(photo courtesy mike savage) this mystical white pantera was spotted prowling the cobbled streets of copenhagen denmark and was quickly apprehended by an alert and quick trigger-fingered mike savage. this photo has everything we like here at CIHS and then some! amazing shot… thank you kindly mr. savage.

The Alfa Romeo 75, sold in North America as the Milano, was a compact sports sedan / compact executive car produced by the Italian automaker Alfa Romeo between 1985 and 1992. The 75 was commercially quite successful; in just three years, 170,000 cars were produced and by the end of production in 1992, around 187,300 had been built. The Alfa Romeo 75 was the last model alfa romeo developed before being acquired by Fiat.

To meet the demands of the post-war market which called for economy cars, the Fiat 500 was rear-engined on the pattern of the Volkswagen Beetle. Several car makers followed this now nearly vanished design at the time and were quite successful, but only the Fiat 500 was used as the template for other car makers in Europe. Despite its diminutive size, the 500 proved to be an enormously practical and popular vehicle throughout Europe. Besides the two-door coupé, it was also available as the “Giardiniera” station wagon; this variant featured the standard engine laid on its side, the wheelbase lengthened by 10 cm (4 in) which yielded a usable rear seat, and a full-length sunroof.

The Alfa Romeo GTV Gran Turismo Veloce (Fast Grand Tourer) was produced by the Italian manufacturer Alfa Romeo from 1995 to 2006. The GTV is a 2+2 coupé, and the rear seats on the GTV could be optionally deleted to increase the small boot space. Known by the internal Alfa Romeo designation 916, the GTV was launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March 1995. The GTV’s name placed it as the successor to the long-discontinued Alfetta GTV coupe.

(photo courtesy clive bullian) The Ferrari 308 GTB was introduced at the Paris Salon in October 1975. It showed a similar mechanical layout to the Bertone-styled 308 GT4, but was equipped with only two seats. The beautifully styled coachwork by Pininfarina incorporated some visual aspects of the fantastic Dino 246 GT. Early 308 GTB’s had a lightweight fiberglass body, in 1977 production changed to steel bodies. The powerful 3 litre V8-engine was equipped with four Weber carbs, which made the engine sound superior to all its fuel-injected successors.

(photo courtesy of clive bullian) like the porsche 911, the alfa romeo spider had an extremely long production run relatively unchanged. produced from 1966 thru 1993, the final year of production of the spider was almost like buying a brand new true 1960’s true italian sports car…. er, strike that… you actually WERE buying a true 1960’s sports car, and how cool was that ?? by the time the series 4 was produced, alfa romeo decided that in order to update the exterior, ground flairs and plastic bumpers were they way to go…. but still a very pretty car. i only wish that like porsche, alfa romeo decided to continue refining and updating the spider instead of scrapping it and unleashing the abomination they replaced it with, which was to purists, a spider in name only.

for some reason the sighting of this lone ferrari 328 in paris reminds me of the masterful paul bowles prose le bapteme de la solitude. having purchased a vintage ferrari within the last year, i can almost equate the following passage with the experience of purchasing, owning and driving a ferrari… stupid, i know. there is something broken about a man who decides to buy a ferrari… a self destructive and nihilistic act… here it goes: “It is a unique sensation and has nothing to do with loneliness, for loneliness presupposes memory. Here, in this wholly mineral landscape lighted by stars like flares, even memory disappears; nothing is left but your own breathing and the sound of your heart beating. A strange, and by no means pleasant, process of reintegration begins inside you, and you have the choice of fighting against it, and insisting on remaining the person you have always been, or letting it take its course. For no one who has stayed in the Sahara for awhile is quite the same as when he came. Perhaps the logical question to ask at this point is : Why Go? The answer is that when a man has been there and undergone the baptism of solitude he can’t help himself. Once he has been under the spell of the vast, luminous, silent country, no other place is quite strong enough for him, no other surroundings can provide the supremely satisfying sensation of existing in the midst of something that is absolute. He will go back, whatever the cost in comfort and money, for the absolute has no price.”

(Spotted in portland on highway 26 east) When Alessandro de Tomaso acquired Maserati in 1976, he had ambitious plans for the marque. His plan was to combine the prestige of the Maserati brand with a sports car that would be more affordable than the earlier high-priced models that had traditionally made up the Maserati range. In fact, Maserati ceased making supercars like the ones developed under Citroën ownership altogether, like the Bora and Khamsin. The Biturbo was initially a strong seller and brought Italian prestige to a wide audience, with sales of about 40,000 units. Sales figures fell in subsequent years, until de Tomaso sold the company to Fiat. Biturbo is number 28 in the BBC book of “Crap Cars” and is Time Magazine’s worst car of 1984. (from wikipedia)

Most ferrari mondials were painted rosso red, but some were black or silver, and a few were dark blue. At least two, one UK market car, and one now in Southern California, were painted white. The one white unit in Southern Ca was owned by Nicole Brown Simpson who bought it new and drove it often as a daily driver right up until her murder on June 12, 1994.

i was minding my own business whilst walking towards inform-interiors in gastown (vancouver bc) when all of a sudden i heard the obnoxious roar of two lamborghini gallardo’s rallying in the streets ! i know the sound of exotic italian engines is music to the ears of many a car-dweeb, but when they are as loud as these two were its just simply annoying….. and that goes double for them harley-hogs with extra loud pipes, dagnabbit !

another shot of the lovely ferrari testarossa spotted on august 25th….. this time with the experimental tilt/shift miniature faking iphone application. whaddya think ?? yeah or neah on the miniature faking ?? i’m leaning towards NO.

its kind of tricky for the un-initiated to not be dismissive of ferrari’s and their owners….. after all, at first glance they appear to be flamboyant toys for over-grown boys. even i find myself leaning towards this type of prejudice on newer ferraris. though now i have real first hand appreciation of ferrari’s since i recently took delivery of a 308 gtb and have drank the ferrari kool-aide. the stiff tractor-like clutch, the manual steering, the manual brakes, the gated-shifter combined with growly engine sounds and nimble handling equal an uncanny visceral driving experience that has to be experienced to truly understand the allure. it was fitting that i spotted this testarossa gracing the streets this morning as i am now armed with the proper appreciation to realize it was a special sighting….. truly a beautiful car.

this alfa romeo duetto spider was spotted near forest grove, oregon and even though i was driving a lowly series 3 spider graduate, the duetto driver gave my a hearty and enthusiastic wave. you have to love alfa enthusiasts, as they are friendly, down to earth and sincere in their love of these relatively slow but fun to drive and charming italian cars.

heading to the Charles de Gaulle Airport, this elusive lamborghini gallardo crept behind the taxi and was captured along with the peculiar looking vespa that oft-times attaches itself like a remora to larger, faster cars ands feeds off their exhaust. just goes to show that you never really know what you are going to pull up in the net; a parasetic vespa, the majestic lamborghini fish……. or both!