Then. Aristotle Socrates Onassis was a Greek shipping magnate with enormous wealth, an iconic style and a passion for objects...
Is there no end to the list of racecar manufacturers of the 20th century? Let’s have a show of hands. How...
The euphoria associated with the end of WWII greatly contributed to the sudden global popularity of sports car racing. Large and small manufacturers, as well as one-man garages, swung to action creating racing machinery of all types. The most successful and well known were from Italy, Germany, England and the...
By 1969 Formula Vee had become the most popular racing class on the planet. The cars were relatively economical to...
“Wow, I could have had an 8V!” Can you imagine if Fiat had hired actor Ronald Reagan in 1952 to...
Then. Just when you’re certain you know a lot about post-war American racing cars, someone steps up to educate you about the depth of your ignorance. Such is the case with the Sabel sports racers, a series of competition cars I knew nothing about until recently. John Sabel grew up...
Then. I must have called the guy dozens of times, year after year for more than a decade. It was...
Then Hundreds of small automobile manufacturers sprouted from the ruins of World War II. Energized by peace and engineering skills...
Then. Buying the proverbial project racecar in a box is always a tricky proposition. But is it easier or harder if the car was originally built from fiberglass bits without a conventional metal chassis? The Lotus Elite Type 14 made its world debut at the London Motor Car Show in...
Recently the collector car world has shifted. Although interest remains for established sectors, a new generation of enthusiasts has arrived...
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There are few things that car guys love more than the story of a fabulous automotive find…the wilder, the better. The Cobra in the barn; the toasted remains of a crashed and burnt racecar dug up from the infield; a Le Mans winning sarcophagus discovered in a bricked-in basement. Driving...
Then. I love Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) automobiles. These were cars built specifically for the Japanese market, and the best...
Much like the animal it was named for, the precise origin of the Unicorn H-Modified sports racer remains a mystery....
The Berkeley Coachwork Company of Biggleswade was England’s top manufacturer of trailers in the 1950s. Company topper Charles Panter decided to expand the business’s line and introduced a diminutive economy sports car, designed by Laurie Bond, at the 1956 London Motor Show. These little cars from Berkeley had many unique...
Then Was Juan Manuel Fangio the greatest racecar driver of all time? He was World Champion five times (1951, 1954...
The Merrimack Street Garage of Manchester, New Hampshire, is steeped in tradition. The place has been an automotive landmark for...
Bill Devin was a friend of mine. Even in his eighties he was incredibly sharp, had nearly flawless recall and was good for at least six hours of automotive tale-telling at a moment’s notice. His career manufacturing fiberglass sports cars and bodies ran longer than anyone in history (1954–2000) and...
Italo Piana is a living legend among Italian MotoGP fans. He won the Italian Motorcycle Championship three times, and was...
There’s always been something magical about the H-Modified cars of the ’50s and early ’60s. These 750-cc (and later 850-cc)...
Sex, infidelity, theft, intrigue, a lightly raced car, a tragic airplane crash and a pack of lifelong friends…some famous, some not—this is the twisted tapestry of this month’s Hidden Treasure. The story begins in Woodside, California in the 1950s. Locke de Bretteville says he fell in love with racecars at...
Since the doors opened in 1924, the MG Car Company of Great Britain has been producing interesting and innovative automobiles....
Myron Vernis has a problem. Oh, he seems normal enough at first blush…terrific career, amazing wife, two wonderful loving daughters....
Austrian born Karl Alberto Abarth did so many things so very well. He was a motorcycle racing champion, multiple land speed record holder, competitive auto racer and one of the most prolific automotive designers of the 20th Century. When he moved to Italy in the 1930s to become a naturalized...
In my book Vintage American Road Racing Cars, I wrote, “Of all the Kurtis road racing cars, the 500X is...
Then Adults dream of regaining their youth. Children yearn to do grown-up things. This is the nature of our existence....
Just how good a racecar was Porsche’s 356? Since the model’s introduction, Porsche 356s of all types (77,895 cars built) recorded victories throughout the world. While an SL Gmund Coupe scored the earliest, important 356 victory (class win at Le Mans in 1951), it was the Speedster (4,144 cars built)...
How many more trees do these Brits plan on killing? Since its beginnings in the early part of the 20th...
There is no hidden racecar in this story, but there are four treasures, one mechanical and three human. I love...
Would you consider equipping your sports car with an aftermarket supercharger then drive it across country from New York to race at Sebring? That’s precisely what John Bentley and Paul O’Shea did with Bentley’s 1950 Simca 8 Sport Cabriolet (#888673). The year was 1950 and the first-ever race at Sebring...