Jeff Zurschmeide
-
Ten Years On, This Spyder Has Legs
There are certain words in a Porsche model name that give you a hint that something special is going on. “Speedster” is one, but also “Spyder.” The latter moniker harks back to the mythic mid-engined 550 Spyder, which James Dean made famous after dying in one on a California backroad in 1955. That grim history…
-
1994 Lancia Hyena Zagato
Utilizing Lancia’s beloved Delta HF Integrale Evoluzione as a basis, the Hyena was a collaboration between Lancia and Zagato and the brainchild of a meeting between Andrea Zagato and Paul Koot, the official Lancia importer in the Netherlands and the proprietor of Lusso Service Holland. Underneath its handcrafted aluminum bodywork, the Hyena’s powertrain was tuned…
-
1987 Audi Quattro
Audi’s Quattro is a legend that rewrote the book in international rallying, as well as causing rival manufacturers to rethink their offerings. It was, quite literally, a trailblazer. The story began with Audi chassis engineer Jörg Bensinger, who spent a Finnish winter testing the Volkswagen Iltis — a 4-wheel-drive West German military and forest-service vehicle…
-
Type Righter
The motoring press went wild when Jaguar brought out the F-type in 2013. Normally sober critics such as Car and Driver described it as “the car you want to be seen in.” Even my own spouse went a little starry-eyed over the F-type the first time I brought one home. She compared the car to…
-
2007 BMW Z4 M Coupe
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 wheelbase and track. Beneath the…
-
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 price tag of $135,925. The…
-
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 1992, becoming one of the…
-
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 the Europa also has a…
-
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 automotive decisions I ever made.…
-
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 famed Indy Car constructor Quin…