PICS! Goodwood Italiano Breakfast Club

[Lucky]

Funny, innit? It always seems to be the things that are right on your doorstep that get ignored. For example, we live literally ten minutes' walk from the sea but the missus loads the li'l 'un in the car and drives half an hour to go to a swimming pool. Admittedly, the turds and toxic chemicals bobbing around in the English Channel may have something to do with that...

Likewise, I think nothing of loading up for a three-hour drive each way to go up to Santa Pod but I'd never yet made it to a Goodwood Breakfast Club, held half an hour away from my front door. Which is very strange because by all accounts it's a top event. And most importantly, free! Just as well, too; the amount of hard cash Lord March has prised out of my wallet at various Festivals of Speed over the years, he damned well owes me by now. Time to go to one, then, yeah?

For those of you who've never heard of the Breakfast Club, the idea is very simple. The first Sunday of every month holds a get-together for cars grouped into a loose theme. And that's it... pre-register your car, for free, turn up at around 7:00 a.m. and park on the Goodwood Circuit along with like-minded enthusiasts. Drink coffee, eat the best free-range bacon sarnies known to man, look at cool cars, talk rubbish with like-minded petrolheads. Winning.

The marshals are very chilled and mostly quite savvy, and will sometimes wave in cars appropriate to the genre even if they're not registered. However, plenty of people take it as an opportunity to blow the cobwebs off their own motor across the winding Sussex lanes, and the public car park is full of just as interesting an array of machinery as the paddock. This last one of the year was themed Italian Sunday. I was half-tempted to take the FD; as it has no Mazda or even RX-7 badges anywhere and is kinda Rosso Red I thought I could have a stab at passing it off as some obscure Bizzarini or whatever, but in the end we ran out of time to fit all the kiddie seat nonsense and such, so we all piled into the F*rd

So we parked up in the field across the road from the circuit and waded through the soaking grass between rows of Subarus, TVRs, Lotusses (Lotii? Lotusss?), 911s, TRs... literally every corner of the automotive world was laid out in the early morning misty dew. Unfortunately, I was stuck carrying my daughter who was having a right old stropper so I couldn't get any pics. Bloody kids.

For those who've never visited Goodwood Circuit, it started out as a WWII aerodrome, supporting Spitfires and suchlike. After the War the current Earl of March's grandfather converted it into a racing circuit, like so many other old aerodromes were. It had glory years, hit the headlines a few times, saw such memorable moments as Sir Stirling Moss' career-ending crash and the death of Bruce McLaren whilst testing his Can-Am car there. Always on the verge of too dangerous, it fell into disuse under the twin attack of safety legislation and the next Lord March being more into racing of the four-legged kind than four-wheeled.

Fortunately, the mojo seems to skip a generation so the current Lord March wanted nothing more than to resurrect the glory days he remembered from his youth of going to the races with his Grandfather. The Festival of Speed was only started as a stop-gap whilst the massive legal battle to re-open the circuit was being fought, believe it or not. The plan was always to start a series of nostalgic events there (now well-known as the Revival, of course). No-one back then had any idea the Festival would become the global motorsport phenomenon it has. The retro feel of the Revival events permeates the very fabric of the Circuit; whilst it still has the famous old scenery such as the Super Shell building and the Rolex clock towers, it now also has a replica Art Deco frontage of the old Earls' Court to stage the Motor Show exhibits. Everywhere you look there are period touches...



Even the green phone box had an Italian feel for the day, in homage to the Leaning Tower of Pisa (maybe). The Rolex clock was restored when legal entitlements to use the circuit were finally established at the end of last century. The renovation team discovered it was not a moment too soon; the entire structure was essentially being kept up by little more than a couple of inches of rotten wood and good luck!



The old placings board stands proud as pretty much the first thing you see on entering the circuit. Here it is with a rather splendid Fiat 500 Roadster on front of it. This photo was taken from the very modern and considerate disabled viewing platform, which blends in perfectly into the vibe of the place with its neat white-painted bricks and flagged ramps. Proof that making something modern, available to all and flexible doesn't have to involve making it hideous or compromised.



And that Earls' Court frontage I mentioned; a perfect if slightly shrunken homage to the glory days of the 1950s Motor Shows when everyone wanted to pore over the new wunderkinds of the motor trade and the heady stink of optimism and affluence finally hung in the air after so many years of austerity. maybe we'll get back there again one day, eh?



Right then, some cars, yeah? As this was Italian Sunday you'd kinda expect there to be a lot of Ferraris and stuff, wouldn't you? And you'd be right, there were. Hundreds of the bloody things, in fact. What surprised me was the range of models that showed up. There were more brand new 458 Italias than probably any other single model, loads of new Californias too, which says that while most of us are stuck in grinding poverty slaving under the yoke of austerity measures, some people clearly still have plenty of cash. Nice to know.

I was expecting loads of things like 360s because that seemed to be the one they sold thousands of, and is one of few Ferraris you actually see out and about on the roads being used. Almost none. Likewise, very few classic ones and even surprisingly few of the 70s ubiquitous models like 308s in all their flavours. In the same way, you'd have thought the rival upstart from San' Agata would have been represented by Gallardos since they were the "affordable" Lamborghini, after all. Not one. Weird! In fact, my predictions of what we were likely to see were so far wide of the mark I clearly know nothing about cars. But hey, should be interesting, yeah?

Shall we start with "A" then, for no better reason than that's how the Photobucket defaults are set on this album. Aha, you'd think, that'll be an Alfa, then. Nope



This is, of course, an Abarth, the little semi-independent Fiat tuning firm started by Carlo Abarth in the early 1950s



In a time-honoured motorsport vibe, Abarth took existing and often quite humble production cars and gave them a serious going-over with a big performance stick. This little 1000 is just one example, perhaps the rally cars and circuit racers with their bootlids hanging open to accommodate the humongous engines are a more iconic image of the marque.



Conrad here shows off the tiny proportions of this Zagato-styled 750. Actually smaller than a six-year old! And Ford thought they were clever with all that 40-inch nonsense... Note double-bubble roof clearly stolen from Mazda's design portfolio, lol. Errr. via time travel, obviously.











Ok, so that little false start over with, let's see some Alfas, shall we? But first, a slight disclaimer... these photos are generally really bad. I'm sorry, but there were a few things conspiring against me. One was the sheer number of people; there were a lot. Like, seriously a lot. And the track is really narrow, with cars parked both sides, so the punters tend to get squashed in all over the place. It's really hard getting a clear shot. Two was the low autumn sun. While it was lovely to see the sun out, and it was genuinely a warm and halcyon day, it did mean that long and annoying shadows tended to get throw over everything you were trying to get a pic of. Finally, I was infested with kids and while I realise this is a purely self-inflicted injury, it does result in this sort of thing, for example. Whilst spending ages lining up a pic of a nice Alfa Montreal, you can never legislate for being bushwhacked by a tiny at the wrong moment. The autofocus bleeps just as you press the button and...



