Alfa Romeo Duettottanta Concept
Spider lovers may have expected something more like this…
Too cool for school? Graduate into a charismatic student car
Freedom. Expression. A go-anywhere spirit. If you’ve just passed your driving test, a car to ferry you to uni digs is also likely to be your first car. And while money may be tight, that doesn’t mean you should drive a personality-free, four-wheeled machine. When I passed my test in the early 1990s, […]
Mid-engines for the masses
These days, buying a new mid-engined sports car is an expensive business, with even a base model Elise or Boxster costing somewhere north of £40,000. But it wasn’t always like that… For over four decades, there was always at least one relatively affordable mid-engined sports car available to tempt new car buyers. We’ve already talked […]
Classic Convertibles
Winter. A tepid sun plays hide and seek in a blanket of grey. The days are short, cold, wet. Summer seems light years away. And that makes it the best time to buy a convertible. Think about it: prices are at their lowest and sellers at their most accommodating. Besides, why spend your time dreaming […]
F355: 25 Years of Ferrari’s Modern Classic
Ferrari. Creator of red-liveried and four-wheeled dream machines. Purveyor of poster car stars with a back catalogue of truly iconic low-slung luminaries. Firmly embedded into car (and supercar) culture, Ferrari has a roll-call of celestial coupés and divine drop-tops. And now as it reaches its quarter-century, the F355 is fired into the modern classic stratosphere. […]
Ferrari Dino: not a simply Ferrari, but a memorial to a lost son
In 1956, a very rare genetic disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy took the life of a talented young man of 24 years old, about to graduate in mechanical engineering. His name was Alfredo, called Dino by everyone, and he was the eldest son of Enzo Ferrari. In 1952, Dino started working on the engine design of […]
50 years of Jaguar XJ
The XJ was the last Jaguar that company founder Sir William Lyons personally oversaw; a super-saloon to join the company ranks, alongside motoring greats like the E-type and the Mk2. It was revealed to the public, in the form of the XJ6, in 1968, a year after Jaguar dropped the Mk2. It rapidly became a […]
Dante Giacosa’s unsung genius
Even inside the circles of obsessive car nuts, you’ll find the names of Porsche, Piech, Ford, and even Issigonis spoken more often. There is no question, though, that this man had at least as much, if not more, influence on the cars we drove yesterday, and the cars we drive today as anyone from Stuttgart, […]
Fiat Coupé
In the late 1980s a plan was hatched in the corridors of Turin: Fiat would return to the days when they built stylish and desirable coupés. The plan called for the new car to be built on the Tipo floorpan, seat four and be front-wheel-drive. But therein lay a problem, as automotive designer Matteo Licata¹ […]
Is Mazzanti’s Evantra Millecavalli even more extreme than Ferrari, Lamborghini and Pagani?
If you were asked to name the most extreme and powerful Italian hypercar, you might suggest a Ferrari, a Lamborghini or a Pagani. But you would be wrong. The Mazzanti Evantra Millecavalli – exclusive and hand-built in Tuscany in a traditional workshop – is the correct answer. It was a Saturday morning, the only day […]