Cars

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The Sports 800 was Toyota’s first sports car, paving the way for the 2000GT, AE86/Levin, and the recent Scion FR-S/Toyota GT86. Based on the Publica sedan, the Sports 800...

The Trabant is a small car built by the Nationalized Auto Industry in East Germany. In the late 1950s, this vehicle emerged and became the symbol of Eastern transportation–the...

The Trabant P 70 was the first people’s car made in East Germany after WWII.  The body of the P 70 is made of Duraplast, which is a mixture...

The first Trivan rolled off the assembly line in Frackville, PA on March 14th, 1963, to much hoopla. Governor Scranton drove Trivan #1 off the line, and the promise...

Trojan was founded by British engineer Leslie Hounsfield, who sought to make a simple, economical car that was easy to operate. Design began in 1910 and by 1913 a...

The Trojan automobile was a rare example of an unconventional, and in many ways old-fashioned, design which nevertheless sold well and had a loyal following among British motorists. Leslie...

TVE released its first production model in 1972 with the three-wheeled Citadine electric car. The Citadine’s exterior design was inspired by earlier “bubble cars’ like BMW’s Isetta, although it’s...

By the mid-‘80s, TVR was on their third owner. Founder TreVoR Wilkinson had left in 1962; Martin Lilley introduced great cars but was a poor businessman, and turned the...

TVR’s tumultuous history began in 1947, and continues to this day, albeit after many management, ownership, and location changes. Founder TreVoR Wilkinson started TVR in Beverley Grove, Blackpool, building...

Without a doubt – a homebuilt one-off, but nothing is known of the builder. Although it is a cute car that even incorporates McLaren F1 central steering, performance must...

The Shadow Racing team constructed the Shadow Box in 1974 for Universal Oil Products (now Honeywell UOP) as an intended experimental hybrid that was meant to utilize a Wankel...

The Urba Centurion was a kit car designed by Quincy-Lynn Enterprises in 1982. A full set of plans, available through Mechanix Illustrated, cost a mere $17.00! The basis for...

If you saw an Urba-anything in Mechanix Illustrated magazine in the 1970s-80s, it was a surely a design by Robert Q. Riley and David L. Carey of Quincy, AZ,...

VAZ is a Russian auto maker that began producing cars, in collaboration with Fiat, in the late 1960s. The Model 1111, commonly branded for export as a Lada Oka,...

Originally designed as invalid cars by Czech brothers František and Mojmír Stránský in 1942, the first “Oskars” (“car on axle”) were simple tube-framed cyclecars with a seat next to...

The Velorex was developed in Czechoslovakia in 1936 by two brothers who ran a bicycle shop.  After WWII, automobiles were very scarce and expensive, and the brothers realized the...

Vespa is known around the world for its scooters, but few people may know it produced one economy car. The company’s president felt that FIAT’s prominence in Italy should...

French industrial planner Jacques Riboud, of Vitrex Industrie, promoted and designed microcars as a solution to increased urbanization in 1970’s Paris. He believed full-size cars to be too big...

Gabriel Voisin was a major manufacturer of airplanes during World War I. The end of the war saw him with a large fortune and an equally large factory, but...

The Volkswagen Beetle is a car we are all familiar with. More than 20 million were sold. While the name “Porsche” is associated with expensive cars, Ferdinand Porsche had...

  The Volkswagen Beetle is a car we are all familiar with.  More than 20 million were sold.  While the name “Porsche” is associated with expensive cars, Ferdinand Porsche...

By 1993, Volkswagen’s North American sales had dropped to a mere 50,000 total units. Two VW designers, J Mays and Freeman Thomas, believed the key to future success was...

The Volkswagen XL1 is a two-seat, limited production, diesel-powered plug-in hybrid that VW introduced in 2014. Volkswagen was developing PHEV (Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicle) technologies, and wanted to test...

“Of all of the cars display, Big Orange would be my favorite. I drove it more than all the other cars except the 911, and had a tremendous amount of...

Here is an unassuming-looking Volvo 142 that has been modified for racing, and is raced by Jeff Lane.  SCCA created the “Improved Touring (IT) class” race cars in the...

The first production model Volvo was completed in 1927. Volvo car and truck production continued throughout WWII on a limited basis due to material shortages and isolation from foreign...

The idea of Volvo building a sports car in the 1950’s seemed unlikely to most. Volvos have been safe family cars since the beginning. But after Volvo vice-president Assar...

Former SKF Bearing executives Gustav Larson and Assar Gabrielsson saw an opportunity to build cars in Sweden after WWI, and approached their former employer about using an underutilized factory....

DAF began in 1928 as a small garage. By 1949, they started manufacturing trucks and trailers. Their success led to the production of cars. The idea was to builda...