Category : Italian

This more recent Italian car company was set up in the sixties, in order to compete with fellow luxury sports cars Maserati and Ferrari. After having surpassed ownership by Chrysler in the early nineties, the brand entered giant Volkswagen in 1998 and from then on managed to maintain a great reputation. In 2001, this Italian car manufacturer was proud to announce the appearance of the Murcielago, one of the most renowned luxury sports vehicles of the 21st century. The model production was then quit in favor of the Aventador or the more recent Huracan.

Ferrari is believed to be one of the world’s best sports car. Beautiful, stylish, exquisite, it’s not for nothing that Top Gear names the brand “the most exotic, desirable and simply awesome builder of cutting-edge supercars”, thus also topping the Italian car brands list. Not only is this impressive vehicle a trademark for luxury cars, it has also made history through its involvement with car racing ever since its beginnings, during the second half of the twentieth century. With a brand owner that has set up the grounds of the company based on his own car racing experience, it’s hard to imagine they don’t know what they’re doing. Ever since the eighties, the company’s results and involvement in Formula One have been substantial, leading it to receive, as the company website testifies, “15 F1 Drivers’ World titles, 16 F1 Constructors’ World titles, 14 Sports Car Manufacturers’ World titles, 9 victories in the Le Mans 24 Hours, 8 in the Mille Miglia, 7 in the Targa Florio, and 216 in F1

Part of the world famous trio of powerful Italian sports cars, Maserati was also born out of one family’s passion for cars. This car brand celebrated one hundred years of activity in 2014 and is definitely going strong for another several decade. All models make an impression with a distinctive combination of design and massive horsepower, but the last one – the Alfieri – is meant to challenge its exact equivalent from German car maker Porsche. The brand has made the pledge to deliver luxury cars, that can become part of every person’s mission statement: “What sets it apart from other brands is exclusivity. People recognize the exquisiteness of the Quattroporte, for instance, and its part in a beautiful lifestyle. Maserati is a different expression from every other premium brand.” The success of this brand is partly due to its two-fold acquisition by Fiat, in 1993 and in 2005. Unlike that of other rivals, their story was a successful one, the brand managing to declare profits for the

Alfa Romeo’s history is mainly connected to car racing. Models are split between luxury sports versions and Formula One cars. In spite of its to-die-for looks and the technicalities that make genuine petrolheads wish to own it, the car is known to suffer from definite technical problems. This has caused numerous image problems over the years, which ultimately determined for this Italian sports car brand to only manufacture 5 models at the moment.

Pagani is a popular Italian manufacturer of carbon fiber and sports cars. The company was established in 1992 and has gained a lot of popularity since then, having introduced its Zonda, Zonda Cinques, and Tricolore series. If you are a fan of ‘Top Gear’, you might even want to check out the episode in which James May tested the famous Zonda Roadster F Clubsport, which is said to be one of the fastest cars in the world.

Fiat is mainly known for the multitude of models it has designed over the years, as well as for maintaining a strong brand personality, in spite of numerous problems. Alongside Ferrari, Maserati and Alfa Romeo, the brand is part of Fiat Group, that has also taken hold of American Chrysler. Most renowned models include the Punto, the Grande Punto, Panda, Uno or Bravo. Most of them are affordable, small to medium vehicles. Although Fiat has gained public acceptance in Europe, business isn’t equally profitable in the US. Unlike the Asian-made cars, Fiat still has to undergo major changes before achieving considerable notoriety. The rather obsolete models, in conjunction twiththe technical problems that many Fiat owners testified, result in a marketing deficiency that has been lingering for years. The newer versions of the Fiat 500 model managed to lift up spirits to some extent, as it was really well received when first launched in the US in 2012. The new Fiat 500 meets both style and per

Another classical representative of the elegant Italian cars style is Lancia. Founded in the beginning of the 20th century by a 25 years-old accountant, this car brand is evocative of the true Italian spirit, with an evident propensity towards beauty and well-traced contours. The car has been credited with a reputation worse than that of Fiat or Alfa Romeo, which ultimately led Fiat CEO to claim that future plans for this Italian car brand only include the manufacturing of small Ypsilon.

Abarth is a civilian car and racing car Manufacturer Company founded by Carlo Abarth in 1949. The company is like the “Mini Cooper” of Italy and produces some of the best compact race and road cars. It is owned by Fiat and most of the vehicles manufactured by the company have the ‘Fiat’ logo. Abarth has been AWOL for a while now and produced its last vehicle in 2012, which was the Abarth Punto Supersport.

The DR Motor Company is a rather unique automobile manufacturer in Italy. The company sells vehicles that boast an Italian design using parts and components supplied from other production companies. The first car sold by the company is known as the ‘DR5’ which gained a lot of popularity in 2009. Now, the company has more than seventy dealers across Italy and a manufacturing plant with a production rate of 100 vehicles per day.

Founded in 1999, Fornasari is an Italian car company that mainly specializes in manufacturing Buggies, SUVs and sports cars. Although the company hasn’t been able to produce many vehicles, they have been successful in introducing some famous concept and prototypes of vehicles that might be a huge hit in the future. The last car introduced by the company was the Fornasari RR99, which is a four-door SUV that has a horsepower of 610 and top speed of 174 MPH.

Covini Engineering is another popular Italian car manufacturer that mainly specializes in producing sports cars. The company’s most famous creation is the Covini C6W, which is perhaps the only vehicle with a 6-wheel configuration and two-front-axles. Apart from the C6W, the company is also famous for its production of the B24 Turbo-cooler and the T40 which gained a lot of popularity during the early 80s.

Gruppo Bertone, simply known as ‘Bertone’, is an automobile company that mainly specializes in car manufacturing, styling, and coachbuilding. The company was founded way back in 1912 and has created some exceptionally beautiful redesigns of popular models of top car companies, such as Alfa Romeo, Maserati, and Lamborghini. Among some of the most popular cars to have ever been created by the company is the Bertone Nuccio.