Once upon a time, not long after the end of the Second World War, there was a golden age of automotive design. Fuelled by post-war optimism, economic prosperity and technological innovation, a patchwork of carrozzerie – literally translated as ‘coachworks’ – popped up in Italy, each specialising in hand-crafted, highly bespoke automotive artworks.

The likes of Pininfarina, Bertone, Zagato and Touring Superleggera draped steel over rolling chassis from marques like Ferraris, Alfa Romeo and Maserati to create unique cars for aristocrats, film stars and industrialists. These cars, each individually commissioned, have gone on to be some of the world's most celebrated classics.

Now, nearly 80 years on, Stellantis is hoping to reignite this golden age of bespoke, automotive artistry with its new BottegaFuoriserie stable: a tailor-made atelier for Alfa Romeo and Maserati.

The name stems from bringing together both Bottega (meaning ‘workshop’), which will be responsible for creating more 'few-offs' like the beautiful but pricey £1.7m Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale homage, and Fuoriserie (meaning ‘special series’), which will oversee bespoke customisation across both brands.

Together, the studio acts as a small, semi‑autonomous coachbuilder inside Stellantis, while also tasked with looking after ‘Storia,’ the group’s heritage through restoration and certification, as well as ‘Corse,’ to bring a technical edge gained through the brands’ motorsport endeavours.

‘We are in a big group,’ explains BottegaFuoriserie’s general manager Cristiano Fiorio. ‘So we said we’d get all we need from the group, but let’s not get contaminated by the mainstream approach – which is not bad or good – it’s just a different business.’

Priding itself on craftsmanship, while calling on Alfa and Maserati’s weighty back catalogue of historic hits, BottegaFuoriserie will produce more ‘few-offs’ for the two brands, developed for invested customers looking for something a little different. ‘The world is becoming more homogeneous, more commoditised,’ says Fiorio. ‘The desire for aspirational objects is growing.’

For anyone commissioning a bespoke or limited run Bottega project, the build process will take around six months, warns Fiorio. ‘The real translation of Bottega is a small artisan, tailormade workshop, so it’s a highly manual, hand-crafted process, done screw by screw.’

Liking his newly formed department to a fine Italian tailor, Fiorio explains the difference between Bottega and Fuoriserie: ‘When it comes to a tailored suit, you can also buy something half done and then finalize it. It’s the same for Fuoriserie, which takes something already prepared, for you to then finalise.’

The move to create more scope for personalisation and even whole bespoke, coachbuilt cars follows the likes of Rolls-Royce, which has produced a number of spectacularly expensive coachbuilt cars for a handful of its most dedicated customers. Then there is Aston Martin, which has its ‘Q’ personalisation division, Bentley with Mulliner, Ferrari with Tailor Made, McLaren with MSO and Porsche with its Exclusive Manufaktur line. The list goes on.

Despite carmakers clamouring to establish and promote this lucrative side line, Fiorio believes BottegaFuoriserie’s mission is not just about making money. ‘When I went to the company, I showed them project by project. I didn’t tell them I want to make a fortune out of this business. I said, I want to make a fortune of brand equity for the business,’ Fiorio explains.

With an enviable history of some of the most striking and handsome cars ever made, Fiorio is committed to continuing Alfa Romeo and Maserati’s legacy for beautifully designed cars.

‘We are not here to do one batch of ‘few‑offs’ and disappear. We have already done one [in the Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale], we will do another, and then another. There is a long‑term plan: every three or four years, we will bring one project to the market. Little numbers, but always consistent with the same approach.’

Keen to protect the brand equity being built by BottegaFuoriserie from market speculators, who look to commission or buy rare cars in the hope of selling them on quickly for a profit, each customer will be vetted by a specific committee. 'We will validate the candidates through a very precise and rigorous process,' he assures.

As for how electric cars might play into the elite world of ‘few-off’ models, Fiorio’s not immediately concerned. ‘Today, if you go to a traditional customer for few‑off speaking about electric, they just reject it – 90 per cent are aged between 55 to 70.’

Acknowledging that this current crop of potential buyers will look very different in 25 years’ time, Fiorio accepts there might be scope for electric or hydrogen-powered few-offs but, for him at least, the powertrain is secondary.

‘People will continue loving cars forever,’ Fiorio reassures us. ‘It’s like art – there is a renaissance or a change, but art is art. You still use it, you still collect it, it’s never going to die. The more unique cars you do, the more value they will get in time.’

In an age of algorithmic and increasingly anonymous design that puts distance between human hands and car design, BottegaFuoriserie is championing the artisan. While channelling the charm and charisma of the 1950s and 1960s Carrozzerie’s creations is certainly nostalgic, reminding people of the reasons why generations have fallen in love with the idea of owning an Alfa Romeo or Maserati is also a smart business move. Bravo, BottegaFuoriserie.

Maserati.com, @Maserati

AlfaRomeo.co.uk, @AlfaRomeoOfficial

The first VW Golf, Fiat Panda and Maserati Ghibli; the 1970s Lotus Esprit immortalised under water in James Bond’s The Spy Who Loved Me and the ‘gull-winged’ 1980s DeLorean DMC-12 in Back to the Future; the elegant early 1960s Alfa Romeo Giulia GT and super-practical late 1960s Suzuki Carry; or the mid-1970s everyman Hyundai Pony that kickstarted the Korean brand and the late 1970s BMW M1 supercar: Giorgetto Giugiaro created them all.

