Anniversary

March 22, 2007 Fifty years ago, on 4 July 1957, Fiat introduced the Nuova Fiat 500, which became an icon of our times, and with which Fiat completed a revival that had begun immediately after the Second World War. This year on 4 July 2007, exactly 50 years later, and once again in Turin, the company will be presenting its new Fiat 500, which will go on sale immediately after the launch. The new 500 is a 3-door model with very compact measurements: 355 cm long, 165 cm wide, 149 cm tall and a wheelbase of 230 cm. Produced with three engine options: a 75 bhp 1.3 16v MultiJet turbodiesel and two petrol engines, a 69 bhp 1.2 8v and a 100 bhp 1.4 16v, with five or six speed manual gearboxes, the new Fiat 500 is designed to be notably entertaining to drive. Read More

December 15, 2006 This is the Limited Edition 75th Anniversary Dearborn Deuce roadster – only 100 will be made. The 1932 Ford Deuce had the first ever mass produced V8 engine and even more groundbreaking styling which single-handedly started the hot rod culture. It was truly a milestone vehicle, echoing the engineering genius of Henry Ford and the design prowess of his son Edsel. The commemorative edition roadster Dearborn Deuce was built by Hot Rods & Horsepower and directed by Ford to honor the 75th anniversary of the legendary Ford Deuce and contains a 4.6 liter, 348hp fuel-injected V8 with an automatic transmission. Additional custom components include custom wheels by bonspeed (20 inch rear and 18 inch front), custom valve covers, electric side windows, custom leather interior, air conditioning, stereo and unique badging with embroidered 75th Anniversary logo on the seats and in the trunk. Appropriately, Edsel B. Ford II, great grandson of Henry Ford, will help auction the first of 100 Limited Edition 75th Anniversary Dearborn Deuce roadsters at No Reserve during the 36th Annual Barrett-Jackson Collector Car Event in January. Proceeds from the sale of the stunning custom roadster (Lot 1302) will be donated to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. Read More

September 27, 2006 It was one of the most famous victories of its era, and both Bob Holden and Rauno Aaltonen remember their Bathurst victory with much delight. The 1966 event was especially sweet for Aaltonen as the BMC Works drivers had won the Monte Carlo Rally for the third time in a row - claiming first, second and third placings - only to be disqualified on a dubious technicality concerning headlamp globes. Forty years on from its epic win at the Gallagher 500 race at Mount Panorama, Holden will return to Bathurst to lap the famous track on Sunday 8 October 2006. Holden is now 74 and still a competitive racer and has raced at the mountain circuit 34 times, driving MINIs and Escorts in circuit racing and rallying and he raced a V8 Ute at Bathurst earlier this year and will drive a new MINI Cooper S at the reenactment. Read More

March 28, 2006 It may seem that the Palm Pilot has been with us forever but it’s actually just a decade since the 5.7-ounce combination of calendar, contacts, to-do lists and notes hit the market and captured the imagination of road warriors and early adopters everywhere. In that time, the company has shipped more than 34 million mobile-computing products. Having witnessed the failure of the Apple Newton, Palm co-founderJeff Hawkins also recognised the enormous and devoted following Apple’s original mobile computing platform had developed and it went from there. There’s a great audio interview Palm President and CEO Ed Colligan, co-founders Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky, and others discussing the beginnings of the company and the Pilot at Palm's 10-year anniversary here and a PDF time-line for Palm enthusiasts! Read More

March 10, 2006 Bang & Olufsen has released a signature series of limited edition BeoCom 2 cordless telephone handsets produced in honor of its 80 years of outstanding design and performance. The Limited Edition BeoCom 2 handsets are unique, as there will only be 600 collector's items produced world wide and exclusively sold in North America. The handsets will introduce a new colour specially developed for this series. In addition, three hundred units will feature unique patterns etched by hand directly onto the surface by Danish designer, Bess Kristoffersen. The handsets will each have its own identity, as each unit will be individually numbered and will showcase its own signature pattern. Read More

January 7, 2006 There are many motor manufacturers who can claim 70 years of continuous production, but there is only one that can claim 70 years of continuous production of the same model = Morgan Motor Company. Launched in 1936, the Morgan 4/4 remains in full production today and to celebrate the vehicle’s unique achievement, Morgan Motor Company has unveiled a special model. Appropriately named "70th Anniversary", just 142 cars will be built - two cars for every year of its production life since launch. Each car will be individually marked with the year it honours, and finished in appropriate period style for that year. The 142 Anniversary cars will be priced at UKP 27,950 and production begins this month and will run until November 2006. Read More

November 1, 2005 It reads like a story from a “Boys Own Annual.” In 1930, devilishly handsome and independently wealthy playboy and international motor racer Woolf Barnato accepted a bet whilst cruising on the French Riviera to race the fabled "Blue Train" to London. "Le Train Bleue" was a national symbol of technological prowess for the French, being the quickest, most luxurious transport available at the time, traveling from Cannes to Calais, crossing the English Channel by ferry to its final destination at London's Victoria station. Barnato won the race in his custom 6.5 litre Bentley Speed Six, pulling up outside his London club four minutes before the train reached Calais, having had to cross France on two lane public roads and the ferry to Dover into the bargain. The details of the story follow, but the gist is that Bentley Motors and its coach building division Mulliner are celebrating the anniversary with a powerful, distinctive and luxurious grand tourer based on its flagship four-door saloon: the Arnage Blue Train Series. Read More

October 7, 2005 2005 marks the 30th anniversary of the one of the hottest consumer electronic products in the world today – the digital camera. In 1975, the world’s first digital photograph was taken at a Kodak lab in Rochester, NY, USA, in an event that preceded the Compact Disc, the Personal Computer and the Internet. In 1974 Steven Sasson, an engineer at Kodak’s Applied Electronics Research Centre, was tasked with devising an “electronic handheld still camera”. The following year his first working prototype – weighing 8.5 pounds, powered by 16 AA batteries and recording images on a cassette – took the first ever digital still camera photograph. That’s Steve, the world’s first digital camera and the world’s first ever digital photograph at right. Read More

July 21, 2005 One of the most important works in scientific history was published in July 60 years ago – an article in The Atlantic Monthly entitled “AS WE MAY THINK”. Written by Vannevar Bush, the article describes the “memex” – a theoretical analog computer designed from the cutting edge technologies of the day to enable access to large amounts of information. The machine and linking systems Bush describe are remarkably similar to today’s hypertext and Ted Nelson who coined the term, hypertext" in the 1960's, acknowledges his debt to Bush. Bush was a visionary and his work in creating the environment which nurtured the development of what became the internet is well documented in several excellent articles in Wired magazine and ibiblio. "Consider a future device for individual use, which is a sort of mechanized private file and library. It needs a name, and to coin one at random, ``memex'' will do. A memex is a device in which an individual stores all his books, records, and communications, and which is mechanized so that it may be consulted with exceeding speed and flexibility. It is an enlarged intimate supplement to his memory." - Vannevar Bush The original article can be read for free on-line at the Atlantic Monthly which is still published.

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