HS S01 EP11 Mitsubishi EVO VI

Homologation Specials: 1972 BMW 3.0 CSL

In this episode of Homologation Specials, Alain de Cadenet spends an afternoon with BMW’s supremely beautiful bid for touring car supremacy in the 1970s, the 3.0 CSL. Conceived by a group of brilliant minds at Alpina and BMW Motorsport, the CSL more than measured up its task in the European Touring Car Championship, winning the manufacturers’ title in 1973, ’75, ’76, ’77, ’78, and ’79. Proving its endurance chops for good measure, it also won its class at Le Mans in 1973, and overall at the 1975 12 Hours of Sebring and the 1976 Daytona 24 Hours. “Dominant” is an understatement of the car’s abilities on the race track, but the road-going versions of the CSL are revered by enthusiasts for their own merits. By starting with the pretty looking, but also pretty big and heavy E9 platform, BMW’s then newly formed racing department—BMW Motorsport, conceived by Bob Lutz and Jochen Neerpasch—had the task of removing as much weight as possible from the big coupe while keeping the car street legal. Using Alpina’s earlier work on E9-based racing cars in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, Neerpasch’s team of engineers and designers replaced the steel hood, trunk, and doors with aluminum, thinned the windshield and traded the rest of the greenhouse for Perspex, got rid of the carpets, ditched the chrome bumpers for fiberglass, and among other dieting techniques they even thinned the carpets and headliner. Later iterations of the CSL added back some creature comforts, swapped carbs for injection, and included an option for a wild aero kit that earned such equipped cars the “Batmobile” nickname. For this film, Alain is driving one of the more civilized city pack-equipped British market CSLs—while not the lightest nor the most radical of the bunch, there is no such thing as a boring example of this car. The CSL’s massive success on the track and in pop culture laid the foundation for what we now call BMW M, and to this day it is arguably the division’s greatest accomplishment. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

Homologation Specials: 1980 Renault 5 Turbo

Homologation Specials: 1974 Lancia Stratos HF Stradale

Homologation Specials: 1990 Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II

In the 1980s and ’90s, Mercedes-Benz produced nearly two million units of the 190 compact sedan, but these were not created equally. The variants of the entry-level Merc ranged from  beige Moroccan taxi cabs with workhorse diesels under the hood and fewer amenities than a room at the YMCA, to the homologation specials with Cosworth-and-AMG-developed engines wearing aero kits shaped by wind tunnels and phDs. The ultimate road-going iteration, the 190 E 2.5-16 Evolution II featured in today’s film driven by none other than Alain de Cadenet, was born to support Mercedes’s battle with BMW and Audi in the Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM), homologating the competition version that went on to win the manufacturers’ championship in 1991 and 1992, besting its rivals during one of the headiest periods of touring car motorsport. But even without the achievements of its racing relative, the street legal version was fated for infamy. The almost egregiously tall rear wing and the rest of the bodywork augmentations are emblematic of the era it was born into, and although its styling has been polarizing car enthusiasts for three decades and counting, there is no denying that this car has presence. It’s a lot to look at, but what’s it like to drive? Is there a better way to answer that question than to put one in the talented hands of Alain de Cadenet on a winding mountain road in Spain? Not likely. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

1976 Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally: An Italian Rally Legend in Tuscany

Tuscany has all manner of public roads doing a laudable impressions of a tarmac rally stage, and if you’re going to drive an Italian homologation special around for a day you’d struggle to find a better area to get lost in on purpose. The Fiat-Abarth 131 Rally had some big shoes to fill when the Fiat Group hung its WRC hopes over its widened fiberglass shoulders. Unlike the Stratos which had brought Lancia a trio of constructors’ titles in the mid 1970s, it was decided that the Group’s rallying involvement would be more directly related to its mass-produced road cars; in this case the humble Fiat 131. To get the entry-level car up to the task at hand in the WRC, Fiat got Abarth involved with the preparation for rallying, and had Bertone take care of the restyling and construction of the lightweight bodywork for the 400-car homologation production. The transformation was enough to bring Fiat three WRC contractors’ titles (1977, 1978, and 1980), and drivers’ titles for Markku Alén and Walter Röhrl (in 1978 and 1980, respectively). The road-going version of the factory rally cars was impressive in its own right, with its dramatic styling backed up by the four-corner independent suspension and the Abarth-tuned twin-cam inline-four. In Stradale trim the motor made just shy of 140hp out of its two naturally aspirated liters. Fed by a single Weber carb but packing four valves per cylinder in its aluminum head, the engine isn’t what you’d call powerful outright, but it’s an impressive example of highly strung natural aspiration for a 1970s road car. Though there are some things that could make this 131 even sweeter to steer down these roads—like a limited-slip—it’s impossible not to find some enjoyment from this fascinating familiar yet wild relic from the formative years of world rallying. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

