Just who did style the Hurricane?
The question of who designed the Hurricane supercar has been mired in controversy. Until 2011. Weird as it may have seemed for a car styled just 44-years ago, nobody was sure if the Hurricane was penned in Australia by Holden’s local designers working with their American colleagues on assignment to Australia, or was it, as […]
The Making of the De Tomaso Pantera – by Gautam Sen
By the end of the 1960s, after a decade of designing cars for Ghia, Pininfarina, and then Ghia once again, the American architect-turned-car-designer Tom Tjaarda had finally developed a style and form structure which was distinctively his own. Cars like the Serenissima GT, the De Tomaso, Mustela, and the Lancia Fulvia HF Competizione and Marica […]
The Holden Hurricane
This story begins on Tuesday, March 4, 1969 in Holden’s Technical Centre, Fishermen’s Bend. And finishes almost 43-years later at Holden’s Lang Lang proving ground. As one of 31 press invitees to that Melbourne motor show eve preview of Holden’s top-secret Hurricane, I never anticipated driving the one-off dream car. At the time I wrote, […]
Sydney to Perth (3 Times!)
Google maps tells me the distance by road from London to Moscow is 2890km. Drive a further 1130km east and you’re almost to the Ural Mountains. Or the same 4020km from Sydney to Perth or one side of Australia to the other: Pacific to Indian Ocean. When the final section of the only road across […]
Spencer Martin Book Launch
The first event organised by the AMHF was the book launch for our Ambassador, Spencer Martin. Held in the Hinxman Room at Sydney Motorsport Park to a packed audience, Peter Robinson was the MC for the release of “Historic Ferraris and Grand Prix Cars – My Life by Spencer Martin”. For those unable to attend, […]
50 YEARS AGO
History tells us Mel Nichol’s great HO Down the Hume story is a Wheels’ magazine original. Not quite. In fact, Mel’s still evocative words first appeared in the October 1975 issue of Sports Car World magazine, sister to Wheels. This is how it happened, 50-years ago. In mid-1971, having developed a trusting relationship with Howard […]
Life with Ferrari
When in September 1982, on a private visit to Italy, I first visited Ferrari, Il Commendatore Enzo Ferrari was still very much the autocrat, at least of the racing department. Maranello’s disparate road car range included the V8 308 GTB and GTS, the bigger, two plus two V8 Mondial, and two unrelated 12-cylinder models: the […]
Huge Growth in Classic Vehicle Ownership
A very interesting article in the May issue of the Classic & Sports Car magazine in the UK. The Federation of British Historic Vehicle Clubs is expecting huge growth in the number of classic owners. Up 25% by 2025! That’s a huge increase in a very buoyant industry.
