Columns
-
1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI
Although collectible 1960s Alfas are known primarily as sleek spiders and elegant coupes, those in the know will tell you the blandly styled “square-rigged” sedans are the most fun to drive {vsig}2004-10_1414{/vsig} As described by the seller on eBay Motors: This ’65 Alfa Romeo Giulia TI is very original and unmolested. For a 40-year-old car,…
-
1952 Ferrari 212 Inter Berlinetta
Once described in a magazine as the world’s most beautiful Ferrari, the 212 was somewhat unfairly known in my neck of the woods as the world’s ugliest {vsig}2004-10_1443{/vsig} Whatever the chosen medium, artists’ earliest works are always among their most desired and sought after. Artist-in-metal Enzo Ferrari is a case in point, all the more…
-
1968 Riley Elf Mk III
The Elf was designed to appeal to older “Buick and Oldsmobile” customers, with a miniature vertical grille, leather interior and a strange projecting trunk that pretty much ruined the Mini’s perfectly cute lines A luxury Mini blessed with marginally greater trunk space and an improved interior, the Riley Elf (along with its Wolseley Hornet stablemate)…
-
1948 Cisitalia 202 Cabriolet
Cisitalias are one of those odd exceptions to the “top goes down, price goes up” rule, and in this case the coupe is actually the preferred model {vsig}2004-10_1440{/vsig} A talented “gentleman driver” and owner of the sports equipment concern Consorzio Industriale Sportiva Italia-or Cisitalia, as it was known-Piero Dusio recognized that post-war Italy would have…
-
Forever Young
Austin-Healey was really a one-trick pony, a company that produced a single design and a few variations on that theme. From the first svelte, unadorned 100-4, with its graunchy three-speed gearbox and fold-down windshield, to the final ornate and luxurious BJ8, all the models we now call Big Healeys shared the same basic look. But…
-
1965-66 Chevrolet Corvair Corsa
The most controversial car of the 20th century Let’s get this out of the way right off the bat: Ralph Nader didn’t kill the Corvair. Blame can be more squarely placed on the Camaro, the pony car that rendered Chevrolet’s weird, rear-engine small car irrelevant to its product planners. Indeed, when the Camaro was introduced…
-
1988 Porsche 959
Before the Ferrari F40, before the McLaren F1, almost before the term “supercar” was invented, there was the Porsche 959, an expression of extensive development, technical competence, and competitiveness that brought a new excitement to road-going automotive pursuits. The Porsche 959 odyssey started in 1983 and involved many pioneering techniques, most notably molded composite bodywork.…
-
1999 Hummer H1 Wagon
Inside a 1990s-vintage Hummer, fit and finish and quality of materials rival only those vehicles built under Eastern European Communist regimes; think gargantuan all-wheel-drive Trabant {vsig}2004-9_1210{/vsig} Not just another 4×4, the Hummer is an all-terrain vehicle in a class of its own, as capable off the road as it is imposing on it. The Hummer…
-
2000 F1/2000 Race Car
Of course, there is no experience like driving an F1 car: The sound, the incredible horsepower, the ridiculous braking ability, and the sheer competence of the chassis combine into sensory overload of the best sort {vsig}2004-9_1211{/vsig} When Jody Scheckter won the Formula 1 drivers’ championship in 1979, few enthusiasts, and even fewer among the management…
-
1947 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Berlinetta Touring Sport
At a hefty 3,000 pounds and with only 95 horsepower, the 6C 2500 Sport was far from an AA Fuel dragster {vsig}2004-9_1204{/vsig} By the later 1930s and during the early 1940s, thanks to the high-profile successes won in motor racing by its sports and Grand Prix cars, Alfa Romeo had earned a well-deserved reputation for…