The new 2014 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 is a lightened, track focused pony car with a 500 horsepower V8 and no radio. But its name has been around since 1966. Let's take a quick look at the family.

The original Z/28 was introduced in December 1966 for model year '67. It was the brainchild of Vince Piggins, who wanted to create a race-ready Camaro that was superior to the Mustang. So he took a a 327 block and put a 283 crankshaft in it so that it had a 4-inch bore and a 3-inch stroke, making it a 302.4 cubic inch, which fell just under the 305-cu.in. limit of the SCCA Trans-Am category. Its nameplate came straight from the RPO codes, RPO28 being the Special Performance Package. It wasn't mentioned in sales materials, so only 602 were made in the first year of production.

The small block was rated at 290 horsepower, but in reality, it produced around 360 hp with the single four-barrel carb and 400 hp with optional dual-four barrel carbs. It also had front disc brakes, 15-inch wheels, heavy-duty front coil springs, multi-leaf rear springs and suspension, an 11-inch clutch, a close-ratio four-speed with a 2.20:1 first gear ratio, a steering gear ratio with 24:1 overall ratio and a special hood with functional air intake. The 1969 edition also had a cowl induction hood as an option.

With the second generation Camaro, the Z/28 got a new engine as well. The 350 cubic inch LT-1 had 360 hp and 380 lb·ft. The greater torque and less-radical cam coupled with the Holley four-barrel carb permitted the Z-28 to be available with the 3-speed Turbo Hydramatic 400 automatic transmission as an option to the four-speed manual for the first time. In 1971, the power was down due to compression ratio decline. Despite selling more than 13,000 units in 1974, Chevy discontinued the Z28 (the "/" disappeared in 1972) due to tight emission regulations.

The Z28 was reintroduced in the spring of 1977 as a 1977½ model after Chevrolet have seen how many Trans Ams Pontiac could sell. The 350 V8 now only did 185 horsepower (or 175 if you lived in California), but since people were going for air-conditioning and the automatic box, this only bothered the most hardcore buyers. With various options, the new Z28 could be just as fast as its ten year-old relatives. No matter, Chevy set an output record, and outsold the Mustang for the first time.

In 1982, the third-generation Z28 Camaro was Motor Trend's Car of the Year. It came standard with the 5.0 L LG4 4bbl V8 or the optional LU5 twin TBI 'Cross Fire Injection' 5.0 L. The carbureted engine was available with either a four-speed manual or three-speed automatic transmission and produced 145 hp, while the optional Cross Fire Injection 305 was rated at 165 hp. All Z28s came with lightweight fiberglass SMC hoods with functional hood air induction flaps on RPO LU5 cars. They had a different nose, a three-piece rear spoiler and front, side, and rear lower body valances in silver or gold. The next year, a 5.0-liter L69 "High Output" V8 was introduced with 190 hp. In Europe, people started laughing, hard. The last third-generation Camaro produced was a red Z28 coupe on August 27, 1992.

In 1993, the Camaro Z28 was selected as the official pace car for the Indianapolis 500. 633 buyers felt the need to get an "Indy" Camaro for $995 extra cash. Fourth-generation Z28 Camaros with the LT1 V8 could reach 62 mph in 5.7 seconds and a quarter mile in a bit more than 14 seconds. The T-Top body style remained just as popular than in the previous decade when it was introduced.

In 1997, not only did you get a new interior and a tri-colored rear lamp, but could also go for the "30 Year Anniversary Edition" that included unique orange stripes on white base paint. Two years later, a Torsen differential was added for the ultimate hooning experience. Late Z28s came with 310 horses, but that wasn't enough as in 2001, Camaro sales hit a new low with 29,009 units sold.

The wait is over, the Z/28 is back just like the Stingray. It's got plenty of naturally aspirated power from the old Corvette's 7-liter V8, and it's 300 pounds lighter than the Camaro ZL1... but that has an 80 horsepower advantage at 580, so choose wisely!

We'll see what Ford will send against it. A Mustang GT won't do the trick and the Boss 302 is dead.

With 28-tons of steel armor, bulletproof glass and a 12-liter Rolls-Royce V12 diesel, Margaret Thatcher's bus could take what Ireland threw at it, unlike President Obama's tuned up Cadillac. It didn't have fuel issues either.

In the eighties, Ireland was a bit more dangerous than nowadays. In 1984 the British Prime Minister survived the Brighton bombing in which the IRA's Patrick Magee attacked the hotel where Conservative Party conference attendees were staying. He killed five people. A year later, Thatcher signed the Anglo-Irish Agreement with the Irish Prime Minister in order to put an end to the troubles they were facing. But she needed a vehicle for getting around in the country.

So came this bus which was ordered by the British Government for the Iron Lady. Built on a Foden chassis with a custom body by Glover and Webb, it featured run flat tyres, a two-foot deep blast floor and so much steel that it could withstand 7.62 rounds. It also had gas, chemical and biological proof with its own separately diesel powered filtration system, happy colors, seats for about 35 with office space at the rear and two full sized doors. Taxpayer money well spent!

This special battle bus was auctioned in February for £16,940 ($25,668) with 17,398 miles on the clock. I guess the key to happiness is not checking the carpets for blood.

Photo credit: Getty Images and Tanklimo

Fiat's Giugiaro-designed 850 Spider was a strong seller, but also getting pretty old by 1968, so Bertone was commissioned to come up with a new barchetta. The following X1/9 was produced for 17 years.

It the late sixties, Fiat was experimenting with a front-wheel drive platform using the Autobianchi brand. So Bertone took the drive train of the Autobianchi Primula with Fiat's brand new engine (designed by Aurelio Lampredi, who came straight from Ferrari) from the 128, designed a sleek open-top body for it, and the Autobianchi A112 Runabout was born.

Introduced at the 1969 Turin Auto Show next to the Fiat X1/1 (128) and the Autobianchi A112, the Runabout was such a hit that Fiat decided to turn it into a production model. The X1/9 was launched in 1972, and even after Fiat got fed up with it in 1982, Bertone kept on building them until 1989. I want one badly.

Photo credit: Georg Schwalbach and Holger Baschleben

What if I told you Chrysler had a modern two-seater sports car pretty much ready for production right at the time when the first Chevrolet Corvette came out, and a year before Ford introduced their record-selling Thunderbird? Well, I'm telling you that now.

