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. […]
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 […]
1976-1983 Renault 5 Le Car
History originally published in Sport Compact Car November 1998; republished by the author Shakespeare said, “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” Sure, Bill, but would it sell? When Renault began importing its new econobox in 1976, they use their current practice of numerical model designation and called it the “5.” A […]
1976 Triumph TR6: Symbolizing the twilight of the British sports car’s reign
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek July 18, 1994. The hood is narrow, much more so from the driver’s seat them when viewed from outside. The edges are emphasized by the slim fender ridges, sharp as exclamation points. The passenger sits only an elbow’s nudge away. This, for a 1976 model, seems like an old […]
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