The Honda S Series was Honda’s first real foray into automobile production.
Japanese Keiretsu politics threatened to limit Honda to motorcycle production only, so the company started the S600 as part of a broad development effort — one that led to greatness with the Honda Civic a few years later.
But in the early 1960s, Honda was still finding its way into the automobile market. Japanese motorcycle and automobile makers in this era had simultaneous tendencies to copy established designs Read More
From the beginning, the Fiat 850 Spider has been overshadowed by its big sister, the 124 Spider. The 124 was prettier, more powerful and arranged as a proper sports car with the engine in front and the drive wheels in back. In contrast, the 850 Spider had its engine in the back. Although the little Fiat still pushed from the rear wheels, it never pushed very hard.
The Fiat 850 was developed in the early 1960s from the same underpinnings Read More
Of all the variations made of VW’s venerable Type 2 van from the first model in 1950 through the end of the air-cooled engine in 1984, the Westfalia camper is probably the most recognizable and the most popular among American buyers. Further, if there was a vehicle that could capture the hippie spirit of the 1960s, what else could it be but a VW Microbus kitted out for camping?
A better camper van
From the beginning of the line in Read More
By 1970, Volkswagen’s “People’s Car,” the venerable Type 1 Beetle, was long in the tooth. The company knew it was time for a successor — something cleaner than the stinky old air-cooled model, with a modern body design. The company got to work on a new project called the Type 17.
The new car used a transverse engine and front-wheel-drive layout borrowed from VW’s Audi subsidiary, and Italdesign Giugiaro provided the bodywork for an attractive compact hatchback car.
Most of Read More
A legend in its own — relatively short — lifetime, the car offered here is the first example built of the fabulous Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR roadster, an even more-exclusive, limited-edition, open-topped variant of the already super-exclusive CLK GTR coupe with which Mercedes-Benz had re-entered international sports car racing in 1997. At the time of its introduction, the CLK GTR roadster was the world’s most expensive production car, with a price tag of $1.5 million, a figure exceeded only recently by Read More
Almost every classic car enthusiast has owned an air-cooled Volkswagen somewhere along the line — generally very early along the line. But even though most of us soon moved on to more rarefied marques, the old rattletrap VWs with stinky exhaust heat, iffy brakes and glacial acceleration still hold a special place in our hearts — the glad memories of youth.
Introduced in 1953 and first produced for the 1955 model year, the VW Type 14 — better known as Read More
The Fast and the Furious” movie franchise took movie car chase scenes to new levels of intensity, with an array of automotive stunts that helped make it an over-the-top success. One of the star cars of “The Fast and the Furious” is the Toyota Supra driven by the late actor Paul Walker, who portrayed undercover police officer Brian O’Conner. Like any movie involving car stunts, more than one version of this car was built, including a “hero” car for close-up Read More
The Renault 5 Turbo is a hatchback with a high-performance engine. This French car debuted at the Brussels Motor Show in January of 1980. At this time, rally cars were climbing in popularity. The design of this car was tailored towards the rally car market, but a street version also was sold. During its four-year production run, fewer than 4,000 of these high-performance cars were manufactured.
The Renault 5 Turbo should not be confused with the Alpine Turbo or GT Read More
In the late 1960s, Nissan began development of a closed sports car to replace their popular Datsun 1600 and 2000 roadsters. Under the direction of Yutaka Katayama, the president of the Nissan Motor Corporation in the U.S. (known as “Mr. K” and the “Father of the Z-car”), renowned German designer Albrecht von Goertz was hired as a consultant on the project. He and the Nissan styling staff would develop the initial design, while Yamaha would engineer the drivetrain and build Read More
