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Ford model T
The grandaddy of them all
In the early part of the 20th century owning a car – any car – was the ultimate status symbol. Popular mythology claimed that young gentlemen would buy a Model T Ford not so much for personal transport but to impress the ladies, and it was said that a high proportion of babies born during that period were actually conceived in one! A disgraceful...
Bugatti Type 35
The best Bugatti ever?
The Bugatti Tpe 35 was a racing car that is reputed to have won more than 2000 races within seven years. Which at it's peak was averaging a win in 14 races every week. At Type 35 won the Targa Florio race five years in succession, from 1925 to 1929.
Targa Florio ? What on earth is that? Back in the early 19th century this...
Lagonda Rapier
A good car that might have saved the company but didn't
Lagonda was another of those companies that was started by a car enthusiast, blossomed for a while and then went bankrupt. It was formed by an opera singer turned motorcycle engineer named Wilber Gunn in 1906; building motorcycles led to building his first car in 1907.
It was usual for motor car manufacturers of those days to publicise their vehicles by entering them...
De Tomaso Pantera
Could have been great. Shame about the quality
De Tomaso is another of those boom and bust car manufacturers that had high spots but multiple bankruptcies as well. At one stage they owned Maserati, and were responsible for the Biturbo (about which the least said the better) and...
Riley Nine
Wow! What an engine
Percy Riley was not a man to accept the conventional wisdom of the day. Back in the 1920s everyone knew that the way to produce a faster car was to give it a bigger engine; but this meant extra weight, and a stronger (and heavier) chassis to carry it. Riley went to the other extreme and designed a lightweight engine and a lightweight car. The result was...
Dino Ferrari 246 GT
A great car. Shame Ferrari disowned it
Was the Dino 246 GT really a Ferrari? Enzo Ferrari himself didn't seem to think so.
A typical Ferrari at the time was a luxurious beast with a 12 cylinder engine. The Dino brand came about when Ettore's son Alfredo, nicknamed Dino, told his father about his dreams to create racing cars with V-6 and V-8 engines. Ettore felt that...
Shelby Cobra
Every young man's dream car. And no wonder
Carroll Shelby was not a well man. From the age of seven he had suffered from heart valve leakage issues, an ailment that affected him for the rest of his life. He first made a living raising chickens, after which he went bankrupt. Despite all this he finished up building probably the most copied car of all time; the Shelby Cobra. Shelby had had a fascination with cars and speed since...
Alfa Romeo 8C
Fiat shows what money can do
Alfa Romeo may have had a number of financial ups and downs during it's history but there is no denying the company's success on the race track; in fact they claimed to have had more victories than any other make of car. Their first race was in the Targa Florio, a very dangerous and grueling race which was run around...
Subaru WRX
One amazing rally car
Subaru is synonymous with rallying, but this is all down to one car, the WRX. It first saw the light of day in Japan in 1993 as the 555 with a turbocharged 2 litre engine putting out 238 brake horsepower, and acceleration of nought to 60 in a very creditable 4.8 seconds. Maximum speed on the road was 150 mph so it was...
Caterham Seven
Conceived in 1957 and still going strong!
The Carerham 7, which is still being manufactured and was launched in 1973, has a history going right back to 1957 when it appeared as a Lotus Seven.
Lotus Cars was run by Colin Chapman, a swashbuckling engineer and racing driver who was a firm believer in making performance...