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Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
These Are Your Favorite Italian Cars
After asking you to share your favorite French cars a few weeks ago, earlier this week I asked you to tell me about your favorite Italian cars, prompted by me attending the latest Macchinissima show in Los Angeles. My example was the Lancia Delta S4, the roadgoing version of the marque's turbocharged and supercharged mid-engined Group B rally car. While not particularly beautiful as most Italian cars usually are, the wild Delta S4 is an excellent example of why we love Italian cars — their designs, innovative engineering and overall interestingness. Thankfully you all responded with lots of excellent examples, from small family cars to expensive supercars and all sorts of weird stuff in between. Like with the French car roundup, I'm picking out your answers that I personally like the most, or at least think are the thought-provoking choices. So don't get mad just because you said the Ferrari 250 GT0 and I didn't include it in this roundup. Without further ado, keep reading to see what your fellow Jalops picked as their favorite Italian cars. Read more: These Movies And TV Shows Have The Best Car Casting 1960 Ferrari 250 GT Pinin Farina Coupe, because... You're kidding, right? Suggested by: Jimboy Junio I think all of the best Ferraris are the big front-engine ones. Ferrari 550 Maranello. I love the long hood/short deck design, V12 grand tourer with a wonderful interior, 6 speed manual and styling that is absolute perfection. Even the wheels show how a restrained design can be beautiful on a modern car, not everything has to be angles, spoilers, vents, etc. Suggested by: cintocrunch1 As I was just saying... Alfa Romeo C52 Disco Volante spider. Goodness gracious so, so many possibilities. The Lancia Stratos is probably the answer, but I'll go with the Alfa Romeo Disco Volante C52, either Coupé or Spider. The bulging wings, the light weight - pretty zippy and beautiful and bonkers all at once. And, lest we forget, it was called the Disco Volante! Suggested by: Bossrday, BB Absolutely stunning and with probably the best name of all time. LM002. The Rambo Lambo is the flame to my inner automotive moth. It is Italian madness given form. Nothing about it makes sense, and yet I am inexorably drawn to it. I don't think I could ever own one, much less manage to maintain one. But as a pure thought experiment, it's gotta be my favorite. I'm a scientist. Data is my life. I know how objectively not-good and illogical this thing is, and yet I am powerless to resist. Truly a car for crazy people or, in the case of the boat engine, even crazier people. This was my answer as well. It was the first of the super SUVs. Only Lamborghini - at the time - would've thought of stuffing a racing V12 into a military grade off-roader. It was bonkers. I love these things. They were true Italian madness. You could have the V12 from the Countach or if you were insane you could have the marine racing V12. In a world of red supercars, these are still revolutionary stand-outs. Suggested by: Give Me Tacos or Give Me Death, JohnnyWasASchoolBoy Best Lamborghini ever. It's hard to say, but the Alfa Duetto Spider definitely helped launch my gear head fantasies as a kid. 1967 Alfa Romeo Spider Duetto. My Dad bought one when I was in junior high. It was a beautiful pale yellow with a black interior. I never got to drive it, but I did sit in it in the garage and make engine noises. It will always be Italian motoring to me. My grandfather and I rebuilt a 1983 Spider Veloci I think the year before the rubber tails. It was so much fun to drive with a Five speed no overdrive. I clicked on Replies to say this but you beat me to it. Saw the one in The Graduate and I always wanted one. Definitely the top pick. Just a gorgeous car. The one in my garage!! Currently 1974 Spider 2000 Suggested by Matt Pipes, Stillnotatony, Not Me, mnmrosen, Lost in my Land, Nick Sq When you look up "Italian car" in the dictionary, I think the photo is of a Duetto. I am not a huge fan of Ferrari in general, but the 288 GTO ticked all of the boxes. It is, in my mind, exactly what an Italian supercar should look like and how it should perform. I know, I know, the F40, and I agree that it's likely one of the best performance cars ever made, which also happens to be Italian. However, the 288 GTO is always my sweet spot for modern, mid-engined super Ferraris. Ferrari 288 GTO, full stop. That said, if I was spending my own money I could be talked into an Alfa GTV 6. Suggested by: potbellyjoe, BuddyS I've always thought the 288 GTO is a lot cooler than the F40. Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale for me. Art on wheels I have alot of favorites, but from a beauty standpoint, I'm going to have to go with the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. Beauty that rivals even the E-Type Jag, simply smooth, simple, elegant, but full of personality with a slight grin on it's face. cars in general are missing these elements. Alfa Romeo Tipo 33 The one from the 1960s, not the horrid new thing they are asking millions for today. Without a doubt, the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. The most iconic car that define the Alfa brand, in my opinion. Suggested by: Robert Winter, Agon Targeryan, Featherlite, Luc Desaulniers (minardi) Truly one of the most beautiful cars of all time. My all-time favorite is the 288 GTO, but I also have a fond childhood love with the '76 Fiat Lancia Scorpion. My father ran a body shop out of a large building in our back yard when I was in high school. A friend of his collected cars (he was actually blind) and we stored his '76 Fiat Lancia Scorpion at our house for about a year. It was in great shape, but the motor was seized from sitting so long. I really wanted to buy it, but my father said absolutely not given how hard parts were to source and the reliability concerns. It was a very unique car though and I would spend hours looking at it. The soft roll back top was probably my favorite feature. Suggested by: Chad Raskovich I just saw a really well modified Scorpion the other day! my first car was a used fiat x 1/9. sapped most of my savings and that thing had mechanical issues. but when it ran it was a dream to drive. it cornered so well. when i got a more reliable car for college, my mom guilted me into lending it to a work friend who needed a second car so both she and her husband to get to work when their shifts intersected. i remember taking him for a quick drive to explain of driving the car. he always redlined the thing before shifting. i tried to explain teh shift points, but to no avail. and he would keep pressure on the accelerator when shifting, so you could hear the engine rev even higher. made me really uncomfortable. when he drove away i had a feeling i would never see her again. two weeks later i heard it almost broke their marriage because he was driving it around town and not telling her where he was going. one week after that i got a call some kids tried to rip the poptop off to steal the radio. three week later i got a call from my mom that "the clutch went out." i couldnt get verification if it was the clutch or the entire transmission, but i was heartbroken. they didnt offer to pay anything to fix it, either. my mom said, "well, they paid to have it towed." "to where? how much will it cost to fix?" "we figured it was just gone, so we had it towed to a junkyard. they said theyll give you $300 for it." "i think its worth more than that!" "well, we already sold it to them." i saw it driving around three times that summer Looks over at the one owned since I was 18, at 340K miles. What mechanical issues is it people always speak of??? Kick a little asphalt. All X1/9s need to be driven in anger on a road course or autocross. Suggested by: two_wheel_four_wheels, Frank C. The X1/9 is cool as hell. Qvale Mangusta. As a kid, I would occasionally see one advertised in the newspaper classifieds with no picture. I was like "Huh, what is that?". We had no internet at the time so one day, I randomly Googled it at the local library and it was so weird and bizarre. To this day, I just love the uniqueness and obscurity of it. Suggested by: Giantsgiants I was obsessed with these as a kid, and I still get excited every time I see one. Somewhat of a sleeper, and overshadowed by it better endowed body panel mate, the Bora, I have always liked the idea of a Maserati Merak SS as a potential daily driver. I was two test drives into almost buying one, but ended up keeping the venerable 63 Mercedes W111 that I was driving at the time. Masterpiece by Giugiaro. I have to go with the Bora though . . . Suggested by: redseca2, Jake I always flip-flop on which of these two I like more. Today I think it's the Merak. Aside from the exotics for everyday driving an Alfa Romeo GTV coupe. The last version produced from 95-04 which we didn't get in the states but can be available due to the 25 year import rule. Yeah it's FWD but with the 3.0-L Busso it sings. Suggested by: Merrill Frank I adore these. Is this a fantasy list or more down to earth? People orbiting the Abarth and Fiat world will remember Al Costentino. The man lived not too far from me before he passed away. Somehow, that man was able to import a Lancia Rally 037 in the country back in the late 80s or early 90s. I saw it a few times on the streets of Thousand Oaks, CA. Beautiful beast, with the rear clamshell exposing all of the mechanicals. I know who you speak of. He was supplier of Italian speed equipment and parts during the 70s and 80s. I was going to school in the area at the time, and saw a flyer for a car show. I grabbed the GF at the time and made my way to the Santa Barbara Polo Club, which was holding the car show on its lawn. He was there, running a retail booth selling all kinds of crap, and had a red 037 with him. It