Bonnie Menapace (nee Hemsley – yes, she’s my daughter) got her first Alfa for her 16th birthday. It was a...
Vintage Roadcar Features
Singer-songwriter Carol Connors once bet Carroll Shelby that if she wrote him a hit song, he’d give her a Cobra....
The names of the great marques roll off the tongue like poetry—Porsche, Jaguar, Maserati, Mercedes, Rolls-Royce and, of course, Ferrari. And, the best of these manufacturers reserve a special model name for their most significant cars. Think Carrera GT, Silver Ghost, SSK and Ghibli and you need no further description...
In 2022, Lamborghini is celebrating the V-12: the legendary 12-cylinder engine that has powered its most iconic cars for almost...
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...
The Grand Prix formula changed at the end of 1937 limiting engines to 3-liters (supercharged) or 4.5-liter (unblown) so the...
Photographer Dave Gooley and I drove over to Gus’ Barbeque in Paramount, California, – a diner devoted exclusively to meat...
Rallying in a COVID year is a challenge, especially when you have people coming over from countries with different COVID rules. This fun rally started in the beautiful region of the Douro valley in Portugal and made its way through Northern Spain, along the Atlantic coast famous for its high...
How would you, as a recent college graduate, like to have a job that allowed you to drive a very...
Sometimes, knowing someone results is a surprise. I’ve known Mike Marsh for a number of years. He created the EuroFest...
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...
At the Geneva Motor Show in March 1971, Automobili Lamborghini presented its “idea car”, the LP 500 Countach. Designed by...
About 30 years ago, BMW shocked the automotive world by introducing a sexy and technically unique 2 place, drop-top sports...
Rolls-Royce’s brilliant, first post-war design is as enjoyable to drive now as it was then. The Silver Wraith was the first large-chassis Rolls-Royce produced after the second World War. The market for expensive, hand-crafted luxury automobiles was somewhat limited in the post-war era, with most people having more urgent needs....
With a shiver of trepidation, I slip behind the wheel of the museum’s grand 1936 Packard phaeton Standard Eight parade...
At the end of the 19th century the De Dion-Bouton Company of France was famous for its advanced internal combustion...
Although marriages of Italian styling with German machinery are seen as a rarity, the clever way that Bertone clothed a Type 964 911 Carrera, in 1994, showed that creativity and ingenuity from Turin worked well on a chassis from Zuffenhausen. The binomial of “Bertone Porsche” is well remembered for the...
When the farm owned by Helena Neethling’s father in the Riviersonderend district, about 100 miles due east of Cape Town,...
Corvette’s contemporary ZO6 is enough to strike terror into the hearts of those who drive slower cars, such as Ferraris...
Born in England, raised in Hollywood. We are not speaking of a famous movie actor, but of a very special Bentley S1. This handsome Bentley’s story, bearing chassis number B202LAN, begins when it left the Bentley factory in Crewe, in 1955, to be delivered to the waiting craftsmen and designers...
Have you ever seen a Commuter? I’m talking about a 1959 Mercury Commuter two-door station wagon. Not many of us...
The hunt for interesting automobiles to profile often leads to some very unusual vehicles. One-off vehicles do not lend themselves...
“You’ve got to see this car!” said Robert Escalante, internationally known restorer of classic Packard automobiles. And he wouldn’t have called me unless he had found something truly extraordinary, because both of us have seen any number of spectacular classic Packards and have restored show-winning examples ourselves. But this metallic...
After celebrating its centenary in 2020, 2021 sees the 50th Anniversary of one of Mazda’s most interesting, adaptable and successful...
The MGA should have happened several years before it did. The story of why it didn’t and how it came...
I was 19-years old and working nights at a Shell service station in San Jose, California, with my friend Jim Jett, when a tiny, roundish car rolled in that looked as if it had been inflated. A young woman stepped out of it and told us that a little red...
