1957 Super Cars
AC Cars began production of its famous AC Ace in 1953. Based on a lightweight chassis designed by John Tojeiro, the Ace was the forerunner of the AC Cobra. The first series of factory-built cars featured a simple barchetta-style body and ACs own and......
Alfa Romeos legendary 1900 was a favorite chassis for coachbuilders of the day to exercise their creativity and develop automotive works of art. Even the famous B.A.T. cars (Berlina Aerodinamica Technica) developed by Alfa Romeo and Bertone were......
Englishman Sydney Allard, a former race car driver, was a bit of a pioneer – installing American-built V-8 engines in a British-built car. The Allard Palm Beach MKII was introduced at the 1956 London Motor Show as an updated model with MacPherson strut-type......
Chicago imported car and accessory dealer Stanley H. Arnolt, known as Wacky for his demeanor, was very successful, with a large Austin-MG-Morris distributorship based out of Chicago and a seat on the board of Italian coachbuilder Bertone. In the early......
Aston Martin was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. The two had joined forces as Bamford %26 Martin the previous year to sell cars made by Singer from premises in Callow Street, London. Martin raced specials at Aston Hill near Aston Clinton.......
There were only two examples of the DBR2 constructed and both were a continuation of Aston Martins racing efforts in Grand Prix competition, including the LeMans 24 Hour race. David Brown had purchased the company in 1946 and had made the necessary......
Ilario Bandini was born in 1911, the son of a farmer living in Forli, Italy. Even though he was best remembered as a car builder, he also had a flare for engineering and mechanics. His skills and knowledge led him to create and patent inventions. He......
In 1957 the Corvette SS was developed to be the Corvette race car that would beat the best of the European sports cars the Ferraris and Maserati. It took Zora Arkus-Duntov only six months to develop this purpose-built racer. The SS engine developed......
This 1956 Chrysler Dart Concept is a vehicle constructed to defy the wind. It was very aerodynamic and finely tuned in one of Europes largest wind tunnels. At the time of its construction, it was the most aerodynamic car in existence. It had less than......
Dan Cozzi and Bill Nielson designed and built this car in San Francisco in 1957. The car is based on a wrecked Jaguar XK 120M coupe. The chassis is a tubular ladder-type frame with a boxed-section front cross-member and a boxed X-member in the center.......
When first created in 1957, this Devin Triumph was raced before being sold multiple times. From 1960 through 2000 it was driven on streets occasionally but mostly stored away for preservation. It is powered by a four-cylinder engine and utilizes a four-speed......
When 250 GT production began in 1954, a variety of body styles, engines, and coachbuilders were used. Ferrari provided a chassis and an engine, the coachbuilders provided the body and the styling. There are three Ferrari 250GT Speciale with Pinin......
Chassis number 0641GT is a restored, numbers matching car that was completed on Valentines Day in 1957 and delivered on June 8th of 1957 to. It was imported to the United States in the mid-1970s and owned by Paul Griep of San Jose, California before......
This Ferrari (serial number 0769 GT) is the prototype 250 GT Spyder California, a sporty convertible based on the 250 GT Berlinetta passo longo (long wheelbase, or LWB, which was 2600 mm). It was finished in the summer of 1957 and delivered to Ferraris......
Ferraris 250 GT series of Low Roof Boano, and High Roof Ellena coupes were built between 1956-1958. Originally designed by Pinin Farina, the first series of actual production was carried out by Mario Boano, while the final 49 cars were built by......
The Ferrari 250 GT LWB Berlinetta helped establish the marques GT-class racing dominance during the late 1950s. The 1956 Tour de France was won by Alfonso de Portago, followed by Oliver Gendebien winning over the next three years. These successes earned......
34 Testa Rossas were built from 1956 through 1961. Three time winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours Race - 1958, 1960, and 1961 - the Testa Rossa, or red head, was Ferraris go-to-work sports racing car. Somewhat conventional mechanically it shook the world......
The 1950s was considered to be international sports car racings first golden era. The unlimited rules allowed massive engines. The V-12 of the mighty 335S filled the bill. It was Ferraris first 4-cam racing engine and delivered 390 horsepower. Top......
after their red-topped cylinder heads, was introduced in 1956 as a replacement for the 500 Mondial. These machines were designed and built for customers with only a few being entered by the factory in races. As was the case with many early Ferraris,......
This 1957 Ferrari 625 TRC Spyder has coachwork by Scaglietti. It has an extensive racing career at the hands of John Von Neumann and Richie Ginther. This car carries chassis number 0672MDTR and was later given a V-12 engine.In early March of 1957,......
This one-off Fiat Stanguellini is a design by Franco Scaglione and was built by Bertone in collaboration with Vittorio Stanguellini. Automobili Stanguellini produced a variety of small sports cars and single-seaters using Fiat components and the cars......
