Magazine
Fiskens Fine Historic Automobiles: Where Dreams Are on Wheels
Paul loses himself in the world of Fiskens Fine Historic Automobiles, an Aladdin’s cave of the world’s most significant and valuable cars.
June 2, 2025
A look back to issue 37 and the eclectic collection owned by a Supercar Driver member of 15 years.
If you’ve read the latest issue (issue 52) of Supercar Driver magazine, you’ll have learned all about longstanding member Lee and his incredible Ferrari F12 TDF, a quite incredible 50th birthday present to himself. That wasn’t the first time we’ve featured Lee though, so today we’re looking back to issue 37 when we featured his eclectic collection, two of which he made the difficult decision to sell in pursuit of the TDF.
I don't really know where my passion for cars came from! My dad had cars but nothing trick, but I was just always into cars, not football or anything else, and all I ever wanted was to have a Ferrari. I didn't want kids, I didn't want a big house, I just wanted to have a Ferrari at one point because I love Ferraris.
My old boss had a 911 which I used to clean for him at weekends just so I could go in a supercar if you like back in the day, then just worked hard until I got my break and could afford these cars myself.
One thing that was quite interesting is that, when I left school, I had no idea what I was going to do, I didn't have any qualifications and I went to a careers advisor who pretty much told me
would never get a job. Several years later, I pulled up at the traffic lights at the side of that same careers teacher in my Ferrari, so that was always quite a highlight in my life!
My first car was a Fiesta 1.1 Popular Plus which then changed to an Astra GTE. I then had a BMW Z3 M Coupe, and they've become very cool and valuable now, then I had a 911 Carrera 4 and then basically did the range of Porsche until my first Ferrari which was an F430 Spider.
Since then, I've basically just gone from there, adding to a little collection of cars, and I still can't get my head around it today that I own them. It was a dream to go in a Ferrari, then to own one was something else, then to where we are now is something else again. I know a lot of Supercar Driver
members have uber cars and loads of them, but it's a bit surreal for me it never gets boring.
For me, I like the diversity of cars. I know Supercar Driver member James has all the Ferraris, and don't get me wrong, I am quite envious he's got them all, but I like the fact that I can go out in a different marque. To go out in the morning in the GT3 RS, take that home and then go out in the Challenge Stradale is just really cool to have a totally different dynamic.
The Cayenne was a car i bought through the business for my wife to use, purely and simply because of the hybrid technology and the tax saving, however, it's a savage car! It's so quick and so capable it's frightening. I'll be honest, it hasn't been used all that much in the last few months, but for me there's no nicer place to be driving down the motorway.
It's so safe, so quick, sounds good, looks nice, it's got everything on it, it just ticks every box. I've never been a massive fan of the front of the Cayenne even though I've had a few, but think what they've done with the back of the new model is really nice. The wife takes the kids to school and back in electric mode every day, you can get the dogs in, it does what it says on the tin!
A few years ago, I wanted to do some track days and a friend of mine convinced me to buy a Radical SR3 which blew my mind and scared me to death when I first went out. After five laps, you're overtaking Porsches and Ferraris wondering why they're all going so slow, because you can carry so much more speed through corners without even trying.
I kept that for three or four years then an SR8, the V8 version came up for sale with a friend of mine at Performance Time who sells most of the Radicals in the UK. I jumped into the SR8 and it was just different gravy. The acceleration is Crazy, it's a 700kg car with over 400bhp and it absolutely mullers anything. Unless you're in some sort of prototype, you ain't living with it, it's just the ultimate track day toy. It's savage, really is.
I bought my first Alpina D3 in 2011 and I loved it. I gave that one to my dad for his birthday a. few years later because I'd ordered the newer, version. The beauty of the D3 is that it gives you M3 performance in a car that does 40mpg and isn't offensive to your clients. I'm a big BMW fan, and love the M cars, but if you pull up in an M3 or M4 you might look a bit like a boy racer, a bit brash. The Alpina is the opposite.
It's a terrific day to day car to sit on the motorway in It's my office and most of my work is done in that car but it's still rapid, 350bhp and loads of torque, it looks really nice and it's pretty unique as they don't bring many into the country but it's a bit of a Q car, people don't really know how quick it is until they pull up at the lights beside it! It's a fabulous car which I've had for five years, and they've literally just launched the new model, so I'm wondering whether to change to the next generation, but they go up in price a lot each time and it's a lot of money for a 3 Series.
I bought the Challenge Stradale because it's just raw. It's raw, limited, hopefully an investment. It's quite unusable, but that's something that quite like; it's completely impractical, but every time you even open the door the theatre of such a ridiculous car is amazing. I've had it for nearly two years and it's just cool, you can have the latest F8 Tributo but it's not as cool as a Stradale.
Driving it hard is fairly frightening, it feels incredibly light, and it feels like a go-kart. It's one of those cars where you're not going that quick, but it sounds and feels like you are. It just feels like it should live on a circuit, and it's everything a modern supercar wants to be but can't be because of regulations. I've been invited to all sorts of new Ferrari launches and I haven't been to any of them. I think that tells you something about how special the Stradale is, I just don't look at the new cars and drool over them like I do this.
Ownership is one of the biggest parts of the Stradale. Because it's quite impractical, it doesn't get used all that often on normal days, but knowing it's there in the garage is a massive thing, and I think if I was to ever get rid of it, it would definitely leave a hole. In fact, I was talking to another Supercar Driver member Mark who said he knows the guy who ordered my car originally, and he still misses it today!
