Today we’re celebrating Al Unser Sr.’s 81st birthday. The youngest brother in a family of royal speed, Al continued the Unser legacy following in the footsteps of father Jerry, brothers Bobby and Jerry, Jr., and uncles Louis and Joe.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/video/al-unser-sr-on-turning-81-plus-tractors-and-alpacas/ ... View more

In 1988, Concept Coach Builders of Milwaukee made all sort of stretch jobs in the name of affordable luxury (and underseat briefcase storage solutions), including Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow, Silver Spirit and Silver Spur conversions priced in the $125,000–150,000 range for the less budget-conscious. However, those with only $29,900 in their pocket could still call Scott Sampson at 414-273-2225 to order their very own custom-built Oldsmobile Delta 88 Limousine instead.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/this-80s-olds-limo-is-all-about-the-unexpected-pleasure-of-affordable-luxury/ ... View more

Gordon Murray always preferred to save weight rather than push a drivetrain to wild outputs, a process which would require the addition of heavier components to handle the extra power. That’s why he approaches car design from a weight-to-power angle instead of the usual power-to-weight perspective, stressing that “a heavy car can never deliver the dynamic attributes of a lighter one.”   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-design/how-gordon-murrays-t-50-becomes-a-2160-pound-v-12-supercar/ ... View more

Just as the 2020 zombie apocalypse was hitting its peak, Audi offered up a new R8 for us to play with for a few weeks. Perhaps the automaker felt more comfortable handing us the key to its $215,150 wondercar knowing full well that there wasn’t any place to go in it. A long road trip was out as hotels were closed and townsfolk were looking askance at anyone with out-of-state plates. We would have to pack a picnic for any lengthy day trip because restaurants were mostly shut up tight. In fact, the best place to drive a 602-hp super coupe at that moment was through downtown Los Angeles, which was as empty as ancient Carthage after the Romans worked out their anger management issues on it.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/new-car-reviews/review-2020-audi-r8-performance/ ... View more

Between the Mustang GT, two Performance Pack levels, the GT350, and the GT500, there is already plenty of high-performance variety in the Mustang lineup. That said, we won’t say no to yet another V-8 pony car in the stable, especially one with such a beloved badge.   Confirming longstanding rumors, a Mustang Mach 1 is headed our way for the 2021 model year. Although Ford isn’t saying much beyond that, we do know that under the Mach 1’s hood is a naturally aspirated 5.0-liter V-8, and these images of a camouflaged prototype betray a few other technical tidbits.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ford-confirms-2021-mustang-mach-1-with-5-0-liter-v-8/ ... View more

The last seven installments of his internet-famous Gymkhana videos featured Ford vehicles, but Ken Block is now opening the door for Travis Pastrana to bring the stunt video franchise back to its Subaru roots for Gymkhana 11.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/ken-block-hands-over-the-next-gymkhana-installment-to-travis-pastrana-and-subaru/ ... View more

A bizarre, customized Dodge Colt is coming up for sale at Mecum’s Indy auction currently scheduled for July 10–18, 2020. The 1981 Dodge Colt(s), dubbed, “Double Header” was made from two Dodge Colt/Plymouth Champ hatchbacks that have been joined together at the B-pillar. Best thing to happen to Indianapolis since Peyton Manning? You decide.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/oddball-dodge-colt-packs-two-of-everything-into-a-double-header/ ... View more

Earlier this year, we teased you with the news that Automobili Lamborghini and the Lego Group had joined forces and were planning to release a first-ever Lamborghini super sports car by Lego Technic. The catch: you had to wait until June 1 to get one.   At the time it sure seemed like an excruciatingly long time to wait, didn’t it? Check your calendar.   Say hello to the Lamborghini Sián FKP 37: a 3696-piece, 1:8-scale model that is surely easier than the real thing to build at home. Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/lamborghini-sian-fkp-37-roars-into-lego-stores-on-june-1/ ... View more

Mecum’s Indianapolis sale has been postponed to July, but the docket is already full of stunning vehicles. Back in March we highlighted the announcement of the first-ever Shelby GT350R, part of the John Atzbach collection that features numerous rare and important Shelbys. Among them is this super-rare 1966 GT350 Convertible, offered at no reserve.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/auctions/this-ultra-rare-1966-gt350-convertible-can-soon-be-yours/ ... View more

