Trend Results : Michael Lamm
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FILTER RESULTS ►SIA Flashback – 1954 De Soto Adventurer II Coupe driveReport
One would expect that a car as distinctive as the De Soto Adventurer II concept would have an intriguing back story, and it does, but not so much from the Chrysler half of its parentage. Rather, as Michael Lamm pointed out in his story on the Adventurer II in SIA #, Ghia is to be [...]
SIA Flashback – Father Juliano’s Fantastic Flop
Michael Lamm’s article on Alfred Juliano’s Aurora in SIA #135, May 1993, ended up rather timely. At about the same time Andy Saunders caught wind of the one-off safety car bodied in fiberglass over a 1954 Buick Roadmaster chassis and found it exactly where Lamm had found it, in a Connecticut body shop’s side yard. [...]
Michael Lamm’s Cars I’ve Loved and Hated series now available on CD
Michael Lamm hit a home run when he penned the Cars I’ve Loved and Hated series for us earlier this year, recounting some of the more noteworthy cars he’s owned over the last 62 years, along with his experiences as one of the co-founders of Special Interest Autos. Plenty of readers who enjoyed his adventures [...]
SIA Flashback – GM’s Golden Engineering Decade
Some of the most insightful SIA articles came when its writers took a step back and, via the long view, presented automotive history from a different view than the one we’ve normally accepted. Take, for instance, Michael Lamm’s review of GM’s engineering successes throughout the Sixties for SIA #132, November 1992 – a definite forest-rather-than-the-trees [...]
SIA Flashback – Supreme Whatzit
After posting the link to Jay Leno’s interview and walkaround with Myron Vernis’s Hoffman X-8 yesterday, we realized we never included the Michael Lamm article on the X-8 (from SIA #24, September 1974, when Brooks Stevens owned it) in an SIA Flashback. It’s an interesting mystery, and Lamm did an excellent job of presenting what [...]
Hemmings Find of the Day – 1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal
It’s hard not to see an Alfa Romeo Montreal anymore and not think of Michael Lamm’s experiences with one. On the other hand, this 1971 Alfa Romeo Montreal for sale on Hemmings.com is dead sexy, a former SIA feature car, and appears to have been mechanically well maintained. From the seller’s description: This Alfa Romeo [...]
SIA Flashback – GM’s Far-Out ’59s: When Imagination Ran Rampant, Part II
As Michael Lamm left off with part one of this story of how the 1959 GM designs came to be, Harley Earl had yet to return from Europe to see what his designers were up to. His response to the designs, as Michael wrote in part 2 in SIA #126, November 1991, helped define his [...]
Farewell, Walt Woron
Walt Woron circa 1996. Text and photos copyright and courtesy Michael Lamm. Walt Woron passed away on 2 July 2012, at age 91. With him passed an era. Walt was one of my lifelong idols, a man I greatly admired and respected. I was fortunate enough to know him as a friend. I’ll miss Walt, [...]
“A vital role in the progress of civilization”
Michael Lamm recently came across this Disney animated short, “Magic Highway USA,” which presents visions for the future of highway transportation, circa 1958. Sure, some of the concepts seem rather naïve and idealistic, even self-contradicting, others just downright goofy, but plenty of the ideas in the short have already become commonplace, and plenty more are [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter 15: Special-Interest Autos
Terry Ehrich (left) ran Hemmings and readily accepted Lamm’s idea of starting a new magazine called Special-Interest Autos. Text and below photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I’d like to veer off course again, this time to talk about Special-Interest Autos magazine and how it started. After three years at Motor Trend, I left in late [...]
Hemmings Find of the Day – 1966 Honda S600
For those of you unpersuaded away from the Honda S600 by Michael Lamm’s experiences with the one he owned, may we present this 1966 Honda S600 for sale on Hemmings.com, dormant for nearly 30 years and thus in need of some TLC. From the seller’s description: This Honda S600 roadster was driven into storage in [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter 14: Alfa Romeo Montreal
1972 Alfa Romeo Montreal. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 If I had the luxury of opening a private, very personal auto museum that contained the 80-odd cars I’ve owned over the past 52 years (and some were very odd indeed), I’d arrange them in descending order of favoritism. I’d park my favorite cars [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter 13: 1953 Studebaker
Lamm had long lusted after a 1953 Studebaker Commander Starliner. He bought this one in 1977 from author and historian Fred Fox. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I was a junior in high school when the ads first began to appear in national magazines. The ads preceded the car by three months, but [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter 12: Chevrolet Camaro
Lamm bought his 1967 Camaro just after New Year’s in 1969. He owned it for 31 years, and it served as his daily driver for 17. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I stopped smoking on New Year’s Day, 1969. It’s the only resolution I’ve ever kept. I had two principal motivations. The first came [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter 11: Honda S600
Lamm bought his 1964 Honda S600 roadster in Phoenix, Arizona, sight unseen. He paid $8,000 for it (about $9,800 in today’s dollars). Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I very much wanted to love my little Honda S600. It looked so cute and cuddly. And on paper, it had all the qualifications and specifications [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter 10: Panteras
Mike and his youngest son, John (“Jay”), used to take the Panteras out for romps in the country. Here, John is in the 1972 (foreground), while Mike drives the European 1977 GTS. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I was quite taken with the Pantera when I saw an early one in Gene Gabbard’s [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter Nine
After owning his 1967 Camaro for 31 years and writing a book about Camaros, Lamm felt there was nothing left for the car to teach him. So in 2000, he sold it along with his Hudson and two Panteras and began buying cars he could learn from. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I’d [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated: Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter Eight
The Nash-Healey was painted schoolbus yellow when Mike acquired it in August 1979. It had no rust but needed a fair amount of bodywork. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 So I had this 1953 Plymouth convertible, the subject of my previous chapter, and I’d put an ad in Hemmings to sell it. This [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated – Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter Seven
This is pretty much what the 1953 Plymouth Cranbrook convertible looked like when Mike bought it in 1975 for $150. The front end had lost a battle with a lamp post, but the car was sound otherwise. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 I occasionally tuck my business card under the wiper blade of [...]
Cars I’ve Loved and Hated: Michael Lamm’s Unauthorized Auto Biography, Chapter Six
Mike in Portland, Oregon, 1957. His 1955 VW, Gregor Samsa, stands patiently in the background. It’s the only picture he has of the car. Text and photos copyright Michael Lamm 2012 My parents fled Hitler in 1937. They weren’t allowed to take cash out of Germany, but both did bring their medical degrees. They settled [...]
