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Worlds & Stories
Road icons, racing heritage and the details that make a miniature unmistakable.
McLaren MP4/4
The red-and-white MP4/4 is easy to introduce with fifteen wins from sixteen races. That is a very efficient way of ending the discussion before the machinery gets interesting. I went back to the 1988 rules instead. Honda had been given less fuel capacity and a final season in which to make its turbo engine work.
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Acura NSX (first generation)
Air conditioning is not usually the detail that starts a supercar story. With the first NSX, it is a rather good one. Honda wanted the performance without making the person inside pay for it at every junction. I went looking for the engineering behind that apparently reasonable demand. It was considerably less reasonable to build.
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BMW M3 (E30)
The wheel arches make their announcement immediately. The rear window is a quieter alteration. I started there, because an M3 with different glass is a more interesting proposition than an ordinary E30 wearing a larger spoiler.
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Audi RS 6 Avant (C8)
The C8 RS 6 Avant has a useful sense of occasion: a wide body, a V8 and somewhere for a considerable amount of luggage. Then the engine specification starts explaining how it avoids using all eight cylinders when they are not needed. I wanted to know what that sentence actually meant.
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Lancia Stratos HF
A little rally car with places for the crew’s helmets inside its doors. That was the detail that stopped me. The Stratos can look like a styling exercise from the future, but somebody had to put two people, their equipment and a very specific engine into that tiny argument-shaped body.
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Subaru Impreza 22B STI
The blue and gold are the first things anybody notices. STI’s own description of the 22B makes the next question better: how much of a World Rally Car can you suggest in something that still has to work as a road coupe?
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Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.3-16
No giant DTM wing required for this one. The little silver 190 E is tied to a 1984 race where Ayrton Senna won in front of a rather well-qualified audience. I followed the event name on the Mini GT release, and the ordinary-looking Mercedes acquired a very specific date.
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Bugatti Chiron Super Sport 300+
300+ is an unusually direct model name. The useful detail behind it is less immediate: the body grew longer at the back. I wanted to know why a car with that much engine still needed another argument with the air.
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Pagani Huayra Roadster
The Huayra Roadster leaves the cabin open and much of its engineering argument hidden underneath. Pagani set itself the awkward target of making the open car lighter than the coupe. I went looking for what had to change before “take the roof off” became an adequate description.
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Aston Martin Valkyrie
An engine that makes a great deal of power is one thing. An engine that is also a structural connection in the car is another. The Valkyrie gave its V12 both jobs. I started with the rev limit and ended up thinking about the casing around the cylinders.
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Nissan Z (RZ34)
The current Z seems to have been designed by someone looking in two directions at once. Nissan says the headlamps recall a Japan-market 240ZG, while the tail lamps remember the much later Z32 300ZX. I started at those opposite ends of the little Mini GT and found a car interested in its family without pretending the whole family happened in one decade.
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Nissan Skyline GT-R (R33)
The grey R33 looks fairly restrained until the full name arrives: NISMO BCNR33 CRS Version. That last bit is doing more work than the paint. I followed it into a programme concerned with a surprisingly sensible question: what should a fast car be able to do after the circuit closes?
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