Ralph Kinney Bennett March 3, 1941 – December 18, 2024
Articles, essays and columns by Ralph Bennett. Search by any word in an article, or narrow the list by publication, year or topic.
17 articles
The automobile’s potential is its greatest secret—an open secret and yet, it often seems, a forgotten one. The big SUV in my garage may occasionally make a 10-mile trip to Walmart or 2-mile run to the volunteer fire station when…
It is unlikely you have ever heard of Tomohiko Kawanabe. But if you are interested in cars, and particularly the future of electric cars, it might be useful to listen to what he has to say.
Come, let us praise one of the most elegant vehicles ever conceived and built.
Hard to believe, but it’s been full 40 April Fools days since the introduction of an auto landmark of sorts—the AMC Gremlin.
I’ve been thinking about making an appointment with my old high school pal, Skip Shaffer (he’s an optometrist), but I already know what he’d tell me:
President Obama’s last minute (and futile) campaign slam at Massachusetts’s new U.S. Senator, Scott Brown—trying to belittle the fact that he drove his GMC pickup truck up and down the state on the way to an upset victory—is another poignant…
Sometimes irony is shrouded in the mists of forgotten history. Thus it is with Pontiac, now sacrificed on the altar of reorganization/survival by General Motors. For Pontiac was a car with enough appeal to not only survive but be a…
America battling its way out of a recession. The U.S. auto industry hit hard. Annual car sales down 30 percent. Imports of smaller foreign cars rising. Talk about déjà vu!
What’s the best-selling car of all time? I took an informal poll recently and made it a point to ask some people who are real car buffs. I got some interesting answers. One person said 1957 Chevy. Two people guessed…
For the better part of a century the diesel engine has been looked upon as the gasoline engine’s loud, smelly, and coarse-mannered cousin. While the gas engine grew more sophisticated and quiet, moving in the world of sleek sports cars,…
In 1935 there was a sensational automobile called the Auburn Speedster. It was brawny yet rakish with its distinctive “boat tail,” swooping pontoon fenders, and great chrome exhaust pipes coiling out from the supercharged, 150-horsepower, straight-eight engine beneath its long…
The automotive world is abuzz about what might be the next Model T Ford or Volkswagen Beetle—an entry-level sedan to be built in India by Tata Motors Ltd. for about $2,500.
As the International Auto Show opens in Detroit this week, the growing number of "retractable hardtop" convertibles on display is a reminder of how, every once in a while, technology sort of catches up with itself in an interesting way.…
Sometime this week, probably Friday, the last Ford Taurus will be built at the Ford Motor Co.'s Hapeville, Ga., assembly plant.
As the Detroit Auto Show focuses on the flash and glamour of a host of new offerings from auto manufacturers this week, it might be time for a little antidote to the hype. Here it is, a fun little book…
When I first saw a photograph of Volkswagen's million dollar-plus sports car, the Bugatti-Veyron, the horseshoe grille at the front of the swooping bodywork caught my eye. It was the one design signature of this compelling new car that evoked…
This Holiday season most of you who will be traveling will go by car, and all who do so will inevitably visit that most ubiquitous fixture of the American commercial landscape, the gas station.