In the Beginning there was Vincent HRD American author Hunter S. Thompson once said of Vincent’s world’s first “superbike”: “If you rode the Vincent Black Shadow at top speed for any length of time, you would almost certainly die. That is why there are not many life members of the Vincent Black Shadow Society.” The…
Bob Blair And A Desert Sled Called The P11 The idea for the motorcycle that would become the Norton P11 began in 1966 with Southern California Norton distributor Bob Blair who reasoned that if you took a Matchless G85 CS (Competition Scrambles) frame and squeezed a Norton Atlas 750cc parallel twin engine into it…
The Triumph Spitfire – An Introduction The paradoxical thing about the Triumph Spitfire is that it didn’t spit fire. The original Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft was powered by a huge supercharged Rolls-Royce V12 engine and was fitted with up to eight machine guns so that it truly did spit fire from engine exhausts and guns….
The Nissan Skyline GT-R – Godzilla When the name “Nissan Skyline” is mentioned it often brings another name to memory, that of Godzilla, a name given to the seemingly unbeatable 1989 Nissan Skyline GT-R in its 1990 racing guise, the NISMO GT-R, by the Australian motor press after its three consecutive Group A Championship wins…
The Mazda RX-3 – An Introduction The Mazda RX-3 “Savanna” was a paradox of a car. Fledgling Japanese car maker Mazda built a pretty typical for the period small passenger car and dropped a twin rotor Wankel engine into it. This had the effect of making the little RX-3 an exotic road rocket despite its…
The Mazda Cosmo – An Introduction The Mazda Cosmo was born in the midst of the maelstrom of the 1960’s, the era of the Space Race between the Soviet Union, the United States, Britain, and the other democratic allies. In a sense the two rival political, economic and social systems were in direct and not…
Introduction: To Build a Better Jeep My first, and only, working experience with an Austin Champ was on a farm down in Australia where I was helping the property owner with some vermin control. We were racing across a sheep paddock doing at least 30 mph, although it felt like a lot more, in hot…
The Toyota Hilux pickup truck has become one of the most iconic vehicles to ever emerge from Japanese vehicle maker Toyota. The Hilux, known as the Pickup or Pickup Truck in the US market, has the distinction of having been to both North and South Poles and while on a North Pole journey for Top…
Introduction: The GMC Motorhome The GMC Motorhome is a six-wheeled embodiment of the zeitgeist of its age – for those who did not live through the post-war 1950’s to 1970’s era it is likely that they will not really grasp the level of creative freedom that was unleashed. The younger generations may realize that the…
Germany and Austria Join Forces to Create a Better 4×4 – The G-Wagen (G-Wagon / G-Class) The story of the beginning of the Mercedes G-Wagen (also known as the G-Wagon and the G-Class) brings together one of the world’s greatest makers of automobiles, with one of the world’s greatest makers of classic sporting rifles, and…
Introduction: The Volvo “Chevvy Corvette” That Wasn’t The story of the creation of the Volvo P1800 begins back in 1953 when Volvo co-founder and Vice-President Assar Gabrielsson visited the USA and while there he had the opportunity to visit GM and see the new (C1) Chevrolet Corvette production line at Flint, Michigan. While in the…
Introduction: Porsche is Born Dr. Ferdinand Porsche had long dreamed of building high performance sports cars just as he had also dreamed of creating cars that ordinary people could afford to own and run prior to Hitler’s program that sought to create a system of high speed roads called Autobahns throughout Germany, and for affordable…
