History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek March 28, 1988, republished by the author The banjo-strung Blumel’s Brooklands steering wheel is close, good for huddling for warmth, but it still leaves my elbow in the chill autumn morning air and my upright posture would be more appropriate in a front row church pew than at the […]
Vauxhall 30/98: The beginning of the end of an era of sportsters
Original history/driving impressions originally published in Motor Trend’s Sports Cars of the World-1990, republished by the author “Only $2,575,291.” That’s how much GM paid for all of Vauxhall in 1925, according to Alfred P. Sloan in his book, My Years With General Motors. Small stuff for GM, “only a kind of experiment in overseas manufacturing.” […]
Berkeley: Tiny but not insignificant
History/driving impressions republished by the author, originally published in AutoWeek October 6, 1986 Well-known late-night comedian: “This car is really small.” Audience: “How small is it?” WKLNC: “This car is so small that if Santa brought you one for Christmas, he’d leave it in your stocking – while you were still wearing it. It’s so […]
1953 Bristol 404: Brit car is a rarity, and yet it’s a stereotype
History/driving impressions republished by the author; originally published in AutoWeek March 20, 1995 It helps to imagine a British movie of the early ‘50s, one in which an R.A.F. pilot retells the story of the Battle of Britain, smoking a lot of cigarettes while driving – really sitting in a car mockup with a highway […]
Jaguar Mk V: Cat with a hot landau roof
History/driving impressions originally published August 13, 1984 There is no better way to pave one’s own road to the automotive scrapheap of history than to become known as purveyor of obsolescent crocks. Even in eras of high demand and sellers’ market, such as existed after World War II, it ill behooves a manufacturer to become […]
Lotus 23: Choice of Champions
Originally published in AutoWeek September 17, 1984 Spectators at the 1962 Nurburgring 1000 could scarcely believe their eyes. A little Lotus from the under-two-liter class was leading the race, literally running away from the field on a rain-dampened track. Bruce McLaren, in an old Aston Martin DBR1/300, had been the only other leader in the […]
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