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1983 Porsche 930 Turbo
The 1976 production year brought the 930 Turbo to North America for the first time. Using developments Porsche had been perfecting for its racing cars, the 930 was the quickest, quietest, and fanciest high-performance street car Porsche had ever offered. It was also the first standard production Porsche to offer a turbo-charged system. Called “a…
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1966 Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu SS
In 1966 Chevrolet offered a full range of 396 cubic inch ‘Porcupine Head’ engines in the mid-size Chevelle line. With up to 375 bhp, the SS 396 put real power into the line that has come to epitomize Chevy’s muscle car heritage. Dubbed ‘Porcupine Head’ because of its different stem angles for intake and exhaust…
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1955 Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint
Introduced in 1951, the 1900 was Alfa Romeo’s first post-war design and the first model intended for series-production. It was also the world’s first such car available with both a twin-cam engine and a five-speed gearbox – and there was synchromesh on every ratio. Given Alfa Romeo’s history, it was inevitable that the factory would…
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1950 Ferrari 166 Spyder Corsa
Working in modest surroundings with engineers Giochino Colombo, Guiseppe Busso and eventually Aurelio Lampredi, Enzo Ferrari was quickly able to accomplish his singular vision: to develop a powerful, reliable and smooth competition motor using a V12 configuration. In May of 1947, the Tipo 125 was first driven competitively by Franco Cortese at a regional event…
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1960 AC Greyhound
The proud marque of AC originated in the first decade of the 20th century in Thames Ditton, England. Always a Sporting Car manufacturer, AC was well known for its AC Ace, AC Aceca and AC Bristol Models in the 1950’s. The latter utilized the BMW derived 2-litre Bristol engine which in Greyhound form was bored…
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1970 Abarth 2000 SE19 Racer
In the late 1960s and early 1970s one of the most popular and closely contested racing classes was for two-litre Group 5 sports racers. It was natural that Carlo Abarth would join in since his one-litre and 1300cc cars had dominated their class in the Sports Car World Championship for some years, taking 7,400 class…
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A Focus Group 300SL?
We’ve spent the last five days behind the wheel of an Oldsmobile mini-van, chasing vintage cars. As the host of a television show Martin Swig is producing about the California Mille for Speedvision, my task was to cheerily interview participants first thing in the morning, then criss-cross the route looking for good taping locations, and…
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Porsche 356B Coupe
It’s hard to imagine much more bang for your vintage buck than a 1960-1963 B Coupe. The B’s cost less than the later C models (1964-1965) yet have many of the durability and driveability improvements over the earlier A models, including bigger brakes, stronger connecting rods, bigger oil pumps, improved steering gearboxes and stronger, better…
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1927 Mercedes-Benz S/SSK Bitsa
If Thor, the God of Thunder, owned a car it would be a Supercharged Mercedes. Very few cars, before or since, have been so imposing, exclusive, charismatic and simply Wagnerian in conception. Daimler Benz began development of the supercharged car for road and racing use at an early stage. Starting about 1919, they turned to…
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1966 Plymouth Satellite Hemi
The “official” Muscle Car era began in 1961, when Chevrolet introduced the 409. It lasted ten years until the early ’70s when the market was gutted by insurance premiums and the cars began to be strangled by emissions limits. Of course, the Muscle Car didn’t emerge fully formed like a butterfly from a chrysalis. It…