Welcome to Must Read, where we single out the best stories from around the automotive universe and beyond. Today we've got reports from Autoweek, Car and Driver, Mulsanne Corner and Architect Magazine.
Checkpoint Carlo: How Tax Cops Killed Italy’s Supercar Market — Car and Driver
A great read from former Jalop Justin Berkowitz on how the home of the supercar is killing its own supercar market.
Ferrari’s home market is in a shambles even as the company records massive growth in the U.S., China, and India. Italy accounted for only 248 of the black stallion’s sales in 2012, half the number sold there the year before. Maserati’s sales have fallen 80 percent since 2009, but it’s not just Fiat brands that are hurting. Lamborghini president Stephan Winkelmann can count Italy’s monthly sales on one hand.
1994 - 2003 Ferrari 333 SP — Mulsanne Corner
The 333SP was one of the great LMP cars of the 1990s/2000s. This is the full story.
Gianpiero Moretti, founder of the Momo aftermarket wheel company, began his successful IMSA racing career in the late 70s. Yet by 1993 he had but one goal left, to race and win in a Ferrari sports car. The story goes that Gianpiero Moretti convinced Piero Lardi Ferrari to build him a car to run in North America to the new IMSA WSC series rules. It didn’t hurt that Ferrari North America CEO Gian Luigi Longinotti-Buitoni thought it was a pretty good idea too. The Ferrari 333 SP was Moretti’s “Il Sogno Americano,” or the American Dream, and the U.S. was Ferrari’s most important market after all.
The National Auto Museum in Turin — Autoweek
It's former Jalop day here on Must Read, because Davey G. Johnson just went to the National Auto Museum in Turin and took the picture above, along with others. Awesomeness resulted.
Your author speaks little Italian besides “quattrovalvole,” “Cinquecento” and “lasagna.” He's not quite sure why “gnocchi” and “Lignotto” make different sounds with their combinations of g and n. So a trip to Turin was rather meditative; all eyes and gestures; very little with the ears and the mouth.
Cavalier Cool — Architect Magazine
A museum built on a parking lot's budget. Wow. And look at it!
A dozen, maybe 15 tops. That’s how many people Los Angeles designer Alan Grant, AIA, expected at a public meeting in Tacoma, Wash., a decade ago. In fact, more than 300 autophiles showed up to view his sketches for the LeMay–America’s Car Museum.