How one car changed the culture of Japan and the mindset of America, one sports car at a time With...
This is my 50th article for Vintage Road & Racecar. I didn’t realize it until my editor sent me a thank...
If you went looking for the true father of the Sunbeam Tiger, you might surmise that American Carroll Shelby would be the one. And while Shelby did a great deal of the development on the car, the initial idea to put an American V8 engine into the British built Sunbeam...
The year 1962 was a big one. Not only was Seattle sporting its beautiful piercing tribute to the futuramic skyline...
The Ghia 450 SS challenge arrived at Ghia studios as one of the first assignments offered to their newest employee, Giorgetto Giugiaro, at the dawn of his brief but productive two-year position at Ghia. Hollywood producer and media mogul Burt Sugarman had seen the1965 Ghia Fiat on the cover of...
This is technically the first issue of Vintage Roadcar as an online-only periodical. While many of us will miss the...
Robert Opron passed away last month, tragically from complications due to Covid 19. His body of work would certainly warrant...
We’ve seen visions of the future before. Cars that can fly, jet-powered cars, atomic-powered cars, robotics within cars, and a host of other wild but inspiring concepts for our future vehicles. As a car designer and historian, I’m often asked what the next big shift in transportation design might be....
When people hear I am a car designer, questions come up: “What is your favorite car?” “What car do you...
A few weeks ago McLaren released their new sports car to the public. It’s not fair to really call it...
A few weeks ago, a standard Series 1 Datsun 240Z sold for $315,000 on a much-publicized public internet auction. The results of the sale were staggering enough, but so too were the comments (close to 2,000) and viewers (over 50,000). Further surprising, was the fact that several bidders were in...
If you had to pick the ten most beautifully designed sports cars, chances are most of the list would contain...
Le Mans, 1960. You can imagine the scene. The coming decade was cresting the ’50s into oblivion. The vast high-speed...
The BMW 507 is frequently cited as one of the most beautifully designed cars regardless of era, origin or classification. Designer Albrecht Goertz penned a lithe sports car with near perfect proportions, taut surfacing and brilliant branding signature, resulting in a timeless expression of BMW’s heritage. At age 24, Goertz arrived in...
We’re all creatures of water. Millions of years ago we emerged from a boiling primordial stew as multi-cell organisms, evolved...
By the 1950s it was clear that Americans were in the mood for sporty cars with the right balance of...
It’s hard to imagine any scene from “Americana” that does not include a wood-bodied station wagon. Not only were wood cars a critical part of the growing suburban American lifestyle, the woody wagon would become collectible and highly sought after, long after the useful purpose for which they were originally...
Driven by charismatic leadership and inspired by sporting elegance, Aston Martin has long been associated with top performance cars built...
I’ve been revisiting a series of cars recently from the period of my youth. There’s something to be said about...
I’ve had a fortunate car life. I’ve owned a wide range of cars, enjoying various shows, events and the pleasure of driving or restoring some special vehicles. But as the years have gone by, many of these rare and valued cars have become too expensive to drive. Even if you...
On January 15, 2021, Jerry Wiegert passed away. If you struggle to recall that name or its significance in the...
This month one of the most iconic Mustangs to ever hit the road is going up for auction, the 1968 Bullit...
The Shelby Daytona Coupe is the best American car ever built. Maybe even the best in the world. I can say this with a fair measure of confidence as this is my 100th car design article for this publication! That’s just over eight years of articles evaluating the automotive design...
America’s Sport Custom Production Car I had no idea who Howard “Dutch” Darrin was, as I pedaled my Schwinn Sting Ray...
The end of the century was a big deal. Now that more than two decades have passed, it’s quaint to...
May 2018 The first major car show I attended was the 1971 L.A. Auto Expo. As a wide-eyed nine-year-old, everything seemed special. Bright colors, racy shapes, and a handful of pretty ladies (still a few years away from becoming a distraction from cars) the event was largely dominated by the...
When car companies build futuristic concepts for tomorrow, they are usually exotic cars with sporty, low-profile bodies, and technologically advanced...
Developed first as a show car to celebrate the Ford Centennial, the Ford GT40 concept car came as a big surprise when it hit the 2003 Detroit Auto Show. Journalists salivated, enthusiasts beamed, and inside Ford, the bean counters quietly went to work to determine the impossible; make it a...