THE 1 1/2-LITRE SQUIRE
I DIDN’T realize it at the time, but back in junior-high study hall I was sketching the Squire. And, indeed, in England back in 1926, 16-year-old Adrian Morgan Squire was … Continue reading
AUTOMOTIVE MUSCLE—PUT IN PERSPCTIVE
A BRIEF recollection of automotive muscle confirms the current idiocy of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Scott Pruitt wanting to dial back the auto industries’ hard-earned, if occasionally grudging, advances … Continue reading
MY BENTLEY GARAGE FIND
THIS GARAGE find of mine isn’t a car—It’s a book. And what a find! Here are a few tidbits gleaned from this book. W.O. Bentley and the Red Baron had … Continue reading
GEORGE CONSTANTINESCU—SCIENTIST, ENGINEER, INVENTOR, AUTOMAKER PART 2
WHEN WE left Romanian-British polymath George Constantinescu, in yesterday’s SimanaitisSays, he had already received plaudits for designing the C.C. synchronization gear used on allied fighter planes in World War I. … Continue reading
OPERATIC CARS PART 2
WHO WOULD have guessed the closeness of automobiles and opera? We move from yesterday’s Wagner Ring Cycle links to those involving Verdi, Gounod, Berg, and back to Wagner again. A … Continue reading
OPERATIC CARS PART 1
I’M LISTENING to Richard Wagner’s Siegfried, the third opera of his epic Ring Cycle. Early on, in Scene 2, the Wanderer (actually top god Wotan in disguise) tells an interminable … Continue reading
THE KURTIS SPORTS CAR
THE TRUISM “racing improves the breed” was more than justified by Frank Kurtis and his sports cars. Indeed, Frank first displayed his expertise fabricating bodies for race cars in the … Continue reading
AN OCTAGONAL MOVIE STAR
TO CAR enthusiasts, the name MG conjures up an image of a classic two-seat English roadster. The MG TC was the sports car that American servicemen brought home after World … Continue reading
WHAT WOULD $5300 BUY AN AUTO ENTHUSIAST IN 1953?
IN ITALIAN sports cars, $5300 would buy a 1953 Bertone-bodied 208 S Siata, as in Societa Italiana Auto Trasformazioni Accessorri. And, as R&T wrote in November, 1953, a “Sensational New … Continue reading
SPORTS CAR RACING—THANKS TO UNCLE SAM
U.S. AIR FORCE General Curtis E. LeMay was a sports car enthusiast, as well as the inspiration for the deranged General Jack D. Ripper in Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 Dr. Strangelove … Continue reading
