Part 1

Not the End

Usually, this would be the end of the story, the car is cancelled, then forgotten to history. But, Alessandro de Tomaso didn’t want the cars to go to waste, and so instructed the small development team behind the Quattroporte II to complete the thirteen prototypes they’d made, then sell them to customers while the rest of Maserati went to work on more traditional Maseratis. The issue was, as the Quattroporte IIs were just prototypes, they were all slightly different. Not only this, but they couldn’t be sold in Europe because they weren’t actually production cars.

One of the things that was slightly different for each cars was the dashboard. Two of them had digital dashboards, one of the cars being the inhouse prototype and the other being the one they showed at the Paris Motor Show. The issue was, the company they got the dashes from said they could do a minimum order of about 300, so Maserati went and took the Merak gages and fitted them to the other 11 cars.

Another thing was the wipers, the original prototype had two wipers, that made meant that not enough of the windshield was covered by the wipers, and wasn’t road legal. So, when one of the workers went to buy the Merak gages from the company that made then, he saw that they also made a three wiper system, so he picked a few of them up to fit to the Quattroporte II.

Another thing was the wheels, they kept trying different styles of wheels on the cars, so when they sold them, most had different wheels. One just had SM wheels, while the others had different, bespoke wheels.

When putting the cars together, some of the engineers noticed that they were running low on suspension components. So they took a small truck and drove to one of the last factories producing the last of the SMs, and nicked some suspension components to fit to the Quattroporte II.

After the cars were cobbled together, they went off to try and find buyers. As previously said, they couldn’t sell the car in Europe, and even if they could, as it was the oil crisis, and the car was basically just an SM, finding buyers would’ve been impossible anyway. They did manage to find some buyers however, five went to Saudi Arabia, two to Qatar, and five to Spain, which then wasn’t part of Europe.

Because of the tiny number of cars, they each have an interesting story to tell. One, Maserati’s blue prototype with SM wheels and a digital dashboard that was changed to a Meraki dashboard before it was sold to a company in Spain who used it as a company car. But after it developed a series engine issue at about 34,000kms, it was abandoned in a shed and after a few years of it being lost, declared gone forever by Maserati, and even forgotten. For a while, it was stated that only 12 Quattroporte IIs were made, until this blue car was found, perfectly preserved in a barn, still with cigarette bums in the ashtray.

Another Quattroporte II was the cream one that was shown at motor shows. This one was the one with all the bells and whistles, and the only one that left the factory with its digital dashboard. This one didn’t have the SM wheels, but bespoke Maserati ones. This one eventually found its way to an English owner who fully restored it before travelling almost 20,000kms in it and then selling it a few years ago.

Of the original 13, only 4 are known to still exist, and only 2 are known to still be on the road.

Possibly the most human car I know

One of the things I love in cars is a sense of humanity behind it. The idea that a car isn’t just a hunk of metal, but something that has a great story behind it and real car behind it. Every car on Earth has story, someone got it as their first car, someone lost their life in one, someone gave birth in one. Someone spend sleepless nights working in it ready for its reveal at a motor show.

I love cars that are more than cars, but as stories, will real people and emotion behind them; and no car that I have researched has ever made me feel quite this much in love with the car as an entity, not just as a machine.

When researching the Covini C6W, I fell in love with it because it was a very good car. But now researching the Quattroporte II I’ve fallen completely in love with it because it isn’t really a car, but a tremendous story, one of people working their hardest to make this strange idea come to fruition. Not only this, but the car wasn’t that bad, with the one or two road tests that exist of this obscure car, they praise it for its incredible ride and smoothness of power deliver. Giving the fact that owners of this car actually still drive them, it implies that the car is actually quite nice to be in. People who drive them talk about terrible handling, but great visibility, super comfy seats, and the perfect amount of power to move this luxury barge along.

When people describe a car as human, they mean that they love it not because its perfect, but because it isn’t perfect. To respect a car is to appreciate its good points, to love a car is to appreciate the things that are wrong. The Quattroporte II has plenty wrong with it, it is, lets not forget, basically a big Citroen with a heavier body. But, that makes it human, that makes it something that you don’t just respect, but love. And goddamn, after researching it, I love the Quattroporte II, this has quickly shot up to being one of my favorite cars of all time.

The Quattroporte II isn’t technically perfect, but it is very human, so it might just be.

Intro

Maserati is an old, troubled company. Throughout their very long life, they have made some of the most iconic, beautiful cars ever, such as the Ghibli, but they have also made some of the worst cars, such as the Ghibli (joke for car nerds there). The reason for this is that Maserati have almost gone bankrupt many times, and have been owned by many companies, all of which with a different idea of what a Maserati should be. One of these companies was Citroen, who decided that what Maserati needed was a large, comfortable cruiser.

This week, we’re talking about the Maserati Quattroporte II, also known as the least successful Maserati ever.

