SSO's Garage - Ferrari, McLaren, & Porsche
Discussion
MDifficult said:
That’s all very interesting but what colour are you thinking of wrapping it?
Seriously though, it’s so good to read a post from an owner who’s genuinely got something to say, and takes the time to say it - rather than the usual dross out there in supercar-land.
Please keep the updates coming - brilliant stuff.
Much appreciated.Seriously though, it’s so good to read a post from an owner who’s genuinely got something to say, and takes the time to say it - rather than the usual dross out there in supercar-land.
Please keep the updates coming - brilliant stuff.
Here's a part of an article I just finished on our McLaren 675LT Spider:
The 675LT Spider has been with us for 6 years now. During this period, it has been our road trip car of choice. The 675LT Spider has been driven across the Rocky Mountains, down both coasts, and across a desert. It started life on the US East Coast, moved out to Montana, went on vacation in California, spent a few months in Texas, and then headed back to the East Coast. It does sound like the 675LT Spider has lived the life of a young millennial. This year, it faced its first real, and a very major threat to its place in our garage. Even with the arrival of the 765LT Spider, the 675LT Spider remains my favorite McLaren. Not the best, not the most comfortable, not the fastest, not the most extreme, but simply my favorite. Now “favorite” in my mind is something that is earned over time. It’s a label that comes after multiple years of ownership. It’s built through drives in a wide range of different conditions and across many great road trips. As such, the 765LT Spider is far too new to seriously vie for the title.
The first time I drove our McLaren 675LT Spider I got out thinking this was the best car McLaren had built, that still holds to this day. It felt incredibly well put together and I was comfortable driving it hard very quickly. The configuration we decided upon was anything but subtle combining rather bright Tarocco Orange paint work with an orgy of carbon fiber. We spec’ed our 675LT Spider for road use with long road trips in mind. As such we opted for the more comfortable electric heated seats, electric steering column, vehicle lift and the full leather interior. I would have preferred the manual racing buckets, but Mrs. SSO was fairly prescriptive when it came to the seats referencing a not so pleasant 10 hours she once spent in the F40’s utilitarian buckets crossing the Swiss Alps. I also had the car fitted with the normal Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires vs. the track focused Trofeo R’s. While the Trofeo’s are great in the dry, rain is not their friend and we have spent plenty of time driving through major downpours on various road trips.
To get into the 675LT Spider you swing the driver’s side door up and forward, put your right foot in the driver’s footwell, then then basically drop as elegantly as possible into the driver’s seat. Once in, the left leg gets lifted over the large sill and slides under the steering wheel. With the right foot firmly on the brake pedal, you press the starter button in and the 675LT Spider roars into life before settling almost immediately into a low rumble of an idle around 1000 rpms. Next raise the small left hand stalk twice to activate the nose lift and then pull the roof button up on the central consul to let nature shine in. Poke the reverse button on the center consul, touch the gas pedal lightly and the gloom of the garage is replaced by bright sunlight. Once well clear of the garage, it’s a quick pull on the right hand paddle, steering wheel all the way over to the left, give it a bit more gas, and off you go.
Once out into the wild, the transmission setting gets moved to “Sport”. As the 675LT Spider is a twin turbo V8, its slow in, fast out in the curves. With the big carbon ceramic brakes, braking comes late and just before you turn in. With the huge levels of grip, you can get back on the power as soon as corner starts to open up. The steering is razor sharp and gives great immediate feedback which just builds confidence. Get it all right and you get a nice big “bang” on each upshift. The 675LT Spider is a rhythm car. When driver and automobile are in sync and flowing smoothly down the road, it’s a wonderful deeply rewarding feeling.
When it comes to driving the 675LT Spider, confidence inspiring does not even begin to sum it up. The 675LT Spider does exactly what you ask of it and provides the feedback to prove it. You feel like the 675LT Spider shrinks around you the faster you go. The car just sticks to the road and the steering is perfectly weighted. On a tight demanding mountain road, rapid progress in the 675LT Spider comes smoothly, with minimal physical effort. Your hands never move off the steering wheel. Going around a corner, the 675LT Spider stays perfectly flat and there is no feeling of weight trying to move out of line around behind you. Gear changes are executed with a single flick of the index and middle fingers and a loud bang from the back lets you know the shift has been immediately executed. A quick short pivot on the heel of your right foot moves you from the accelerator to the brake. Turbo lag is minimal and the power is very linear from 2000 rpms right up to the redline. The 675LT Spider feels glued to the pavement and I have never had the rear move out of line. Lots of curves and elevation changes both challenge and help highlight the exceptional capabilities of this car. Right foot, fingers, and arms are all constantly in motion as driver, car, and asphalt are in intense discussion as the changing geography serves up constant challenges.
