by Peter Robinson These were no ordinary family photograph albums. In the frescoed library of Contessa Camilla Maggi’s Calino home, among a stack of scrap books, you’d find a leather-bound, limited edition of photographs of her parent’s 1908 wedding. Another contains a series of aerial prints of the Calino villa and vineyards, there’s one of […]
Henry Royce and the South of France
by Peter Robinson Observant motorists driving east along the Avenue de la Corniche, as it winds above the Mediterranean between Le Lavandou and St Tropez in the south of France, will notice a small stone plaque beside the road on the way into the village of Le Canadel. Those with eagle eyes will decipher the […]
Star Crossed
by Peter Robinson Marina Maumann guides the W211 Mercedes E-Class down the steeply twisting Camps Bay Drive, just south of Cape Town, South Africa. It’s 26 January 2005, and Marina and Mica Naumann are looking forward to celebrating their wedding anniversary over dinner. Today Mica is on his mobile rather than at the wheel and […]
Chuck Jordan: the Chrome Cobra
by Peter Robinson One lunch time in August 1956 Chuck Jordan, an inquisitive, 28-year-old General Motors’ stylist, decided to see what Chrysler was planning for its 1957 models. Jordan drove to the back of Chrysler’s Hamtramck assembly plant, a few miles across town, to get an advanced look. “I used to go past there because […]
Colin Bond OAM with Peter Robinson – Fireside Chat on 23 June 2023
Nardo: driving the perfect circle
by Peter Robinson Pista di prova di Nardò della Fiat – say it out loud – resonances rather more romantically than the translation to Fiat’s Nardo Test Track. Seduced by the evocative title, I vowed to visit the place from the moment the world first heard of Nardo’s incredible 12.6km circular track, a high-speed bowl […]
Volkswagen Phaeton: the best engineered failure in motoring history
by Peter Robinson Volkswagen – the People’s Car – remained true to this humble philosophy throughout its existence. At least until 1997 and the arrival of a series of W12 concept supercars in 1997 that didn’t look much like cars for the people. Few thought VW boss Ferdinand Piech was serious about taking on Ferrari […]
Escort disaster
by Peter Robinson Ours was not the most jovial table in the dining room of the Geneva airport’s Movenpick Hotel that Saturday evening in August 1990. We dithered over the fish, sipped the Chardonnay and looked, well, embarrassed. Guilty that our hosts, the people responsible for the car we’d been driving all day, were paying […]
Woodward
by Peter Robinson Woodward Avenue is gridlocked. Deliberately. Traffic in the four north-bound lanes is stationary, held in check behind a black Chevrolet Suburban and Hummer H2. Now, with the huge SUVs parked longitudinally across Woodward, the road ahead is clear, and our entourage can begin to move out from the Athens Coney Island diner. […]
