BESPOKE MOTOR CARS

There is a considerable difference between building a car that looks like a pre-war Bugatti and understanding one well enough to recreate it.

The familiar horseshoe radiator, exposed wheels and beautifully proportioned bodywork may define the silhouette, but much of the character lies beneath.

How the chassis is constructed. How the mechanical components interact. The dimensions, materials and engineering decisions that determine not simply how the finished car appears, but how it behaves.

For Blaydon Engineering, understanding those details has become the work of three decades.

Specialising in recreations of the Bugatti Type 35, Type 51 and Type 55, the company has developed the technical knowledge, machinery and tooling required to manufacture complete motor cars around some of Molsheim's most celebrated designs.

Three cars, one remarkable lineage

Few motor cars represent the engineering ambition of the 1920s quite like the Bugatti Type 35.

Introduced in 1924, its combination of elegance and competition engineering created one of the defining shapes of the pre-war era. Its success in motorsport would make the Type 35 and its derivatives inseparable from the Bugatti story.

The Type 51 carried that philosophy into the following decade, retaining the unmistakable visual identity while introducing further mechanical development.

Then came the Type 55.

Here, competition-derived engineering was combined with the elegance of a high-performance road car, creating something altogether different in character while remaining unmistakably Bugatti.

It is around these three models that Blaydon Engineering has concentrated its expertise.

Rather than producing cars merely influenced by them, the company has developed complete recreations of the Type 35, Type 51 and Type 55, working from the technical information and dimensions associated with the original cars.

That distinction becomes important when the objective is not simply to reproduce a shape.

Beyond the silhouette

A convincing recreation begins long before the bodywork is fitted.

Blaydon Engineering says it possesses the technical data required to manufacture its cars, together with the machinery, dies, moulds and tooling developed during its years of production.

It represents a considerable accumulation of specialist knowledge.

Producing components repeatedly and accurately requires more than drawings. Tooling has to be created, manufacturing processes established and an understanding developed of how individual components relate to the finished motor car.

The result is an approach concerned with the complete machine.

Proportion matters, certainly. But so does mechanical configuration, construction and the numerous details that determine whether a recreation captures something of the original car's character.

It is an increasingly unusual form of automotive manufacture.

Modern low-volume cars can draw upon digital modelling, CNC machining, composite construction and contemporary production techniques. Recreating machinery conceived almost a century ago presents an entirely different set of considerations.

Some of the solutions belong to another period of engineering altogether.

Preserving the ability to understand and reproduce them therefore becomes part of the story.

Built to be driven

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of a recreation is what happens once construction is complete.

An original competition Bugatti can now be historically and financially significant. Its continued use can consequently involve considerations that simply did not exist when these cars were new.

A faithfully constructed recreation offers a different proposition.

It can provide an opportunity to experience the layout, proportions and mechanical character of an important pre-war design without pretending to possess the history of an original car.

That distinction is important.

A recreation has its own identity and provenance. Its significance lies not in replacing the original, but in the engineering knowledge required to reproduce something of the experience.

Blaydon's cars have consequently been built with use firmly in mind.

Examples of its Bugatti recreations have appeared within the European historic motoring community, including cars subsequently used on rallies and driving events.

That is perhaps where such machinery makes the greatest sense.

These are cars whose inspiration came from an era when competition and road use were closely connected, and when mechanical interaction formed an enormous part of the driving experience.

They were never conceived simply to be observed.

Keeping old knowledge in use

There is another side to recreating historic machinery that is easily overlooked.

Every time a component has to be manufactured, an old piece of engineering has to be understood.

Dimensions have to be established. Materials considered. Tooling retained. Manufacturing processes repeated.

Knowledge that might otherwise exist only within drawings, archives or surviving original cars remains part of an active workshop.

After some 30 years in the European market, Blaydon Engineering has accumulated that knowledge around a particularly distinctive chapter of Bugatti history.

The Type 35, Type 51 and Type 55 each represent a different interpretation of the same underlying philosophy, spanning competition machinery and some of the most charismatic high-performance road cars of their period.s

Recreating them cannot recreate their history.

But it can preserve something else: an understanding of how such machines were constructed, how their engineering worked and why, a century later, they remain so compelling.

It is this combination of specialist manufacturing capability, historical engineering knowledge and three decades of experience that makes Blaydon Engineering a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Blaydon Engineering

Argentina

E: blaydon-eng@live.com.ar

Instagram: blaydon.engineering

Improving an E-Type is relatively easy. Improving one without losing the qualities that made it an E-Type in the first place is considerably harder, and that distinction has occupied Eagle for more than four decades.

Founded in 1984 by Henry Pearman, the Sussex company has devoted itself to one model with an intensity that has made the Eagle name almost inseparable from the Jaguar E-Type. Henry's relationship with the car began long before Eagle became internationally recognised. Having trained with a Rolls-Royce and Bentley restoration specialist, he chose instead to concentrate on the Jaguar that had captured his imagination.

Competition strengthened that relationship. In 1989, Pearman won the Pirelli Classic Marathon outright in an E-Type, ahead of competitors including Stirling Moss and Paddy Hopkirk. It demonstrated what the car could achieve when properly developed, while reinforcing something that would become central to Eagle's philosophy: the E-Type did not need reinventing, it needed understanding.

That thinking has subsequently produced everything from meticulously prepared original cars to Eagle's own interpretations of what the E-Type can become when restoration, engineering and design are allowed to evolve together.

The car that started something

The decisive moment came in 1991, when author John McLaren approached Eagle with a problem familiar to many classic-car owners. He loved his E-Type when everything was working correctly, but could not depend upon it to provide that experience consistently. His everyday alternative was a Nissan Skyline GT-R — fast, sophisticated and reliable — yet it could not replicate the involvement of the Jaguar.

