Vellum Venom: 1989 Ferrari Testarossa (RIP Sergio Pininfarina)

It was 1986. One of the cruise ship’s ports of call was Puerto Rico. At a local gift shop, a 9-year-old boy received his first “nice” car model, a 1:18th scale Ferrari Testarossa. He’d spend far too much time in his stateroom, with no lights but the small bedside reading light, turning the model while admiring how the light danced over the curves and edges of Ferrari’s most influential car: a World Car in every way. The vehicle that refined the Super Car. It defined a decade, and warped the minds of several generations of car enthusiasts. And it took this boy to a Motown design school, and eventually to a little car blog called TTAC.

Sergio Pininfarina once called the Testarossa “an exaggeration in flamboyance.” A fitting quote for what must be the most famous vehicle to leave his design studio. And while he might be right, compared to today’s flamboyant Fezzas, the Testarossa was veiled in understatement and modernist modesty.

So let’s dig deep into the Mehta Brothers garage, and check out Dr. Mehta’s 1989 Testarossa: a car we’ve wanted for decades.

Read more
  • Danddd Just say no to CVTs unless you like the sound of droning.
  • Oberkanone GM will have 30 EV models by 2025. Over 40% of GM sales will be EV by 2025.quote - Marry Barra circa 2020Including 4 Chevy EV, 2 Buick EV, and 4 Cadillac EV.
  • Dwford There's plenty of time between now and 2030-35 to design and sell through a whole new generation of ICE vehicles, if not 2 generations. Chevy seems to be on a dual track plan with ICE and EV versions of the Equinox and Blazer nameplates. No reason Cadillac can't do something similar.
  • Kwik_Shift_Pro4X Poop or get off the pot.
  • TheMrFreeze The wife unit and I refuse to buy a white/black/grey/silver car...life's too short for boring. As it happens we both drive orange cars right now but slightly different shades. Total coincidence, just happened that the used cars we found that met our requirements (ie: manual trans and at least some amount of character) both happened to be orange. My previous daily driver was orange as well, again total coincidence...they just seem to find us I guess...