The 20

Greatest
Cars
We’ve Ever
Driven

VOL. 22 THE GREATEST

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IMMERSE
YOURSELF
IN ITALIAN
CAR CULTURE

An in-depth exploration of northern Italy—

where the passion, speed, artistry, and
ingenuity of Italian car culture was born.
Eight incredible days of automotive
JUNE 5-12, 2024 adventure, led by a Road & Track editor.
NORTHERN ITALY
 On Maranello a Miglia,
witness the artistry of Italy’s
most celebrated marques
such as Maserati, Ferrari,
and Lamborghini up-close
with private tours of the
factory floors and design
studios and exclusive
conversations with the
experts—including a behind-
the-scenes tour of the Zagato
Design Studio. Plus, sink
your teeth into exquisite car
collections like that of the
Museo Fratelli Cozzi.

We’re kicking off the journey

in the charming city of
Modena and ending near
Milan for our grand finale—
the Mille Miglia. Experience
the excitement of this
historic open-road endurance
race dating back to 1927.

Wander the picturesque

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and immerse yourself in all
that northern Italy has to
offer. Unwind with relaxing
overnight stays at nearby
luxury hotels and acquaint
yourself with the local flavor
with authentic culinary
offerings.
* All itinerary details subject to change.

Maranello a Miglia promises exclusive access, unique

experiences, and lifelong memories. We hope you’ll
come along for the ride! Che bello!

Secure your spot. Go to experiences.roadandtrack.com to learn more.

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THE GREATEST VOL. 22 CONTENTS
CoVER PHoToGRAPH BY K E N N E T T M O H R M A N

016 RUF CTR “Yellow Bird”

030 Ferrari 458 Italia/Speciale

032 Lamborghini Aventador

036 Mitsubishi Evolution

038 subaru wrx sti

040 mercedes-benz 500e

048 BMW 1-series M Coupe

050 Mazda MX-5 Miata

056 Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta SWB

058 Ford Fiesta ST

060 Bugatti EB110

004 R&T Vol. 22

 RM UP-01 FERRARI
Ultra-flat manual winding calibre
1.75 millimetres thin
45-hour power reserve (±10%)
Baseplate, bridges and case in grade 5 titanium
Patented ultra-flat escapement
Function selector
Limited edition of 150 pieces

A Racing Machine
On The Wrist
 HIT THE ROAD
WITH US! On our second annual Smoky
600, you’ll drive Appalachia’s
renowned roadways, stay at its
finest boutique hotels, enjoy
delicious local cuisine, and
sample the region’s most
famous export: bourbon!

Stretch your cars’ legs to the

fullest at NCM Motorsports
Park and explore the National
Corvette Museum, home to
iconic examples of the marque’s
history and the world-famous
“sinkhole” exhibit. Rally
through Tennessee and
Kentucky’s best backroads and
wander their charming town
squares.

While this region’s roads are all

exceptional, it wouldn’t be a trip
to the Smokies without an early
morning run down the Tail of
the Dragon to the Cherohala
Skyway—perhaps some of
America’s most legendary
driving roads.

SMOKY

Time on the track, spirited group drives,

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and distillery tours with tastings?
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 ARIZONA

NOVEMBER 12-15, 2024

ARIZONA

From the open roads of Scottsdale to the picturesque red rocks of

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On our first-ever Arizona Desert Run, you’ll drive the sprawling desert roads, stay at the most
luxurious hotels, and enjoy the Southwest region at its finest.

Hit the track at Radford Racing School and experience your car at top speed with lead-follow
lapping, autocross, and ride-alongs with our editors. Then, rev up your engine for group drives
led and curated by editors through the red rock canyons of Sedona, the charming town of
Flagstaff, and the sweeping crags of the Grand Canyon.

We’ll be making some exciting pit stops including restful stays at five-star resorts, delicious
culinary experiences, and noteworthy automotive locales. Not only will you be immersed in car
culture throughout this 4-day adventure, but you’ll also create long-lasting connections and
memories with fellow enthusiasts and editors alike.
Apply today! experiences.roadandtrack.com.

* All itinerary details subject to change.

THE GREATEST VOL. 22 CONTENTS

062 Porsche 908/3

072 The Beater

074 Mercedes-Benz 300SL “Gullwing”

082 tick tock: Chopard Mille Miglia

084 Ford GT

086 Porsche Carrera GT

088 Kimera EV037

102 Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé

104 Volkswagen Rabbit/Golf GTI

106 M c Laren F1

116 the cars not yet driven

008 R&T Vol. 22

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THE PANEL
PORTRAITS BY M A R I N A D E S A N T I S

To build our list of the 20 Greatest Cars We’ve Ever Driven, Road & Track surveyed a wide
range of the most knowledgeable and interesting car aficionados in the world. You can
find each panelist’s full list of choices at roadandtrack.com.

Throughout
the issue,
you’ll find
quotes from
the panelists
beside the
cars they
nominated.

Jimmie Johnson Bruce Meyer Loris Bicocchi Dave Coleman Hiroshi Tamura
A seven-time NASCAR Cup Meyer has served as Perhaps the ultimate super- A vehicle dynamics engi- Tamura earned the nick-
Series champion, Johnson founding chairman of the car development driver, neer at Mazda, Coleman name “Mr. GT-R” for both
has raced everything from Petersen Automotive Bicocchi has had his hands is one of the reasons a his longtime passion for the
motorcycles to stadium Museum in L.A., topped on the wheel of everything mainstream crossover like R32 Skyline and his work at
trucks. He co-drove the 200 mph at Bonneville, and from the Bugatti EB110 and the CX-50 drives so well. A Nismo, Nissan’s motorsport
fan-favorite Garage 56 amassed a collection of the Pagani Zonda to the former magazine editor, he division. He fought to get
Chevy Camaro at last year’s some of the finest cars, Koenigsegg CCX. And he still also has a love for building the current Nissan Z
24 Hours of Le Mans. including Le Mans winners. likes Mazda Miatas. wild project vehicles. approved for production.

Brian Scotto Mario Andretti Jerry Seinfeld Lyn St. James Ralph Gilles
For Scotto, producer of Ken Andretti is the greatest Seinfeld is well known as a A former Indy 500 rookie of Gilles is an accomplished
Block’s game-changing Italian import since pizza— Porsche enthusiast and the year, St. James is quite designer with a love for
Gymkhana films and an F1 champion and a collector without peer. His literally in the Automotive old-school muscle and
co-founder of Hoonigan, it’s winner of the Indy 500, not picks on Comedians in Cars Hall of Fame. Among the classic Italian elegance. As
all about slaying tires. It’s to mention countless other Getting Coffee indicate successes in her long the chief design officer at
not about sheer horsepower races in everything from impeccable and eclectic career are class wins at the Stellantis, he’s making sure
but the joy of wringing a sprint cars to stock cars to taste. Also, Seinfeld once 24 Hours of Daytona and we haven’t seen the last of
car’s neck. endurance sports cars. had a network TV show. the 12 Hours of Sebring. big, bad Dodges.

Peter Egan Samantha Tan Chris Harris Jeff Zwart Valentino Balboni
Road & Track alumnus Egan A professional racing driver Journalist and TV presenter Longtime Pikes Peak As Lamborghini’s chief test
is well loved for his evoca- and team owner, Tan Harris has spent a life International Hill Climb driver, Balboni spent more
tive writing and his Side competes in endurance drifting incredible machin- competitor Zwart is an than four decades honing
Glances columns. He is an racing in the GT3 class. A ery across U.K. roads and accomplished racer and film Sant’Agata’s finest vehi-
accomplished club racer, an longtime BMW fan, she racetracks. He can often be director who got his start as cles to razor sharpness
avid motorcyclist, and a races an M4 GT3 and drives found at the wheel of some a photographer at Road & and retired only because
raconteur whose stories her beloved 1-series M priceless machine at the Track. He’s long been a fan the Italian government told
have become legend. Coupe on the street. Goodwood Revival races. of all things Porsche. him he had to.
 “A DEVICE
THAT’S BECOME
A DRIVING
PARTNER FOR
HUNDREDS OF
THOUSANDS
OF US.”
— ROAD & TRACK

“It’s about range superiority. To get there, we adapted

a concept used in military radar to find fainter targets
farther away with higher precision. V1 Gen2 is a
breakthrough on range.”

— Mike Valentine

valentine1.com
THE PANEL E d i to r i a l
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Daniel Pund
CREATIVE DIRECTOR Nathan Schroeder

DIGITAL DIRECTOR Aaron Brown

EDITORS-AT-LARGE A.J. Baime, Jethro
Matt Farah
DEPUTY CREATIVE DIRECTOR Cassidy Zobl
DEPUTY EDITOR Raphael Orlove
SENIOR EDITOR John Pearley Huffman
Bovingdon,

MOTORSPORTS EDITOR Fred Smith

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Lucas Bell
DESIGNER Ronald M. Askew Jr.

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Eddie Alterman, Holly Anderson,

Brett Berk, Mike Duff, Peter Egan, Jason Fenske,
Peter Gareffa, J.R. Hildebrand, James Hinchcliffe,
Jason Kavanagh, Alanis King, Jamie Kitman,
Zack Klapman, Ryan Lewis, Drew Magary,
Brendan McAleer, Marshall Pruett, Elana Scherr,
Mike Spinelli, Bozi Tatarevic, Lawrence Ulrich
CONTRIBUTING ARTISTS & PHOTOGRAPHERS
Sasha Arutyunova, Yve Assad, Brown Bird Design,
DW Burnett, Jeremy Cliff, Cayce Clifford, Sevian Daupi,
Marina De Santis, Natalie Foss, Maxine Gregson,
Eri Griffin, Tony Harmer, Katy Hirschfeld, Lisa Linke,
Kennett Mohrman, Samantha Muljat,
NVM Illustration, Suzanne Saroff, Peter Strain
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD Chip Ganassi (racing mogul),
Bill Warner Spike Feresten Bob Lutz (Viper creator, exec), Sam Posey (painter,
Racer and photographer Screenwriter Feresten racer), Bobby Rahal (Indy 500 winner, team owner)
Warner has owned every- hosts the podcast Spike’s DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL OPERATIONS Heather Albano
thing from a Lotus Eleven to Car Radio, and his car COPY CHIEF Adrienne Girard
PRODUCTION MANAGER Juli Burke
a V-8-powered IMSA collection includes a ASSOCIATE PRODUCTION MANAGER Nancy M. Pollock
Triumph TR8. He founded Zagato-bodied Porsche SENIOR COPY EDITOR Chris Langrill
the Amelia Island Concours 356. He found Steve RESEARCH EDITOR Matthew Skwarczek
d’Elegance near his native McQueen’s Porsche 917 in COPY EDITOR Meredith Conrow

Jacksonville, Florida. a showroom in Hollywood.

PUBLISHER & CHIEF REVENUE OFFICER Felix DiFilippo
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 Take adventure
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PHOTOGRAPH BY D A N I E L P U N D
THIS IS NOT A
GREAT CAR BUT IN THE HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE
AND NOSTALGIA-CHARGED WORLD OF CAR LOVE, AN MG MIDGET COULD
BE ONE OF THE GREATEST CARS. NAH, IT STILL ISN’T.

Editors added their own choices, and we whittled

a list out of the combined woodpile. But no list will
satisfy everyone, particularly a list of only 20 cars.
This one is heavy on European supercars, the semi-
predictable result of no price cap. But what a thing
The MG MidGeT is not one of the 20 Greatest Cars to be heavy on! Your favorite might not be on the
We’ve Ever Driven. You’ll find those on the pages list. Most of our panelists’ choices didn’t make it.
that follow this one. Objectively, the Midget is not But you can see their complete lists, along with
even a very good car. The only thing the diminu- notes about their nominees, on roadandtrack.com.
tive Midget is truly great at is making normal-size Certainly, most of my choices aren’t on the list,
drivers look like hulking circus bears driving tiny including that Midget. But noted Porsche collector
toy cars. Ask me how I know. Jerry Seinfeld put one on his list. He’d test-driven
That’s my first car pictured to the left, a ’71 a ’71 Midget at a British-car dealership in Hemp-
Midget with a backdated grille and a set of Mini- stead, New York. “A magical place. First time at the
lite wheels. I backfired my way through the latter wheel of a true sports car! First time feeling rack-
part of high school in this simple yet inexplicably and-pinion steering, which Road & Track magazine
unreliable cart. I wouldn’t have bothered you with taught me to worship since sixth grade,” he wrote.
the car, except that I’m not alone in considering Road & Track, specifically longtime columnist
this plebeian putterer a formative drive. and British-car maven Peter Egan, is probably the
When we set out to create our list of greatest reason I bought that heavily used Midget back in
cars, we canvassed influential, talented, famous, 1988. It is my honor that he contributed a story for
and occasionally off-kilter car folks about their this issue on the Ruf CTR “Yellow Bird,” the car
choices. The rules were simple. First, the respon- that he and Road & Track made famous around the
dent needed to have actually driven each of their time I bought that MG. Turn the page; it’s the first
choices. We didn’t want to simply venerate the car on our list (the Yellow Bird, not the Midget).
established sacred cows of the car world. Or at
least, if we were going to venerate some of them,
we wanted the veneration to be inspired by actual
experience. And, actually, that was the only rule.
We provided no guidance on price, practicality,
technical significance, national origin, anything. DA N I E L P U N D
We were seeking the peak experiences of a group EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
of knowledgeable and enthusiastic individuals.
We were looking for, in the words of onetime
Road & Track ad salesman David E. Davis, the cars
that “knock your hat in the creek.”
The first 21 people to respond with their choices
were in. Even then, we had more compelling nom-
inations than we would ever have space to cover. E D I T O R ’ S N O T E • R&T VOl. 22 015
RU F CTR
“Yello
w Bird”
O N T H E R OA D I N A N I C O N — T H E F I R S T
PRODUCTION RUF CTR.

BY A . J . B A I M E PHoToGRAPHY BY L I S A L I N K E

A R&T Vol. 22 017

C
 A. (Previous pages) R&T VoL. 22 019
Looks like a 911,
right? But the Yellow
Bird is all Ruf, includ-
ing the VIN plate.
B. So there’s no doubt,
the Ruf logo adorns
the brake calipers,
the wheels, and the
ignition key.
C. These gauges won’t
measure the speed of
your pounding heart.
D. While we may have
broken the speed
limit, we didn’t reach the fact is, among Porsche nerds and even many
the CTR’s 211-mph casual fans, that is undeniably true.
top whack. Meyer took the wheel first so he could demon-
strate the tricky dogleg gear shifter and talk me
through the car’s provenance. It is VIN 1—as in,
the first production CTR ever made, circa 1989.
The CTR began life as a white G-body 911 shell.
In the Ruf shop in Pfaffenhausen, West Germany,

a
Alois Ruf Jr. and his band of Deutsche Oompa-
Loompas built the car with so much original
vision that it could not retain a Porsche VIN and
got a Ruf one. So that there’s no question about it,
the Ruf badge adorns the gauges, the calipers, the
seats—almost everywhere the eye turns.
“He designed his own car,” Meyer explained as
we climbed the canyon peaks. “It’s a narrow body
because that gives you more speed, about 10 mph
at the top end. It has Porsche 935 side mirrors for
As humAn beings, we all recall moments aerodynamics. He took the rain gutters off and
of the past that changed the trajectories of our added twin turbos. I’ve run at Bonneville many
lives—memories of physical connection, tragedy, times, and it’s strange how those little things can
triumph, and awakening. When I got my driver’s matter so much, like rain gutters, like sideview
license in New Jersey at age 17, my mother was mirrors. Those things slow the car down.”
cresting the peak of the Reagan economy. She Ruf technicians started with a 3.2 and bored
soon bought a 964-gen 911, and she loved that it out to a single-overhead-cam 463-hp 3.4-liter
car more than she loved me. The keys were off- flat-six with a turbo and an intercooler for each
limits. But now and again, when she wasn’t look- bank, with dual exhaust cannons poking out the
ing, I’d power the car on S-turns right past the back flanks. The techs added a fuel-injection sys-
local police station. That Porsche changed my life. tem originally designed for the Porsche 962 race
In the immortal words of my hero at the time, car. They replaced the body panels with lighter
Navin Johnson: “Well, if this is out there, think aluminum pieces and fiberglass bumpers and
how much more is out there!” widened the rear fenders to accommodate meat-
Not since 1990 had I climbed into a 911 of that ier tires on 17-inch Ruf wheels. The company even
era when I met Bruce Meyer at a Shell station built its own five-speed transmission.
D
at the base of Angeles Crest Highway in L.A. A huge part of this car’s legacy is the reaction
Many readers know Meyer as the founding chair- to it when it appeared in 1987. Ruf already had
man of the Petersen Automotive Museum and a an impressive reputation. Starting as a simple
friend of Road & Track who occasionally shares service station under Alois Ruf Sr. just before
his rare rides with us for driving and photo- World War II, it evolved and morphed into the
graphy. On this afternoon, he rolled up in his 1989 world’s premier Porsche tuner shop, ultimately
Ruf CTR “Yellow Bird,” and its striking profile under the direction of Alois Jr. When the proto-
and paint hit me like an electric shock. Today we type CTR debuted, R&T included it in its “World’s
would be motoring into canyons with substan- Fastest Cars” feature in the July 1987 issue. That
tial elevation changes and daring switchbacks CTR’s yellow paint moved the staff to give the car T H E PA N E L

in a Ruf reminiscent of that first 911 I drove as a nickname: “Yellow Bird.”

