Cars that defined an era and are still legendary. History, mechanics and the soul of true classics.
Built to Spite Rolls-Royce, It Ended Up Hauling Trains Some cars are born from a vision. Years of sketches, a lifetime’s ambition distilled into metal. The Bugatti Royale was born from something far more petty and far more human: wounded pride. At a dinner, an English lady is said to have compared Ettore Bugatti’s cars … Read more
Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale: the most beautiful car ever made? There is a certain kind of claim that gets repeated so often in car magazines that it loses its meaning. “The most beautiful car ever made.” Top Gear has said it. Chris Harris has said it. Pebble Beach jurors say it every time a 33 … Read more
The 2CV Wasn’t a Car. It Was a Spec Sheet Turned to Steel. Citroën 2CV and AK400: how Boulanger’s design brief wrote the car before anyone picked up a pencil You’re going to read it a thousand times. The 2CV was “four wheels under an umbrella.” It’s a lovely slogan and it sells itself, but … Read more
Fiat 500: when a car was actually a platform in disguise Chris Harris once said the best small cars are the ones that feel honest about what they are. He was talking about a modern hot hatch. He could have been talking about the original Fiat 500, except the 500 takes that idea further than … Read more
Lincoln Navigator: the king who built the throne and lost the crown Picture a Cadillac board meeting in early 1998. Someone walks in with the year-end sales figures and the room goes quiet. For the first time since 1950, Lincoln has outsold Cadillac in total US volume. Not by a rounding error. By 4,551 units. … Read more
FIAT 131 ABARTH RALLY: The Saloon That Won Three World Championships How a family Fiat with a Ferrari-derived engine and a Bertone body swept the world’s rally stages Walk into a Fiat showroom in Italy in 1976 and ask for a 131 Mirafiori. The salesman would walk you toward a mid-sized family saloon with a … Read more
AUDI RS2: The Audi That Porsche Built How a five-door family wagon embarrassed the McLaren F1 at the traffic lights Stand at a traffic light in 1994. To your left, a McLaren F1. To your right, what looks like a slightly aggressive Audi 80 wagon. The lights go green. For the first 1.5 seconds, the … Read more
BMW Z8: The Car Top Gear Trashed in 2000 Now Outprices Every Rival It Lost To Two hundred grand. That’s what a concours BMW Z8 trades for today, on either side of the Atlantic. A pristine Aston Martin DB7 Volante from the same year sits at about fifty. A Ferrari 360 Spider, seventy to eighty. … Read more
Ferrari 125 S, A Promising Failure: How Ferrari Began with Three Broken Words May 11, 1947. Piacenza circuit, northern Italy. The first car ever to wear the Ferrari name is leading its debut race. Then a fuel pump dies. The driver pulls in. The car stops. There are two normal reactions to this scenario. One: … Read more
BMW 507: The Most Beautiful Car BMW Ever Built Almost Killed the Company Walk into any decent auction in Monterey or Pebble Beach and one of these things will cross the block for two million dollars. Minimum. The Surtees car went for nearly five. People queue up for the privilege of bidding on something that … Read more
GOLF R32: BACK WHEN VOLKSWAGEN STILL TOOK RISKS Chris Harris said it once and it stuck: the trouble with modern hot hatches is that they all feel like the same car wearing different jackets. He was talking about the latest Golf R when he said it, but he could have been talking about any of … Read more
Ford Crown Victoria: The Car No One Could Replace It’s two in the morning in Manhattan. Raining. A yellow cab double-parks outside a deli on Eighth Avenue. The driver doesn’t get out. He waits. Engine idling, wipers on intermittent, the rooftop sign reflecting in the puddle. You don’t need to walk closer to know what … Read more