What is it?

The Maserati Quattroporte II is the follow up car to the Maserati Quattroporte. It isn’t actually a Maserati however, but actually a Citroen SM in a sedan body. As a result it shared almost all its underbody components with the Citroen, including the SM’s swiveling headlights and hydrodynamic suspension. This meant that the Quattroporte II had a 3L V6 producing only 154kw of power, this, coupled with a five speed manual and the car’s almost 2 tonne weight, meant that the car was only capable of going from 0-100kph in 9 seconds, and eventually up to a top speed of just about 200kph.

History

In 1968 Citroen bought the then dying Maserati, and quickly set them to work creating a smooth, but powerful V6 engine to fit into Citroen’s upcoming GT car, the SM. Maserati made a master-class engine, and the SM went on to become one of the most beautiful, revered cars of its day. Maserati, in this time, also made the Merak, a great car, but some Maserati enthusiasts weren’t convinced that it was a true Maserati; it having things such as Citroen gages in the dash.

Just when Maserati were ready to start really getting back into their stride, the oil crisis hit hard. All cars started getting smaller, and big cars and sporty cars, such as Maseratis and Citroen SM, suddenly had no market. Despite this, Citroen instructed Maserati to make a follow up car to their Quattroporte using the SM as its base. Maserati started working on lengthening the body and widening the rear track of the car to make it better suited to being a luxury sedan. Maserati voiced concerns to Citroen that if people did like the Merak because it had Citroen gages, how were they going to react to this car that was almost all Citroen? Maserati were told, basically, to shut up and keep working.

At the 1974 Paris Motor Show, Maserati revealed the long awaited follow up to their popular Quattroporte, and the crowds were confused to say the least. For starters they was the impressive tech sheet, the car had 5 wiper, three in the front and two on the rear, a subtle, yet imposing and massive body, it is in fact, comparable in size to the Toyota Mega Cruiser from a few weeks ago. It also magnesium wheels, air conditioning, power steering, power assisted disc brakes, central locking, a four speaker radio-cassette, full leather upholstery, window shades on all door windows; and crazer still, a digital dashboard.

Safe to say the people were impressed with the level of technology, what they weren’t impressed by was the level of Citroen. The Quattroporte II was a V6 with front wheel drive, and was considerable slower then the original Quattroporte, a car from almost a decade prior. This was mainly due to its engine, it had the same power plant as the SM, but outdated. At this point the SM had injection, where has the Quattroporte II still had carbs.

To combat this, Maserati planned, after the first fifty Quattroporte IIs were sold, and they had some money they’d introduce a version with the extremely advanced, aluminium, quad-cam V8 that powered the first Quattroporte. But on Maserati’s behalf, Citroen decided that the V8 wouldn’t fit in the new Quattroporte, despite the new car being bigger than the old one, and told Maserati to make a brand new V8 based on the Merak’s V6. To Maserati’s credit, with a shoestring budget and Citroen breathing down the back of their neck, they managed to create a V8, and fitted it to an SM for testing. This engine produced a much healthier 208kw of power, and while, as far as I know, no performance figures exist, it would’ve given the Quattroporte II some much needed oomph.

But it was not meant to be, unsurprisingly. As Citroen was absorbed into Peugeot, and Maserati was sold to De Tomaso, the Quattroporte II was canceled before ever making it into production. But actually, not quite.

Continued in part 2

Intro

The 80s was a crazy time to be a car fan, you had Group B rally, Ayrton Senna, the rise of the hot hatch, the creation of the hypercar, and it was, arguably, the peak of Lancia. Now personally, I’ve never been a massive fan of Lancias, I don’t think they’re terrible, I’ve just never cared much for them. But, there were a few that I liked, and one that I love, and yearn to be able to own.

This week, it’s the Lancia Thema 8.32, the ridiculous Ferrari powered, FWD sport sedan.

What is it?

The Lancia Thema 8.32 was a luxury sport sedan made from 1987 to 1992. It had a 2.9 L V8 sourced from a Ferrari 308, that produced 158kw and 285nm of torque. This, mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox, meant the car was able to go from 0-100kph in only 6.8 seconds and onto a top speed of 240kph. The V8, strangely, was mounted transversely, resulting in a cramped engine bay and front wheel drive. Despite the front wheel drive, and incredibly heavy nose, it doesn’t understeer like a big, infact, apparently it has pretty good road manners. This may be due to its lightweight, despite the V8 and extremely luxurious interior, it only weighs 1,300kgs. It also features adjustable dampers for both sporty driving and cruising, an electric retractable spoiler, and various other comfort related items throughout the interior.

