Beautiful Photos of Fiat X1/9, One of the First Truly Affordable Mid-Engine Sports Cars

The Bertone X1/9 is a two-seater sports car designed by Bertone and built by Fiat from 1972–1982 and subsequently by Gruppo Bertone from 1982–1989. Intended to be the first affordable mid-engined sports car, the X1/9 is notable for its sharp styling and impeccable handling.

The targa top can be stored in the front luggage compartment. It was originally designed as a sports car for the masses. The X1/9 came stock with a single overhead cam 1290cc engine that was mounted transversely ahead of the rear axle line and a four-speed transmission.

After 1978, it came with a 1489cc engine and a five-speed transmission. X1/9s have four wheel independent suspension with Macpherson struts. The brakes are disc, front and back. It has rack and pinion steering. No power brakes or power steering, and all the instrumentation is analog.

For the U.S. market, additional emission control equipment and large safety bumpers were added, which sapped performance.

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Unidentified Man and His 1952 Custom Pontiac in Houston, Texas, 1973

Postcard published by International Trade, 1973. Back of postcard reads: “’52 Pontiac custom features hand-painted seat covers, lots of chrome, years of work.”

The artist wishes to remain anonymous. Photographed by Chip Lord in Houston, Texas, 1973.

Beautiful Photos of the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1

The Ford Mustang Mach 1 is a performance-oriented option package of the Ford Mustang, originally introduced in August 1968 for the 1969 model year. It was available until 1978, returned briefly in 2003, 2004, and most recently 2021.

As part of a Ford heritage program, the Mach 1 package returned in 2003 as a high-performance version of the New Edge platform. Visual connections to the 1969 model were integrated into the design to pay homage to the original. This generation of the Mach 1 was discontinued after the 2004 model year, with the introduction of the fifth generation Mustang.

Ford first used the name “Mach 1” in its 1969 display of a concept called the “Levacar Mach I” at the Ford Rotunda. This concept vehicle used a cushion of air as propulsion on a circular dais.

Here below is a set of beautiful photos of the 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1.

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Extraordinary Vintage Photos of 1930s Female Racing Drivers in Brooklands

The Brooklands Automobile Racing Club was formed in December 1906 and held its last ever meeting in August 1939 with the outbreak of World War Two. When peace returned, despite people’s high hopes, the anticipated recovery costs were too high and due to the demise of Brooklands at the time, the club was amalgamated with the Junior Car Club. Come 1949 the Club changed its name to the British Automobile Racing Club and took up residence at Goodwood Circuit.

Initially, women were banned from racing, this ruling, however, was loosened in 1908 and by 1920, female drivers were able to participate in both female and mixed races. In 1933, the Royal Automobile Club gave permission for women to drive at Open meetings on equal terms with men at Brooklands, which became the ultimate heyday for female racing drivers.

Take a look at these insanely cool women through 21 amazing photographs below:

Elsie Wisdom at Brooklands, 1930.

Kay Petre at Brooklands, March 1930.

Fay Taylour at Brooklands, 1930.

Violet Cordery, 1930.

Miss J Alwynne, a motor mechanic at Brooklands race course, July 1931.

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Photos of Southern Railway 4501 Visiting Chicago in June 1973

The photos from Marty Bernard were taken from the Roosevelt Road Viaduct and the trains were on the leads to LaSalle Street Station on June 24, 1973. Rock Island E6A 630 was brought out to pose with the Mikado. A commuter train came by also. The last photo shows all the steam fans lined up along the Viaduct.

Wikipedia says, “Southern Railway No. 4501 is a 2-8-2 Mikado-type steam locomotive built in October 1911 by Baldwin Locomotive Works in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania as a primary freight hauler on the Southern Railway. It was the first Mikado-type to be built for the Southern. In 1948, the locomotive was retired from the Southern in favor of dieselization and was sold to the shortline Kentucky and Tennessee Railway (K&T) in Stearns, Kentucky to haul coal trains.”

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30 Vintage Photos of People Posing With Their Station Wagons

A station wagon, also called an estate (UK) or simply wagon (US), is an automotive body-style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door (the liftgate or tailgate), instead of a trunk/boot lid.

