Etceterini

Formerly part of the Barris Star Car Collection in Hollywood, California, this Chevrolet G20 van is believed to have been supplied unregistered directly to Universal Studios during the last year of production of “The A-Team” television show. An all-action adventure series first screened during the 1980s, the “A-Team” starred George Peppard as Colonel John “Hannibal”…

Without doubt, Ettore Bugatti found his feet as an internationally recognized manufacturer of high-performance motor cars in 1926. The Type 39A was his first supercharged racer that really worked and gave little if any teething trouble. The 1926-27 Grand Prix Formula demanded cars of no more than 1,500 cc, with a minimum weight of 1,320…

To take full advantage of the “panoramic” windows, the driver was moved to the center of the car René Panhard and Emile Levassor obtained an 1888 Daimler patent for a V-twin motor, with the idea of using it in a small car. Two prototypes were built, equipped with a front-mounted engine and a gearbox. Levassor…

It’s one of the most successful rally cars ever built, wicked and unforgiving to drive, a spaceship for the road Lancia was struggling when Sandro Fiorio, the company’s director of public relations, and his son Cesare, head of Lancia’s rally team, spied the Fulvia-based “Stratos” concept on the Bertone stand at the 1970 Turin Motor…

Delahaye had an enviable competition record, though most successes came either when the Germans didn’t show up or when they broke Emile Delahaye built his first automobile in 1895 and in 1896 drove one of his cars to sixth place in the Paris-Marseilles-Paris race. Sporting ambition lurked in the background as his truck business was…

In 1951, Fiat’s great designer Dante Giocosa began work on a new high-performance sports car, the legendary 8V, or “Otto Vu” in Italian, a two-liter, V8-engined two-seater. Giacosa theorized that for a car to have the power and characteristics for which he was aiming, a tubular chassis would not be stiff enough to mount the…

Toyota’s 2000GT is widely acclaimed as the first Japanese car to be taken seriously by Western critics-the country’s first “supercar.” The model marked Japan’s rise away from dull derivative models toward the highly competitive position it enjoys today. The 2000GT was originally penned by Albrecht Goertz (creator of the BMW 507) for Nissan, who were…

The $169,000 achieved in Geneva for #99 represents an 82% appreciation in 48 months Just before the outbreak of WWII, the Maserati brothers sold their company to industrialist Adolfo Orsi. Not long after the war was over, they decided their real interests lay in racing, and together they formed OSCA-short for the rather more cumbersome…

This car owes its name to Nuvolari’s heroic drive in the 1947 Mille Miglia, while its aggressive shape owes a great deal to pre-WWII aerodynamics Italian industrialist Piero Dusio built up the Consorzio Industriale Sportivo Italia into a successful conglomerate before WWII. He was also an uncommonly good amateur racing driver and like many successful…

Originally a bicycle manufacturer, and probably best known as a maker of fine racing motorcycles, Edoardo Bianchi built his first automobile in the early 1900s. A wide variety of models followed over the next 30 years, though by 1940 the firm was concentrating on motorcycles and commercial vehicles. Car manufacture resumed in 1957 under Fiat…