Prototypes that promised the future and never left the showroom.
BMW GINA: the fabric-skinned car Chris Bangle spent seven years building in secret to ask one question Chris Bangle is, depending on who you talk to, either the man who destroyed BMW or the man who saved it. Probably both. If you read any British or American motoring press from the early 2000s, you’ll remember … Read more
BMW NAZCA C2: THE M1 SUCCESSOR BMW WAS TOO SCARED TO BUILD A 350 hp BMW V12 that weighed less than a Mini Cooper S For all the heritage BMW has built around the M1, for all the magazine covers Top Gear and Evo have given the M1 Hommage and the more recent retro pieces, … Read more
MERCEDES-BENZ C111: THE GERMAN SUPERCAR STUTTGART REFUSED TO SELL Bronze-orange testbed, white cheques on the counter Every now and again, a car arrives that breaks the rules of how concepts are supposed to behave. It is not killed by its parent company. It is not abandoned because the engineering does not work. It is not … Read more
Lamborghini Marzal: One lap of Monaco, then forty years of nothing There’s a photograph from May 7th, 1967 that tells you everything you need to know about the Lamborghini Marzal. Grace Kelly is sitting in the passenger seat. Prince Rainier III is driving. The car has glass doors that run from the roofline all the … Read more
The V16 Goldfisch: BMW’s Secret Engine That Forced Mercedes to Build 85 Prototypes in Response Most automotive readers know the headlines on this one. A brown BMW 750iL with science-fiction air scoops behind the rear wheels and the radiators stuffed into the boot, hidden in BMW Classic’s warehouse for decades, finally rolled out at Techno-Classica … Read more
Volkswagen W12 Nardò: the supercar that was always a test rig If you watched Top Gear in the early 2000s, you remember the era. Clarkson worshipping the McLaren F1. May still mourning the death of the V12 Vantage. The Veyron was about to land like a meteor and rewrite everything we thought we knew about … Read more
ALFA ROMEO B.A.T. 5, 7 AND 9 — WHEN ITALY INVENTED THE FUTURE WITH WOOL THREAD Turin, 1953. A man tapes wool threads all over a car’s bodywork. He drives it onto the road. Another car follows alongside, photographing it at speed. When they return to the workshop, the man studies the photos. He looks … Read more
NO CURVES, NO DOORS, NO MERCY. THE FERRARI ANTI-FERRARI, THE 512S MODULO The sketch in the corner of a Rolls-Royce blueprint Spring of 1968. Paolo Martin is 25 years old. He has just been made chief of the styling department at Pininfarina. On his drafting table, a technical drawing of the Rolls-Royce Camargue. A large … Read more
The Renault Espace F1: The Minivan That Was Faster Than a Ferrari F40 Americans have a complicated relationship with minivans. We need them but we don’t want to admit it. The Chrysler Voyager saved road trips. The Honda Odyssey saved soccer practice. But nobody — absolutely nobody — has ever called a minivan exciting. Except … Read more
