The Cortile Italian car show is one of 16 car shows taking place on Saturday during the nation’s largest vintage race event, the Pittsburg Historic Grand Prix. Of the 16, the Cortile certainly has the most flair.
It seemed like the perfect idea for the affluent auto enthusiast: a V12-powered GT combining supercar performance and room for four adults and their luggage. It would be a like a ground-bound private jet, as home on the Côte d’Azur as on the autostrada, autobahn or New York’s Long Island Expressway.
The Elegance At Hershey brings with it an auction selling select pieces of stately automobile art. Presented by The Finest Automobile Auctions, this aptly named auction house is offering a small, but distinguished, docket on the Saturday preceding the concours.
Why is Lamborghini turning back the clock with the rear-wheel drive Huracán LP 580-2? A simple answer might be to reduce weight (by 73 pounds) or price (by about $38,000), or to provide a more purist driving experience. The truth is all those, plus something else: to give this road rocket the joy of easily accessible oversteer.
Premium automotive marques love turning an anniversary into a reason to launch a special model. And so it was no surprise that Lamborghini chose its founder’s 100th birthday (April 28) as cause to offer a very short run of a very special model, the appropriately named Centenario.
Named for a North African windstorm, the original 1967-1973 Maserati Ghibli blew through the ranks of Italian GT’s as a 150+ mph instant classic and – to most eyes — one of the most beautiful cars ever made. There is no questioning the original Ghibli’s place in the pantheon of motorized Italian masterpieces.
As the first production car to bear the Bugatti name in thirty-five years, the EB110 had big shoes to fill. The 560 horses produced by its 3.5L V-12 fit snugly into those French racing boots.
The Diablo’s design was more elegant than the Countach, which had become festooned with all manner of body add-ons, including a rear wing that looked like a Boeing 727’s horizontal stabilizer. Like the Countach before it, the Diablo also grew a young fan base and became a poster car in many boys’ bedrooms.
The recent ‘generational shift’ in collecting may actually be examples of ‘mature’ collectors seeking a more comfortable, reliable and usable ride. It’s one of those rare instances in which we Baby Boomers can share an opinion with the Millennials without embarrassment or explanation.