The brief he brought to Eagle was deceptively simple. He wanted an E-Type capable of commuting through a city or crossing Europe at speed without surrendering the qualities that made him want to drive one in the first place.

The resulting car became Eagle E-Type Number One. When it was subsequently displayed at a classic-car show, four further commissions followed and a new direction for the company began to emerge.

Rather than treating restoration solely as an exercise in returning an E-Type to the condition in which it left Browns Lane, Eagle began exploring how the original could be made more dependable, capable and rewarding for contemporary use. The changes were never intended to disguise the age of the car; they were intended to remove the reasons an owner might choose not to use it.

Braking, handling, cooling, reliability, comfort and performance could all be reconsidered, but always within the character established by Jaguar's original engineering. The fundamental experience still needed to belong to the E-Type.

More than 70 numbered Eagle E-Types have since been completed for clients around the world, each beginning with an original Jaguar and requiring more than 4,000 hours of work. The result is considerably more involved than a conventional restoration, yet the philosophy established by that first commission remains recognisable.

Make the E-Type easier to use, rather than turning it into something else.

Evolution rather than replacement

Years spent improving one motor car inevitably generate ideas, and at Eagle some of those ideas eventually moved beyond the numbered E-Type restorations into a series of increasingly distinctive Special Editions.

The Speedster became the most immediately recognisable. Its origins can be traced to an aluminium-bodied development project begun in 1998. When Eagle client Dr Rick Velaj saw the unfinished concept in 2002, he was intrigued by the idea but wanted an open car. Paul Brace, today Eagle's Managing Director and the figure responsible for much of the company's technical and design development, transformed that request into the first Eagle Speedster.

It demonstrated how far the E-Type could evolve while remaining visually and emotionally connected to Malcolm Sayer's original design.

The Low Drag GT subsequently explored another direction. Inspired by Jaguar's unique Low Drag Coupé, EC1001, it interpreted the aerodynamic competition concept as a long-distance road car, combining increased performance with the ability to cross countries in comfort. The Spyder GT brought elements of the Speedster and Low Drag GT together, while the Lightweight GT and more competition-focused Lightweight GTR developed the performance side of the E-Type still further.

Despite their differences, the principle behind these cars remains important. Each Special Edition begins with an original E-Type rather than a newly manufactured platform designed to resemble one.

For Eagle, that distinction is fundamental. The objective is to develop the analogue experience rather than replace it with contemporary refinement. More power, stronger brakes, improved suspension and cooling, air conditioning and a five-speed gearbox can fundamentally change how usable an E-Type becomes, particularly for an owner intending to cover meaningful distances.

The difficulty lies in deciding how much improvement is enough.

Modern engineering can make an old car objectively better in almost every measurable area, but those improvements become questionable if the resulting machine loses the steering feel, mechanical involvement and character that encouraged somebody to want an E-Type in the first place.

Eagle's Special Editions demonstrate how far those boundaries can be explored while keeping the original car at the centre of the experience.

One car, understood deeply

Perhaps the clearest explanation of Eagle is found not in any single Special Edition, but in the breadth of knowledge accumulated from concentrating on the same motor car for more than four decades.

The company has its own paint shop, fabrication facilities and extensive parts operation in Sussex, while continuing to service and support the cars it has supplied. Original E-Types remain an important part of the business too, with Eagle buying, selling and preparing standard examples for clients who may have no desire for a complete numbered restoration or Special Edition.

That breadth matters because not every E-Type requires the same answer. An exceptionally original example may deserve preservation, another may require comprehensive restoration, while a car that has simply accumulated the effects of six decades of use may need its weaknesses properly addressed before its owner discovers just how good the underlying E-Type remains.

Knowing which approach is appropriate requires judgement, and that judgement is difficult to acquire quickly.

Since 1984, Eagle has effectively been conducting one continuous study of the E-Type, driving it, racing it, restoring it, repairing it and gradually establishing where carefully considered changes can enhance the experience without overwhelming it.

The resulting cars can be faster, more dependable and substantially more capable than the Jaguars from which they began, but their purpose remains remarkably traditional. They are intended to be driven, whether that means a Sunday morning on familiar roads or crossing Europe over several days.

That perhaps explains Eagle's position within the E-Type world better than specifications, performance figures or restoration hours ever could. The company has spent more than four decades answering essentially the same question posed by John McLaren's original commission in 1991: how do you make an E-Type easier to live with without taking away the reasons somebody fell in love with it?

Eagle's answer has been developed gradually, one car at a time, and it is this singular understanding of the E-Type, combined with the confidence to evolve it without sacrificing its essential character, that makes Eagle E-Types a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Eagle E-Types
Sussex, England
+44 (0)1825 830 966

There is something unmistakable about a great vintage Bentley. The scale, mechanical presence and sense of purpose belong to an era when these motor cars were expected to cover enormous distances, compete at speed and withstand demands that helped establish Bentley's reputation for endurance.

It is this character that sits at the centre of Petersen Engineering. From its base in Devon, the company has developed a distinctive place within the vintage Bentley world, restoring and rebuilding original cars while also creating its celebrated bespoke Petersen motor cars. Traditional coachbuilding, mechanical engineering and an intimate knowledge of pre-war Bentley construction come together in cars that respect their period origins without becoming museum pieces.

Supporting this work is the ability to manufacture specialist components and supply parts for original Bentleys, something increasingly important as cars approaching a century old continue to be driven, maintained and enjoyed. Together, these different capabilities allow Petersen Engineering to support vintage Bentley ownership from individual components and mechanical work through to complete restorations and individually commissioned motor cars.

Creating a Petersen

The bespoke Petersen cars are perhaps the clearest expression of the company's philosophy. Inspired by the great sporting and competition Bentleys of the 1920s and 1930s, they are not conceived simply as replicas of individual historic cars. Instead, each is approached as a motor car in its own right, drawing upon period design, traditional construction and the imposing proportions associated with Bentley's pre-war years.