I saw a picture of this car once and all I knew was that it's a Dodge from 1953 with a Bertone body. But after reading the article #142 (July/August 1994) issue of Special Interest Autos Magazine I found in Hemmings Blog, I can tell you much more about it.

It starts with the name. While some call it the Dodge Storm or a Bertone, it is actually the Zeder Z-250 (just when you thought Nissan made "Z" cars). The sports car was created by Fred Zeder Jr., son of Frederick Zeder of The Three Musketeers, the engineering team that started the Chrysler Corporation. If you don't know the badge, don't worry, although the Z-250 was not even the first Zeder. Thirty years back, Zeder, Skelton and Breer designed a car with a high compression engine and four hydraulic brakes. That reached production as the Chrysler Six, the first modern automobile after Ford's Model T.

The younger Zeder had an engineering degree himself, but in 1951, he was working in advertising in New York as vice president of McCann-Erickson. He was also a keen racing driver, and after competing against Briggs Cunningham using a Chrysler Allard, he decided it was time to make a dual-purpose sports car that can outrun not only Cunninghams, but Ferraris and Jaguars as well. He certainly got the connections to start a project of this kind even after his father's death in February 1951, as Carl Breer – who kept working as a consultant for Chrysler after his retirement in 1949 for another four years – was his uncle.

Zeder's idea was that two cars should be made using a common platform: a two seater race car with a fiber glass body weighting only 150 pounds, and a luxurious aluminum coupe. The bodies were to be easily swappable by using four rubber-bushed nuts, where the performance remained the same in both forms. The Z-250 used a modified version of the Dodge HEMI V8 truck engine, which produced 260 horsepower and about 330 ft-lbs of torque according to this article. That propelled the car from 0-60 mph in about 7.5 seconds, and the quarter mile took just 14.7 seconds. Other parts like the brakes, radiator, clutch, steering, rear axle, fuel tank and electronics came from the shelves of Plymouth and Dodge. The rest like the tube space frame, the suspension and the two bodies were unique to the car, while the transmission was a brand new unit developed by the Spicer Division of Dana Corporation.

Since he was aiming for a late 1954 launch, Fred went into partnership with Gene Cassaroll, a fellow racing enthusiast and owner of Automobile Shippers Inc, the company that hauled Chrysler's products all across the country. They founded the Sports Car Development Corporation, while Zeder also got John Butterfield onboard, who used to work for Cunningham and was one of Chrysler's top chassis engineers at the time. Most of the development took place in his basement in Detroit.

The styling was the work of Hank Kean, who also happened to be a Chrysler employee. When the quarter-scale clay model was ready, Virgil Exner, Chrysler's Head of Advanced Design also had some suggestions. When not in the basement, he was working with Ghia on Chrysler's future. But when Zeder went to see Fiat's Chief Engineer in Turin during his Christmas vacation in 1952, Dante Giacosa directed him to Bertone instead. They were pretty busy with Alfa Romeo's BAT series, so it took 9 month instead of the promised 3 to finish Zeder's car. Italiano.

Bertone also turned it into a two-seater instead of the planned 2+2, because what worked on paper turned out to be impossible in reality. The car was then taken to Fiat's famous oval roof track for fine tuning, after which the Z-250 took first price at the Turin Auto Show. It was then shipped to New York onboard of the SS Andrea Doria (which sunk three years later after a collision with MS Stockholm). After picking it up at the docks, Zeder parked it in front of the Rockefeller Center, which resulted in such a massive traffic jam that the police had to ask him to move it.

In April 1954, Fred took his pride (now called the Storm Z-250) to Chrysler's design headquarters in Hamtramck. After his father's death, his uncle Jim Zeder became the Chief Engineer. He was trained for years by the old trio to not be supportive when it came to new ideas. He borrowed the car so Chrysler could evaluate it, but instead he locked it up in the factory's storage for two years, under which nobody was supposed to touch or even mention the car.

Fred's guess was that Jim feared he wouldn't get any credit if it succeeded, but would take the heat if it failed. The official reason was that the car was too expensive to produce in order to sell it in profitable quantities. By the time Fred got back his car, people were driving Corvettes and brand new Ford Thunderbirds, not to mention Nash-Healeys, Kaiser-Darrins, and Cunninghams on the tracks. Just like the Oldsmobile or Pontiac "Corvettes," Chrysler's was killed as well before it could prove itself.

Zeder drove the Z-250 for 16 years before he donated it to the Northwood University. It stayed in the museum until 1992, when he picked it up again. Since somehow water leaked into the cylinders during its sleep, it had to be restored with a 1965 Dodge V8 with two four-barrel carburetors before he could enjoy it again in his home in California. Recently, it was exhibited at the Petersen Automotive Museum among other American-Italians.

The next time Chrysler made a real sports car was in 1992.

Massive hat tip to Michael Lamm who covered the story in 1994. Photo credit: Just a Car Guy

It's because the name "Lamborghini Militaria 001" (or "Lamborghini Mimran 001" since the Swiss family just bought into the company) was already taken by this. It took Lamborghini two expensive and completely useless prototypes to finally reach perfection with the third design (and a V12).

I guess some of you know about the 1977 Lamborghini Cheetah, a rolling attempt to get a contract from the US military. It was designed by Rodney Pharis, president of US based defense contractor Mobility Technology International. Lamborghini was happy to pass on the development. MTI ran into some legal difficulties since the car looked pretty much like the XR311 prototype from competing company FMC. Still, the first Cheetah was built in San José, then shipped so it could be displayed at the '77 Geneva Motor Show. After the European trip, this car was also used to shoot a commercial in Utah for potential costumers.

The Cheetah was doomed right from the beginning. Using a rear mounted Chrysler V8 with 190 hp, a three speed automatic transmission and run-flat tires, the weight balance ruined the handling so effectively that it was impossible to imagine the vehicle in a combat situation. But the US Army wasn't about to buy vehicles made abroad anyway, so the Cheetah project was cancelled after making just three more unfinished prototypes. The whole party cost Lamborghini so much that they couldn't even finish BMW's M1 project before going out of business for a while.

That takes us to the LM001.

The Mimran family injected some cash into the Italians. The plan remained similar, and Cheetah's dual round headlamps were gone, just like the Chrysler V8. Instead, a 360 cubic inch AMC engine was put at the rear with a modest 180 horsepower. The LM001 was displayed at the '81 Geneva Show next to Lamborghini's new and more affordable car, the Jalpa, which was developed from the Silhouette. This sand-colored brick could do 100 mph in a straight line, but suffered from the same design flaw: it was tail-heavy. It's hard to see what did they expect after the Cheetah's failure.

