Andrew Frankel

3 weeks ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Andrew Frankel

Hurtling across a mountainside at some unmentionable speed in the new Aston Martin Vanquish, I was moved to wonder whether it is possible actually to have too much of a good thing. I mean what could be better than a mighty V12 howling away in front of you, spinning obscene power down a carbon-fibre shaft to a gearbox between the rear axle driving the rear wheels alone? Well, yes, that gearbox could have manually selectable ratios, but that particular horse bolted many moons ago.

3 weeks ago | motorsportmagazine.com | Andrew Frankel

Far from rushing towards electrification, it is well known that every ‘legacy’ manufacturer with a history steeped in petrol and diesel cars has jammed on the brakes so hard I can hear the ABS from here. And in one regard, at least one of them appears to be heading in the other direction. For Mercedes-Benz is developing an all-new V8 engine. This, you will recall, is the company that forsook a 4-litre V8 for a 2-litre straight four in the latest AMG C-Class and was surprised that people objected.

4 weeks ago | goodwood.com | Andrew Frankel

28th March 2025 Andrew Frankel It is the most important Alfa Romeo in the world. It is the car that won Juan Manuel Fangio his first Formula 1 World Championship in 1951; it is also the most recent Alfa Romeo to win an F1 race, despite the fact its design was nearly 15 years old at the time. The year before it won every single round of the inaugural Formula 1 World Championship (I’m not counting the Indy 500), a feat not repeated to this day.

4 weeks ago | autocar.co.uk | Andrew Frankel

One of Winston Churchill’s more prescient predictions was that “history will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.” And it was, no doubt in some part because he did. Few would argue that Churchill was less than a very great man, but I expect his reputation today would be rather different if, despite his efforts, he’d not been able to hold back the dark forces that had swept across Europe. History is written by the victors.

1 month ago | autocar.co.uk | Andrew Frankel

The Speedtail starts like any other McLaren and makes the same noise – which is disappointing. Given it has a flat-plane-crank V8 like every other McLaren, I’m not sure what I was expecting, but its hard, gruff voice isn’t that of a GT, hyper or otherwise. No, of course McLaren couldn’t package another cylinder at each corner, and for just 106 units it would be ruinously expensive even if it could. But if ever a car required a V12 (dare I say like that in the F1?), surely a hyper-GT is it.