Profiles


  • 1973 Porsche 911 Carrera RS/RSR 2.9 Lightweight

    Porsche took over in sports car racing where Ferrari left off in the early 1970s. After winning the World Sports Car Championship in 1970, 1971 and 1972, Porsche reacted to the FIA decision to swing from sports-prototypes to more production-based machinery by selecting their eight-year-old street-going 911 to be further developed as a racing car.…

  • 1932 Stutz SV-16 Derham Convertible

    Harry C. Stutz was born in Ohio in 1876 where he grew up caring for and repairing agricultural machinery on the family farm. Fascinated by gasoline engines, he built his first car in 1897 followed by a second effort using an engine of his own design and manufacture. By 1925 the Stutz Motor Car Company…

  • 1985 Ferrari 288 GTO Berlinetta

    Introduced in 1984, the 288 GTO was built for Group B racing, though most of the 272 examples made for homologation were in road-going trim. As happens occasionally, some lucky customers were able to buy a superb road car because others wanted to go to the track. In standard form, this engine produced a massive…

  • 1965 Aston Martin DB5 Convertible

    The DB5 convertible may be rightly regarded as the perfected Aston Martin-the product of deliberate and steady improvement in performance, reliability, comfort and appearance to a plane unequalled by its Continental rivals. The DB5 flowed smoothly from the DB4, gaining a small measure of displacement (from 3.7 to 4.0 liters) and power (from 240 to…

  • 1947 Bugatti Type 73 Monoposto Race Car

    In 1944 Ettore Bugatti initiated the designs of a new, supercharged 1500-cc car intended for postwar production. It was designated the Type 73, with variations ranging from a four-seater road model to a monoposto racing car. Early in 1947 an artist’s impression of a streamlined, two-door saloon appeared in a Bugatti advertisement in a Continental…

  • 1964-66 Mini-Cooper S

    If it hadn’t been for the success of the Mini-Cooper S as driven by Paddy Hopkirk in the Monte Carlo Rally and similar challenging long-distance races in the mid-’60s, the Mini probably never would have achieved the worldwide recognition it has enjoyed. And there certainly never would have been a BMW Mini in showrooms in…

  • 1958 Chevrolet Corvette

    The Chevrolet Corvette saw the light of day at the 1953 Motorama, the concept coming from Harley Earl, head of GM’s Art and Color Department, who sought to produce an American counterpart to the imported Jaguar XK 120. Until then, America had been without a real postwar sports car. The Corvette was the first quantity-produced…

  • 1953 Ferrari 375 MM Spyder

    While Enzo Ferrari’s focus was always on Grand Prix victories, he was never reluctant to apply the lessons learned in Grand Prix-or to spread out the high cost of GP car and engine development-to large displacement sports cars.Sports cars also earned both starting and prize money for the factory, and there seemed to be a…

  • 1930 Bentley 6½-Liter Speed Six

    Although the 6½-liter had been conceived as a touring car to compete with Rolls-Royce’s new Phantom, in Speed Six form it proved admirably suited to competition: in 1929 Barnato/Birkin’s Speed Six won the Le Mans 24 Hour race ahead of a trio of 4½-liter Bentleys and Barnato/Kidston repeated the feat in the following year’s Grand…

  • 1972 Maserati Boomerang

    Giugiaro’s Maserati Boomerang was first displayed as a non-functional model at the Turin motor show in 1971. By the Geneva show in March,1972, it had been transformed into a fully operational vehicle. The mechanicals were borrowed from the Maserati Bora. With its 4.7-liter V8 engine developing 310 horsepower, the Boomerang was good for an indicated…