They said Antonio – later ‘Tony’ – Lago was ‘spietato ma con grande fascino’ (which is to say ‘ruthless, but charming’). And they said of his most famous car that it was ‘une veritable oeuvre d’art’.

Has there ever been a model so enigmatic yet charismatic, so awash with magical beauty and talent as the Alfa Romeo Type 33? On the track, Carlo Chiti’s 1966 design took a couple of years to find its

Exactly two years ago we previewed the Bonhams sale of a Mercedes-Benz 190 E 2.3-16 that Niki Lauda drove to second place in the 1984 Nürburgring Race of Champions organised by the marque to celebrate

What was the Swallow Doretti? The key players were sports car fan Dorothy Deen – so surnamed after a shortlived marriage to L Howard Deen – and her father, Arthur Andersen. Arthur was an engineer who

Danny finally gets to drive his Scimitar in the wild

Volkswagen’s diesel-powered plug-in hybrid took a decade to develop and cost the firm £1 billion. Weighing just 795kg and fitted with a super-frugal 800cc engine and tiny electric motor, the XL1 could