The body style transforms a standard three-box design into a two-box design — to include an A, B, and C-pillar, as well as a D-pillar. Station wagons can flexibly reconfigure their interior volume via fold-down rear seats to prioritize either passenger or cargo volume.

When a model range includes multiple body styles, such as sedan, hatchback, and station wagon, the models typically share their platform, drivetrain and bodywork forward of the A-pillar.

Station wagons have evolved from their early use as specialized vehicles to carry people and luggage to and from a train station, especially to estates, and have been marketed worldwide.

Here below is a set of vintage photos from Flickr’s members that shows people with their station wagons.

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April 15, 1964: Gail Wise Was the First Person to Buy a Ford Mustang

On April 15, 1964, two days before the Ford Mustang was officially supposed to go on sale, one mistakenly left the dealership. The lucky new owner, the first person to buy a Mustang  was Gail Wise, a 22 year old school teacher from Chicago. Her parents let her the money after she landed her new job, but had no way to get to and from the school she was to teach at. She head to a local dealership in search of a convertible. When she expressed her desires she was disheartened to learn no drop tops were in stock. Perhaps seeing her dismay, the salesman told her he had a special surprise and led her to a backroom. Not sketchy at all...

Much to her relief she found a baby blue Ford Mustang convertible. The car had yet to be released to the public, and the salesman knew the sale shouldn’t occur, yet. But what’s a couple days? Gail offered to pay full price for the car, $3,447.50, without even taking it for a test drive. No salesman can say no to that.

She said that at the dealership, she told the salesman that she wanted a convertible but he didn’t have one on the floor. Instead, he invited her to the backroom for a special surprise. “In the backroom under the tarp was this skylight-blue Mustang,” Gail Wise told ABC News. “I was excited. It was sporty. It had bucket seats [and a] transmission on the floor. I said, ‘Oh, yes! I want it.'”

She left to many stares and smiles, as many had never seen the car in concept form or otherwise. It should be said, this was not the first Mustang built, just the first one publicly sold.

“I was excited I had bought a new car,” Gail Wise said in an earlier interview with Ford Motor Co. “But, when everybody was staring at me and the car, I was like ‘Wow! What did I buy?’ I was really impressed. I felt like a movie star.”

After the ‘Stang sat for more than 20 years, the car received a full restoration in the early 2000s. Gail still owns the car to this day.

Some Wonderful Photos of 1938 Peugeot 402 Darl’mat ‘Special Sport’

The most desirable Peugeot is this 402 Darl’mat Roadster also known as the ‘Spécial Sport.’ It was envisioned by Emile Darl’mat who had close contact with the Peugeot factory. The project was intended to boost Peugeot’s image by offering a lightweight body, unique areodynamic styling and sporting engine. At the time, the Darl’mat’s roadster was unlike anything else on the road and was occasionally raced in period.

The car’s fabulous shape was drawn by Georges Paulin and fabricated from sheet aluminum by Marcel Pourtout. These two had collaborated on a number of aerodynamic cars including the a Peugeot 301 that debuted at the World’s Fair in Chicago and the Eclipse retracting roof system.

When the factory agreed to let Darl’mat create his own sports car, he chose Paulin and Pourtout to work on the design. Darl’mat also worked directly with Peugeot’s Director of Mechanical Studies, Alfred Geauque to create chassis and engine. This included a competition-tuned four-cylinder engine and Cotal gearboxes that were modified for the design.

Initially in 1936, Darl’mat’s car was built on the Pegeuot 302 sedan chassis with a two liter engine. By 1938 Peugeot had introduced a 402 Legere chassis which became the foundation for the later cars. These had a shortened and widened chassis but retained the same 2-liter engine.

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Brutsch 200 “Spatz”, a 3-Seater and 3-Wheeled Car With a Plastic Body in the 1950s

Egon Brutsch was one of the most prolific microcar designers of the 1950s, but he didn’t enjoy much commercial success. His first car was the Spatz (Sparrow). Instead of a chassis the Spatz featured a glassfibre monocoque – which fell apart because it was too weak. This led to the car being banned in Germany, which proved something of a setback.

