Taxonomy
Foundational to the tradition
4 entries
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Book I
Shelby Cobra
The word that arrived before the car did
A Texan with a bad heart put an American engine into an English roadster and then, according to the only witness, dreamt its name at three in the…
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Book II
Dodge Viper
Ten cylinders, no apology, side pipes that burned the calf of every passenger
In 1989 Chrysler showed a red concept roadster with a V10 out of a truck. In 1992 it sold that car, essentially unaltered, to the public — without…
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Book IV
Alfa Romeo — the Biscione
A serpent with a human being in its mouth, on the nose of every car the company has ever built
Since 1910 every Alfa Romeo has carried, on its grille, a crowned serpent from which a human figure is emerging. Whether the figure is being eaten…
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Book V
De Tomaso Mangusta
The mongoose. Named, allegedly, as an insult, and shaped like an apology for it.
Mangusta is Italian for mongoose: the small, fast, faintly rabid carnivore famous for one thing, which is killing cobras. Alejandro de Tomaso built…