In 1948, Preston Tucker conceived and briefly produced an automobile with features so advanced that it was deemed as a big threat to the car sales and image of the Big Three American automakers at the time – General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and the Chrysler Corporation. Due to negative publicity initiated by the American news media, a Securities and ...

(Editors Note: We revisit a story we published in the “More Than 2 Wheels” section of our other publication, MotorCycle Magazine.)  While we were at Davao City in 2009, we met up with our friend, Kenneth Sy, who gave us a tour of his huge storage facility that houses his eclectic collection of cars. At the time of our visit, ...

I was quietly working on my stories for Power Wheels Magazine when I received an online message from Vegas Cars in the USA about a 1968 Chevrolet Corvette convertible that they have on sale. I’ve been subscribed to numerous online newsletters here and abroad that sends me an email whenever an interesting collector car becomes available. Even though I don’t ...

In the go-go era of the Eighties, youthful aggressiveness was predominant in the business community and many young urban professionals or “yuppies” gravitated towards European automobiles as their chariots of choice.  When BMW became the signature yuppie-mobile, the engineers and designers at Mercedes-Benz didn’t just sit still. They built a car that was flaunted in their ad campaigns as “engineered ...

Although there had been numerous performance cars from Plymouth, the Chrysler Corporation’s now defunct third car brand, it wasn’t until 1967 that they offered a model that came standard with the necessary performance goodies.   The 1967 Plymouth Belvedere GTX (RS23), which was positioned as “a gentleman’s hot rod”, offered stylish performance for the discriminating buyer.  Introduced as Plymouth’s first unified performance ...

During its conception in the late 1960’s, Toyota Motor Corporation executives literally looked to the heavens to name their new sporty hardtop notchback coupe. The name was derived from the Latin word coelica, which means “heavenly” or “celestial”. Displayed at the October 1970 Tokyo Motor Show and marketed in December of the same year, the Toyota Celica was a personal car ...

After “Gone in 60 Seconds” starring Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie was shown in cinemas around the world, people always picture “Eleanor” as a gun gray 1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 with black stripes, aftermarket body modifications and fat wheels. The ’67 Shelby was, of course, a clone because nobody would dare desecrate and wreck a rare original that now ...

I was browsing the website of BarnFinds.Com and saw a photo of this white two-door fastback for sale at Hemmings for $18,500 or best offer. Immediately, I concluded that it was a 1965 Plymouth Barracuda but upon closer inspection, I knew that it was not. “Is it a Fiat Dino or an Opel Kadett?” I asked myself and again, I ...

In the late Sixties, “cool” was the “in” word and muscle cars were the “in” thing. American actor Steve McQueen was then the epitome of cool.  His 1968 crime thriller film “Bullitt” became one of the top movies of the year and it featured one of the most iconic car chases in cinematic history. “Bullitt” starred Steve McQueen as a hard-nosed ...

Sometime in  November 2010, I was at the parking lot of the Home Depot in Ortigas taking pictures of cars and the participants of the 7th anniversary of the Old Schooler Car Club when I found myself gravitating towards a well-restored Isuzu Gemini SL 2-door coupe with plate number NRT-798. Its orange hue must have pulled me to it since I ...