The Escort Cosworth came about by being 18 and standing at the window of a Ford dealership with an Escort Cosworth in there and thinking oh my god! When one came up for sale five years ago in Imperial Blue, which is the colour I always wanted, it was something I just had to have. It was something I could never afford in the day and never thought I'd have, but it was a childhood dream to have one.
It gets way more attention than anything else if you drive an Escort Cosworth through a densely Occupied place, people are giving you high fives out of the window, beeping their horns. It's a car people wanted in the day, but it's more, of an affordable dream for the average man than a £200,000 Ferrari. Everyone asks how fast it is and thinks it's rapid, well, no not really, your BMW 320d will probably keep up with it nowadays, but it's the theatre of driving that car — it's a poster car for a young kid.
To actually drive, it's disappointing because you're so used to driving modern, much quicker stuff, but it has a short wheelbase, corners really well and makes a good noise. It has a really long gear shift like you're driving a Transit van, but it's just a happy car. You get in it and it just makes. you smile, driving down the road with people looking at you and looking at that ridiculous car. It's just a cool car and defy anybody that doesn't like an Escort Cosworth.
With the RS, I went through all the Porsche rigmarole to get one and specced it from a ski lift in Austria because we only had 48 hours to spec it before I went to Geneva to have a look at it. It's just the best car I've ever owned. I absolutely love it, it ticks every single box, sounds good looks good, alright it looks a bit silly with the stickers on it but I've been on Supercar Driver tours and there were a few other Lizard Green cars, so I decided to sticker it up and make it a bit different. People either love it or hate it, but I like it and they're only stickers so you can always take them off.
The GT3 RS is the ultimate sports car if you ask met don't know of anything I'd rather have than that car. It's fast enough, incredibly capable, it won't let you down, it's reliable, it's built really. well. It's a brilliant, brilliant car and it just gets better and sounds better the more you use it the better it gets.
I'm not precious over the mileage with it, I'm just going to keep it and use it. I don't even really want the next one! If I did get offered the next one, I'd probably be silly to turn it down, but at the moment it's going nowhere. I absolutely love it and I see myself keeping that car forever, I really do. I want to do 80,000 miles in it, one owner, that’s my plan!
I originally joined Supercar Driver in year one when we used to meet in a car park near Sheffield, have a drive, take some pictures and go home. I was a member for a few years and then purely for work I wasn't involved for a few years because I was all over the place, then a few years ago, I rang Adam and joined up again looking for more things to do.
For me, it has come on a hell of a lot since I was originally a member. I've met some great people, I've made a lot of new friends out of Supercar Driver and I love the fact that everybody is likeminded and everybody is happy. There are too many miserable people in the world right now, but you go to these events and everyone is chatting, having a good time and they all have something in common.
I love the diversity too as I don't like everyone wanting the same thing, the fact that there's a guy in a Noble, a guy in a McLaren, a guy in a Ferrari, it's great. It's nice to be part of something that enables you to experience things you wouldn't be able to if you weren't in the club.
I loved the Porsche GT drive out to North Wales last year, that was ace, and doing the Alps tour with my brother last year was brilliant as well. To drive those roads in the GT3 RS was a pinch yourself moment. It's not something you can do without a club like Supercar Driver and they were my two highlights for sure. My plan is to do the Dolomites tour and the Tartan Florio to Scotland, I want to tick them all off.
I went over to Spa and Zolder this year. The Radical went over with the race team and drove the GT3 RS. For a motorsport fan, to have your racing car driven to a different country and driving past in your GT3 RS is a bit weird! My friend was behind and took a photo of me in the RS going past the race lorry, so that was probably one of the best 'is this really happening?' moments.
Honestly, there have been so many times I've been out in the cars and had a great time, I like all the runs, the breakfast meets, the evening meets and I like introducing people to Supercar Driver too so they can enjoy their cars.
I'm doing the Supercar Driver Porsche GT tour to Germany which was meant to be this year but will now be next year for obvious reasons. If Supercar Driver go ahead with an all Ferrari tour, that would be great to do. I was meant to be doing Heveningham this year but that got cancelled so hopefully I'll do that next year and just keep my eye out for new things.
I'd like to do more track days, more Supercar Driver meets and I'm of course looking forward to the Secret Meet where I'm hoping to do hot laps in the Radical.
Out of all the cars, it's the GT3 RS I just can't see going. I don't even know what I'd replace it with I like it that much. If you said change the GT3 RS today and you can have a 918 Spyder, I know it sounds crazy, but I'm not sure I would. I can take it out, give it a good razzing down the country lanes, it's not too wide, and for me it's just the ultimate sports car you can buy today.
The Stradale, I just don't know because of how much money it is and I just don't use it enough. I don't need to sell it but you start to think what's the point? Because I don't have enough money to have a collection of cars I don't use. Similarly, the Cosworth has sat in storage for much of the five years I've owned it, and you think what's the point?
The thing is though, I'm not good at selling things! I get attached so it's hard to sell them, but if a car came up that was something I really fancied, I'd probably change the Stradale for something as much as I wouldn't want to, but at the moment I'm quite happy with what I've got.
The car I would like to own more than anything is an F40. That's the car I've always wanted to own but with the prices of them, I'm not sure I'll ever get there. I'm always going to want one, I'm always going to aspire to having one and I'm always going to try and get one, even if I'm not sure that's really realistic for me.
I'm still looking at more motorbikes as I collect them as well and I'm trying to up that collection - they're a lot cheaper than cars! At this moment in time and with the current climate, I'm just sitting tight and seeing what happens with the cars. It's a weird place to be, going from wanting all these cars to actually opening your garage at home and seeing the Stradale and the GT3, so I’m honestly in awe of the ones I’ve got still.
