Heaven Called…by Robert Goldman As I sit down to write, the news reaches me, Robert “Kas” Kastner has passed. While it may be that no single individual wrote the book on Triumph performance, it was Kas who finished it. As a racer with no funds, he had no choice. It was either make stock parts…
By Graham Robson Before 1953, the most popular British sports cars sold in the States were MG’s classic TD, and Jaguar’s sensational XK120. Nothing else came close. Then suddenly the Austin-Healey 100 and the Triumph TR2 arrived to change all that. But Triumph? Who had ever heard of them, and what was a TR2? All…
By David Clark The Glory Days of the 1930s were long in the past. It had been 20 years since MG was a dominant force, owning records for absolute speed in the classes between 500 and 2,000cc. The engine in their 750cc overhead cam record breaker, EX127, ultimately made 145bhp, supercharged with 39 lbs of…
By Graham Robson A twin-cam Le Mans engine, independent rear suspension for the Spitfire, modular body shells for the Herald, Spitfires which raced at Le Mans, front-wheel-drive for the Triumph 1300, fuel injection for the TR5, and an all-new overhead-cam engine for the Dolomite—all were innovations, and all were completed between 1956 and 1968, while…
By John Schein In the past, the fabric of Mini history was thought to have been pulled asunder by the 1969 separation of John Cooper Racing from BMC. In reality it was kept intact, however, you had to travel to South Africa to find this small but important link in the Mini’s sporting legacy. When…
Born in Turin, Italy in the last year of World War I, Virgilio Conrero served as a mechanic in the Regia Aeronautica during the next global conflict. He established the Autotecnica Conrero in 1951 and was one of the most successful Alfa Romeo and Lancia tuners (though often overshadowed by the work of Abarth) and…
If you have owned a British car and most of you that visit this page have owned several, then the term MOWOG has likely been a part of your life for years. What does it mean, however, and how did the word find its way onto countless cars from Austin, Morris, Wolseley, MG and Healey?…
XKs Unlimited | Powered by Moss By Robert Goldman On a sunny day in 1966, unless it was a foggy day, a young Jason Len took a job working for Al Moss. Jason had the British sports car bug, and Moss Motors seemingly offered a chance to get into the hobby. Fast forward to 1973,…
The Triumph monument and its history By Bill Piggott April 16, 2000 will go down in the history of the Standard Triumph Motor Co. as a very special day, the day that may prove to be the final act in the history of the old company on its principal site in Coventry. On that Sunday,…
By Len Emanuelson George Chilberg couldn’t help but be a car enthusiast. As he was growing up in Pasadena, California, his grandfather—who owned a Packard dealership—planted the seed. It’s hard to ride around in cars as grand as the Packards of the ’30s without being permanently influenced by them. His father had a profound effect…
