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Ford Aerovan Concept
This is an installment in a series of posts looking back on show cars that we feel deserved a little more attention than they got. If you have a suggestion for a Forgotten Concept topic, please shoot us a line or leave a comment below.
1963 Volkswagen Type 34 Karmann-Ghia
Note: The following story was excerpted from the April 2016 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
In the late Nineties, Volkswagen tickled the automotive world’s fancy when it brought out the New Beetle that called to mind the iconic shape of the round little car that put VW on the map. However, there was a time many years earlier when people thought that a different “new” Beetle was coming.
1963 Buick Riviera (L), and some of Collectible Automobile Publisher Frank Peiler’s “what-if” designs.
By Frank Peiler
Buick’s 1963 Riviera is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful cars ever produced by any auto manufacturer. This svelte personal-luxury hardtop coupe artfully blended American and British style, and it changed the Buick brand’s somewhat stodgy image almost overnight. General Motors styling chief William L. Mitchell freely admitted to borrowing some of the ’63 Riviera’s key design elements. Its razor-edge roof styling, for instance, was inspired by certain 1950s English custom bodywork.
1952 Mercedes-Benz W194 race car (L), and some of Collectible Automobile Publisher Frank Peiler’s “what-if” designs.
By Frank Peiler
It was early 1952 when Mercedes-Benz was in the midst of developing the 300SL sports car. The skeletal frame, drivetrain and suspension were beautifully engineered masterpieces. However, the original form-follows-function body looked like a half-used bar of soap with a cap stuck on top. Let’s say that in this post-WWII era of rebuilding, there wasn’t much of a design department at Mercedes-Benz that the company could turn to.
Brad Pitt plays stuntman Cliff Booth in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood.
Advertised as Quentin Tarantino’s ninth film, Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood is the story of a middle-aged actor and his longtime stuntman and personal friend set around the time of the Manson murders.
Forgotten Concept: Honda T880
Honda T880 Concept
This is an installment in a series of posts looking back on show cars that we feel deserved a little more attention than they got. If you have a suggestion for a Forgotten Concept topic, please shoot us a line or leave a comment below.
What Was The Volkswagen SP2?
Volkswagen SP2
If you were a Volkswagen fan in America in the early Seventies, and you were looking for something sporty to drive, you were kind of out of luck. There was the coachbuilt-body Karmann Ghia—a car which was arguably gorgeous, but not really all that sporty. Mechanically identical to the contemporaneous Beetle, the Karmann Ghia was more of a casual touring car—it was a little too slow, and its handling a little too pedestrian, to be engaging. However, Brazilian VW fans of the day had it a little better.
1959 Fiat Abarth 750 Zagato
Note: The following story was excerpted from the June 2000 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Throughout his professional life, Carlo Abarth (1908-1979) won acclaim for wringing great amounts of performance from cars with tiny engines. On occasion, these were cars of his own design. More often than not, though, his shops in Turin, Italy, founded in 1949, turned out vigorous vehicles that took as their starting points other manufacturers’ products.
1947 Bentley Mark VI Drophead Coupe
Note: The following story was excerpted from the April 2002 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine.
Bentleys were fast sport tourers—absolutely dependable, but loud. By 1931, when Bentley Motors went into receivership, its larger cars were competing with Rolls-Royce. In a surprise move, Rolls bought its English competitor to prevent future rivalry.
1975 Ford Mustang Ghia
I came of age as a car guy under the tutelage of Car and Driver magazine during the Eighties. As such, I was very much an automotive minimalist. Groomed by auto editors with a love of spartan German performance cars, there was little room in my heart for the likes of whitewall tires, fake aero tack-on bits, or trucks of any stripe.
