Nigel BELL Boothman

‘It arrived with the engine seized solid and the exhaust roped on’. Epic Restoration Ferrari 250 GTE Obsessive quests for perfection. Hospital case Ferrari GTE saved. Epic Restoration You’d think a doctor as a long-term previous owner would spell good news – but for this Ferrari 250 GTE it meant years of neglect. We follow the rescue operation of this grand tourer that had a scrape with deathly dilapidation. Getting in at a ground floor price for any Ferrari 250 means the elevator of expense can only go one way. But saving this neglected GTE was worth every penny, says the owner. Words Nigel Boothman. Photography Jonathan Fleetwood.

Rotten Merc resurrected. Epic Restoration Obsessive quests for perfection. This Pagoda generated an £18k bill – just for body panels. We follow the restoration of a Mercedes-Benz SL Pagoda that arrived resembling a collander and left as an exemplar, testing every ounce of a marque specialist’s resolve along the way.  ‘Imagine a 14ft-long Swiss watch… a very broken one’ The pretty ‘Pagoda’ SL has shot up in value, which is just as well when you have to restore one as bad as this. How does £18,000 in new panels alone grab you? Words Nigel Boothman. Photography Jonathan Jacob.

Epic Restoration. Munich Legends had just 12 weeks to get BMW UK’s M1 press car to Goodwood, despite having to tackle extensive rust and blown body panels.   ‘It looked so good that we wondered if anything needed doing to it. Then we unwrapped it…’ When BMW gave its M1 press demonstrator to Munich Legends for some restoration work it imposed a deadline of just three months. Impossible, or just improbable? Words Nigel Boothman. Photography Neil Fraser.