History

The Lancia Thema was part of a joint venture between Lancia, Fiat, Saab and Alfa Romeo. The idea was that they’d all develop a car platform together, and then use the platform to make their own cars. This was called the Type Four platform. Now, companies sharing a platform across multiple cars is fairly common nowadays. The Audi Q7, Volkswagen Touareg, Porsche Cayenne, Bentley Bentayga and Lamborghini Urus (among many others), are all built from the same base platform. But all those cars are under the same parent company, VW, whereas the Type Four platform was an agreement between four different companies, which is pretty much unheard of.

The Type Four platform resulted in four cars, the Alfa Romao 164, the Fiat Croma, the Saab 9000 and the Lancia Thema. All these cars, except the Fiat which was marketed as a large family car, shared many similarities, they were all large luxury sedans, they were all front wheel drive, and they all cars had a halo model, a top of the line version that was the top of the companies’ food chain. There was the 164 QV, the 9000 Griffin, and the Thema 8.32. While the Alfa and the Saab were basically just normal versions of the cars with bigger engines, Lancia when all out with the 8.32.

Top of the line

The Thema 8.32 really was one of the top of the line cars sold at the time, featuring incredible performance, good road manners, amazing comfort, and amazing levels of technology. For starters, there was its retractable rear spoiler, that could, electronically, go into the boot and make the lines of the car smoother when going slow, but would raise at high speed for better stability. This is now a standard on all supercars, but the Thema was the first car to ever feature such a thing.

It also had loads of interior features. One of these was its wacky rear headrests. When the rear doors were opened, they headrests would raise electronically, and if it didn’t sense a weight over 25kgs in the rear seat after 15 seconds, the headrests would retract again, improving rear visibility. It also could be optioned with a car phone, meaning you could have a mobile phone in 1987! There was also headphones for the rear passengers so they could listen to music in the rear seats without distraction from the rest of the world. Not only all of that, but it had some serious performance credentials.

The engine was indeed from a Ferrari, and not the cheapest Ferrari engine either, at the time Ferrari made multiple V8s, a 2L V8, a 3L V8 and 3L with four valves per cylinder. The Thema has the top of the range one; but Lancia slightly detuned it to be smoother and more reliable. Despite that, the car was actually faster then multiple Ferraris of the time. It also featured many amazing performance oriented features. It had adjustable dampers, so you could choose how stiff the ride was and how sporty it felt. It also had ABS, meaning better safety and making it easier to drive at high speed. Lastly, it had a power steering system that would change the weight of the steering depending on speed, meaning that at low speeds it was light and easy, but as high speeds it was heavy and offered greater control.

Sounds great, how come I’ve never heard of it?

All things come at a price, and for the Thema 8.32 the price for all these amazing features was, well, the price. It cost today’s equivalent of about $200,000 – $300,000 AUD. And while the car may have been worth it, it still had the stigma that it was “just a Thema”, and the most expensive Thema before this one was less than half the cost!

This huge price resulted in the car failing to sell very well, by the end of its life, about 3500 – 4000 were made over its 5 year life. While this isn’t terrible, it wasn’t that good either, and so in 1992 Lancia decided to pull the car off the market.

The car was expensive, yes, but it was also increible, and worth the price. And if you aren’t convinced of the car’s greatness, than let me leave you with this. With the choice of any car in the world, this is the one Enzo Ferrari choice to be chauffeured around it, what more is there to say?

Intro

Something I rarely talk about on this blog is my love of big off-roaders. I actually used to own a Jeep (story for another day), and I love off-roading. I also love Toyotas. I know they have a reputation for being boring and characterless, but every Toyota I’ve ever been in has been chockas with it, with the added bonus of being endlessly reliable and cheap to repair. The idea of an unknown, Toyota off-roader seems impossible, as Toyotas are extremely popular and their off-roaders, namely the Land Cruiser and HiLux, are legendary world wide.

But, let me introduce to you the unknown, forgotten, Toyota off-road, the Mega Cruiser.

What is it?

The Toyota Mega Cruiser (stylised MEGA CRUISER) is the civilian version of the military BXD10, much like the Hummer H1 is to the Humvee; it was made from 1995-2002. Much like the Hummer H1, it is absolutely massive, 2 meters tall, 2.1 meters long, 5 meters long, and weighing in at almost 3 tonnes. Its width means that it has 4 abreast seating in the back, and is most likely the only car with that feature. To move this beast it has a 4.1l inline 4 turbodiesel that would eventually make its way into the Toyota Coaster bus, the engine produces 114kw and 382nm of torque; this, mated to a 4 speed automatic, means the car was capable of some acceleration, just not much.

History

The history behind this car isn’t all too exciting. Basically, the Humvee was extremely successful in 1991, to successful that civilians (mainly Arnold Schwarzenegger, and weirdly, that isn’t a joke) begged for a road version, and in 1992, the Hummer H1 was released to the public. In 1993, Toyota announced the Mega Cruiser, a military and civilian multi-purpose vehicle. What timing, am I right?

