a young age thanks to his father’s cabinetry business. The requisite skills and subject matter interest was there, but it wasn’t until Mark’s own son found a box of old slot cars that Mark started down the track building path. Growing up, Mark and his older brother would use a snap-together set to race around the Christmas tree, but the tracks that Mark builds today are much more than a set of pine needle covered plastic curves plugged into an outlet. Rather than slot car racing, Mark thinks of the hobby as scale racing, and the worlds he builds reflects this ideology. The handmade, routed tracks that Mark creates are more like functional miniatures than pure plaything, with great care taken to construct realistic scenery, borrowing elements from the world’s great motorsport locations and combining them into unique but familiar scenes. What starts out as a few planks of particle board and a sketchpad leads to something much greater than the sum of its materials. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1994 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evo II Petrolicious 2021-05-25 | The infamous ending to the Group B era of the World Rally Championship led to a new breed of title-contending cars for the 1987 season. The Group A category (which had existed since the inception of Group B in 1982) cars that emerged during the following decade were a slower and less exotic variety than their short-lived Group B counterparts, but the competition between manufacturers during this era was also some of the strongest in the sport’s history, and it produced the winningest car platform to date: the Lancia Delta HF.In HF 4WD form, the Delta HF made its dominant WRC debut in 1987, winning nine of the season’s 13 rounds, and with only two podium absences. Lancia won the constructors’ title five additional times—in a row—afterwards, thanks to its strong driver lineups and the ever-evolving Delta. The car grew wider and more powerful during its remarkably long competitive lifespan, culminating in the Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione in the 1992 season. It lived up to its successful heritage and helped Lancia win the WRC constructors’ title one last time, but it also marked the end of the company’s prestigious decades-long rallying program. One of the greatest examples in sport of bowing out on a competitive high note, the Delta HF rally cars are a worthy capstone to a lineage of cars that includes up a majority of the WRC’s most beloved mechanical competitors.As the Delta was continuously wrung for more performance between 1987 and 1992, Lancia complied with regulations and released road-going variants to legalize the introduction of new parts and designs, which left the enthusiast market with a pretty diverse range of high-performance street-legal Delta variants. This episode of Homologation Specials features the very last of these hot Deltas, the HF Integrale Evoluzione II. And although this model has the wildest bodywork, the most power, and the highest degree of overall development of the lot, it technically isn’t a homologation special at all, seeing as Lancia’s WRC program had officially concluded before the release of the “Evo 2” in 1993. We hope you’ll cut it some slack, though, and that you enjoy watching our host Sam Hancock weaving it through some mountain switchbacks.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Kingsbury Racing Shop Petrolicious 2021-05-18 | In the compound of workshops, garages, hangars, and runways that constitute Bicester Heritage, one has no trouble feeling connected to British history. Today the former wartime RAF facility is home to a collective of businesses dedicated to the classic car and motorcycle scene, ranging from restorations to full-on race prep. Few are as quintessentially English as Kingsbury Racing Shop.Led by engineer and owner Ewen Getley, Kingsbury’s focus is on early W.O. Bentley-designed cars from the marque’s early history. Although some of the machinery is over a century old now, Getley and his team of specialists would hardly call their work routine. As Getley puts it, “Every morning you come in, you find something new to do.”Whether it’s a restoration of a model destined for touring on public roads or building a car specifically to use in historic racing events, the work that comes out of Kingsbury is always up to the same standard—no matter the use case, the cars exit the workshop ready for the extremes. The thinking is sound: If a motor runs happy and healthy at top speed, it will also work for crushing the countryside in a more leisurely tachometer reading.Kingsbury has the staff and facilities to expand the scope of its work, but Getley prefers to keep the operations aimed at Bentley. “I’m interested in Bugattis, and Alfa Romeos, beautiful cars like that,” he says, “but really, in vintage cars, Bentley is what I grew up with, what I know, and what I love. They can race, they can rally, they can hill climb, they can go on-road, they can go off-road, and they can do it all very well. They’re just really well engineered cars.”Well-engineered from the outset, but often modified during the course of their lives at points when their values were relatively minuscule, these old Bentleys often come to Kingsbury not to have their past erased in a full restoration, but revived. Getley describes the thinking behind the work as, “Restore where you can, replace where you must. Ultimately you want to end up with a car that looks like you haven’t touched it—much more difficult than making a shiny car, believe me.”More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Ciccio Racing Shoes Petrolicious 2021-05-11 | Francesco “Ciccio” Liberto, humbly describes himself as a “happy shoemaker,” a career he’s had since he was a teenager. What started out as a small workshop for handmade shoes and repairs eventually led—thanks to providence and skill—to Ciccio’s handiwork taking on an iconic status in the world of racing. After his father died when Ciccio was young, his family had to live economically, and as a teenager, continuing his schoolwork was an unaffordable luxury. Not dissuaded, he went into the business of a cobbler, creating tailor-made footwear for his Sicilians customers. Ciccio opened his shop when he was just 16 years old, mainly servicing the demand for orthopedic shoes. Ciccio’s town of Cefalù is close to where the Targa Florio took place, and like most young men his age, Ciccio was not uninterested in motorsports. During one Targa Florio in the mid 1960s, Ciccio found himself in a nearby hotel restaurant with three of Alfa Romeo’s factory drivers. When the conversation came to what each other’s careers were like, one of the drivers—Ignazio Giunti—asked Ciccio if he could make a pair of shoes specifically for driving. The first pairs created to fill that mandate connected the sole with glue which would melt in the heat of the pedal box, but after fixing this mistake Ciccio found his customer base including more and more racing drivers. With their feedback and his talents as a cobbler, Ciccio supplied many a Targa Florio hopeful with a pair of shoes, and his designs also attracted the attention of Ferrari. In 1975 Ciccio received a call from the marque’s motorsport manager, requesting shoes for the team’s Formula 1 drivers, Carlos Reutemann and Niki Lauda. Two years later, Lauda won the world championship wearing a pair of Ciccio shoes. The sport has changed since then, but Ciccio remains a staple of in-the-know motorsport culture, a singular character with one of those stories that just doesn’t seem likely to happen these days.