After photographing the Lister workshop a few of months ago for a Classic Driver article (which can be found here) I found myself back to shoot one car in particular; the Lister-Knobbly road car, of which ten will be produced – this being car 2.

There are a number of distinctions between this and your ‘usual’ Lister Knobbly, but I think you’ll agree, it still adds up to be absolutely stunning automotive art!

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I’ve known Chris Lupton for the best part of a decade now and, like myself, the passion for all things automotive has run deep for far longer than that. So much so that Chris now runs his own business, CJL Race Engineering – as the name suggests, Chris provides track-side support and routine maintenance for many vehicles.

Having worked with Caterhams for the last few years, helping various drivers maintain Champion status in the R300S Championship, Chris has now found himself working on something a little older, and in my opinion, a hell of a lot more interesting. So when asked if I’d get along to a very damp Silverstone for some images, the 5:30am start sounded very reasonable. 

The drivers of this immaculate 1973 Porsche 911 RSR built by Tuthill Porsche are brothers Aaron and Dale Head. Both have seen degrees of success driving Caterhams in the past, with Aaron being the triple Caterham champion. I was lucky enough to get four passenger laps in with Dale and can safely say I have never experienced such grip on a damp surface – quite unbelievable, really. Such a visceral experience.

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Looking through this set may give the impression I’d been thrown into a time warp; slung back some seventy-or-so years. In reality, this is how Buckland Automotive have done things since established by founder and qualified engineer Adrian Smith in 2005.

Operating from two fully-equipped workshops in quiet Bedfordshire, Adrian and his crew at Buckland offer custom fabrication and restoration for custom hotrods, classics and race cars. Ground-up restorations are Buckland’s bread and butter, as I discovered when I walked in, greeted by the large inverted tear-drop shape of a 1933 Ford Coupe grille fresh in from California. Behind the ’33 Coupe sits the same model from a year earlier, though when eyeballing the two, it’s clear some aesthetics on the ’32 have been ‘altered’ somewhat – a 5″ roof chop being the most apparent.

At the back sits a  Bentley, almost unrecognisable if it wasn’t for the winged ‘B’ atop the chrome radiator grille and scrolling on the wheel centres. It’s a large car still, but as a package seems a fair bit smaller than I imagine it was when it rolled out of the factory. The ash frame by Smithys Coachworks on this ’36 Special was in to be skinned in aluminium, with louvres to the rear fins being added, along with a new floor, exhaust and many other touches.

The last car in the main shop certainly has presence with its raked stance and huge stature. The owner of the 1940 Willys Gasser wasted no time in bringing it to Adrian after its recent import, and is due to undergo a full rebuild with a Hemi power plant swiftly installed. Workshop two has a few cars inside too as you’d expect, along with a seriously impressive parts collection. Sitting in pride of place amongst a few of Adrian’s personal projects is a 1938 Mercedes-Benz 170V which during the war was hidden away in a barn in Switzerland, and having been in the right hands sees the chassis true once again.

With so many cars in and out to Buckland Automotive, I hope I’m able to go back and see what else this hidden gem of a place has contained when I (hopefully) return!

You can reach out to Adrian here and keep up to date with regular updates here.

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I had visited Lister just once before this shoot, around eighteen months earlier. I was there along with a few friends and fellow members of our local car club having a factory tour (a little plug for those of you at Cambridge Car Club!). This time around though I was armed with a ‘proper’ camera, instead of the one attached to my phone. Seeing a small display of ‘Knobblys’ again was fantastic, and there were more cars nearer the state of completion, though there’s no denying that seeing the raw aluminium finish is possibly the best way to show its proportions. 

Thankfully I’ll be heading back to Goodwood this year for the 75th Members’ Meeting where these cars will run in the Lister-only Scott Brown Trophy, celebrating the namesakes achievements as a hugely successful British sports car driver. I’ll be posting a Lister-only album from this event shortly after the event mid-March.

To read the far more eloquently written and hugely informative article on these ‘cars from Cambridge’, you can read it here on Classic Driver.

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The weather stayed true to the forecast for my first visit to Bicester Heritage in Oxfordshire for, incidentally, their last event of the year. As I turned off the road and onto the site, I joined seemingly the most varied queue of cars. Driving past the car clubs set up around the various out-roads of the  airfield, I found myself being waved through to the main site, and told to park up on the main avenue; huge fifties Cadillac Belvedere up front, 300SL Gullwing behind – I’ve never reversed so cautiously in my life!

