Cars that defined an era and are still legendary. History, mechanics and the soul of true classics.
Alfa Romeo Alfasud: The Most Advanced Compact in Europe That Rusted Away Because of Politics More than a million units built between 1972 and 1989. 893,719 saloons produced between 1972 and 1983, plus 121,434 Sprint coupés between 1976 and 1989. A massive industrial figure by Alfa Romeo standards — a marque that had historically built … Read more
The Car That Was Too Honourable to Survive Chris Harris has a line he reaches for when a car does something special: it feels like it was built by people who cared more than the accountants wanted them to. He usually means it as the highest praise. But there’s a version of that sentence that … Read more
The Italian egg that saved BMW How a microcar designed by an aeronautical engineer for an Italian refrigerator maker kept the lights on in Munich until the Neue Klasse arrived There’s an image the German press of the 1950s made viral before the word viral existed. A man in a hat, suit and tie, opening … Read more
From refrigerator to grand tourer How Renzo Rivolta made the most improbable leap in Italian industrial history, hired a former Ferrari engineer, and built two cars with American hearts that still embarrass Maranello today There is an Italian gentleman you already know without realising it. He’s the one who in the 1950s ran a refrigerator … Read more
The Last Real Citroën. And the World’s Fastest Diesel. How a French saloon designed to replace the DS ended up setting world records, ferrying a communist head of state to his office, and being the last car with pure Citroën DNA before PSA homogenised the marque September 1974. Paris Motor Show. Citroën enters formal financial … Read more
The GT That Sank Citroën and Took Maserati Down Too Citroën SM: how an Italian V6, a steering system that wouldn’t talk back, and a French manufacturer’s ambition turned the most advanced Grand Tourer of its era into the most expensive industrial bill in seventies European motoring Geneva Motor Show, March 1970. Citroën stand. A … Read more
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
