Affordable Classics

At first glance, the first-generation BMW M3 looks like a boy racer’s dream. You see a big air dam, a big spoiler and big wheels rolling under big flares. You have to get into this car, start it and roll it down the road before you know exactly what the E30 (BMW’s internal designation for…

You’ve finally decided to take the plunge and buy a collector car at auction. But floaties and wading in the kiddie pool are not for you — you’re in with an armstand back, two somersaults, half twists in the pike position dive from the 10-meter platform. You’re going to buy at Monterey! Now, you’ve done…

When Datsun’s 510 came onto the scene late in 1968, it looked like Japan’s attempt at emulating the BMW 1600-2, which had debuted two years earlier. Utilizing a 1600-cc SOHC engine and a drivetrain layout similar to the BMW, the Datsun offered technical sophistication and reliability that was nearly on par with its German competitor…

  The humble Volkswagen Beetle — which is actually not its official name, but few people know what a Type 1 is — created the massive compact-car market in the United States. It took the brilliant mind of Ferdinand Porsche — and high-quality labor from a rebuilding post-war West Germany — to make a compact…

The USA, China and the European nations have each all printed over a trillion dollars in the past few years. We are in a cash crisis, with no place for this cash to go,” quipped one of my longtime automotive writer colleagues. “This has to account for some of the big-dollar cars again being classified…

The 1950s saw most car manufacturers reaching to sports cars to burnish their image and give a spark to their product lines. This was especially true of European makers eager to get a bigger part of the lucrative U.S. market, where buyers were embracing a more spirited and involving driving experience — even while continuing…

This was supposed to be an Affordable Classic piece about the entire Alfa Romeo 2600 range. It has become a piece about only one of the five models of the Alfa 2600 — the Sprint. Why? I don’t want SCM World Headquarters to be bombarded with emails, letters and tweets complaining about the definition of…

We live in a Golden Age of classic cars. There are so many choices that selecting your first or next classic car has probably never presented as many good options as it does now.While prices of the blue-chip cars continue to climb to infinity and beyond, we’re also blessed with many good choices at the…