The Alfa Romeo Duetto Spider, introduced in 1966, continued in production until Alfa withdrew from the US market after 1994. A 28-year run for one model is a notable accomplishment, similar to the Model T and VW Beetle. The original Duetto (a name which Alfa only officially used for the […]

The introduction of the MGC is a tribute to how royally confused British Motor Holdings had become by the mid-’60s. The Austin-Healey, introduced in 1952, was getting long in the tooth by 1964, even with its new convertible top and roll-up side windows. Marketing managers also recognized that there was […]

Renzo Rivolta made a considerable fortune following World War II. He also loved cars. In the early ’60s, he became a victim of the popular musing that begins with, “Let’s marry a sophisticated European chassis and coachwork with a cheap, reliable, and powerful American V8.”Giotto Bizzarini, father of the 250 […]

Born out of desperation and existing in chaos, it is surprising that the Jensen-Healey and Jensen GT came into being at all. That today, thirty years later, they can be inexpensive and thoroughly enjoyable cars to own and drive is nothing short of amazing. And yet they are. If the […]

In the mid-’70s, emissions regulations caused engineers at General Motors and elsewhere to spin their wheels (without horsepower) trying to make old-technology engines burn clean. They did it by robbing vast amounts of performance. To keep selling cars, they had to offer something new to the public. It wasn’t ponies, […]

The Alfa Romeo GTV-6 was produced at a time when Alfa Romeo was hemorrhaging money. Yet, the engineers at Alfa managed to create one of the most sophisticated sports cars of its era. An all-alloy SOHC V6 engine driving a rear five-speed transaxle with deDion suspension is world-class engineering. This […]

Should the Harvard Business School need yet another case study in how a great idea can go counter-clockwise down a toilet if not executed properly, please have them refer to the launch/introduction/sale of the 1991 Lotus Elan Turbo SE in the US. Introduced during the same twelve-month period as the […]

Coupe, Targa and Cabriolet While the automotive world suffered through the 1973-1977 era of dramatically tightened emission-control laws, Porsche was busy building, piece by piece, the better mousetrap that would become the 911SC. Starting with the dramatically simplified CIS fuel injection of the ’73½ 911T, the SC included the flared […]

Wilson Pickett caught the mood of the nation when, in his blues song, Mustang Sally, he sang “I bought you a brand new Mustang ’bout nineteen sixty-five.” Sally’s was only one of the 680,000 Mustangs that were sold in 1964-65 as the car that Lee Iococca and his committee of […]

Want to make people smile? Just drive a Bugeye Sprite into any old-car gathering and its insouciant expression will have everyone grinning back. For eyes, it has headlamps that look as if they were pasted on as an afterthought, for a nose, a little round emblem, Ad to this the […]