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Topolino.
I am a bit surprised you didn't add your two cents in about the new Topolino. I've been rather astonished at the multiple ill-conceived comparisons to the Smart ForTwo and Japan's kei cars. Don't get me wrong--I love small cars (including my classic Mini) and the Topolino is, as the kids used to say, 'totes adorbs', but a 25mph top speed doesn't sound like it should qualify as 'street legal'. All the streets surrounding my subdivision (eg, if I wanted to pick up a prescription or get a coffee) have 35mph speed limits; the idea of driving that vehicle at 10mph below the legal limit (surrounded by the usual assortment of suburban SUVS ) seems a bit terrifying.
Adam B
The Motor City
Editor-in-Chief's Note: The new Topolino is a glorified clown car/golf cart, another tedious fantasy from Olivier "I'm a genius just ask me" Francois. There is no one out in Auburn Hills apparently who has the balls to tell him to "please just sit down and shut up." Will it sell? Once the handful of gated community dwellers who just have to be the first on their block to have one, then what? What a waste of time and money. -PMD
More on the Topolino.
The Fiat Topolino is a joke. It may be cute. But if the overpaid hacks at Stellantis had any brains, they’d cut their losses, pack up, and leave the country. Fiat sold about 1,500 cars in the U.S. last year. Someone should have taught them about the sunk cost fallacy.
Arthur M.
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Corvette Dreams? No, thanks.
In the world of 2026, many of those historic Corvettes -- especially the concept versions -- seem to simply exude those passing eccentricities that everyone dubbed as being "advanced styling" at the time: think dated pompadour long hairstyles on all of the boys in early 1970s sports team photographs, and the universal wearing of bell-bottom pants in the 1960's, as examples.
Many of those Corvettes appear -- to me here, at least -- as excesses from that time period, not unlike those same excesses that adorn today's factory stock Corvette. Every time that I might see one on the road, it appears to me as being little more than some personification of a boy racer's wet dream... actual performance notwithstanding as such. I'm afraid the stylists have lost me on visual appeal.
No sir: Give me any early 1960's original 'Vette, and keep all of the rest. That, or I'll take the 1958 red and white convertible model that I walked away from at a local used car lot in 1976 for $8,500, opting instead to purchase a 1976 Firebird Formula, 1.) Because it was 18 years newer, and 2.) It was $2,000.00 cheaper...(!).
Eddy S.
Newcastle, Ontario, CANADA
Corvette love.
I was into muscle cars and never gave the Corvette or any sports car much of a look until I was about to turn 40, then I started looking. I had a Grand National Buick at the time and had gotten used to the turbo lag, the V6 turbo cars didn't make me want to jump up for joy - 3000 GT, Talon, etc. The '90 Corvette I test drove had instant power and just felt better. I was about to order a new '91 Corvette when I got sent to Gulf War I. When I came back in April of '91, the Chevy dealer told me to wait for the '92 since it was going to have 50 more horsepower. I waited and ordered the 92. It was delivered the day after my 41st birthday in '91. Of course, it had the early OptiSpark and it failed on Christmas Day of '91. I replaced twice to get the latest OptiSpark installed. The second generation OptiSpark lasted 100,000 miles. In '97, I met my future wife at a Corvette show. She was driving a '93 Corvette at the time. Shortly after that, she ordered a new '98. That started our family collection of Corvettes. We've owned ten so far. Numbers eight and ten are still in the garage. The No. 8 is a 2013 60th Anniversary 427 Convertible; and the No. 10 is a 2025 ERay. We love the Corvette, no need to say!
Tuna
Mustang, Oklahoma
The great old days.
Peter, I loved the Corvette article and reminiscing about your brother Tony's exploits. I will never forget when he invited me and a buddy out to Michigan International Speedway while he was testing his Trans-Am car. He drove me around the track and I was never so scared in my life... lol. Some experiences you never forget. I also love the Woodward Avenue tales. My brother Jimmy and I lived out there when we talked my mom into getting a 454 Chevelle. AH... the good old days.
Keep fighting the fight. It kills me that the auto industry is what it is today.
Eddie Bracken
Birmingham, Michigan
Forever Corvette.
The Corvette has a way of burning its existence into your soul. My father bought a 1958 Corvette when my mother was pregnant in 1976. Before I saw the light of this life I had a car ready to capture my attention.
A 1963 Coupe was his first, followed by a ‘73 that I remember well. Then a ‘76 that was as performance as a ‘76 could be. A ‘78 Silver Anniversary car that he absolutely hated. Then a couple of C5s appeared long after I’d moved out and started my adult life.