Bruce Meyer
a teenager. Competing against the hottest machinery of “This thing is wicked
Only the Ruf is that car reimagined to the the day—a Ferrari 288GTO and Testarossa, a fast. It astonished the
world when it came out.”
outermost limits of performance and style. pair of Porsche 959s, a Countach—the CTR con-
Ruf itself has called the CTR “undoubtedly one quered, hitting 60 mph from a standstill in 4.0
of the most famous cars ever made.” Naturally, seconds and topping out at 211 mph. Soon after,
the company would have such an opinion. But a test driver named Stefan Roser lapped the
A. Above the 3.4-liter
boxer-six sits the CTR A
logo: C for FIA Group
C racing, T for turbo,
and R for Ruf.

Nürburgring on camera in a CTR, setting an unof-

ficial lap record on the Green Hell. The result-
ing short film, Faszination on the Nürburgring,
became a sensation and is still on YouTube. Our
sister publication, Car and Driver, once called it
“the Debbie Does Dallas of car videos.” If you’re
too young to get that reference, do not Google it.
You almost certainly know the CTR anyway from
its presence in video games, most notably, the
Gran Turismo series.
“I remember reading that Road & Track story
in 1987,” Meyer said. “I could never have imag-
ined, ever in my wildest dreams, that I would be
a custodian of a CTR. I did not read that story
thinking I wanted a CTR. I just thought, Isn’t that
thing awesome?!”
Meyer’s car spent most of its life in Japan
before it was sent to Ruf for an engine overhaul
and cosmetic refreshment. That is where Meyer
found it about five years ago, and he was able to
buy it from the Japanese owner. Ruf built only 29
original CTRs, so the fact that this is VIN 1 (the
first car built after the prototype that appeared in
the 1987 R&T story) makes it just about priceless.
The C in the name stands for FIA Group C racing,
the T stands for turbo (two of them), and the R for
Ruf. Not all the CTRs came in yellow, but all wear
the moniker “Yellow Bird.”
After an hour of driving, Meyer did what my
mother never would: hand me the keys. That
instantly made my heart pump harder than the
idling flat-six behind me. This car is all origi-
nal, save for a coat of paint and new tires. I was
advised to ease onto the driver’s seat carefully
to avoid scuffing the 35-year-old black leather.
It’s one thing to drive a priceless car like this on
super-challenging roads; it’s another to do that
with the car’s owner sitting next to you. One
reviewer wrote of a CTR, “Suffice it to say, it’s
quite easy to get it sideways under power.” We
were driving on cold January roads. What could
possibly go wrong? Everything.
I dabbed the accelerator and felt the engine
crackle in my spine. The car and I had contre-
temps before I could even engage first gear. I’m
a short guy, and when I pulled the seat close
enough to get comfortable with the pedals, that
long-throw dogleg shifter banged up against the
seat. I had to move back so I could engage first,
which meant I was now throttling onto the road
with arms fully stretched to reach the wheel. Full-
R&T Vol. 22 021
A
 R&T VoL. 22 023

A. Tiny, aerodynamic
sideview mirrors are
just like the ones on
the Le Mans–winning
Porsche 935 race car.
B. Meyer: “Don’t crash
my priceless car,
please!” Baime: “I
have insurance. It’s
all good.”
C. Curvy canyons with
massive elevation
changes—perfect
driving territory for
the 1989 CTR.
A. The first production
Yellow Bird spent A
most of its life in
Japan before its
current owner
brought it stateside
about five years ago.

body contortion was required to reach the clutch.

I could sense Meyer’s unease almost as much as I
could sense my own. But after a few corners, I left
the car in third gear and let her have it.
The turbos sucked in air with audible gulps as
the CTR started eating up pavement. The tach’s
needle arched across the gauge, reaching for
the 6800-rpm redline. Entering a switchback, I
touched the brakes, easing the Pilot Sport Cup
2s in while avoiding piles of stones on the pave-
ment that might kick up and chip the yellow
paint. As the calipers engaged, the full compe-
tition harnesses grabbed hold of my passenger
and me, and then it was back down on the gas
into another straight.
Make no mistake: This is a vintage car. Any-
one who has driven a modern Porsche knows
that extraordinarily powerful computing mech-
anisms can make even novice drivers feel super-
human and secure. The 1989 CTR requires the
right inputs at the right time, with no electronic
devices between driver and machine. You have to
feel out the idiosyncrasies. In other words, the car
wants to get to know you a little better before get-
ting down to business, which suits me fine.
Two-hundred-plus mph wasn’t on the menu
today, but bursts of acceleration coming out of
tight corners were, and that’s all the CTR needed
to prove its elite athleticism. Just like in the first
911 I drove, the low center of gravity and the
engine hanging out the back gave the sensation
of cornering on railroad tracks with little of the
body roll you would feel in most other sports cars.
On straights, the 408 lb-ft of torque rocketed us
forward as a grin spread equally as fast across my
face. What went wrong? Nothing.
By the time beer o’clock arrived back in town, I
was able to put the CTR experience into perspec-
tive. This was yet another memory that would
change the trajectory of my life. I felt the distinct
desire to own one of these 29 cars, and that I’d
do whatever it took to make that happen. Rob a
bank? Why not?
Meyer offered some advice. He is a man who
started out selling newspapers on a street corner
and bartending in Tahoe, a man who once survived
a helicopter crash into the ocean. “If you want to
be happy in life,” he told me, “start with low expec-
tations. If you can modulate your expectations in
life, you’ll always be happy.”
Screw that! I want a CTR, and I want one now.
R&T Vol. 22 025
A
 R&T Vol. 22 027

That first evening in Germany, we checked into

a charming country hotel called the Alte Mühle,
not far from the track. We were joined at dinner by
our European editor, Paul Frère, another former
F1 pilot and Le Mans winner, who’d lined up most
of the exotic cars for this big adventure. He and
Hill would be doing all the high-speed test-driving.
And Ehra-Lessien’s Schnellbahn was certainly
the right place for that. We’d done a World’s Fast-
est Cars story here in 1984 and found the 15.5-
mile circuit to be about the only place on earth
where you could safely peg the tach needle on a
highly tuned supercar—in top gear—and leave it
there more or less indefinitely.
The track was an elongated and misshapen oval

The Fledgling with the sides pinched together, so the center of

the circuit was more a median than an infield. The
The story of the Yellow Bird, two seven-mile straightaways flared outward into
from the man who first told it. soup-bowl turns at either end, their steep bank-
ing designed to produce no lateral g-loading up
BY P E T E R E G A N
to a speed of 125 mph, something most of us had
experienced only in aerobatic planes. It was said
There’s noThing quiTe like the whoop of a that if you stood at the end of one straightaway,
few 12-cylinder engines outside your hotel room you couldn’t see the other end because the track
at night to suggest you might not be in Kansas disappeared over the curvature of the earth. The
anymore. Or even California. Especially when you local topography may have had some influence,
hear distant artillery fire mixed with the occa- but the theory was quite plausible. Seven miles
sional bark of a highly tuned Porsche flat-six. is a long way to the next corner on any circuit.
In April 1987, about half the Road & Track edi- Our last test cars arrived that first night, and
torial staff boarded a plane in sunny Los Angeles we opened our curtains in the morning to find a
and took off for West Germany, which was still in line of very sleek and exotic automobiles on the
the grips of a damp and chilly spring. Former For- pavement below, all tinged with a light coating
mula 1 champion Phil Hill went with us. We were of frost. It looked like Christmas morning for the
B
headed for Volkswagen’s sprawling Ehra-Lessien world’s wealthiest car buff.
test track near Wolfsburg to do a “World’s Fastest We had on display two red Ferraris, a GTO
Cars” shootout for our July issue. and a Testarossa; a pair of Porsche 959s; a red
Yes, there was still a West Germany then. The Lamborghini Countach; a silver custom-built
Cold War had thawed slightly, but East Germans Isdera Imperator powered by a Mercedes-AMG
were regularly being gunned down by their own V-8; an AMG Hammer, which was a highly mod-
border guards for trying to escape to the West. ified Mercedes 300E that R&T had billed as “the
It seemed nobody was trying to go the other hottest passenger sedan in history”; a purple
direction—especially car buffs. and blue pair of Koenig/RS Turbo Porsches; and
The Volkswagen test track was in the virtual a bright raincoat-yellow Ruf Twin-Turbo, based
shadow of the Iron Curtain, located only a few on a Porsche 911 Carrera chassis.
miles from the border. We were told Volkswagen Yes, our old friend Alois Ruf was back with
A. Ruf made only 29 of had chosen this site because it was in a no-fly another hand-built car from his small shop in
the first-generation
CTRs after the origi- zone and, therefore, safe from the prying eyes of Pfaffenhausen, Bavaria. He’d won our World’s
nal prototype. aerial photographers. No risk of having a spy shot Fastest Cars contest in 1984 with a much-
B. The interior is all of your experimental new Dasher hatchback or modified Porsche 911 Turbo featuring his own
original, from the
black leather to the Rabbit Diesel suddenly appear on the cover of a 3.4-liter engine and five-speed transmission (in
comp belts. car magazine. place of the factory four-speed). The car clocked
028 R&T Vol. 22

A
PHOTOGRAPH BY J O H N L A M M A. Our comparison
testing in 1987 found
the CTR to be the
fastest car of all. The
number pictured is
kilometers per hour.

a speed of 186.2 mph—exactly 10 mph faster than still accelerating. The car was eerily smooth and
the second-place finisher, a Ferrari BB512. composed on the banking, and its speed felt almost
But the ante had been raised over the past three surreal on the long straights. Trackside guardrails
years, and this time, Ruf returned with a new twin- and trees whipped by as if we were being vac-
turbo 3.4-liter engine in a 911 Carrera chassis, the uumed into the cosmos. The engine was conser-
car’s custom aluminum bodywork trimmed of all vatively rated at 463 hp, but the Ruf also produced
aerodynamic excess: a smooth front air dam, small 408 lb-ft of torque at 5400 rpm—17 lb-ft more than
side mirrors, and no rain gutters above the doors. the next-torquiest car in the test. On our second
Next to the other cars in the parking lot, it looked lap, the lightboard flashed 336.1 km/h (209 mph).
almost modest, close to a stock 911. A sleeper that Frère turned to me and shouted, “This is faster
would turn out to be very much awake. than I’ve ever gone in my life!” Quite an admis-
Under a dark and threatening sky, photogra- sion from a 70-year-old with three class wins and
pher John Lamm led all the cars on a short drive one overall victory at Le Mans. Needless to say,
to the track, and by the time we arrived it was it was faster than I’d ever gone—or have since.
pouring rain. We took shelter in a large barn at We pulled into the pits, and Ruf asked how fast
the edge of an immense expanse of blacktop that we’d gone. When we told him, applause broke out
VW used for testing cars. While we waited out in the crowd around the car. The teenage son of
the rain, we could hear the distant sound of artil- one of the Ferrari owners looked through the win-
lery and automatic weapons firing in the east, no dow at our instrument panel and exclaimed, “Mit
doubt from war games of some kind. Either that radio!” Everyone laughed, but those two words
or World War III had broken out. summed up the real-world versatility of the car.
But all gunfire ceased, the sky cleared by late Later in the day, the damp track dried out, and
morning, and soon Hill and Frère were doing ever- Hill took off with photographer Lamm in the pas-
faster laps on the damp track, howling down the senger’s seat. He picked up another 2 mph and
front straight at speeds usually associated with turned a new record of 339.8 km/h (211 mph). The
Indy or Bonneville. Frère sped by in the Lambor- Ruf had won the contest by 10 mph again.
ghini, leaving us standing in a damp shock wave Chatting in the pits later, Hill and Frère both
of sound and fury, then disappeared in a rooster- commented that the Yellow Bird was slightly
tail of atomized rain. He pulled in a few minutes undergeared and could have gone even faster. Ruf
later, having turned a 173-mph lap. He said the concurred but said, “There’s not much purpose in
track was drying, so the testing began. Our assis- a road car going very much faster than 300 kilo-
tant engineering editor, Kim Reynolds, got out meters per hour.” Good point. I always try to keep
his timing equipment and fifth wheel and set up it under 180 mph, even on the highway.
a drag strip to get quarter-mile and 0–60 times Yet what struck all of us about the Yellow Bird
while Hill and Frère hit the Schnellbahn. was not just its stellar speed but how civilized
The afternoon shrieked on, and soon, two cars and “normal” it was as a road car. When we drove
had beaten the old 186.2-mph record. The Porsche back to the hotel that evening, it ran fine and idled
959 hit 198 mph, and the Koenig/RS bested it by smoothly at stoplights, even after a hard day of
breaking the 200-mph barrier—by 1 mph. record runs and drag-strip testing. Our test pilots
Then Frère invited me to ride with him in the judged the Ruf to be dead stable and fine handling
yellow Ruf Twin-Turbo, nicknamed the “Yellow at speed, as well as a refined model of restraint
Bird” by Richard Baron, the art director at our in daily traffic—despite its 4.0-second 0–60 time
R&T Specials division. and 11.7-second quarter-mile at 133.5 mph.
I’d ridden with Hill and Frère all day, alternating Ruf built 29 more of these CTR models—a great
cars and taking notes, but I was unprepared for the commuter car, perhaps, for those with $143,000
Ruf’s acceleration, even after rides in the Testa- to spend in 1987. They seem to be trading hands
rossa and Countach. As we howled onto the circuit, for substantially more than that now, so they’ve
the car went slightly sideways with each upshift proved to be a good hedge against inflation.
and then straightened out for an explosive burst We didn’t test fuel economy at Ehra-Lessien,
of speed to the next gear. As Frère hit fifth gear, we but it probably would have been better in town
tripped the timing lights at 311.9 km/h (194 mph), than on the Schnellbahn.
 FERRARI 458
ITALIA/ SPECIALE
REENGINEERING A PERFECT MODERN ITALIAN SUPERCAR
WITH AN OLD-SCHOOL STICK. MA SEI FUORI?!

The Ferrari 458 Speciale is damn near perfect. glide with extra-virgin smoothness. The redheaded
Naturally, Jeff Segal had to change it, waving the V-8 plays peekaboo under a Lexan panel, purring its
magic wand that Ferrari overlooked: a manual flat-plane-crank come-on. Just a decade ago, that
transmission. engine set a historic high for specific V-8 output,
My first sip of the 458 Speciale came at Fiorano in coaxing 597 horses from a 4.5-liter displacement.
2013. Like a bright-red aperitivo, its bracing flavor For Segal’s team, the trickiest bit was unplug-
haunted me for months. No one imagined it then, ging the dual clutch from a deep matrix of Formula
but this 597-hp distillation of a standard 458 Italia 1–based systems—including Ferrari’s first-ever
would be the last naturally aspirated Ferrari V-8 in side slip control—without compromising any dig-
series production, a raging supercar diva with the ital function. Prosaic stuff like shift indicators and
lungs of Maria Callas. I wrote that the Speciale— reverse lights presented more engineering head-
built from 2013 to 2015 in coupe and convertible aches. In every way, Segal says, “the car is blissfully
Aperta forms—would enter history as one of the unaware” that a phantom shifter limb now sprouts
A company’s greats. That prediction gained traction from a reworked center console.
when the 488GTB arrived. This next-gen berlinetta Systems amnesia aside, the Ferrari clearly
seemed flat in comparison, its voice auto-tuned remembers its athletic prowess and accomplished
into submission by turbocharging. past. Within minutes, I’m conducting this supercar
Segal, a professional racer who drove Ferraris through a slim baton to 9000-rpm climaxes, per-
to class wins at Le Mans and Daytona, was also spiring like Leonard Bernstein directing virtuoso
seduced by the Speciale’s 9000-rpm song. His Mod- players. Those soulful shrieks resound through a
ificata outfit spent three and a half years reengi- Speciale cabin that left the factory with no sound
neering a 458 Speciale, exchanging its dual-clutch deadening or carpeting over its composite floor.
gearbox for a six-speed manual of the clickety-clack Segal admits his Speciale is objectively slower
gated variety. That straw stirred the drink in some than the original, with its seven more tightly spaced
A. A three-pedal AP of Maranello’s most classic concoctions, from the gears and 100-millisecond changes. But who’s
Racing setup 275GTB of 1964 to the F40. counting time when you’re having so much fun
replaces the stock My reunion with the Speciale takes place at a rowing gears and practicing fancy footwork, once-
458’s two foot levers.
B. Once a staple of Connecticut coffee shop, and time hasn’t dimmed critical skills now verging on automotive extinction?
Ferrari interiors, the its slinky-hipped appeal. No time to waste or pad- “You’ve got all the feels of the Speciale, all the
gated manual shifter dles to thwack: It’s time to remember everything visceral sensation, but there’s more of a mental and
makes one last stand
in this 458 Speciale. I’ve forgotten about heel-and-toeing a Ferrari, here physical challenge,” he says.
C. The Speciale is with an AP Racing pedal box and carbon-ceramic The result is an extra-Speciale Ferrari that devi-
the more engaging brakes from a LaFerrari. The ball-topped lever ates from the modern supercar template by not giv-
of 458 models.
This Speciale is even clacks into first gear after start-up. H-patterned ing up its secrets in the first 10 minutes. Or the first
more engaging. metal gates are chamfered just so to let the shift rod 10 drives. Sounds like perfection to me.