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1998 Mitsubishi Pajero Evolution Petrolicious 2021-05-04 | Japanese manufacturers found no shortage of success in the World Rally Championship (WRC) throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, with Toyota, Subaru, and Mitsubishi trading constructor titles almost exclusively amongst each other for more than a decade, in turn canonizing the Celica, Impreza, and Lancer among the sport’s all-time greats. But while Toyota and Subaru kept their rallying efforts focused on the WRC during this era, Mitsubishi also took on the greatest long-distance off-road race in the world: The Paris-Dakar. Their weapon of choice was the Pajero. The capable but otherwise unexceptional 4WD SUV was modified to take on the mechanically and mentally grueling desert raid and made its debut in the 1983 edition. Soon after, in 1985, the Pajero took the first of the model’s 12 victories in the car category, a streak of dominance that lasted until 2007, including a six-win streak. The Pajero still stands as the winningest vehicle at the Dakar, with more class wins and more stage wins than any competitor, in any category.For the 1997 edition of the infamously challenging raid, a changed rulebook shepherded the works teams away from prototypes and into the production-based car classes, which brings us to the road-going Pajero Evolution in this week’s film. A true homologation special, the production “PajEvo” was built in order for Mitsubishi to enter a racing version into the Dakar’s production-based T2 class. The road-going result was markedly different from any other Pajero to wear a license plate. Starting with the two-door’s ultra-short wheelbase, Mitsubishi flared the bodywork around widened front and rear tracks, added a vented, aluminum hood, and fitted a pair of fins to the rear end of the roofline. Under the augmented skin, the PajEvo separated itself from its more civilian kin by taking on Torsen limited-slip differentials on the front and rear axles, and swapping the standard suspension for a double wishbone front end and multilink rear with extended travel. The chassis was reinforced to cope with the demands of the Dakar, and to propel the two-ton rally tank, Mitsubishi gave it a 3.5-liter V6—the 6G74—which sent 276hp and 256lb-ft of torque through an automatic five-speed (an even rarer manual version was available, but most were automatics, including the Dakar competitors).The Pajero Evo won its debut in the 1997 event and went on to to become the most victorious Dakar machine of all time, yet its production version remains one of the lesser-known homologation specials. In this week’s film, host Sam Hancock puts one of these under-appreciated bulldogs through its paces on a mixed-surface rallycross course. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Jack Olsen And The 12-Gauge Garage Petrolicious 2021-04-27 | We featured Jack Olsen’s multifunctional 1972 Porsche 911 during the very early days of Petrolicious films, and for this episode of Master Mechanics we met up with Jack again, this time to put the spotlight on the other Swiss Army knife that he’s built. Like the 911 that lives inside of it, the 12-Gauge Garage—named after the thickness of the steel cabinetry within—is a study in maximum utility extraction. In this case, a typical 20’ x 20’ two-car garage in Los Angeles that’s been rethought and redesigned to function as a respectable workshop for Jack’s Porsche. A screenwriter by trade, but someone with a genetic disposition towards engineering ingenuity, it wasn’t enough for Jack to just play around with his half-track-car, half-grocery-getter 911—he had to create the perfect environment to do it in, all out of a basic residential garage. “All the men in my family are engineers, and I am the odd one who came out to California to be a writer,” he says. “Somewhere in my thirties, I discovered that I missed what was a part of my family life growing up, which was making things, fixing things,” continuing, “I’m still not an engineer, I’m still not a mechanic, but I have discovered a path to those things through this place.“Some of my earliest memories are getting brought in, by my father, to the machine shop. I grew up watching my father lose himself in projects, in a good way.” The lasting effect of that part of his childhood led Jack down a similar path as an adult, turning the workshop itself into a project worth losing himself in. “It’s a safe, calm, enjoyable place to spend hours, sometimes working on a piece that maybe no one will ever notice,” Jack muses,” but I will know I made it in that particular way, for a very particular reason.”More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: O’Rourke Coachtrimmers Petrolicious 2021-04-20 | Robert “Rorky” O’Rourke isn’t particularly interested in cars’ engines or their cornering characteristics. Like anyone who spends working hours amongst classic Ferraris and the like, Rorky appreciates the superlative elements of the cars that come to O’Rourke Coachtrimmers, but his company is unwaveringly focused on one element. This is not a one-stop shop for full-car restorations, though if you’re looking for an interior done to a degree of perfection that can only come from an obsessive dedication to craftsmanship, this is the place to get it.“I like the look of these cars,” Rorky says with a conciliatory tone, covering his bases, but he believes that real beauty isn’t skin deep. “I’m a bit backwards that way. I just like the interiors—I’m really passionate about that and nothing else,” he admits, continuing, “When I go anywhere and see an old race car, the first thing I look at is the seats.” The combination of Rorky and his team’s accumulated hands-on knowledge and the narrow scope of their services has made O’Rourke Coachtrimmers the kind of company that people seek out when they’re only seeking the highest quality. After trimming the interiors of nearly countless Ferraris, Rorky can certainly be considered a master of the trade by now, but one of the more common denominators among people like that is a need for challenge. O’Rourke Coachtrimmers doesn’t shy away from the obscure, and while the team has made this specialized skill set into something more like instinct at this point, each new job is taken as an opportunity to keep learning.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1980 Renault 5 Turbo Petrolicious 2021-04-13 | The creation of the Renault 5 Turbo is one of our favorite stories of automotive augmentation, at once unique and stereotypical; it’s another somewhat odd-looking French car, another rally icon with econobox heritage. But the “R5 Turbo” was also an iconoclastic machine that diverged from its humble origins to a degree that was arguably unmatched until the infamous Group B cars that arrived in the World Rally Championship (WRC) years later. After winning its debut at the 1981 Rallye Monte-Carlo on the eve of that new era, the rear-wheel drive R5 Turbo went on to perform admirably against the onslaught of all-wheel drive cars in the mid 1980s—especially so on tarmac-heavy rally stages, but its origins are rooted in the 1970s, when the then freshly christened WRC was being handily commanded by the French manufacturer’s Italian rival. Renault’s answer to the dominant Lancia Stratos was to transform its perfectly fine but homely hatchback into a wide-bodied rally fighter.Bertone was tasked with designing the bodywork, the monocoque was modified to hold a turbocharged engine where the groceries used to go in the car’s front-engine, front-wheel drive relative, lightweight alloys replaced much of the steel shell, and production of the road-going homologation versions was underway at the turn of the decade. More than 40 years later, the rally and road versions of the R5 Turbo are rightfully regarded as part of the rallying canon. In this week’s film featuring a beautiful first model-year example, our host Sam Hancock pilots the wonderfully pugnacious little monster through the winding roads of Biella, Italy, talking about the car’s origins and its lasting impact.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Il Bottegone ISO Restorations Petrolicious 2021-04-06 | The Negri family business, Il Bottegone ISO Restoration, has defined itself as the last word in the restoration, preservation, and recreation of ISO sports cars, but the father and son workshop also produces something intangible. Their work keeps the interest alive and guards the history from ever becoming ancient—Il Bottegone’s reputation as the definitive source among ISO owners and enthusiasts has been well earned.When Roberto Negri bought the leftover stock from Iso during the company’s bankruptcy in the mid 1970s after the Oil Crisis, he wasn’t planning to open a restoration shop. A favor for a friend—some work on an Iso Lele—turned into another one, and the snowball effect took over from there, turning Roberto’s obvious passion for this particular marque into a business that those like him have come to rely on.Though it was mostly unintentional, the business also owes itself to destiny, or at least to provenance, seeing as Roberto was an engineer and test driver for ISO Rivolta in the 1970s before becoming one of its torchbearers today. Negri’s own heir, his son Federico, is also part of the business, proving that legacies can last longer than companies. