From 1954 until the early 1980s, the title of Automobile Aerodynamicist was personified by one man—Frank Costin. His ability to make racing cars slice through the air better than their competitors became almost legendary, and efforts to copy his techniques took on, sometimes, humorous results. For instance, at one particular race meeting, one of Costin’s designs,…

English people rarely consider the signs outside pubs, mainly due to their rush to get inside! Yet, collectively, they provide an illustrated history of Britain. Few pubs were named by accident, and many names are almost as old as the pleasures of drinking itself. Wine bars in ancient Rome hung bunches of grape leaves outside…

(This year we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Donald Mitchell Healey, and as such, we would like to present an interview with him which Paul Chudecki undertook in 1986, and which gives an insight into the man responsible for those magnificent machines. Paul traveled down to Perranporth, Cornwall, to interview Donald just…

Our resident technical guru, Eric Wilhelm, will return to these pages in the fall issue of Moss Motoring, as he is very busy creating some exciting new catalogs for you! To tide you over until Eric’s next pearls of wisdom, we offer part one of a two-part feature by Louis C. Belby… One of the…

ON THE ROAD AGAIN! We will soon be setting out on our long-distance travels one more time with the Mossmobile after attending several events here on the West Coast this past spring. It’s amazing traveling around to see how green everything around here has become after the drenching California received from El Niño—quite a change…

Usually, I take a fairly strong position about most topics…at least, those I deem worthy of an opinion. For the past year or longer I have been working up a head of steam on several subjects. Allow me to share my thoughts on one of them with you. You might look upon yourselves as my…

There’s not much time left to get your registration form in to us to attend the fabulous Moss Motors 50th Anniversary Sports Car Festival to be held July 16-19 at the beautiful Flag Is Up Farms Ranch in the Santa Ynez Valley. Entries are rolling in daily to our office, and plans are being made…

I’d like to share with you some of the other fixes I’ve made over the years to my 100 to prevent it from leaking precious fluids. In previous articles I concentrated on the engine. This time I want to talk about everything else that can leak that refined Cretaceous crude. The BN1 three-speed gearboxes all…

Here’s a time-saving and cheap idea that is sure to help out any British car owner when working in his/her garage. Simply save an egg carton and use it as a separator/part holder to hold small parts and keep them organized. There is no cheaper container with as many compartments! Also I use a soft-bristled…

Big, emotional, bear-hugging, steak-eating, STP pajama-wearing Andy Granatelli was the last guy you’d expect to see plotting over a breakfast table with the nutty Colin Chapman. Andy’s STP dollars had brought the two together, but on this October ’67 morning, only the brilliant Granatelli magnetism could have led Colin “I never eat breakfast; only black…

One of the first 40th birthday parties for the Austin-Healey Sprite took place in Tasmania, that large and beautiful island off the southeast coast of Australia. It has long been the home of some of the most devout Sprite enthusiasts in the world, and no less than 14 of them prepared their beloved classics to compete in…

In this issue, I would like to address the thorny subject of originality as it affects old cars, and particularly the showing of old cars. I tend to suspect that this subject has caused more arguments and heated debate than any other since the dawn of the historic car movement, but when one considers the…

In the last issue of Moss Motoring, we posed the question, “Are there too many British car clubs and are there too many British car meetings in the course of a year?” Thank you for the many responses you wrote, faxed, and emailed to me offering your opinions. At the outset, let me say that…