Archives: Profiles

Beach Blanket Bimbos

Association with the glamour of the Riviera of the 1960s and people like Aristotle Onassis can make people do silly things at auction Beach cars are frivolous, slow, and silly, but they’re cute as hell, and in the case of Fiat and Renault Jollys, the association with the glamour of […]

1958 AC Ace Bristol Roadster

Introduced in October 1953, the AC Ace was essentially a reworked version of LOY 500, the handsome John Tojeiro-designed sports racer with which motor trader Cliff Davis had notched up six wins and four seconds that season (in addition to placing 9th overall at the Goodwood Nine Hours). Lured into […]

1970 Alfa GTA 1300 Junior

Photos make it clear this is no historic relic, but rather a current weapon of mass destruction Introduced in 1966, the GTA (the “A” stood for alleggerita, or lightened) was the official competition version of the Giulia Sprint GT. The model was produced in road and race variants, the latter, […]

2008 Maserati MC12 Corsa

Built as an edition of only twelve examples, this was to be an exclusive model for use at Maserati-supported track days, similar to Ferrari’s FXX program {vsig}2009-9_2363{/vsig} The MC12 marked Maserati’s re-entry into the ultra-exclusive supercar market and international racing scene. A tangible symbol of Maserati engineering and a worthy […]

1963 Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Cabriolet

The Carrera was intended for high-speed touring, a fast, exclusive car built for hops from Paris to Monaco with a wife or lover-your choice The evocative “Carrera” name first graced the flanks of a Porsche in 1955. Applied to a 356A powered by a slightly less ferocious version of the […]

1990 Ferrari F40 LM Competition Berlinetta

If you want to have the meanest, baddest, highest-horsepower stallion allowed in the Ferrari Historic paddock, here it is The F40 was a simple machine that, like the greatest Ferraris of the past, relied upon its engine for its performance. Suspension and layout were conventional, and there were no serious […]

1965 Chevrolet Chevelle Z16 Prototype

It’s quite possible the Z16 was the first Chevrolet product to be powered by the legendary big-block, beating its counterparts by a few weeks The early success of other GM division big-block cars pushed Chevrolet to pump up the power in its 1965 Chevelle in a big way, stuffing the […]

Triumph’s Joan Rivers

When Karmann face-lifted the Triumph TR4 in 1968, there were still some arthritic old bones behind the TR6’s wide smile and smooth skin The age of the biplane fighter lasted from roughly 1915 to 1941, by which time the last of the fabric-covered, fixed-gear aircraft like the Gloster Gladiator and […]

1970 Aston Martin DB6 Mk II

Two things kept the price down: British buyers are notoriously suspicious of automatics in “sporty” cars; and it was presented on a cheap set of tires The culmination of Aston Martin’s long-running line of “DB” 6-cylinder sports saloons, the DB6 was introduced in 1965. Aston Martin lengthened the wheelbase by […]