Introduced at the Paris Motor Show in 2002, the Z4 roadster replaced the immensely successful Z3, the “retro” styling of which recalled BMW’s fabulous “328” sports car of pre-war days. More sharp-edged than the Z3, the Z4 nevertheless kept its predecessor’s proportions and overall look while having a slightly increased […]
Author: Jeff Zurschmeide
More Sports Car Than Electric Car
BMW produced the last of its i8 plug-in hybrid sports cars this past summer. With a few more than 20,000 units sold, the i8 could be called successful, but it never really caught on after its initial splash in the summer of 2014. At launch, the 2015-model-year i8 carried a […]
1994 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione II
The Lancia Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione is perhaps everything a homologation special should be: just a stone’s throw away from its racing counterpart and offering the very best of the era’s available technology. The Delta Integrale, in all its many variants, won six consecutive World Rally Championships from 1987 to […]
The Pleasure and the Pain
You don’t have to dig around very much to find horror stories about the Lotus Europa. Colin Chapman’s strange mid-engine “bread van” design is known for major structural problems, dodgy fiberglass and the kind of mechanical troubles only Lotus enthusiasts can tolerate. The car’s reputation has kept prices low, but […]
Ignore Your Inner Chad
“Midgets suck. Get an MGB.” That was the considered opinion of my friend Chad when I expressed my intention to buy a rather crusty 1970 MG Midget back in the late 1980s. Luckily, I resisted peer pressure and bought the car. It turned out to be one of the best […]
1968 Challenger 2 Streamliner
Holds the fastest-ever certified speed-record run for a piston-driven vehicle Designed by Hall of Fame driver Mickey Thompson in collaboration with Kar Kraft in 1968 Driven by Danny Thompson to a new SCTA AA/FS record of 448.757 mph on August 12, 2018, at the Bonneville Salt Flats Chassis built by […]
The Amazing, Affordable Alfa Spider
The affordable European sports-car pantheon usually comes down to just four cars: the MGB, the Triumph Spitfire, the Fiat 124 Sport Spider, and the Alfa Romeo Spider. I can already hear the seismic rumble of readers jumping up to mention the MG/Austin-Healey Spridget, Triumph TR-series, Opel GT, Sunbeam Alpine, Volvo […]
1961 Volkswagen Deluxe 23-Window Microbus
A Fun Copycat
In 1958, Lotus Cars founder Colin Chapman came up with a design for a basic sports car that could be road-driven all week and then raced on the weekend. His previous (and very similar) design was called the Lotus Mark VI, so this new model was naturally called the Seven. […]