Cars that defined an era and are still legendary. History, mechanics and the soul of true classics.
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
LANCIA STRATOS: THE CAR THAT ONLY KNEW HOW TO WIN Here is the shortest version of the Lancia Stratos story: a small Italian company begged Ferrari for an engine, built the minimum number of cars required by the regulations, and won three consecutive World Rally Championships. Then its parent company killed it — not because … Read more
Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR: The Silver Monologue Nobody Could Answer Some cars win races. Some make history. And then there’s the Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR, which did both in the same season and then walked away forever. No farewell tour. No victory lap. A clean slam of the door that left the motorsport world speechless and sick … Read more
Opel Speedster: The German Sports Car Built in England That Saved Lotus and Embarrassed Cars Costing Ten Times More Some cars are born with an identity crisis. The Opel Speedster is one of them. A sports car wearing a German badge, built on a British chassis, powered by an economy car engine, and priced low … Read more
Chevrolet Camaro Z28 SS: Two Philosophies, One Car, and Detroit Killed It Anyway How Chevrolet spent 30 years keeping its two best ideas apart — then buried them together In 1966, General Motors had a problem with a name and a sales figure attached to it: Ford Mustang. Half a million units sold in its … Read more
Pontiac Firebird Trans Am: From the Ram Air IV to KITT, and From Hollywood to Oblivion 35 years of American attitude compressed into a screaming chicken On February 23, 1967, Pontiac launched the Firebird. Six months after the Chevrolet Camaro. On the same GM F-body platform. With the same mechanical bones — unitized body, double-wishbone … Read more
Alfa Romeo 155: The Ugly Duckling That Won Where Nobody Expected Some cars are born as heroes. Others are born under suspicion and have to prove — on the street and on the track — that they deserve to exist. The Alfa Romeo 155 belongs firmly in the second category. It was the first Alfa … Read more
