{"id":2264,"date":"2019-04-12T08:57:44","date_gmt":"2019-04-12T08:57:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/stamford\/?p=392"},"modified":"2019-04-12T08:57:44","modified_gmt":"2019-04-12T08:57:44","slug":"behind-the-wheel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pridemagazines.co.uk\/rutland-and-stamford\/business\/behind-the-wheel\/04-2019","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Wheel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Tender loving care for a number of impressive machines.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re in the market for a new car, it\u2019s unlikely the examples we\u2019re looking at this month will dispatch the school run and supermarket shop with any degree of anonymity. Nor are they likely to return good miles per gallon or have decent boot space… they are, however, a real part of motoring history!<\/h3>\n

\u201cI\u2019ll get the lights.\u201d Chunk. Chunk. Chunk. Successive fluorescent tubes clunk into life and each one gradually unveils at an increasing distance from us the contents of Rob Hall\u2019s premises a modest journey from his workshops. As each bank of cool blue strip light spreads out into the distance, a little more of motor racing history is revealed.<\/p>\n

The place is then eerily quiet except for my own gasps as famous Formula 1 cars, a Ferrari 250, and a brace of Lamborghini Countachs sleep among an AMG Mercedes, a Xenos, numerous BRMs, a lot of Lotuses and a couple of Cobras. Rob is a very calm and matter of fact counterbalance to my obvious excitation as my eyes grow wide and my mouth falls open at the sight of this pride of sleeping lions.<\/p>\n

Rob\u2019s laconic is juxtaposed by the iconic. We\u2019re in a secret location surrounded by\u2026 how many? \u201cA hundred and thirty\u2026 thirty-two\u2026 no, three. One hundred and thirty three,\u201d of the world\u2019s most expensive, exotic and precious motor cars. Dormant and immaculately kept in the dark, in a silence broken only by my footsteps over the pale grey painted concrete floor, each one is worth between \u00a350,000 and \u00a310,000,000.<\/p>\n

Some are for sale, some are being stored for clients. They\u2019re remarkably silent given that any of the engines surrounding us could potentially be called upon to roar into life and tear away from the starting grid of Silverstone or around the highest of apexes of the N\u00fcrburgring.<\/p>\n

Bourne\u2019s affiliation with motor racing began with the establishment of BRM – British Racing Motors – in 1949. The firm endured until 1977 but finally folded under the name of Stanley BRM following financial difficulties. It was the firm Rob\u2019s father Rick Hall worked for.<\/p>\n

He and Rob Fowler then established their new business, Hall & Fowler, in 1977. It eventually became Hall & Hall in 1999 when Rob Hall brought Rob Fowler out.<\/p>\n

To call Rob Hall a \u2018car dealer\u2019 would be like describing Michelangelo\u2019s role in creating the Sistine chapel as \u2018painter and decorator.\u2019<\/p>\n

In fact, the local motor racing enthusiast and mechanic oversees a team responsible for keeping grand old girls alive for their well-heeled owners all over the world.<\/p>\n

The team at Hall & Hall specialises in the storage, race preparation, maintenance and repair of historic racing cars, sports cars and in particular Formula 1 cars.<\/p>\n

Rob also serves as a sort of concierge service for his racing customers, arranging transport to races, booking hotels or yachts and transporting cars to races where he\u2019ll then provide trackside technical support. Hall & Hall\u2019s main premises are back in Bourne and that\u2019s where the firm\u2019s workshops are based.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not open to the public, partly because of the rarity of the cars, partly because the team are too busy working on customers\u2019 cars and partly because there\u2019s nothing to see except a busy workshop where a team of around six mechanics are surrounded by about 12 cars in various states of undress.<\/p>\n

Each mechanic is quietly working on very specific engineering challenges, some work paused awaiting the fabrication of bespoke components. This isn\u2019t a workshop as you know it; nothing is standard except for the basic principle of an engine.<\/p>\n

Underneath Rob\u2019s office is the dynamometer, where newly refurbished engines are powered up and calibrated. Opposite the engine room is a fabrication facility where custom parts can be made according to specifications from the firm\u2019s in-house library.<\/p>\n

