Although Ferdinand Porsche did not commence building cars until 1948, his engineering pedigree was well established, with designs ranging from the awesome Auto Union V16 Grand Prix car to the Tiger tank. After World War II, however, and fresh from serving a two year prison sentence as a result, Porsche […]

When Porsche introduced their first competition designed sports GT – the 904 – in 1964, it was the beginning of a planned policy to extol the virtues of their production cars by building similar engined competition versions that could be sold to customers {vsig}1995-12_1716{/vsig} When Porsche introduced their first competition […]

The huge aftermarket in performance equipment shows just how restless many enthusiasts are about production cars. Most of us have made changes ranging from replacing engine and suspension parts to installing complete drivetrains. The results are usually a mixed bag but we never quit trying. Major manufacturers do little better, […]

The Mercedes, with its pressed steel frame, honeycomb radiator, mechanically operated inlet valves, gate-change gearbox and other advanced features was truly the fore-runner of the modern motorcar, and in its day was widely copied by manufacturers both in The Mercedes, with its pressed steel frame, honeycomb radiator, mechanically operated inlet […]

The Porsche 934 was developed in 1976 in order to compete in the Group 4 GT category of national and international events. It dominated the 1976 European GT and Trans-Am championships and went on to take countless other successes in the hands of Porsche’s many private GT racers. In 1979 […]

For fairly obvious reasons, few Mercedes-Benz cars reached Britain or America in the late 1930s, which was our loss because, then as now, the company made superb, technically advanced motorcars. Introduced in 1932, the 200 series was unusual for the time in that it had all independent suspension, by transverse […]

Until 1928 BMW’s main line of business was aero engines and it did not make cars until it bought the Dixi company which made Austin Sevens under license. Although BMW was late on the scene, it established a towering reputation in a very few years. A six cylinder engine was […]

Having made a stunning rally debut in October 1980 by running their as-yet unhomologated Quattro as a “course car” in the Algarve Rally, when Hannu Mikkola set fastest time on 24 out of 30 stages, Audi quickly came to dominate the rallying scene with their four-wheel driven flyer. And when […]

The name of Mercedes-Benz is synonymous with the heritage of the motorcar, and the company has over the decades produced some of the finest examples of sporting machinery. Early forays into the competition world led to the production of some of the fastest touring cars of their day and an […]

The Carrera RS is one of the most famous Porsche models ever built, and has come over the years to be regarded as one of the top sports cars to emerge from the 1970s. It was designed and built with ambivalence very much in mind: Porsche’s engineers wanted a car […]