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale Petrolicious 2021-03-30 | Lancia’s motorsport legacy spans many decades and disciplines, but the Italian marque earned its most consistent and most significant victories in the World Rally Championship (WRC). As far removed from a one-trick pony as possible, Lancia won 10 WRC constructor titles between the 1974 and 1992 season with three very different cars (four if you count the precursor championship to the WRC, which Lancia won with the Fulvia), but the extraterrestrial, wildly successful Stratos was the company’s only completely purpose-built machine. The Stratos had a dominant reign in the WRC that continued well beyond the lifespan of a typical competition car (besides winning a hat trick of WRC constructor titles for the factory team between 1974 and 1976, privateers ensured that the Stratos continued to win rally stages and events into the early 1980s), but its place in Lancia’s history isn’t based solely on its trophy-taking abilities. The Stratos was a special project that combined the then-burgeoning dynasty of Lancia rallying, the paradigm shifting and era-defining design of Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, and to make the story even more of an Italian all-star team, its horsepower came courtesy of a certain prancing one: Ferrari. Powered by the Dino’s V6, the Stratos was not just a Lancia success story, but an Italian one. The car evolved beyond the rally stage to take on the Group 5 competition during the silhouette era, and the street legal version has remained one of the wildest machines to ever wear a license plate. In this week’s film we join Sam Hancock in one such Stradale model as he gives it some proper exercise on a suitably dreamy stretch of coastal mountain road.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Provost Automobile Le Mans Petrolicious 2021-03-23 | It’s not surprising that Le Mans is home to specialist automotive businesses, and just outside of the city sits a restoration and preservation workshop that’s among the best in the world. Provost Automobile Le Mans is a place where perfectionism is part of the status quo, but the team that carries out the work is always learning, viewing each project as an opportunity to hone a technique or add to their collective knowledge, while simultaneously showcasing what decades of experience can accomplish. Gauthier Rousseau, Jean Baptiste Perriot, Laurent Chatal, and the rest of the team put their deep backgrounds in the industry to work on everything from pre-war grand prix machines to the early supercars of the ’70s, Ferrari 166MMs to Dinos, Facel Vegas to Aston Martins—just about every iconic model has passed through Provost, sometimes entering as boxes of parts and leaving as a concours contender. From upholstery to hand-formed bodywork, comprehensive engine rebuilds to nearly countless hours in the paint booth, the physical and human capital at Provost is equipped for the challenging work of turning back the clock on these special automobiles. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: O.M.E.A. Handmade Badges Petrolicious 2021-03-16 | If a car is only a collection of smaller bits serving specific purposes, the badges it wears have the job of placing all those bits in context. When we look at a specific car we might remember its achievements in sport or design, but when we look at the symbol of the marque our minds are freed to wander further out. Timelines distend to their bookends, legacies come into focus, and we are sucked down into the deep wells of lore capped by the prancing horse of Ferrari, the cross and serpent of Alfa Romeo, Lamborghini’s raging bull.O.M.E.A. understands this significance and has been devoted to the art of badge design and production since its operations began in the late 19th century. Active since 1887 but pared down to just a small dedicated group of artisans now, they have since relocated from their Milanese factory to a smaller building outside the city center. Such is the reality of preserving tradition.The work performed under the O.M.E.A. name has remained unchanged despite shifts in the industry toward plastic and automation—these materials and processes reduce cost and ramp production numbers, but there’s art lost in taking this shortcut. O.M.E.A. is a place where skilled hands are still more valuable than fast computers, where cloisonné reigns supreme over cheap polymer blends. Here enamels and metals continue to provide the same color and the luster as they did on the hood of a new 250 SWB. Little piles of powder are carefully arranged and then fired at extreme temperature to fill the spaces in the badge that will be finished by hand, creating another pretty remnant of a time when craftsmanship was more important than honing the supply chain.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Bending Metal At Laboratorio Lopane Petrolicious 2021-03-09 | Alfredo Lopane moved his family to Milan in the 1950s and wasted no time finding work to support their life in a new city. A lover of cars and motorsport, a job in a body shop was a natural fit, and as Alfredo still puts it today, “I am a bending machine operator. It’s something I wanted to do.” A humble and simple description of an increasingly rare vocation that he’s dedicated his life to mastering. “I still do it with the same joy as when I started. It still thrills me.”By the late 1950s, Alfredo was ready to start his own company after apprenticing and interning, and he partnered with his brothers as the Lopane family ventured into the industry on its own terms. They hired the most talented panel beaters they could the remains of other workshops, design firms, and coachbuilders that had recently shut down, assembling a pretty skilled workforce in short order.His brothers would pursue other careers over time, but Alfredo never strayed. And in the 1980s, when the vintage car market entered a period of major expansion, he pivoted his business to focus on high-end restoration work, working closely with his friend Stefano Bellini, a former employee at Carrozzeria Touring. Bellini was in his 70s when he met Lopane, but the collaboration between the two ignited something of a second career for Bellini, who tapped his network of old friends and colleagues to create a team of metal manipulators with the best Milanese pedigree Lopane could ask for, bringing experience from Touring, Zagato, Castagna, and others into the restoration world.Today, Alfredo is joined by his two sons, Andrea and Alberto, who share their father’s passion for the work. Alberto was not so enamored with the “old cars” when he joined the business as a teenager, but through his extensive study of and time with these machines, he came to appreciate and love them long ago, finding both satisfaction in sadness at the end of each project. But it’s Andrea who best sums up how all three of the Lopane men view themselves; “I don’t have a job, I am my job. I think this is what characterizes someone who does what he loves.”More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1990 BMW E30 M3 Sport Evolution Petrolicious 2021-03-02 | In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the best touring car racing in the world was happening in Germany. The Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM) was a hotbed for manufacturer money and talented drivers, the racing was at its door-banging finest, and the pursuit of competitive edges on the track produced some of the most iconic homologation specials for the road. The most famous of which was the first-ever BMW M3.Based on the E30-generation 3-Series, the M3 was comprehensively reworked by the engineers at BMW Motorsport to battle it out with Ford, Audi, and most of all the Bavarian’s opposition from Stuttgart, Mercedes-Benz. Although no single manufacturer can be said to have dominated the DTM during this period, the BMW M3 and Mercedes-Benz 190E were consistent favorites, and the definitive rivals of the series that duked it out for the better part of a decade, each winning titles over the efforts of the other. Both the Benz and the Bimmer were treated to Evolution models over the course of their careers, and in 1990 the two carmakers arrived with their last major iterations, the winged 190E Evolution II, and the BMW Sport Evolution. In this week’s film, our host Alain de Cadenet takes the road-going version of the ultimate E30 M3 on a drive in the mountains of Portugal, exploring its development history while putting it to work on the types of roads cars like this were all but built for. