Steve Ahlgrim

Shadlun’s shop was a perverted museum of the most beautiful automobiles, all of them crippled by wreckage, fire or simple neglect {vsig}2005-6_1846{/vsig} In the early 1950s Enzo Ferrari began to manufacture road-going Grand Tourismo cars. The 250 Europa and 375 America series are generally considered to be Ferrari’s first production models, although only 18 of…

A serious, high-speed missile which rewards the serious pilot and frustrates the casual driver {vsig}2005-5_1839{/vsig} The all-new 365 GT4 BB appeared on the world stage at the 1971 Turin Motor Show and received a rapturous reception. Of monocoque/tubular steel construction, it featured a mid-mounted, flat-12 engine derived directly from Ferrari’s sports prototype program. Pininfarina clothed…

Playing with the F40 in our 70-mph society is like going deer hunting with a rocket launcher Introduced in 1988 to celebrate Enzo Ferrari’s 40 years as a carmaker, the F40 was the last car with a design personally approved by the great man himself. With a top speed of 201 mph and 0-60 mph…

I was the one who sold 308 GT4 S/N 10540 for $23,500 back in 1990   {vsig}2005-1_1720{/vsig} Ferrari’s family of immensely successful V8 road cars began in 1973 with the 308 GT4. The Maranello factory’s first V8-engined road car and first mid-engine 2+2, the 308 GT4 was styled by Bertone rather than the customary Pininfarina.…

It lacks reasonable weatherproofing, rusts easily, and has a chassis that is way too flexible, but the California Spyder proves that people will always buy beauty and performance over practicality   {vsig}2004-12_1539{/vsig} Convincing Enzo Ferrari to produce an open version of the highly successful competition 250 GT Berlinetta was an effort credited to the famous…

Once described in a magazine as the world’s most beautiful Ferrari, the 212 was somewhat unfairly known in my neck of the woods as the world’s ugliest {vsig}2004-10_1443{/vsig} Whatever the chosen medium, artists’ earliest works are always among their most desired and sought after. Artist-in-metal Enzo Ferrari is a case in point, all the more…

The Shah of Iran was so impressed with his 500 Superfast that he bought a second one. {vsig}2004-6_1225{/vsig} The high-performance, luxury gran tursimo was a new automotive idiom in the prosperous years following World War II. Powerful, limited-production GT’s supplanted the great cars from Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Mercedes-Benz, and the grandes routieres of France, which had…

Following a number of conversion attempts by various independent shops, Ferrari’s rationale for not building an open TR became obvious: Chopping the roof created serious spatial and structural challenges The Testarossa was designed by Ferrari specifically for the U.S. market’s strict safety and emissions rules. Its signature elements were a twelve-cylinder engine, arrayed in Boxer…