Category: Auto History

Name: Acura NSX (US) / Honda NSX (rest of the world)
Debut: 1989 Chicago Auto Show
Engine: 3.0-Liter V6
Specs: 270 Horsepower / 210 Pound-Feet
Price: $60,000 ($110,000 in 2019)

By the mid 1980s Honda, already the owner of a fine pedigree in motorcycle racing, was making a name for itself as a supplier of F1 engines and wanted some of that magic in its showrooms. The mid-engine 1984 Honda HP-X concept car designed by Pininfarina was its first effort to that end, but it wasn’t until the arrival of the Honda NSX in 1990, that the company fulfilled its wishes. 

Meanwhile in the United States, the Japanese manufactures had already made clear that they were not a temporary fad. Honda and Toyota were kings among them, with their economy sedans Accord and Camry climbing fast through the best sellers’ ranks. There were still plenty of lucrative spaces to explore, like premium automobiles and pickup trucks. Honda, Nissan and Toyota decided simultaneously to address the former first, establishing each their own luxury channel. Honda`s Acura was the first to arrive in 1986, followed by Lexus and Infiniti, from Toyota and Nissan respectively, in 1989.  

Honda saw Acura as the ideal channel to distribute their new supercar in America. The mid-engine NSX, considered a legitimate competitor of Porsches and Ferraris, would have felt out of place in a showroom full of Civics and Accords, and thus the decision was made to rename the car Acura NSX for the American public. 

The NSX was powered by a 3.0-liter VTEC V6, capable of 270 horsepower and 210 lbs.-ft of torque, placed behind its only two seats. The power was transferred to the rear wheels by a 6-speed manual gear box. The development of its chassis and suspension was heavily influenced by the input given by Ayrton Senna, who had won the F1 drivers world championship in 1988 on McLaren cars powered by Honda, and would also win the title in 1990 and 1991 for the same team, before his untimely death in 1994 on board of a non-Honda product. The NSX owners would also enjoy the benefits of revolutionary safety technologies like ABS brakes and traction control, which would make them feel and appear better drivers that they would have a legitimate right to claim to be. 

Although the NSX was shown to the world for the first time in the Chicago Auto Show in February 1989, its sales started first in Japan in January of 1990, and wouldn’t being in America until November that year. The car was well received by the public and specialized media alike. Road & Track recorded a 0 to 60 miles per hour sprint of 5.7 seconds, reaching the quarter mile in 14 seconds, prompting them to say that the Acura NSX “deserves a place in the stratospheric performance league of sports/GT cars.” They weren’t kidding, with also 270 hp on tap, the Ferrari 328 GTB that Honda benchmarked for the NSX development, ran from 0 to 60 mph only two tenth of a second faster. 

The 1990 Acura NSX in the 1989 Chicago Auto Show

Members of the automotive press corps looking for the engine in the wrong end of the Acura NSX.

The NSX was an outstanding beauty. Harmoniously flowing lines enhanced its low profile rising toward its rear into a magnificent built in spoiler, that would not only keep the car firmly planted in the pavement, but also made sure that none of the drivers left behind would confuse it for anything else. Hidden pop-up headlight gave it a very European stance, while side vents kept the brakes, engine and looks super cool. 

Honda gave the NSX a Targa top in 1995 and upgraded the engine with a 3.2-liter VTEC V6 good for 290 hp and 294 lb.-ft of torque in 1997. 2002 brought about a significant facelift that made all NSXs sold in America targa models and replaced the pop-up headlights with open bi-xenon units, that sacrificed some if the flair of the original design in the altar of pedestrian safety and better road illumination. 

The first-generation Acura NSX bowed after the 2005 model year, and wasn’t replaced until 2016, when the much-awaited new generation of the supercar finally arrived. But that’s a supercar for another Sunday. 

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The ‘Ford V Ferrari’ motion picture is almost here. We all know that the movie centers on the people behind Ford Total Performance, as well as how and why it became one of the most historic wins in automotive history. However, there is more to know about the actual car that won the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the first time – for Ford and for America itself.

In a video produced by Motorius (embedded above), watch a brief look back at the history behind the 1966 Ford GT40 Mk. II, particularly Chassis P/1046, and its journey after its historic win at the Le Mans.

It was in 1966 when Ford had a feud with Ferrari after a failed attempt to buy the Italian racing empire. With a team consisting of Carroll Shelby, Ken Miles, Bruce Mclaren, and Chris Amon, Ford Total Performance was born and its lovechild was the Ford GT40 Mk. II. 