These design classics – most of which were developed by Italdesign, the design and engineering company he co-founded in 1968 – sit within a list of 300-plus production vehicles, dozens of concept cars, as well as cameras for Nikon, keyboards for Bontempi and even a type of pasta.

At the forefront of car design for five decades, Giorgetto Giugiaro sold the last of his shares in Italdesign to the VW Group in 2015 and set up GFG Style with his son Fabrizio in Turin to offer automotive, architecture and industrial design services. Now 87, Giugiaro is still chairman of the company and had a chat with Wallpaper* during a recent visit to the UK.

Giorgetto Giugiaro on car design then and now

Wallpaper*: What are your views on artificial intelligence?

Giorgetto Giugiaro: When technology is able to support your ideas, you can exploit it. Can artificial intelligence do better [than humans]? Maybe, but there always needs to be someone responsible. Design is not democracy. You need one person to decide. But I have to admit, that staying on the beach and pressing a button and the job is done [is appealing].

W*: You predicted over a decade ago that future cars would be more comfortable with easy-to-grasp functionality. It seems the first part of that prediction came true, but not the second. Why is so much of today’s car design user experience so bad?

GG: To ‘fish’ for a greater audience, car makers try to add more features. And for some, the user experience becomes worse. As a parallel, there are so many features in cars nowadays that we don’t have at home. So of course we are not used to them.

The touch functions on a car can also be dangerous. The interaction between human and car is so much faster. Before, you needed to move a stalk or push a button. Now you move close [to a screen with your fingers] and you’ve already activated something. Looking at some futuristic interiors there’s no need to go to Disneyland because everything is already inside the car, with lights and more. There is too much.

W*: You say good design needs to be ‘honest’ for the public to accept it. Do you think some modern EVs are not honest enough and that’s partly why they’re not being accepted?

GG: It is a commercial problem in that there needs to be financial advantages for the manufacturers. And [for consumers] there’s a shortage of information and a psychological problem: when you choose a product, you want it to say something about you.

W*: Given the variety of engines and motors that customers can choose today, plus greater safety legislation, do you think you ‘had it easier’ designing cars in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s?

GG: [Chuckles] Contrary to what you think, the more rules there are, the smarter the product can be. You have to think harder. When aerodynamics started to be taken seriously, it was a problem for designing cars, but over time it helped to improve the product.

W*: Why do you think your Lotus Esprit design has stood the test of time (beyond its role in several 007 movies)?

GG: It is the simplicity of the whole and the proportions. It’s the same with a man’s or a woman’s face, the proportion between the parts and the simplicity of the lines. This gives the beauty, the power to last. Looking at the car now, I realise it didn’t get so old.

W*: What do you think of Apple’s design work on the iPhone?

GG: This device made us lazy, so we don’t even remember the phone numbers of our friends and families anymore. And it removes our time to create, as we look at what other people are doing and because it does everything.

W*: …but you still have one!

GG: [Everyone laughs] It does help me talk easily with friends in other parts of the world. And it makes me think: if we have a device so powerful today, what will humankind be able to do in another 50 years?

GFGStyle.it, @GFG.Style

It’s rare to approach a new car with high expectations only to have them firmly suppressed. Such is the lot of the Alfa Romeo Junior, the new compact all-electric model from the storied Italian marque that now finds itself sitting in the cheap seats of Stellantis’s creaking theatre of brands. That’s not to say the Junior is in itself cheap – far from it – but the company definitely feels like it has a restricted view when compared to some of the more favoured members of the larger team.

The Junior began life as the Milano, a more appropriate name perhaps for a city-orientated car, but one that was nixed by no less than the Italian government, who forbade the Polish-made EV from bearing the name of an Italian city. Now it’s the Junior, a name that means a great deal to the Alfisti and therefore cannot help but coming up slightly short. Illustrated here with the flagship Veloce model, we tested the Junior Speciale.

The model encapsulates today’s platform-based approach to volume car-making. The Junior sits on Stellantis's electrified Common Modular Platform (e-CMP), an incredibly flexible piece of engineering designed in collaboration with Chinese manufacturer Dongfeng. CMP and e-CMP underpin a staggering number of different vehicles, including the Citroen e-C4, DS 3 Crossback, Opel Mokka-e, Peugeot e-208, Fiat and Abarth 600e, and Jeep Avenger EV, and that's just the pure electric models from Stellantis.

Although modern platforms are massively flexible, there are still elements of proportions, cabin architecture and internal systems that are harder to disguise. In pictures, the Alfa has a snub, compact tidiness, with kicked up rear haunches, big wheelarches and pitched-forward stance. In reality, the Junior is larger than it looks on the page; in the metal, the car feels stout and a little bloated.

There’s no denying the unique Alfa identifiers such as the front grille/badge, the bold wheel design and the front and rear light clusters. But these tacked on, rather than an integral part of a cohesive design, brand flair added as a differentiator, not a defining core of an identity.

That feeling carries on inside, where you’ll find a start button raised up on a prominent but plasticky bit of trim, studiously ‘racy’ contrasting seatbelt colours and a sculptural, heritage-focused instrument cowling that simply sits around a square digital screen inside. Ergonomically, the Junior is sound rather than intuitively perfect or even idiosyncratically awful, as many iconic Italian cars tended to be. The ‘Alfa Romeo’-ness of it all is nothing but a checklist.

