American

Hudson designer Frank Spring (who left Murphy Coachbuilders in the 1930s to join Hudson) contracted with Carrozzeria Touring of Milan to build 25 production models of his dream sports car. Touring created a Superleggera coupe with an aluminum unibody built over a steel tub frame. Unique to the Italia were aircraft-style doors, custom bucket seats,…

For much of its history, Chrysler was a frontrunner in building some of the most interesting and exciting high-performance cars Detroit had to offer. Foremost among them are the formidable early Hemi-powered Chrysler 300 “letter cars” of the 1950s, which, by virtue of their cost and long list of standard and optional features, were reserved…

  The first Ford Motor Company product was called, not surprisingly, the Model A. It was powered by an opposed 2-cylinder engine that displaced 100 cubic inches and developed 8 horsepower. Built on a wheelbase of only 72 inches, it weighed roughly 1,250 pounds, depending upon the body fitted. Its light weight made the most…

Whoever called this car a Stanley Steamer wasn’t a friend of the Stanley brothers, as they hated that designation. It was a Stanley Steam Car, although Stanley Steamer has become a part of the American language. The brothers were identical twins who went by their initials, F.E. and F.O. They set about building what was,…

Dodge gave its Viper supercar more teeth in the GTS-R, a 700-hp monster that won five FIA GT Championships between 1997 and 2002. In 1998, it became the first American car to win at Le Mans in three decades and the first production-based American car to grace the winner’s circle there. That same year, Dodge…

The GT40 offered here, chassis P1074, began life as Mirage M10003, and in its debut May 1967 at Spa, with Jacky Ickx and the “Flying Dentist,” Dr. Dick Thompson, finished First Overall. Following the FIA’s regulation change for the 1968 season, which reduced prototype engine size to three liters, and five liters for production (Group…

At the 2002 introduction of the modern-day GT40 concept car at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, MI, Ford’s vice president of design, J. Mays, declared the GT40 “the ultimate living legend.” Further, he added, “It’s a true supercar with appeal equal to that of the greatest sports cars in the world, but…

Patterned after other GM luxury specials, Pontiac’s Bonneville convertible was a low-production luxury liner with power to spare. One of just 630 built, this mostly original 1957 Bonneville shows a believed-actual 53,032 miles. It was in careful storage from 1961 to 1980, when its Kenya Ivory paint and red interior were refinished to as-original condition.…

The fast rise and eventual collapse of E.L. Cord’s massive industrial empire, with the Auburn, Cord and Duesenberg marques at its core, remains one of corporate America’s most fascinating and tragic stories. From the dramatic turnaround of Auburn in the mid-1920s, which is a textbook case of selective marketing, Cord’s companies manufactured and sold some…