030 R&T VOl. 22 BY L AW R E N C E U L R I C H PHOTOGRAPHY BY D W B U R N E T T

B

T H E PA N E L

Ralph Gilles
“What I love about the
458 is its super-quick
steering, its very
tossable rear end, and
the perfect linearity of
the naturally aspirated
V-8, not to mention the
wail of that engine in
Race mode near red.”
 A

LAMBORGHINI
MARIO ANDRETTI ON THE AMAZING

BY A . J . B A I M E
 B C

AVENTADOR
PERFORMANCE OF HIS AVENTADOR’S CD PLAYER.

PHoToGRAPHY BY S A S H A A R U T Y U N O VA R&T Vol. 22 033

 A. (Previous pages)
The last American
Formula 1 world
champ has also sung
opera on America’s
favorite game show.
B. Andretti can enjoy his
Aventador without
even leaving the
garage.
C. Pavarotti plus Lambo
V-12, both cranked to
top volume. Now,
that’s amore!
D. Andretti’s new Lam-
borghini arrives this
spring. But will it
have a CD player?

When asked about the greatest cars he

has driven, Mario Andretti comes up with
some surprises. He mentions a 1973 Viceroy-
sponsored dirt-track racer, a 1957 Chevrolet
Bel Air, and even a Mini Clubman John Cooper
Works. “It’s cars like this that, when you look
back—boom—they come to mind,” he recalls.
But the 2018 Lamborghini Aventador in
Andretti’s garage has special meaning for an
unexpected reason. “If I am ever feeling down,
I go down there,” he says, “and start this car.
I love the first rumble of the engine: Vroom!”
The Aventador throbs with performance—
around 700 hp, hundreds more than the Lotus
79 Andretti charioted to the Formula 1 World
Championship in 1978. However, this Lambo
performs on a whole other level—without
ever leaving the garage.
“I have a CD of Pavarotti, and I put that on,”
he says. He cranks the volume while revving
the V-12, and the two Italian voices combine
to produce a sweet harmony.
Turns out, America’s most famous racing
D driver is an opera nut. He saw his first when
he was about 10 years old, Verdi’s La Travi-
ata. His favorite aria is “Nessun Dorma” from
Turandot, written by Puccini. Andretti even
once sang a Verdi aria on an episode of Jeop-
ardy! The Pavarotti CD he keeps in his Aven-
tador is Amore: Romantic Italian Love Songs.
Crank it up!
“Jesus!” Andretti says. “You know what? I
T H E PA N E L smile the rest of the day.”
Valentino Balboni
“Distinguished by its
incomparable exclusivity.
Getting behind the wheel
of an Aventador can
make anyone a driving
enthusiast.”

034 R&T VoL. 22

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 BY J A S O N K AVA N A G H S TA N C E • R&T Vol. 22 037

MITSUBISHI EVOLUTION
THE BEST RALLY CAR
INSPIRED PERFORMANCE
SEDAN OF ALL TIME.
E v E ry t h i n g yo u n E E d to know about the
Lancer Evolution IX’s greatness is that Mitsubishi
fitted the car with three limited-slip differentials
but not cruise control.
The Evo did not result from consumer clinics or
focus groups. It was single-minded and created to and as often as possible. It wasn’t interested in A. Rough riding and a bit
devour any road, anywhere, at any time. It fizzed commuting or slow driving of any kind, really. darty, the Mitsubishi
Evolution was none-
with an unapologetic attitude and capability. When you plodded around town, the steering theless a stunningly
If the STI was civilized, the Evo was what you was twitchy and hyperreactive off-center, the capable road car.
got when you smashed the glass panel labeled ride was busy, and the engine was flat-footed off
with a sign reading “Break in case of ass-hauling boost, which was whenever its tach showed fewer
emergency.” It focused on point-to-point speed, than 3000 revs. In this context, you might won-
all else be damned. The Evo shared little with the der how you found yourself in such a cruddy car.
plebeian Lancer sedan upon which it was nomi- But driven in anger on a difficult road in tricky
nally based. The subframes, the suspension, the conditions, the Evo comes alive. What earlier
brakes, the seats, the steering wheel, and the felt like nervousness transforms into poise and
whole damned drivetrain were unique to the cleareyed confidence. A taut suspension pro-
Evo. Practically the only shared sheetmetal was vides tight body control yet is unfazed by mid-
the front doors. corner bumps. Lean hard on the front axle, and
Oh, you wanted stability control? Too bad. A the Evo turns in with surprising tenacity, goad-
comfort mode? Yeah, right! The only mode selec- ing you to brake later, turn harder, and get on
tor you get is for the active center differential’s the gas sooner. Get into the rhythm, and as you
terrain setting. That reminds us: The Evo IX came blend those inputs, trailing the brakes to point
standard with an active center differential, capa- the nose toward each apex and using the throttle
ble of adjusting the rate and magnitude of lockup to balance the tail’s trajectory away from them,
between the front and rear axles. the car reveals another layer. It begins to feel
The Evo was always set to full kill, demanding like an extension of you. Give it a proper caning
just one thing from its operator: Drive it as hard here, and you wonder how anything could pos-
sibly keep up.
Two decades on, modern performance cars
can eclipse the Evo’s pace. But even today its
sharp driver engagement and sheer exuberance
remain thrilling. If the Evo sounds like too much
of a pure driver’s car for you, that’s okay. The STI
is right over there.
T H E PA N E L

Brian Scotto
“Has the fit and finish
of a ham sandwich
but was the most
intuitive production car
to drive on the edge.”

IllUSTRATIoNS BY N ATA L I E F O S S
038 R&T Vol. 22 • S TA N C E BY A A R O N B R O W N

SUBARU WRX STI

THE BEST RALLY CAR
INSPIRED PERFORMANCE
SEDAN OF ALL TIME. I dabbled in stage rally with a 30-year-old Sub-
aru RX and an E36-generation BMW M3. And as
someone who occasionally runs out of mechan-
ical sympathy, I want my cars to be able to take
A. The 2006–07 I have a fIxatIon. An addiction. A need for the similar kinds of abuse.
“Hawkeye” was the sweet, bassy burble of a turbocharged Subaru EJ25 My own 2017 STI got driven hard. Very hard.
best-looking STI. Try
to ignore those who engine sporting unequal-length headers and an unre- Over my 50,000 miles with it, I hit tracks, drove it
called it “Pig Nose.” stricted exhaust. When I parted with my WRX STI, I cross-country and back, slid it on frozen lakes and
was left with a void. When Subaru killed off the car, snowy Catskill back roads, launched it on dry lake
I was heartbroken. beds, and hustled it on pothole-laden city streets.
Until the introduction of the fifth-generation WRX It never complained.
for 2022, the STI defended its honor against all that Soon after I retired my STI in 2020, Subaru let
challenged it. It survived almost two decades in the flame die out.
America on its unchanged formula: a quick-revving Both the STI and the Evo deserve celebration.
turbocharged 2.5-liter flat-four engine mated to a Had Subaru and Mitsubishi not taken the risk, cars
short-geared six-speed manual, limited-slip differen- like the GR Corolla, the Golf R, and the Civic Type R
tials on both axles, and an adjustable center diff. For would not be tearing up American roads. The Evo
many enthusiasts, including myself, it’s perfection. and the STI are as different as cats and dogs—one
But the STI wasn’t alone. sharp clawed, the other happiest when muddy.
In 2003, days before Subaru unveiled the 2004 STI But they are kindred spirits, not mere rivals. Like
for the U.S., Mitsubishi announced it’d bring its rally- Tommi Mäkinen and Colin McRae, the Evo and the
bred sport sedan, the Lancer Evolution, to America. STI pushed each other to be better.
Initially, the Evo came out on top—even though it For me, though, the STI still has my heart.
had roughly 30 less horsepower than the STI. In Road Maybe it’s time to pick up a handsome 2006–07
& Track’s June 2003 test comparing the two cars, the “Hawkeye.” Or perhaps I’ll wait to see whether an
Mitsubishi narrowly pulled off a win by the numbers. electrified version ever arrives. No matter what,
But for me, and then–senior editor Andrew Bornhop, I won’t be satisfied unless its exhaust is bassy
it’s not only a numbers game. enough to rattle my rib cage.
The Evo “feels like it’s set up for Monte Carlo tar-
mac,” Bornhop wrote, while the STI “feels ready to
tackle Kenya dirt. Which is why I prefer the Subaru.
It has fantastic power, it looks more like a rally car,
and it wins me over with bits such as its adjustable
center diff, which makes the STI come alive on dirt,
where rally cars belong.”
T H E PA N E L

Bob Lutz
“This low-slung sedan
with all-wheel drive
provided what the enthu-
siast craves on twisty
roads. lt could embarrass
the ‘noble brands’ from
all countries.”
MERCEDES
500E
PORSCHE’S
FIRST
PRODUCTION
SEDAN WAS
A MERCEDES-
BENZ.

040 R&T Vol. 22 A

S-BENZ
 BY M I K E D U F F PHoToGRAPHY BY J E R E M Y C L I F F

History is written by the victors; so are most in the late Eighties, Mercedes was big and success-
autobahn stories. Yet, my abiding memory of Mer- ful, and Porsche was small and struggling. The situa-
cedes’s epoch-defining sport sedan came as an tion led to the joint parentage of the Mercedes 500E.
onlooker rather than a driver. A couple of years back, The 500E is all Mercedes. Every component
I was driving on an unlimited stretch of the A5 auto- carries one of the company’s parts numbers. But
bahn south of Frankfurt late on a summer evening. Porsche was contracted to engineer and build it.
I’d rented a base Volkswagen Polo, which was inca- These days, both companies are equally proud of it;
pable of any high-speed adventure itself. But I had a the car photographed for this story belongs to the
T H E PA N E L great view as fast movers streaked past. Porsche Museum.
Almost all of them were expensive late-model The W124 E-class launched for 1986 to critical and
Hiroshi Tamura
“It’s true that four-door cars. But one wasn’t. A glance in the Polo’s rearview sales success but without any performance variant.
sedans are not ‘sports mirror delivered the unexpected sight of older hal- Mercedes had already found success for a turned-up
car’ shaped. But if we
can say that ‘sports car’ ogen headlights closing at a significant pace. Sec- version of the smaller 190E with a Cosworth-
is also a phenomenon of onds later, a W124-generation 500E streaked past designed 16-valve engine, so trying something sim-
feeling, I felt that stimu-
lation from the E60 AMG, at a speed that sent the Polo rocking in its wake, the ilar for the E-class made sense, especially as future
with its high-speed Merc either close to or hard against its 155-mph lim- subsidiary AMG was already creating an aftermarket
stability, acceleration,
and V-8 note.” iter. It was a 30-year-old performance car still being V-8 version. “BMW was in the market with the M5,
driven as its creators intended. and AMG had the Hammer,” remembers Jürgen Ber-
Many cities are riven by deep rivalries, and ghus, a young engineer at Mercedes in 1988, now 65
although Stuttgart doesn’t have a sporting enmity years old and recently retired. “So we decided to try
to match that between the Mets and the Yankees, to implement a V-8 engine.”
it does possess two automotive home teams, Mer- Before that, there was brief consideration of using
cedes and Porsche. These days, employee numbers a twin-turbo six-cylinder, but a prototype engine
and even sales volumes have grown closer, but back proved unsuitable. “The biturbo was very digital,”
Berghus says. “It was one or zero, all or nothing.”
Instead, the E-class would get the contemporary
B
500SL’s 5.0-liter M119 32-valve V-8, which could be
squeezed into the W124’s engine bay with slight sur-
gery. Mercedes had built prototypes, but it lacked
the resources to make a production version, with its
engineers flat out on the 1990 R129 SL roadster and
1992 W140 S-class.
Enter Porsche. The sports-car maker’s contract-
engineering division was one of the few parts of
the business that was still doing well. “It was a
time of crisis at Porsche,” says Michael Hölscher,
now 68 and retired, one of the company’s engi-
neers for hire at the time. “The production num-
bers in Zuffenhausen had decreased from 80,000
to 18,000, so it was very good news that Mercedes
gave us this job. It was not the only component in
Porsche staying alive, but it was a very good brick
in the wall.” Hölscher had just finished a GM proj-
ect and went to work on the 500E. Mercedes had set
all the core targets. Berghus shows an internal doc-
ument from 1987 that stipulated a 250-km/h (155-
mph) top speed, the figure that BMW and Mercedes
had agreed to limit their most powerful cars to.

042 R&T Vol. 22

C

While the regular W124 E-class was a spectacular A. (Previous pages) D

piece of engineering and is widely regarded as one of In today’s world of
angry-looking sports
the pinnacles of Mercedes quality—even now, some sedans, the 500E is
still work as taxis in parts of the world—it was no amazingly reserved.
sport sedan. Mercedes designed it for comfort and B. Jamming the 5.0-liter
M119 V-8 into the
refinement. As launched, the most powerful version E-class required
had 177 hp. The new car would need more than 300 some modifications
hp to deliver on the performance targets. to the engine bay.
C. The contract to
The Porsche Museum’s 500E becomes a demon- develop and build the
stration tool at this point, with Berghus and Hölscher 500E came at a
happy to school me on the many differences between critical time for the
struggling Porsche.
it and the regular E-class. One of the cleverest is effec- D. Sometimes when
tively invisible, with the need to feed cold air to the you’re doing a photo
engine stymied by the requirement for much larger shoot at the Porsche
Museum, a 906 race
radiators that would entirely fill the space behind car will wander in and E
the grille. Instead, the design team took advantage clutter up the shot.
of the high-pressure area at the front of the car and E. There is a little
Porsche in every
created ducting behind the headlights, with more Mercedes 500E.
than enough air flowing through the gaps around the
lights to feed the engine. Peaks of 322 hp and 354 lb-ft
might look slight by modern standards, but they were
044 R&T Vol. 22

A. Porsche engineer
Michael Hölscher
(left) and Mercedes
testing engineer
Jürgen Berghus (right)
worked closely on
the joint development
of the 500E.

enough to make the 500E one of the fastest sedans

in the world, even though the four-speed automatic
gearbox (chosen because the company’s five-speed
unit couldn’t handle the torque) meant the engine
would be running close to max revs at top speed.
There are numerous other chances to geek out
over details. The 500E has double reinforcement
struts between the front upper crossmember and the
front crash bar (the regular W124 E-class has one),
ordered after the test team discovered slight hood
vibration while going flat out.
With the car raised on a ramp in the museum work-
shop, there’s also the chance to see the strengthening
brace between the two front suspension arm mount-
ings and the relocated steering rack. The larger rear
differential also required a raised rear floor—the rea-
son the 500 is a four-seater and couldn’t be ordered
with a bench in the back. It got a bigger 23.8-gallon
fuel tank to give realistic autobahn range.
The most significant difference from the lesser
E-class was the one that defines the 500E’s visual
appeal: the widened front fenders that cover the
expanded track deemed necessary to sharpen han-
dling and improve stability. The total difference is
only 2.2 inches over the standard car but still enough
to mean that the 500 would not fit down the assembly
line in Merc’s Sindelfingen plant. It’s hard to imag-
ine a modern automaker allowing such a concession,
especially as Mercedes also introduced the narrower
V-8-powered 400E that it built itself. But in those
days, Benz’s engineers outranked its accountants.
Porsche built the wider 500E body shells at its
Zuffenhausen plant. From there, they got shipped to
Sindelfingen to be painted, as Porsche’s paint shop
could only work with zinc-plated steel. Bodies then
returned to Zuffenhausen for final assembly; the pro-
cess took 18 days for each car. Completed 500Es had
to pass quality-assurance tests from both Porsche
and Mercedes before going to customers.
The finished car had more speed and dynamic pre-
cision than the regular W124, but the changes had