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Classic Performance Engineering Petrolicious 2021-02-23 | Bicester Heritage, the former RAF base turned classic car hub, is a compound of hangars and brick buildings in Oxfordshire that’s earned well-deserved international acclaim for its role in the vintage car world. Occupied by an array of restoration workshops, specialist mechanics, and garages in the business of historic racing, it’s a place with no lack of special cars and talented engineers. In this week’s film, we visit one of the exemplary business in Bicester, Classic Performance Engineering.Founded in the 1990s by Martin Greaves, the restoration and race prep shop has found success over the decades by focusing first and foremost on doing justice to the cars, not by chasing profit margins to the point of compromise. Martin was the kind of kid who took apart and rebuilt anything he could get his hands on, and when he grew up a little bit he built on his natural curiosity, gaining practical engineering experience as a teenager in a student work experience program. The university education that followed bolstered his previous hands-on work with theory and technical skills, and when Martin finished his schooling he put his cumulative talents to work pursuing a career that revolved around what he loved: sports and racing cars. His first job in the field was with an Aston Martin specialist, but his next position was with a shop that worked with all kinds of marques, which made Martin realize that a business could work without focusing too much on certain marques or types of cars. Martin says that if he hadn’t started Classic Performance Engineering, what’s now his career would have still been his hobby. He’s in this industry to make a living, but he loves the work beyond the point of thinking of it in those terms alone. He loves what he does, and he’s the kind of person who will stay the extra few hours to make sure something is done just right, finding himself alone at midnight or later, exhausted but always happy to be in the “best toy box in the world.”More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Umberto Galli: Ferrari’s Model Maker Petrolicious 2021-02-16 | Umberto Galli built his first scale model of a Ferrari Formula 1 car as a teenager in the early 1980s using a humble kit of scissors, glue, and cardboard repurposed from shoe boxes in lieu of lightweight alloys and composites used for the real deal—with a packet of felt-tip markers supplying the paintwork. Today he is a senior aerodynamicist at Ferrari working on Formula 1 cars with almost two decades of tenure. He still builds scale models, only now they go into the team’s wind tunnel instead of the bookshelf in his childhood bedroom.Evolving from his first forays into scale-modeling, Galli, who grew up in a small town outside of Modena and nurtured an early love for sports cars, continued to hone his techniques throughout his pursuits in higher education, studying at technical and industrial institutes and learning how to use innovative materials and software to create ever more detailed miniatures of his favorite racing machines. And of course he didn’t stop when it was time to start his career. Seeing an ad in the paper for technical positions at Ferrari, Galli sent his resume with the standard education and work experience, but he also attached some photos of his scale models. After months of waiting and out of hundreds of applicants to the few positions offered, Galli was one of the first to be selected for further interviews and tests. During one such technical evaluation, he was asked to recreate various pieces of the F1 aerodynamics package in CAD, at the end of which the Ferrari employee administering the test told Galli he knew more about the car than they did. Galli maintains that he doesn’t know why he was chosen to interview all those years ago for the job that would become his life’s work, but from our perspective it was simply destiny.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1980 BMW M1 Petrolicious 2021-02-09 | The scope of BMW’s competition history is a wide one. It includes victories at events as diverse as the Dakar Rally and the Mille Miglia, as well as the production of the most powerful engine Formula 1 has ever seen, to say nothing of the brand’s record in touring cars.And in the very beginning, in 1972, long before the name change to BMW M, BMW Motorsport began translating some of its prowess for racing into production cars. Homologation specials like the E9 3.0 CSL and E30 M3 that supported championship-winning machines are rightfully praised, but none to date have been as ambitious or singular as the BMW M1.Spurred by the success of the CSL and E21 3-Series racing programs in Europe and the United States in the 1970s, BMW Motorsport director Jochen Neerpasch decided to take a different and more direct approach to the next car to carry the tricolor stripes. Rather than using an existing road car model as a basis for the racing version, the M1 was designed for the track first and foremost. The car was unlike any BMW had ever built, and in order to do so, the Bavarians teamed up with the Italians to tap into their experience with mid-engine supercars. BMW partnered with Lamborghini to produce the cars at first, with Gian Paolo Dallara designing the chassis and Giorgetto Giugiaro in charge of styling. It was a gathering of great ingredients.And in hindsight they produced a great car, but the delays and complications with the M1’s production in-period stunted its chances at reaching whatever potential it may have had in Group 4 and 5 sports car racing against the likes of Porsche, Ferrari, Lancia, Chevrolet, and the others that ended up defining the series in the late 1970s and early ‘80s. Neerpasch greatly salvaged the car’s racing reputation in the form of the one-make, two-season ProCar series, but no matter what happened on track, the road-going BMW M1 is a special car to drive, as our host Sam Hancock can surely attest after spending a day with one in the mountains in Germany.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Classic Racing School: A New Path To Vintage Single-Seaters Petrolicious 2021-02-02 | The purpose behind The Classic Racing School is easy enough to glean from its name, but it provides more than just a way to learn the basics of driving on an old car around any old race track. The young French entrepreneur behind the project, Julien Chaffard, has created the only full-service curriculum for open-wheel racing enthusiasts looking to connect with the past as they build and hone their talents in vintage machines. We recently visited the school’s facilities near the central French city of Clermont-Ferrand to learn more about this unique program that Julien’s been dreaming up since his childhood.Located just a few miles from Clermont-Ferrand, the birthplace of Michelin, the school hosts its events at the nearby Circuit de Charade when class is in session during the spring-to-fall season of cooperative weather. Fans of Formula 1 history will be familiar with this legendary racetrack that was part of the championship calendar on and off between 1965 and 1972, when the likes of Jackie Stewart, Jim Clark, and Jochen Rindt found victory there, but even with that legacy aside, the circuit is plenty dramatic. Carved into the mountains around an extinct volcano, the course features striking elevation changes that once prompted Sir Stirling Moss to claim, “I don't know a more wonderful track than Charade." Not many endorsements go further than that. The school’s cars—continuation Formula Fords manufactured by the same Crosslé Car Company that built them in the 1960s—combine with the historic circuit to offer one of the most authentic vintage open-wheel experiences this side of a time machine. In today’s film, we talk with the founder and the instructors involved in building a new school of vintage racing.