Richard Heseltine · Articles

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.

The Mustang II might be considered to be an anaemic pig-faced wretch of a car by some, but it’s amazing what a bit of aftermarket tweaking can achieve, especially if you’re aiming to inject some performance into it!

Showcasing Buick’s turbo technology in the early Eighties was this one-off model, the PPG Buick Skyhawk Turbo, that was built to pace the Budweiser Cleveland 500 in 1982…

Meet the McLouth XV’61, the commuter concept you’ve never heard of!

Why underrated Espada and 365 GTC/4 offer all the glorious V12 thrills of their exotic brethren for a fraction of the price. Lamborghini’s Espada and Ferrari’s 365 GTC/4 have long existed in the shadow of more exalted siblings. Richard Heseltine says it’s time they received greater recognition.

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

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

A car built out of revenge, the infamous Breadvan attempted to beat Ferrari’s 250 GTO at its own game. We recount a back story that’s every bit as extraordinary as its design.

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…

The title of Autocar magazine’s article in October 1967 said it all: ‘Bertone-Jaguar: no dream car – but not for you and me’. This one-off gran turismo wasn’t the first Bertone-bodied Jaguar, witness the Franco Scaglione-styled XK150 and Marcello Gandini-designed ‘FT’ that was based variously on S-type and 420 saloon foundations for Italy’s marque concessionaire, Ferruchio Tarchini. However, in this particular instance, there was no intention of making the Pirana in even the most limited of numbers. It was a concept queen, and a compelling one.

Electric cars may be all the rage at the moment, but the American car industry had a fair few attempts at presenting its vision of how an electric car would look in the Sixties. Richard Heseltine looks at AMC’s offering, the Amitron…

It was just what the world had been crying out for: an MPV with a chain-driven, quad-cam V12 up front. Not that Bertone was down with the whole labels thing, you understand. The Genesis was merely a teaser; one that defied easy categorisation

Richard Heseltine discovers GM’s flirtation with electric during the Sixties with what was already a ground-breaking car in engineering terms; however, even back then the limited battery technology hobbled the project…

The Maserati 300S driven to sports car victories by Juan Manuel Fangio is a rush of racing history restored to its original, long-nose glory.

‘Unrelenting, mesmerising, frightening amounts of power are deployed with an almost serene mechanical indifference’