A
Visit Us
 A. The 500E’s wider
front track and flared
front fenders (which
look pretty tame by
modern standards)
meant the car was
too wide to go down
Mercedes’s Sindel­
fingen assembly line.

not turned it harsh or aggressive. The surprises Cadillac CT5-V Blackwing a spiritual successor.
for anybody driving a 500E today are how muted When Mercedes absorbed AMG’s road-car opera-
the V-8 is under gentle use and how pliant its ride tions a few years later, the 500E (and the W124-
is. Nor is the 500E a hooligan—it was one of Mer- based E60 AMG) inspired the generations of 43, 55,
cedes’s first cars with standard ASR traction con- and 63 models that came after.
trol. The company was so proud of the system that Berghus and Hölscher enjoyed long and success-
it denied drivers the chance to switch it off. ful careers. Berghus worked on the original Mer-
The base price in 1992 was $81,800, the equiva- cedes M-class SUV, then on the Maybach 57/62 and
lent of roughly $180,600 today. The 2023 Mercedes- the McLaren SLR. Hölscher led the engineering of
AMG E63 S is a relative bargain at $113,950. another famous Porsche collaboration, the Audi
Despite the towering price, $17,370 more than RS2, before ultimately working as development
that of the E34 BMW M5, demand started and manager on the Carrera GT and 918 Spyder. Both
stayed high. More than 1500 cars came to the U.S. in remember the 500E project as an unusually har-
three years, and the total of 10,479 cars was 30 per- monious one between two automakers.
cent higher than the volumes Porsche had planned “I knew how special it was when I took a test car
for. Production was split by the W124’s face-lift. The for the weekend and drove three friends to Lake
500 got slightly bigger brakes and was rebranded Constance,” Hölscher recalls. “The autobahn was
according to Merc’s new naming convention, the E not crowded, and they were chatting to each other.
switching from suffix to prefix. These days, 500E Then suddenly it went silent. ‘You’re driving at 250
and E500 are used pretty much interchangeably. km/h,’ one of them said. The car was so good that
The 500E’s appeal has grown over the years, unless you looked at the speedometer, you didn’t
with age adding neoclassic allure to the combi- feel it.”
nation of luxury, performance, and understated “We had a slogan on the project: ‘Cultural sport-
style. It is easy to see the 500E as the archetypal ivity.’ That was what we wanted to create,” Ber-
supersedan that rivals would imitate: Audi, BMW, ghus says. “I don’t know if that really makes sense
and Jaguar all followed with V-8 engines and auto- in English.”
matic transmissions. It’s no stretch to consider the Don’t worry. It translates fine.

046 R&T Vol. 22

 SHOP
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designed for the ultimate car enthusiast!

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GEAR!
VISIT SHOP.ROADANDTRACK.COM
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C
D

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Y V E A S S A D
B BY J O H N P E A R L E Y H U F F M A N

Fantasies are great. Imagine hitting the Pulled from BMW’s museum and showing
lotto and filling a block-long barn in Montecito only 14,000 miles on its odometer, the 1M started
with Ferraris, Lambos, and a few historic F1 cars. instantly on a cool January night in Spartan-
Likely? Not even remotely. Dreams, though, may burg, South Carolina. The warm glow of BMW’s
be attainable. And the 2011 BMW 1-series M once-signature orange dashboard lights brought a
Coupe, better known as the 1M, is a dream. comforting familiarity during a sprint up to Ashe-
Road & Track is built on sports cars and exot- ville, North Carolina. The 1M’s interior once felt
T H E PA N E L
ics. All of that string-back-driving-glove stuff right cheap. But nostalgia for simple, old-school Bim-
after World War II eventually morphed into the mer virtues has spackled over that criticism. Samantha Tan
insanity of F40s, Miuras, and McLarens. Great fan- The 335-hp twin-turbo 3.0-liter six is vice- “This is my personal car
that I’ve had for many
tasy stuff, yet impractical for how most of us live. less, though it grunts when previous turbo-free years. It’s just an
But around 1968, BMW invented the “sport sedan” M-spec sixes zinged. Its power delivery is aston- absolute pleasure to
drive. It’s nimble and
as we know it by shoving a 2.0-liter four into its ishingly flexible—it has plenty of low-end torque well balanced, with
1600-2 compact two-door to create the 2002. but still giddily reaches for the redline. The six- a six-speed manual,
making it the perfect car
R&T first covered the 2002 in the May 1968 speed manual transmission needs clear intent to for any enthusiast,
A. That the 1M received especially me!”
more nominations issue. “At about $3000 it is fully comparable make perfect shifts, so pay attention.
for this list than the in performance, handling, ride and finish with With a short wheelbase, quick steering, and
2002 is surprising sports cars costing as much as $2000 more— sticky Michelins on 19-inch wheels, the 1M’s rear-
yet entirely justified.
B. BMW’s 1M was the although it has a rather unpretentious sedan drive chassis has an instinctiveness that’s missing
first in the country body,” our ancestors wrote 56 years ago. from many current BMWs. Or anything else. The
and used as a pace What R&T didn’t see back then is the revolu- 1M’s successor, the current M2, is close and has
car. Delivered in
white, it got only a tion the 2002 represented. Here was a daily-usable 453 hp aboard, but it’s longer and weighs about
quick exterior coat of 2210-pound car—four seats, a trunk, not fragile— 400 pounds more. Inevitably, that dulls reflexes.
orange paint. delivering the driving sensations that made sports The tech-forward M2 has digital compensations.
C. Flared fenders barely
containing fat sum- cars, well, sensational. Sports cars were a fantasy, But it’s not the same. And it’s not better.
mer tires and big but the sport sedan was an attainable dream. Don Quixote imagined his inspiration and ideal
brakes never lose The 2002 gave way to the first 3-series in the woman as Dulcinea. The substance of his soul, but
their appeal.
D. Rotary knobs and mid-Seventies, and the 3 grew larger over time. a fantasy that fed his chivalric mania. She was
buttons and dials? So to backfill the compact slot, BMW conjured up what a Ferrari is imagined to be. The 1M is the
What once felt the 1-series, which launched overseas in 2004 and real thing—not perfect, not exotic, but worth the
down-market now is
as comforting as your finally reached North America for the 2008 model sacrifice to attain. Not Dulcinea, but a reality to
childhood home. year. The 2011 1M was the twerp-series M3. cherish and love.

BMW 1-SERIES
M COUPE THE PEAK
BMW DREAM
MACHINE.
R&T Vol. 22 049
IN RACING, STOCK, OR MODDED GARB,
IT’S A WINNER. HERE’S WHY.
MAZDA MX-5
MIATA
enjoyed the trip? Miatas are tuned to bring joy to
every drive, even the boring ones.
The dynamic qualities that bring joy to the
grocery-store run are the same that do so on a moun-
tain road or a racetrack: direct and honest response
to the smallest input, tactile feedback that connects
you to the road, and agility that can only come from
less weight. This is a deeply democratizing way to
approach sports-car development. One that recog-
nizes that—car enthusiast or not—we all share a
A. For more than 30 Sort by Simple volume, and the humble Mazda brainstem with adolescent puppies, and sometimes
years, Mazda has Miata is the king of this issue’s hill. Miatas, in various we get the zoomies.
failed to screw up the
Miata. The ’24 model forms, landed on more lists of more people’s most Surprisingly for an affordable sports car, the Miata
gets minor tweaks memorable drives than any other car. These lists are has always had a dedicated platform, sharing not a
aimed largely at expressions of peak experience, with practical con- single piece of chassis hardware with anything else.
making it even more
fun to drive. siderations ignored and the door flung wide open to Few sports cars can say this, and the ones that can
race cars or playthings of the superrich. And still we are almost always great. That platform is light and
have a simple, affordable, fuel-efficient, ubiquitous perfectly balanced, with a neutral cornering posture
little roadster with an economy-car engine rubbing that makes the car seem to pivot around the driver.
shoulders with giants. What gives? The idea is to make the car’s behavior so natural that
Almost paradoxically, the Miata’s approachabil- the barrier between driver and car drops away.
ity is what makes this feat possible. The root of the I don’t know which specific Miatas were on every-
Miata’s greatness lies not in its hardware but in the one else’s lists, but I’m sure they weren’t the same
philosophy that has anchored the car through four three cars as mine, since I built two myself, and the
generations and kept the driving experience essen- other is from the future. But the core of what makes
tially the same despite two ground-up redesigns. them all memorable is identical. One of the benefits
In development, the Miata (or MX-5 or Roadster, of sticking to the same formula for 35 years is that
depending on your position in space and time) has the same engineers get to hone and perfect the car.
no performance targets. It doesn’t have to beat any I’m lucky enough to be one of those engineers, or
particular competitor in a race or set a Nürburgring at least close enough that the ones really doing the
lap time. Instead, the development team focuses on work answer my phone calls and let me drive the
the most essential job: making the driver happy. prototypes. It’s one of the prototypes I drove last
Nürburgring lap times are meant to impress not year that made my list.
the driver of the car but the people talking about
it. Be honest; you’re never taking your car to the The Stock Miata
Nürburgring. But you will have to get groceries Still in the factory as I write this but on sale by the
eventually. When you do, wouldn’t it be nice if you time you read it, the 2024 MX-5 shaves down one

050 R&T Vol. 22 BY D AV E C O L E M A N IllUSTRATIoNS BY N V M I L L U S T R AT I O N

A
 line higher so the joy of stretching into the noisy
end of the powerband wouldn’t be interrupted by
a premature rev limiter. The extra 26 hp is just
what happens when you continue drawing the old
A B power curve for another 700 rpm.
The new Miata maintains that 181-hp setup. I
ordered one already. VIN 84. I can’t wait.

The Modified Miata

little wart that’s been bugging me for the last few The second Miata on my list, the Miatabusa, is that
years: the tiniest hint of steering friction. With that same idea turned up to 11. Literally. If the real joy
friction gone, the steering responds to the slight- comes from revving the engine to 7500 rpm, what
est fingertip inputs with newfound precision. The if we keep going to 11,000? It turns out there’s an
engine may be the beating heart of a car, but the intensity that resonates in the adrenal gland, flood-
steering is your window into its soul. ing the bloodstream with an uncontrolled release
This update also improves some areas I hadn’t of jitters, distorting your sense of speed and dan-
even thought to complain about. It replaces the ger. The sound of the engine convinces your brain
perfectly good limited-slip differential with a bet- you’re going faster than you are, amplifying the
T H E PA N E L
ter one tuned around the different yaw-damping perceived significance of every input you feel, of
requirements of trail braking (requiring more every change in surface texture, of the unknown
Lyn St. James lockup/yaw damping) and corner exit (requiring lurking around every blind corner.
“My Miata is almost the
love of my life. I have less). Cornering control is not all about steering, The concept of the Miatabusa is straight-
owned it for decades
now. The shifter, the
and this new diff refines the response to that newly forward. There’s a bizarre supply chain of cheap,
steering—everything in frictionless rack. reliable race engines that starts in a Suzuki fac-
this car is just right.”
In my first drive with this diff, I almost immedi- tory in Japan and ends when the kind of person
ately had the car in a perfect neutral drift, the kind who’s attracted to a 186-mph motorcycle suddenly
requiring no countersteer, and led it to the apex figures out they’re not the kind of person who can
and out to the exit curb with just throttle modula- handle a 186-mph motorcycle. Wheels, suspension,
tion. It was perfectly intuitive on the first try. and body panels sacrifice themselves as the bike
A small engine with relatively low power was tumbles, and the rider sells the protected engine at
a key design brief for the original Miata. Braking, the bike’s core to offset medical bills. It’s a process
cornering, and acceleration overlap and blend that’s been reliable for more than 20 years, which is
when driving through a corner. Trail braking plants why the GSX1300R Hayabusa is the obvious donor
the nose at turn-in, shifting grip forward and giv- for a project like this. If something breaks, Craigs-
ing just enough slip angle to the rear tires that list has a bottomless supply of replacement power
A. When a V-8 is too silly all four contact patches give their all. In Driving units that will bolt in.
and a supercharger 101, you hit your apex and then accelerate out of There’s a challenge to putting a motorcycle
is too mundane for
your modified Miata, the corner. But the real joy comes in bending the engine in a car, and it comes down to the different
jam an 11,000-rpm rules: Pulling the acceleration earlier into the cor- ways that cars and bikes get power to their wheels.
bike engine in there. ner. Rolling onto the throttle before the apex but The bike’s gearbox is packaged right in the crank-
B. The chrome-wrapped
roof reflects sunlight, gently enough, at first, that the balance doesn’t case, driven off a gear on the crank. But it has only
reducing cabin tem- suddenly shift to understeer and push you wide. forward gears, and they’re only as big as needed for
perature. No need Playing around the margins of this perfect balance the weight of the bike. So, we (it took three idiots to
for a heavy air-
conditioning system. is the fun bit. make this car, not just me) replaced the bike’s gear-
C. For reasons too In the lead-up to the U.S.-market Miata’s 2019 box with a dummy shaft and put a Miata flywheel
PHOTOGRAPHS: COURTESY OF DAVE COLEMAN

gruesome to elabo- jump from 155 to 181 hp, none of the internal plan- on the end of it. This put the Miata parts down-
rate on here, used
Hayabusa engines ning discussions mentioned that horsepower stream of that big crankshaft gear—a gear that
are plentiful. would increase. The goal was to push the red- happens to reduce the crank’s 11,000-rpm redline

052 R&T Vol. 22

C
 irresponsible. An inexpensive car designed to
maintain oil pressure at the high revs and high
g-forces of racing makes the transition from street
car to race car simple. Even simpler is a factory
A B motorsport program that serves anyone who puts
Mazda tires on a racetrack with access to the parts
catalog, discounts, and someone on the other side
of the phone who understands the urgency of get-
ting your parts on time.
to 7000 rpm at the flywheel. Just what the Miata With massively popular Spec Miata and MX-5
gearbox was designed for. Cup spec racing series and competitiveness in sev-
The Hayabusa engine weighs some 160 pounds eral multimake classes, Miatas are the most raced
less than the cast-iron-block NA and NB Miata type of car, but mine is likely the most raced indi-
engine. And with mild weight reduction in the vidual Miata. Despite the name, 24 Hours of Lem-
rest of the car (that chrome wrap on the hardtop ons events average about 16 hours of racing per
reflects the sun in lieu of air conditioning, for exam- weekend. My ungainly ball of wrinkled sheetmetal
ple), the Miatabusa tips the scales at only 2016 and latex house paint has finished 62 of them for a
T H E PA N E L pounds. No amount of brute horsepower can repro- rough total of 990 hours, or almost a month and a
Loris Bicocchi duce the agility that kind of lightness imparts. Add half of nonstop wheel-to-wheel racing.
“I could drive many to that a steering rack from which I removed the The most fun on track is when you’re battling
miles in this sporty little
car, and I have also power assist and all the associated sources of slop door handle to door handle with a well-matched
chosen it for my driving and friction, and the nose of the car responds tele- competitor. This is the genius of spec racing. But
academy in Italy.”
pathically and communicates straight back to your there’s another race happening in the garage,
marrow. I get weak in the knees every time I drive where creativity in conceiving the best car can
it, but maybe that’s just because I’m always afraid stimulate an entirely different part of the brain. A
it’s about to blow up. wide-open rulebook is a playground for creative
engineering but a disaster for your budget. With
The Racing Miata rules focused only on cost and safety, 24 Hours of
Reliability is something we take for granted now, Lemons allows Can-Am levels of creativity with
but in 1989, applying Japanese meticulousness to constrained budgets. And because everyone is
a segment last populated with Sixties and Seven- limited by 190-treadwear street tires, the fastest
ties English cars was a revelation. The death of the cars still battle as closely as spec racers. On track,
English sports-car market had been misunderstood our turbocharged Miata is perfectly matched with
as a loss of customer interest, but really, it was a a V-8 Volvo 240 or an amalgamation of Ford parts

PHOTOGRAPH A: COURTESY OF TODD LAPPIN; PHOTOGRAPH B: COURTESY OF SARAH FAIRFIELD

loss of patience with unreliability. By solving that the DMV still thinks is a Model T.
issue, the Miata brought the Sixties roadster back The key to building a turbo Miata on a Lem-
from an Eighties grave. ons budget is zooming in on the problem. Blown
A. The Eyesore Racing It’s also part of why Miatas make great race cars. engine? Nonsense. An engine is a bunch of parts.
Miata looks like a Uncanny robustness is just one of a dozen answers Zoom in to see which are broken. Then do the same
reject from Junkyard you could give to why the Miata is the single most on four more blown engines you got for free, and
Wars, but it finished
62 endurance races. raced car on the planet. Combine durability with you’ll find you have a perfectly good engine that’s
B. The Chaparral- lightness, even weight distribution, and a suspen- just spread out. Gather it together, and you have a
inspired wing mounts sion geometry focused on keeping the tires squared solid engine for the price of gaskets.
directly to the rear
suspension uprights. up against the ground, and you end up with incred- Build and race with this attitude, and the finan-
C. Reliability and avail- ibly low operating costs. cial stresses drop away, leaving you with the pure
ability underpin the The key to enjoying racing is finding the bal- joy of racing against your friends. And that laser
Miata’s status as the
most raced car on ance point, where the joy of being physically irre- focus on fun makes this the most raced Miata and
the planet. sponsible outweighs the pain of being financially the most Miata of race cars.

