The Ferrari that Ferrari didn’t build: the uncomfortable truth about the 333 SP Let’s get one thing straight before we go any further. When Ferrari came back to sports prototype racing in 1994 after twenty years of absolute silence, the car that restored their dignity wasn’t built in Maranello. It was built in Varano de’ … Read more
Maserati MC12: The Supercar That Forced the FIA to Invent Balance of Performance Top Gear lapped one. The Stig set a time of 1:18.9 — one tenth faster than the Ferrari Enzo. Clarkson called it twitchy, oversized, and “either a racer, a GT car, or a detuned Enzo in a fat suit.” He couldn’t quite … 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
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
LAMBORGHINI LM002: The engine doesn’t match the car Pop the asymmetric bonnet of a Lamborghini LM002 and look down. What you’re seeing is a Tipo L510 V12. 5,167 cc. Double overhead cams per bank. Four valves per cylinder. Six twin-choke Weber carburettors feeding twelve cylinders. 444 hp at 6,800 rpm. That engine has no business … Read more
The Lamborghini Miura: The Bull That Invented the Modern Supercar The Lamborghini Miura: The Bull That Invented the Modern Supercar Every car has a father. But very few cars are the father of everything that came after. The Lamborghini Miura is that car. This isn’t hype. It’s not marketing speak. It’s a verifiable fact: before … Read more
Mercedes-Benz CLK GTR: The Race Car That Was Forced to Become a Road Car 128 Days from Blank Paper to Race Winner. 25 Road Cars. $1.5 Million Each. And a McLaren F1 They Bought in Secret. There are road cars that get turned into race cars. And then, very rarely, there are race cars that … Read more
JAGUAR E-TYPE (1961–1975) Jaguar E-Type: The Most Beautiful Car Ever Made (And I’ll Explain Why This Isn’t Just a Cliché) There are phrases in automotive history that have survived for decades without ever being successfully challenged. One of the most frequently quoted is the one that Enzo Ferrari reportedly uttered upon seeing the Jaguar E-Type … Read more
BMW 850 CSi: The 380 HP V12 BMW Built to Humiliate Mercedes and Failed Gloriously The Grand Tourer That Arrived at Exactly the Wrong Moment In 1992, BMW presented the world with the 850 CSi: a Grand Tourer with a 5.6-liter V12 engine, 380 hp of power, a 6-speed manual transmission as the only option, … Read more