Five years later, they fixed (almost) everything. The LM Antiore 002 prototype had the Countach LP 500S's V12 moved up to the front, supported by a full tubular chassis and a new suspension. It was twice as powerful, could seat ten people if necessary, while weighting 1100 pounds more. By the time it reached production as the LM002, permanent all-wheel drive (a first for Lamborghini) and lots of leather were added.

They also tried to use turbo diesel power in the LM003 prototype in hope of future orders from the military, but that car turned out to be underpowered.

Lambo's V12 was the only way.

(I know all this from Lambocars, which is an awesome site you should check out!)

Photo credit: Lamborghini and Pagani Automobili

Four years after Bertone showed the world what they can do with an Autobianchi A112 and a bit of sheet metal, competing coachbuilder Pininfarina came up with this: the 1973 A112 Giovani. That means youth in English.

Based on the punchy (70 horsepower!) Abarth version, this car was all about going fast and having fun, while it also remained as easy and cheap to maintain as the mass-produced supermini. With its removable hard top, higher ground clearance and massive trunk instead of the A112's useless rear seats, the Giovani Concept looked like the offspring of a rally car and a beach buggy.

The basic shapes, the logo acting as the hole on the radiator grill and the plastic bumpers were all used in order to achieve the most cost-efficient production, while the A112's wheels , instruments, steering wheel, windshield wipers, door handles and windows remained to keep it simple for Fiat as well.

Despite getting great reactions from both the public and the press, Fiat decided not to put it into production, which makes the Giovani a Pininfarina one-off with an awesome photo shoot you would expect from the Italians in the seventies.

Photo credit: Pininfarina and Brian Snelson

Starting as an elegant Ghia coupe that remains one of Giugiaro's best designs, then a twin-turbo V6 with Connolly leather for the nineties, followed by the first diesel sedan with the trident up front, the Ghibli has come a long way since 1966.

Named after a wind just like the rest of the Maseratis, the Ghibli debuted at the 1966 Turin Motor Show. Due to the limited resources, it shared its tubular frame with the Quattroporte sedan and the Mexico grand tourer. The body was the work of Ghia's new chief designer, Giorgio Giugiaro. Behind those gorgeous pop-up headlamps, Maserati fitted a 4.7-liter dual-cam V8 fed by four Weber carbs, which came straight from the 450 S, because racecar. That's why it had dry-sump lubrication as well, and 330 horsepower. Linked to a ZF five-speed manual, early Ghiblis could reach 60 mph under seven seconds. A limited-slip differential was standard too, and while wire wheels were available, most buyers went for the light magnesium Campagnolos.

With its low center of gravity (as it was only five inches taller than a Ford GT40), four disc brakes and 3,400 lb curb weight, the Ghibli handled corners just as well as straights, while overall performance was improved in 1970 with the introduction of the SS version. It had nothing to do with Nazis, but the horsepower figure was raised to 335 horses thanks to the now 4.9-liter V8. That made the Ghibli a 170 mph car right at the start of the seventies. Unreal.

In the last five years of the seven-year production run, Maserati also produced a convertible version in limited quantities. Only 100 Spyders and 25 SS Spyders were made, which makes these the most desirable of the Kamm-tailed bunch.

The 1992 Maserati Ghibli II doubled the original's production number easily at 2337. Known as the Tipo 336, this nineties coupe was an evolution of the the coke-flavored (and quite badly made) Biturbo from the previous decade, and had a 2.0-liter fuel-injected twin-turbo V6 up front with 306 horsepower. Outside Europe, it came with a 2.8 which only had 288 hp. Still, that was good for a 155 mph top speed.

1994 brought ABS, adjustable suspension and a fresh interior into the picture, but the best Ghibli II was certainly the Cup version that debuted in 1995. At 335 horsepower from the 2.0 unit, it had a higher power output per liter than a Jaguar XJ220 or the Bugatti EB110. Only 57 were produced with Brembo brakes, carbon fiber trim and firmer suspension for track use. If you happen to fun into a Ghibli with a bright blue paintwork and turquoise leather interior, that's one of the sixty Primatist editions, the last Ghimbli IIs produced from 1996 to 1997.

After seventeen years, the name got dusted down again. The 2014 Ghibli goes against BMW's M5 and sporty Jaguar sedans, with the company's first diesel and the possibility of a V8 petrol in the future.

A '71 SS for me, grazie!

I'm still on a stolen-car kick here, and all the talk of theft prevention and alarms got me wondering just how long car alarm systems have been around? The first recorded car theft happened to, of all people, a Baron. He moved to create the first car alarm.

Baron de Zuylen, an early and influential automobile enthusiast, had his Peugeot stolen in 1896, by his mechanic. Which may also be the first dirtbag mechanic in recorded history as well. Mechanisms to prevent cars from being stolen were probably at least imagined soon after that.

I'm sure the good Baron's first sketches of an anti-theft system involved guillotines and swinging maces, but for years the most effective anti-theft systems in a world of largely open cars was probably an irritated rotwieller on the passenger's seat. The earliest actual patent of something we would recognize as a car alarm seems to have been applied for patent in 1918.

The system is an actual, electric immobilizer/alarm system, invented by a pair of Portland men, St. George Evans and Edward Birkenbuel. They developed a very clever, fairly modern-seeming (to a degree) mechanism, especially when compared to other, much more mechanical attempts around the same time. For example, here's a system as described in the June 1920 issue of Popular Mechanics:

"A friction gear, thrown into or out of engagement with the shaft by a cam, is enclosed with the alarm in a riveted steel case, fixed to the shaft housing and radius rods. The cam also short-circuits the magneto, so that turning the key in the lock stops the engine and sets the alarm. The lock is located in the floor of the driving compartment."

Riveted steel cases, shafts, cams — that's a lot of heavy hardware to use for an alarm. What these Portland boys did that's so interesting is to make an all-electric system that even sort of prefigures more modern computer-based systems. Except your wet, sticky brain is the computer.

The Evans-Birkenbuel system utilizes a 3x3 grid of double-contact switches on a panel through which the current from the battery (or magneto) is routed when the car's ignition is activated. The current is either diverted to the spark plugs or the horn depending on the settings of the switches. So, the end results are either you get to start your car, or your horn blasts until your battery is dead. Not bad!