The 675LT Spider has been with us for 6 years now. During this period, it has been our road trip car of choice. The 675LT Spider has been driven across the Rocky Mountains, down both coasts, and across a desert. It started life on the US East Coast, moved out to Montana, went on vacation in California, spent a few months in Texas, and then headed back to the East Coast. It does sound like the 675LT Spider has lived the life of a young millennial. This year, it faced its first real, and a very major threat to its place in our garage. Even with the arrival of the 765LT Spider, the 675LT Spider remains my favorite McLaren. Not the best, not the most comfortable, not the fastest, not the most extreme, but simply my favorite. Now “favorite” in my mind is something that is earned over time. It’s a label that comes after multiple years of ownership. It’s built through drives in a wide range of different conditions and across many great road trips. As such, the 765LT Spider is far too new to seriously vie for the title.
The first time I drove our McLaren 675LT Spider I got out thinking this was the best car McLaren had built, that still holds to this day. It felt incredibly well put together and I was comfortable driving it hard very quickly. The configuration we decided upon was anything but subtle combining rather bright Tarocco Orange paint work with an orgy of carbon fiber. We spec’ed our 675LT Spider for road use with long road trips in mind. As such we opted for the more comfortable electric heated seats, electric steering column, vehicle lift and the full leather interior. I would have preferred the manual racing buckets, but Mrs. SSO was fairly prescriptive when it came to the seats referencing a not so pleasant 10 hours she once spent in the F40’s utilitarian buckets crossing the Swiss Alps. I also had the car fitted with the normal Pirelli P-Zero Corsa tires vs. the track focused Trofeo R’s. While the Trofeo’s are great in the dry, rain is not their friend and we have spent plenty of time driving through major downpours on various road trips.
To get into the 675LT Spider you swing the driver’s side door up and forward, put your right foot in the driver’s footwell, then then basically drop as elegantly as possible into the driver’s seat. Once in, the left leg gets lifted over the large sill and slides under the steering wheel. With the right foot firmly on the brake pedal, you press the starter button in and the 675LT Spider roars into life before settling almost immediately into a low rumble of an idle around 1000 rpms. Next raise the small left hand stalk twice to activate the nose lift and then pull the roof button up on the central consul to let nature shine in. Poke the reverse button on the center consul, touch the gas pedal lightly and the gloom of the garage is replaced by bright sunlight. Once well clear of the garage, it’s a quick pull on the right hand paddle, steering wheel all the way over to the left, give it a bit more gas, and off you go.
Once out into the wild, the transmission setting gets moved to “Sport”. As the 675LT Spider is a twin turbo V8, its slow in, fast out in the curves. With the big carbon ceramic brakes, braking comes late and just before you turn in. With the huge levels of grip, you can get back on the power as soon as corner starts to open up. The steering is razor sharp and gives great immediate feedback which just builds confidence. Get it all right and you get a nice big “bang” on each upshift. The 675LT Spider is a rhythm car. When driver and automobile are in sync and flowing smoothly down the road, it’s a wonderful deeply rewarding feeling.
When it comes to driving the 675LT Spider, confidence inspiring does not even begin to sum it up. The 675LT Spider does exactly what you ask of it and provides the feedback to prove it. You feel like the 675LT Spider shrinks around you the faster you go. The car just sticks to the road and the steering is perfectly weighted. On a tight demanding mountain road, rapid progress in the 675LT Spider comes smoothly, with minimal physical effort. Your hands never move off the steering wheel. Going around a corner, the 675LT Spider stays perfectly flat and there is no feeling of weight trying to move out of line around behind you. Gear changes are executed with a single flick of the index and middle fingers and a loud bang from the back lets you know the shift has been immediately executed. A quick short pivot on the heel of your right foot moves you from the accelerator to the brake. Turbo lag is minimal and the power is very linear from 2000 rpms right up to the redline. The 675LT Spider feels glued to the pavement and I have never had the rear move out of line. Lots of curves and elevation changes both challenge and help highlight the exceptional capabilities of this car. Right foot, fingers, and arms are all constantly in motion as driver, car, and asphalt are in intense discussion as the changing geography serves up constant challenges.
