March of time? Get it? Don’t worry, it’s a joke I can only make once year. I’m no comedian (although I’m fairly sure my bank manager would disagree). The fact is, with every passing month, the percentage of my life that one calender month occupies becomes less. So it’s entirely justifiable that I think they’re getting shorter. It’s also true that I get to the end of the month and feel like I’m having a massive game of Top Trumps with the editorial team worldwide. As we start to discuss what to show you in the coming month, there’s never any competition as to who has found the best stories, but in my head it would make the most outrageous online game if we were to turn it into one. Why so?
Because of cars like the One:1. That’s why. Christian von Koenigsegg’s latest brain dump is an incredible package: the world’s first megawatt powered car and I hope you will have seen it by the time this editorial piece is published, but just in case, I couldn’t resist showing you another shot from an incredible couple of days I spent there at the end of February. Which reminds me to make a proper apology. I showed you a couple of feature cars at the start of the month which we haven’t delivered yet – I know you guys pay close attention so I’m sorry you haven’t seen them. But when I’m asked to follow the build of an extraordinary car that’s redefining the boundaries of technology and innovation as we speak, I figured you wouldn’t mind if they’re delayed in to March a little bit eh?
Here’s another reason the schedule slipped a little. Fresh off a plane from Sweden, I headed down to Surrey in England and collected what could well be the most batsh!t crazy car I’ve ever driven: the Caterham 620R, one of only two factory demonstrators in existence. I got the one with no windscreen on a rain-filled, cold day in England. It was fresh back to them from a visit to the Top Gear track where they got very excited about it. You can read what I thought about it soon enough.
And yes, that’s Suzy. I can’t drive and take pictures at the same time… That’s what we have Larry Chen for.
You might think this is a mug of coffee, when in fact it’s a rare shot of Larry’s special creative fuel. Those bubbles on the surface each contain a separate new way of taking pictures. Here you can see he’s perfected taking his own picture in a mirror whilst miming the action of holding a camera. Incredible.
This is when amazing things happen. Can you guess what he’s getting all wistful about?
It might be the rather splendid adventures he went on in January. As those stories continue to filter out of his fingers, I’m continually excited when an email comes in showing me another corner of car culture I haven’t seen before. Japanese Ferrari race cars?
Surely they could only be topped by a genuine Bugatti EB110 being worked on by the side of the road? Only 139 were produced between 1991-95 and it’s incredible to think the design is nearly 25 years old. Time? It flies.
A fact not lost on Sean. His Honda Civic project Leroy has come in for some much needed attention and in true Mr K style, he’s used it as a chance to reflect on how crazy things can get and where you end up before you know it.
Mid-engined madness
The reason why things get away from us so easily is because we have so much ground to cover in so many different ways. Simply keeping up is a mission in itself. Jonathan recently went along to the ever-excellent Race Retro Show in the UK, which gave him the chance to take a closer look at this Renault 5. In a strange, small-world coincidence, I passed this as it was trailered home from the show, as I drove to the airport headed for Koenigsegg.
As much as we love the hypersupermegacars, everyday cars doing incredible things are just as important to us.
So when I saw the O34 Motorsport Golf at SEMA last November, I grabbed a business card and told Larry to make with the camera. It turns out he knows the guys from racing at Thunderhill and a shoot was lined up. You could take away the race stickers and only the side vents would give the game away.
Then there’s this monster 750hp motor crafted in to the rear end. This is an automotive mash-up of the best possible kind.
Keeping it compact, Brad will show us this March, in March. Okay, so another March joke slipped in but again, once a year people! The Micra/March is a perfect base model to mess with and create some interesting numbers on a budget, so for some big-time fun from a small package we’re covered. Oh and that evil twin-turbo Torana I hinted at last month? Keep your eyes peeled over the next 24 hours.
As I write this, Speedhunters team members are converging on Geneva in Switzerland for the annual motor show. Here we’ll see the One:1 unveiled and a number of other significant models we’ve got our eyes on.
The Lamborghini Huracán will appear and add to a long line of machines we’ve admired many times.
Jonathan will be on hand with his expert reportage and I genuinely can’t wait to see what comes out of the show halls. And that’s just the start of it all…
From Phoenix to Tokyo and back
Whenever I start writing an editorial piece, I like to think I’ll keep it short, succinct and to the point. Then I wander off into folders of saved images that the team have sent me from the four corners of the globe and I just can’t resist showing you as many as I can. Like Larry, in January Mike headed off to Japan but unlike Larry, he stayed there for a month. I’d like to think you’ll agree with me that we really enjoyed the many and varied articles he sent back whilst there. More are still to come though…
Just this one picture shows a few of my dream cars and one of them is parked no more than 15ft from where I’m sat right now. Can you guess which is which? Mike will be showing us more Japanese car culture during the coming months.
Because the cultural side of things always fascinates us, right? The garages and workshops theme shows the universal appeal and approach to creating a space in which we can build, hang out with friends and tune our projects. It may have been snowing whilst Mike was wandering Japan, but that didn’t deter him and he stopped off at some pretty well-known names.
Rocky Auto being one of them. We’ve seen the projects, so now seemed like a great time to bring you the behind-the-scenes angle.
Another set of doors Mike walked through are those of Liberty Walk. Their often controversial but always popular builds are becoming more and more globally recognised. If you follow Kato-San on Instagram or are aware of some of his other projects, you’ll understand why we wanted to see where the inspiration came from and how it manifested itself in some many different types of build.
I nearly spat my tea out when I saw this Crown Victoria cop car/taxi style build. Trust me, this is nothing compared to what else lies inside. I’m very excited by what is coming and something that Dino has shot for us too that I spotted in the back of the shop… I just hope I’m not the only one! If ever there was a doubt Kato-san is the real deal petrolhead, this will dispel those doubts in a second.
So what has Phoenix got to do with this equation? Well that’s where Keith and able photographer Justin Muir found the Falcon F7 and pinned it down for a shoot. A small US operation, I was keen to see more after spotting a similar model at the Detroit Auto Show, so when Keith said he had a chance to get the skinny, we were all over it.
It’s all good…
As one last taste of Japan, take a good look at this picture and see if you can work out whose space this is? It’s not hard if you look closely, but it’s very cool.
So I’ll leave you for now with two more things that are hard as nails and very cool with it.
Paddy tracked down and got up close and personal with a life-long hero of his; this RS200 took him straight back to his childhood and it’s always good to remember where you came from.
Just like starting at the bottom and ending at the top, this Mazda R100 would have been a fun little runaround when new, but now?
The 1000hp rotary engine pushes it towards the upper reaches of our understanding. So from a multi-million dollar/euro/pound megacar to a compact drag car with almost more power, we have your aching need for speed covered my friends. It’s also fitting that I’m going to wrap it up here as the theme for later on in the month is engines: that element to any project that’s not often seen but always felt and usually heard. So give it some thought and look out for Paddy’s announcement IATS article in the next couple of days.
So if that’s what we have planned, what about the stuff we don’t? Well hands up, your guess is almost as good as mine. I genuinely don’t think this ‘job’ could get any better but with each passing month something pops up and knocks me sideways whilst saying, ‘Hey, you didn’t expect that, did you?’.
So as much as it’s good to plan and prepare, sometimes it’s better to just get out there and see what happens! Put yourself in a situation where anything can happen and it probably will. Have a fine March people. I know I will!
Bryn Musselwhite
Instagram: speedhunters_Bryn
bryn@speedhunters.com