Affordable Classics

How can muscle car collectors overlook anything this big? The 1966 Toronado was America’s first front-wheel drive car since the Cord 810, 30 years earlier. It was certainly Oldsmobile’s (and possibly GM’s) last stylistic tour de force. The post-1967 years became increasingly unfriendly to this type of individuality as committees, legislators, and focus groups took…

Enough pipe-smoking, record-keeping professors bought 1800s to assure a decent supply of well-maintained examples In 1961, Volvo was Swedish for “stodgy,” and a sports car from these practical folks in a cold climate seems about as likely as tailfins on a reindeer. But that’s what happened-right down to the fins.Volvo had attempted a sports car…

If you decide to restore a Mistral, forget the scuba gear and go find Alvin, the Titanic submersible. You will be that far under water The cold wind that gave its name to Maserati’s 1964 Mistral spells the end of summer in the south of France. The model heralded an even colder and more inhospitable…

Rust is a concern, almost as if the factory took perverse pride in building the most horribly corrosion-prone bodies The 1970s have been called “the decade without quality control,” and alas, the Jensen-Healey was a product of that era. While it should have taken the sports car world by storm, much the same way that…

With the exception of a few fake side vents and one character line too many, the Capri was handsome and looked the part of a 2/3-scale pony car “The Sexy European” was how FoMoCo billed the Capri for its U.S. launch in 1970, as if it was peddling Sophia Loren at Lincoln-Mercury dealers rather than…

Two ways to view the Spica fuel injection system: “diabolical” or “misunderstood” Universally regarded as two of the best open sports cars of all time, Alfa Romeo’s 750-series Giulietta Spider and 101-series Giulia Spider of the late 1950s and early ’60s were a tough act to follow. To remain the perennial darling of the enthusiast…

For parts support to be any better, Girl Scouts would have to give away TR250 distributor caps with their cookie orders Among all the great stories of British car industry ineptitude, the genesis of the Triumph TR250 must rank among the best.Triumph had planned to replace the TR4A in the summer of 1967 with the…

Nearly every sports car enthusiast over 50 seems to have a 2002 story. Invariably, these end with “we drove it until the fenders rusted off” A favorite of enthusiasts from day one, the BMW 2002 was described by David E. Davis, Jr. in Car and Driver as “the best way to get somewhere sitting down.”…

Although the “Fix It Again, Tony” reputation of these cars will not die, at least they’re cheap to repair Reviewing the Fiat 124 when new, Car and Driver wrote, “The Fiat 124 Sport Coupe costs $1,400 less than an Alfa 1750 GT Veloce and $2,300 less than a Porsche 912. Within the limits of sanity…

Mine had a habit of popping its pop-up headlights when going over bumps TVR was founded by Trevor Wilkinson in the late 1940s, and has since endured more receiverships, changes in ownership, and near-liquidations than probably any other car company-Lamborghini included. Yet no matter how close to financial ruin the Blackpool, England, firm has veered,…