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Canford Classics Porsche Restoration Petrolicious 2021-01-26 | Canford Classics has been in the business of restoring vintage Porsches for well over a decade now, and Alan Drayson didn’t start the company on a whim, either. He remembers being smitten with the marque since his childhood, and he had his first Porsche at the ripe age of 17; a 912 in need of attention, which Alan gave to it in the form of a restoration carried out after his schoolwork was done (and not always after), fueled by his enthusiasm and financed by his part-time job in a local bar.The facilities of Canford Classics outclass the garage workspace where Alan’s first Porsche restoration took place all those years ago, but while the tools and knowledge have evolved rather dramatically since then, it’s still propelled along by Alan’s passion and respect for the cars. The team of restorers responsible for the thousands of hours that go into each completed project share that drive, too, and the work they put out speaks clearly to their level of talent. Canford Classics handles everything apart from chrome and powder coating work in-house. Each restoration begins with a complete disassembly of the car and its driveline, but rather than mailing out the pieces into a spiderweb of outsourcing, you’ll find the Canford engine room busied with machining the valve guides while the bodywork is being painted and perfected downstairs, waiting for its full suspension rebuild from the room next door. In this week’s film, join us on a trip to Dorset to peek into the barn doors of this special operation as we sit down to talk with its founder. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1957 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Veloce ‘Alleggerita’ Petrolicious 2021-01-19 | Before the Second World War, Alfa Romeo’s racing program brought a steady influx of trophies into the company case, but the post-conflict reality dictated change in the industry. Production shifted away from luxurious low-volume sedans and sports cars into more plentiful and affordable machines throughout Europe, and Alfa Romeo’s answer was the Giulietta. The standard models were good-looking, economical, and fun to drive, but they also helped the brand reestablish itself in the racing world by serving as a basis for high performance models like the car featured in this week’s film.We join Alain de Cadenet in the snowy ranges of northern Italy for a look at one of the special Giulietta variants that helped underpin the brand’s reemergent motorsport profile: the Sprint Veloce. The Sprint Veloce took the beautiful Giulietta Sprint coupe designed by Franco Scaglione and upgraded it for sporting use, and customers could go a step further and spec a lightweight, or “Alleggerita” version like one profiled in the film. The lightweight treatment included replacing the side window glass with plexiglass, the steel hood, trunk, and doors with aluminum, as well as the removal of the rear bench seat. The sound deadening was thrown out in favor of lightness too, and even the door of the glovebox was eschewed in pursuit of a better power-to-weight, while the higher-compression, dual-carb version of the inline-four made it so both sides of the ratio were improved in their own rights. This Giulietta simultaneously stands as an example of the manufacturer’s post-war pivot and its earlier concentration on low-volume specialty vehicles, and if you think it’s something of an ideal representation of road-going Alfa Romeos we’d be inclined to agree. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Ruote Borrani Wire Wheels Petrolicious 2021-01-12 | Carlo Borrani may not have invented the center-lock wheel, but the company that bears his name was instrumental in bringing the technology to the forefront of the automotive world in the post-war era.After WWII, during the revival of sports cars and racing and for many years afterwards, a set of Borrani wire wheels was all but de facto footwear, and not just for Italian manufacturers and teams. Ferrari road and race cars of the period were spinning Borrani wires around the world, but so were many of their international rivals. Some of the first Ford GT40s were sold with Borranis for instance, and like the Nardi steering wheels in last week’s film, a set of wheels from Ruote Borrani was rightfully seen as a stamp of quality, of artful engineering carried out by passionate people.The company is an old one, having survived the second world war and a few changes of ownership since its founding in 1922 by Carlo Borrani, but the methods used in the production facilities today are still rooted in the traditions that earned them a lasting reputation. Borrani wheels are still made by way of hands manipulating tools, not on a cold assembly line run by robots. It would be hard to argue that wire wheels are the cutting edge of the industry these days, but Borrani does more than just offer nostalgic style, they will also take in vintage Borrani wheels and sympathetically restore them, strengthening the bond between the company’s past and present one beautiful spoke at a time.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Master Mechanics: Ferrari Restoration At Autofficina Bonini Petrolicious 2021-01-05 | Although thousands of hours of labor and countless more of accumulated knowledge are poured into the cars that come through the doors of Autofficina Bonini, if you ask the founder, Carlo Bonini, how he spends most of his time, he’ll put it plainly for you; “I’m not working, I’m having fun.” And how could he not be? The founder of the esteemed Ferrari workshop that bears his name is working alongside his equally enthusiastic son, Renato, on some of the greatest cars ever built, from circuit-spec F40s and supercars to 250s and Daytonas. Both father and son grew up loving these cars, sharing a passion born so early in each of their lives as to make it impossible to point to the exact start of it. Their blood runs rosso corsa instead of red. Carlo got started working on interesting cars with Lancias and Alfa Romeos, but he doesn’t hesitate to say that his story begins when he first got his hands on a Ferrari. Proving said hands to be quite talented, his high quality work put him in good graces with the manufacturer early on, a relationship that evolved into Carlo’s business becoming an officially sanctioned Ferrari workshop. Growing up in this environment, his son Renato was all but preordained to join him. “I’ve spent time in my dad’s workshop since I was a kid,” he says, “We were lucky enough to have the workshop downstairs from us, so 100% of my play, my hobbies, my time, took place in that workshop.” To attain Autofficina Bonini's attention to detail, quality of craftsmanship, and outright knowledge takes no small effort, but here that’s just a synonym for a good time.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Soul Made: Nardi Steering Wheels Petrolicious 2020-12-29 | It’s important to feel connected to your car, and it’s often the case that the physical and emotional element of that connection are derived from the same place: the steering wheel. It’s the most tactile and visceral piece of the driving experience, the element that bridges the gap between human and machine, and one of the best examples of the marriage of automotive form and function.In today’s film, we visit the workshop of Nardi-Personal, and get some insight into the historic brand from its current CEO, Lorenzo Cerfolini, who takes us through the timeline of the company from its foundation at the hands of Enrico Nardi. A brilliant engineering mind, Nardi spent time at Lancia and Ferrari with the namesakes of the companies, Vincenzo Lancia and Enzo Ferrari, before making his own foray into the world of automobiles. His resulting creations were utterly unique designs, and they raced at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Targa Florio, but the most enduring part of Nardi’s legacy has proven to be the beautiful aluminum and mahogany steering wheels his company began producing in the mid 1950s. Ferrari used Nardi wheels in some of its most iconic cars—the 250 GTO, for starters—and Nardi has continued to adhere to the same exacting standards in its hand-finished products, of which no two are exactly alike.