Our latest edition is a 2002 P38 Range Rover. Here's the story behind it:
My dalliance with the idea of owning a Range Rover started back in 2009. It would end up taking three tries on two continents over 13 years before the relationship was finally consummated. It started back when I was in the process of moving to the UK. The “Use Case” at the time was for a “family utility” car capable of transporting 5 adults, multiple suitcases, and whatever large loads needed to be lugged around for a family with multiple teenagers. As the UK was the destination, I naturally started researching Range Rovers as they are the traditional British answer to the use case outlined above. While I quite liked the idea of owning a Range Rover, all the research I did indicated that the ownership experience could be both financially ruinous and similar to one I had with a TVR Griffith a few year prior. Instead, we bought a Porsche Cayenne Turbo which proved to be indestructible.
Roll forward another half dozen years and we were looking for a SUV that we could park up at our place in Montana. Montana winters make a 4WD vehicle a mandatory choice if you want to be driving through the mountains from September thru May. First stop on our SUV shopping trip was to the Dallas Land Rover dealer. As we entered the showroom, right in the middle of the floor was a Yellow Range Rover P38 Vitese Edition. It was in great shape but the dealer wanted an absurd amount of money for a 18 year old SUV with dodgy reliability record. Despite that I did think it would be a very cool thing to have up in Montana and did a bit of work of the practicalities of owning one up there. Turns out the nearest Land Rover dealership was eight hours away and there were no mechanics in the area with any experience working on P38s. Thus, ended that idea, and we ended up buying a Mercedes Benz ML550 SUV instead as there is a Mercedes specialist in the area.
One move and another half decade later, the Range Rover bug reemerged. By this time, we had moved back to New England and settled down on the coast. Range Rovers of all ages are literally a dime a dozen in the area. A friend happens to be a Range Rover fanatic and owns at least a half dozen at any given point in time. He showed up at one event with one of the coolest modified ones I’ve seen named the Beacher. The Beacher is a late Series 1 Range Rover that was saved from the scrap heap and turned into a Barchetta. The roof, rear windows, rear side glass, and upper part of the tailgate were all removed, a full roll cage bolted in, and a removable canvas roof fitted over the roll cage. As a summer beach car, it’s hard to beat and seeing it stoked my interest in possibly acquiring a Range Rover again.
With interest stoked, next step was to define the Use Case (see: Use Case Rule) as I knew this was going to be the first question Mrs. SSO would ask as soon as I floated the idea. To be honest, coming up with one was not easy. Best I could do was it’s the perfect car for taking our two Labrador Retrievers to the beach and boat. Fortunately, she bought into the idea (or more likely just generously decided to indulge me) and I had the green light to seriously start hunting for one. Only criteria is it had to be similar to the bright yellow one we saw in Dallas all those years back. A bit of research narrowed the options down to two special edition Range Rover produced during the Series 2 P38’s 7 year production run. The 1997 Vitese Edition of which 250 were produced and the final year 2002 Borrego Edition of which only 100 were built. From what I can tell the “special editions” are all cosmetic upgrades and there is no real difference in the base mechanicals.
Most 20 plus year old Range Rovers tend to change hands privately. All the cars we have purchased since we moved back to the US from Europe have come through official dealerships, so this was a bit of new territory. My Range Rover enthusiast friend suggest hunting on Facebook Market Place, Craig’s List (he assured me I would most likely not be killed but couldn’t guarantee it), and the various on-line auction sites. In short order, an intriguing candidate was identified, and I put in an offer. This particular “Borrego Edition” P38 was in excellent condition, two long term owners, and by 20 year old Range Rover standards, fairly low mileage at 80k (it is a bit ironic that a 20 year old Range Rover is considered fairly low mileage at under 100k, while a 20 year old Ferrari with that type of mileage would be considered unsaleable. It’s even a bit more daft when you consider that the build quality on a 2002 Ferrari is quite a bit better than on early 21st Century Range Rovers.). Unfortunately, at the same time I made an offer, so did someone else and theirs was the more generous of the two. As quickly as that Range Rover appeared it was gone. Several months went by and a few others came up and either they had far too many “needs” for my taste or were priced outside of the budget I had agreed with Mrs. SSO based on my rather dodgy Use Case. At this point I had basically given up hope and parked the whole Range Rover idea until next spring.
