Most car storage facilities are just functional and faceless warehouses. Kiklo Spaces is different. This unique venue in Hampshire – an hour away from London and 25 minutes from Goodwood – feels more like a dream garage for your money-no-object car collection.
“Cars are meant to be enjoyed – and this place gives you the ability to enjoy them,” says Luke Rebelo, facility director at Kiklo Spaces. “We don’t see ourselves as a storage company. This is more like a gallery for important automotive art.”
At the time of our visit, those objets d’art included an Aston Martin Valkyrie, Ferrari 250 GT California SWB and three examples of the legendary McLaren F1. Oh, and a Morris Minor. “We’re certainly not elitist,” adds Luke. “The Morris is looked after with exactly the same level of the same level of care as the McLarens.”
Cars and community
From the outside, Kiklo Spaces looks modernist and minimalist, like a beautiful, timber-clad villa you might discover in the hills above Malibu beach. Inside, it’s more like a Bond villain’s lair: expansive and immaculately white, with a huge hydraulic lift connecting two levels of car space.
Up to 50 vehicles are kept here, many of them with seven-figure price tags, and the levels of security and fire prevention are as rigorous as you’d hope – including an on-site reservoir for the sprinkler system.
However, Luke is keen to stress that Kiklo Spaces is about more than just the cars. “This is a community for like-minded individuals,” he explains, “allowing owners to meet up, share views and knowledge, see their cars on display, and drive them on local country roads.”
Newey meets Murray
Still, it’s the cars I’m most excited to see – and none more so than the Aston Martin Valkyrie (pictured above). Lurking menacingly in a corner, this 1,160hp V12-engined hypercar looks like a Le Mans prototype with number plates. Its aero-sculpted details are exquisite, its overall form utterly alien.
Parked next to Adrian Newey’s vision of the ultimate road car is a McLaren F1 – a car Gordon Murray designed in the early 1990s with a broadly similar brief. This particular F1, chassis number 43, was bought new by the Japanese founder of Ueno Clinic and remains wonderfully original. If we’re talking automotive art, this is my Mona Lisa.
At the opposite end of the supercar spectrum is a wildly modified ‘Koenig Specials’ version of the Ferrari Testarossa (see top of page). Its twin-turbocharged flat-12 kicks out 1,000hp: good for 0-60 mph in 3.5 seconds and a top speed of 230mph – all without any electronic driver aids. I doubt Gordon Murray would approve, but I certainly do.
The presence of greatness
The facility also houses a number of important racing cars, none more so than Ayrton Senna’s championship-winning McLaren MP4/6 (pictured above). One of the final F1 cars with a V12 engine and a manual transmission, it seems to pulse with barely suppressed energy – even in the silence of this dehumidified, temperature-regulated room.
Lastly, returning to the real world, Luke lifts the cover on a Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40. The 1973 model was briefly used as a snow plough before being retired with less than 400 miles on the clock. Stark and functional, it’s a reminder that cars don’t need huge horsepower or a racing heritage to rouse our emotions.
Luke and I finish with a chat on one of the venue’s rather stylish sofas, drinking great coffee and talking about cars. If you’d like to do the same, or you have a special car to store, check out Kiklo Spaces on Instagram and join the community.
Photo credits: Alex Penfold, Henry Wood and Stephan Bauer.
ALSO READ:
London Concours celebrates 50 years of Porsche RS cars