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In 1956, the Suez Crisis caused the folks at Austin to invite Alec Issigonis (later Sir Alec) to design a new car to combat what they saw as looming fuel rationing. When he had finished, the engine was the only part of the car that was not completely new. The compact four-seater famously mounted the…

It was the last standard-bodied DB4GT produced-cool beans. The first or last always generates more buzz and is a nice fact for collectors Introduced in September 1959 as a higher-performance version of the DB4, the DB4GT took the already-powerful (240 hp) DB4 engine, added twin ignition from two distributors/coils and twelve small (10 mm) spark…

In careful hands a Sprite could return 40 mpg-but not many did. Healthy survivors are scarce The meticulous restoration of the 1958 “Bugeye” Sprite offered here has been the subject of newspaper and magazine articles in the U.S. and the U.K. “Here’s a new twist to a timeless tale. A group of high school students…

The drophead top doesn’t compress very well, and in the “down” position often gives the appearance of a car packing a mattress HF. S. Morgan couldn’t have guessed back in 1910 that the DNA of his first trike would form the basis of generations of Morgan sports cars. Or that the appeal would extend from…

Dynamically, the transformation wrought by Lotus was amazing. On a twisty road, the dumpy little Cortina could shame cars costing four times as much Of the 2,894 Mk 1 Lotus Cortinas produced, only 64 were built by the factory as Special Equipment models. This rare version was upgraded with semi-race camshafts, larger valves, bigger diameter…

Bonhams exhibited British understatement when it said, “Prospective buyers are advised not to rely heavily on the front brakes, which are not connected” Once described by Lawrence of Arabia as “above rubies in the desert,” Rolls-Royce’s WWI armored cars proved to be astonishingly durable. But a mandate from the British Government did what the Empire’s…

The vendor commissioned the restoration over three years to exacting standards, then only ran it to log a few break-in miles. Why? With the arrival of the MGA roadster in 1955, many MG aficionados were taken aback by the fact that the pre-war look of the company’s sports cars had been tampered with. The new…

A pre-war sports car requires more skill and nerve than newer machinery, but the rewards can be enjoyable at speeds just over the legal limit By the mid-1930s, Aston Martin was one of the most admired British sporting makes. Solidly engineered, low-built,1.5-liter sports-racers took the team prize in the 1934 Tourist Trophy race in Ulster,…