Entered by Shelby-American, the Ford GT40 Mk. II Chassis P/1046 entered the 24 Hours of Le Mans and was piloted by ‘Kiwis’ Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon. Together, the team won the race for the first time and Chassis P/1046 was retired from the race shortly after.

Chassis P/1046 was passed through multiple owners who restored the vehicle, but the most notable was when it was bought by Rob Kauffman, owner of RK Motors, in 2014. After an extensive 4,000+ hours of restoration with Rare Drive in New Hampshire, the original winning GT40 was restored back to its race-ready state.

The restored GT40 Chassis P/1046 was in attendance in 2016 Le Mans when Ford won the title again. It also made a red-carpet appearance together with the stars of ‘Ford v Ferrari’, celebrating the iconic race car’s glory.

Name: Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale
Debut: September 1967; Monza, Italy
Engine: 2.0-Liter V8
Specs: 227 Horsepower / 152 Pound-Feet
Price: $17,000 ($118,000 In 2019)

At some point in the mid 1960s, Alfa Romeo decided to pack all the might of their glorious (although eventually unsuccessful) new racer, the 1966 Alfa Romeo Tipo 33, into a car that should be street legal and relatively comfortable to drive in the autostrada. The result was the 1967 Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale, a gorgeous two seater that is regarded today as the first modern supercars and one of the most beautiful designs of all time.

Race Car For The Road

Italians use the word stradale to signify a ‘street legal’ car, and technically this was the case for the 33 Stradale. But you wouldn’t guess it at first sight. Its powerful bodywork, designed by Franco Scaglione, looked as ready to race as the car it was based on. However, looking it upclose there are details that reveal the 33 Stradale’s more civilized purpose. 

Among its many distinctions, the 33 Stradale was the first production car to use butterfly doors, which opened upwards with its hinges located on the A Pillar. From the beltline upwards the doors were all glass and curved into the roof of the vehicle creating a T-Top of sorts, very much like its contemporary GT40, but with the top panels being all glass.

The Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale is smaller than what its stylized silhouette suggest, with a total length of 156.3 inches, a wheelbase of 92.5 inches, and an impossibly low total height of 39.0 inches. Its cabin was sumptuous for a 1967 sports car, with leather everywhere and polished metal handles and switchgear. The bolstered seats are very low as Alfa Romeo didn’t want the open portion of the doors hitting the passengers head as they closed down.

Behind those seats, sits a 2.0-liter displacement V8 producing 227 horsepower (169 kilowatts) and 152 pound-feet (206 Newton-meters) of torque send to the rear wheels through a six-speed transaxle by Colotti.

Rare And Unique

The 18 units produced differ from one another, not because yearly updates, but because as their bodies were handmade by Carrozzeria Marazzi, decisions were made in order to improve the car and its tedious production process. This is the reason why we can find cars with either one of two windshield wipers, or with different mountings for the windshield. The first two prototypes built had a dual headlight configuration that wasn’t compliant with the light height requirements for street legal cars, for which Scaglione had to redo the lights design with single headlight configuration that while looking great didn’t look as good as the first two cars.

Five 33 Stradales were made into concept cars by the top three Italian coachbuilders, resulting in Italdesign’s Alfa Romeo Iguana designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro, Pininfarina’s 1968 Alfa Romeo P33 Roadster, 1969 Alfa Romeo 33.2 Coupe Speciale, and 1971 Alfa Romeo Cuneo (built in the same chassis as the P33 Roadster), and Bertone’s 1968 Alfa Romeo Carabo and 1976 Alfa Romeo Navajo.

The most sharp-eyed among you have probably realized the great influence that the 33 Stradale had on the design of the Alfa Romeo 4C. However, the realities of production of the 21st century automobile as well as today’s the safety regulations and requirements make designs such as the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale completely impossible.

Name: Volkswagen W12 Concept
Debut: 1997 Tokyo Motor Show / 1998 Geneva Motor Show / 2001 Tokyo Motor Show
Engine: Quad-Turbo 5.6-Liter W12
Specs: 414 Horsepower; 591 Horsepower / 458 pound-feet
Price: N/A

Volkswagen‘s electrified future is inevitable. The intuitive I.D. range, headlined by the newly introduced ID.3 hatchback, is proof of that. But before we look too far into VW’s future, let’s take a look at the company’s often-forgotten recent past. For a 10-year stretch between the mid-1990s and early 2000s, the German marque built some truly mind-boggling concepts. And the gorgeous W12 supercar (which the company produced in three different iterations) remains one of our favorites.

