The hottest things on two wheels
Whether hunting for gifts or buying for yourself, visit the Motor Sport shop at motorsportmagazine.com/shop and find a miscellany of track-friendly ideas
Signed MotoGP Collectibles
We don’t showcase enough MotoGP stuff on these pages, so here’s two absolute gems for fans of two-wheeled competition: a truly stunning Valentino Rossi tribute, above right, and a knee-slider hand-signed by 2021 MotoGP champion Fabio Quartararo.
Let’s start with Rossi who, with nine world titles, 115 victories and 235 podium finishes to his name is unquestionably the greatest motorcycle racer of the modern age. And this superb celebration artwork depicts each of the 26 different bikes Rossi has ridden across his storied MotoGP career, with each season’s stats included alongside. The whole thing is capped by a signature from the man himself.
In the market for something a bit more recent? Try this signed slider from 2021 champion Quartararo, complete with presentation frame and limited to 50 pieces. The Frenchman celebrated five wins on his way to a maiden MotoGP crown in 2021, getting his knee down on plenty of occasions. Presumably he celebrated that title with a few knees-up moments too…
Valentino Rossi Career Tribute print, signed, £1288
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Fabio Quartararo Knee Slider, signed, £791
Nigel Mansell signed poster
It’s not often you can place a piece of memorabilia to a definitive time and place, but this is one of those. Recently, Nigel Mansell sold a selection of his cars at an RM Sotheby’s auction in Monaco, one of the lots being the 1991 Williams FW14 he used to give Ayrton Senna a lift back to the pits at the British GP to create the ‘Taxi for Senna’ moment. This is a promo poster from that sale, signed by Mansell. You’ll be pleased to hear it’s significantly cheaper than the £3.45m the car sold for. £99.95
Le Mans 24 Hours DVD box set
These long winter nights aren’t half dull, and there’s only so much you can watch on TV and remain sane. So go in a different direction and plough through the entirety of Le Mans in the 1980s. Relive a decade that started with a victory for home hero Jean Rondeau, then involved a lot of Porsche in-fighting, before Jaguar’s return. Sadly, every year’s review doesn’t last 24 hours but you should get nine hours’ viewing. £39.99
Martin Tomlinson Targa Florio print
There’s so much to love about this artwork from Martin Tomlinson. It shows a Porsche 908 in arrow Gulf livery on the Targo Florio in 1970, driven by Brian Redman (Jo Siffert’s team-mate). With a wonderful artistic style and vibrant colours – plus limited to only a handful of editions in two sizes (42×29.7cm and 50.8×40.6cm) – it’s a must for road-racing fans. Standard size (unframed), edition of 25, £85; large (unframed), edition of 25, £135
Hesketh Bear LED lamp
We’re declaring a new rule for 2023 onwards: If you are a fan of retro F1 and the owner of a man (or woman) cave and you don’t have this frankly epic Hesketh Racing lamp as part of it, some form of punishment is due. Just look at it. Lights up in seven different colours and everything. And what goes better in a cave than a bear? See, all angles covered! And who said merchandising deals only created tacky junk these days… £35
The expert view
Opus in focus
Every now and then something very special crosses our desk at The Signature Store, and recently we’ve had three different Opus products that have got us thinking.
The items it put out have been nothing short of tremendous, especially the motor racing ones. The mission for Opus was simple: to create the ultimate book, and the company did so, going above and beyond with many of its special editions and bespoke products. There are two of real interest, Ferrari Opus and Formula 1 Opus, inset, below.
Ferrari came in a few levels of luxury – topping out with a diamante-encrusted Prancing Horse edition that was limited to a single copy per country. The mid-range Enzo Edition was limited to just 399 copies and features almost a quarter-of-a-million words and some wonderful photographs, and many also carry signed documents or cards.
Formula 1 includes an inlaid page at the front signed by 22 world champions, a project that was overseen by Bernie Ecclestone, and there are only 100 in existence. It’s also 37kg in weight!
The Formula 1 Opus is interesting because it only covers up to the end of the 2000s, so it has dated. Regardless, it’s an incredible thing. At launch, these books cost £20,000 a copy, but now they’re selling used for a quarter of that. We suspect these prices have hit rock bottom, which means they can only go one way.
Typically, it takes 20-30 years for a book to really appreciate in value, but the Opus ones seem to be at a tipping point, especially with some copies being lost or destroyed – and signature values are climbing for any driver who has since died.
If you were in the market for something special, which also appears a solid investment, then the time might have finally arrived for Opus.
Andrew Francis is director at The Signature Store, thesignaturestore.co.uk