Motoring Interests & Career A 54-year career as a full-time motoring journalist included 16 years as Editor of Wheels magazine, plus 16 years spent living in Italy working as European editor of the UK’s weekly Autocar and Wheels, while also writing for America’s Car & Driver magazine and Japan’s Car Graphic. Returned to Australia in […]
Robbo's Archives
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. […]
Porsche 928
by Peter Robinson Even now, 27-years after the 928’s death, Zuffenhausen doesn’t like to be reminded that its front engine V8 started life as a replacement for the 911. The 928 arrived in 1977 with a price tag 38 percent higher than the 911, yet Porsche still believed it could replace the classic rear-engine model. […]
Ferrari F50
by Peter Robinson In the beginning, appropriately, it was Piero Ferrari’s idea. Enzo’s second son believed any successor to the mighty F40 should be no less than an F1 car for the road. Piero’s idea, first conceived in 1989 – only two years after the launch of the F40 and the year following the death […]
‘Hacks and PR people’
By Peter Robinson “Journalists are the enemy….do not talk to motoring writers.” The instruction, from the communications department of a famous German car maker, was delivered verbally to its astonished designers. And almost immediately passed on to the ‘enemy’. At new model time and (the now vanishing) motor shows, car makers are happy for us […]
Butzi Porsche: father of the 911
by Peter Robinson Nine months before the launch of the 996 – the first water-cooled 911 – I attempted to arrange an interview with Butzi Porsche, designer of the original air-cooled 911 and son of Ferry Porsche. That was February 1997. However, my attempts to set up a meeting with Butzi at Porsche Design, his […]
Luca di Montezemolo
by Peter Robinson Luca di Montezemolo delivered his last address to invited journalists at the 2014 Paris Motor Show. Elegant, as always, in a grey suit, his legs crossed, his black socks visible as he sipped Italian mineral water from a wine glass, the tension between Montezemolo and his boss Sergio Marchionne was obvious. This […]
Nigel Tait
by Peter Robinson If Nigel Tait had followed the family tradition, he’d have worked in the music and entertainment industries. For over 70 years, the five brothers Tait – Charles Tait, the eldest brother, Nigel’s grandfather – brought Australians some of the world’s best musical and theatrical attractions, including My Fair Lady and Joan Sutherland. […]