stopped me dead in my tracks when I came around the corner of the booth. Suggested by: Frank C., Rick C. The 037 was almost my original choice, they are just completely fabulous and so absurd. Obligatory Fiat 500 Abarth. I started out with a 500 Pop (2015 to 2018) and have since upgrade to a 500 Abarth (2021 to present) that has been my "stage rally" project car since the work-from-home days of the pandemic. (One of those things in engineering where the last 10% takes 90% of the time, it seems) Suggested by: StalePhish The 500 Abarth is one of my favorite cars of all time, I wish I bought them during the pandemic when they were like three dollars. Ferrari F430 GT. Most kids in 2006 were introduced to racing with a red animated stock car with a #95 on the side. My TV was tuned to the SPEED channel watching the ALMS and watching a red Italian car from a dealership in Texas with a #62 on the side dominating against the Flying Lizard Porsches. It all came to a head at the 2007 12 Hours of Sebring in one of the greatest racing finishes of all time. Suggested by: Silver Fox Yes yes yes yes yes. Alfa Romeo Milano Verde. Is it the best looking Italian car? No. The fastest? No. Steeped in racing history? Not really. For me, it's the one I own. As a person with fairly humble beginnings, I never really thought I would have the opportunity to own a real Italian machine. It took 6 years to get it back on the road after sitting in a field for 20. Now it's my daily driver. It makes the right noises, has the right badge, and feels every bit as special as I'd hoped (now almost ten years later). Suggested by: Jeff Shinrock There's a pretty good amount of these in LA, I always enjoy seeing them. So many to choose from but, cannoli to my head, I'd have to go with the 105 Alfa Giulia sedan, which brought sporting Italian flair to the masses. Like a baby Ferrari with room for 4-5 and a huge trunk. Here we are in Yellowstone on a 4,000-mile road trip. Never missed a beat. Nice! My dad had a 67 Super from new so I literally grew up in that car. Some nearly 30 years later I purchased my own and drove it daily for over a year. I sold it to get a GTV6 as I had GTV in the garage too. Cool! Ours is a 1970 1300TI imported from Holland in 2012 and the first task was to install rear seat belts and a baby seat for my daughter. It's got a 2.0 engine from a later Alfa and 4.10 gears, plus that '66 grille to fool everyone. I've also had a slightly crusty '74 Spider for 22 years. That car is a blast around town but the Giulia is a better all-arounder. And is there a prettier car than the GTV? I may be a bit biased... Nicely upgraded!! The Giulia Sedans are really great cars. I recall going to Florida from NJ in ours when me and my brother were little. No AC! I've had 3 GTV's so I am probably the wrong one to ask about bias. Suggested by: Green_Meanie, monstrodiavel One of Alfa's best designs ever, I think. Want more like this? Join the Jalopnik newsletter to get the latest auto news sent straight to your inbox... Read the original article on Jalopnik.
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
Why Weird Classic Cars Are Catching the Eye of More Collectors
At the Bonhams Les Grandes Marques du Monde à Paris auction in January, it was mostly business as usual: air-cooled Porsches went for predictably high money, as well as other blue chip investments like Bugattis and Ferraris. Sprinkled into the expected assortment of auction lots, however, were a few oddballs that generated some serious interest and equally high sale prices. Perhaps collectors have grown tired of the de rigeur automotive assortment auction houses assemble—I'm looking at you, Porsche Carrera GT, Ferrari F40, McLaren F1, and all the other usual suspects. Perhaps the weird cars are finally getting their due. I can only speculate—and perhaps this auction is an anomaly—but the results from this auction are telling: weird seems to be in. More from Robb Report Trump Threatens a 200% Tariff on Wine and Spirits From the E.U. Audi Just Unveiled a Sleek New A6 Avant Station Wagon This Record-Setting 1986 Audi Is Now Heading to Auction Take the following four cars for example, each unusual in their own way, produced by some lesser-known manufacturers, and all coming from the world of motorsports. Some are pretty, some are brutish, but all of them represent a slice of time and technology that contribute to their intrigue. Without further ado, let's get into the details. Best of Robb Report The 2024 Chevy C8 Corvette: Everything We Know About the Powerful Mid-Engine Beast The World's Best Superyacht Shipyards The ABCs of Chartering a Yacht Click here to read the full article. First up is this 1969 Matra MS640, a race car from a French brand that's a deep cut even for automotive enthusiasts. Despite being a lesser-known manufacturer, Matra was quite successful in motorsports, especially between the mid-1960s and mid-1970s when it competed in F3, F2, F1, and even endurance