Down Time

WINTER MEANS different things to car lovers, depending on where you live. For those of you who live where it is always warm, the difference is hard to measure. In much of North America, it means a long winter’s nap for our beloved classics — and time to reflect on our automotive adventures.

Our cover story this month is about American sports cars not named Corvette — two-seater performance machines that never quite broke into the big time. John Krewson and the editors of Road & Track explore these lesser-known stars. Next, Ray Evernham ventures into the hills of North Carolina to meet a man named Bernie and the cars and memories he holds dear. It’s automotive archaeology at its best.

Editor-in-Chief Jonathan A. Stein takes us back to the early 1970s, when design gave way to safety in the form of federally mandated 5-mph bumpers. He confirms what we’ve been saying for years: Some manufacturers adapted better than others. And what’s the coolest way to get 15 Shelby Cobras across Lake Michigan? Tom Cotter boarded the historic steamship SS Badger (with his own 289 Cobra, s/n 2490) to find out.

The Historic Vehicle Association pays tribute to the first Porsche 911 Turbo to come to America, Wayne Carini discovers a Studebaker even better than the stories he’d heard about it and one reader takes us back to a time when Vespas served as living room furniture.

Regardless of where you live, or where your classic car passions lie, we hope this issue inspires you to do what you can with your cars this winter — to drive them, to tinker with them or to simply sit and stare at them in hibernation while you ponder automotive journeys yet to come.

Happy motoring…