Coachwork plays an essential role because the visual character of a vintage Bentley is determined by far more than its basic dimensions. Body proportions, seating position, materials, detailing and the relationship between the coachwork and the substantial mechanical architecture beneath it all contribute to whether the finished car feels convincing.

Petersen Engineering combines these traditional considerations with carefully judged mechanical development. Where appropriate, engineering can be adapted to make a car more usable in contemporary conditions, but without disguising the experience beneath layers of modern refinement. The intention is quite the opposite: a Petersen should still feel mechanical, physical and unmistakably connected to the era that inspired it.

Because each car is individually constructed, the relationship with its owner can begin long before the first journey. Specification, coachwork, materials and the intended character of the finished car can all become part of the build itself, creating something individual while remaining firmly rooted in the traditions of the vintage Bentley.

A century of engineering to understand

Working with original vintage Bentleys presents a different responsibility. These are machines that have accumulated histories measured not merely in years but generations, with some remaining remarkably intact while others have competed, travelled extensively, been rebuilt repeatedly or adapted according to the priorities of previous owners.

Restoration therefore begins with understanding what remains. Original construction methods, materials and mechanical specification provide the reference points, while decades of practical experience help determine what should be preserved, repaired or recreated. On a motor car approaching a century old, those decisions can be every bit as important as the craftsmanship that follows them.

The diminishing availability of original components makes Petersen Engineering's manufacturing capability especially valuable. When a required part can no longer be sourced, the ability to reproduce specialist components means an original car need not be compromised simply because the supply chain disappeared decades ago.

That knowledge supports everything from complete restoration and mechanical rebuilding to ongoing maintenance and parts supply, helping keep original vintage Bentleys operational rather than reducing them to static pieces of history. For cars whose identities were established through use, maintaining that capability is an important part of preserving what they represent.

Made for the journey

Perhaps the most important aspect of Petersen Engineering's work is that the finished cars have a purpose beyond the workshop. A vintage Bentley makes considerably more sense on an open road than beneath a cover, particularly when these were motor cars associated from the beginning with endurance, competition and long-distance motoring.

The Petersen philosophy retains that sense of usability. Mechanical preparation is considered in the context of what the owner actually intends to do with the car, with reliability, drivability and durability remaining important because significant mileage, tours and events should continue to form part of the experience.

The same thinking applies whether the company is caring for an original Bentley or completing one of its own bespoke creations. Historical character is respected, traditional craftsmanship remains visible and engineering is used to make the car more enjoyable rather than simply more modern.

In that sense, Petersen Engineering is doing more than preserving vintage Bentleys. Its restoration work helps original cars continue the lives they have already led, while its bespoke motor cars carry the character and traditions of pre-war Bentley motoring into something individually created for a new owner.

Both depend upon the same understanding of what makes these machines special: substantial engineering, traditional craftsmanship and the expectation that a great motor car should still be capable of undertaking a serious journey.

That ability to combine the atmosphere of pre-war motoring with traditional coachbuilding and engineering intended for genuine use is what makes Petersen Engineering a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Petersen Engineering
Devon, England
+44 (0)7977 342711

There is a particular advantage to racing the cars you restore: weaknesses reveal themselves quickly.

Components that appear perfectly adequate on the road are subjected to different forces, temperatures and loads, while suspension geometry becomes something experienced rather than calculated in isolation. Weight matters, braking matters and reliability matters, and when the same people responsible for developing the car are also the ones driving it, there is nowhere for shortcomings to hide.

That relationship between restoration, competition and continual development sits at the heart of Alfaholics. The Banks family's involvement with Alfa Romeo's 105 Series stretches back to 1978, when Richard and Diana Banks bought a 2000 GTV and what began as enthusiasm gradually became considerably more serious.

By 1984, Richard's restorations were winning Alfa Romeo Owners Club concours awards. His sons Andrew and Max grew up around the cars and subsequently took the family's involvement in another direction, combining restoration knowledge with historic motorsport and an increasingly sophisticated programme of component development.

Today, from its base in Clevedon near Bristol, Alfaholics has become internationally associated with the Alfa Romeo 105 Series. Restoration remains fundamental, but so does discovering what happens when you make one lighter, stronger, faster and more precise — and then take it racing.

The circuit as a test bench

Competition has been central to the development of Alfaholics for decades. The company's GTA-R 001 became an important part of that process, competing successfully in historic racing while allowing Andrew and Max to develop ideas under conditions considerably more demanding than normal road use.

In 2005, the brothers entered the Spa Six Hours for the first time and won their class, finishing seventh overall from a field of 91 cars. Development continued as different suspension geometries, spring and damper combinations, drivetrain configurations and engine specifications could be evaluated in an environment where their effects became immediately apparent.

That experience eventually contributed to two U2TC championship victories, the first in 2017 and another in 2022, before Alfaholics added the Peter Auto Classic Touring Car Championship in 2024. Yet the significance of racing extends beyond trophies because competition provides something equally valuable to a specialist developing road and competition cars: information.

What survives repeated laps, kerbs, braking zones and sustained high engine speeds can inform the components fitted to a fast road car, although something designed for competition may require further refinement before it belongs on a car expected to cross Europe comfortably. That distinction is important because Alfaholics has never simply turned its road cars into disguised racers. Instead, racing has provided the engineering knowledge from which different solutions can be developed according to how a particular car will actually be used.

The result is a continual feedback loop between circuit, workshop and road, with competition exposing weaknesses, engineering providing solutions and subsequent testing establishing whether those solutions genuinely improve the car.

From 105 Series to GTA-R

The clearest expression of that process is the GTA-R. Each begins with an original Alfa Romeo 105 Series GT before undergoing more than 3,500 hours of work, with the objective neither to recreate a factory GTA nor disguise modern machinery beneath a classic body.