Nineteen sixty-five was a big year. For Cadillac, for GM, and for the U.S. auto industry as a whole. Many, many records were set that year. Many new models, lots of attractive new designs, and big sales. All the full-size GM cars—from Chevrolet to Cadillac—were new, the Corvair was new, and even the midsize cars got a major revision. And everything looked attractive. So many eye-catching cars, and not just at The General. You also had the new Mustang, a facelifted Lincoln Continental, and fresh full-sizers as well.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/klockau-classics/the-1965-de-ville-convertible-was-a-country-club-chariot/ ... View more

Today's featured car is a 1974 Volkswagen Karmann Ghia. These handsome little vehicles combined the Beetle's frugal air-cooled flat four with elegant Italian styling. Turin-based Ghia designed the petite coupe's shape, and German coachbuilder Karmann constructed the bodies. With 46 horsepower from its 1585-cc four-pot, VW could hardly market the 1974 Karmann Ghia—or any other year—as a fire-breather. Instead, the car delivered on the promise of stylish, practical everyday transportation.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/hagerty-community/rides-from-the-readers-1974-vw-karmann-ghia/ ... View more

When the Cadillac XLR entered the market for 2004, it was the brand’s first two-seater (and first convertible) since the Allanté was retired in 1993. That final year of the Allanté used a 4.6-liter Cadillac Northstar V-8, just like the XLR, but the similarities end there. While the 295-hp Allanté was front-wheel-drive and based on a modified version of the E-body chassis used in the Buick Reatta and Cadillac Eldorado, the 320-hp XLR was based on the C6 Corvette’s rear-drive chassis. It was even built in the same Bowling Green, Kentucky, assembly plant as “America’s sports car.” All signs suggested Cadillac was serious about building a luxury sports car.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/2004-2009-cadillac-xlrs-might-never-be-more-affordable-than-they-are-right-now/ ... View more

Although 2020 has already featured a historical phenomenon we were never hoping would repeat itself—hello, pandemic—thankfully COVID-19 won’t prevent one of our favorite parts of automotive history from roaming the roads again. Private roads, that is, because Aston Martin’s 25 painstakingly recreated, James Bond-spec DB5s won’t be street legal. Production of these continuation cars, each loaded to the gills with functioning gadgets, has officially begun—55 years after the last original DB5 rumbled to life in Buckinghamshire, England.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/aston-martin-db5-goldfinger-continuation-cars/ ... View more

The NFL’s Miami Dolphins are opening the gates to Hard Rock Stadium. Just not for football … yet. Read the full article on Hagerty.com:   https://www.hagerty.com/media/news/miami-dolphins-to-turn-stadium-into-massive-drive-in-theater/ ... View more

Some expressed surprise at the departure of Andy Palmer from Aston Martin but of those I’ve spoken to, more were surprised only that it had not happened sooner. From the moment he took Aston Martin into the public domain in late 2018 and saw its shares free fall, his days surely were numbered. And when Lawrence Stroll came in as chairman complete with a £540 million ($662.8M) rescue package, some thought Palmer’s job would be a condition of the buy in.    Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/opinion/miami-penthouses-and-submarines-where-aston-martin-went-wrong/ ... View more

It was the turn of the century and the dawn of the automotive age. Given that major cultural shifts rarely come to pass without a hiccup, the advent of the motor car and its internal combustion engine was not without its problems. For instance, how do you make the switch from horse power to horsepower a little easier on the real horses?   Enter Uriah Smith, a Seventh Day Adventist preacher and inventor from Battle Creek, Michigan. Smith’s main objection with cars was that they scared the hell out of the four-legged transportation of the day, resulting in accidents and death. He figured the best way to calm a horse when a car drove past was to make that car look a little less foreign.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/the-harebrained-idea-to-help-horses-get-used-to-horseless-carriages/ ... View more

It’s not what I’d call the most American of automobiles: a product with design roots in Mercedes-Benz and Renault sedans, built straight outta Brampton, Ontario, with a Mexican engine, then sold by a company with headquarters in Amsterdam and London and a majority shareholder from Italy. Yet in actual practice, rather than theory, the Dodge Charger is a four-wheeled version of Lee Greenwood. What makes it such an American icon, exactly?   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/ask-jack/ask-jack-forget-that-camry-you-could-have-a-v-8/ ... View more