The ‘58 eventually was sold and it ripped my heart out. A link to my childhood. Everything I gathered and kept from those early childhood moments came back. My father explaining its unique wash board hood and trunk irons. How they were true roadsters and not convertibles. The sound of its RE code solid-lifter 327, and how it originally was installed in a 1962 Corvette. The smell of the exhaust. The "tink" of its exhaust manifolds when they cooled. How it absolutely came alive above 4,000 rpm and sounded like a completely different car.
Last week at age 78 he bought a 1969 roadster. Everything came flooding back again, this time around the C3 cars he had. I found myself telling my sons the same things my father told me. I don't think there's another object a man can purchase that grabs your soul more than a Corvette.
JRR
Plymouth, Michigan
Buy this one!
In 1958 my father went to buy a Chevy Brookwood station wagon at John Boles Chevrolet in Beverly Hills. I was 4-years-old, and sitting in the showroom was a red and white 1958 Corvette convertible. Of course, I jumped in, fascinated by the interior and twisting the steering wheel back and forth. As my dad was finalizing the station wagon purchase, I started shouting at him, “BUY THIS ONE, DADDY! DON’T BUY THAT ONE!” The sales staff had a great laugh over that and I still think the late 50s Corvettes are the best styled cars of that car line.
Philip Hackett
Los Angeles, California
Expanded horizons.
Being 63, I am not acquainted with newer songs and so find my horizons occasionally expanded by the song of the week. The lyrics to Drop Dead, I am happy to report, I still relate to and occasionally experience. Good to know there is still some energy in the magneto, but at 63 drop dead could be prophetic. Then again, I would not know.
DG
Berwick, Maine
Speaking of neighbors.
Contrary to poet Robert Frost, good neighbors do not need good fences. The right cars proves that.
Our good neighbor was Raymond L. Logue, the Ford Motor Company Executive Manufacturing Engineering Vice President. His son, Richard, was my close Class of ’63 high school car friend and classmate.
One chilly October evening in 1963 while I was home in Dearborn from college for the weekend, Richard called and demanded that I “come over right away.” He was always demanding, so I was not in any special hurry.
Soon at their house I was greeted at the front door as usual and we strolled through the kitchen and out a back door into the garage. There, next to the lawnmower, golf clubs, several bicycles and a Country Squire Wagon sat a little red coupe bearing Michigan Manufacturer’s plates. It was the color “Poppy”, an arresting new Mustang color soon destined to became a signature hue for the car. It had handsome front bucket seats trimmed conservatively in pleated black vinyl complementary to the rest of the interior. The full vehicle package was instantly overwhelming and magnetically attractive visually. It lacked only emblems. I had to have one. Turns out so did a few million others. Was I looking at the modern equivalent of the Model T for baby boomers?
It was nothing special power wise: Just a 260 V-8 with a manual (but all synchro) 3-speed transmission and an AM radio. The hand stamped VIN tag on the door jamb indicated a pre-production pilot prototype, and Mr. Logue explained it was a “late manufacturing process validation unit”...assembled just before final release of the mass production product. I had heard very little to nothing about the Mustang program. It was one of the best kept secrets of the industry. I was looking at what was to be revealed in seven months at the World’s Fair and would define one of the most successful image and profitable automotive product categories for 50+ years. Its historical significance has finally just now settled on me. Mr. Logue knew every nut, bolt, stamping, spot weld, seam, clamp, clip, harness, switch, grommet, bulb and hinge on the vehicle.
“Take it for a spin” Mr. Logue said as he tossed the keys to us with his sly and slanted grin. . We did. Up and down Telegraph Rd. looping through all its iconic drive-in malt and burger places. We were like a girl showing off her new bikini and gathering lots of twisted necks.
The Poppy Mustang coupe was peppy, prim and proper. Need I also say very profitable!
RIP our neighbors, Mr. Logue and Richard.
Dr. John
Phoenix, Arizona
Corvette fun.
Flash back to 1968. I was just out of high school, starting college, and my girlfriend's mom worked at the local AM radio station, WPGC (Prince George County, Md.). One of the DJs, who had the sweets for my girl, owned a '66 Vette, the 425HP model. We went to the station one day to visit her mom, and I had commented on his car. While he was ogling my girl, he asked me if I wanted to drive it - to get rid of me so he could get next to her - and not being stupid, I said sure. So, he gave me the key. I had been driving for a while, but not in cars like that. That half-hour drive remains one of my fondest memories. The car accelerated like a rocket - I must have used up a couple gallons of his gas - and when I gave him back the key, I seriously thought about going into serious debt to buy one. But reality smacked me in the face and I bought a MGB GT instead. Fun, but not like a 425HP Vette.
Ted R
Raleigh, North Carolina