The best Italian cars ever made

Ferrari F40

Happily, the Ferrari F40 is as beloved as it is excellent. It arguably set a standard that is yet to be surpassed of driver involvement and excitement. Yes, there are faster sports saloons now but the F40 in its day was warp-speed fast, both in a straight line and in the twisties. Lightweight, powerful, well set-up. Arguably, with the F40, Ferrari created the first-ever hypercar.

Lancia Lambda

Generations ago, Lancia was a marque known for technical innovation. One of many examples of this is the Lambda of the 1920s. This was a legitimately excellent car both in the moment and in its legacy. It ran an early iteration of the famous Lancia V4 but more than that, it pioneered the use of a unitary stressed body and independent front suspension. For context, there were sports racing cars in the 1960s that still hadn’t moved to monocoques. This was a car decades ahead of its time.

Alfa Romeo Giulia Sprint GTA

Long before BMW M, Mercedes-AMG, and Audi Sport, Alfa Romeo was producing performance variants of its conventional road cars. The 1960s Giulia is perhaps the best example of this pre-super saloon era of tarted-up conventional cars. The Giulia GTA traded steel bodywork for aluminium and ran a twin-plug head on its revvy 1.6-litre engine. The A stood for Allegorita, Italian for Lightened. We don’t need to tell you how brilliant this little car was because you already know.

Lamborghini Miura

The Lamborghini Miura didn't just signal the company's arrival on the supercar scene, it was built to wipe out its great rival in Modena, Enzo Ferrari, having insulted Ferruccio Lamborghini years earlier. Ferrari had decided mid-engined cars were not suitable for road use, but Lamborghini saw the advantages of having his engine mounted in the wheelbase, improving both cornering grip and traction.

The Miura was the result, and it didn't just look fabulous, it also featured the V12 engine that would play a starring role in the company's future for decades to come. 

Pagani Zonda

The odds were entirely against the Pagani Zonda on release in 1999. Pagani was a new relatively unknown name, the car was extravagant and excessive. It could have been fairly described as an Italian TVR. What the Zonda actually wound up being, much to the surprise of the industry and journalists, was one of the best Italian supercars ever made. Yes desirable, yes fast (particularly as subsequent versions were released) but crucially, very, very good.

It was reliable and famously, entirely juxtaposing its jaw-dropping looks, reportedly very easy to drive. The Mercedes-AMG V12 engine had mountains of torque, the steering and chassis were well-calibrated, the clutch was light and the cabin was airy. A modern-day Countach it was but only in the very best ways.

Lamborghini Countach 

The Lamborghini Countach packed innovations like a space frame chassis and a longitudinally mounted V12 when it went on sale in 1974, but we remember it because of how it looks. If the Miura was the first supercar, the Countach – with its classic wedge shape, road-hogging dimensions, pop-up headlights and vents in all the right places – nailed the genre. 

Whether you like the purity of the early LP400 or the glutenous excess of the late 25^th Anniversary Edition and its huge rear spoiler – which knocked at least 10mph off the top speed, the Countach is the essence of a supercar.

Ferrari 458 Speciale

Many journalists will tell you the 458 Speciale is the finest Ferrari ever made and therefore, the finest Italian car ever made. You’ve got to admit, the ingredients are mouth-watering. A 600PS (441kW) 4.5-litre V8 that revs to 9,000rpm, a dual-clutch transmission, a soundtrack to humble the gods, and sophisticated electronics, all attached to the already sublime 458 platform. Whatever Ferrari takes your preference is entirely up to you but ask anyone who’s driven one and they’ll say the Speciale is objectively one of, if not the best. 

Ferrari F50

The Ferrari F50 might be many people's 'nearly' car for the best Ferrari hypercars, but it really shouldn't be. The F50 was a tough sell when it went on sale in 1995; a replacement for the legendary Ferrari F40, it was usually slower than its esteemed big brother. 

But the Ferrari F50 wasn't about speed. It was the first Ferrari designed to give its driver a full Formula 1 experience on the road, and it did that very well indeed. Its howling V12 produced a tune of pure motorsport – it was based on the engine in a Ferrari 641 F1 car – and lifting the huge rear clamshell revealed rear suspension mounted directly to the gearbox. The direct setup hardwired you to the Ferrari's (literally) spin-tingling power plant, proving supercars aren't all about outright speed. 

Alfa Romeo Giulia Quadrifoglio 

Alfa Romeo is legendary for making pretty-looking cars often spoiled by the drive. The Alfa Romeo 8C looked absolutely gorgeous, and with a V8 engine feeding a rear transaxle it had all the right specs. Unfortunately, it just never lived up to the promise. The same is true of the carbon-fibre tubbed 4C, which had unassisted steering that was supposed to give you an uncorrupted connection to the road, but made the car undrivable on some surfaces.

Italy's ability to cock up cars should not be underestimated, but it played a blinder with the Quadrifoglio. As usual, it looked great and, as is customary for a four-door Italian saloon not built by Ferrari, had a Ferrari engine that offered all the performance you need. In the time when the BMW M3 was a brute, and the Mercedes C63 lacked culture, the Quadrifoglio was a sweet-handling delight with serious horsepower. 

Fiat 500

The Fiat 500's design is so enduring that it still lives on today. While the current car spearheads the transition to electricity, the classic Fiat 500 was built to be cheap and affordable transport. Although, being Italian, it had to look good, too. 

Much like the Beetle – another retro design which has recently gone defunct – the 500 had an asthmatic air-cooled engine mounted at the rear, which was simple to package and fix but not quick. Not that performance mattered because the 500 was designed primarily for the city with tiny dimensions, making it easy to manoeuvre through the tight streets of its homeland. The 500 was sold from 1957 and replaced by the 126 in 1975, but not before Fiat had shifted nearly four million of them.

Ferrari F355

Upon his arrival at Ferrari in 1991, Luca di Montezemolo was unimpressed with what he found. A lacklustre line-up of cars that were unreliable, expensive to maintain and far from class leaders in terms of performance. That simply wouldn’t do. Out with the 348, in with the F355, a comprehensively reengineered version of the former with beautiful modernised styling, five-valve heads on its 3.5-litre V8 helping it produce 380PS (279kW). The was the beginning of a return to form for Ferrari in the 1990s, as it found its direction again following Enzo Ferrari’s death in 1988.

Lamborghini Huracan Evo RWD

Lamborghini is perhaps best known for making cars that people love but that objectively, aren’t the best. That’s been the case for most of the marque’s life, even into the more regimented Audi ownership era. Even the Huracan, Lambo’s current junior supercar, was considered by critics to be a dud at launch in 2014 but it’s really come into its stride in the last few years. 

The Performante, the Evo and now, the Evo RWD – all are genuinely class-contending supercars, battling McLaren’s 720S and Ferrari’s 488 and F8 Tributo. With the Evo RWD, the Huracan is now on full song. A genuinely excellent supercar that we’d recommend in a heartbeat.