History originally published in AutoWeek May 19, 1986 Marty Himes tiptoes the red car around turns three and four of Williams Grove’s half-mile dirt track, not quite hanging the tail out. The flagman has been watching him and Marty has seen the official grasping the black flag like it has “Himes” written all over it. […]
2010 Volkswagen Jetta TDI Cup Edition: Diesel racer
Review originally published in Examiner.com May 2010 Race on Sunday, sell on Monday. That’s been the motto of many auto manufacturers since the dawn of the automotive age. In fact, the first car race in the United States, in 1895, was staged to encourage domestic manufacture of automobiles. It’s no surprise, then, that Volkswagen took […]
Jackie Stewart remembers his time in a Lola T260
History originally published in AutoWeek November 11, 1985 Jackie Stewart has the voice of the veterinarian. With aged-in-an-oak-cask Scottish brogue, he could anesthetize a horse or soothe a savage house cat just by speaking. It’s difficult to reconcile this voice and the subject, his one season in the L&M Lola T260, one of the most […]
Alfa Romeo GTA: Less is more
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek April 14, 1986 There is not much to the interior of an Alfa Romeo GTA. Memory fails all but the most important details, things like highly legible gauges, the Alfa-typical dogleg shifter, the Connelly-leather covered bucket that holds the occupant like a miser holds his ledger. There is the […]
1988-89 Chevrolet Beretta GTU: One hit racetrack wonder
Originally published in Sport Compact Car March 2001 In 1988 Chevrolet went racing in the IMSA GTU class and that, simply, is the reason for the 1988-89 Chevrolet Beretta GTU. Of course, the reason Chevrolet racing is, simply enough, marketing. It certainly has paid off grandly for anyone associated with NASCAR, despite the fact that […]
Innocents Abroad: Phil Stiles and George Schrafft and the Crosley Le Mans
History originally published in Automobile Magazine, June 1993 No one had expected this much of the first timers at Le Mans, not even the entrants themselves. Yet here they were, a couple of American sports car crazies and a highly modified Crosley Hotshot, holding their own against experienced Index of Performance players and slipping past […]
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