The 2026 Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio has not been significantly changed from its predecessor in ways that the specification sheet reveals. The 2.9-liter twin-turbocharged V6, producing 505 horsepower, is carried forward. The carbon fiber driveshaft, the aluminum-intensive structure, and the rear-wheel-drive layout remain. The suspension — double wishbones at the front, multilink at the rear — is calibrated to deliver the steering feel and handling balance that made the previous generation the benchmark for driver engagement in the sports sedan segment.

Three engineers at Lamborghini — Gian Paolo Dallara, Paolo Stanzani, and Bob Wallace — built the Miura’s chassis on their own time, without official company authorization, because they believed that a mid-engine sports car was the right direction and that the best way to convince Ferruccio Lamborghini was to show him one rather than explain it to him. They were correct. Lamborghini approved the project. Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, 26 years old, styled the body. The result was unveiled at the 1966 Geneva Show as a rolling chassis and sold as a complete car the following year.

The debate between 275 GTB purists — those who insist the long-nose, alloy-bodied, six-carburettor 275 GTB/4 is the definitive expression — and those who prefer the earlier short-nose car’s proportions has the quality of all good automotive arguments: it is about something real, it produces no consensus, and both sides have valid points that the other side acknowledges while refusing to concede. The market has taken a position by valuing the /4 variant substantially above the earlier car, but market valuations reflect consensus rather than correctness.

Autodelta, Alfa Romeo’s racing arm, produced the Giulia Sprint GTA by taking the standard Sprint GT coupe and replacing most of its steel body panels with aluminum. The result — GTA stands for Gran Turismo Alleggerita, lightened — weighed approximately 745 kilograms, which is roughly half the weight of a modern compact car and 200 kilograms less than the standard Sprint GT it was derived from. Into this lightweight package went a 1,570cc twin-cam four-cylinder that produced 115 horsepower in road tune and upward of 170 in full race preparation, driving through a five-speed gearbox to a limited-slip differential.

Cesare Fiorio, Lancia’s competition director, decided in 1970 that the Fulvia — which had won the World Rally Championship in 1972 — was obsolete and that Lancia needed a purpose-built rally car rather than an adapted road car. The car that resulted from this decision was designed by Bertone’s Marcello Gandini, powered by the Ferrari Dino 246’s 2.4-liter V6, and homologated for competition by producing exactly 492 road cars. It won the World Rally Championship in 1974, 1975, and 1976. Then Fiat, which owned Lancia, withdrew works support. The Stratos was replaced by the Fiat 131 Abarth. The absurdity of this decision is apparent in retrospect.

If the 250 GTO was Ferrari building a racing car with a license plate, the 250 GT Lusso was Ferrari building a road car with no ambiguity about its purpose. The Lusso — Gran Turismo Lusso, grand touring luxury — was a car for the owner who wanted to drive from Milan to Monaco in the morning and attend the casino in the evening, and who expected the machine doing this to be as beautiful as anything else in either city.

Thirty-six cars were built. Every one of them is accounted for. Every one of them has a documented racing history, a chain of ownership that collectors and lawyers have traced with forensic precision, and a market value that has periodically set the record for the most expensive automobile ever sold at auction. The 1963 Ferrari 250 GTO is the car around which the collector market has constructed its most elaborate mythology, and the car whose actual driving experience most owners are too cautious about resale implications to describe honestly.