Open-uri20150106-2-gpf2dm_thumb

Brendan McAleer

Automotive Writer and Photographer

Vancouver, BC

Brendan McAleer

Featured

Open-uri20190802-4-3e9678_profile

The S600 coupe: Honda’s overlooked origin story in Canada

This year, Honda is loudly celebrating its 50th anniversary in Canada. As a nation, we love the brand. The Civic has been the bestselling car in Canada for more than a decade and the Honda factory in Alliston, Ont., has been in operation since 1986. There’s just one little problem. Like many middle-aged people, Honda is fibbing about its age.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190621-4-dhdfno_profile

The Quick and the Dad: 2019 Ford Mustang Bullitt

The chase lasts nine minutes, forty-two seconds – and fifty-one years. Perched on a bench, a new young fan stares up, open-mouthed, as the two cars battle. The chase is a well-worn touchstone to any gearhead, but to her, it’s brand-new. And what does she think?
Autotrader Link to Story
Open-uri20190621-4-geqwji_profile

This Studebaker Avanti eats Hellcats

In 1962, President John F. Kennedy declared, “We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.”. That same year, the Studebaker Corporation gambled it all on a flagship 2+2 grand tourer with V-8 power. One dream made it, one didn't.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190621-4-1knm4ps_profile

Driving the Mercedes-Benz and Audi cars built by Porsche

In 1988, Porsche wrapped up production of their 959 supercar and realized that it had a huge problem on its hands. The 959 was a bleeding-edge look at what the future of Porsche could be, with twin turbocharging and all-wheel-drive. As history (and the modern 911 Turbo) would bear out, Porsche had guessed correctly.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190621-4-1bgegyq_profile

The North Korean Designer Responsible for the 1967 Shelby GT500

Tucked in a strip-mall between a gas station and a Dairy Queen, on the outskirts of Minneapolis, the Chun Mee restaurant seemed like any other mid-western family eatery. Booths and chairs were covered in red vinyl, the curtains were floral print, tablecloths and silverware utilitarian, kung pao chicken and wontons on the menu.
Road & Track Link to Story
Open-uri20190621-4-1v77hy1_profile

Mings the Merciless and the Honda N600

You meet the nicest people on a Honda. Or, should you own a Honda N600, you inevitably meet Tim Mings. “Now's not good, I'll get back to you later,” he growls into a phone, before cutting the conversation short and turning back to me. “Just breaking in a new customer.”. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the tiny, two-cylinder Honda N600 arriving in the U.S.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190423-4-1i3fm0f_profile

The Fabricator: A look inside a one-man shop, and the mind of the man behind it

East Vancouver, British Columbia – His hands are holey, gloves scorched and torn. Fingers spin a fragment against the belt sander, shooting little trails of sparks. It’s an icebox in here, breath hanging in the air, but the black-clad figure doesn’t seem bothered by the cold. He moves with economy from place to place, shaping, welding, drilling, assembling, creating.
Autoweek Link to Story
Open-uri20190423-4-9hn2zw_profile

Poised and polished, the Lexus RC-F Track Edition proves tuning is about more than big numbers

This is not a car for accountants. The numbers simply don’t make sense. Despite the wings and the carbon-fibre hood, this machine is clearly built only for Lexus fans. Or perhaps, judging by the front end, waffle-maker enthusiasts. But toss those spreadsheets out the window, fellow specifications nerds.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190423-4-164n14s_profile

Empire in the East: The vibrant past, present and future of British cars in Japan

We chart the course of British-Japanese automotive history in an Aston Martin and a Mini. Perhaps no place is as representative of Japan's concentrated humanity as Shibuya Crossing in the heart of Japan's capital city. When the traffic lights go red, upwards of 3,000 pedestrians scramble through the intersection, a tidal mass of well-ordered people, ebbing and flowing based on the rhythm of highly organized public transit.
Autoweek Link to Story
Open-uri20190423-4-1pepvm7_profile

55 years later, Paddy Hopkirk’s 1964 Monte Carlo Rally win is still the greatest racing underdog story

No one expected him to win, not the competition, not the race officials, and not even the driver himself. Yet 55 years ago, Patrick “Paddy” Hopkirk and his co-driver Henry Liddon came out ahead in one of the greatest David versus Goliath motorsports battles ever. Pitched against factory teams from Mercedes-Benz, Saab, Volvo, Citroën, and Ford's onslaught of eight V-8-powered Falcons, Hopkirk's bright red Mini Cooper S emerged victorious as the winner of the 1964 Monte Carlo rally.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190409-4-1jbtb3j_profile

The Hakosuka Nissan Skyline GT-R was a legend well before it was named “Godzilla”

When the mighty twin-turbocharged R32 Nissan Skyline GT-R laid waste to a field of Fords and Holdens during its first foray into Australia, a local journalist dubbed the car Godzilla. The name stuck, and would become synonymous with the fire-breathing 2+2. But the car’s reputation was established more than two decades before with a small, almost nondescript coupe that looked a bit like a boxy Nissan 240-Z and went like hell.
Link to Story
Open-uri20190205-4-1ibrr8n_profile

Wolf Countach: The global ambassador of prototype Lamborghinis

In Yokohama, a wolf roams free at midnight. It howls along the elevated highways, strobing between the streetlamps, crimson-hued from jaw to flank. It is the first of its kind. It is the rarest of the breed. It is a Lamborghini Countach, one born under the sign of the Wolf. Every Countach is special, but only three are this special.
Link to Story

About

Brendan McAleer

Brendan McAleer first drove a stick-shift at the age of eight, and it's been pretty much downhill from there.

He has written stories on everything from a mint-condition Hyundai Pony to a Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead. His work appears in the Globe & Mail, Time's TheDrive, Autos.ca, Road & Track, and elsewhere.

His inbox is always open to hearing about the machines that move us, physically and emotionally. He currently resides in North Vancouver, British Columbia.

Open-uri20150106-2-gpf2dm_profile_large