Completely unexpectedly, the original Borrego Edition Range Rover that caught my eye came back on the market. The gentleman who had purchased it back in April had decided to have an end of the season garage clean out and part with a number of his cars. The overall condition of the Range Rover was unchanged, and he had only put about 100 miles on it. We quickly agreed a deal, which turned out to be for a couple of thousand less than my original offer back in April. Arranging shipping from Texas to the northeast took a couple of weeks but the bright yellow financial timebomb finally arrived on our driveway right before Thanksgiving.
irst impressions have been very positive so far, despite Mrs. SSO asking if we could get it painted another color the 1st time she saw it. The Range Rover is in terrific condition for its age. Other than a few minor paint chips, the body looks great with no signs of rust. The interior is in excellent condition and there is not a single warning light illuminated on the dashboard. I have had to replace the battery and the rear tailgate struts are a bit weak but otherwise everything works properly. The driving position takes a bit of getting used to as you are quite high off the ground, especially compared to the other cars I normally drive. The suspension is soft and the brakes aren’t exactly large ceramic but they do work…..if you give them a bit of time. It is quite comfortable though and visibility is outstanding. Most importantly though, our two English Labrador Retrievers do seem to like sitting in the back.
I will be very interested to see how long the big yellow Range Rover lasts in the garage. So far, our ownership experience has gotten off to a good start. My guess is the tenure will be a direct reflection on how reliable it turns out to or not to be. There is something uniquely charming about it, and the dogs do seem to like it. More to come…..
My dalliance with the idea of owning a Range Rover started back in 2009. It would end up taking three tries on two continents over 13 years before the relationship was finally consummated. It started back when I was in the process of moving to the UK. The “Use Case” at the time was for a “family utility” car capable of transporting 5 adults, multiple suitcases, and whatever large loads needed to be lugged around for a family with multiple teenagers. As the UK was the destination, I naturally started researching Range Rovers as they are the traditional British answer to the use case outlined above. While I quite liked the idea of owning a Range Rover, all the research I did indicated that the ownership experience could be both financially ruinous and similar to one I had with a TVR Griffith a few year prior. Instead, we bought a Porsche Cayenne Turbo which proved to be indestructible.
Roll forward another half dozen years and we were looking for a SUV that we could park up at our place in Montana. Montana winters make a 4WD vehicle a mandatory choice if you want to be driving through the mountains from September thru May. First stop on our SUV shopping trip was to the Dallas Land Rover dealer. As we entered the showroom, right in the middle of the floor was a Yellow Range Rover P38 Vitese Edition. It was in great shape but the dealer wanted an absurd amount of money for a 18 year old SUV with dodgy reliability record. Despite that I did think it would be a very cool thing to have up in Montana and did a bit of work of the practicalities of owning one up there. Turns out the nearest Land Rover dealership was eight hours away and there were no mechanics in the area with any experience working on P38s. Thus, ended that idea, and we ended up buying a Mercedes Benz ML550 SUV instead as there is a Mercedes specialist in the area.
One move and another half decade later, the Range Rover bug reemerged. By this time, we had moved back to New England and settled down on the coast. Range Rovers of all ages are literally a dime a dozen in the area. A friend happens to be a Range Rover fanatic and owns at least a half dozen at any given point in time. He showed up at one event with one of the coolest modified ones I’ve seen named the Beacher. The Beacher is a late Series 1 Range Rover that was saved from the scrap heap and turned into a Barchetta. The roof, rear windows, rear side glass, and upper part of the tailgate were all removed, a full roll cage bolted in, and a removable canvas roof fitted over the roll cage. As a summer beach car, it’s hard to beat and seeing it stoked my interest in possibly acquiring a Range Rover again.
With interest stoked, next step was to define the Use Case (see: Use Case Rule) as I knew this was going to be the first question Mrs. SSO would ask as soon as I floated the idea. To be honest, coming up with one was not easy. Best I could do was it’s the perfect car for taking our two Labrador Retrievers to the beach and boat. Fortunately, she bought into the idea (or more likely just generously decided to indulge me) and I had the green light to seriously start hunting for one. Only criteria is it had to be similar to the bright yellow one we saw in Dallas all those years back. A bit of research narrowed the options down to two special edition Range Rover produced during the Series 2 P38’s 7 year production run. The 1997 Vitese Edition of which 250 were produced and the final year 2002 Borrego Edition of which only 100 were built. From what I can tell the “special editions” are all cosmetic upgrades and there is no real difference in the base mechanicals.
