GM XP-500: The 1956 Dream Car With No Crankshaft That Could Run on Peanut Oil The most radical engine General Motors ever put in a car didn’t have a crankshaft, didn’t have connecting rods, and had been run on whale oil in the lab. GM installed it in a bubble-topped two-seater called the XP-500, showed … Read more
Alfa Romeo Canguro: The Contest Nobody Won The most beautiful Alfa Romeo ever drawn exists because of a General Motors executive in Detroit. Not directly. But the method that produced it was Bill Mitchell’s, and Alfa Romeo copied it a year later, right down to the two coachbuilders and the two donor chassis. Both experiments … Read more
Ferrari 456: The Station Wagon Maranello Erased When Ferrari launched the Purosangue, half the planet reacted the same way: the company was betraying its essence by building a family car. Ferrari had already built a station wagon. And a four-door saloon. And a four-seat convertible. All on the same platform, in the 1990s, with the … Read more
Ferrari 400: The V12 With a General Motors Gearbox In 1976, with Enzo Ferrari alive and in charge, Maranello launched a twelve-cylinder fitted with an automatic gearbox bought in Detroit. The same unit Cadillacs and Buicks used. Ferrari fitted it to win the American market. It then never sold a single car here. The gearbox … 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 Monte Carlo: The Luxury Coupe That Became NASCAR’s Most Winning War Machine There are cars that are born with one purpose and die fulfilling a completely different one. The Chevrolet Monte Carlo is the most extreme example of that paradox in the entire history of the American automobile. It was born in 1970 as … Read more
