History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek March 31, 1986 Tears are streaming back into my ears. The 1100cc Coventry Climax engine is bellowing angrily as I try to maintain a steady speed, a futile effort anyway but more difficult by the fact that the Lotus’ non-adjustable pedals have forced me to slump low, while its […]
1958 Golden Austin-Healey 100-6
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek July 14, 1986 Have you ever held a steering wheel of solid ivory? Have you ever sat in bucket seats finished in mink? Have you ever looked out on the road over a bumper plated with 24 karat gold? Not bloody likely. Not unless you were the lucky Brit […]
Kaiser Darrin: In the wrong place at the wrong time
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek August 10, 1986 “Henry, this is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” gushed Henry Kaiser’s new bride. She was speaking to the Hoover-Dam-building, Liberty-ship-making, self-made millionaire who, with Joe Frazer of Maxwell-Chalmers/Chrysler/Willys-Overland/Graham-Paige fame, went automobile manufacturing after the war. What she was speaking about was Howard “Dutch” […]
Alfa Romeo Giulietta by Bertone: Driving the Bertone-Alfa that never was
History/driving impression originally published in AutoWeek February 13, 1986 Condensation gathered on the windshield, but the soggy mist was not enough to justify wipers. Even so, the droplets, propelled by the wind of the Alfa’s forward progress, crept up and over the topmost edge of the unframed windshield glass. In the lower elevations nearby they […]
1959 Talbot Lago America: Last of a proud race
History/driving imressions originally published in AutoWeek October 20, 1986 Grand routier. It has that certain sound even on paper, without even being spoken. There can be no doubt that it is French, nor of its meaning, even for someone who doesn’t know the language and even if there is no direct translation into English. This […]
Robert Valpey’s Allard J2: The first Cad-Allard
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek September 2, 1985 When Sidney Allard introduced the Allard J2 in 1949, it was to be powered by war surplus Mercury flathead V-8s. It wasn’t a bad engine as flatheads go, producing 110 bhp and certainly better than the flathead English Ford Pivot V-8 of the J1 of 1946-47, […]
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