An incredible Rat Rod built by ITW hotrods. This was built for the 2014 rat rod magazine build off. Where builders compete to see who can build the baddest rat rod in 30 days for under $3,000. In order to qualify you must travel a minimum of 300 miles of the cross country tour as well as the aforementioned time and money restraints.
lundi 27 juillet 2015
The Amazing Packard Bentley Special " Mavis " Car. 42ltr 1500hp V12.
Sampling success in John Rockefeller Jnr’s Bentley S1 Drophead
During our recent visit to the Frederiksen Collection in Denmark, one car stood out from its 50-odd stablemates: a Bentley S1 Drophead Coupé. We chose to sample this one car not only for its rarity, but also because its first owner was a certain John D. Rockefeller Jnr…
With only five H.J. Mulliner-bodied Bentley S1 Drophead Coupés ever produced in left-hand drive, it’s little wonder that they were the preserve of the world’s elite. Were you asked to link a specific personage to the latter in the 1950s, a suitable choice would be someone with the surname Rockefeller – indeed, this car was ordered new by John D. Rockefeller Junior through the officialRolls-Royce agency for the greater New York area.
A rolling Museum of Modern Art
John Junior, son of business magnate and philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Senior, was a little more flamboyant than his quiet-living father. Shortly after Senior died, Junior razed his father’s sombre (yet rather large) Fifth Avenue house – donating the land to his daughter Abby to construct the Museum of Modern Art – and moved to a 24-room, 12-bath triplex at 740 Park Avenue, the choicest apartment in what has been referred to as ‘the world’s richest apartment building’. Here, his neighbours included George Embiricos, Jacqueline Kennedy and close family friend, young socialite Peggy Bedford Bancroft – who once broke the apartment elevator when she used it to transport an elephant to a party upstairs. So, as you can probably imagine, an ultra-rare Bentleyparked at the kerb of the high-flying building would have looked anything but out of place.
Don’t forget the hatbox
John Junior ordered the Bentley in December 1957, and it was delivered six months later wearing the same blue-over-blue leather colours, complemented by a burled walnut dashboard. Ultimately, he was only able to enjoy it for around two years before his death. However, one can imagine the duties it served during this time; perhaps as a shuttle for the short trip to the Rockefeller Center, or a drive with neighbour Jackie Kennedy and her future President husband to a jazz club on 52nd Street. Considering the idyllic landscape in which we sample the car, though, the fantasy scenario in mind puts John Junior at the wheel of the S1 on a riverside jaunt up to Vermont, riding solo in order to leave the passenger seat free for his trademark top hat.
Crewe awakening
Due to the limited time we have to browse the staggering Frederiksen Collection (the majority of which is soon to be auctioned by Bonhams), we only have 15 minutes to step into John Junior’s brogues. Even beholding the sight of the georgeous Bentley is an experience, so the chance to open the weighty door and pull it closed behind you is an honour. The little details inside are so captivating, it takes a few more minutes before we call up the 4.8-litre six-cylinder engine, and pull away with the unmatched, silent effortlessness of a car produced in Crewe during the late 1950s.
Instilling new habits
One of a number of options specified by Rockefeller was a radio, but we instead choose six-cylinder serenity as we bathe in the Danish sun, imagining the nearby Ebeltoft Bay is the Hudson (and that our bank balance is as healthy as John Junior’s). Then, just as we become acclimatised to the reassuringly lazy steering, and brakes that require the forethought of an astute financier, our time with the Drophead S1 comes to an end. We guide it back to the Frederiksen residence, ushering it through the front gates with the delicacy of a ship returning to harbour. Upon disembarking, a newly instinctive glance is cast at the passenger seat, checking for a (non-existent) top hat. Let’s hope some of John Junior’s business acumen has rubbed off on us, too.
Photos: Amy Shore for Classic Driver
The Frederiksen Collection will be auctioned by Bonhams at Lyngsbækgaard Manor, in Mols Bjerge national park, Denmark, on Saturday 26 September 2015.
You can find many other classic Bentleys for sale in the Classic Driver Market.
The Hilda Stories – 21 years in a New York design studio
For 21 years, Hilda Longinotti was the in-house ‘jack of all trades’ at the design studio of furniture manufacturer Herman Miller in New York City. Her amusing anecdotes are now accompanied by a series of charming animated videos, rather ‘Mad Men’ in style…
It all began with a job advertisement in the New York Times: ‘Receptionist wanted for world-famous architect’. Hilda Longinotti was a young girl who didn’t even know what an architect was but, she says, the job description sounded ‘very chichi’, so she turned up for an interview. The ‘famous architect’ was George Nelson, the American industrial designer of the post-War period, who became the Director of Design at the traditional furniture manufacturer Herman Miller. Hilda Longinotti got the job – and for the next 21 years acted as receptionist, secretary and ‘aide-de-camp’, attempting to tame the daily chaos of the Nelson Office, a real-life Joan Holloway from ‘Mad Men’. In the wonderfully nostalgic and beautifully illustrated mini-documentary series, titled ‘The Hilda Stories’, Hilda Longinotti grants us a very entertaining behind-the-scenes insight into perhaps the most influential furniture design atelier in America.
