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Category Archives: Classic Bits

G.P. MERCEDES OF MORE THAN A CENTURY AGO PART 1

IT WAS 115 YEARS BEFORE TODAY’S Mercedes-Benz participation in Grand Prix racing (and, indeed, it wasn’t until 1926 that the hyphenated firm even existed). Laurence Pomeroy’s The Grand Prix Car … Continue reading

October 10, 2023 · Leave a comment

WHAT MAKES FOR A PERFECT TWO-SEAT COMMUTER?

BACK IN DECEMBER 1983, R&T WROTE “The 1.5-liter CRX is the most fun you can have on four wheels for less than $7000.” Cover blurbs blurbed, “Lotus Turbo Esprit: blindingly … Continue reading

October 5, 2023 · 3 Comments

OLDS CUTLASS SALON—EQUAL TO EURO LUXURY SPORT SEDANS AT A BARGAIN PRICE?

FIFTY YEARS AGO, IMPORTS WERE FIRMLY ESTABLISHED in the U.S. market. Not just sports cars and VW Beetles, but even at the luxury end of the market. In February 1973, … Continue reading

September 28, 2023 · 1 Comment

DETROIT RACES 1901

WHEN THE SECOND MOTOR CAR was built, its driver likely challenged the first. Thus came motor sports. According to Motoring in America: The Early Years, so it was in Detroit … Continue reading

September 26, 2023 · 5 Comments

L.J.K. SETRIGHT’S TIMESCALE PART 2

WE’RE CELEBRATING THE WIDE TALENTS of L.J.K. Setright, as exemplified in his Timescale, a multifaceted timeline in his Drive On! A Social History of the Motor Car. Leonard John Kensell … Continue reading

September 19, 2023 · 1 Comment

TIDBITS FROM SETRIGHT’S TIMESCALE PART 1

AUTOMOTIVE JOURNALISTS WRITE ABOUT AUTOMOBLES. But some, like L.J.K. Setright, widened their field of vision considerably. His classic Drive On! is accurately subtitled A Social History of the Motor Car. … Continue reading

September 18, 2023 · 1 Comment

EVALUATING THE DE TOMASO PANTERA AND THE U.P. PART 2

YESTERDAY IN PART 1, R&T SHARED its evaluation of the 1973 De Tomaso Pantera, a Ford-engine exotic available at less than stratospheric price. Today, two women familiar to R&T readers, … Continue reading

September 17, 2023 · Leave a comment

EVALUATING THE DE TOMASO PANTERA—AND THE U.P. PART 1

CRAMMING AN AMERICAN V-8 into a mid-engine Italian exotic may not be without its shortcomings, but many of these can be remedied—or overlooked. Indeed, two young ladies from California had … Continue reading

September 16, 2023 · Leave a comment

DRIVEN TO CRIME PART 2

YESTERDAY WE GLEANED TIDBITS from Crispian Besley’s Driven to Crime: True Stories of Wrongdoing in Motor Racing. Today in Part 2, we find that clever deceits have a way of … Continue reading

September 12, 2023 · 1 Comment

DRIVEN TO CRIME PART 1

MOTORSPORTS HAS HAD ITS SHARE of rascals and skullduggery. See, for example, “Smuggling and Motorsports”, “Tripoli Tangles, 1933”, and “Politics and Motorsports” here at SimanaitisSays. For an entertaining collection of … Continue reading

September 11, 2023 · 1 Comment