The way it's operated seems to be like this: the owner of the Franklin or Hupmobile or whatever sets a combination of the switches to their closed position via a special little key that allows the switches to be set without being able to see their positions. See, the switches are all in a box that numbers the switches and only provides access through small holes, hiding the switch position.

So, let's say you leave the car, and set switches 8, 4, and, oh, 3. That becomes your combination. Anyone trying to steal your car would need to know what switches you set, and trying to figure out the combination without seeing the switch positions would be really, really hard.

So, your brain is the computer that stores the combination of switches, and that combination can be reset every time you drive. It could also be as complex or simple as you want — 1 switch for just slowing a potential thief down, all the way up to... well, I guess 9, but then all switches would be on, which isn't much of a combination. After a point it becomes figuring out which to leave off, but not knowing any of that, it's still quite difficult.

It sort of feels like a 2D Rubik's cube, in a way. Same 3x3 grid, same result that the more you screw with it, the worse off you'd likely be. You could be very methodical, and try all combinations, but even with only two switches set the odds of finding it before the angry, 19teens-1920s owner comes back with one of those two-black-ball-circus-style barbells to whoop your ass with seems remote.

There's issues here— someone tampering with it could effectively keep you from starting the car as well, and that's hardly ideal. Still, considering the technology of the time it's a pretty impressive bit of hacking simple switches into a viable alarm. In fact, it'd be quite easy to replicate something like this today, using either relays or automotive switches that can handle 12V. You'd be faced with the same issues, but for a quick-cheap-dirty system, you could do worse.

I mean, I probably could have used one.

While technically the first company to use a continuously variable transmission in an automobile was the British Clyno Engineering in 1923, the concept only got popular in 1958, after DAF introduced the 600 with the wonderful Variomatic which made a small car act very funny.

Most of us think trucks when it comes to DAF, but company founder Hub van Doorne turned to cars pretty quickly after he got successful by making trucks and buses that could satisfy the high demand of post-war Europe.

He designed the Variomatic transmission which "consists of a "V" shaped drive belt and two pulleys, each of two cones, whose effective diameter can be changed so that the "V" belt runs nearer the spindle or nearer the rim, depending on the separation of the cones. These are synchronized so that the belt always remains at the same optimal tension", according to its Wikipedia article. Further reading also reveals that "because the system does not have separate gears, but one (continuously shifting) gear and a separate 'reverse mode' (as opposed to a reverse gear), the gear works in reverse as well, giving it the interesting side effect that the can drive backwards as fast as forwards. As a result, in the former Dutch annual backward driving world championship, the DAFs had to be put in a separate competition because no other car could keep up". There's a fun fact for you!

The Variometic-equipped DAF 600 that debuted at the 1958 Amsterdam Motor Show was not only the first car with a proper CVT, but also DAF's first production model and the first automatic from the Netherlands. Using a 590 cc flat twin engine and a light body designed by Johan van der Brugghen, it wasn't particularly fast, but remains the only car ever produced which went faster if the driver gently and gradually released the pedal once top speed had been reached. The reason is that the increased manifold vacuum helped the variable pulleys shift to an even higher ratio so even though the engine RPM stays the same, the transmission increases the car's speed, from 60 mph to almost a stagering 70!

DAF put the technology into a series of its cars in the following decades. Eventually, Van Doorne's patents were transferred to a company called Van Doorne Transmissie, and when the passenger car division of DAF was sold to the Swedish in 1975, its CVT was used in the Volvo 340. Today, Robert Bosch GmbH has his drawings.

Of the handful of DAF cars in the US, a 1960 600 was turned into an electric car after most of its mechanics went missing during the years of decay. It has Wisconsin plates, and sure looks more fun than a Prius!

Photo credit: Arthur Kams and Wikipedia

(The Spyker B6 Venator was a hit at the Geneva Motor Show, but it also sparked a lot of questions. The main one was "what is it based on?" George Achorn from Fourtitude breaks it all down below. - T.O.)

Adding international intrigue to the Geneva Motor Show this year was Dutch sportscar manufacturer Spyker. The little marque that could has survived grandiose yet failed efforts to purchase an F1 team and then later a sickly Swedish maker of hyper eccentric automobiles known as Saab. Each of those strategies proved unfruitful so the focus has now shifted back to the production of richly-appointed exotic sportscars.

We’ve long been fans of Spyker’s eccentric C8 models with their mid-mounted Audi V8s and to-die-for interior material quality. Consider our interest piqued then when the Spyker team showed off a new car dubbed the “B6 concept”.

The worst kept secret at Geneva was that this car isn’t intended to be a concept. Spyker hopes to add this smaller offering to help build out a line of sportscars and they’ll likely pull that off considering they’ll use a pre-existing platform that comes from a source they wouldn’t name and thus a much better kept secret – at least until Autoblog.NL and Autoblog started hypothesizing. More on that later.

While in Geneva, we stopped by the Spyker stand to check on the car’s intended powerplant. Given the presence of an Audi 4.2 FSI in the C8, we were hoping to hear the Audi-sourced mills would continue. Spyker reps wouldn’t divulge any information, but the press release suggests a transversely mounted V6 using an automatic transmission.

Company CEO and self-described B6 designer Victor Muller spoke a bit more freely to CoolHunting.com in an interview at the show. In that he revealed some of the thought process and the current status of their position on engines for the car. In the piece he stated, “We have a number of engines we can choose from, but whatever engine we choose, certification is going to be relatively easy because they’re already US certified. We’re only looking at engines that are 50-state engines… So that’s a limiting factor, but fortunately there are plenty of choices.”

Of course going with engines that are already certified would save Spyker a significant amount of cash. That much seems obvious and Spyker’s recent failed investments would certainly make such savings attractive if not crucial in hatching a new model. So too might savings on a chassis and that’s where things get interesting.

Behind the scenes, there are two likely scenarios from which to draw a conclusion on the car’s chassis – one British and one German. Both the Autoblog.nl and Autoblog.com reports allude to at least one of these.

The British scenario, and one we’ve also heard first hand from someone further down the chain in the Spyker organization, suggests the car is a reworked Lotus Evora. We’re not 100% on the reliability of this story, but the source’s association with Spyker certainly makes it worth mentioning. The Evora is of a similar size and configuration, with transversely mounted 3.5-liter Toyota V6 engine. Ailing Lotus might certainly appreciate the business from Spyker and has a track record of producing such vehicles for Opel, Tesla and Melkus, so it seems reasonable. That the Evora is also homologated for U.S. sale would also help it. Even still, we’re inclined to pay serious attention to the second German DNA theory.

