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1936 Maserati 6 CM Monoposto
There were seven Maserati brothers and Alfieri, Ernesto, and Ettore were for many years involved in racing with a variety of cars. In 1926 they set up a small factory in Bologna and started making cars under their own name, using the trident insignia of that city as their badge, which continues to this day.…
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1955 Porsche 356 Speedster 1600/90
{vsig}1996-8_1671{/vsig} Dr. Ferdinand Porsche had been a major influence in the development of the German motor industry since Edwardian times and yet the only car design to perpetuate his name was not, in fact, his own work, but that of his son Ferry. The basic design of this new car utilized the mechanical components of…
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1955 Alfa Romeo 1900 Super Sprint (1996)
In the immediate after-war period Alfa Romeo concentrated their efforts on reproducing their 1939 6C 2500 Series cars affectionately known as the “Golden Arrows,” but they were expensive and attracted the best of coachbuilders’ art form and therefore were only purchased by the wealthy. They were, in fact, the last individual chassis cars to be…
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1956 Ferrari Boano 250GT
The 1954 Paris Salon hosted the world premiere of the Ferrari 250 Gran Turismo which was to become one of the most important milestones in the history of Automobili Ferrari. The 250 GT Series was the first Ferrari standardized production touring car, and in its many guises spanned a period of almost ten years. This…
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1959 Jaguar XK 150 4.1 Fixed Head Coupe
Jaguar’s new six-cylinder twin overhead camshaft engine was ready by 1948 and launched in the XK 120 sports car which took the motoring world by storm. Some 12,000 XK 120s were subsequently sold. This was succeeded in 1954 by the XK 140 and the final evolution example was the XK 150 in 1957. This new…
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1968 Bizzarrini GT Strada 5300
{vsig}1996-8_1681{/vsig} During the late 1950s and early 1960s Giotto Bizzarrini was associated with a number of Italian Super Car manufacturers. After leaving Pisa University with an automobile engineering degree he joined Alfa Romeo as a chassis engineer, then to Ferrari as a test driver where his engineering prowess was duly recognized and he became head…
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1964 Porsche 356 Carrera 2 Cabriolet
Ferry Porsche and Karl Rabe began work on the Type 356 project in June 1947. The concept was to put a mildly tuned version of the four-cylinder Volkswagen engine and its gearbox in a tubular space frame. Volkswagen components such as suspension units, steering and brakes were used for economy and reliability. The VW engine,…
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1930 Alfa Romeo 6C 1750
Individuality had been a hallmark of Alfa from the earliest days and when Nicola Romeo took over the company in 1918 this became even more the case. Competition soon came to the fore; by 1929 Scuderia Ferrari had been set up to run Alfa Romeo’s racing program with Ferrari being assisted by engineer Luigi Bazzi…
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1969 Ferrari 365 GT 2+2
Combining the elegant nose of the exclusive 500 Superfast with the more rectangular styling of the one-off 330GTC Speciale show car, the 365 2+2 was much more sophisticated than the four-seater Ferrari coupes that came before it. Under the steel bodywork, as usual from the pen of Pininfarina, was an all-new chassis with unequal length…
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1961 MGA Twin Cam Roadster
For the debut of its new MGA in 1955, MG wisely chose that year’s Le Mans 24 Hour race; after a succession of open-wheeled models there were fears of an adverse reaction to such a streamlined car, and it was felt that by showing the MGA in competition first the aerodynamic shape would be accepted…