German Engineering, Italian Style

The first W12 concept debuted in 1997 under the direction of then CEO Ferdinand Piech. The marque tapped the design expertise of Italdesign to create a sleek super coupe capable of utilizing the then-new W12 engine mounted in the middle, and all-wheel drive. This resulted in the first W12 concept, dubbed the “Synchro” – a beautiful, bright-yellow coupe that debuted at the Tokyo Motor Show with 414 horsepower (308 kilowatts). But that was just the beginning.

A year later, VW rolled out a topless W12 concept dubbed the W12 Roadster. The drop-top version of the original concept used the same 5.6-liter engine, and produced the same 414 hp. But it wasn’t until almost three years later that VW really tapped into the W12 concept’s full performance potential.

At the 2001 Tokyo Motor Show, VW unveiled the W12 Nardo concept, now painted orange. Named after the famous Nardo test track, this concept unraveled 591 hp (440 kW) and 458 pound-feet of torque from the same quad-turbocharged 5.6-liter W12 VW released nearly years prior. The Nardo could sprint to 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour) in just 3.5 seconds and would continue on to a top speed of 221.8 mph (357 kmh). 

A year after the Nardo concept debuted, VW spawned a race car using the W12 as its base. The W12 racer ran for 24 straight hours at the Nardo Ring at Lecce, averaging a speed of 200.6 mph. It broke 12 speed records in the process. 

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Just A Tease

While the two other W12-powered V-Dubs did make production – the Phaeton and Touareg – the W12 supercar never did. Though, VW never really promised a production model in the first place. This concept was designed as a test-bed for the now-infamous engine. And for the most part, it achieved its mission; consumers snapped up the Phaeton and Touareg. If only they’d have done the same with the W12.

Name: Lamborghini 5-95 Zagato
Debut: 2014
Specs: 5.2-Liter V10, 562 Horsepower
Price: $1 Million+

Lamborghini has a long lineage of outrageous one-offs and few-offs. The most-recent examples – the Centenario, Veneno, and the new Sian – use the Aventador as their base, pump out insane amounts of power, and cost multiple millions of dollars to the lucky list buyers able to afford them. But you may have forgotten about the 2014 few-off that sent that best-selling Gallardo out in style: The Lamborghini 5-95 Zagato.

Zagato Chic, Lamborghini Fierce

Commissioned by Swiss collector Albert Spiess (owner of multiple Lamborghini and Alfa Romeo one-offs and few-offs) to celebrate Zagato’s 95th birthday, the Lamborghini 5-95 made its world debut at the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este at Lake Como in 2014. Wearing stunning coachbuilt Italian sheet metal, it implements Zagato’s philosophy of “functionalism and rationalism,” and was deemed an “instant classic” by its creators at launch. Whether that’s true five years on remains to be seen.

What’s inarguable, though, is how beautiful this car is. The wraparound glass, the double-bubble roof, the dramatic orange finish, and the elegant upgrades both on the front and rear fascia might trick you into thinking this isn’t a Gallardo at all. But it only takes one glance underhood to discover its Lambo roots.

Mechanically, the 5-95 Zagato is a Gallardo LP570-4 Superleggera. The 5.2-liter V10 produces a hearty 562 horsepower and 398 pound-feet of torque, sending power to all four wheels. It takes the 5-95 just 3.4 seconds to hit 62 miles per hour (100 kilometers per hour), and it has the ability to sprint all the way to 202 mph.

One Of Few

Don’t expect to find many of these on the used market, though. Now a “fundamental piece” of the Spiess collection, Lamborghini and Zagato partnered for just a handful of 5-95s in 2014. Though, the final production number remains a mystery. The 5-95 joins the rank of Lamborghini few-offs and is one of the rarest projects to emerge from Lamborghini and Zagato’s storied history. Though, it did eventually spawn a Roadster variant later in life.

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Name: Porsche 918
Debut: September 2013, Frankfurt Motor Show
Specs: 4.6-Liter Hybrid V8, 875 Horsepower / 944 Pound-Feet

Going Green

Hard to believe it’s been almost six full years since the first Porsche 918 Spyder debuted in Frankfurt. It’s more mind-blowing knowing Porsche pulled the cover off the first concept three years earlier in Geneva. But in 2019, with Porsche’s ongoing push towards electrification – talking specifically about the upcoming Taycan – looking back at the 918 makes a lot of sense.