When we first approached the B6 Concept we were initially struck by its similarity in size to the Artega GT. The Spyker appeared to share the same size as the Artega – a now bankrupt German specialty marque that used the same Audi 3.6-liter V6 (VR6) design as seen in the Q7 but mounted transversely with a DSG (S tronic) transmission, technically “automatic” depending on who’s writing the press release.

When last we’d left Artega, it was ailing and its assets were being acquired by components manufacturer Paragon who had also been a supplier to the company and namely of an interesting infotainment concept fitted standard in the car and lauded by Artega.

We did a little digging that led us to a thread on the Spyker enthusiast forum SpykerOwner.com and a particular user active on that site by the name of ‘AirHH’. That user immediately stuck out to us because he sounded really knowledgeable about the Artega. Given some of the quotes in other stories we’ve seen on this subject, we suspect it is the posts by AirHH that make up the “sources” for some of those stories.

One of the first posts by AirHH in the thread says:

“The new B6 is definitly based on the ceased Artega GT.

Geometry, proportions, mirrors, diffusor, rear-geometry point already in that direction.

But when you look at the interior:
– inner door panels are identical including the door-opener
– instruments for the cluster instrument including the green color are identical with Artega GT.
– Air Outlet under the windscreen is identical
– position of the handbrake and opener for the front luggage compartment are in the same position
– shape of the whole dashboard is the same

So it seems they took the Artega GT, put a new shape and a heavily modified interior on it.

But I’m interested in the changes to the engine. The Artega GT had ~300BHP, now they say it has 380. For the narrow VR6-Engine that will be a lot. And for the GT it was already a hard piece of work to get the heat away.”

Though not far from the supercharged Evora’s 345hp, the 375 hp figure of the B6 as published by Spyker sounded high in the context of the 3.6-liter Volkswagen Group V6/VR6 previously mounted transversely in the Passat R36 and longitudinally in the Audi Q7, and currently still used in the Porsche Cayenne and Volkswagen Touareg.

AirHH points out:

“Since VW improved the (Passat) R36-block a lot (even during the time the GT was developed: new engine-block-cooling-concept) it should be possible to bring it stable to 375hp. But due to the VR-shape it’s not easy to improve the cooling.

I know the trouble VW had already to stabilize the engine for the Passat R36 and then the time and effort in cooling changes Artega added for the GT it’s nothing you can solve easily a simple Turbo. They might need compression ratio modification on the engine, new intake manifold, better intake cooling AND improved clutches in the DSG-Gearbox.”

He’d say in another post:

“The company IAV (which does a lot development for VW) engineered a lot of the drivetrain package and configuration, additionally Artega Engineers had even a big influence on the details. So finally it’s really a sportscar approach and has nothing to do anymore with a Golf or Passat. e.g. fresh air concept is specifically designed and optimized, water and oil cooling is specific and bigger than normal.”

Later AirHH would reveal/claim he worked on the development of the Artega GT. Given his level of detailed knowledge, we’re inclined to believe him even though we have not verified this. He states:

“I worked a long time on the development of the Artega GT and drove it for a while. I’m absolutly sure, the technical base IS the GT.

If you think the ceased Artega GT is not a good base you should simply try it…

The Artega GT uses the 3.6-liter 300 hp engine from the Passat R36, the DSG-Gearbox has a special setup (mechanical) for the Artega…

It has ABS and ESP especially setup for the GT with different setup modes, Airbags, it’s Crash-tested…

I don’t see anything wrong in what Spyker does. They’ll make a lot modifications to the car, so there is enough room to make a unique Spyker from it.”

Looking at the dimensions, all three cars are fairly similar and none of them exact.

Length:
Artega GT: 4015mm
Lotus Evora 4342 mm
Spyker B6: 4347mm

Wheelbase:
Artega GT: 2460mm
Lotus Evora 2575 mm
Spyker B6: 2500mm

A profile view of each car is also somewhat inconclusive. None seem to share elements like windows, exact intake points, etcetera. From a design standpoint, the Spyker doesn’t seem quite as sorted as the Lotus or the Henrik Fisker-penned Artega.

Looking inside the B6 there were more clues as AirHH had mentioned on that Spyker Forum, we’re inclined to believe the car is based on the Artega. The B6 shows a much more intricate infotainment system than is in the Spyker C8 or that is in the Evora and quite possibly the same Paragon system that was in the Artega re-skinned with Spyker graphics. Spyker wasn’t readily letting people sit in the B6 nor play with the system, so its similarity to the Paragon system in the Artega remains unclear.

Interestingly but perhaps not conclusive, the Artega used the same steering wheel as the Mk5 Volkswagen Golf, albeit re-skinned and re-badged. Assumedly the Paragon system was programmed to work with the buttons and controls on that steering wheel and of course the paddles would control the DSG (S-tronic) transmission. From a production standpoint, the inputs from Audi wheels as those seen in the TT, A3 and R8 would likely be compatible. A close inspection of the Spyker B6 revealed it uses a re-skinned and re-badged steering wheel like those used in the TT, A3 and R8.

It is possible that Spyker purchased the production tooling of the Artega in order to save money and time on development and market homologation. If that is true then they’d certainly save a lot of time and money by sticking with the Volkswagen Group’s 3.6-liter narrow angle V6 (a.k.a. VR6).

If Spyker is basing the B6 on the Evora, they may have more engine options readily available to them. As mentioned, the Evora uses a Toyota-sourced V6 but that wouldn’t necessarily mean they’d have to stick with that. Versions of the Lotus Elise were sold with Toyota (Elise), GM (Opel Speedster), electric (Tesla) and even Volkswagen Group (Melkus) engines. Lotus likely has the development resources to affordably change up the engine to suit Spyker’s needs.

In the end, our investigation revealed more clues, but we’re not exactly ready to suggest a conclusion in either direction. Whatever or whichever the case, clearly Spyker has a development partner or leg up as there’s no way they could have gotten the B6 together in such a short amount of time. Where it goes from here remains to be seen but we’d be curious to hear your own hypotheses. If you care to share, post them in The Car Lounge discussion forum linked below.

This story originally appeared on Fourtitude on April 12, 2013, and was republished with permission.

