This event had the usual LA crowd with friends and family of the group and the music industry elite from A&R’s to producers and DJ’s. The venue was spot on for the occasion with a gorgeous view of the LA skyline, a private bar serving crazy concoctions from the mixologists and flat screens playing the latest music videos from the group. Overall, fun event to attend and the music was well received by the crowd and I look forward to following their careers take off.

The thousands of visitors who turned out for the 2012 Donington Historic Festival on 5^th and 6^th May were treated to a spectacular display of racing action, off-track entertainments and even an unexpected day of sunshine on the Sunday…

“We could hardly have hoped for a more successful meeting,” said event organiser Duncan Wiltshire, “with visitor numbers significantly up against last year. The weather on Saturday was a touch on the cold side, but against all expectations the sun came out on Sunday and shone on and off all day. Some spectators even complained of sunburn!

“With 300 racing cars taking part in the 12 races, and some of the sport’s top drivers, we knew the racing action would be outstanding, but the nail-bitingly close finishes in some of the races were a bonus. As were the 54 car clubs who turned up to put on a display of around a thousand fabulous classic cars of all kinds, the historic karts belting round the Grand Prix Loop, the Trade Village in the race paddock and, of course, Sir Stirling Moss – who is still an enthusiastic supporter of historic motorsport even though he retired from competition himself last year.

“We are already thinking about next year’s Festival, and hope to be able to announce the dates in the near future.”

Among the many highlights of the second Donington Historic Festival were…

Sir Stirling Moss, who took to the track on Sunday for some demonstration laps in a very special Jaguar C-type. This, chassis XKC 005, was the actual C-type he drove to victory in the 1952 Reims Grand Prix for sports cars – and the first disc-braked car ever to win a race. “After driving with drum brakes, there was an amazing difference to driving with discs,” said Sir Stirling, reminiscing on his GP win of 60 years ago, and signing autographs for spectators.

Norman Dewis, the renowned Jaguar test driver, along with racing legend Win Percy, also came along to enjoy the Festival and sign autographs for fans.

Frank Sytner returned to Donington for his very first race since suffering a heart attack while driving his Lola T70 at last year’s Donington Historic Festival. Clearly bouncing with health and “chuffed” to come third in Saturday’s ‘1000Km’ for pre-’72 sports-racing cars – driving the same Lola T70 as last year – Frank described how his life was saved in 2011 by the marshals, the circuit doctor and the staff of the Derby Royal Infirmary. “The marshals got to me first and they were unbelievable – how do I ever thank them for that? When the doctor got to me, my heart had stopped and they had to defibrillate for about two and a half minutes.” When asked whether he’d still be alive if he’d had the heart attack on the M25, he replied, “No. Absolutely not. The course doctor saved my life.” The Lola, meanwhile, took longer to recover than Frank himself, with the car’s rebuild only finished three weeks before the Festival, and no time for testing. “My first time back in it was for the 20-minute practice session at Donington, on Saturday morning. I’d obviously had loads of serious health tests before I could regain my race licence, but even so, I had myself linked up to a heart monitor while I was driving in practice, to check everything was okay.” And it clearly was… welcome back, Frank, and well done on third place!

In the infield, around 1000 classic cars brought along by the members of 54 car clubs formed a magnificent display. Jaguar and Porsche were the marques with the most cars on show, but there was strong support from Lotus, MG, Morgan, TVR, Triumph and Ferrari, plus a host of other marques including Rolls-Royce, Bentley, Aston Martin, Riley and Daimler.

And, of course, the racing… from the pre-War cars of the ‘Mad Jack’ to the thunderous Group C sports cars, not to mention 1950s sports cars and 1960s sports-racers, single-seaters and Touring Cars, the on-track action was fast and furious… for full results from all the races, see www.doningtonhistoric.com/the-races/

Photos: Donington Historic Festival 2012 is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

As we head into the final round of the Cody’s D1NZ National Drifting Championship, the tension and hype was unbelievable. With about six drivers in close contention for the Championship title, any small mistake here could cost the drivers dearly.

The sixth and final round was held at Hampton Downs raceway  – a high speed track with sweeping corners and elevation changes throughout.

The five big names to watch out for and leaders on the table were Mad Mike Whiddett, Curt Whittaker, Gaz Whiter, Fanga Dan Woolhouse and Cole Armstrong. Nothing is set in stone though, with plenty of other drivers keen to get their hands on the trophy.

Practice on Friday treated us to brilliant weather and a bunch of different vantage points to shoot from. Milwaukee Tools driver Mac Kwok, above, had geabox issues and would not go on to compete unfortunately.

