By Don Hammonds

Do you love cars?

Well, you might want to dash off an e-mail, send a birthday card, or dash off to your local Mercedes-Benz dealership and say a heartfelt thank you.

That’s because the venerable luxury car manufacturer built the very first automobile, and we all know what came next for us car lovers–an important source of joy, personal freedom, and not a small amount of big fun, too.

As a news release from Mercedes says, ” It was on 29 …

Forty years ago, an all-new sports car hit the pavement for the first time—and started a revolution.

That car was the original Datsun 240Z, and it became an instant hit, also igniting a new segment of the market at the time for small, powerful Japanese sports cars.

This week, at the Chicago Auto Show, Nissan’s set to display its  370Z 40th Anniversary Edition, which is scheduled to go on sale in late February 2010. Nissan says that the 40th Anniversary Edition starts …