Welcome to the ‘gist.

Hi it’s Anthony and this is the ‘gist. Today I’m sharing Part 1 of insights from travels since the new year. This edition covers adventures from London & Paris, having attended both Rétromobile and RMSotheby’s largest European auction yet. By the time this mailer drops we’ll also have been in Miami for MODA so stay tuned for Part 2 soon!

European Car Culture Hits Different

Europe knows a thing or two about culture and the European approach to motoring also lives & breathes through a similar philosophy as art, food, and music. It runs deep. A few themes kept springing to mind during my travels which I’ve summed up quickly below for those of you in a hurry. However, the stories & people behind said tales paint a more colorful picture as to why experiencing car culture in Europe feels unique, and arguably more compelling, in its own way.

• Cars are theatre — The context in which they’re presented should be in keeping with that ethos.

• Building drama & narrative around them means great storytelling — These cars represent lived experiences and the lifestyles built around them is commensurate with that.

• Storytelling is led by passionate enthusiasts who understand the culture — Cars are stories & stories are people. The individuals leading the charge are highly informed lifers possessing an extreme depth of knowledge, most times generational. They speak the same language (literally & figuratively) and are geographically situated a relative stone’s throw away from the artisans who originally built these great cars.

• Car culture as “institution” — The hobby has exploded in North America over the last 10+ years, thanks largely to social media. While I believe that overall interest has endured well past the point where it can be described as a “phase”, there is still room to grow and I’m excited to see where the new guard takes things. In contrast, car culture feels more like an established institution in Europe with its own set of defined codes. When we take stock of the myriad forms of four-wheeled mechanica that has originated there over the past 140+ years, it’s understandable to see why. That feeling really manifests at a show like Rétromobile, where the history is palpable.

I could also just be a hopeless & impressionable romantic that is easily seduced by the tentacles of European flair, but the approach is unquestionably alluring & charismatic. With that said, I believe we’re going to see things move more in this direction, with sellers doubling down in presenting special vehicles here in North America. The collector car industry is a global marketplace and as buyers become increasingly sophisticated & discerning, a deeper sense of vehicle storytelling will be important to jockey for eyeballs (and value) in the Instagram attention economy.

Building enough of a narrative to convince someone to write a cheque requires passion & prose. Those skills can equally be applied to an EK9 Civic Type R as it can a blue-chip collectible, and being rewarded for that dedication is one of the great equalizers this hobby has to offer.

A Tale Of Two Cities

My wife & I began our trip in Paris for some quick fashion week biz but were all too happy to leave the madness of the Marais for London. I hadn’t been to London in over ten years and whetting the car appetite there felt all too right. Past travels usually revolved around music & all-night warehouse parties, leaving seldom any time for car-related activities in those days. There were requisite visits to Bob Forstner on Park Lane of course (where I saw my first Zonda & Koenigsegg back in 2012), but in any case, I was excited for our jaunt over to Blighty…

Just walking around London is a car spotter’s dream. Street parked Arnages, multiple Alpine A110s on daily duties, and my favourite: a B7 RS4 parked head-to-head with an Alpina B3 Touring… as if poised for an evo magazine cover. Talk about setting the tone.

We lucked out with the weather on the last Sunday of January which meant a visit to Wimbledon for the monthly Southside Hustle meet. The gathering takes over a suburban neighborhood adjacent to a park and in typical British fashion, all kinds of esoterica were on hand including a Blower Bentley, vintage MV Agustas, a Ginetta, and every flavor of supercar.

As a die-hard Lotus fan, the highlight of my day was getting to drive my friend Rupert’s Exige 410 Cup— a serious bit of forbidden fruit for us North Americans, featuring a breathed-on version of the supercharged 3.5L V6 lump from the Evora. Being nearly identical from the inside to my Elise, the experience of settling into the all-too familiar cabin is nothing more than an illusion as soon as the engine barks into life… a kind of foreboding of what’s to come.

