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 […]
1968 Lancia Flaminia Berlina: Italy’s most luxurious sedan
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek February 25, 2002; republished by the author The Via Flaminia, one of the great Roman roads, was laid down by the Roman Consul Flaminius in 220 B.C., and along its measured stones Rome’s legions marched northward to battle the Teutonic tribes. In 1958, Lancia introduced the Flaminia Berlina, the […]
1973 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham: Gas crisis! What gas crisis?
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek December 3, 2001; republished by the author You could play tennis on the poop deck of this thing. And bocce ball on the forecastle. This boat measures 230.1 inches stem to stern with a wheelbase of 124 inches. An uncommon two-door hardtop, this 1973 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham, by […]
The Big Three-0: Range Rover has [30th] birthday, and Brits celebrate en masse
Event report originally published in AutoWeek on October 16, 2000; republished by the author Thirty years to the day, Range Rover enthusiasts gathered at the Heritage Motor Centre in Gaydon, England, to celebrate the model’s birthday. The celebration fell exactly 30 years after the press conference announcing the first upscale off-road 4×4, a combination of […]
Rules-Royce “Silver Ghost”: R-R’s 40 – 50 HP: Before there was the name, there was quality
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek March 14, 1988 What a name! It has magic to it, that certain…rightness. Righteousness, even as good as the car itself. Surely a tag like Silver Ghost sold many a Rolls-Royce. Sure. Except that Rolls-Royce never built a model called the Silver Ghost, never cataloged one, never sold one. […]
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 […]
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