North American safety laws impacted heavily on sports-car design in this decade, often spoiling pretty shapes with big bumpers, and peppy performance with detuned but low-emission engines. The sports car was declining as “hot hatchbacks,” typified by the Volkswagen Golf GTI, drew the attention of...
Despite a wide choice of attractive, often extremely potent models, the open sports car was in decline in the 1960s as the popularity of civilized, closed-top Grand Touring cars grew: Most of these sports cars were launched in the first half of the decade; many...
Massive demand for sports cars in prosperous post-war America prompted rapid progress in design here and in Europe. This was a golden era for sports cars, as profiles became lower and stylists emphasized this with gorgeous, flowing lines, in the process coming up with some...
New events such as the Mille Miglia in Italy and the Le Mans 24-hour race in France in the 1920s meant that by the following decade competitive automobile racing was thriving. It led to many manufacturers developing models that could be used on both road...
The 1960s were the heyday of the sports car. Never before had there been such a choice of fast roadsters, with Europe leading the way. Alfa Romeo, MG, and Austin-Healey were the biggest names, and the sports cars they offered blended ruggedness, torquey performance, and...