Affordable Classics

The Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider, introduced in 1966, continued in production until Alfa withdrew from the US market after 1994. A 28-year run for one model is a notable accomplishment, similar to the Model T and VW Beetle. The original Duetto (a name which Alfa only officially used for the 1967 models) drew mixed reviews.…

The introduction of the MGC is a tribute to how royally confused British Motor Holdings had become by the mid-’60s. The Austin-Healey, introduced in 1952, was getting long in the tooth by 1964, even with its new convertible top and roll-up side windows. Marketing managers also recognized that there was a slot in the market…

Renzo Rivolta made a considerable fortune following World War II. He also loved cars. In the early ’60s, he became a victim of the popular musing that begins with, “Let’s marry a sophisticated European chassis and coachwork with a cheap, reliable, and powerful American V8.”Giotto Bizzarini, father of the 250 SWB and the immortal 250…

Born out of desperation and existing in chaos, it is surprising that the Jensen-Healey and Jensen GT came into being at all. That today, thirty years later, they can be inexpensive and thoroughly enjoyable cars to own and drive is nothing short of amazing. And yet they are. If the original Lotus engine is in…

In the mid-’70s, emissions regulations caused engineers at General Motors and elsewhere to spin their wheels (without horsepower) trying to make old-technology engines burn clean. They did it by robbing vast amounts of performance. To keep selling cars, they had to offer something new to the public. It wasn’t ponies, it was styling.1978 was the…

The Alfa Romeo GTV-6 was produced at a time when Alfa Romeo was hemorrhaging money. Yet, the engineers at Alfa managed to create one of the most sophisticated sports cars of its era. An all-alloy SOHC V6 engine driving a rear five-speed transaxle with deDion suspension is world-class engineering. This was also the last two-door…

Should the Harvard Business School need yet another case study in how a great idea can go counter-clockwise down a toilet if not executed properly, please have them refer to the launch/introduction/sale of the 1991 Lotus Elan Turbo SE in the US. Introduced during the same twelve-month period as the Miata, Geo Metro convertible and…

Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet While the automotive world suffered through the 1973-1977 era of dramatically tightened emission-control laws, Porsche was busy building, piece by piece, the better mousetrap that would become the 911SC. Starting with the dramatically simplified CIS fuel injection of the ’73½ 911T, the SC included the flared body of the 1974 Carrera,…

Wilson Pickett caught the mood of the nation when, in his blues song, Mustang Sally, he sang “I bought you a brand new Mustang ’bout nineteen sixty-five.” Sally’s was only one of the 680,000 Mustangs that were sold in 1964-65 as the car that Lee Iococca and his committee of eight designed wildly exceeded sales…

Want to make people smile? Just drive a Bugeye Sprite into any old-car gathering and its insouciant expression will have everyone grinning back. For eyes, it has headlamps that look as if they were pasted on as an afterthought, for a nose, a little round emblem, Ad to this the open-mouthed grin of the grilleand…