Henry Ford was truly one of a kind: egotistical yet compassionate; rich yet thrifty; genius yet ignorant. No man— industrialist,...
Refrigerators, Motorcycles, Microcars, Sports Coupes – All Connected in a Forgotten Italian Marque Italian marques such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Alfa...
Today, the words failure and BMW are an anathema: the Munich company is a model of success. But, it wasn’t always this way and, unusual as it may seem, this is the story of a beautiful German sports car that was by any standards a corporate catastrophe. Following the horrors...
I spotted Phil Jelinek’s beautiful ’53 Kaiser Traveler Deluxe from across the Huntington Beach Concours show field. That is because...
Prelude to Excellence There is a story that the Coventry car company name Alvis originated by taking “Al” from the...
It was irresistible and I just had to have it. Back in 1976, my friend Keith had learnt the whereabouts of a Riley powered 1947 Healey Duncan saloon that had been in Australia since the early 1950s. It wasn’t in the best of condition, but knowing Keith’s skills he was...
David Owen, in a 1975 article for Automobile Quarterly, Volume XIII Number 2, commented that, “If God had meant us...
1954 Chrysler Ghia GS1 When Bob Frumpkin drove up in his 1954 Chrysler Ghia GS1 Special, at the Marina in...
Writing about vintage automobiles is great. There are rare cars to cover (“The Only One” Vintage Roadcar, December 2013), cars once owned by royalty (“Fit for a Prince!” Vintage Roadcar, June 2015), and dream cars (“Butterfly or Bee?” Vintage Roadcar, January 2107). Once in a while, though, there’s a car...
1948 Chrysler Town & Country Chris Kidd called a few days ago and said, “You guys have to see this!...
1936 De Soto Airflow The story of De Soto begins with a record for first year sales that stood for...
1930 Bentley Speed Six A bloke couldn’t think of anything more dissimilar if he tried. From a Boeing 737, to a modern Korean buzzbox, to a 1930 Bentley Speed Six. While both the jet and the Hyundai with its automatic transmission and power this-and-that were purely means of transport, the...
1990 Ferrari F40 It has been 30 years since the last car ordered by Enzo Ferrari reached its first owners....
If you visited a car show in 1963 or 1964, you would have seen concept cars on display from many...
It was possibly the greatest automotive marketing slogan ever – “Ask the Man Who Owns One.” Packards were such high quality, reliable cars that asking someone who owned a Packard was sure to produce a very complimentary reply. Throughout much of the company’s history, its cars were considered among the...
What is art? A shape, a form, an abstract collection of ideas, an image created by man to invoke thought,...
In May 1968, my former wife and I traveled by train, ferry and again by train from Pirmasens, Germany, to...
There were many interesting and familiar cars parked at the 2018 Hillsborough Concours d’Elegance. Ferraris, Packards, Jaguars and some vintage racecars are what one hopes and expects to see at such a place. However, amongst the highly collectable and sought after vintage cars on the field this day, there was...
Tony Valadez’ elegant 1939 Pontiac convertible is everything later Pontiac muscle cars are not. The later cars were brash, flashy...
At the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, much of the world quietly celebrated the 100th anniversary...
Joe Ballengee was driving his ’65 Lancia Flavia Sport Zagato through the Santa Fe Arts District, during the Santa Fe Concorso’s Mountain Tour, when a woman at the curb, shouted, “WHAT ON EARTH?” A more knowledgeable car person, upon seeing a photo of the Lancia, commented that it was “rare...
China has contributed many great things to the world throughout the ages. Gunpowder, paper, printing, the umbrella and the compass...
The Studebaker Corporation built some significant and beautiful vehicles during its more than a century in business. Their horse drawn...
“Bella figura” is Italian for “beautiful figure.” Winston Goodfellow uses the phrase in the title of the section of his book, “Ferrari – Road and Racing,” on the 250 GT/L, aka Berlinetta Lusso. Preston Lerner, in his book “Speed Read – Ferrari,” says about the 250 GT/L, “The reason it’s...
Pontiac had built a well-deserved reputation as General Motors performance division by 1967. Innovative performance enhancing engineering, matched with attractive...
We open the smallish front doors, typical of open cars of the 1920s, and climb in. Chris Kidd pulls down...
Alex Bacon grew up a student of automobile design. He cut his teeth as a teenager with a ground up restoration on his father’s ’63 Ferrari 250 GTE and fell willing victim to the allure of its sexy design, exotic engineering and the quixotic addiction that comes from driving something...
In the 1940s, Chrysler Corporation’s Dodge division had a reputation for building solid, dependable, conservatively styled cars. That was fine,...
Beverly Rae Kimes has been called the “First Lady of Automotive History” for good reason. She has written histories of...
We spotted Don Murray’s gorgeous Iso Grifo coupe at his private collection in Irvine California, and wondered what it was. It was obviously Italian, based on its styling, and obviously a high-end touring car. In fact, it looked like a Bertone-designed Ferrrari, except for its unusual rectangular hood scoop called...