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Techno Classica Weekend Edition: The 1978-1981 BMW M1
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Never to be outdone, BMW brought a freaking airplane to Techno Classica. They recently turned 100 years old, and the Bavarian propeller logo does stand for actual propellers. But since this isn’t Atomic Toasters, I’m dedicating this post to the BMW M1: the best Lamborghini BMW ever made. Or something.
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Travel back to 1995: Nürburgring shenanigans captured on VHS
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[youtube width=”720″ height=”450″]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lXBXsAOSFE[/youtube] What does a Nürburgring Nordschleife tourist drive Sunday look like these days? E30s and VW Golf Mk2:s getting beaten to hell. What did it look like 20 years ago? Exactly the same. Somehow, nothing has happened: the same old cars get driven on the track all the same, it’s just that the…
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Weekend Edition: The Classic Motorshow Parking, Part. 2
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At the show, there were a great deal of non-ancient cars parked neatly next to the older classics. This post shows the angular, ’80s stuff and the occasional newer car that had snuck in.
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Weekend Edition: The Classic Motorshow Parking, Part. 1
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The thing with the Classic Motorshow is that you can park outside the venue only if you’ve arrived with a 30+ year old car. Or if you’re a honored guest of the show or work there or whatnot. But they check your papers as you drive in, and it’s better to be old. It doesn’t…
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Weekend Edition: Classic Motorshow 2016
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One of the best things in the Finnish automobile enthusiast’s calendar is the Classic Motorshow, held yearly in early May and containing wondrous weird cars in several halls of the fair centre in Lahti. This year, I armed myself with two cameras: the other one was the usual brown Canon EOS 1100D I use for…
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Dumpy Weekend Edition: The Saab 96 looks best in brown
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Could this be the best-looking promotional image of the Saab 96? The earthy brown suits the duck-billed late model car so very well. Browsing through these shots, I am just imagining how it would have felt like to drive around the nordic fields in a factory fresh little Saab.
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Dumpy Weekend Edition: The Volvo 300-series is a different box on wheels
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The Volvo 300-series was born from a Dutch design, the car that was supposed to become the Daf 77. The daffodil bloomed in a Swedish glasshouse, as Volvo bought a large percentage of the Dutch manufacturer’s automobile division in 1973 and brought the car to the market by 1976. It was still a very much…
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From concept to reality: The VAZ/Lada 110/2110
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“You make me sad”, said King Arthur to the Black Knight in the very well known Monty Python movie. I’m reminded of that scene every time I compare Lada prototypes to the finalized production cars: it’s clear how the design studios were positively awash with striking ideas and impeccable taste, but despite getting the basic…
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Working out the recipe: 25 years of the SEAT Toledo
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The Skoda article this past weekend focused on the Octavia 1U, which was unveiled 20 years ago, after Volkswagen gradually took ownership of the Czech carmaker. The Octavia was partly developed from the same parts, on the same floorpan as the later SEAT Toledo, but the Toledo was already a second-generation car by 1998. The…
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Weekend Edition: Rebuilding a brand – The 1996-2010 Skoda Octavia 1U
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It’s 25 years ago since Skoda and Volkswagen shook hands and made Skoda a Volkswagen subsidiary. The agreement took place on March 28th, 1991, and on April 16th, Volkswagen took ownership of 30% of Skoda’s shares. In Dec 1994, VW took majority of Skoda’s shares with 60,3% in their pocket, and grew that to 70%…
