ISSIMI Spotlight

The 2020 Polestar 1 is a head-scratcher. Gorgeous, for sure, but the design is an almost exact copy of a 2013 Volvo concept car. And then, Polestar is an all-electric brand, but its first car has a gasoline engine in it. So what happened? It's simple, once you understand the background: Polestar's CEO is the man who designed that Volvo Coupe Concept, so clearly he wanted to build his baby. And Polestar was initially intended to be a performance brand, but only later transitioned to EV. The Polestar 1 is both — an all-carbon-fiber, hand-built coupe with Öhlins shocks and a 619-horsepower hybrid-electric torque-vectoring powertrain. More importantly, it drives good as it looks. And that's exceedingly high praise. Learn all about the 2020 Polestar 1 with this walkaround review by journalist Jason Cammisa. This Spotlight episode includes video and sound of the Polestar accelerating and being pushed on a mountain road.

This is a tale of two Veyrons: the original, 1001-hp Veyron 16.4 and Grand Sport were created by Ferdinand Piëch to reclaim his Le Means Mulsanne-Straight top-speed record from Peugeot. But in addition to breaking the 407 km/h record, the chairman of Volkswagen would do it in a luxurious street car. Then, there was a SECOND Veyron. The 1200-hp models used a completely new carbon tub, new body panels, and had completely different suspension and steering tuning. The Super Sport and the Grand Sport Vitesse look like the original 1001-hp Veyron EB 16.4, until you start comparing them closely. They're actually different cars. The 1200-hp cars drive more like Lotuses than Veyrons — with great steering, willing handling, and of course, obscene power.

The Maserati MC12 was an open-top homologation race car based on the Enzo Ferrari, which itself was never raced. Just 50 road-legal MC12 “Stradale” and 12 Versione Corse (racing versions) were produced, compared with 400 Enzos, making this one of the rarest cars produced in decades. This ISSIMI video includes full-throttle acceleration sound and ultra-HD 4K visuals. The MC12’s racing history is as impressive as its Frank Stephenson-penned lines. The MC12 dominated FIA GT racing, earning 14 championship titles including 3 manufacturer’s cups. This success puts it in a rare category of FIA GT1 homologation and race cars that includes the McLaren F1, the Porsche 911 GT1, and the Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK GTR. With its incredible rarity and prestigious racing pedigree, all-carbon construction, pushrod-actuated suspension, and the magnificent 630-hp Ferrari F140 V-12 engine, the 2004 Maserati MC12 has all the ingredients of a future classic.

It doesn’t matter how the McLaren Senna looks to our eyes, it only matters that it’s beautiful to the wind. That’s because the Senna’s sole mission was to beat every other street-legal car around every race track in the world. To do that, it needed aerodynamic efficiency and downforce. Normal supercars have to be all things to its buyers — a multi-tool, if you will — but the Senna was so sharply focused on laptimes that it could forego things like sound deadening and fully opening windows. Insider information suggests that the P15 project was originally meant to become McLaren’s entry for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, but changes to sanctioning-body rulebooks and speed bumps in the company’s financial situation derailed that goal. Instead, the P15 morphed into the Senna, which as the company’s most extreme street-legal Ultimate-Series car, would help recoup its development costs. As a specialized tool to perform one job — being fast around a track — this McLaren is a screaming success.

To call the Lancia HF Delta Integrale a hot-hatch is unfair. At worst, it’s the hot-hatch. At best, it’s so far above and beyond most hot-hatches that it’s something entirely different. Thanks to sanctioning-body rule changes, Lancia was left without a rally car for the 1987 season. Starting with the seven-year-old Delta hatchback, it created the winningest WRC car of all time: the Delta won a total of 46 WRC events, winning an unprecedented six consecutive championships. Its success is due to many factors, but most of all perseverance and continual evolution, culminating in the Deltona: the ultimate Delta. This Evoluzione 1 model, seen here as a “Martini 5” special edition, was capable of drama-free back-road performance often compared to the Porsche 959. Widely regarded as the fastest twisty-road car of its time, it’s barely catchable today. Featured in this episode is a Martini 5, the special-edition Evolution 1 made to celebrate the Delta’s fifth consecutive WRC win.

Some things don't go the way they're planned. We often call them "mistakes." But some of the best things have come from unplanned events, miscalculations, or aberrations: the Ferrari Testarossa, the Post-It note, and even Jason Cammisa. We asked his mom. Jason was a mistake. Doesn't make him less of a Jason. And the Testarossa, despite its huge commercial success, was part of a lineage of Ferraris which was, in retrospect, compromised at its mission.

The Carrera GT has quite the widowmaker reputation — just like the original 911, which was known to call out inexperienced drivers in an explosion of oversteer. In this episode, Jason explores the origins of the CGT — and how its engine came from an ego-driven F1 flex from the company’s head of engine development proving to his boss that he could, in fact, build a Formula 1 engine. And how its chassis came from Porsche's Le Mans prototype, the LMP2000, that was cancelled so that its budget could instead be used to turn the Volkswagen Touareg into a Porsche Cayenne. With (comedic) guest appearances from (fake) Hans Mezger, Horst Hachart, Herbert Ampferer, Wendelin Wiedeking, and voiceover by (fake) Arnold Schwarzenegger, we learn how the CGT really came to be. And how its clutch can survive 16,000 race starts. (Advisable only when the owner isn’t around.)