At low speeds you can definitely feel the extra 400lbs (180kg) of ballast on the Elise, but once rolling it deceives you into thinking you’re driving the same car. One prod of the throttle however and— nope! We’re not in Kansas anymore. Whereas my naturally-aspirated S2 Elise is limp anything below 4,000 RPM, the swell of torque from as little as 1,800RPM in this V6 comes as a welcome surprise. While I appreciate the scruff-of-the-neck character in wringing out a “regular” Elise, having more than double the amount of power under your right foot is incredibly addictive.

Don’t get it twisted: this is a completely different car that feels much, much angrier and sharper— though to my fingertips, a little bit less delicate on its toes. In any case, a justification could be made for having both in the garage, and with that, I’m counting down the days to 2028 when it will be possible to import a 2013 model year Exige V6 into Canada. That should be ample time to figure out a storage situation… oh yes, and the money part.

The next day Rupert & I took his 991.2 GTS westward. He lovingly dubs this car his “fast GTI” and in many ways he has a point— it does everything well, is damned quick, comfortable, and beyond livable. It takes no more than five miles in a modern 911 to see why they’re so good. They make just about every other sports car in the world redundant. However, what largely fuels this hobby is a car lover’s penchant for the slightly masochistic, and with that we pulled into DK Engineering’s famed outpost in Chorleywood. 

This is where the blood really started pumping. DK is like no other “dealership” I’ve ever been to— it’s a museum which just so happens to sell, no wait pardon me “transact”, its immaculate subjects. Every car nerd on earth has had a moment where they enter that garage or turn that corner and their jaw completely drops— that feeling is more or less every room at DK. The way in which the cars are presented in their stunning backdrops is the extra buzz which completely sets off the occasion, and that’s what our counterparts across the pond get so right. It’s not just about seeing the cars, but being able to experience them, even in static display… chalk it up to drama or visual theatre, they know what they’re doing. If you’re in the business of selling dreams, you might as well do it BIG. 

Numbers and dollars become almost arbitrary at this level and I’m just happy there are people in this world who care so much about these things and have the means to do so. Remember what I said up there about masochistic? It takes a truly committed maniac to happily cough up £25K for a replacement Zonda wing mirror.

Their service center also acts as a kind of skunkworks for those clients looking to forge ahead on the not-so-beaten path. A TDF Blue 360 Challenge Stradale found its way to their facilities for a manual conversion and picked up some pink pin-stripes and a matching interior along the way. While not my particular style, I appreciate that we’re now in an era where owners feel more comfortable in flexing a bit of individuality through customization & tailoring. The few repainted F40s that have used “good” drivers as donors will never outweigh the highly original red “creampuff” models left of the ~1,300 produced… so let’s not get our knickers in a knot, shall we? It’s cool that the new jack are taking matters into their own hands as a way of retelling a car’s story their way.

With my head already a puddle, we trudged further west nearing Oxford for Girardo & Co.’s equally staggering location at Belcher’s Farm. With the British mist in full swing, the grounds looked especially beautiful with the colors all punched up. Most of the cars had already left for Rétromobile, leaving pride of place for one of my favourite sports racers of all time, the 206 S Dino Spider. The sprightly little car looked perfect on its lonesome, bathing in its polished marble surroundings. There’s the theatre thing again.

In an adjoining space houses more cars and Girardo’s famed, drool-worthy archive. Being able to see it first hand fed into my obsessive compulsions quite nicely, with leather-bound books on perfectly organized shelves holding several lifetimes worth of automotive history. This is a kind of ‘Library of Alexandria’ for cars and the historical value of these efforts cannot be overstated enough. There is solace knowing that nothing will be lost in time, and the history from this special snapshot of human ingenuity will be preserved for posterity.

