Renault 21 Turbo: America Got the Medallion, Europe Got the One With 175 hp
The Renault 21 Turbo had 175 hp, chased speeders for the French police and was rallied by future Stellantis boss Carlos Tavares. America got the Medallion.
1980s
LAMBORGHINI ATHON
Lamborghini Athon: 260 HP, No Roof, Turin 1980 Bertone brought a brand-new Lamborghini to the Turin motor show in April 1980. An open two-seater, futuristic, with a fully digital instrument panel and a single-spoke steering wheel. Lamborghini had been bankrupt for two years. A coachbuilder publicly unveiled a car for a client that was in … Read more
LAMBORGHINI URRACO, SILHOUETTE AND JALPA
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
OPEL MONZA
Opel Monza: the day Opel dared to stare down Mercedes There’s a particular kind of car the British call a gentleman’s express. Big, fast, comfortable, six cylinders up front, room for four and their luggage, the sort of thing that eats a continent before lunch without ever raising its voice. For decades that territory belonged … Read more
Cobra Mercury 1950
The Cobra Mercury Is the Last Real 1950s Kustom That Walked Into an Eighties Action Movie and Walked Back Out as a Cult Icon. Nobody Outside the Trade Knows Who Built It. Eddie Paul cranked out four chopped 1950 Mercurys for Sylvester Stallone in 1985, dropped a blown small-block Chevy into each, stamped them AWSOM … Read more
CUDA PHANTASM
The Phantasm ‘Cuda Wore 440+6 Badges and Hid a 340 Underneath. Nobody Called It for 46 Years. Five films, three different displacements, a cloned Hemi and a vanished original. Don Coscarelli couldn’t afford the car his screen promised. So he lied. And the lie worked. Pause the VHS, the DVD or the 2016 J.J. Abrams-produced … Read more
Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor
Chrysler Built a 194 MPH Pace Car With a K-Car Engine, Then Lent It to a Charlie Sheen Movie The Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor was a real Le Mans-spec prototype. Hollywood borrowed it. And an assistant cameraman never came home. Clarkson built half his Top Gear career on a simple premise: most cars that look … Read more
LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH
LAMBORGHINI COUNTACH: WHY THE MOST FAMOUS SUPERCAR IN HISTORY WAS ALSO THE WORST Let’s start with what the Countach actually was. Not what it looked like — what it was. It was a car with no rear visibility. Literally none. The V12 and its intake scoops occupied the space where a rear window should have … Read more