The big picture

Before I could see it, I heard it. The venue was Boughton House, a summer weekend car meet in the beautiful, manicured grounds of this Northamptonshire stately home, built originally in the 17th Centu

MERCEDES-AMG SL55

Deep breath, relax. Which of these elegant wafters would you choose?

Sam Bailey started the SL Shop almost 20 years ago. It has since moved at least twice, and today it has more than 15,000 customers on its books. Sam grew up helping his late father work on Pagodas, W1

If it hadn’t been for a keen online rival bidder, you would now be reading about how I’d just bought a Renault Avantime and how I was embarking on an ill-judged foray into weird French car ownership.

It all started with Jean Rédélé razzing around in his Renault 4CV. The youngest Renault dealer in France following WW2, Rédélé cut his teeth – metaphorically, but perhaps also those of the transmissio