Car Culture
Cramer Comet Lands On Pebble Beach
Back in the days when gas was cheap, the planet was cool and a carbon footprint meant you had oil on your shoe, the easiest way to make a car go like hell was to stuff the biggest engine you could find under the hood. Few people took that basic tenet of hot rodding to greater extremes than Tom Cramer, who shoehorned a 1,350-horsepower airplane engine into a one-off custom called, appropriately, the Cramer Comet.
Pininfarina's CEO Dies In Scooter Crash
Andrea Pininfarina, head of the famed Carozzeria Pininfarina studio that's designed some of the sexiest cars Italy's ever produced, died this morning in a scooter accident near the Italian city of Turin. He was 51.
read more »China Ressurects The Quintessential British Sports Car
They've cleared away the cobwebs and fired up the machinery at the venerable Longbridge factory in Birmingham, England, where MG roadsters are once again rolling off an assembly line.
Although the MG TF remains quintessentially British and looks pretty much like it did when the company went belly-up three years go, it is now half Chinese. The 1.8 liter engine and drivetrain are built in China and shipped to Longbridge for final assembly. Still, it's a sweet little package based on what was one of Europe's best-selling sports cars of the 1990s and there's a waiting list to get one. The first run will be limited to 500 special edition cars dubbed the TF LE500, and 70 percent of them are spoken for.
read more »These Are Our Favorite Car Designers. Tell Us Yours.
Car designers are a lot like musicians. Some are lame, some are one-hit wonders and some are truly gifted. The best of them evolve over time, their work reflecting the times even as it breaks new ground. And like great music, great cars stir the soul.
Musicians often are rewarded with fame and fortune, but even the best car designers tend to be relatively anonymous, known only by their peers and hardcore car nuts. Just about everyone can recognize a 1965 Ford Mustang, but how many people know David Ash and John Oros designed it?
Corvette ZR1 No. 1 Rolls Into A Driveway
Dave Ressler's love of Corvettes is exceeded only by the depth of his pockets, as logical an explanation as any for his paying $1 million for the very first ZR1, which has rolled off an assemby line into his driveway.
read more »Top Five Excuses For Not Buying a 2010 Camaro
By Keith Barry
By now, you’ve seen every iteration of the 2010 Chevrolet Camaro, from concept to test mule to the official preproduction car. You’ve dreamed of owning a Camaro from the moment you your sister’s mulleted prom date pick her up in a primered ’83 with T-tops and Cragars but missed your chance when GM retooled their Arlington plant to pump out more Tahoes and Suburbans.
read more »A Week of Car Shows, A Century of Transportation
By Keith Barry
There may be no more appropriate commentary on the state of motoring these days than three recent car shows that represent the past, present and future of personal transportation.
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