by Peter Robinson – – – This is the story of a humble Italian restaurant: Trattoria del Sole, on Monte Isola in Lago d’Iseo, Lombardia, Italy. Except, on the trattoria’s near waterfront terrace, there’s a special table facing the tiny island of San Paolo, owned since 1916 by the Beretta family, the world’s oldest armaments […]
Robbo's Archives
Holden’s crazy Wombat super ute
by Peter Robinson – – – (This story first appeared in Wheels, June 2025) This was a scoop so fantastic that few readers believed it. Did Holden really conjure an electric-powered supercar, a rival for the Bugatti Veyron, that also just happened to be a ute? All true. And here’s the proof. Until now, the […]
Review of The 1978 Ford Falcon XC Cobra Hardtop Register
by Peter Robinson – – – Wheels magazine’s Steve Cropley was trusted with ferrying a new Ford Falcon XC Cobra from the company’s Broadmeadows headquarters to Bathurst for the 1978 Hardie Ferodo 1000. No, it wasn’t one of the Moffat/Bond race cars, but Cobra no. 027, one of 30 race specials, which was to be […]
Ford Australia’s Archive
by Peter Robinson – – – The battle over Ford Australia’s precious archive, raging since 2015, finally seems to have settled. There’s still one major step before all parties are happy, but, crucially, the vast majority of the archive stays in Australia. For a time it seemed possible (even probable) that the entire collection would […]
Corvette Concept
by Peter Robinson – – – The first in a raft of Corvette concept cars due to be unveiled this year has been revealed at the official opening of GM’s new UK advanced design studio. GM admits, “there is no production intention behind this concept”, and says the UK Design team undertook the exercise to […]
A chat with Peter Davis
by Peter Robinson Peter Davis, the American designer who helped create one of the most controversially styled cars of the past 50 years, was guest speaker at the AMHF earlier in the year. Briefly, Peter’s career as a car designer began at Opel in 1983, before a move to Fiat in 1989. Later he rejoined […]
How GM and Ford produced the same size engines
by Peter Robinson This is a coincidence that stretches beyond the imagination. In late 1950 and early 1952, General Motors and Ford – sworn rivals as the world’s two biggest car makers – launched totally new four- and six-cylinder engines with identical bore and stroke measurements and, therefore, precisely the same capacity. A fluke of […]
GM: Thinking for Design
by Peter Robinson Thinking time: that vital period when a CEO or senior manager is free to reflect, to contemplate the future, and hopefully come up with strategies that drive a company forward. Sadly, too many leaders ignore the importance of thinking time. They fill their entire weekly schedule with endless meetings, answering questions, solving […]
Cropley Curve
by Peter Robinson Silverstone has Hamilton Straight, Scotland the Jim Clark circuit, Sydney Motor Sport Park Brabham Straight and Bahrain the Schumacher S, all named to honour the memory of famous racing drivers. And there are other corners, straights and grandstands on circuits globally called after the world’s best wheel men. But it’s not only […]