Most 20 plus year old Range Rovers tend to change hands privately. All the cars we have purchased since we moved back to the US from Europe have come through official dealerships, so this was a bit of new territory. My Range Rover enthusiast friend suggest hunting on Facebook Market Place, Craig’s List (he assured me I would most likely not be killed but couldn’t guarantee it), and the various on-line auction sites. In short order, an intriguing candidate was identified, and I put in an offer. This particular “Borrego Edition” P38 was in excellent condition, two long term owners, and by 20 year old Range Rover standards, fairly low mileage at 80k (it is a bit ironic that a 20 year old Range Rover is considered fairly low mileage at under 100k, while a 20 year old Ferrari with that type of mileage would be considered unsaleable. It’s even a bit more daft when you consider that the build quality on a 2002 Ferrari is quite a bit better than on early 21st Century Range Rovers.). Unfortunately, at the same time I made an offer, so did someone else and theirs was the more generous of the two. As quickly as that Range Rover appeared it was gone. Several months went by and a few others came up and either they had far too many “needs” for my taste or were priced outside of the budget I had agreed with Mrs. SSO based on my rather dodgy Use Case. At this point I had basically given up hope and parked the whole Range Rover idea until next spring.
Completely unexpectedly, the original Borrego Edition Range Rover that caught my eye came back on the market. The gentleman who had purchased it back in April had decided to have an end of the season garage clean out and part with a number of his cars. The overall condition of the Range Rover was unchanged, and he had only put about 100 miles on it. We quickly agreed a deal, which turned out to be for a couple of thousand less than my original offer back in April. Arranging shipping from Texas to the northeast took a couple of weeks but the bright yellow financial timebomb finally arrived on our driveway right before Thanksgiving.
irst impressions have been very positive so far, despite Mrs. SSO asking if we could get it painted another color the 1st time she saw it. The Range Rover is in terrific condition for its age. Other than a few minor paint chips, the body looks great with no signs of rust. The interior is in excellent condition and there is not a single warning light illuminated on the dashboard. I have had to replace the battery and the rear tailgate struts are a bit weak but otherwise everything works properly. The driving position takes a bit of getting used to as you are quite high off the ground, especially compared to the other cars I normally drive. The suspension is soft and the brakes aren’t exactly large ceramic but they do work…..if you give them a bit of time. It is quite comfortable though and visibility is outstanding. Most importantly though, our two English Labrador Retrievers do seem to like sitting in the back.
I will be very interested to see how long the big yellow Range Rover lasts in the garage. So far, our ownership experience has gotten off to a good start. My guess is the tenure will be a direct reflection on how reliable it turns out to or not to be. There is something uniquely charming about it, and the dogs do seem to like it. More to come…..
SSO said:
Our latest edition is a 2002 P38 Range Rover.
Nice, a chap locally has a 4.6 V8 P38, thing must be half rust but doesn't half sound good burbling away through town 
If you need cheering up, the comments section of this is rather amusing - the P38s definitely live up to the Land Rover stereotype:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...
sinbaddio said:
I had my P38 4.6 V8 for a couple of years. The only issue was the two front airbags (suspension) failed. It was fairly cheap to fix at a local specialist.
'Welcome to the Layer Cake son.'
This one has already be switched over to coils so air suspension is not an issue.'Welcome to the Layer Cake son.'
I do need to find a copy of that movie.
SSO said:
sinbaddio said:
I had my P38 4.6 V8 for a couple of years. The only issue was the two front airbags (suspension) failed. It was fairly cheap to fix at a local specialist.
'Welcome to the Layer Cake son.'
This one has already be switched over to coils so air suspension is not an issue.'Welcome to the Layer Cake son.'
I do need to find a copy of that movie.
Every year I put together a light hearted "Auto Awards List" . Here's the 2022 version:
In putting together what must be the auto universe’s least prestigious awards list, I would like to first acknowledge that I have no real basis to be doing this (that’s better left up to the professional journalists and those that actually work in the automotive sector). Therefore, I’ve taken the liberty to take a different approach that probably only amuses me but does give me a rare opportunity to use my very overpriced and fairly useless education. Please excuse some of the more esoteric references.
The Four Season’s Hospitality Award goes to Lance Stroll, who welcomed Fernando Alonso to the Aston Martin F1 Team by crashing into him at the US GP. Stroll did such a fine job of it that he took himself out of the race but Alonso was able to finish 7th. Given Alonso is known to have one of the longest memories in F1 and doesn’t get mad, he just gets even, 2023 should be an exciting time in the AMR GP garage.
