Fiat is one of Italy’s oldest and greatest car manufacturers and, although remarkably successful in early motor racing, has made surprisingly few real sports cars. The Turin firm won the French Grand Prix in 1907 and again in 1922 when Nazzaro won the race at 79.10 mph in a two-liter […]

Considered by many people to be the most beautiful racing car of its period, and an enduring classic design of all time, the Type 35 Bugatti is also one of the most successful racing cars ever built, with a string of major victories in the hands of famous In the […]

Although Lancia’s competition program during the early Fifties brought much fame to the company there was little fortune, and in 1955 Gianni Lancia and his mother sold out to millionaire Carlo Pesenti. A major modernization program was undertaken and the first model under Pesenti’s ownership was the 1957 Flaminia. A […]

This magnificent Maserati 250F was built new as a private customer car to the order of Australian owner-driver Stan Jones. {vsig}1997-1_1661{/vsig} Father of Alan Jones – who would win the Formula 1 Drivers’ World Championship title with the Williams team in 1980 – Stan Jones was a contemporary Australian hero […]

Legend has it that Ferruccio Lamborghini began building cars because he felt insulted by Enzo Ferrari’s treatment of him as a customer. Whether true or not, Lamborghini was not one to do things by half, investing in a brand new factory and recruiting the best available engineers – amongst them […]

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, […]

{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 […]

The story of the Ferrari powered Fiat Dino is nowadays well known, the cars having long since achieved classic status. The Fiat Dino came about as a result of new rules imposed by the FIA upon the marques competing in the 1967 Formula Two championship, in which Ferrari was a […]

The first Lancia designed entirely by the Turin company’s new technical supreme, Professor Antonio Fessia, the Flaminia was the flagship of the Lancia range when launched in 1957. The initial four-door Berlina, with mold-breaking Pininfarina styling, evolved from the Florida show cars, combining the best of American trends with the […]

The Type 57 in its various forms was the mainstay of Bugatti’s production car output from 1934 until the outbreak of the war. As such it was the last road-going Bugatti and, many would say, the best. Much of the design was the work of Jean Bugatti and it shows […]