HP Sauce
Steve Berry tries out the Panda 100HP, a car that is set to achieve cult status among young sporting Fiat enthusiasts. This has to be one of the best handling front-wheel drive production cars ever, we just couldn’t get the inside rear wheel to lift even if we were really silly with it. “The Panda 100HP is a truly great little car exactly because it is entertaining, exhilarating and involving.” Praise indeed for a car that costs just under £10,000 and comes with a low insurance rating.

The Thug
The Alfa Romeo SZ has always been an outrageous car. It’s brutal styling has not mellowed over time and it is still regarded as one of the most stylish Alfas ever. However the performance, though adequate, has never matched the car’s butch appearance – until now. This car has been fitted with a 24-valve motor to spice things up a bit. If that wasn’t enough a supercharger was bolted on for good measure. The result is a car with 340bhp, the kind of power it should have had in the first place.

Alfa Beater
Auto Italia regularly comes up with weird and wonderful motorcars and, even after 136 issues, we keep turning over stones and finding more. This one is not simply a coachbuilt special built by using stock components, but a serious competition car with a tubolare chassis and a mid-mounted Alfa GTA twin cam power unit. It was the type of car that the Alfa TZ2 would have evolved into had Alfa not been diverted elsewhere. And it worked! The privateer Aguzzoli had a short but successful in Italian hillclimbs during the early 1960s but has been ‘lost’ since 1966. It was found gathering dust in 2003 by its current owner and we test drove it recently fresh from its thorough restoration.

Fiat Coccinella – Etceterini
Well, this actually is ‘simply a coachbuilt special built by using stock components’ and what a good job Francis Lombardi made of it too. The car was found completely by accident by Simon Park near Pisa, while he was purchasing his Abarth Scorpione – like you do. The Coccinella (ladybird) is a tiny Fiat 500-based coupe which is in regular use, and so it should be, so many of these very special cars are locked away in private collections. Of the test drive Simon says. “Such is the all-round precision of the thing you wonder how we’ve really progressed these last 40-odd years.”

Prancing Horses
When Ferrari celebrate they really go to town. In the UK we had the 60th anniversary event at Silverstone and although there was a spectacular turnout of cars, the event at Fiorano was just amazing. Unfortunately the display at Fiorano was behind closed doors only allowing the tifosi glimpses of the cars as they ran on the local Ferrari test route. But Auto Italia’s Johann Lemercier was on the inside of it all and he provides us with an insight into the mouthwatering variety of cars attending accompanied by his excellent photography. Enjoy!

Perfect Storm
Something really special for our cover feature in this issue, a Lamborghini Murciélago and an RAF Typhoon Eurofighter. Tony Soper takes a Typhoon pilot for a 206mph ride on the runway and in exchange gets the low down on the nation’s new jet. Unfortunately the RAF wouldn’t let Tony test the Typhoon, which is a shame but you can’t have everything. The aircraft belongs to the same squadron that the Editor served on while doing his duty for Queen and country. During the test drive at RAF Coningsby the ‘Groupy’ dropped by to inspect the Lambo. “Gosh that would look good with my flag on it”. He was heard to say.

Snakebite
For many years this car sat in the back of De Tomaso’s factory in Modena. Many of Alessandro’s projects were surrounded by mystery and intrigue, and this one is no exception. It transpires that this car was the prototype for a Le Mans contender associated with none other than Carroll Shelby. This is the story of how it all went wrong for both parties. Fortunately the car has been rescued and has been made operational by its current owner giving us a unique insight into what might have been.

Starter Kit
It is quite difficult to find out what is going on in Italy if you are not actually in the country and even when you are there, if you don’t know the right people, you won’t know what’s going on. Auto Italia has the benefit of having some Italian contributors who are in the know and Roberto Motta is one of them. This month Roberto brings us the low down on the national rallying scene and in particular the entry-level Panda Trofeo. These powerful little cars have proved to be a significant force in rallying and here we have a detailed report on how the Pandas work.