by Tabitha Hergest

Created on: March 26, 2009

Racing, they say, improves the breed. And when the breed is Italian exotica, one wonders exactly what constitutes an improvement.

Back in the seventies, one of the main contenders on the Italian supercar podium weas Lamborghini, whose Countach (which translates in Piedmontese somewhat stronger than "blimey") - with its other-worldly, so-ugly-it's-beautiful bodywork and its insane impracticality - bestrode the bullring, and many a teenager's bedroom wall, like a minotaur. The other was the Prancing Horse of Ferrari, whose achingly-beautiful-but-rather-conventional Berlinetta Boxer was equally well received. Of course, being more conventional than the Lamborghini, the Ferrari had the advantage of usability - which the Lambo lacked.

But it wasn't flawless, by any means. In both the Lambo and the Ferrari, the driver was likely to end up parboiled on a long journey, albeit for slightly different reasons. In the Countach, for instance, the cabin was so cramped, the opening for the window so minimal, the air-conditioning so non-existent and the 4 litre V12 such a radiator of heat that a certain amount of cookery was inevitable. The Boxer's problem was that the radiator for the engine was up front, which meant that as the engine itself was mid-mounted, the hoses carrying the superheated water would have to traverse the cabin. Given that passing them over the car or along the sides was more-or-less impossible, they would necessarily have to go beneath the cabin and, as any schuleboy no, heat rises. So, for all its beauty the Boxer was a car you could either travel in sans clothing, or for short journeys only which, given that Ferraris are meant to be driven, didn't sound like a good deal.

Added to which, the poster-boy appeal wasn't universal for the Boxer come the eighties and, 'though the cars were selling reasonably well, something needed to be done about the clamour of exasperated and dry-roasted customers knocking on the door of the offices of Don Enzo. The answer that flashed through the mind of the Powers That Be (Ferrari having been taken over by the Agnelli family's FIAT Automobili SpA by this time) was to evoke the spirit of the racers of the fifties and sixties, with their red cam-covers; the Testa-Rossa (red-head) was born.

Its name was typically Italian, for not only did the Testarossa sport red cam-covers on its mid-mounted flat-twelve engine, but the name itself conjured up a spicier idea - which was further suggested by Pininfarina's voluptuous design. Then

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