To be fair, the Mega Cruiser wasn’t just a Hummer build in Japan, it was actually an extremely advanced 4WD, and could even have been considered the off-road equivalent to a supercar.

Off-Road Supercar, what?

As I mentioned earlier, the engine in the Mega Cruiser eventually found itself powering the Toyota Coaster bus, and that was actually the main point of the Mega Cruiser. It was intended as an extremely advanced, capable vehicle that could a) have many different applications, and b) would be a testing bed and teaser for what Toyota would eventually add to their other models.

The Mega Cruiser, unlike the Hummer, has extremely good road manners, and is very comfortable. This is due to the fully independent suspension that allowed it to ride across the road like a car, not a truck. This is was actually a very purposeful decision, as one of the applications Toyota designed the Mega Cruiser for was as a disaster relief vehicle, and so made it comfortable so it could be an effective ambulance. It also featured portal axles, something that is still considered very exotic for a 4WD. A portal axle is a way of connecting the wheels to the axle that allows the wheels to be mounted lower than the axle itself, resulting in much greater ground clearance; of which the Mega Cruiser has 420mm as standard.

The car also had 4 wheel steering, a system in which the rear wheels can also turn a small amount to help maneuverability. This meant that the Mega Cruiser had an insanely small turning circle radius of just 5.6 meters. To put this into proportion, the Fiat 500 has a turning radius of about 12 meters. This MASSIVE truck can turn in less than half the space that the miniscule Fiat 500 can manage, half!

It also featured three locking differentials, front, center and rear, which not even modern Land Cruisers feature. It had a system in which the tyres could be inflated and deflated from within the cabin. Lastly, it had inboard brakes, that being, breaks that are fitted to the chassis of the vehicle and not to the wheel, reducing unsprung weight. I have no idea why this racing car technology was applied to the Mega Cruiser, but hey, it was there.

Sounds sweet, how come we aren’t all driving them?

The Mega Cruiser was, undoubtedly, the most advanced 4WD of the era. Most of the technologies this old truck had still aren’t seen on today’s 4WDs, and are only seen on the really expensive stuff. But, the issue with cutting edge technologies is that they’re hella expensive. The Mega Cruiser cost today’s equivalent of about $205,000aud. Nowadays, the idea of spending $200,000 on a 4WD isn’t strange, with Range Rovers, Uruses (Urusi?) and Bentaygas all costing twice that much. But in the late 90s, that was not the norm’. Not only that, but Toyota only sold it in Japan, where there are massive taxes placed on vehicles depending on size, and since the Mega Cruiser had quite a lot of that, the taxes were huge. In the end, only about 140 civilian Mega Cruisers were made over its 7 year life.

So, to sum up, the Mega Cruiser is a hugely capable, cutting edge off-road monster that was not only unstoppable off the road, but also comfortable and well mannered on the road, with a turning circle only just wider than the car itself. But, it was killed by its own success, as it was just too expensive to be popular. Still, between this and a Hummer, I’d know which one I’d rather have.

Intro

Over the years, there have been many joke and half hearted attempts to create a car that doubles as a boat. Top Gear famously created a Nissan that crossed the English Channel, and there’s been plenty of prototypes and designs made for an amphibious car, but only one man ever took that dream and made a production car the floats.

This week, it’s the Amphicar 770, the first, and really only, production amphibious car.

What is it?

The Amphicar 770 is a small two seat convertible made in Germany from 1961-1965. It featured a 1.2l 4 cylinder engine from a Triumph Herald which produced 32kw of power, mated to a 4 speed manual gearbox, this meant that it was capable of doing 110kph. What set the Amphicar apart was, obviously, its ability to work as a boat. It has a single speed gearbox for the propellers, which were connected almost directly to the engine. It had a top water speed of 7 knots, and was able to get itself in and out of the water completely independently. It’s name comes from the fact that it can go 7 knots on the water and 70mph on land, Amphicar 770.

History

Hans Trippel was an eccentric German chap who likes to make strange car design decisions. For example, we was the inventor of the gullwing door, which Mercedes “borrowed” to create the now iconic 300SL Gullwing.

Hans had been toying with the idea of an amphibious civilian car since the 1930s, where he apparently put an outboard motor on the back of his own car. He developed amphibious cars for the military, but wanted desperately to make a car for the general public that was also a boat. In 1959 he revealed his Eurocar at the Geneva Auto show. It was the culmination of his passion, a road car for the water, but it wasn’t quite ready for production.

But after finding some investors, and therefore about 5 million dollars, the Amphicar 770 was launched in 1961. This car wasn’t some thrown together kit, it was built by the same company that made BMWs, and they had projected production numbers of 20,000 a year.

Did it work?

Amazingly, the Amphicar did indeed work. It was possible to drive it into the water, enjoy it, than drive out again and go home, it actually was that simple. And it wasn’t like it fell apart in the water, as a marketing stunt, two were driven two a German motoring show completely under their own power. This may seem not all too impressive, but considering they started in England, it’s pretty damn remarkable.

