One July day in the late 1960s, 12-year old school-boy Robert Gendebien returned home from his Belgium boarding school for the summer holidays. Over dinner with his father and two […]
Robbo's Archives
Franco Scaglione
Automotive historians, like historians in any field, occasionally commit unforgiveable errors. I’m hugely embarrassed to admit that in a 1991 Autocar magazine story, I killed off designer Franco Scaglione. Only […]
Phil Irving
In 1966 a new set of regulations was adopted for Formula One racing. The 1.5-litre engine capacity ceiling for both normally aspirated and supercharged engines gave way to a 3-litre […]
Anatole “Tony” Lapine
Few travelling companions were as stimulating as Anatole ‘Tony’ Lapine, the Latvian-born American who ran Porsche design from 1969-1988 and died in late April, 2012, just weeks after the death […]
Rudolf Hruska: Mister Alfasud
Rudolf Hruska belonged to the old aristocratic school of automotive design. His was a simple philosophy – much ignored, he believes, in the creation of modern cars. “In my opinion,” […]
Russell Brockbank
Every motoring enthusiast has a favourite Brockbank cartoon. Usually, only after long and careful consideration: how do you choose between the dozens of his wonderfully simple yet astute sketches that […]
Lancia’s Camuffo
On October 24, 1969 Fiat paid one lira (around 0.6cents) to gain outright control of Lancia. That one lira was merely a symbol of course, for Fiat also inherited Lancia’s […]
Denis Jenkinson
Upon discovering Denis Jenkinson – DSJ to the readers – in Motor Sport magazine (you know, the British magazine with the green-cover, edited by WB, William Boddy) in the late […]
Louis Klemantaski
The image is as vivid today as it was 60-years ago when, as a boy, I first saw the photograph and instantly knew that I would always love motor racing. […]