054 R&T Vol. 22

C
 FERRARI 250 GT
UNDER THE SWB’S ACHINGLY BEAUTIFUL BODY BEATS THE TRUE HEART OF FERRARI.

It takes quIte a thing to outshine the Ferrari Engine designer Gioacchino Colombo’s 12-
250 GT SWB, and that thing is the Colombo V-12 cylinder creation was lightweight, sporting an
stationed under its long hood. This engine’s impor- aluminum crankcase and heads and a narrow
tance to Ferrari is difficult to overstate, as it played 60-degree V angle. It had an appetite for revs that
a headlining role in transforming the fledgling was unusual for the time, with one overhead cam-
racing concern into one of the most storied auto- shaft per bank driving two valves per cylinder.
makers in history. The Colombo V-12 is the heart But crucially, it had room to grow. Colombo had
of Ferrari, full stop. the foresight in 1945 to design the V-12 with an
Before the 250 GT SWB debuted in 1959, its V-12 almost comically wide 90-mm cylinder spacing,
had already claimed victories in numerous grands which provided significant latitude to expand its
prix, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, and other endur- displacement and valve diameters down the road.
ance races at the top levels of motorsport. Variants And expand it did. The original 1.5-liter version’s
of this engine propelled Ferrari’s first race car and 55-mm bores grew to 73 mm for the 3.0-liter ver-
first road car, ultimately going on to power various sion that powers 250 models and finally to 77 mm
roadgoing and racing Ferrari models for 41 years. for cars that followed. The Colombo V-12 later

T H E PA N E L

Bill Warner
“Balanced, fast, and
beautiful. Nearly every
Ferrari aficionado’s
favorite. It is much
more civil than a GTO
and more usable, and
that scream of the
3.0-liter V-12 at 6000
rpm is a symphony
unmatched by the New
York Philharmonic.”

BY J A S O N K AVA N A G H ILLUSTRATION BY B R O W N B I R D D E S I G N
BERLINETTA SWB
A. The earliest version maxed out at 4.9 liters, aided by a stretch in cyl- a Chevy small block, you can bolt on and bolt off
of the Colombo inder spacing to 94 mm. The engine’s flexibility in performance, and these [Ferrari] guys were really
V-12 displaced only
1.5 liters. It was displacement and states of tune was instrumen- ahead of their time. [Colombo’s V-12] is so tunable
double that capacity tal to Enzo Ferrari’s success in selling road cars in every respect. ‘We’re gonna do Le Mans.’ Okay,
by the time it pow- to well-heeled customers. Road-car sales made tune it like this. ‘We’re gonna do Mulholland every
ered the 250 SWB.
Eventually, it maxed Enzo’s motorsport endeavors possible. A racing- day with a schoolteacher mom.’ Okay, tune it for
out at 4.9 liters. pedigreed V-12 made both of those things possible. this. It’s easy and adaptable.”
Ferrari used some The Colombo V-12’s fundamentally robust In 250 guise, the Colombo V-12 really hit its
version of the
Colombo for more architecture also enabled constant evolution. By stride. Its 2953-cc displacement slotted it neatly
than 40 years. the time the 250 GT SWB rolled around, Ferrari into sub-3.0-liter classes of sports-car racing,
engineers had developed a bewildering array of where it went on to win everything in sight, reach-
configurations of the engine and its ancillaries, a ing its apogee in one of the most iconic and valu-
testament to the powerplant’s inherent versatility. able cars in history, the 250 GTO—in case you
Vintage-Ferrari restorer Donnie Callaway points needed any more convincing about the Colombo
to this quality as the key to its greatness: “With V-12’s greatness.

C U TAWAY • R&T Vol. 22 057

 FORD FIESTA
TRULY A PARTY ON FOUR WHEELS.
ST
“I thInk people kind of look down on a Fiesta,”
says professional stunt driver Sera Trimble. “In
Los Angeles traffic, they’ll let you in where they
wouldn’t a BMW or something, because they
assume you must be having a bad day if you’re driv-
ing a Fiesta. But if you know, you know.”
If you know, you know: The Fiesta ST has long
been on the list of car-enthusiast secret handshakes.
From the outside, it’s a stunted little economy car
occupying the lowest rung at the rental-car lot. But
from behind the wheel, there’s more joy to be found
here than in many cars with six-figure prices.
Trimble, whose recent credits include Barbie,
Bullet Train, and Licorice Pizza, got her first Fiesta
ST after a group drive captained by Road & Track A
editor-at-large Matt Farah. She and a bunch of fel-
low gearheads tackled the twisting canyon roads
above L.A. in a fleet of press loaners that included Trimble’s first Fiesta ST, nicknamed “Spaceball
a Porsche 911 and a Jaguar F-type, swapping seats 2,” was her go-to daily driver for bombing around
at every stop and sharing impressions. The Fiesta L.A. on the way to a set or just running errands. As
ST was the cheapest car there, yet everybody had the phone kept ringing, she was able to trade up to
to be practically dragged from behind the wheel. more expensive rides, but she still got that twinge
“We were like, that Jaguar costs three times as every time she saw a Fiesta ST in traffic.
much as the Fiesta, but is it actually three times “It was my most missed car,” she says.
more fun?” Trimble recalls. Sure enough, a new ST ideal for short city blasts
Ford launched the Fiesta nameplate in the Sev- soon turned up in the driveway. Trimble says driv-
enties in Europe, where it joined the Escort in the ing it in notoriously aggressive L.A. traffic is a com-
fast-Ford tradition of rallying. On this side of the pletely different experience from trying to protect
Atlantic, both models were more about fuel savings the shiny perfection of something more costly or
than performance. collectible. “It’s just anxiety-free,” she says.
However, in 2014, Ford launched the Fiesta in Stunt work doesn’t have an Oscars category, and
ST trim, powered by a turbocharged 1.6-liter four- similarly, the Fiesta ST is unlikely to be feted at a con-
cylinder with a feisty 197 hp. A retuned suspension cours event. Instead, it just gets to work, shrugging
A. Sera Trimble enjoying and grippy rubber were good for more than 0.90 g off door dings, slotting into a parking spot of any
some moments of on the skidpad, and the 98.0-inch wheelbase gave size, and pinballing through traffic like an amped-up
anxiety-free motoring. the ST flickable handling. photon through a glass of water molecules.
B. The Fiesta ST is a joy
machine disguised And further, the Fiesta ST driving experience That same recipe of everyday ordinary with a
as an unassuming is greater than the sum of any of the numbers it dose of nimble performance made the original Mini
economy car. generates. Dive into a corner, and if you lift off the Cooper such a giant killer. It’s a shame that Ford
C. You know the love is
real when you buy throttle, it’ll wag its tail into puppyish oversteer, nixed the Fiesta ST in North America after 2019.
your second Fiesta then scamper out the other side with short gearing Small cars have small profit margins, so manufac-
ST, as Trimble has. and a midrange overboost from the turbocharged turers would rather build crossovers. But if you’ve
D. The Fiesta was the
most fun vehicle to engine. It’s like someone fitted a steering wheel to ever driven a Fiesta ST, you’ve felt the magic. It’s
wear the ST badge. a Jack Russell terrier. one of our most missed cars too.

BY B R E N D A N M C A L E E R PHOTOGRAPHY BY C AYC E C L I F F O R D
 B

R&T Vol. 22 059

 BY M I K E D U F F

T h e B ug aT T i EB110 has always lived in the wheel-drive system that could direct different
shadow of the McLaren F1, which was launched amounts of torque to each axle.
less than a year after the Bugatti and immediately “We were pioneers in so many directions,”
usurped it as the most powerful and most expen- remembers Loris Bicocchi, the EB110’s former
sive supercar in the world at the time. More than test driver, who nominates it as the highlight of
T H E PA N E L
three decades later, the market still concurs— a career spent developing supercars. “When we
EB110s change hands in the low single millions, started work, a supercar with four-wheel drive
Valentino Balboni while the cheapest, nastiest McLaren F1 has long didn’t exist. Lamborghini was working on the
“Remarkably easy to
drive and prompt steer- since become an eight-figure car. Diablo VT. Ferrari tried, but they didn’t succeed
ing reaction thanks Yet the EB110 is far closer to being the arche- and had to stop the project. Bugatti was first.”
to a balanced suspen-
sion geometry.” type for the modern hypercar than the McLaren. The EB110 was also novel as a supercar
The Bugatti is a much more complex machine designed to deliver not just performance but
than Gordon Murray’s minimalist masterpiece, usability, something rivals rarely considered.
using a quad-turbocharged V-12 and a pioneer- The Bugatti had power steering and anti-lock
ing all-wheel-drive system. Cars like the Porsche brakes, features lacking in its 200-plus-mph
918 Spyder and the Lamborghini Revuelto have rivals, the McLaren F1 and the Jaguar XJ220. It
more in common with the EB110 than with the F1. was intended to be what Bugatti boss Romano
The EB110 was packed with innovation. It was Artioli described as a gentleman’s express.
one of the first road cars to use a carbon-fiber “The EB110 is accurate and responsive when
structure and would have also gotten compos- you push to the limit,” says Bicocchi. “But it is
ite brakes if it had proved possible to make these also easy to drive and very stable at speed. In the
bite at low temperatures. The gearbox and huge EB110 GT, we homologated 212 mph; in the Super
engine were mounted in parallel to save space Sport, 218 mph.”
and sent power to each corner through an all- This at a time when a Porsche 911 Turbo could
do 180 mph.
For Bicocchi, the ultimate proof of the EB110’s
dynamic security came with a remarkable
performance at the Nürburgring, where the SS

BUGATTI
version lapped the 12.9-mile Nordschleife in a
record-setting 7 minutes, 44 seconds. It was a
time that stayed close to the cutting edge well
inside this century. “And this was on tires that
were like stone compared to modern ones,”
Bicocchi says.
In other areas, it took the world a long time
to catch up with the EB110. Years after Artioli’s

EB110
Bugatti had gone bankrupt, Bicocchi was
brought in to work on what would become the
Volkswagen-era Bugatti Veyron.
“When I moved to Germany, what did I find?”
he asks. “Four-wheel drive, four turbochargers, a
carbon-fiber structure. I said, ‘We had those with

THE FIRST MODERN

the EB110, so what’s new?’”

HYPERCAR IS 30 YEARS OLD.

 R&T Vol. 22 061

IllUSTRATIoN BY M A X I N E G R E G S O N
ONLY ONE SPORTS RACER COULD MAKE THE 917 SEEM
FLABBY AND UNWIELDY. THE GREATEST ONE.
BY D A N I E L P U N D

062 R&T Vol. 22

 PORSCHE 908/3

PHOTOGRAPHY BY J E R E M Y C L I F F

A
B
 C

D E

A. (Previous pages) C. The 3.0-liter flat-eight small shift-pattern

Part endurance racer engine rides the placard reminds
and part hill-climb driver’s back like an drivers that this
special, the stripped- aluminum and mag- five-speed is not a
down Porsche 908/3 nesium backpack. dogleg transmission.
is the embodiment of The rollover protec- E. Hidden behind the
Porsche’s obsession tion is insubstantial. handsome five-spoke
with weight savings. D. Like its contemporary, wheels is one of the
B. Only an opening for the legendary 917, 908/3’s more novel
driver and engine the 908/3 used a weight-saving innova-
pierces the 908/3’s lightweight laminated- tions: cross-drilled
smooth body. wood shift knob. The brake rotors.
R&T VOL. 22 065
A. Drivers loved the
nimble and well-
balanced 908/3. It
was built to contest
the two races for
which the 917 was
deemed too large
and heavy: the Targa
Florio and the
Nürburgring 1000 km.
Factory 908/3s
contested only four
races total, winning
three. The car pic-
tured here, chassis
009 from Porsche’s
historic collection,
didn’t win the Targa
Florio, but the car
Jerry Seinfeld owns
did in 1970, with
Jo Siffert and Brian
Redman piloting.

T H E PA N E L

Jerry Seinfeld
“The greatest four-
wheeled thing I have
ever felt. Not a monster
like the 917. This is pure
early-philosophy
Porsche-iness. Minimal-
ism. Balance. Handling.
Everything in philhar-
monic harmony. It
disappears beneath you,
and the sensation is
low-level flight with the
greatest steering and
handling of all time.”

066 R&T Vol. 22 A

A B

C
 A. Using the basic
architecture of the
911’s flat-six, the 3.0-
liter DOHC flat-eight
makes about 350 hp
at 8400 rpm.
B. The bold, graphic
livery of this 908/3,
and the two other
1970 Gulf team cars,
is the work of
Porsche’s styling
department.
C. The 908/3 tips the
scales at only about
1200 pounds, thanks
to an aluminum
space frame and a
body that weighs just
26 pounds.
D. How far forward does
a 908/3 driver sit?
The pedals mount
ahead of the front
wheels, and the
D
front-suspension
anti-roll bar runs just
under the tachometer.
E. John Wyer Automotive
was the primary
factory team for the
car, hence the Union
Jack decal and Gulf
sponsorship.
F. The little black arrow
shows the direction
to rotate the wheel
nut. During long Targa
Florio laps, drivers
would have no choice
but to change blown
tires themselves.

F
R&T VOl. 22 069
070 R&T Vol. 22 A

A. The smooth nose and

upswept tail generate
200 pounds of down-
force on the rear at
155 mph and only 85
pounds in front.
B. There is no need for
bodywork behind the
rear tires, and so it
does not exist.

B
072 R&T Vol. 22 A

this Audi’s set of mismatched keys (the doors

THE
and ignition are now separate cuts) over those
of my cars that, on paper, are far superior. Why?
Between my time as editor at 0–60 Magazine
and co-founder of Hoonigan, I’ve had ample

BEATER
experience in big-power dream machines. Hell,
I own a Porsche 964 Turbo and a Ferrari 360.
They are fun, especially on track. But there

THE JOY OF A
is something oddly exhilarating about over-
driving underpowered vehicles. It’s the giggle

SCRUFFY,
you release as the tires screech and the car
unfortunately begins to over- or understeer

UNKILLABLE
into a corner. Despite its condition, the 4000S
still feels very connected and raw—no comput-

AUDI 4000S.
ers, no variable-assist power steering, no dual
clutch. And at a claimed 2820 pounds, it’s a
featherweight by today’s standards. Its compact
size (6.5 inches narrower than an RS3) makes it
feel nimble and gives you more country road to
apex while keeping you on the intelligent side of
“While i have pictured dying in a car with the double yellow.
you, I don’t want it to be this one,” says Tony I’ve driven better cars. And better-looking
Harmer, my friend and the photographer who cars too. But I steered the 4000S from its former
took the shots you see here. His reaction, while home in Vancouver, British Columbia, through
a tad hyperbolic, is not unwarranted. As we foul weather to Los Angeles. I parked it outside
crest a slightly off-camber section of pavement, sketchy motels, fixed it with zip ties and duct
I violently saw at the steering wheel to keep this tape, and drove the hell out of it on rutted dirt
wayward 1985 Audi 4000S Quattro on the road. roads. Call it a beater, call it a driver, call it the car
It’s not that I’m driving too fast for the road—I I use more than my Ferrari. If I’m smart, I’ll fight
may not even be breaking the speed limit—it’s the urge to make it “better.” A bigger engine and
that I’m driving too fast for this car, or rather, new paint would only make it too nice to take on
the condition this car is in. those unpaved adventures.
Purchased one night mid-pandemic, on a break
from doom-scrolling, this 4000S is, well, a bit of
a bucket. It has some rust spots. On start-up it
spews a dense white cloud of smoke that thickens
during driving. Only the rear passenger’s-side
door handle works. A mishmash of aftermarket A. This scruffy Audi
solid mounts, blown coil-overs, and disintegrated 4000S is the outdoor
rubber bushings creates a handling characteris- cat of the Scotto
brood. If it were a
tic that is literally shocking. And the five-cylinder more conventionally
engine can’t be making the whopping 115 hp it desirable model, its
was once rated at. Yet, I find myself choosing various scars and
abrasions might be
referred to as patina.
Here they are merely
license not to worry
much. That the
4000S fumigates the
yard on start-up is a
bit worrying, though.

