CISITALIA

1947 Cisitalia coupe

To aid post-World War II recovery of the motor car industry in general and the motor racing business in particular Piero Dusio, an Italian businessman, established a small firm in Turin to concentrate on car racing and body design. As production of the Fiat 1100 had been restarted and stock was becoming readily available he chose the Fiat 1100 engine, modified to yield 37kW or 45kW as the basis of his design, fitting them to a single seater sports car using a tubular space frame and suspension of advanced design…. Read more

FERRARI 166

1948 Ferrari 166M

After a five-year break in activity because of World War II, Enzo Ferrari’s links with Alfa Romeo were severed, and he resolved to start building his own cars for the first time. His first chief engine designer was Gioacchino Colombo, who produced the classic V12 engine that was to be the mainstay of Ferrari road cars, in so many different forms, for a great many years to come. The original V12 engine was a 1500cc single overhead cam design, first seen in 1947, and cars using it were known as… Read more

MGB

Among popular and mid-priced European sportscars of the 1960s, front engines, rear-wheel-drive and four-speed gearboxes were still the norm. However, the use of synchromesh on all gears became standard on most cars in place of the crash-first gear boxes which were common in the 1950s. By the end of the decade, the five-speed gearbox – confined mainly to the Italian marques in the 1950s – slowly began to gain ground and, in addition, the availability of automatic transmissions as an option was offered by some makes. At the beginning of… Read more

ASTON MARTIN DBS V8

Aston Martin DBS V8

The DBS Aston Martin coupe was introduced in 1969 and continued with the same body styling but with minor restyling and mechanical changes until 1989, when it was replaced by the restyled Virage. William Towns designed the body of this car which was first launched with a six-cylinder engine. As its name implies, the DBS V8, fitted with a 5340 cc four-overhead-camshaft V8 engine, followed. This was the same engine that later powered the Aston Martin Lagonda, a high-tech futuristic design, which was launched in Britain to compete with a… Read more

MAZDA R100

In the late 1960s Mazda launched onto the Australian market the R100 Coupé (known in Japan as the Familia) which was the first standard passenger car to be equipped with a rotary engine. Felix Wankel patented his rotary device in 1933 but it was more than 30 years later that a rotary-engined production car hit the market. More than 2000 rotary engine designs have been patented but the Wankel has so far been the only one to be successfully mass-produced. The two-rotor rotary engine had its low speed performance improved… Read more

MERCEDES BENZ SSK

1928 Mercedes-Benz SSK

The SSK – K from the German for short – was designed by Dr Ferdinand Porsche and was among the highest performance cars of the early 1920s produced anywhere in the world. This performance came from the supercharger with which the SSK was equipped. Mercedes developed supercharging technology for use in aero engines during the 1914-18 war as a means of dramatically increasing power without adding a great deal of weight. The last Mercedes cars designed by Paul Daimler before, in 1922, he left the company founded by his father… Read more

CADILLAC ELDORADO

Every 1978 Cadillac except Seville used the same engine – an OHV 7.0-litre V8. Seville, billed as Cadillac’s `international size’ car, used the V8, but in a slightly smaller (5.7-litre) size. The use of aluminium in a few marginal areas was Cadillac’s only concession to weight reduction, and the weight loss was minimal. The only emphasis the maker placed was on, in their own words, “subtle design refinements and consumer-oriented engineering benefits.” As usual, Cadillac’s complete line was the shortest in the GM stable – a total of seven regular… Read more

FERRARI 308 GTB

1975 Ferrari 308 GTB

The Ferrari 308 GTB is an obvious descendent of the brilliant 246 Dino and its square-rigged replacement, the 308 GT4, adopting the same nomenclature for the engine: 3.0-litre, eight-cylinder, initially with a dry-sump. Bertone was used as a stylist for the four-seater but, for the GTB, Ferrari went back to Pininfarina, which devised a clever update of the Dino theme on a GT4 floorpan, shortened by 210 mm to give the same 2340 mm wheelbase as the Dino, and retaining the transverse alloy four-cam V8. The first 200 cars were… Read more

SHELBY COBRA

1968 Shelby Cobra GT350

Carroll Hall Shelby had achieved considerable success as a race car driver but was finally forced to retire from this stressful sport when he developed a heart condition. Not wanting to give up his great interest in motor sport Shelby had thoughts of building the perfect American sports car. He reasoned this could best be achieved by using a small powerful V8 engine married to a European chassis. His initial approach was to General Motors but as he outlined his thoughts on his ideal sports car the people at GM… Read more

DE TOMASO PANTERA

De Tomaso Pantera GT

Alejandro de Tomaso was a well-known Italian motoring entrepreneur in the 1960s – at one point he was a racing driver. He also built racing cars, although these were generally unsuccessful, as well as high-performance road cars but only in small numbers. Two of his cars, the GT Vallelunga, introduced in 1965, and the open Pampero model of 1966, were forerunners to the elegant Mangusta. The Pantera which followed was based heavily on this car. The design of this car followed the contemporary mid-engined layout which had been proved in… Read more