The classic front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, soft-top sports car appeared to be under threat from all directions in the 1970s. New US emissions laws were emasculating engines, affecting those European models that relied on lighter weight and relatively little power. Added to this, safety and insurance concerns...
Small cars made great strides in the 1970s. Hatchback bodies were used almost universally, making little cars more useful and adaptable than they had ever been before. Many manufacturers adopted front-wheel drive, which brought with it improvements in space utilization, allowing for more passenger and...
One of the great visionaries of the car world, Colin Chapman was a born competitor. To fund his passion for building race-winning cars, he created a string of dazzlingly brilliant Lotus sports cars for road drivers. Chapman was a magician when it came to weight...
In the 1970s ever larger and more powerful engines provided greater top speeds, while slashing acceleration times. Ferrari was the last of the big three Italian supercar-makers to switch to mid-engined designs: while Lamborghini built the Miura and prepared the Countach, and Maserati offered the...
With production ceasing in the UK in the late 1950s, the Morris Oxford Series III was reborn almost immediately in India Renamed the Hindustan Ambassador, it was the first car to be built on the subcontinent (rather than merely assembled), and retained its dominant position...
American motoring muscle reached its zenith at the start of the 1970s. V8 engines were bigger than ever before, and delivered unprecedented power. The fastest and rarest muscle cars were the specials built for NASCAR racing, such as the aerodynamic Dodge Charger Daytona and Plymouth...
From respected component manufacturer to car-maker, to core brand of the Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles, Dodge has become a fixture in US motoring history that survives and thrives today. Merged into Chrysler as a mid-priced brand, it blossomed in the 60s muscle car boom, and was the...
The utilitarian off-road vehicles designed during World War II matured into pick-ups, estates, and SUVs that offered comfort and convenience features such as power steering, coil-spring suspension, and automatic transmission, but still retained that essential go-anywhere capability. They made excellent towing vehicles, too, and with...
Arguably the greatest name in the history of car styling, Nuccio Bertone’s company was one of the world’s longest-lived design brands. Under Nuccio’s guidance the company created pioneering and commercially successful designs for the likes of Alfa Romeo and Lamborghini, applied ideas of genius to...
The winner of the Rally World Championships in 1974,1975, and 1976, the Lancia Stratos was developed from a striking, fluorescent orange, wedge-shaped concept car designed by Bertone and launched at the Turin Motor Show in 1971. Swapping that model’s four-cylinder Lancia engine for Ferrari’s Dino...