ERCOLE BORATTO: RACE DRIVER, MUSSOLINI’S CHAUFFEUR—AND HIS LEPORELLO
IN MOZART’S Don Giovanni, Leporello does many things for his boss, one of them maintaining a catalog of the lecherous Giovanni’s conquests. (One line of the aria: Ma in Espana, … Continue reading
MICHAEL MAY’S MARVELOUS IDEA
YOU MIGHT think that somewhere in Zuffenhausen, Porsche’s legendary home outside Stuttgart, Germany, there’d be a statue honoring Michael May. Alas, to the best of my research, there is not. … Continue reading
BENZ MOTORWAGEN ADVENTURES
KARL BENZ built perhaps 25 automobiles between the granting of his 1886 patent and 1893, and Patent-Motorwagen No. 3 had a particularly adventurous life: In 1888, Karl’s wife Bertha and … Continue reading
OIL CRISES I HAVE KNOWN—AND LIVED THROUGH
FOR MORE than two years, we’ve had declining gasoline prices nationwide. (Congress: Investigate this skullduggery!) However, now it seems to be over in California. Not shortages, mind; just increases in price. … Continue reading
TROJAN TALES GALORE
THE ENGLISH Trojan automobile had more eccentricities and as many stories as the legendary Model T Ford. Introduced in 1922, the Trojan had an engine with four cylinders arranged in … Continue reading
RACING ON THE “COLORED” LINE
EARLY AUTO race drivers were an especially courageous lot. They drove fragile yet awkward automobiles at impressive speeds under the most deadly conditions. Even more courageous were the relatively few … Continue reading
SUPER LIGHT AND SUPER SENSUOUS
TO ME, the words “carrozzeria” and “super leggera” can enter the English language without their italics. But Italian they are, carrozzeria being bodywork, particularly automotive, and Superleggera being a trademark … Continue reading
STANGUELLINI—FROM TIMPANI TO MACCHINE SPORTIVE
REGIONE Emilia-Romagna is rightfully known as Motor Valley. This northern Italian region begat Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and the wonderfully passionate famiglia Stanguellini. In Modena, an ancient town of the region, … Continue reading
RACING ON THE BOARDS
JUST AS roads of wood planks had their heyday, so it was with race tracks surfaced in this same material. In fact, the first board track in the U.S. was … Continue reading
ROAD & TRACK, PLANK AND BOARD, RESPECTIVELY
IN THE infancy of automotive travel—and racing—California was the home of a road—and a track—made of wood. Today, I share tidbits of plank roads; tomorrow, of a board track. The … Continue reading
Simanaitis Says 