Electel Blogspot

I'm not sure if there is any officially recognized Golden Age of Sports Cars.  In my case -- probably a generational thing -- the Golden Age was roughly 1948 to 1960.  Regardless, it was the time when European sports cars were often fairly affordable and began appearing in significant numbers in the USA. Entry-level was owned by MG TC, TD and TF models.  The next market notch was exemplified by Triumph TR-2s and TR-3s, followed by the Austin Healey and Jaguar XK120 and its derivatives.  And from Germany came the Porsche 356 series of coupés and cabriolets.  But the most interesting Porsche was a rakish version of the Cabriolet: the 356A Speedster. The main visual difference between 356 Cabriolets and Speedsters was the Speedster's lower windshield.  Also, it had a skimpier canvas top than the Cabriolet's, which had a traditional substantial German retractible top.  Speedsters also featured a thin chrome strip along the side, though some Cabriolets had...

A body style found on Porsche sports cars since the late 1960s is the Targa, a semi-convertible incorporating a substantial roll-bar and, usually, a fixed glass rear window.   Some early Targas featured a "soft" (non-glass) rear window that could be lowered. Recently, Porsche announced its latest Targa, the 2021 Targa 4 (Car and Driver link here ). This post compares the new Targa (factory images) with examples of first-generation Targas.  The Porsche 911 series and derivatives since production began in 1963 retain the general feeling of the original Ferry Porsche design even though the cars' proportions were gradually altered over the years.  The same can be said for the Targa, as can be seen below. Gallery 2021 Porsche Targa 4 1970 Porsche Targa - Barrett-Jackson auction photo The Targa concept includes a wide, metal-finished roll-bar, a fixed rear window (backlight in stylist jargon), and a detachable roof spanning the roll bar and the windshield frame.  The roll ...

The upper image is a 1970 drawing of the Porsche Tapiro concept car by its designer, the famed Giorgetto Giugiaro .  Its Wikipedia entry is here , and I wrote about it here .  The lower photo is one I took of my 1971 Porsche 914 that I wrote about here .  I wrote about the 914 design itself  here .  The Wikipedia entry for the Porsche 914 is here . The Tapiro was derived from the Porsche 914/6, the six cylinder Porsche-engined version of the 914 that otherwise was powered by a four-cylinder Volkswagen motor.  The designs are strikingly different, so I thought readers might be interested in seeing them compared.  Click on the images to enlarge. Gallery Side view of a Porsche 914/6, Mecum auction photo. Side view of the Tapiro. Diagram showing ket interior layout features and dimensions.  Wheelbase lengths are identical, but the overall length of the Tapiro is 4060 mm whereas the 914's is 3985.  The major difference is height, the 914 measuring...

Today's car stylists are greatly constrained by the corporate need to shape bodies by wind tunnel testing with the goal of improving or maintaining propulsive efficiency.  Packaging considerations further constrain the basic shapes of vehicles.  This combination is especially constrictive where sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) are concerned. The present post deals with entry-level SUVs from Mercedes-Benz and Porsche that reached the market in the mid- 2010-2020 decade.  Mercedes' SUV is the GLA-Series (Wikipedia entry here ), the Porsche Macan's brief entry is here . The GLA is the SUV version of Mercedes' entry-level A-Class.  Its initial wheelbase was 106.3 inches, 2966 mm, compared to 110.5 inches, 2807 mm for the Macan.  Therefore, the Macan can be considered in the next higher class of SUV. Nevertheless, the two models are worth comparing because they are from storied German brands, because they are near-contemporaries, and because they offer perspective on Ge...