The Pastor Maldonado Award goes to Mick Schumacher. Poor Mick ran up over €3 million in repair bills for damage to his F1 car in the 2022 season. His propensity to run into solid objects cost him his race seat at Haas the end of the season. As a final goodbye to Haas, Schumacher attempted to do a few donuts at the conclusion of the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi and was told to stop by the team as they feared he might bin it. For his troubles, Mick is getting to spend the next year in the Mercedes Benz F1 simulator as their 3rddriver. (On a serious note, I do hope Mick gets another chance. While his last name opens doors and provides opportunities, it also brings with it near impossible expectations.)
The Tobias Moers Hypercar Development Award (Moers is the father of the Mercedes Project One and Stepfather of the Aston Martin Valkyrie) goes to De Tomaso. After making a huge splash at both Goodwood and Pebble Beach with the P72 in 2019, De Tomaso then announced in October 2020 that they were moving all of their operations to the US “to restore the romance, beauty, passion and elegance in the luxury American automotive industry”. Since then, other than posting a video of parts being bolted onto a chassis sitting on a stand in an otherwise empty garage, they seem to have made little progress toward the actual production of customer cars.
The Spruce Goose Award goes to Aston Martin for the Valkyrie. While the Spruce Goose only flew once for 30 seconds, the Valkyries which Aston Martin has delivered to its long suffering depositors haven’t fared much better. Likely the Spruce Goose, most Valkyries seem destined to end up as static displays in museums or garages.
The Isaac Newton 1st Law of Gravity Award goes to Elon Musk and Tesla’s stock price. Elon Musk is the 1stperson in history to lose $200 billion as Telsa’s stock price is down 75% this year. Another year or two like this and Twitter will be Musk’s most valuable asset.
The Dutch Tulipmania Stem goes to EV manufacturer Lucid. Since Lucid hit its post IPO (via a reverse merger with a SPAC) high of $55.21 in November of 2021 before crashing back down to finish 2022 at $6.83. This still leaves Lucid with a market cap of $12.5 bil. If Lucid delivers against its 7,000 vehicles target for 2022, this gives it a market value of $1.8 mil per vehicle produced. As a reference Tesla is currently valued at $278k per vehicle produced.
The US Marshalls Witness Protection Program Cloak goes to Amedeo Felisa. After being appointed CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda in May 2022, he has basically disappeared from the public eye with the exception of turning up on the quarterly earnings calls where he does a great job of not directly answering questions. Given his predecessor’s high (if irrated and grumpy) media profile, the change is quit jarring. Then again, given AML performance, this might just be a smart move on Felisa’s part.
The Drew Bledsoe Award goes to Lewis Hamilton. Back in 2020 Hamilton got Covid and George Russell put in a spectacular drive subbing for him. In 2022, Mercedes signed Russell as their 2nd driver. In his first season with the Mercedes F1, George Russell finished the season fourth in the drivers’ championship to Hamilton’s 6thand Russell scored 275 points to Hamilton’s 240.
Margaret Thatcher Unceremoniously Dumped Trophy goes to Daniel Ricciardo. After two years with McLaren F1, one victory, no poles and a 11th place finish in the Driver’s standings this year, the Honey Badger was dumped by McLaren and has ended up back with Red Bull where he started his career and their reserve driver.
The Neville Chamberlain Award goes to Lawrence Stroll, Executive Chairman of Aston Martin. In February Stroll stated: “Let me be crystal-clear, black-and-white: we do not need money.” Then in July Stroll launched a £653 mil. Equity Raise which should serve to keep the lights on at Aston Martin for at least another year. Stroll’s Feb statement turned out to be about as accurate as British Prime Minister Chamberlain declaring in 1938 that he had secured “Peace for our time”.
The David vs. Goliath Award (also known as the Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady Superbowl Trophy) goes to Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus for its 3rd and 4th place finish at this year’s 24 hrs of Le Mans. They did this on a budget that is probably less than 20% of 1st place finisher Toyota’s.
The Battle of Teutoberg Forest Eagle goes to Mattia Binotto and the Ferrari F1 Team. Like the Roman Legions in the Teutoberg Forest, a series of strategic blunders sunk Ferrari’s F1 Title hopes in 2022 after a strong start to the season.
The Golden Snail goes to McLaren for the Artura. After multiple launch delays going back to the beginning of 2021, it looks like McLaren is finally ready to start customer deliveries of the Artura.
