1956 Pontiac 316 Chieftain Star Chief 860 Special 870 De Luxe Main Bearings 002 on 2040-parts.com

Fun with fiberglass: Petersen exhibit celebrates moldable material

To be an artisan in aluminum or the Stradivarius of steel, you need about 40 years as an apprentice working metal with pinchers and pullers and to spend a lot of time rolling sheets back and forth through an English wheel. To make something out of fiberglass, all you need is resin. The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles is celebrating all things fiberglass--especially the cars--with an exhibit that runs through Oct.

1975 JC Whitney catalog: A bonanza of aftermarket Volkswagen goodies

Back before there was the Internet, or even big car-parts chain stores, there was the JC Whitney catalog. Printed on cheap, pulpy paper and featuring tens of thousands of tiny, hand-drawn illustrations, these thick books gave me many hours of enjoyment in the early 1980s, as I fantasized about how I'd modify my incredibly sketchy and hooptified '58 Beetle. Now I've picked up a 1975 JC Whitney catalog, and the Volkswagen section is even better than I remembered!

Jaguar XJ gets the Startech treatment

Startech make the Jaguar XJ in to a luxury mobile office The Jaguar XJ has been given a makeover by Startech – sister company to Brabus – with subtle styling changes, upgraded interior and business tools. We’re not the biggest fans of some of the overblown styling modifications inflicted on very good high-end cars by aftermarket tuners. But the work Startech – sister company to Brabus – has done on the Jaguar XJ is very subtle and very appealing.