We open the smallish front doors, typical of open cars of the 1920s, and climb in. Chris Kidd pulls down...
1958 DeSoto Adventurer The 1950s were a halcyon period for American car manufacturing. After the deprivation of the war years,...
“Bella figura” is Italian for “beautiful figure.” Winston Goodfellow uses the phrase in the title of the section of his book, “Ferrari – Road and Racing,” on the 250 GT/L, aka Berlinetta Lusso. Preston Lerner, in his book “Speed Read – Ferrari,” says about the 250 GT/L, “The reason it’s...
Sensational French shapes and racing pedigree are part of what make Talbot-Lago automobiles exotic, beautiful, rare and sought after. Few...
Photo: Steve Oom With just over 600 produced between 1954 and 1962 it can t be said that the Jensen...
Photo: J. Michael Hemsley After he had finished the restoration of his 1936 Stout Scarab, Ron Schneider took it to a prestigious car show in Michigan. Two suited Chrysler executives looked over the car. As they turned to go, one said to the other, “So, who’s going to tell Lee...
Photo: J. Michael Hemsley When you have the only one ever built, you might have trouble convincing people that it...
Photo: Peter Collins Things were bad. There had been difficulties before for Lancia, but on both occasions the good guys...
Photo: Steve Oom The next time you see an Audi on the road look closely at its badge. Four intertwined rings that probably remind the average person of the Olympic rings, but like most car badging there is a story behind the rings, which in the case of this German...
It’s rather ironic that both the birth of the “Pony Car” movement in the mid-1960s, and its eventual death in...
The 275 GTB occupies a very rarified space in the pantheon of Ferrari road car history. It sits at an...
National Motor Museum mechanics have discovered time capsule finds during the start of the restoration of Land Speed Record breaker Sunbeam 1000hp. The historic finds were made while the workshop team removed its two colossal V12 aero engines, workings and body panels for the Sunbeam 1000hp Restoration Campaign. The campaign...
When Jim Gehkre returned from his tour in Vietnam, in January of 1970, the first thing he needed was a...
What is it about a Stradale? Ask most Alfisti what Alfa they’d most like to have in their garage, and...
In September 2022, I travelled to Townsend, Tennessee, in the Great Smokey Mountains for Okteenerfest. The annual gathering of Porsche 914s was a fun, albeit secondary, reason for going. The primary reason was to profile a rare 914 model, a Can-Am in a color combination that causes it to be...
When someone says “Sunbeam,” most car people immediately think of the “Tiger.” Sunbeam was much more than just that one...
The term Metropolitan is an adjective meaning, “Of, relating to, or characteristic of a metropolis.” It was also a term...
A frenzy of uncorked Mini Coopers, followed by a gaggle of vintage MGs, Triumphs and other assorted vintage sports racers came flying by, but incongruously, about mid-pack was a 1929 Model 75 Chrysler Roadster holding its own around this short airport road course. I was at a vintage and historic...
“100 miles per hour speed with 100 percent comfort and docility.” This proclamation was made in an advertisement that appeared...
Bonnie Menapace (nee Hemsley – yes, she’s my daughter) got her first Alfa for her 16th birthday. It was a...
Singer-songwriter Carol Connors once bet Carroll Shelby that if she wrote him a hit song, he’d give her a Cobra. Historian Bob Walker untangles the complicated tale of the 289 Cobra that Shelby gave her to honor that bet. The original engine installed in CSX 2067 was reported by the...
The names of the great marques roll off the tongue like poetry—Porsche, Jaguar, Maserati, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce and, of course, Ferrari....
The spectacular Mercedes-Benz 540K represented the zenith of pre-war accomplishments by the Stuttgart-based firm in the pre-war era. It is...
Joe Conzonire eases his 1903 Packard Model F Runabout out of his shop and pulls it into the sunlight. It is as dazzling and intricate as a tsarist Russian Fabergé egg. I behold a symphony of polished brass, lacquered wood, tufted leather and Jules Vern Victorian machinery. Its regal, opulent,...
Chatting with Barry Alan Twitchell about his Porsche 993, he remembered that during a dinner in Switzerland, the owner of...
An amazing thing happened in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in the fall of 2019. A couple of automobile enthusiasts proposed the Chattanooga...
At the Brits At The Beach car show in New Zealand recently, among the classic Jaguars, MGs, Triumphs and Morris Minors I saw an unusual looking little late 1960s British car I had never seen before called a Sunbeam Imp. The car looked pleasant, though unexceptional at first glance, but...
Photographer Dave Gooley and I drove over to Gus’ Barbeque in Paramount, California, – a diner devoted exclusively to meat...
How would you, as a recent college graduate, like to have a job that allowed you to drive a very...
People were standing around this tiny roadster on display at the Hillsborough Concours, attracting a crowd, all day. It’s unusual design, high-quality restoration with attention to detail and striking peppermint-green over red color scheme made this little car one of the biggest head-turners of the day. Most people had no...