Instead, Alfaholics takes the characteristics already present in the Bertone coupé — lightness, balance, steering response, compact dimensions and the willingness of an Alfa engine to rev — and develops them considerably further. A contemporary GTA-R can incorporate a 2.1-litre Twin Spark producing around 240bhp, electronic engine management, extensively developed transmissions and braking systems, carbon-fibre panels and titanium suspension components.

Weight reduction is pursued throughout the car, but the choice of materials is driven by what they contribute rather than simply their technical sophistication. In the GTA-R 290 programme, titanium suspension and axle components, lightweight glazing and carbon-fibre body panels are employed because reducing mass, particularly unsprung mass, changes the way the car accelerates, brakes, changes direction and responds to the road beneath it.

That thinking has evolved over more than twenty years of GTA-R development, including extensive testing at the Nürburgring Nordschleife, Silverstone and on demanding Welsh roads. The engineering continues to move forward, and cars built years earlier can return to Clevedon to incorporate later developments, meaning a GTA-R is not necessarily frozen at the specification in which it was originally completed.

Yet outright numbers tell only part of the story because the more difficult task is deciding how far to go. A 105 Series Alfa possesses delicacy partly because it comes from another era, and adding too much tyre, assistance, refinement or performance risks removing the very qualities being enhanced.

Alfaholics' challenge is therefore not simply extracting more from the platform, but understanding where development should stop. Knowing what to improve matters, but so does knowing what to leave alone.

More than one interpretation

Not every Alfa Romeo arriving at Clevedon needs to become a GTA-R, and that breadth is important to understanding the business. Alfaholics undertakes complete restorations where originality rather than modification is the priority, including significant Autodelta competition cars for which period accuracy can require detailed historical research.

Its archive of period photography can be used to establish details such as competition liveries, while original magnesium components can undergo X-ray crack testing to determine whether they remain structurally suitable for continued use. In this part of the workshop, the objective is very different from developing a GTA-R, but it draws upon the same depth of understanding accumulated through decades spent working with the same family of cars.

Other owners want something between preservation and a full GTA-R. The Remastered programme allows a 105 Series to be completely rebuilt using Alfaholics-R components, while individual upgrades can address specific areas of an existing car without fundamentally changing its character. The Super-R applies the company's thinking to the 105 Series saloon, while the Spider-R extends it to open Alfa Romeos from the 101 and 105 families.

Underlying all of these programmes is another substantial part of Alfaholics: parts. Components developed through racing and the GTA-R programme are available independently, allowing owners and other specialists around the world to incorporate aspects of the company's engineering without commissioning a complete car.

It completes the relationship that has shaped Alfaholics over more than four decades. Restoration provides an understanding of how Alfa Romeo originally built the 105 Series, racing exposes where improvements can be made and engineering turns those lessons into components, before road and track testing establish whether they actually work. What is learned then feeds into the next car, component or development.

More than four decades after Richard and Diana Banks bought that first 2000 GTV, the same family remains absorbed by essentially the same group of Alfa Romeos. What has changed is the depth of knowledge accumulated around them and the ability to apply that understanding in very different ways, from historically accurate restoration to some of the most comprehensively developed 105 Series cars in existence.

That combination of restoration knowledge, competition experience and continual development is what makes Alfaholics a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Alfaholics
North Somerset, England
+44 (0)1275 349 449

The original Lotus Elise arrived at a time when performance cars were already becoming faster, heavier and more complicated, yet its answer was remarkably simple. Keep the car small, keep it light and allow the driver to feel as much as possible of what was happening beneath them.

Its bonded aluminium chassis, compact dimensions and modest power produced a driving experience that relied upon reducing mass rather than overcoming it. There was little separating the driver from the steering, chassis and road, and relatively little technology attempting to interpret the experience on their behalf.

Almost three decades later, those qualities have become increasingly difficult to find in a new performance car, which helps explain the territory occupied by Analogue Automotive.

Based in Fernhurst, West Sussex, the company takes the principles that made the early Elise so distinctive and explores how far they can be developed without losing the delicacy at the heart of the original. Modern materials and engineering have a role, but technology is not introduced simply because it is available. Weight, response, chassis behaviour and mechanical involvement remain the reference points.

In an era of increasingly powerful and complex performance machinery, Analogue has chosen to investigate how much can still be achieved by keeping things light.

Finding more in less

The Analogue SuperSport provides perhaps the clearest expression of that thinking. Inspired by the Series 1 Lotus Elise, the process begins with a comprehensive restoration of the original chassis before attention turns to reducing weight and improving the way the car responds.

A rebuilt and uprated 1.8-litre Rover K-Series produces 200bhp, driving through a five-speed close-ratio transmission and Quaife differential. Suspension geometry is reworked, lightweight components are introduced throughout the chassis and AP braking hardware provides additional capability, creating a specification in which the individual changes are intended to work together rather than simply produce a more impressive set of numbers.

Perhaps the most significant figure is the finished weight of 699kg.

With relatively little mass to accelerate, brake or change direction, the SuperSport has no requirement for the enormous power outputs now commonplace in modern performance cars. Analogue quotes 0–62mph in 4.5 seconds, but outright acceleration explains only part of what the car is intended to achieve. The greater emphasis is placed on response, steering communication and a chassis whose behaviour can be understood and influenced by the person behind the wheel.

That approach also means the original Elise remains recognisable beneath the development. Increasing power, grip and braking capability would be relatively straightforward; doing so while retaining the balance and delicacy that made the Series 1 distinctive requires considerably more judgement.

Analogue is therefore refining the original philosophy rather than attempting to replace it. The Elise provides the architecture, but its fundamental qualities also establish the boundaries within which the development takes place.

Engineering around the driver

The VHPK takes those principles in a considerably more ambitious direction, demonstrating what happens when Analogue's interpretation of the lightweight sports car is allowed to move beyond the established configuration of the Elise.

