If Ferraris are a dime-a-dozen to you, if you yawn at the sight of a new Lamborghini, if a Bugatti leaves you cold, and you wince at the words De Tomaso and Maserati, then we have a vehicle for you. 
Apparently, you are a person of elevated tastes (and elevated income). Apparently, even the finest things in life aren’t quite fine enough for your finely tuned lifestyle. So, Bunky, if this is you, just what car should you drive? Our suggestion: none other than a McLaren F1, a car that was built in a neat, tidy batch of 100 between 1993 and 1998, a car that had a suggested list price of $1 million, a car that, if you can find one and purchase it right now, might well cost you more used that it cost new. Read more . . .
How did a company founded to process a cork flooring substitute create not just one but two of the most 
amazing sports models the United States has ever seen? We can tell you this: it didn’t happen just overnight. The story, in fact, was some 70 years in the making.
Synthesized cork business a failure
It all started in the midst of World War I when several Japanese investors formed Toyo Cork Kogyo, which processed an alternative for cork that was harvested from Abemaki trees. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but when the war was over and Japanese could get real cork again, Toyo Cork Kogyo fell on hard times and the bank that had lent it capital reorganized it–something that would happen at least twice more in its checkered history. Read more . . .
Henry Ford must have received some special satisfaction on February 4, 1922, because 
on that day he acquired the Lincoln Motor Company, which was being run by his long-time nemesis, Henry Leland. Some two decades before, Leland and Ford had their first run-in.
On the strength of his racing exploits, Ford was a principal participant in the founding of The Henry Ford Company, a successor to the Detroit Automobile Company that had been on of the first Michigan-based firms to enter the car manufacturing industry. Soon after, he was named chief engineer of the company that carried his name, the board of directors hired Henry Leland as a consultant.
Beginnings in the car industry
In the early Twentieth Century Detroit, Leland was a name to be reckoned with. Read more . . .
How do you follow a tale? As the 1990s were about to flourish, Automobili Lamborghini faced that question on two fronts. 
It was forced to meet head-on the problem of replacing both a legendary leader and a legendary car. Either topic would be difficult enough, but both at one time? Some might call the job impossible.
Its spiritual leader and founder, Ferruccio Lamborghini, had long since sold his brainchild and moved on to less stressful ventures, including his death (eventually). Absent from the company for more than a decade, Lamborghini’s long shadow still stretched over the company that carried his name. The Countach, the final car that he inspired, was not only in production nearly twenty years after Lamborghini had signed the final sales agreement, it was still regarded by many as the epitome of “supercardom.” The company contemplated: How to follow a cover girl crowd-pleaser similar to the Countach? Read more . . .
Pity the poor Jensen Interceptor owner of today who prepares her or his car meticulously for a vintage car meet only to be greeted with shouts of “Nice Barracuda.” 
Frankly, the 1966-76 Interceptor does bear more than a slight similarity to the ’65 Plymouth Barracuda, most notably in the mammoth curved rear windscreen, and the resemblance doesn’t simply stop there. However, equating an Interceptor with a Barracuda is like equating a Chevrolet Camaro with a Ferrari Daytona. Sure, the two cars share a certain sweep of line, but they’re not precisely the same thing now, are they?
Small biz entrepreneurs normal in Britain
Today’s nearly faceless British car industry was once filled with quirky but industrious small enterprises like that created by Read more . . .
- « Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- …
- 18
- Next Page »