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Showing posts from May, 2021

The French supercar that is mistaken for a Ferrari

  History of the MVS Venturi  The MVS venturi Atlantique 300 is a forgotten French car that when rarely spotted is mistaken for a Ferrari 355, however it is an extraordinarily rare car. Now the French aren’t new to sports cars they have had some amazing cars such as the Bugatti Delahaye and Talbot-Lago. Now one must note that there are quite a few variants of the Venturi and I will try to explain as much about the car as I can. MVS Venturi prototype (1986) The car was a creation of a French designer by the name Gerard Godfroy, and engineer Claude Poiraud. They left the contract manufacturer  Heuliez  to pursue the dream of building a sports car. More about these two gentlemen a bit later, MVS stands for   Manufacture de Voitures de Sport, or simply "sports car maker". Who was Gerard Godfroy? Godfroy was a Normandy based industrial and automotive designer. In his two years at Peugeot he established the initial design for the 205 and then spent five years with coachbuil

Abarth 205A Berlinetta

https://d39a3h63xew422.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/15183655/Armando-Musotto-Abarth-at-Vernasca-Silver-Flag-2019-27-500x750.jpg The history of a car that put Abarth on a map yet is not so well known This is the history of the Italian muscle car, the 1950 Abarth 205-A Berlinetta, built by the famous coach builder Vignale which was founded and run by designer Giovanni Michelotti in Turin. There were a total of 3 car ever made between 1950 and 1951. This writeup focuses more on the history of Abarth and the journey of the car rather than technical specifications. About Carlo Abarth and the company https://www.abarth.com/content/dam/abarth/storia/BRAND_MONDO_visore_1920.jpg Pronounced as “eh-Barth” it was founded by Carlo Abarth an Austrian, born in 1908 with the natural ability in mechanics he would find his way in motorcycle racing. The man was a legend as he won 5 world championships with no backing, just him and his own tools. Like many others he would decide that moto

The definition of a sports car Fiat X1/9

  picture taken by me (Aniruddha)     The Fiat X19 was the successor to the fiat 850 spider, a light weight mid-engine sports car. Fiat offered a sports car in the all economic segment and the 850 spider was the entry point into the sports car segment. Now coming to the X19, yes, it’s an odd name for a car especially from an Italian company. X19 happens to be the prototype name and the reason behind this can be found in the history of the car.   850 spider source https://img.hmn.com/fit-in/900x506/filters:upscale()/stories/2020/08/10164834/HMN0920-ISX-01-e1597241711360.jpg The main drive behind the X19 was none other than Nuccio Bertone, who at the time was building the bodies for the 850-spider in the late 60’s, in his factory. In the year 1969 fiat had given Bertone the task to redesign the 850-spider based on the new Fiat 128, which had a 1.2 L engine and was front wheel drive. However, Bertone had other ideas, he designed a fully new shell and placed the 128’s carried over engin