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Homologation Specials: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II Petrolicious 2020-12-22 | In the 1980s and ’90s, Mercedes-Benz produced nearly two million units of the 190 compact sedan, but these were not created equally. The variants of the entry-level Merc ranged from beige Moroccan taxi cabs with workhorse diesels under the hood and fewer amenities than a room at the YMCA, to the homologation specials with Cosworth-and-AMG-developed engines wearing aero kits shaped by wind tunnels and phDs.The ultimate road-going iteration, the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II featured in today’s film driven by none other than Alain de Cadenet, was born to support Mercedes’s battle with BMW and Audi in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM), homologating the competition version that went on to win the manufacturers’ championship in 1991 and 1992, besting its rivals during one of the headiest periods of touring car motorsport.But even without the achievements of its racing relative, the street legal version was fated for infamy. The almost egregiously tall rear wing and the rest of the bodywork augmentations are emblematic of the era it was born into, and although its styling has been polarizing car enthusiasts for three decades and counting, there is no denying that this car has presence. It’s a lot to look at, but what’s it like to drive? Is there a better way to answer that question than to put one in the talented hands of Alain de Cadenet on a winding mountain road in Portugal? Not likely.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Lino Autoradio: The Car Radio Restorer Petrolicious 2020-12-15 | We’re guessing that the first thing that comes to mind when you hear “full-car restoration” isn’t the radio, but in this film we delve into one of the more overlooked elements of vintage cars. Lino Carini has made a name for himself in the classic auto radio sphere, and in this niche that requires a combination of knowledge, hands-on electrical engineering aptitude, and most of all—you guessed it—passion. It’s a word that might get overused in the descriptions of our sentimental love for old cars, but it’s hardly been a more appropriate label than it is here. There is no concours-winning glamor at the end of these restorations, just an earnest love for the radios and the work itself. Lino has been intrigued by electronics since he studied the subject in school decades ago, and it’s always been for the same reason: not for money, but just plain enthusiasm. “As an amateur collector,” Lino says, “I have collected them even if they didn’t have real monetary value. Because a real enthusiast is not attracted by worth; an enthusiast is in love with that specific thing, not with its value, but with what it represents. With its flaws along with its qualities.” More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Stacie B. London: In A Straight Line Petrolicious 2020-12-08 | When it comes to riding motorcycles, Stacie London isn’t the type to shy away from a challenge. Her goals see her chasing and breaking speed records, but while it takes a lot of determination and focus to do so, there’s no tunnel vision in this story. For Stacie, being involved in the whole process is essential to why she rides at all. In this week’s film, we dive into that process, to all the months of preparation that manifest in more than just long hours spent in the shop, from setting up and tuning her vintage single-cylinder Harley-Davidson, to the less tangible, more philosophical elements that culminate in the act itself: getting out onto the salt flats and going as fast as possible.Stacie’s mentor and helping hand throughout many of her years of land speed riding, Ralph Hudson, has been a source of inspiration and wisdom for her record attempts, and although he tragically passed away this year doing what he loved (Hudson, one of the most known and loved figures in the community, broke the land speed record for “sit-on” motorcycles at the age of 67 on his turbocharged Suzuki in 2017), the guidance he shared is as important as ever, and the memories eternally cherished.Stacie continues to set new records, and subsequently new goals, because sometimes the end game is not to finally reach the proverbial carrot, but to keep going after it, faster and faster.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
1973 Porsche 911 2.7 Carrera RS: Rennsport Royalty Petrolicious 2020-12-01 | In an automotive world in which long legacies of high-performance are continually trotted out and watered down for commercial appeal over time, it can be hard to find examples of restraint. That word might not be the most apt descriptor of Porsche 911 models that wear the italicized “RS” on their rumps, but the company has shown plenty of it over the last half-century by resisting the urge to turn their legendary Rennsport treatment into the equivalent of a glorified sport package for soccer mom Macans. Since the very beginning, Porsche RS road cars have meant nothing but business.Porsche 911-based RS models are hard to fault no matter which part of the timeline you pick, but as is so often the case, the beginning is often lauded as the best part of the story. And although choosing between something like a modern GT2 RS and an original 1973 Carrera RS is a subjective decision, we think today’s film presents a strong case for the latter. For starters, we can trace a great deal of the 911’s many triumphs in motorsport back to the project that begat the star of today’s film, the road-going Carrera RS. Built and sold to homologate a higher-performing basis for Porsche’s 911 racing program in the 1970s—which saw a rapid evolution over the course of the decade from the first RSs and RSRs to the turbocharged 930-based beasts—the Carrera RS is rightly considered as one of the Porsche’s most significant products, on and off the track. Though light weight and more power defined the car, they weren’t as raw on the road as one might expect. The rare righthand-drive Touring model driven by our host Sam Hancock is perfect proof of this, as it happily tackles the undulations of the route in the rain. This car needs no introduction, so we’ll cut ours off here. We hope you enjoy watching this film as much as we enjoyed making it. As you can imagine, a bit of soggy weather couldn’t dampen the fun of wheeling this iconic sports car around on an empty stretch of road like this, limited-slip diff or otherwise.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Thornley Kelham: Full Restoration Petrolicious 2020-11-24 | Whether you’re in the market for a modified outlaw Lancia Aurelia for the street, a meticulously perfect Bentley 4½ Litre for your collection, or a 12-cylinder Ferrari for historic motorsport, there’s a place in Gloucestershire that can take care of it all under one figurative roof. Wayne Thornley and Simon Kelham—the founders of the Thornley Kelham restoration company featured in today’s film—established their business a little more than a decade ago, but their relationship with cars has been all but lifelong, and the level of workmanship they produce proves as much. While Simon oversees the direction and finances of the company rather than the technical elements that go into the restorations, growing up with a technically minded engineer for a father provided him early on with an appreciation for cars that’s only grown since then. As he puts it, “One of the things that keeps me going now, at my age, is that I’m learning every day.”Wayne also started on the path that led him here in his youth, with an apprenticeship at a restoration shop that saw him get his foot in the door by “sweeping the floors, making tea.” He stuck with it, learned as he went, and today he runs the workshop at a company that bears his name. Besides just turning out excellent cars, both Wayne and Simon are also keen to share the rewards of the company’s output with the younger generation that work alongside them; when a car is completed and ready to be picked up, it’s not just the two founders basking in the accomplishment and satisfaction when the customer comes to pick it up, but rather everyone who put in the hours that got it there. