From the monthly archives:

January 2010

1983 Audi 100

The Audi 100, introduced in the States as the 5000, will go down in history as the car that made unintended acceleration famous. Yet this wrongly maligned automobile did at least as much for design as it did for the bank balances of the nation’s attorneys. Back when the 100 was unveiled, the world had [...]

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1975 Volkswagen Golf

How do you follow a warm, cuddly leg end like the Beetle? Volkswagen wisely decided on something completely different. Herbie the Love Bug was replaced by a businesslike, front-engined, front-drive, water-cooled sedan that looked like a stylized shoe box. Indeed the Golf, known as the Rabbit on our shores, was a bona-fide member of the [...]

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More Clout for Calibra

Sleek, attractive, and well finished, the Opel Calibra coupe came out of the box a pretty strong offering for the GM Europe team. Its 150-horsepower 2-liter 16-valve twin-cam four gave the top-line model an 8.2-second 0-60-mph capability and a top end of 138 mph. But the playing field changes quickly in the sport coupe game, [...]

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Why All Cars Look Alike

Do all car stylists meet once a month in a big bar somewhere to compare designs? Do all initial styling sketches get processed through some kind of blandness mainframe, where they are digitally neutered to achieve a numbing stylistic consistency? Or is maybe just one guy doing the styling on all new cars worldwide, and [...]

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Vette Reaches Million Milestone

It’s taken 39 years, but one bright morning in early July, Chevrolet execs rolled out the red carpet as the one millionth Corvette rolled off the assembly line in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Zora Arkus-Duntov is considered by many the father – and most certainly the savior – of the Corvette, even though, Chevrolet says, he [...]

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Dodge 5.2 Liter V-8 with Multiport Electronic Fuel Injection

In 1992, Dodge unleashed its new 5.2 liter V-8 with multiport electronic fuel injection and upped its performance ante from 165 to 230 horsepower in one fell swoop. For ’93, there’s even more fast iron in store. The 5.2-liter Magnum V-8 is joined by a big brother motor with 5.9 liters of displacement. That’s 360 [...]

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1937 Cadillac Fleetwood Sedan

When Jim Drummond of River heights bought this 1937 Cadillac Fleetwood Touring Sedan from his friend, the late George Ewing, back in 1990, the car included an amazing amount of history. Originally purchased by Ben Winks of Waterloo, Iowa on November 9, 1936, this beauty sold new for a whopping $2,770.50. Winks died in 1939, [...]

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The Lincoln ’49 Coupe

There are no reliable production numbers for the various Lincoln body styles built in 1949, Hoines is pretty sure his ’49 is quite rare. “I’ve never seen another ’49 Lincoln and I’ve never seen another Lincoln coupe,” he says. He has heard that about 10 percent of Lincolns built in ’49 were two-doors, which would [...]

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