Bugatti is one of the fastest marques of automobile and one of the most exclusive car producers of all time. The company is legendary for producing a few of the fastest sports cars in the world. Like many high-end marques, the original Bugatti failed with the coming of World War II, but the name has been resurrected twice, most recently under the Volkswagen Group, for this, see Bugatti Automobiles SAS.

Source: Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

The Bricklin SV-1 was a gullwing door sports car built in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada from 1974 until early 1976 for the U.S. market. The car was the creation of Malcolm Bricklin, an American millionaire who had previously founded Subaru of America. Sales did not meet expectations, and only 2,854 cars were built before the company went into receivership, owing the government $23 million. It is believed approximately 1,500 Bricklin cars still exist.

The name stood for “safety vehicle one”, an odd choice of focus in a sports car from the fuel-sensitive 1970s.[1] The Bricklin was designed for safety with an integrated roll cage, 5 mph bumpers, and side beams. The body was fiberglass with bonded acrylic in five “safety” colors: white, red, green, orange and suntan. The cars had no cigarette lighter or ashtray. Malcolm Bricklin believed it was unsafe to smoke and drive.
Power came from an AMC 360 in³ (5899 cm³) V8 for 1974. Later cars used Ford’s 351 in³ (5752 cm³) Windsor V8. The suspension was independent in front with A-arms and coil springs, while the rear used leaf springs on a live axle. A high performance V8 was chosen so that in case of an impending accident, the power of the V8 was enough for the owner to power out away from the potential accident.
772 model year 1974 cars were produced, 137 of which had four-speed manual transmissions. All 1975 and 1976 cars had automatic transmissions.
Among the factors that doomed the Bricklin were a high price, build quality problems especially with leaking gullwing doors, lack of confidence in its acrylic plastic bodyshell, and a poorly designed electro-pneumatic system for raising the heavy doors. The later De Lorean, which resembled the Bricklin in many ways, used a much more reliable torsion bar system to raise the doors.

Source: Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Borgward was a German automobile manufacturer founded by Carl F. W. Borgward (November 10, 1890 - July 28, 1963). The company was based in Bremen.
The first “automobile” Carl Borgward designed was the Blitzkarren (i.e. lightning cart, a sort of tiny three-wheeled van with only two horsepower (1.5 kW), which was, in the gap in the market it filled, an enormous success. Traders with a small budget bought it for delivery. The Reichspost ordered many of them for postal service. In 1929 Borgward became the director of Hansa Lloyd AG and led the development of the Hansa Konsul. In February 1937 came the new Hansa Borgward 2000 and in 1939 the name was shortened to Borgward 2000. The 2000 model was followed by the Borgward 2300 that remained in production until 1942. After WW2 the company presented the Borgward Hansa 1500, which was followed by the Borgward Isabella starting in 1954. The Isabella became the most popular model and remained in production for the life of the company. In 1959 the Borgward P100 was introduced, with its impressive pneumatic suspension.
In 1961 the company went into bankruptcy and in 1963 all manufacturing equipment for the Borgward Isabella and P100 was sold to Mexico where production was continued until 1970.
The Borgward group produced cars with the four brands Borgward, Hansa, Goliath and Lloyd.
One of the top engineers at Borgward was Dipl. Ing. Hubert M. Meingast between 1938 and 1952.

Source: Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

BMW (abbreviation of Bayerische Motoren Werke, or in English, Bavarian Motor Works), is an independent German company and manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles. BMW is the parent company of the MINI and Rolls-Royce car brands, and was owner of Rover.

