History originally published in AutoWeek, April 6, 1985 All right, let’s have a show of hands. Who thinks that Excalibur is a sports car? Ha, just as I thought. It’s unanimous, except for that guy with the toupee that ties under the chin. And in this case it’s the majority that’s right, because lately Excaliburs […]
The celebrated Lola T-163 of Munster, Indiana
History originally published in AutoWeek January 21, 1985 It’s madness. Adrenaline is surging like water from a big Seagraves pumper at a five-alarm fire. Scrunched into the right-hand driver’s seat, too small for me with a winter coat on, I’m blipping the throttle to keep the Chevy engine from loading up too badly in the […]
Dodge Diamante: “Chrysler Corvette” never got beyond Mopar show car
History originally published in AutoWeek September 11, 1989 To have worked for Dodge in the ‘60s and to have the Hemi, and then look at the Corvette and just know that given half the chance—a quarter of the chance—that you could do that too, how that must have stung. If Bill Brownlie’s memories were anything […]
Lamborghini Espada: Two-plus-two equals success
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 slippery slope of automotive commerce, it must continually find a foothold or go slithering into […]
1955 Packard 400: A very nice place to be
History originally published in AutoWeek August 5, 2002 By 1955, Packard was on the ropes. Like a champ who had seen better days, the company that in the ‘30s had been America’s premier carmaker had suffered the one-two punch of an outdated marketing concept compounded by the lack of deep pockets to do much about […]
NSU Ro80: A Car Ahead of its Time
History originally published in AutoWeek March 12, 1984 How very frustrating, how maddeningly, fist-clinching frustrating it must have been to the men who were NSU to look back upon the Ro 80 and realize how close the car and the company came to forming a successful vanguard of automotive technology. To be sure, the company […]
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