Catalogue entry · Lot 0003
Race used Inconel, gold on the inside, and enough presence to quiet a room.
Background
1995 was the year Michael Schumacher became a double World Champion and Benetton took its only Constructors’ title. Under the bodywork sat a Renault RS7 V10, the kind of engine that made grandstands vibrate and neighbours complain. These pipes carried that sound.
The lot
This is not a model of an exhaust. It is a right hand bank from a Benetton B195 Renault V10, race used, then turned into a one off sculpture by Mike O’Connor of RESS in Suffolk.
O’Connor hand polished the Inconel, plated the inside in 24 karat gold, and finished the upper section in a white ceramic coating. The assembly sits on titanium shafts fixed into a slab of Italian black granite. The forms lean toward musical instruments as much as plumbing, which is appropriate: V10s of this era were theatre as much as machinery.
He bought the remaining assets of the Benetton Formula One team in 2014, including spares packages and team inventory. From that store came both banks of the 1995 exhaust set. They were originally shown as a paired piece, then separated into individual halves so each can stand alone. This listing is one of those halves.
Provenance notes (the honest bit)
The pipes carry original numbering. The final digit of the engraving is 1. A Benetton chassis and driver list, faxed when O’Connor acquired the team assets, records that Schumacher drove chassis No. 1. Race by race paperwork from thirty years ago is thinner than modern FOCA archives, so we stop short of naming a particular Grand Prix. What we can say, and what the metal and the paperwork support, is B195, chassis 1, Schumacher’s car.
The paired sculpture has been shown at The F1 Exhibition in Madrid, at F1 Arcade in St Paul’s, and at Silverstone during Grand Prix weekends, including 2025. It has since been separated into the two halves offered for sale.
This lot is offered under Opening Stint’s Premium Catalog seller attestation: the seller has confirmed in writing that the account given to us is true, and a summarised copy of that attestation goes with the item to the buyer.
Summary
Most Schumacher memorabilia is a signature on something that never got hot. This got hot for a living, then spent years pretending to be art, and rather succeeded.
It will not pass an emissions test. It will, however, make every other object on the mantelpiece look a little underemployed.
Collection and delivery
Available for collection, or the buyer may arrange shipping directly with the seller.