A few weeks back, we brought you the (alleged) 376 mpg Opel, noting that it (allegedly) was the result of a (unconfirmed) Shell ultra-mileage test on (clandestine) superheated vapor fuel technology, similar to the technology that Smokey Yunick (did indeed) patent and install on a 1984 Fiero. We noted that other (supposed) test vehicles in […]
I’ll return to the normal SIA Flashback custom of progressing through the issues next week, but thought that because I celebrated my birthday last week, I’ll pick an article from the SIA issue closest to my birth, SIA #50, April 1979. It’s interesting to see how things changed so much from SIA #3 to #50 […]
Sometimes we just need to get out of the office. Such was the case yesterday, when the bulk of editorial made a field trip to the New York International Auto Show. Sure, we don’t cover new cars, but we still have to maintain our contacts, as Fitzgerald did with his buddies from Ferrari.
And there’s the […]
Flying car, schmlying car. The good people over at Gibbs–makers of the Aquada swimming car thing–have landed themselves a fat contract with the US Government. In association with Lockheed-Martin, Gibbs will be developing–we kid you not–Aquadas, Humdingas and Quadskis (Why not crack open a cool, refreshing Gibbs Quadski today?) for military applications. They will, alas, […]
Any Crosley devotee knows that the CoBra four-cylinder engine that powered the post-war Crosleys was essentially repurposed from its use in generators that provided many an Allied war unit with necessary electricity. But Powel Crosley tried to offer plenty more assistance in the war effort.
For example, Crosley built at least a couple different three-wheeled prototypes, […]
Time for your misbegotten, forgotten concept car of the day: Giugiaro’s Porsche Tapiro.
Italdesign did the car for VW in 1970. 914/6-based, it used the 914/6 2.4-liter flat-six, chassis & running gear. There were four gullwings altogether, two for the passenger compartment and two for the rear-mid engine.
TO our eyes, it’s Giugiaro does […]
Old hovercrafts seem to be all the rage on teh Intarnet lately, with the guy from Finkbuilt posting several scans of the latest 1960 designs. One design he didn’t include was the Chrysler VZ-6 “flying jeep.”
The VZ series of hovercrafts were part of a military initiative started in 1957 to replace the jeep with something […]
It’s no big secret that Raymond Loewy gave Albrecht Graf von Goertz his big break when Loewy arranged for his job at the Studebaker design studio. As the story goes, Goertz used that position to establish his own business in the 1950s, through which he met Max Hoffman and eventually came to design the BMW […]