Whether you are interested in cars or not, whether you like sports car race or not even whether you can drive or not, you have probably heard of some of the fantastic Italian sports cars.World renowned brands like Ferrari, Lamborghini, Bugatti, Alpha Romeo and Maserati. These famous Italian sports cars are just as well-known on and off the race track.
These racing cars are famous for their design, their speed and their cost. Everyone would love to own one, but most of could not even afford a new set of tyres, let alone the insurance premium. Despite all that, there is no question about their styling and sex-appeal. They look and even sound absolutely fabulous.
These sports cars are perfect race cars, but they can also be driven on the streets. Well, they can be driven on good roads. You cannot drive a Ferrari on any old road, because the Ferrari and some of the others like the Lamborghini are very close to the ground.
They are only inches off the road's surface in order to give them improved aerodynamic qualities. Regrettably, this also makes them suffer from loose stones and poor road surfaces.
So, if the road surfaces are poor in your region of the world, you can forget about owning one of these really fast, sleek supercars. Maserati make a gorgeous saloon which can be driven on typical street surfaces anywhere in the world. It is a very stylish car, but it is more normal looking that the low-slung sports cars.
One of the most attractive and rare cars is the Enzo Ferrari, named after the company's founder. It has to be one of Ferrari's better cars, does it not? It carries the owner's name, so you would expect only the best quality. The technology used to design and create it are second to none and the chassis is made from carbon-fibre.
Lamborghini is also the consequence of one man's dreams. Ferruccio Lamborghini used to make tractors and other appliances such as air conditioners, until he had amassed enough money to execute his childhood dreams of producing luxury sports cars.
At present the Lamborghini plant in northern Italy makes about 3,000 cars a year of chiefly only two models: the V10 Gallardo roadster and coupe, christened the 'Baby Lambo' and the V12 Murcielago roadster and coupe, which is the flagship car.
Preceding Lamborghini models include the Diablo and the Countach. The Diablo was the fastest production car in 1990 and the Countach was Lamborghini's most popular car ever.
Maserati was also a family aspiration. The five Maserati brothers were all working for a racing car firm, which closed its race division down, so the five brothers left and began to make their own racing cars.
Nowadays, Maserati sports cars still look more like racing cars, but they are produced to be used on normal roads.
Bugatti was founded in France, but by an emigre Italian. It has ceased to produce cars on a large scale, but does make occasional, limited edition, super sports cars.