Porschephiles around the world will often point to the Porsche 911 Carrera 2.7 RS Lightweight as the perfect iteration of the model – its profile, ducktail, wheels and high power-to-weight ratio have been design touchstones for the 911 ever since it was released. 1973 was the first year for the 911 RS, it was offered…
The story of the founding of Lamborghini is almost as famous as the cars produced by the exotic Italian automaker. A significantly condensed version would go something like this: Ferruccio Lamborghini was an extraordinarily wealthy Italian businessman who had made his fortune building tractors from surplus military parts in the years after WWII. He had a…
The Ferrari 212 Export was the successor to the hugely successful Ferrari 166, it went on to become an outright winner in many of the era’s great races and helped cement the legend of the still-new automaker. Ferrari offered the 212 in two major variants, the 212 Export which was specifically for racing, and the…
The Ferrari 400 Superamerica was the luxurious follow-on model from the 410 Superamerica, as is often the case with Ferrari the 400 and 410 designations referenced swept capacity – the 410 used the 5 litre (~410cc per cylinder) “long-block” Lampredi-designed V12 and the 400 used the newer and more advanced Colombo-designed SOHC 4.0 litre V12. Interestingly,…
Maserati’s 200SI was a car developed with very large shoes to fill, it was to be the replacement for the popular and successful A6GC6, it would be driven by some of motor sport’s biggest names – including Carroll Shelby and Stirling Moss. Moss took 1st place at the 1956 Trofeo Supercortemaggiore in an evolved version…
The Mazda Cosmo 110S was the first rotary-engined car to roll out of the Japanese marque’s factory, it was dressed in a jet-age inspired body and in its one race outing it landed a hard fought 4th place after belting around the Nurburgring for 84 hours. Each Cosmo was built by hand between 1967 and…
Only 24 MG ND Magnettes were built, all were made in 1934 and all were characterised by their MG K2 bodies installed on the then new N-Type chassis. The N-Type chassis was a significant step up for MG, it was a brand new design that had a wider rear and brought the centre of gravity…
This set of three Ferrari blueprints are due to sell (individually) at the Amelia Island Auction on the 12th of March 2015, although not cheap, they’re not quite as out of reach as you might imagine – each one is estimated to be worth between $1,800 and $2,200 USD. In order from top to bottom,…
The Golden Age of the British Sports Car is a BBC documentary about the post-WWII success of the small, light and nimble two-seaters rolling out of England. These cars were characterised by their affordability and off-the-charts fun factor, and they went on to inspire multiple generations of car guys (and girls) across the world. This…
The Austin-Healey 100S was created by Donald Healey as a purpose built racer to show the potential of his relatively new 100/4, only 50 chassis would be built in the 100S series for homologation purposes and the first one was raced in anger at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1954 (the “S” in 100S…
The Porsche 901 was one of the major drawcards at the 1964 Paris Auto Salon where it ruffled the feathers of French automobile manufacturer Peugeot, the French marque had a long history of using three digit names with an “0” in the middle, so they officially objected and the name of the 901 was changed…
There’s little doubt that Porsche’s 356 is one of the more important sports cars of the mid-20th century, it was the first production car made by Porsche and only their second model after the 1939 Porsche 64. The recipe that made the 356 great was a simple one – it had a rear mounted flat-4,…