After WW II, Carlo Abarth returned to his family origins near Merano, Italy, and established Abarth %26 Company in Turin on April 15, 1949. For the next 20 years, his factory was immersed in every phase of automobiles, from high-performance tuning to complete......
Four 1957 Thunderbirds were officially sanctioned by Ford Motor Company to be race prepared by Peter DePaolo Engineering Company.Two of the Thunderbirds were built to compete in the experimental class and were highly modified. The other two retained......
Designed to compete with Chevrolets Corvette, Fords Thunderbird was more sporty cruiser than serious sports car. Despite its powerful V-8 engine and sleek silhouette, the T-bird was more at home on the boulevard than the racetrack. For 1958, Ford......
The F-Series Thunderbird was offered only in 1957. This special option added a supercharger to the 312 cubic-inch engine and raised horsepower to 300. Other modifications, such as special heads, four-barrel carburetor, and cam distributor held in achieving......
Jaguar dominated Le Mans in the 1950s, with their C-Type and D-Type cars topping the podium in 1951, 1953, 1955 %26 1956. They then withdrew from racing in 1956 to concentrate their efforts on production cars. This did not deter the five privateer entries......
Twenty-five of the 68 Jaguar D-Type race cars were left unsold when Jaguar decided to cease its participation in the International Sports Car Racing program. Jaguar decided to convert the 25 remaining vehicles into road-worthy sports cars. The rear fin......
The Lotus Seven was the successor to the Lotus Mark 6 and was in production from 1957 through 1972. It was introduced to the public at the Earls Court Motor Show in London in October of 1957. Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, had designed six other......
The Maserati 150 GT Spider is a one-of-a-kind vehicle and is unlike any Maserati ever built. The history of this vehicle dates back to May of 1954, when the Maserati factory team presented Luigi Musso with a new A6GCS for the XXI Mille Miglia. The A6GCS......
Maserati 200 SI with chassis number 2412 was sold to Jim Kimberly by Harry Woodnorth in 1957. It was entered into the 12 Hours of Sebring where it failed to finish. It suffered the same luck at Elkhart Lake. It returned to Sebring in 1958 but again failed......
Body by the Italian Fantuzzi. Side-by-side with the Formula One effort, the Maserati Factory competed in the international sports car championship with the 300S. This model, one of 27 known examples built from 1955-1958, shared the same engine, driveline......
The financial troubles the Maserati brothers (Bindo, Ernesto and Ettore) would find themselves in toward the late 1930s would affect the direction of their company in more ways than the brothers would realize. Of course, the most important way the company......
The 450S probably was the fastest Maserati sports car ever made. Built to challenge V12-equipped Ferrari sports racing cars, the Maserati 450S bore a front-mounted 4.5-liter V8 engine capable of rocketing the car from a standing start to 100 mph in eleven......
The Maserati 450 S was produced from 1956 through 1958 with only ten examples being produced. The purpose of the 450 S was to challenge the powerful competition such as Ferrari and Jaguar for the World Championship. The 450 S went beyond just a power......
The Maserati A6G54 made its debut in 1954 at the Paris Auto Salon. The A6G54 gran turismo was the final evolution of the A6 series, Maseratis first postwar sports car. The A6G54 was given a tube-frame chassis and was developed from the highly successful......
Only a few Rally Roadsters were originally built by Mercedes from available options during the 1957 production year. Whether dismantled, as was the Boringer factory works car, or crashed, no examples have survived. Initially purchased in 1969 both......
This is an original California Speedster that was raced extensively in Northern California in the 1950s and 1960s as part of Harry Webers team. Weber was sent to the United States by the Porsche factory to train the mechanics to work on Carrera engines.......
The Porsche Company is an evolution of an engineering firm founded by Ferdinand Porsche in 1931. It is best known for designing the Volkswagen in the 1930s. When World War II came to a close, Ferry (Porsches son), developed a new sports car that would......
The Silver Cloud Rolls-Royce and the Bentley S-Type, both introduced in early 1955, were built with unitary construction. They had improved brakes and suspension. The engine was enlarged to 4887cc and modified with a six-port cylinder head which gave......
The Silver Wraith received modifications to its F-head, six-cylinder engine. The bore was enlarged bringing the displacement size to 4887cc and horsepower to 178. They had a four-speed automatic gearbox, hydraulic front brakes, and hydro-mechanical rear......
The SIMCA Concept was designed by Virgil Exner Jr. for his Masters thesis at Notre Dame. It made its debut in Road %26 Track magazine in the April 1959 issue. With the help of Dual-Ghia engineer Paul Fargo, the SIMCA Concept was built on a 1950 Fiat......
In the 1930s, Vittorio Stanguellini started modifying Fiats for racing and built his first complete race car in 1947. From then until 1962, he made two to four sports racecars per year.In 1956, he made two 1100cc cars and two 750cc cars with a body......