2004 Maserati MC12: The Racing Supercar

If you’d ever wondered what a Ferrari Enzo built for GT racing might look like, look no further than the Maserati MC12. Developed off of the Enzo’s chassis and V12 power plant, the road-going MC12 was built in very limited numbers (there were just two batches of 25 cars), and it was primarily built to return the Maserati marque to the international motorsport stage. After sorting out some regulatory issues with its homologation and dimensions, the racing variant of the MC12 performed more than admirably in the mid to late 2000s, racking up a number of constructor, team, and driver championship titles in GT racing series around Europe, mostly in the FIA GT series. The homologation special road car, while sharing a chassis and engine with the Enzo, had its output slightly detuned to ensure the Enzo remained the premiere Italian supercar offering, but the improved aerodynamics of the MC12 made the Maserati a bit quicker around circuits such as the Nordschleife. To find out just how good the road car really is, our host Sam Hancock took an MC12 out to the Vairano Handling Course in Vairano, Italy, to put it through its paces—with the mode selector set to “race,” naturally. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

1980 Porsche 924 Carrera GT: From Entry-Level To Homologation Special

This week we’re returning to join host Sam Hancock for a drive in a special Porsche in Italy. Among a certain group of the Porsche faithful, the 924 has long been considered a lowlier model in the company’s 911-dominated history. The base model 924 was in fact not an entirely in-house Porsche project either, born as it was from the reshuffled plans of a water-cooled Volkswagen sports car that never came to be. The Porsche-badged, entry-level, front-engined machine that eventually came to be wasn’t the fastest car on the strassen of Stuttgart, but it was a well thought-out overall package, a suitable replacement for the aged 914, and also a solid base on which to build a sports racing program. Which is what Porsche did for the 1980 season, basing its sports racing contenders on the homologation special featured in today’s film, the 924 Carrera GT. The Carrera GT road car formed the regulatory basis for Porsche to build racing versions of the Carrera that would compete for the factory team in the world’s major motorsport contests. Contests like the 24 Hours of Le Mans, where Porsche managed a sixth-place overall finish against outright prototypes in 1980 with the 924, and a class win the following year. The racing pedigree of the 924 platform is owed in part to the potential of the base model 924 chassis, but the turbocharged wide body Carrera GT saw to it that some of that racing potential also made it onto the street. An output of around 210 horsepower is not an astounding amount on its own, but considering it was extracted from what was started as a pretty tame VW-Audi inline-four, it is considerably more impressive in that context. And speaking of context, it’s hard to imagine a better place to drive than the mountain roads of Lombardy. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

Porsche 911 GT3: The Pinnacle

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2004 Ferrari 360 Spider: Moving Forward

Jaguar E-Type: Gwendoline

Kenny Lombino grew up loving cars, and owes his early interest to his father, an enthusiast in his own right. Growing up outside of New York, Kenny remembers visiting the NY Auto Show with his father each year, but 1961 proved to be a particularly special edition as it marked the first time Kenny saw a Jaguar E-Type. As an eight-year-old, he vowed to grow up and own one, and as you can see in today’s film, he kept his promise. Following a trip across Europe that culminated in watching E-Types duking it out on the track at the Silverstone Classic, Kenny decided to have his E-Type coupe modified comprehensively, from weight reduction to powertrain to suspension and brakes. The result is an E-Type that’s perfect for spirited drives in the mountains—a car that lives up to a lifetime of ongoing hype.

1980 Ferrari 308 GT4: Bertone Designed

Sometime between his seventh and eighth birthday, Philippe Gardette sent a collection of his sports car designs in a letter to one of his favorite marques, Ferrari. Little did Philippe know back then, but his passion would catalyze into a 42-year-long career working with Prancing Horses. To give a sense of the level of kit that passes through his doors, Philippe pulls out a photo album and flips to a page that shows a 250 GTO on a lift above a 288 GTO—enough said. Spending time around these near mythic cars hasn’t jaded him though, and his relatively humble 308 GT4 has more sentimental value than any GTO, as the once-controversial Bertone designed wedge was the first car that that Philippe worked on and maintained. In this week’s film, we invite you to join us in Clermont-Ferrand, France, as we celebrate the only Bertone-designed Ferrari, and Philippe’s ongoing story with his tidy 1980 example. More films, articles, and photos: https://www.petrolicious.com

1971 Alfa Romeo Spider 1300 Junior: The Family Car

Porsche 911 Reimagined by Singer: Sine Qua Non

1967 Chevrolet Corvette: American Nostalgia

1974 Ferrari Dino 246 GTS: Viola

1970 Porsche 911T: Ticket to Ride

https://petro.li/Bart911TGallery

1997 Dodge Viper GTS: Truly Raw