Email us with the subject line "Syndication" if you would like to see your own story syndicated here on Jalopnik.

Welcome to the late eighties, at Alfa Romeo's historic Portello Factory in Milan. Fiat just took over the whole company, and the last employee was transferred to the Arese Plant in Lombardy. They left a mess.

The Portello Plant was Alfa Romeo's first factory opened in 1908. The 86,111 square feet facility gave home to everything from the 1910 24 HP up until the Giulia in 1962. Before that, but after taking some heavy damage during the war, the heads at the office tried to get back on track by building small series cars or even a Renault Dauphine with Alfa Romeo badges. Still, at least the mensa was good.

When the market got back to normal, the former Arese offices were turned into a full grown modern factory in the early sixties since Portello couldn't be extended anymore, and in 1965, the Giulia's production was transferred to Arese as well, making the old factory a place kept alive only by engineering, prototypes, parts production and some paperwork.

The last nail in the coffin was Fiat's takeover in 1986, after which the plant was given to the City of Milan, who eventually demolished this significant building to make space for the construction of a new residential and commercial district. The only problem was that when the bulldozers came in 2004, there were still usable machines, half finished prototypes and lots of papers inside, as Fiat left in quite a hurry. We'll never know what was lost there.

Looking at the pictures, I'm pretty sure something interesting was.

Photo credit: waltermo and Alfaromeo75

It's much better! You see, Giorgetto Giugiaro started experimenting with a replacement for the Karmann Ghia not long after the Type 34 was introduced in 1961. This open-top wonder came a decade later.

Named the Cheetah, just like Lamborghini's unfortunate military project, this concept was born three years after Giugiaro left Ghia to start his own studio, Italdesign. Based on the Beetle with a 1.6-liter boxer producing 50 horsepower at best, the Cheetah was created without Karmann's help, although the soft top which could be hidden between the seats was their design.

Pop-up headlamps and lots of sunshine wasn't enough to convince Volkswagen, so Giugiaro's car never make it into production, but a year after its debut at the 1971 Geneva Motor Show, Bertone came out with the production version of the Fiat X1/9.

The Karmann Ghia was eventually replaced by the Porsche 914 and the Volkswagen Scirocco.

Hat tip to Jason! Photo Credit: Italdesign

Have you ever heard of Ford's 'Glideair' hovercar concept from 1961? If yes, forget what you were told, it didn't actually exist. But the picture above is not a fake and is from 1959. Wait... what? Here's what actually happened.

Two hi-resolution images have recently been circulating on the internet labeled "Ford Glideair." They are from the Righter Family Archives, and there are two reasons why it's easy to think they are legit:

One is the fact that aviation engine pioneer Walter Hammond Righter's son wrote "FORD MOTOR COMPANY (Aeronutronic Division)" under them, and if someone, he should know. The other is an article from the 1958 edition of Mechanix Illustrated quoting Ford’s vice president Andrew A. Kucher in charge of Engineering and Research about the company's plans to produce wheeless vehicles.

But it wasn't only Ford who were dreaming about the ground-effect vehicles of the future.

After Curtiss-Wright lost a jet engine contract against General Electric in the early fifties, the company had to look for new challenges. They found one by entering into a management agreement with the troubled Studebaker-Packard Corporation in 1956, but also spent millions on trying to turn the West-German NSU's Wankel design into an aircraft engine and their flying car program. The Studebaker deal ended in 1959, just when Curtiss-Wright got the public's attention after some ambitious marketing like this postcard:

The Curtiss-Wright "Bee" promised a lot long before even a prototype was ready. Still, in 1959, the first hovercar was displayed for all the world to see. The Model 2500 was much larger and was supposed to seat four, but the prototype remained a two-seater. They also made it look like a car instead of actually building one since the mechanics couldn't be scaled down.

According to the U.S. Army Transportation Museum, the 2500's specifications were the following:

"The Air Car was built of welded steel tubing covered by molded sheet metal. It was powered by two 180hp Lycoming engines mounted one forward and one aft of the passenger compartment.

Each engine was used to drive, via reduction gears, a single four-bladed lift fan placed within a plenum chamber. The two chambers created a cushion of air 10-15 inches thick. Forward propulsion was supplied by air bled off the chambers and expelled at low velocity through two sets of louvers on each side of the vehicle."

Length - 21 Ft Width - 8 Ft Height - 6 Ft 1 In Weight - 2,770 lbs. Cruising speed: 20 mph Max speed: 38 mph.

Even the U.S. Military bought two vehicles for engineering and operational evaluation in 1960, but since Curtiss-Wright's wonder couldn't even deal with a bit of terrain, they abandoned the idea in less than a year.

Hat tip to NAK! Photo credit: Righter Family Archive, Curtiss-Wright Corporation and Mechanix Illustrated

So much Opel in this handout from the company for a 1995 exhibit on the German-American automaker. Which would you take? (via AP Images)

A while back, I had a delightfully terrible idea to use spacecraft-type maneuvering rockets to make a better-handling race car. I thought I was pretty clever, but then I saw this picture of a Corvair with a rocket strapped to its side way back in the '60s.

The picture, which I saw posted on Oppo by Demon-Xanth, turns out to be from a Popular Science article from 1964. The short article has this to say about the rig:

A rocket engine mounted on the side of a new car shows GM research engineers how it will react to any kind of crosswind.

The rocket’s thrust, from 50 to 200 pounds, can be accurately controlled, and the rocket can be mounted anywhere on the car. Instruments in the back seat record effect. Formerly, engineers drove a car through a blast from a propeller, but the quick passage was disadvantageous.

This really is essentially exactly the same thing that I was proposing, just for very different purposes. It's even a hydrogen peroxide motor, which is the same type normally used on spacecraft RCS systems, since that particular fuel doesn't require an ignitor. It is pretty toxic stuff, but those test drivers got to drive a Corvair with a rocket attached, so that seems a fair trade-off.

I'd be willing to bet at least once these test drivers tried rigging up multiple rockets on the car to just have some crazy fun. If only YouTube was 50 or so years older, maybe we'd have some nice and bonkers video.

I also like that the disadvantage of driving past the giant propeller was that the effects were too short, not the constant danger of being mulched.

As Lamborghini celebrates 50 years of motoring insanity this week, now seems like an appropriate time to look back on what may have been their most important car. It's the Lamborghini that redefined what an automobile could do and created the modern supercar archetype as we know it.

I am, of course, talking about the Miura — a car that's even more crazy than the story behind how it came to be in the first place.

