Paul Hardiman

One of the most influential and widely imitated classic sports car designs ever is that of the AC Ace roadster—although, of course, much of the world associates its appearance with the later Shelby Cobra derivative, which resulted when the Ace received Ford V8 power and a Carroll Shelby performance makeover in 1962. The original Ace…

Classically proportioned and instantly recognizable from the moment of its introduction in 1958, the Touring-styled Aston Martin DB4 established a look that would survive, with only minor revisions, until 1970. Designed by Tadek Marek and already proven in racing, the DB4’s new twin-cam, 6-cylinder engine displaced 3670cc while the gearbox was a new David Brown…

Inspired by Carroll Shelby’s success in shoehorning a Ford V8 into the AC Ace to create the Cobra, British carmaker Rootes asked Shelby to perform the same trick with its Sunbeam Alpine sports car. Ford’s 260-ci V8 engine was chosen, and even though this had “only”160 horsepower on tap, its power was nearly double the…

We don’t need to introduce the Aston Martin DB5, the epitome of British style and performance in the 1960s, and the catalog description ran to a couple thousand words, so here is the quick version: “The Most Famous Car in The World” as arch-Bond fan Dave Worrall’s book of the same name termed it, is…

Classically proportioned and instantly recognizable from the moment of its introduction in 1958, the Touring-styled DB4 established a look that would survive, with only minor revisions, until 1970. A new design by Tadek Marek, the DB4’s all-alloy, twin-overhead-camshaft 6-cylinder engine featured “square” bore and stroke dimensions of 92 mm for a displacement of 3,670cc and…

The last surviving 1962 team car has rally provenance in abundance, but it doesn’t have an original chassis The Big Healey’s first major success was in 1960,  when Pat Moss and Ann Wisdom made history by winning the grueling Liège-Rome-Liège (Marathon de la Route) event outright. It was the first occasion that a woman had…

The new cars were assembled from parts from many suppliers, and they might have looked more hand-finished than this piece of perfection. This absolutely stunning SS100 stands today as what must be the finest example anywhere in the world. The quality and detail of its restoration rivals the finest ever performed on any motorcar. With…

With the Lotus 14 of 1959-better known as the Elite-Colin Chapman demonstrated that his skills as a racing car designer and constructor could just as easily be applied to production road cars. The Elite was, nevertheless, conceived with competition in mind, as Chapman had his sights set on class wins at Le Mans and the…