When the young William Lyons introduced his devastatingly handsome SS Jaguar 100 sports two-seater in the fall of 1935, it was viewed with some skepticism by the rather conservative English sporting motorists of the day. Rakishly low, with 90 mph plus readily available and acceleration to match, it was well-equipped […]
Archives: Profiles
1957 Ford Thunderbird F-Series Factory Supercharged Convertible
{vsig}1997-10_1622{/vsig} When the Ford Thunderbird arrived in 1955, it literally blew past the Corvette in both sales and popularity, giving General Motors pause to reconsider the Corvette’s future. It was the beginning of the short-lived but exciting sports car wars which revved up in 1955 and ended abruptly in 1957, […]
1972 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder
I drove all night and most of the next day, This unique GTS/4 Daytona Spyder is that most mythical of beasts, a genuine one-owner-from-new Daytona Spyder. We know of just one other, a North American-specification model resident in the U.S. Ferrari sold just 121 Daytona Spyders. Left-hand drive chassis number […]
1972 Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spyder
{vsig}1997-10_1623{/vsig} Ferrari’s fabulous fourcam V12 front-engined Berlinetta concept evolved during 1967 when the 3.3-liter fourcam 275GTB/4 model was just being introduced to the high performance car market. What would become the 365 GTB/4 “Daytona” was developed with the rapidity typical of Maranello, and subsequently made its public debut at the […]
1954 Maserati A6G/54 Zagato
Of the Maserati sports racing cars that took part in competition during the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the most successful was the A6G/CS of 1947. On its debut in the 1947 Circuit of Modeno Alberto Ascari and Luigi Viloresi finished 1st and 2nd overall, while regular class […]
1964 Ferrari 250 Le Mans
By the end of 1963 it had become apparent to Ferrari that a successor to the 250 GTO would be needed in order to counter increasing opposition in the GT class, particularly from the massive onslaught of Carroll Shelby’s Cobras. It was thus that the new Ferrari 250 Le Mans […]
1929 Cadillac 341B Sport Dual-Cowl Phaeton
Cadillac cars were the inspiration of Henry M. Leyland and established the tradition of interchangeability of components. They became part of General Motors in 1909 and were soon the leaders of that group. In 1914 they introduced the world’s first commercially successful V8 engine, which stayed into production in its […]
1959 BMW 507 Series II
It would indeed have been a shame if BMW had confined the use of its first V8 engine range merely to its saloon cars of the 1950s. Had that been the case, the world would have been denied what is arguably the Bavarian marque’s finest post-war sports car-the glamorous, high-performance […]
1930 Bentley 4.5-Liter Supercharged Tourer
Perhaps the worst-kept secret among “the right crowd” in motor sport circles in 1929 was the development of the supercharged Bentley. As early as 1 January, 1929 the “Morning Post” suggested that two UK companies would be entering supercharged cars for Le Mans that year and in July 1929, when […]
1959 BMW 507 Series II
It would have been a shame if BMW had confined the use of its first V8 engine range merely to its saloon cars of the 1950s. Had that been the case the world would have been denied what is arguably the Bavarian marque’s finest post-war sports car – the glamorous […]