Enough pipe-smoking, record-keeping professors bought 1800s to assure a decent supply of well-maintained examples In 1961, Volvo was Swedish for “stodgy,” and a sports car from these practical folks in a cold climate seems about as likely as tailfins on a reindeer. But that’s what happened-right down to the fins.Volvo […]

If you decide to restore a Mistral, forget the scuba gear and go find Alvin, the Titanic submersible. You will be that far under water The cold wind that gave its name to Maserati’s 1964 Mistral spells the end of summer in the south of France. The model heralded an […]

Rust is a concern, almost as if the factory took perverse pride in building the most horribly corrosion-prone bodies The 1970s have been called “the decade without quality control,” and alas, the Jensen-Healey was a product of that era. While it should have taken the sports car world by storm, […]

With the exception of a few fake side vents and one character line too many, the Capri was handsome and looked the part of a 2/3-scale pony car “The Sexy European” was how FoMoCo billed the Capri for its U.S. launch in 1970, as if it was peddling Sophia Loren […]

Two ways to view the Spica fuel injection system: “diabolical” or “misunderstood” Universally regarded as two of the best open sports cars of all time, Alfa Romeo’s 750-series Giulietta Spider and 101-series Giulia Spider of the late 1950s and early ’60s were a tough act to follow. To remain the […]

For parts support to be any better, Girl Scouts would have to give away TR250 distributor caps with their cookie orders Among all the great stories of British car industry ineptitude, the genesis of the Triumph TR250 must rank among the best.Triumph had planned to replace the TR4A in the […]

Nearly every sports car enthusiast over 50 seems to have a 2002 story. Invariably, these end with “we drove it until the fenders rusted off” A favorite of enthusiasts from day one, the BMW 2002 was described by David E. Davis, Jr. in Car and Driver as “the best way […]

Mine had a habit of popping its pop-up headlights when going over bumps TVR was founded by Trevor Wilkinson in the late 1940s, and has since endured more receiverships, changes in ownership, and near-liquidations than probably any other car company-Lamborghini included. Yet no matter how close to financial ruin the […]

Like Earth shoes, pet rocks and other inexplicably dopey fads of the time, the TR8’s wedge styling was all the rage in the mid-1970s Good news from the other side… Just when we thought we’d never see another lusty, open-top British sports car, along comes the Triumph TR8.” That’s my […]