The K-Car Reconsidered
Lee Iaccoca gets blame - or credit - for the 1981-1989 Dodge Aires and Plymouth Reliant K-cars, but unlike the minivan, this one’s really not his fault.
He simply took the ball...
Worst Things About Old Cars
There’s a new reason for buying an old car. It’s not nostalgia, it’s not a love for classic lines - though those still come along for the ride. It’s a desire...
Great Pumpkin Test Drive
In the Halloween Spirit, here's a look at The Great Pumpkin, plus a test drive! It is very patriarchical as well as heterosexual and profoundly unsafe. No air bags. Not even...
Chrysalis Cars
The "real" muscle cars of the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s have been financial instruments since the '90s, if not earlier. Out of reach of the average person. Because the average...
In the Rearview: Ferrari 365 GTB/4 Daytona (1968-1973)
The last of a thing is often a cause for nostalgia, even regret. The new thing may be objectively superior and hard to fault by the numbers. But something’s been lost,...
Doomed: Honda S2000 (1999-2009 RIP)
Race cars make terrible street cars - but every now and then, one will be offered for sale to the general public.
Usually, briefly.
L-88 Corvettes with lumpy solid lifter cams and three...
Air-Cooled Oddballs
Cars used to be like motorcycles still are (for now). You could even buy them with air-cooled engines, just like you can still buy bikes with air-cooled engines. No radiator to...
The Shitbox, Fondly Recalled
The late and very great Brock Yates coined the term.
Shitboxes.
They don't make them anymore - not really. Modern economy cars are not shitboxes.
A shitbox is something like an '80s-era Ford Escort...
Old School Economy: Chevy Chevette (1976-1987)
In some ways, the Chevy Chevette had a lot in common with a new Mercedes - or similar high-end luxury car.
It wasn’t, for openers, front-wheel-drive. Like the Benz, the 'Vette was...
Automotive Icon: De Tomaso Pantera, 1971-1993
Say Pantera - and most people think '70s. Maybe '80s.
Not 1993.
But they made them all the way into the early Clinton years. Not many. But as late as '93, you could still buy...