BY B R I A N S C O T T O
PHOTOGRAPHY BY T O N Y H A R M E R
 R&T Vol. 22 074

MERCEDES-BENZ 300SL “GULLWING”

W
A
 WHY THE MERCEDES GULLWING
IS SO GREAT, WHICH HAS NOTHING
TO DO WITH ITS DOORS.
BY E D D I E A LT E R M A N ILLUSTRATIONS BY E R I G R I F F I N

It was the mornIng of the third and final racing car, the core of its performance is accessible
day of the 2013 Mille Miglia Storica, that 1000- to nearly anyone. The 300SL may have been the first
mile speed tour through Italy, and the entire pack to do what all subsequent great Mercedes-Benzes
of some 400 cars charged out of Rome with their have done: make you a better driver.
tails on fire. Mercedes PR man Geoff Day and I were How this car came to be is a whole megillah.
fully bedded into our dirty red 1955 300SL Gullwing The original SL racer rolled out of Stuttgart-
from the Mercedes heritage fleet, proceeding with Untertürkheim just seven years after World War
a high level of confidence as we threaded through II, as Mercedes went seeking glory and redemp-
the Fifties Jags and Thirties Alfas to catch up with tion in sports-car racing. Money and time were too
some other Gullwings that left ahead of us. We tight to create a dedicated competition powertrain,
spotted our man. He was in a red 300SL like ours, so Mercedes development chief Rudolf Uhlenhaut
but it was cleaner, as was his driving. built an endurance machine around the carbureted
Along the high, narrow, block-curbed roads 115-hp 3.0-liter straight-six and four-speed trans-
heading north to Florence, this guy’s car placement mission from the stately 300-series four-door. The
was centimeter-perfect. He was using all the road resulting car, in open and closed forms, was the
available, accelerating hard out of corners, nearly 1952 W194 300SL.
clipping the six-inch-high curbing but never quite. Though he was able to extract another 60 hp from
His braking points were spot on too. If this were the 3.0-liter six, Uhlenhaut knew he would still be
one of those online master classes, it would be outgunned on the grid, so he worked to reduce
titled “How to Effectively Drive the Piss out of a mass and cheat air. An aluminum space frame of
$2 Million Gullwing like It’s Not Yours.” conjoined triangles made up the structure—light,
But it was his. After an hour of doggedly trying stiff, and cheap. The W194 frame weighed just 140
to stay within a couple of car lengths of that red SL, to 150 pounds, depending on the car. Uhlenhaut
we arrived at our lunch spot. He got out. We saw the canted the straight-six at a 50-degree angle to
white hair and realized our bogey was none other lower the center of gravity and reduce the frontal
than “The Captain,” Roger Penske. “That was hard area, and he slipped it into a capsule shape that fur-
work, wasn’t it?” he said. We laughed. He was wear- ther reduced drag.
ing a full Nomex suit. We were wearing polo shirts The only problem was the coupe’s doors. Full-
and jeans. His car had five-point harnesses. Ours had depth conventional doors would have cut into
lap belts. Penske looked at us, he looked in our car, the space frame and weakened the structure. For
and, shaking his head, he said, “You guys are crazy.” racers of the open 300SL, there was no issue—just A. (Previous pages)
Maybe, but we didn’t feel crazy. The 1955 300SL open the front-hinged half doors that maintained The production 300SL
arrived on the market
is a machine of such stout grace, such athletic invin- the high-sided frame elements and slide over the just before the origi-
cibility, that any decent driver can hop in and feel wide sill. But the coupes needed another solution, nal Mille Miglia
confident chasing down Roger Penske while wear- and the FIA rulebook was uncharacteristically ended in unspeak-
076 R&T VOL. 22

able tragedy.
ing only street clothes and lap belts. The Gullwing mute about cutting into the roof and hinging the B. The 300SL’s doors
was reverse-engineered from a long-distance rac- doors there. So that’s what they did. Those gull- are graceful enough
ing car, endowing it with an understressed, placid wing doors were a dramatic addition to an already to give the arches in
this courtyard in
demeanor in hard use. It has depths the average dramatic design, but they were a practical consid- Ferrara, Italy, a run for
driver will never plumb. But unlike with a modern eration, not a stylistic one. their money.
 1
B
 R&T Vol. 22 078
IF THIS WERE ONE OF THOSE ONLINE MASTER
CLASSES, IT WOULD BE TITLED “HOW TO
EFFECTIVELY DRIVE THE PISS OUT OF A $2 MILLION
GULLWING LIKE IT’S NOT YOURS.”

T H E PA N E L

Bruce Canepa
“Ahead of its time for a
Fifties car and plenty of
performance. Mercedes
has never built anything
prettier.”
9
A
 THE ROADGOING W198 300SL IS VERY MUCH THE HOME
VERSION OF THE W194, BARELY WATERED DOWN
AND IN SOME CASES TONED UP. ALL THE KEY ELEMENTS
OF THE RACING SL ARE THERE.
Mercedes made just 10 W194s. Those 10 cars ding than the metal­sided buckets in the racer. The
overdelivered like Little Caesars on Super Bowl smart buyer could still opt for the blue­and­gray
Sunday—300SLs won endurance races such as racing tartan.
the 24 Hours of Le Mans and Mexico’s Carrera Pan­ Our Mille Miglia Storica car had black leather
americana outright and generally dominated the seats, and though they appeared rudimentary, they
1952 season. were extraordinarily supportive and place holding
Enter Max Hoffman, Mercedes­Benz’s then­new on the event’s 14­ to 16­hour days. Comfort is the
U.S. importer. Hoffman saw in the W194’s victories SL’s secret weapon. And not just the comfort of its
a marketing moment to seize. He convinced Mer­ seats—its compliant ride and civilized straight­six
cedes to build a roadgoing version of the W194 for hum felt like spa treatments on those long, dusty
his American customers. Today we recognize it as routes. As the rally wore on, we caught envious
the 300SL Gullwing (and the 300SL roadster), proj­ glances from other contestants clearly exhausted
ect name W198. It made its debut not at Frankfurt, by the noise, chop, and general crudeness of their
as was the norm for new Mercedes­Benz models, Ferrari 340 Mexicos and Jag C­types. In this sense,
but at the 1954 New York auto show. It was the first the SL is very much like a modern­day supercar:
truly American Mercedes and also a gigantic leap performance and drivability in harmony.
of faith, considering that Benz had sold just 41 cars And I have no recollection of the car feeling
to Americans before World War II. underpowered (maybe relative to a period V­12 rac­
The roadgoing W198 300SL is very much the ing Ferrari or something). On those narrow moun­
home version of the W194, barely watered down tain roads, the 300SL felt indomitable—not just
and in some cases toned up. All the key elements fast, but unrelenting and unstoppable. Torque is
of the racing SL are there, such as the space frame everywhere, explosive over 3500 rpm, and we were
(steel now), the laid­down engine arrangement, able to attach ourselves to everyone’s bumpers
the independent suspension with rear swing axles using just second and third gears. In a car weigh­
hinged at the differential, and, of course, the ele­ ing roughly 2800 pounds, a palpably underrated
gant gullwing doors. 215 hp gave our SL the weight­to­power equiva­
But there were some changes. Significantly, the lent of a modern­day Honda Civic Type R or there­
new car ditched the W194’s three twin­barrel Solex abouts. In other words, the right amount for the
carburetors for gasoline direct injection (GDI), road, even 70 years later.
courtesy of Bosch. The technology saw wide use I should repeat the word unstoppable. The drum
in German aircraft engines in World War II, but brakes are the only real weak part of the SL. In tight
this was the first instance of a four­stroke GDI in two­lane scenarios, you have to shimmy the steer­
an automobile, and it boosted the engine’s output ing wheel coming into turns to slow down the front
from 175 to an alleged 215 hp. end and get the thing to turn in. A more satisfying
The interior also saw some alterations for the way to corner is just to come in too hot and lift.
road, but fewer than you might expect. Instead of The rear of the car goes light (especially without A. (Previous pages)
Reverse-engineered
a removable four­spoke wooden steering wheel, much gas in the 34­gallon tank), the swing axles from an endurance
the Gullwing has a huge white two­spoke unit that rise up and shorten the rear track, and the back race car, the 300SL
folds back into the kneewell to facilitate ingress. end steps out and points you past the apex, sluing prioritized not just
080 R&T VoL. 22

performance, but
W198 drivers still check the same instrument panel the car in wide, predictable arcs. Throw in some also drivability.
as in the racer, with a prominent tach­and­speedo countersteering and get back on the throttle, and B. The elegant 300SL
binnacle. The big dash­mounted war­surplus Jung­ you sail straight through the corner. Now you’re looks almost as at
home on a back
hans chronometer doesn’t survive into the W198, driving a Gullwing the way God and Rudolf Uhlen­ street in Siena as a
however. And the seats certainly have more pad­ haut intended. Ferrari might.
 8
B
 BY M AT T FA R A H T I C K T O C K • R&T Vol. 22 083

SWISS ITALIAN
The key To designing a great car-themed watch
is to keep it car-adjacent without being too on the
nose. The watchmaker should exploit some linkage
between watches and automobiles but not create
something overtly inspired by one particular make
or model of vehicle.
After all, watch folks and car nuts both understand
some of the same things: the intersection of form and
function, a power supply, a gear train. Then there’s
the obvious connection to racing: timing laps, cover-

CAR-THEMED WATCH DONE RIGHT.

ing distance over a certain time, etc. Indeed, would
racing even exist without timekeeping? When you
think about the many ways in which watches and
cars are connected, you realize that when crossing
THE CHOPARD MILLE MIGLIA IS THE the two together, the more nuanced and subtle the
connection, the better. We don’t need it shoved down
our throats.
Without much argument, the two best watch/car
crossovers are the Rolex Daytona and the Chopard
Mille Miglia. Both are named for legendary races
rather than specific cars (you mean the Daytona isn’t
named after a Dodge?). These chronographs repre-
sent, at two different price points, the right, non-
flagrant way to make a car connection.
But while the Rolex Daytona has moved on beyond
timing the 24-hour race and into an asset class, here
we appreciate the Chopard Mille Miglia, a beauti-
ful watch demonstrating that a wearer knows and
appreciates both fine timepieces and superb vintage
cars, and, in many cases, has taken part in the race
for which the watch is named. Chopard produces
special variants of the watch each year exclusively
for those who participate in the revived Italian road
race, having served as its official timekeeper and
sponsor since 1988.
Finally abandoning the oversized look, the new
Mille Miglia Classic Chronograph range employs a
smaller 40.5-mm case designed to fit in “in period”
among the classic cars in the Mille and work bet-
ter on the wrist with a racing suit (or, you know, an
actual suit).
By blending legibility, retro details, and auto-
motive bodywork–inspired colors and finishes, the
Chopard Mille Miglia dances right at the intersection
of car and watch enthusiasm, with enough stand-
alone style that you don’t need to know a thing about
cars to appreciate it.

A. Chopard Mille Miglia

Classic Chronograph,
$9140, chopard.com

PHoToGRAPH BY S U Z A N N E S A R O F F
 FORD GT A n A l l - ou t, cost-is-no-object race car, the
original Ford GT40 seared a permanent place in
the world’s collective gearhead psyche with an
epic one-two-three finish at Le Mans in 1966. The
While the GT of 2017–22, built by Canada’s Multi-
matic, outwardly bore less resemblance to its ven-
erable granddad, one of its intended roles would
be a return to endurance racing.
car’s legend was further burnished by its knock- The thumping V-8 was gone; in its place, a
out looks and theatrical backstory (thwarted in 647-hp twin-turbocharged V-6 (bumped up to
his attempt to buy Ferrari, hard-charging scion 660 hp for 2020) capable of pushing the futur-
Henry Ford II pursues racing revenge with some istic Ford to a 216-mph top speed. A state-of-
talented friends). Perhaps more incredible is that the-art carbon-fiber monocoque and a hugely
Ford subsequently built cars to fill the GT40’s aerodynamic body, along with a notable lack
shoes not just once but twice. of luggage capacity and elbowroom, indicated
In the early Aughts, when Ford set out to that this latest GT was not just a collector car
join the rarefied ranks of makers of high-dollar but a homologation special and serious racer. It
limited-edition retro-baubles, a reborn GT was didn’t look much like the original, but in 2016,
an obvious choice. Launched for a two-year run a half century after the GT40 became the first
T H E PA N E L in 2005—nominally in celebration of Ford’s cen- American car to win Le Mans outright, a GT cam-
tenary in 2003, when the first prototypes hit the paigned by Ford Chip Ganassi Racing won its LM
Sera Trimble
“This is a car I will love road—this new GT looked an awful lot like the GTE Pro class at the famous 24-hour race.
unconditionally.” original, though it was in fact larger and easier With just 1350 examples built, the most recent
to live with. Never intended to be a race car, the GT, like the earlier GT and the GT40, will inevi-
new GT paid off as a stellar grand tourer. This tably be valued far higher than its original base
was thanks in large part to the new technologies price, which was $500,000 for the 2022 model.
deployed in its mostly aluminum construction, as Lightning might strike only once, but Ford made
well as careful development work by, among oth- one legendary thunderclap, then two echoes that
ers, the tuner Saleen, which had recently gained resounded that greatness just as loudly.
experience building the S7 supercar.
After an initial run-up in values well above
the GT’s initial MSRP of $143,345 subsided, the
market had a rethink, today judging any exam-
ple from the 4038 produced worth multiples
of its original purchase price. Sporting a mid-
mounted 550-hp supercharged V-8 paired with a
six-speed manual transmission, the brutally fast
A. Producing three very
yet well-mannered GT folded past and present different cars that
into the ultimate Ford-badged road car. carry the same name
A decade later, celebrating the 50th anniversary over the course of 60
years is not a recipe
of the first GT40 Le Mans victory, Ford brought for success. And yet,
back the GT with an entirely different mission. here we are.

BY J A M I E K I T M A N
THE UNLIKELY GT
THREE-PEAT.

IllUSTRATIoN BY K AT Y H I R S C H F E L D R&T Vol. 22 085

 A

PORSCHE
WALTER RÖHRL ON PORSCHE’S
 BY M I K E D U F F IllUSTRATIoN BY P E T E R S T R A I N

Porsche’s decision to cancel its proposed “For me, it is the perfect car for normal, open
LMP racing program led to the creation of a truly roads, especially in tight corners. It is unbeliev-
spectacular road car built around the aborted rac- able how precise the steering is, how the car does
er’s V-10 engine. Walter Röhrl, a two-time World exactly what you want. On a racetrack, maybe
Rally Championship title winner, was already well you’d want more downforce, but it is the perfect
into his second career as a Porsche development car for a twisty mountain road with that low cen-
driver when the plan was formed. He tells us why ter of gravity. It gives you so much feeling.”
he regards the Carrera GT as his masterwork:
“It was a little bit difficult for people to work the T H E PA N E L

“Would I agree it should be one of the 20 great- [ceramic] clutch. At the launch of the car, I didn’t Spike Feresten
est? Absolutely, and for me, it’s not only in the see one journalist who did not stall. One customer “I went to the press
launch in 2004. We
first 20, it’s the absolute number one. I always tell brought his car back to the factory three times drove 200-plus mph on
everybody, if I had one wish for one car, it would and said the clutch is not working. After the third an East Berlin airport
runway, then a few
be always Carrera GT.” time, they said, “Ask Walter to drive your car. If screeching laps on a
he says it is not okay, we believe him.” Of course, track with a factory
driver, Sascha Maassen.
“It was the first super–sports car I was involved it was perfect, but the owner had no feeling for The yowl of that engine
in the development of, especially right from the it. He had to sell the car. I said, “Listen, if you are is like no other. It’s
still hard to believe this
beginning. Normally, with my work at Porsche, really selling, then I will buy it.” But then some- was sold to customers
I was coming to a car that was 80 or 90 percent body else offered him much more money.” for street use.”
ready, but with the Carrera GT, just after the first
rolling chassis [was built], I was sitting in the car.” “I have never owned a Carrera GT. By the time I
thought I really want one, the prices were going
“At the beginning, there were some problems. up too fast. I was too late.”
The car lost grip very suddenly, and if you were
not very fast with the steering, it was too late. “Is the car scary? I don’t think so, because if you
On the Nürburgring [where Röhrl drove the car analyze the accidents people have had, there were
during its development], you have no space for always reasons. You cannot jump into a Carrera
mistakes. Our aim was always that if somebody GT with cold tires and think that, after a few hun-
goes over the limit, they still have a chance to get dred meters, the tire is fully working.”
the car back under control. That is, of course, not
so easy in a car with 612 [metric] horsepower that “My favorite part? The sound—that is absolutely
A. When Röhrl gets that weighs 1380 kilograms [3043 pounds]. During number one. It reminds me of when I used to
faraway look in his development, we pushed very hard with Miche- watch Formula 1 in Monte Carlo, and the cars were
eyes, he is thinking lin because the limit between grip and sliding was passing through the tunnel. If you are using the
wistfully about
the Carrera GT he very sharp. Finally, we had 10 different construc- maximum revs, you feel like a race driver, sitting
did not buy. tions until we were happy with the tire.” in a Carrera GT.”

