Tazio Nuvolari: The Italian Who Humiliated the Silver Arrows On Their Own Soil On 28 July 1935, in the rain-soaked German hell that was the Nürburgring of the Eifel mountains, a 42-year-old Italian called Tazio Nuvolari climbed into a Grand Prix car carrying 110 horsepower less than the competition and proceeded to win a race … Read more
Achille Varzi: The Anti-Nuvolari, the Morphine, and the Helmet He Wasn’t Wearing Drop Tazio Nuvolari and Achille Varzi into the same room and the only thing they share is the language they speak. Everything else divides them. Nuvolari came from a Lombard farm, the son of a cyclist. Varzi came from a Piedmontese textile factory, … Read more
Ferrari Daytona: The Name Enzo Cancelled America gave this car its name. America redrew its face. America ran it across the continent in thirty-five hours. America faked it twice over. And then America priced Ferrari’s twelve-cylinder engine out of the country for eleven years. The 365 GTB/4 is one of the most imposing things Maranello … Read more
Antonio Ascari: The European Champion the Sport Killed Before He Could Lift the Crown Let me start with the coincidence, because there isn’t another way to start. Two men dead at age 36. Both on the 26th day of the month. Both four days after surviving a serious accident. Both at the exit of a … Read more
Ugo Sivocci: The Missing Corner of the Quadrifoglio Next time you see an Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio, lean in and look at the badge on the front wing. Forget for a second that the four-leaf clover is one of the most recognisable performance markers in motoring, alongside the M of BMW M Sport, the AMG of … Read more
Ferrari Enzo: too much name for one car Ferrari did not put Enzo Ferrari’s first name on a road car to decorate the history books. It did it because the entire project had to answer for him. In 2002, Maranello could have followed the obvious sequence. F40. F50. Another code, another number, another supercar carrying … Read more
Vittorio Jano: the engineer who designed the engines that won for Alfa Romeo, Lancia and Ferrari, and whom almost nobody remembers Here’s a question. If you walked into Goodwood next summer, stopped any ten people in the paddock, and asked them to name the most influential engine designer in the history of Italian motorsport, what … Read more
The Italian Who Walked Away From Henry Ford Detroit, 1920. The Rouge plant was still being built but Highland Park was already running flat out, churning out Model Ts at a pace nobody in Europe could match. Henry Ford himself sat down with a 27-year-old visitor from Turin and offered him a job. Stay in … Read more
Ferrari 125 S, A Promising Failure: How Ferrari Began with Three Broken Words May 11, 1947. Piacenza circuit, northern Italy. The first car ever to wear the Ferrari name is leading its debut race. Then a fuel pump dies. The driver pulls in. The car stops. There are two normal reactions to this scenario. One: … Read more
The Man Who Saved Alfa Without Loving Cars: Nicola Romeo Most car brands that survive a century get a fairy tale stitched onto their origin story. There’s always a founder with petrol in his veins, a workshop epiphany, a sketch on a napkin. Henry Ford watching the Model T roll out the door. Frederick Henry … Read more
Ferrari F40: The Car That Was Born So Five Prototypes Wouldn’t End Up In The Scrapyard Everything you’ve been told about the origin of the Ferrari F40 is half-true. That it was Enzo’s gift to celebrate forty years of the factory. That it was the answer to Porsche and the 959. That it was the … Read more
Ferruccio Lamborghini: the farmer who insulted Enzo Ferrari and built an empire The man who answered an insult with a V12 A 47-year-old tractor manufacturer walks into Enzo Ferrari’s office in Maranello and tells him his cars are rubbish. Ferrari tells him to go back to his tractors. Four months later, the tractor manufacturer has … Read more
