Simanaitis Says

On cars, old, new and future; science & technology; vintage airplanes, computer flight simulation of them; Sherlockiana; our English language; travel; and other stuff

Category Archives: Classic Bits

FIFTY YEARS HENCE

OLD MAGAZINES ARE fun, especially when they prophetically identify something like one’s career. With this in mind, I share a compulsion of long-heralded R&T readers who carted their old issues … Continue reading →

August 21, 2016 · 7 Comments

A 1953 TIME CAPSULE—BUGATTI LORE AND MORE

ETTORE BUGATTI, Le Patron, died in 1947, the same year that Road and Track published its first issue. In November 1953, the magazine was six years old when it chose to … Continue reading →

August 12, 2016 · 1 Comment

AIRBOATS—REAL AND VIRTUAL

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL did more than patent the first practical telephone in 1876 (not to say later giving actor Don Ameche such an iconic movie role that the device was … Continue reading →

August 6, 2016 · Leave a comment

THE STUFF THAT DREAMS ARE MADE OF

YOU’RE A KID in Cleveland reading this: “Imagine an MG-powered machine which weighs exactly one-half that of a stock TD and you have a thumbnail sketch of the Lotus.” Heady … Continue reading →

July 30, 2016 · 3 Comments

AN ENTHUSIAST’S FATHER BROWN

BEING ENTHUSED about classic cars, vintage aircraft and English mystery stories, I recommend the BBC TV adventures of Father Brown. In a recent PBS presentation, this parish priest/amateur sleuth found … Continue reading →

July 21, 2016 · Leave a comment

MID-ENGINE INDY RACE CARS—THE EARLY YEARS

THE DEMISE OF classic front-engine Indy roadsters began in 1961 when Jack Brabham’s mid-engine Cooper-Climax broke their ubiquity with a 9th-place finish. Jim Clark’s 1965 win in his Lotus-Ford hastened … Continue reading →

July 18, 2016 · Leave a comment

HAPPY 75TH, JEEP!

THE JEEP is 75 years old; its conception, traceable to freelance designer Karl Probst, is a year older. The editors of Automotive News assembled a celebration of these events in … Continue reading →

July 17, 2016 · 4 Comments

CENTRAL-SEAT SPORTS CARS

IN HIS MOTORSPORTS satire The Grand Prix of Gibraltar, Peter Ustinov described the hyper-technical Schnorcedes as having perfect weight distribution: Its driver sat neither left nor right; what’s more, his … Continue reading →

July 6, 2016 · 2 Comments

SARTHE DRAMA—1952 LE MANS

THIS ITEM goes live at 6:05 a.m., Saturday, June 18, 2016, Pacific Time Zone. And, at that time, the 84th running of the 24 Heures du Mans has been under … Continue reading →

June 18, 2016 · 2 Comments

PORSCHE AERODYNAMICS

WHAT WITH the Le Mans 24-hour race coming up this weekend, June 18 – 19, it’s not inappropriate to celebrate automotive aerodynamics as practiced by the good folks of Zuffenhausen. … Continue reading →

June 15, 2016 · Leave a comment