Amid impossible financial odds in 1974, Aston Martin opportunistically sought to usurp an equally sickly Rolls-Royce with this Lagonda prototype. It arguably saved the company

The vibration is as extraordinary as the noise is deafening and we’re not even in the air. But I guess that’s what you get when there’s 1500bhp’s-worth of 27 litres of two stage supercharged, quad-cam

THE WORLD’S GREATEST BIKES

In 1976 Lancia brought out the Gamma, a luxury saloon that took the place of the Flavia 2000. It had a flat-four engine of 1998cc or 2484cc, but it was withdrawn in 1984, after 15,296 had been built,

One howls and buzzes, and the other snorts and hammers. In both cases, you make them sing their song by way of a deliciously mechanical manual gearbox. These truly are two of the most exciting powertr

Bugatti’s official story is that the seed of the Veyron was planted in 1997. VW Group boss Ferdinand Piëch and his powertrain chief Karl-Heinz Neumann were on a Japanese train brewing up engine ideas.