Greatest Cars, Golf GTI

An iconic vehicle if there ever was one. The VW Gold GTI first introduced in 1976, it lives on in various shapes and sizes 43 year on. Many purists still only rate the first couple of variants, but hats off to VW. They got that one right. Ask any performance car enthusiast under 35 what…

Greatest Cars, Jaguar XJ220

26 Years ago, Jaguar made this masterpiece. Unfortunately, it ended up as a controversial project due to bad timing and bad luck. Here is the story of the very serious supercars ever produced in the UK. In the 1980s, Jaguar’s chief engineer Jim Randle, began work on a concept car, code-named XJ220, which if put…

Greatest Cars, Datsun Z Cars

The Z cars were and are one of the sought after cars of the 1970s. Originally the Datsun 240, 260 and 280Z were made for world market as the Nissan S30. They were called Fairlady for the Japanese market. They were the first generation of Z GT two-seat coupe, and later from 1974, also 2+2…

Greatest Cars, Ford Capri

In 1969, The Car you always promised yourself made its sensational debut at the Brussels International Motor Show. The inspiration came from Ford of America’s phenomenally successful Mustang, launched in 1964. Initial sales exceeded the predicted demand by 100 per cent, because the Capri created a new breed of car on this side of the…

Greatest Cars, Porsche 911

Porsche 911, by far one of the most important cars Porsche ever produced was 50 in 2013. The various models from 1963 to 1989 are covered in this feature. The Porsche 911 is the flagship of the current line up of Porsche cars. It is a two-door GT coupe made by Porsche with a distinctive…

Greatest Cars, Bristol

Bristol Cars built hand-built luxury cars, near Bristol in the UK. Bristol have always been a low-volume manufacturer. The most recent published official production figures were for 1982, which stated that 104 cars were produced in that year. While no official figures have been produced since then it is believed that in recent years production…

Greatest Cars, Maserati “Birdcage”

The Maserati Tipo 61 (commonly referred to as the Maserati Birdcage), a sports racing car that was produced in the early 1960s. The car was produced between 1959 and 1961 by Maserati for racing in sports car events including the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance classic. It used an intricate tubular space frame chassis,…

Greatest Cars, Alfa Romeo Tipo 33

The Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 was a sports racing prototype raced by the Alfa Romeo factory-backed team between 1967 and 1977. These cars took part for Sport Cars World Championship, Nordic Challenge Cup, Interserie and CanAm series. A small number of road going cars were derived from it in 1967, called Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale…

Greatest Cars, Mercedes 300 SL

Today’s feature must be one of the best known cars in the world. Everyone remembers this car with its amazing gull wing doors and classic looks. I think it was a classic when it was produced and it’ll be one, always. The Mercedes-Benz 300SL was the first of the SL-Class grand tourer convertibles and fastest…

Greatest Cars, Lotus Esprit

Image; Graham Curry Photography Lotus Esprit was launched in October 1975 at the Paris Auto Show, and went into production in June 1976, replacing the Europa in the Lotus model lineup. These first cars eventually became known as S1 (or Series 1) Esprits. With a steel backbone chassis and a fiberglass body, the Esprit was…

Greatest Cars, Ferrari 308

The Pininfarina-styled 308 GTB was introduced at the Paris Motor Show in 1975 as a supplement to the Bertone-shaped Dino 308 GT4 and a replacement for the Dino 246. It was designed by Leonardo Fioravanti who had been responsible for some of Ferrari’s most celebrated shapes to date such as the Daytona, the Dino and…

Greatest Cars, Opel Manta

The Manta A was released in September 1970, two months ahead of the then new Opel Ascona on which it was based. A competitor to the Ford Capri, it was a two-door coupĂ©, and featured distinctive round tail lights, quite similar to those on the Opel GT and which in fact were used on the…