Sometimes great cars achieve significant commercial victory. Witness the Volkswagen Beetle and Model T Ford  as obvious examples.BMW 507 RoadsterOther times, great cars make virtually no impression on the market, save to point the way for others to follow. The Chrysler Airflow and Cord 810 are prominent examples of this phenomenon. Sadly, the BMW 507 roadster also belongs into this significant but ill-fated category. Born in the glory days of the true sports car, raised with a distinguished pedigree and built to the highest of standards, the 507 failed miserably at achieving commercial accomplishment, which is a great shame considering its many good features.

Picking off after the battle

To set the stage for the entrance of the 507, let us travel back in time to the immediate repercussions of World War II. Like most of the war-ravaged German auto industry, BMW was in scraps. Its auto manufacturing services, what were left of them after Allied bombing and occupation, were in Eisenach, behind the quickly closing Iron Curtain of Russian-occupied East Germany. Read more . . .

Some cars have to age like fine wine to be appreciated. Ferrari 360 SpiderOthers offer virtues so obvious that they deserve top ranking from the moment they are introduced. So it is with the Ferrari 360 Spider, which happens to be the marque’s twentieth road-going convertible and a car about which Ferrari says, “without question,  it is the best Spider Maranello has ever produced in terms of looks, engineering, and performance.”

Satisfaction of modern perfection

While some of that might be recent marketing hype — after all the 360 Spider is still available for purchase at your local Ferrari dealer — you can perhaps pardon them for the hyperbole. We still think the Ferrari Daytona Spider is a prettier car with classic sports car proportions, but there is no doubt the 360 Spider is strikingly attractive in the modern mold. Further, because Ferrari is presently on an incredible roll in the world of Formula One racing, it is the most technologically advanced convertible of all time. Read more . . .

Like Henry Ford, Ferruccio Lamborghini was an expert mechanic. Lamborghini MiuraAnd like Henry Ford, Lamborghini left a career of prominence to take a chance on an entirely new venture when he was well past 40 years old. In the end, like Henry Ford, Lamborghini was far more interested in producing cars for the street than for the race track.

However, at that point, the parallels between the two automotive legends begin to fold, because the cars Lamborghini brought to market under the sign of the bull were about as distinct from a Model T Ford as an F-16 is from a Piper Cub. Sure, they both fly but… Read more . . .

The common conception is that Ford introduced the Mustang in 1964 to incredible success, and the folks at arch-rival Chevrolet simply copied the concept to make public  the Chevrolet  Camaro in  1966 for the 1967 model year.  Though, Chevrolet Camaro fact is, the rumour is not quite as simple as that. Despite commonly held notions, if one takes an indirect look at history, one might stress that Chevrolet, not Ford, actually introduced the small, personal sport coupe or “ponycar” and that Ford was the company that was playing catch-up when it introduced the Mustang.

Ford took a page from Studebaker and the American Motors  and designed what was essentially a scaled-down American car, which it named the Falcon. GM’s method was more “reach-out.”  Taking a page from the VW book, it entered the Read more . . .

If there was ever a car that epitomized the greed-is-good extras of the Eighties, it was the Ferrari Testarossa. To purists, even its name symbolizes a sell-out. Ferrari TestarossaThe original 250 Testa Rossa road racer was not only shockingly beautiful, it functioned beautifully on the racetrack as well, winning three World Sports Car Championships between 1958 and 1961.

Proposed for good looks

In contrast, the Testarossa of the Eighties had no racing pedigree whatsoever.  Impure and not-so-simple, it was a car designed and built to cash in on an image. And since cashing in was what the Eighties were all about, it was the best vehicle for its time. The saving grace was, it was also a damn good car.

From the beginning,  the Testarossa was envisioned to Read more . . .