Affordable Classics

These are truly small cars. Anyone larger than 5’9″ driving one looks like a trained circus bear in a parade The early ’60s were the golden age of the British sports car. The British Motor Corporation (BMC) aimed to have a product for every possible driver. MG dealers were clamoring for a car smaller and…

Even rubber-bumper MG prices have left Betas in the dust, though its DOHC engine was designed by Aurelio Lampredi of Ferrari fame {vsig}2007-9_2063{/vsig} For most collectors, the Lancia story effectively ends if not with the Fiat takeover in 1969, then certainly with the end of Fulvia production in 1976. The Beta-introduced in Europe in 1972…

The first Lagondas used red LEDs that failed with alarming regularity, but the CRTs that replaced them cost a fortune to repair {vsig}2007-8_2026{/vsig} Every so often, British industry has an epiphany and produces something truly groundbreaking. While perhaps not as significant as the introduction of radar or disc brakes, the Aston Martin Lagonda-along with the…

How the mighty have fallen. In 25 years, most expensive cars depreciate, but few cars as significant as the original Audi Coupe Quattro (Ur-Quattro from the German for “original”) have so utterly disappeared both in value and visibility from the marketplace. Although Audi was not the first to offer an all-wheel-drive sport coupe-Jensen briefly offered…

A bad XJS will rip at your wallet the way an actual Jaguar tears flesh from a gazelle {vsig}2007-6_2018{/vsig} Few automakers have had a more unenviable task than that facing Jaguar when it came time to replace the E-type. Instead of taking an evolutionary approach, as Porsche did when replacing the venerable 356 with the…

Mechanically, the Javelin is closer to a catapult than a javelin-heavy duty and pretty much unbreakable Some people claim that AMC invented the muscle car with the Rambler Rebel of 1957. Even if we give them that, they certainly came late to the pony car craze of the mid-1960s. Plymouth and Ford were first with…

If your build is more simian than hominid, you’ll enjoy the angled wheel and long arms/short legs driving position One of the most engaging things about being an automotive bottom-feeder is figuring out where to target one’s attention when the object of first choice has appreciated beyond one’s immediate grasp. Previously in this column, I…

Sometime soon a lot of successful 50-something women may seek out the 450SL they couldn’t have in their teens Since the 1950s, the glamorous SL had been the Marlene Dietrich of the Daimler-Benz lineup. And like the old torch song, customers found themselves falling in love again with each new model. It was no different…

It’s not hard to find a well-maintained, low-mileage car, as they were something of an “instant collectible” in their day, with a small but ardent following When Chevrolet’s new compact, the Vega, came to the market for 1971, it was intended to compete with imports landing on both U.S. coasts. Shortly before the car’s introduction,…

A Michigan alumnus’s car sported a gold and blue color scheme, making it difficult to know whether to cry or hail it for a trip to the airport Rob Sass’s article about the Avanti II in December’s SCM was excellent, well written, and well researched, even if the photo was a Studebaker Avanti. But it…