History

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.

You’ve heard of the Plymouth Prowler – now meet the Howler, the Mopar factory hot rod and successor to the Prowler that never was…

Even in dirty, pale-yellow primer and shorn of wings, bonnet, grille and glass, you can admire the elegant lines of this sports saloon. The low roofline, the elliptical slot of a rear window and the hint of a gracefully long bonnet implied by the distance between the front door and front axle suggest a car whose lines would have been a cut above those of most cars on the roads back in 1936.

Only a handful of endurance racing cars are strong enough to finish their debut race and fewer still finish on the podium.

Bertone Jaguar FT — Marcello Gandini’s vision of a mid-1960s Jaguar.

As the world’s most affordable mid-engined car, the Fiat X1/9 was a true revelation 50 years ago. Karl Ludvigsen – who went on the 1972 launch – tells the golden story of an ingenious icon.

Whether the Citroen DS took celestial inspiration or landed from another planet, it is one of the car world's greatest aesthetic achievements — and more. Car designer Peter Stevens, aesthete and commentator Stephen Bayley and Octane's own Glen Waddington discuss.

September 1937: SS Jaguar production is ‘in difficulties,’ i.e. at a halt. It seemed simple enough to make cars with all-steel bodies. At least, the leading shareholders thought so…

MG’s first small saloon car celebrates a major milestone – we track down a stunning example to mark the occasion

This Buick concept hinted at a future SUV/station wagon offering from GM’s Flint-based division; sadly what was rolled out a few years later had none of the bold vision of the concept…

CVT. It’s probably one of the most divisive acronyms in motoring today. For some, the CVT – or continuously variable transmission – is seen as a means of smoothing gearshifts and curbing fuel consumption. Others can only wince at the system’s tendency to turn their driving experience into a drone some affair punctuated with the sensation of gear slip and sluggish performance.

Due to Jaguar’s dominant victory of the 1951 Le Mans 24 Hours race with the C-type, success the following year seemed a certainty

I make no secret at all of my love of Jaguar’s big saloon cars – especially those of the Eighties and Nineties, which I’ve owned in various guises since I was first able to scrape together the insurance premium in my mid-20s.