Books: ICON: History of the Series Land Rover & Defender

As the proud owner of a newly restored 1967 Series 2a Land Rover (image below) I'm always on the look out for books that inform and allow me to indulge my motor passion. ICON: The Official History of the Series Land Rover and Defender is not only an informative and well illustrated book, it's also beautifully designed.

Released last year to celebrate the last Defender rolling off the assembly line and this year's 70th anniversary of the marque, it's published by Land Rover as a proud homage to these iconic and very British cars. This coffee table sized book covers ten chapters and over 200 pages and can be bought from Land Rover here.

My 1967 Series 2a Land Rover Station Wagon

Aston Martin Rapide S Hackett Edition

I attended a delicious dinner recently to mark the launch of Hackett's latest collaboration with Aston Martin - the Q Rapide S Hackett Edition. It's been styled by Hackett's Chair, Jeremy Hackett who, as a man of supreme taste, can be guaranteed to give a product a very British character. 

Jeremy Hackett with the car and the suit (see the text)

I sat in the car and was very impressed by the finish of both interior and exterior, as you'd expect in a hand-made car. There are many details which reflect Jeremy Hackett's tailoring credentials and his interests. The interior is upholstered in a Prince of Wales check from Somerset cloth mill, cloth mill Fox Brothers and Co. Inside the glove box, door pockets, cup holders and sun visor is a blue and white striped material, similar to that of a traditional suit lining. The gorgeous pale blue of the car is highlighted through the carpets and the head rests, with the Hackett logo embossed on the rear, are covered in black Melton wool cloth as used in bowler hats.

Hackett is creating a bespoke suit for each new owner that mirrors the car interiors; a Prince of Wales check cloth from Fox Brothers and Co. with a blue and white stripe lining. A luxury accessories range includes a Prince of Wales check weekend bag, check blanket, driving gloves and a pocket square with the Aston Martin scatter wing pattern. A travel umbrella features a gear stick handle and is made up of three pieces; evoking a James Bond gadget feel. You can read more about the collaboration here.

This feature is unsponsored. I was a guest of Hackett/Aston Martin at dinner at The Beaumont Hotel, Mayfair, London.

Concours of Elegance: Classic Cars at Hampton Court Supported by Lange & Söhne

Watch company Lange & Söhne is supporting the Concours of Elegance for the first time this year. This festival of classic cars takes place at Hampton Court Palace near London from 31st August to 2nd September - an ideal outing for a bank holiday weekend.

Lange & Sohne is supporting this year's Concours of Elegance

The Concours of Elegance (links below) brings together some classic cars dating from late nineteenth century to the very latest sports cars. Where you find beautiful cars you also find very stylish men and women. Here are some shots of last year's event.

Links

Concours of Elegance

Lange & Söhne

This post is unsponsored.

Driving the Jaguar XF S - A Gentleman's Performance Saloon

The Jaguar XF S, top of the XF range, is a true gentleman's motor in the sense that its significant performance and comfort aren't undermined by shouty 'I'm really wishing I was a sports car' features. The engine is quiet and refined, not snorty and roarty; the suspension doesn't rattle your teeth on uneven roads, the exterior isn't shrouded with wings and go-faster stripes. In that sense it harks back to the original Jaguar salons: refined performance with an attractive but understated exterior. 

My experience of driving the Jaguar XF S was restricted to an hour's drive in heavy London traffic. The sad reality is that few drives now avoid traffic and a car's ability to help in such conditions is often underestimated. The Jaguar virtually did the drive for me and I arrived home fresh and happy, rather than frazzled and fed up. I had to rely on Jaguar's performance figures to imagine how it might have driven on the open road. Pulling away effortlessly and very fast from traffic lights hints at the 380PS power and good torque available from the V6 engine. Others have reported excellent handling on better roads.

Keeping the driver and passengers in the lap of luxury, the car floated over the worst of London's roads. The interior cossets with comfortable seats, plenty of space, controls that fall easily to hand and well-fitted fixtures and fittings. There are subtle hints of the car's high status in the second-generation XF line-up in the grain leather sports seats and metal sill protectors.

