Revelations with Jason Cammisa

The Mercedes W194 300SL racing car was a recipe for failure, using heavy components from the S-Class luxury car. And yet, in the summer of 1952, it took to the podium in the Mille Miglia, Bern Grand Prix, Le Mans, the Nürburgring, and then, that fall, the Carrera Panamericana, humiliating Porsches and Ferraris and everything else. The 300SL became a legend in just a few months. Convinced there was nothing left to win, Mercedes killed off the racing program, and the 300SL was set to be relegated to the history books. Except that the brilliant Max Hoffman knew a legend when he saw it, and convinced Mercedes to make a roadgoing version. The W198 300SL was a barely modified version of the race car, with an even nicer, "Bordello on Wheels" interior and even more horsepower — thanks to the world's first direct-injected gasoline engine. The 300SL's swing-axle rear suspension came straight from the S-Class, but was tuned for oversteer at the input of the talented race-car drivers who cou

The Miura is the ultimate Delegation Special — it exists only because Ferruccio Lamborghini backed off and allowed his team of young, talented engineers and designers to do what they do best. A finicky mid-engined supercar is the opposite of the Rolls-Royce-like GTs that Ferruccio wanted to build, yet it's the Miura that singlehandedly elevated Lamborghini to the likes of Ferrari. The four men chiefly behind the car were all in their twenties when the Miura debuted: Giampaolo Dallara, 29, senior engineer Paolo Stanzani, 29, assistant engineer Bob Wallace, 27, chief development engineer Marcello Gandini, 27, designer The Miura used the 4-liter Bizzarrini V-12 designed for the 350GT and 400GT, rotated by 90º and mounted transversely in a casting that included the transmission and differential. Power claims were all over the map, but Road & Track's test car banged off a 0-60 in 5.5 seconds, through the quarter-mile in 13.9 sec @ 107.5 mph, and achieved a top speed of 168 mph, making

Within BMW circles, it's a commonly held belief that the U.S.-spec M3 wasn't a "real M3" because it didn't have a real M engine. The 1995 M3 used a 3.0-liter version of the regular 325i's straight-six — whereas European cars used a special 3.0-liter straight-six with a Independent-throttle-body cylinder head taken from the McLaren F1. The horsepower difference was 240 hp (US) versus 286 PS (DIN.) To make matters worse, the 1996 and later U.S. M3 used a 3.2-liter that also made 240 hp, whereas the Euro car got a 3.2-liter with 321 PS. The primary reason for the US engine was financial — the E30 M3 was a sales failure in North America, and BMW NA didn't want to risk another one. The E36 M3 was a bargain — unlike the E30 M3, which was a buzzy, four-cylinder homologation-special race car, the six-cylinder M3 did everything better than the 325i. And instead of an $8000 price premium over the base car, the M3 cost just $3000 more.

In this episode, automotive journalist Jason Cammisa walks us through the difficult birth and runaway success of the Lotus Elise, both Series 1 and Series 2. The Lotus Elise isn't just lightweight — it weighed HALF as much as some contemporary "lightweight" sports cars (like the Porsche Boxster). That's because it was constructed like no other car ever. To hit its outrageous weight target — the same as the original Lotus Seven — the Elise was never meant to have doors or a roof. However, safety regulations made a "step-in car" challenging, and so Lotus' lightweight mid-engine sports car grew doors. Gullwing doors at first — in theory. In practice, the Elise is a marvel of simplicity. It's the first car ever whose chassis is constructed of bonded, extruded aluminum — a practice that's still not common today. Combined with fiberglass clamshells, the lightest Elises weigh as much as today's Formula 1 cars. And the heaviest barely touches 2000 lb. The Elise and its derivatives (the

It took 37 years of cranking for Ford to successfully start the mid-engined followup to the historic GT40 race car. In the process, Ford created — and abandoned — at least seven mid-engined cars meant to recapture the glory from the famous victor of the Ford vs. Ferrari battle at Le Mans. In this episode of Revelations, automotive journalist Jason Cammisa tells the fascinating backstory of the 2005-2006 Ford GT — and how it, like the seven mid-engined attempts before it — was almost killed off before it hand a chance.

