The Ferrari 156 F1 “Sharknose” is remembered today as one of the most famous Formula 1 cars of its era, if not the most famous outright. The great tragedy of the Sharknose is that all of the original cars were scrapped – though in more recent years there have been a number of exact replicas…
The Serenissima Ghia GT is a one-off design penned by the great Tom Tjaarda, and conceived by Count Giovanni Volpi di Misurata and Alejandro de Tomaso. The truth of the matter is that de Tomaso had just bought the storied Italian coachbuilder Ghia in 1967, and he wanted the Count to leverage the name of…
The Mazda RX-7 is an immensely popular Japanese sports car that’s entirely unique among its contemporaries due to one key fact – it was only ever offered with a rotary engine. Rotaries have fallen out of favor in more recent years due to tightening emissions regulations, the Wankel rotary needs a small amount of oil…
This is the Touring version of the Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7, a car that still to this day is regarded by many as the ultimate iteration of the worlds longest-running sports car. Porsche 911 Carrera RS 2.7 Touring Porsche developed the 911 RS 2.7 as the homologation version of the 911 RSR, the company…
This Ferrari F50 V12 engine was built to F50 GT specifications along with three chassis and another three or four race-specification engines. The F50 GT (also known as the Ferrari F50 GT1) was built by Ferrari in collaboration with Michelotto and Dallara to compete in the BPR Global GT Series against the likes of the…
The Fiat Dino coupé is the far more attainable sibling of the peerless Ferrari Dino, both cars shared the same engine and the same basic mission – to sell in high enough numbers to homologate the Ferrari-designed 2.0 litre V6 for Formula 2 racing. Fiat, Ferrari, Formula 2, and the Dino V6 In 1965 the…
The exact origins of this 1979 Mercedes-Benz 500 TE AMG are unknown – it’s a mystery that many in the Mercedes community have tried to solve. The enigma surrounds that AMG badge on the rear and the unique performance modifications made to the car that closely match the work of AMG in the late 1970s,…
The BMW Alpina B7 S Turbo had big shoes to fill when it was introduced in 1981 as a replacement for the BMW Alpina B7 – a car that was the fastest series production 4-door car in the world when it was released in 1978. Alpina Alpina is a German automaker founded in 1965, though…
The story behind the design of the Volvo Amazon is quite complex and takes in influences from a number of sources. Volvo had recruited Jan Wilsgaard from the Handicraft Society School (which is nowadays called the HDK, School of Design and Crafts). The young Wilsgaard’s first design work for Volvo was a large V8 powered car called the Volvo Phillip made in 1950.
Arsèn Manukyan, aka Arsenio, is an artist with a long history that belies his relatively young age of 29. He moved from Armenia to the UK with his family as a refugee when he was 16 years old, he was initially unable to go to university or work due to visa restrictions – so he…
The Venturi 400 GT remains one of the fastest cars ever designed and built in France, in fact when it was released in 1992 it was the fastest and most powerful French road car in history. The two-seat 400 GT was designed by Gerard Godfroy specifically to compete with the likes of the Lotus Esprit…
The Bizzarrini 128P was a personal passion project from the man most famous for developing the Ferrari 250 GTO – now by far the most expensive car in the world, and the most sought after by (very) well-heeled collectors. Although the 250 GTO is his most famous work, Bizzarrini developed countless other cars over his…
