History
The Man Who Invented the Engine That Runs Half the World Vanished Into the North Sea in 1913. Nobody Knows Why.
Every diesel truck, ship, generator and agricultural machine on the planet runs on an idea that came from a man who disappeared without trace on the night of 29 September 1913. The official verdict is suicide. The evidence for that is genuinely persuasive...
Rudolf Diesel, Inventor Of The Diesel Engine, Mysteriously Vanished In 1913
Diesel engine inventor Rudolf Diesel’s disappearance and death was ruled a suicide, but theories point to foul play associated with spies or the oil industry.
The Bristol Fighter Destroyed the BMW M5 Then Vanished Into Thin Air
Britain's most outrageous supercar obliterated German engineering before its maker collapsed, taking the secrets with it.
Before He Changed The World With Inexpensive Cars, Henry Ford Was The Fastest Man On Four Wheels
In 1904, Henry Ford took the Ford 999 race car to 91.37mph on the frozen surface of Lake St. Clair, north-east of Detroit.
Virginia Bans Renewal Of Robert E. Lee License Plates Because We Don't Celebrate Losers
Virginia's policy for custom license plates means there are hundreds of options, but one of the most controversial has been removed from the catalog.
The Chevy Vega Was a Terrible Car. The Way They Shipped It Was Genius.
GM needed to move thousands of compact cars across a continent as cheaply as possible. The solution was to stand them on their noses — and redesign the car around that fact.
When Racers Had Balls of Steel: The Track That Invented Motorsport and the Bentley That Still Bears Its Name
In 1932, a baronet with chronic malaria, a polka-dot silk scarf and a supercharged Bentley pointed himself at a crumbling concrete banking and pressed the accelerator. The front wheels left the ground. The car reached 137.96 miles per hour. His name was T...
The Man Who Built the Most Iconic Car in Hollywood History Was Arrested for Cocaine. That Was the Least of His Problems.
John DeLorean was the most glamorous figure in the American car industry. He designed the Pontiac GTO, lived in a Fifth Avenue duplex, married a supermodel, and charmed the British government out of $120 million. He built 9,000 cars and then he was filmed...
Somewhere in England, an Abandoned Mill Is Hiding 60 Years of Classic Car History
Urban explorers have uncovered what may be the most quietly extraordinary automotive time capsule in Britain: a disused mill housing dozens of historic vehicles spanning six decades, untouched since the doors closed in the 1980s.
"You Buy A Ferrari To Be Someone. A Lamborghini When You Are Someone."
The quote gets attributed to Frank Sinatra, Ferruccio Lamborghini, and motivational LinkedIn posts. Nobody knows who actually said it. What's interesting is that in 2026, it's completely backwards.
Fifty-Nine Years After It Killed Donald Campbell, Bluebird K7 Returns to Coniston Water
The jet-powered hydroplane that crashed on January 4, 1967 will run again on the lake where its pilot died chasing 300mph.
The BBC Refused To Show F1's Greatest Season Because Of Condoms
James Hunt and Niki Lauda fought for the 1976 championship. Lauda survived a near-fatal crash. British viewers missed almost all of it because one car had "Durex" written on the side.
Bugatti In A Lake: The 1925 Type 22 Brescia That Spent 70 Years Underwater
A legendary racing car pulled from Lake Maggiore in 2009 revealed mysteries about pre-war automotive history.
How a NASA Engineer Discovered a World of Semi Truck Aerodynamics by Accident
What started as a minor bike incident resulted in aerospace engineers applying their knowledge to make 18-wheelers more efficient.
The Long Road to Sobriety: How the World Learned to Stop Driving Drunk
From gentlemen's sport to criminal act, the strange evolution of drink driving laws across a century of motoring.
Guy Ligier Started With Nothing But Ended Up Owning an F1 Race Team – And Building Microcars
Ligier recently hit the news by recording the slowest ever lap of the Nürburgring, amusingly claiming this "hinted at its glorious history". But what exactly is that history?
