The BMW 5-series first appeared in 1972, picking up the baton from the Neue Klasse sedans that had reinvented BMW in the 1960s. Like the Neue Klasse, that original 5, the E12, was also a…
The Calm Before the Storm: 1951 Packard
In 1934, longtime Packard President Alvan Macauley watched as the depression destroyed Packard’s sales and rivals alike. For survival, radical change would be necessary – so he brought in New York area manager Max Gilman…
Proto-Si: Honda Civic S
Sporty Civics would eventually become familiar in the form of the Civic Si – but before there was an Si, there was the Civic S. The very first “sporty” Civic.
The Future is Now: 1986 Mercury Sable
The 1986 Ford Taurus and it’s close sibling, the Mercury Sable, were landmark cars six year in the making, and they revolutionized Ford’s U.S. operations.
Volvo 850: Sweden’s Biggest Ever Project
It took 13 years to bring to life and ended up the most expensive project in Volvo’s history (and the most expensive in Swedish industrial history at the time) – but on June 11, 1991,…
Bastille Day Memories: Citroën Traction 15-Six
Joyeux 14 Juillet à tous! For this Bastille day and the 100th Anniversary of Citroën, here’s an old shot of a rare six-cylinder Traction Avant. Every year for Bastille day, the New York Citroën and…
California Connection: 1981 Toyota Celica
The original A20 Toyota Celica was a break-out car for Toyota; introducing hundreds of thousands of new customers to a brand they might not otherwise have given a second thought. The Celica, a scaled down…
Celebratory Special: Morris Minor Million
It was the fourth of January, 1961 – freshly returned from the holidays, the workforce at Cowley reached a very special milestone – the 1,000,000th Morris Minor rolled off the line – the first British car to hit that milestone
Something Borrowed: 1980 AMC Spirit Kammback
Things looked bright at AMC in 1974-75, as the Gremlin was coming off a record sales year, the Matador coupe had debuted to good sales, and the new Pacer was generating considerable public interest. Like…
Miami Nice:
Audi Cabriolet
1993 was nearly Audi’s nadir in the U.S., and for awhile it looked like the brand might not stick it out. At the time, the company was struggling to move 12,000 units a year in…
Sebring Bred: MGB/GT Works Racers
The MGB has been a staple of club racing for 57 years thanks to it’s low cost of entry, long production life, and truckloads of performance parts. But the rarest MGB racers are the factory…
Caravelle: Renault’s Karmann-Ghia
This poor Renault Caravelle is in its final days – you can’t see it, but there’s virtually no structure left underneath – it’s been sitting outside in the bushes for decades and Caravelles are notorious…