Earlier this year I stopped by the Brumos Collection, before catching a flight from Orlando back to Britain. It houses one of the most impressive collections of landmark cars from Porsche’s motorsport history.   Set in a bespoke building that harks back to the former Ford plant in Jacksonville, there’s almost as much to admire about the architecture as there is about the cars housed within. That includes a boardwalk entrance which nods to the board tracks that were wooden wonders of the 1920s.   Knowing relatively little of the wooden ovals that gave rise to America’s oval racing scene, the information displayed about them was a small but significant distraction from all the Porsches on the other side of the museum, and enough to draw me away from 908s, 917s and a charming little 914/6 GT, one of the earliest cars that Brumos Racing campaigned.   So when the folks at On Yer Bike produced a film taking viewers through the history of board tracks, with a focus on the early bike racers, I found myself compelled to watch, and not just because of the title—”Welcome to the Murderdrome.”   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorcycles/murderdromes-the-sobering-history-of-board-track-racing/ ... View more

Sometimes, the most ordinary cars have the most extraordinary stories. Five years ago I spotted the golden-brown flash of an original first-generation Civic turning down a side street, and I gave chase. Good thing I did, too, because that one little Honda unraveled a hopeful tale that continues surprise me.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/car-profiles/hirokos-honda/ ... View more

Just outside NASCAR’s capital of Charlotte, North Carolina, the world’s top race car drivers file in and out of a white warehouse shrouded in black glass. Some stay for hours, some for the day—most leave sweaty. This is the Ford Performance Technical Center. Constructed in 2014, the 33,000-square-foot facility houses computers and apparatus used to test Ford’s race cars and its race car drivers. Every day, around the clock, racers take turns sharing Ford’s two driving simulators.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/ford-simulator-build-yourself-gear/ ... View more

An engine puts the auto in automobile; without one, you merely have a carriage and have successfully shifted yourself backwards by 120 years. A century-plus of engine development has brought forth a vast array of solutions to the internal combustion problem. Virtually every person who has set their mind to building a car has experimented with the number, orientation, and even shape of the cylinders.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/5-of-the-strangest-engines-that-made-it-to-production/ ... View more

It was Winter 2008. The economic crash that year was still nine months away, but the price of gas had crept up to three bucks a gallon.   So, I did something surprising—for me, anyway. I bought a 1999 Geo Metro. Actually, it was badged a Chevrolet, so I bought a Chevy Metro. Doubly surprising.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/maintenance-and-tech/theres-something-refreshingly-honest-about-this-90s-chevy-gas-miser/ ... View more

Gerry writes: I have a 1953 Chevy panel truck with power disc brakes on all four corners, 9-inch dual diaphragm master cylinder, and a CPP proportioning valve. I am not happy with the braking power.   When I bleed the brakes I get lots of fluid from the rear brakes but very little from the front. I have checked the proportioning (combination) valve to make sure the piston is in the proper position and all seems OK. Any advice on my problem?   Sajeev answers: Because proportioning valves manage the flow of brake fluid between front and rear channels, that’s likely your issue. There could be...   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/piston-slap-panel-truckin-out-of-proportion/ ... View more

If I had a nickel every time I heard, “The best camera is the one you have with you,” I’d have enough money to retire from photography completely. Despite the overuse, the old adage rings true, especially with the advent of the camera phone. Digital cameras can be overwhelming. With expensive lenses, complex settings, and convoluted importing processes, sometimes it’s much easier to pull out your phone and tap away.   Read the full article Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/advice/how-to-take-sweet-car-photos-on-your-phone/ ... View more

Sixty years ago, General Motors was nothing like the company you know and (maybe) love today. In the 1960s, the firm was well-stocked with the industry’s smartest designers, engineers, sales experts, and division managers. No technical hurdle was too high, no engineering feat too far-fetched, for the colossus that bestrode more than 50 percent of the market and had no Asian competitors to fear. So when someone raised a hand and suggested that a nice, fresh V-12 engine would add luster to Cadillac’s prestige, there was broad consensus and no fiscal concern.   Read the full article on Hagerty.com: https://www.hagerty.com/media/automotive-history/why-gms-v-12-engine-of-the-future-was-stillborn/ ... View more