Octane

Octane is a premium monthly magazine celebrating over 100 years of automotive design, from classic Bentleys to the latest BMW. We have been at the heart of the motoring industry for seventeen years, so we know our stuff when it comes to classic cars. Written by enthusiasts for enthusiasts, the magazine captures the exclusivity and excitement of the classic car world so you can experience it all wherever you are.

A catalogue of excellence

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NEXT MONTH • ISSUE 275, ON SALE 25 MARCH

Octane

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Ignition • EVENTS + NEWS + OPINION

Dates for your diary

BOOK NOW! • Secure your place; make travel plans

Tours and Rallies • Coming attractions, from leisurely sightseeing breaks to all-action competitive events

A landmark year beckons • 2026 could be the most seismic year for events for decades

London Concours gears up

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Jay Leno • Zen and the art of modern hypercar maintenance

Derek Bell • The ups and downs of a long career in motorsport

Stephen Bayley • The ruin and fate of a manufacturer once known for good taste

Robert Coucher • Artificial Intelligence? There’s good reason to prefer the real thing

How Gordon gained Insight

Gentleman thug • A single, simple cut-and-shut prototype fathered Aston’s most exalted line of high-performance road-racers. James Elliott drives it

ASTON MARTIN THE TOP 20 • Aston Martin can trace its history back to before World War One. These are its most significant cars

THE TOP CONTENDER • First it won the Amelia Concours. Then it was crowned ‘Best of the Best’. Now David Burgess-Wise recounts the extraordinary history of the ex-Nino Farina Alfa Romeo 8C 2900B

EVORALUTION • The Evora was a calm new direction ahead of a turbulent era at Lotus – and its impact is still being felt

The artists’ artist • Michael Turner, the recently passed doyen of motoring artists, was a car fanatic and an equally keen flyer

GOING THE DISTANCE • BRM P578 ‘Old Faithful’ is one of the most successful single Formula 1 racing cars of all time – and rescued the BRM team from dissolution. Doug Nye charts its remarkable career

Will Pembroke • Car enthusiast, collector, peer of the realm, and now the founder of 2026’s hottest new concours event

Playing Charade • Marc Sonnery discovered a challenging timewarp track experience hidden away in the mountains of France

CODE RED • Elliott Hughes drives the Ferrari 849 Testarossa in Andalusia and finds out how this brand new 1036bhp hypercar delivers on its historic name

Octane Cars • The trials and tribulations of the cars we live with

Dad had one of those… • 1965 Morris Mini-Minor Kevin Webb

Overdrive • Other interesting cars we’ve been driving

Bill Boddy • Though ‘founding editor’ was a misnomer, he put in a 55-year shift as editor of Motor Sport

Rupert Cobb • Trumpeter, record producer and film-maker who founded Gun Hill Studios in 2014 to focus on photographing the classic cars he adores

The Martin Dreadnought guitar • Built like a battleship and as loud as one, too

The greatest escape • Watchmakers overcame the destructive force of deep-sea helium penetration with clever valves

Ferrari P 1963-1967

Gear

Halo Ferraris smash records on both sides of the Atlantic • Mecum’s wild Bachman auction was only the beginning for Prancing Horse legends

TOP 10 PRICES JANUARY 2026

Tall poppies in the field • Last month the market was a curate’s egg: the new year has served to reinforce that view

Harrah rarities head to market •...