It’s an iconic Italian failure, a testament to chaos, caffeine, grappa, panic, and an unwillingness to throw in the towel This remarkably imposing V8 rear-engined, sports-prototype is the last of the line of Maserati competition cars built during the Gruppo Orsi Empire’s long ownership of the Italian marque. As such, […]

The factory figured on 120 man-hours to create one of these engines. Setting the cam timing took between eight and 15 hours. Porsche’s giant-killer Spyder series of four-cylinder, four-cam sports racing cars ruled small bore international racing for a full decade, beginning in the early 1950s. Since a powerful multi-cylinder […]

Alain de Cadenet explained to me a few years back that he bought his first Ferrari GTO because he couldn’t afford the TZ-1 he really wanted Alfa Romeo replaced the Giulietta in 1962 with the Giulia range of cars, powered by 1,570 cc engines. In 1963, the company introduced a […]

This car was the Ferrari Enzo of its day-exclusive, fast, beautiful, and exciting-but not really a racer Renault’s reputation was made in the open-road races of Europe at the turn of the 20th century, in cars built and driven by Louis Renault and his brother Marcel. Even though Marcel was […]

This stunningly beautiful car represents the beginning of the modern GT and will be extremely competitive in high-level vintage racing His groundbreaking Anglo-American competition coupe, with its two sisters, marked one of the most significant landmarks in the entire history of world-class endurance racing. This rear-engined Lola GT is the […]

I can personally attest that it’s possible to sit for hours contemplating the Type 35 like a piece of sculpture There were 23 automobiles on the starting grid for the 1930 Monaco Grand Prix. Fourteen of them-60% of the field-were Bugattis. Bugattis were essentially graceful machines that emphasized light weight […]

This gently patinated, tastefully restored 1956 Jaguar D-type sports racing car exemplifies all that was most impressive, most innovative-and perhaps above all most beautiful-about the legendary British manufacturer’s mid-’50s design. The immortal D-type survives today as the supreme example of semi-monocoque frontier technology. After three Le Mans wins in 1955, […]

ABS brought the realization that it was possible to allow computing power to do far more than keep the wheels from locking World Champion Alain Prost once described the Williams-Renault FW15C, as “really a little Airbus” -his way of describing an F1 car in the electronic era. Prost campaigned seven […]

Much of the experimental engine is missing. Only ten were built, to win a government contract, so replacement parts are on intergalactic backorder Throughout the past century of automotive progress, the turbine engine was perceived as a possible alternative to the internal combustion engine. The two most famous American turbine […]

The engine and transmission Shelby dropped into the car were as exotic as corn dogs at a state fair Carroll Shelby’s concept was simple enough. Take the attractive, lightweight, well-proven Ace roadster built by AC Cars and turn it into a world-beating production racer by the simple expedient of replacing […]