Well, this is a turn up: a tunnel. The car is detonating sound. like buckshot. You W swear you can hear every firing stroke, but then so can the poor office workers who are decamping to see what is causing the commotion. Oh, and it's getting a bit smoky in here, and this black vinyl is hotter than the sun. Our NSU 1000TTS wants to bolt, initial hesitation leading to a pronounced lunge with only a few millimetres of throttle travel. This is an angry buzzbomb when prodded. Just one more run, the snapper suggests, you know, to go with the last half a dozen 'one last runs'. Sorry everyone, please don't judge.
Out come the phones to record the moment, each onlooker seemingly astounded that something so small can make so much noise. That and perhaps marvelling at the driver who appears to have taken a turn for the salmon pink and sprung a leak. Yeah, sure, heaven forbid we should have the windows down for the photography. That would be awful. Just 10 minutes in and it's as though you have been mainlining espresso. We're buzzing, but so far we haven't left the environs of an industrial estate somewhere in Lisbon, Portugal, its exact whereabouts, we are afraid, top secret (except to those who work nearby, obviously).
What is telling is that on our arrival this car is the one nearest the door. It belongs to a candidate for 'world's nicest man', Manuel Ferrão, a publishing magnate whose collecting instincts stretch to the obligatory Ferraris, Astons, Maseratis and the like. He also has a Cobra 427, a Ford GT40, assorted Lotus and Lola sports-racers, Group B rally cars (with works warpaint and without) and lots and lots of Abarths. The point is that this isn't a car you would associate with someone whose cache is dripping with exotica, but, as he is quick to point out, it's fun. Think of the NSU as a German Abarth - a car whose praises are rarely sung outside its homeland, but which deserve to be.
Denne historien er fra June 2023-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
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Denne historien er fra June 2023-utgaven av Classic & Sports Car.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
Allerede abonnent? Logg på
A Breath of Fresh Air- Alfa Romeo's exotic, V8-powered Montreal was like nothing the marque had made before, but can it compare with a Porsche masterpiece, the 911S 2.4?
The stereotype of the ItaloGermanic automotive rivalry is that the Latin car will be brilliant to drive, but poorly built and ergonomically flawed, while the Teutonic will be the opposite. Yet these 2+2 sports coupés both ran against orthodoxy. In the Montreal, Alfa Romeo created an outlandish-looking two-door more comfortable, more powerful and more refined than anything it had produced for decades. Meanwhile, Porsche continued to refine its back-to-front, austere and increasingly aged 911. Neither took a traditional development path, but both created thrilling and individual cars that have echoed through the decades.
Daring to be diminutive
AMC's Gremlin and Pacer, and Ford's much-derided Pinto, led America's response to the threat of imported European compacts
THE LONG WAY ROUND
There is a great tradition of overland trips by Land-Rover, but the tale of this 70s Aussie epic and the car itself was discovered by chance
Handsome cab
The Phantom V limousine marked the beginning of the end for coachbuilder James Young, but this Rolls-Royce represents the craft at its very best
DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES
Racing for their own F1 teams brought some drivers success and an enduring legacy. For others, it turned into a nightmare
20 30 LITRES CYLINDERS, 400BHP......AND MORE THAN A CENTURY OLD
Thunderous torque, flame-spitting stub-exhausts, white-knuckle thrills - and hopefully no spills - aboard a trio of Edwardian racing titans
ICON.
The three top-selling vehicles in the USA in 2023 were pick-ups, topped by the Ford F-Series. This is the truck that started it all
Blurred Lines
lan 'Del' Lines blended the V8 burble of Triumph's open GT with real practicality in his Stag V8 saloons and estates
Home of the brave
The innovative Silverstone proved a hit with keen amateur drivers. To mark its 75th, Healey's club racer returns to the circuit for which it is named
PLAYING ALL THE ANGLES
Alfa Romeo's wild RZ eschewed the jellymould styling of the period to offer a striking, wedge-shaped take on open-topped performance motoring
