Errett Lobban Cord’s life could have been very different: he nearly struck gold with his first motor car. It was called the L-29 because it made its debut in 1929 with power from Lycoming, the aero engine wing of the Auburn car manufacturing company which Cord owned. He had acquired More
The Rover 200 is an interesting example of `badge-engineering’. The car started out as the Honda Ballade and evolved during the period when there was a strong relationship between Austin-Rover and Honda. The Triumph Acclaim was another `badge-engineered’ car from this relationship. In the early 1980s the British company did More
The Lancia Stratos, an Italian sports car, was built especially to win motor rallies. It certainly wasn’t a practical car for everyday use – but it certainly could win rallies. It took the International Championship three times before changing parent-company policies sidelined it. Stratos was a very Italian car with More
The four-cylinder Sunbeam Alpine had a very attractive open body and sold well right from its initial release by the Rootes Group in 1959. No doubt motivated by the success of the AC Cobra, discussions were held with American Carroll Shelby, who set about to carry out initial engineering to More
After World War I much development took place in motor vehicles and, in particular, in sportscars. Every country was determined to showcase their engineering ability and frequently the racing track was used as the place to do this. The sportscars that emerged in the early twenties began to show substantial More
On first sighting most BMW owners would probably never believe that a car of this design carried the famous logo of this marque. Perhaps on reflection they may realise that BMW is also famous for its range of motorcycles and hence could understand that such a vehicle could have come More
Germany has a history of machinery development, especially in the automotive industry and even in the late nineteenth century it was shown that there would always be a market for products of engineers as skilled as Karl Benz, Gottlieb and Paul Daimler, Wilhelm Maybach and August Horch. In 1885 Karl More
The name Errett Lobban Cord is inextricably tied up with American motoring of the 1920s and 1930s. Cord was a Californian car salesman who was also good at selling himself. The Auburn Automobile Company was struggling to survive in 1924 when they came in contact with Cord. Or maybe Cord More
The TVR Griffith is, in many ways, similar to the Porsche Boxster. Whilst it was not the steel-bodied sophisticate, with monocoque body powered by a multi-valve, mid-engined marvel of German engineering this automobile from Blackpool made up in force what it lacked in technology. It had a tubular chassis with More
No model made a greater contribution to MG’s fame than the TC, produced from 1945 to 1949. The first MG to reach volume production status – 10,000 in four years – it became Britain’s first postwar export success. Just over 2000 were shipped to the USA, where it was a More
