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Racing Icons Series – 1970 Alfa Romeo TT3 Spider Was Lightweight Short-Tail Special

Part Three of Six – Alfa Romeo Racing Icons Series   1970 saw the Alfa Romeo Tipo 33/3 Spider evolve into a much shorter and much more brutal track attacker. Switchable noses include the lamp-free style shown here. A fairly brutal and chopped style appears at the front and rear of this Alfa racecar, with less of the glamourous design of the Sports Racer 33 that came before it. The changes worked on the racing circuit – with this Spider earning numerous race wins and ranking between Porsche and Ferrari in the top three points for the Le Mans season. …

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Maserati 100th Anniversary Celebrations in Italy! Museo Enzo Ferrari is Maser Mania All Summer

Maserati 100th Anniversary One thing is certain in the history of exotic cars: Maserati has made dozens of the best of the best. The firm is celebrating 100 years in 2014 and has a lovely exhibit in the Museo Enzo Ferrari all summer ahead of a grand gala in September. The reservations for attending the many events is today!  Ahh! Sorry for lack of notice to those who might want to attend. But even if you are not planning to bring your Maserati all the way to Italy for the homecoming – there are still dozens of fun things on …

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Hypercar Hall of Fame – 2003 Enzo Ferrari in 77 Original Maranello Launch Photos

A: These photos … are so old…. B: How old are they…? A:These photos are so old… that they appear to have been snapped on film.   Fujifilm 35-mm film! My, how the times are moving fast. But even though the original photos have aged, the car is as gracefully brutal as it was when Tiff Needell first took it around a few hot laps of the Fiorano circuit. Here he is, in fact. Remember this exact car? The one with the Ferrari partner/supplier stickers on the side air ducts? One for old souls, perhaps. Or at least people who …

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SHELBY COBRA – How These Two Words Ultimately Killed the Ford Takeover of Ferrari in 1963

No series of articles about the GT40 can begin without a look at how the car came to exist. A battle of spite between Ferrari and Ford? Yes. But also a battle to establish Ford as a racing powerhouse – which was a new opportunity to regain face as Chevrolet and General Motors dominated the coolest car news via Motorama shows and Corvettes in the 1950s. FROM DE-FACTO BANS ON BOTH RACING CARS AND RACY MOVIES… Racing was also heavily discouraged by the United States government of the time – until the case was made that racing improved the breed. …

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Concept Flashback -- 1969 Alfa-Romeo Tipo 332 Coupe Speciale -- Gullwing Mid-Engine Supercar That Never Was 12

Concept Debrief – 1969 Alfa-Romeo Tipo 332 Coupe Speciale – Gullwing Canary in Supercar Coal Mine

This Alfa is Canary Yellow. It was also a dying canary in the coal-mine of Italian supercar fates of the next decade. When a canary dies in his cage deep undergound, miners knew the toxicity of the air was going from bad to worse. In mid-1960s Italy, the momentum to start one’s own hypercar legacy was a powerful draw. By 1969, all in the small sports-car business at the time marvelled at Feruccio Lamborghini’s success in carving sales away from Ferrari. Ferrari had quashed nearly all attempts by Maserati and Alfa-Romeo at reclaiming their past glory, and non-Ferrari people were …

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Design Analysis – 2014 Alfieri Maserati Concept

Design Analysis – 2014 Alfieri Maserati Concept Only the short-sighted have ever underestimated Maserati. One man named Enzo found the Trident such a threat that he spent more than a few years trying to bury his cross-town rival in the 1960s and 1970s. Over Maserati’s supernaturally-blessed, but tumultuous, 100-year history so far: the Trident has adorned many far-flung concepts and racers that were each at least 20 years ahead of their time. In an era when Ferrari and Lamborghini were bringing key auto design functions back in-house, the wildest cards in Italy frequently found an eager audience with Maserati. It …

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The Most Stylish 4-Door Never Made? 1980 Ferrari Pinin Still Brilliant

The 1980 Ferrari Pinin concept shares much of the low-slung beauty of the 400i models, but none of their affordability. This one-off concept is being sold by Museo Ferrari for $1.2 million. Before you write off this design and its gob-smaking egg-crate grille, take a few minutes to twirl it around with 30 years perspective since its debut. Yes, the nose is messy, and the clamshell hood shows some panel fit issues in some of the photos.   But Enzo Ferrari himself is also sitting in the car for some of the photos, evaluating it around Fiorano on a nice …

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