Contemporary review originally published in Corridor Today February 12, 1988 Okay, Nissan, we’re on to you. This isn’t a car. It is really the world’s largest boombox. You know, one of those huge radios kids carry around, some of them in electric colors and pop styling (both the kids and radios). Otherwise how you explain […]
Armed and Crazy
Feature originally published in Truckin’ March 1983 The energy crisis, while also affecting things like the price of home heating oil, along with the dual whammy of smog regs and increased insurance costs emasculated performance cars, created the custom van craze. Some of the most fuel-thirsty vehicles available were heavily adorned with, well, everything including […]
1979-82 Fiat Strada: End of the Road
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 sports cars provided Italian entertainment for those not in Ferrari or even Alfa territory, even […]
1988 Lincoln Mark VII LSC: American muscle man in a three-piece suit
Contemporary review originally published in Corridor Today March 15, 1988 I believe that automobiles are something like nouns in romance languages: they have gender. Oh, I know objectively that cars are innate objects made of rubber and plastic and steel but I also know that we talk to our cars. We beg them to start […]
Kibler Aircar
Originally published in Automobile, February 1988 Behind John Kibler’s head is a 400-cubic-inch V-8 rescued from a 1971 Chevy Kingswood station wagon. Its roar, however, is largely obscured by the distinctive pulse of a propeller cutting through the air. This is John Kibler’s Aircar. Not a hovercraft. “Aircar,” asserts Kibler, who points to the four […]
Driving the new Maserati Biturbo
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 all the good things you’ve heard about the new baby Maser are true. First of […]
What They’re Saying