Sports Car Digest - The Sports, Racing and Vintage Car Journal
Sports Car Digest focuses on Classic Car Auctions, Concours d’Elegance, Vintage Car Racing, Road Rallies and other historic automotive events.
Toyota Under Fire: Lessons for Turning Crisis into Opportunity By Martin Swig In the last two years, Toyota has been the target of more negative publicity than any auto company in recent years. Some of the fault lies with Toyota, but most of the blame must be on an inept, maybe even deceitful Department of Transportation, a UAW anxious to bloody their longtime nemesis, and a thoroughly … [Read more...]
By Will Silk Silver Clouds: The 1934 Grand Prix Season written and illustrated by renowned motorsport artist Paul Chenard of Halifax, Nova Scotia is a nicely crafted and creatively packaged piece that any automotive historian or Grand Prix enthusiast will find incredibly entertaining. Chenard’s short, but insightful; forty-four page book provides a historical snap shot of one of the most … [Read more...]
Car Guys vs. Bean Counters: The Battle for the Soul of American Business By Martin Swig In the 1950s and 1960s, General Motors ruled the automotive world. Their market share in the United States was over 50%. Each of their brands (Chevrolet, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac) was the benchmark in its market segment. Product planners at Ford and Chrysler could only hope to anticipate … [Read more...]
By Will Silk The Schuco Rennsport-Legenden Auto Union Type C Stromlinienwagen (Stream-line car) is a leap back to the way toys were produced before 1960, to the days when Schuco was producing a variety of wind-up cars and motorcycles. Schuco is a toy company that was founded in the early 20th century by Heinrich Schreyer in Nuremburg, Germany. With the help of a young toy visionary by … [Read more...]
By Will Silk With Alfa Romeo celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2010, Auto Art released a line of Alfa replicas in 1:18th scale diecast metal. While many will remember the Italian manufacturer for the 1967 1600 Duetto Spider that appeared in the American film classic “The Graduate”, hard core enthusiasts will gravitate more towards the Milan auto maker’s production coupes of the … [Read more...]
By Will Silk Automodello is producing 85 Griffith Series 200 race replicas in 1:43 scale for this year’s Ultimate Griffith Reunion to be held March 12th and 13th at Bill Warner’s Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance. Sports Car Digest previously reviewed Automodello’s 1:43 scale street going Griffith 200 replica, and just when we thought that model couldn’t be outdone lands this … [Read more...]
Thousands of images dating to the earliest days of Ford Motor Company are being hauled out of the Ford archives and licensed for sale for the first time. FordImages.com features more than 5,000 images for sale including commemorative and limited-edition prints, vintage signs and advertisements. The site launched in January. Hundreds of more images are being added weekly with another 5,000 to be … [Read more...]
Audi will unveil the latest in its range of e-tron concept studies – an all-electric, 1:2 scale version of the 1936 Auto Union Type C Grand Prix car – at the International Toy Fair in Nuremberg from 3 to 8 February, 2011. The electrically-propelled reworking of the Thirties racing classic is a half-size model, based on the limited edition pedal car. Its electric motor develops a modest … [Read more...]
In late January, 2011, the dynamic duo of the Scott brothers announced that they will be producing a TV series for international sales named 'The Drivers', a drama based on the 24 Hours of Le Mans during the 1950s and 1960s. Tony and Ridley Scott will join Headline Pictures and Sennet Entertainment to co-produce. The TV show will be based on a book by Sports Car Digest contributor Wallace A. … [Read more...]
By Will Silk Artists Nicolas Cancelier of Belgium, Paul Chenard of Canada, Anna-Louise Felstead of the United Kingdom and Rick Rucker of the United States have created an international organization of automotive artists entitled Club Artistes Auto (CAA). The goal of the new organization is to assist automotive artists on an international level by pooling resources to get their art more … [Read more...]
Sports Car Digest is taking a break for the holidays, but we will be back in the New Year with the latest and greatest from the classic car world, including previews of Arizona Auction Week, a profile of the 1971 24 Hours of Daytona by Louis Galanos and much more. In the interim, we will update the site each day next week with stories that--for whatever reason--were not published in a … [Read more...]
By Will Silk In 1952, Schuco Toys of Nuremburg, Germany released a tin toy motorcycle powered by a wind-up clock spring that was known as Charly 1005. Fifty-eight years later, Schuco is re-releasing this classic tin motorcycle in a limited batch of 2000 pieces. Schuco gained fame throughout the 1930s when the company began producing scale cars made out of tin that were powered by a clock … [Read more...]
By Will Silk It's that time of year again when the sound of unrestricted race engines at full song begins to grow faint as yet another year in the collector car hobby and vintage racing scene draws to a close. With it comes the holiday season, which is why we have compiled the 2010 Holiday Gift Guide to assist readers in getting a head start on the next great race, the shopping race that … [Read more...]
Report and photos by Will Silk The Antique Automobile Club of America held its annual Eastern Fall Swap Meet and Collector Car Corral from October 6-9, 2010 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Hershey is known as the sweetest place on earth due to the chocolate bars that are made there; but every October, Hershey becomes the mecca for collector car enthusiasts with a four-day extravaganza of classic … [Read more...]
By Will Silk True Scale Miniatures is a relatively new company to the world of scale sports car models, having been founded five years ago in Chino, California. It wasn’t until recently that the company began to venture into making 1:43 and 1:18 scale replicas of sports and racing cars after a few years of producing scale models of Snap-On Tools. Their first attempt is featured here, a … [Read more...]
