Born in Sweden, Simon Martin moved to the UK at age 11. He studied photography at Blackpool College of Art and subsequently trained with some of the best fashion and location/car photographers in London.

As soon as I saw the black Porsche 935, sitting in silent display at Rennsport IV, I was blown back in time, to a racetrack that no longer exists and to a ride that could never happen today.

The Koenigsegg Agera’s twin-turbo V8 takes a breath between shifts.

Ever since the recent wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton, chances are more people around the world have heard of Anglesey. It’s a small, bleak, windblown island off the north coast of Wales. Study a map of Britain and Wales looks like the head of a pig. Anglesey is the pig’s ear. “Wills” has been stationed there while doing a stint in the Royal Air Force (not much chance of running into anyone dangerous).

Who says a sports car must hibernate when the roads are covered by snow and ice? Certainly not Porsche AG; the company has been running winter driving school experiences for several years now in Europe.

A Ferrari 458 Spider doing what it does best.

DeWitt, Nebraska, is about 100 miles southwest of Omaha. Covering 300 acres or so, it’s not a big place. In the 2010 census, the population was 510, not far off how it was a century before. Named after a Reverend DeWitt Talmage, it could be described as a one-horse town. But luckily, there were once enough horses for a blacksmith to stay in business.

RD Sport's RS46 sits patiently on a dry lakebed in anticipation of the coming sunrise. Daylight couldn't come soon enough.

Just as non-car enthusiasts still know what a Rolls-Royce is, most of us are familiar with Steinway & Sons. The name represents a gold standard in grand pianos. From Sergei Rachmaninoff to Sir Elton John, a Steinway has been the instrument of choice for so many major musicians. Indeed, the company practically invented the modern grand piano; it holds more than 125 patents, many of which were developed in an unprepossessing factory in a distinctly unglamorous suburb of New York City.

Inexpensive personal transportation has never been cooler or more stylish. Which explains why the Vespa motor scooter has been ruling the streets of Italian cities since its debut at the 1946 Milan Fair. Product placement in movies wasn’t the phenomenon it is now, but the sight of a young, handsome Gregory Peck taking a beautiful, elegant Audrey Hepburn for a spin around the Colosseum in the 1953 film Roman Holiday spurred Vespa sales (from 60,000 in 1950 to over 100,000) and did wonders for its image throughout the world.

An E30 BMW cuts through a brisk Denver, Colorado night.

Chances are a lot of people owe their very existence to WD-40. Maybe their future father sprayed the stuff on his damp engine so he could get the car started to make that date with the hot chick who became their future mother. Or perhaps because it was developed to inhibit corrosion of intercontinental ballistic missiles, which kept the West safe during the Cold War.

With snow shrouding the winter landscape of Alberta, Canada, Mr. Chin caught this Ferrari 599 napping in the garage at Avant Garde Motorsports in Edmonton. If machines could dream, this one dreamt of spring.

While there’s no doubt G-Power systems add copious amounts of power to BMWs, they seem to be a cut above the rest through myriad advantages over their competition. I got a chance to visit the facility in Schrobenhausen, Germany, and was instantly sold.

When the pregnancy announcement went out, I could almost hear my friends mocking me in a sing-song chorus: “Pablo’s gonna get a minivan!” I started to panic.

We stand on the cusp of one much-loved icon entering its sixth generation. The BMW 3 Series will be differentiated by a new factory code (if there’s anything car geeks love, it’s referring to a favorite car by its internal number): F30.

Despite being more than a decade old, Porsche’s 944 still cuts an intimidating profile.

It is difficult to know at what moment a person becomes a legend and the name becomes a brand, or in that most revered state, a definition. Something to which others (and objects) will inevitably be compared and will attempt to emulate. We are all familiar with the man from Italy who gave us the cars of the prancing horse; now it’s time to consider one Bruce Leslie McLaren. The man simply could not be categorized or labeled so easily. While his sudden passing during a test session at Goodwood in 1970 would have meant the end of some teams, the work ethic, the preparation and the engineering brilliance that Bruce brought forth was matched by the dedicated crew at the McLaren workshop in Feltham. That spirit of continuity has been at the center of McLaren through the decades of changing ownership, personnel and motorsport business partners. A personal pinnacle of excellence and professionalism is expected when one walks through the doors at the Woking facilities of the McLaren Group just as it had been decades earlier at Feltham. The strength of any successful enterprise is in the people, the old and the new, junior and senior, and the commitment they bring. How else can a business go from a small 3,000 square-foot building to a major mover with more than 1,300 personnel?

Ronnie Renaldi caught this Ferrari 458 Italia cutting through the woods of Colorado

Most of the features we take for granted in modern watches, like being waterproof, dustproof and self-winding, first appeared in a Rolex, the definitive Swiss timepiece. Which is funny because the company behind it started trading in London back in 1905.

Sit your Aston Down

Most of the time, those ideas we get while drinking At the bar don’t work out. This one did. It has even ascended to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History to illustrate how molten rock behaves. The lava lamp has gone from an egg timer to a kitsch piece of interior decor to a design icon.

If you want to start a fight among car enthusiasts, bring up the topic of electric cars. Many enthusiasts reviled battery-powered vehicles until 2008 when the high-performance Tesla Roadster changed the idea that electric cars were simply glorified golf carts. Since that time, the concept of the electric car has become a political football; and most particularly during the first six months of 2011, the future of an electrified transportation system in America has seen ups and downs. High points include Nissan’s launch of its all-electric LEAF, Chevrolet’s launch of its plug-in hybrid Volt, MINI’s ongoing research project with 600 electrically powered MINI E models, and BMW’s announcement of a new sub-brand called BMW i that will begin selling electric vehicles by 2013. In addition, Fiat will have an electric version of its diminutive 500 model by next year and even staid Rolls Royce showed off its electric concept vehicle at this year’s Geneva Auto Show. Other positives have shown up on two wheels as more than half a dozen electric motorcycle manufacturers have hit the streets with everything from sport bikes to commuter machines to off-road dirt bikes.

I’m a loser. Not in the “my life really sucks” kind of way, but I don’t ever win anything without considerable effort. The most I think I ever won was a pencil in the 3rd grade. I think I still have it somewhere.

Set the Way back Machine to 10 years ago and the mighty B5 Audi S4 reigned supreme. Its 2.7-liter twin-turbo V6 readily accepted powerful modications that made it now and forever a tuner favorite.