The HRH Princess Anne Metal for Hard Work is awarded to Nico Hülkenberg. Nico is one of the hardest working drivers in F1. He always turns up when needed, puts in a commendable performance, and knows he will never be champion. For his efforts in the last two years, Nico has earned a full time spot back on the F1 grid for the 2023 with Haas.
The Prince Andrew Ribbon can only be given to Nikita Mazepin. Mazepin’s F1 career started with a groping incident and ended due to unsavory relationships. Given that in his brief time on the grid, Mazepin mostly demonstrated a talent for spinning and crashing, its unlikely he will be seen again in F1.
The Coco Chanel “Imitation is the highest form of flattery” Pin goes to Gordon Murray Automotive for the T.33. From the front, the GMA T.33 looks very similar to the long forgotten but occasionally loved Noble M12.
The Henry Ford Learning Opportunity Award goes to Ford. Henry Ford famously said the “the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing,”. In 2022 Ford had a plethora of learning opportunities as they lead the US market with 67 recalls, which was 50% more than #2 Volkswagen.
Julius Ceasar Veni Vidi Vici Award (Latin for I came, I saw, I conquered) goes to Ferrari naturally. With the launch of the Purosangue SUV, Ferrari has completed its dominance of just about every conceivable supercar segment.
The Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder Scroll is given to BMW for the new 7 Series. The huge new front “kidney” grill gives it a smushed in nose look that is even further accentuated by the narrow headlights. It’s the automotive Catfish.
The Jamie Dimon Award for Getting Fired and Moving Up this year goes to Michael Leiters at McLaren. After getting pushed out as Chief Technology Officer at Ferrari by new Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, Leiters landed shortly thereafter as the new CEO at McLaren Automotive. (Jamie Dimon, currently the Chairman & CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was fired by Citibank in 1998. JPMorgan Chase is the largest of the US Big Four Banks and Citibank is the smallest)
In putting together what must be the auto universe’s least prestigious awards list, I would like to first acknowledge that I have no real basis to be doing this (that’s better left up to the professional journalists and those that actually work in the automotive sector). Therefore, I’ve taken the liberty to take a different approach that probably only amuses me but does give me a rare opportunity to use my very overpriced and fairly useless education. Please excuse some of the more esoteric references.
The Four Season’s Hospitality Award goes to Lance Stroll, who welcomed Fernando Alonso to the Aston Martin F1 Team by crashing into him at the US GP. Stroll did such a fine job of it that he took himself out of the race but Alonso was able to finish 7th. Given Alonso is known to have one of the longest memories in F1 and doesn’t get mad, he just gets even, 2023 should be an exciting time in the AMR GP garage.
The Pastor Maldonado Award goes to Mick Schumacher. Poor Mick ran up over €3 million in repair bills for damage to his F1 car in the 2022 season. His propensity to run into solid objects cost him his race seat at Haas the end of the season. As a final goodbye to Haas, Schumacher attempted to do a few donuts at the conclusion of the season’s final race in Abu Dhabi and was told to stop by the team as they feared he might bin it. For his troubles, Mick is getting to spend the next year in the Mercedes Benz F1 simulator as their 3rddriver. (On a serious note, I do hope Mick gets another chance. While his last name opens doors and provides opportunities, it also brings with it near impossible expectations.)
The Tobias Moers Hypercar Development Award (Moers is the father of the Mercedes Project One and Stepfather of the Aston Martin Valkyrie) goes to De Tomaso. After making a huge splash at both Goodwood and Pebble Beach with the P72 in 2019, De Tomaso then announced in October 2020 that they were moving all of their operations to the US “to restore the romance, beauty, passion and elegance in the luxury American automotive industry”. Since then, other than posting a video of parts being bolted onto a chassis sitting on a stand in an otherwise empty garage, they seem to have made little progress toward the actual production of customer cars.
The Spruce Goose Award goes to Aston Martin for the Valkyrie. While the Spruce Goose only flew once for 30 seconds, the Valkyries which Aston Martin has delivered to its long suffering depositors haven’t fared much better. Likely the Spruce Goose, most Valkyries seem destined to end up as static displays in museums or garages.
The Isaac Newton 1st Law of Gravity Award goes to Elon Musk and Tesla’s stock price. Elon Musk is the 1stperson in history to lose $200 billion as Telsa’s stock price is down 75% this year. Another year or two like this and Twitter will be Musk’s most valuable asset.
