Achille Varzi, in the Alfa Romeo 158 “Alfetta”, set the 2nd fastest time for Heat 1 behind the Alfa 158...
Matt Jones is one of the neatest car guys I’ve ever met. His love and enthusiasm for Italian automobiles is...
Imagine buying an exotic 1950s Italian sports car only to learn upon delivery that it isn’t the car you paid for. Thus begins the saga of the Rocco Motto-bodied Nardi that my dear friend Mr. Vino thought he’d purchased in 2001. For those unfamiliar, Vino is a connoisseur of fine...
Shooting-brake: A conveyance used to carry shooting parties with their large supply of firearms, cartridges, provisions, dogs and game. It...
Some of Buick’s most iconic design features, including waterfall grilles and portholes on the hood, originated with the 1949 Roadmaster...
The world is full of confusing racecar stories. This is one of them. I read with great interest, Jonathan Stein’s recent article in Vintage Roadcar, “Going Supersonic” (December 2017) about the winding history of the 1949 Fageol Supersonic and how shortly following its world debut at the Indy 500 it...
Then. In 1991, Harold Pace stormed out of his home-based shop and proclaimed to his adoring wife, Shelley, at the...
Then. Nardi of Torino, Italy, did not manufacture only steering wheels. They also built wonderful automobiles for use on both...
In 1903, Henry M. Leland began selling a $750, single-cylinder, automobile under the name Cadillac. Later touted as the “Standard of the World,” Cadillac would soon become consolidated under the General Motors banner in 1909. Over the ensuing years, the Cadillac brand would come to be known as a status...
Italo Piana is a living legend among Italian MotoGP fans. He won the Italian Motorcycle Championship three times, and was...
The early post-war interest in small displacement automobile racing in Europe was fueled by enthusiasm and petrol rationing. Money was...
Two Italian gentlemen wedged into a tiny race car, flying atop open roads across glorious countryside, through blistering sun and pounding rain…crowds lining the course dangerously close. From 1927 to 1957 this was the Mille Miglia. Can you possibly imagine a more enjoyable way to spend 20, or so, hours?...
It takes all kinds of digging to unearth a Hidden Treasure. Sometimes you even have to bring a shovel. Chip...
Then. Southern California is home to a seemingly endless supply of astounding cars hiding in garages, warehouses and barns. For...
Would you consider equipping your sports car with an aftermarket supercharger then drive it across country from New York to race at Sebring? That’s precisely what John Bentley and Paul O’Shea did with Bentley’s 1950 Simca 8 Sport Cabriolet (#888673). The year was 1950 and the first-ever race at Sebring...
The car collector world is full of automotive puzzles and owners and pundits with “theories”. Some theories arise out of...
On July 12, 2009, thousands of onlookers witnessed as a 1925 Bugatti Type 22 Brescia Roadster was plucked from Lake...
This month’s Hidden Treasure comes to us courtesy of Gertrude Schmedley of Pascagoula, Mississippi. Schmedley found me via the internet and I quickly surmised from her initial email that she shares nothing in common with the usual Vintage Racecar crowd that I hear from. First, she’s never actually seen a...
This is the story of four Reuters, blood relatives… but not necessarily to each other. It’s also the story of...
The Ferrari 195 Inter was introduced in 1950 as a roadgoing machine to replace the 166. According to Stanley Nowak...
Renowned GM stylist Harley Earl wanted to incorporate design elements inspired from post-war jet aircraft into the design language at GM, in the 1950s. The 1951 LeSabre did just that with a wrap-around windshield, prominent tail fins and a jet exhaust-like tail treatment. While the LeSabre was a concept car...
The euphoria associated with the end of WWII greatly contributed to the sudden global popularity of sports car racing. Large...
Sensational French shapes and racing pedigree are part of what make Talbot-Lago automobiles exotic, beautiful, rare and sought after. Few...
David Duthu’s appetite for interesting and eclectic cars seems to be boundless. He vintage races a Bugatti Type 35A and a Talbot Lago T-26C. He also owns Chet Herbert’s 1953 Beast IV Bonneville Streamliner, a Porsche 356 Art Car, a series III Lotus Super 7, a 1958 300SL Roadster and...
The story of Chet Herbert is pure inspiration. Afflicted with polio at age 20, Herbert spent his life building a...
With coachwork designed by Michelotti and built out of aluminum by Vignale, the 1952 Ferrari 340 Mexico is undeniably beautiful....
In the early ’50s Grand Prix regulations changed. Aurelio Lampredi was able to create for Ferrari a new, larger displacement, naturally aspirated V12 engine to do battle with the 1.5-liter supercharged powered Alfa Romeo Alfettas. This new motor was immediately successful in Ferrari’s 375 Grand Prix car. In 1952, the...
There I was, on Los Angeles’ Imperial Highway, helplessly hanging on in the passenger seat. No grab bar, no seatbelt,...
Sir William Lyons, founder of the Jaguar car company, knew, as domestic car production returned to the UK, after World...
Then. In a tiny village of 100 houses in the province of Luxembourg, Belgium, lives a man grinning from ear to ear. After 15 years of dreaming about a little car, the searching and hunting and yearning is over. In 1998, Iwan D. spotted a photograph of a special-bodied Panhard...
