The Tojeiro-Butterworth AJB is a bit of a historical anomaly, it’s the only one that was ever built, and it’s fitted with the unusual air-cooled, flat-four AJB engine. The intials AJB belong to Archibald James Butterworth, a visionary engineer, inventor, and designer, who was a successful and active racer in England until he suffered a…
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…
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…
The Norton Manx The Norton Manx is a British single cylinder race bike that had an extraordinarily long competitive life. It’s perhaps the most famous of the dominant British singles from the mid-20th century, and amazingly they’re still being built new by licensed suppliers around the world. The Manx was based on the road-going Norton…
The FIAT S61 was astonishingly advanced for its time, it was designed and built in 1908 with a 10 litre (589 cubic inch), 4-cylinder engine, a single overhead cam, 4 valves per cylinder, 4 spark plugs per cylinder, and approximately 130 bhp. Just five were built in 1908 for the FIAT Racing Team, and some…
The Toyota 2000GT The Toyota 2000GT was actually built by Yamaha, and it was originally intended to have Nissan badges. It’s a Japanese sports car not widely known outside the classic car world, but its fame has been increasing in recent years in lock-step with its value, now making the Toyota 2000GT the most expensive and…
Steve McQueen was a noted collector of both motorcycles and cars, his untimely death in 1980 left behind a trove of remarkable machines including the beautiful 1914 Pope Model K you see here. A Brief History of the Pope Manufacturing Company Although they’re now best remembered for their advanced (for the era) motorcycle designs, the…
It’s thought that only 180 Mickey Thompson Mini Dragsters were built back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Despite their looks, they’re not just for children. They were designed as fun mini dragsters for adults, and due to the location of the seat it’s possible for even novices to lean back while accelerating and…
I have a bit of a soft spot for the Intermeccanica Italia Spyder. It has just the right blend of heritage and mongrel DNA, with a fascinating past and styling that doesn’t look a whisker out of place next to its considerably more expensive Italian brethren. THE STORY OF INTERMECCANICA Intermeccanica was founded by a…
The Baldwin Motion Corvette The Baldwin Motion Corvette is the result of a collaboration between Motion Performance and Baldwin Chevrolet on Long Island, they were only built between 1969 and 1971, before the US Justice Department shut them down. The Feds used the Clean Air Act of 1970 to launch their case, The U.S. Government…
