Affordable Classics

The Pantera was legendary for either killing famous owners or inciting them to violence-Elvis pumped a .38 caliber slug into his {vsig}2008-8_2204{/vsig} By the late 1960s, Ford seemed to be concentrating more on holding grudges than building cars. Still smarting from its failure to acquire Ferrari, Ford grabbed a weak consolation prize when it acquired…

Early RX-7s rarely see 20 mpg highway and can be driven down into single digits; owners laugh at later claims of 30 mpg By the late 1970s, the sports car world was looking bleak indeed. A 1975 Road & Track comparison test of the Maserati Merak, Lamborghini Urraco, and Ferrari Dino 308 GT4 showed none…

The American automotive scene is littered with the tiny carcasses of small cars that U.S. manufacturers have tried to foist on a largely unwilling and disinterested market. American Bantam, Playboy, Crosley and Nash with the Metropolitan all tried, with varying degrees of success. But in the end, the American market’s love for large cars would…

The transformation was astonishing. The 1988 car had performance, braking, and handling to go with the good looks {vsig}2008-5_2166{/vsig} The manner in which the Pontiac Fiero was sold to the unimaginative Roger B. Smith-era GM management (now thankfully long gone)-a generation of inbred, know-nothing dullards, who nearly killed GM-speaks volumes about how obtuse they were.…

Have I Got a Smokin’ Deal for You. {vsig}2008-4_2153{/vsig} When pundits ponder why diesel cars failed in the U.S., the infamous engines built by Oldsmobile from 1978 to 1985 come to mind instantly. Critical engineering flaws, consumers who ignored strict maintenance schedules, and the handicap of a casually water-logged diesel supply turned the cackling diesels…

The 2-liter is really the car to have, as it transforms the 914 from an also-ran into a car capable of out-running a TR6 {vsig}2008-3_2140{/vsig} By the late 1960s, it was apparent the 912 was no longer the answer to Porsche’s need for a lower-cost, higher-volume model. High production costs and currency issues had forced…

Cadillac had a tough task in replacing its first front-wheel-drive Eldorado, the Bill Mitchell-designed model of 1967-70. Although gigantic, this first-gen front-driver was, like its stablemate the Oldsmobile Toronado, quite beautiful. Its successor, built from 1971 to 1978, was simply large. But the second-gen did have one advantage over its predecessor- it was available as…

The Plus 8 offers something in the Allard J2 vein, with way too much power for its antediluvian chassis, but with a dash of British style {vsig}2008-1_2113{/vsig} If Scotchman William “Braveheart” Wallace had been alive in the late 20th century, he probably couldn’t have resisted the broadsword of sports cars, the Morgan Plus 8-even though…

The Maratona edition was referred to as the “Marijuana” edition, in reference to what Alfa must have been smoking at the time {vsig}2007-11_2084{/vsig} For many Alfisti (our esteemed Publisher included), the saga of Alfa Romeo in the U.S. effectively ends after 1967, when emission controls began to sap their essential “Alfa-ness.” Having driven his ’65…