CARRERA GT
GREATEST SUPERCAR. R&T Vol. 22 087
088 R&T Vol. 22

A
Kimera
B
EVO37
Reigniting the
Group B greatness of
the Lancia 037.
BY J E T H R O B O V I N G D O N PHOTOGRAPHY BY S E V I A N D A U P I
R&T Vol. 22 091
 C

I
t’s an impossible story. Against the brutal
effectiveness of the seemingly invincible
Audi Quattro, a delicate rear-drive mid-
engine rally car stood fast. It could barely be more
evocative. Developed and produced by Abarth in
collaboration with Pininfarina and Dallara, the
Lancia 037 was a Kevlar-clad dream and a true
successor to the legendary Lancia Stratos. The
037 was light, nimble, and piloted by some of the
world’s greatest drivers. Lancia used ingenuity,
agility, and some wonderfully underhanded tac-
tics to uphold Italy’s honor against Germany’s
emerging rallying superpower.
It’s 1983, and Group B is just beginning its jour-
ney toward delivering the most technologically
advanced and terrifying rally cars the world has
ever seen. Despite Walter Röhrl’s heroics with
Opel in ’82 that earned him the world drivers’
title, Audi’s new four-wheel-drive sensation
claimed the constructors’ title in its debut sea-
son. It won seven of 12 rallies, and the writing was
on the wall. Four-wheel drive was going to be the
only game in town from here on out—especially
as the loosely written Group B regulations would
see power outputs escalate at an alarming rate in
coming seasons.
Lancia, however, went its own way, at least
for a while. And in 1983, against all odds, the
037 delivered the constructors’ title by just two
points. It would be the last rear-drive car to
achieve this accolade and hold back the tidal wave
of four-wheel drive. This is a long way of saying
that Lancia’s gorgeous 037 earned its place on the
list of the 20 Greatest Cars We’ve Ever Driven in
the hardest way imaginable: through mud, gravel,
snow, and ice, and pursued by the blunt nose and
A. (Previous pages) blistered arches of the mighty Quattro.
Is it even a rally-
style car if you don’t
drive it a least a little

W
bit sideways? e’re in Cuneo, in northwest Italy.
B. For registration
purposes, this Turin, home of Lancia and Abarth,
$700,000 gem is is about an hour north. To the west
officially a lowly are the cols that climb all over the Maritime Alps,
Lancia Scorpion.
C. The Kimera Evo37’s the roads where the 037 claimed one of its most
modern interior has famous victories at the controversial, scene-set-
Seventies style. ting Monte Carlo rally, the first round of the
D. Seen here, the part
of the dream when 1983 championship. But we’re not here to drive
the Evo37 is finally a 037. Not quite. We’re visiting Kimera Automo-
revealed to you. bili, a tiny manufacturer drawing knowledge and
E. The Evo37 in your
rearview mirror will motorsport experience from all over this region,
have you convinced and the company’s gorgeous and deeply intrigu-
that the world’s most ing Evo37. Inspired by the 037—evolved with
aggressive BMW is
closing in on you. later learnings from Lancia’s incredible success
F. Mud, flung. in Group B and built with obsessive attention
E
D

R&T Vol. 22 093

 A

094 R&T Vol. 22

to detail, high-quality components, and wide- the tradition of Lancia—taking on this project was
eyed passion—this creation might fall under the an honor and provided invaluable experience and
“restomod” umbrella. But it’s so much more. contacts for an idea already cooking in his mind.
The Kimera project is the brainchild, or maybe “Motorsport is so exciting and fast-paced,”
heartchild, of Luca Betti, a former rally driver and Betti explains. “I wanted that adrenaline back.
proud citizen of this region. “I am from Pied- So I say, ‘Okay, let’s make a tribute to a great era
mont,” he says. “And even if people think that of Lancia.’ For me, the most beautiful of this Mar-
Emilia-Romagna [home of Modena] is the motor tini Racing era was the first. The mother of them
land of Italy, really Torino is the very heart of our all. The car that permitted this history to be writ-
industry. For the Piedmontese, our Ferrari was ten.” He’s talking about the 037, of course. “Plus,
Lancia. In the Eighties, my father, everyone, was it has that great story of Italy versus Germany—
very proud of the rally success. It was a mythi- style, creativity, craziness, and then Germany is
cal brand. Those Martini Racing cars were some- the opposite,” Betti continues. “In many ways, the
thing magical and inspired my life.” 037 is the archetypal Italian car. It’s a genius car,
Betti’s rally-driving career spanned 15 years but in the past, it was full of problems.” He breaks
before he retired from competition and estab- into a smile, and we both understand exactly
lished an automobile-restoration business. The what he’s talking about. “So, I try to apply new
first car he was charged with bringing back to life technology, new materials to make the perfect car
was the most iconic of all Group B machines and and the perfect tribute to that era.”
the even more radical successor to the 037, the The resultant Kimera Evo37—all $700,000-
Lancia Delta S4. This strange-looking four-wheel- plus of it—is stunning. Just like the original 037
drive hatchback was stuffed with a mid-mounted Stradale, of which only 200 were built to sat-
supercharged and turbocharged 1.8-liter four- isfy Group B homologation, the Kimera uses the
cylinder that produced a claimed 480 hp, although passenger cell of the humble Lancia Scorpion
many said it was closer to 600. It competed in the (Montecarlo in the rest of the world), with unique
WRC in ’85 and ’86 and ultimately killed perhaps subframes front and rear for the double-wishbone
the only driver who could tame it at the time. suspension, longitudinally mounted engine, and
Henri Toivonen, along with his co-driver, Sergio gearbox. At the rear, just as in period, are twin
Cresto, succumbed to the S4 on the Tour de Corse damper units per side. The rally-car vibes are
in a tragic and violent accident. Group B was killed strong. Kimera uses adjustable Öhlins dampers,
that day too. The category had simply spun out the subframes are much stronger, and the Evo37
of control. For Betti—the lifelong fan steeped in rides on 18-inch wheels at the front and 19s at the
rear, with Pirelli tires instead of the 037 Stradale’s
more modest 16s. The body, though inspired by
the 037, is cleaner, more exaggerated, and beauti-
fully wrought in carbon fiber. Even “Esmeralda,” a
preproduction prototype in British Racing Green
that’s been used and abused, is a wondrous thing
to behold. We’ll also get to try “Natalia,” a new
customer car fresh from the factory, to see how
things have moved along.
Betti’s background gives substance to Kimera
and its update of the 037 formula. However, the
ties with Lancia also run deep in the development
A. In production trim, team. The engine, for example, was developed
the mid-mounted under the watchful eye of Claudio Lombardi, for-
twin-charged four-
cylinder makes 500 mer head of engineering at Lancia and then team
hp and a host of manager of Ferrari F1. This is where the Kimera
perfectly rude noises. gets really interesting. Instead of simply copy-
B. Like the original rally
car, the Evo37 uses ing the supercharged 2.1-liter engine of the 037,
two shocks on each the new car benefits from later Group B technol-
rear corner. Unlike ogy pioneered by Lancia with the wild Delta S4.
the original, the
Evo37 is beautifully So, the new engine—its block machined from bil-
built and finished. let—employs a supercharger for low-rev response
The EVO37 is less a restomod
Piedmontese
of an alternate reality. Burgher
Kimera CEO and for-
mer pro rally driver
Luca Betti was born to
do this. A native of the
and more a car born
Piedmont region of
Italy, Betti grew up
believing the Martini
Racing Lancias were
magical. No wonder.
Not only is Lancia
based in the region,
but Betti’s father won
the Italian Rally Cham-
pionship in 1980 in a
Lancia Stratos.
 R&T Vol. 22 097

before transitioning to turbocharging at high

engine speeds. This eliminates lag and allows for
a big turbocharger with high boost pressure and
plenty of top-end power. Cleverly, once the turbo
takes over, the supercharger decouples from the
engine via an electric clutch to eliminate the par-
asitic losses usually associated with such systems.
The Evo37 is less a restomod and more a car
born of an alternate reality. Imagine that Lancia
had persisted with rear-wheel drive for its rally
campaign and deployed new material technolo-
gies and engineering solutions to the 037 plat-
form to keep up with the rapidly escalating arms
race of Group B. The result might have been some-
thing very close to this amazing creation. Hence,
the badge on its rear reading “Autentica evolu-
zione.” Betti owns an S4 and a competition-spec
037 (of course he does). “This car,” he says, “really
brings the true feeling of Group B to the road.”
Esmeralda has two engine-control maps, one with
around 350 hp, the other with 450 hp, and the pro-
duction cars have a third map that delivers over
500 hp. The Evo37 weighs 2376 pounds. After see-
ing several in various colors awaiting collection
and hearing about how the car came to be, I am
positively salivating, ready to be immersed in the
maddest, baddest rally-car era ever. Just maybe
without the fiery-death part.
One benefit of using Scorpion donor cars is that
the Kimera remains incredibly compact. It’s too
handsome to be toylike, but the car isn’t much lon-
ger than a Miata, and although it’s wider, it’s also
lower than Mazda’s little sports car. Yet this tiny
footprint packs so much intent and drama. Talk
about charisma.
Betti is a tall guy, but when he drops down over
the high carbon-fiber reinforcement for the cen-
tral tub and into a slim seat, it’s clear the Kimera
is not built for those of NFL proportions. I instinc-
tively go to slide the seat back on its runners, but
it’s already out of travel. Thankfully, the produc-
tion cars have greatly improved this issue. Even
so, the slight build of the Kimera is evident and
fitting. This car might be radically reengineered,
but its roots remain firmly in Lancia’s motorsport
glory years.
There’s theater from the very first moment.
Turn the motorsport-style kill switch on the cen-
ter console to power up the car. Next, flick the
ignition switch, on the end of a small triangu-
lar raised section just ahead of the main switch,
and hear the fuel system prime. Finally, squeeze
two starter buttons on either side of the trian-
gular structure with thumb and index finger. If
 A
the ritual doesn’t already feel rally enough for
you, then the shattering, coarse, gargling, whin-
ing noise from the twin-charged engine will. How
can so much noise and energy spew from just 2.1
liters of displacement? I’ve never heard anything
quite like it.
First impressions are of sensation. So much
sensation. The six-speed Graziano manual gear-
box is shared with the Audi R8 and Lambor-
ghini Gallardo and feels familiar and brilliant.
Weighty but smooth and with a lovely sharp-
ness. The steering is relatively light, speaking
to the car’s low mass, but it’s not overly quick or
jumpy, imparting a sense of confidence. That’s
partly because there’s real precision here. For
me, the palpable rigidity of the chassis is a sur-
prise. Usually, old cars just can’t match the integ-
rity of newer ones, and that has a knock-on effect
for damping and steering response. Not here. The
Evo37 is taut and controlled, but Betti’s words
are ringing in my ears: “It has the philosophy of
a rally car, not a racing car. Its character and feel
are completely different.” There’s movement in
the car, weight transfer that you can feel and, I
suspect, use to good effect. It feels alive.
The engine is a huge part of this almost organic
feeling. To call it the heart of the Kimera would
be an understatement. The unique four-cylinder
infects and inhabits every fiber of this intense
machine. As expected of an inline four-cylinder,
there’s not a hint of musicality. But the raucous
thrash, combined with the supercharger’s whine
and the hisses, sighs, whistles, and chirps of the
turbocharger, creates a feral, ever-changing
soundscape. There’s a hint of F40, but somehow,
this small-displacement engine is even ruder and
more intriguing. Its power delivery is unique too.
The heavily boosted rush to the limiter—set at A. The Kimera’s shoul-
7800 rpm—is wild, but the low-rev response from der straps recall the
the supercharger means you’re never waiting for original Lancia 037’s
finest hour: the 1983
the engine to come to life or driving around a big Group B World Rally
spike in torque. Championship.
The Evo37 is a car of contrasts and the strang- B. It’s not technically a
shark’s dorsal fin, but
est mix of old and new I’ve ever experienced. In it’s totally a shark’s
fact, it wrong-foots you at every turn. It’s so gor- dorsal fin.
geous, it renders every scene into some sort of C. The British Racing
Green paint on this
AI-generated future fantasy. A tantalizing dream. Evo37 is an oddly
Dynamically, it feels incredibly current in terms subtle but inspired
of its cohesive, precise damping and the poise and choice.
D. This car would win
control it exhibits over any surface. Yet the deep any Cars and Coffee
and tactile connection to every control is a throw- event it enters.
back to earlier times. The cocktail of the future, E. This gorgeous shifter
connects to an Audi
the here and now, and the long-lost analog thrill R8/Lamborghini
is head spinning. Gallardo transaxle.

098 R&T VoL. 22

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D E
 A

100 R&T Vol. 22

 Adding an even more surreal dimension is the
engine, which sounds and behaves as if it’s lifted
from not just another time but another planet. But
it smells like a highly tuned, super-boosted compe-
tition motor from the Eighties: Unburnt fuel, hot
oil, and all manner of aromas swirl around. You
could almost be in a rally service area in ’83 as the
T H E PA N E L
Martini Racing team rapidly preps its supercar for
Dario Franchitti the stages, pouring in exotic, probably highly dan-
“The Lancia 037’s gerous liquids. The Evo37 is knocking on the door
engine revved like a
two-stroke motorbike, the of hypercar pricing, but it’s immediately appar-
gearshift was fantastic, ent that this vehicle will appeal to a very different
and the chassis was
beyond nimble. In a audience. The Evo37 certainly feels more special
freshly restored example, than pretty much any 1000-plus-hp cookie-cutter
we destroyed our newly
graveled driveway while projectile you could care to mention. It sweats and
pretending it was a spits and snorts and spews character.
special stage. Totally
worth it!” The Kimera dances too. As noted, there’s more
roll, squat, and dive than you’d experience in a
modern supercar, but that creates feel and feed-
back; plus, the car is so light that it can afford to
let its body breathe without floating out of con-
trol. There’s less outright grip than, say, a new
911 or Ferrari. However, the car is so progressive
and responsive that herein lies the magic. It helps
that the Evo37 is physically small and low. Hence,
flinging the car around with abandon feels more
natural than driving it precisely with fingertips.
Really, though, it’s the way the driver can shift
the car’s balance around with brakes and throt-
tle that is special.
The Kimera tends toward a bit of understeer
initially, but as soon as you learn to lift sharply
or, even better, brake aggressively into the turn,
the car comes alive. The rear axle is now in play. It
slides wide predictably, and there’s no foreboding
sense of a runaway pendulum. Just precision and
the inescapable feeling that more gas about . . .
now . . . will be a good thing. And it is. The Evo37
adopts lurid angles easily, and although you need
confident throttle inputs to keep the car bal-
anced, the chassis feels wonderfully indulgent.
The whole experience is urgent and overlaid
with the wild, baffling, scary, and hilarious engine
sounds that give it real edge. This isn’t a sort of
Miata-in-the-wet, slow-motion, and no-jeopardy
experience. But you wouldn’t want that, right?
This is Group B tamed just enough for mere mor-
tals to exploit. It’s an achievement almost as
incredible as a lithe, elegant rear-drive rally car
A. The Evo37 is a tiny
thing, shorter in taking on the Audi Quattro through forests and on
height than a Miata, mountain passes in all weather and emerging vic-
but it positively torious. The Evo37 has earned the right to share a
overflows with
urgency, noise, and spot on our list with the original 037. Kimera has
feedback. written its own impossible story.
A
ROLLS-ROYCE
PHANTOM
GREAT,
IN EVERY COUPÉ
SENSE
OF THE
WORD.
A. At more than 18 feet From its suspension, which glides above the
long, the Phantom tarmac with imperious disregard for a road’s
Coupé is a stately
pleasure craft of imperfections, to the long view over the bow
exceptional splendor. to the two-fingered upward pinch used to grip
the thin-rimmed wheel properly, it’s all yacht.
And fittingly, the Phantom Coupé is spec’d with
leather, chrome, and a load of fine wood. It even
accelerates like a powerful yacht, its nose rising
Wait, What? Isn’t this Road & Track? Why is like a Hatteras when you push the throttle.
an automatic-shifting 5771-pound car on this list? It is extremely rare to spot a Phantom Coupé in
And why is the neo-vintage-sports-car guy with the wild. Rolls doesn’t disclose exact production
“clutch” and “gas” tattooed on his calves putting numbers, but it likely made only around 100–200
it up? We are talking about a nearly three-ton Coupés during each of the eight years they were
two-door coupe that’s nine inches longer than a on sale. The press car I drove in 2010 is the only
current Cadillac Escalade. one I’ve seen in person.
Well, I don’t just like cars. I also like yachts. I’ve That Phantom Coupé drive is one of the most
been sailing them my whole life, and with no disre- memorable of my life. The car’s opulence and
spect to the Drophead or sedan variants, helming chest-forward comportment might be grotesque
the Rolls-Royce Phantom Coupé is the closest I’ve in a lesser vehicle, but not here. This is a genu-
come to driving a yacht down the road. inely great car in every sense of the word.

