The few alloy-bodied cars were essentially prototypes sold to raise desperately needed foreign currency for the factory design team

During the difficult period after World War II, Jaguar Cars became the United Kingdom’s biggest U.S.-dollar earner, thanks in no small measure to the success of its XK120 sports car. Ironically, the XK120’s creation had only come about because delays in developing the Mk VII saloon had forced William Lyons to find an alternative method Read More

We don’t need to introduce the Aston Martin DB5, the epitome of British style and performance in the 1960s, and the catalog description ran to a couple thousand words, so here is the quick version:

“The Most Famous Car in The World” as arch-Bond fan Dave Worrall’s book of the same name termed it, is the most authentic example of the DB5s used in the filming and promotion of the 1960s James Bond movies “Goldfinger” and “Thunderball.” During the filming Read More

Classically proportioned and instantly recognizable from the moment of its introduction in 1958, the Touring-styled DB4 established a look that would survive, with only minor revisions, until 1970.

A new design by Tadek Marek, the DB4’s all-alloy, twin-overhead-camshaft 6-cylinder engine featured “square” bore and stroke dimensions of 92 mm for a displacement of 3,670cc and developed its maximum output of 240 bhp at 5500 rpm. The David Brown gearbox was a new four-speed, all-synchromesh unit.

An immensely strong Read More

The last surviving 1962 team car has rally provenance in abundance, but it doesn’t have an original chassis

Introduced for 1956, the 100-6 represented the most radical step forward in the “Big Healey” sports car development. Despite its initial success, sales of the original Austin-Healey 100 had begun to decline by the mid-1950s, so the model was revamped as the 100-6, BMC’s 2.6-liter C-series six-cylinder engine replacing the original four-cylinder Austin Atlantic unit. At the same time, the wheelbase was lengthened from 7ft 6in to 7ft 8in, which enabled the inclusion of two occasional seats in the rear Read More

This superb DB2 was sold new to William “Bill” Spear, wealthy amateur American racer and a close friend of Briggs Cunningham, the famed American gentleman racer and sports car builder. In fact, the two of them each ordered a new DB2 in November 1950.

LML/50/19 is the 19th car built, an original right-hand drive example – and one of the very rare cars with the early three-piece front grille and side vents. It was supplied to Spear through New York Read More

With the Lotus 14 of 1959-better known as the Elite-Colin Chapman demonstrated that his skills as a racing car designer and constructor could just as easily be applied to production road cars. The Elite was, nevertheless, conceived with competition in mind, as Chapman had his sights set on class wins at Le Mans and the Monte Carlo Rally. Just as innovative as Lotus’s outright competition cars, the Elite featured a fiberglass monocoque body tub, independent suspension at each corner, and Read More