From work on Hollywood sci-fi blockbusters to designing the tail-lights on the ’64 Falcon Futura, designer Syd Mead’s star turn was the Ranger II concept pick-up truck, as Richard Heseltine discovers…
It is hard to spot under the giant rear wing — but it is there. Off-center and low down in the shrouded, sculpted aero rump you see the license plate: P1 POW. Small detail, big impact: this thing’s road legal. You recognize the Porsche 911 rear lights. They are the 996 shape — the one from the late 1990s. Between them, and above that street-legal plate, it says GT1. Small number — but, once again, big impact.
If you had to provide a list of the ten most beautiful cars ever made – you would be absolutely spoiled for choice. Hell, pick up any issue of Retromotive and you would be shuffling, salivating, then re-shuffling some more, probably changing your list several times before reluctantly handing over your final cut
This Series 8 Bolwell Nagari came to George May some thirty-four years ago. In fact he rebuilt it from a wreck. A young George put so many new parts into the car that it might have been easier to start from scratch. Since then it has never been in an accident, has never had a respray, and has never been driven in the rain.
Engine noise: that is what gets you “in the feels” when you watch any form of motorsport at trackside. The sound does not just hit your eardrums. It goes right through you, buzzing your insides and firing off happy endorphins. Certain engine howls mean an involuntary dropping of the jaw or smile across the dial
BMWs can be awfully confusing when it comes to their badging. Back in the day, a 323i E21 simply meant that it was a 3 Series body with a 2.3-liter engine. A E12 535i was the 5 Series body with a 3.5-litre engine — simple, right? M3s were all two-door coupes; except, they are four-door sedans now; and the M4 is now the M3 coupe; the 320i may have a 2.2-liter engine; and the 323i E21 could have the 2.5-liter — confused? Me, too. (And, perhaps, so is BMW!)
A recent study by US automotive consumer guide Edmunds revealed around 15 000 people are injured in automobile incidents while a vehicle is reversed in the United States alone. It’s a sobering statistic; one that becomes all the more tragic when we consider that of those, 210 are fatal and 31% involves children.
Berger Sauce All Testarossa experiences are special. But we go full-on 1980s fantasy by sharing the same driving seat as Ferrari F1 legend Gerhard Berger – this very car’s ex-owner
South African Alfasuds — GTA and Giardinetta rarities driven. The Alfasud was famously named after its southern Italian factory. But an even more southerly Alfa outpost in South Africa made some real oddities – like this ultra-rare GTA and Giardinetta pairing
The impact of the Second World War could be felt across the globe. In the automotive sector, many factories were shut down or even destroyed. Quality materials used prior to WWII were in short supply and the day-to-day operations of once thriving companies were struggling across the board. Custom and small coachbuilders like Bertone, Pinin Farina (the company was renamed Pininfarina in 1961
Maserati has not been the only automotive manufacturer to appropriate the names of winds for some of its cars, but the quartet of Maserati GTs from the 1960s and 1970s, were more deserving of the implication ‘goes like the wind’ than some others – the Lincoln and Ford Zephyrs, the Holden Camira and even the Volkswagen Scirocco (with its gratuitous additional ‘c’ after the capital S) all come to mind.