The team also has the ability to commission a completely new engine block to their specifications. Typically, it would be cast in steel or aluminium off-site but still, the ability to perform a heart transplant on some of the world\u2019s most valuable cars is something to be admired.<\/p>\n

From November until March, the team is especially busy with race preparations, getting each client\u2019s car ready for a racing season. Whilst some of the cars that roll in and out of the company\u2019s workshops are \u2018just for show,\u2019 the majority are in race-worthy condition and are actively used on UK tracks. Others are used in film and TV work.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main market is cars from the 1950s to the 1970s,\u201d says Rob.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019re just beginning to see cars from the 1980s. Predominantly we specialise in Formula 1 racers, but the work we receive is quite varied.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rob spends about 32 weekends trackside each year. He glances at his wall planner. \u201cGoodwood. Three member meetings; Festival; Revival. Masters; F1 Series; Monza; Silverstone; Brands Hatch; N\u00fcrburgring.\u201d<\/p>\n

The majority of Rob\u2019s clients used to be UK customers, but now about half of all his business comes from outside the UK. US and Continental customers – Italians especially – make up a significant quantity, with many of his cars\u2019 owners seeking to drive their pride and joy on the very tracks upon which they made history the first time around.<\/p>\n

What about modern F1 cars, or the new breed of Formula E vehicles? \u201cYou can\u2019t hate it. And you won\u2019t halt it,\u201d says Rob, philosophically. But you can sense that he\u2019s a fan of mechanicals, not electronics. \u201c1998, the Festival of Speed,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cA McLaren Peugeot stalled on the starting line. 10 people were trying to get it going; one engineer and three people on computers. It\u2019s becoming too clinical, more electronics and fewer mechanics, smaller tolerances and people looking for hairline improvements.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs for electrification, one of the things I love is the sound. There\u2019s something about the sound of a car\u2019s engine that connects you, viscerally, to its power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whilst the majority of Hall & Hall vehicles are post-war examples, they see their fair share of pre-war vehicles with lots of power, little braking and skinny tyres. You had to be made of stern stuff, Rob observes.<\/p>\n

\u201cLater Formula 1 cars were different. They still gave you a workout but in a different way,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s easy to make a car fast in a straight line but making a car that\u2019s fast around corners is much more difficult.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cRules on what is permitted in motorsport have gradually been tightened up, but there was a time in the 1980s when there were bigger grids and more diverse cars. V12s; V6s; flat 12s.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what has been Rob\u2019s most memorable motor? \u201cA 5.8 litre straight-eight supercharged Mercedes W125 from 1935.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the average car was doing 30mph – 60 if you were lucky – this thing did 180mph. It must have seemed like a space rocket!\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the value of each car under Hall & Hall\u2019s charge, they vary enormously. A car\u2019s livery, previous driver and any previous wins in the vehicle can all separate two otherwise mechanically identical cars of the same type and age.<\/p>\n

Needless to say, the engineering challenges are reflected in the cost of maintaining such vehicles, too. A strip and service of an engine? You\u2019re looking at \u00a315-\u00a325k. New tyres? Well the good news is that they are available from stock. The bad news is you\u2019re looking at \u00a31,000 for a tyre.<\/p>\n

But for the cars\u2019 owners, money is of little concern when set against the pleasure of\u00a0racing such machines and set against the knowledge that the cars are being preserved for the future, appreciating in value certainly intrinsically\u2026 but hopefully financially too.<\/p>\n

Business, Rob says, is quieter than usual for the time of year. Doesn\u2019t seem like it in the workshop, but apparently some customers are keeping their precious assets on the continent just in case Brexit hinders their ability to transport their assets without tariffs.<\/p>\n

With such a specialist service though and with few firms around the UK able to offer such a high standard of care for their clients\u2019 priceless assets, Hall & Hall will endure for decades yet, regardless of what happens with Europe, with electrification or with motorsport.<\/p>\n

And as for Rob and his team, their business is neither a job nor a career; it\u2019s a vocation.<\/p>\n

Without experts like Rob and his team, the latter half of the 20th century would be an era of mechanical achievement which fades into obscurity, rather than remaining a part of British sporting history, when the roar of a turbocharged V16 Formula 1 engine served as a clarion call to champion the good old days of mechanics over electronics.<\/p>\n

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Sleeping giants of the race track.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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