Dang. I suck, sorry. Anyway, if you can put up with the appalling amateurishness of the photography, shall we press on? Cool. Alfas, then. I had no real preconception of what mix there'd be here, so it was nice to see some new ones as well as classics. There were a couple of the new 8Cs, including a spyder looking cool in pearlescent white;











At perhaps the polar opposite end of the spectrum was this absolutely stunning 1900 Coupe bodied by Touring Carrozeria, one of the rarer cars there I'd have thought





The car had evidently come a long way, from Belgium. Which might explain its very Continental and sardonic waxed moustache







Plenty of 1750s/Giulia Sprints/GTVs/Whatevers about. I like very much the gold colour of this one, looked ace in the sun!







Silver one admittedly looked slightly more classy. Tuff wheels too





Of all the modern Alfas I think the Brera excites me the most. Shame I failed to get any good pics of it overall then, really. Still, as I always say, it's all in those details!

[Lucky]

One thing I began to notice a lot of Alfas have in common; the owners seem to like the livery, the iconic clover leaf and the Alfa shield itself derived from the city coat of arms of their native Milan. The other is the loyalty to the marque extends very much to the wheels. I've never seen so many examples of a single manufacturer where so many of the cars use wheels from that manufacturer, albeit not always the model they left the factory on! Here's a couple of Giulias to prove it.







I had a lot of time for this white example with contrasting red interior. The colours seem to suit the shapes so well







Here's something then; a genuine Retro Rides sticker! Kwol car culture club at Goodwood shocker, lol





A bit of an ugly spot on the boot there, though. Let's call it character



I freely admit I get hopelessly lost trying to decipher Alfa naming traditions. As far as I understand, the successor to the Giulietta was the Giulia, which was then appended to with GT, GT S (Sprint), GTJ (Junior)and GTV (Veloce) versions, and finally GTA (Alleggerita or "lightweight"). Of course, these mostly came in Stradale (street) or Corsa (race) versions. It's no wonder most of the time I've no bloody idea what actual car I'm looking at. Figure if I call them all GTs I'll be half-right most of the time, but it would make a dull thread lol. Maybe I'll let the pics do the talking. Helps when they wrote it on the bootlid, of course...









So this will be one of the distant uncles of all those Giulias then, a Giulietta. Looks gangster in black!



This blue one had spent three generations in the same family, which is great to hear. I can imagine how going for days out in a grandad's car like this as a child would leave an impression, and make you want to carry it on! Sounded great, too.

#



And just to confuse things further, I believe this to be one of the new Giuliettas. Which is nothing like the previous grand old ones. Impressive what a difference righteous Teledials and big brakes make to an otherwise pretty anonymous modern hatch





Wedge-shaped later GTVs (errrmmm, I believe Alfa Romeo Alfetta GTV to give their full name?) didn't speak to me at the time they were new for some reason. Maybe it was the slightly hunched Austin Princess look. Of course now, any that have survived are a nice reminder of a bygone time and look great. Innit funny what rarity can do? Time, see what's become of me. GTV-Six had extra bonnet weirdness going on to accommodate the big lump. Even better!







I guess I'd have to say I prefer the cleaner lines of the normal GTV though. I wonder how many of those funky lettered rear vents rusted through and began the whole car rotting? Cool-as wheels, but not sure about the 4x4 stance they give!







Another rare survivor, that Montreal that Niah-cat (my daughter) managed to face-bomb my photos of, lol. My son took the second one, he was so proud. In actual fact, it's no worse than one of mine and a lot better than many! Mad headlight setup is mad











There were loads of Spyders, both ancient and modern. I guess they did sell zillions, they can't all have gone back to the soil yet. Surprisingly there were some RHD ones as well. For some reason I thought they were mostly LHD. I like Spyders, at least it's easy to photograph their interiors, lol. I wonder if those headlight cover domes are as rocking-horse rare as spare light covers for MazdaSpeed RX-7 bumpers. Bet they are!







and that yellow ones' distant descendant;











Funnily enough, perhaps the rarest Alfa, and joint rarest car here today (one of few cars that I only saw a single example of) was the one that was supposed to be the entry-level to the marque. The Alfa Sud was, for anyone fortunate enough to have not had to live through the late 70s and early 80s, an attempt to both sell an affordable front-wheel drive Alfa to the masses and rejuvenate the poverty-stricken south of Italy (a country with a north/south divide more profound even than the UK). Manufactured by the snappily-named "Industria Napoletana Costruzioni Autoveicoli Alfa Romeo-Alfasud S.p.A", a special company in which Alfa Romeo itself only had a majority stake, in Naples, the car ran for an astonishing 18 years and sold thousands upon thousands worldwide, even being made under licence in Malaysia. But when was the last time you saw one? Appalling production values and cost-cutting led to awful electrical and rust problems even before the mechanicals wore out! These were literally on every street corner when I was a kid... often abandoned, lol. Now it's a rare thing indeed. Like I said, funny old thing, time





Ending our Alfa section on a slightly more appealing rarity, let's turn to the ever-bold lines of a Zagato design, shall we? Consistently one of the more bleeding-edge of the Italian Carrozerias, Zagato are never shy of trying something different and their designs often polarise opinion. Quite commonly they aren't fully appreciated within the cars lifetime, and I have to confess the SV is one of these, for me at least. I've never actually seen one outside photos before and was never much impressed, but I have to confess that looking around this one in the flesh completely changed my mind. What a strong shape and treatment, really one of the standout cars of the day. You can still see echoes of how forward-thinking this design was in the shape of the Brera today











One of the stand-out cars on the day was also a one-off. Well, there were a few built but in all likelihood you're not going to see another. Giotto Bizzarrini is something of a maverick even by Italian motorista standards. Fired by Ferrari following his part in the "palace revolt" of 1961, he went on to run with the Enzo-challenging Automobili Turismo e Sport company, design a monolithically powerful V12 for Ferruccio Lamborghini that worthy had to detune as it was too powerful and too fragile, and finally ended up at Iso where he was involved in such awesome designs as the Rivolta and Grifo. Of course, he fell out with Iso eventually as well, and went on to found his own Bizzarrini marque. Although output was low, the cars were stupendous, as this Iso Grifo-based Strada 5300 illustrates rather well. A Gran Turismo in the grand tradition, the car stood a mere 43 inches high and had curves to die for. Powered by a 5.3(ish) litre Chevy Corvette powertrain, it was hardly slow either. Bizzarrini himself is still involved in the motor industry, and lectures on engineering principles. His company sporadically show concept cars at various motor shows. One day we may yet see as stunning a car as the Strada see production from one of Italy's great eccentric geniuses













Another one-off but in a different sense was this white Countach that was certainly drawing quite a crowd, to the point where it was really hard to get a clear shot of it.



Why a one-off? They made loads of Countachs, surely? Well, take another look. Does it look quite right to you?



Nope, me neither. Get round the front and the game is given away when you look closely;



A Countach? With a Chevrolet bow-tie? Reallllllly? Lol, it was funny seeing how many people were taken in by it, though, and to be fair it was still an impressive-looking car in anyone's language. I wish the owner had been about. I'd have loved to hear the story, what it was actually based on and suchlike.

