With 2025 now in its final weeks, the Octane team look back on a year defined by landmark events, significant anniversaries, standout cars and unforgettable drives. To capture the spirit of the past 12 months, we asked the team to share their personal highlights from across the year.
James Elliott, editor-in-chief
My best drive of 2025, against some immensely strong competition, was the Riley Brooklands in issue 271, well that and the Ferrari F50 in 265. My best drive of the year was having the Hethel test-track to myself with a freshly and beautifully restored Lotus 47, but my best ‘drive’ of the year was the Vintage London Rally – our hobby at its simplest and best, just a bunch of people getting out there together and enjoying their cars.
Glen Waddington, associate editor
Two things stand out for me: testing air-cooled and water-cooled versions of the Porsche 911 back to back (and remaining unswayed in terms of my personal favourites), and scoring a used but serviceable copy of Doug Nye’s Driving Ambition: The Official Inside Story of the McLaren F1 in an Oxfam shop for £50, when they routinely go for five times that.
Matthew Hayward, markets editor
A visit to the McLaren Technology Centre is always a pleasure, but being handed the keys to the three Longtail models for an Octane celebration of their tenth birthday was a very special moment for me. It’s difficult to pick a favourite car of 2025, although the biggest surprise was definitely the Rocketeer MX-5 – I really wasn’t expecting a V6-engined mk1 MX-5 to feel so right.
Despite getting trapped at Gare du Nord during a heat wave on the way home, looking around some of Renault’s hidden treasures at Flins was also a huge privilege – especially being reunited with the Espace F1 that I first saw being driven by Alain Prost at Magny Cours in 1995.
Mark Dixon, contributing editor
Without doubt, not just a highlight of 2025 but of my entire career was co-driving a friend’s vintage Lancia to Italy, and staying in the timewarp villa that was owned by generations of the Lancia family: it hasn’t been modernised since the 1930s and it’s easy to imagine that Vincenzo Lancia may just have popped out for a moment. You can read about that in the next issue of Octane, on sale 24 December.
Equally memorable was riding in the Sherman tank that starred in the movie ‘Fury’ – and after which the movie was named – during the Bovington Tank Museum open day. Anyone have a number for Brad Pitt?
Elliott Hughes, features writer
The year was once again so rich in experiences that choosing a single highlight felt impossible, so I’ve inevitably settled on two. The first was taking part in the Mille Miglia – a bucket-list event in any car – made truly unforgettable by completing my leg at the wheel of a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL Gullwing. Sweeping through Rome alongside another Gullwing, driven by Elliot Moss, is a moment that will stay with me for a very long time.
My other standout was driving four thoroughbred racing cars flat out around the Goodwood Motor Circuit at the launch of Goodwood and DTO Motorsport’s ProDriver Experience. Among them was a Ferrari 488 Challenge Evo, which was fast, communicative and incredibly intoxicating.
David Lillywhite, editorial director
I’ve been doing this for a long time, so anything new and fresh attracts me like a magpie to shiny objects: the Royal Bahrain Concours was one such thing: a place I’d never been to, with a very different but fascinating car culture, and fantastically friendly people.
But finally driving Scotland’s North Coast 500 was easily as satisfying, as was getting to experience two of the most important new-build cars of the year – the Alan Mann 68 Edition Escort and the Eagle Lightweight GTR E-type. And I can’t not mention the excitement of treating myself to a ‘new’ car, a 1991 VW Golf GTI Mk2.
Geoff Love, managing director
Two highlights stand out for me: the 21 Gun Salute and the Audrain Newport Concours and Motor Week.
Both were first-time visits, and both proved memorable – not so much for the cars on display, but for the people and places that involvement in the historic car world opens up. The cars are often incidental to the conversations, the stories and friendships formed along the way.
Among my personal highlights were attending a Brahmin wedding in Jaipur with several fellow concours judges, and joining a walking tour of Newport, Rhode Island. Neither experience was directly related to the cars or the events themselves, yet both were only possible through the community we’re fortunate enough to be part of.
Sanjay Seetanah, Group advertising director
On a personal level, 2025 was a year of consolidation. Sam and I scaled back our car collection, parting with the 300 SL, Trump Herald 13/6- Convertible and out R170 SLK. What remains is a tighter, more focused stable: the DB7, an R171 SLK and a BMW E21 323i Baur Top Cabrio.
Away from cars, there was a moment of long-awaited sporting joy: seeing Crystal Palace finally lift the FA Cup after a 50-year wait. There’s a neat symmetry there, too – it was Palace’s former owner, Simon Jordan, who provided the backing that helped launch Octane. Two decades on, Octane remains the biggest and best classic car magazine brand in the world.
The year closed on a particular honour: an invitation to a private dinner with David Richards, Adrian Hallmark, Darren Turner and David Brabham, marking 20 years of Aston Martin’s association with Immun’Age – a fitting celebration of a partnership that blends motorsport, engineering and a deeper purpose beyond the cars themselves.
Robert Coucher, founding editor
Being chauffeur-driven to the International Historic Motoring Awards in a Rolls-Royce Phantom VIII Series II Extended Wheelbase Limousine, finished in Brewster green, held at the five-star Peninsula London in November, offered an oasis of serene calmness amid the busy city traffic. My wife now requires a chauffeur-driven Royce. But driving an original 1970 Jaguar XJ6 Series I 4.2-litre overdrive manual through the gritty streets of South London in February illustrated just how good these svelte classics really are. Jaguar Land Rover has a lot to live up to with its impending Type 00, launching later this year.