Central to the project is a driving position placed in the middle of the car, combined with carbon-fibre bodywork and an extensive programme of re-engineering. A central seat is normally associated with machinery occupying a very different part of the performance-car world, yet within the VHPK it supports the same philosophy that underpins Analogue's other work: placing the driver as close as possible to the centre of the experience.

The significance of the VHPK is therefore broader than its unusual seating position. Where the SuperSport explores how far the qualities of the Series 1 Elise can be distilled and developed, the VHPK asks how those same principles might provide the foundation for something more individual.

Both approaches remain centred upon how engineering decisions are experienced from behind the wheel. Weight reduction influences acceleration, braking and direction changes simultaneously, while suspension geometry, seating position, controls and drivetrain response all contribute to the way the driver understands what the car is doing.

Personalisation follows a similar approach. Through Analogue Special Operations, clients can move beyond the standard specification into bespoke materials, finishes and individual details, allowing each car to acquire its own character without changing the fundamental purpose behind it.

The result is a form of bespoke engineering in which individuality does not have to mean greater complexity. The specification can change, but the relationship between low mass, mechanical response and driver involvement remains constant.

Keeping the analogue experience alive

There is an interesting contradiction within the modern performance-car industry. Engineering capability has never been greater, yet many of the qualities enthusiasts increasingly seek — low weight, compact dimensions, manual controls and unfiltered feedback — have become progressively harder to obtain.

Analogue Automotive occupies that space deliberately. Its cars benefit from modern materials, manufacturing techniques and chassis development, but those capabilities are used to strengthen the fundamental driving experience rather than overwhelm it.

That distinction is particularly important with a car such as the Elise. Re-engineering one could easily become an exercise in adding power, grip and refinement until the qualities that made the original remarkable gradually disappear. Analogue instead concentrates on the areas that reinforce the connection between car and driver, comprehensively addressing suspension, brakes, drivetrain and interior while keeping weight and mechanical simplicity at the centre of the project.

The SuperSport's restored chassis is documented and guaranteed for a further five years, reflecting the depth of work taking place beneath a car whose finished appearance may initially seem familiar. Much of the development becomes apparent only when the car is driven, where reduced mass and carefully considered mechanical changes influence almost every part of the experience.

It reflects a broader idea about what makes a performance car memorable. Speed matters, but so does the way it is delivered. Steering feel, mass, the movement of the chassis and the effort required from the driver can be just as important as outright acceleration, particularly in a sports car whose original reputation was built around precisely those qualities.

Analogue Automotive has made those principles its starting point rather than treating them as limitations to be engineered away. Whether distilling the Series 1 Elise through the SuperSport or exploring the more radical central-seat VHPK, the company is demonstrating how traditional ideas about lightweight sports cars can continue to evolve without simply reproducing the past.

The technology available to build a faster car has changed enormously since the original Elise appeared. The appeal of something light, responsive and involving has proved rather more enduring.

It is this commitment to low weight, focused engineering and genuine driver involvement that makes Analogue Automotive a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Analogue Automotive
West Sussex, England
+44 (0)1730 892220

The Porsche 911 has been restored, modified, raced and reinterpreted in almost every imaginable way. After more than sixty years, creating another one is easy. Creating one that feels genuinely personal is rather more difficult.

From Ermelo in the Netherlands, Rico builds bespoke air-cooled 911s with a distinctly individual character. Complete restorations sit alongside more assertive outlaw builds, but there is no single specification that defines what a Rico Customs Porsche must be. The company's own description is telling: Porsche provided the silhouette; what happens next is a collaboration between Rico and the client.

Look through the completed projects and the individuality is immediately apparent. These are recognisably classic 911s, but colour, stance, materials and detailing give each a personality of its own.

It starts with an air-cooled 911

The appeal of the air-cooled 911 is partly its familiarity.

Very few cars can be identified so quickly from a roofline or side profile, and that continuity creates an interesting challenge for anyone attempting to reinterpret one. Change too much and the character disappears. Change too little and there is little reason for the project to exist.

Rico Customs works within those boundaries rather than trying to escape them.

The starting point can be a car requiring complete restoration before its transformation begins. One documented build, RC.04, started with a 3.2 Carrera donor and progressed through paint before returning to the workshop for its rebuild and detailing.

From there, the eventual character is shaped through the combination of bodywork, wheels, stance, interior and mechanical specification.

Rico's growing sequence of individually numbered RC projects also gives the cars a sense of continuity without turning them into replicas of one another. RC.00, RC.01, RC.02 and the projects that followed belong recognisably to the same family, yet each commission has been allowed to develop its own identity.

That is an important distinction. The attraction is not ordering the Rico Customs 911. It is creating your Rico Customs 911.

Colour changes everything

Perhaps the most enjoyable aspect of Rico's work is its willingness to use colour and materials confidently.

Classic Porsche culture can sometimes become intensely concerned with correctness — the right factory colour, the right wheel, the right stitching and the precise specification associated with a particular year.

Rico Customs operates with considerably more freedom.

The company openly talks about its fascination with colour and detail, extending from distinctive paint choices to stitching, upholstery and smaller finishing elements. Premium materials are used to create cars that reflect both the client's preferences and the recognisable style of the RC brand.

That approach gives the interiors particular importance.

A bespoke cabin can completely change the atmosphere of a familiar 911. Colour, texture and relatively small details can make a car feel purposeful, elegant, period influenced or deliberately unconventional without requiring the basic architecture to be reinvented.

The exterior works in much the same way. Wheel choice and ride height can alter the character of a 911 dramatically before any larger changes are considered.

None of these decisions exists entirely on its own. The successful cars are those where the details make sense together.

Built to have a personality

Rico Customs belongs to a particularly interesting generation of specialist Porsche builders.