The technology offers everything you might want, carefully if you use it while on the road, for keeping in touch,  navigation and entertainment through voice control and touch screen. Technology also helps keep you safe in poor road conditions through the All Surface Progress Control system which helps on slippery roads.

My time with the Jaguar XF S left me impressed by the subtle refinement, performance and quality that it displays - I'd have welcomed more time to savour the experience fully.

Facts & Figures
Jaguar XF 3.0 V6 S/C 380 PS RWD
Price: £49,995 on-the-road (plus a wide range of optional extras)

Engine: 3.0 litre V6 S/C 380 PS
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Acceleration: 0-60mph in 5.1s
Maximum speed: 155 mph
Combined fuel consumption: 34 mpg
Carbon dioxide emissions: 198 g/km
For more information, see Jaguar UK.
Jaguar XF prices start from around £32,000

All images by Sikh and Dread Photography.

This is a sponsored post and part of a collaboration with dapperchapper.com and twentyfirstcenturygent.com

Mercedes meets IWC watches: passion, performance & precision for Goodwood

One of the greatest pleasures for me as a blogger is watching high quality products being made and then trying them out. Memories of the passion and skills of those who produce such true quality items add enormously to the experience of using them. So it was on my recent trip to Switzerland and Germany to find out more about the partnership between Mercedes and IWC Schaffhausen Watches. We watched the legendary vintage Silver Arrows racing cars being prepared for the 74th Edition of the Goodwood Members' Meeting this weekend and also tried out both IWC watches and three Mercedes-AMG cars.

1954 Mercedes Monoposto being prepared for Goodwood in Stuttgart. Video GreyFoxBlog

IWC is official timing partner of the Goodwood event at which visitors will be treated to the sight of the Mercedes Silver Arrows, beautiful vintage racers from the fifties, roaring and ripping their way around the track. 

Engine of the Monoposto

On my visit the logic of the Mercedes/IWC partnership became obvious as we experienced the precision, quality and true passion that lay behind their products, whether watches or cars. If there's one thing I've learned in my years of blogging, it's that we often fail to look behind the label of a product and are blinded by a fashionable name to pay a lot for an item that is cheap and poor quality. 

To ensure that what you're buying is true quality, made with passion and precision, you need to see them being made or maintained.

Looking at modern, rather than vintage, Mercedes, we visited the AMG facility at Affalterbach, Germany. AMG started as an independent company which produced performance products for owners of Mercedes cars looking for more from their vehicles. AMG is now part of Mercedes. At Affalterbach we saw that each AMG engine is made by one man or woman - true to the racing pedigree of the brand, there is no assembly line approach here. 

A worker starts on a new engine at the AMG factory

Each worker starts with an engine block and follows it round the plant assembling it until it's complete. His or her name is then added and stays there as a mark of the maker's pride and confidence in the quality of the final product. Each part's barcode is scanned as it's added to the engine and can be tracked during its life in the car. The assembly is backed up by research and testing facilities that ensure that AMG cars are safe, fast, powerful and as environmentally-friendly as is possible. 

Each AMG engine is signed by its maker

An AMG engine on the test bed, its exhausts glowing red

This careful assembly process, which emphasises quality rather than just economy, echoes the approach taken by IWC to the design and assembly of their watches. I'll talk more about IWC in a future feature, but we saw enough to understand the nature of the relationship between the two companies.

Driving the AMG cars made available for us (four international journalists and bloggers) was an experience we'll never forget. We had an S-Class Coupé, C63 and AMG GT (right to left in the image above). All were AMG products. The GT only exists in its AMG version, while the S-Class and C63 are AMG variations of the Mercedes models on which they are based. However, they are as different as chalk and cheese, as AMG start afresh with suspension, chassis and engine, making them very different cars from their Mercedes cousins, designed for additional performance as well as comfort.

AMG GT with 3982cc V8 biturbo with 462 hp

The GT was a real pleasure to drive. Even in 'comfort' mode the 500bhp V8 engine burbled happily on the German Autobahn, its note rapidly rising to a powerful pulsating bass as power was applied, thrusting you back into the upholstery in a very satisfactory way. Backing off the throttle resulted in a lovely triple pop from the exhaust, proving the race pedigree of this wonderful car. This is a true gentleman's (and woman's) grand tourer - powerful, robust, comfortable, but with enough rawness to show that you're driving a machine with race pedigree.

