Profiles
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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 advanced vehicles between the wars.…
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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 radical aluminum-bodied Zagato coupe incorporating…
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1975-76 Chevrolet Cosworth-Vega
It’s not hard to find a well-maintained, low-mileage car, as they were something of an “instant collectible” in their day, with a small but ardent following When Chevrolet’s new compact, the Vega, came to the market for 1971, it was intended to compete with imports landing on both U.S. coasts. Shortly before the car’s introduction,…
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1952 Ferrari 225 Sport Spider by Vignale
The 225 S should be on every Ferrarista’s shopping list: it has 12 cylinders, a five-speed gearbox, egg-crate grille, and it makes all the right noises Developed in a period of triumph and passion, Ferrari’s big-engine sports racers from the mid-1950s personify the company’s racing legend. Tipo 340 Tuboscocca chassis 0160ED was assembled on January…
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1964 Ford Lotus Cortina Special Equipment
Dynamically, the transformation wrought by Lotus was amazing. On a twisty road, the dumpy little Cortina could shame cars costing four times as much Of the 2,894 Mk 1 Lotus Cortinas produced, only 64 were built by the factory as Special Equipment models. This rare version was upgraded with semi-race camshafts, larger valves, bigger diameter…
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1967 Toyota 2000GT
Toyota’s 2000GT is widely acclaimed as the first Japanese car to be taken seriously by Western critics-the country’s first “supercar.” The model marked Japan’s rise away from dull derivative models toward the highly competitive position it enjoys today. The 2000GT was originally penned by Albrecht Goertz (creator of the BMW 507) for Nissan, who were…
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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 to raise the stakes for…
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1907 Renault AI 35/45 Vanderbilt Racer
This car was the Ferrari Enzo of its day-exclusive, fast, beautiful, and exciting-but not really a racer Renault’s reputation was made in the open-road races of Europe at the turn of the 20th century, in cars built and driven by Louis Renault and his brother Marcel. Even though Marcel was killed in the 1903 Paris-Madrid…
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Which Avanti II Buy?
A Michigan alumnus’s car sported a gold and blue color scheme, making it difficult to know whether to cry or hail it for a trip to the airport Rob Sass’s article about the Avanti II in December’s SCM was excellent, well written, and well researched, even if the photo was a Studebaker Avanti. But it…
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1961 Ferrari 250 GT SWB Berlinetta
Sold new in Italy to A. Demetrialdi in May 1961, this 250 GT SWB “Lusso” was imported into Switzerland in April 1963 and entered for its first race by its new owner, Daniel Siebenmann of Switzerland, at the “Auvergne 3 hours” in France, where it finished 23rd (pictured in Jess Pourret’s “Ferrari 250 GT Competition,”…