BMW was founded by Karl Friedrich Rapp originally as an engine manufacturer, Rapp Motor. Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH was founded as a successor company to Rapp Motor on July 21, 1917. [1] The Milbertshofen district of Munich was chosen, apparently because it was close to the Gustav Otto Flugmaschinenfabrik site. The blue-and-white roundel BMW logo, which is still used (illustrated above right) alludes to the white and blue checkered flag of Bavaria. It is often said to symbolize a spinning white propeller on a blue-sky background, although this interpretation developed after the logo was already in use. [1]
In 1916 the company secured a contract to build V12 engines for Austro-Daimler. Needing extra financing, Rapp gained the support of Camillo Castiglioni, Cornelius Jagdmann and Max Friz, the company was reconstituted as the Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH. Over-expansion caused difficulties; Rapp left and the company was taken over by the Austrian industrialist Franz Josef Popp in 1917, and named BMW AG in 1918. [2]
After World War I, the Treaty of Versailles (1919) prohibited the production of aircraft in Germany. Otto closed his factory and BMW switched to manufacturing railway brakes.[2]
In 1919 BMW designed its first motorcycle engine, used in a model called the Victoria, which was built by a company in Nuremberg. [3]
In 1924 BMW built its first model motorcycle, the R32. This had a 500 cc air-cooled horizontally-opposed engine, a feature that would resonate among their various models for decades to come, albeit with displacement increases and newer technology. The major innovation was the use of a driveshaft instead of a chain to drive the rear wheel. For decades to follow, the shaft-drive boxer engine was the mark of the BMW motorcycle. [3]
In 1927 the tiny Dixi, an Austin Seven produced under licence, began production in Eisenach. BMW bought the Dixi Company the following year, and this became the company’s first car, the BMW 3/15. By 1933 BMW was producing cars that could be called truly theirs, offering steadily more advanced I6 sports and saloons (sedans). The pre-war cars culminated in the 327 coupé and convertible, the 328 roadster, fast 2.0 L cars, both very advanced for their time, as well as the upscale 335 luxury sedan.

Source: Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

The British Motor Corporation (BMC) was a UK vehicle company, formed by the merger of the Austin Motor Company and the Nuffield Organisation (parent of the Morris car company, MG, Riley and Wolseley) in 1952.

BMC was the largest British car company of its day, with (in 1952) 39 percent of British output, producing a wide range of cars under brand names including Austin, Morris, MG, Austin-Healey, Wolseley as well as commercial vehicles and agricultural tractors. The first chairman was Lord Nuffield (William Morris) but he was replaced in August 1952 by Austin’s Leonard Lord who continued in that role until his 65th birthday in 1961 but handing over, in theory at least, the managing director responsibilities to his deputy George Harriman in 1956.
BMC’s headquarters were at the Austin plant at Longbridge, near Birmingham and Austin was the dominant partner in the group mainly because of the chairman. The use of Morris engine designs was dropped within 3 years and all new car designs were coded ADO from “Austin Drawing Office”. The Longbridge plant was up to date, having been thoroughly modernised in 1951, and compared very favourably with Nuffield’s 16 different and often old fashioned factories scattered over the English Midlands. Austin’s management systems however, especially cost control and marketing were not as good as Nuffield’s and as the market changed from a shortage of cars to competition this was to tell. The biggest selling car, the Mini, was famously analysed by Ford Motor Company who concluded that BMC were losing £30 on every one sold. The result was that although volumes held up well throughout the BMC era, market share fell as did profitability and hence investment in new models, resulting eventually in the merger with Leyland Motor Corporation.
At the time of the mergers, there was a well established dealership network for each of the marques. Among the car-buying British public there was a tendency of loyalty to a particular marque and marques appealed to different market segments. This meant that marques competed against each other in some areas, though some marques had a larger range than others. The Riley and Wolseley models were selling in very small numbers. Styling was also getting distinctly old fashioned and this caused Leonard Lord, in an unusual move for him, to call upon the services of an external stylist.

Source: Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Bentley Motors Limited is a British based manufacturer of luxury automobiles and Grand Tourers. Bentley Motors was founded in England on January 18, 1919 by Walter Owen Bentley, known as W.O. Bentley or just “W.O.” (1888–1971). He was previously known for his successful range of rotary aero-engines in World War I, the most famous being the Bentley BR1 as used in later versions of the Sopwith Camel. Since 1998 the company is owned by the Volkswagen Group.

Source: Wikipedia

If you would like immediate updates, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!