Happily, the Junior is a bit more invigorating to drive. In Speciale trim it’s no screaming performer – 62mph comes up in 9 seconds and top speed is 93mph – but the balance, poise and steering all transcend the usual EV bugbear of having to cart around so much weight. That’s partly due to the relatively small 54kWh battery, the downside of which is a range of just 208 miles for the Veloce and 255 miles for the Speciale.

With all that said, the Junior is doing good numbers for Alfa, which recently updated the car for the 2026 model year. In brief, this means more options, with two- and four-wheel drive hybrids alongside the 100% electric car. There are already plenty of options – and standard equipment – that set the Junior apart from a more run-of-the-mill compact SUV, including driver’s massage seat and USB sockets all round (with the addition of the Techno Pack – as fitted to the test car).

A disappointment? Perhaps a little. For some, the Junior represents the best possible expression of the brand given the constraints within which it finds itself operating. But in truth, Alfa has always been a battler, making a whole host of brilliant but flawed cars despite myriad economic challenges. While the Junior is par for the course for a modern EV, it definitely feels like more character is available to unlock.

Alfa Romeo Junior Speciale, from £35,695, as tested £ 38,245

Zagato doubled down on its contemporary approach to coachbuilding with the recent reveal of two new cars and the first production version of the AGTZ Twin Tail, an uprated and restyled take on the Alpine A110, a contemporary classic in itself.

Zagato has a long and storied history and the decision to unveil the new models during the Concorso d’Eleganza Villa d’Este 2025 made perfect sense – several of the legendary cars on display and on sale were penned by the famed carrozzeria.

The two new models were the Alfa Romeo 8C DoppiaCoda Zagato and the Bovensiepen Zagato. The former continues a brand collaboration that has been active since 1921 and most recently resulted in the Giulia SWB. The 8C DoppiaCoda Zagato honours the extensive range of 8C models of the 1930s; fittingly enough, the 2025 Best of Show award went to an 8C, the 1934 Alfa Romeo Tipo B (P3) race car, one of nearly 200 8-cylinder models made during the period.

The 8C heritage is continued with the new car, which uses as its basis the 8C Competizione model of 2007, already a very limited-edition machine (just 829 cars were built, open and closed, before production ended in 2010. As a result, the 8C DoppiaCoda Zagato is a one-off, built for a ‘visionary Italian collector’.

Exhibited in (and winning) the Concept Cars and Prototypes category at last weekend’s Concorso, where it sat alongside entries from Kimera, Lotus, Pagani and SCG, the beautiful new car was resplendent in rich Alfa Romeo red. At the rear there’s an integrated spoiler and a fusion of the sharp-cut aerodynamic Kamm tail and the rounded tail of traditional coachbuilding. ‘We may have just started a new chapter in Zagato design, focused on researching tail sections and exploring new aerodynamic and stylistic solutions to spark innovation – just like coachbuilders always used to do,’ says Zagato’s President, Andrea Michele Zagato.

There was also the world premiere of the Bovensiepen Zagato at the FuoriConcorso exhibition. The company was started by Andreas Bovensiepen, scion of the family responsible for creating BMW specialist Alpina. The latter has now been absorbed into the main BMW Group and is set to reappear in 2026, so Bovensiepen Automobiles is aiming for a different, more luxurious demographic.

Described as a delectable merger of German engineering with Italian design sensibility, the first car from the new company is a grand tourer in the traditional sense. The eagle eyed will spot the familiar proportions of the BMW M4 beneath the fluid new coachwork, with the Bovensiepen Zagato utilising BMW’s performance champion to create a sharp-suited four-seater that’s both elegant and practical.

According to Zagato’s chief designer Norihiko Harada, the GT represents ‘a kind of blend of Italian charm, sensual and soft design, with a very solid, almost architectural German structure… a beautiful fusion of two automotive cultures’. The adoption of the Zagato name for the new model references generations of collaboration. The new company hopes to deliver its first cars next summer.

Finally, there’s the Twin Tail with its removable rear bodywork, designed to improve aerodynamics (at the expense of practicality) for track racing. As with all the company’s output, a fully bespoke programme of interior and exterior enhancements is available.

Zagato.it, @Zagato1919, Bovensiepen.com

A new exhibition at the Saint Louis Art Museum celebrates the intersection between Gallic art, fashion, culture and the automobile in the inter-war years. ‘Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918-1939’ melds key pieces of fashion with contemporary modern art and, most importantly of all, cars that represented the pinnacle of automotive craft.

Manufacturers like Delahaye, Bugatti, Talbot and Hispano-Suiza were the haute couturiers of the motor industry, creating bespoke cars for a select few, catering to special commissions and elaborate customisations.

These automotive monuments to a gilded age are celebrated in ‘Roaring’, with no fewer than ten cars from the era featured alongside examples of art, fashion and design from the period in question. As the exhibition would have it, the relationships between these creative and economic spheres went both ways, with the avant-garde impacting on car design and fashion, with forms and styles that cascaded down to the mass market. The focus here is firmly on luxury, however.