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Lancia Aurelia B20 Coupé: An Evolution Of Grand Touring Petrolicious 2020-11-17 | Besides heralding the dawn of the great post-war grand touring cars—or as our host Sam Hancock puts it, “vehicles that could win a hillclimb by day and pull up proudly to the opera house later that night”—the Lancia Aurelia B20 Coupés also found success on the circuits and sprint courses of Europe with just a few modifications. In specifications close to the standard road going form, Aurelias finished second in the Mille Miglia and won their class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1951, before going on to win the Targa Florio in 1952, and the Monte Carlo Rally in 1954. In other words, it has an impressive racing résumé.The cars’ prowess on the circuits, hill climbs, and rally stages was due in large part to the advanced technology that Vittorio Jano, Francesco de Virgilio, and the rest of the talented Lancia engineers fitted inside the beautifully minimalistic Ghia-designed bodywork. Besides being part of the first production car line powered by V6 engines, Aurelias like the fourth-series B20 Coupé featured in the film also boasted independent suspension, a rear transaxle transmission setup, and in-board rear brakes, to name just a few of its mechanical goodies. None of this came cheap, though, and while customers were given humble fabric-covered seats, the Aurelia was priced higher than the Bentleys of its day. In this week’s film, Sam Hancock takes a drive through the winding roads of Reggio Emilia, enjoying and espousing the talents still possessed by this prime example of 1950s automotive excellence.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Eagle: Masters Of The Jaguar E-Type Petrolicious 2020-11-10 | Since its founding in 1984, the team behind Eagle has steadily worked their dedication into an obsession, with the outcome being the last word in the world of the Jaguar E-Type. Unlike many restoration specialists, Eagle keeps all the work in-house, and none of it is rushed. Indeed Eagle CEO Henry Pearman says it takes the team nearly 4,000 hours to complete one of the company’s ground-up, full-on Eagle E-Types, and while they aren’t for those on a tight budget, there is clear evidence of the claim that the business is foremost driven by passion, not profits. A purely commercial endeavor would find ways to cut costs and hurry the process, but the completed cars—whether they be restorations or bespoke commissions—that leave Eagle’s countryside compound in Sussex are not just faultless E-Type specimens, they are examples of what can be achieved after decades of refinement and accumulated knowledge. Nobody knows these cars better, and in that same vein, nobody is building them better.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA: Light And Mighty Petrolicious 2020-11-03 | When Alfa Romeo decided to compete in touring car racing with the Giulia in the 1960s, the car’s motorsport baptism at the manufacturer’s racing arm, Autodelta, yielded only minor changes to the base model’s appearance. No doubt a doppelgänger, the form of the lightweight Sprint GTA that resulted from the extensive reengineering betrayed little evidence of the genetic shift that had taken place—its skin looked the same, but it was reconstituted in aluminum, magnesium, Perspex, and, for the roof, a unique alloy called Peraluman 25.The diet that led to the GTA went much further than replacing steel with alloys and plastics, though. The now-standard “lightweighting” routines were followed: sound insulation was removed, typical creature comforts were chucked out, but Autodelta went even further by making the GTA’s half-shafts hollow, drilling out the gears in the transmission’s magnesium bell housing, and attaching the bodywork via pop rivets to the thin-gauge steel below. Join us this week as our host Sam Hancock experiences a prime example of the light and mighty Alfa that’s never been restored. More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
ICON 4x4: Creative Restorations and Modifications Petrolicious 2020-10-27 | Even if their contemporary periods are decades in the past, old cars and trucks don’t stop evolving over time, though not always literally. Whether it be the case that a previously underrated machine develops a following as a “classic” as the decades go by, or just the continuing development of restoration techniques, we are always applying some kind of current context to the vintage machines we love. In the case of Jonathan Ward’s company, ICON 4x4, we’ll let him put it in his words. “I'm a lifetime craftsman and artist, and I've gone through various phases over the years where I'll do deep dives into subjects, and I’ve drawn to transportation design since I was a kid. As I got older, I became disenchanted with contemporary vehicle design, so really as I started to think through what ICON would be, it was to revive and respect both a myriad of traditional art forms within the confines of the design language of whatever vehicle platform I'm choosing and whatever design era, while respectfully integrating the best of modern automotive engineering and convenience.” The philosophy allows Ward and his team of designers and engineers to incorporate not just new technology into ICON’s builds, but new approaches to tried and true modifications. They take inspiration from the original designs and purposes and respectfully weave in some modernity, while also taking into consideration and tweaking the established routes toward restomodding and customizing. The result of the process are a truly unique creation—from Toyota FJs and Land Cruisers to lead sled American land yachts and more—which you can argue is only natural when every project is approached with creativity and open mindedness.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
1976 Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally: An Italian Rally Legend in Tuscany Petrolicious 2020-10-20 | Tuscany has all manner of public roads doing a laudable impressions of a tarmac rally stage, and if you’re going to drive an Italian homologation special around for a day you’d struggle to find a better area to get lost in on purpose. The Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally had some big shoes to fill when the Fiat Group hung its WRC hopes over its widened fiberglass shoulders. Unlike the Stratos which had brought Lancia a trio of constructors’ titles in the mid 1970s, it was decided that the Group’s rallying involvement would be more directly related to its mass-produced road cars; in this case the humble Fiat 131.To get the entry-level car up to the task at hand in the WRC, Fiat got Abarth involved with the preparation for rallying, and had Bertone take care of the restyling and construction of the lightweight bodywork for the 400-car homologation production. The transformation was enough to bring Fiat three WRC contractors’ titles (1977, 1978, and 1980), and drivers’ titles for Markku Alén and Walter Röhrl (in 1978 and 1980, respectively). The road-going version of the factory rally cars was impressive in its own right, with its dramatic styling backed up by the four-corner independent suspension and the Abarth-tuned twin-cam inline-four. In Stradale trim the motor made just shy of 140hp out of its two naturally aspirated liters. Fed by a single Weber carb but packing four valves per cylinder in its aluminum head, the engine isn’t what you’d call powerful outright, but it’s an impressive example of highly strung natural aspiration for a 1970s road car. Though there are some things that could make this 131 even sweeter to steer down these roads—like a limited-slip—it’s impossible not to find some enjoyment from this fascinating familiar yet wild relic from the formative years of world rallying.