The judged section consisted of a medium right hand sweeper, following through into a longer left corner, up and over the hill with clipping points crossing from inside to out, and then onto the straight.

Entry speeds were around 175km/h coming in to the first corner. Above, Fanga Dan had no problem hitting that speed in the LS2 V8 Commodore.

It was awesome to see cars emerging from over the hill in packs of three or more at a time. The D1NZ drivers always prefer to practice in battle groups if they can.

Another attraction for spectators was the hardpark happening on the inside of the track. One car that had a lot of heads turning was this grey RX7 FD sitting on CCW Classics.

Over the hill and onto the main straight is where the spectators could get a great view of the cars in action.

The inside clipping point on the peak of the hill is where a lot of drivers were dropping into the dirt in practice. Doing this in battles will hand the opponent valuable points.

One question on everyones mind was whether Gaz Whiter in the Tectaloy S14 Silvia could make the jump from third place on the points table to take the championship trophy. If anyone can it would be Whiter, with 3 series wins under his belt already he definitely has the experience to take it out.

A slight collision in practice left Mikes RX7 with damage to the rear of the car, luckily Mike had shipped over his U.S based Mazda RX8 which was rushed to get here in time for the event. It would be a risky move to use the RX8 however, as he hadn’t practiced in this car in over a year.

Series contender and V Energy driver Cole Armstrong came up against Nico Reid in the GT-Refinishers S15. Both drivers were looking on form until a mechanical problem meant Cole could not continue.

The first battle of the day for Red Bull driver Mad Mike was against skilled D1-Pro newcomer Darren Benjamin. Darren has proven himself in the other rounds and his performance here was no different.

After going One More Time (OMT) Darren went slightly off track giving Mike the advantage.

Another great battle of the day was Gaz Whiter vs Curt Whittaker. Curt proved to be just too good on the day however, placing Gaz in 6th for the round.

Mad Mike’s second battle did not go his way, tapping the side of Fanga Dan’s Commodore and spinning him around. This gave Fanga the advantage and placed Mike in 7th for the round. From here he could only wait patiently to find out whether he would have a place on the championship podium or not.

Brad Lauder’s blue on yellow Alcotane S14 was looking unstoppable with clean and consistent runs throughout the day.

Jumping the inside corner on his chase run meant Andrew Redward in the Nankang S14 would finish the round in 5th place with Lauder moving through.

Jason Sellers met Brad Lauder in the battle for 3rd and 4th place in the round. The judges asked for one more time before deciding on Lauder for 3rd place.

After beating Jason Sellers, Curt Whittaker moved on to battle Fanga Dan for the round win. Both drivers were also after the valuable points to jump up in the championship standings.

It was clear that both Curt and Fanga had mastered this track and they gave the crowd an epic battle to watch.

The judges announced that it was too close to decide and so they would go one more time. Both drivers had earned their place in the final and it could have gone either way, but eventually a decision was made.

Curt Whittaker takes the round win, Fanga Dan close behind in 2nd place and Bradley Lauder earning 3rd place.

The round win also gave Curt enough points to win the championship title and take home the D1NZ 2011/2012 trophy! Mad Mike Whiddett placed closely behind in 2nd overall with Fanga Dan taking 3rd place overall.

It’s been an amazing season of drifting here in little old New Zealand. Each round of D1NZ has been unique and I’ve really enjoyed photographing the events. I’ll leave you with the new champion for the year, Curt Whittaker!

Words: David Atkinson
Photos: David Atkinson & David Sanson

Next stop on the Formula D tour and the Slammed Society Showcase is Palm Beach in Florida. Registration for Palm Beach is now open. Just as a reminder, two FD tickets are included with each car registered. Also, early entries will receive an additional discount. If you are part of a group, please contact us at Leslie@Fatlace.com for possible additional discounts and as always, we do our best to keep groups parked together. For those who are still attending FD but are not entering in a car, you can enter our code “FATLACE” for $3 off. Just click the image above to go to the registration page.

“Unique, instantly recognisable, achingly beautiful and immensely historic.”

This one of a kind 1953 Timossi-Ferrari ‘Arno XI’ Racing Hydroplane went for a healthy €868.000/US$1,124,060 in RM Auctions’ Monaco sale, held over the weekend in Monaco.

Timossi di Azzano’s stunning racing hydroplane hull was powered by a twin-supercharged 4493.73 cc Ferrari Tipo 375 F1 V-12 engine that put out over 600 brake horsepower – enough to push it to a world speed record in its class of 241.708 kilometers an hour in 1953.

Enjoy the video below, which sees the waves left in a considerably less bruised state as it blasts around at a more gentlemanly, but no less enjoyable pace.