But, working and being good are two different things; and the Amphicar wasn’t good. Some owners have jokingly remarked, “We like to think of it as the fastest car on the water and fastest boat on the road.” This is because, on the road, it wasn’t anything remarkable for the time. It was marketed and looked like a sports car, but it was tall and very slow, so it only took a short drive before realising that there was nothing sport about it. Once it hit the water, it would trundle along very slowly and comfortably, but it was no speed boat. The fact that it crossed the Channel is extremely impressible, the fact that said crossing took over 7 hours is less so.

While it wasn’t a terrible car, or a terrible boat, it wasn’t a particularly good either, and failed to capture the hearts of the purchasing public, and in the end only about 4,000 were made before it was taken out of production.

Try to dislike, I dare you

Despite the reality that it wasn’t great, it’s almost impossible to dislike. Its kinda like a DeLorean in that sense, it isn’t that good, but at the same time it’s just fantastic. It may not have captured people’s wallets, but it certainly captured their hearts. Some owners include Alan Jackson, Madonna, even some US President, Jimmy Carter and Lyndon Johnson.

Lyndon Johnson used it primarily at his ranch, where there was a large hill leading into a deep lake. When he had guests over, he’d drive them too that hill before shouting, “The breaks have failed, I can’t stop it!” While the car flew down the hill. He’d conveniently forget to mention that the car was amphibious, and took great joy in seeing people’s reactions to the car hitting the water and floating.

That story perfectly captures the spirit of the Amphicar, one of joy and silliness. It’s a fun car, one that’s almost completely pointless, as it someone really needs both a car and a boat, they’ll buy a car, and a boat. But, the idea of having one that’s both is fun, and joyous. This is why it’s almost impossible to dislike, because it captures a fantastic childlike wonder in people that just makes you smile.

At Disney World, there is a popular ride that is simply some Amphicars that float around in a lake. Amphicars have been seen selling for hundreds of thousands of dollars at auctions. Nowadays, it’s a great collectors item and still brings joy to adults and children alike, despite the cars themselves being 50-60 years old.

Hans Trippel may not have made a car that changed motoring forever, or even one that made him much money. But he made a car that captures people’s hearts, is greater than the sum of its parts, and is still remembered and loved to this day, and it I were a car designer, I’d rather make a car that people love and remember, than one that people buy, then throw away.

Intro

Talk to almost any car enthusiast and ask them what the first road going McLaren was, and they’ll all reply with the McLaren F1. One of the world’s fastest, most exciting cars to this day, and a real testament to how good this racing team is. But, they’d be wrong, because 21 years before Gordon Murray’s incredible F1, Bruce McLaren had dreams of a Le Mans racer and road car.

This week, we talk about the McLaren M6B GT, McLaren’s failed first road car.

What is it?

The McLaren M6B GT is a prototype racer/road car from 1969. It featured a tuned Chevrolet 5.7 V8, tuned to produce 276kw of power and 502nm of torque. This was coupled to a 5 speed manual gearbox, despite it being an early hypercar with a massive engine, it only weight a tiny 800kg, 100kg less than a 1.2l Fiat 500. This meant that the car was good for 0-100 in only 4.2 seconds and could go to a top speed of 290kph; if the car had entered production, this would’ve made it that fastest car in the world.

History

In 1967, McLaren entered, and absolutely dominated the Can-Am racing series with the brilliant McLaren M6A. It featured amazing downforce for the time, and a monocoque chassis combined with a reliable and powerful Chevrolet engine. Bruce McLaren, the founder of McLaren automotive, had for years wanted to make a Le Mans racer/road car, think Ford GT40, and decided that his M6A was the perfect basis.

The idea was that fiberglass body maker Trojan would make the road legal bodies, and McLaren would make and supply the chassis, and the cars would be sold to customers without engines. This was so the car could either be bought by customers for use on the road or on the track. For the Le Mans racers, it was going to be basically identical to the road car, except that they’d all be equipped with the Chevy engines.

McLaren wanted to enter some races in the car, and then start selling them to customers after showing how good the car was at the races. The saying, “Win on Sunday, sell on Monday” was very much true at this time. Unfortunately, the rules were changed now stating that there at to be 50 road car built before they could enter the race, and that was too many for McLaren to handle at the time.

But Bruce was not deterred, and got ready to sell the car as is. A sparse, difficult and uncomfortable race car for the road, capable of great speeds. So great was Bruce’s pride in his creation that it became his personal car, that he used to go about, whether it was to the shops or to a track for a race. Despite the car being the start of “McLaren Orange”, Bruce’s was in red.

Unfortunately, about half a year after Bruce’s car was completed, he was killed in an accident, and the project was scrapped.

But What If?

This is always the question with prototype cars that never see the light of day, what would’ve happened if the car made it to full production?