Curated by Genevieve Cortinovis, ‘Roaring’ positions its collection of ten star cars as both subjects and objects. Set alongside artworks like Fernand Léger’s 1919 Disque dans la rue and Jean Arps’ sculpture Shell Crystal (1938), you’ll find everything from imagery of Josephine Baker to deco and modernist decorative objects, including the iconic bent wood Thonet armchair and fashion by Lanvin, Chanel, House of Worth and more.

The cars are a staggering assemblage in and of themselves, and include a trio of Bugattis, along with an Alfa Romeo, Talbot-Lago and Delahaye, the last a unique 1937 Type 135MS Special Roadster featuring a leather interior by Hermès. Other rarely seen models include the mighty Bugatti Type 41 Royale, just six of which survive (of seven manufactured), and the 1938 Talbot-Lago T150C-SS Teardrop Coupe – 17 were built, all different in some way.

The exhibition tracks numerous creative lives from these fertile times, including but not limited to Josephine Baker and the Delaunays, but also photographers Germaine Krull, Jacques-Henri Lartigue and Henri Cartier-Bresson, couturier Jeanne Lanvin, Matisse, Man Ray, Charlotte Perriand and the car-obsessed Le Corbusier.

The clothes on display focus on the gradual simplification of women’s fashion during the period, charting the shift from the fussy Edwardian attire of the early motorists to pared back, almost unisex clothes, from beach pyjamas to austerely beautiful jackets and evening dresses.

One of the images on display sums up the cross-pollination of the era. Taken to illustrate coats designed by Sonia Delaunay and Jacques Heim, it features two models standing alongside a specially painted Aries Torpedo (also by Delaunay). The setting is the Pavillon des Renseignements et du Tourisme in Paris, designed by Robert Mallet-Stevens.

The car, the clothes, and the architecture were all part of the 1925 International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts, known as the cradle of the art deco movement. ‘Roaring’ brings this brief but richly stylish era back to life.

‘Roaring: Art, Fashion, and the Automobile in France, 1918-1939’, Saint Louis Art Museum, April 12 - July 27, 2025, Slam.org

Arriving just in time for Salone del Mobile 2024, this is the appropriately named Alfa Romeo Milano, the revitalised Italian manufacturer’s new small car.

The Milano places great emphasis on sportiness, with one combustion option and two levels of electric power, including a 240hp equivalent Veloce model at the top-of-the-range. The Milano Elettrica, as it'll be known, is Alfa's first pure EV, pitched at a freshly exciting small EV segment and will go head-to-head with the likes of the Volvo EX30 and the forthcoming Cupra Tavascan.

Whilst the Volvo is all about simplicity, Alfa Romeo’s Centro Stile in Turin has gone all out to make the Milano a car that’s both intriguing to drive and to look at. Alfa claims a relatively low weight for the class, as well as a spacious cabin and capacious boot, with a dashboard that celebrates the marque’s sporting small-car heyday, the 1960s. The twin instrument binnacles hark directly back to cars like the GT Junior, whilst the inevitable touch screen is part of the dash, rather than a tablet stuck on top of it.

What’ll be crucial is the Milano’s driving dynamics. Compact and lithe are relative terms in a marketplace of ballooning scales and weights, but with a length of 4.17m and width of 1.78m, it’s definitely at the smaller end of what’s available. The projected range of 250 miles is the least we’ve come to expect for any small electric car and Alfa is being surprisingly cagey about the stats and abilities of the ICE version; bets are still being hedged even at this late stage of EV acceptance.

Visually, the Milano is a far more coherent realisation of Alfa Romeo’s core values than its current clutch of SUVs, the Tonale and Stelvio. The silhouette is helped by the rising beltline, kicked-up tail and large 20in wheels, complete with signature ‘Petali’ designs, while the front-end treatment features a new manifestation of the Alfa ‘face’, complete with a stylised radiator-like grille for the EV and a more conventional front end for the ICE.

It’s not retro by any stretch of the imagination, but there is a strangely familiar aura to the Milano’s stance and overall appearance, almost as if an early noughties concept car had been brought to life. The kicked up rear end – a Kamm tail, in aerodynamic speak – is a direct reference to Alfa Romeo’s Giulia TZ, a 1960s sports car bodied by Zagato, one of many styling houses to give visual expression to the Alfas of this period. 

The Alfa/Zagato relationship is still very much a thing, albeit on a far smaller scale, but cars like the Milano and the upcoming limited edition 33 Stradale show that a storied past is still the key to Alfa’s future. 

Orders for the Alfa Romeo Milano will open in Summer 2024, price tbc, AlfaRomeo.co.uk, @AlfaRomeo.co.uk

It’s hard to be objective about Alfa Romeos. Historically, the company’s products have often appeared more emotive than practical, whether by accident or design, and the modern iteration of the company – one of many in the giant Stellantis portfolio – seems to have taken this baton and run with it.

For now, the emotive peak of aspirational driving is still performance, and preferably performance with internal combustion at its heart. With this in mind, Alfa Romeo has taken its twin flagships, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio and Giulia Quadrifoglio, and given them a final update before their genus is confined to the history books.

A quick word about ‘Quadrifoglio’. Meaning ‘four-leaf clover’, the symbol has been associated with Alfa Romeo’s racing division for over a century. The lucky motif first showed up on the flanks of works driver Ugo Sivocci’s 1923 RL. Sivocci went on to win that year’s Targa Florio road race in Sicily, and the emblem stuck, thanks to a combination of marketing, superstition and raised profile (Sivocci’s death at Monza a few months later – in a car that didn’t have the Quadrifoglio logo – only added to the mystique). 