[Lucky]

Right then, Fiats. As it was formed in 1899, Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino is one of the oldest and most prestigious of car manufacturers in the world (ignoring some older but largely hateful French rubbish, lol). For someone like myself who was quite badly scarred and traumatised by ownership of £50-and-still-overpriced Fiats back in the 80s, it's sometimes an effort to remind yourself that they've been responsible for some truly iconic vehicles over their century-plus of life. Shall we start off humble, though? The Fiat 500 (not to be confused with either the pre-war original 500...the Topolino or "little mouse" that guested in the second excellent Cars film, lol... nor the wretched bloated overpriced tinsel that blights every school run and Kensington cafe pavement today). Iconic is probably too light a word for these; this is literally one of the cars responsible for motorising the world. If it wasn't for this amazing piece of packaging we'd still be rocking about on motorcycles and sidecars and moving goods by donkey cart, This little number really did make affordable motorised transport an achievable dream for the masses



When Fiat were owners of Ferrari following the latters' troubled economic times, it was a golden opportunity for cross-fertilisation of the marques. Much as Enzo Ferrari is often pictured by history as a heartless power-crazed megalomaniac, it's unarguable that he loved his family. When he was a racing driver for Alfa Romeo, he pledged to his long-suffering wife Laura Gaurello that he'd quit th eincredibly dnagerous sport were they ever to have a child. True to his word, on the birth of Alfredo Ferrari, Enzo hung up his gloves and helmet and concentrated his efforts on running the legendary Scuderia Ferrari race team, first for Alfa then for himself. Alfredino ("little Alfie" or Dino as he was more frequently known) went on to become an exceptional engineer in his own right before being fatally struck down by muscular dystrophy at the all-too-young age of 24. Even on his death bed, he was discussing the designs for his new engine with fellow engineer Vittorio Jano, the Hungarian genius behind many Alfa and Ferrari successes. Dino would never see his engine, nor the marque of cars that bore his name, but it was made a reality following his passing and both Ferrari and Fiat seized upon the accessibility and versatility of the 2 and 2.4 litre V6 to produce cars that were still aspirational, but not so far beyond the means of mere humans that they were an irrelevant dream like many Ferraris.

The Fiat Dino was created as both open and coupe grand tourers, a classy long-legged sporting pedigree but still within reach. It was very different to the "Ferrari" Dino that was very much a sportscar; cheaper than any "real" Ferrari but hardly a cheap car for all that. Despite this, the Fiat Dino hardly set the sales chart alive in the UK, and it's a rare thing over here. I'm not sure I ever remember seeing one on the street, so it was a treat to see several at Goodwood. Ironic, really, when some commentators claim the Fiat Dino only saw production as management realised Ferrari alone could never produce enough volume numbers to homologate the Dino V6 for racing, primarily Formula 2. Previously my only real experience of them was the Wheeler Dealers episode where one was restored. What a lovely shape they are, too. Make no mistake, these are proper sportsters too in the old front-engine rear-drive tradition. The 2-litre engined cars were built by Fiat, but the 2.4 litre cars were made by Ferrari. In addition, the coupes were bodied by Bertone but the Spiders in particular were bodied by Pinifarina and assembled on the Ferrari lines along with the 246 Dino Ferraris.





This silver Coupe in particular was one of the most immaculate cars I've ever seen. The owner was justifiably proud of it; a truly incredible restoration inside and out with just the right amount of modification to keep it modern and relevant too. Awesome!















Lovely as the Coupes are, the rarer Pininfarina-bodied Spider definitely has a bit more of a Ferrari swoop and swagger about its lines







Now then, variable valve timing... bet you thought of Honda then, didn't you? In actual fact, VVT was first patented in America in the 1920s. However, Fiat were the first to patent it for a specific automobile application including timing and lift alterations, back in 1970. Despite this, Alfa were the first to actually use it, on the Spider of 1980. It took Fiat themselves until 1995 to bring their own version to market, and then it was on the MkI Punto-chassised Barchetta (Italian for "little boat"). Strange but true.





It was funny cos I recently scored a back issue of Car magazine from August 1974 wherein was a group test of RX-4 vs Capri 3-litre vs Fiat 124 Coupe (they didn't really like any of the cars for the record!) and I thought jeez, when was the last time anyone saw a Fiat 124 Coupe on the road? Surely they must have all gone back to the soil long since? Well, apparently not. This one proves the old adage that there isn't a vehicle yet made that doesn't suit Wellers!



Here's another rarity...



The original Multipla (there were a couple of the new version there, but I didn't take any pics of them save in the background of other photos. Because they're the ugliest car ever made, bar none, and I felt physically ill every time I pointed the camera at one). Based on the Fiat 600 platform this was another truly inspirational vehicle, re-writing the rulebooks for utilitarian and versatile transport. From aft of the drivers seat a double bench or completely flat floor could be configured, explaining why this was both practical workhorse, family hack and taxi of choice in much of Italy for years. Even if it does look a bit odd, like it's driving backwards, lol. "Dashboard" redefines "minimalist"!







Of course, Fiat are usually associated with exactly this kind of functional but unexciting transport, largely due to their ability to use subsidiary companies to market their performance undertakings. However, they do every so often chuck one in from the leftfield, and once upon a time the X1/9 was going to be the sportscar for everyman. Aimed at the lucrative American sportscar market, it was the mid-engine rear-drive semi-exotic European sportscar affluent young bloods were meant to throw their bonus down on. And to some extent, it succeeded remarkably, even in more domestic markets. It never quite overcame the problems of overweight, underpower, terrible build quality and shocking steel that basically evaporated on contact with moisture... but within any measurable criteria it was a massive success. also helps it looks cool as hell in the futuristic style of the time, penned by none other than Gandini (yeah, him wot done the Countach). This one's had some love, fair to say

[Lucky]

OK, Ferraris then. Did I mention that there were a lot of Ferraris there?



Strange juxtaposition to normal day to day life, when the utterly exotic is the mainstay and the more mundane becomes esoteric. Anyway, I’ll do my best to be accurate here but I freely admit I’m far from being an expert on Fezzas…or even truth be told, much of an aficionado in a lot of cases…so you Ferrari lovers will have to forgive or (I’m sure) correct my occasional errors. Well, where to start? Tell you what, I’ll just pick one at random. How about 308s? Plenty around, and this is kinda my earliest memory of what a Ferrari looked like so this is sorta what they always look like in my head. I thought the day would be inundated with them given how long they were the ranges’ mainstay but there were only a few. Gunmetal one is my clear favourite, lovely colour







And a 328. Is there a difference? Who knows? To be honest, the only thing more obscure and arcane than Alfa’s naming strategy is Ferrari’s one; some use total displacement in decilitres (since presumably the litre is not actually an official SI unit) plus the number of cylinders (although in certain exemptions, the number of valves per cylinder), some used the displacement of a single cylinder, some used total displacement alone. Plus, of course, a letter suffix to denote what body style was used… you need a degree in obscure Italian traditions and a permanent Wikipedia link to have even half a chance! Note to Ferrari; sort your goddamned life out! If I know anything at all about it, I’m going to stake my reputation and say that the 328 was the successor to the 308, and because it’s a V8 its name derives from the capacity (32 for 32 decilitres or 3.2 litres to you and I) plus 8 for the engine configuration of eight cylinders. And because this is a targa it’s a GTS for “Gran Turismo Spyder” body shell. If I’m wrong, please don’t write in. Let me die happy in my ignorance, lol



There weren’t many of what I’d consider classic Ferraris (or old, to clarify what I mean by classic) although a couple of what I believe to be 330s kept the side up. I guess the more ancient examples of the marque are getting so stupidly valuable that many have become museum or collection articles, unable and unwilling to see the light of day on a damp autumn morning.









