Cars that defined an era and are still legendary. History, mechanics and the soul of true classics.
Ferrari 308: The First Turbo Ferrari Was a Tax Dodge Ask any enthusiast which was the first turbocharged Ferrari road car and you will get the 288 GTO of 1984. They will say it with confidence, because it is what gets repeated everywhere. It is wrong. The first one arrived two years earlier, displaced two … Read more
Ferrari F12: The Car That Killed the Gear Lever Several articles in this series have been following a countdown. Here it reaches zero. The F12berlinetta is the first Ferrari twelve-cylinder that did not offer a manual gearbox even as an option. Not one car. The 599 we covered in its own piece stands permanently as … Read more
Ferrari 348: Condemned for Arriving Without Enzo In the two previous pieces in this series, the 348 plays the villain. In the F355 article it is the car that nearly sank Ferrari. In the 360 article it is the one carrying a grille that cooled nothing. It has earned its own page, because the sentence … Read more
Renault Caravelle: The Convertible Renamed So It Wouldn’t Insult 49 States A pretty car, light on its feet, styled by an Italian, with Brigitte Bardot as its face. The Renault Floride had everything it needed to become an icon of French dolce vita. And in a way, it did. But behind that elegant droptop sits … Read more
Renault Fuego Turbo: The Coupe That Invented the Key Fob in Your Pocket You do it every day without thinking. Pull the fob from your pocket, thumb a button, and from across the parking lot your car goes “thunk” and flashes its lights. That whole ritual, that little jolt of satisfaction, traces back to one … Read more
Lamborghini Urraco, Silhouette and Jalpa: Eighteen Years of a V8 That Never Sold Lamborghini spent eighteen years trying to sell a small eight-cylinder sports car. Between the Urraco, the Silhouette and the Jalpa it managed roughly 1,255 cars. Ferrari, in the same segment with a single model, sold more than twelve thousand 308s. That is … Read more
Ferrari 456: The Station Wagon Maranello Erased When Ferrari launched the Purosangue, half the planet reacted the same way: the company was betraying its essence by building a family car. Ferrari had already built a station wagon. And a four-door saloon. And a four-seat convertible. All on the same platform, in the 1990s, with the … Read more
Lamborghini Jarama: Ferruccio’s Own Favorite Asked which of his cars he preferred, Ferruccio Lamborghini did not say Miura. He said Jarama. And he said it late, in 1991, when he had nothing left to sell: he preferred it to all the others because it was the perfect compromise between the Miura and the Espada. That … Read more
Ferrari 550 Maranello: The Return the Recession Paid For Ferrari has spent thirty years selling this car as a triumphant return to tradition. The twelve-cylinder goes back up front, the grand tourer reclaims its place, Maranello reconnects with its roots. The part left out of the brochure is that the finance department made a good … Read more
Renault 8 Gordini: The Blue Sedan That Beat Ferraris in Their Own Backyard Picture a four-door family sedan. The kind of car a dad drove to the office. Now paint it French Blue, run two white stripes over the roof and hood, bolt four round headlamps to the nose, and hang a one-liter engine out … Read more
Lamborghini Islero: The One Ferruccio Kept for Himself Ferruccio Lamborghini named his grand tourer after the bull that killed Manolete, kept one as his own daily driver, and almost nobody bought it. Of the 225 that left the factory, one ended up trying to qualify for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in the hands … Read more
Ferrari 400: The V12 With a General Motors Gearbox In 1976, with Enzo Ferrari alive and in charge, Maranello launched a twelve-cylinder fitted with an automatic gearbox bought in Detroit. The same unit Cadillacs and Buicks used. Ferrari fitted it to win the American market. It then never sold a single car here. The gearbox … Read more
