Five seconds. That’s how much time a GI had to exit a burning Sherman tank, if he expected to get out of it alive. Inadequately armored and undergunned compared with its German adversaries, the Sherman M4A3 tank burned–even out-and-out exploded—much…
History/driving impressions originally published in AutoWeek April 1, 2002 Volvo’s first sedan was immediately disowned by Helmer MasOlle. The landscape and portrait painter – and car enthusiast – had indeed designed a prototype sedan and its touring car counterpart. He…
It shouldn’t have existed, the Ferrari Daytona Spyder. At least it shouldn’t have been what it was. By tradition, Ferrari had usually differentiated between coupe and spyder versions of his cars. Spyders weren’t just topless versions of roofed models. They…
Harold Metzger gently chided me for having chirp the tires of his 1929 Nash Model 461 Cabriolet. “Well, we certainly know it has enough power to burn rubber!” I had halted on a hill having failed to negotiate a downshift…
Contemporary review originally published in CarBuzzard published March 9, 2006 One might think W.O. Bentley would be proud of the 2006 Bentley Continental GT. It has, to use the original company’s founder and namesake’s words, “long legs.” Seven league boots,…
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…
Contemporary review originally published in VW & Porsche and European Automobiles in August 1990 Talladega’s Turn One rises ahead like a 40-footer at the Banzai Pipeline curling off to the left, a ramp of black asphalt with a concrete crest…
Do something, I thought. But no, the Jensen FF belied its four-wheel-drive and behaved like a normal car. A very nice normal car, to be sure, but still a normal car. There is the subdued but omnipresent throb of the…
This isn’t a history of Porsche. It isn’t history of the 356 or even the 356B. That’s been done and done well elsewhere. What this is is simply a comparison of two Porsches, a 1962 356B Super-90 coupe and a…
History originally published in AutoWeek December 16, 1985 This is a shape, profoundly sensual, utterly female. It is sublime in efficiency, knowledgeable of what must be known, simple and spare like some great rolling Bauhaus woman, a supple stylization of…