This silver spider version was probably my choice of the bunch. Another great colour, and a really well-kept car. Something about shiny spoked Borianis gets me all moist, too











One car that was definitely attracting a crowd turned out to be a replica (I believe) but I think just about anyone would put their dislike of replicas on hold for this one. We’re back to that Dino-instigated V6 engine again, this time placed in the Fantuzzi-designed glorious shape of the 250 TR platform. The little ‘six might have had half the cylinders of the original testarossa lump, but weighed considerably less and provided the chassis with a handling balance hitherto only dreamt of. However, il Commondatore wasn’t convinced the cars would be fast enough compared to the V12s, in keeping with his ethos that a car was a necessary evil to hold as powerful an engine as possible… and pulled the plug after just two were made. Enzo’s other main concern over the engine was the complexity of the 246 quad-cam 65 degree angle V6, and later versions of the Dino engine were a simpler twin-cam 196-displacement version with a different included angle. Two further versions of this front-engined racer were made, campaigned when the heavier v12 versions would be at a huge disadvantage on twisty tracks. The later 196s were mid-engined and had the distinction of being the first Ferrari true Sports Prototype as the first racer not to have an accompanying road version, but this replica of the first 196 shows how wonderful the swooping curves of the original were.















Really when you think about it, Ferrari have been guilty of some shocking fashion blunders over the years… but somehow they often get away with it! Bear witness this 348 (the one that looks like a 2nd gen MR2) complete with rear light louvre cover. Ought to look utterly cack; somehow just works. Nice to see 348 owners resisting the high-budget lure of fashionista red crackle effect paint on the cam coves, too





Here’s a 355 owner with impeccable taste, also. Nice to see the glorious shield of the once-mighty Leeds Untied FC in pride of place, even if the actual team aren’t much to be proud of these days. Incidentally, the final “5” in 355 stands for number of valves per cylinder, just to further confuse the naming strategy. So last century, even Yamaha gave up on five-valve heads as a white elephant…



Think it’s fair to say not all Ferraris are objects of great beauty. Although they can trace their bloodline right back to the Daytona, and despite being penned by legendary Carozzeria Pininfarina, and notwithstanding that they were a 2+2 sportscar capable of propelling the entire family and their luggage to the wrong side of 60mph in under seven seconds and in complete luxury, I don’t think anyone could accuse the 400 and 412 models of being lovely things to look at! Astonishingly capable, yes. Attractive… not so much. If you’re keeping up with the Ferrari Naming Game, you’ll of course already have worked out that because it’s a V12 the 412 refers to the displacement of one cylinder in cc, yeah? Why? Because it just does

[Lucky]

OK, I’m sure many of you regulars who choose to wade through the drivel on these threads will be aware that I’ve a bit of a thing for a certain kind of Ferrari. Derived from a leftover super-lightweight evolution of the previous ultimate Ferrari, the GTO, it was never intended as a racer but rather the ultimate roadcar. It was briefly the fastest production car in the world. It flowed more exhaust through the wastegate pipe than the cylinder exhaust. It was utterly devoid of compromise, the first fifty made not even having the luxury of opening windows. It was built with low weight, high power and effective aero as the only considerations. It was so focussed it had neither carpets nor stereo, nor even doorhandles and all the windows were plastic. It even neatly sidesteps all those naming conundrums by re-writing the rules there too. It was the last car signed off by Enzo Ferrari before his death, and it was the one he intended to be his finest achievement. But lest I start to sound as pompous and overblown as Clarkson, I’d best get on with some pics



Yeah, you’d guessed anyway, hadn’t you? Could only be one thing, couldn’t it. And yeah, there have been faster and more shocking and better looking and certainly better appointed cars since, but there’s only ever one best ever!



I’ve only ever seen two F40s in one place before once, at the Festival of Speed. There were four here today! One of them I only noticed as it was leaving! It snuck under my radar in a very stealth coat of Fast and Loud jet black although I later found I’d managed to get it in the background of some of the pics and didn’t even notice. See if you can spot it



This one you’re currently looking at made quite a stir by turning up late and having to drive through the crowd to its parking spot. People tend to notice an F40 driving past their ankles! I have to say, until that excellent resto mod job on Fast and Loud I’d never really noticed the room for improvement in F40 wheel size and offset, but I’d have to concede now it’s brought to our attention that they might have a point.





I’m not going to go over the specs and clutter the thread up with superlatives. You all know what you’re looking at, lol. The second one we came across obligingly had its rear clamshell open so we could peer in at the stupidly potent twin-turbo v8. This is actually one of the smaller engines Ferrari offered, coming from the 288 GTO as it did (if you’ve been keeping up with the Name Game you’ll know that’s a 2.8 litre V8). But the twin IHI turbos make up for a lot of the displacement deficit, and many commentators agree Ferrari undersold the actual power output, the claimed potential of 478PS at 7000 rpm is accepted to fall short of the real grunt available, generally over 500HP! The car was the first production car to crack 200mph, achieved as much by its extremely low coefficient of drag and substantial aerodynamic efficiency holding it to the road.



The engine bay demonstrates as ably as the exterior the no-compromise ethos of the engineering. The many undertrays and diffuser strakes, coupled with the low roofline and aerodynamic shape, meant that the engine bay could not be sealed due to the demands of the turbocharged engine for heat management. If you look at how everything is tightly packaged within the louvred rear screen you get a lesson in efficiency.



The turbos are directly on the exhaust manifolds, close as possible for fast spool, the airboxes are mounted a mere few inches from the intercooler intake, the wastegate nestles snugly between the two turbine housings and feeds a single massive central dump pipe. Likewise, the intercoolers sit right on top of the compressor housings. The turbos may be small to those of us now used to rotary gasflow in rainforest-killing amounts and all those alleged 1000-bhp Skylines and Supras, but it’s about response and reaction, relentless speed not laggy sledgehammer grunt. This is a sportscar, not a blunt instrument.








You’ve no idea how long I had to wait for this clear shot, by the way. Not unsurprisingly, everyone and their dog on seeing an open F40 engine bay want to wander over and stick their mullet right inside!



