“Well this was going to be a first. I’ve been track testing cars for this title for 28 years and can recall just one occasion on which I have left the circuit without intending to, and that was in 1998 when I had a harmless semi-spin in the 1988 Le Mans-winning Jaguar XJR-9LM while exiting the Ford Chicane at that very track.

“But never have I failed to make it through the first corner before.

“But now as the Lancia LC2 point blank refused to turn into Redgate approximately 5sec after I’d departed the pitlane for the very first time, I could see no other outcome…”

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On track in the Dino 206 S: Ferrari’s near-perfect pocket racer

A small package but the handsome Ferrari 206 S has just enough room for Andrew Frankel, who is about to experience near-perfection

“You know that phrase ‘if it looks right, it is right’?

“Were that always the case the Ferrari Dino 206 S would have won every race it entered, probably lapping the field for good measure.

“In the entire history of motor sport few, if any, have looked more right than this…

“But it’s not what I’m thinking about just now. I’m just waiting for it all to go horribly wrong, which it well might at any moment.

“I’m at Donington, not for a relatively cuddly track day, but a full test day for unsilenced racing cars. I’m sat in a car worth £4m, without seatbelts, while professional drivers in their modern slicks and wings machines they’re paid to drive, dive and hustle their away about and around me.

“And with just one mirror loosely lashed to the windscreen, I can’t really even see them coming towards me…”

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Bentley Blower vs Speed Six: speed meets sophistication

Although the ‘Blower’ was about derring-do, it was the Speed Six that gave Bentley victories at Le Mans. Andrew Frankel takes to the track with two racing thoroughbreds which captured the spirit of the day

“This is as much a tale of two people as two cars, and despite the images on these pages, neither of them is called Bentley. If two cars ever came to represent more accurately the characters of their creators, I know not what they are.

“Both are famous but one is a legend. He is Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin, a man who won the Le Mans 24 Hours just twice, and only once in a Bentley.

“The other man’s record at Le Mans – played three, won three – remains unapproached to this day. He was Woolf ‘Babe’ Barnato.

“Tim Birkin was not a heavyweight boxer, scratch golfer, powerboat racer or Surrey wicketkeeper and Barnato was all of the above and more. But then Barnato never wrote an autobiography, let alone one called Full Throttle dedicated to “all schoolboys”.

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Ultimate resto-mod? The Ford Escort that costs more than a Ferrari

We track test the new Alan Mann-liveried Mk1 Ford Escort – could it be even better than the original?

“Four classical Smiths dials are positioned in my line of sight.

“Large ones for revs and miles-per-hour to the sides, smaller ones for oil and coolant temps in the centre.

“The seat may be bolted to the floor but fortuitously it could be no better positioned to allow for heel and toe work down at the pedals, while the minimalist dished steering wheel is positioned at a perfect ‘bent-elbow’ angle and distance…”

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Jackie Oliver reunited with Lola T70

Back in 1970, Jackie Oliver tried a privateer Lola T70 for size down in Buenos Aires. Fifty-five years later we reunite him with the car and its starry history, as Damien Smith reports

“Just another race, just another distant memory. Jackie Oliver reckons he doesn’t remember much about the 1970 Buenos Aires 1000Kms and his drive in the Lola T70 MkIIIB you see here, which he shared with rising local hero Carlos Reutemann.

“It was, after all, 55 years ago. But at 82, Oliver is still as sharp as he ever was, still at heart the chippy Essex racer who evolved into a world-weary but fiercely independent Formula 1 team owner.

“Press him gently and the memories begin to flood back.

“I’ve got no idea,” is the unpromising response when we ask him how he ended up driving the T70…”

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Driving the ultimate Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR: first-ever track test of £100m sports car

How do you drive a car that’s worth more than £100m? As Andrew Frankel will tell you, very carefully… for this is the ultimate Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, built for 1956 but never raced

“Coming off the banking in full flight, straight-eight motor roaring with crazed approval, pushing forward from second to third with all the conviction I can muster, feeling the thrust and seeing that long, silver bonnet sloping away ahead of me, briefly it doesn’t seem real.

“Nor even close to it. This is not ‘just’ a Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, but in engineering terms, the ultimate 300 SLR. No journalist has ever been allowed to drive it.

“Yet here I am: no rules, no chaperon. Just me, Mercedes’ own test track and the SLR, one of the most rare and special cars not only in its unique collection, but the world…”

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Ferrari’s 296 Challenge track monster is much friendlier than you’d think

Single-make series are all the rage, and few do them better than Ferrari. Adam Towler heads to Spain to get a taste of the 296 model, which this season will power the Prancing Horse’s Challenge series around the world

“Have you ever driven a Ferrari Challenge car before?” enquires a thickly Italian-accented voice from behind a full-face helmet. The man speaking is none other than Giampiero Simoni, a legend of Alfa Romeo’s 1994 BTCC assault.

“That alone is enough to make the trip to Circuito Monteblanco in Spain more than worth it, let alone to have the chance to drive Ferrari’s latest Challenge car.

“‘Yes, but no… sort of,’ is my stuttering, unhelpful reply, because I did once drive an F355 Challenge, albeit one that had been converted into a road car long after its competitive career ended.

“Wonderful though it was, I couldn’t tell you – or Giampiero – what it was like on a track…”

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