From the 1970s onwards, the clover adorned Alfa’s more sporting road cars, which takes us up to the present day. First up, the Stelvio Quadrifoglio, which heads up the company’s brace of SUVs, the ‘regular’ Stelvio and the smaller Tonale. Updates are relatively light on the ground, but include new headlights, a greater emphasis on carbon fibre in the interior and a slight power bump.

Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio

Driving enthusiasts will be happy to hear that the Stelvio Quadrifoglio has reverted to an old school mechanical limited slip differential, a simpler, more predictable way of getting the power down across the rear axle. This is four-wheel drive, after all, and like all performance SUVs, it’s capable of putting the power to where it’s most needed for the most efficient cornering. Such nuances only really come out on track, and although we were able to sample the big SUV on an unrestricted bit of road, there wasn’t really enough space to safely explore the limits.

It's safe to assume that said limits exist far outside the orbit of most people’s skillsets, which brings us to the main issue with this car. Despite having driving dynamics and performance capabilities at the upper end of the spectrum, a rapid SUV is always going to run into compromise somewhere. At nearly 2,000kg, it’s immensely heavy, not especially economical, noisy and doesn’t really provide a massive space premium over a smaller, lower car. 

Alfa reckons that the next-gen Quadrifoglios will be able to eschew fossil fuels altogether – the brand aims to go zero emission by 2027. While the fast Stelvio is undeniably characterful, it’ll be interesting to see if these qualities can be carried over into the EV world.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio

A performance SUV will always be a boorish choice, whereas a sporting saloon car has a little bit more class (although that window is closing fast). The Giulia is a pretty car, a worthy successor to Alfa’s long history of making ordinary saloon cars and hatchbacks with more elegance and charm than their rivals. In Quadrifoglio form, it’s a little more brutish, but the essential grace of the design isn’t compromised.

When we tried the original Giulia Quadrifoglio, six years ago, the takeaway was that the car tried a little too hard to impose its raucous, race-bred character on the driver. If anything, the new version is even more OTT, but rivals have raced to catch up, upping the ante on the amount of power and performance customers want to feel at their fingertips every time they get into their car.

This might sound a little wearing – and it is – but the bottom line remains; if you don’t want every journey to be inevitably compromised by road conditions and the limits of the law, then you’d be better off in a tamer, less aggressive version of the car. As with the larger Stelvio, a twin turbocharged V6 provides the shove and the soundtrack, with no accommodation of any kind of hybrid assistance.

The cockpit is similarly moody and carbon-filled, although the lower driving position is a better fit for the power on hand. It feels more balanced and rewarding to drive, and even if you stay in the ‘N’ section of Alfa Romeo’s rather obtuse DNA drive mode system (Dynamic, Natural and Advanced), it has more than enough throttle response and fluidity to keep you fully engaged.

Last year’s unveiling of the stunning 33 Stradale demonstrated that Alfa Romeo knows that its shift into the electric era will need to be accompanied by drop-dead gorgeous design or else it’s a non-starter. Given that the 33 Stradale is priced at £1.7m, this pair of Quadrifoglios looks like a bargain. However, Alfa shouldn’t lose sight of the mass-market approach that has made it a viable alternative over the decades. 

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio, £78,195, Alfa Romeo Stelvio Quadrifoglio, £87,195, Alfaromeo.co.uk, @Alfaromeouk

Whether restomods, retromods, exacting recreations or simply something new and unusual that embodies the quintessence of a specific original, here are nine novel examples of how to update the classic spirit of Italian cars.

Restomod Italian cars: classics reimagined

EVO38 by Kimera EVO38

Now that the revival of the Lancia brand is well underway, interest is stirring in the manufacturer’s well-stocked cabinet of modern classics. No less than four different companies offer updated variations on contemporary models. Of particular interest to enthusiasts is the newly announced Kimera EVO38, a high-performance recreation of a car that never existed. 

Lancia’s EVO37 was one of the most ferocious of all the Group B rally cars, a terrifying category of the sport defined by unadulterated raw power. Cancelled in 1986 following a series of fatal accidents (for drivers and spectators), the cars from that era have lived on as a collection of automotive unicorns. The original EVO37 won the World Rally Champion in 1983 and also sired 200 road-going versions (as required by the regulations). 

Kimera, however, has taken upon itself to build the successor that never was, an all-wheel drive, road-going version. Dubbed EVO38, it’ll be low-weight, high power and very low volume – just 38 will be built, at a presumably higher price point that the 37 examples of the EVO37 Kimera previously built for €480,000.

Kimera-Automobili.com, @Kimera_Automobili

MAT Stratos

Yet another Lancia rally car returned for the 21st century. This time, the underpinnings of the MAT Stratos are rather different from the mighty Gandini-styled original (working for Bertone). Beneath the lightly updated wedge-shaped bodywork of the handful of cars built at the turn of the decade by Manifattura Automobili Torino, lies a Ferrari F430. 

This particular reincarnation had a long gestation, and the New Stratos had to make do with a rather outdated donor vehicle after Ferrari withdrew direct support. It’s still a welcome revival of one of motoring’s most dramatic forms.