The third red one was up the opposite end of the track, which was good because just as the first got me carried away with the extreme bodywork and mad aero, the second gave me a chance to explore the amazing packaging of the engine bay, the third gave me a chance to catch up on what I missed. Namely, the interior. Those Gas Monkeys might have been rather scathing about the fact it seems to be lined with “trunk liner” …I prefer to think of it as the same thing they coated Action Man’s hair with, myself… but somehow you can’t imagine it any other way. After all, the gauges are there if you need them, not so you can gaze adoringly at them. The interior is dour and unremarkable because you’re meant to be keeping your eyes on the damned road! After all, the first fifty cars came with lexan sliding window inserts, it was only later you got the luxury of a wind-down window. Yeah, maybe the sort of people who would spend a million dollars on a car were used to being treated slightly more cossetingly, but you have to admire Ferrari for sticking to their design vision on this one. Anyway, stop complaining, you got aircon. And absolutely beautiful carbon-kevlar backed seats







I’m a bit unnecessary after all those F40s now, better slow things down a bit now. Actually, I’m not sure that the new 458 Italia is actually much slower than an F40…probably not in fact. The top speed is comparable, at 202 mph for the Italia, but since it boasts the highest relative power output for displacement of any mass production car ever at 127PS per litre and since its 4.5 litre V8 (458, yeah? Please try to keep up at the back) boasts a face-witheringly brisk 562bhp at 9000rpm, I guess it’s fair to hypothesise it’s a fairly rapid event getting there!



There were LOADS of the damned things here today. In keeping with many modern cars I have to say I’m not vastly enamoured of the overall shape, but oh my! Some of the detail touches are rather engrossing. From the work-of art LED festooned headlights to the self-deflecting aero splitter splines, to the mad diffuser strategy… everywhere you look there’s something to like. So here, have a look;

















It’s alleged that the resurrection of the California name came at the expense of another famous old Italian marque. The front-engined hardtop coupe-convertible was originally intended to be a Maserati, but in order to recoup the extreme cost of development the decision was made by Fiat top brass to rebadge it as a Ferrari to justify the high price. This has always been denied by Fiat, but it certainly has some very Maserati-alike design features in it. There were a surprising number here as well, though that makes it even more unfathomable that I completely failed to get a single decent full-body photo of a one of them. Sorry, you’ll have to make do with detail shots. If it’s of any consolation, they do feature my current second favourite Ferrari headlight?











Now, this is more like it. Another one-time fastest production car, and much-loved of anyone who ever wanted rolled-up jacket sleeves, esperdrills and a Miami Vice lifestyle. Of course, it’s a commonly told tale that Ferrari themselves never gave this car its best known name of Daytona. It was awarded by the press to the 1-2-3 finish of the three prototype P330s at the 1967 Daytona 24-hrs race. The actual car designation was the much less romantic 365 GTB, which if you’ve been keeping up in class will lead you to decipher this is a V12 engined car wherein each cylinder displaces 365cc. Hence the loooooooong bonnet, with that epic Colombo-designed quad-cam v12 stretched out in front. Given the epic and legendary nature of these cars, I was surprised to only see this one here, but one is better than none! This is shown to be a later production car; the first ones had fixed headlights behind glass. These were banned in 1971 by American legislation that prohibited glass headlight covers for safety reasons. Oddly, given that the later pop-ups were also later banned on safety grounds. I think safety legislators just work on banning anything that looks good on the principle that must mean people are enjoying it…









I’m really not quite sure what the story is with our next car here. The Monza series of Fezzas were an attempt to diversify into different areas of competition where the Colombo V12 mainstay race engine was ineligible. To this end the front-engined open sportscar family was spawned, pulled around by a Lampredi-designed four pot.



The Monza 860 was a derivation from the earlier 857 (The Name Game leads us to the conclusion this was a 3.4 litre four as each cylinder was 860cc, as revealed in the name). However, a peer at the ID plate screwed to the dash shows this car claims a 3-litre V6, although it does claim a 1956 manufacture date, which is the correct year for the body and chassis. Of course, there was no such engine back then and even the Dino never got to three litres, the 308 Dino being a V8. So I dunno. Don’t know if this is an original Monza with an engine swap, or a replica or what. Happy to be told if anyone knows, lol



Much like the earlier 196 replica, though, it doesn’t really matter what the hell it is when it’s this utterly gorgeous, does it?









Since we recently touched back on the Dino engine, shall we have some Ferrari examples of its home? For me the shape of the 206 and 246 Dinos is one of the best ever wrapped around a car. It’s easily my second favourite Ferrari (and yes, pedants, I’m aware it was never officially badged as a Ferrari). Although many comparisons could be drawn to Enzo’s rival Henry Ford (semi-autonomous marque set up to honour the legacy of a dead son, hard-headed reluctance to compromise, megalomaniacal domination of their empire, etc), the man himself saw the Dino range as a way to compete with upstart Porsche and their 911. Despite that it was the entry-level route to Ferrari goodness, they didn’t cut corners on the Dino. It was a proper racer for the road, and the mid-engined layout was a very bold move on a road car in its day. That it happened to be stunningly good-looking was a nice bonus!













Back in the day (assuming the day was the style vacuum of the late 80s) the shock and awe in the Ferrari stable came from the resurrection of the Testarossa name. Things always sound more exotic in Italian, it's true (would anyone buy a Fiat "Point", "Type" or "Road", for example, if they translated the names into English?) but in this case "Red Head" I guess does sound fairly exotic anyway...well it conjures up images in my mind at least. Anyway, the Testarossa was the successor to the Berlinetta Boxer (in the Name Game, Boxer is the horizontally-opposed nature of the piston layout, Berlinetta derives from the Italian meaning "little saloon" or coupe, basically. The Testarossa, being a flat-12, throws another spanner into the mix by being named after the overall displacement in litres at 512, not the displacement of one cylinder as per V12s. Got all that? Good) and was designed to address the flaws of that model. To this ends, it featured massive rear-mounted twin radiators to overcome the BBs problems of packaging and overheating the cabin by running radiator lines from the rear engine to front radiator. The problem this caused was the immense width of the rear of the car, already wide due to the flat-12 engine. The gaps between doors and radiator pods were filled with the distinctive side strakes in order to comply with safety legislation. It was truly a triumph of packaging, keeping the huge engine mid-mounted between the axles and still finding room for a larger cabin and storage space, but it came at the expense of the car being relatively massive. And with the hindsight of a time of more restrained tastes, rather vulgar to be fair. Despite the hugely overblown styling, they sold about 10 000 of the things, so it's odd that you almost never see them any more. Could it be that even Ferrari owners are embarrassable?



The 360 Modena, despite being arguably a continuation of the 355, in actual fact featured an all-new aluminium spaceframe and panelling, thus massively improving over its predecessor's power-to-weight ratio. It also had clever stuff like titanium conrods to keep weight down and give the reciprocating mass an easier life. Annoyingly, it deviated from the Name Game tradition by being a V8 but by only using overall capacity for all three numerals, ignoring the traditional last one being the engine configuration designation. This continued onto the successor, the F430, then reverted to type for it's successor, the 458. I think they're just taking the piss... Anyway, given how damned many Ferrari flogged over its six year lifespan, I was surprised there weren't more around. This race-liveried example caught my eye though. Not sure if it's genuinely one of the hopped-up versions such as a Challenge Stradale or just a stocker in a flash suit. IIRC all the competition versions such as the GTs and Modena Challenge weren't road-legal







Again, very few F430s around although there was this Spyder that I felt motivated to pap a bit. I guess if you're going to have something as close the male menopause on wheels as a convertible Fezza you may as well have the engine on show under glass as well, lol







And going back to the 355 (remember, breaking the rules of the Name Game by having the number of valves per cylinder as the final digit?), I think this engine bay is from one. I intelligently failed to get one of the outside of the car, being basically hypnotised by the shiny carbon Gruppe M intake system. Bet that wasn't cheap!





