Robbo's Archives

by Peter Robinson Embarrassingly, I don’t remember the first time I topped 100mph on the road. Almost certainly most of you – at least those of a certain age – recall that milestone occasion with absolute clarity. I asked six AMHF members and all could recall in precise detail the car, the road and the […]

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 […]

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 […]

by Peter Robinson Forty-nine years ago, upon becoming the editor of Wheels magazine, I discovered a pile of manuscripts written by Griffith Borgeson. The name was familiar, I dimly knew the by-line from American magazines like Car & Driver and True’s Automotive Yearbook and vaguely remembered tales on Bonneville, the Miller front drive Indy cars, […]

by Peter Robinson October 29, 1963. Ferruccio Lamborghini has invited a handful of journalists to his unfinished factory in Sant’Agata Bolognese. For months rumours the Italian tractor manufacturer planned to challenge Ferrari’s road cars circulated in the bars of Modena. The cluster of people gathered outside the factory near the quiet farming village anticipate something […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]