The 918 was Porsche’s first production hybrid; an 875-horsepower (643-kilowatts) hypercar is a hell of a way to dip one’s toe into the world of electrification. The naturally aspirated 4.6-liter V8, borrowed from the RS Spyder Le Mans Prototype racing car, produced 600 hp (447 kilowatts) and 398 lb-ft (539 Newton-meters) of torque on its own. Aided by two electric motors, providing a total 282 hp (210 kW), the 918 was able to achieve its impressive total output.

The 918 showed up at an interesting time, too. Ferrari unveiled its own V12-powered, hybridized hypercar with nearly 1,000 hp (745 kW) on tap – the LaFerrari – just a few months prior, and McLaren did the same with the P1 in 2012. The British brand’s twin-turbocharged V8 and an in-house electric motor gave the P1 nearly 900 hp (671 kW). But while the 918 had less power than LaFerrari at launch, and weighed slightly more than the P1 (3,602 pounds vs. 3,411 pounds), it proved itself more so than the other two on the track.

Conquering The ‘Ring

Mere months after the 918 showed its final sheet metal in Frankfurt, Porsche took its hybrid hypercar to the Nurburgring. Equipped with the optional Weissach Package (which reduced weight), the 918 recorded a fast lap of 6:57 on the 12.8-mile (20.6-kilometer) road course. That time beat the previous lap record by a whopping 14 seconds and marked the first time ever a production vehicle would break the seven-minute barrier. Today, the 918 is still the seventh fastest car ever around the ‘Ring.

And that lap time set a precedent. The Porsche 918, in its one-year production run, sold out in just a few months. Buyers in the U.S. snapped up 297 of them, China and Germany grabbed another 100 each, and Canada claimed 35, with other countries like Switzerland and the Netherlands claiming a few units.

Today, we remember the Porsche 918 as the starting point for Porsche. With the Taycan upcoming, and more EVs on the way – the company promises – we can thank the impressive, awe-inspiring 918 for leading the way.

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Name: Cadillac Cien
Debuted: 2002 Detroit Auto Show
Specs: 7.5-Liter V12, 750 Horsepower

Before the C8 was even a twinkle in GM’s eye, Cadillac created a mid-engined supercar more powerful than Chevy’s wimpy-in-comparison 490-horsepower (365-kilowatt) ‘Vette. The Cadillac Cien debuted in 2002 at the Detroit Auto Show to celebrate Cadillac’s 100th birthday, wielding a monstrous 7.5-liter V12 engine, an earth-moving 750 hp (559 kW) and 650 pound-feet (881 Nm) of torque, and drool-worthy styling.

Sculpted at General Motors’ Advanced Design Studio in England by Simon Cox (the same designer behind the infamous Isuzu Vehicross and Saturn Sky, oddly enough), the Cien was the first of its kind for Cadillac. It ushered in a new era of angular styling for the brand that still endures today, to some extent. Not to mention it was a far cry from its more traditionally styled Corvette sibling looks-wise.

But it wasn’t just styling that helped the Cien stand out. To date, it’s still the most powerful road-going Cadillac ever built. Not even the quickest C5 Corvette of the time – the 405-hp Z06 – came close to catching the Cien in a straight line. The Cien could hit 60 miles per hour in an estimated 3.5 seconds, and continue on to a top speed of around 217 mph (350 kmh). All that power routed through a six-speed automatic transmission.

A few years after its debut at the Detroit Auto Show, the Cien took a starring role in director Michael Bay’s 2005 film, The Island. And again it had a small part in Michael Bay’s, Transformers: Age of Extinction in 2014. It also made its way to video games like Midnight Club, Gran Turismo, and Asphalt. But those on-screen instances would be the only time we’d see the Cien on the road outside of an auto show setting.

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Cadillac never intended to produce the Cien. Similar to modern concepts like the Escala, Ciel, Elmiraj, and others, it was simply a prototype designed to gauge where consumer tastes were going. But with the mid-engined Corvette currently making waves, would it make sense for Cadillac to build a modern Cien in 2019? It would make sense.

Cadillac puts a big emphasis on its endurance racing program. But with the departure of the CTS-V, the brand has little to show in the way of performance. Only the CT4-V and CT5-V remain. Rumors suggest we could see a Corvette sub-brand in the future, which might yield a mid-engined Cadillac, but we won’t know for sure until the next-gen Corvette makes its debut… probably not for another decade.