The air-cooled 911 is now an important collector car in its own right, yet its mechanical simplicity and extraordinary adaptability continue to encourage owners to make these cars their own.

Rico embraces that idea rather than treating originality as the only possible objective.

Its projects are intended for clients who want the unmistakable shape and mechanical character of a classic Porsche but do not necessarily want a car dictated by the specification in which it originally left Stuttgart.

That freedom is where Rico Customs finds its identity.

There is craftsmanship in the restoration, thought in the mechanical specification and considerable attention in the details, but the finished car is not intended to disappear into a concours field of factory-correct examples.

It is supposed to stand out.

And perhaps that is why the approach works particularly well with the 911. Few automotive shapes provide such a recognisable foundation upon which individual taste can be expressed.

Rico Customs takes that foundation and gives the owner permission to do something personal with it — from restrained details to a full outlaw transformation.

In a part of the industry increasingly populated by highly engineered interpretations of the Porsche 911, Rico Customs offers something slightly different: cars whose defining specification begins with the personality of the person commissioning them.

It is this combination of air-cooled Porsche restoration, bespoke craftsmanship and unapologetic individuality that makes Rico Customs a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Rico Customs
Ermelo, Netherlands
+31 6 53455113

Lanzante's reputation was forged in motorsport, but the company it has become today is perhaps better defined by what followed. The pivotal moment came in 1995, when Lanzante was chosen by McLaren to run the development F1 GTR at the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Against machinery conceived specifically for competition, the #59 McLaren took overall victory on the model's first appearance at the race, establishing a connection between Lanzante and McLaren that would ultimately extend far beyond the circuit.

Two years later, Lanzante completed its first road conversion of a McLaren F1 GTR, beginning an area of expertise that has subsequently developed across almost three decades. Today, from its ultra modern facilities in Hampshire, the company is known internationally for special projects, road conversions and individually commissioned motor cars. McLaren remains central to that work, while projects involving Porsche, Pagani and other marques have extended the same thinking into very different areas of the performance-car world.

Competition provided the experience upon which Lanzante built its reputation, but it is what the company has done with that knowledge since that increasingly defines it.

Taking the P1 further

Few modern supercars have provided as much opportunity for Lanzante as the McLaren P1, particularly through the P1 GTR, the track-only development of McLaren's hybrid hypercar. Lanzante engineered a road conversion that allowed owners to use the GTR beyond the circuit while retaining the character that distinguished it from the standard P1.

Making a track car genuinely usable on the road involves considerably more than satisfying the requirements for registration. Cooling, suspension, braking, electronics, visibility and low-speed behaviour all need consideration, while the finished car still has to retain the qualities that made the original interesting. It was an engineering challenge that played directly to Lanzante's experience with the F1 GTR and provided the foundation for a much broader programme around the P1.

The P1 LM took the concept further, combining reduced weight with revised aerodynamics and increased performance to create a more focused road-going interpretation of the GTR. Its development prototype subsequently demonstrated the capability of the concept at the Nürburgring Nordschleife before being driven back to the UK by road, neatly illustrating the combination of extreme performance and road usability that had become central to the project.

As Lanzante's relationship with the P1 developed, so did the variety of its interpretations. The P1 GT drew inspiration from the longtail McLaren F1 GT, while the GTR-18 referenced the final generation of F1 GTR competition cars. The LM25 programme commemorated 25 years since Lanzante's Le Mans victory, and the P1 Spider required substantial re-engineering of the carbon-fibre structure to create an open version of a car McLaren itself had never offered. More recently, the P1 HDK has drawn upon the High Downforce Kit associated with the McLaren F1, applying a similar philosophy to the road-going P1.

Taken together, these projects have effectively created another family around one of the defining hypercars of its generation. Rather than following a single formula, Lanzante has used the same underlying motor car to explore very different ideas, from road conversion and increased performance to new body configurations, aerodynamics and individually commissioned specifications.

From track car to special project

The experience developed through McLaren has increasingly been applied elsewhere, particularly as manufacturers have created ever more extreme track-only machinery. For owners who want to experience those cars beyond a circuit, making them genuinely suitable for road use presents a complex engineering challenge, and it is an area in which Lanzante has developed a particular specialism.

The modern Porsche 935 provides one example. Based around the 911 GT2 RS and produced by Porsche solely for track use, the limited-production 935 required extensive development before it could become a properly resolved road car. Lanzante's conversion incorporated changes to suspension, wheels, braking, electronics and lighting, with each element integrated in a way that remained sympathetic to Porsche's original design rather than attempting to turn the 935 into a conventional road-going 911.

The same thinking has been applied to considerably more exotic machinery, including track-focused Paganis, but perhaps the project that best demonstrates the breadth of Lanzante's approach began not with a complete car, but with an engine and an intriguing piece of motorsport history.

During the 1980s, Porsche developed the 1.5-litre twin-turbo V6 used by McLaren's Formula 1 team under TAG branding, powering the team through one of the most successful periods in its competition history. Porsche had used a 930 Turbo as a development mule during the original engine programme, and decades later that connection between the road-going 911 and McLaren's Formula 1 machinery provided the foundation for Lanzante's TAG Turbo.

Genuine period TAG Formula 1 engines, each carrying its own competition history, were installed into Porsche 930s and comprehensively engineered for road use. The project extended far beyond placing an extraordinary racing engine into a classic 911, with the surrounding car developed to accommodate its performance and character while retaining the historical relationship that made the concept interesting in the first place.

The later TAG Championship cars took the idea further, combining race-used engines with extensive lightweight engineering and contemporary motorsport technology. The resulting cars are difficult to place within a conventional category because returning the donor Porsche to factory specification was never the objective, yet neither are they simply modified classics. They are special projects built around a genuine historical connection, using modern engineering to explore an idea that existed within Porsche and McLaren's history but had never previously been developed in this form for clients.

