History

The ‘goat’ brought real muscle that defined an era

When posing the question of which technological steps to take to improve vehicle fuel economy, the answers tend to fall on the side of engine downsizing.

With much made both then and now of Jaguar’s 1988 and 1990 victories of the Le Mans 24 Hours, its utter domination of the 1987 World Sportscar Championship has been largely forgotten. Yet it was arguably a much bigger achievement than winning a single, albeit 24-hour, race.

Not a household name today, but Tony Brooks remains one of Aston Martin’s most accomplished drivers.

Although still a current model name, Vantage goes back to the Fifties. We look at the history of the first that was based on the DB2.

To many, he’s Mr Gullwing – though he wasn’t always credited

The vision of a fridge boss, built in the UK, but aimed as USA’s ‘second car’

This compact concept was touted as a production car for the American market, but despite doing the car show rounds, it never saw production…

Alfa Romeo may be an also-ran in contemporary F1, but in 1993, the 155 V6 Ti rewrote history by winning the DTM championship in its first year of entry. With BMW and Audi withdrawing at the end of 1992, Alfa seized the opportunity to maximise the new-for-1993 FIA Class 1 touring-car rules.

Even before the application of windscreen wipers on automobiles, the need for a means to clear precipitation and muck from the windows of streetcars saw some interesting developments come to the fore. In 1903, Irish-born inventor JH Apjohn gained a UK patent for a mechanism that moved two brushes top to bottom to clear the windshield. Across the pond, US inventor Mary Anderson had to leave the front window down or stop to clear the snow from the panes on a streetcar ride during inclement weather. She came up with the idea of a swinging arm fitted with a rubber blade slotted through the window frame.

When I joined Jaguar in the mid-Seventies I was surprised to discover it was Malcolm Sayer who had initiated the XJ-S’s design since as a large grand tourer, it was a very different car from his most famous, the E-type.

Designer Luigi Colani’s Madcap articulated Miura-Based Supercar.

Corona fizzy pop. Until 2019, the name of this Welsh carbonated drink evoked only childhood innocence.

France’s rallying cry. Diminutive competition giant killer delivered a tail-happy ending

A 911, clearly being driven with commitment, tackles one of the 127 corners of the Freiburg to Schauinsland hill climb. But this isn’t just any one of the many 911s that contested the Schauinsland climb until competitive events stopped after 1972. The driver is the Swabian, Eberhard Mahle, and in this 1966 photograph he’s well on the way to winning the European GT Hill Climb Championship and also the 911’s first international triumph. The irony is that if Huschke von Hanstein had prevailed, Eberhard wouldn’t have had a 911 to compete in.