ManifatturaAutomobiliTorino.com, @manifatturaautomobilitorino

Maturo Stradale

Lancia’s Delta model stood in stark comparison to the Stratos. Introduced in 1979, the year after the Stratos went out of production, it was designed by Giorgetto Giugiaro; the creases were still sharp, but the overall form favoured right angles, not origami-like folds. By the 1980s, the Delta’s racing variant was once again winning rallies and once again inspiring a classic performance road car. The Lancia Delta HF Integrale fleshed out Giugiaro’s neat box with big arches for a wider track and fat tyres, rally-car acceleration and a rather fragile constitution that required constant maintenance.

Dutch manufacturer Maturo specialises in restoring original cars, but it also builds this, the Maturo Stradale, a ground-up restomod that swaps out the panels for carbon fibre replicas, with a roll cage at its heart. Lighter, more powerful and far more robust than the original, a Maturo Stradale is a bespoke creation that’ll set you back around £400k.

MaturoCars.com, @MaturoCars

Thornley Kelham Outlaw B20GT

Our final re-fettled Lancia is Thornley Kelham’s Outlaw B20GT, an upgraded and aesthetically enhanced version of the fabled Lancia Aurelia B20GT, the progenitor of all modern grand tourers. Lancia built the B20GT from 1951 onwards, with stunning bodywork designed by Ghia. In the hands of Gloucestershire-based specialist Thornley Kelham, this svelte Italian GT becomes the Fuorilegge (‘Outlaw’), with revised bodywork inspired by American hotrod culture.

The company built its first Outlaw in 2015, with a planned run of nine unique machines. The first six were powered with uprated Lancia engines, but the final three – still in build – will have Alfa Romeo V6s.

Fuorilegge.co.uk, ThornleyKelham.com, @ThornleyKelham

Totem Automobili GT

Totem Automobili describes itself as a ’tailor-made handcraft supercar manufacturer’, based in Venice and focused, laser-like, on what are perhaps Alfa Romeo’s most beautiful cars, the compact 105 and 115 Series Coupés that the company built in various configurations from 1963 to 1975. Available as high-power Giulia Sprint GT, GT Junior and racing GTA models, the original was shaped by Giorgetto Giugiaro at Bertone (before he set up on his own).

Totem Automobili clearly knows the power and reach of this particular machine and has created three restomod versions that update the specs but keep the aesthetics as pure as possible (although they’re all longer and wider than the compact originals).

As well as the sleek GT Super and storming GTAModificata versions, Totem also makes the GT Electric, a hugely powerful GT EV with a projected 500km range and supercar-killing acceleration. All petrol-powered Totem GTs have a V6, with the ultra-light, wide-bodied, carbon-fibre GTAModificata putting out an impressive 810hp. Just five will be made, with the GT Super offering a more refined driving experience that evokes the grace and simplicity of its 1960s forerunner.

TotemAutomobili.com, @Totem.Automobili

ErreErre Fuoriserie Giulia

Another Italian homage to Alfa, Turin-based ErreErre Fuoriserie splices old and new in a more literal way with a recreation of the 1962 Giulia saloon. Billed as the ‘first retromod of a four-door sedan’, it evokes, rather than replicates, the spirit of the 1960s, with a contemporary Alfa Romeo Quadrifoglio serving as a donor car.

That takes care of performance, but the style component has been put through a blender of post-war design influences. ErreErre has chamfered the smooth curves of the modern Alfa into an approximation of a 1960s suit, with an abrupt tail, new retro-style front end and bespoke interior. Just 33 cars will be built, with prices starting at €400,000.

ErreErreFuoriserie.com, @erreerrefuoriserie

Bizzarrini 5300 GT Corsa Revival

The rebirth of Bizzarrini focused first on this, the 5300 GT Corsa Revival, an exacting recreation of the Italian company’s 1960s road/race car. Although focus is shifting to the forthcoming Giotto supercar, the company’s facility in the north of England will still hand-build this meticulous machine, with every last nut and bolt carefully matched to the car that won its class at Le Mans in 1964. Priced from a heady £1.65 million, the Corsa Revival is an indication of the seemingly limitless value of original classics. 

Bizzarrini.com, @BizzarriniDesign

Breadvan Hommage by Niels van Roij Design

Dutch designer Niels van Roij has mastered the art of the tailored automobile, working on badges as diverse as Fiat and Range Rover. True automotive one-offs, each car is designed and built according to coachbuilding tradition, often responding to a whim or suggestion to do something out of the ordinary – a Tesla or Rolls-Royce shooting brake, for example.

This is the Breadvan Hommage, a one-off rebodied Ferrari 550 designed to pay homage to another unique car, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB ‘Breadvan’ of 1962. This machine – the creation of Giotto Bizzarrini himself – got its nickname from the aerodynamically pure but rather commercial-looking appearance of the long roofline. In building a modern version (revealed in 2021), van Roij and his client demonstrate a respect for history as well as a certain sense of humour.

NielsvanRoij.com, @NielsvanRoijDesign

Fiat 500 by Silent Classics

Finally, a more modestly scaled and attainable project in the shape of the iconic Fiat 500, courtesy of British company Silent Classics. As the name suggests, the North Dorset-based workshop specialises in transforming existing classics into electric vehicles, with Bentleys, Daimlers and Datsuns all receiving the high-voltage treatment, along with a smattering of pre-war cars.

