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1947 Cisitalia 202 SMM Spider Nuvolari
This car owes its name to Nuvolari’s heroic drive in the 1947 Mille Miglia, while its aggressive shape owes a great deal to pre-WWII aerodynamics Italian industrialist Piero Dusio built up the Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Italia into a successful conglomerate before WWII. He was also an uncommonly good amateur racing driver and like many successful…
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Old Car Tricks
“Push? We’re going to push the car?” It was a balmy day in the Pacific Northwest, so I had decided to take out our orange and black 1979 Triumph Spitfire. My 15-year-old daughter, Alex, was pleased with my choice, as the previous owner had put large speakers behind the seats, making it a perfect car…
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The Last of the V8 Interceptors
The Interceptor fell from grace as quickly as fat sideburns, leisure suits, razor-cut hair, and other artifacts of the ’70s In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the Jensen Interceptor cruised near the top of the food chain. It was an expensive, handmade gentleman’s express built to blast across Europe at triple-digit speeds, powered by…
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1972 Porsche 911 Carrera RS Prototype
This unusual 2.7 Carrera RS was created in 1972, based on the 2.4-liter 911S, and with which Porsche assaulted the 3-liter racing classes. Today, the RS is regarded by many as one of the top five sports cars to emerge from the 1970s. Its versatility is hardly surprising; the 911 was designed from the start…
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1955 Lincoln Indianapolis by Boano
Felice Mario Boano and his coachworks may be little known but the influence that he, his son Gian Paolo and their companies had on the evolution of modern automotive design is vastly out of proportion to their size. Felice Mario Boano and his coachworks may be little known but the influence that he, his son…
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1956 Jaguar D-type
This gently patinated, tastefully restored 1956 Jaguar D-type sports racing car exemplifies all that was most impressive, most innovative-and perhaps above all most beautiful-about the legendary British manufacturer’s mid-’50s design. The immortal D-type survives today as the supreme example of semi-monocoque frontier technology. After three Le Mans wins in 1955, ’56, and ’57, it was…
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1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider
Following Aurelio Lampredi’s departure from Ferrari in 1955, a new engineering team was formed for 1956. It soon came up with a new two-liter sports racing car-the 500 TR. This was the first Ferrari designated with the mystical name “Testa Rossa,” Italian for “red head,” the color the camshaft covers were painted. For the 1957…
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1929 Bentley Speed Six Cadogan 4-Seater
{vsig}2006-11_1966{/vsig} At the end of World War I, Walter Owen Bentley gathered a small group of dedicated and skilled artisans to create Bentley Motors. The first Bentleys appeared in 1919, a group of three experimental 3-liter cars. In the following decade, the 3-liter gave way to the 4 1/2-liter, the 6 1/2-liter, the Speed Six,…
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1960 Autobianchi Bianchina Cabriolet
Originally a bicycle manufacturer, and probably best known as a maker of fine racing motorcycles, Edoardo Bianchi built his first automobile in the early 1900s. A wide variety of models followed over the next 30 years, though by 1940 the firm was concentrating on motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Car manufacture resumed in 1957 under Fiat…
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A Six Pack of Sense and Sensibility
We at SCM have long maintained that a well-filled garage is like a well-stocked wine cellar. Just as different times of day, different events, and different meals call for different pourings, so, too, do different motoring adventures require different motoring choices. And just as each wine has its own trademark taste, bouquet, and color, each…