History

Road Atlanta might be thousands of miles away on the other side of the Atlantic, but what happened at the American circuit four decades ago would have a direct impact on Jaguar’s future success at Le Mans. Ever since Bob Tullius’ Group 44 team had announced its IMSA GTP programme with the V12-engined XJR-5 in the early Eighties, there had been speculation that it would be a spring board for the British company to head back to the famed 24-hour race. Jaguar, though, initially played down its chances.

When is a Bel Air not a Bel Air? When it’s a 2002 concept that looks more like a Ford Thunderbird crossed with an SSR, that’s when!

King Baudouin’s DB2/4 isn’t the only Aston Martin linked to the Vignale name; in 1993, AML revealed a concept named after the famous Italian design house.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Carroll Shelby’s birth, we look at the career of this iconic American who won the 1959 Le Mans

Pundits will argue that the 1986 Ford Taurus was the car that really redefined American car design during the Eighties; but I would argue that its Thunderbird stablemate

Foreseeing the boom in soft-road and outdoorsy leisure vehicles, Pontiac unveiled the Stinger in the Eighties. It was a concept car that foretold many of the trends that were to come in the following decades…

The fourth-gen Toyota Supra was one of the best performance cars never offered in Australia. So what happened?

A true sales bolter. Mustang was a smash hit straight out of the gates.

A 22-year old mechanic and aircraft technician, in 1951 Rolf Wütherich possessed the kinds of skills Ferry Porsche was seeking for his nascent business. Within weeks he was part of a small group developing a new transaxle for Porsche’s own gearbox, a component urgently needed because the stock VW item was failing under the increasing torque of Porsche’s flat fours.

War hero, aristocrat, and a brave racing driver who deserves more than a mere footnote in history.

In the early 1980s, a designer sought a calling card. With backing from The Observer newspaper, this unique glass-topped BMW 635CSi E24 show-car was the result.

Although Jaguar had come close to building a competition version of the F-Type not long after its 2012 debut, apparently working with the Williams F1 team to develop such a model, it never came to fruition. In early 2018 a genuine racer based on the car finally broke cover. But although it was built by Jaguar’s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) based in Ryton, having been developed for an independent team, Invictus Games Racing, it wasn’t the works effort many had been hoping for.

AMC debuted a trio of interesting ‘idea’ cars in 1966 and while none of them saw full-scale production, they inspired certain ideas on future models that went into production in the following years…

Honda’s convertible was a technical masterclass that was big on thrills, low on compromise.

You have no new male. Modest performance meant this Benz found favour with female buyers.