History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek April 24, 1999; republished by the author Something amazing happened in 1975. For the first time in two decades, a company other than Volkswagen topped the U.S. imported car sales charts. Toyota, regardless of whose numbers you use and not including trucks, surged past the German carmaker to a […]
1975 Ferrari 308GT4: The new Ferrari designed for a new era
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek November 7, 1994; republished by the author I have a secret, but I’ll tell you because we’re old friends and I know I can trust you. Ready? O.K. The Ferrari 308GT4 is a great car. Really. Yeah, I know you’ve read otherwise, but bear with us and I’ll explain. […]
Ginetta Regeneration (Ginetta G4 and G12, Ginetta G 12 and Ginetta G 32)
News report originally published in Road & Track Exotic Cars Quarterly, spring 1991; republished by the author Ginetta, the tiny British firm that has been cottaging away at building cars since the late Fifties, is reviving a couple of its greatest hits as well. The company’s forte has been a variety of cars, virtually all […]
1976 Mazda Cosmo: A hit in Japan, but an energy-crisis miss in the States
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek April 11, 1994; republished by the author The Mazda Cosmo should have been a runaway success. After all, it was a car that Toyo Kogyo, as the Hiroshima-based Mazda was then known, specifically designed for the U.S. market and it arrived as car buyers were thinking “downsize.” Yet the […]
BMW 2002 Cabrio: Taking the lid off a beefier Bimmer
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek November 19, 1984; republished by the author Putting the top down. It’s a delight, it’s a fascination, it’s a ritual. It’s a compulsion so persistentthat it has bowled the safetycrats right off their swivel chairs, with a new ragtop appearing almost every week. It’s also cross-cultural. It’s not just […]
1968 Lancia Flaminia Berlina: Italy’s most luxurious sedan
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek February 25, 2002; republished by the author The Via Flaminia, one of the great Roman roads, was laid down by the Roman Consul Flaminius in 220 B.C., and along its measured stones Rome’s legions marched northward to battle the Teutonic tribes. In 1958, Lancia introduced the Flaminia Berlina, the […]
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