A huge turnout of Rileys did their best to keep the grass hidden outside of the Blue Diamond Riley Services workshop, with only the odd hot road, topless Healey or Series 1 Defender usurping the otherwise vintage vista.

Walking around the site, it soon became clear it was an aural experience, too. If it wasn’t the thunderous V8s of the Cobras or the throttle body-induced bark of a Radio Luxembourg-liveried BMW 2002, it was the Wurlitzer music echoing around the site, keeping spirits high – not that needed doing! A thoroughly enjoyable day, I’ve already penciled in dates for next years events.

Enjoy!

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I met Joe six or seven years ago through automotive culture as is often the way, rolling around in a very nicely set-up MK1 Volkswagen Caddy, and later a brace of MK2 Golfs, one of which was running some serious power through it’s diesel lump of which was finished with many parts he made himself.

With his background in engineering and a penchant for things handmade, Joe started his own company, Fresh Reflections in 2011, polishing wheel dishes for many cars within the modified community among other bits and pieces. Two years ago, having decided he could put the skills he had learnt in his day job into practice, Joe moved into his workshop. Having the workshop, with it’s floor space being ever more consumed by vintage metal-shaping machinery, is where Joe spends most of his ‘off time’, creating bespoke intercoolers, radiators, oil coolers, breathers and other one-of pieces all made to mount using original fixing locations.

It’s clear that Joe takes inspiration from days gone by; the original hot-rod eras, not just because of the custom American tuner magazines adorning the worktops, the posters lining the walls or even the choice to stay with traditional tooling, but the design cues implemented on his pieces with such attention to detail.

Joe is shipping out orders word-wide, and cars he has created pieces for have been published in international magazines.

If you’d like to see more of Joe’s work, or to discuss a piece for your own build, you can visit his Instagram page here.

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This was my first time shooting this event, and it was an honour to be contacted by organiser Ed Stow, who felt it was about time this event was brought to Cambridge – cheers Ed!

The Distinguished Gentleman’s Ride was first held in 2012 in Sydney, Australia, hosted by Mark Hawwa. Inspired by a photograph of Don Draper of ‘Mad Men’ fame, the fine dress you see worn by both male and female participants on these rides are a suggestion in order to adhere to the Style Guide; look dapper in silk vests and tweed whilst straddling your café racer, bomber, scrambler or any other style of vintage or classic motorcycle.

Over 50,000 riders throughout 500 cities in 90 countries prepared their moustaches, tweed and chuffed on their pipes to raise funds and awareness for Prostate Cancer and men’s health.

Supported this year by Triumph Motorcycles and Zenith watches, the goal was to raise US$5M, at the time of my typing this the total has reached more than US$3.36M, with Cambridge’s ride alone coughing up a shade under £19,000. The route was slow to start, crawling it’s way through central Cambridge to go on to move more freely out towards the surrounding villages.

It was great to have Owen Sharp, global CEO of The Movember Foundation, in attendance too, no doubt considerably raising the profile of the already hugely-successful event!

A huge congratulations to Ed and everybody involved in the running of this event, and those who organise it globally. Enjoy!

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Calling itself a ‘centre’ may sound rather vague, but is necessary as to avoid it being thought of as just a museum. Of course there are a number that are tucked away here, seemingly for good, but many reside there for storage, and a good proportion are for sale. When I arrived, a man was just driving his (very dusty) Mercedes-Benz R129 out between glass cages, one home to a Countach LP5000, the other to a 246GT Dino.

There are functioning workshops; split into American, Italian and British. Various marques within each, cars in various states of repair, and the odd bare, rusty shell.

Classics, supercars, hypercars, and much to see for the two-wheeled fans. All for free, just walk in off the street.

Enjoy!

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I was contacted by Gem at Walero Motorsports to ask if I was available do a  shoot at Gulf Racing UK. There were two back-to-back 30 minute sessions on the simulator, each session with Ben Barker, Le Mans racing driver, wearing different base layers.

