Carlo Chiti, the Ferrari engineer who made Phil Hill a champion and then dragged him down with him The first American to win the Formula 1 World Championship did it in a car designed by a man most Americans have never heard of. Phil Hill took the 1961 title in the Ferrari 156, the “sharknose,” … Read more
Le Car’s European big brother: a 1962 pushrod engine, a Garrett turbo and a carburetor. The full story of the Renault 5 GT Turbo.
Alfonso de Portago: The Spanish Marquis Who Tried to Live a Hundred Years in Twenty-Eight Adam Driver’s Ferrari put a Brazilian actor named Gabriel Leone in the role of a Spanish marquis most American audiences had never heard of, and that’s the injustice this piece is here to fix. Alfonso de Portago wasn’t a side … Read more
Paolo Stanzani: “I’m Tired of Building Toys for Rich, Spoiled People” The Lamborghini Miura exists because two young Italian engineers were obsessed with a race car built in Dearborn, Michigan. That’s not a stretch. Ferruccio Lamborghini had explicitly forbidden his staff from building anything resembling a competition car — racing was an expense he had … Read more
CFD in Car Design: Engineering Against an Enemy Nobody Can See With the collaboration of Yousef Hassanpour, aerospace and chemical engineer (Sharif University of Technology). The CFD study, simulations and images accompanying this article are his own work. Here is something that ought to unsettle anyone who trusts modern engineering: the equations governing how air … Read more
Fangio: The Man Who Won With His Head When the BBC or Sky pundits reach for a yardstick of greatness, they tend to say a modern champion is “the best since Fangio.” Not since Senna, not since Clark. Since Fangio. The name has become the floor of the conversation, the bedrock figure every other great … Read more
BMW M Ignite: the pre-chamber saving the S58 from Euro 7 Picture a BMW M3 Competition rolling down a B-road in the Yorkshire Dales next Friday. Foot down, climbing through the curves. Under the bonnet, the S58 engine is doing exactly what it’s been doing for years: three litres, six cylinders in line, twin-turbo, 530 … Read more
Stirling Moss: The Champion Who Chose Not to Be One Ask any British kid of a certain age what their dad said when a copper pulled him over for speeding, and you’ll get the same answer: “Who do you think you are, Stirling Moss?” Not Hawthorn. Not Fangio. Not Hamilton, decades later. Moss. The name … Read more
Amédée Gordini — The Sorcerer Who Took On Ferrari With Nothing A Workshop Against the World There is a man standing in a workshop on Boulevard Victor in the 15th arrondissement of Paris, sometime in the early 1950s. The floor is concrete. The tools are worn. The parts bin is half empty because there is … Read more
Maserati 250F: The Most Beautiful Car to Ever Win a War Denis Jenkinson, the great Motor Sport correspondent who rode shotgun with Stirling Moss to win the 1955 Mille Miglia, did not hand out praise cheaply. He had watched everything the 1950s had to offer. And of one particular afternoon at the Nürburgring he wrote … Read more
McLaren: Sixty Years of Building Cars That Hurt, From a Limp in Auckland to the Top of Formula 1 Top Gear’s Chris Harris once said that the McLaren F1 is the only road car that has ever genuinely scared him. Not in the way a Lamborghini Diablo scares you with its switches and its truculence, … Read more
Ferrari F50: The Ferrari The Press Couldn’t Read Let’s get one thing straight before we start. In 1995, when Ferrari launched the F50, the motoring press of the entire planet agreed on one thing: it was a disappointment. They said it in the United States. They said it in England. They said it in Italy. … Read more
