Do Look Back

For me the early 60s GT racing scene represents a golden era.  Bridging the gap between the relatively straightlaced/amateur milieu of the 40s/50s and the over commercialisation that gathered pace through the 70s/80s, the early 60s in particular saw the creation and development of several truly great cars which would have a lasting influence on design well beyond the decade.  These cars came about thanks to a crop of markedly brilliant designers, new thinking/materials for the construction of chassis/bodies, allowing very light kerb weight, and a focus on extracting unprecedently high power outputs from small capacity engines.  Thus we were treated to the Abarth coupes based on the Fiat 600/850 and the Simca 1300, the Alfa Giulietta/Giulia Zagatos and GTAs, the Porsche 356s, early 911s and 904s, OSCA 1600s, Bonnet Djets, Lotus Elites and Austin Healey Sebring Sprites.   Although manufacturers such as Abarth, Alfa Romeo (via the Autodelta S.p.A. subsidiary) and Pors...

Ferrari Mondial T of Tony Claringbould: Ferrari 328 GTB of Andy Riddoch: F errari 328 GTB of Robert MacFarlane: Ferrari F355 Challenge of Ray Ferguson:  Ferrari 308 GT4 of Richard Fenny:   Ferrari F355 Challenge of Tristan Simpson: Ferrari 328 GTB of Peter Fisk: Ferrari 328 GTS of Myles Poulton:   Ferrari 308 GT4 of Richard Atkinson-Willes: ’96 Ferrari F355: ’84 Ferrari 512 Berlinetta Boxer Injection: ’98 Ferrari 550 Maranello: ’07 Ferrari F430 Spider:  

During the early years of my automotive career, working from 1971 for the UK BMW importer, the three models that most fired my enthusiasm for the Marque were the 2002 Tii, the 3.0 Si and the 3.0 CSL.  For the times these were quick cars with lots of style and dynamic character/capability.  The CSL was truly iconic and emblematic of the swagger that the factory community in Munich had adopted as the Marque had emerged with its innovative models as the new top dog in the rivalry between Daimler-Benz AG and the Bayerische Motorenwerke AG.   The ’big’ coupe had come a long way in just 7 years.   It’s grandaddy, the 2000C/CS, had been launched as an additional model to the Neue Klasse line-up in 1965.   At that time the UK market and the peculiarity of its right hand drive configuration was of very little concern to the management on Lerchenauer Straße. As a result, there was no question of a right hand drive line for the model in the factory.   But in England...