racing. The MS640 was purpose-built as an aerodynamically efficient endurance racer with a singular focus on the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but it never ended up in competition due to a tragic testing incident that left the sole prototype nearly completely destroyed and its driver seriously injured. This is not that car, however—this is MS640 Continuation, or MS640-02, a car built using the engine and transmission from the damaged original, body panels formed using the original molds, and constructed entirely in accordance with the original blueprints, down to the steel tube-frame chassis. Nestled behind the driver is Matra's legendary MS9 V12, a 3.0-liter unit making nearly 400 horsepower that creates an eardrum-shattering shriek while making that power. Historically, race cars haven't performed particularly well at auction, but given this is the only example of the Matra MS640 its final selling price of nearly $530,000 seems reasonable. Lancia is the stuff of legend, known for its dominance in Group B rally throughout the 1980s with the 037 and the 037's successor, the Delta S4. The Delta S4 was cutting-edge at the time, using all-wheel drive, a reinforced lightweight steel-tube chassis, a twin-charged engine (turbocharged and supercharged), as well as carbon kevlar bodywork. And it was successful right out of the gate, winning the first official race it entered in 1985. As part of the Group B stipulations, Lancia was required to build 200 road going examples to homologate the Delta S, the result of which was the Delta S4 Stradale. It was a comparatively tamer example of the full-on race spec S4 that still featured the tube-frame chassis but had its power capped at 247 horsepower (in race trim, the S4 developed up to 493 horsepower) and a real interior. While there's no official production number for the Delta S4 Stradale, Bonhams claims this example is one of 71, a number far short of the original 200 planned. (This was likely due to the S4 Stradale's steep price—this particular example sold, when new, for £44,442 in 1987. Adjusted for inflation and converted to USD, that comes out to a hair over $162,000.) Finished in Nero Metallizato, this 1985 example has a criminally low 5,600 km on the clock. Its superb condition, low mileage, and rarity helped achieve a final sale price of $677,000. To spread the word about Audi's sporting pretensions in the North American market, the German automaker decided to take one of its unassuming sedans and attempt to set a speed record for an all-wheel drive vehicle at the Talladega Superspeedway in 1986. In standard form, no Audi—not even any Audi used in motorsport at the time—would have come close to being up to the task, so the 5000 CS Quattro sedan selected for the task required major improvements. With the focus being on the fastest achievable speed, Audi revised the car's bodywork to be more aerodynamically efficient, put it on a strict diet, and beefed up its 2.2-liter inline-five cylinder turbocharged engine to develop 650 horsepower. The car bears more than just a striking resemblance to the standard 5000 CS Quattro, too; aside from a racing harness, a turbo boost knob, and a couple of extra gauges here and there, the interior looks stock. Behind the wheel of the 5000 CS Quattro was American racing hero Bobby Unser, who was able to achieve a top speed of 206.3 mph at the Talladega Superspeedway on March 24th, 1986. Used for several other top-speed record attempts in the US, the 5000 CS Quattro would later become a workhouse for tire testing. Some lucky collector clearly understood the significance of this car, which sold for just over $130,000. Last, and possibly the most unusual lot featured here, is the 1954 Autobleu 750 MM Coupé. A one-off prototype, the 750 MM Coupé was built by a small and short-lived automaker in Paris that got its start by creating and selling performance and aesthetic upgrades for the Renault 4CV. Eventually, it would offer complete bodies for the 4CV but that only lasted for several years, ending in 1957. Within the first four years of its existence, Autobleu built the 750 MM, which was effectively a marketing tool to promote the company with the Mille Miglia the chosen event for its debut (hence, 'MM'). Underneath the smoothly shaped bodywork is a tube frame chassis and a 750 cc engine from Renault that was breathed over to be competitive across the 1,000-mile event. As for its in-period race history, the 750 MM Coupé competed in three successive Mille Miglia events from 1954 to 1956, plus several other endurance events. In recent years, the 750 MM Coupé has participated in the Mille Miglia Storica, a modern, much safer version of the Mille Miglia in 2005, 2006, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2022, and 2023. With a recent restoration and lengthy history, the 750 MM Coupé makes for an excellent choice for the Mille Miglia aficionado and a relative bargain, having sold at just under $400,000.
