Cars

Classic Driver met Michael and his son Maximilian Stoschek at the Frankfurt Motor Show. Even then, the Stoscheks reported that they hadn’t yet had Ferrari’s blessing and it was looking probable that the project would be cancelled. The sports car prototype was based on the legendary Lancia Stratos but built on a shortened Ferrari 430 chassis, with no less a name than Pininfarina responsible for the design. As well as the new interpretation of the distinctive design, Stoschek placed great emphasis on the performance and dynamics of the two-seater.

All this in a car weighing just 700kg means it should be one of the fastest sports cars on the European market. There are hints of the legendary Lotus Super Seven in the look of the GTO – although the Lotus would seem like a toy car against its much bigger brother. The GTO is even larger than its predecessors, the closed GT and the open D8 270RS – 35cm longer and 15cm wider, to be exact, and the newly designed car has certainly caught the attention of the punters invited to the first private preview: within a few hours, almost half of the first 25 ‘special series’ GTOs had been sold.

Reiter Engineering may be better known for building racing Lamborghinis, but the company has formed Sareni United for the sole purpose of creating a series of GT3-eligible Chevrolet Camaros. Powered by a 7.9-litre Katech V8 producing 641bhp and 627lb ft of torque, the Camaro GT3 is said to be on a performance par with Reiter’s Lamborghini Gallardo GT3.

There are even a couple of recent (2004 and 2010) additions to the car’s pedigree – at the Goodwood Revival, no less – in case you need further reassurance of the car’s eligibility for the world’s top historic racing events.

The world gets to see the lighter, greener and keener Continental, complete with eight-speed gearbox, at January's Detroit Auto Show. Meanwhile, however, Bentley is extremely fixated on all things V8 and twin-turbo and, during the driving event for pre-production Continental V8s, it wheeled out two Speed 8 LMP race cars. The Bentley boys were at Silverstone at the time, so it seemed entirely reasonable for car to meet track. So that is what happened.

The greatest Cavallini Rampanti, at the end of their lives, head not for the knacker’s yard but to the Museo Ferrari. Behind the modern glass facade are several levels and 2,500 square metres of exhibition space, housing the major models of the brand's history. More than 200,000 Ferrari enthusiasts, or Ferraristi, flock each year to the Italian Emilia-Romagna, to pay homage to their own personal sports or racing favourites in the metal. The Ferrari museum is very different indeed from the architectural spaceships of the Porsche museum and its ilk.

The electric technology used in the XC60 Plug-in Hybrid Concept is that found in the forthcoming V60 hybrid; however, the combustion side of proceedings in the off-roader takes place in Volvo’s all-new four-cylinder petrol engine, while the V60 uses a less potent five-cylinder turbodiesel.

The combined horsepower has led Volvo to give its new concept a ‘T8’ moniker, as it “moves the car into territory previously occupied solely by eight-cylinder engines”.

‘Tuning’ cars can often be a little hit-and-miss, although 1987 saw German specialist RUF create a car that not only honoured its roots, but also punched well above its weight. Based on a Carrera 3.2, the CTR1 (better known as Yellowbird, partially because of the ‘chirping’ sound its blow-off valve produced) took the fight to the Ferrari Testarossa and Lamborghini Countach – and even the Ferrari F40 and Porsche 959 – and won. Its top speed of 211mph (unofficially) made the special G-series the fastest car in the world for some years; it also held the lap record at the Nordschleife.

Here is a new, technologically-dense V8 engine in the nose of a Bentley Continental GT (or GTC), able to accelerate said Bentley at a rate broadly similar to that managed by the still-available W12 engine and on to most of the top speed. ('Over 180mph' compared with 198: who, honestly, will complain at that?)