Profiles

Fiat’s Coupe de Grace

If your build is more simian than hominid, you’ll enjoy the angled wheel and long arms/short legs driving position One of the most engaging things about being an automotive bottom-feeder is figuring out where to target one’s attention when the object of first choice has appreciated beyond one’s immediate grasp. […]

1959 Borgward Isabella TS Coupe

The Isabella sought to translate ’50s Detroit flash into a more compact Euro language, but it didn’t work; Americans wanted foreign cars that looked foreign Carl Borgward entered the German auto industry as the charismatic proprietor of the Hansa Company in Bremen, Germany, in 1929, and produced individual and technically […]

1954 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster

This sale could awaken the collector market for early Corvettes; if you have your eye on one, go get it Then GM’s Motorama was held in January 1953 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Chevrolet unveiled its new Corvette. Six months later, the first Corvette rolled off a makeshift assembly line […]

1954 Chevrolet Corvette Roadster

Then GM’s Motorama was held in January 1953 at New York’s Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, Chevrolet unveiled its new Corvette. Six months later, the first Corvette rolled off a makeshift assembly line in Flint, MI. The sleek and sporty Corvettes were built by hand using a body of lightweight fiberglass instead of […]

1965 Alfa Romeo TZ-1

Alain de Cadenet explained to me a few years back that he bought his first Ferrari GTO because he couldn’t afford the TZ-1 he really wanted Alfa Romeo replaced the Giulietta in 1962 with the Giulia range of cars, powered by 1,570 cc engines. In 1963, the company introduced a […]

1967 Ferrari 330 GTC

Unveiled at the 1966 Geneva Salon, the Ferrari 330 GTC allied the 275GTB chassis with a 330 2+2 engine. The Pininfarina coachwork blended the 400 Superamerica front with the tail of the 275GTS. This produced a very elegant car that is by no means out of place today. The GTC […]

1954 Morgan Plus 4 Drophead Coupe

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 […]

1953 Fiat 8V Ghia Supersonic

In 1951, Fiat’s great designer Dante Giocosa began work on a new high-performance sports car, the legendary 8V, or “Otto Vu” in Italian, a two-liter, V8-engined two-seater. Giacosa theorized that for a car to have the power and characteristics for which he was aiming, a tubular chassis would not be […]

Trophy Car Comes of a Certain Age

Sometime soon a lot of successful 50-something women may seek out the 450SL they couldn’t have in their teens Since the 1950s, the glamorous SL had been the Marlene Dietrich of the Daimler-Benz lineup. And like the old torch song, customers found themselves falling in love again with each new […]

1963 Porsche 904 GTS Prototype

The fiberglass-to-metal body and chassis bonding worked fine for theprojected race life of a 904, then rust began to separate the two elements With the proven 356 Carrera Abarth having served formidably for three seasons, the imminent arrival of the two-liter Simca Abarth meant that Porsche was going to have […]