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1929 Stutz Model M Supercharged Coupe
Stutz’s illustrious history on racetrack and road has become legendary among automotive enthusiasts. By entering a new and untried car in the first Indianapolis 500 race, brilliant engineer Harry C. Stutz, the car’s creator, immediately gained fame for the powerful new marque by placing it eleventh in the contest. For many years afterward, the Stutz…
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1965 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTC
With a total production run of 1,000 units between 1965, when it was launched at the Geneva Salon, and 1966, the Giulia GTC Alfa was an exclusive 2+2 convertible derivative of the Bertone Giulia Sprint GT coupe. Visiting the new Arese plant when the Giulia GTC was introduced, the British magazine Autocar commented that “despite…
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1953 Ferrari 250 MM Berlinetta
Bodied by Pininfarina in classic Berlinetta style with oval egg-crate grille, brake cooling scoops over the rear wheel arches, hood tie-downs and sliding lightweight plexiglass windows, the powerful, compact and lightweight 250 MMs were ideal competitors for both long-distance races and shorter hillclimb events. In typical Ferrari fashion, the engines had been tuned to give…
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1955 Triumph TR2
In the early 1950s, Jaguar and MG defined the postwar sports car market. The TR2 was Triumph’s attempt to share in the spoils of that market against competitors like the Austin-Healey 100, a slightly faster car that was aggressively courting performance enthusiasts. There never was a Triumph TR1. The TR2 was developed from the prototype…
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1923 Bugatti Type 32 Tank Replica
Vittore Bugatti first entered the Grand Prix arena in 1922 following numerous successes over the previous two years with his 1½-liter 16-valve racing voiturettes. From 1922 to 1925 the regulations imposed a maximum engine capacity of two liters so Bugatti designed a purpose-built straight-eight racing engine which made its debut in a three-car team fitted…
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The Rites of Winter
As the Pacific Northwest settles into winter and the temperatures drop below freezing each night, we dress our cars in their winter clothes just as we make sure our heavy coats and gloves are hung by the door. Cindy’s ’83 Mercedes-Benz 123-body 300 Turbodiesel, which lives outdoors, suckles nightly on an orange extension cord attached…
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1978 Corvette Pace Car Replica
In the mid-’70s, emissions regulations caused engineers at General Motors and elsewhere to spin their wheels (without horsepower) trying to make old-technology engines burn clean. They did it by robbing vast amounts of performance. To keep selling cars, they had to offer something new to the public. It wasn’t ponies, it was styling.1978 was the…
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1952 Porsche Type 540 America Roadster
This is an unusual example of a significant, yet somewhat mysterious early Porsche model, the enigmatic Type 540. It has taken decades for marque experts to unravel the numerous questions of the America Roadster, even including such basics as how it came about, who thought of it, and why its production was so brief. Suffice…
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1939 Lincoln Zephyr Custom – “Scrape”
“Scrape” began in January of 1993 when Terry Cook found a nearly complete 1939 Zephyr coupe in a barn in Farmington, Maine. It had been there for twenty-two years and was covered with pigeon droppings. Cook bought the car and delivered it to Rams Rod Shop where it spent 4½ years and 4,500 hours, cloaked…
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1959 Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint Zagato
The Giulietta Sprint Zagato echoes the severe tumblehome roofline of the fabulous Bertone BATs and the slanted tail of the same bodybuilder’s Sprint Speciale. The BATs, however, were strictly styling exercises and the Sprint Speciales were too heavy to be race cars. It was Zagato that finally filled Alfa’s need for an aerodynamic Giulietta coupe…