This gently patinated, tastefully restored 1956 Jaguar D-type sports racing car exemplifies all that was most impressive, most innovative-and perhaps above all most beautiful-about the legendary British manufacturer’s mid-’50s design. The immortal D-type survives today as the supreme example of semi-monocoque frontier technology. After three Le Mans wins in 1955, […]
Profiles
1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spider
Following Aurelio Lampredi’s departure from Ferrari in 1955, a new engineering team was formed for 1956. It soon came up with a new two-liter sports racing car-the 500 TR. This was the first Ferrari designated with the mystical name “Testa Rossa,” Italian for “red head,” the color the camshaft covers […]
1929 Bentley Speed Six Cadogan 4-Seater
{vsig}2006-11_1966{/vsig} At the end of World War I, Walter Owen Bentley gathered a small group of dedicated and skilled artisans to create Bentley Motors. The first Bentleys appeared in 1919, a group of three experimental 3-liter cars. In the following decade, the 3-liter gave way to the 4 1/2-liter, the […]
1960 Autobianchi Bianchina Cabriolet
Originally a bicycle manufacturer, and probably best known as a maker of fine racing motorcycles, Edoardo Bianchi built his first automobile in the early 1900s. A wide variety of models followed over the next 30 years, though by 1940 the firm was concentrating on motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Car manufacture […]
Avanti II-The First Continuation Car
The hurdle many owners encounter is a big one-any money spent on a restoration is just being thrown down a rat hole The Avanti may be one of the most polarizing designs ever created. Those who love it really love it and those who don’t appreciate it loathe it. But […]
1973 BMW 3.0 CSL “Batmobile”
The BMW 3.0 CSL “Batmobile” was one of the most outrageously brutal road-going homologation specials ever conceived, designed to exploit several loopholes and bring to BMW a German Saloon Car Championship. In order to homologate a more competitive racing car, the monocoque was formed from thinner-gauge steel, and aluminum was […]
1940 Lincoln-Zephyr Continental Cabriolet
Without hard evidence of Babe Ruth’s ownership, the extra $300,000 paid for this car represents a giant leap of faith The Continental is acknowledged as the crowning achievement of Edsel Ford and the head of his design department at Ford, Eugene T. “Bob” Gregorie. Like many great accomplishments, it was […]
1993 Williams-Renault FW15C
ABS brought the realization that it was possible to allow computing power to do far more than keep the wheels from locking World Champion Alain Prost once described the Williams-Renault FW15C, as “really a little Airbus” -his way of describing an F1 car in the electronic era. Prost campaigned seven […]
1987 Ferrari Mondial 3.2 Cabriolet
Rear side windows on Cabriolets cost $1,500 to fix, the engine must be removed for major servicing and any electrical glitch is probably serious When the Ferrari Mondial 8 was introduced at the Geneva Auto Show in March 1980, it was named in honor of the 4-cylinder, 3-liter sports racing […]
1938 Aston Martin 15/98 Short-Chassis
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 […]