History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek February 11, 1985 In Syracuse, New York, halfway up the hill in a quiet neighborhood of older homes, is a house much like the ones on either side. Its yard is neatly kept, and out back is a rock garden that, were it summer, would be a floral paradise. […]
Cobra 289: Born to run
History/driving report originally published in Special Interest Autos August 1990 Timing is everything, or at least as important as talent or skill. Being there at the right time means as much as having the right stuff. Just ask any Acapulco cliff diver. Or Carroll Shelby. Shelby freely admits that he wasn’t the first to come […]
Kermit the Bentley: It’s not easy being green
History originally published in AutoWeek December 10, 1984 “Back in the mid-1950s a young man in England named Collin Hiley was apprenticed to Rolls-Royce Aero as an apprentice aero engineer,” Phil Brooks spoke with the practiced ease of one who has told the story before. “On his weekends,” Brooks continued, “he was working for a […]
Porsche Boxster: Highballing the trunk line
Contemporary review originally published in Road & Track Sports & GT Cars 1998 I was on the way home from taking my 14-year-old daughter to music camp at Mansfield University when I stopped at a Texaco station in the little burg of Wysox, Pennsylvania. Earlier, my wife had looked at the Porsche Boxster and said […]
Volvo P1900 1956-1957: Volvo’s first sports car
History originally published is Illustrated Volvo Buyer’s Guide (1993) by John Matras It left as quickly as it had, leaving hardly a ripple to mark its passing. Yet for an exotic Volvo, one would be hard-pressed to find a better example than the 1900. The short story of the P1900 began in 1953 when Assar […]
2006 Pontiac Solstice: A solstice-tested Pontiac Solstice
Contemporary review in CarBuzzard on December 23, 2005 We indulged ourselves one afternoon. We put the top down on a 2006 Pontiac Solstice. That’s not an unusual thing to do with a roadster, but when the temperature hasn’t yet cracked 40 it’s the kind of behavior that makes one’s neighbors regard one with suspicion. At […]
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