The Receptionist
Bon Voyage, George
The Case of the Missing Warhols
The Woman on the Marshmallow Sofa
For an extended interview with Hilda Longinotti, see Herman Miller's house magazine ‘Why’.
BMW ‘M100S’ by Moto Motivo
Written by Ian Lee.
You won’t find two more different styles of motorcycle, than to compare a BMW to a Ducati. The Bavarian cycle is reliable and sensible like your grandpa, whereas the Italian machine is like your crazy cousin who keeps getting you in trouble in the pursuit of a good time. Somehow, Moto Motivo has managed to strike a healthy balance between the two, producing a cafe racer featuring the best parts of each. Starting with a busted ass 1972 R75/5, Johann and the MM crew have brought this bike back to life, repowered it, and produced a magnificent multicultural machine that even the builder himself wasn’t sure he could achieve.
The build kicked off with a rather sad R75 bike, an extended period stored outside leaving the rims, suspension and chrome bodywork unserviceable. Seeing the potential in the frame, Johann picked up the bike and treated it to a Ducati mono shock makeover, a move which caught the eye of the current owner, who gave Johann the bike brief to build the bike as Johann saw fit. This worked for the builder, in his own words: “This was a dream build for me, Jim gave me instructions to build the bike as if it was going to be my own, but it had to be light and nimble. That alone was a challenge using a 1970’s BMW.”
After stripping down the phlegmatic R75 motor, the MM workshop decided that the operation of rebuilding the 745cc engine and giving it more power wasn’t financially viable. So the project sat, until a stroke of luck had another customer roll in looking to sell an R100RS donor bike. Lacking it’s bodywork, the R100 had a reconditioned motor, which meant better ignition system and an oil cooler – already a leap ahead of the R75’s powerplant. The only downside to the bigger motor was that it was stored minus the spark plugs, allowing surface rust to accumulate on the bores.
Remedying this, Moto Motivo took the engine down, boring out the cylinders and fitting new Pistons/rings. On reassembly, the cylinder head was treated to new valves and guides, as well as porting and polishing. To accommodate the Dellorto PHF 36 carburetors, a set of custom intake manifolds were fabricated, and the stock airbox replaced with meshed velocity stacks. Exhaust duties are taken care of a 2 into 1 stainless system, running Moto Motivo’s own silencer, ceramic coated in black.
To give the Beemer that cafe racer aesthetique, the frame has been detabbed and the factory battery box hurled. The entire factory rear end is gone, Johann from MM fabricating an entire new subframe, incorporating a Ducati 900SS mono shock. To keep with the sporting look of the bike, the fibreglass duck tail was manufactured in house at Moto Motivo, incorporating the relocated battery lithium battery.
On putting the bike together after the extensive frame mods, the R100RS front end was mounted, and found to be too long and too soft to achieve the low stance expected of a cafe racer. Raiding the parts bin, in an incredible piece of luck, Johann found a complete 900SS front end from a previous Ducati build. After fitting custom steering head bearings, all the standard factory fork components could be utilised on the build. The hybrid bike rolls on rims laced inhouse, the front hub from a Sport Classic.
Finished in bone white, with obligatory GT stripes, the Beecati is a far cry from the sad R75 the bike started out as. Evidence can be found in the fact the bike picked up ‘Best in Show’ at the Raleigh Eurobike show, on the first weekend the owner had it. Which is fitting really. You couldn’t get a more European bike if you tried.
[Photography by Ron Smith] via PIPEBURN
Would you pay 850,000 euros for a BMW M1?
In our opinion, the BMW M1 has long been undervalued, considering its rarity, competition history, era-defining styling and importance to the marque’s M lineage. But with an 850,000-euro price tag put on this unusual silver example with relatively low mileage, perhaps that’s about to change?
This 1981 BMW M1 is by far the most expensive example of Bavaria’s sole supercar we’ve ever come across. Good road cars tend to change hands for around half of the 850,000 euros being asked for by Münster-based marque specialist Mint Classics for this one. So what’s so special about it?
The rarest (and most expensive) colour
First, it’s one of only three M1s to have been specified in Polaris Silver; F1 mogul Bernie Ecclestone commissioned one of the other two. Also, it displays only 17,500km (10,800 miles) on the odometer and, as a result of being used so sparingly, the original interior looks almost new. That said, a 5,000km car was sold early last year for around 425,000 euros, albeit painted in white, the most common M1 colour. So is the rare colour worth the heady premium? That should Polarisopinion...
Photos: Mint Classics
You can find many more classic BMWs for sale in the Classic Driver Market.
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