Returning to Paris for my first Rétromobile felt like a pilgrimage. After many years of wanting to attend, it really was the rite of passage I hoped it would be. The amount of knowledge, stories, and collective passion under one roof was humbling. For those of you interested in going, the show is broken up across three massive pavilions at the Paris expo Porte de Versailles. The best way to describe the demographic at Rétromobile is the following:

Pavilion 1 - Billionaires
Pavilion 2 - Millionaires
Pavilion 3 - DIYers

In short, housed in Pavilion 1 was the most shocking & dizzying array of cars I’ve ever seen. I would have been very content to go home after seeing a single McLaren F1, but Simon Kidston and Joe Macari both displayed white examples of Gordon Murray’s hallowed three-seater. Macari’s was the same FINA-liveried F1 GTR which I saw some 20-years earlier at a BMW display in Montreal during F1 weekend, so that one gets the tip of the hat from me.

I was there when doors opened for the Tuesday preview night and many dealers had their cars kept under branded silken covers for dramatic effect. Many used the occasion to strategically time the “unveiling” of their various wares as a sort of quasi-performance. It’s clear that this is not only an arm’s race of who can bring the show’s most coveted metal, but also one of heart-string theatrics.

The level at which these sellers show up to Rétromobile is indicative of just how serious the clientele is here. While manufacturer presence from Porsche, Renault, and Maserati underscores the importance of the event on the automotive calendar, dealers the likes of Girardo & Co., Kidston, Fiskens, and Art & Revs are the ones who really left a mark. At this level, they truly operate as their own luxury brands, and purchasing a car from them means being part of an inner circle. Great brands provide an attention-to-detail which enhance the buying experience. That begins with perusing a vehicle’s lovingly executed Schedoni-bound history file while drinking an excellent ristretto, for example… a level of detail you don’t regularly see in America. These sellers are competing on the same level as the established auction houses and brands like Richard Mille, and it’s clear how they wish to position themselves amidst the melee.

Just as an example of how lucrative Rétromobile can be, Kidston brought a lovely Azzuro Daytona Spyder which sold in days. Wasting no time, they had another Crema example delivered overnight from Switzerland to take its place, so valuable is the on-site real estate. This process was repeated many times over for multiple sellers we spoke to during our time there.

Retreating from the haze of Pavilion 1 for the escalators, the reprieve of concessions selling every form of automobilia was refreshing. There are multiple worlds of this show to get stuck into, and I wish I had more time to explore every nook and cranny of it. Pavilions 2 & 3 felt immediately more “approachable”, and it seemed the original swap meet spirit of the show was more in line with what I witnessed here. Yes it still had a “flea-market for the well-heeled” vibe but it was nice to see a large section dedicated to sub-€30K cars, many tables full of dusty parts, and representation from all sorts of French owner’s clubs, including Club Lotus France which had a lovely Esprit S4 on display.

At the same time Rétromobile was happening, many of the auction houses were also hosting heavy-hitter sales across Paris. It was impossible to see them all, so a group of us decided to check out the last day of the RMSotheby’s auction— RM is in a similar business of selling dreams and presenting them at the Louvre certainly gave credence to the vehicles on offer. Being in the room when the 1965 Le Mans-winning Ferrari 250 LM hammered for €31M (plus €3.88M in fees) certainly felt like a “moment”.

That was an impressive way to end the trip and really set the tone for Miami a few weeks later for RMSotheby’s second swing at MODA. If anywhere is representative of the new breed of car culture in America and has the ability to dice it up with the best Europe has to offer, it’s the 305. We were there on the ground to get a vibe check, but the bar was certainly set high… Part 2 incoming >>>

Upcoming

🔔 Our first ever meet in Montreal is in the works for Spring so stay tuned for that 👀

Also, we’ll be in LA at the end of April for Air|Water so feel free to get in touch if you’ll be in town: [email protected]

• 🇺🇸 L.A. @ Air|Water — April 26th

• 🇨🇦 Montreal @ TBA — May 18th

Moment of Zen

After drowning in hypercar cologne at Rétromobile on opening day, a surprise stumble upon an original Prius & RAV4 provided the perfect palate cleanser 🌱

Until next!