Not sure why, but the 964 variant of the 911 has been a particular favourite of ours.

Perhaps it’s because we like the underdog. And the glorious history of Zuffenhausen-wrought auto loveliness this is probably the designation of the totemic brand that is least loved by the rank and file.

According to many it has a myriad of faults in the mechanics — the height of which was the acknowledged fact that in the earlier (pre 1991) models, they were fitted without a head gasket. This bright idea backfired, apparently, when heat caused the engine seals to warp and oil weeped out liberally.

There are loads of other myths, legends and scare-stories about these 911s — but for us they are all transcended by the classic bug-eyed steez.

After the 964 the 993 came along — with that slightly rounded out form (still lovely, particularly the Turbo)- but in the name of progress 911s, in our honest opinion, haven’t been quite as ‘911-ish’ since.

The video below is the perfect illustration of how that original profile is retained in the 964 — even alongside a seventies classic.

And what’s more — they are relatively affordable. The perfect entry level automotive icon.

video via Flappy Paddle Heads

Click here to view the embedded video.

You wouldn’t have thought that this sort of thing existed.

he film has got to be at least fifty years old and yet the camera is spookily steady. The great Juan Miguel Fangio handles the beastly, thin-booted Maserati on the rough surfaces of an Italian aerodrome like the god that he is supposed to have been.

Sometimes you just have to stare in awe.

Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s been a lot of nonsense written and spoken about the world of extreme sports. Laden with the image of the bugged out adultescents redolent of the marketing campaigns for energy drinks, baggy b-boy denim and the idiotic language of dudish, the mainstream world unsurprisingly sneers at much of surf and skateboard culture. But in Ken Block, the petrolhead community has the most credible of crossovers.

Block, one of the founders of giant skate shoe company DC shoes, and has competed as a skateboarders, a snowboarder as well as a motocross rider. But after DC was bought out by even bigger surf brand Quiksilver in 2004, Ken decided to go racing full time.

Right from the start, it was apparent that block was the real deal. Not only is he a brilliant precision driver, his hard-won skinny on the yoof marketing racket has created a groundbreaking set of youtube block-busters (no pun intended), that has set the revhead world alight.

Props go out to the technical quality of this, the second instalment of the Gymkhana series, as well as our Ken’s preternatural dexterity behind the wheel. Super technical skate videos are difficult enough to put together, with endless takes required to make the subjects look like superheroes.

Who knows how long it took to put this balletic beauty on the WWW?

In terms of marketing, cars are not quite as much of a blank page as soft drinks. They have corporeal presence. They stick around – sometimes for decades. Over the span of their useful lives, they come to occupy the popular consciousness perennially as pop music and vocal affectations of news anchormen. But despite their non-negotiable presence and impermeable reality, the marketing of a brand and the models within its range are forever fluid. What a certain make of car comes to represent in one era will almost certainly be transformed within the lifetime of a single vehicle. When you cross continents, the complexity gets deeper. Witness for example, this ad for the Volvo Amazon from America in the early 1960s.

In its casual misogyny the ad is something that Don Draper and his acolytes on Madison Avenue would have been more than proud of. All that talk of women being automotively challenged whilst domineering their husbands’ finance and aspiring ultimately to the lofty heights of furniture and fur coat aquistion. The thought that that sort of aesthetic could sell Volvos is hard to get your head around. Particularly in light of this recent French TV ad for the C30.

The whole ethos of the campaign is fragrant with a colourful, pre-credit crunch frivolity and inclusiveness. But those days are over. Open any magazine or switch on any TV for the next year or so and the car ads you do see will be reeking of worthiness and screaming about engineering solutions to environmental problems. Look closely. There’s not much frivolity out there. The current trend, rather, is exemplified by the 2009 campaign for Audi A4. Progress is beauty. It’s basically a subtle evolution of the classic strap “Vorsprung Durch Technik”. We couldn’t agree more.

The cars we drive often say as much about our class as they do about our personality. We took a look at three undeniable classics that captured the essence of a particular class in their own times.

British through and through, the Ford Escort Mk1 RS Mexico, Lotus Esprit S2 and Aston Martin V8 Vantage all evoke the spirit of their times. But even looking at them, you get a true sense of their sensibilities, from the Escorts hard-working pride to the Esprit’s self-made affluence and the Aston’s effortless and cultured elegance. We had more great photos than we could possibly fit into the mag, so here are some more:

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We also went behind the scenes with our camera and camcorder and captured some great shots.

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If you thought the Swiss were only good for watches and triangular chocolate, then you might want to brace yourself before you take a look at the Grueter & Gut Quadster.

This quad bike is, unbelievably, completely street legal, despite the fact that its top speed is 145mph and it will out-accelerate many sports cars. Powered by the engine from a BMW K1200S bike, the precision engineering and race spec parts help it live up to its £35,000 price tag, but the result may well be the ultimate quad.

Here’s the video we took making the article for the magazine, along with the photos that we didn’t have space for and some behind the scenes shots.

These photos are shown in tribute to Simon Dodd, the photographer, whose tragic death was a great shock to us all. Our thoughts and prayers are with Simon’s family and friends at this difficult time.
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