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Conrad Stevenson Restorations: An Alfista In America Petrolicious 2020-10-13 | Growing up in Berkley in the 1970s, Conrad Stevenson saved enough paychecks from his dishwashing job to buy his first Alfa Romeo. He took his driver’s license test in an Alfa, and long before he became one of the world’s go-to guys for restorations, he also used a Giulietta Spider in lieu of a business card. People would ask Stevenson who was responsible for the tuned and dialed car, and he would be happy to share that it was all his handiwork.Stevenson fell for cars early in life—a year and a half stint as a seven-year-old in Europe with his family proved to have a lasting impact—but he never explicitly planned on making a name for his talents in the world of restorations. It’s easy to sum up the marque’s influence on his life as a snowball that’s been rolling since his childhood and the first GTV that he saw as a young kid riding a Schwinn Stingray around early-‘70s Berkley. Steven’s passion for Alfa Romeos goes beyond the shapes that are so easy for everyone to love, and by the time the cars are returned to their owners, he’ll have had his hands on every bolt and bit.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
1972 Renault-Alpine A110 1600S: Fetching, Ferocious, French Petrolicious 2020-10-06 | By the end of the very first official season of the World Rally Championship in 1973, Renault-Alpine emerged victorious, with the extremely light and lithe A110 helping to take the honors back to Dieppe, where the Alpine story can be followed back to the 1950s and the tuning efforts of Jean Rédélé. Rédélé’s ability to coax performance from Renault’s 4CV caught the marque’s attention, and they were quick to support the young Frenchman’s ambitions to build his own car. With powertrains supplied by Renault, Rédélé started the lineage that would eventually include the WRC-winning A110. The early A106s and A108s were competent machines, but the A110 was a revolutionary step for Alpine. By the time the A110 had evolved into the 1600S version, the fiberglass-clad chassis was powered by a rear-mounted aluminum four-cylinder fed by twin Weber 45 carbs, producing nearly 140 horsepower. Not a prodigious amount of ponies to be sure, but considering the cars weighed less than 700kg (~1543lbs), it was enough to make the nimble short-wheelbase car a championship winner. In this week’s film we join our host Sam Hancock as he takes the road-going version of the rally legend out for some exercise on the type of road this car was born for.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
Bacchelli & Villa: The Italian Restoration Maestros Petrolicious 2020-09-29 | The workspace of this long-running restoration shop in the Modenese commune of Bastiglia is brightly lit, spotlessly clean, and religiously organized—if you squint, it doesn’t look far off from a science fiction film laboratory set. But at Bacchelli & Villa, you will find an abundance of good old hammers and welding torches alongside the high tech gear. Here the panels are beaten by hand, and passion is just as much of a prerequisite for getting a job here as raw talent. After all, it’s better to have both.Franco Bacchelli started the company that bears his name in the early 1970s with his late second cousin, Roberto Villa, after his apprenticeship preparing (and repairing) Ferrari spots racing cars with none other than Piero Drogo in the 1960s. When Bacchelli opened his own business, he started with small cars and built an early reputation on more humble machines like the Fiat 500. In due time, however, he became certified by Ferrari and was working on Gianni Agnelli’s Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona—you could say he came full circle in terms of his work with Fiat. In the time since, the shop has become one of the foremost destinations anywhere for Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and other classic exotica, but the same enthusiasm and dedication is still the driving force behind the world-class work that goes on at Bacchelli & Villa.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
2004 Maserati MC12: The Racing Supercar Petrolicious 2020-09-22 | If you’d ever wondered what a Ferrari Enzo built for GT racing might look like, look no further than the Maserati MC12. Developed off of the Enzo’s chassis and V12 power plant, the road-going MC12 was built in very limited numbers (there were just two batches of 25 cars), and it was primarily built to return the Maserati marque to the international motorsport stage. After sorting out some regulatory issues with its homologation and dimensions, the racing variant of the MC12 performed more than admirably in the mid to late 2000s, racking up a number of constructor, team, and driver championship titles in GT racing series around Europe, mostly in the FIA GT series. The homologation special road car, while sharing a chassis and engine with the Enzo, had its output slightly detuned to ensure the Enzo remained the premiere Italian supercar offering, but the improved aerodynamics of the MC12 made the Maserati a bit quicker around circuits such as the Nordschleife. To find out just how good the road car really is, our host Sam Hancock took an MC12 out to the Vairano Handling Course in Vairano, Italy, to put it through its paces—with the mode selector set to “race,” naturally.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
MZR Roadsports: Evolving The Datsun 240Z in England Petrolicious 2020-09-15 | Many of us who own a classic vehicle—particularly if there’s any intent to restore it—often end up on a journey of intrigue that hardly ever takes the path we initially plotted. Rahail Tariq began just such a journey with the purchase of a Datsun 240Z in 2001, and at the end of it he didn’t just appear from the other side of the rabbit hole with a sorted car, but with a whole new business as well.MZR Roadsports is a company that has been born out of a desire to create and a passion for taking an already-adored vehicle and produce something that’s simply, better: a car that retains its classic identity, yet is refined and reformed and can cope with the vigor of modern motoring. A quick look around the internet will give a taste of what they can produce, but as the door was raised on the workshop to give us an in-person peek inside, we got our first real impression of just what magnificent vehicles these re-imagined 240s really are. Joined by 240Z specialist Martin Ryland and a team of talented engineers and designers, Rahail has built much more than a restomod shop.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
1959 Porsche 356 Carrera GS/GT: Four-Cam Coupe Petrolicious 2020-09-08 | The Porsche 356 brought the automaker into a new era. The model started the trajectory that would eventually lead to the venerable 911, and prototype versions of the car earned Porsche its first major achievements in endurance racing—namely a class win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. In addition, the 356 can be seen as something of a democratizer of Porsche’s racing efforts, with coupes and roadsters and speedsters being a popular choice for privateer competitors the world over. This week we’re taking a drive with our host Sam Hancock in a special 356 bred for motorsport, the Carrera GS/GT. Efforts to reduce weight went as far as swapping out the side and rear window glass for lighter Perspex, suspension and braking was treated to higher-performance setups, but the real draw of the GS/GT was its motor—that twin-plug, four-cam, dry-sumped and air-cooled four-cylinder is a piece of mechanical engineering artwork, and a perfect partner for dancing along these mountain roads in Italy.More films, articles, and photos: petrolicious.comPetrolicious Membership: Premium films, Drive Tastefully Quarterly, events & more: petrolicious.com/membershipThe best automotive gear and goods: petrolicious.com/shopLike us on Facebook: facebook.com/petroliciousFollow us on Instagram: instagram.com/petroliciousAlways Drive Tastefully®
