Hot Foot at Talladega: Record setting in the Saab 900
“For my next act, I will set myself on fire.” So said Craig Breedlove after one of his speed records went awry. That was what I did not want to do when Saab invited me – along with 119 other…
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Wanderer W25K Roadster: Wandering in from the cold
In the ‘30s, Auto Union was a German General Motors, Sloanian to the max, a car for every pocketbook. DKW –Das Kliene Wunder (the small wonder) – staked out the lower price range and the mighty Horch rivaled Mercedes-Benz, with…
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1954 Delaney Delta: An Example of eccentric English automotive enthusiasm
Perhaps England doesn’t produce more eccentrics than any other country. Maybe it’s only that in England eccentricity is cultivated to such a high degree. Adam Smith’s nation of shopkeepers is also the home of the tinkerer, the inventor and the…
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1958 Volvo TP21 Sugga: A piggish hybrid
Swedish soldiers called it “sugga,” or “the sow,” but you always hurt the one you love, they say. The official Volvo designation for the four-wheel-drive radio and command car was Volvo TP21, and the Volvo TP21 Sugga nickname came not…
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Hot from the 1996 New York auto show… 1997 Hyundai Tiburon as the 1996 Tiburon concept
Arriving fall 1996. That’s perhaps the best thing we can say about the Hyundai Tiburon. The Korean carmaker put a show car version on display at the New York auto show in April and, according to Jim Hossack, Hyundai’s vice…
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1970 Siata Spring: Success proves too much for a specialty maker
War, product failure, even political upheaval couldn’t destroy Siata, but success of the innocuous little Siata Spring did. Both success and failure can be found wearing peculiar dress. However, none perhaps, is as strange as that of the Siata Spring….
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2016 Mazda Miata Club: Join the club
When the Mazda Miata debuted in 1989 (as a 1990 model), the smart money would have been on, well, another horse. The day of the traditional British sports car had long past, according to conventional wisdom, and the Miata would…
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2001 Audi TT: Controversial, quick and unique
Surely one of the most idiosyncratic automobiles to burst onto the automotive scene since, say, the cooling of the earth is the Audi TT. Shaped something like a snap beetle with wheels, it’s immediately disliked by some. If that’s you,…
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Bentley 3-litre: A true driver’s car for both street and race circuit
The organization for this marque is known as the Bentley Driver’s Club. Not, mind you, Bentley Owners Club. Anyone can be an owner. All it takes is a healthy checkbook and willingness to use it. Which is not to say…
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1987 Renault GTA: Franco-American from the land of cheese
The Renault Alliance was dull. Born in France as the Renault 9 in 1981 and built beginning in 1982 in Kenosha, Wis. by American Motors during that company’s, well, alliance with the French automaker, the Alliance was powered by a…
