Cardone Industries 54-71290 on 2040-parts.com

The no-show cars: a reader rant on mad concepts

Instigated by Harley Earl at General Motors in the late 30s with the quaintly named Buick Y-Job, show cars, or concept cars, were presented to an excited public eager for new things. As the world recovered from a depression and then a war, these vehicles pointed to a better future that many people believed in, including the people who produced them. And, although many of the concept cars of the 50s, with their Jetsons plexiglass roofs and notional nuclear powered engines seem ludicrous now, in their time they weren’t that cynical.

David Brown Automotive Speedback UK debut at Goodwood Festival of Speed (video)

The David Brown Automotive Speedback (above) gets its UK debut at the Goodwood FoS The reveal of the David Brown Automotive Speedback was a pleasant surprise. We’d expected the Speedback to be yet another take on the E-Type – based as it is on the underpinnings of the still very able Jaguar XKR – but instead it was a proper classic GT car that looks much like a classic Aston Martin from the 1960s – think DB5/DB6. Glorious though a DB5 or DB6 is to own, a lot of the time they’re more a work of art to covet than a car you can drive every day.

Chrysler brings back Shaker, Scat Pack for Challenger, Charger, Dart

Dodge and Mopar are bringing the Shaker hood back from the dead at the 2013 SEMA Show. The blurry-lettered scoop and high-flow air filter will make their next appearance on the 2014 Dodge Challenger R/T Shaker in Las Vegas. The company will also show off its new Scat Pack upgrades and its annual Mopar vehicles.