The Dutch Tulipmania Stem goes to EV manufacturer Lucid. Since Lucid hit its post IPO (via a reverse merger with a SPAC) high of $55.21 in November of 2021 before crashing back down to finish 2022 at $6.83. This still leaves Lucid with a market cap of $12.5 bil. If Lucid delivers against its 7,000 vehicles target for 2022, this gives it a market value of $1.8 mil per vehicle produced. As a reference Tesla is currently valued at $278k per vehicle produced.
The US Marshalls Witness Protection Program Cloak goes to Amedeo Felisa. After being appointed CEO of Aston Martin Lagonda in May 2022, he has basically disappeared from the public eye with the exception of turning up on the quarterly earnings calls where he does a great job of not directly answering questions. Given his predecessor’s high (if irrated and grumpy) media profile, the change is quit jarring. Then again, given AML performance, this might just be a smart move on Felisa’s part.
The Drew Bledsoe Award goes to Lewis Hamilton. Back in 2020 Hamilton got Covid and George Russell put in a spectacular drive subbing for him. In 2022, Mercedes signed Russell as their 2nd driver. In his first season with the Mercedes F1, George Russell finished the season fourth in the drivers’ championship to Hamilton’s 6thand Russell scored 275 points to Hamilton’s 240.
Margaret Thatcher Unceremoniously Dumped Trophy goes to Daniel Ricciardo. After two years with McLaren F1, one victory, no poles and a 11th place finish in the Driver’s standings this year, the Honey Badger was dumped by McLaren and has ended up back with Red Bull where he started his career and their reserve driver.
The Neville Chamberlain Award goes to Lawrence Stroll, Executive Chairman of Aston Martin. In February Stroll stated: “Let me be crystal-clear, black-and-white: we do not need money.” Then in July Stroll launched a £653 mil. Equity Raise which should serve to keep the lights on at Aston Martin for at least another year. Stroll’s Feb statement turned out to be about as accurate as British Prime Minister Chamberlain declaring in 1938 that he had secured “Peace for our time”.
The David vs. Goliath Award (also known as the Eli Manning vs. Tom Brady Superbowl Trophy) goes to Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus for its 3rd and 4th place finish at this year’s 24 hrs of Le Mans. They did this on a budget that is probably less than 20% of 1st place finisher Toyota’s.
The Battle of Teutoberg Forest Eagle goes to Mattia Binotto and the Ferrari F1 Team. Like the Roman Legions in the Teutoberg Forest, a series of strategic blunders sunk Ferrari’s F1 Title hopes in 2022 after a strong start to the season.
The Golden Snail goes to McLaren for the Artura. After multiple launch delays going back to the beginning of 2021, it looks like McLaren is finally ready to start customer deliveries of the Artura.
The HRH Princess Anne Metal for Hard Work is awarded to Nico Hülkenberg. Nico is one of the hardest working drivers in F1. He always turns up when needed, puts in a commendable performance, and knows he will never be champion. For his efforts in the last two years, Nico has earned a full time spot back on the F1 grid for the 2023 with Haas.
The Prince Andrew Ribbon can only be given to Nikita Mazepin. Mazepin’s F1 career started with a groping incident and ended due to unsavory relationships. Given that in his brief time on the grid, Mazepin mostly demonstrated a talent for spinning and crashing, its unlikely he will be seen again in F1.
The Coco Chanel “Imitation is the highest form of flattery” Pin goes to Gordon Murray Automotive for the T.33. From the front, the GMA T.33 looks very similar to the long forgotten but occasionally loved Noble M12.
The Henry Ford Learning Opportunity Award goes to Ford. Henry Ford famously said the “the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing,”. In 2022 Ford had a plethora of learning opportunities as they lead the US market with 67 recalls, which was 50% more than #2 Volkswagen.
Julius Ceasar Veni Vidi Vici Award (Latin for I came, I saw, I conquered) goes to Ferrari naturally. With the launch of the Purosangue SUV, Ferrari has completed its dominance of just about every conceivable supercar segment.
The Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder Scroll is given to BMW for the new 7 Series. The huge new front “kidney” grill gives it a smushed in nose look that is even further accentuated by the narrow headlights. It’s the automotive Catfish.
The Jamie Dimon Award for Getting Fired and Moving Up this year goes to Michael Leiters at McLaren. After getting pushed out as Chief Technology Officer at Ferrari by new Ferrari CEO Benedetto Vigna, Leiters landed shortly thereafter as the new CEO at McLaren Automotive. (Jamie Dimon, currently the Chairman & CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was fired by Citibank in 1998. JPMorgan Chase is the largest of the US Big Four Banks and Citibank is the smallest)
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