Hit this link to check out our original story and photo gallery, and read more about Arno XI over at RM Auctions here.

Via RM Auctions

Image via RM Auctions

Video: 1953 Timossi-Ferrari ‘Arno XI’ Racing Hydroplane is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

RM Auctions’ Monaco sale ran over the 11th and 12th of May, auctioning stunning and storied classic cars, bikes and boats and generating an impressive €33.5 million.

Stealing the spotlight during the record-breaking sale was the 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Scaglietti Spider, which was up for sale for the first time in thirty years. One of just two built, it sold for a mighty €5,040,000 and was one of ten cars that broke the million Euro mark.

Four cars flew past the two million Euro mark, with the ’66 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder and ’52 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ‘Tuboscocca’ going for €2.520.000 each, followed by the ’36 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Sport Cabriolet A at a healthy €2.324.000.

There was plenty of racing history rounding out the top ten, and the entire sale, with the likes of a ’69 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 Sports Racer, 1948 Ferrari 166 Inter Spyder Corsa, ’68 Alfa Romeo T33/2 ‘Daytona’, and the wipper snapper – a 2007 Peugeot 908 V-12 HDi FAP Le Mans Racing Car, all going for over a million Euros.

The 11th of May was all bikes, all day, with a motorcycle sale that celebrated the mighty Ducatis of motorsport’s history through the Carlo Saltarelli Collection. The headliner, a 1972 Ducati 750 Imola 200 Corsa Replica went for €70,200.

“The addition of motorcycles to our Monaco sale represents RM’s versatility in the marketplace. Any motorcycle sale that achieves in excess of one million euros and which also sees significant records tumble, can only be judged as a fantastic success.”

RM DOMINATES MONACO HISTORIC WEEKEND WITH INCREDIBLE €33.5 MILLION IN SALES 

RM Auctions, the world’s largest collector car auction house for investment-quality automobiles, continued its record-breaking sales run in Europe this past weekend, generating a spectacular €33,521,710 in sales* ($43,410,615 million USD**) with 87 percent of all lots sold at its biennial Monaco sale at the Grimaldi Forum.

Held during the same weekend as the Grand Prix de Monaco Historique, the two-day auction presented a magnificent collection of more than 90 blue-chip automobiles, 100 Ducati motorcycles and three boats. As many as ten motor cars achieved individual prices exceeding €1 million, with four lots surpassing €2 million. In addition, the sale boasted several new all-time records for a number of specific cars and motorcycles sold at a public sale.

The spectacular results rank the sale as one of the most successful collector car auctions ever staged in Europe as well as RM Europe’s highest grossing sale to date, eclipsing the strong results achieved by the Company at both its debut sale in Monaco in 2010 as well as the highly successful 2007 Ferrari Leggenda e Passione event.

Illustrating RM’s extensive international client base, bidders hailed from 33 countries around the world, including as far away as China, Brazil and the United Arab Emirates.

“Monaco 2012 has been a fantastic success. With in excess of 33.5 million sold, this sale rates as one of Europe’s highest grossing collector car sales of all time and most certainly the highest grossing collector car auction in Europe this year. Once again, RM has proved itself to be the preeminent force in the collector car auction scene,” says Max Girardo, Managing Director, RM Europe.

Reinforcing RM’s reputation as the global leader in the presentation of important and historic Ferraris at auction, examples from the Modenese Prancing Horse dominated the top seller’s list. In total, the sale lifted the gavel on 22 different examples spanning over 60 years of production. Headlining the group was the exceptionally rare, one of two 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Scaglietti Spiders, chassis 0680 MDTR, which was offered for sale the first time in 30 years. The rarest of all TRs produced, 0680 MDTR attracted spirited bidding in the room and on the phones, selling for a remarkable €5,040,000, a record for the model. Another wonderful Ferrari competition car entering the history books was the 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ‘Tuboscocca’, chassis 0192 ET, one of only 12 Vignale Spyders produced, which realized an incredible €2,520,000 to establish a new world record for a 225 S sold at auction. The historically significant 1966 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder, chassis 006, also drew fierce bidding to achieve the same sales price of €2,520,000. Other Ferrari highlights included the 1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder, chassis 14415, one of only 18 European-specification, LHD examples for €1,008,000; the Ferrari F1-2000 Racing Car, chassis 204, raced by Michael Schumacher on his way to the 2000 Driver’s Championship for €806,400; and, the highly anticipated 1953 Timossi-Ferrari ‘Arno XI’ Racing Hydroplane for €868.000, a record for a Hydroplane sold at auction.