Silent Classics’ Fiat 500E (not to be confused with Fiat’s modern EV of the same name) retains the car’s scale, looks and sheer delight, with an all-new powertrain giving up to 100 miles of range and rather more zip than the original. Complete cars are available from £50,000, with limitless options for those that like their luxuries down-sized. 

SilentClassics.co.uk, @Silent_Classics

This was the year that EVs went thoroughly mainstream, even as political dithering dented the emphasis on the urgency of the need to switch from ICE. There were still a few notable novelties in the latter sphere, perhaps buoyed by mixed official messaging and the belief that fossil fuels somehow deserved a future in the hands of the well-heeled. Whilst we thoroughly enjoyed the latest from Ferrari, Maserati, and Aston Martin, there’s an undeniable feeling of an era drawing to a close. Will the old guard manage to rewrite the rule book, or will new brands without the heavy drag of heritage be able to get ahead? Peruse our picks of 2023 (in no particular order)…

Top 10 cars of 2023

01. Audi e-tron GT

We loved Audi’s e-tron GT, a handsome grand tourer that shows that premium electric cars need not be about over-powered hypercars or hefty SUVs. Expect a face-lifted and lightly upgraded version of the GT to break cover in 2024 – we’re looking forward to it. 

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02. Hyundai Ioniq 6

Hyundai kept up its current winning streak with the sleek Ioniq 6, a streamlined electric saloon that showed that design could be bold and different without alienating anyone. 

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03. Volkswagen ID.Buzz

VW has a hit on its hands with the ID.Buzz, a flexible MPV that’s equally at home as a car or a commercial vehicle. The high-riding driving position and acres of space recall the original VW Combi and 2024 should see 7-seater and campervan variants arrive.

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04. Rolls-Royce Spectre

Rolls-Royce spoiled us with the all-electric Spectre, a mighty achievement that goes straight to the top of the luxury wish-list. Serene, majestic yet also sprightly and long-legged, the vast coupé epitomises the company’s long-held ethos.  

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05. Lotus Eletre

The Lotus Eletre follows the familiar playbook for all-new electric auto brands; start with a sizeable SUV and eventually downscale. Only Lotus is no start-up. The Eletre might not demonstrate the venerable sports car maker’s historic passion for lightness, but it’s a truly convincing piece of kit. Next year sees the arrival of the new Emeya electric saloon.

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06. Ferrari Roma Spider

Ferrari threw open the roads of Sardinia for the launch of its beautiful Roma Spider, reasoning that the media would look most kindly on the car if it was in its natural environment. It succeeded; in the right location, the Spider encapsulates la dolce vita.

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07. Aston Martin DB12

Something of a glorious anachronism, the DB12 is the automotive equivalent of a long-running film franchise that manages to stay fresh and relevant with each release. Essentially an uprated and restyled DB11, the DB12 retains the essential elements of beauty and brawn, only now it’s a little more user friendly. 

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08. Maserati MC20

The MC20 was a mild surprise for long-time followers of Italian manufacturer Maserati. Just when it seemed the company had sacrificed over a century of history on the altar of the dreaded SUV, it came out with this magnificent mid-engined supercar. Old-school cool in all the right ways. 2024 marks Maserati’s 110th birthday, so expect some kind of four-wheeled celebration. 

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09. Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

Another modern Italian masterpiece, the 33 Stradale is a strictly limited-edition hypercar. Unveiled back in August, it pointed to a mini design renaissance for the firm, once the unrivalled masters of making beautiful cars at every price point. If just 10 per cent of the 33 Stradale’s good looks make it into the next all-electric generation of Alfa road cars, the company’s future looks bright.

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10. David Brown Automotive Mini eMastered

Finally, a leftfield choice that merges truly iconic design with up-to-the-minute technology. DBA’s Mini eMastered is both strikingly brilliant and fantastically expensive. The ultimate luxury city car?  

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It seems you’re not an authentic sports car manufacturer these days unless you can tap into the market for seven-figure limited editions. Typically these involve delving deep into heritage or – if there’s no archive of famous nameplates and evocative forms – deploying some kind of radically OTT new technology, like electrification.

Alfa Romeo has chosen both options. The Italian manufacturer, now part of Stellantis, has long been considered a volume brand, albeit an eccentric one. The company’s current line-up is eminently sensible, with only the pretty Giulia saloon making a meaningful nod to a past stuffed full of glorious racecars and beautiful road cars. Its other models, the Tonale and Stelvio SUVs, are classic examples of Stellantis’ badge-engineering strategy, sharing platforms with other companies in the group. 

It's true that the past two decades have seen two stunning, if flawed, special series cars, the 8C Competizione of 2007 and the 4C of 2013. Different in concept (one front-engined, the other mid-engined), but united by the passionate flourish of their designs, these two cars kept the Alfa flag flying in the hearts of its many enthusiasts (as well as other diversions like the beautiful Alfa Romeo Giulia SWB Zagato).

Now we have the newly announced Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale. The last time this name graced a car it was in 1967, on the Franco Scaglione-bodied mid-engined machine that’s often described as one of the earliest supercars. Just 18 cars were made, no two models the same, over a two-year period, with several more 33 Stradale chassis being re-clad as concept cars in the weird and wonderful wedge era of design. 

