Sir Dennistoun Burney was a respected defense inventor during World War I. He designed what was held to be the finest British airship of all, the R100. But airships rapidly fell from favor after the fatal crash of the later, government-sponsored R101 in 1930, which killed 48 people. Instead, Burney applied his expertise to motoring. Burney […]

After losing his job as technical director of German carmaker Steyr in 1930, the renowned Dr. Ferdinand Porsche finally decided to open his own car engineering consultancy. His timing was unfortunate because the world was reeling from economic recession, but between commissions, Porsche and his chief designer Karl Rabe weren’t idle. Auto Union Type C

For some moviegoers, the real star of Goldfinger, James Bond’s third big movie adventure, wasn’t Sean Connery but a silver Aston Martin DB5. Bond’s most impressive on-screen gadget, the Aston all but stole the show when Bond’s captor was sent hurtling through the roof in an ejector seat. Replicas of the “Goldfinger” DB5 toured the world,

The Amphicar is the only amphibious car to reach proper mass-production. As a plaything for rivers and calm lakes it was enormous fun. But for anything more seagoing it was a precarious hazard, as shown in 1965 by a revealing report in Autocar magazine. Two Amphicars attempted to cross the English Channel. One broke down after letting in too much water and the second had

THE HISTORY OF FRANCE’S motor industry would be very different had Louis Renault chosen to work in the family button-making business. Born in 1877 and the youngest of five brothers, his ambitions lay elsewhere. In 1898, at the age of 21, Louis built a “quadricycle” in a small workshop at the family home in Billancourt,

FREDERICK HENRY ROYCE, founder of an electrical engineering business in Manchester, built his first car in 1904. At around the same time, Charles Stewart Rolls was setting up a motor dealership and repair workshop in London with Claude Johnson. Henry Edmunds, a friend of Rolls and a director of Royce’s company, persuaded Rolls to meet

The battle for the world land speed record entered an extraordinary phase in 1922 when aircraft engines became the favored method to push the boundaries of speed. The 1,118ci (18,322cc), V12 Sunbeam Manitou engine saw active service in only one airplane before being used in powerboats. In 1920, however, an engine was installed in a

The response of most carmakers to plans for a rocket-powered car would have been frosty. But Fritz von Opel was fascinated by the theories of Max Valier, inventor and author of The Advance Into Space, and in 1927 agreed to help him create just such a vehicle. The Opel company’s research department was assisted by

A two-wheeled car was what the Monotrace purported to be, although, with its “stabilizer” wheels either side of its narrow, tandem two-seater body (to stop it falling over at traffic lights), it was hardly a claim that stands up. The Monotrace was made between 1925 and 1928. Its single-cylinder, 31ci (510cc) engine was concealed in

The concept of a new car “bristling” with the latest technology is often bandied about, but few new models carried as much all-round innovation at their debut as Lancia’s sporty Lambda. It broke new ground in its engine, its suspension, and its overall construction. Vincenzo Lancia was inspired by shipbuilding principles for the Lambda concept.