Can't even remember what this is of either. You know what, I'm getting bored of Ferraris now, shall we move onto something more interesting instead? lol

[Lucky]

We mentioned Giotto Bizzarrini before, and how after his excommunication from Ferrari he moved to the brief but excellent Iso concern. The baby of Renzo Rivolta, the re-vamped Iso Rivolta company was born out of the industrial basis of a refrigeration plant manufacturer. Ventures in motorbikes and the iconic Issetta bubblecar followed the War before Bizzarrini's expertise made the luxury car market an achievable goal. The car bearing Renzo's name, the Iso Rivolta IR 300, was the product not just of Bizzarrini's technical know-how but also the design talents of Giugiaro and Bertone. Powered by a 5.4 litre V8 Chevy engine similar to that in the Corvette, axles and four-wheel discbrake set up that was breaking ground for Jaguar at the time, and made from very high-quality componentry and tooling, the car was an upmarket grand tourer. The company subsequently went on to make the more numerous and even more stunning Grifo, though even those only numbered around 1700. Perhaps if Renzo hadn't suddenly died in 1966 and his rather less acumen-heavy son taken over the company it might have survived beyond 1972. Save a couple of Corvette-alike prototype concept cars in 1990 and '96, the Iso name is one of those glorious Italian so-nearly stories that litter the pages of automotive history. This Rivolta is therefore an extremely rare survivor, and one that looks to have some racing pedigree behind it as well





Funny thing, exclusivity. There's a danger you might stop at the lights next to another 458 Italia just like yours (in fact, judging by the number of the damned things here, you've more chance of stopping next to one than, say, a 2.8 Granada Ghia). However, the odds are if you drive a Lancia like this next one you're unlikely ever to have this problem of essentially wearing the same outfit to the office party as spotty old Agnes from Accounts. I'm afraid I can't tell you anything much about it other than it's apparently a 1910 Lancia, which made it comfortably the oldest car here. Just look at the pics and admire the details; I particularly like the scary external copper fuel lines, the extremely lively-looking live front axle, the artillery wheels with bolt-off rim and tyre sections for ease of changing, the complete lack of front brakes and the utterly contemporary and very scene low-down aggressive stance!



















Of course, compared to Lancia and Alfa, marques like Ferrari are johnny-come-lately mayflies with no true sense of heritage. It's hard not to love Lancia's ethos of building the cars they wanted to build, often with little consideration as to whether anyone was likely to buy them. This was of minor consideration when faced against whether it could be harangued around a track or stage with maximum velocity the only real goal. That they could turn out stunning aesthetics as well was a side-effect of simply being Italian, it seems. It always was about the engineering, and of course this made them all the cooler. Always a marque for the cognoscenti rather than the fashionista. The Aurelia was the work of Vittorio Jano (him again). It featured the first mass-market production V6 engine, complete with hemispherical combustion chambers... likewise the first transaxle complete with inboard brakes. Running to six series over a nine-year lifespan, it's no surpirse there were a couple here to show off that they were alos quite a looker in their day















The Lancia Beta was the first car to come from the marque following Fiat's takeover in 1966. The Fulvia was up till then the company's mainstay, but had been designed with no concession whatsoever to being cost-effective to manufacture and the managerless Lancia was haemorrhaging money. Fiat might have made it more fiscally viable, but at the cost of ...shall we say... beige-ing down the range. The Beta used a Fiat engine, front-drive and generous access to the Fiat parts bin to keep costs down. Strange, perhaps, then, that just as I was convinced I wasn't going to see a single Beta, the most unlikely of all hove into view. The HPE was the most bizarre of vehicles; was it a coupe? an estate? a shooting-brake? No-one knew! No-one wanted a two-door shooting brake, nor an estate-sized sporting coupe, and no-one bought them. Or so you'd think, but over 71000 were made! Who knew... Nowadays, of course, it looks fantastic, but I couldn't help but wish for a Beta Montecarlo, or the insane Bellini-designed dash of a Trevi instead







The car that took over from the Aurelia as Lancia's premier vehicle was the Flaminia. Available as coupes, saloon (Berlina) and cabriolet versions, there were even some made into stretch limousines by Pinifarina for Italian dignitaries. Perhaps the reverse of normal buying patterns, the coupe outsold the Berlina markedly, despite being far more expensive as the coupe bodies were coachbuilt. Maybe people were used to buying Lancias for ability rather than serenity. Bodies were made by Carozzeria Touring (GT models), Pininfarina (the bulk of coupe models and also the original design for the Berlina) and even Zagato offered superlightweight Sport versions. As usual with Lancia, there was no consideration given to how easy the cars were to manufacture, they were made how they needed to be irrespective of tawdry real-world constraints! At first I was slightly worried that the old boy in this blue Flaminia had dropped dead, but fortunately he was just having a nap, as I saw him happily driving off at the end of the meet!

[Lucky]

Right, then... Fulvias



I have to be honest, first time I ever heard the word "Fulvia" I was sure it was a rude one. Or at least a descriptive term for a schoolboy-amusing part of private anatomy. Disappointingly not. Turns out it's either an ancient Roman ladies' name of a genus of cockles. Or an asteroid, the 609th to be classified. Or, of course, one of the cars with one of the greatest contributions to motorsport Lancia ever managed!



To be honest, I'm not even going to try to identify what's what here; there were about 12 different versions of the coupe produced, and half as many again Berlinas! I'll leave that to the Fulvia afficianados. The real uniting factor between them all was that amazing narrow-angle Lancia V4 that began life as a mere 1091cc and went through four capacity hikes to end its like as a lusty even narrower-angle HF version of 1584cc. A masterpiece of packaging, the V-angle is so acute that a single head can be utilised, and one camshaft for exhaust, one for intake. By now it's scarcely worth re-iterating that because the cars are Italian they also look excellent too. I have to say, the coupe in it's many forms definitely shades the saloon noticeably in aesthetics, though. Just as well, there were loads of the damned things!















This next one is also a Fulvia, but not like all the others. As we previously discussed (seems like ages ago, right back at A for Alfa), Zagato are usually the Carozzeria you can rely upon to produce the most outré styling treatments, and their Fulvia variant is no exception. The Fulvia Sport Zagato was a 1216cc-engined two-seater version of the coupe, bodied in aluminium in distinctive style. There are elements of Renault or Citroën in the shape but it's definitely an attention-grabbing design, and almost unrecognisable as a Fulvia!