Why was the Miura such a big deal? Besides the fact that it looked amazing, it was the first production sports car with a mid-engine layout. Many consider the Miura to be the first true supercar as we know them today, and the one that set the pattern everyone has followed since.

The Miura debuted in 1966, a scant three years after Lamborghini was founded. Before we talk about the car, it's important to know what was going on at the time.

Lamborghini itself was a company born out of spite. Ferruccio Lamborghini had dared to criticize one of Enzo Ferrari's sports cars, leading il Commendatore to dismiss him as just a maker of tractors who knew nothing about cars. In an attempt to it stick to Enzo real good and develop his own ideal grand tourer, Lamborghini founded his own company.

And that's what Lamborghini's first production car was — the 350GT, a big grand touring coupe with a V12 engine up front, similar in spirit to the road cars that Ferrari and Jaguar were making in the early 1960s. Stylish and powerful, the 350GT was enough of a hit to ensure that Lamborghini could keep making more than just tractors.

But while the 350GT was an impressive car with a whopping 400 horsepower, it wasn't revolutionary. Lamborghini's next car, the Miura, would be the one to change things forever and really knock the boys in Maranello for a loop.

It is important to note here that while the Miura was the first production sports car with an engine in the middle, Lamborghini did not invent that setup. Racing cars had been mid-engined (often just called rear-engined back in the day) since the 1930s and 40s. There's also the Porsche 550 Spyder and Ford GT40, of course, and the De Tomaso Vallelunga, but none counted as production cars.

In addition, the midship Cooper T51 scored a major upset in Formula One by being the first car with such a layout to win a championship in 1959. Eventually, all F1 cars went that in that direction. Lamborghini proved to be way ahead of the curve by aiming for a mid-engine setup in a road car. Indeed, when they debuted the chassis at a show in 1965, everyone thought they were building a racecar.

Named after a type of bull (of course), the Miura debuted at the 1966 Geneva Motor Show before a stunned audience. They were captivated by the sexy, striking design penned by then-25-year-old Bertone protege Marcello Gandini.

As Autozine puts it, the car has a very sharklike, predatory shape with features like air vents on the B-pillars and headlamps that were flush against the hood when not in use. (Never mind the fact that they came from a humble Fiat 850 Spider, they looked great here!)

While the engineers were inspired by the success of the GT40 and other cars, they went a different path by mounting the car's 4.0-liter V12 transversely behind the driver. Sourced from the Lamborghini GT400, the engine's output was boosted to 350 horsepower, an extremely impressive figure for its day and for a car that only weighed 2,800 pounds. The Miura easily bested its Ferrari competition, and with a top speed of about 170 mph and a zero to 60 mph time in the low six-second range, it became the fastest car in the world.

Right away, the Miura was a hit. According to Autozine, rock stars and other famous people lined up to pose next to it while Lamborghini charged them four times the price of a Jaguar E-Type to own one. They produced 474 cars in the first three years.

But that's not to say the car was perfect. Handling was unpredictable, and some of the early cars were prone to fires, as we unfortunately had to witness a few weeks ago. Still, the Miura's performance was undeniable, and unmatched for a time.

At this point you would think that ol' Enzo was willing to jump into the mid-engine game at full throttle. Not so. In a rare display of giving a shit about someone who wasn't himself, Ferrari was concerned that a mid-engine car would be unsafe in the hands of his more inexperienced customers. (Maybe it wasn't just his humanitarian side coming out for once. He did need to keep people alive to buy more Ferraris.)

While Ferrari had tepidly stepped into this realm with the Dino cars of the late 1960s, none could match the Miura's performance. They wouldn't put out a real Miura rival until 1973 when they debuted the incredible flat-12 Berlinetta Boxer.

As for Lamborghini, they continued to release newer, lighter, and more powerful versions of the Miura like the P400S with a reinforced chassis and 370 horsepower. But the last and greatest Miura variant was the SV, which had power bumped all the way to 380 horsepower. A one-off roadster was also built, as was a race-built Miura Jota version, but that one was destroyed in a crash. Sad face.

Lamborghini ultimately phased out the Miura in 1972. Two years later they debuted the Countach, a car that managed to be spiritually similar to the Miura in many ways but also radically different. It was also designed by young Marcello Gandini, which is one hell of a design resume to have.

The Miura was a huge deal for a lot of reasons. For one, it sparked the supercar war between Ferrari and Lamborghini that lasts to this day. Many supercar companies compete in that race as well, but at the end of the day, really always comes down to those two.

Second, the Miura showed the world that the mid-engine layout was not only viable for road cars, it was the definitive future of the supercar. The McLaren F1, the Audi R8, the Carrera GT, even the litany of mid-engine Ferraris that have come out since then — they are all the children of the Miura.

So the next time you're admiring the new Lamborghini Veneno or watching a Ferrari 458 Italia immolate itself, thank the Miura. We owe it a lot.

Photos credit Lamborghini, Philipp Lücke, DryHeatPanzer, Biscuit in Pursuit

Boston isn't known as a center of automotive history, but here's something they should be known for: Boston was home to the first mail truck.

According to the Early American Automobiles site, Everitt Cameron, a bicycle maker, was the father of the mail truck:

In 1899, however, he became interested in the future possibilities of the horseless carriage and built his first steam car. Two cars of this type were used by the Back Bay Post Office of Boston to collect mail, and it is believed that these were the first automobiles used by the Post Office department.

The car company Cameron started was called Eclipse, and these two 1899 Eclipse steam cars became the ancestors of every mail Jeep you've been tempted to buy for $250 at some government auction.

The fact that the Volkswagen Beetle was the idea of Adolf Hitler and designed by the same guy who came up with a bunch of Nazi tanks didn't make the car too popular in post-war Britain. In fact, they gave it "two to three years at most" in the early '40s.

Ford has been a major force in Great Britain since its foundation in 1909, and when the British Government started looking for a new car for the masses, they listened carefully to what Mr. Ford had to say.

According to Richard Sutton's fantastic book Motor Mania, the official statement in 1945 about the Volkswagen was the following:

This car does not fulfil the technical requirements which must be expected from a motor car. Its performance and qualities have no attraction to the average buyer. It is too ugly and too noisy. Such a car, if at all, only be popular for two or three years at most.

So instead of the Beetle, Britain produced Sir Alec Issigonis's design, the Morris Minor, which debuted in 1948, and remained in production until 1971.

