FAST BLAST TO LE MANS IS A MEMORY for those of a certain age. Deserted autoroutes, quiet N-roads, gendarmes without the means to record your speed and present a chip-and-pin machine for you to insert your debit card... How different it is today. A cynic would suggest they need the fines to pay for the fuel being burnt by their helicopter keeping an eagle eye on the traveling Brits. Not that speeding should ever be glamorized, but there are more than a few moments on the way to La Sarthe that would create some wonderful new memories if only we were able to let the 296 GTB off its leash and cut a 200mph wedge through the warm French evening air. But expenses limits aren't what they used to be and car manufacturers take a dim view of their press cars being impounded.
So a cruise it is, but cross-country and away from the stifling boredom of an autoroute. First to Rouen, because if you're going to sit in a traffic jam you might as well do so on the same piece of tarmac that Maurice Trintignant took the triple crown (pole, fastest lap, race win) at the 1954 Grand Prix in a Ferrari 625. Then on to Le Mans, where Ferrari has troubled the scorers more frequently over the years, with nine overall victories - the last in 1965 with the elegant 250 LM and 35 class wins, the most recent in 2021. From 2023 it plans to be competing for the outright win once again with its new hypercar while continuing its GT success with a new 296 GT3 car. For this year, though, there's the small matter of the current 488 GTE Evo's Le Mans swansong.
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BEST BUYS BMW M CARS
THE PERFORMANCE CAR LANDSCAPE WOULD HAVE looked very different over the last five decades without BMW. Its M division, founded in 1972, has produced some of the best driver’s cars ever to hit the road, and in the process has provided a stream of benchmark models for its rivals to chase. In recent years, stricter emissions regulations, downsizing and electrification have seen some of those rival cars falter, yet by and large BMW’s M machines have remained strong. In fact, some rank among the greatest the department has made think of the eCoty-winning M2 CS and M5 CS while others are the only options worth recommending in their respective segments. Price tags have risen with performance, however, putting those latest offerings out of reach for many, but the marque’s popularity means there are numerous earlier M models available on the second-hand market for far more attainable figures. Here are four of our favourites.
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A liberal sprinkling of Honda Type R fairy dust on the late-'90s Accord produced an unlikely evo icon and a genuine performance bargain
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Where best to store some of Toyota’s most prized and valuable racing superstars? Under the wind tunnel at its Cologne HO, of course...
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It develops 819bhp. It has no turbochargers, no hybrid assistance. Ferrari describes it as the most complete GT it's ever made. And it’s so proud of its mighty V12 engine it’s named the whole car after it. This is the 12 Cilindri
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Japan has been responsible for many of our favourite driver's cars of recent decades, but their ancestors are often much less well known. We take a look at where the big manufacturers began their performance car journeys
DEFINITELY. NO MAYBE
Three Japanese performance icons - Lexus LFA, Subaru Impreza 22B and Nissan GT-R. Over three days on some of our favourite roads we explore what makes each uniquely thrilling, but also the car culture that unites them
1V3.0
F1, P1... and now W1. The next chapter in McLaren's Ultimate Series is the British firm's challenger to the forthcoming new Ferrari hypercar and a £2million, 1257bhp, hybrid-powered, technical tour de force
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One man’s dream to build the perfect Porsche 911 has resulted inthis aaticMously restored and enhanced classic. We delve into the details and take it for a drive
Bentley Continental GT Speed
The new Continental GT is the most powerful Bentley ever, and the beginning of anew plug-in hybrid era for Crewe. But is it still a benchmark grand tourer?
