In the late ’70s, Lancia wanted something to grab some of the market share from the popular VW Golf. A...
Enzo Ferrari, in his autobiography in Automobile Quarterly Volume III No. 1, said “I have, in fact, no interests in...
AC is the oldest manufacturer of motor cars in Britain. Started by talented designer John Weller and financed by a wealthy butcher, John Portwine, the company was founded in 1901. Become a Member & Get Ad-Free Access To This Article (& About 6,000+ More) Access to the full article is...
On August 11, 1881, Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan was born to Florence and the Reverend Prebendary Henry George Morgan, in the...
It is always interesting to learn why people enjoy certain types of cars. I’m half English and half Italian, and...
In convoy with a Ferrari 365 GT 2+2, no one seemed to notice the intensely red Ferrari. Instead, fingers pointed and all heads followed the little blue Citroën 2CV, or “Duex Chevaux” as it is popularly known. This “Tout Petite Voiture,” TPV or “very small car,” came to be because...
The late 1950s found Lotus Engineering Company Limited with a class win at Le Mans under its belt, but with...
When Chevrolet introduced the 1972 Corvette for the fifth year of C3 production, the basic car remained essentially unchanged from...
Before WWII, the term “sports car” was an alien phrase in the USA. There was no such thing. Returning G.I.s changed that when they came home with MG TCs. This gave America its first taste of small, nimble, four-cylinder sports cars. Enthusiasts on this side of the pond said, “Please...
Carroll Shelby had a thing for speed. First, it was airplanes. During the war, Shelby flew everything from a Beechcraft...
The Apollo GT was the brainchild of engineer Milt Brown and his partner Newt Davis. The youthful entrepreneurs envisioned a...
When West Coaster Johnny Von Neumann went to the mighty Max Hoffman and asked him for an inexpensive, bare-bones, open sports car—something for sun and fun—Max got him something special. In late 1954, Max introduced America to the 356 Speedster. A stripped down, low-price sports car, it could be driven...
Bond: “Where’s my Bentley?” Q: “It’s had it’s day I’m afraid.” Become a Member & Get Ad-Free Access To This...
We all remember James Bond driving a DB5 in Goldfinger and a DBS in In Her Majesty’s Secret Service and...
These days every modern 911 road car is turbocharged, but that wasn’t the case in the ’70s. Porsche was exploring the use of turbo technology with their racecars in the late ’60s and by ’72 they were developing a turbocharged 911. Originally, they were doing this to comply with homologation...
Available in two- and four-door sedans, station wagons and even tradesman’s panel vans, the first generation Ford Escort, released in...
When you think of Volkswagen you don’t often use of the word rare, but in this case, with a 1958...
Long ago when racecars used tires with tread, I owned a couple Lotus cars. While stationed in Germany, I bought a 1968 Lotus Europa and picked it up at the factory. After returning from Vietnam, I bought a 1956 Lotus 11 LM that I raced in the early ’70s. Then...
Photo: Pete Austin At the Goodwood Festival of Speed just a few months ago a Mercedes Benz W196, once driven...
Alfa Romeo has designed and built many desirable automobiles, in-house, during its century-plus existence, but some of its most interesting...
Nearly a decade after it had stunned the world with the original 300 SL, Mercedes-Benz faced the daunting task of replacing the world’s first supercar. Instead of constructing another pure sports car, with performance as the ultimate goal, Mercedes decided to turn the SL quest in a different direction, designing...
The year 1957 was one of firsts for Corvette. It may have been a virtual twin to the 1956 model,...
The initial design for the Amphicar—a contraction of Amphibious and Car—came from German racer and engineer Hans Trippel, who in...
In the mid-1960s, Ferrari wanted to go racing in Formula Two. The rub was, they needed a two-liter engine, and they needed to produce it to the tune of 500 units in order to placate the FIA. The FIA required the engine to be production-based and to have no more...
Alfa Romeo has produced a great number of very special cars during its 105-plus years of existence. Most of them,...
In 1966, when the stunning Lamborghini Miura debuted at the Geneva Auto Show, it shook the automotive industry. The car’s...
Lancia was famous for their engineering innovations; they were famous for their craftsmanship. And they were famous for turning a blind eye to what this all cost. As a business model, not so good, but in terms of creating amazing automobiles, Esecuzione domestica, great! The Fulvia was Lancia’s official re-entry...
Donald Healey and his small team at the Donald Healey Motor Company in Warwick, England, were on a roll. Late...
Archibald Frazer-Nash started his company in 1922, but found himself in receivership by 1927. From the ashes was born AFN...
Max Hoffman was a racecar driver in Europe before immigrating to the United States to avoid the Nazis. Hoffman became an importer of European automobiles into the U.S., in the 1950s. Become a Member & Get Ad-Free Access To This Article (& About 6,000+ More) Access to the full article...