On the other hand, the Beetle's assembly lines kept going until 2003, turning it into the most successful car ever made...

Photo credit: Getty Images

Citroën's funky little off-roader celebrates its 45th birthday this week, and while this picture says it all, it's worth to look at the fun side of this rolling deathtrap we would all love to have.

Fun facts about the Citroën Méhari:

1: You need not less than two special characters to write down its name properly.

2: Still, at its launch in 1968, its full name was Diane 6 Méhari.

3: It had ABS, but that stood for Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, the material used for the body panels.

4: Two beige paints were offered. Beige Kalahari until 1977, Beige Hoggar onwards.

5: Still, you want it in Vert Tibesti.

6: Orange Kirghiz was also awesome.

7: The guy who created it was called Roland de La Poype. Apparently, he was a fighter ace during World War II.

8: It uses a tubular frame, just like a Countach.

9: The Méhari Azur was produced in white with blue doors, grille, canvas roof and headlamp surrounds, plus white and blue striped seats. That late version is the rarest.

10: The only color remaining in production for the entire run was the dark green Vert Montana.

11: It was a medical vehicle at the 1980 Paris-Dakar Rally. Oh boy.

12: Brave chaps entered the Liége-Dakar-Liège rally in 1969, the Paris-Kabul-Paris rally in 1970 and the Paris-Persepolis-Paris rally in 1971 with Méharis.

13: They did not win.

14: The French army put 24V electrical system in them, and threw Méharis off airplanes for combat duty.

15: The Méhari name comes from the toughest sahara camels out there.

16: They sold more than 150,000.

17: The Renault Rodeo had nothing on the Méhari.

18: The suspension came from the Citroën 2CV, the Rolls-Royce of French peasants.

19: It weights 1,300 pounds. Much less than my Autobianchi A112.

20: 29 horsepower deal with that from a 602 cc flat-two.

21: McLaren F1 boss Martin Whitmarsh has one.

22: You could get it with four-wheel drive from 1980-83.

23: The Méhari has no seat belts.

24: You could catch one in the 1971 Charlton Heston movie The Omega Man.

25: Sold as a truck, only 214 made it to the US in 1970.

26: Children love it.

27: The Méhari Beach was a special edition only for Spain. French surfers had to use a regular one.

28: The lamps were made by Lucas, the company which has ruined British cars for good.

29: American Méharis got a two-speed wiper motor for more rain action.

30: Argentinian Méharis got fiberglass bodies instead of ABS. It was cheaper.

31: Those were in fact made in Uruguay.

32: Replacement body parts are all white instead of the original colored ABS, so you have to paint them.

33: Only 381 were made in 1987, the last year of production.

34: The Irish Defence Forces bought 12 in the seventies.

35: They realized it was a bad choice and auctioned them off in 1985.

36: The windscreen can be folded down onto the bonnet.

37: Citroën had fantastic print advertisements at the time:

38: No, it couldn't take an elephant.

39: The 1967 prototype was made using an 2CV Furgoneta chassis and cardboard.

40: In 1974, the steering wheel got brown from gray.

41: The optional plastic hard top almost made it waterproof.

42: Peugeot launched its flagship 504 against the Méhari at the 1968 Paris Motor Show.

43: You have to use a very slow shutter speed to make it look fast:

44: In short, the Méhari is 11 body panels and 2CV mechanics.

45: Girls love it.

Photo credit: Citroën, Harry Alverson, Alfred Bina and John Lloyd

Chassis number '0201L' from 1960 is the last Aston Martin DB4GT completed in period, designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Carrozzeria Bertone. They call it the "Jet Coupé", and Bonhams estimates its value at around $5.8 million.

The DB4 was an impressive car. Launched at the London Motor Show in 1958, it featured a new steel platform chassis with disc brakes all round, and a race-developed twin-cam six-cylinder 3.7-litre engine, all clothed in an aluminum body by Carrozzeria Touring of Milan.

Aston Martin realized the potential, and was quick to develop the top of the line lightweight version, the DB4GT. They took 5 inches out of the wheelbase and replaced the rear seats with a luggage platform on almost all cars. With the lighter, 18-gauge bodywork and the faired-in headlamps with Perspex covers, the car's weight got reduced by around 200 lb. The engine got more power too. With a twin-plug cylinder head and triple Weber 45DCOE carburetors, the 1959 car produced a claimed 302bhp at 6,000rpm instead of the original's 240.

While the Perspex windows, the deleted bumper over-riders, quick-release competition fuel fillers and the added large-capacity fuel tank mounted flat in the boot were all about racing, the GTs interior was trimmed to full Aston Martin road car specification, with Connolly leather upholstery and deep-pile Wilton carpeting, and the addition of an oil temperature gauge to the standard set of dials. So, it's fair to say the DB4GT was pretty damn good as it was. But then came Giugiaro, only to present this at the 1961 Geneva Motor Show:

Great Škodas, female legs and a casually smoking man are all in this picture, but it's still hard not to focus on Bertone's light green, steel-bodied Jet Coupé. Today at least, since at the show, everybody was busy with another British car, the Jaguar E-Type.

After Geneva, the Jet spent some time in Beirut before relocating to the USA, remaining there for several years before being rediscovered by the Aston Martin Chairman, Victor Gauntlett, in the 1980s. According to Kingsley Riding-Felce, currently Managing Director Aston Martin Works, by that time, it didn't look that good:

The car was in a pretty sad state. It had suffered an engine fire... The bonnet was badly burnt and rust had taken hold in the steel bodywork.

Hans-Peter Weidmann bought it from Gauntlett. Fast forward to today, and this (probably production-intended) one-off is past a full restoration and many thousands of road miles. But getting there wasn't an easy task. Weidmann puts it this way:

It was a big job because we had to make new door skins and fabricate replacement bumpers out of brass. It was quite a challenge configuring them to the body and getting the clearances right, but we wanted to keep it as original as possible. The instruments had to be redone and searching out missing switchgear in Italy proved quite a task. The Jet was very well made and clearly built to be driven. The styling isn't very Aston Martin but we never tired of looking at it.

The car has won many awards since it was finished in 1988, with Weidmann driving it regularly. Bonhams will put it on auction this year, and Aston Martin is expecting the new owner to take part in this year's centenary events as well.

Fingers crossed, as the Jet is something kids should see on the road:

Source and image credit: Bonhams. Hat tip to motor—sport!