IllUSTRATIoN BY S A M A N T H A M U L J AT BY M AT T FA R A H R&T Vol. 22 103

104 R&T Vol. 22 BY D A N I E L P U N D A

T ry T o f i n d a Gen Xer who doesn’t have a At least this was true in the U.S. In Europe, the
memorable experience in a Volkswagen GTI GTI was less the alternative than it was the hot-
somewhere in their past. My own involves high- hatch blueprint for every other carmaker. Because
school friend Brian Schmidt firing his dad’s Rab- VW was slow to claim rights to the name, man-
bit GTI into a curving highway off-ramp at an ufacturers as diverse as Peugeot and Suzuki
imprudent speed. Utterly powerless from the (among many others) slapped “GTI” badges on
passenger’s seat, I could feel the black Rabbit their own hot hatches. Over the years, there were
pushing toward the ditch at the edge of the ramp, a few direct and noteworthy American competi-
its inside rear tire lifted. Rollover seemed inev- tors—the crude but quick Dodge GLH, for example,
itable. But there was precisely enough shoulder and the sublimely well-balanced Ford Fiesta ST.
pavement for the car to slow sufficiently and But there was always the GTI. It grew bigger
regain control. I can’t recall us ever speaking and heavier as the years passed, adding power
about it. And I imagine his dad never found out. to match its newfound amenities and sophisti-
Well, until now, I suppose. cation. But it rarely strayed from the recipe that
For nearly a half century, the Volkswagen made GTIs so enduringly great: playful dynam-
Rabbit/Golf GTI has performed a trick even more ics, practicality, surprising fuel economy, tartan-
amazing than not killing Brian and me. Through upholstered Europhilic appeal, and a reasonable
eight distinct generations, the GTI has been the price. Not only has the GTI outlived its hot-hatch
alternative choice. But as Tom Waits said when competitors and the Camaro (twice), but it has
he won a Grammy for Best Alternative Music also outlasted the workaday Golf on which it was
Album, “Alternative to what?!” Well, in the Eight- based, at least in the U.S.
ies, the rorty little GTI was the anti-Camaro. While crossover quasi-SUVs have taken
During those years, the GTI was too small, too over the bulk of the market, Volkswagen just
underpowered, and not nearly pointy enough to announced an updated GTI for 2025. But with-
T H E PA N E L be considered cool in a conventional sense. Per- out a manual-transmission option for the new
Brian Scotto fect for Pixies fans; not so sweet for dedicated model and with a (no doubt heavy) fully elec-
“This is the definition of Poison listeners. And then, a decade or so later, tric GTI expected to go on sale in a few years, the
‘It’s better to drive
a slow car fast than a
with the sport-compact-car world flourishing, GTI might finally lose touch with itself and crash.
fast car slow.’” the GTI was the non-Honda. The outlier. We’re not counting on it.

VOLKSWAGEN
RABBIT/ THE ALTERNATIVE CHOICE FOR
GOLF GTI
ALMOST 50 YEARS.
A. Gather ’round, young-
sters, and let Uncle
Road & Track tell you
about the olden days
when a car would just
start body-rolling for
basically no reason
at all. It’s true, I tell
ya! And it was fun.
F1
McLAREN

A
B R&T Vol. 22 107
DRIVE EVERYTHING, AND
THIS WORK OF SINGULAR GENIUS
REM AINS THE ULTI M ATE RIDE.
BY B R U C E C A N E PA PHOTOGRAPHY BY K E N N E T T M O H R M A N

C D

Parallel Parking the McLaren F1 is awkward. that developed the Marlboro-sponsored cars Alain
The driver’s seat is in the middle, so the sides of Prost and Ayrton Senna drove to four world cham-
the car aren’t where they’d be in a left hooker. The pionships. He was a certified genius long before he
rearward visibility is okay. But there are no backup turned to reinventing the road-bound supercar.
cameras or radar curb feelers. So it’s kind of chal- There weren’t any McLaren road machines until
A. (Previous pages)
lenging. Otherwise, this, the product of Gordon Murray’s will created the F1. It was largely Murray The F1 has set
Murray’s singular genius as it stood in the early who convinced McLaren’s controlling owner, Ron the standard for
Nineties, is the best car in the world—or at least Dennis, to expand into production sports cars. And supercars for three
decades.
up there alongside the Porsche 959. And Murray’s the F1 is the company’s sensational first effort. B. No nose splitters or
new car, the T.50, is proving to be even better. No one creates a car alone. Of course, Murray aerodynamic kludges.
Greatness isn’t solely about any one thing. The had help. Those collaborations, however, never C. The dihedral doors
serve the practical
F1 is great because of its history, its substance, and, compromised his vision. The F1 is a McLaren, but purpose of making
most of all, how it drives. it’s Murray’s masterpiece. the middle-seat
Parallel parking isn’t a priority for Murray. Born The F1 avoids clichés. There aren’t any massive driving position
accessible.
in South Africa in 1946, he moved to Britain after wings or dive planes, there’s no silly paint scheme, D. Bruce Canepa in his
finishing his engineering degree with the goal of and the design is relentlessly logical. There’s a seri- happy place. That
working for Lotus. Instead, he wound up at Bra- ousness and aggression to how the F1 looks; it’s scoop on the roof
feeds the 6.1-liter
bham and was the lead designer of that team’s For- not for profiling at the casino in Monaco or spit- BMW V-12.
mula 1 cars by the time he was 26. Nelson Piquet ting fire along the Sunset Strip. Its beauty lies in E. There are no
drove Murray-designed Brabhams to Formula 1 purposefulness. Even the dramatic butterfly dihe- computers between
driver and supercar.
driving championships in 1981 and 1983. Murray dral doors are rational for mountaineering over the The F1 welds to
moved to McLaren for 1987 and led the design team incidental passenger’s seats that flank the centered the driver’s soul.
E R&T Vol. 22 109
 A. The 627-hp BMW
V-12 might not have
been Gordon Mur-
ray’s first choice to
power the F1, but we
think the pairing
turned out pretty
good.
B. Behind the off-the-
shelf taillights, which
were apparently also
used on some Dutch
buses, parts of the
engine bay are liter-
110 R&T Vol. 22 ally covered in gold.
 A B

driver’s position. There are no styling flourishes, swallowing atmosphere and sending it through a on each cam, and there are two sequentially acti-
only obsessively considered design choices ren- carbon-fiber intake manifold. vated fuel injectors for each combustion chamber.
dered in carbon fiber. From 1988 to 1991, McLaren used Honda power- It was among the most technologically advanced
Sitting forward of the outboard passengers, plants to win four straight Formula 1 world cham- engines of its era and, more than 30 years later, is
the driver has plenty of elbowroom. Though the pionships in cars developed under Murray. He still close to state of the internal-combustion art.
windshield is steeply raked, the driver sits close has said in interviews that he first asked Honda Running a 10.5:1 compression ratio, this German
enough to it that it feels like it wraps around to develop a 4.5-liter V-10 or V-12 for the F1. But heart of a British car is rated at 627 hp at a thrum-
them. The seam in the windows obstructs the Honda was launching its own NSX at the time with ming 7400 rpm, just 100 rpm shy of the rev limiter.
sideview, but it’s not like anything stands a a 3.0-liter V-6, and Murray claims the marketing The peak 479 lb-ft of torque is down at 4000 rpm,
chance of passing on either side anyhow. But an department didn’t want to overshadow itself with and getting there is spectacularly quick.
often-unappreciated aspect of a centered driving a larger engine for another car. So, BMW Motor- Supporting that magnificent powerplant is a
position is that the wheel wells don’t push the sport was brought in to do the job. sublime six-speed manual transmission. No pad-
bottom-hinged pedals off to the side. The driv- Led by the great Paul Rosche, BMW Motorsport dles, no computerized upshifts to save fuel, and a
er’s feet have room and are positioned practically conjured up the mighty S70/2. Only inferentially direct mechanical connection between the palm
at the front-axle line. This is as close to an ideal related to the M70 5.0-liter and S70 5.6-liter V-12s of the driver’s right hand and the gearset whir-
driving position as there has ever been in a road BMW was then building for cars like its 750i sedan ring out back. Six-speeds weren’t unknown when
car. Or a race car, for that matter. and 850CSi coupe, the S70/2 is a massive beast the F1 was designed, but Murray wasn’t about to
Start the engine, and after a moment of whir- that fills almost all the space behind the cock- take a gearbox off the ZF, Getrag, or Tremec shelf.
ring drama, the sound is a heady mixture of pit in the McLaren F1. It’s a 60-degree, dry-sump Instead, he worked with California’s Pete Weis-
intake noise and the chains driving the four engine with an aluminum block and aluminum mann in developing this specialized unit.
cams atop the 6.1-liter V-12. There are no turbos heads. There’s an ignition coil on each cylinder While other six-speeds have fifth and sixth as
to clog things up, just 12 throttle bodies efficiently and BMW’s VANOS variable valve-timing system overdrive gears, the F1’s box is overdriven only
I TS MISSION IS REWARDING THE
SKILLED AND ENGROSSED PILOT
WITH SENSORY SATURATION.

A B

in sixth. And at 0.93:1, it’s barely an overdrive. along at 4828 pounds. Because the F1 is so light—the
The meatiest gears—third, fourth, and fifth—are omission of things like airbags and anti-lock brakes
bunched together between 1.71:1 and 1.16:1 and set to helps—the power-to-weight ratio is still stellar at
attack, not cruise. Considering how deep the torque approximately four pounds per horsepower.
delivery goes, such tightly packed ratios verge on While virtually all the F1’s structure is carbon
overkill. Murray didn’t design this thing to make the fiber, the car is neither harsh nor loud. The drive-
inattentive driver look good; its mission is reward- train isn’t solidly mounted to the carbon tub, so it’s
ing the skilled and engrossed pilot with sensory sat- not shaking the car around or turning the whole
A. Straightforward
uration. At speed, the right gear is always available. thing into a plastic drum. The F1 is civilized. gauges with the
In the context of 21st-century electrified lunacy, It takes about 50 feet to acclimate oneself to driv- oversize tach at the
627 hp seems modest. An SUV number. But the F1 ing in the center of a traffic lane with the F1. After center. Digital over-
load was still
is a tiny car. At 168.8 inches, it’s the same overall that, despite its intimidating reputation, this is decades away when
length as a 2024 Volkswagen GTI and almost 20 among the least intimidating cars to drive. The unas- the F1 was new.
inches shorter than the Lamborghini Aventador. sisted steering is direct, the brakes aren’t grabby, and B. Bottom-hinged ped-
als are positioned for
The tidy Ferrari 296 GTB is nonetheless almost 11 the engine is untemperamental. The clutch is easy, heel-and-toe work.
inches longer. But what matters most is weight. the shifter is precise, and everything engages like The center driving
Murray was aiming for a 1000-kg-dry-weight car a normal road car. It doesn’t need to bomb along at position means
there’s no intrusion
(2205 pounds) when designing the F1. And while he bonkers speeds to be rewarding; it’s always engaging. from the wheel wells.
missed that target, the F1 is still svelte at around Turn into a corner, whether it’s a long, off-camber C. Gordon Murray
2500 pounds. An Aventador weighs about 1500 sweeper on a fast road or into a 7-Eleven for a Wild says the spine
across the F1’s roof
pounds more. The 296 GTB? It’s a hybrid and roughly Cherry Slurpee, and the steering communicates is “two inches too
a half-ton heavier. And the Tesla Model S Plaid porks exactly what the front tires are encountering. The wide.” He’s so picky.
 R&T Vol. 22 113

C
 A

T H E PA N E L

Jeff Zwart
“Just to sit in the middle
of a supercar and know
the significance of this
car, not just when it came
out but what it is today. It
is so refined and so racy
at the same time.”

A. The center driving

position takes some
acclimation. But that
comes quickly.
B. With a skin that
stretches tautly
across its structure,
the F1 is among the
smallest of super-
cars—but has the
114 R&T Vol. 22 biggest rep.
B

steering doesn’t shout to the driver as much as it There’s a temptation to think of the F1 as a work very well. The clutch needed adjusting reg-
shares its excitement. Of course, there’s enough museum piece. It is, after all, now one of the ularly. The fuel tank needed changing every five
power for any initial understeer in a corner to world’s most valuable cars. It won at the rainy years. And then, from an aesthetics point of view,
be countered with throttle, but most of the time 1995 Le Mans, and McLaren made only 106 of them there were always a few things on the F1 that I
that’s not needed. At least not outside the con- between 1992 and 1998. The very car now at my really didn’t like. One of them, for example, was
text of serious racing. Like the idea behind the car, shop is XP4 (the fourth of five prototypes), which this spine [across the roof]. This spine was just
the driving experience is elemental balance. Raw once ripped along the Nürburgring with Jonathan about two inches too wide on the F1.” Murray is the
speed is a nice side benefit. Palmer driving, at times running at more than 200 only person whose criticisms of the F1 I’ll accept.
When the F1 was new, its claim to legend- mph. This is the car that has set the performance That’s what makes his new car, the Gordon
ary status was its incredible top speed. In 1992, standard for more than three decades. Murray Automotive T.50, so thrilling. It’s the
a 240-mph top end was mind boggling. But that But it shouldn’t be parked in a museum. It’s same spirit and idea of the F1 with a third of a
distracted from the car’s other talents. It has as still a product of the Nineties, so there are struc- century’s worth of technological refinement. Cars
much grip as Nineties tire technology allowed on tural beams built into the floor of the carbon-fiber like the Bugatti Chiron have bested the F1 for top
17-inch wheels, but the wishbones-at-each-corner tub to add strength. Those were necessary back speed, but the T.50 is the first that challenges it
suspension isn’t particularly stiff or harsh. The F1 then, but the art of carbon-fiber engineering has for comprehensive performance and civility. It’s
doesn’t overheat in traffic, it has enough storage evolved. And Murray, who turns 78 this year, is the product of the same genius who made the F1.
room for an overnight trip, and the driver’s seat still on top of it. Canepa represents Gordon Murray Automotive
is shaped to hold you in without crushing ribs. It What seems like perfection in the F1 to most of in North America, and my T.50 will be here soon.
could be a practical daily driver—at least for a per- us is still frustrating all these years later to Mur- I’ve driven it and am eager to drive it every chance
son with outsize cojones. And if it were my daily, ray. “The brakes never worked really well,” he told I can get on every great road I can get to.
I’d run the 18-inch LM wheels with more modern Road & Track contributing editor Elana Scherr at
tires. Because, why not? Save the 17s for display. Laguna Seca last year. “The air conditioning didn’t John Pearley Huffman contributed to this report.
116 R&T VOL. 22 PORTRAIT BY M A R I N A D E S A N T I S

THE
GREATEST
CARS
NOT YET
DRIVEN
This is the Road & Track

“The car
Vol. 22 off-ramp, and we
conclude with a promising
sentiment. This issue is
dedicated to the greatest
cars we’ve ever driven, but
for all the cars we’ve loved
in the past, it’s our eager-
ness for the future that
keeps us thrilled and
motivated. What’s next is
always a dream worth
imagining and anticipating,
whether it’s from Ford,

which
Porsche, Lotus, Tesla,
Honda, or some as-yet-
unknown genius’s barn.
Enzo Ferrari was asked
which of his cars was the
greatest. He famously
answered, “The car which
I have not yet created.”
–a.j. baime

Enzo Ferrari

I have
not yet
created.”