Episodes – Stephen Pedroff

This Owner Spent 8 Years Building the Ultimate Jaguar

OWL226 – Faithful recreation of Jaguar Lightweight E-Type Low Drag Coupe

OWL 226 [https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/owl226/] bestows on its creator, Marco Diez the ability to control time – to bend it backwards until it touches the past through sight, sound, smell and touch. Standing next to OWL 226 one is struck by the car’s presence – improbable though it may be, it’s here and now. And, you can’t escape the visceral link to a glorious, timeless story.

Bringing OWL 226 to life

Marco is the founder of Diez Concepts, [http://www.diezconcepts.com/] an industrial design firm. He took his time designing and building OWL 226. He will tell you he spent a year designing the gauge cluster, and another year working on the emblems and badging, and finally the switch gear was sourced as NOS parts from a 1960’s Royal Air Force Vulcan bomber. It took eight years to conquer the past, to gift it to an admiring present and a grateful future.

An interior far beyond the original, painstakingly created and beautifully presented. Photo: Michael Furman

We may ask, “Why”? One answer is our knowledge that we can never gain true mastery over time. Even when we capture and hold it tightly time passes and is gone. Look closely at OWL 226. Every detail is painstaking, meticulous – a perfect blend of then, and now.

It took a year to design the gauge cluster and the switch gear is sourced from a British Vulcan bomber aircraft

We may ask, “How will it make me feel”? Even at idle it’s talking to us, telling us secrets about our past, and our future. The burble of the straight six is an invitation, the stance and athleticism of the staggered tires a challenge, the slim belt line and six-pack abs under the hood a provocation, and the forever nose promises us unending innovations to come.

For many people their strongest feelings about OWL 226 are heard, and not seen. A glorious sound – from a distance and coming closer – on the wind. Approaching, louder now and you feel alert, quick, ready. Passing, it’s all induction snarl and exhaust howl – you feel it in the soles of your feet, jumpy, fight or flight. And then going away – hoping to hear it coming back – waiting for it to come back.

Hearing is believing. Photo: Michael Furman

The final piece of the puzzle is the feel of the road through the steering wheel. Or, the feel of the chassis as it stresses and rebounds under your ass. Either way it’s a trampoline for adults – point your nose and bounce as hard as you want – throw yourself sideways and catch it with your right foot.

Timeless, perfect and in motion even standing still. Photo: Michael Furman

OWL 226 gave Marco the rare ability to capture time. The years it took to create her are repaid many times over. The sixty years borrowed from the past are gifted to the future – for the next sixty years – for as long as OWL 226 will last. Marco has won. He’s been generous with his talent, time and effort, and he’s given OWL 226, and himself immortality.

Episodes

Alfa Wishes Do Come True

The California Central Coast non-profit Dream Makers SLO grants Peta Rimington her last wish.

Dream Makers SLO and the Alfa Romeo Owners Club of Central California grant Peta Rimington’s wish – a spirited drive in an Alfa Romeo.

“You can tell the personality of a car, and the person who drives it, just by the sound.” Peta Rimington’s love affair with cars began as a small child in England at the start of World War II. The machines of war, with their engines and noise that both fascinated and terrified, profoundly changed the lives of everyone who heard.

Peta Rimington, 1957 Gibraltar, Spain behind the wheel of one of her favorite cars, the Jaguar XK 120

It was the sharp resonant bark of a mid-fifties Alfa Romeo Giulietta, echoing at 4am through a deserted post-war Marble Arches neighborhood in London that introduced Peta to the magic of the Alfa brand. Racing through the pre-dawn streets in a Lotus, Aston Martin or Jaguar, “I kept hearing something, another car, approaching from behind – the noise was marvelous, but my first introduction to the Alfa was the sound…bloody marvelous.” She continued, “It just broke my heart, that little car.”

Peta attends the cricket matches in London, UK in 1959.

“I’ve always been able to get a ride in a car if I really wanted one, but for some reason it just never happened with the Alfa Romeo. On the rare occasions when I heard one I would swivel round and say, ‘Where is it, where is it?’ but I never was able to talk to the guy driving it.”

Peta washing her prized Ford Mustang in 1965 Los Angeles, California.

“I went to rallyes and frequently to the track at Brands Hatch, and I met a lot of people. I never lacked for an interesting car to drive.” Many of Peta’s stories recount a who’s-who of great 50’s and 60’s European sports cars: Jaguar XK120, Mercedes 190SL, Mercedes 300SL, Porsche 356, Aston Martin DB2/4 Mk 1, Morgan 3-wheeler, Morris Minor, Lotus Mark 7 and the occasional American car. She readily admits that through the years she chose more than one boyfriend based in part on the car he drove, and always on the quality of the driving.

A particularly memorable 1957 trip from London through Spain and on to Morocco, in the Jaguar XK 120.

“I like them low, fast and flash,” she says. “I like a maneuverable car; one that makes you feel part of it. But none of those cars broke my heart quite like that little Alfa Romeo did.”

Peta meets the modern Alfa Romeo Giulia at the Dream Makers celebration.

Peta’s dream ride in an Alfa Romeo came true in San Luis Obispo, California when a local non-profit, Dream Makers of SLO granted her wish. Dr. Ronda Beaman, Founder and Executive Director, and volunteer Kannyn January reached out to the Central Coast chapter of the Alfa Romeo Owners Club to find a member willing to make Peta’s wish come true. Chapter club President, Chris Armstrong contacted a club member, the proud owner of an Alfa Romeo Giulia Ti who was willing to help.

Dream Maker SLO volunteer Heather Hutchinson and Peta.

What does she think of the Giulia? “It looks, smells, sounds and handles like an Alfa Romeo,” she said. “I immediately feel part of the car, just sitting in it.” The impression of the Giulia is indelible, “This car was built by people who were paying attention, it’s built around the people inside. It gives something to you, it welcomes you into the car instead of asking something from you.”

Peta was thrilled with the Alfa Romeo Giulia. “It’s built around the people inside,” she says. “It gives something to you.”

In a ‘spirited drive’ from San Luis Obispo to the coast along Hwy 1, through Cayucos and north on Hwy 46 toward Paso Robles, Peta urges the Giulia on. The nervous driver senses disappointment whenever an apex has been missed. The road climbs quickly away from the dense cool air of the coast, across a coastal plain, through a riparian forest at the ridgeline and up and over the coastal range.

It was an honor for the author to drive Peta from San Luis Obispo to the coast highway and over the coastal range to her home in Paso Robles, California. It’s a tremendous drive with increadible views and curve after glorious curve.

Dream Makers SLO is part of “AmazonSmile” – 0.5% of purchases made at smile.amazon.com will benefit the Dream Makers of San Luis Obispo charity. Every item available for purchase on www.amazon.com is also available on AmazonSmile at the same price. You will see eligible products marked “Eligible for AmazonSmile donation” on their product detail pages.

To donate directly please visit: https://www.dreammakersslo.com/donate/

Photos: Peta Rimington, Owen Main

Category: Episodes

This Owner Spent 8 Years Building the Ultimate Jaguar

Alfa Wishes Do Come True