The Amphicar is a 100% amphibious car built by the Germans in the 1960s, and lovingly described by their owners as “the fastest car on the water and the fastest boat on the road”. This joke is a reference to the somewhat stately 7 mph top speed on water and 70 mph top speed on…
The Iso Grifo A3/C was developed by legendary Italian engineer and test driver Giotto Bizzarrini – the same man responsible for the creation of the Ferrari 250 GTO, now one of the most desirable and valuable cars in the world. Sibling Rivalry Many years later Bizzarrini explained his philosophy in developing the Iso Grifo A3/C…
As with most barn finds, this 1965 Porsche 912 has a special story. It was bought new in the Netherlands on Christmas Eve in 1965 by an exceptionally lucky man’s wife – who gifted it to him the next day on Christmas morning. His wife’s name was Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands, and the man was…
The Fiat Abarth 124 Rallye Spider was a comprehensively re-developed version of the famous little Italian roadster designed to race in the Group 4 division of the World Rally Championship. Abarth is an Italian tuning house known for sometimes outlandish cars, built with an almost Machiavellian eye for performance above all else. Fiat took over…
The One-Off Molzon Concept Corsa GT38 The Molzon Concept Corsa GT38 is a one-off sports car developed by William “Bill” Molzon – a visionary GM designer who worked closely with under Larry Shinoda on some of most successful models in the history of Chevrolet. Molzon went to work at General Motors immediately after graduating with…
A Brief Early History of Alfa Romeo Despite its reputation for being quintessentially Italian, Alfa Romeo was actually founded by a Frenchman named Alexandre Darracq. At one point just after the turn of the 20th century, Darracq’s companies were building 10% of all cars being manufactured in the world – not bad for a guy…
This 1:12 scale model of the 1966 Le Mans Ford GT40 is made by GMP – a world leader in highly detailed die cast models. This model is based on the 1966 Le Mans GT40 #1, one of the legendary Fords from the race that started it all. The GT40 dominated the 1966 race taking…
When the Shelby 427 Cobra was first unleashed to the motoring press in 1965, it was by far the fastest street-legal car in the world. Its 7-litre V8 produced 485 bhp in competition trim, and it had a tested top speed of 165+ mph. All this in a small, lightweight roadster body weighing in at 2,355 lbs….
In 1956 an unusual caravan of vehicle trailers arrived at the Bonneville Salt Flats. They carried a couple of land speed cars from England that must have looked like crash-landed alien spacecraft to the casual observer. The two cars on the trailers were one-off designs that had been built specifically for Bonneville a couple of…
The NSU Prinz is an iconic little car from the West German marque NSU Motorenwerke AG. It was the first post-WWII car from NSU, and it was designed to slot neatly into the economic climate of Germany at the time, when austerity was king and the future seemed uncertain. The cars were small and simple,…
The Alpine-Renault A110 was the most successful rally car in the world in 1973, it was the year of the inaugural World Rally Championship, and the lightweight French car was an unstoppable force. 1973 would see the works Alpine-Renault rally team traveling to Monte Carlo (1st, 2nd, 3rd), Sweden (3rd), Portugal (1st and 2nd), East…
The 1954 Plymouth Belmont was designed as a possible production car, though sadly it never received the green light for a production run. Plymouth Vice President of Design Virgil Exner couldn’t bare to see it scrapped as often happened with these “dream cars”, so he negotiated a special arrangement with the company to let him keep…