All the cars oozed quality and strength. These are powerful motors, but each attracts a slightly different driver and is built with an attention to detail rarely seen to this extent on modern cars.

And returning to vintage Mercedes, the arrival at Goodwood this week of the beautiful Silver Arrows drives home (literally) how products made with care, precision, pride and with an emphasis on quality rather than economy last so well. The Monoposto pictured above is only slightly older than me, but is much more handsome, better maintained and much fitter. Similarly an IWC watch will outlast its owner of properly maintained and looked after.

Streamlined body enclosing the wheels, allowed for a while under F1 rules in the fifties

We also visited the Mercedes Museum, a vast, modern building beautifully designed by a Dutch architect which houses the huge collection in a very contemporary, purpose-built environment. Here we saw cars from the earliest nineteenth century to the latest Formula 1 pace car, naturally an AMG GT (images below).

Click to find out more about Mercedes, AMG and IWC Schaffhausen. For more about the Goodwood Members' Weekend #74MM, 19th to 20th March 2016, click here.

This trip was sponsored by IWC/Mercedes. 

Mercedes AMG and IWC Schaffhausen in harmony

Announcing the result of the #GreyFoxLCM competition

Competitions are great fun; unless you have to judge a winner. The second #GreyFoxLCM competition has been harder than the last to judge.  All entries displayed the pride, humour, pluck and creativity that are the best hallmarks of our national character. Thank you all for entering by posting images on Twitter and Instagram.

The final decision was mine alone and I've selected this image by Gavin Kelly whose tweet said, 'Built by MG in Abingdon '55, rebuilt by my dad in Liverpool '77'. I selected it because it's obviously a very personal image for Gavin, the MG is one of my favourite cars, it was built during my birth year and it emphasises the durability and style of a classic British product. Well done Gavin, we'll be in touch to sort out your prize.

Please support all the wonderful brands who supported this competition and Grey Fox Blog. Details of the competition and prizes are here.

I'm grateful to the blog's own personal stylist, Sarah Gilfillan and to Katharine Watson of Push PR for helping me to narrow down the choices when judging. Without their help, I'd give all the entries a prize. Thanks also to the brands involved for supporting the competition and Grey Fox Blog.

How would the James Bond of 2015 live and dress?

How would James Bond of 2015 live? The real 007, of the books rather than the films, was an affluent man in his thirties living and working fifty to sixty years ago. He wore a Rolex Oyster, drove a supercharged battleship-grey 'Blower' Bentley, was a member of Blades (a fictional gentleman's club) and probably bought his suits and shirts around Savile Row. He gambled, womanised, ate and drank in the best establishments. Could a contemporary Bond, faced with the spectre* of public spending cuts and political correctness, afford such a lifestyle?

Bond of the books and films - how close is Craig's portrayal to what Bond would be today?

The Bond in the books was a public school boy (Fettes in Edinburgh) who had joined the Royal Navy. His pay as a naval officer wouldn't have funded his lifestyle and I suspect he supplemented this and his Secret Service pay with a private family income (although he no doubt had a generous expenses account with Her Majesty's Secret Service). 

James Bond of the films is shown by Daniel Craig as a modern version of the original, affluent and well-dressed. But how realistic is this interpretation? Nowadays, public spending cuts would have capped his expenses claims; hotels would be Travelodge rather than The Ritz. Any family income will have been eroded by years of recession and taxation. His salary would be within fairly modest civil service pay-scales.

Sean Connery - the film Bond closest to the book original?

On top of these financial considerations, operational, EU, health and safety and equality regulations make it unwise or impossible for the field operative to stand out through excess consumption. Car chases are strictly forbidden by M following recent costly litigation after Bond spun his pool car, a Nissan Qashqai, into some prized topiary during hot pursuit. Even his relationships with women have been curtailed after Ms Moneypenny's successful workplace harassment claim.

Bond must now blend in with the crowd. No more gambling, expensive dining or driving expensive cars. Given these financial and operational strictures, how would a modern Bond live and dress? He is, of course, a patriot who likes to buy British. Bond keeps an eye on Grey Fox Blog for new and interesting British menswear brands. He needs durable, comfortable yet smart clothes that won't shout 'spy'. He must also be careful in his choice of cars and equipment. Here is my idea of the modern Bond.

