Category: Rides

 

The Allard J2 you see here is the car that helped launch Carroll Shelby’s racing career back in March 1952 at the SCCA-sanctioned Pottsboro Hill Climb in Grayson County, Texas.

At the time Shelby was a little-known amateur racer but he wrestled the Allard J2 to a win in Pottsboro, before driving it again to two more victories in SCCA regional races. Shelby’s career after this was astonishing, despite his heart condition he would take a slew of race wins in the United States and Europe, culminating with a win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1959 with Roy Salvadori. Continue reading

 

Kyrö Dark Gin is one of the more unusual offerings from the Kyrö Distillery Company – one of Finlands most celebrated (and most irreverent) distilleries.

Kyrö started as a conversation between some Finnish friends in a sauna over glasses of rye whisky, a drink that’s loved in Finland despite the fact there are very few distilleries producing it in the country. The friends decided to start their own distillery, and they say as it still sounded like a good idea in the morning when they all woke up, so they did it. Continue reading

 

The 1933 Ford V-8 Roadster you see here is one of the most important cars in the history of American stock car racing – it’s the winner of the first officially organized stock car race, the 1933 Elgin National Road Race held in the town of Elgin 35 miles northwest of Chicago.

Stock car racing famously has its roots in Prohibition-era smuggling, smugglers needed cars that were faster than the police cars of the time so they could outrun them. Bootleg liquor smugglers worked tirelessly on their vehicles to get them as fast as possible to avoid getting caught and thrown in jail – a strong motivator that resulted in some of the quickest road cars of the time. Continue reading