History originally published in AutoWeek, February 2, 1987 For the large automobile manufacturer, the launching of each new model represents a risk of manageable proportions. Even a Vega or Edsel can be survived. Not so the smaller manufacture. On the…
History originally published in AutoWeek September 19, 1983 You can have it either way with the Alfa Romeo Montreal: you can hate it for what it isn’t, or you can love it for what it isn’t. There are people who…
History originally published in AutoWeek December 21, 1987 In the early autumn when the wind begins to blow and the leaves began to scurry before the blast, the sky becomes a crystal and the sun a blazing gem. The stallions…
History originally published in Sport Compact Car, October 1998 The Fiat Strada arrived in the United States with considerable fanfare and a lot of press coverage. And why not? Fiat had been in this country for a long time. It’s…
Originally published in AutoWeek July 1, 1986 Smoother than prom night velvet, slicker than satin sheets, more exotic than a night in Bangkok, that’s the Lamborghini 400GT 2+2. Pull out the thesaurus, plagiarize McCahill and Purdy, the car is that…
Originally published in Autoweek, September 13, 1982 Walk around the car. Watch the light work on it, cascade over the body like the ripples of a Disney-animated waterfall. Watch’s reflections slide over the fender, slip down into the trough between…
Originally published in AutoWeek, January 3, 1983 There are two Maserati Biturbos in the country, and AutoWeek has just driven one of them. It was a European production model and the trip was painfully short, but sufficient to prove that…
Originally published in AutoWeek August 12, 1985 They don’t build elegant race cars anymore. Sophisticated lines don’t mesh with the crunch and thrust of modern racing, where equipage is carbon fibered and monocoqued and wind-tunneled and sponsor-covered and as functionally…
Originally published in AutoWeek, August 7, 1989 If longevity has anything to say about virtue, as it does with, say, the VW Beetle or Citroen 2CV, then the De Tomaso Pantera is pure as the Vestal Virgin’s dormitory and more…
Originally published in AutoWeek October 18, 1982 Maserati Ghibli Spider, photos by John Matras. Summer nights are special magic, a sorcery that suspends time and makes déjà vu the common experience. A web of warmth and darkness and fantasy. The…