Walero lead the market in temperature-regulating underwear for racing, which can also be worn for other activities; horse-riding or just going for a jog! Fiona, racing driver and founder of Walero, was there to see how refreshed Ben was after the first session whilst wearing the Walero gear, while after the second session a very sweaty driver emerged from the virtual cockpit!

A few days after the shoot I was contacted to say that a selection of images were destined for Autosport magazine – happy days!

More information can be found on Walero here.

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Rounds 1 & 2 – Oulton Park – Saturday April 2nd.

Back in January, a company named Walero (more on these guys soon) invited me to attend AutoSport International at Birmingham’s NEC. Being the first motorsport show of the year, it’s always a great opportunity to network, and this is where I met Josh and Luca of Motorsport Essentials.

Josh and Luca are students of Motorsport Engineering at Brunel, and are drivers themselves. They ran this car (in a different guise) in the 2015 Tegiwa Civic Cup championship under the name ‘One Light Racing’, where they proved to be incredibly consistent with an impressive amount of finishes. When asked if I wanted to attend a race weekend with them, how could I say no?

During Friday’s practice sessions, Luca was putting in steady, consistent times. Fine weather, a plated differential and of course driver skill meant lots of grip.

I arrived late in the day, as the car was in the long queue for scrutineering. Word was floating around that all EP Civics were being failed if they were not running a scuttle seal.  Word was true. Something about high-pressure fuel leaks. The ME car was no exception, but this was a simple fix and was to be sorted later.

The team not only consists of Josh and Luca, but a number of guys, all engineers of sorts from various universities. Between them the brakes were bled, geometry sorted, scuttle seal sourced and fitted, car washed, more sponsor stickers applied and the car refuelled. As it grew darker, the car returned to scrutineering, and returned shortly after with a new sticker in it’s window which basically meant, ‘Yeah, you can go and race now’.

Saturday. The fine weather that inspired confidence during practice? Gone, giving way to gloomy skies and plenty of rain, set to last for most of the day. Luckily, despite there being a number of clubs racing (5Club Racing MX5 Cup, Disklok RGB Championship, Protech Sport Specials Championship, 750MC Cartek Roadsports Series and ROC Bikesports Championship), the Civics seemed to be given preferential treatment, and were treated to the garages, as opposed to the open-air paddocks.

Race 1. Still raining. The Bikesports cars are producing some pretty impressive rooster tails. After a disappointing qualifying, Luca fought from 13th, to come in at a very respectable 5th place.

Plenty fell victim to the conditions, but not Diella. He brings car 3 back to the garage intact, wanting for nothing except a wipe down.

Team Motorsport Essentials are not just a team with a car. They provide support for other drivers and teams in other club championships, for example working successfully with Cam Walton in the MR2 Championship. Next door sat the 81 car of Lewis Rose, first time Civic Cup entrant and driver. Team ME lent a hand whenever possible, even if only for advice on what to expect, as well as sharing any worthwhile knowledge.

I saw evidence of this first hand, when Rose’s car came in after race 1. Battered from being struck from behind and sent into the armco, the front and rear bumpers, rear wing, bonnet and a front wing were all going to need some work if Rose were to return for race 2. At this point, his anger and frustration were making him doubtful that he’d be back running again that day.

Team Motorsport Essentials set about examining the car and soon got to work. Front bumper and bonnet off to inspect front end damage. One cracked headlight and the other non-existent. Chassis legs appeared to be fine, but the radiator took a hit, and the crash bar served its purpose. There is a great sense of community spirit in club racing, so a replacement radiator and rear light were donated to get Lewis back out.

In under two hours the team had Lewis’ car back together to complete race 2! With a spanner check and geo settings complete on both cars, it was almost time for their second outing, sun shining!

Some good clean racing in race 2, Diella just managing to keep on the black stuff out of turn one. Unfortunately a poor start saw a P7 finish, losing a place from start.

So glad to see Lewis Rose back out and, despite being a back marker,  he seemed to enjoy himself from the huge grin on his face back at the garage! This being his first ever race, and how he kept his chin up and managed to get back out, seriously impressed the organisers and marshall crew alike, who have shown massive support.

Fantastic weekend despite the adverse conditions. Brands Hatch in 3 weeks for rounds 3 & 4!

2016 Team Motorsport Essentials sponsors;

Flying Vinyl

Walero Motorsport

BossDog Vehicle Graphics

> Motorsport Essentials website <

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