There are a lot of words that probably get miss-used when discussing the cars we all love, but in the case of the Lancia Delta Integrale most of them are probably justified. Legend, iconic, amazing, genre-defining... to be honest, think of a superlative and it probably fits in. Except for maybe "luxurious", lol. Exploiting the vacuum left by the demise of Group B rallying in 1986, Lancia were the only manufacturer to really have a sorted weapon ready to make Group A all its own. The evolution of the Delta was a permanent four-wheel drive turbocharged pocket rocket of ferocious ability. Mods to homologate wider bodywork and deeper arches for larger wheels and bigger brakes ensured that for 1987 at least the car was almost unbeatable, taking seven of the eleven world championship rally rounds, and ten from eleven in '88. The legend was ensured... Rarely do you find a car so comprehensively defined by its ability, but the Integrale is all aggressive hunched stance, box arches and cooling vents speaking quietly but insistently of its immense competence. I love these little weapons, can you tell, lol? Especially the burgundy one, what a gorgeous colour















Although the theme of the day was Italian cars, there were a couple of oddities that I felt needed photographing. If only in a sort of WTF is that doing here kind of way. For example, right at the end of the track was this;



and whilst it's a very nice convertible Moggy, I've no idea what the hell it was doing there. Unless it had, like a Ferrari V8 under the bonnet or something. Likewise, this Ultima was very nice and undeniably potent, but not quite sure why it was in the paddock





however, I love them and wouldn't pass the chance to snap a little endurance racer for the road! One car that had nothing to do with Italianate metal whatsoever but was pretty much un-ignorable was this beautiful blue GT6 wedged over away in one corner of the paddock. That it permanently had a crowd round it spoke volumes that this was not your average humble little Triumph coupe amongst all this Latin exotica!



Sure enough, when you got under the clamshell front end you could see why it attracted some attention! Fuel injected, one-off ignition setup, all new componentry throughout. One of those cars where everywhere you looked there was something to marvel at and go "ooooh, see what they've done there?". Most impressive







Then there were these things;



Hmmm. Not actually a Bugatti, you perhaps won't be surprised to learn. And even though Ettore Bugatti was born in Milan, he became a naturalised Frenchman so that hardly counts as Italian. Anyway, this brace are actually Teals (brace of teals, arf! D'ysee what I did there? Oh, never mind). Teals are arguably a class above your average replica in as much as they did at least use their own bespoke ladder chassis and bodywork, thus avoiding the trap of, say making a Ferrari replica out of an MR2 but having it just look like a bloated MR2 at the end. Early Teals used the humble running gear of the even humbler Morris Marina, of all things, and GRP bodywork though later versions used MGB gear, Rover and even Jaguar, plus have proper aluminium bodywork panels. To be fair, they look OK and even up close retain a certain authenticity. It's only when you really look under the skin they reveal their sketchy componentry and poverty-spec origins;



Anyway, the old boy who owned it was very kind and approachable, and didn't even mind my son begging a go sitting in it, so kudos to him for that!



Anyway, whatever your opinion of replicas is, they were there and I thought they were worthy of a few pics, so here are some where I tried to record their best features, lol. I always think the ultimate test of whether a car is cool or not is if six-year olds like them, so on that level they get a pass at least









Another rather odd and unexpected anomaly was this amusing Malossi-tuned trike delivery van thing. For those who don't know, if you're an Italian yoof and therfore able to ride a motor-scooter from the tender age of 14 (or whatever it is now) then the only thing that really matters is making it faster. Rather like Aussies are either Ford or Holden, young scooter hooners are either Malossi or Polini, sourcing Del'orto carb upgrades, racing variators, exhausts and everything else you need to make your 50cc transport good for that elusive but vital extra 0.003 mph!

[Lucky]

Although four of the five Maserati brothers were making cars from 1914 onwards, it wasn't until they left the floundering Diatto firm in 1926 that cars were produced bearing their own name. For twenty years they refused to dilute their racing vision by making road cars, and it wasn't until after the Second World War when the company was in the ownership of the Orsi family and the Maserati brothers were long gone that they moved into the street car market. The company logo remained the same, despite the move to Turin and finally Modena, the trident still echoes the brass statue of Neptune holding back the sea in the plaza in the Maserati's native Bologna. The firm has even been in Citroën ownership, then de Tomaso before finally heading "home" to Fiat and ultimately being sold internally as the luxury division of Ferarri. Thus it's actually a relatively recent player in the scheme of heritage that Italian marques tend to accumulate, though still more venerable than Ferrari and Lamborghini. With that said the oldest Maserati here today wasn't, I fear, even a real one but a replica. Although what a replica; bear witness the spectacular curves of the Monza





For some strange reason I managed to avoid getting many full-car shots of the Masers that were there. Not sure what happened there. Arguably the output since Fiat/Ferrari ownership is pretty far from the original metier of the company, but that's no bad thing from my point of view anyway. Clarkson et al can witter on about how they're compromised and all the Quattroportes and Gran Turismos are compromised and heavy and not sporty enough, but I feel that's missing the point rather. They look fantastic, sound even better, and go like stink far beyond the legality of most countries or the roads' ability to contain them. So that's alright then, isn't it? The only regret I really have is that there were none of the Top Trumps supercar insanity that defined Maserati when I was a kid; the Meraks, Boras and Ghiblis that were the talk of the playground and the matchbox cars you wanted to swap for. Shame, all I can offer is a medley of modern Masers by way of compensation



















Oddly, given the kind of nadir the marque hit under de Tomaso management (again, that poster-boi for all that is idiotic and hateful in car culture Clarkson, once bought a Biturbo just so he could blow it up for being the worst car ever) there were a couple of examples of the sort of car that represented Maseratis in the late 80s. The Karif apparently wasn't even bad enough to provoke such righteous indignation. It was a capable enough car, just perhaps underwhelming in the context of what had gone before. It's dated styling now actually looks quite good however, or maybe that's just in comparison to a world filled with identikit one-box econocars. The Karif, apparently named after a Somalian seasonal wind, was powered by the same 2.8 litre V6 as the Biturbo, thus being capable (allegedly) of a sub-5-second zero-sixty time. So it's no slouch either! A car almost forgotten by recent history, and one that made me re-assess my own prejudices, I came away really rather fond of these little coupes





Our final offering from the Maserati stable goes back a bit further, to the mid-60s. Named for the firm's victory at the 12-hour race, the Sebring was based on the 3500 platform, featuring the same 3.5 litre inline six but all-new 2+2 coupe bodywork by Michelotti at Vignale. It was an exclusive, well-appointed and fast GT for the well-heeled and discerning gent, and a rare car too Only about 350 Series 1 cars were made.

[Lucky]

Right, we're just about done now. There's only one other marque left to discuss, and that's the most recent firm to triumph for Italy on the world stage. The story of how a certain tractor manufacturer resolved to out-Ferrari ol' Enzo at his own game is legendary, but still funny. Urban folklore has it that Ferrucio Lamborghini grew so fed up with the poor quality of his successive Ferrari 250GT models that he resolved to build his own supercar the way he felt it should be built. He persistently complained about the poor interiors, excessive noise and in particular fragile clutches of his 250s that consistently meant they were returned to Modena for repair, where the rude and demeaning Ferrari aftersales treatment would further incense him. This was a man who knew cars, too, he wasn't just a bored rich kid wanting to moan about things. He was a time-served engineer and his personal fleet included a Mercedes 300SL, a Jaguar E-Type and two Maserati 3500GTs (though he's reputed to think the Masers "were really heavy and did not go very fast"). Anyway, after taking it upon himself to rebuild his own Ferrari and ending up with a car more civilised and with better performance than stock, he resolved upon his path.

