Car Throttle

We pick up with the story of the Czech Tatra brand where we left off, at the end of WWII.  After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Czechoslovakia became a communist state in 1948 - although Tatra was nationalized in 1946 - and Tatra was renamed Tatra Národní Podnik.  Tatra continued to produce their pre-war models for a brief period (as well as heavy trucks, which by this point they had become well-known for.)  Tatra began designing a clean-sheet model, to be called the (T600) Tatraplan. The name Tatraplan came from two things - the Soviet 5-year economic plan, as well as the Czech word for airplane (Eroplan), noting the cars aeromotive inspirations. The T600 continued to use the Tatra backbone chassis concept, but the

We here at CarThrottle, like any other automotive site, are guilty of the "new" fetish.  Even though that new version of the Gallardo is just like the last 32 "special editions" before it, only with a crazy paint scheme, we'll still report on it.  It's typical, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing - news is new stuff, everyone loves new stuff. But it's important to retain perspective on the historical aspect of the industry.  Giving credit where credit is due.  At this point in the auto industry, there aren't a whole lot of new, original ideas - they're just recycled ideas, perhaps with a new twist on them.  But in the formative years of the automobile, there were pioneers, people who came up with

Wait, what?  France had a sports car company? And there was another one?  If you don't count Bugatti (and most people don't; hasn't been French in decades), when you ask most car people what sports-car brands France is famous for, they might come up with one: Alpine.  Jean Rédélé's particular brand of rear-engined Renault-powered weirdness achieved some international success with rally specials like the A110, and later with rear-engine sports cars like the A310, GTA, and A610. But for the most part, that's about as far as the story goes.  France isn't really renowned for sports cars.  They've made sporting cars.  You can't look at an R5 Turbo or Clio Renaultsport and not nod your head and think, "awesome."  But France doesn't really have a

I was recently admiring a display of the new 2011 Lotus Renault GP R31 Formula 1 Car and I looked at its complicated steering wheel. You have all of the controls on the wheel center – brake bias, power system controls, sensors and what-nots all on the wheel. It is an impressive piece of kit, and one that costs tens of thousands of pounds just for something that you need to steer a car. This little bit of equipment has got me thinking about the steering wheel we use in our cars and how they actually look. Of course they are round unless you ignore those quartic wheels from the Austin Allegro or the flat bottom ones found in some performance cars and they also come

Did any of you know that when I started writing this sometime in early August 2010, Toyota did not have any overtly sporty car in their current vehicle lineup aside from the Lexus LFA (which is a Lexus, and not a Toyota)? This is the world's largest car manufacturer and once upon a time we could walk up to any Toyota showroom and buy a Supra, Celica, MR2 or an MR-S. Now, if you take a walk into a Toyota showroom and start asking the salesman whether they sell sports cars, you now get a blank stare. There may also be some blinking of the eyes and some thought process going on inside the head of the sales man, who could be thinking, “What's a sports car? Does

The second generation Honda CRX is a modern classic. It was previewed at the end of 1987, sold from 1988 to the end of 1991, and it was a fabulous little car with a superb lightweight (approximately 900kg) front wheel drive chassis (double wishbones up front and a multi-link set-up at the rear) and if you were driving the VTEC 1.6-litre version, it also had an absolutely high tech (at the time) engine that made all the right noises. I happened to stumble (actually at a garage I am a regular at) upon two of these fabulous cars being spruced up after years of neglect. This white one is a JDM Si version with the 1.6 litre twin cam version that made around 135bhp. It was

The motoring press has been making a huge deal out of the upcoming Aston Martin Rapide, which is basically a DB9 with extra doors and a longer wheelbase.  I'll admit, it is a big deal - finally, there's an ultra-luxury sedan that's actually attractive.  (I'm looking at you, Panamera.  And Quattroporte.  And new XJ.  And Merc CLS.  And BMW 7-series.  and...)  But people act like this is strange foreign territory for the tiny British brand, when in fact it hasn't been that long since there was a four-door automobile wearing the illustrious Aston Martin badge. While the Rapide is (and I think will be) considered a classical beauty, the previous Aston sedan was a bit more... divisive.  Polemic.  Opinion-splitting.  Some people might say ugly. But it's something

Just how far would you go to restore a car? Would you dive to the bottom of a frickin' lake and haul an old wreck of a car just to resurrect it like Lazarus? You would, or at least I would, if it was a 1925 Bugatti. And that's just what some total nut jobs, er, I mean, dedicated gearheads will be doing. When I was a little kid, my dad found a Kaiser Darrin in barn (no, literally in a barn) that was all there, but needed to be gone through and completely restored. Let me just put it this way: There was hay in the engine compartment. But by the time he got through with it (my dad, being a tool and die maker

Yes, you read that right: A 1969 McLaren M6 GT For Sale. A REAL 1969 McLaren M6 GT. Not a copy. Not a kit car. But a real, honest to Jehovah, McLaren M6 GT as designed by Bruce McLaren himself, and build and driven (on occasion) by Bruce and Denny (yeah, that would be Denny Hulme). As I recall, McLaren only built about 5 or 6 of these things, and they very, very rarely come up for sale. As a matter of fact, I can't tell you the last time I saw one change hands, and when I saw this one pop up on the Hemmings sight, I couldn't believe it at first. But yes, this is the real thing. The seller, Fantasy Junction in the

Ah, Group B rally cars. They're full on crazy, yet they had to produce enough of the little guys that on occasion they pop up for sale. And indeed, here we have not one, but two, MG Metro Group B cars for sale. Sure, MG Metros were probably the worst (i.e. slowest) of the Group Bs cars, but at least they are Group Bs. A place called The Auto Collections from Las Vegas is selling both of these little brutes, a 1985 and a 1988. And, sadly, and a bit worryingly, they offer scant specifics on either of these particular cars. They also don't mention a price, simply saying it is " Inquire". That probably means they know what they got, and they're going to charge