If I said ‘seventies’, you’d probably visualise Farrah Fawcett’s iconic feathered hair in the hit show Charlie’s Angels, bell bottoms, mirror balls and roller skates. The somewhat whimsical times were reflected in contemporary fashion, music and even cars but while it might have been a…
Revolutionary technology combined with top-class drivers meant the Audi S1 quattro dominated world rallying in the 1980s. Known as the Ur-quattro, which translates to Original-quattro, it is a respected classic and on the short list for many collectors. South Africa saw them rallying in the…
In 1959 a young Australian working in (then) Southern Rhodesia decided he’d rather like to drive solo to England after finishing up his employment. So he ordered a new Land-Rover for the job, taking delivery of it in Lusaka before heading to Cape Town to…
Think of a WWII military runabout and you’ll probably come up with the Jeep. Thanks to its role in liberating Europe, it found fame and is arguably the four-wheel equivalent of the Spitfire when it comes to symbolic hardware from the conflict. However, Hitler’s Wehrmacht…
Take a group of South African motorsport enthusiasts in the late 1960s, turn the topic to saloon car racing, and the conversation would no doubt have resounded with names such as Lotus Cortina, Mini Cooper, Alfa GTV, Ford Mustang and… Renault Gordini.
The term sports car is believed to have first been used in 1928, and while it is difficult to clearly define the meaning, most would agree to it being a small rear-wheel-drive, two-seater, two-door vehicle that offered spirited performance, nimble handling and more often than…
Designed and manufactured by Ford UK, when the entry-level Anglia appeared in October 1939, just one month after Great Britain had declared war on Germany, it was the smallest model in the company’s range. It was simple and cheap – a forerunner of what we…
The story came to a bloody end on 23 May 1934. But it began a few years before that, during the height of the Depression that swept across the US. At a time when more than 15 million Americans – a quarter of all wage-earning…
When Nissan/Fiat South Africa launched the Uno in May 1990, it brought a new angle to the local passenger vehicle market – a true lightweight that offered bang-for-your-buck motoring without relying on outdated technology. While we might see the small hatch as crude today, back…
One Imp, two guys, three continents and 14 000km in less than 40 days… sound impossible? It should have been!