Drama meets modernity in Alfa Romeo 33 Stradale

There’s no doubt that this new 33 Stradale is one of the most striking Alfas of the modern era, carrying over the proportions and drama of the original (gull-wing doors, for example), but with scrupulously modern, lightweight materials. 

Potential customers were actually approached a year ago, leading to the entire run of 33 cars being sold out long before the finished car was unveiled. With a price tag of around £1.7m each, Alfa is now moving in the same circles as Aston Martin, Pininfarina, and Bentley, to name just three of the manufacturers tugging at the heartstrings (and wallets) of the moneyed car collecting class. 

Each of the 33 Stradales will be handcrafted at Carrozzeria Touring Superleggera’s facility in Milan, with the expected level of customisation available on tap (although Alfa’s classic red racing livery, tan interior and gold wheels, shown here, is hard to beat). 

As always with such bespoke cars, every detail far exceeds what can be achieved at cost on a conventional production line. From the striking LED lights and the aviation-inspired switchgear in the centre console and on the ceiling to the Poltrona Frau leather seats, everything is tactile and rewarding.

The dichotomy of limited-edition super series sports cars such as this is that they’re invariably bought to appreciate, fiscally, rather than aesthetically, and as a result they rarely get to stretch anywhere approaching their carefully engineered limits. Will this be the case with the 33 Stradale? 

Interestingly, Alfa is offering customers the choice of a conventional twin-turbo V6 engine (with 620hp), or a pure electric version that promises over 750hp. Although the future owners have presumably made their choice, the company is not forthcoming with details of the split. Which powertrain got the most votes? 

The original 33 Stradale cost around six times the price of the average car in 1967. This new edition comes in at over 42 times the price of the oft-cited contemporary UK average figure of £40k. Alfa Romeo once built some the greatest affordable sports cars of all time. Although the 33 Stradale might look the part, it’s sadly more likely to be an instant museum exhibit and concours queen than something you’ll ever see on the road. 

AlfaRomeo.com

About 24 hours into our time with the Alfa Romeo Tonale, the main info screen went dead and defied all attempts at resurrection. It was an unwelcome but useful way of getting to experience a car’s analogue heart, shorn of all the digital trappings provided by slick graphics, smart mapping and copious entertainment and connection options. All that was left to do was drive. 

For decades, this kind of focus was what an Alfa Romeo was all about. The manufacturer is one of the most storied brands in all motoring, with a history that spans from motorsport domination to small-car wizardry, taking in some of the most beautiful automotive designs along the way. Even issues of reliability or quality could be overlooked in the face of supreme elegance and superb driving experience.

Alfa’s undeniable emotional appeal looked increasingly parlous as the auto industry upped its game and banished blights like rust and fragile mechanicals. There was no place for wayward eccentrics. These days, Alfa is sheltered by the far-reaching Stellantis umbrella, scooped up with the lion’s share of the other major Italian manufacturers, Fiat, Abarth, Maserati and Lancia, as well as many others.  

Alfa Romeo Tonale Plug-In Hybrid Q4

The Alfa Romeo Tonale Plug-In Hybrid Q4 finds itself walking a tightrope between the shared technology and platform of a massive parent company and the need for a little visual boldness and dynamic zip to maintain the tradition of the brand. Our initial criticism of the Tonale was that it fell way short of classic Alfa status.

Unfortunately, introducing a plug-in hybrid system hasn’t added the necessary spark. One of the most enduring criticisms of hybrid cars is that they’re inherently compromised pieces of engineering; the additional weight of the battery and motors offsets the benefits of running at zero emissions or lower engine speeds. Modern PHEV systems have largely overcome this, with longer EV-only ranges (up to 49 miles in this case) and a boosted overall power output (280hp). On paper at least, the Tonale Q4 has a combination of range and power that should make it an accomplished all-rounder. 

Except that historically, Alfa Romeos have never really been all-rounders. They are cars with specific skills that just about muddle by when asked to be something else. At a push, we’ll concede the Tonale Q4 is still a leftfield choice in comparison with even sister marques like Fiat. There are welcome flashes of ‘Alfa-ness’ in both interior and exterior design, from the hooded instrument binnacles to the ribbon-like LED lights, front and rear. Even the wheel design is classic Alfa. 

However, the upright stance of a compact SUV can never replicate the proportional perfection of a classic Alfa, regardless of how good the details are. On top of that, even the combination of electrified assistance and the Q4 all-wheel-drive system adds more weight than entertainment, making this modern Alfa distinctly unmemorable to drive. 

In theory, the connectivity has also been upgraded, bringing Amazon Alexa into the fold so you can ask the assistant about the car’s state of charge from your sofa, for example. The Tonale Q4 also showcases new EV-centric functions that will soon become ubiquitous across an electrified range, including mapping that shows the range relative to battery charge, as well as the inclusion of charge stations in the navigation. 

We’re still expecting big things from Alfa Romeo, a brand that has a lot of residual affection left to shed. The next-generation Giulia promises to be an elegant and powerful all-electric saloon, and there are also long-standing rumours of a new supercar in the works. To offset these riskier economic decisions, the Tonale and its forthcoming electric siblings have to play it straight. 

 Alfa Romeo Tonale Plug-In Hybrid Veloce, from £48,495, AlfaRomeo.co.uk