This question is particularly interesting when applied to the M6B GT, as it was quite a strange car, and very different to the McLarens we have today. McLaren today make supercars that are both fast and useable, their mission statement being make cars that are as easy on the track as in the carpark. But maybe if the M6B GT made it to production it would’ve been very different.

It was basically a racecar for the road, very harsh and extremely fast, and had an interesting idea with selling it without engines. Maybe if it had, McLaren today would be known as big Lotuses, light and harsh, but fast as hell and uncompromised.

It’s also good to remember that the M6B GT was actually a very good car, in the short time that Bruce owned it, he managed to put almost 2000 miles on the clock, with is a lot for a supercar. It was also extremely fast, and wouldn’t be beaten until the Lamborghini Countach LP500 in 1982, 13 years after the M6B GT. Who knows, it might’ve changed the whole car industry, maybe the 200mph would’ve been beaten earlier? Maybe McLaren would’ve been the new kings of Le Mans, making a new Ferrari vs Ford, but now Ferrari vs Ford vs McLaren?

But these are all just what ifs. What we do know is that in the late sixties a Kiwi made a crazy hypercar, and the project was unfortunately scrapped early, and resulted in an interesting forgotten piece of McLaren history.

Intro

The Lamborghini Diablo is considered one of the craziest cars of the 90s, and to some, the last true Lamborghini. It’s mad styling, imposing size and stance, and screaming V12 engine are seen as a true example of what made Lambos great, insanity and character, with that ever important WOW factor. But did you know that the Diablo was actually supposed to be even crazier?

This week, we look at the real craziest car of the 90s, the Cizeta-Moroder V16T.

What is it?

The Cizeta-Moroder V16T is a limited production hypercar made by Cizeta. The car was originally produced between 1991-1995, but re-entered production in 2006, to this day, it is still possible to order one brand new. The car has a six liter V16 that I’ll get deeper into later in the article, it produces 402kw of power and 542nm of torque; this is mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox making the car good to go from 0-100kph in 4.5 seconds and on to a top speed of 320kph. The body is aluminium on a tubular chassis, but due to its huge engine, it weighs a colossal 1,700kg.

Engine

I usually don’t like to get super technical in these articles, but with this engine I just had to! If you aren’t interested in the weird technical specs, than skip to the next paragraph. The V16 in the Cizeta is actually more bizarre than the car’s exterior styling. The engine isn’t a bespoke unit, its actually two Lambo Urraco V8s mated together, but not in the normal way. Usually when two engines are glued together, they remain mostly as two units, with two cranks. But the Cizeta’s V16 is a true V16, with only one crank, this is because the Cizeta has a bespoke engine block, with all the internals being borrowed from the Urraco V8s.

To make it even crazier, the engine is mounted transversely! This is why the car’s rear is so wide, but even so, a transversely mounted V16 is so ridiculous it’s almost unbelievable. But to make it even crazier, the gearbox is mounted longitudinally, on the side of the engine (don’t ask me how that works, because I have no idea)! This is where the car gets its name from, as its a V16 Transversely mounted, and when paired with the gearbox, it forms the shape of a “T”.

How is this related to the Diablo?

Marcello Gandini, one of the founders of Cizeta, is famous for being the designer of the Lamborghini Diablo, Countach and Muria. When it came time for Lambo to replace the ancient Countach, they asked Gandini to do the honours. He came up with a truly mad design, massive Testarossa like side strakes and 4 pop-up headlights. At this point Chrysler had purchased the failing Lamborghini and were not super pleased with Gandini’s design. They wanted a car that could sell, and Gandini’s design was too polarizing. So Chrysler took his design and gave to to their team in America, who altered it heavily to make it more sedate,  and gave us the Diablo we know today.

Gandini was famously disappointed and upset with Chrysler, and took his design to Claudio Zampolli, an ex-Lamborghini engineer tuned exotic car dealer who was looking to build his own supercar. With the a design from Gandini, engineering by Zampolli working with other ex-Lambo engineers and financial backing from music producer Giorgio Moroder, the Cizeta-Moroder V16T was ready to be made.

Working in total secret, the team spend the next few years designing and prototyping the car. The rear of Gandini’s design had to be changed again, but this time it wasn’t to make it more docile, but to make it fit the crazy V16 engine. Zampolli was determined to make a supercar that would stand out in a crowed, but was also easy to actually drive. Its V16 allowed this, as it was extremely smooth and torque-y, making it easy to drive normally, but also crazy and unique, making it stand out. The car ended up being exactly what Zampolli and Gandini wanted, a crazy looking hyper that was, despite its looks, quite docile and comfortable.

By the time the car was ready for production, Moroder pulled out of the project, and so while the car was debuted as the Cizeta-Moroder V16T, it was delivered to customers simply as the Cizeta V16T.

You want one, don’t you Will?