In addition to the Ferraris, Alfa Romeos performed extremely well at RM’s Monaco sale with two highly coveted Tipo 33 sports racing cars selling for record prices. The hotly contested 1969 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 Sports Racer, chassis 105 800 23, built and raced by Autodelta, well surpassed its pre-sale estimate selling for an all-time record sum of €1,232,000. The ex-Nino Vaccarella, Teodoro Zeccoli 1968 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/2 ‘Daytona’, chassis 75033.029, also sparked enthusiastic bidding, achieving an impressive €1,008,000.

In a sale led by a terrific series of competition cars, another highlight joining the top seller’s list was the 2007 Peugeot 908 V-12 HDi FAP Le Mans Racing Car with its incredible diesel engine which took the car to several victories in the 2007 season. Offered directly from the Peugeot family, it achieved a record price of €1,680,000, the highest price ever paid for a Peugeot at auction.

The auction also saw RM join forces with luxury Swiss watch manufacturer Blancpain and classicdriver.com for the presentation of the 2007 Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 GT3 Racing Car which was campaigned successfully last season by Mark Hayek, the President and CEO of Blancpain. Following a visit from H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco to inspect the car the morning of the sale, it later sold in front of a packed house for a strong €155,000, almost double its pre-sale estimate, with 100 percent of proceeds benefitting the Monaco Association against Muscular Dystrophy.

RM Monaco lots exceeding €1 million:

Lot 321 – 1971 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder- €1,008,000
Lot 333 – 1968 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/2 ‘Daytona’- €1,008,000
Lot 345 – 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Scaglietti Spider – €5,040,000 (world record for a 625 TRC at auction)
Lot 353 – 1936 Mercedes-Benz 540 K Sport Cabriolet A- €2,324,000
Lot 357 – 1996 Ferrari 206 S Dino Spyder- €2,520,000
Lot 362 – 1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spyder ‘Tuboscocca’- €2,520,000 (world record for a 225 S at auction)
Lot 367 – 1948 Ferrari 166 Inter Spyder Corsa- €1,010,000
Lot 373 – 1969 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 Sports Racer- €1,232,000 (world record for an Alfa Tipo 33 at auction)
Lot 382 – 2007 Peugeot 908 V-12 HDi FAP Le Mans Racing Car- €1,680,000 (world record for a Peugeot at auction)
Lot 385 – 2006 Ferrari FXX Evoluzione- €1,338,400

As a prelude to the automobile offering, RM hosted its first full-day motorcycle sale on 11 May which celebrated the Ducati brand and featured the world-famous Carlo Saltarelli Collection. The 96 lots represented a cross section of Ducati’s history, headlined by the 1972 Ducati 750 Imola 200 Corsa Replica for €70,200.

For Ducati enthusiasts, the sale also featured a unique opportunity to purchase two factory Desmosedici GP machines, which set new, all-time world records for Ducati motorcycles sold at auction. The race-winning GP10 machine raced by world champion Casey Stoner in the 2010 season, achieved an incredible sale price of €251,550 while the 2011 season GP11 bike raced by the legendary Valentino Rossi, made an equally impressive €235,200. This was the first time the Factory Ducati Corse racing department had offered such bikes directly to auction, and the sale represented a unique opportunity to collectors.

“We are very happy for the two new owners of these precious, high-tech racing motorcycles. It was great experience working with the RM team and to see that the bikes generated so much attention and interested bidding from collectors around the world,” commented Diego Sgorbati, Ducati Motor Holding spa following the sale.

Girardo added, “The addition of motorcycles to our Monaco sale represents RM’s versatility in the marketplace. Any motorcycle sale that achieves in excess of one million euros and which also sees significant records tumble, can only be judged as a fantastic success. In addition, the sale enabled us to successfully reach a new audience of buyers, with thirty-four percent of bidders at the sale representing first-time clients.”

RM’s next European auction, the Aalholm Automobile Collection featuring 175 vehicles offered ‘without reserve’, will be held 12 August in Southern Denmark, followed by RM’s highly anticipated UK sale at Battersea Evolution in central London, 31 October.

For further information on these upcoming events and to view full results from the Monaco sale, visit www.rmauctions.com or call +44 20 7851 7070.

Via RM Auctions

Images via RM Auctions

Auction Results: RM Auctions’ Monaco Sale is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.

A panel of judges ranged from art experts to pro Snowboarders including Ingemar Backmann, Baptiste Bourgain and Kassia Meador (pro surfer and photographer – if you haven’t seen her stuff check it out it’s killer.).

To see all the entries visit: www.artrules.swatch.com

I’m bummed I missed out on the event, but check out the photos.

Video: Fire breaks out in the Williams garage is a post from Motorsport Retro, bringing you classic motorsport, cars, motorcycles and gear every day.