Do you like cars as much as watches? If so, you'll love this one...
We've chatted about this before, but it's not just watches we enjoy as a team here at WatchGecko. Other cool stuff massively interests us here including fashion, photography, stories and generally most mechanical things. Akin to watches are cars. People involved in both the watch and car industry normally have a passion for the work they produce. Whether that be designing watches, or handpicking quality examples of vehicles to sell, the passion for the work is there and clear to see.
This is where the Maundrell team comes into play and their huge selection of cars available in their showroom. Situated in your typical English countryside, Maundrells offer pre-owned specialist cars with an emphasis on Porsche. The Maundrell indoor showrooms house not just Porsche however with pretty cool cars from popular modern Ferrari, Maserati, Aston Martin as well as classic British racers. Ben and I recently spent an afternoon at Maundrell HQ with a couple of cameras, the British sunshine, a few racing Geckota watches and a great selection of cars. Below is the outcome of our visit…The Showroom
Arriving at Maundrell you're naturally greeted with a nice range of cars instantly. Some of these cars are not for sale and stored here, hence the dust on top of them. Ben and I loved this, as it really gives them that barn find feel.
Ferrari F430 2006 Manual
Tucked in the corner of the showroom was this Ferrari Rosso Corsa F430 with a complimentary cream interior. This colour scheme is one of the best with a Ferrari further emphasising the sporty summery feel of the car. As mentioned above, this car is from 2006 yet somehow still maintains a modern look both inside and out. The fact this F430 is manual as well must mean this car is as enjoyable to drive as it is to look at.
To find out more about the Ferrari F430 click here.
Porsche 911 S Sportmatic from 1976
This was the one car that caught my eye instantly and fortunately, it has a cool little story to match its look. According to the guys at Maundrell, this example has been dry stored in Japan for over 20 years (hence the 18,641 milage reading). Since arriving on UK soil the car went through a full engine re-build to get it to this state. If you had walked into a Porsche dealership in the 70s, it wouldn't have looked much different to this right here.
Check out the Porsche 911 S Sportmatic in more detail here.
The Audi RS6 Avant Performance Quattro 2016
For many, if someone saw this car out on the streets or more than likely overtaking them, they could be forgiven for thinking it's just a standard metallic blue modern Audi estate. However, car guys will instantly know the special and crazy tricks it has under the bonnet. With just shy of 600bhp, a 0-60mph of 4 seconds a max speed of 155mph this isn't a car to be messed with. Oh, and Audi has acheived this at the same time as offering enough space for 5 adults and a dog in the back. The sheer amount of carbon fibre and sharp alloy design combined with that Sepang Blue Pearl is incredible in person. Is it too early to call this a modern day classic?
You'll want to learn more about this RS6 here.
The storage showroom
We then took a scroll back to the storage showroom to take a further look at the more eclectic selection of cars including a little Fiat 500, MG J600 MK2 in racing green, Porsche 924 GTS and a pretty amazing Ford Escort - more in that in a minute.
Ford Escort 70s
Now I'll be honest, the above title of 'Ford Escot' doesn't really do this car justice. Here we have a converted vehicle to a stripped out, barebones, roll cage featuring hardcore racer. As soon as Ben and I saw this one, we knew this was the car we wanted to take a proper look at in more detail. Alex at Maundrell kindly offered to bring this one outside for a serious photoshoot in the daylight, which is when the fun really began...
Get yourself a watch that matches your steering wheel, right?
And if you want something to match the body colour the Escort, why not go for the C-03?The end of a short but sweet afternoon...
The above is the result of just a couple of hours of wandering around the Maundrell showroom and, realistically we could have easily spent another couple of hours there looking some of the cars we didn't get around to. If any of these cars have caught your eye and you're keen to learn more, be sure to get in contact with Maundrell in Oxfordshire. The team are incredibly helpful, knowledgable and will really look are you. There are a few watch guys there as well so you're sure to be in safe hands...
A big thank you to the Maundrell team for making the photoshoot happen, once again, click here to find out more.