The 1985 Subaru XT 4WD Turbo was what happened when Subaru tried not to be weird. Honda had the Prelude, Toyota had the Celica, and Subaru had a problem — at the end of the malaise era, sports coupes were getting fun and fast. And Subaru didn't have a car to compete with them. The company's EA-series flat-four gradually got a turbocharger and overhead cams, and in the XT Turbo it made a full 111 hp. With AWD traction and a 5-speed manual, it got to 60 mph in 10.2 seconds — which was genuinely quick for a Subaru. It had a coefficient of drag as low as 0.29, making it the most aerodynamic car sold in America. Looking back, the XT previewed many technologies and features common in today's cars: height-adjustable air suspension, turbocharged four-cylinder engines, all-wheel drive, digital dashboards, a hill-holder feature, speed alarm, a focus on aerodynamics, trunk pass-through, trip computer, you name it! That preview was done, however, though the eyes of what was possible using 1980

On the heels of the 2023 Nissan Z, it’s a worth look at the history of the original Nissan Fairlady Z — sold in America as the Datsun 240Z, 260Z and 280Z. And, in particular, the Fairlady Z432. This S30-generation Z not only changed the definition of “sports car” from 2-seat (British) roadster to 2-seat enclosed coupe, but changed the reputation of Japanese automakers around the world from manufacturers of curious cars to world-class automakers. The 240Z was powered by the L24-powered, a somewhat-Mercedes-derived straight-six that gave it performance on par with Ferrari Dinos and Porsche 911s, at a fraction of the cost. But with all the looks of Ferrari’s front-engine V12-powered coupes. The 240Z had waiting lists for years in America. It was such a runaway success that credit for its design became hotly contested, leading to a threatened lawsuit by Albrecht Goertz, a German aristocrat who had been hired by Nissan to consult on the project — which was originally a collaboration b

Toyota's 2000GT was one of the fastest cars in history. Its 16 international and world endurance-speed records have nothing to do with it: the Yamaha-built Toyota 2000GT did for Toyota in eight short years what took Hyundai more than three decades: it catapulted Toyota from the laughingstock maker of Japanese curiosities (like the 1958 Toyopet Crown) to the esteemed manufacturer of a Porsche-beating supercar. Set out to be a world-beater, the 2000GT had the Jaguar E-Type in its sights (and its long hood) but the Lotus Elan under its skin. With a backbone chassis inspired by (read: shamelessly stolen from) the Lotus, the 2000GT competed directly with the best sports cars of its time. In fact, its spec sheet reads like the best sports cars from decades later — with a 7000-rpm twin-cam engine, fully synchronized 5-speed manual, 4-wheel disc brakes, limited-slip differential, rack-and-pinion steering, and 4-wheel independent suspension with double wishbones at each corner. The intricate

Here's the history of the legendary A-B-C Cars, all in one place! The SUV is to America as the Kei Car is to Japan — nearly half the car on the road in Japan are Kei Cars, a classification of small car that created tax benefits to encourage mobility after the second World War. Keijidōsha, or "light automobiles" were created by the Japanese government in the early 1950s, and really started to become popular a decade later. But when this economic measure to favor the economically disadvantaged crashed head-on with the unprecedented economic boom of the 1980s' "Japanese Bubble Economy," ,the result was three Kei sports cars known together as the A-B-C cars: A for the positively insane Autozam AZ-1, B for the Pininfarina-designed, 8500-rpm ITB-equipped Honda Beat, and C for the turbocharged Suzuki Cappuccino. In this video, veteran automotive journalist Jason Cammisa examines the history of the Kei-car regulations, including their start, their initial success with the Subaru 360, and d

The Pontiac Fiero answers the question of why a 1980s economy car would have a big-displacement, mid-mounted engine and four-wheel disc brakes? These were characteristics of a sports cars with Ferrari and Lamborghini badges. The Fiero shared another characteristic with exotics: its propensity to catch on fire. In this video, Jason Cammisa examines the history of the Pontiac Fiero, and the automotive con job behind its creation. Built under the guise of an ‘efficient commuter car,’ The Fiero aimed to usher in a new era of sporty, automotive design, and bring General Motors into the future (after a decade of malaise-era cars.) It was a mid-engine ray of hope for the domestic car market, until Pontiac’s plan went up in flames… Or, less cynically, maybe the Fiero was just a victim of Mission Creep? Once Pontiac's engineers got a taste of the mid-engine layout, which was necessary for aerodynamics required to hit the commuter car's 50-mpg EPA target, they got carried away and turned it i