Of course I do! If there is one thing about me that’s consistent, its that I love obscure, insane cars, and the Cizeta is no exception. Its glorious engine, strange Diablo connection and mental styling all come together to make one of the great unknown cars of the 90s.

Unfortunately, the car never really court on. It was way too expensive and its looks were too polarising for it to have great appeal, and to this day only about 20 exist. It’s kinda funny, Chrysler said the Gandini’s design was too much, and toned it down, creating the Diablo, one of the world’s most famous cars, and Gandini’s original design went to live on in the Cizeta, which was forgotten.

But I prefer the Cizeta, and after learning about it, the Diablo just looks a little too normal for me.

Intro

I have little to no interest in concept cars. In my opinion, I just find them extremely frustrating, why is the company spending money and time making a fake car they never intend to sell, when they could be, oh I dunno, making cars? So I usually ignore them, because I know I’ll just end up wanting to buy it, but not being able to. But there is one concept car that no matter how hard I try, I can never get out of my head.

That car is VW’s outrageous and glorious Golf GTI W12-650.

What is it?

The normal Golf MK5 was just a Golf really, it was a very good Golf, but it was just a Golf. You’ve seen hundreds of them, most of them with either 1.6 or 2.0 liter engines. But this normality of the car is what makes the W12-650 so great. Despite having the body of a Golf, it had a mid-mounted 6.0 liter, twin turbo W12 from a Bentley Continental GT, which they tuned to produce another 90bhp; so instead of making 552hp (412kw), it made 641hp (478kw), and instead of a measly 650nm of torque in the Bentley, the Golf has 720nm. This mental engine was coupled to a 6 speed automatic transmission from VW’s luxury car the Phaeton, as it was the only gearbox VW had that could handle the massive power. All this allowed the car to accelerate from 0-100 in 3.7 seconds and then on to a top speed of 325kph.

There’s no way that a normal Golf could withstand such power, so the W12-650 has the front brakes from an Audi RS4, the rear brakes and axle from a Lamborghini Gallardo and the rear subframe from an Audi R8. Weirdly, unlike any of the cars it takes its parts from, the W12 is only rear wheel drive. To cool the massive engine sitting right behind the driver, the car has a huge grill on the front, and massive channels on the side. The normal Golf GTI sits on 17 inch 225mm wheels, the W12 has 19 inch wheels, with 235s in the front and massive 295s in the rear. The W12 also sits 8cm lower to the ground and is 16cm wider than the standard GTI.

Why Did VW Make This Monster?

Every year, in Wörthersee, Austria, there is something called the GTI Festival, in which GTI fans from around the world come to celebrate the definitive hot hatch. The festival has a lot of tuner VW, with people comparing who has modified their car the best. VW, not to be out done, decided to show that they are the best at modifying GTIs.

But there was a problem, a big one. Tuners will spend years on their cars, constantly tweaking them to byond perfection; and when a company develops a car, it also can take them years to tweaking to get right. By the time VW decided to become Best in Show at the GTI Festival, it was only 8 weeks away. Now, what most people would do is wait until next year’s festival, but VW are kind of insane, so they decided to make the car in the 8 week time frame. And to top it off, almost all concept cars are just big models and ideas, but aren’t even able to move under their own power. But, well, as I just said, VW are mental, and therefore decided to not only make it in 8 weeks, but to also make it work.

Well, it doesn’t all work. The dashboard controls, for example, aren’t connected to anything. Meaning that there’s no stereo, no climate control, no hazard lights. The biggest one was the the shift paddles on the wheel don’t work. The Phaeton gearbox was designed and tuned for comfort, making it unwilling to act in a sporty way. This makes the W12-650 always be in the wrong gear at the wrong time.

Apart From the Gearbox, What’s Not to Love?

As stated earlier, cars take years to develop, and a big part of this development is tuning. The basics of the car are made, but now it needs to be tuned to work. How sensitive the pedals are, how heavy the steering is, how hard is the suspension. This all takes time, but results in the car behaving in a way that is controllable and pleasurable. 8 weeks isn’t enough time to do tuning, so VW just throw the parts together and hoped for the best.

This, as I said, resulted in a sloppy and frustrating gearbox, but this was not it biggest issue. The W12-650 is unable to corner, like, at all. It’s got an incredibly short wheel base, and huge power running through the rear wheels only. This, coupled with the lack of tuning, results in a car that is violent, unpredictable, and unforgiving. If you into a corner 1kph to fast, you get understeer, 1kph too slow, and the car spins like a Beyblade. Trying to drive the W12 is impossible, and as its a 640hp supercar, driving fast is what you want to do.

I Hate Concept Cars

I want to own a GTI W12-650 so badly, oh my god! Just look at it!