Attracting experts to him with his new business plan, he launched Lamborghini in 1963, utilising the Bizzarrini-designed V12. Amusingly, Ferrucio always intended his cars to be road cars primarily, since it was Ferrari's race-car-for-the-road harshness that incensed him the most. The Bizzarrini engine was a thinly-veiled race motor complete with dry sump lubrication system and stratospherically high compression ratio. Lamborghini was enraged, and refused to pay the engineer the agreed sum (plus the bonus for every horsepower the engine produced over and above the equivalent Ferrari V12) until the matter was dragged through the courts and he was bound over to pay up. Gotta respect that. Anyway, despite essentially these days being styled-up Audis, Lamborghini have managed by some miracle to retain some of the spirit and brio of Ferrucio's character. Arguably they got of to a slightly shaky start with the Ferrari-lite performance and slightly awkward styling of the Scaglione-penned 350GTV and 400GTs, but once a certain bright upcoming young spark called Gandini, recently taken over at Bertone from Giugiaro as lead designer, sketched out the show car P400 that would evolve into the Miura, one of the most beautiful man-made objects in the world... well, the rest is indeed history. Sadly, there were no Miuras here today (or I'd still be standing dribbling on it in a stupor) so let's start our round-up of Sant'Agata's output with perhaps the least likely example, shall we?



Oddly, if this is a real one, it shoots straight up near the top of rarest cars on the day. The Silhouette was a lightweight Targa-top two seat sportscar with a transverse mount all alloy V8 of three litre displacement. It was based on the Urraco underpinningas and evolved into the Jalpa, but during the 1976-'79 production run only 54 were built, of which about 30 are believed to still exist!







.....and right at the opposite end of the range is this mad, mad thing



Sorry, couldn't find a Veneno, so the most current example of Lambo-ness here was this Aventador. In keeping with Ferrucio's obsession with bullfighting and naming his cars after pieces of its folklore, the Aventador is named after a legendary bull that fought in the rings of Saragossa. Although very much a mid-engined V12 missile in the best Lambo tradition, the Aventador features only the second V12 engine to come from the marque. At just under four litres at developing ~700PS it's a worthy successor. It's alleged that the moulds used to cast the carbon-fibre monocoque will only survive production of 500 units each, and only eight moulds were made. Once those 4000 cars are in the world, that's the lot











In actual fact, the Aventador's predecessor (via the limited edition Reventón) the Murciélago doesn't number much more than that, notwithstanding its ten-year production run (yeah, I was surprised it's been that long, too). Only 4099 Murciélagos were made. The car took its name from a fighting bull that survived no fewer than 24 sword strokes from the snappily-named Rafael "El Lagartijo" Molina Sánchez in Córdoba bullring in 1897. It's alleged that the matador was so impressed by the bulls spirit that its life was spared and it passed to Don Antonio Miura, where it became the grandsire of the Miura bull bloodline. This story is apparently refuted by the Miura ranch, but it makes for good cinema, lol. Murciélago is also Spanish for "bat". Anyway, despite the 4-grand world production they were quite numerous here today. The SV (or LP670-4 Super Veloce to give it's full title) was some kind of ultimate amongst Murciélagos, with revised engine characteristics and exhuast, more carbon, lighter weight and general track bias. And crammed with lovely details to photograph!



















Before Murciélago there was Diablo. Also named for a famous bull, unwilling star of a titanic battle against matador "El Chicorro" in Madrid, 1869, it is also Spanish for "Devil". Perhaps obviously. The design brief for the Diablo was that it had to be able to exceed 196 mph. Which it did, at 202mph. The company had learned from its predecessor, and the Diablo was more comfortably appointed, although there were surprising omissions from the standard equipment at first (anti-lock brakes and power steering, for example!). These mod cons came part-way through the eleven-year production run. Other than such tinkering, the car remained largely the same throughout, except for the swap from pop-up to fixed headlights (the same as the ones in the Nissan 300ZX, in fact), proving that Gandini had very much done it again and got it right first time. A few special editions livened the breed up from time to time, some of which were represented here today. Despite the fact that one of the options was a $10500 dash clock by Breguet, the interiors look quite non-opulent and spartan by todays standards.





















This VT differed from the "ordinary" Diablos mainly in the adoption of four-wheel drive, nowadays a mainstay of the Lamborghini range. The VT in the name stands for "viscous traction" in reference to the torque-splitting viscous centre diff. It also had a plethora of tweaks that eventually filtered down to the base models; re-sculpted more ergonomic dash, four-piston brakes, electronically-adjustable suspension dampers, large rear arch air vents for improved cooling, etc. Oh, and power steering (at last). Judging by the antics I saw here, the insane difficulty of parking a Lambo has not been exaggerated!





Despite the numberplate, I don't believe this is actually an SE30 Jota. It is, however, an SE30, the limited edition commemorating thirty years of the company. They, like the VT, featured many upgrades that would later be applied across the range, such as improved cooling, better power, magnesium intake setup, revised exhaust and so on. They all came in this distinctive metallic purple, though it could be changed to the purchasers' choice on request! The SE30 also had Lexan sidewindows for lightness, and distinctive multi-strake intakes at the rear for cooling. The Jota was a track-prepared next step that could be specified for your SE30, including MR2-style (OK< Formula 1 style then) hunchback air intakes protruding over the roof from the engine deck.





Well, if you're a regular sufferer...errr I mean reader... of my threads you'll know I always like to end on a high. As my old ballet teacher used to scream while exhorting me to greater efforts on my grand jeté, lol. Well, there's only one way we can really take it now, isn't there, the one glaring omission so far, the car that graced a thousand Athena posters on a thousand bedroom walls.



Yeah, the original may have greater purity of line and subtelty in its lithe, hunched, pouncing predator shape. But if the measure of supercar success is truly whether it makes you feel ten years old again, it's hard to argue against the overblown mad finnery and be-winged excess of the later Countachs



I mean, it still looks incredible today, think what this was like back in the day when there was literally nothing like it in the world that wasn't a fighter plane. This really is some kind of ultimate, and I think for once I might just shut up and let you enjoy the pictures...











So that was our morning done. We had one last cup of tea as the track emptied, and it seemed strange how quickly it became deserted and quiet after the intense bustle and crowding. I couldn't help but feel a bit sad as I carried a very tired two-year-old daughter (mine, fortunately) back through the car park field, knowing that this was the last show I'd get to this year. However, a few things cheered me up on the way back to the stoic F*rd. One was this little baby Lambo scurrying away through the car park, as if it had been lurking here ashamed to be seen with its bigger and more glamorous siblings. In any other context it would have been wowing the passersby, bless it



The next thing was the thought that there are loads of these Breakfast Clubs to look forward to next year, and you can damn well guarantee my name will be down on the Japanese one! The final thing was this rather splendid but completely random Galaxie that buzzed past as we were leaving, lazy V8 burble filling the warm green space between leafy Sussex hedgerows with careless ownership as though the highly-strung Italian flair that had screamed over the same route moments before had all been some transient glimpse, a dream snatched from a place more beautiful, more striking, more vibrant, than the autumn setting her shoulders all around.



All so inappropriate, and yet so goooooood. See you there next year? Cool. Now, go away

[Hobbawobba]

Awesome write-up and pictures as usual. Damn the Ferrari name game!