The point of driving a car during Monterey Car Week is not to explore its limits. The point is to enjoy the landscape, to feel osmotically endowed with an understanding of the era in which the vehicle was built—what made it special then; what makes it special now—and, mostly, to luxuriate in the spectacle of doing so.
Scroll through our list, go buy your lottery tickets, and let us know in the comments which one of these 10 you’d buy when you hit the jackpot.
In Bianco Polo, a Countach–with its snowy suite of snortable strakes, nostriled intakes, and a wing broad enough to host kilos of hoovering–looks to be actually made of cocaine. (Lamborghini’s 80s build quality may support this theory.)
Here’s a link to the online version of this story, for all of you Chintzy Blt¢hes.
My story on the wild, and wildly compelling, Ferrari 12Cilindri is on the cover of the latest issue of Road & Track. Click on the thumbnails to view a crappy scan, or just subscribe to the magazine already, you Chintzy Bitch. OR, you can now read this story online.
Even when creating a $4 million ultra-hypercar, designers have to compromise.
Frank Lanterman was an air-obsessed scion of a generational La Cañada real estate and water empire, and long-term California Assemblyman, who helped usher in some of the nation’s earliest automotive emissions standards, and was mocked/rewarded at his life’s end by having a section of freeway named after him.
The Rivian R3 is Giving Giugiaro.
In the final years of the 20th Century, shiny, self-adhesive, readily applicable—and fully ersatz—plasticized iterations of various go-fast bits began appearing in auto-parts stores. They dangled alluringly from pegboard hooks in crinkly cellophane wrappers, enticing those who craved cheap speed or the pretense of it.
Instead of solving our current crises of overconsumption, the new generation of four- and five-ton battery powered pickups and SUVs only deepen them. And with their immense power and mass, they have a great propensity to further enhance the ongoing slaughter on our nation’s roadways.
My experience with this auric demon reminded me, once again, of the importance of actually driving cars before casting judgment.