Recalling my childhood obsession with Duesenbergs, and my time driving Gary Cooper’s one-of-two Duesenberg SSJ, a car that sold shortly thereafter for $22.5 million, setting a record for the most expensive American car ever auctioned.

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“At that speed, the wind creates a really big noise. You feel like an airplane taking off. When you break the wall of the air, you make some noise.”

Avoid these things.

“Everybody understands that the cars are valuable, and it’s not good history to add to them if you hit one now. That’s a minus.”

In 1975, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art gave 100 artists money to build Soapbox Derby racecars (and trophies) for a run through McCaren Park. Madness and hilarity ensued. I dug into the history, and spoke to many of the original participants, and the story is even better and richer than you can imagine–and I’m sure you can imagine the swirl of artists and art practices and art rivalries in that kooky city at that time.

This is one of my favorite pieces I’ve ever written. If you click on the thumbnails above you can read a crappy scan. And if you click this link, you can read the online version. But, really, you should just subscribe to Road & Track already, you chintzy bitch.

The 928 should have won.

The American roadway death epidemic saw its greatest increase in a century, last year. The slaughter is rooted in analog issues–Booze, Belts, and Speed. Might the solutions also be analog? My investigative report for Road & Track.

It was drizzling the morning I drove the $2.1 million Bentley Bacalar. The car is a classic barchetta, Italian for “little boat,” and collector automobilese for “I’m so rich, if it rains, I take the jet.” As such, it has no roof. That didn’t stop me from a proper test drive.

The CLK63 Black Series is the exception that proved the rule, by confirming that there were always people at staid and stolid Mercedes who relished the opportunity to put some rote in their colleagues’ sau.

“Is neglect a bad thing?” says Maxon

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