All British smart

All Made in Britain casual/work wear 

Some of the British-designed and/or made content of Bond's Tusting holdall

British-built transport

Suppliers

Albam - Johnstons of Elgin - Private White VC - Edition Scotland - Cheaney - Marks & Spencer - Loake - Drake's - Grosvenor Shirts - Patey Hats - Spy Equipment UK - Fan Optics - Tusting - D R Harris - Dents - Age of Reason Scarves - Bremont Chronometers - Land Rover - Nissan UK - Norton Motorcycles - Roberts Cycles - (Barr & Stroud no longer make binoculars in the UK)

*I promise that this isn't a pun as I didn't know the name if the new Bond film when I originally wrote this piece.

Bugatti - from cars of style to menswear

Bugatti is a name that is for ever synonymous with the skilled synthesis of engineering excellence, design and beauty - and the glorious blue, derived from the bleu de France livery of the cars raced by the French motor-racing team. This blue has varied considerably over the years, from a pale almost baby blue, to a darker, richer hue. 

Vintage Bugattis at Goodwood Revival - image Grey Fox

Bugatti now aims to preserve this heritage of quality, design and colour, in a menswear/lifestyle brand. Themed around the concept of “The Blue of London”, Bugatti has opened its first boutique on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge. Following the successful launch of its lifestyle collection in Milan last year, this is the next major step in the French super-sportscar manufacturer’s brand extension strategy. Up to 30 additional exclusive Bugatti boutiques are due to be opened in key international financial and fashion hubs over the next five years.

The new Bugatti store showing design keys from the famous motor car

As you'd expect from a brand with such an enviable pedigree, the products are made in Italy to the highest standards of tailoring, manufacture and materials. I was encouraged to try on a few pieces and was struck by how well they fitted and how good they felt and looked. 

I've noticed before that high quality fabrics and tailoring make clothes look, feel and fit supremely well and Bugatti is no exception. In its menswear, as so often in life, you get what you pay for. Maybe I was just the right shape for these designs, but some garments looked as if they had been made to fit me. 

The Blue of London - Bugatti style and colour

As you'd expect, the staff are generous with their time and knowledge. The service is second to none and Bugatti offer a custom service for all their goods; they can be altered, made or added to to suit the client's particular requirements, so offering everything from high quality off-the-peg to an efficient bespoke service.

Being entrenched in the British tweedy look, I arrived feeling I wasn't tempted by much on offer. But these are clothes to try on. Once you're in them, your attitude changes, influenced by their feel, fit and sheer quality. Even a dark blue leather jacket, backed by a hi-tech metal fabric which makes it waterproof (see image below), fitted beautifully and would have severely tempted me had I been buying. 

Bugatti's clothes are investment pieces, many will improve with wear. The jackets flow around your shoulders in a very seductive way, the leathers are beautifully soft and pliable, the shoes artistic in shape and colour. These are clothes that flatter. Prices are not outrageous and I now understand why men seek out clothes of such quality.

Typical prices

Suits, £1,250 to £1,450
Velvet suit £2000
Leather jacket shown above £1850
Bespoke shoes from £1,100 Goodyear Welt, Ostrich £2,300 various prices with crocodile at £6,300
Sweater, cashmere round or v neck £430
Small leather goods from £90 for business card holder

A look that inspires 2 - Austin Healey Sprite Mk1 - 'Frog Eye'

I found this image of a car I used to own - the actual car, 629 CDE. The Mk1 Austin Healey Sprite was known affectionately, for obvious reasons, as a 'frog-eye' (or 'bug-eye' in the US). They were tiny cars with no opening boot (you accessed that behind the seats) and, I think, an 850cc engine.

It was a precursor to the Austin Healey Sprite Mk2, which also appeared as the MG Midget (I owned one of those too, but that's another story). It was great fun and took me back to the days when a man could work on a car without having to be a computer scientist. He would also sport a moustache, cravat and have a pipe clenched between his teeth.

If I was to buy another old car now, it would be one of these.