Flanked by his two daughters, Egon Brutsch sits in his new three-wheel car for which he developed a plastic body in Stuttgart, Germany, Oct. 10, 1954.

The car seats three persons.

Brutsch claimed the car weighs only half as much as a normal metal body.

A 3-seater, 3-wheeled roadster, powered by a single cylinder 191 cc Fichtel & Sachs engine driving through a four speed gearbox. Top speed was around 90 km/h (56 mph) and about five cars were produced.

Also built under license by A. Grunhut & Co of Switzerland with minor changes and sold as the Belcar. Another license was sold to Alzmetall for production by Harald Friedrich GmbH of Germany, but so many faults were found with the original design that their production model, the Spatz Kabinenroller was fundamentally a different car. Because of this Brutsch took Alzmetall to court to ensure payment of his license fees but lost the case.

30 Vintage Photographs Capture Daily Life at the Volkswagen Factory in Wolfsburg in 1972

Volkswagen is one of the world’s biggest car manufacturers in the world but it’s worldwide headquarters are still based in the small city of Wolfsburg, where the company was founded in 1938.

The VW factory complex in Wolfsburg is apparently the largest factory in the world and covers an area of over 1,000 acres, which is 3 times the size of Boeing’s factory in Everett, Washington, USA. Over 70,000 people work for VW in Wolfsburg, so not only is it the world’s biggest factory in terms of size, it is also one of the world’s biggest factories as regards numbers employed.

Only 210 cars were built before World War II, before the factory was converted to manufacture arms for the German Army. The Volkswagen factory was heavily bombed during World War II and only re-opened in May 1945 as the British Army needed 20,000 vehicles in order to patrol occupied Germany. Incredibly, despite the shortage of supplies in post-war Germany, almost 2,000 Beetles had been built by the end of 1945 and just 3 months later, over a thousand cars a month were being built in Wolfsburg.

By 1955, over 1 million VW Beetles had been built and by 1972, over 15 million were produced surpassing the previous record holder, the Ford Model T. Production of the original VW Beetle ended in Wolfsburg in 1974 but it continued in VW’s factory in Pueblo in Mexico until 2003.

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33 Vintage Photos of Women Posing With Their Mercedes-Benz Automobiles From the 1950s

Mercedes-Benz, commonly referred to as Mercedes, is a German automotive brand and subsidiary – as Mercedes-Benz AG – of Daimler AG. Mercedes-Benz produces luxury vehicles and commercial vehicles.

Ladies pose with their Mercedes-Benz automobiles in the 1950s

The headquarters is in Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg. The first Mercedes-Benz brand name vehicles were produced in 1926. In 2018, Mercedes-Benz was the largest seller of premium vehicles in the world, having sold 2.31 million passenger cars.

The company’s origins come from Daimler-Motoren-Gesellschaft’s 1901 Mercedes and Karl Benz’s 1886 Benz Patent-Motorwagen, which is widely regarded as the first internal combustion engine in a self-propelled automobile. The fuel was not gasoline, but rather a much more volatile petroleum spirit called ligroin. The slogan for the brand is “the best or nothing”.

Here below is a set of vintage photos from Vintage Cars & People that shows ladies posing with their Mercedes-Benz automobiles in the 1950s.

A middle-aged lady posing with a Mercedes-Benz 170 V in an Alpine setting, circa 1950

A middle-aged lady posing with a Mercedes-Benz 170 V on the bank of an Alpine lake. The building in the centre of the picture is Schloss Grundlsee. The car is registered in the city of Vienna, April 1950

Two elegant ladies posing with a Mercedes-Benz 170 V on a snow-covered road in the countryside, circa 1950

A lady dressed posing with a Mercedes-Benz 170 V on a gravel road in the countryside. The car is registered in the town of Darmstadt with black license plates of Allied-occupied Germany, circa 1952

A lady in a light-colored raincoat posing with a Mercedes-Benz 170 V. The car is registered in the Bavarian town of Vohenstrauß, circa 1952

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