That willingness to take an unusual idea and engineer it into a properly resolved motor car has become increasingly representative of Lanzante's work.

From commission to creation

The 95-59 represents the clearest indication yet of where that experience is leading. Created around the 30th anniversary of Lanzante's 1995 Le Mans victory, its name combines the year of that achievement with the race number carried by the winning McLaren F1 GTR, providing a deliberate connection with the company's past while taking its special-project philosophy into new territory.

Designed by Paul Howse, whose previous work includes the McLaren P1 and Lanzante P1 Spider, the 95-59 uses a re-engineered carbon-fibre architecture and places the driver centrally between two passengers. Its 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 produces in excess of 850bhp, while a target weight of around 1,250kg places considerable emphasis on lightweight engineering and the relationship between performance and mass.

The brief extends beyond outright speed. Three seats, usable luggage capacity and sufficient range for longer journeys reflect Lanzante's intention to create a motor car that owners can genuinely use, continuing the philosophy behind many of its road conversions and commissions. Production is limited to 59 examples, with considerable scope for owners to personalise colours, materials and specification, giving the project an individual character consistent with the bespoke work that has increasingly become part of Lanzante's identity.

In many respects, the 95-59 brings together the different strands of the company's development over the past three decades. Experience gained in competition led to making racing machinery work on the road, which in turn informed Lanzante's work with the McLaren P1 and its increasingly ambitious derivatives. That knowledge subsequently extended into road conversions of some of the most uncompromising track cars of the modern era, while projects such as the TAG Turbo demonstrated how genuine motorsport history could provide the foundation for an entirely new commission.

The 95-59 takes that accumulated experience and applies it to a motor car conceived around Lanzante's own brief. Motorsport remains fundamental to the company's identity, but its contemporary reputation has increasingly been built upon what that experience has allowed it to create, whether making cars usable in ways their manufacturers never intended, developing new interpretations of already exceptional machinery or undertaking individual commissions requiring considerable engineering depth.

Lanzante's history explains where that ability came from, while the P1 projects, road conversions, TAG-engined Porsches and now the 95-59 demonstrate where it has led. That combination of competition experience, engineering ambition and an ability to turn unusual ideas into properly resolved motor cars is what makes Lanzante a HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Lanzante Ltd
Hampshire, United Kingdom
+44 (0)1730 887277

Some motor cars are collected because of what they have done.

Others because of what they represent.

At Hedley Studios, that distinction has been taken in a rather different direction. From its workshops at Bicester Motion, the British company creates hand-built interpretations of some of the most recognisable motor cars ever made — not as conventional replicas, nor simply as scaled models, but as functioning objects intended to sit somewhere between engineering, craftsmanship and automotive art.

The collection now brings together five very different pieces of motoring history: the Bugatti Type 35, Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa, Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged, Aston Martin DB5 and, most recently, the Porsche 550 Spyder.

Each has been recreated at reduced scale. Each is electrically powered. More importantly, each has been developed with the involvement and approval of the manufacturer whose name it carries.

That distinction is fundamental to understanding Hedley Studios.

The Bugatti Baby II is an official Bugatti product developed from a 3D scan of an original 1924 French Grand Prix Type 35. The Ferrari Testa Rossa J was developed from original drawings held by Ferrari Classiche. The Bentley Blower Jnr was created in partnership with Bentley Motors, while the Aston Martin DB5J is an officially sanctioned Aston Martin model.

The latest addition takes the same philosophy to Stuttgart.

Created in collaboration with Porsche, the new Porsche 550 J is an 80 per cent scale interpretation of the 550 Spyder, developed using original archive drawings and scans of cars held within the Porsche Corporate Archives in Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen. Limited to just 250 examples worldwide, it represents another significant manufacturer relationship for Hedley Studios and a further development of the idea upon which the company has been built.

They are deliberately smaller than the originals.

The ambition behind them is not.

Founded by Ben Hedley and based at Bicester since 2020, Hedley Studios has developed around the idea that automotive history can be interpreted through something newly made without pretending that the new object is the original.

That creates an interesting question.

How do you reduce an icon without diminishing it?

Getting the Proportions Right

Scale changes more than dimensions.

Reduce a motor car mathematically and details that appeared perfectly proportioned at full size can suddenly look wrong. Controls need to remain usable. Seating has to accommodate an adult. Steering geometry, suspension and braking must work as a functioning vehicle rather than as an enlarged model.

At the same time, the finished object has to be immediately recognisable.

The Bugatti Baby II demonstrates the process particularly well. Built at 75 per cent scale, its shape was developed using a complete 3D scan of an original Type 35 that competed in the 1924 French Grand Prix. Only 500 are being produced, continuing an idea that itself has historical precedent: Ettore Bugatti and his son Jean created the original half-scale Bugatti Baby in the 1920s.

The modern interpretation therefore becomes a continuation of something Bugatti had already done.

Ferrari presented a different challenge.

The Testa Rossa J recreates the 250 Testa Rossa at 75 per cent scale and was developed using original drawings held within Ferrari Classiche. Its aluminium body is hand formed, while the steering and suspension geometry were derived from the original car. Production is limited to 299 examples.

It is an extraordinary amount of engineering for something that could easily have been treated as a novelty.

The Porsche 550 J develops the idea further again.

The original 550 was built around lightness, simplicity and compact dimensions, making its character particularly dependent upon proportion and weight. Hedley Studios' interpretation uses carbon-fibre bodywork over a spaceframe chassis and comprises more than 1,300 individual components. At approximately 2.9 metres long and weighing around 330kg, it remains large enough to accommodate two adults.

Its mid-mounted electric drivetrain produces up to 16kW, or approximately 21bhp, while RS Pack specification allows a maximum speed of around 50mph and a range of up to 50 miles.

