News

Latests new in the world of classic cars and restoration.

Peter Stevens, TIGOSE Vice-President

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Peter Stevens is one of the UK’s best-known and most sought-after international transportation and product designers. He is responsible for creating road and race cars for McLaren, Lamborghini, BMW, Lotus, Prodrive and TWR among others.

From specialist, bespoke vehicles to mass production models Peter Stevens’s creations have won international accolades. Before the demise of MG Rover in 2005, Peter’s MG TF was the best-selling sports car in the UK. It was voted ‘the world’s most beautiful cabriolet’ in 2003.

His cars are in automotive collections across the world, and have been shown at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston as well as London’s Design Museum. He has been Visiting Professor of Vehicle Design at the Royal College of Art and twice nominated as the UK’s Prince Philip Designer of the Year.

Among Peter’s best known road and race designs are the McLaren F1 road car, the 1999 Le Mans-winning BMW, the Lotus Elan, the Lotus Esprit revision, Jaguar’s XJR-15, and the Subaru Impreza P1 road car as well as the world rally series-winning Subaru Impreza WRCs. During his career, Peter has worked with many of the world’s leading transportation companies, including Automobili Lamborghini, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Rolls Royce and Subaru.

Tony Southgate, TIGOSE President

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Acclaimed British engineer and race car designer Tony Southgate, cut his teeth in motorsport design at Lola Cars, continuing with IndyCar and then landing the job of Chief Designer for the BRM F1 team in the late Sixties.

By the early Seventies Southgate was involved with Shadow Racing Cars, designing very competitive CanAm and F1 racers; Lotus, Arrows and Osella followed. He is probably best known for heading the design of the Jaguar XJR-9 and XJR-12 which won three World Sportscar Championships and two Le Mans 24-hours.

The Apprenticeship Programme in Classic & Sportscar

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Classic and Sportscar Editor James Elliot speaks to TIGOSE Consultant Roger Waters, in charge of the Apprenticeship Programme: this is what he has to say in the editor’s column (Classic & Sportscar, June 2014).

 

Guild Founder’s Lancia Astura Steady Special in Octane

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The Steady Special which has been undergoing major restoration in the last few months was featured in Octane’s May issue.

Seven pages of editorial were dedicated to a project which has been a labour of love and has had many companies involved in the process.

Renowned journalist John Simister interviews ‘Steady’ Barker and fires up that narrow V8 engine for which Lancia was so rightly famous.

Good-bye, Mr Brabham

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Not a ‘Mr’, but a ‘Sir’, of course: three-time world champion Sir Jack Brabham dies in his sleep. One of the best obituaries comes from Autocar:

Autocar Obituary

The photo was taken by great automotive photographer, Richard Gunn, in 2004: it shows Stirling Moss bidding good luck to Jack Brabham, on his way to race at Goodwood Revival. As Sir Stirling said… “most of the drivers, once you’d passed them you can forget about them, but Sir Jack – you never knew. He was always there, hunting along. He was competitive… he wanted to win.”

The Founder’s car: a ‘Steady Special’ Lancia Astura

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Originally Ronald ‘Steady’ Barker’s shortened Lancia Astura, and now belonging to TIGOSE Founder Michael Scott, this Italian classic was restored over a long period of time – and rebuilding included not just the body (to Steady Special’s own design, going back several decades) but also the engine, gearbox, differential, brakes and front suspension. It is probably easier to list what HASN’T been rebuilt.

 

A press release was issued to the media about this project at the end of 2013 (here’s a shortened version). Both the car and Michael Scott were comprehensively featured in Octane magazine (March issue). The Steady Special Lancia Astura should be completed by July.

Famous former owner and a very ‘special’ Lancia reunited at Autosport International 2014 after almost sixty years.

The ex-Ronald ‘Steady’ Barker 1934 Lancia Astura makes its UK public début at Autosport International as the ‘Steady Special’, the car its owner redesigned almost 60 years ago.

Currently undergoing complete restoration and, in the best coachbuilding tradition, soon to sport a bespoke body, the 1934 Lancia Astura ‘Steady Special’, once belonging to Autocar road tester and star columnist ‘Steady’ Barker, is unveiled for the first time at Autosport International 2014. The Steady Special is no ordinary classic car: it is a piece of British as well as Italian automotive history. Steady Barker purchased it as a mammoth six-seat limousine and chopped almost four feet out of the chassis, replacing the limo body with a lighter, enclosed sports racer shell, fronted by a DB2 bonnet.

This is the very car he drove to an interview for the position as Autocar’s road tester in 1955, later securing the job as road test editor; he also raced it in the early Fifties. Having lived a romantic life of varied fortunes, much like Steady himself, the car was purchased by its current owner, The Guild of International Engineering Specialists founder Michael Scott. Steady’s original design sketches of some sixty years ago were turned into reality. This has required a full restoration, including engine, suspension, gearbox and brakes. An all-aluminium body based on Steady’s sketches was fabricated  with the help of the latest technology, using the expertise of Stuart Brown of 3D Engineers. The car, fittingly unveiled at Autosport International (which, like Autocar, is part of the Haymarket publishing titles) will soon be ready to be driven again by Steady Barker, almost sixty years later. “I test drove the driving chassis in November, and was happy with the way the car responded; I cannot wait to see it, completed in all but details, at Autosport,” said Steady Barker.