Everything about this car is mental in the best possible way, it looks ridiculous, is ridiculous and makes you giggle with joy every time to see it. If supercars are just tools to make you go “WOW”, than the W12-650 has got to be one of the most effective supercars ever made. But, as with all concept cars, was never going to see the light of day.

This is the same with all concept cars, no matter how popular or spectacular it is, if a car company labels it as a “concept”, that’s their way of saying “don’t get your hopes up”. Even people in VW couldn’t get this car made, the exterior designer, Marc Lichte, was desperate for this car to be made, and he tried his damndest to make the car enter production, but VW were never going to do it.

This is a real shame, as the GTI W12-650 is awesome, and deserves to be seen and loved by more people. But, there is and only ever will be one, and once that’s gone, there’ll be none. As is the fate of all concept cars, they come, they wow, they are forgotten, and then they’re gone forever, never to be enjoyed again.

I hate concept cars, because no matter how much I love them, their fate always remains the same.

Intro

As is evident with my last post, I love supercars. I believe most car fans do, they’re great pieces of engineering as well as being tremendously exciting. As is also evident with my personal car, a Fiat 500, I love small cars. I think they’re cute, as well as being cleverly packaged cars, to put everything you expect in a big car, into a small one.

So, due to these two loves of mine, this week, we’re taking a look at the Autozam AZ-1, the world’s smallest supercar.

What is it?

The Autozam AZ-1 is what is known in Japan as a “Kei car”. A kei car is a type of car that meets a certain number of regulations, and as a result has access to certain benefits, such as costing less, being in a lower insurance bracket, and less tax. The regulations change over the years, but when the AZ-1 was made, the regulations were that it could be no longer than 3.3m, no wider than 1.4m and no taller than 2m. They were also restricted to a 660cc engine (0.66 liters) and could produce no more than 47kw.

Most kei cars are designed and made to make the most of these restrictions, and so are usually boxy in shape to make the most of the space as well as being very cheap. This results in most kei cars being ugly and terrible to drive, but very cheap to buy and own. The Autozam was weird as it was an attempt to make something sporty and exciting, while still falling within kei car regulations.

The Autozam AZ-1 was sold between 1992-1995 and had a 657cc turbocharged engine producing 47kw of power and 85nm of torque mated to a 5 speed manual gearbox. While its length and width are at the limit of kei cars, it is only 1.15m tall. Due to its small size, it only weighs 720kg, despite having a steel frame. It can sprint from 0-100kph in about 8 seconds, and go on to a top speed of 170kph. This may be pretty modest figures, but when keeping in mind the car’s miniscule size, and that speed is relative, I bet it feels pretty damn fast.

History

The Autozam AZ-1 actually started its life as a Suzuki, who wished to make a mid engined sports car that was also a kei car. They made a couple of prototypes, but eventually ditched the project to focus on designing what would become the Suzuki Cappuccino. Mazda took over the project, and it was given to the same team that designed the incredible MX-5.

They designed a little car with a tube frame, an aluminium roof and a fiberglass body. It was at this point called the AZ-550 Sports, as at this time kei car regulations required the cars to have no more than a 550cc engine. It was revealed to the public with three different potential body styles, called the Type A, Type B and Type C. The Type A was a miniature sports car featuring side strakes like on a Ferrari Testarossa and pop up headlights. The Type B was inspired by tuner cars, it had a bulkier look than the Type A, and looked like a tiny muscle car. The Type C was designed to look like one of Mazda’s Le Man racers, and actually looks very much like a shrunken race car.

All the cars were received well by the public, and so Mazda decided to put it into production. They decided upon Type A, although Type C was more popular. This is because they believed that the Type A was more consumer friendly, and more likely to sell. Over the next three years they made revisions to the design, such as replacing the pop-up headlights for fixed ones and changing the tube frame for a steel one. In 1992, the car was put up for sale under the Autozam brand as the AZ-1.

What About it Makes it a Supercar?

This is a very fair question, as if you look at supercars in terms of performance alone, than it definitely doesn’t qualify. But personally, I like to see supercars as more of a way of perceiving cars, rather than the car itself. Bear with me here.

For something to be a supercar, it needs to be silly, it needs to not be perfect, but very desirable. Supercars are unnecessary, but lovable. They’re something you want, not something you need. Think of it like a pet. Nobody needs a pet, and they can be extremely annoying and inconvenient; but, they are loveable, and you want one. That is how I view supercars.

The Autozam AZ-1 falls very much under this banner. Its gullwing doors are too heavy and difficult to reach when sitting down, but they’re awesome. It’s not a very efficient way to use the space it takes up, but it is an exciting way. When it came out, it was far too expensive, much more than its main rivals, the Honda Beat and Suzuki Cappuccino, but it is more desirable than both. When looking at it like this, the Autozam AZ-1 is a clear supercar, a great piece of desirable motoring, not necessarily practical.

The Autozam AZ-1 looks great, and makes you feel great, and in terms of a supercar, that is all you could want.