Those figures may appear modest in conventional automotive terms.

In something weighing little more than 300kg and sitting considerably closer to the ground, the experience is rather different.

The Testa Rossa J can similarly reach approximately 50mph depending upon specification and territory, while the Bugatti Baby II can reach around 40mph. Different driving modes allow performance to be moderated according to the driver.

These are objects intended to move.

And once they move, the engineering has to be real.

Building Something New from Something Old

Hedley Studios describes its philosophy as creating art with motion.

The phrase makes more sense when the cars are seen being built.

At its Bicester headquarters, engineering sits alongside metalwork, paint, trimming, assembly and finishing. Cars are hand-built to individual client specifications, with the process borrowing as much from low-volume coachbuilding as it does from conventional manufacturing.

The Bentley Blower Jnr perhaps pushes that idea furthest.

At 85 per cent scale, it is substantially larger than the earlier Hedley creations and represents the 1929 Bentley 4½ Litre Supercharged in a form intended to be genuinely usable. Developed in partnership with Bentley Motors, its proportions and details deliberately reference the original Blower while its electric architecture belongs entirely to the present.

That combination allows the company to explore materials and personalisation in ways that would be difficult — and in many cases inappropriate — with an important original car.

One Bentley Blower Jnr commission, created with London shoemaker George Cleverley, incorporated 239-year-old leather. Another one-off example was commissioned by actor and filmmaker Jason Momoa, with its specification developed collaboratively around his own ideas and interests.

Ferrari commissions have taken a similarly individual direction.

One Testa Rossa J was produced with its hand-formed aluminium body deliberately left bare, allowing the craftsmanship normally hidden beneath paint to become the visual focus. Another blended exposed aluminium at the front into Rosso Corsa towards the rear.

Then there is Lucybelle II.

Created with Ferrari's Atelier as a run of just three cars, the commission references the weathered 250 Testa Rossa that competed at Le Mans in 1958. Rather than presenting the car as pristine, the finish recreates elements of the competition car's appearance and history.

It is an interesting inversion of conventional restoration.

Instead of removing the evidence of age from an old object, craftsmen are deliberately recreating that evidence on a new one.

The Porsche adds another dimension to that personalisation. Alongside traditional Porsche Silver, the 550 J can be specified in selected contemporary colours, Paint to Sample finishes and motorsport-inspired liveries. Each is hand-built in Oxfordshire, allowing what begins as a recognisable historic form to become an individually specified object for its owner.

That balance is important.

Historical accuracy establishes the starting point.

Personalisation determines what happens next.

Sharing the Cars Across Generations

Perhaps the most compelling part of the Hedley Studios idea is that these cars are not intended simply to sit beneath covers.

The Aston Martin DB5J makes the point particularly clearly.

Built at 66 per cent scale and limited to 1,059 examples — reflecting production of the original DB5 — it incorporates recognisable details including Silver Birch paintwork, Smiths instruments and individually numbered chassis plates, but combines them with swappable lithium-ion batteries and regenerative braking.

The intention is not to reproduce the mechanical experience of a 1960s Aston Martin.

It is to create another way of engaging with its design and history.

That becomes particularly apparent with the company's No Time To Die edition. Developed with EON Productions, the miniature DB5 incorporated functioning interpretations of James Bond equipment, including simulated machine guns concealed behind the headlights, a digital number plate and a rear smokescreen.

There is considerable craftsmanship involved.

There is also a sense of humour.

The Porsche 550 J perhaps brings the driving element into even sharper focus. The original 550 Spyder was one of the purest expressions of Porsche's early competition philosophy: low weight, minimal dimensions and an emphasis on balance rather than brute force.

Its modern interpretation has deliberately retained that sense of intimacy. Two adults sit within a compact open cockpit, with authentic-style driving controls and a mid-mounted drivetrain placing the emphasis on the act of driving rather than simply looking at the finished object.

That combination may explain why Hedley Studios has attracted collectors who already own significant full-size motor cars. More than 400 cars had been delivered internationally within three years of the company's first client delivery, reaching owners across locations as diverse as Boston, Basel, Bahrain and Bangkok.

For some, these cars accompany the originals within established collections. For others, they provide access to the design of a historically important motor car in an entirely different form.

They also introduce another generation to those histories.

A Type 35, 250 Testa Rossa or original 550 Spyder can now be worth many millions and is consequently an increasingly serious object. Even when regularly exercised, the responsibilities surrounding an original competition car inevitably influence the way it is used.

A Hedley Studios interpretation carries no such historical burden.

It can be driven. Shared. Personalised. Enjoyed by different generations. Its significance lies not in untouched originality but in the quality with which somebody has interpreted the original idea.

That places Hedley Studios in an unusual part of the heritage-car world.

The company is not restoring the past, because its cars are newly created. It is not replicating it in the conventional sense either, because the scale, electric engineering and opportunities for personalisation deliberately establish their own identity.

Instead, it is taking some of the visual and cultural language of important motor cars and translating it into another form.

The arrival of the Porsche 550 J makes that proposition broader still. Five manufacturers, five very different pieces of automotive history and five opportunities to interpret what made the originals significant without attempting to replace them.

The setting at Bicester Motion feels particularly appropriate. Surrounded by businesses preserving, maintaining and racing historic machinery, Hedley Studios approaches heritage from the opposite direction: starting with history and using it to make something new.

There will always be an irreplaceable distinction between an original 250 Testa Rossa, Type 35, Blower Bentley, DB5 or Porsche 550 and anything created decades later.

Hedley Studios does not need to challenge that distinction.

Its work is interesting precisely because it understands it.

That combination of manufacturer collaboration, British craftsmanship, innovative engineering and an imaginative approach to interpreting some of the world's most recognisable motor cars is why Hedley Studios is a trusted and HACCA Trusted Specialist.

Hedley Studios 

Oxfordshire, England