By Stephen Brook and Kishor Napier-Raman
We all know billionaire Lindsay Fox loves his cars. But so much so that the founder of the Linfox transport empire would drop $1 million to buy the first Mercedes-AMG One to come to Australia? And that was only a deposit.
The car – a limited production plug-in dual hybrid sports model that uses Formula 1 technology – was unveiled at Fox’s own car museum, the Fox Classic Car Museum, in Docklands on Wednesday.
A Mercedes-AMG One like the vehicle bought by Lindsay Fox.
“This is one of the most insane machines,” Fox’s son Andrew Fox, who runs Linfox Property, told CBD (and the 200 others present in the room).
He recalled having viewed an earlier prototype version of the car with his father six years ago.
“I was with my father in 2018 when we took delivery of this prototype and they presented it to him.”
Lindsay Fox then handed over $1 million as the deposit for the 2022 production version of the car, of which only 275 will be built.
The total cost is about $5 million, including import duty and luxury vehicle tax. The Fox car is one of only eight due to land on these shores.
Andrew Fox told the crowd that his father had secured car No. 43, and that F1 champion and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton bought car 44 for himself and car 45 for his dad, Anthony.
And a factoid for our car-loving readers: the hyper-car holds the lap record for production cars at the famed Nurburgring circuit in Germany after eclipsing the Porsche 911 GT2 RS MR’s record by eight seconds.
While Lindsay Fox, who is worth about $3.72 billion, and firstborn son Peter are overseas at the moment, he will get to enjoy the car upon his return. But he won’t be able to take it out of the museum warehouse and do doughnuts up nearby Collins Street. The car is left-hand drive only, so illegal to drive on Australian roads. But on a racetrack, fine.
Credit: Illustration: John Shakespeare
Petrol heads who gathered to view the car included Carlton player Oliver Hollands and broadcaster Elise Elliott.
There were also some Fox cubs in attendance, including grandson Charlie Fox and granddaughter Hannah Fox, who works as Fox special projects marketing strategist and introduced the night. Generation Next.
CRICKET BUT NO CUMMINS
Critical minerals are so hot right now. And everybody in Australia loves cricket. So why not put the two together and get the normally mining-averse Australian cricket captain, Pat Cummins, into the bargain?
Cummins is front and centre of a website promoting the Critical Minerals, Mining and ESG conference set to run on Friday in Western Australia’s picturesque Swan Valley. (ESG = environmental, social and governance = sustainability, for readers unversed in corporate speak.)
The day will feature broadcaster David Koch as host, a livestream from the secretary-general of the Norwegian mining industry, a keynote speech from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and a three-course lunch at Sandalford Winery, complete with award-winning wines. Oh, and backyard cricket among the vineyards with cricket stars including Justin Langer and Brad Hogg.
But despite that photo, it will not feature Cummins.
The conference is presented by the cricket-aligned LBW Trust, which stands for Learning for a Better World and uses the great game to raise money for global education.
“It is not just about digging and shipping,” Marek Ristwej, the chairman of Marque Capital and a director of the LBW, said of the conference. He thinks critical minerals are, well, critical to Australia’s future wealth.
Australia cricket captain Pat Cummins (left) and Marek Ristwej.
A cricket source said Cummins, who has supported the LBW Trust, was invited to the conference but as a co-founder of the Cricket for Climate group had declined. “There was no alignment so he declined on that basis,” the source said. It’s understood a request was made by Cummins’ team to remove the photo.
And the cricket game among the vines? “Who doesn’t love to pick up a bat and ball and raise money for education at the same time,” Ristwej said.
TAYLOR MADE
The Canberra rumour mill has long pointed to shadow treasurer Well Done Angus Taylor as the natural successor to Peter Dutton, should the opposition leader lose the next election by enough of a margin that the Coalition decides to move on.
There are a lot of “what ifs” there, but Taylor has the right Liberal bona fides – good private school pedigree, inexplicable Rhodes scholarship, a stint at CBD’s favourite management consultants/corporate bloodsuckers, McKinsey, to match.
Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
And now, the former energy minister is out helping the party court cashed-up donors. His fundraising group, the Hume Forum, is hosting a $2500-a-head fundraiser in Canberra next month, billed as a “CEO’s Policy Roundtable Dinner”.
So far, the forum is keeping its guest list close to its chest, but an invitation seen by CBD flags that a “limited number of Australia’s captains of industry” will be there to show support. Nobody else is shelling out $2500 for Taylor in this economy.
When he’s not trying to get the donor class on board the Dutton train, Taylor is out there trying to build a “cool dad” brand, promoting the recent victory in the Australian Wife Carrying Championships of his daughter Adelaide and her boyfriend, Elliot.
Regrettably, this is in fact a real thing. So real that Taylor and Labor’s man mountain MP, Dan Repacholi, have been bantering on the socials about making wife carrying an Olympic sport. Brisbane 2032, do your thing.
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