English electric lightning

A cough. A splutter. A jet of flame for good measure and the Merlin is prised from its slumbers and into rambunctious life. Many of you, perhaps even most, will have heard one of these engines, at Goo

DESPITE BEING largely derided by the US Army Air Corps and rejected as unsuitable by the RAF, the P-39 ended World War Two with the highest enemy kill tally of any US fighter. In February 1937, recogn

Brake hard, drop to second, wipe the wheel as you thrust forwards again and gather the second apex, run wide on exit and then gun this Riley Brooklands down the very short straight accompanied by what

The first use of ‘sports car’ is often credited to Vauxhall’s C10 Prince Henry, but in many ways the term would be better applied to this, the earlier 20hp A-type. Disarmingly handsome, low-slung and

Automotive manufacturers often like to talk about evolution, DNA and lineage as if their products are biological creatures, but as I set foot inside the McLaren Technology Centre – itself a very organ

THE HANDBRAKE FULCRUM. IT’S A SMALL, INCONSEQUENTIAL piece of metal, one you’d never see unless you pulled the gaiter off and dismantled the mechanism, but somehow this ordinary component has been mad