Ferrari Supercars

It’s fair to say that no other car maker’s name resonates with quite the frisson of Ferrari. It embodies passion, excitement, glamour and sheer driving pleasure like no other. The name has been attached to cars made by the company since 1947, but its history goes back even further, to Enzo Ferrari’s days as an independent race team manager (Scuderia Ferrari was founded in Modena in 1929) and as Alfa Romeo’s in-house racing chief in 1938. That lasted just one season before differences between Enzo Ferrari and Alfa Romeo management forced his departure. Ferrari’s contract barred him from producing racing cars under his own name for four years, so Scuderia Ferrari briefly became Auto-Avio Costruzioni. It produced two cars, called the 815 (they had 1.5-litre eight-cylinder engines, in effect made by…

Poring over this spectacular 166MM barchetta in all its freshly restored glory, it takes quite a leap of imagination to picture it hammering along the crumbling roads of post-war Europe, sides caked in oil and dust, bodywork beaten back into shape after its inevitable off-road excursions. This, though, was early Ferrari, a young company forging its reputation in the crucible of motor sport, competing in the great road races of the day, from the dirt and heat of the Tuscan plains to treacherous Alpine passes. This was Ferrari before the marketing men got involved, before all the baggage arrived. The 166MM played a crucial role in putting Enzo Ferrari’s fledgling company on the world map, and this particular 166MM was right in the thick of it, as we shall see. It…

If ever there was a line-up of models that managed to be both highly evocative and deeply confusing, it’s those from the prancing horse with ‘250’ in their designation. So here we bring ten landmark cars, from the first to wear the ‘250’ moniker, through GTO to the last-of-the-line Lusso. We’ve kept away from the out-and-out racers, like the 250 Testa Rossa and the 250LM, but brought together examples of all the major road cars. This is a range that encompasses a staggering variety of body styles, created by masters of coachbuilding such as Vignale, Pinin Farina and Zagato. There are clear links between the models, but chassis changed, wheelbases altered and levels of trim varied enormously. Surprisingly, given that the cars are named ‘250’ by the cubic capacity of a…

We’re 6000 miles from the race tracks of Europe. And it’s been half a century since Ferrari chassis number 2689 GT hit 160mph time and time again down Le Mans’ Mulsanne Straight to take a podium place and a first in the hard-fought GT class. But the magic is still there. Good grief, is it there! These are the canyon roads of north-west Los Angeles: car and bike heaven where the tarmac is smooth and grippy, the locals tolerant and the views spectacular. The riptide of aural violence that blasts out of the Ferrari’s quadruple tailpipes bounces off the rockfaces to clash with the cacophony of V12 mechanical madness, a whirr of thrashing valvetrain and dinky-sized pistons flying up and down at 5000, 6000, even 7000rpm. We’re grown adults, but still we…

I nearly bought a Dino once. Half a Dino, anyway. You could purchase a sad one for laughably little in the post-energy crisis mid-1970s, and a friend and I worked out that if we didn’t eat or drink all term we could buy a Dino with our student grants. Fortunately sense prevailed, so I stuck with my souped-up Imp and he with his BSA C15. Next time I looked, Dinos were out of Exchange & Mart and reaching stratospheric heights in classic car emporia. And with that realisation vanished any hope of ownership. Stratospheric – yes, the Lancia Stratos had a Dino engine, too. Years later, in 2001, I drove a lovely metallic blue example belonging to prestigious British Ferrari specialist Maranello Concessionaires before its collection got sold. What a delight that…

Playboys. They’re either out schmoozing beautiful women or beating the croupier at the Roulette table. Admit it: you’d love a bit of that, wouldn’t you? Another reason: Mr Playboy ploughs his money into a dramatic two-seater Gran Turismo like today’s Ferrari F12 and uses it for regular commutes to his haunts in the nicer parts of France. And 40 years ago, he was probably a Ferrari 365GTB/4 Daytona driver. Standing by the roadside on a beautiful Sunday morning, shadowing photographer Paul Harmer and watching Daytona owner Matthew Lange roaring along a tree-lined French Route Nationale, should be about as far from the romantic dreams of our ’70s playboy as it’s possible to be. I should be behind the wheel, with my leather driving gloves on, but instead I’m soaking up the…